Chương 89: [2.15] A Little Slice of Hell (Part 3/5)

Two more servings of Grumpy Beads were served to the pair of Pucks. Then Parvello closed the chest's lid for them to use as a table, since apparently the chef wouldn't be needing it anymore. Instead, they held out their flipper hand and spawned a decently sized chunk of ice. Undoubtedly, it was made by Manifest Ice, or some variant, with the notable difference that it wasn't melting, unlike Angelica's creations when she'd used it earlier.

Their Skill level must be significantly higher, able to make it cold enough to survive the heat of Hell without so much as a single drop of condensation. Parvello reached behind their large body once more and pulled out a large flat sheet filled with holes, some kind of metal grater. What was it doing back there, though? Being used as a backscratcher? Gelic probably didn't want an answer.

The chef picked up the bowls they'd used earlier for their first servings and ran a bit of water magic over them before they quickly steam-dried, allegedly clean once more. Parvello then grated the frosty ball into each until the bowls were filled with shavings. Apparently, shaved ice was the dessert. Which, in Angelica's world, was usually a fine but cheap desert. Here, it must be a rare treat, indeed. Still, a bowl of plain ice didn't exactly pique her palate. Well, that turned out to not be the end of it.

With their gob open wide, the seal Demon reached into their gullet and pulled out an odd egg, looking like it was laced with barnacles. They must possess Second Stomach, as well, and likely where they stored said eggs to keep them fresh… if their current state could count as such.

Gelic watched with intrigued hesitance as Parvello cracked the egg on one of their tusks, thankfully having her bowl of beads to keep her content and willing to ignore the myriad of questionable cooking practices happening right in front of her, but it wasn't making her feel better about the unknown amount of Essence she was about to spend. What came out of the egg definitely upped the ritziness value, looking like sparkling golden blood.

The chef then split the liquid between the two bowls, drizzling it over the ice shavings until they were completely drenched, without a flake left uncoated. There was apparently a bit of yolk left in one side of the shells, which Parvello eagerly downed themself. And with a bit more ceremony compared to their main dishes, the desert was served with more tender care.

"Twenty-one Essence." Once more, the payment was due, and, thankfully, it wasn't nearly as bad as she was fearing, having speculated the price to be in the hundreds. But since the new bowls of beads were included, that put the cost of the shaved ice at roughly double that of the entree, which could certainly be considered an expensive luxury. Everything had been good so far, though, so Gelic paid for it without hesitation.

[Lost 21 Essence] And to eat the dish, she decided to perform a bit of Manifest Ice of her own, since they hadn't been given utensils. Up until now, she had never focused too much on the shape of the items she'd made, basically just crude pointy things. But even more, she'd never once considered the coldness. So this time, she really stretched both her power and visualization of what she wanted to make. The craft was simple: a spoon. Yet that was still more technical and refined than anything created thus far.

[Manifest Ice Lv. 8] [Competence, Creativity notably increased] [Glacial Attunement significantly increased] Wow, that was a lot for creating a simple spoon. It definitely had never jumped that much for any stabby icicles. That must be due to the new level of mastery over the Skill she'd displayed. She wielded the fabricated silverware, err, iceware, with pride. It felt good in her Imp hand; not too cold that it hurt to touch, but also showing no sign of melting.

She took a scoop of the eggy shavings and dumped them into her big greedy mouth.

"Mmm, so good!" She let out an involuntary satisfied hum. Somehow, it was richer, sweeter, and silkier than the best ice cream she'd had. Her spoon greedily reached for more, shoveling scoop after scoop into her maw. Thankfully, she had the utensil, because if she had to dump it into her mouth, she'd likely end up just chucking the whole bowl in at once, unable to restrain herself, losing the ability to savor it.

Gawk was clearly enjoying it, as well, performing rapid laps with his long tongue, almost like watching Cherub when he was slurping down some water after a lengthy day of sleeping. And despite her measured scoops, the dessert was still gone way too quickly. Fortunately, she was able to restrain herself from stealing her friend's portion this time, but damned if she didn't want to ask for another serving, maybe store it in Second Stomach to enjoy later after she got back home.

She ultimately decided against it, though, not wanting to burn through her Essence until she had a better sense of how much was needed for Puck levels. Actually, while waiting for Gawk to finish his dessert—it'd be a little bit, even with his fervorous licking—she decided just to take a quick look at her DGS screen just to check the main things. Oh, wow, she had over a thousand MP now. Between Evolution and the last Imp levels, it had jumped a good bit. And, oh, nice, only three hundred Essence needed for Puck Lv.

2! It, too, had deflated a bit from the likely five-hundred-something that Imp Lv. 20 had cost. That was nice, indeed, reducing the baseline to help taper the exponential requirement. Heck, even with what she'd just paid, she probably had enough for two levels. Which she went ahead and confirmed with the growth system, though it didn't quote her an exact number. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"That was the best, Parvello!" Gawk gushed after he finished his dessert.

"Thanks again, Gelic! I probably never would have spent the amount for it myself. But now I'll have to save up so I can have it again in the future. I know we hadn't made plans after this, but would you wanna maybe wander around the city with me a bit, since you're new here? I can show you some cool things, and it'd be nice to experience them for me, now, too, since it won't take all night."

