I caught Micca as she was finishing for the night, heading to the door as she was. I asked if I'd be able to walk with her as she went home that night, and with apparent confusion on her face, she sceptically agreed.

  We had not made it ten steps out the door when she asked, "So, what is it? You've never asked to walk with me before"

  A little embarrassed, and just generally not wanting to be imposing since I really didn't know what she did after work I quickly said "Sorry, I just wanted to ask this outside of the Inn as I didn't want to catch the fury of Larry at the moment"

  Micca stopped in her tracks. "Let's go back!" she said excitedly. "What?" I asked, very confused.

  "Anything to take the attention away from me!" she said, laughing loudly before she continued her walk home. "Well, what did you need to ask me that would incur the wrath of Larry, then?" she asked, looking at me inquisitively.

  "Is this to do with your new level ups? Are you going to steal his business?"

  I had to interrupt or I would never get a chance to ask, "No, nothing like that. I was wondering if I'd be able to use your kitchen from time to time," realising this would be strange, "I'll clean up around the area for you and keep it tidy in return!" blurting the words out quickly and without a breath.

  Micca thought for a short time. "Why do you need my kitchen? Why not the kitchen at the Inn?"

  "Uh, well you see I wanted to make extra food and donate it to the Medical Pavilion since I gain bonus experience for healing people, and Geo mentioned if I started making it in the inn then Larry would think I'm stealing his food and giving it away or something."

  "Ah yes that makes sense, I do like my alone time though," she said with an almost forced serious expression on her face "Ah just kidding of course you can use it, if anything it'll help me out because I never have time to clean the damn place working at the inn every day, Hell you could even take one of the rooms if you wanted to my mother left me the place and I only use the one room," She added surprising me with that.

  "Oh, Uh I don't know what to say sorry" I said thinking I was overstepping despite the invitation

  "Well, I'm sure Larry is charging you for that broom cupboard you're sleeping in, I'll rent you one of my rooms if you clean up around the place," she said with a giant grin and before I knew it we were standing outside her place.

  "Oh, also you're going to need to stay here tonight anyway unless you want to sleep outside the Inn, Larry always locks the door after I leave, you'll be locked out" with that she went inside laughing to herself before giving me a brief tour, there were four bedrooms in the house along with the kitchen, dining room, drawing room and living room with a small library area but it didn't contain any books.

  "This room here was my Mothers so leave that one alone, and you know where mine is, so either of the other two you're more than welcome to sleep in, I'll grab you a spare blanket for tonight, you’ll want to clean up the room a bit before you sleep, I've not been in there in nearly three years so it'll be very dusty."

  With that, she left me there staring blankly. I just wanted to borrow the kitchen, and now somehow I have another place to live? What was happening was this Fate guiding the path because it certainly wasn't my luck stat, it’s nearly my lowest.

  Mind you, from what I heard that stat only affected the generated gear by Dungeons in the more dangerous environments, basically 'Adventurer stuff to worry about if your ever in the position to need it' or at least that's what Instructor Michael said about it.

  That chain of thought made me feel a little upset. I've been so busy with everything that I had not really given it the thought I should have, but how's George doing? Was he still even friendly towards me? After Lukas’s actions the other week, I just don't know how to react. Do I find and confront him? What would I even say?

  "The room won't get cleaner by looking at the door you know," Micca’s voice came from behind me.

  I mumbled a laugh. I must have gotten lost in my thoughts. “Sorry about that, just thinking,” I said.

  "You look like you got something bothering you. What's up? Is it to do with your skill? I thought you were onto something with all that," she said.

  "No, not the skill, the run in with my friend at the inn the other week, or I don't know," I said, shaking my head.

  "You mean the boy, look take a breath, start from the top," she said, still holding the blanket but a look of patience on her face.

  "Well, you see at the Academy we spent 10 years there, and I only really had 2 close friends, Lukas, the boy from the inn and George, George went to the military so I don't know where he is now," I saw Micca’s face wince a little as I said that but paid little mind as I carried on "and I had not seen Lukas since I left until that day at the inn and he pretended not to know me, it hurt you know," I said "I've not said it before, I've been so busy with everything I feel I didn't get the time to really just stop and think about it." I finished.

