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Chapter 190: Unfair argument

“Just eat it already,” Lillia said, leaning against the counter. “Looking isn’t going to show you anything.”

Arwin gave up his search and did as she instructed, and took a piece, throwing it into his mouth. His back stiffened and he nearly choked on the juicy chunk of fried meat as more than flavor poured into him.

Magic.

The sensation was muted, but the taste and feel of devouring magic wasn’t something he could forget. He swallowed, disbelief swirling through him as he grabbed another piece and ate it.

More magic, as if he’d eaten a small bracelet, poured into him. There wasn’t anywhere near as much as he got from the better-made magical items, but it tasted… pure, for lack of a better word.

While many of the items he’d eaten smelled awful due to Magical Olfactory, Lillia’s cooking just smelled exactly like food. There wasn’t any impurity within it.

“This is incredible,” Arwin said, barely pausing to chew as he worked on polishing off the rest of the plate with reckless abandon. “When did you learn how to do this? You can put your magic into food?”

“I got the idea from watching you craft. I realized that there was no reason our classes would work that differently from each other,” Lillia said, her excitement finally breaking through as she gestured to the plate. “So I tried it. I started putting magic into what I cooked. Just a little, and without any intent.”

“And?” Arwin held a hand over his mouth to avoid accidentally spraying her. He wanted to speak, but the food was so good that he couldn’t quite bring himself to stop eating for long enough to talk normally.

Actual, normal food that would sustain his magical requirements. He’d long since given up on eating anything other than metal for the sake of survival, and he hadn’t realized how much better things tasted when they were eaten for the proper reason.

“I figured out that when I just randomly stuffed magic into stuff, it could end in some… less than ideal results. After giving it a little thought and comparing it to what you did when smithing, I realized I could actually change what it did,” Lillia said.

Arwin finished off the last bites of food as she finished speaking. The moment he swallowed to ask what kind of changes she was able to accomplish, a thrill of energy raced down his back and spread through his body.

His eyes widened as he felt power pump through him. He flexed his fingers, staring down at his hands in shock. “Do I feel…”

“Stronger?” Lillia finished, arching an eyebrow as her grin grew wider. “Yes. You do. For the next hour. Not very long, but I didn’t want to waste too much power when I was just showing off. I can extend the effects up to around six hours.”

“Hell,” Arwin breathed. “That’s incredible. What other effects can you achieve? Can you control it?”

“I can. To a degree, at least. The moment I started trying to play with it, the Mesh gave me a Challenge.”

The exact thing it gave me.

“When?” Arwin asked, a flicker of worry passing through him even though Lillia was clearly fine. “Did it go well? You passed?”

“Of course I did.” She snorted. “And I got it at the worst damn time possible. Right in the morning, as customers were starting to pour in. I had to alternate trying out new dishes with making the normal ones. We aren’t ready for a horde of people coming here demanding magical meals. I’d get locked up forever.”

“So… you can control the buffs now?”

Lillia nodded. “To a degree. It depends on the monster I’m working with and the way I’m preparing it. It’s kind of an inverse thing. If you’ve got a physically strong monster and want it to make you stronger, you need to make sure it’s really soft. If you want something that’s related to fire to give heat resistance, you’ve got to chill it. That kind of thing. It’s pretty complicated, but I’m getting the hang of it. The Mesh approved, at the least. I got a slew of Achievements and reached Apprentice 5. It also gave me a unique class specialization called Soul Food. It’ll let me keep focusing on the food I make and getting more buffs and benefits out of it.”

Arwin blew out a breath and shook his head, laughing. “That’s incredible. You managed to do all of that in the middle of your first ever day running a busy tavern? How are you even still standing?”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“I’m trying not to think about that for too long,” Lillia said, her smile faltering as a large yawn forced its way from between her lips. She rubbed her eyes and blinked heavily. “Are you actually going to sleep today?”

“I don’t think I could avoid it if I wanted to, and I don’t.”

“Good. Just take a shower first. You smell like the forge.”

Arwin let out a chuckle and turned, heading off toward the bath rooms so he could clean off. Sleep was calling his name and he was eager to greet it. He was going to need some rest if he wanted to tackle all the work waiting for him tomorrow, no matter how exciting it was.

***

The night passed by far faster than Arwin would have liked. Before he knew it, the morning was upon them. Even though they had no way to know what time it actually was within the darkness of Lillia’s room, she just seemed to have an instinctive knowledge of the sun’s position.

“What are you going to work on today?” Arwin asked as he reluctantly untangled himself from Lillia and rolled out of bed. He still couldn’t see anything, but he’d started to remember where pretty much everything was in the room.

