Chef in the Apocalypse

Jayce woke up the next morning feeling fresh as a daisy. He lifted his arms and stretched heartily, accepting the warm sunlight that flitted through the clear windows of his cottage.

This was probably the best he had ever slept in the past almost 11 years. His sore muscles from yesterday felt fortified and full of strength, now fully recovered.

’Is this the effect of mana circulation?’ he mused, moving his body around with awe.

Jayce executed a simple punch, feeling the muscles in his arm react instantly. He could sense the mana pool towards his fist subconsciously, increasing the speed and power of his strike.

A satisfied smile crept onto his face, improving his already stellar mood.

"I should probably go meet with Leah and Lianna."

Jayce took out a clean shirt from his inventory and left the room promptly, heading towards the large tree in the center of the town. He needed to figure out what they were going to do next.

Now that he had Mana Manipulation, he could technically set up the teleportation array by himself. However, he was missing a key ingredient; Magicite.

It didn’t matter if it had matured into a Mana Stone, he could just infuse it with mana from some rare weapons that he rerolled like usual. The biggest problem was that he was in an unknown environment, so he had no idea if there were any Magicite deposits in the vicinity.

Yet this did not ruin his good mood. He had been periodically checking in with Dion back at Bastion on the status of his faction, therefore he was not worried.

He could have probably sent a faction notice, however that would just be in the form of sending announcements to everyone. Even then, Colin would be the only one who could respond back to him via another announcement.

Remembering Colin’s track record of sending faction announcements, he quickly discarded the idea, sticking with the supporter messaging system. While it had led to a few unanswerable questions, Jayce told Dion to just ignore them.

Thinking about his party members in Bastion, Jayce remembered that Zane had yet to be heard from. However, it had only been a few days since they were teleported here and Jayce knew just how strong and crafty the silent archer was.

Now that the Dryad had been taken care of, he felt confident enough to walk into the large tree. Perhaps it was because he had vented his anger out in the forest yesterday, or merely because its presence had disappeared. Either way, he no longer held a grudge against the big trees.

Tony saw Jayce walking towards him and scuttled over ingratiatingly. "Mr. Jayce! I hope you had a great sleep last night ha ha. You must be hungry after such a long sleep right?"

Jayce looked over in puzzlement at the complete character change of the bearded man. He kind of looked like a drug addict who had yet to have his fix.

"Uhh. No I’m still actually full from last night." He answered after a moment.

Tony’s face fell. In that moment, it was almost as if someone told him that his parent had died tragically. "P-Please Mr. Jayce, would you mind cooking us some breakfast?" He went down onto his knees and hugged Jayce’s thigh while pleading.

A look of terror and disgust flashed onto Jayce’s face as he resisted the urge to swat at him like a bug.

"Ah r-right! Miss Lianna and Leah were saying they were hungry after skipping dinner last night!" Like he had found a lifeline, Tony shouted, still not letting go of his thigh.

’What the f*ck is with this guy?’ Jayce tried to extricate himself from the beggar, however he could see that short of knocking him out, Tony would never let go.

"Damn it man, get off me."

"Foooooood!" No longer holding back his true goal, Tony whined as he hung on for dear life as Jayce thrashed his leg around.

The comical scene was interrupted by the sound of footsteps in the hall. A warm and amused voice rang out, causing the two to look in its direction.

"It looks like you two have gotten acquainted rather well." Leah said with a giggle.

Lianna was also chuckling beside her sister, their hands interlocked. "We have quite a bit to discuss, why don’t we talk over breakfast?" she suggested, smiling brightly.

At the mention of breakfast, Tony’s face lit up and he finally loosened his grip on Jayce’s thigh. Not missing the opportunity, Jayce quickly put some distance between them just in case he tried something else.

This only caused the two girls to laugh even more, seeing the pure disgust and wariness on Jayce’s face. Lianna especially found the scene to be hilarious, this was the first time seeing such an expression on the usually unflappable Jayce.

Eventually, the four of them left the big tree and headed out to the fields. Tony felt a little embarrassed about the whole ordeal, but he couldn’t help it.

The food he had tasted last night was a life changing experience for him. Coming from an Italian background, his family had always produced high quality and hearty food, filled with comforting carbohydrates.

They were such good cooks that they had opened up their own family restaurant, which had become quite popular in their town for many years until the Apocalypse descended.

Tony even considered himself to be a foodie, analyzing other restaurants dishes with his refined palette and bringing the information back to the family business. He would then work with the chef’s to create new menu’s, rivaling their oppositions dishes.

From the moment he took his first spoonful of Jayce’s broth last night, it felt as if everything he had ever known was bullshit. The depth of flavor was a true testament to the love and care that he put into the dish, moving Tony deeply.

He had seen the man prepare the ingredients right in front of him, like he was at a teppanyaki restaurant. Therefore he knew what ingredients were used, yet the flavor did not match up to his understanding.

’How can such a flavor exist with only these ingredients?’ Before he knew it, Tony had finished all of his food and was ushered out promptly by the chef.

"Will he take me as his Sous Chef?" Tony muttered.