PATRIARCH FOWL
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Casual Heroing, Chapter 188
🕑 Added 2023-09-22 20:29:18 +0000 UTCNext chapter comes out Saturday, September 23rd!
S-S-SUGAR?! 🍬🍬🍬
5/7 chapters this week!
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Chapter 188 – Party, Part 2
“Say, [Baker],” Lisith speaks to Clodia in her weird manner, “would you like to warm my bed tonight? I would like to pit my strengths against yours in an interesting setting.”
Clodia looked at Lisith with a raised eyebrow, caught off guard.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” Lisith insisted, walking past me to get in front of Clodia. “You look strong. I am strong. Do you see where this is going?”
Old man, is this how the Vanedeni initiate relationships?
Don’t be silly, young Luciani.
Alright…
The nobles are just particularly upfront about their preferences. Commoners wouldn’t speak so brazenly.
“I have a girlfriend,” Clodia says, stuttering out the words.
“She can come too,” Lisith smiles widely. “You can even bring a boyfriend if you want.”
“Ahem,” I say, gently taking Lisith’s arm and pulling her away. “Clodia, never mind. Please go before Amelia takes your head off your shoulders. I need a word with the Adventurer anyway.”
Lisith looks at my hand on her arm and then at my face. Clodia, in the meantime, walks away, shell-shocked.
“Are you looking for someone to warm your bed?”
I swear to God, so many great setups…
“No. I am looking for someone to explain why the Vanedeni are so…” I’m about to say crazy when I remember Magister Mulligan telling me about the whole ‘civil war out of barfights’ deal. “Heh, so… confrontational. I’ve earned the sword with blood, you know? We did the thing where you put your blood, your teacher, and then kill someone? I took out the Guardian in the Dungeon with this sword. Now, I could really use some advice from someone with a deep understanding of your costumes and someone who’s not too old to understand what I’m going through.”
Lisith nods.
“Not here, though,” she says.
“Follow me, then,” I say, putting down the spatula. “Tiberius! Get on the burgers! I need to have a private chat with this lady!”
…
We enter the storage room of Happy Bakery. There are many freezing runes here—so many it feels like an ice cell. However, neither of us looks affected by it, probably because of our levels.
“Who’s your master?” Lisith asks as soon as I close the door behind me.
“Can’t say,” I smile, “but I can tell you he’s a bit old and hasn’t managed to explain everything to me. He’s just told me that now, I’m a Vanedeni. Since then, I’ve been angry.”
“Anger is normal,” Lisith looks at me as if I haven’t just explained the newest problem plaguing my existence.
“For you,” I scowl, “I’ve barely ever been angry in my entire life. This afternoon, I almost punched that friend of yours when he called me a worm.”
“You should have stabbed him,” Lisith deadpans. “Insults so great are worth starting a war over. No Vanedeni should take them without trying to kill those who deliver them.”
I look emptily at the woman before rubbing my face, “are you telling me that the solution is just to give in to anger every single time?”
“No. Did you give in to anger? You challenged him to a fight for your honor. That’s good.”
“Good?! What if he was ten times stronger than me?! Aren’t you all Gold-Rank Adventurers?!”
“That’s what they call themselves,” Lisith nods. “I barely make Silver by our people's standards, though.”
Did she just say our people?
“Ok, you are missing the point of my question. If someone much stronger than you insults you, you just go and die because they did? Isn’t that stupid?”
Lisith tenses up.
“You underestimate our ways. Being a Vanedeni doesn’t mean being stupid. Being a Vanedeni means never surrendering your pride. You can retreat – that’s always an option. However, never run.”
“What’s the difference there, semantics?” I ask, sighing.
“You are afraid of being one of us,” the woman speaks, putting a lock of white hair behind her ear. “You are, aren’t you?”
“So? I don’t want to become a lunatic, goddammit!”
“What’s your name again?” She asks, sizing me up.
“What?! You—urgh! My name’s Luciani, Joey Luciani,” I extend a hand.
“Lisith of Legionbane,” she says, clutching my hand and then suddenly pulling me towards her.
Well, she tries.
[Unbreakable Friction]*gold
My feet don’t move, and while she’s very strong, she hasn’t undergone the crazy training Magister Mulligan has put me through with the Dolorosa Vis, you know, the crazy runes that amplify your pain in exchange for exponential growth. Still, I feel my muscles and tendons strain under her pull.
“You are strong,” I say, releasing the shake and seeing a big smile appear on her face. “Legionbane? That’s some last name.”
“Are you making fun of my ancestor?” As fast as the smile has appeared, it vanishes, and she puts her hand on the hilt of her sword.
“Huh? No, I’m genuinely surprised. I’ve never heard such a name.”
“You don’t know the Heroic Names?” Lisith widens her eyes. “Who’s the bastard who taught you?!”
Damn, old man, look at—
ZAP!
…
“I’m Marcellus Claudius,” the boss of the Gold-Rank adventuring group says, extending a hand.
He isn’t going to apologize for calling me a worm, is he?
