Taste of Magic: Ambassador's Voice

"Wake up, girl!" A loud knock brought Melina sharply out of dreamland.

"I'm up!" she replied mechanically, sitting up in her bed and looking around to find the source of the noise.

"Get dressed and come downstairs. We have work to do," Master Gilbert called through the door, and then she heard the sound of his receding footsteps.

Right… I'm an apprentice now, and this is my room and my bed. These flowery sheets still feel so odd. Too good for me.

Melina got out of the bed and neatly made it back into its pristine shape. Then she dressed up, cleaned up, and went downstairs without wasting much time.

"Took your sweet time, didn't you? Come on then, don't just gawk. I'll be teaching you how to make bread," Gilbert announced, beckoning Melina over to the counter.

"Already?" she asked. Melina had expected the baker to make her do only menial chores for a while. That's what had happened to her in the Church after all. It took several months before anyone began explaining anything to her about the System and how to use it.

"You'd rather just be a janitor?" The baker raised his eyebrow, and she hurriedly shook her head.

"No, I want to learn."

"Good. We'll be making pumpkin and sunflower seed bread. Townsfolk love it, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to make an extra batch," the baker explained and handed Melina an apron, head scarf, and gloves.

"But doesn't the dough need to rest overnight?" she asked, putting on everything handed to her.

"That's in an ideal scenario. But several hours is enough for the yeast to do its job. Grab that tub over there and set it on the counter. You'll be following my instructions step-by-step this morning," he said. Melina grabbed the large wooden container and set it on the table.

"First step, pour four liters of warm water into the tub. The pot on the stove should have exactly enough," The baker grabbed one of the pots, pouring the water inside. Melina repeated.

"Next we add three packets of yeast into the water and mix it," Master Gilbert tore all three packs open at the same time and chucked the contents into the water. Melina was more careful, slowly stirring in the yeast granules.

"Then a bag of flour," Once again the man dumped it all unceremoniously inside, tossing the empty packet into the fire burning under the oven. Melina wondered how he could be so nonchalant about it but decided to trust the man and did the same.

"Now we mix it," Master Gilbert mixed everything with a wooden spoon, and once again Melina repeated. "The yeast needs to activate so let's give it five to ten minutes. In the meanwhile, measure out what we need next—two cups of oil, two cups of honey, and nine teaspoons of salt."

Melina measured everything out, although cups and teaspoons seemed like a rather vague measurement to her. Not all cups were made to be the same size so how could you know which cups to use? Although maybe there were special cups used for measuring. The ones in Gilbert's kitchen didn't seem to differ from any other cup Melina had seen. But who was she to doubt him?

After everything was measured, Gilbert peeked into the tub and nodded with satisfaction, "Good. Now add two more packs of flour, everything we measured out and start mixing."

As she looked into her tub, she saw that the mixture was now a bit bubbly.

So that means that the yeast is active right? It truly does look like brewing some potion. Speed potion also needs to have a similar bubbly texture before you begin brewing it.

Melina added the ingredients and began mixing everything with the wooden spoon. Slowly it started to become more homogenous and also sticky. However, it seemed too liquidy to be made into bread. She looked at the baker who was already done with his mixture and had retrieved a large bag of pumpkin and sunflower seeds from the storage room.

"Four and a half cups of pumpkin seeds, two cups of sunflower seeds, and one more pack of flour. After that, get to kneading everything," the baker instructed and quickly measured everything out for himself. Melina followed suit and soon she found herself fighting the dough.

It was stubbornly resisting her attempts to turn into a proper homogenous mass, sticking to her fingers and the sides of the tub. Master Gilbert had managed to knead it in about ten minutes. She continued fighting with the dough for the next half an hour.

"I think… I'm done…" Melina announced, glaring at the dough sitting in the tub. Gilbert inspected it and then nodded.

"It could use a bit more kneading, but it'll do."

More kneading? But I already kneaded it for so long.

As if to mock her a system notification appeared before her.

[New skill obtained: Rhythmic Kneading – Rank F.]

[Rhythmic Kneading: Decreases the kneading time required to prepare the dough and also improves its overall quality.

Duration: 15 minutes

Cooldown: 6 hours]

I'll take this skill gratefully, thank you, System! Now my arms won't scream at me like crazy each time I knead dough. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to do it a lot in the future.

