As Elizabeth watched the cook clean away, emanating a depression even she could feel, she just sighed and cleaned her area of the kitchen as well. Originally, the plan was to make a simple meal and return to her room to finally finish all the miscellaneous things plaguing her schedule. However, in the middle of the cooking battle, after Elizabeth asked Yrre what she wished to eat, some pieces of information surfaced leading her to postpone her personal cooking for a little while longer.Towards Elizabeth"s question, Yrre responded as serious as can be, saying, "It"s fine if you use these regular ingredients to prepare me any meal, but I seriously hope you"re not planning to do the same for yourself..."
At that time, Elizabeth had been caught off guard, so she asked in earnest, "Huh? Why not?"
"Why not? You should use the best resources available to you! On board, there"s not a single spiritual ingredient. But in the sea, I can sense countless marine life with spiritual potential. Most of them are very weak, but anything is better than nothing..."
Upon recalling that the world as a whole had changed because of the dimensional upgrade, Elizabeth understood Yrre"s point of view and decided to fish for her next couples meals aboard the yacht. Of course, regular fishing would waste too much time. So, after she finished cleaning her area, Elizabeth was talked into leaving the ship to hand catch her meal.
Elizabeth might not have the energy capacity to fly, but walking on water should be possible after a bit of practice. Furthermore, with her affinity for s.p.a.ce, time, and ice, Yrre judged that she would have an easier learning this application of energy when compared to most. With s.p.a.ce and Time Magic and Innate Skills constantly providing auxiliary support and Ice working to stabilize her as she acclimated to moving in a liquid environment. This act of getting her meal would also temper Elizabeth"s control over energy as much as it did work to fill her stomach.
To begin, Elizabeth walked out of the kitchen and back to the yacht"s deck where she started experimenting on the pool aboard the ship. The yacht wouldn"t stop until it reached Sharktop Island, so she would be taking an unnecessary gamble by trying to walk on the water as the ship propelled itself away from her.
Next to the ship"s pool, Elizabeth converted her Neutral Inner Strength into Ice Magic and after hesitantly taking a step on the water, nothing happened. Elizabeth took a deep breath and let the foot that had been staying on the deck rise and step over the pool. But again, nothing happened. Now she was standing on water with nothing else appearing out of the norm. Elizabeth stopped looking at her feet and let her face rise to meet Yrre"s and she could only describe her face to be as equally confused as herself.
However, the moment her concentration wavered as she looked up to meet Yrre"s eyes, Elizabeth felt herself start to sink. She"d be lying if she said she didn"t panic at that moment as a pulse of Ice Magic shot out her legs in an effort to make the water even more stable. But in reality, the result of her actions only caused the water that begun to encroach on her legs to freeze solid, and with ice chunks serving as her feet, Elizabeth slipped even with Kinesthetic Acuity serving to keep her as stable as possible.
Rising up from the water, Elizabeth shook her head from side to side as she stepped out of the pool to try walking on water again. Her long white hair sticking to her face, she didn"t mind her image as she cautiously stepped over the water again. Without breaking focus this time, Elizabeth tried to walk across the pool, but on her third step, she started sinking…
WIthout paying her failures any dues, Elizabeth walked in and out of the pool a couple dozen more times, as she slowly figured out the best way to manipulate her energy. Eventually, some of the martial pract.i.tioners caught wind of her bizarre actions and asked if she could teach them. Elizabeth didn"t mind teaching as she was quickly nearing the stage where she could lessen her focus to run around atop water. Moreover, the method wasn"t anything profound or worthy of safekeeping.
Of course, considering all the advantages she had with her affinities and Innate Skills, no one could even come close to reaching her rate of advancement, and soon over half the ship"s inhabitants were by the pool area working to develop a crude form of water walking. Elizabeth didn"t know how badly the mob grew as she left as soon as she felt confident in her ability to run around at full speed.
