"This is the kitchen, but you already know about this room," Clara said, leading Reiya through the ship. She was playing around with the clothes Laura gave her, with the kimono being a few sizes too big. Laura said she would need to get some magic rock for proper materials to make Reiya a new kimono, but Clara was too tired to pay attention to what she said. She instead played around with her scarf.

To avoid questions or concerned looks, Clara pulled out a scarf she got as a monster drop from one of the flaming vultures. She also got a winter hat and some boots, so all she needed was some pants, and she has a full winter set, not like she is gonna need it for a while though.

Clara wrapped the scarf around her bruised neck to hide the marks, even if the scarf itself made Clara look weird for wearing it indoors. Luckily, she didn't meet anyone as everyone was too busy fixing parts of the ship, so the girl could give her tour in peace.

"Incineration room, gym is over there, and my room is right here," Clara finished, as they walked down the hallway that led back to her room.

"This ship is so big! And it all moves every day?" Reiya asked in amazement.

"Yeah, the ship delivers resources from place to place, so we're never in the same spot for too long," Clara confirmed.

"What do you deliver?" Reiya asked, bending over and staring at something on the floor.

"I'm… not sure, actually. Some random resources like food and metals for Tiger Fang and, I think, potions from Boomerang Island? I don't remember the rest," Clara replied, shrugging. Reiya nodded and then took a few steps to the side as she raised her hands. "What are yo-?"

"Nom!" Reiya exclaimed, slamming head-first into the floor.

"Oh my god, are you ok?!" Clara asked, rushing to the girl's aid. Reiya lifted her head and smiled, with a small gap between her lower and upper teeth.

"Bug soul!" she explained, closing her mouth and chewing something. Clara could have sworn she heard a really quiet screech, followed by an equally quiet crunch as Reiya began to chew on the invisible object. The little hero shivered and opened the door to her room. She tossed her armor and scarf onto the pile of bandages and vials on her table.

I should really clean up tomorrow.

Clara noticed Reiya staring at her expectedly. She looked around the room and noticed that she didn't have a second bed in her room.

"Can I sleep in your bed with you tonight?" Reiya suddenly asked, without a hint of hesitation or embarrassment. The same couldn't be said for Clara.

"Uh… what? Huh? I barely know you! Why would you want to sleep with me?"

"Well, we soul eaters sleep in one area in order to give off a stronger aura to keep monsters at bay. And it helps us stay warm and recover energy faster," Reiya explained with a confused smile. "Do people not do that here?"

"No no. No, usually it's either a child sleeping with their parents, or just family, or lovers sleeping with each other. Also, the entire ship is heated, so it's not like you need me for warmth," Clara explained.

"Aw, I see," Reiya said with disappointment, but Clara didn't notice it and instead reached for a small indent in the wall behind Reiya. She pulled it back and the wall began to move after her, revealing it to be the bottom of a second bed. It was already made and looked absolutely spotless, so Clara gestured to it.

"You can sleep here for now. We'll get you a room tomorrow or the day after," Clara mumbled, and collapsed onto her bed.

"Okay~! Good night, Miss Clara," Reiya answered, ducking under the covers of her new bed. "Woah! It's so soft!"

Clara laid down onto her bed, but she didn't fall asleep yet. Despite her entire body wanting nothing more than to fade into the comforts of sleep, she realized she was sleeping in the same room as the person who tried to kill her not an hour ago.

However, when she looked over, Reiya was already asleep and breathing softly, unaware of Clara's dilemma.

Suddenly, she felt someone appear behind the door to her room. Laura peaked inside and looked around the room.

"She's asleep," Clara whispered, and walked out into the hallway.

"How are you doing?" she whispered back.

"I'm fine. What do we do about her?" Clara asked, gesturing to her room.

"Well, we don't have a prison that can hold her," Laura responded.

"Really? Why not?"

"Clara, she chased the ship down from Ground Zero, then proceeded to phase and blast her way through the ship to chase you down. We'd need someone from Enchanted Lands to have any hope of restraining her," Laura explained. "But I don't know if we should worry about it for now."

"Why not?"

Laura paused and looked at Clara.

"I interrogated a lot of people back in the day. I can tell when they are lying or not. She didn't seem to want to hurt you or remember what happened on this ship. I can also see that she isn't quite used to that form yet. She was stumbling a lot at first, and her movements seemed weird and unnatural," Laura started.