He held a hand out to Lillia and she accepted it, letting him pull her up to her feet and pressing herself against his chest. For a moment, she didn’t respond. Then she let out a small huff.

“More testing with the Wyrmling meat, I think. I might look into more remodeling as well. None of the adventurers were looking for a place to stay the night, and that might be for the best. You’re all okay with slightly lower quality accommodations, but they might not be. I need to make sure my satisfaction rating doesn’t get too low.”

“What is it at? There’s no way it dropped after yesterday.”

“It actually went up to eighty-five percent,” Lillia admitted. “But that’s because nobody stayed over and the atmosphere was great. Atmosphere is a huge portion of how much people like things. Yesterday was energetic, so it went well. The real test is the long term, and that comes with quality.”

That was true enough. There really wasn’t all that much difference between their jobs when Arwin boiled things down. It didn’t matter how well his gear sold today if it didn’t translate to sales in the future. They were in this for the long haul.

“Then we’d best get to work,” Arwin said.

He felt Lillia nod, but she didn’t move. Arwin leaned down and found her face with his hands, giving her a kiss on the forehead. She hugged him, then pulled away and grabbed his arm to lead him out of the room.

A few steps after there was enough light to see by again, Lillia released him, her purple cheeks a slight shade of pink. She immediately set about starting to gather ingredients and start her work for the day, and Arwin headed out toward the Infernal Armory.

He had three main objectives for the day. The first — and simplest — would just be modifying the armor of everyone that needed changes from the previous day. That could be done whenever they showed up.

His second goal was to make a pair of gauntlets for himself with the Ivorin that Madiv had brought. He’d need some Brightsteel as well if he wanted to make it match the rest of the Ivory Executioner set, and he wasn’t sure if he currently had enough left for that.

And finally, he needed to figure out what he could do with the giant heart thumping away in the back room of his smithy. There had to be something he could make with it. Even though the Mesh hadn’t identified it as an inherently magical item, no normal heart kept beating after its owner was dead.

If I can’t determine some way to use it properly, I should give it to Lillia. I’m not sure if anyone is going to want to eat a still-beating heart, but at the very least I’m sure she’d get a fair amount of magical energy by cooking the creepy thing.

Arwin headed out of the tavern and stepped onto the street, his mind lost in thought.

There was a soft thud as Madiv dropped down from a rooftop, landing beside him with straight legs and matching Arwin’s pace without missing a beat.

“I need a new job,” Madiv said. “Reya has informed me that I need to practice my skills on my own and in new environments in order to become more affective. Also, I must stop threatening people with death when they are not inside the Infernal Armory.”

Baby steps, huh?

“Do you know what Brightsteel is?” Arwin asked.

“No, but I can find out.”

“Do that,” Arwin said with a nod. “I need some as soon as possible. Preferrably within a few hours. I know that’s pretty short notice. I believe it was around thirty gold a bar when I bought it from the other merchant — I’ll give you twenty.”

“Forty.”

“Why would I accept that? No.”

“He is unlikely to sell to you now. Rumors of what we are doing have doubtlessly spread through the city.”

Arwin blinked. That was a good point. Madiv wasn’t just randomly choosing numbers to charge anymore. “That’s a fair argument, but my counteroffer is that I’m dating your boss. Twenty gold.”

“That is an unfair argument.”

Arwin smiled. “I never claimed to be fair.”

To his surprise, a grin passed over Madiv’s features as well. “Respectable. Twenty gold, then. I will acquire ten bars. Wait my return.”

He slipped into an alley and vanished.

Huh. Interesting guy. Not nearly as insane as I feared when we first met. Just… very ill adjusted. I think I’m starting to understand him a bit more.

Arwin drew up to the door of his smithy and unlocked it. He only managed to take a grand total of one step into the room before he heard someone running up behind him. Arwin turned and nearly summoned his armor instinctively as he spotted a huge mountain of muscle in the form of a woman barreling toward him.

She skidded to a stop just before Arwin. “Are you the smith’s assistant?”

Arwin hesitated, then nodded. He hadn’t actually expected someone to be out this early in the morning. The sun still hadn’t even properly risen from behind the horizon. A mistake on his part, but not a major one. It wasn’t like it mattered if people found out his true identity. Still, there was no reason to give it away for free.

“I work with him, yes. He’s already inside the smithy. What is it?”

“Name’s Wanda. I was hoping to get in line first. I’m hoping to hit that new Ranked Dungeon today with my team, and I’ve got a set of armor ordered. Do you think he could get it handled in a few hours?”

Arwin smiled. “Come inside. I think Ifrit can get that handled for you.”