Taste of Magic: Ambassador's Voice

Melina couldn't believe that the day was finally here. She had been working on this for so long, so many things had gotten in her way, but finally it was complete—Sienna's enclosure. To be fair, she never would have completed it without Alistair's help. Unlike her weak arms that could barely lift a slightly larger rock, Alistair could lift large boulders without much issue.

Thanks to his hard work, at the back of the garden stood a rather sizable enclosure for a wyrm. There was a little cave made out of large boulders with a flat top. This way Sienna could sunbath during hot days but hide from the rain in the murky days. The surrounding area was laid out in rocks with a small place for a pond.

The pond wasn't complete yet. They needed to line the bottom of it to prevent rainwater from draining away. But for time being, Melina had scrubbed out one of the old barrels stashed away in the shed and filled it with water. With that Sienna's enclosure was complete and she had a place where to lounge around in her large form.

The wyrm didn't waste any time—as soon as Melina announced it as complete, she took on her large form and began exploring her new space. She inspected everything, sniffing around the place. She scorched a few rocks and clawed at others, leaving large scratch marks behind.

"Those rocks will probably need to be replaced from time to time," Alistair said, awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah, it appears so…" Melina agreed.

But seeing the wyrm stretch out her long limbs and lay on top of the rocky cave made her feel that it was all worth it.

The next day began like any other. Melina was preparing bread and pastries for the day, as well as the Guild's weekly order of thirty healing waffles. But this time she modified the recipe for the waffles and imbued the dough with trying to apply ailment healing effects to the sweets.

She tried applying different effects—paralysis heal, antidote and burn heal. According to Gilbert, paralysis heal had the strongest effect, able to heal partial paralysis without issue, and reducing full paralysis to partial one. Waffles with burn heal could deal with small burns while antidote waffles could barely handle alcohol poisoning.

"That's no good… I need to improve the antidote effect. I need to find something to use as an antidote in the Monster Realm," Melina mused.

"Remember that the best antidote is the poison itself. Inspect everything, even if it doesn't appear useful," Gilbert said.

Melina nodded. She was familiar with refining poisons into antidotes, but the problem was making it into delicious pastry form. She needed something that tasted good.

[Congratulations! You've reached Level 30.]

Melina was so deep into her work that she felt startled by the sudden notification. She was more than halfway through to her advancement to Master class.

"It's scary how quickly you gain experience as a cook," Melina noted. "At this rate, I'll reach Master class by the end of the summer."

"Don't compare our work to regular cooks. Even somebody working in a cafeteria kitchen wouldn't make as many dishes a day as we do, not to mention that they'd keep making the same dishes day after day. The nature of a baker is that they must make vast quantities of food, and your experiments give you even more experience," Gilbert explained. "I imagine there's no other class that could level up as quickly as us."

"That's pretty neat. I know Master classes usually have some really powerful skills," Melina said excitedly.

"Don't forget that you can try unlocking new skills. You haven't done that in a while," the old baker noted.

"There have been a lot of things going on. But you're right, I should look to unlock some new skills. I even have an idea of how to unlock

[Name: Melina Dufour]

[Level: 30]

[Class: Arcane Baker]

[Familiar: Sienna — Ember Wyrm Level 49]

[Intelligence: 21]

[Agility: 10]

[Strength: 10]

[Skill: 27]

[Charm: 15]

[Unassigned stat points: 1]

[Active Skills: 9]

[, , , , , , , , , ]

[Passive Skills: 3]

[, , ]

It was always pleasant to observe her progress, but she was a bit peeved by lack of passive skills. She had quite a lot of them as [Archmage]. Maybe she should work towards unlocking more of these too.

The morning continued as Melina prepared the bakery for opening, while thinking of possible ways of unlocking new passive skills. She wasn't familiar with the skills bakers might have, and neither was Master Gilbert since he had chosen to stick with his base class.

But her contemplation was interrupted when a rather disgruntled looking Elowen came to the counter.

"Good morning," she greeted him.

"Morning, Melina," he said, looking around the bakery. "Is Lord Sinclair not here? I haven't seen him in the Guild this morning."

"Oh, he's eating breakfast in the kitchen," Melina replied casually.

