Chronicle of the Eternal: Volume 1 (20 page)

Regal realizes he can also
make armor and melee weapons just by training the forging skill high enough,
but their quality would be so poor that Tanner advises Regal not to waste his
time until he masters ‘Forging: Beginner’ so that the skill can add a
significant bonus to his created items and then the items will be more useful.
Tanner also says that if Regal wants to create equipment for himself or his
squad, he has to use his own materials to craft them, his shop isn’t a charity.

***************************************************

Three months after Regal
was appointed the captain of his squad, he successfully masters ‘Forging:
Beginner’. Regal continues to further his study in the library and learns
several ways to make different revolvers and rifles, but many require higher
tier materials than he can use.

He gains multiple passive
Divine Arts increasing his health, stamina, and various stats along with the
Tier 8 ‘Precision Forging’, a Divine Art that improves the crafting of small
items, especially gun components. The over-tier Divine Art ‘Repair Aura’ is
incredibly useful, even if its use is restricted. ‘Repair Aura’ has no cost to
use but can only be used once a day, instantly repairing fifty percent of a
single equipped item’s durability without the need of tools.

Tanner lets out a boastful
laughter and claps him on the back when he informs the smith of mastering the
skill, “You did it, my boy. You have mastered the basic skill so fast, and
taken in all my teachings! I have nothing left to teach you.”

“Can I still work here?”
Regal asks while worrying about the loss of income if Tanner rejects him.

“Course not, your
apprenticeship is over now that you have mastered the basic skills.”

Regal feels his heart drop
in his chest and silently wishes that he hadn’t told Tanner that he mastered
‘Forging: Beginner’.

At this moment, Aqua, who
had been eavesdropping, enters the back of the workshop and looks at her father
sternly, “Why would you say that, father? He is such a good worker and you want
to kick him out?”

“Aqua, don’t be like that.
It is for his own good.” Tanner pauses briefly as Aqua harrumphs and glares at
him. “I’m going to introduce him to your old cooking teacher, so it’s fine,
isn’t it?”

Aqua looks at her doting
father before glumly murmuring, “But I want him to stay here.”

Regal, completely cut out
of the conversation, looks at the two and wonders what Tanner means by a
cooking teacher.

“I can’t teach him anymore
and he can’t help me with his current skill level. He can still come back and
use the forge whenever he wants.”

Aqua tries to refute her
father more, but her efforts are pointless. She eventually turns to Regal and
before leaving the workshop, stubbornly states, “You better come see me often!
I will never forgive you if you don’t.”

Regal and Aqua’s have
become much closer while he has been working at the shop. She brought him lunch
every weekend, and after eating together they would just chat about whatever
came up until her father would enter and make her let Regal get back to work.

Aqua has become infatuated
with Regal to the point that she has been dropping obvious hints about it.
Regal is highly intelligent and noticed long before she started leaning toward
him, but he doesn’t see her the same way he does Veronica, so is unable to
return her feelings.

Regal’s feelings for
Veronica have become more and more clear to him and he gets overly nervous when
speaking to her. He has tried to ask her on a date three times in the past
months, but has failed to ask her every time.

Tanner interrupts Regal’s
thoughts as Aqua exits the forge. “Boy, I have something for you. A gift to
commend your mastering basic forging so quickly.” Tanner opens his inventory
and removes a few items, placing them on the workbench.

Regal stares at the items
wide-eyed. There are three glossy skill books seemingly out of place with the
dirty table. Hesitating at first, Regal picks up the skill books and inspects
them.

Regal is only level 4, but
isn’t far from leveling up. His squad has been spending most of their time on
the second level of Theore Substructure each time they descend, so their
experience is steadily rising.

“Hurry up, put them away
and follow me.” Tanner begins to grow impatient as Regal blankly stares at the
skill books.

In a fluster, Regal puts
the skill books into his inventory and tails Tanner out of the shop. Market
Street is bustling with activity, but Tanner’s large body clears a path that
Regal can easily follow. Tanner walks down the street for fifteen minutes
before turning off into a side street where a few smaller shops are located.

They enter a small
restaurant that has an advertisement for breakfast, lunch and dinner out front.
It is called the Sunny Hill Restaurant, a place that appears to be full of
life, but not full of customers.

A squad of four hunters
sits at one of the tables, while three more stragglers sit at the polished
mahogany bench in the shop window where the natural light is the brightest. It
is still morning so the faint smell of eggs, grilled bread, and bacon linger in
the air along with a rosemary fragrance.

