Guild Wars-Novel

Chapter 58 - The Art of Cooking

Draco woke up in the morning feeling refreshed. He lay n.a.k.e.d amidst the mass that were barebacked, sleeping Elven girls. All of them had differences in height, looks and skin tone, but they all shared four traits. They were beautiful, had knife ears, possessed very modest chests and extremely thick, perky bums.

Draco swore that apart from Eva’s face and presence, there was no better sight for him in this world. He felt a tearing pain in his soul when he realized that these girls would cease to exist when the unique quest was over.

Draco’s expression twisted as he thought of that. He had to find a way to allow these ladies to exist afterward!

But he knew that was wishful thinking. How many players had partaken in unique quests over the duration of 15 years in their past lives? The number was uncountable and more than likely, every powerhouse had acquired the ability to partake in more than one.

Even though unique quests swallowed an unholy amount of digital resources that the AI could allocate at a given time, one could not compare the resources the current AI could grant compared to the future one.

Yet, none of these powerhouses had come out with a way to take special NPCs or items and objects that couldn’t be stored in one’s inventory away.

Draco decided to suppress these thoughts as he put on some underwear and equipped a slim cotton shirt. He exited the sprawled mass of Elf girls and treaded his way across them easily.

His steps were light and profound, showing that he was currently utilizing a movement technique.

Draco did not dare to say that he could compare with Eva on the topic of silent and graceful movement, but he definitely was much better than anyone in this timeline.

He made his way into the kitchen and saw that it was nice and clean. Smiling, Draco took out some condiments he had bought when he purchased the Cooking Tradeskill book.

He looked into the cabinets of the room to see that they were filled with a few spices of different kinds. In a metal cabinet that was kept ice cold with frost enchantment, he found a slab of meat.

Wood Elves were not tree-huggers. They were hunters who lived off the land and blended in with the ecosystem. Nature had created them to subsist on meat as well as vegetables, so they ate both.

They were more like humans in this regard.

Draco pulled out some tomatoes, onions and garlic. He also cut off a large slab of the frozen meat and placed it in some hot water to thaw. Draco frowned as he looked around.

He realized that there was no rice. Then again, the kind of location that rice needed to grow in was not available here in the savannah. Still, a meal without some form of carbohydrate felt weird to Draco.

Draco was new to the Cooking Tradeskill, so it wasn’t like when he was practicing Alchemy or Blacksmithing where he knew exactly how to do what, but rather he was treading new ground.

This was a surreal feeling to him, as he’d spent a good amount of time knowing exactly what to do and when, as well as what would happen. Compared to always knowing the outcome of certain events, he found that exploring new things felt much better.

Draco reasoned that the process for Cooking should be similar to Alchemy. It should have the three stages of preparation, action and completion.

Preparation probably included what he was doing currently by laying out the ingredients and planning out his recipe. However, that should only be the early stage of the Cooking process.

Now, he would need to slice and dice the veggies, beat the meat and salt it before boiling it to soften it further. That should count as the middle stages of the preparation stage, which was what Draco started with.

He fetched a chopping board and placed the tomatoes on it first. These vegetables were fresh and juicy, not a single blemish on their skins. Draco cut them length-wise and then breath-wise.

Now, Draco’s absurd talent was displayed. We were mostly shown his acquisitions from his past life without seeing exactly he acquired them. Here we got to see exactly what quantified his ’talent’ when he began creating a Cooking technique as he went on.

He channeled his Control to the max, utilizing both the Void of Perfection and the Body of Godliness to monitor his actions. Coupled with his extreme precision due to his combat proficiency, Draco discovered cooking was much easier than he thought it would be.

But that was of course. The first barrier of entry for cooking was precision and dexterity. Then came knowledge and application. The greatest barrier of entry was timing however.

His Control allowed him to master timing, while his skill allowed him to master dexterity. All he lacked was knowledge on Cooking as well as how to apply it properly.

Draco cut up the tomatoes and onions expertly, his fingers moving so fast that he looked like a robot. His eyes were clear and his face was locked in a focused expression.

Draco put aside the cut vegetables and began to crush the garlic. According the recipe he was using, he was supposed to mash it instead of chopping it up. When it was turned into a nice paste, Draco cleared out the chopping board and brought the meat over.

His Control told him that the meat had thawed well enough thanks to the hot water, but it was still a bit stiff in certain places. Draco curled his hands into fists and raised it above the meat.

After making sure his force was optimally distributed, he brought his hand down on the meat, causing it to tremble but the counter and chopping board beneath it did not shake.

The force of the blow had been evenly distributed into the area Draco attacked! None of it transferred beyond the slab, making it a jaw dropping feat he just achieved.

Damn, I ain’t no physics genius, but that should be impossible... right?

Draco continued pounding his meat, making sure to make it soft and squishy. It needed to be tender for his consumers, who were fast asleep, to devour with ecstatic expressions!

When the meat was well beaten, he took a knife and began to slice it apart with deft hands. He separated the pieces into generous sizes, enough for a person to grab and chew.

