As we left the inn, mounted our horses, and then rode out of town, there was an awkward quiet that overtook the group. After Bradrick’s outburst, the feeling of heroes riding out to make the world a better place was completely obliterated. However, the ride would take most of the day. It was technically a two-day journey. One day’s ride to reach the goblins, and one day’s ride to return home. That gave everyone plenty of time to cool down.

Bradrick was at the lead, his back to the rest of the group, now allowing anyone to get a feel for his current mood. Whether he was still angry or had settled down, it was anyone’s guess. Beedle was staring back and forth between me and Bradrick, clearly lost and confused regarding her true feelings. Rio was the calmest, but even he had some worry.

Bradrick had beaten a guy half to death for acting inappropriately toward me. Rio not only had been the one that instigated this event, but he had also been a bit handsy last night when he was drunk. Was Bradrick going to hold that against him? Given their situation, the moment before Rio’s death might be the only time he’d know for certain if he went too far with the other man. The control that Bradrick had over the group was pretty terrifying.

Anyone he didn’t like could die. I thought Beedle was the biggest concern, but any one of them could turn on the other at any point. That was the cost of a team put together with money that didn’t have any sincere trust between them. I recalled the ones who sold me to the slavers. They were all assholes, but at least they were all in it together. Then I remembered how I had torn apart the slavers, causing them to turn on each other. You wouldn’t even need an enchantress for that effect to happen in this group.

Horsemanship has increased to level 1.

I was comfortable enough on the horse, and I had even gotten the skill horsemanship. I didn’t get basic skills too often these days. They seemed to come harder the high the level you reached. I supposed if you were a child starting at level 1 with no life skills, that made a lot of sense. It wasn’t just my education that allowed me to learn skills quickly, but my low levels which absorbed experienced into new skills as quickly as I could display them.

The system of this world was probably built on the assumption that if you showed that much aptitude with any given skill, you planned to take it the rest of the way. That allowed me to gain dozens of skills, which quickly absorbed into each other and eventually became the arts. My body seemed to have settled primarily on two arts though, the art of deception and the art of seduction. Those two suited me fine.

I spent my time during the ride contemplating what I could do to bring the group closer together. The most obvious thing would be a group orgy. There were two women and two men. Beedle desired Bradrick and had already tasted me. I’m sure Rio would have loved to tame her, and he was clearly interested in me. Bradrick was the only outlier, as I wasn’t sure how he’d react to too much seduction. The problem came on his level. He was a third classer, like his father. However, he was only in the 70s where his father had reached level 90.

That meant that he was likely to be aware of any seduction I used on him. Unlike his brother, he wasn’t driven by a lust for women. Well, if you wanted to be technical, both men seemed to have a loss for power, but Bradrick wanted the power of fame, while Seris wanted the control of individuals. It was a different type of power, but they were a lot alike in many ways.

“We’ll stop here,” Bradrick announced suddenly, getting off his horse.

He handed the reigns to Rio. It was clear he had no plans to do any of the tasks. Those fell on the rest of us. I had been made aware of that, even if no one had specifically told me these rules. I slid off my horse as well. I then concentrated on what I was good with. I used to be bad at cooking and just allowed Min to handle it all, but once I realized a certain fact, my cooking improved substantially. I was an alchemist, but the same skills necessary for alchemy would work for cooking too.

 I didn’t have a cooking skill to be good at cooking. There were probably plenty of decent cooks that didn’t have a cooking skill. However, they had other skills at their disposal that they used to make good food. In my case, my precision and ability to memorize and follow instructions served me exceptionally well.

Someone extremely skilled at using a sword could probably be somewhat decent and wielding a long knife. They may not be the same weapon, and everything wouldn’t be applicable, but there was no doubt an expert swordsman probably wielded a knife better than someone who never held one. The same went for cooking. My alchemy skill could be applied to anything. This is why people in this world didn’t just have a million skills for every action in life. They applied the skills they had for other tasks they needed to complete. The fit wasn’t always perfect, but a monster tamer could probably do okay handling horses. It was that kind of thing.

Once I realized I could, it didn’t take long to memorize and follow a few simple recipes. I had a fire going in record time. My control of fire made this exceptionally easy to manage the temperature. I then began to cook lunch. I did this without being asked by anyone. Beedle’s eyes were wide with shock as she saw my work. Rio had only just finished tying the horses up and had returned to get them some food and a brush, and I already had something cooking.

“Wow…” He let out, and then he looked over at Bradrick, afraid of even complimenting me.

Bradrick gave a friendly smile in return. “I told you she was worth bringing along, didn’t I?”

