Ch18: Cooking at the Days End

Throughout the day Krvavy was only able to catch two more things: a Ruffled Moss Grouse and a Flat-Eared Rock Hare. The grouse is about as big as both quails combined and the hare is even larger, about the size of a housecat. Catching that rabbit was the highlight of her hunt. Not because she hit it with a nice throw, but because it ran right into her hands. Almost literally.

She was crouched down and picking a rock to throw when the hare ran past her. Krvavy just had to reach out and snatch the thing right off the ground. It was absurdly lucky. Pretty surreal. With a quick snap of the neck she had another meal. Sadly that seemed to have used up all her luck for the day, as she couldn’t catch anything after that.

It wasn’t the most productive day, but that is alright. She got to enjoy the beautiful scenery and relaxing outdoors. Much better than what awaits her when she exits the game...

The sun was just starting to set behind the hills when Krvavy returned home. Having to walk through the dark tunnel to get into her cave is kind of annoying. But what is even worse is the fact that her campfire is in the private little cave where she respawns. Which is pretty much as far into the cave as it gets.

And to make it worse, her Orc can’t go in there. Krvavy tried carrying the Greenskin in without really thinking about it, but all that did was squish her against an illusionary entryway. Good thing Krvavy wasn’t walking too fast, so they both only lost a couple points of health.

But that really complicates things.

Krvavy had left her Orc down near the warmth of the hot springs all day, in a spot where the Greenskin wouldn’t accidentally drown. But that woman can’t exactly be kept there forever.

And so, after her long day of hunting Krvavy began the laborious process of setting up a new camp. Though to be fair, she definitely made it harder for herself. Krvavy decided to set it up on the platform between her respawn point and the hot springs, the one that juts out and has a wonderful view of the entire cave.

It is a very long walk from that platform down to the grotto, where she needed to go to collect a bunch of sticks for a fire.

But once that was out of the way everything else was pretty easy. And all of that leads to where she is right now: sitting by her new fire stirring a pot of meaty stew with the Orc woman lying by her side.

Krvavy lifts a spoonful of the meaty soup up to her lips. It could taste better, but it isn’t bad. A few notifications pop up into her vision as soon as she swallows.

Cooking: The skill of creating food through various means. Associated attribute = Perception.+50 Experience.

Level Up! You have reached Level 4. As a Drakling blessed by a divine power, you have 5 attribute points to allocate and have gained +2 to Might & Toughness. If not allocated by the time you fall asleep it will be done automatically.

That is nice. Guess all the other skills that levelled up over the day gave her enough exp for Cooking to push her over the edge. That makes all the running around and all the missed throws worth it.

Well, if the stew is done then Krvavy should probably get to feeding her Orc. The poor girl hasn’t had a single thing to eat all day, what with Krvavy not being home to feed her. Krvavy can deal with her level up after that.

Lifting the Orc into her lap, Krvavy begins carefully spoon-feeding the unconscious Greenskin. It is slow work, but not particularly difficult. It helps that the Orc is instinctively swallowing whenever the spoon goes into her mouth.

After a few long minutes of constant feeding, Krvavy figures that her Orc has had enough. She ate over two bowls full of stew, and Krvavy doesn’t want to make her sick or anything.

Which means that now it is time for Krvavy to eat. And since she doesn’t need to focus quite as much she can think about increasing her stats now. Though honestly, she doesn’t need to put much thought into it. She is just going to keep shoring up her physical stats.

As such, she ends up putting two points into Dexterity and three into Endurance. That way Endurance is left at a nice even twenty, though the bonus one from her class kind of messes that up...

Krvavy gained a lot of skills today, even if most of them are pretty minor. The section for passives is starting to look a lot less empty too, which is nice. Though she can’t help but wonder what will happen when she fills it up completely. Will it get a scroll bar? Maybe gain another column to the side? Her Orc’s stat sheet had the same layout, just with Traits and Skills greyed out, so she really has no idea.

But with that done all she has left to do is eat her food and settle down for the night. Which means that Krvavy can take her time, just laying back and relaxing. She really isn’t looking forwards to exiting the game...

The exhaustion and pain comes rushing back to Leanna as the IVR headset lifts off her head. This real body of hers has been awake for an entire day. A workday. And on top of that, her mind had to bear the strain of experiencing multiple in-game days without any real rest.

Leanna groans as she shakily stands up, checking the time once she is on her feet. “Huh... Almost eleven... Bit later than I expected...”

If only she could call in sick for tomorrow... That way she’d at least be able to sleep in. She can’t do that though, not if she wants to keep her job. Damn bastards would crash and burn without her. But they would definitely bring her down with them. Or more likely they would throw her under the bus and get away without any consequences themselves. Best case there would be that she gets sent to prison and has to work at the assembly line. Worst case... Well, Leanna would rather not think about what they would make her do after saddling her with billions of dollars of debt.

And as much as she grumbles about how horrible her job is, it could be much worse. She gets paid well enough to keep a roof above her head, and she only works ten hours a day at most. Though it would be nice if she had more time off, got paid better so that she could actually afford anything that isn’t on discount, and if she didn’t have to deal with all the assholes there...

But she is just wasting time with all that wishful thinking. She should be getting ready for bed, even though that means she’ll go to sleep, which means that she’ll have to wake up, which means that she has to go to work...

Groaning to herself, Leanna makes sure her computer and IVR setup are properly shut down before shambling over to the bathroom to get ready for bed. If only she could continue indulging in her fantasies of escapism and not have to go to work...