"Is it true that your world has no magic?"
"What kind of beasts are in your world?"
"What does the holy cooking tool feel like?"
"How different is your world?"
"Uuuuuuh…"
For the whole feast, Clara was bombarded by questions left and right. She tried to answer them the best she could, but the questions just kept coming. Ever since someone overheard Ellis say that she was the cooking hero, the crowd surrounded her and wouldn't let her go.
"Alright everyone, move back a bit!" Ellis yelled into a jar that resembled a megaphone. People turned their heads towards Ellis and took a step back. "I'll borrow the cooking hero for a bit."
People nodded or bowed at Ellis and returned back to the conversations between themselves, still occasionally glancing at Clara.
"Phew. Thank you," Clara breathed out in relief and sat down at a nearby table. "I don't think I could answer any more questions for today."
"Don't worry. They'll stop asking questions in like a week. Good thing we're in the sky, or else the reporters would be all over you."
"You guys have reporters here?"
"Yeah. You know how I set up that skype call? It's harder to do on a floating moving ship, but on the floating islands and mainland quite a lot of the population has a magic tv set up. All nobles have a large tv screen, and some even have two. Meanwhile, small villages chip in for one tv for all the citizens to keep up with important news."
"Wow. This world is a lot more advanced than the magical worlds you would find in adventure books," Clara replied in awe.
"Yeah. It's actually funny how some things we find basic in our world are considered super advanced here, and vice versa. Like a video call or a synthesizer is some advanced stuff, while floating cars and large floating boats are the norm."
"You guys have synthesizers here? How does that even work?"
"Well, you see. First, they record the sou-," Ellis began, but Hol interrupted him by slamming a mug on the table.
"Tech, smek. You can explain how magic pianos work later. Right now we're at a party, meaning it's the prime time to get absolutely wasted!" Hol said, raising a bottle of alcohol. Clara looked at a knife fragment sticking out of Hol's arm, but he ignored it.
"I uh… can't drink yet. But have fun," Clara said, reaching for some water.
"Hwat? Girl, you ain't 5! Live life, get drunk. It's not every day you can legally get wasted," Hol replied, pushing the mug towards Clara.
"Oh please, you get drunk every day," Ellis replied, grabbing the mug instead. "Don't force our hero into your horrible habits."
"Hey! Nothing bad about having a little fun here and then, right?" Hol raised his hands defensively. It was then one of the main double doors was kicked open so hard that one of the bolts flew off a hinge.
"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!" the captain screamed, forcing everyone to quiet down. "THAT ALCOHOL WAS MEANT TO LAST THE WHOLE CREW FOR TWO MONTHS!"
"Oh… sh*t. See ya guys, I gotta run!" Hol raised his hoe and disappeared in a flash just before a sword flew at him. The sword flew past him and longed itself into the wall as the captain ran out of the room to try to find Hol. Clara and Ellis stood silently for a minute before Ellis turned to the new hero.
"Wanna call it a day?"
"Yes, please!"
==}—
Clara layed in bed with her eyes closed, trying to block out the noises from the ship. The creaking of wood, the howling of the wind, and tapping of the rain. She was thankful that the room Ellis led her to was far away from everything and everyone. It was actually in the vip area reserved for nobles, but vassal and holy heroes were treated like nobles in this world.
The room itself was a lot bigger than what she was used to. If it wasn't for the bed and closet, she would have thought that this was a mansion's living room. It was huge and even had a mana powered minifridge with several drinks and alcohol.
The bed was way too big and had 5 pillows
After several minutes of this Clara opened her status and began to scroll through the different forms she couldn't use yet.
The used chef's knife was finally mastered, so 'cooking skill 1' was added to Clara's passive bonuses. She sighed and swapped back to the smaller form. When she got in bed she almost cut herself with her knife, which is why her knife was now wrapped around with a towel. She sighed and rubbed her eyes while scrolling through the help manual.
Equip bonuses, special effects, weapon copy, material absorption, upgrade methods, skills…
Clara's eyes widened in confusion as she scrolled back up to upgrade methods. Come to think of it, Hol did mention something about upgrade methods earlier, but Clara didn't remember seeing this section earlier. Then again, she didn't have time to read it thoroughly.
[Upgrade methods can be used for heroes to give them more power than what can be achieved by nonheroes]
Oh? That's interesting.
[Core method: Level Link. As the hero levels up, the weapon forms will grow stronger alongside them]
Oh, that's cool. So this can work passively in the background.
[Food Level: Cooking or consuming food will grant food exp, which is used to raise food level. Food level will give stats alongside normal level. Food made by the hero will give companions food exp as well]
Oh, this is an interesting one. So I will get stronger just by eating every day as I would do normally? And if I learn how to cook, I can also help people around me get stronger. Where is it on the status screen?
Clara Carnell
Class: Cooking Hero LV 3
Cooking LV 1
Cool! So, what are the other methods?
