Red Monster

Chapter 77: Darla’s Delight

*** Darla ***

Darla’s mouth opened slightly into an o-shape upon receiving the confirmation from Red. She kept looking back and forth between the skill scroll and Red.

She knew about skill scrolls, a drop from killing monsters, a drop from a treasure chest in a dungeon, and rewards from completing world quests and clearing dungeons. One must take a high risk to get the drop.

It would be hard for someone like her to obtain the skill scroll, but it didn’t mean she could not get them. The skill scroll was sold by merchants, Adventurer & Mercenary Guild, auction, and shops in the big city.

She could buy the skill scroll, but she could not afford it. It was no longer copper or silver, but gold. From what she knew, the cheapest skill scroll was 15 gold.

1 gold worth 10 big silver, 1 big silver worth 10 silver, 1 silver worth 10 big copper, and 1 big copper worth 100 copper. Her earnings from the food stall were far from enough. It would take years for her to save up 15 gold, maybe over ten years.

A village girl like her could not afford the skill scroll. That was why it came as a big shock when Red gave her a skill. She was aware that Red might not be aware of the worth of the skill scroll. But again, the goblin didn’t really know the value of the coins.

She saved up the coppers from Red, saving a few hundred coppers in her secret savings. Though lately, Red didn’t really bring the coin back.

Darla was excited; her head was giddy from excitement. She wanted to snatch the skill, but her self-control was good. After taking a deep breath, she shook her head, "I can’t take it..."

She pushed the two skill scrolls back toward Red while shaking her head, gesturing with her hands that she could not take them.

"Take..." Red pointed to his chest with his thumb, shaking his head, "Can not... use... you... use..."

Darla frowned as that got her curious. He told her that he could not use the skill. She reached one of the scrolls as the notification rang.

[Do you want to learn Efficient Cooking (Passive) skill?]

Her eyes widened in surprise, and she understood why Red gave the skill to her. For some reason, Red got a skill for the Cook Class. The skill was quite dubious as well. She tried to understand what the skill did based on the name. She had no idea what the skill did, and the skill was not renowned among the cook class.

"F-for me?" Darla tried her best to calm down and asked for confirmation.

Red nodded once more and pushed the scroll toward her, "Use..."

She no longer hesitated and took the skill, learning it right away.

[You have learned the Efficient Cooking (Passive) skill!]

[Efficient Cooking (Passive): Increasing the user’s efficiency in cooking, reducing cooking time, and improving flavor.]

Darla’s lips curved into a smile, a satisfied smile. While it sounded underwhelming, it would be a good boon for her. Especially when she needed to feed a lot of mouths. The most important thing was the improved flavor. Red would like it.

She took a glance at Red, and he smiled at her as well. It might be hard to tell what the skill did since Red had a limited vocabulary. Her smile should be enough to tell Red the skill was a good skill. Then she reached the second skill scroll.

[Do you want to learn Ingredient Whisper skill?]

She hesitated to learn the skill when she read the skill name. The word ingredient was the one that made her hesitate. She might have a similar skill, but her skill was [Ingredient Appraisal].

It was a Tier 3 skill and a gift from her friend, who became an adventurer. She was her childhood friend. They parted ways when her best friend left for adventure. Her friend gave her the skill in their last reunion, a few months before she was kidnapped by the goblin.

"Use!" Red urged her.

She hesitated, but then she followed the urging and learned the skill. She just hoped it would be different than [Ingredient Appraisal].

[You have learned the Ingredient Whisper skill!]

She quickly checked what the skill did right away.

[Ingredient Whisper: Spread the user’s mana to locate uncommon and rare ingredients through their whisper within a twenty-meter range. Initial Mana Cost: 30. Required Mana Cost to maintain the skill: 3 mana/ 10 seconds.]

Darla was relieved at first because the skill was different than [Ingredient Appraisal]. [Ingredient Appraisal] allowed her to learn the ingredient’s properties. She could use the skill to identify replacements for seasoning. Some plants could be used to replace sugar, pepper, or even salt.

She could use it on meat to learn its texture and how much time was required to cook the meat. It was a useful skill, and [Ingredient Whisper] was equally useful. The skill would help her to find rare ingredients, and the other skill would help her to learn the properties of these rare ingredients.

But she soon found a problem. She needed mana to use the skill, and she had a low Magic Attribute.

Name: Darla Hanyele

Class: Cook

Level: 5

Health: 252 Stamina: 137 Mana: 40

[Tier 0 Might]

Strength: 25.6 Endurance: 25.7 Vitality: 25.2 Dexterity: 25.1 Perception: 6

[Tier 0 Magic]

Intelligence: 4 Wisdom: 4 Arcane Perception: 2 Mind: 2

Skill:

Tier 1: Taste Bud (Passive) - Level 10 (+1), Control Heat - Level 6 (+2), Knife Mastery (Passive) - Level 5 (+2), Appraisal - Level 2, Efficient Cooking (Passive) - Level 1 (New)

Tier 3: Ingredient Appraisal - Level 7 (+1), Ingredient Whisper - Level 1 (New)

She had forty mana, meaning he could only maintain the skill for thirty seconds. Thirty mana to activate the skill, then she was left with ten mana. Three mana for ten seconds, meaning he could only maintain the skill for thirty seconds.

Who would know a cook like her would need mana? She was not a Royal Chef who used mana to cook. She was just a stall owner.

Then she turned toward Red, hesitated, but then she decided to open since Red gave her two skill scrolls.

"Mana... I need mana to use the skill..." Darla said it slowly, and thankfully, Red got the message right away as he raised his thumb at her.

She was not being shameless, more like she wanted to be useful for Red. She wanted to utilize the skill to make the most delicious food for him. After getting her message across, she took the two Might Cores and absorbed them.

*** Red ***

Red understood the message. Darla was telling him that she wanted Magic Core next because the new skill required mana to use. Again, he didn’t mind sharing if it meant he could get more delicious food. Though he was curious what the skill did, he knew their communication was still terrible. It would be hard to convey a full sentence, especially if it were about a skill explanation.

Another thing he noticed was that the skill seemed to be a big issue for her. She was being proactive tonight, more than usual. However, Red had to reject her advance because he needed to work with his arrows.

He did his best to communicate the situation, telling her the village was in danger because of the kobolds. The message was conveyed well as she accepted it. Darla went to bed earlier, giving him a space to work on his arrow.

Red first checked the condition of his refined arrow. He only had twelve arrows left as he accidentally burned five of them with his fireball. He checked the condition because he noticed the arrowhead was chipped and had small cracks on the shaft. They needed to be repaired.

Since he didn’t need to refine the arrow anymore, the repair was easier. He repaired the cracked shaft, doing his best to use minimum mana to repair it. There were four arrows with small cracks on the shaft. He worked on them right away.

Then he worked on the chipped arrowhead. He didn’t know if he could repair them since they were missing a small piece of metal. He used the skill, but the mana dispersed without repairing the chipped part.

"Of course I can’t repair it..." His mana would not be able to regenerate the chipped part.

[Mana Repair] could not repair the chipped arrowhead, so he needed to smelt it and forge a new arrowhead. That was a lot of work, so he put that aside for now.

His focus tonight would be to use his mana to refine and repair the new arrows he just got from the storage. He grabbed two quivers worth of arrows, forty-three arrows in total.

He wanted to use his mana to refine and repair these arrows first. Without a doubt, he wanted to create his own arrow. He believed he could make something better, but that was for later.

He was in dire need of a lot more arrows if he wanted to hunt the big group, so he could not afford to split his attention with forging. That was a future project when he had spare time.