He made sure to cut out the stringy tendons and place them in a bowl. He then took out some salt and sprinkled it liberally on the cuts of meat.

After doing so, he placed the meat into a pot of boiling water to soften further. He returned to the veggies which had been put aside.

There were no blenders in the world of Boundless, so he had to improvise. He heated a pot of oil and placed the onions and garlic into it. These ingredients began to sizzle when thrown in, releasing smells that got the stomach rumbling unwillingly.

He took a wooden spoon and lightly shifted the ingredients about so that they could cook well. Heat had to be evenly distributed after all.

Now that Draco was in the action phase, he found that his actions became much smoother and more fluent as he got used to the act of Cooking.

He had been unable to learn how to cook in the real world because he was far too ignorant back then. He had lived off ramen and all sorts of fast food that were cheap but extremely questionable.

Now, he realized his past self really had been quite a bumbling idiot. If it weren’t for the misunderstanding with Eva, he’d have remained an ignorant happy-go-lucky fool.

When Draco was satisfied with the progress of both the boiling meat and the heating onion/garlic combo, he took a bowl and poured water into it.

Then his eyes gleamed with sharpness and he wielded a knife. He tossed the diced tomatoes into the air, making a single swing as he did.

"Sword Skill 56: Myraid Slash!"

Although it was a sword skill, he could still force it with a knife. Even though to the normal eye, Draco had slashed once, in truth he had struck out hundreds of times in that interim.

Normally, Draco could only manage to do a few tens of them, but since he was out of combat his movement speed was 5,000%.

The tomatoes directly became tiny globules as they fell into the bowl of water. Draco took a spoon and began mixing the ingredient, blending it in with the water.

When it had become suitably thick, like a puree, Draco poured it straight into the pot containing the oil and two veggies. He took out his ladle and began to stir the puree well.

Draco brought out a few spices at this time and added a few to the puree, like chili pepper, a trace amount of curry and some bouillon cubes. The aroma of the budding stew became much more tantalizing with that addition.

Draco poured out the hot water in the meat’s pot, allowing the now softened meat to be aired a little. With a smile, he took out a pan and poured some oil into it.

He allowed it to heat for bit, as he applied some sauces and coatings to the meat. When that was done, he carefully placed the meat into the pan, grimacing when the sizzle shot some hot oil droplets on his hands.

He placed all the pieces of meat within the wide pan and watched over it carefully. He checked on the stew and saw that it was simmering pretty well, so he lowered the heat on it.

Draco made sure to turn the meat over frequently, allowing the oil to fry both sides equally. When the meat was sufficiently cooked, he drained it of the oil in a strainer, leaving the glistening meat in it.

He tossed the meat into the pot of stew, chuckling as it plopped inside with a weird sound.

At this point, a huge part of the action phase was done. He just needed to wait for the brew to simmer to perfection, spreading the flavor from the meat and the stew evenly throughout the broth.

Draco used this time to wake up the sleeping Elf babes, who woke up with surprisingly cute expressions for such hardy and ferocious women.

They all filed into the dining area, taking up more than 3/4 of the space. As could be imagined, they hadn’t bothered to wear anything, meaning that it was a dining room filled with n.a.k.e.d beauties with the THICKEST bums.

The pale skinned Elf girls didn’t look too out of place, but the darker ones had white marks all over their bodies. As one could imagine, those were dried s.p.e.r.ms. They way they just idled about nonchalantly while they were coated in Draco’s seed, added a certain sensuality to the scene.

It was as if they had taken his seed as a mark of ownership, declaring that they belonged to Draco now.

Strangely, Draco found that they didn’t smell funny. Instead of smelling like after-s.e.x, they maintained that grassy scent, like a mowed lawn.

The Elf girls all perked up when they smelled what Draco was cooking. Of course, he wasn’t a god tier cook, but for a first attempt, his work seemed appetizing.

Such a thing was mostly due to the fact that Draco possessed extreme motor and sensory control. The mechanical aspects of the Cooking were perfect, but whether it would actually mesh well in terms of the final taste was up in the air.

After chatting with the idle ladies a bit, Draco returned to the the simmering pot and found that the stew had turned into a thick broth that released an inviting smell.

He took the hot pot in his hands, making sure to wear gloves beforehand. He had flame immunity to the highest degree, but that was only with the Dragorugio armor equipped.

He brought the broth to the counter and poured it into a large container. As he stood over the stew, Draco pondered what else he could do. The recipe basically ended here, but he was still at the completion stage. That meant he could add certain toppings and finishings to the broth, but his knowledge was limited.

He eventually shrugged and decided it wasn’t worth risking his good job just to add something fancy. Sometimes, simpler things were much more meaningful than things with unnecessary flair.

Since there was no rice, Draco had wanted to add some bread to the stew, but there were none available in the pantry. He also didn’t buy the recipe for bread because the necessary equipment required to bake bread was beyond what he could access.