"Well, she also apparently died recently, so that could play a role in it. And I'm surprised you noticed anything, I didn't notice anything like that," Clara mumbled the last part.

"Years of experience. Alright, so we know she died recently as a soul eater boss during the wave, then she got captured by some guy with red scales, kept in a cave, and starved, and then she woke up here in her humanoid form again," Laura listed off the things she knew and looked at Clara for confirmation.

"She also said that she didn't remember anything when she was in her monster form, and she didn't know how to phase through things in her human form. But also, if we believe her words, she was brought back from the dead? Does something like that exist?" Clara asked. If it did, that meant that she wouldn't have to worry about dying to the waves. However, Laura shook her head.

"There is no method that I know of. However, there were rumors of a person who claimed to be able to make golden totems that could revive people. However, he also disappeared soon after he made said claims, so we never got any confirmation," Laura explained.

Nevermind, back to panicking.

"So it looks like she might not be able to transform at will, but instead it's forcefully triggered when she is in a starved state?" Laura concluded. "Well, she's a soul eater, but we can't exactly feed her a bunch of souls."

"She can actually eat my cooking for some reason. I assume it's because of the food exp that it doesn't phase out of her like normal food," Clara guessed.

"Weird, but there are a lot of things the holy cooking tool helps people do, so I'm not too surprised. What are you going to do about her?" Laura inquired.

"Well, I guess I can keep feeding her for now until we get more information. Plus, her being on our side is better than her trying to kill me and eat my soul," Clara explained.

"True. It won't be bad to have a soul eater on your side. I'll keep an eye on her, so go to sleep. And take care of yourself, alright?"

"Thanks. I will," Clara responded, and walked back into her room. Reiya was still asleep, so Clara tiptoed to her bed and laid under the covers. Her body still hurt from everything that happened, but nothing seemed to be broken. Clara began to think over her plans for tomorrow, grinding, cooking, training, and so on, as she slowly drifted to a long overdue sleep.

Clara shot up from her bed, covered in cold sweat. She couldn't remember what it was about, but she was sure she just had another nightmare. Though those were something Clara expected by now.

She glanced to her side and saw Reiya looking at her. A shiver ran down her spine as the red eyes gazed upon her.

"Are you ok?" she asked, her face and voice full of concern.

"I'm fine!" Clara yelled, standing up from her bed. Reiya frowned, but she decided not to press the matter.

Clara gathered her things and quickly walked out of the hallway. She paused to get her bearings straight and then turned into the direction of the kitchen.

"What are we doing today?" Reiya asked, walking out of the room with Clara.

"We? Well, I need to help out in the kitchen like usual," Clara explained. Walking towards the kitchen.

"I can help!" Reiya said excitedly, following after Clara.

"I don't know how people will react if they see you. I mean, after yesterday… wait, technically they never saw you as… huh," Clara paused as a couple of thoughts went through her head. "Alright, let's go."

"Really?" Reiya asked, her eyes sparkling.

"Yep, we could use an extra pair of hands in the kitchen. And technically, no one saw you transform except me, and only Goron and Laura know about you. Let's go," Clara explained, leading Reiya to the kitchen.

"Yay!" Reiya exclaimed, walking after Clara. When they arrived, Clara frowned at the empty kitchen. Well, it wasn't empty. The broken interior was covered in some semi transparent wrappings, and a bunch of tools were scattered all around. The fridge from before was busted and the door was completely removed. The food inside was missing as well. There was a note on the door of the kitchen that said 'Cafeteria 7:30'. Clara pulled out her phone and saw that it wasn't even 7 yet.

She went behind the kitchen and saw that the food storage room was still intact, so she took out a few things and transformed her knife into a range. It was a bit weird to feel the near weightless stove attached to her foot and be able to drag it around the kitchen, but eventually Clara was able to find a pair of pots and put some water to boil. With the ingredients now available to her, and all the instruments to do it, she began to make mac and cheese.

Reiya was close by through the entire process, watching Clara's work over her shoulder. Clara Pulled out a plate for Reiya and handed her some of the food she had made.

"Thank you!" Reiya said excitedly, and slammed her head into the plate, quickly devouring the spaghetti and getting cheese all over her face. Clara was about to facepalm, but she stopped when she realized she had a plate of mac and cheese in her hand and would suffer the same fate if she did.

