8: Pavilion

I caught Micca as she was finishing for the night, heading to the door. I asked if I could walk with her as she went home, and with a look of clear confusion, she sceptically agreed.

We hadn’t made it ten steps out the door when she asked, “So, what is it? You’ve never asked to walk with me before.”

A little embarrassed and not wanting to be imposing—especially since I did not know what she usually did after work—I quickly said, “Sorry, I just wanted to ask this outside of the inn. I didn’t want to catch the fury of Larry right now.”

Micca stopped in her tracks. “Let’s go back!” she blurted, her voice full of excitement.

“What?” I asked, utterly confused.

“Anything to take the attention away from me!” she said, laughing loudly before continuing her walk. “Well, what did you need to ask me that would risk Larry’s wrath, then?” She asked, looking at me curiously.

“Is this about your new level-ups? Are you going to steal his business?”

I had to cut her off before she kept going. “No, nothing like that. I was wondering if I could use your kitchen from time to time,” I said, realising how strange it sounded.

“I’ll clean up around the place and keep it tidy for you in return!” I added quickly, blurting it out in one breath.

Micca thought for a moment. “Why do you need my kitchen? Why not just use the one at the inn?”

“Uh, well… I wanted to make extra food for the Medical Pavilion since I get bonus experience for healing people. Geo said If I did it at the inn, Larry would probably think I was stealing his food.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” She gave me a mock-serious look. “I do like my alone time, though.”

I froze, but she broke into laughter. “Relax, I’m kidding. Of course, you can use it. Honestly, it’ll help me out. I never have time to clean the place working at the inn. Hell, you could even take one of the spare rooms. My mother left me the house, and I only use one.”

“Oh. Uh, I don’t know what to say.” I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling like I was overstepping.

“Well, Larry’s probably charging you a fortune for that broom cupboard you’re sleeping in. I’ll rent you a room if you keep the place clean.”

Before I could respond, we were already standing outside her home.

“Oh, and you’ll need to stay here tonight unless you feel like sleeping outside. Larry locks up after I leave.” She laughed and led the way in, giving me a quick tour. Four bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room, drawing room, living room, and a small library—though it didn’t have a single book.

“This one was my mother’s, so leave it be. You know which one’s mine, so pick either of the others. You’ll want to clean it first, though. I haven’t been in there for nearly three years. I’ll grab you a blanket.”

With that, she left me there, staring blankly. I had just wanted to borrow the kitchen—now I somehow had another place to live. What was happening? Was this Fate guiding me, because it certainly wasn’t my luck stat. That was nearly my lowest.

Then again, from what I’d heard, Luck only really affected dungeon gear drops—basically "adventurer problems" for people actually in the position to worry about that sort of thing. At least, that’s what Instructor Michael used to say.

That thought left me feeling a little hollow. I’d been so busy lately I hadn’t given it any proper consideration. How was George doing? Was he even still friendly toward me? After what Lukas had pulled the other week, I honestly didn’t know how I’d react if I saw him. Do I find him and confront him? And if I did, what would I even say?

"The room won't get cleaner by looking at the door, you know," Micca’s voice came from behind me.

I mumbled a laugh. I must have gotten lost in my thoughts. “Sorry about that, just thinking,” I said.

"You look like you’ve got something bothering you. What's up? Is it about your skills? I thought you were onto something with all that," she said.

"No, not the skill. It’s, well, the run-in with my friend at the inn the other week—or maybe I just don’t know," I admitted, shaking my head.

"You mean the boy? Look, take a breath. Start from the top," she said, still holding the blanket but wearing a patient expression.

"Well, at the Academy, we spent ten years there, and I only really had two close friends. Lukas—the boy from the inn—and George. George went to the military, so I don’t know where he is now."

Micca’s face winced a little at that, but I paid it no mind and carried on. "And I hadn’t seen Lukas since I left until that day at the inn. He pretended not to know me; it hurt, you know? I haven’t said it before, but I’ve been so busy with everything I guess I never gave myself time to stop and think about it."

"Hmm, well, I’ve not had a lot of friends myself," she said. "But is it possible he just couldn’t say anything with that group? I served them, and honestly, they looked pretty grumpy and miserable. Maybe it was just a bad day?" she pondered. "I know paths drift apart, but it’s cold to just cut off a friend, so maybe there’s more to it?" she added with a small smile.

