Fate Chapter 5: Cooking With Magecraft. (Patreon)

*Huff* *Huff*  *Gasp* *Cough* 

I was currently panting as I keeled over from exhaustion. My muscles were unbelievably sore from working out beyond failure, lactic acid flooded my muscles making me unable to move them. My lungs burnt from over exhaustion.

Running until your body started to fail you to the point where you collapsed wasn't a fun activity in any way shape or form but it was necessary. 

'Switch: on '

My circuits turned on as that familiar uncomfortable heat and dull ache returned. Focusing despite my aching body I circulated my od through my circuits and cast.

"{Restoration}"

A light green hue enveloped my body as my torn muscles were repaired using the nutrients in my body causing me to get hungrier but removing a decent portion of the pain in my muscles. But I wasn't done.

"{Detoxification}"

A more yellowish hue enveloped my body this time as my mana helped break down the lactic acid in my muscles, removing the fatigue they caused. Now other than the exhaustion and the blood in my mouth, I was completely fine.

And absolutely famished.

Detoxification was another simple spell of the healing category which did what its name suggested. Although I mainly used it to break down the lactic acid buildup in my muscles. 

That's right, it is a part of my: "Fuck you shitty circuits, if you all suck then I will just improve my od regeneration instead" plan. The name is up still subject to change.

Snapping out of my thoughts I flipped the switch off and dragged my tired body back to the mansion. Once I arrived Natalie greeted me and already prepared a bath for me. Not possessing the energy to question her almost magical prediction abilities I absentmindedly nodded and plopped myself into the bath.

It would be a fool's errand to describe how good a warm bath felt after one of my hell workouts. It had been precisely 6 days since I learned restoration. During 4 of the 6 days I spent practicing restoration and learning detoxification. 

After raising healing magecraft E+ which meant actually usable I started my hell workout. Which were my plan and goal in the first place. 

Now with restoration and detoxification, I could instantly get the benefits of my workout as long as I ate enough to supply the restoration of my muscles. And at the same time, doing the exercises restored my od.

I was already seeing the benefits. All of my stats have gone up by 0.2 already. My frame was more defined and powerful, decently stronger than most people my age. But I wouldn't be satisfied until I reached the peak of the potential of my current teen body.

My current stats were:

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Statistics:

Strength: 0.91[F-]

Endurance: 0.84[F-]

Agility: 1.22[F]

Luck: 1.81[E]

Circuit Quantity: [E-]

Circuit Quality: [E+](F--)

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Once I reached my peak potential I could try actually practicing other magecraft more efficiently. Plus this method allows me to raise the grade of my healing magecraft as I trained my body which was a plus.

I got off the bath and dried my body before wearing the clothes one of the maids had set up for me before heading to the dinner hall to satisfy my gluttonous appetite. As I sat down to have my meal Natalie stood by my side, after seeing that I had no complaints or requests she excused herself and let me dine by myself.

As I ate her scrumptious meal a thought came to my mind. 

'Wait, considering I have a "system" and cooking or whatever it is named exists as a skill, then couldn't I theoretically get it? And considering how skills and mystery work in this place then the food I make could get special properties.'

'First, I should aim to be better than Natalie since she is basically my benchmark for food right now. It shouldn't be too hard considering I was actually pretty good at cooking in my original world, enough to have a part-time job as a chef at a good restaurant at least.'

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[   New Quest!: Shokugeki no Maid   ]

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Seeing the notification he immediately checked his quests tab and the quest appeared.

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|Quests|

[  Shokugeki no Maid  ] - [ Difficulty: E- ]

Description: Emboldened by the flames of ambition you have decided to challenge the cooking skills of your maid. Time to back up your words.

Requirements: Acquire the skill [  Gourmand: E+  ]

Reward: Unknown's guide to cooking with magecraft, 3.0 free stat points

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'Ferb, I know what we are going to do today.'

And so cooking practice got added to his current routine. It was fairly easy to acquire Gourmand F+ considering his prior skill in the subject. It didn't take awfully long to raise its level either. 

Although gourmand was a far different and more useful skill than he expected. It wasn't simply cooking. It was multiple aspects of cooking and food in general rolled into one.

