Chapter 326: Luckinwait

———Lerim———

<3: 02 pm>

“Can’t really thank you enough about this charity.” Evari said before scarfing down another lunch box.

“I’ve been doing this for a long while now, and you’re still hung up on that?” I know that she is simply expressing gratitude, but a simple ‘thank you’ would’ve been fine.

“A free meal is a free meal. Nothing more valuable than that aside from free money.” She shamelessly said while there were still crumbs on her face. “Seriously though, what even are the ingredients for these? Feels like I had a growth spurt after eating these all day every day.”

“You’re exaggerating.” I exasperatedly said. Just because these mana-enriched meats are probably comparable to what the hypothetical superfoods are like, that doesn’t mean it can do that much. I have looked into it, and these things mostly just boost your mana regeneration rate for a while. It’s not like a permanent stat boost. “As long as I don’t get bored making them then you’ll continue getting them.”

“When did you even take interest in this type of stuff anyway?” She asked.

“I’m just cooking stuff I have. It’s good to exert myself in different ways as a way to improve. Just fighting alone won’t be enough to accelerate your growth.” I explained. There is obviously the fact that having a large amount of food means that I don’t have to worry about it for a long while even if I somehow forget to tackle it.

“So it’s training? That’s kinda weird.” She remarked.

“You can substitute certain cooking steps with magic. Obviously with fire and ice magic, but you could use dark magic to squeeze ingredients or flattens them, or even highly proficient wind magic to act as a makeshift blender.” I began explaining it in further detail. “It’s a way to practice magic outside of combat scenarios, at least you also get food out of it. If we can’t come up with a habit that involves using magic in some way then our ability will eventually be entropied. We can use magic outside of combat with way less strain put on ourselves.”

“...The heck would I even use magic on?” She asked.

“Just come up with something. Use wind magic when it’s hot or light magic when it’s dark out.” I gave out some examples. Those are rather mundane uses of it, but sometimes the best way to master something is to do the bare basics. “By the way. Did you see that guy around? I didn’t see him at all. I know he got his office work done quickly today.”

“I think he said he’s heading straight back home. Can’t blame the guy. Who knows when was the last time he even got to laze around in his house.” She answered. We really need someone to share the burden. I’m sure he’s not short on cash anyway, surely someone can help with management as long as they get paid. Idea’s tech helped a lot to make sure it’s a cushy job if it’s at least split between two people. Idea could find someone, but that would’ve been very suspicious so that is more of a second option, a plan B.

“Even though he didn't show it much yesterday, he is really craving it.” I remarked while I simply sat here and other people coming in to take a lunch box. These guys need a lot of calories, so it’d be inappropriate to not share some food with them. I can make a whole lot more than I can eat in a single day, so sharing is caring. Pragmatically if they’re well-fed then their chance of getting into trouble down in the dungeon also dramatically decreased. Nothing spells death like an empty stomach on the battlefield. It means less chances of them getting in trouble in general, and them being desperate enough to call me to rescue them, which means less work for me.

“...How practical is using magic for cooking anyway?” She asked after placing down an empty lunch box.

“It’s based on your mastery over spells. Bad control over temperature-related spells obviously will ruin the dish, but stuff like chopping and cleaning is a lot less error-prone.” If a recipe needs you to be extremely specific with the temperature then you can cut off any hope of using magic for those. “I wouldn’t actually recommend doing it until you reach a certain level of mastery. You still need a lot of precision that combat spells don’t really require.”

“...How much skill are we talking about here?” She asked, clearly quite concerned with the possibility of it having an absurd skill floor.

“A lot more than your basics. It can’t be as easy as the technology we already have. The benefits are as a way to refine your magic, and also save up a bit of electricity.” I have managed to reduce the numbers on the bill by a significant amount, and along with it the ability to practice spells outside of my expertise, which is only ice spells, really. Water and cold aren’t my strong suit. Earth magic is useful to conjure a weight or as a temporary container, but I already practiced enough with those, so I shift to trying dark magic for certain force-related procedures.

“Of course it’s always about paying bills with you.” She jokingly commented. “By the way, how strong is the boss? He has been out of practice for a long time and I never get to see him fight.”

“He was strong, but like you said, he is out of practice. I wouldn’t say he’s even that much stronger than you right now.” I answered. “It’s been a few months and that can really affect someone’s strength. It hasn’t entropy as much as I expect from what I observed, but he’s losing his edge.”

“Hmm… Interesting.” She muttered. “What was he like at his peak?”

“Slightly weaker than me back then. It was back during the incident with that massive freaking gang.” It was a massive incident in retrospect. We chased them through multiple areas to finally corner them at their stronghold. “He has a lot of potential, at least. We all start at the same time. He might’ve kept up with me if things went differently. Too bad the previous guildmaster was involved with that.”

