As it were, my Inventory was filled with cooking ingredients, but if I pulled them out, I’d be revealing to her that I had an Inventory. Thus, I had to make do with whatever the bandit camp had lying around, and in a world that seemed to be somewhat behind in their cooking science, that wasn’t much. Still, I got a fire going and put a large army pot over it and started going to work. It wasn’t the first time I had cooked for a large group of people. With a mansion full of slaves and guests, I regularly cooked for ten or more, and then there were the nights we had festivities.

Stews and soups were usually the easiest things to cook in this world, so I focused on making a fish stew. I felt like it’d require the least amount of spices to get the taste right. My Cook job had gained many levels now, and I could do all kinds of things that I couldn’t do before. One particular skill that dropped at level 20 had truly caught my eye. It was called Cooking Buff. If I guessed right, it meant that the food I cooked would start to cause buff effects to stats. This seemed like an excellent time to experiment.

I hummed happily as I cooked. I had always enjoyed cooking, but I was finding it exceptionally enjoyable now. Perhaps, it was because I was surrounded by a new group of people who could benefit from my cooking. Perhaps, the higher level a job was, the more you appreciated doing the job. Either way, I worked out in front of the tent. We were in the middle of a large clearing surrounded by the bandit camp. All in all, we looked to be about dead center.

Of course, while I worked, I wasn’t just enjoying the cooking. I was also checking out the situation, and looking at what it would take to escape. Once my mana returned, I had a feeling it would only take the flick of my wrist to open a Portal or use the Return skill. However, I had no clue how long it would take for the damage to wear off. I was still very weak now, which was all the better reason that I cooked well and created food that helped buff my weakened state.

One strange thing I noticed about the camp is that it seemed to have no protective barriers. I didn’t see a watch, and there were no guard posts, fences, or anything else to keep the bandits protected. They were truly just setting up wherever they felt like it. I had to wonder if this was because of their unusual means of resurrection. I recalled that when bandits died, they could be resurrected in moments. This had to be some kind of Dark Priest skill that I didn’t know about yet.

As I continued to cook and hum while occasionally giving looks out to the rest of the camp, the smells drifted from the pot and attracted more men. Only those that were high officials in the camp dared to approach. After all, Calypso was sitting and watching me cook. However, even she looked like she was extremely hungry as the food finished. When I was done, I made a bowl and offered it to Calypso for the first taste.

Calypso had Salicia try it first to make sure it wasn’t poisoned. Since I cooked it, and I knew I hadn’t tried to poison it, I didn’t mind. However, I noted for the future that I absolutely couldn’t poison her food, as she was sensitive to this kind of thing.

“Mm!” For the first time since I had woken up, Salicia had made a noise.

As soon as she had taken a bite, her eyes widened and she let out a moan of pleasure. Calypso turned to look at her, but Salicia expression had already returned to the expressionless look. Salicia turned back to me and looked me up and down appraisingly.

“You must have the Cook job. To have the Dark Priest Job and the Cook Job, you are a dualist!” Calypso accused.