“From what you’re saying, a man came here to buy the food with his points,” Abel said.
“Yes, Master.”
“And he did it because the smell was so good that he lost interest in any other food.”
“Yes, Master. I don’t know if you feel the same thing when you eat those, but apparently, every bite is extremely addictive.”
At first, Abel didn’t pay much attention to how Wizard Alberta interacted with Bartoli. Yet, when he overheard what he was saying, something started to click in his mind.
Abel shook his head, “Nuh-uh. I just think the food is delicious.”
Bartoli tilted her head, “Your power of the Will is superb to most people, Master. Also, there seems to be a mysterious, powerful force that resides within your soul. That’s probably why you were unaffected.”
Bartoli was right to suspect that there was something wrong with the food. Truth be told, every time Abel tried to make something to eat or drink with his Horadric Cube, there would also be some sort of unexpected results.
For example, the red wine he fused. Wizard Morton discovered that it could enhance a wizard’s speed in leveling up. There was also the rum he made (AKA master’s wine). It wasn’t supposed to work like a magical item, but it was superbly effective in resisting colder climates.
With all these previous examples, Abel should’ve not expected the rabbit essence to be something ordinary. Like, he didn’t find any effect at first, but now he did.
“Bartoli,” Abel instructed her, “Go to the blacksmith’s guild for me. Use the contact circle they have there. I want you to make a call to Bernie. Tell him to send a few dogs in separate cages.”
“What for, Master?” Bartoli asked.
“It’s for a little research project.”
In the afternoon of that same day, several caged dogs were transported to Abel with the teleportation magic circle. As weird as it seemed, none of the escorts bothered to ask any questions. They all knew how eccentric Grandmaster Abel was at this point. That being said, they were extremely devoted to making sure that they were doing the best job that they could.
After receiving the ten batches of the caged dogs, Abel immediately opened his barrier circle and went into the dark world. Then, over the next ten days, while he was inside, he recorded the behaviors of the dogs after he fed them meat that was drizzled with the rabbit essence. There was a placebo group and an experimental group. After he fed different meat to different groups, he started recording the changes in their behavior.
After he was done, he went back to his house and told Bartoli his results.
“The rabbit essence does not contain any sort of toxin that is harmful to consume. That being said, it is an extremely addictive agent that is extremely difficult to resist upon first contact.”
Abel continued his report, “Once consumed, the craving that is created by the smell will normally disappear within two days. However, in cases where the presence of the smell is prolonged, as I have tested, the craving will be strengthened. It can last for even three days or more.”
“For humans of any class, consuming the rabbit essence would make them lose all interest in any other food. While the effect would wear out in three days, they will still crave for the food during those times. I think the craving can last for at least ten days.”
Bartoli immediately thought of an idea, “How about we make a profit out of this, Master? We do need some points now, so I guess… Why don’t we set up a restaurant or something with this?”
“Uhh …”
It was a pretty good idea to Abel. That being said, it did seem a bit bizarre. He was a well-known blacksmith. If he wanted to, he could go for a blacksmith job to live in Liante City. If he did decide to open up a restaurant, no one would’ve seen it coming.
Abel said after a bit of thought, “It’s an excellent idea.”
Obviously, he still remembered the three missions that were “specially assigned” to him. Now that he’s got the option to set up his own business, he could just flat out object to the idea of working for someone he didn’t know of. Besides, it’s much easier to open a restaurant when he could just leave Bartoli to do it.
The more he thought about it, the more feasible Bartoli’s idea seemed. He could picture it all now. Once the restaurant’s made enough profit, he would be able to afford a six-level magic tower, a large defensive circle, and a teleportation circle. He would’ve had everything he wanted from this city.
Bartoli was already thinking about the details, “It’d be easy to hire the waiters and such, but we can’t let the recipe be leaked to anywhere else. Actually, let’s not think of the people that are doing the cooking as “chefs.” We should treat them as a completely brand new profession.”
“True,” Abel nodded, “I would let you stay in the kitchen to handle the rabbit essence, but that’s going to raise a lot of suspicion. Besides, you do need some practice to do this.”
Despite her role as Abel’s assistant in many things, Bartoli was an intermediate wizard. She had her own priorities, and that was to develop her ability as a full-fledged wizard. Actually, since Abel really wanted Bartoli to be a great helper, it was definitely the right choice to not overwork her with bottom-end chores.
Bartoli smiled as she appreciated Abel’s understanding, “Maybe you can leave it to your summoned creature, Master. If any of them has particularly high intelligence, they might just be able to learn how to cook.:
“Hmm. It’s probably possible. Let’s see… since it must be a humanoid summon that does this, I can only let the spiritual guardian knight try it out. I let you be its instructor.”
And that’s what they did. The next morning, Bartoli took the spirit guardian captain to the kitchen to teach it to cook. Meanwhile, Abel summoned the undead crow and began to practice his “charge” skill.
“This is fantastic, Master!” Bartoli reported to Abel at noon, “The intelligence it possesses! Once it has made a mistake, it will never repeat it again!”
At the same time, Wizard Alberta was in his house, carefully rubbing the steamed egg he saved with his hands. Yes, he saved an egg for an entire day because he didn’t want to eat it too fast. He was even counting the number of tiny scoops he could make before finishing it.
Head Commander Lange was sitting right next to him. He was gulping down a bunch of different foods he could find, but they all tasted bland to him. At this point, he’s already given up the idea of asking Alberta to share with him.
Head Commander Lange complained, “It’s getting a bit hard to contain myself here. You said I could ask tomorrow, but that’s just too long!”
Wizard Alberta replied, “Yeah, and if you want to go, go by yourself. You know, I was pretty desperate back then. The guy had an intermediate wizard as his housekeeper. I don’t want to risk offending them a second time. ”
“About that,” Head Commander Lange’s eyes started to fire up, “You do have a point. Whoever’s the owner, he must’ve been very, very powerful, so much so that nothing we can offer would impress him.”
“Still, that’s not to say that we couldn’t try to study him. Like, he’s a living person, no? He must have some sort of weakness, some sort of desire that he would trade anything for. If we can know what it is, he won’t be able to turn us down, I just know it!”