Casual Heroing

Chapter 57: Finally Baking?

Explain it to me again.

Lucillus, a man of few words, is confused by my explanation.

Its just about proximity. I need to stay close to her. The more time we spend together, the more its likely that she will change her mind about me. Humans and Elves, I think do not live on a straight line, I trace such line in the air with my hands.

Its more like a wave that goes up and down, up and down, I start moving my hands like that.

So, if you want to catch a girl whos on the fences, you have to wait for those up moments. Andman, Im not explaining this very well. Its like there are hundreds of lines. But they are not synched. You have to wait until there is a sum of all these lines so you can surf that giant wave.

Surf? Lucillus frowns. Okay, listen. Whatever. If that works, Im a flat-eared Human turd.

Thank you for the vote of confidence, both the individual and the racial one, I wink at him.

So, onto our next endeavor! I point with my finger in a direction.

Thats not where we are going. Thats where we are going.

He shows me.

So, onto our next endeavor! I point with my finger in that

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I need a raise, Lucillus mumbles.

I ignore him and start walking with a spring in my step, Lucinda temporarily forgotten.

So, close to the Adventurers Guild is where you find a lot of traffic and lots of people ready to spend money on food, right?

Lucillus nods.

Lots of problems too. Adventurers are a particularly messy breed. They fight among themselves all the time. The Watch hates adventurers. They cause trouble wherever they go. I always say that if we had better funding, the Watch could easily take care of all those requests. Instead, we send idiots without training to die miserably.

Well, Carl Marx, everyones entitled to their own opinion, I say. But lets go there. I bet your ears those people are always up late, drinking. And you know what goes very well with late-night drinking and hangovers?

A stamina potion? Lucillus ventures a guess.

You nave little child, I cackle.

Bakery food! Croissants, cookies, brownies, cakes!

Bakeries are closed at night.

And that, my dear Lucillus, is soon going to change! Ill show you why bakeries are the Queens of the earliest mornings!

This place comes at twenty gold coins a month.

A short Elf I say short, but the guys like almost 6 feet is showing me a few places for rent right in front of the Adventurers Guild.

Thats quite cheap, Lucillus says by my side.

Yeah. The last place was torn down by a bar-fight. No one wants to open up an inn, or worse, live right in front of the place, the short Elf says. Everything gets wrecked from time to time. The few inns that are close-by are managed by high-level ex-adventurers. They are the only ones who can keep those beasts at bay.

I look around what used to be an inn and I scratch my chin, trying to think about how Id want to arrange stuff. Theres a kitchen and even an upper floor with some rooms.

The place is empty, almost ghastly. However, I can probably put up a few wooden walls and make a proper bakery lab behind it. It sits on the other side of the road to the Adventurers Guild.

The kitchen still works. It has all the usual Runes. You could have this place making food by the evening. Youll have to buy the furniture yourself, though.

Yeah, yeah. Show me the kitchen. Lets see what Ill be working with.

The guy beams when he hears me say that. He understands that Im already settling for this place. And if Lucillus says that the rent is not high, even better.

We enter the kitchen and Im treated to a great view of cupboards, some bigger and some smaller.

They all have Preservation Runes. Youll need someone to check if they all work, but the owner is willing to pay for that. You have two stoves with all the usual Fire Runes. He shows me some weird counters and I nod, unconvinced. Ill need someone to help me with that. And I even know who that someone might be.

Hehe.

Do you have an oven?

Yes, there are three ovens in this kitchen. The previous innkeeper loved to bake. He had two more installed and, from my understanding, they are incredibly good at keeping their temperature. Plus, the runes can be activated on many different degrees of heat.

Rolling my tongue, I take another look at the stoves.

Do the stoves have different settings for the Fire Runes? I mean, can I modulate the heat they produce?

Sure, but they have three or four settings, I think. The oven, instead, the guy fishes a piece of parchment out of his bag of holding. The oven has, wow, thirty settings.

Thirty, huh?

These motherflippers probably have an oven that goes from ten to three hundred degrees Celsius. Thats good. Very good.

Are there any facilities made appositely to fry stuff? I ask.

Not that I know of, the guy looks over the parchment where the equipment is listed. Cant you just use a pot? he shrugs.

Goddamn amateurs.

Ill fry your head in a pot.

Well, Ill need an upgrade to better control the frying temperatures.

See, I wouldnt mind some [Baker] skills right now. They probably have the right stuff I need. But well, Im still going to blow their socks off.

Well, get me the contract and give it Lucillus. I dont touch that stuff.

He looks at me, uncomprehending. However, hes more than happy to offload this place to someone.

Do you have a measuring tape? I ask the guy.

Hum, sure, why?

I need to take some measurements. Give it to me, Ill pay for it.

Well, cant you wait until you sign the

Tape, buddy. I need the tape. Im not wasting my time. If I dont get baking by tonight, Ill go mad. I cant keep doing other stuff, okay? So, tape, please. Ill tip, dont worry.