"You’ll get to the bottom of it, I’m sure!" She stepped forward, opening the door to the room. "Let’s get this room sorted enough for you to sleep tonight."

It took around an hour for us to sweep up enough dust to make it look somewhat livable. After that, Micca left for her room exhausted, and honestly, after the day I’d had, I was right there with her. I needed sleep.

To make it worse, I had to wake up early tomorrow—without Geo’s friendly knock at the door—to try to catch him at the markets. Luckily, they were close.

I didn’t, however, fall asleep easily. My mind kept racing between my class, Lukas, and why did Micca wince when I mentioned George going to the military? That was an honourable, well-paying job, wasn’t it?

I got up at dawn feeling like I’d had no sleep at all. My thoughts must’ve kept me awake all night—or at least it felt that way. My stamina hadn’t even fully recovered, sitting at 110/150. "It’s going to be a rough day," I muttered, stepping outside into the cool morning air.

I waited on the path I knew Geo came from. He was later than usual, but, sure enough, he came walking down. His frown shifted to a smile when he saw me.

"Who’s the girl?" he asked jokingly.

I almost choked. "No one! Sorry, I slept over at Micca’s last night. I wanted to ask about the kitchen, and she said I would’ve been locked out," I said defensively.

"Uh-huh, sure, sure," he said, laughing. "Did she agree to your using the kitchen?"

"Yeah, she did. She also said I could stay in one of the rooms at her place if I cleaned up a little," I replied, now walking alongside him as we followed our usual route.

"That’s not a bad idea," he mused. "It would actually make this a lot easier. You’d be able to finish work, head home to cook, get most things ready the night before and store it, then just drop it off at the pavilion if they take your donations," he said, stopping to inspect a vegetable stand. Before I knew it, a bag full of vegetables was shoved into my hands. "Here, store this," he said, catching me off guard.

"Wait, what?" I asked, confused.

"You can’t expect an old man like me to lug around all this heavy veg when you have a perfectly good skill that lets you carry it without weight, right?" he said, laughing again. "Consider it training. You get experience for it anyway, don’t you?"

I grumbled but did as instructed. "Yeah, but only one per stack," I muttered.

Would you like to store:

10x [Common] Onion

10x [Common] Carrot

30x [Common] Tuber

4x [Common] Cassava

2x [Common] Garlic

12x [Common] Cabbage

For 30 mana? Yes/No

Selecting yes, the sack of vegetables emptied. "What’s a cassava?"

"It’s how we get the root starch to thicken up the stews," Geo said offhandedly while inspecting some boar meat. "You know, Trev, if you're going to be serious about this food donation, you should start buying stuff yourself instead of just staring at me," he added.

He was absolutely right. I was so distracted and still tired that I had completely forgotten my goal. Deciding boar was a good enough starting point—and remembering the stew I made at the temple—I bought a boar leg and hock, which Geo helped me haggle down from seven coppers to five.

I also picked up some basic vegetables for myself, along with salt and pepper, all of which happily went into my storage without an issue. "I wonder if it has a limit on the number of items?" I asked Geo.

"It’s more likely based on volume than item count, but there’s no real way to tell if it’s full until it’s full. With bags of holding, an adventurer can visualise the space, but you said it just lists your inventory. Very odd," he finished thoughtfully.

When I thought we were all wrapped up and heading back to the inn, Geo mentioned he needed to make a quick stop at the blacksmith to pick something up.

Taking a slight detour to the edge of town, we arrived at a fairly run-down looking shop and forge. Geo stepped inside while I waited. A short while later, he came back out holding a large, heavy-looking iron pot with a ladle, then handed it to me. I assumed he just wanted me to store it for the trip home.

"That’s yours," he said with a grin. "A gift from your old friend Geo to start you on your journey in the world. Look, I even had the smith engrave it, right here."

He pointed just under the top lip of the pot, where a fine script was etched into the metal.

To a wonderful journey - From Geo

I was stunned. Just standing there staring at it.

"I don’t know what to say..."

"Thank you so much!" I finally managed, still lost for words.

“Don’t tell Larry I got that for you,” Geo laughed, heading back toward the Inn. "He’ll think I’m encouraging you to leave."

I stayed where I was, still looking at the pot. This was mine—my first piece of kitchen equipment that truly belonged to me.

