"Wait, I'm invited to this charade too?! Why me?!"
Ambil was complaining as everyone was getting ready to depart. The night was already coming closer, and Ambil was complaining angrily that he didn't wanted to come.
"David said it would be at nine, so we got a lot of time before that." I sighed. "Now, find some nice suit and get on it. Of course you're coming, not only we need to help you pay your debt, but I also want to restore your reputation among nobles. Your craftmanship is unparalleled, yet you're not recognized at all! How's that a good thing?"
"That's because they're a bunch of shitheads hypocrites motherfuckers!" Ambil complained, he looked like a dumb kid like that.
"Hey, stop acting like a child!" Rita said. "This is important business; you're coming no matter what. Do you think we can leave you alone? You'll get hunted by the cult guys! You sound like a dumb man children, just man up for once and come with us, you're not going to die for that! Right?
Or are you going to keep crying like a fucking sissy?"
"T-That's…" Ambil sighed, feeling defeated with those words. And that's considering Rita was holding back. "I-I… Urgh… But… Fine! Fine…"
He walked to his room to prepare. Meanwhile, Angelina and her group were coming along as well as all our NPC friends too, nobody was staying behind.
"Alright, while he's getting ready, we'll log off for an hour to have dinner." I said. "Acorn, I left you some stuff in the kitchen, you can cook something for Ambil and the rest?"
"Leave it to me! Your Cooking Spirits are always very helpful too!" He raised a sharp knife imbued with cooking spirits.
This was one of my special "Cooking Weapons" imbued with Cooking Spirits that make everything tastier, and even help the wielder cook with more proficiency and mastery, even when they had never cooked on their lives.
The kettle, and some other utensils were also made this way on my spare time and have become a whole cooking set.
"An hour then? We'll be waiting patiently." Said Nieve.
"Well, David said he'll come looking for us, so please come back quickly!" Brisingra said.
"We'll do." Angelina nodded.
"Yeah, don't worry. Anyways, let's go." I said, logging off with everyone else.
Once I logged off, I took off the helmet and walked to the kitchen with Mark, we were a bit dizzy after overexerting ourselves in-game, some of the mental exhaustion comes back to our real bodies after all.
"Hahh… I'm so tired, I never thought you would go for the five hundred pieces of equipment right away!" Laughed Mark. "You're really a fantastic gamer."
"I-I'm not doing it because it's a fun game though… Though all the gamey stuff is fun, I'm mostly doing it to prepare for the trial." I said, as I smiled back at him. "Remember what that Fire Spirit said?"
"Oh, right…" Mark said. "About a Trial before entering and becoming the owner of the Divine Forge, right? Yeah… Will you have to participate alone?"
"Most likely." I nodded. "It's not going to be easy, so I want to Level Up my Skills related to that as high as I can."
"Makes sense." Mark agreed. "They can't level up with just skill points?"
"It's a combination of both, using Skill Proficiency, and then Skill Points one their level is high enough." I explained.
"Interesting… I guess I do have some skills like those, can't level them up manually and need to practice using them constantly." Mark said. "Anyways, what should we cook today?"
"Hmm… Well, no more ordering food for now. Let's make something to celebrate Elena's date with Anna, shall we? The two should be getting here pretty soon." I said. "Monica, are you there?"
I walked to the empty room we gave to Monica, which had yet to be filled with more things, but there was a TV, a small night table, and her bed there.
She had brought most of the things from her home. That house still belonged to her, but she preferred living with us than alone in there, so she had been considering selling it.
"Hm? Ah…" Monica yawned, opening her eyes slowly. "S-Sorry, I was napping…"
"Were you tired from using magic?" I wondered.
"And doing so much exercise in the gym… I-I don't think I've ever done so much before." She sighed. "I-Is it late, auntie?"
"Quite so, come, help me out cooking dinner with Mark." I invited her.
"I'm not good at cooking… B-But I'll try to help in anything I can." She smiled gently, looking much better emotionally than before.
"That's good enough! Help me at cutting the onions. Let's make a tasty pasta." I smiled, petting her head.
"Pasta… I remember my mom used to make that a lot…" Monica sighed. "I think I can help, I used to cut the carrots…"
"Nice!" I celebrated.
Like that, we go to work. Monica helped cutting onions and carrots into little cubes. Mark cut the tomato into small bits and also the garlic, while I prepared the dough for the homemade pasta, using eggs, some water, and good quality flour.
Using the pasta making machine, I put the dough there and then it slowly turned them into long noodles. The water was boiling, with some salt and oil in there. And a bay leaf of course.
I quickly added the noodles as it started boiling, while the tomato sauce was also getting ready. I made sure to stir fry the grounded meat, added what everyone cut down and left all their flavors and juices combine together until everything became soft and the meat was cooked.
Once that was done, I added some pasta water, salt, pepper, oregano, and a few other condiments, alongside a few meatballs too, to add extra meat. Naturally, I also added some tomato sauce I had bought in the supermarket, the one that comes in glass bottles.
"Smells good…" Mark said.
"Yeah…" Monica agreed.
And as we were waiting for things to get ready, the door opened, Elena and Anna arrived just in time!