With it, he could discern to an extent which foods were made with which ingredients, how to cook certain ingredients, and what he could make with them. And how to improve them. Though the effect wasn't that obvious at just F+.

It was slightly annoying when the maids gave him weird looks for wanting to use the kitchen when he had literally several servants to do it for him. Regardless they couldn't voice their thoughts as it wasn't their job to do so.

Though it did feel rather weird to improve this quickly and have your senses about a subject expand so rapidly he was quickly able to adjust to it. And grinding the gourmand skill, while kind of time-consuming was also fun at the same time.

...

And so time passed.

As I was cooking myself some rare A4 wagyu steak I noticed a notification pop up in my rearview as my senses seemingly expanded.

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[  Your skill  | Gourmand - E |  has leveled up ]

| Gourmand - E | -> | Gourmand - E+ |

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Surprised and rather joyous I immediately checked the Quests tab.

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|Quests|

[  Shokugeki no Maid  ] - [ Difficulty: E- ](Complete)

Description: Emboldened by the flames of ambition you have decided to challenge the cooking skills of your maid. Time to back up your words.

Requirements: Acquire the skill [  Gourmand: E+  ]

Reward: Unknown's guide to cooking with magecraft, 3.0 free stat points

[Claim reward?]

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Immediately I selected yes as a book literally popped into existence right in front of my head. Literally, an audible pop sound and everything. As I held up the book in front of my face as I inspected it, a screen once again popped up in front of me.

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|Unknown's guide to cooking with magecraft|

A book written by a mage with no renown and a passion for cooking rather than everything else in around 300 A.C. It includes a guide to a unique magecraft created by him used to create enhanced foods with enhanced effects through a combination of usual cooking methods and magecraft

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This... this was GOLD. No, this damn book was worth far more than its value in gold. This thing literally contained a largely forgotten branch of magecraft inside it. And considering how little people know of it and how old it is it should be damn effective.

Immediately the gears in my head started turning. Once I had mastered this magecraft to an acceptable degree I could make a counterfeit version of it that was far less effective but useful nonetheless and then trade it to the clocktower for reputation and resources. 

In addition, once I learned this I would finish the first mission but that wasn't important as I didn't intend to enter any dungeon before I could reliably protect myself. As for the stat points, I gained I put two of them into endurance. Bringing it above others as endurance meant better recovery and training results. Using the points was rather unpleasant though due to the rapid growth.

As for the last point. That was for a rainy day. You never know when that extra point will make a difference. 

Anyways with my current endurance which was now far above the normal man, I could slightly lax on the physical training montage and dip my toes further into magecraft. Since my od regeneration was several notches above my previous one, allowing me to actually practice magecraft granted I take a multitude of frequent breaks to not die of blood loss.

As these thoughts were having their way with my mind I arrived at the bathroom and entered without knocking or anything. 

Why should I? It is my(for now) GODDAMN house and I(think I) pay these people to live in it. 

Well, I learned why now.

---Warning: Bit of a 18+ scene if you wanna skip that kinda stuff---

(Please do not judge me too harshly, this is my first time trying to write nsfw stuff,               even though STS is marked as 18+... )

In front of me stood Natalie looking at me with wide eyes as she stood there, basically naked with her panties halfway down her legs her breasts were completely out and might I say very pleasant. 

Her large boobs sagged down due to her leaning over to remove her panties. Her large cascade of black hair slightly obscured her breasts but I could still make out the little cherry-like nubs at the end of her boobs.

Unfortunately, I couldn't really make out what was between her legs from this angle but still, I commend her underwear of choice. There was a deafening silence between us as we stared at each other before I broke the stalemate.

With a thumbs up.

"Sorry for barging in and thank you very much for the meal." And without skipping a beat I turned around and left the bathroom before she could even utter a single word.

---Scene end, thou need not avert thine eyes any longer---

The moment I got out of that bathroom I speed-walked toward the other bathroom. Definitely not pummeling myself in my mind for giving a fucking thumbs up of all things in response to that. And much to my chagrin, my system seems to have found more humor in my situation than me.

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You have completed the achievement: |Lucky Sukebe|

Reward: Title: Lucky Pervert

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'Motherfucker This title better be fucking worth it..'

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|Lucky Pervert|

Effect: -1 luck +10 situational luck

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*Slam!* 

It wasn't.