I would treasure it, I thought.

A short while later in the kitchen, I pulled out all the items Geo had asked me to store. Glancing at my mana with a bit of concern, I realised the storing and withdrawing was costing more than I’d expected. After adding all my own items, I’d need to be more mindful moving forward.

Name: Trevor

Class: Arcane Chef

Rarity: Rare

Level: 5

Experience: 22/1543

Hit points: 150/150

Mana: 65/170

Stamina: 90/150

A little concerned, I also noticed I had two unspent stat points. I placed one in Charisma and one in Intelligence, bringing my mana total up to 75/180.

“Alright, you’re making the boar stew today. I won’t help so you can get experience,” Geo said with a wink and a smile. “Think of it as a practice run—I’ll supervise before you make your own batch later tonight.

I don’t want your first attempt to be a disaster; they won’t touch your future ones if it is!”

While I got to work on the stew, Geo busied himself with the cassavas, beating them to a pulp to extract the root starch. He explained that although it seemed simple; the process was lengthy—you had to mash, rinse, reduce the water, and repeat several times without ever burning or cooking it too high.

The stew itself was fairly straightforward—basic veg like tubers, onions, carrots, and boar, which I removed from the bone and diced into small chunks. I added the bone too, just to get as much flavour as possible. I didn’t use stock today, opting for water instead, so it wouldn’t be as flavourful as usual. I was going to suggest using my skill, Infuse Flavour, but remembered my mana was already low. If I did, I wouldn’t even be able to pull out my own food tonight to make the stew.

The night went by in a blur of action. In total, I got 37 experience notifications and three healing notifications, bringing me to:

Experience: 1097/1543

It didn’t feel quieter than the other evening when I had over 60 notifications, but I wondered if the “Enjoyable” part played a role.

Preparing to leave for the night, I finally mustered the nerve to do something I’d been dreading. I caught Larry before he vanished out back to his office. “Uh, sir, sorry, I just wanted to let you know I’ve found myself a room and won’t need the one in back any longer. Thank you so much for allowing me to stay,” I said, nervously bowing in respect, hoping he wouldn’t be mad.

Larry just grunted, not saying anything, but he didn’t look angry either. I really didn’t know how to take it, but I assumed he didn’t mind. I ducked through to the back, grabbing what little belongings I had, when a voice came from behind me.

“Take the bedding too, Trevor. It was spare stuff we didn’t use anymore anyway, and I’m guessing you don’t have any,” Larry said, watching me clean up.

“Thank you, sir. You’re right, I didn’t have any yet,” I said, still a little worried—was this the moment he’d get mad?

“It’s good to see you’ve taken steps yourself. I was wondering how long it would take. A storage closet is no place to live for a long time.” With that, he went back to his office and entered, saying no more.

Wow, that was unexpected, I thought to myself as I rolled up the bedding and tucked it under my arm before running out the front to meet Micca, who was waiting for me.

A short while later, I was entering Micca’s place, where she left me almost immediately, saying she just wanted one bowl of the stew to “taste test” — or so she said — before I gave the rest to the Pavilion.

I got to work first, double-checking my mana and stamina as both were getting a little low.

Mana: 60/170

Stamina: 40/150

I’ll be cutting it close, I thought, pulling out all my items and leaving myself with only 15 mana.

Repeating what I had done during the day, I started the fire and prepared the vegetables. I’d definitely gotten faster at this — maybe the skill was really helping.

Then I butchered the leg, cutting it into cubes, and threw the hock in whole just to add a bit of extra flavour. Filling the pot with water, I realised Micca really did only have one bucket. Making a mental note to buy more, I finished preparing the stew.

With the fire now burning down to coals, I placed the pot next to them to slow-cook overnight before heading to sleep myself.

Checking my stats before closing my eyes, I saw I was down to 10 mana and 10 stamina. Talk about cutting it close.

Tomorrow was the day! I’d meet Geo at the markets, then split off for a while to offer the food to the pavilion, try to explain it could heal people, then get back to the inn before Larry noticed.

Easy, I thought.

“Wait, did I just jinx myself?” I said aloud. “Nah, never mind. It doesn’t count unless you actually say it out loud, right?”

I wonder if I’ll see Gemma tomorrow?

With that, I was asleep.