After around ten minutes of work, Lillia plated up a few chunks of Wyrmling meat upon a metal plate and handed it over to Arwin. As far as he could tell, it looked identical to all the other food she’d made so far.
He squinted at it. Nothing stood out. The food smelled great, of course. Everything she made did. That couldn’t have been it. The expectant grin on her face told Arwin that he was missing something.
“Just eat it already,” Lillia said, leaning against the counter. “Looking isn’t going to show you anything.”
Arwin gave up his search and did as she instructed, and took a piece, throwing it into his mouth. His back stiffened and he nearly choked on the juicy chunk of fried meat as more than flavor poured into him.
The sensation was muted, but the taste and feel of devouring magic wasn’t something he could forget. He swallowed, disbelief swirling through him as he grabbed another piece and ate it.
More magic, as if he’d eaten a small bracelet, poured into him. There wasn’t anywhere near as much as he got from the better-made magical items, but it tasted… pure, for lack of a better word.
While many of the items he’d eaten smelled awful due to Magical Olfactory, Lillia’s cooking just smelled exactly like food. There wasn’t any impurity within it.
“This is incredible,” Arwin said, barely pausing to chew as he worked on polishing off the rest of the plate with reckless abandon. “When did you learn how to do this? You can put your magic into food?”
“What is it at? There’s no way it dropped after yesterday.”
“It actually went up to eighty-five percent,” Lillia admitted. “But that’s because nobody stayed over and the atmosphere was great. Atmosphere is a huge portion of how much people like things. Yesterday was energetic, so it went well. The real test is the long term, and that comes with quality.”
That was true enough. There really wasn’t all that much difference between their jobs when Arwin boiled things down. It didn’t matter how well his gear sold today if it didn’t translate to sales in the future. They were in this for the long haul.
“Then we’d best get to work,” Arwin said.
He felt Lillia nod, but she didn’t move. Arwin leaned down and found her face with his hands, giving her a kiss on the forehead. She hugged him, then pulled away and grabbed his arm to lead him out of the room.
A few steps after there was enough light to see by again, Lillia released him, her purple cheeks a slight shade of pink. She immediately set about starting to gather ingredients and start her work for the day, and Arwin headed out toward the Infernal Armory.
He had three main objectives for the day. The first — and simplest — would just be modifying the armor of everyone that needed changes from the previous day. That could be done whenever they showed up.
His second goal was to make a pair of gauntlets for himself with the Ivorin that Madiv had brought. He’d need some Brightsteel as well if he wanted to make it match the rest of the Ivory Executioner set, and he wasn’t sure if he currently had enough left for that.
And finally, he needed to figure out what he could do with the giant heart thumping away in the back room of his smithy. There had to be something he could make with it. Even though the Mesh hadn’t identified it as an inherently magical item, no normal heart kept beating after its owner was dead.
If I can’t determine some way to use it properly, I should give it to Lillia. I’m not sure if anyone is going to want to eat a still-beating heart, but at the very least I’m sure she’d get a fair amount of magical energy by cooking the creepy thing.
Arwin headed out of the tavern and stepped onto the street, his mind lost in thought.
There was a soft thud as Madiv dropped down from a rooftop, landing beside him with straight legs and matching Arwin’s pace without missing a beat.
“I need a new job,” Madiv said. “Reya has informed me that I need to practice my skills on my own and in new environments in order to become more affective. Also, I must stop threatening people with death when they are not inside the Infernal Armory.”
“Do you know what Brightsteel is?” Arwin asked.
“No, but I can find out.”
“Do that,” Arwin said with a nod. “I need some as soon as possible. Preferrably within a few hours. I know that’s pretty short notice. I believe it was around thirty gold a bar when I bought it from the other merchant — I’ll give you twenty.”
“Why would I accept that? No.”
“He is unlikely to sell to you now. Rumors of what we are doing have doubtlessly spread through the city.”
Arwin blinked. That was a good point. Madiv wasn’t just randomly choosing numbers to charge anymore. “That’s a fair argument, but my counteroffer is that I’m dating your boss. Twenty gold.”
“That is an unfair argument.”
Arwin smiled. “I never claimed to be fair.”
To his surprise, a grin passed over Madiv’s features as well. “Respectable. Twenty gold, then. I will acquire ten bars. Wait my return.”
He slipped into an alley and vanished.
Huh. Interesting guy. Not nearly as insane as I feared when we first met. Just… very ill adjusted. I think I’m starting to understand him a bit more.
Arwin drew up to the door of his smithy and unlocked it. He only managed to take a grand total of one step into the room before he heard someone running up behind him. Arwin turned and nearly summoned his armor instinctively as he spotted a huge mountain of muscle in the form of a woman barreling toward him.