There was a wave of shocked gasps as the older women looked at Melina conspiratorially. Gilbert rolled his eyes at them.

"Calm down, rumor hens. Is it already not a well-known fact around Sunglow?" He muttered.

"Oh, Gilbert you're no fun!" One of them whined.

"It's no fun when you keep yappering about my apprentice," he retorted.

The woman and Gilbert kept up the banter, while Melina focused on Elowen. "Would you like to talk to him?"

"Yes, and you too if it is possible," the silver elf said.

"I'm working right now," she frowned.

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"It'll only take a few minutes," he assured her.

Melina sighed and turned towards the customers in line. "This'll only be a few moments. I'll be back soon."

There were a few disappointed sighs, but nobody objected to Melina leading Elowen into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Lord Sinclair," Elowen greeted him politely, still looking a bit frazzled.

"Good morning… Is something the matter?" Alistair asked, looking up from his plate of pancakes.

Alistair had woken up shortly before the bakery opening, so she'd cooked him some breakfast. Much to the dismay of Gilbert, who said they had no time for distractions.

"Yes, there is something I want to ask you two. It's about Miss Leliana," Elowen said.

"Leliana? What about her?" Melina cocked her head curiously, then shuddered.

She didn't actually offer that pastry they cooked up yesterday for him. Leliana had asked Melina to teach her how to make a tartlet, but all quickly turned into absolute disaster. Melina wasn't even aware that people could be so bad at something. It's like Leliana's hands had been cursed to never make anything edible.

"Is it about the tartlet?" Melina asked cautiously.

"What tartlet?" Elowen cocked his head.

"No? Okay, nevermind then."

"I don't know what tartlet you're referring to. No, I want to know whether you two remember Leliana from before," Elowen's gaze sharpened.

Melina instantly understood what he meant—before the time rewind. However, she was absolutely certain that she had never met Leliana until she came to Sunglow. What business would a farmer girl from Sunglow have with an Archmage?

"No. I first met Leliana when I came to Sunglow in this timeline," Melina said in a quiet voice.

"I did meet Leliana before. But our interactions were limited to the few months I spent in Sunglow. After that I've never met her again," Alistair explained.

"Was she just as flirty last time?" Melina asked.

"Worse even. I think she mellowed out because of your appearance," he said.

"Flirty? Well, nevermind that. Are you two sure that you never met Leliana afterwards?" Elowen insisted.

The two of them thought about it for a moment longer, then shook their heads.

"No. I'm pretty sure I would have remembered someone as distinct as Leliana. Red hair isn't exactly a common trait," Melina said.

"Yes, I'm certain I would have remembered too," Alistair said.

Elowen's shoulder's slumped. "I see… I guess that's another mystery."

"What mystery?" she asked curiously.

"No, nevermind. It's not important. I shall go to my patrol now," Elowen said and darted out before anyone could stop him.

"That was… odd," Alistair noted.

"Something must have happened yesterday. I'll ask Leliana later," Melina said, and returned to the bakery.

Unfortunately for Melina, the service wasn't as peaceful as she wanted it to be. Halfway through, the man in black came into the bakery, masking together with a group of tourists. She was watching him like a hawk, and so was Alistair.

He should have gone to the patrol by that time, but for Melina's sake he stayed behind, sending a magical note to Guildmaster that he'll be late. Melina had no doubt that Arianne would give him an earful for it. But he valued her safety first and remained until the bakery closed and then for another hour to make sure that the odd man wouldn't do anything afterwards either.

The same thing happened the next day, except this time the man had changed his clothes to dark blue. Melina wasn't even sure whether it was the same man. The build was similar, but his face was hidden behind a coughing mask. People sometimes wore them if they were ill to stop the disease from spreading.

These masks were used more commonly in the Church, since they were the ones to first implement them. Apparently, one of the Church Archbishop's had discovered that wearing such a mask over your mouth and nose, prevented the disease from spreading. But they weren't common among the populace, meaning the man in question was definitely related to the Church.

Unfortunately, Melina didn't get any answers about the mystery spies, nor his plans and he remained secretive. Nobody even knew where he stayed as he wasn't staying in Erina's inn. They didn't have the time to worry about him either since it was Wednesday afternoon—time to head into the Monster Realm again.

