A Foray Into 'Food Magic'

"H-haha, never seen a chef at work before, have you?"

I was currently cutting into the apple pie I had just made, by some bizarre process, from a single apple. My head was still spinning from Penta's bombardment, but I was putting on a tough front for my guest.

"Never like that! What was that?! Was that magic?! Is there FOOD magic?!" the demi-human girl excitedly asked, pacing back and forth. Crumbs littered her face - I decided to split the pie with her, and she had already demolished a sizeable portion - but she didn't seem to notice, or care. After cutting another piece free, I handed it to her, which quieted her furious inquiries for at least a few seconds.

Thankfully for us, the pie was warm, but could be handled with bare hands without injury. Here, camped out on the side of the road, we didn't exactly have the proper utensils, but that did little to stop us.

I indulged in a piece myself, grateful to finally have something to put in my stomach. Apple pie wasn't exactly the most nutritious thing in the world, but it was certainly better than nothing.

In no time at all, the entire pie was gone.

"What's your name, magic food chef?" the girl asked, apparently sated. The other apple, though partially eaten, still lay nearby, but she was no longer interested only in food.

"I'm not...listen, keep this between us for now, ok? I'm Rhys. And you are?" I only half noticed that I had more or less given up on the 'my friends call me Mephisto' bit I was doing earlier. Whatever.

"Nia!" the girl responded, smiling widely. Her tail, covered in dark fur, hadn't stopped moving since the creation of the apple pie.

"Well, Nia, if you keep this a secret, I'll let you sit in on the rest. Deal?" I wasn't sure if the girl was just young, sheltered, or this practice actually WAS abnormal, but the sheer level of excitement and the kinds of questions she was asking meant that it was probably the latter. I definitely didn't want this to get out to anyone else until I understood the potential repercussions better.

The girl nodded furiously, her eyes beaming, her canine-like ears perked and at the ready.

I nodded back, deciding that was as good a promise as any. I readied the other, partially eaten apple.

"Create advanced meal!"

"Prerequisites not met. Unable to create meal."

The small window popped up at the same time as Penta made her statement. One category - heat - indicated that it had been met. Material - which now needed at least two - and a new category, spice, were what was lacking.

"That's a lot of potential combinations..." I muttered, scratching my chin. Was there even something you could create from, say, an apple, a fish, and some salt?

"Nothing happened?" Nia commented, looking at me quizzically.

"Sorry, I was testing something. Create basic meal!"

The apple disappeared into a puff of smoke once again. Nia let out an excited 'ooooo!' instead of the despair she had experienced the first time.

As the smoke dissipated, the apple was replaced with...an apple?

"...Did it work?" the demi-human questioned, looking the apple up and down. I was wondering the same thing.

I could feel warmth coming off the apple in my hand and, bizarrely, the bite and deformation it initially had were both gone. It was a perfectly formed, warm apple.

"A baked apple, maybe?" I thought allowed, squeezing the fruit to test the theory. Indeed, it was quite soft, now. "Give it a try," I said to Nia, putting the apple into her swiftly outstretched hand. When she took a bite, her eyes once again opened wide.

"It's got sweet stuff inside!"

"A baked apple, then," I confirmed, smiling. Good to know it didn't fail outright. But why did one turn into something so simple, and the other something so complex? Did the bite have something to do with it? "Insufficient material, maybe?" I wondered aloud to no one in particular - clearly not to Nia, as she ferociously devoured the apple without a care in the world.

Either way, I understood now the bare minimum to produce something, even if I didn't understand enough to control what was produced. That meant that I could keep myself fed, at least.

"Now, there's only the matter of where to sleep tonight," I thought aloud, looking down the road back toward the capital, and then down the road that led further past the forest. Where did I feel like sleeping tonight - the streets of the capital, the streets of Troph, the streets of some place I didn't know, or just here, on the side of the road?

"Hey, mister!" Nia pulled me from my thoughts with her words, but more so with her actions - her face, wide eyed and still beaming, was mere inches from mine.

"Woah, easy there! Also, I just told you my name, remember?" I replied, putting up a hand to indicate a desire for personal space.

"Will you come back to Athelens with me? The others would love to meet you!"

"Others? I uh...I don't see why not." I was under the impression Nia was an orphan, but then again, there was no indication that by 'others' she meant family.

"Great! C'mon, it's almost dark!" she replied, grabbing my hand before I could answer and dragging me back down the road, toward the capital.

"Is it, uh, dangerous outside at night?" I asked as we made our way back. I noticed that although the capital gates still had a constant influx of comers and goers, it seemed more wagons and less travelers, now.

"Mhm! It's easier to get lost, and that's when the scary things come out!" the demi-human girl responded. "Are you new? Your parents should have taught you that!"

"Objective fulfilled: Receive a lecture."

"Yeah...you could say that I'm new around here."

"Oh! Where're you from?"

I felt like this interrogation should've happened much earlier, like at the capital registration.

"A faraway land," I replied cryptically. Thankfully, as anticipated, Nia was suitably mystified by this answer.

"Wow! Don't you get homesick?"

"I haven't been gone long enough to know if I do." Which was true, given that this was still...my first day.

"I don't really get it, but you're welcome to stay with us!" she decreed, having received no input from the other members of her supposed group.

Nia continued to drag me along back down the road, back into the capital gates - which we passed through without issue, thanks to our cards - and then back into the city streets themselves.

It only occurred to me, after we had passed through and were already descending into the depths of the city, that the official at the gates didn't have anything to say about my class, new or old. Hopefully they got the message that I wasn't a shady character anymore, and had reinvented myself as a mere chef, having learned the error of my ways.

"CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY: START A BISTRO IN THE CAPITAL."

"Shut up."

"CHALLENGE FAILED."

"Objective fulfilled: Deny an opportunity to advance your career."

I grimaced, but, mercifully, the gesture was lost on Nia, who still had her back to me, chatting happily about everything and nothing, as the sun drew lower and lower in the sky.