So he had to serve the stew as it was, but the arrayed Elf girls didn’t seem bothered by that. In fact, their eyes lit up as they rushed forth to scoop some of the stew into bowls for themselves.

When they took a sip of it, their faces froze for a split second. Draco’s face also froze when they did, thinking that his stew was filled with all the world’s poison.

These females, who had their mouths filled with stew, looked at each other before looking at Draco. Draco’s expression became like dead ashes as he prepared to throw it away.

However, he found that the girls swallowed the stew down and began eating as if possessed. The way they shoveled the broth down their throats was as if it was the last chance they would ever have to taste such a meal again.

Draco, who was usually callous and evil, felt a bizarre emotion well up in him. He had spent his early years in his past life being a cowardly loser until age 21, when he entered Boundless. Then he had struggled his way to the top and beaten out his character flaws, becoming the person his true nature displayed, the same fellow Eva swooned over.

After that, he had spent his best few years with Eva before the fateful event occurred. After that, he became a seething mass of negative emotions. The only thing that had the capacity to give him pleasure was seeing Eva suffer in some way.

After he had reincarnated, he had let go of that hatred and returned to something similar to his natural self, which was surfacing a lot more recently

But he couldn’t remember the last time he felt so genuinely proud of himself for something. After being at the top of the world for more than 5 in-game years, Draco had the notion of superiority drilled into his subconscious.

Him being able to acquire peerless boons and perform almost impossible feats was normal, because he was Draco!

Yet here he was, feeling a bubble of pleasant warmth in his abdomen from the sight of these lovely women enjoying his cooking.

He decided not to partake in the meal, rather leaving the gobbling down to the girls in the room. Draco left and entered the shower, washing himself down from the sweat and dried fluids from yesternight.

He wasn’t like the elf girls who exuded a natural scent that overrode any odor. He was beginning to smell a bit funny, so he absolutely had to wash himself off properly.

Draco exited the shower and wiped himself down, returning to the bedroom where his armor was left after the hot scenes from before. He slowly strapped it on and felt the connection between himself and the Dragorugio set re-ignite.

After that, he made sure he had his everything set before going back to the dining area, where a bunch of n.a.k.e.d and satisfied female Elves were idling around.

When they saw Draco fully dressed like that, their happy expressions became crestfallen. They instantly knew what this meant, that Draco was leaving to continue on with his directive.

They had known that such a thing would happen, but they didn’t think it would be so soon.

"My Lord Drake... must you really go?" One of the more mature Elf girls asked with a hesitant tone.

The rest all held bated breaths as they waited for his response. Draco just took in their hopeful expressions and sighed inwardly. They didn’t need to look at him like that, Lord knew that he hated parting with them much more than they did.

But he was on the clock and had much more important things to do. Taking the time to have some fun with them was just living out his fetishes, but was only a stop by the wayside.

Every banquet must come to an end.

These Elf girls weren’t in love with Draco per se, but they had formed a connection with him after yesternight, on top of the miracle he performed for their race.

Essentially, they just adored and hero worshipped him.

"I’ll return soon." Draco replied with a gentle smile.

Hearing his response, their expressions crumbled and they looked downcast. Draco didn’t want to bathe in this melancholic atmosphere any longer, so he blinked away.

If he had stayed for a bit longer, he might lose his resolve and remain in the midst of these charming big booty beauties for the rest of his life.

Draco spawned in the area near where he met Qiong Qi, crossing his arms as he contemplated what to do next. Naturally, he had to visit the gypsies, but he had to plan out exactly how he would handle them.

Draco didn’t consider himself a man s.l.u.t, so he didn’t want a similar scenario happening with the gypsies where he was swarmed with females looking to vent their urges.

Not that it was bad per se, but he didn’t have time to be sticking his rod into any available hole. Not to mention that he would need to run it through Eva first and see how she felt.

He indulged the Wood Elves because they were the humanoid personification of his s.e.x.u.a.l preference, so he didn’t resist. But with others, they would need to pass a vetting process.

As he stood there, he heard the sound of yawning as Qiong Qi sat on his arse beside him with a sleepy expression. Draco hadn’t even noticed when the fellow had appeared, but just smiled anyway.

"Had a rough night?" Draco asked with a teasing tone.

"Not any worse than yours." Qiong Qi replied with a mocking expression.

The two shared a look before bursting into laughter, only... this laughter sounded malicious and evil!

"Where to next?" Qiong Qi asked with anticipation.

"The glade of the gypsies." Draco stated with a sharp gleam in his eye.

A burst of bright light shot out from Qiong Qi’s eyes as he heard Draco’s response. His face, like Draco’s twisted into an evil and malicious visage, making the two of them look like C-list villains in a crappy movie.

"Such lovely playthings. We will eat well, my brother." Qiong Qi laughed while rubbing his hands.

"That we shall, my brother." Draco snickered with fervor.

The two Evil Beings set off for the poor and unsuspecting gypsy camp, who would rue the day they fell under the thumb of these two!