"Are you sure you want to come?" Alistair asked nervously on their way to the Guild.

Melina was wearing a new outfit she bought specifically for such trips of Monster Realms—sturdy pants, shirt and equally sturdy jacket along with some traveller boots. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail while Sienna rode hidden in her breast pocket, only occasionally peeking outside.

"Not going to lie, but I think I might be safer in the Monster Realm, at the moment," Melina said. "That Church spy is getting bolder by the day. He lingers around the bakery although he is acutely aware that I'm watching him. He sticks close to other customers, pretends to browse but never buys anything."

"I say we catch him and force the information," Alistair said with a cold glint in his eyes.

"No! We can't torture people," she said in a low hiss.

"Who knows what he intends to do to you?" he growled.

"Doesn't matter. I don't want to go down that path again. Do you?"

Alistair shook his head. "Not if I can avoid it. But if somebody is going to endanger you…"

"Nothing has happened yet. Although I think it might be the time to give him the boot out of town. I can feel customers growing more antsy whenever he is around. Maybe we can find some of those phoenixflies," Melina said.

"Oh! I know the location of one of their nests," Remi scuttled closer to them. "They're an absolute hoot! Recommend to get rid of any Church spies." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"I don't think this guy will be so easy to leave because of some flies…" Melina noted.

"It's worth a shot, isn't it?" Remi chuckled and returned to her place in the formation.

They would be moving forward with the supply team and carts in the center. Alistair and Elowen would lead, while Sienna, Remi and Leon would take the rear. Everyone else would be positioned to the sides of the carts to keep the supply team as safe as possible.

"Everyone ready?" Alistair asked when they reached the passageway.

"Go take your place, Sienna," Melina said and let Sienna down.

The wyrm took her large form without hesitation, stretching out her limbs in satisfaction. Nobody really minded Sienna anymore. In fact, they looked more relieved with her around. Especially Leon who was sticking rather close to her.

"Ready, Captain," Barrett said, once Sienna was in her place.

"Move out!" Alistair commanded and they stepped into the misty passageway.

Everything was calm as they walked through it, but the moment they stepped into the Monster Realm, Melina realized that their timing was bad. It was nighttime. Everyone visibly tensed up, even the elves as they looked at the eerily beautiful night of the Monster Realm.

Even Sienna let out a dissatisfied snarl and lit up the lines on her body to increase the visibility.

"Dammit!" Remi swore. "I don't want to deal with those creepy nightstalkers again."

"Easy, everyone. We've come prepared this time," Alistair said and threw something in the air. It went up and then stopped a bit above their heads.

Light shone around in front of them, illuminating a large portion of the forest. Whistlewisps fluttered out of the way in shock of the sudden light.

"Magitect lamp?" Melina noted.

"Night creatures in the Monster Realm aren't familiar with such bright light. They should keep their distance," Illitran explained.

"Deploy the other two lamps," Alistair commanded.

Barrett and Remi threw their lamps in the air and soon the surrounding area was completely illuminated.

"Alright, let's move out," Alistair said.

Their group headed towards the direction of the nightstalker den, then northwest to explore a previously unknown territory. For the longest time, the scenery remained the same with the rock pines and swayshrubs dominating the scene.

But then more and more of fungus-like trees appeared, making the terrain more difficult to traverse in such wide formation.

"This won't work. We're too vulnerable like this because of these mushroom trees. Let's think of a different way to travel," Alistair said and everyone huddled together.

"Captain, perhaps we should leave the carts here. I imagine the forest will only get denser as we move on," Illitran said.

"Agreed, we should prioritize safety," Melina nodded.

"Yes, perhaps, that's the best course of action for now. We'll set up camp here and use it as a temporary base," Alistair said, and ordered everyone to prepare the place.

Melina was hit with a strong wave of nostalgia. It was just like the times when they traveled together. Alistair must have noticed her expression and smiled.

"Just like the good old days," he muttered.

"Not sure if they were good, but they're certainly old," she teased.

"Captain!" Illitran suddenly ran up to them, looking rather worried.

"What's wrong?" Alistair's expression hardened in an instant.

"Elowen is missing!"