Path of the Slayer B3 43. Elder Slayers & New Cooks

After a few hours of marching and slaughtering various jungle monstrosities, the cold, thick rain didn’t let up, but we found a clearing that led to a massive waterfall. Over the edge was an unfathomably deep gorge filled with thick, cold mist.

Panning my view toward the corner where the drop off met the rushing river water, there was a large and cozy cabin with waterproof fire torches lit. A powerful and tasty scent pierced through the rain and grabbed me by my nostrils, and I didn’t think twice about approaching its porch.

By the time I reached the front door, the smell intensified.

I knocked twice, and a low-pitched, sing-song male voice replied. “Come on in!”

Knowing Paige, I prepared myself to wrestle whichever Elder Slayer I would meet next. My body became flooded with adrenaline and multiple powers, my heart thumping, my muscles becoming more invigorated.

In my peripherals, I noticed a sunlight glow brightening. That was my new half-gob knight syncing herself with me. I figured calling her my knight would make sense if she was going to claim me as her master.

After dismissing Sabretooth, I grabbed the doorknob, a big and heavy thing, and turned it.

The door clicked open with no resistance, and I shoved it open to see a warmly lit and cozy cabin interior that was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. Immediately, my perception recognized the spatial distortion at work.

Once I walked in, the magic field overlapping my body shifted me into place smoothly.

There was a large, monstrous rug on the floor. Various pieces of furnishing were strewn about in the guest meeting area, all handcrafted. One wall had mounted heads of ferocious monsters that ranged from reptilian to mammalian to avian.

The scent grew stronger. My resistance dropped further. I barely noticed Paige entering behind us as we flowed into the next room.

A massive kitchen area that could serve as its own chow hall greeted us. I noticed multiple kitchen islands, multiple enchanted fridges, and hundreds of cooking gear hanging on racks on the walls.

There were half a dozen stoves with pots and pans already heated up, the food bubbling, hissing, and smoking even. The scent of spices, herbs, and sauces was intense and delicious, leading me to walk up to a figure who was taller than me, but far shorter than the half-giant Paige.

Just like Paige and me, the seven-foot figure was all armored from head to toe. But unlike Paige’s burnt orange with gold inlays and my green plates with bronze-gold accents, this figure wore black plates with white accents. On top of his helmet was a white fluffy mushroom-shaped hat.

“Do you have any preferences?” asked the new Elder Slayer, his voice ending with a mouthy growl that reminded me of a half-orc. Even with the armor in the way, the shape would match a half-orc, especially with how broad and more squat he was compared to a short half-giant or a very tall human.

“I’ll eat anything tasty,” I answered before pointing behind me at Grimmy. “She’ll eat almost anything, but definitely prefers meat.”

Seeing there was no danger, Grimmy went back to her open-mouth gawks and eye-bulging stares. She still hadn’t gotten over that I was a very important person to the Realm Verse System.

“Do you have issues following instructions?” the new Elder Slayer asked while chopping vegetables on a board. The knife moved faster than my eyes could track before the new ingredients were lifted and sent splattering into another boiling pot.

“No, I don’t. I do wonder how can this junior refer to the elder? I’m Arden the Nomad, or Arden, and the half-gob is Grimmy, my … knight.”

Grimmy made open gasping sounds before letting out an excited chitter and tappy steps that made me assume she was doing one of her little half-gob dances. I didn’t bother to look. I was more focused on how the new Elder Slayer moved about the entire kitchen area.

He didn’t stomp or lunge or move about like a boar. He flowed from place to place, never missing a beat, checking on the meals being cooked on the stoves before going to different sections where he needed any little thing.

I watched him painfully add a dash of herbs here, a splash of sauce there, knead some dough, and quickly chop up a garlic clove before carefully mashing it to extract the juices alone. He was both tactical and smooth with his approaches, and more importantly, everything came with a fervent obsession to succeed.

It was either that or he did everything out of love, which sounded too cheesy to say toward another Slayer.

Then he halted in front of me. “You may refer to me as Slayer Chef or Elder Chef. Or simply Chef. That is the name of this construct, and it is a pleasure to serve you, Young Slayer. For you to be here must mean you have an appreciation for cooking. You must also be working on something personal as well. A certain special technique, if it’s okay for me to assume?”

Outwardly, I showed no reaction.

Inwardly, my heart raced and thundered.

Could it be that Slayer Chef knew about the Spirit Blaze technique?

Before I could say a word, Chef gave his marching orders. It started with eating a plate of food from the kitchen islands, where there were platters galore.

“As you work, you will eat. You must sample as many dishes as possible, though that doesn’t mean you’ll get to cook them immediately,” Chef explained.

He was still moving about as he spoke, never stopping. “But we shall work through the basics as best we can. For you to be seeing me means you must learn the Path Magic for Slayer Feast and improve upon your training for the Spirit Blaze technique. Both work hand-in-hand together. I would know. I learned a lot from following the ancient half-giants of the first Cycles.”