The rest of the morning went by fast as Melina hurried around the kitchen, preparing vegetables, cleaning the surfaces, molding the bread into shape, and finally loading it into the oven. It was incredibly satisfying to watch her own bread slowly rise and cook in the oven. Once it was finally ready and she began pulling it out of the oven, she got assaulted with notifications.

[You've made . You've gained +10 exp.]

[Congratulations! You've reached Level 8.]

Did you have to show me a notification for each bread I made? Eighteen notifications about bread, one rank up, and three more about leveling up is a bit much.

But this is great progress. It's as if I've just defeated some stronger monster. Now I just need to figure out where to put these free skill points. I'm tempted to put all of it into strength, but it's time I started to think more carefully about the distribution.

Melina closed the notifications and began bringing the prepared bread and pastries into the shop, while still thinking about the possibilities of her stat growth.

I'll invest one more point into and then rely on the natural growth of my muscles. The more hard labor I do, the stronger I'll get. I do wish that the System would portray the strength our bodies already have better. After all, everyone starts with all of their skills being 5, but it is clear that a farmer boy who had been working in a field all his childhood would be stronger than I am.

It only proves that the System is not the be-all and end-all. After all, even people without it can perform magic albeit it's much harder for them to learn high-level spells.

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This is where her train of thought stopped. While non-System users could learn magic, Melina knew that she would never be able to use it again. She thought that she had made peace with this fact, but no—it still stung.

Alright, enough of that. I need to know how these stats would help me as a [Cook]. Like how does influence what I cook?

[Higher makes it easier to come up with new recipes and unlock new skills as well as rank up existing skills.]

Interesting, so it works in a similar way as with magic. Except in magic, directly correlated to how much damage I could do. It was my highest stat by far. I'm tempted to dump everything into it, but first, let's find out what and do.

[Higher stat allows for faster movement and also improves skills where speed is involved.]

[Higher stat makes it easier to sell your produced goods and also makes people more receptive to your words.]

Selling the bread we make certainly won't be an issue since Master Gilbert has a good reputation in Sunglow. however could be useful. Faster peeling, faster kneading, faster cutting. For now, I'll invest 1 skill point in and .

[Name: Melina Dufour]

[Level: 8]

[Class: Cook]

[Intelligence: 6]

[Agility: 6]

[Strength: 8]

[Skill: 7]

[Charm: 5]

[Active Skills: 2]

[, ]

[Passive Skills: 2]

[, ]

"Master, I have set out all the bread on the shelves," Melina called out.

"Good. Go ahead and open the bakery. I'll be in the store in a minute," Gilbert replied from the kitchen. Melina went and turned the store sign to "Open". This time, just like the last time, she could already see people heading towards the bakery.

Before long she was frantically packing the bread in paper bags while trying to dodge the curious questions from the townsfolk. Many had already noticed that this was her second time assisting Gilbert. Some were completely sure that Melina was his apprentice. They weren't wrong, but the baker remained quiet so she decided not to say anything either. It was better not to say anything before she was officially registered.

Maybe I should tell Erina to put off the party for a later date.

In the end, the loaves Melina had made didn't make any difference for the hungry customers. The bread was all sold out in a few hours and there were still many customers who would have liked to buy some more.

"We need to make more bread," Melina muttered as she was cleaning up the store.

"You'll need to be making more bread," Master Gilbert corrected. "This is my limit. If you want to offer these folk more then you'll have to learn and fast."

"I will," she nodded resolutely.

"Good. Then you'll be making this evening's batch of pumpkin seed bread on your own," the baker retorted. Melina instantly began to think whether she had memorized all the measurements, but Master Gilbert waved his hand. "Don't think you have to do everything without any help. I don't want you to waste ingredients. If you don't remember something, just ask."

"Yes, I'll get right to it."

"As you wish. I'll be resting upstairs if you need anything," Master Gilbert said and left the kitchen.

Melina was excited to try making the dough on her own. Excited and nervous about messing something up. But she had a lot of experience brewing potions in the past. Pumpkin seed bread was a beginner-level potion by comparison so she had no issues memorizing the recipe.

She measured everything out, wrote it down, and then went upstairs to confirm with Master Gilbert. Once it was clear that she had remembered everything correctly, she returned back down to the kitchen and began combining everything the same way they did in the morning. Melina went through each step slowly and thought about the process carefully before continuing.

When it was time to knead, she activated . While the effects weren't yet that strong, the skill in combination with her increased stat made it easier to work than in the morning. Twenty minutes later she had a nice-looking batch of dough.

