The Flying Emporium

Severin woke up with a rare smile on his face.

He had worked until the earliest dawn before he went to sleep in his new bed. Now he woke up accordingly late; later than he usually would. He was aware of that fact the moment he opened his eyes, but didn’t immediately stand up.

Instead, he decided to enjoy the long-missed feeling of a warm, comfortable bed for a bit longer and closed his eyes again. He was content.

But as he rolled over onto his side while holding onto the somewhat rough blanket, about to drift back into sleep, a sudden thought popped up in his mind.

‘All that’s missing now is a good breakfast and…’ His sleepiness fell off. He started to struggle with himself.

Ultimately, his urge to eat and taste some food won. He left the bed and the small, otherwise empty room.

Once outside, his mood improved even further.

Besides his own little room, there was the sight of the upgraded store and a completely newly built kitchen with an attached outside area that was furnished with an adequate number of tables and comfy chairs. So far, he was very satisfied with last night’s work. Everything turned out great.

Only one thing bothered him. Why was it so empty? Where was everyone?

Two people were frantically hitting at a training dummy. Three other people sat around one of his newly purchased tables, talking animatedly. That was it.

Even from the still docked flying artifact came no signs of life. The currently rather free schedule of the Malcos Eagles, allowing them to pretty much come and go as they pleased to conquer some of the local dungeons, didn’t fully explain the lack of people either. Based on his observations, it was obviously not the case that everyone simply packed their things and left.

With a bad premonition, Severin’s eyes slowly moved towards the corner of his vision where his minimap was located.

“Fuck!” The few people within hearing distance all turned around as Severin suddenly shouted. He, however, didn’t care about those looks, if he even noticed them in the first place. He was busy concentrating as he used his new ability.

>>Em, can you hear me? What’s going on in there!? Why didn’t you call me like I asked you to?<<

He hastened his steps and headed for the store.

After a couple of seconds, a reply sounded in his head.

>>Don’t worry boss! I got everything under control. You only told me to call, if I can’t handle things.<< Severin didn’t quite believe her, even if it wasn’t for the slight hesitation and trembling in her projected voice. He didn’t bother to stop and answer her and instead continued on his way until he finally reached the door.

The twenty-odd people that should’ve easily been able to fit into the newly upgraded store comfortably and with more than enough room to spare, now all besieged Emily behind her counter, immediately making it feel stuffy again; not to mention the noise.

“How can you be out of stock already?”

“Just make more,” one indignant adventurer said.”

“Right! Just put some more in the oven. How hard could it be?” A lot of similarly helpful suggestions were thrown at the girl. And clearly wasn’t the first round either.

“Not even a hundred loaves?! Tell me, how are we supposed to get by with just such a small amount?” Hearing this, even some of the man’s guild members couldn’t help but feel embarrassed.

Not all the people who had gotten a taste of Severin’s new bread now bothered Emily; conversely, some of the people who had missed the opportunity to taste it before now joined the mob to demand a sample. Still, it had only been about thirty people that consumed the roughly hundred loaves of bread.

If Severin had gotten up a few hours earlier, he could’ve observed how a bunch of adventurers divided themselves into groups of three, based on the type of bread they got their hands on and sat outside stuffing their faces.

Just looking at their expressions, he would’ve known that everyone appreciated the taste very much; especially that of the round loaf of mixed rye-and-wheat bread, which was milder than the rye-bread but still had some of its earthy flavors. Quite a few didn’t even bother to check their inventory for meats.

But as it turned out, it wasn’t solely the taste that moved these people so much as to pester the Emporium’s young assistant. And unlike her, they didn’t sob as they bit into it either; they shouted.

“Maximum health increase!”

“My mana pool expanded?!”

“Both my energy as well as my health…”

The scene at every one of the tables was basically the same.

The taste made them gobble down their food and before they noticed that one-third of the bread had already disappeared into their stomachs, a buff popped up for each of them. They exchanged incredulous looks before they started to shout all at once.

Previously, they had dismissed the bread’s tooltips. Now they understood.

[Effect lasts for eight hours, with a sharp decrease in effectiveness after the first three hours.

Durable for up to one week if stored in a cool and dry place.]

So that didn’t just refer to the bread saturation levels!

Soon they began to share their food with each other while defending against the few people who previously accused them of simply attempting to ingratiate themselves with the store owner by buying a whole loaf of boring bread for themselves.

What they found during that short amount of time was that those buffs didn’t stack and that the most recent one to be applied always replaced the previous one if it came from a different type.

Thanks to some individuals unwilling to exchange their food with the others, they also found out that not only was there a minimum amount that needed to be consumed for the buff to be applied, but that it also grew in strength when eating more of it.

How much so, and whether there were any drawbacks to it, they couldn’t tell.

Just as they couldn’t tell how sharp the decrease of effectiveness would turn out to be, just yet.

Some few decided to leave the mountaintop to conduct some field tests.

The others stormed Severin’s store and demanded more.

At the moment Severin didn’t know all the specifics. He didn’t really care either, even if the sight before him was gratifying. So, the food didn’t suck.

But what he really wanted to know was…

>>They say we are already out of stock?<<

The meaning of these words wasn’t hidden from Emily.

>> Don’t worry! I have set something aside for you.<<

Severin could breathe a sigh of relief.

>>Ha, seems like you really are able to handle things alone, << Severin joked but didn’t actually dare to ignore the unruly group of people.

Without having a full picture of the situation, he finally spoke up and drew their attention.

“Calm down, everyone. We appreciate you enjoying our bread, but as it is handmade, there isn’t much we can do right now. I’ll make sure that tomorrow we…”

“Sure, there is something you can do. Just go and make some more. We can wait.”

Severin was annoyed by the rude interruption but tried to remain calm.

“As I said, it’s not that easy. Neither I nor Emily here can split ourselves. If we were to work in the kitchen right now, we have to close our store during that time.”

“Then close it!”