  "Hmm, well I've not had a lot of friends myself," she said "but is it possible that he just couldn't say anything with that group, I served them and honestly they looked pretty grumpy and miserable, maybe it was a bad day?" she pondered "I know paths drift a part but it’s cold to just cut off a friend, so maybe there is more to it?" she said with a smile

  "You'll get to the bottom of it, I'm sure!" she stepped forward, opening the door to the room. "Lets get this room sorted enough for you to sleep tonight."

  It took around an hour for them to sweep up enough dust that it looked somewhat liveable after that Micca left for her room exhausted and honestly, after the day today I was right there as well, I needed sleep.

  To make it all worse! I needed to wake up early tomorrow without a friendly knock at the door and try to catch Geo at the markets, luckily they were close.

  I did not, however, fall to sleep easy. My mind kept racing between the class, and Lukas, and why did Micca wince when I mentioned George went to the military? That was an honourable, well-paying job, right?

  I got up at dawn feeling like I had no sleep at all, my thoughts keep me awake all night, or what felt like it, my stamina did not fully recover sitting at 110/150 it's going to be a rough day I thought stepping outside into the cool morning air.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I waited by the path I knew Geo came from. He was later than usual, but sure enough, he came walking down. His frown shifted to a smile when he saw me.

  "Who's the girl?" he asked jokingly

  I almost choked a little. "No one. Sorry I slept over at Micca’s last night. I wanted to ask about the kitchen and she said I would have been locked out," I said defensively.

  "Uh huh sure, sure," he said, laughing. "Did she agree to you using the kitchen?"

  "Yeah she did. She also said I could stay in one of the rooms at her place if I clean up a little." I said, now walking alongside him following our normal routine.

  "That's not a bad idea," he mused "It would actually make this all a lot easier as you'd be able to finish up work head home to cook, get most things ready the night before and store it, then you'd only need to drop it off the next day at the pavilion if they take your donations," he said, stopping to inspect a vegetable store before I knew it a bag full of veg was shoved into my hands that he just purchased "Here store this." he said catching me off guard

  "Wait what?" I asked, confused

  "You can't expect an old man like me to lug around all this heavy veg when you have a perfectly good skill that lets you carry it for no weight, right?" he said laughing again "Consider it training! you get experience for it right."

  I did as instructed, grumbling out at "Yeah, but only 1 per stack"

  Would you like to store

  10x Common Onion

  10x Common Carrot

  30x Common Tuber

  4x Common Cassava

  2x Common Garlic

  12x Common Cabbage

  For 30 mana? Yes/No

  Selecting Yes, the sack of vegetables emptied, “What’s a cassava?”

  "It’s how we get the root starch to thicken up the stews," Geo said offhandedly while inspecting some boar meat, "You know Trev, If you're going to be serious about this food donation you should buy stuff yourself not just staring at me." he added.

  He was absolutely right; I was so distracted and still tired; I had completely forgotten the goal. Deciding boar was a good enough starting point and remembering the stew I made at the temple, I bought a Boar Leg and Hock, which Geo helped me haggle from 7 coppers to 5.

  Also picked up some basic veg for myself and some salt and pepper, all of which happily went into my storage without an issue. "I wonder if it has a limit on items?" I asked Geo.

  "It's more likely based on volume than items but there's no real way to tell if its full until its full going by what you have shown me, in bags of holdings an adventurer is able to visualise the space, but you said it just simply listed out your inventory." It's very odd he finished.

  When I thought we were all wrapped up and going to head back to the Inn, Geo said he just had to make a quick trip past the blacksmith to pick something up.

  So, doing a slight detour to the smiths who were on the outer edge of the town, he stopped by a fairly run down looking shop and forge stepping inside briefly.

  Short while later he came out holding a large heavy looking iron pot with a ladle and holding it out to me. I took it thinking he just wanted me to store it for the trip home.

  "That's yours, a gift from your old friend Geo to start you on your journey in the world, Look I even had the smith engrave it right here," he pointed out just under the top lip of the pot a fine script in the metal

  To a wonderful Journey - From Geo

  I was stunned. I just stood there looking at it. "Don't know what to say.." "Thank you so much!" I finally said, lost for words.

  "Don't tell Larry I got that for you, he'll think I'm encouraging you to leave the Inn," he laughed, heading towards the Inn now.

  I still stood there looking at the pot. This was mine, my first piece of kitchen equipment that was mine.