“Potential… Didn’t you say it’s more about who wants it more?” Evari said, still remembering that phrase.

“Potential helps accelerate growth, that’s simply all there is to it. It can’t replace the time you use to train, otherwise even those ridiculously talented characters in fiction wouldn’t have met setbacks.” I pointed out. There’s no contraction in what I said. Those who want it more will squeeze in more time to accomplish their goals than anyone else. “And if anything, luck is more important than potential, though the latter could be a byproduct of the former.”

“...Feels like the talk is going in circles.” She said with a subtly annoyed look.

“We haven’t mentioned the concept of luck in a while, so I wouldn’t say that.” It’s obviously something that feels even less controllable than innate talent, but it is a crucial factor in some instances. If I weren’t a part of that group chat then who knows what will happen to me. Maybe stuck in a hospital or something worse. “You probably need it now more than ever. I think you have heard about them, right? The ancient people?”

“Yeah? Magic folks who lived for an insanely long time?” Not exactly a widespread topic. But a person who fits that criteria can be said to be way more valuable than actual billionaires.

“They have so much power and experience in this field that knowing just one of them will make your life a whole lot easier. The older the better, or maybe a relatively younger one with the kind of talent that will make anyone weep.” I explained. “They should be so well-off and powerful that they can make a lot of your problems disappear. Like old money but even better.”

“…How the hell am I supposed to find someone like that?” She said with a clearly dissatisfied expression.

“That’s the neat part. It’s all luck.” I reminded her what sparked this topic in the first place. “They have plenty of ways to conceal themselves, otherwise we would’ve known about the whole magic thing a long time ago. Pretty much the only way for us to come in contact with them is through them approaching us, which is a form of luck.”

“Wouldn’t a talented figure, or at least an amusing one, be someone they choose? That’s a skill, right?” She pointed out.

“It simply increases the odds. I believe they care more about people they could directly influence, so anyone they stumble upon by accident, maybe even lured into a secret evil group chat or something.” I said semi-sarcastically. I don’t think Idea is evil, and Karra is in the same boat as me, ultimately. “I would say I’m the best connection you got, which is still better than most people in the world, so don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“There are even levels to this…” She grumbled.

“Oh, just so we’re clear, I can’t provide much to all of you aside from those lunch boxes. I’m making those as exercises, basically.” I don’t have the abundance of resources to do more than this, and I never intend to be a philanthropist of any kind. “I can’t create some crazy stuff like… I don’t know…”

———Karra———

<4: 07 pm>

“...So how risky are these stat boosting items?” I said while typing down my plans on what to cover in future streams.

“Quite risky. Anything that barely increases your stats will obviously not do much for you. You could even say that they are more valuable than the higher grade items, but it’d take more time to consume and feel its effect, obviously. There’s no way you want to absorb a large quantity of those at once.” She answered.

“Sounds like an exploit, right?” I pointed out.

“They can’t help you with any bottleneck issue like higher grades one can.” She further explained. “So you use lower grade ones first, then a big one to break through the ceiling.”

“...How do we even get these items again?” These miraculous items are obviously not something anyone could attain, even the strongest of people probably can’t craft them, right?

“Crafting them from monster parts is the standard way, but the conversion rate of ingredients to one of those is extremely steep. You need a mountain of those to get one effective for you specifically.” She answered… And that is not as arduous as I thought? “Mind you, I wouldn’t recommend specializing in creating one of those. Just let someone with cheats or thousands of years worth of experience craft one.”

“...What about this other thing you talked about?” Since it doesn’t look like I can get much info out of that, and she doesn’t seem thrilled about the ideas of magic supplements, let’s change the topic.

“Overcast? Yeah, critical hits for spells. Don’t worry too much about it. It’s not always a good thing if you use a powerful spell and it went haywire like that. You can control it to not happen, but the other way around is a different story.” She elaborated on that. “Sometimes it just happens, you know? A perfectly precise attack that breaks reality for a split second.”

“How would you even know if something like that happened? If it suddenly got stronger?” I have no idea what to make of that.

“Yeah, basically.” She dismissively replied. “...You know this week isn’t exactly heavy on internet traffic, right?”

“So what? I still need to document stuff to talk about. Also change some settings for the upcoming streams.” I need to prepare for more streaming in the future. So what if people are panicking from all the violent uprising? That just means more time to organize.

“Certainly dedicated.” She remarked while lazing on the bed, not saying anything else.

Ugh. When will this week pass so we can get back to things not feeling so weirdly stiff! Get this over with already!