Good. Now let's just repeat it a few more times and we're good to go. Shame that the cooldown on the skill is so long. But I'm sure it'll get shorter once the skill ranks up.

After several batches of pumpkin seed bread were complete and resting in a special compartment built under the floor of the storage room, Melina went to her room to rest for a bit. Her hands ached from exhaustion and unfortunately, the lunch she ate between making dough batches didn't have the nifty effect.

But she still felt satisfied with the work she had managed to do. The first batch had been especially good according to Master Gilbert which made her a bit nervous at first. But he had attributed it to her hands not being tired yet. The last batch however required some extra kneading.

"Girl, you in there?" a knock resounded on Melina's door, approximately fifteen minutes after she had laid down to rest.

"I'm here," she called out.

"We're going to town. Come," he ordered, and she begrudgingly got up on her feet. On one hand, Melina liked Gilbert's no-nonsense, get-straight-to-business attitude. On the other hand, she wished he explained things before they began doing them. Also, she wished to rest for a bit longer. But as an apprentice, she couldn't complain.

"Where exactly are we going?" she asked, trailing behind the old baker.

"To buy you some clothes," he replied.

I am not so much of a child that I'd need him to come along with me to buy new clothes. He could just tell me where the shop is.

"Master, I can—"

"No. You're a city girl. I have to come along the first time. Besides I get a distinct feeling that you'd wear that dress until it fell apart," he said, hobbling out of the bakery.

I can't refute him on that second point. But why wouldn't I be able to buy my own clothes just because I'm from the city? I'll go along with him for now, but next time I'm definitely going to go shopping on my own. Probably should have done it before.

Slowly, they walked deeper into town, trees being replaced by houses. Master Gilbert was rather slow, and Melina had to wonder what exactly was it that ailed him. He clearly had strength in his arms with how he could carry all those heavy boxes and knead dough each day. Yet his hands trembled and his legs, no rather, his left leg specifically seemed to hold him back. An injury perhaps?

Melina decided that it would be too rude to ask. Perhaps once they got more familiar with each other. As she had learned in her many years, there's a right time for everything. So instead she took in the town as a whole, looking at the details she might have missed when rushing past them.

Sunglow was not a new town by any means. Melina could see plenty of old buildings and even some clearly abandoned houses. However, there were also plenty of newer buildings that must have been built sometime within the last twenty or thirty years. It was like a duality of sorts.

"Why are there so many new buildings in Sunglow?" she asked curiously as they walked. "It doesn't look like a new town."

"Sunglow's history can be dated back almost a thousand years," Gilbert answered thoughtfully, then added. "But these new buildings appeared after the Adventurer's Guild was established."

"So people moved in because the place became safer?"

"Yeah. Previously, monster attacks were common. Well, they are actually even more frequent now, but thanks to the wall and the adventurers, the normal folk are mostly safe."

"Wasn't the wall always there?"

"You never got a close look at it, did you? No, the wall was built shortly after the Guild was established."

Melina threw a glance back at the stone wall. From this far she obviously couldn't tell whether it was old or new, however, it did seem a bit out of place. It was grand enough to serve as protection to even larger towns and cities, yet it was built for this town that was barely bigger than a village.

"How could Sunglow even afford it?"

"It was a gift from the first Guildmaster," Gilbert grumbled, appearing somewhat annoyed by the question. She wasn't sure what exactly caused the old man's ire. Perhaps, he didn't like this Guildmaster. In either case, she decided not to pry any further, and they continued their way in silence.

After a while, they reached the town hall at which Gilbert turned into one of the smaller side streets. Melina could already see what was a clothes store, and a new one at that. Or no, it wasn't new but rather renovated. The glass display in the front showed several mannequins in attractive outfits, while the entrance door was mostly made of glass.

"We're here. Do not freak out," Gilbert wagged a finger at Melina. She cocked her head in confusion.

"Why would I?"

"You'll see. Just know that the store owner is an old friend of mine."

Melina just shrugged. Perhaps he had some nasty-looking injury from a monster attack. It would certainly turn off some folk, but she's seen more of those than she could count. And much worse things.

Gilbert hobbled inside the store, the chime of a doorbell announcing their arrival. "Etrian, you're in?"

"Gilbert, is that you, old friend?" A rather young and melodious male voice replied from somewhere deeper inside the store. Hurried footsteps resounded and soon the voice's owner emerged. Melina's breath hitched as her eyes met with the deep purple eyes of a drow—one of the most dangerous residents of the Monster Realm.