“Joey Luciani,” I say with plainly.
Lisith said that I needed to be introduced to her group, the Eldertree Guardians.
“Where did you get the name for your group? It’s a bit weird, no?” I ask the boss, hoping to make some small talk to twist this encounter into something a bit less awkward.
“My family has dealt in Elderwood since coming to this continent,” he says with spite before turning his back to me.
Heh, I deserved that, I guess.
“I’m Livia,” says a rather short but slim woman with two daggers at each side.
“Nice to meet you,” I shake her hand.
“You better not anger Lisith; she can be a bit rough with people,” she says with a big smile.
“Alright,” I nod, moving on to the next person.
“Decimus,” an Elf as tall as me shakes my hand and studies me in silence before stepping back.
“Hiii! I’m Sabina!” Another woman almost jumps at me and gives me a big hug, catching me off guard.
“Ok!” I say, pushing the woman off me and taking a step back. “Well, guys, enjoy the party. I need to check on some stuff.”
I walk away from the group. I’ll probably be exploring the Dungeon again with them if I understand correctly. They and a few Named Adventurers, including [Captain] Drusillus, apparently.
“Joey!” Flaminia snatches my arm as I walk by her table, almost ripping off my shirt. “Hey! I want to give the demonstration of my new main skill now!”
“Oh, right!” I say, nodding as I gently remove her hand from my arm. “Sure, how are we going to do this?”
“Wait, let me call everyone to gather together.”
Flaminia turns to the sparse crowd in the kitchen and shouts at full lungs.
“HELLO! I’LL BE GIVING A DEMONSTRATION OF MY NEW CLASS FOR EVERYONE! PLEASE, FOLLOW ME AND GATHER AROUND!”
Flaminia strides confidently to the large wooden table in the center of the kitchen, her heels clicking against the stone floor with each step. The chatter gradually diminishes as all eyes turn to her.
There’s a crystal-clear bowl of glass at the center of the table, right in front of her.
She stands there for a moment, allowing the silence to stretch, her fingers playing over the surface of the table. Then, slowly and deliberately, she raises her hands, palms facing the ceiling. Instinctively, everyone leans in a fraction, not wanting to miss a thing.
With a deep, resonant voice that bellies the lightness of her demeanor from just moments ago, she intones a single word, “[Starsugar]*gold."
I can feel the power of the skill and the movement of Mana all the way from here.
What the—
[Advanced Mana Sense]
I turn on the skill, and as the world erupts into its usual multitude of colors, I see a gigantic hurricane of Mana coalescing between Flaminia’s hands, being distilled into the purest Mana form I’ve ever seen.
I turn off the skill to see what exactly this looks like in reality.
The very air in the kitchen begins to shimmer and sparkle as if touched by some unseen magic. Thousands of tiny luminescent particles coalesce above her outstretched hands, slowly coming together to form brilliant, shimmering crystals.
The room is silent, save for the occasional gasps of wonder. The crystals, which look like gleaming sugar grains now, cascade gently into Flaminia’s waiting hands. She lifts them up for everyone to see the [Starsugar], glowing with an inner light, casting ethereal reflections around the kitchen.
“This,” she says softly, her voice filled with reverence, “is [Starsugar]*gold..”
Then, she goes up to a cupboard and takes out a shimmeringmille-feuille.
“Oh, shit,” I swear under my nose.
No, she didn’t…
I can feel the raw, palpitating Mana from here.
“Is anyone tired here?” She smiles, putting the cake on the table and cutting it into different pieces. “This is one of the very first samples I made with my new skill, and… well, I can’t give away all my secrets.”
“I’m quite tired,” Marcellus says and walks up to Flaminia, who cuts a piece of the cake and offers it to him.
He eats it, and after a few chews, he stops to take a long look at the cake.
“Did you put a Stamina Potion in this?” He asks, confused.
“No. This is Magical Food. Food with infused magic capable of exerting the same effects of an Enchantment without any of the drawbacks of potions. This is superior nourishment.”
Marcellus looks at a ring on his finger and stiffens. The boss of the Eldertree Guardians is speechless.
“You are not lying.”
“I am not,” Flaminia beams.
I walk up to her and take a slice of the cake.
“Do you mind?” I say, but before she can say anything, I’m already biting into it.
The flavor is exquisite – delicate layers of pastry, cream, and a hint of something otherworldly that dances on my tongue. I can feel a rush of energy coursing through my body, rejuvenating my tired muscles and replenishing my mana reserves.
"This... is incredible," I mutter, genuinely impressed.
The effect is much stronger than the one from the Ethereal Cattle steak. And the piece of pastry is…
Wow, she has been practicing.
I swallow the rest of the cake as Flaminia awaits with an expectant look on her face.
“It’s… great, Flam. It’s really fucking great,” I say, feeling a pit open in my stomach.
…
I’m waiting in a corner of the room when I hear a vaguely familiar voice calling me.
“Joey?”
I turn to find a flaming redhead carrying a covered… cake?
“Lucinda?”
