Chương 45: Chapter 44: Cook Susan Cook

After the battle came the aftermath. People had been hurt - undead people, and subjects of the dungeon itself at that, but Gelidia's influence over them was astounding. They went from dull, unfocused shades that approached the group of my friends and I without apparent purpose, just a vaguely annoyed expression, to something approaching their former selves when they were anywhere near Gelidia.

For her part, my Lady focused most of her efforts on ensuring that her subjects were cared for and that the mess was cleaned up as quickly and efficiently as possible. This, it seemed, involved drinking of ambient mana, and accepting it from other sources. Sources like... Gelidia, and once the situation was under control and explained to him, from Felorikaan as well.

In moments, fed with the mana to sustain themselves, the wounded and torn shades and skeletons regrew limbs, formed back into shape, and became whole again in moments. It didn't even apparently take much to restore them - just a little push. I wasn't involved in that work - I had work of my own helping Cook to clean up.

The shades and skeletons who had been destroyed would return in time - that was the nature of a dungeon, after all, they were very much part of the dungeon and under its control when not directly in their Lady's influence. They hadn't subsumed as Gelidia and I had. What fate awaited them if they were slain was anyone's best guess, but nobody seemed too torn up about the shades in the kitchen. Cook's concern was with the monsters we'd slain!

Come to that, the World had a bevvy of notifications for me about the fight, so as I worked, I let them play out. Good Girl! You have helped to turn the tide of battle! You have mashed 24x Potators level 6 You have minced 18x Gnarlics level 6 You have chopped 12x Carroots level 6 You have caramelized 8x Trubbions level 7 You have made soup out of Great Gourdon level 8 For holding the tide against great odds, Bonus XP is gained! For fighting multiple opponents above your level, Bonus XP is gained!

For defending your beloved, Bonus XP is gained! For serving the house of Windbinder, Bonus XP is gained! Due to fighting as a group, the reward is reduced. That was a heck of a fight! Ding Ding Ding! Your [LIFE] Peasant Core has reached level 7! You have gained 1 Peasant skill point Health +10, Stamina +15 Wow! Ding Ding Ding! Your [MONSTER] Lycanthrope Core has reached level 7! You have gained 1 Lycanthrope skill point Health +10, Stamina +10, Mana +5 Once again, I'd leveled TWICE in the fight.

It had been a heck of a fight, for sure, but I felt sure I was growing like a weed - their whole lives, Roxala, Torch, and Fel had reached level 8 at maximum, but here I was, already Torch and Fel's equal. When I'd met them they'd been several levels ahead of me, too. No skill rank ups yet. Several of them felt close, though. With a sigh as I placed bits of onion, potato, and garlic into different baskets, I took the time to inspect my character sheet. It was amazing to me how rarely I actually did this.

Name: Emily Goldtail the Twice-Cursed, Hound of Lambstock / (Emily Smith) Race: Human, Lycanthrope, Riftwalker Class: [LIFE] Peasant Status: Healthy Skill Slots: 1/2 Skills: [LIFE] Peasant level 7 Peasant skill points: 4 Skills: [LIFE] Inspect, Rank C: 60% [CRAFTING] Toolmaking, Rank D: 40% [LIFE] Cookery, Rank C: 90% [LIFE, SYNERGY] Samu, Rank D: 40% [LIFE, COMBAT, SYNERGY] Sohei, rank C: 60% — [MONSTER] Lycanthrope level 7 Lycanthrope skill points: 3 Skills: [MONSTER, SYNERGY] Bestial Vitality, Rank B: 100% [MONSTER] Lycanthropic Transformation, Rank C: 85% [MONSTER, COMBAT, SYNERGY] Bestial Might, Rank C: 100% [MONSTER, COMBAT, SYNERGY] Wolf-Ren, Rank D: 80% — — Two new character skill slots, one in each of my classes.

I still had the slot from level five in my Lycanthrope core, too. I huffed a sigh! Why did it continue to insist that my class was just 'Peasant'? Was it because Werewolves were monsters? The word Riftwalker had been appended to my character sheet though, that was new. Had I just not noticed it? In any case, as I put chunks of monster veggies in a pot to collect them I felt a distinct longing for the outside, for the forest and the inn, for the things I'd gotten used to outside this dungeon.

I tried to analyze the feeling as I brought a piece of quivering carrot to my lips and sampled it with a soft crunch as I bit into the bright orange flesh. It wasn't that I hated the experience of dungeon diving so far, munch munch munch, it was just that... I missed my quiet little life, the cooking, the gentle exploration of my new home and the mostly quiet life I'd had so far. Here in this dungeon I'd been jumped by ghouls, manhandled, insulted, praised, and pushed to my limits...

and this is what the world wanted. The World didn't like mediocrity, the World didn't like stagnation, I remembered Fel saying.

