Zen woke up.
Zen finished making breakfast. Zen ate his breakfast.But nobody was up.Despite the short few hours of sleep after last night’s mental breakdown, Zen felt better. Sleep deprivation was scary, and he wanted to apologise for the outburst. However, none of his party members was awake. They must have spent all night farming for pudding materials. The busy chef did not have time to check his inbox, although he received multiple notifications about gifts from them.“Maybe I should send everyone a message and deliver the food to their rooms,” he decided after checking the time.Zen woke up near noon. That was usually when the kitchen would be bustling with activity and starving folks who had just completed their morning training. However, most people were asleep today from the excitement of last night. Unlike Party Godly Food, the other students were most likely busy preparing for the treasure hunt event and tradingZen finally logged in after delivering lunch. His inbox was flooded with notifications. His party members sent so many gifts that Zen had no idea where to start. They didn’t only send him pudding ingredients, even if that made for more than seventy percent of the mail. The game developers should increase the in-game item mail cap so that Zen did not have to deal with a hundred gift messages. His members also sent what they received from sixty runs of the mausoleum. It was too much to read, so Zen spent the next fifteen minutes mindlessly opening gifts and storing them in his inventory.Thankfully, he had enough Steel Silk to work with. However, those weren’t the only things his party members sent. Zen spent a reasonable amount of time reading through the different talisman cards they gifted. Some of those talismans had wonderful effects. On the other hand, there were also talismans with random trash-sounding abilities.Either way, Zen was grateful.T
With little progress at the blacksmith, Zen left to check on Paul. However, the armourer wasn’t in his workshop. Hence, he decided to walk around town for a while to kill time. His crafting inventory was still hard at work when it gave Zen an idea.Stopping outside the restaurant where Martha’s fruit stall initially was, Zen saw Chef Marvin standing around. The friendly chef waved to Zen and warmly welcomed him with a heavy back pat.“It’s good to see you again! Have you been eating well?”If Gilda were here, Zen would have been glared to death for ‘flirting’ with Marvin. Smiling awkwardly, Zen asked if he could borrow the kitchen to make some slime puddings.“Of course!” the cheerful NPC grinned and showed Zen the kitchen at the back of his restaurant. “Let me know if you need any help!”Dismissing the touchy-feely chef, Zen looked at the kitchen.Cooking on a real range was faster than
Following the weaver inside, Zen noticed a massive loom near the back of the house. Closer to the window where there was light, Zen spotted a desk with many needles, threads, and unfinished products.“Here, let me show you the different basic stitching styles,” Annabel introduced after ushering Zen to sit on a chair in her living room. The lady brought her sewing materials over and passed some to Zen, who held it with uncertainty.The weaver turned out to be a great teacher. She was patient and clear with her explanations, even going so far as to give a demonstration. Zen listened attentively and followed her example. He picked up a needle and chose a thread with a similar colour to the fabric he was using for stitching practice.Annabel threaded the needle fluidly and watched Zen struggle with his. The thread refused to go into the eye of the needle as it was too thin.After five attempts, Zen finally got a small part of his thread through the needle
After crafting enough Steel Silk armour for his party members, Zen sent it to them with a message asking them to meet him at the starter town after they logged in. Then, he logged out to prepare lunch.Zen spotted other students ordering instant noodles as he whipped up something quick for himself. There were more instant noodle flavours now than before, but Zen couldn’t overlook the importance of nutrition. Out of the kindness of his heart, he prepared extra toppings that would go well with the noodles while he cooked for his guild members.“Can I place orders for other instant and frozen food on top of the regular ingredients?” Zen asked the kitchen invigilator on duty.The gruff lady with many tattoos raised a brow.“Why not? Write them down, quantity and all. We’ll still have to wait for the next shipment. By the way, instant noodles have become quite the hit. It’s good for us because we don’t know how to cook. If you
Unlike the others, it was easy for Sasha to pick a weapon from the pile. There were many melee weapons but only one gun.“I’m ready!” she announced to Ben. Together, they headed outside with Zen in tow. The three assassins sorted through the rejected pile of weapons and leisurely played with a few. Zen and Sasha wouldn’t be back for a while, so they could take their time exploring the options.As they approached the testing ground, Zen recognised the firewood chopping area. Ben set up a small shooting range using smaller wood chips and drew a line on the ground about fifty steps away.“Try shooting the wood chips from this distance. We will slowly increase the distance to find your ideal range.”Fifty steps was quite the distance. They were no longer in the woodcutting area. Zen did not know if getting any further was wise but stood behind Sasha with Ben to observe.The wind blew gently, but Sasha had no hesitation. Even w
Following Oritha and Ben to the edge of the forest outside town, Zen wondered why NPCs could leave the starter town’s borders. There had never been such an instance in any of the games he had played previously. The Godfather’s dungeon took gaming to a whole new level.Watching silently, Zen learned more about the weight-lifting Amazonian. He thought she was a melee combat specialist with a secondary talent for archery. However, according to Oritha, it wasn’t the case.“I was trained in archery with my tribe before getting kidnapped to the assassin camp. I learned how to brawl there as it was the easiest way to defend myself from the other backstabbers. Pure strength was the best way to survive. I came out top because of it. The other girls learned poison, knife skills, flexibility and speed, but nothing compared to muscles.”Zen listened as Oritha shared more details about her days in the assassin camp. The kidnapped children learned all
“There’s no need to see your abilities,” Ben grunted. “Just tell me what you’re looking for.”Zen gaped when his fussy teacher did not ask questions or demand a demonstration. What was with the special treatment?Glad that the NPC wasn’t going to waste his time, Liu Feng got to the point.“Give me something that covers my hands. I hate the feeling of blood and decaying flesh on my hands. Something filth resistant would be the best.”Ben was usually a temperamental person. Zen panicked. What if his brother’s flippant attitude offended his teacher?To everyone’s surprise, Ben launched a belly-aching laugh. The blacksmith cackled with tears in his eyes and hooted a few times before calming down.Not long ago, Ben asked Zen how his older brother fought with tricky enemies. Now, he knew for certain. Liu Feng was that maniac who would wash his hands with holy water to punch a wraith. Yet, the p
“We’re back,” Sasha called out, returning with everyone else who had met up on the fifth floor after their material hunt. “What happened?”Zen looked like a dried sardine from behind the blacksmith’s counter. They were gone for a while, but it should not be long enough for Zen to be this worn out. What did he do?Funnily enough, the grumpy blacksmith whistled merrily as he stacked crates at the corner of the shop.“Don’t worry about him,” Ben chuckled. “He’s a spring chicken, so he’ll bounce back in no time. More importantly, do you have all the materials?”Apart from the demon lord’s horns, Ben received everything else. There was no reason to delay work, so he made Zen get to work immediately. He wasn’t paid for overtime.“Hey! Start working the bellows again if you want to learn how to repair your friend’s weapons!”Jolting back to life, Zen jum