As I moved to sample a dish, Grimmy staying on my heels, I looked over at Paige. The big woman was standing aside, her staff on her shoulder. The two Elder Slayers glanced at each other and nodded in silent greeting.

It was clear that the one who had taught me Slayer Intent wasn’t the master in this section; she was just the most familiar guide. For now, I put her out of mind as I entered a dizzying rush of work that caught me and Grimmy off guard from the pace and instruction.

Slayer Chef kept dealing out his words of advice as we went.

“When you consume food, do take small bites first. Try the ones without condiments and dressings first. Make sure to cleanse your palette with the carbonated water. When eating red meat, red wine is best. When eating fish, white wine is best. But that doesn’t mean you should be beholden to those rules, though it’s best to know the rules first before you break them so you can understand why breaking them works, too.”

When it came down to helping the Chef with meal preparation and cooking, he had us work from the bottom up. First, we had to read basic recipes multiple times, burning them into our memories.

Then he taught us a term, ‘Mise en place,’ which meant everything had its place.

Even while busy with his own culinary projects, he showed us where he placed everything. We had to go over every section of his kitchen multiple times before we actually got to be more hands on.

We kept tasting samples of the food he’d already finished making, and it was all delicious and distracting, too.

“This is hard,” Grimmy said, out of breath. “Food! Good-good! Memory! Bad-bad! What if I mess up and dishonor the master and the elders?”

“Keep trying,” I grunted as I placed down a delectable smoked salmon pizza with creme fraiche, dill, and caviar.

I wanted to eat more, but there was so much food and work to go through. This new challenge required discipline.

Both me and Grimmy had learned quickly to keep our helmets off our heads and attached to our belts. She kept her greatsword magically tethered to her back instead of storing it away in a storage device. I smiled a little at that.

When Grimmy made another complaint, Hellion chimed in from my right.

“If you truly are a knight of my liege, then you understand that effort and the overcoming of adversity are key parts of his existence. Even if you must struggle with broken legs and bloody guts streaming out of your mutilated torso, you mustn’t stop! This is how you honor him!”

Grimmy came to an abrupt stop. A pulsating, sunny light radiated from her Path Energy.

Then with a resolute nod, she returned to following me, and I found myself standing straighter and being more attentive to Elder Chef’s demands. Having a knight like Grimmy pushed me to be my best, too.

So even when I made mistakes, I quietly slowed down and corrected the issue or rolled onto the next task.

It was nonstop.

And almost brutal in a different way.

I thought nothing could come close to dying countless imaginary deaths from Paige teaching me Slayer Intent. But working an intense kitchen under the Elder Slayer Chef was far more frustrating than expected and nearly drew close to my earlier training crucibles.

Still, I kept my frustrations under the surface as my knight and I worked and consumed, worked and consumed, at a pace that would’ve been godly to those in the lesser Levels and Ranks.

I also appreciated Grimmy voicing my inner frustrations.

“GAAAAAH! It collapsed again! The soufflés are evil, evil monsters that keep crushing my hopes and dreams! If it weren’t so sad already, I would smash it even further! Gaaaah!” As Grimmy threw a tantrum, stomping up and down near the oven, all the Slayers stopped and turned toward her.

“I like her,” said Paige, glancing toward me. “You did a good job picking this one up.”

“It’s one thing to be a student and a junior to those with wisdom far greater than yours,” Chef said. “It’s another to be a responsible and an encouraging elder and master to another who is learning her place in the Realm Verse. That and she has the spirit of a Slayer even if she follows a different Path.”

“I shot her in the back once. Then she stabbed me in the back once.” I shrugged. “I supposed our Paths aligned the moment we met.”

The two Elder Slayers chuckled throatily at that.

Chef moved quickly to the angry half-gob and placed a beef wellington in front of her nose.

Instantly, she stopped and opened her mouth, and the Elder Slayer gave her a spoonful to eat before passing her a glass of fizzy water to cleanse her palette afterward. Then he pointed her back to where I worked on another soufflé, since all of mine had collapsed just like Grimmy’s.

We’d been at this for what felt like six weeks. Because of all the Path Energy we both had, we could keep going far longer than most Pathwalkers at our Level. Also, because of Grimmy’s Oath – I’LL HONOR MY MASTER – she was my equivalent energy wise.

In other words, she was the equivalent of 1200% Exquisite. She also meditated as quickly as I did, too, taking only half a day because of her Oath. It was almost like having a smaller version of me running around, but with the temperament of a half-gob girl.

That annoyed me a little.

Thumper’s comparison of the two of us being alike had become reality.

We both had issues with the soufflé dish, too.

“Ah, yes, that one had been the bane of my existence in the early years as well.” The amusement in Slayer Chef’s voice had only grown as we struggled.

Maybe it would’ve been easier if we were working with materials that weren’t Epic Rank 5 – or in the soufflé’s case, Legendary Rank 5.

I was pretty sure the Elder Slayer had done this on purpose to see us suffer.

Bastard.