She left behind the group of zealous pract.i.tioners and jumped ship to fish near the surface of the ocean. When she felt confident in the distance to the ship she used her Spatial Ring to withdraw her Inferioria blade and soon after, a ma.s.sacre began…
The fish near the surface of the Atlantic Ocean were around the same level as the beasts Elizabeth had fought when she went to the Forest of Beginnings in the Shadow Realm. Thus, now that her stats eclipsed the p.a.w.n Stage, she thoroughly outcla.s.sed any marine life that crossed her path. Yet, on top that most basic level of superiority, since Elizabeth wished to spend the least amount of time possible fishing, when she used her Timeworn eyes, the animals that died to her blade didn"t even know they were being attacked before they died.
As Elizabeth ran through the waves and collected her precious spiritual ingredients, she looked like a raving lunatic waving her tanto-esque blade. Only after 100 fish were safely stored away in her spatial ring, did Elizabeth stop her wanton slaughter and return to the yacht. She didn"t forget to store her blade as she withdrew two fish before jumping back aboard and proceeding back to the kitchen area to cook for herself and Yrre.
Upon crossing the entrance to the kitchen area, Elizabeth was almost treated to the call of the cook asking what she would like to eat. But, as soon as he registered her image, he quickly shut his mouth and let her do as she pleased. Taking a seat back down and waiting for someone else to require his services, the cook just gave a saddened look as he watched Elizabeth enter and begin gathering some supplementary ingredients for her spiritual fish.
She took a descaling knife from the a.s.sortment of knives left over from the culinary battle, and as she worked to fillet the two fish, Elizabeth said, "You know… I don"t have time to teach you everything about spiritual cooking. But you"re free to watch me cook and learn if you want..."
To Elizabeth, it was scary how much of an impact her words had… It seemed like even before the cook processed her words he was already making a mad dash over to her prepping area. Naturally, he stopped before getting too close, as the last thing he wanted was to waste this opportunity. Thus, began Elizabeth final appearance as a cook for today.
True to her word, she didn"t do anything fancy to obscure her methods from the cook"s sight. But, she also didn"t slow down or explain anything, so the cook could only rely on sight and spiritual feel to figure out what she was doing. 20 minutes was all it took for the cooking demon to finish preparing both her personal meal and that of her servant. After it was all over, as she went to start cleaning up her area, the studious cook stopped her. He looked at her with eyes shining in grat.i.tude and said, "I, Richard Pears, won"t forget your actions here today! Please, return to your business and let me take care of the cleanup. Its the least I could do after you let me learn from your ways..."
Helplessly, Elizabeth could only smile and let the man do as he pleased. She waved him a farewell and left to her room. Yrre had mentioned the horrid technique she used to kill and capture fish, and after learning that Elizabeth didn"t have an inkling of knowledge for the way of the sword, she vowed to correct that "startling" flaw. After returning to her room, Elizabeth ate her meal and marveled at its ridiculousness as she made conversation about the ways to use her blade with Yrre.
[Name: Mahi-Mahi Croquettes
Grade: Mid-tier Mortal Grade Meal
Description: Crafted by the user, this is a magical meal imbued with Neutral Magic and Basic level principles of the path of cooking. Paired with rice and beans, this is a staple Caribbean dish elevated with a faint air of spirituality.
Effects: For Level 20 or below: + 35 Strength + 37 Speed + 45 Endurance + 35 Defense + 30 Intelligence for 7 hours and + 120,000 Inner Strength recovered.]
Even though she knew that at any moment, she could create meals with similar or even better effects, Elizabeth didn"t hesitate to use this time which should have been spent as a break as yet another opportunity to cultivate. Not willing to just enjoy herself for a couple minutes, Elizabeth activated the Chaos Requiem technique and let her Inner Strength burn in exchange for more potential.
Origin energy was sacrificed as Fragmented grandmist permeated throughout her body and served to strengthen the muscle and bone she had previously cultivated with Magic. With thousands upon thousands of units of Inner Strength at her disposal, Elizabeth managed to cultivate a whole 1% of the total hidden potential her body could currently spare.
By the time, she finished her last bite of the meal, she had finished using up all the energy granted to her from the dish and was hyped to learn some blade techniques from Yrre. Setting her plate aside and withdrawing her short blade from her spatial ring, Elizabeth listened carefully as Yrre used her knife — the kind that serves as an eating utensil… — to teach her the basics.