An elegant waiter, a tawny
man with straggly brown hair tied behind his head and holding a tray of
drinking glasses, gives a slight bow toward Tanner from beyond the shop’s
counter at the rear of the store. Tanner frowns at this action, but doesn’t
comment on it, instead silently leads Regal to the back of the store and
through a door into a considerably large kitchen for the shops size, where a
handful of chefs are working.

The man from behind the
counter also arrives at the rear of the store, addressing Tanner respectably,
“Tanner, is this the kid you were talking about?”

“Indeed, the one who will
master ‘Cooking: Beginner’ faster than you did.”

Vivid blue eyes focus on
Regal as if to study him.

“I don’t think so. Fast,
perhaps, but I mastered that skill in ten months – an unprecedented record that
nobody has been able to come close to.”

“The world is vast,
Sampson.”

The two men talk quickly
about various affairs before Tanner eventually turns to Regal and says, “Regal,
this is Sampson Hendrick, he will be your cooking teacher. Come to his restaurant
every weekend just as you did my forge.”

Sampson inclines his head
in agreement. “Tanner has already spoken to me about you. I will provide all
materials for your training and pay the weekly wage as long as you are here
every Saturday and Sunday on time, and not a minute late. These terms are
incomparable to that which is offered a standard apprentice.”

“You will also help with
serving customers in the store, I’m going to be getting my money’s worth at
least. Do you agree to work here in exchange for me taking you on as an
apprentice?”

Tanner gives Regal a nudge
with his elbow that nearly knocks him over.

“Ah, yes! I would like to
work here, definitely! When would you like me to start?”

“Good, you start right
now, wear these and learn this.”

Sampson opens his
inventory and takes out a gaudy white chef’s uniform with polished brass
buttons and a skill book. Regal takes them and follows the chef’s orders. His
image is immediately transformed into that of a flashy young chef as he equips
the clothing. Next he inspects the skill book.

Learning the skill,
Regal’s crafting skill list grows by one. Just like ‘Forging: Beginner’, there
is only a single skill path, so the first Divine Art is automatically learned.
The Tier 1 Divine Art is called ‘Aroma Sense’, a Divine Art that passively
increases his sense of smell, allowing him to discern different ingredients by
smell.

As soon as Regal’s new
ability starts working, his nostrils flare and he becomes nauseous from the
large quantity of aromas circulating the kitchen. By the time the dizziness
fades, Tanner has already left and Sampson is looking on with approval at how
quickly he recovered.

“Not bad, but still not as
impressive as Tanner would have me believe. Come, I will teach you the basics
of cooking and all the tools required.”

Sampson begins to lead
Regal through the kitchen, taking his time to introduce each piece of equipment
and what it is for.

“There are four basic
pans, six pots, and various ovens used for cooking. These don’t have a single
purpose. When you are cooking, you need to choose the best sized one to
accomplish the job and save yourself unnecessary effort. Choosing the wrong one
also causes the flavor and any temporary stat boost from the food to diminish.
Nobody understands why this happens, but it does.”

“Over here there are
different tools, a mortar and pestle for grinding herbs, wooden tool to use
with the pots so you don’t damage them, mallet for tenderizing meat, rolling
pin for creating pastry.”

Sampson’s explanations
carry on for most of the morning. Many of the tools only have a single
specialized purpose, but Regal scrutinizes each and every one with careful
detail to ensure he remembers them.

“Now that I have shown you
everything, you will spend today practicing basic food preparation.” Sampson
retrieves several large sacks of potatoes and a small knife. “Spend today
peeling all these potatoes. I want them done by the time the store is ready to
close late tonight.”

Regal’s hopes of cooking
grand meals is instantly crushed. He looks at the potatoes, depressed, trying
to not imagine the terrifying number of the fist-sized brown vegetables in
front of him.

Emptying his mind of stray
thoughts, he equips the small knife and picks up the nearest potato. There is
no motivation in his body, so all his actions are fuelled by his persistence.

With a knife in one hand
and a potato in the other, Regal clumsily cuts into the potato and takes off a
small sliver of skin. He repeats this process for five minutes until all the
skin has been removed. Thanks to his heightened sense of smell, the scent of
fresh potato threatens to overwhelm him, but he doesn’t take a break and
forcefully represses the smell while picking up the next potato.

He repeats this process
until late at night, peeling one potato after another. He didn’t finish the
task by closing time, but was still sent home with a single silver coin for his
work anyway. After Regal left the restaurant, Sampson inspects how well he did
and upon seeing that there is only half a sack of unpeeled potatoes left, he is
pleasantly surprised. The head chef had never expected him to finish the task,
and was only testing him to see how well he did.