[Tool Mastery: Using a weapon form over and over will raise its Mastery Level, which will increase its stats]
This one is also a method that works in the background as I work on other stuff. Does it pop up anywhere on the weapon itself?
Clara opened up the weapon list and tapped on the small knife.
Small Knife
abilities unlocked equip bonus: +2 attack, +1 agility
mastery level: 5
Weird. Why wasn't that there before? Or was it a toggleable option that auto turns on when I read the method? Anyways, what is the last one?
[Skill Mastery: By using skills you will find their mastery raising, which will increase its effects. Additionally, some skills can evolve upon full mastery]
And another passive method. I'm glad they can work passively in the background and I don't have to go out of my way to utilize them.
Clara smiled and closed her status. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes again, trying to peacefully drift off to sleep.
"Morning!"
"HUH?!" she yelled, flailing her arms to try to figure out who the source of the noise was. However, all she achieved was falling off the bed and onto the hard floor.
"We have a lot to do today, so come on. There is much to be done and so little time! Meet you in the cafeteria in an hour," Ellis said, walking out of her room. Clara rubbed her eyes and slowly made her way out of the room. She equipped her custom uniform Laura gave her and walked out into the hallway with the map Ellis gave her yesterday.
"Ok, showers there, then the cafeteria is on the other side. Alright. Time to familiarize myself with the ship," Clara muttered and walked down the hallway. The hallways seemed less confusing than before with a map in hand and a small tour beforehand. She noticed that the map names were written in a different language, but luckily Ellis made notes under it, translating them so that Clara could understand. He even wrote a few notes and tips about each and every area of the ship.
She arrived at the large set of double doors decorated with several gems in the shape of water droplets and knocked on the door.
"Anyone here?" she asked. When no answer followed, she pushed on the door and was met with a sight she didn't expect.
Wow! I expected a small cramped space like a school locker room, but this is huge! They even got a large pool here? Wait no, this is too warm to be a pool.
Clara continued to marvel over the decorations she noticed a large assortment of shampoos, soaps, and many kinds of lotions on the wall. The note Ellis left on the map said that vip's could take any of the things on the wall as long as they were put back in place.
Oh my god, this is heaven. This one smells like peaches, and this one is like a forest. They got so many options! How do I choose one? Ene, mene, mini, mo.
Clara picked up a random bottle with a picture of hair on it and walked over to the shower furthest from the entrance.
This is where she was met with another discovery. The showers weren't the tiny cabins she was used too, but each one was a small room with many shower heads sticking out of the ceiling and walls, with one panel next to the door.
Oooo, fancy. How do I work this?
She pressed one of the buttons and the center ceiling shower head started spitting out water. Clara reached out to test the temperature and her whole body shook. Any hint of drowsiness was completely gone and she saw her energy bars below her hp light up.
WOAH! It feels like my body is being charged with energy! Is this holy water or something? This feels amazing. Who knew another world could make showering a whole experience?
==}—
Oh geeze. That took way longer than I should have! Which way is the cafeteria?
Clara ran around frantically, occasionally bumping into people before muttering an apology and running into another hallway. It took her several minutes before she finally found a large double door with Ellis standing next to it.
"About time! What took you so long?" he asked opening the door.
"Sorry! I found the showers and kinda got confused with the buttons!" she exclaimed, carefully folding the map into her pocket.
"Ah right. Those. Did you almost drown yourself too before figuring out the controls too?" he asked with a laugh.
"Uh… no? Wait, that can happen?!"
Ellis shifted his glance away and his smile became strained, as if he had been punched in the gut, but was trying to not let it show.
"Uh… anyways, let's not keep Hol waiting. We'll be at Tiger Fang Island soon so let's get our food as quickly as we can," Ellis said, running to a table where Hol was sitting.
"This is the cafeteria? This looks like a restaurant!" Clara exclaimed, looking around.
"That's the vip cafeteria for you. There is a regular careferia further down the hall if you want to check it out later. Until then, decide what you want to order."
"Uh… I can't read," Clara replied, looking at the menu. The food on the pictures looked delicious but Clara couldn't understand the symbols on the pages.
"Oh, that reminds me. Here," Ellis said, pulling a small book out of his pocket. It had the words "English to ?" in tiny print on the cover, and when Clara opened it up she was met with a mix of english and an unknown language.
"It's a pocket translator. I made it back when I needed it, and edited it over time. Had a few copies printed out thanks to a friend of mine who owns a printing company down at the Mainland so that future heroes can have an easier time."
"Thank you! This will help me out so much. But what's that last part with the dots?" Clara asked, flipping through the pages.
"Those are the spell patterns in this world. This world has magic called Constellation Magic. You condense your mana into balls, or 'stars' as they are called," he said, waving his hand around and summoning two tiny blue balls of light. "Then you can connect several of them together into one constellation which will give you an effect of a spell."
The two balls were connected with a tiny wire made of light blue mass and zoomed towards Hol, who blocked it with ease.
"Like so."
"Woah! How did you do that!" Clara exclaimed, looking at Ellis in awe.