Both Rio and Beedle seemed to relax with that. Bradrick wasn’t still harboring his anger from earlier. They could both calm down now. As for me, I was already calm. I was exceptional at reading people, and while I might not have seen Bradrick’s face, I knew his type. Had any of us addressed his previous anger, he’d be more likely to hold a grudge, but as long as everyone pretended it never happened, then he would sweep it under the rug. That’s why I didn’t do any silly thing like thank him for protecting me. It wouldn’t endear me to him. Instead, it would embarrass him and make him feel resentful.

He might laugh it off and smile today, but he would hold such actions against me. I wondered if that supposed friend of his, the girl who had drunk my elixir, had simply accumulated too many mistakes. Yes, it was Beedle who had ultimately hurt her, but it was Bradrick who had allowed this to happen. I also suspected that Beedle was on thin ice too because she had attacked another member. He overlooked it today, but there was no saying what tomorrow would bring. I decided to address none of it and continue to cook. Beedle sat down, keeping an equal distance between me and Bradrick, while Rio went to finish tending the horses. Bradrick watched me quickly prepare a meal.

“You also have fire magic,” Bradrick stated as he watched me.

“Doesn’t Beedle as well?” I cocked my head.

Beedle’s face turned red. “I-I never learned that element! I know lightning, water, and ice offensive spells!”

She didn’t sound offended, but some of her previous competitiveness had returned. She was already starting to put our night behind her and return to normal. Still, a seed had been planted, and with a few words or a touch, I could bring back all of those emotions and turn her into a shy bumbling fool at will.

“I see. Yes, I picked up a lot of little skills on the road. I’m only an okay fighter, but I’m useful in many other ways.” I remained vague about my abilities.

This wasn’t unusual, even for his group. We were all adventurers, and even among a party, everyone had their own tricks that they wouldn’t reveal. Even among married couples, it wasn’t too odd to keep a special skill or two secrets. That was just a standard in this world.

“We normally would have snacked on bread and water to hold us over until we arrived. Starting a fire and cooking food takes too long. However, your speed is good, so I suppose we can have warm food.”

The unsaid words were that we weren’t able to eat in the inn before we left because of Bradrick’s outburst. This was as close to an apology as any of us would get. I smiled at him and nodded.

“It won’t be long. In the future, let me know and I’ll try to accommodate.”

He nodded but didn’t say anything else. The food was finished and I passed it out by the time Rio was done with the horses. I didn’t make much. It was just very basic stew, but it soaked into the bread we were planning to eat nicely and otherwise made for a good meal. Rio brought just a little bit of chatter to the group, and by the time we were done, everyone was more relaxed.

“C-can you teach me to cook too?” Beedle asked, blushing.

“I can teach you what I know, but I admit I don’t know a lot,” I responded modestly.

“I feel… a bit more energized,” Rio said when we were done. “I’ve heard of cooks were capable of making food so good that it improved your status. Are you such a woman?”

I giggled. “I wouldn’t be so bold. I just slipped a little bit of stamina potion into it so to ease our journey.”

He let out a cough. “R-really?”

“W-wasting a stamina potion for just this?” Beedle’s eyes widened.

“I can always make more. It may be expensive in a store, but as long as I’m around, this is simple enough.”

Bradrick burst out laughing, slapping his knee. “Didn’t I tell you all having an alchemist would be good for the team?”

“Ah… that’s right.” Beedle blushed as she remembered.

“You can all just say I made it with love.” I smiled.

I let out too much charm with that one, as it stunned all three of them for a minute. I quickly started cleaning up the mess to get past that. Their moods all started to improve after that, and by the time we were riding, a lot of the tension from earlier had melted away.

However, the stamina potion I had concocted was not something I poured into the stew, but something I made directly in the stew. I was just curious if I put some stamina ingredients in if it would become a stamina stew. I wondered how they’d feel if they realized that one of the ingredients, I used was Beedle’s lust from last night. I collected some of her leaky fluids and integrated them into the stew to enhance the potency with my Lifebringer skill. It stated semen, but I had experimented with female fluids too. I thought it helped, but maybe that was my broken brain being hopeful. I didn’t care, I made potions how I made potions, and I wasn’t going to change.

Cooking has increased to level 1.

Hmm… I guess I wasn’t done gaining skills yet. Applying alchemy to cooking allowed me to unlock the cooking skill. Then again, maybe it was because I added my own secret ingredient to the mix? My party didn’t know it, but they were going to be sampling a large assortment of fluids in the future. Don’t worry, it wasn’t anything I would drink.