"Uhh, sure, I'd be happy to." Honestly, Angelica wasn't ready for the feverdream of a day to be over. Maybe it was due to her Evolution and high Health, but she was still full of energy.

"Though I should probably head back after that." She went ahead and set the boundary for herself more than anything. Hell was a whole new world for her, and she could spend a long time here just gaining new experiences, but she also had a whole lot waiting back for her, and most importantly, a cat waiting to be fed. She had no idea how long she'd been in this fiery place, but it was a good few hours, at least.

At the very least, she needed to make sure she could return home and figure out how to come and go as she pleased before becoming a regular visitor to this plane of existence. As a final nail of commitment, since the Order she'd quietly given herself to eat a meal as encouragement just in case the food was nasty had completed without an Essence Tip trigger, she went ahead and made a new one.

[Current Contract: Enjoy your time with Gawk, but don't linger too long, and then find a way back home | Reward 10 Essence]"So that must be your Imp form, huh?" The floating eye inquired once they'd wandered far enough from Parvello's Chest. Maybe he didn't want to bring it up in front of the chef in case it was somehow an uncomfortable topic.

"It looks about like what you described. That's a lot of hair! I've heard Demons with a lot of hair can have a tough time maintaining it, especially in Hell. The heat dries it out, or something, if they don't have good Heat and Weathering Resistance. But I don't know too much. Never had hair, myself."

"Eh, it's not too bad, in the human world, at least," Angelica explained.

"There're a lot of specialized products to help keep it nice. My master is kind enough to let me use them, though their bath tub was never great for my Imp form. But I'll have to clean myself as a Puck, now, I suppose, which should be easier to shower with." And since she'd gotten that reminder, she went ahead and returned to her bug self, not wanting to draw any more attention on the matter. It was easier to walk at a steady pace with it, anyways.

The two of them just strolled around, or flapped, in Gawk's case, for a good while, going up and down random streets, while exchanging simple, light questions about each other's worlds. Whatever came to mind, but nothing too deep. It was nice, a friendly connection she hadn't felt in some time, even more so than her recent camaraderie with the Zenmoon Sect. It just took a visit to Hell to find it. Maybe it was the kinship as Demons that made it easier. At some point, they ended up in a long lane of shops.

It was interesting to see the similarities and differences when compared to human storefronts. Roughly, they were the same, but didn't have standard windows. Maybe regular glass just kinda melted here. Instead, there were two different styles to allow visibility inside. The first was a different kind of glass, more jagged and stoney, with a very dark tint, sort of like translucent obsidian. That's what the majority of shops had.

But the fancier ones instead had solid walls with floating magical rifts, similar to the mirror she'd had in the Evolution chamber, which gave a glance inside.

"Woh, Runes!" Gelic gasped when she spotted some through a rift, apparently a whole shop of enchanted Runestones and accessories embedded with Runes, and she couldn't stop herself from trotting over. She wanted to head inside, but when she approached the door, a waterfall of a weird murky green liquid splashed down in front of her, blocking her path.

"And who are you to go in there?!" A crude face of scratchy dark eyes and a mouth appeared in the liquid. Apparently, the ooze was sapient, and they were the doorman, err, doorDemon, for the establishment.

"Running an errand for someone?"

"Uhh, no, I just wanted to browse."

"Pah!" The ooze demon literally spat at her, getting some of itself on her mask.

"A low-level like you has no business in there. The cheapest item would cost more than your entire Rank's levels. Daemons and higher only. That, or join a Cult and get them to vouch for or accompany you. So unless you're planning to steal, which would be the death of you, give up the idea of going inside." Well… she was actually somewhat considering the idea of stealing. Not the items themselves, just their designs.

Damn, if only she had Muse, she could just save the images of the Runes she could see and recreate them later. Would it be worth buying it right now? No… best not to be rash. Plus, there was no guarantee it would work. When she tried to scry the Runes to see what kinds they were, she got no response at all, so the rifts must be obscuring the information somehow, and that could very well happen with Muse, as well.

Best to save it for when she could go inside, and then become the biggest thief of Rune Intellectual property that Hell has ever seen! Okay, maybe not so sinister, and it could go poorly, but damned if her dormant maliciousness didn't want to rear its head at the thought.

"You're interested in Runes, Gelic?" Gawk inquired after she made her way back to him, holding her head a bit low while nursing a slight sense of defeat.

"Yeah, well, they're the best way to get Skills you couldn't easily obtain otherwise, right?" She was more confused by his general lack of interest. If she answered honestly, the answer would have been more like, 'yes, yes, oh, Vissiem, yes, they're so amazing, how do you not think so?!' But Runes in general let her flex her skills as an artist compared to other demons, so they were straight up her wheelhouse.

Plus, the concept in general was fascinating, the power to turn ordinary objects like stones into magical artifacts, or even sticks like Vystal's wands. She definitely was planning to do a whole arc in Merlina's Boutique about it, but first, she had to come up with some fake Runes. If she tried to include some real ones in her webcomic, there was a good chance she'd accidentally enchant her drawing table and make it explode.

"Eh, I guess." His iris sort of shrugged.

"They're just so pricey and hard for most Demons to use effectively that us low Ranks just don't have much interest. Well, there're some like you, I suppose, but for the rest, they're seen as a waste of time and Essence. Oh, but if you're interested in a way to get Skills for cheap, there's definitely something I can show you!"