"Let's eat. I don't have to go to Goron for another half an hour," Clara sighed, turning the range back to a knife and sat down at a half-broken table. She began to pick at her food bit by bit as she looked through her weapons list.

I already mastered every weapon form that I could. I only have the two unobtanium knives that I still can't use. I should go deeper into the forest and grind monsters there for more weapon forms and exp so that I don't waste any time on getting new equip bonuses. I'm barely growing and the waves are coming pretty quickly.

Reiya's head shot up and looked at Clara with both her cheeks stuffed with macaroni.

"Aphe phf obf?" she asked, spitting out some macaronies onto the table.

"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full. I can't understand you at all," Clara replied, absorbing the table food with her knife.

"Are you ok? You seem to be stressed," Reiya asked after swallowing her food.

"I'm fine. Just a little nervous for future waves. I'm not exactly as strong as I need to be to beat them," Clara replied, letting out a heavy sigh.

"But why? You're really strong! And so are Mean Hoe Guy and Jar Guy. You beat me when I was a boss, so can't you do that again?"

Clara looked down with a saddened expression and shook her head.

"The tier of the first wave was 1, and the next wave is twice that. Plus, I barely beat the last boss on my own, and that was with Hol taking out the minions. But he isn't here at the moment, and Ellis… isn't around anymore. I'm nowhere near as strong. And to top it off, you crushed me while starved and weakened," Clara explained, laying her head on the table as she poked at her food.

"We get stronger when starved, not weaker. Our body starts burning through our remaining energy and stored souls to give us a massive boost in power to allow us to get to our next meal faster, and hunt stronger prey. It's not good in the long run, as it weakens us after. We lose our levels, and sometimes memories, but it makes us stronger for a bit. Is that not the same for people?" Reiya asked, leaning closer to Clara.

"Oh, you do? Phew, that's a bit of a relief. How much of a boost are we talking though?"

"It changes every time depending on how much energy we have, and the threshold for every soul eater is different. But this way, despite being level 27, I can go toe to toe with some higher-level soul eaters," Reiya explained. Clara spat out her food and began to cough violently as a piece of it got lodged in her throat. Reiya quickly ran behind her, wrapped her arms around Clara's waist, and pushed on her stomach as quickly as she could until Clara spat out her food and began to breathe normally again.

"Thanks," Clara wheezed out as she sat down and laid her head back on the table.

I almost died to a level 27 monster and a piece of macaroni! HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO SAVE THE WORLD WHEN I ALMOST DIE TO FOOD?!

"Can I have more?" Reiya asked, pointing to the pot of food Clara left behind.

"Sure, you can take a couple pla-," Clara began, but Reiya had already flipped the pot and dumped the entire pot of food into her mouth. Clara blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating, but Reiya just put the pot down like nothing happened and let out a sigh of satisfaction.

Well, there goes my lunch.

"Miss Clara, is it time to go see Mean Chef Guy?" Reiya asked, pointing to the clock.

"Yeah. Let's go before we're late," Clara agreed.

"There you… two are. We're gonna be borrowing this room for a while until the kitchen gets fixed. So don't get too comfortable. Go wash your hands and get ready," Goron said, pointing to the bathroom across the hall. As the two began to walk away, Goron grabbed Clara's shirt and pulled her back.

"What is she doing here?" he whispered, pointing to Reiya who went on ahead. Clara was surprised, as she never imagined that Goron could talk so quietly, yet here she was.

"Nobody knows who she is, and it lets me keep an eye on her if she is always close by," Clara explained in an equally quiet whisper..

"Hm. I should get someone to go with you so that you're always safe," Goron mumbled.

"Hey! I can handle myself!" Clara whined, breaking free from Goron's grasp.

"Suuuuuuuuuuuuuure," he teased, and gave Clara a gentle push out of the room. "Wash your hands and get in here, we need all hands on deck!"

"Yes chef!" Clara smiled, running across the hall, where she spotted Reiya looking and poking the sink in front of her.

"Miss Clara, how do I use this?"

Oh boy.

"Just turn this knob for hot water, and this one for cold water," Clara responded, turning the knobs. As soon as the water started pouring, Reiya jumped back and hissed, much to Clara's amusement.

Pft, she's like a cat.

While Clara was busy imagining Reiya with cat ears, the ghost girl calmed down and approached the sink. She slowly poked it with her finger and glanced at the faucet in awe.