"You look thoughtful" Gelidia said as she joined me in her rounds taking care of the people under her command. As I took another bite, I nodded thoughtfully and picked up another piece to place in the pot.

"Something the matter?" she asked, and I turned my head to her. I was sticky with my own blood and with veggie juices, but I pressed my head into her hands and let out a long sigh. I wished more than anything I could talk to someone in that moment, and knew that it wasn't really possible for me to do so. At the end of my sigh, it turned into a whine and Gelidia hugged me against her, our clothes thoroughly ruined and all the hard work cleaning us up undone.

Then again another nice long, hot bath sounded heavenly right about now, especially if I could get Gelidia in there with me. She pet my head, holding me lovingly, and... suddenly, with her help, with her magic, I COULD talk. I felt the capability flow into me and my Wolf had no objections at all. I leaned back, and pressed my forehead to hers as I took a breath to speak as my massive hands held her against me, took comfort from her simple presence against me.

"Is this... normal?" my roughened lupine voice came, deep even to my own ears. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"Is what normal?" she asked, and peppered my forehead with kisses.

"Evil vegetables, duels in the sky, being jumped by ghouls... are all dungeons like this?" I asked, and she smiled at me, shaking her head a little.

"No... this one is pretty intense. Apart from the uh, evil veggies. That's not normal either, but... we, the House of Windbinder, have a magic pantry." she said, and took my great paw in her tiny hand to lead me along. Really, she couldn't lead me anywhere at all but I meekly followed along with her, leaving my own task behind as we went together deeper into the kitchen, into the doorway through which the vegetables had issued. At the far end of it, surrounded by rings of fallen vegetables, there was...

a pantry, with a thick bolt of wood that probably used to be part of a halberd holding it shut by two hooks. Felorikaan was there, having pulled it out from the wall to look at the back of it with apparent great interest as Roxala and her two spectral brothers glared at the scene, along with a collection of House retainers and cooking staff. Even as I watched it rattled and shook, jerking against the bar holding it shut! It looked alarming, but it was clear it wasn't opening any time soon.

"It's..." she paused as she squeezed my hand, looking at it as I stared at the ominous looking thing. It had... whorls and a disquieting array of fretwork and carvings that made it resemble the scowling face of the Great Gourdon in an artistic freeze. It depicted the Gnarlics and Potatorrs, the Carroots and the Trubbions in various poses. Knowing what I knew, having fought them, I saw the carvings for the warning they clearly were!

[CURSED] Magic Pantry, Artifact, Ancient, Masterwork Quality, created by Tychaeon the Greater"It's an artifact that the House considers one of its treasures, and... normally, it lets you conjure some of those monsters from it one or two at a time." she explained softly.

"They always drop the vegetables they resemble. Now, with the mana from the dungeon-" she began and Fel smiled towards the pair of us. He looked frazzled and slightly damp, but extremely pleased with himself.

"... It is, itself, a dungeon!" he said with apparent relish. That earned him a look from the others, and Roxala opened her mouth, but... shut it.

"What?! Really?" she demanded, and the Wizard, an expert in dungeons and the monsters within them, nodded.

"Kind-of. I suspect it always was - I'd heard of such artifacts before, forays into the field of the creation of dungeon spaces, but I never dreamed I'd see one with my own eyes!" he enthused.

"It lacks a dungeon core of its own - it simply accepts mana from external sources to create creatures and distort space around itself." he said, and pat the object. In response, it rattled and creaked and groaned alarmingly, and I found a growl rising in my throat. Roxala delivered a savage kick to the thing, making it stop rattling as a distant bellow of pain seemed to coalesce in the ether, and Fel jerked into motion, getting between her and the pantry, holding up both his hands.

"Don't! It's priceless!" he cried, and Roxala snorted as her brothers hefted their weapons a bit, as if ready to give this troublesome object a seeing to.

"It's dangerous! A pain in my ass! It could have killed everyone here." the Shieldmaiden growled, and Fel nodded.

"That just means it cannot stay here. With an infinite mana supply it can sup of as it pleases, you're right - it's a menace." Fel said.

"Without that, it's just an infinite pantry! It's worth more than its weight in solid gold, not just as an artifact but as a piece of thaumaturgical genius!" he cried, raising his voice with increasing alarm as Roxala and her brothers tried to get around him to smash it to bits.

"I'll take it." I said in my basso rumble of a voice. That shocked the four of them into immobility and quiet, staring wide-eyed at me as green light filled the corners of my vision, Gelidia's magic continuing to give me the gift of speech.

"It's dangerous here, right? Well... it won't have infinite mana in the Inn, right?" Gelidia grinned and squeezed my hand gently.

"That seems equitable. It's a bit of a blow to the cooking staff, I'm sure, but I'm sure after tonight they'd love to see the back of the thing." she said.