  I would treasure it, I thought.

  A short while later in the kitchen I pulled out all the Items for Geo that he asked me to store looking at my Mana a little concerned as the storing and withdrawing had been more expensive than expected after adding all my own items, I would need to remember to be more mindful.

  Name: Trevor

  Class: Arcane Chef

  Rarity: Rare

  Level: 5

  Experience: 22/1543

  "Feed the body, Grow the soul"

  Hit points: 150/150

  Mana: 65/170

  Stamina: 90/150

  A little concerned, I also noticed I had my 2 unspent stat points, so I placed 1 in Charisma and 1 in Intelligence, bringing my mana total up to 75/180

  "Right you're making the boar stew today I will not help so you can get experience, you'll be able to handle that right it'll be a practice run I can supervise before you make your own later tonight," he said winking at me with a smile "I don't want your first batch to be a disaster they won’t touch your future ones!"

  While I got to work on the stew, Geo busied himself by taking the Cassavas and started beat them to a pulp so he could extract the root starch from them he was explaining to me although it seemed simple there was a lengthy process to it as you needed to mash it, rinse it, reduce the water, and repeat several times without ever burning it or cooking too high.

  The stew was fairly easy there was nothing special about it, basic veg of tubers, onions, carrots, and boar I removed from the bone and diced into small chunks, I put the bone in as well just to get as much flavour as possible; I didn't use the stock today instead, opting for water so it wouldn't be as flavourful as it should be; I was going to suggest I use my skill Infuse Flavour on it, but remembered my mana level was already low, so if I did, I wouldn't even be able to pull out my own food tonight to make the stew.

  The night went by in a blur of action. In total I got 37 experience notifications and 3 healing notifications bringing me to

  Experience: 1097/1543

  It didn't feel quieter than the other evening where I had over 60 notifications, but I wondered if the 'Enjoyable' part of it played a role.

  Preparing to leave for the night I got the nerve to do something I was dreading, I caught Larry before he vanished out back to his Office "Uh sir, Sorry I just wanted to let you know I have found myself a room and won't need the one in back any longer, Thank you so much for allowing me to stay" I said, nervously hoping he wouldn't be mad but bowing in respect all the same.

  Larry just grunted, not saying anything, but he also didn't look mad? I really didn't know how to take it, but I assumed he didn't mind. I ducked through to the back, grabbing what little belongings I had when a voice came from behind me.

  "Take the bedding too Trevor, it was spare stuff we didn't use anymore anyway and I'm guessing you don't have any," Larry said, watching him clean it up

  "Thankyou sir, you're right I did not have any yet" I said still a little worried was this where he would be mad?

  "It's good to see you've taken steps yourself. I was wondering how long it would take. A storage closet is no place to live for a long time." With that, he went back to his office and entered, saying no more.

  Wow, that was unexpected, I thought to myself while I rolled up the bedding and tucking it under my arm before running out the front to meet Micca, who was waiting for me.

  A short while later, I was entering Micca’s place where she left me almost immediately saying she just wanted one bowl of the stew to 'taste test' or so she said before I gave it to the Pavilion.

  I got to work first, double checking my mana and stamina as both were getting a little low

  Mana: 60/170

  Stamina: 40/150

  I'll be cutting it close, I thought, pulling out all my items and leaving me with only 15 mana.

  Repeating what I had done during the day, I started the fire and prepared the vegetables. I have noticed I've absolutely gotten faster at this. Maybe the skill is really helping.

  Then I butchered the Leg cutting it into cubes and threw the Hock in whole just to add a bit of extra flavour, filling it with water I discovered that Micca really did in fact only have 1 bucket, making a mental note to buy some more I finished preparing the stew with the fire now burning down to coals, I placed the stew next to the coals to slow cook it overnight before heading to sleep myself.

  Checking my stats before I closed my eyes, I saw I was down to 10 mana and 10 stamina. Talk about cutting it close.

  Tomorrow was the day! I would meet Geo at the Markets then separate for a while, offer the food to the Pavilion try to explain that it could heal people, then get back to the Inn before Larry noticed.

  Easy, I thought.

  "Wait, did I just jinx myself?" I said aloud, "Nah, never mind. It doesn't count unless you actually say it out loud, right?"

  I wonder if I'll see Gemma tomorrow?

  With that, I was asleep.