"Wooooah! Infinite water!" Reiya marveled.

"It's not infinite. The sink drains water from a reservoir somewhere on this ship and pours it int-REIYAWAITDON'TDRINKTHESINKWATER!"

"Meatballs are ready, waiting on the pasta!" "2 minutes, almost done!" "Hurry up! I need another potion at table 7!" "Sauce is ready for order 4!"

Clara chopped away and prepared any salads and sandwiches that were ordered. It wasn't hard compared to making a full meal and Goron said that she could handle this much.

Well, it is kinda hard to screw up a salad. And this is more beneficial for me than just prepping ingredients.

The biggest bonus of Clara's promotion was that sandwiches and salads counted as complete items and gave her food exp.

[+37 Food Exp]

[+35 Food Exp]

[+41 Food Exp]

At this rate I may actually have more food levels than normal levels. How is Reiya doing?

Clara looked to the side and saw Reiya quickly chopping away and preparing the ingredients. After Goron gave everyone a speed buff, Reiya's hands seemed to turn into blurs as she worked on the ingredients. From washing, to pealing, to cutting, Clara felt like she was looking at an expert at work.

She adapted to this so quickly when it took me so long. And I have the holy cooking tool!

Even Goron was surprised by how quickly she was working.

"Have you done this before?" Goron inquired.

"No. But I uh… ate one," Reiya replied, muttering the last part just loud enough for Goron and Clara to hear.

"Wait, you gain experience from the… stuff… you eat?" Clara questioned. Reiya gave her a small nod.

"Some people I know have gained skills or even the ability to transform sometimes," Reiya replied. "One of my friends turned into a T-rex once!"

Clara tried to imagine a ghost T-rex, but suddenly a burning smell hit her nostrils and she turned to see a frying pan on fire with Goron next to it.

"Chef, your meat is burning!" somebody commented. Goron turned to his travesty and cursed loudly as he slammed a lid onto the flame.

"F*CK! I need another vulture!" Goron grumbled, throwing away the charred remains and starting over. Clara sighed and turned back to her station.

This is gonna be a long day.

"Finally, done for the day."

Clara collapsed onto her bed and groaned. She set an alarm for later and had some time before she had to go get beat up by Laura again, so she decided to relax for a bit.

"Miss Clara, what is that?" Reiya asked, poking something metallic. She glanced at the object the ghost girl was referring to and saw the burned and broken shield she threw to the side yesterday.

That reminds me that I need to get a new shield. Maybe I can also commission a weapon from Tiffany.

"That was my old shield. It got melted by your laser beam," Clara explained.

"I shoot beams?" Reiya inquired. She looked at a wall and raised her hands together, and pushed them outwards. However, nothing came out, and Reiya was left disappointed.

"Aw… I wanna shoot lasers," she whined, sitting down on the ground. She looked back at the shield and frowned. Reiya began to poke one of the scales and then proceeded to rip it out of the shield to get a closer look.

"It looks like Green Scales Guy," she mumbled. Throwing the scale back at the shield with a frown.

"Huh?

"Green Scales Guy had the same scales. It even smells like him," Reiya pointed out.

Oh my god, she isn't the only revived boss. Damn it, how do I stop them from coming back? Especially if the other bosses from future waves get revived then I won't stand a chance. I almost lost to Reiya, and I only survived because of her love for sandwiches!

Ok Clara, one problem at a time. Focus on getting gear and levels to defeat the bosses first, then worry about it reviving.

"Miss Clara, you look worried," Reiya said, walking closer to Clara.

"Well, I am fighting an apocalypse in less than a week," Clara grumbled and froze.

Oh god, it's less than a week away! I need to level up! Now!

"Miss Clara?" Reiya tried again as she saw Clara's face pale.

"I'm fine. I need to prepare some things for a bit," Clara replied, walking out of her room and into the now empty makeshift kitchen.

"What are we preparing?" Reiya questioned curiously, walking after Clara.

"Just a bunch of food for later. I have to level up so I'm gonna prepare some food ahead of time," Clara explained.

"Can I join you then? I can help you level up!" Reiya asked with a bright smile.

Well, it can't hurt to have a boss monster hunting for you. But I'll need to keep an eye out for her in case she does anything.

"Alright. Let's get you some gear and get to grinding. Just have to stop by Laura's first for some training."