"Consider it a gift, my Goldtail, and your reward for your assistance in the battle."

"GOOD." Cook said, coming up behind us.

"Get rid of that bloody thing - it's been a'creakin' and a'groanin' for bloody DAYS - didn't dare open the thing, and then the lock burst and now THIS." he snarled, and shook an angry fist in the thing's direction.

"Lost several good staff and apprentices to it over the years, too! Accursed thing!" he said, and quite unperturbed about Gelidia's presence, spat on the floor.

"It's dangerous?" Gelidia asked, taken aback"I mean, it always was?"

"WORLD YES! It's a magic pantry full of murderous vegetables, girl!" he thundered at Gelidia, clearly furious! It was the first time I'd seen a staff member talk like that to her, and I was taken aback! Most of them were thoroughly cowed by her, or at least respectful. Not Cook, it would seem! And yet, I didn't feel he was threatening her at all, my Wolf didn't feel any need to step in to defend her at all, so I just sat quiescent beside her and took in the man's rant.

"Some idiot kid with no idea gives it most of his mana to show how big and tough he is and winds up being spitroasted over a fire by a bloody squad of Gnarlics! Some dumbass apprentice in a hurry because of poor planning pumps too much mana in and GUESS WHO HAS TO BLOODY PICK PIECES OF HIM OUT OF THE SOUFFLE?" he roared, and threw the top of a head of a Carroot at it, bouncing off the thing with a damp THUMP.

"I HATE THAT BLOODY THING!" he roared, and Gelidia pat him gently on the arm.

"Very well then, so be it. I'm sorry to you, Cook, I didn't realize it cost so much to keep around." she said soothingly, and the man deflated with a SIGH that seemed to ruffle my fur a bit as it displaced the air. He got a hold of himself and simply turned away, stomping off with a parting remark of"GOOD. Get it out of my kitchen, girl!" he snarled at her as he stomped off, and Gelidia still didn't react at all, just chuckled and shook her head.

"He's not very respectful." I observed, voice low, and Gelidia shook her head.

"No, he's special - he's trustworthy, dependable, and loyal. That's worth a lot in somebody who prepares your family's meals, and he knows it - he doesn't need to bow and scrape to us. He makes our food and puts up with my family's oddities. He'd never allow us to be poisoned. He tastes every dish himself, and keeps my family safe. He's quite simply irreplaceable!" she said, and squeezed my hand.

"Like his father before him, and his father before him. The Cook family-""His name is actually... Cook Cook?" I said, incredulous, and Gelidia's grin only widened.

"Yes. Actually, his name is Cook Susan Cook the Fourth" she said, and my brain thew a cog.

"His great grandmother was the first house Cook, and she was named for her mother, and she had a son, but didn't see that as any reason to change the name. Our Cook, like his dad before him, is understandably rather acerbic about it." she said, and as she got staff to get the pantry and bring it out and off the floor under heavy guard, she said"Very good cook though - makes the best quiche you'll ever taste."

"GIRL!" Cook thundered at us from inside the kitchen.

"Get these idiots in armor out of my bloody kitchen, and send that bitch of yours in here! I need her - the staff said she knows how to cook and I'm down staffies after that disgrace!" and that got a reaction out of her - a twitch of annoyance, and I got ahead of the trouble bubbling before it fully came to pass, my tail waggling as I leaned down and licked the side of her face, hot breath disturbing Gelidia's hair as she squeeked and blinked up at me.

"It's fine, I don't mind helping! I love to cook!" I said, and was practically bouncing with excitement! Gelidia blinked at me, and asked"You sure? He can be a lot." She said, clearly concerned for me. I nodded, and went back into the kitchen, finding the massive man washing his hands in a bank of sinks against one wall of the kitchen.

The armed retainers had mostly left with the Evil Pantry, but the rest, at Gelidia's insistence, were ushered out along with Torch and Roxala, the shieldmaiden's brothers were once again nowhere to be seen.

"Wash your paws, woman." he gruffed at me, and obediently I moved to one of the sinks beside him.

"Don't just use cold water either - feed the fire rune and the water rune to get the water HOT, I won't have your blood getting in the food!" he said, and I did so without question. It took a little practice to get the water just hot enough without burning me, but I managed and the hot water helped get most of the blood off, but it just wasn't moving. It was the work of a minute or two to get one of the staff members to get my pack for me, and I presented my homemade soap to Cook.

Cook looked the bar of the stuff over, and grunted in satisfaction as he used it to cut right through the grease and clean his hands properly. I did the same once he was done, and he nodded at me.

"That's a good soap, Goldtail. More than that, you're brave! You're just what I need tonight in this kitchen - I don't give a damn if you're a bloody werewolf, you're alright in my book. Now let's get to WORK!" he thundered, and began giving directions! Like the other staff in the kitchen that remained, I snapped to work at his direction.