"This is the magic of this world. You condense mana into stars and then use those for spells. Normal people can handle at most 10 stars, but as heroes we have weapon forms that give us 5 more. Of course we need to actually get mana to form the stars, but still."
"So how do I do that? Is it in the status or…"
"Oh, no. That takes years of practice. Well, for normal people anyways. You, Hol and I can use weapon forms that not only expand our limit, but also help us form the stars. It isn't automatic, and you still need to have the basics down, but you can form 1 star in about a week."
"Took me two weeks, but I was also not paying attention to what the teacher was saying," Hol chimed in, dropping his menu onto the table. "Ellis speedran it in about 4 days."
"For one, you need to be able to make your mana flow freely, which is the easy part…" Ellis began but Hol interrupted him.
"And the next one is focusing. If you put all your attention towards forming a second star, the first one falls apart. So in a way it's similar to juggling, or one of those weird arcade spinny wheel games where you have to keep 3 light bulbs lit but can only spin one wheel at a time."
"I see. So if I got this right, I have to make mana flow and make a snowball out of it, then connect several to get spells?"
"Snowball is one way to think about it. Speaking of magic, give me your hand," Ellis said, reaching over the table and taking Clara's hand. She shuddered as she felt the heat from her entire body disappear and reappear in her arm instead.
"Brrr, what was that?" Clara asked. She saw the mana bar in the corner of her vision completely emptied.
"It's how one would typically move their mana. Well, you would normally push the mana out of your body, but since you don't know how to do that, I forcefully pulled out mana outside of your body. Sooner or later you will be able to do it on your own," he explained.
"Oh. Can I get a warning next time so that I know what to feel for?" she asked, rubbing her arm. The temperature seemed to return to normal as her mana started to replenish automatically.
"Yeah, I'll give you a heads up. Now order. We should be prepared to leave as soon as we reach Black Fang island," he said, waving over for a waiter.
"Wha-AH, wait! I haven't chosen what I could order yet!" Clara exclaimed, looking frantically between the menu and the translator.
"Well, you better pick quickly, they are coming over," Hol said, waving as well.
"Waaaaaait!"
==}—
"Please never do that again," Clara whined as the three of them made their way to the staircase.
"Well, you better order faster. It took you like 20 minutes to decide on what kind of pasta you wanted, out of 5 choices," Hol groaned, reaching for another bottle.
"I panicked! And I didn't understand what the menu said!" Clara complained, opening her status screen. There was a new notification she didn't notice until now.
[+153 Food Exp]
Her food level raised and so did her stats, now giving more stats than her normal level.
"What's wrong?" Ellis asked, looking at Clara.
"Just looking at my upgrade methods," she replied, scrolling to her weapon.
"Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that. What kind of materials do you need?" he asked, opening his status.
"Oh, I don't need anything for them. The core one is level link, which powers up weapons when I level up, then skill and weapon mastery makes the two stronger the more I use them. And finally food level, which raises my food level when I eat. I think it should also work if I make food and would also give people who eat my food food exp? But I didn't have time to test that," Clara explained, pointing to her status, forgetting that no one could see it.
"Huh, so all of your methods are passive? That's pretty neat. And I guess we should test out the last one when we get back today," Ellis replied as he approached the door of the ship. He pressed a few buttons on the panel beside it and the rim of the door lit up. It opened up, revealing a tall staircase leading down to an island. And on both sides there were large metal railings to keep people from falling. Clara took the first step and made the huge mistake of looking down.
"EEEP!" she yelped, wrapped her arms around the railings, and shut her eyes tight, refusing to move further.
"Don't worry, you have the gravity belt. We'll pull you up if you fall," Ellis said, equipping a jar that looked like a bundle of rope.
"W-w-what belt-t?" Clara stuttered, clinging tighter onto the railing. Ellis and Hol stopped and looked at each other.
"You didn't give her a belt for this?" Hol asked. "You're supposed to be the responsible one!"
"I gave her a tutorial, map, and a room! I thought you'd at least give her a gravity belt!"
"I thought you would do that like you did everything else! You're basically a walking tutorial!"
"Oh, sure. I did the bare minimum and tried to introduce a summoned hero to the world, and suddenly I'm a tutorial npc."
"Exactly. Plus, I helped too!"
"Like how?! You were drunk 70% of the time around Clara!"
"Yes, but I helped you, so you could help her. So technically I helped her," Hol rationalized, raising the bottle to his lips. Ellis grabbed it and chucked it over the edge.
"That was my water bottle. Well, onto alcohol then."
"Guys!" Clara squealed out, trembling on the railing.
"I'll go get the belt, you keep an eye on Clara," Ellis said and took a step up the stairs.
"You're gonna leave a drunk guy with the scared kid? Real responsible Ellis."
"Then I'll stay and you go g… f*ck! Clara, come with me," he said, pulling her off of the railing with ease.
"Don't take too long!" Hol yelled, walking onto the island.
"Stay away from the bar!" Ellis yelled back.