Frontier Chef: My Cooking Skills Are Broken-Chapter 33: Dry Run

The golden text pulsed before his face, waiting patiently.

"Show me."

[ Hearth System activated ]

The four symbols pinged like a metronome, a pattern he couldn’t tell if it was deliberate or accidental.

The text showed again.

[ Would you like to learn more about the hearth? ]

The System was being oddly generous. Ezra leaned against the wall, thoughts fighting one another in his head.

’A hearth is pretty self-explanatory. Though it does help to clear things up that I’m not familiar with. Like why the hell the symbols glow every time I heat the counter up.’

"Teach me."

[ Cooking near a hearth amplifies the base output of the host’s Ember Arts beyond typical means ]

[ Similarly, blade-work with knives and similar weapon-based blades are naturally enhanced ]

[ Lastly, being in the vicinity of a hearth also gives the host access to expanded meal crafting synthesis ]

"This sounds nice and all, but what’s the range on this thing?"

[ 25 meters ]

"Can’t I just carry this around with me?"

[ No ]

The girl was watching him from behind the counter again, eyes blinking and drool drying on her chin.

"It’s okay," she said. "I won’t tell anyone that you’re crazy."

"Well you’re too late about that. Everyone knows my class already."

She tilted her head. "What’s that?"

’Besides you, apparently.’

"Forget it."

He looked at the pots hanging from the crossbar. Apart from the one he found with the leftover soup a few days ago, these were older and dark from overcooked soup, or worse.

Ezra hated dishes; that’s why he ordered takeout every time he could back when his back was glued to his bed in his apartment room.

But there were a pair of hands that he couldn’t pass up trying with.

"You."

She was still staring, her head still tilted.

"You want to stay here, you work, got it?"

"Work?"

"The pots." Ezra gestured to the crossbar. "Scrub them."

"How am I supposed to wash it?"

"Figure it out."

"There’s not even water."

The girl’s nose flared.

"Use sand. Use a rock. Use your teeth for all I care." Ezra brought his hand up from where she’d bitten it. It was still raw and red with tiny dots still etched into the skin. "You’ve been biting everything else, so put it to use."

She glared at him with those purple eyes and he glared right back and for a second neither of them moved.

"Nope." She crossed her arms and pouted. "You can’t make me!"

"And why not? I got the papers and they have you under my—" Ezra paused. He hadn’t actually read the paper. He patted his pants without pockets and paused.

The counter. He had left it there and activated the hearth, and now it was ash.

’Fuck.’

That left only the third paper still in his palm, the one with the freakishly ominous note about the little girl being in danger.

Which, what the hell was up with that anyway? Some cruel prank from Leyla?

It wouldn’t surprise him if it was.

In fact, Ezra already planned one of his own.

"Scrub the pots, and I’ll give you more of that secret salt."

The words came out before he could close his mouth.

Her eyes went wide and she tiptoed up in excitement. "Deal. But I want two bags."

"You only get one."

"I want two!"

"I only have access to one more."

"Fine," she said, and walked over to the crossbar.

The pots were hanging at Ezra’s chest height, which put them about a foot above her head.

"I can’t reach them."

"What now?"

"I can’t reach them!"

"Stand on something."

"On what?"

"I dunno. Figure out a stool. Just stay away from the hot stuff."

She dragged a section of volcanic rock from beside the coal pit and stood on it and it put her just high enough to grip the rim of the nearest pot. She pulled it off the hook and it came down on top of her and the noise it made hitting the floor was loud enough to make the nearest guard flinch.

Ezra opened the Market while she scraped. He didn’t even look to see what she was scrubbing with.

"Market."

[ Frontier Market ]

He browsed through the consumables. Renewal Salt restocked, which even then he would only buy one for her—her body exploding was still a possibility. Besides that, it was the usual rotation of D-grade ingredients. He pressed to the next page.

’Tools.’

The Gynoscylla equipment was gone, replaced by Cartigon armor now. How long had it been since he killed it? He remembered the bark hide, the look it gave him when he ended its misery.

One item labeled "NEW" caught his eye.

> Dowser’s Pendulum (C) — 5,000 FT | 1/1

> Type: Tool (reusable)

> Use: Reacts to subsurface water sources within a moderate radius. Intensity of oscillation corresponds to proximity and volume.

> Note: Requires sustained contact with the user’s dominant hand. Effectiveness may vary based on terrain composition and depth.

’The settlement’s dying for water. The wells are drying up and if this keeps up Harken will run dry within the next month. If this thing actually works...’

[ Transaction confirmed: -5,000 FT ]

[ Received Item: Dowser’s Pendulum ]

’Another salt, too.’

[ Transaction confirmed: -150 FT ]

[ Received Item: Renewal Salt ]

[ Wallet ]

> 4,500 Frontier Tokens

It materialized in his hand. A dark stone, smooth, the size of a large marble, hanging from a thin chain that was warm to the touch. The chain was longer than he expected, about the length of his forearm.

The bag came next and he put it on the stone ledge under the coal pit.

He held out the pendulum and let it hang.

Nothing happened.

He walked to the front of the kitchen and held it over the volcanic road.

Still nothing.

’How the hell do I even work this thing?’

Behind him, the sound of volcanic grit scraped against iron. The girl had found a flat stone and was grinding it against the inside of the pot with both hands.

Her technique was terrible, but it wasn’t like Ezra had any say in it.

He’d probably do worse.

Ezra gave up on the kitchen and walked out to the commons. The pendulum hung from his fist and did absolutely nothing.

He walked past the south gate where the second well was down to a bucket.

Nothing, which tracked given the empty well. He walked along the inner wall where the steam vents hissed the loudest and the ground was warmest.

He held the pendulum lower, closer to the stone.

Ezra thought about water because what else could he think of when the sun was beating down on him even at this time of day. Worse yet, there wasn’t a single gust of air at all.

The guards watched him pace back and forth with a rock on a string and the expressions ranged from confusion to secondhand embarrassment.

Theron was nowhere to be seen. Somehow it felt worse than if Ezra had seen him.

An hour passed. Ezra didn’t count but the shadows lengthening across the commons gave it away. The heat was shifting from the brutal afternoon into the long settling warmth of a desert evening.

The three moons wouldn’t be up for hours yet.

Ezra eventually gave up and returned to the kitchen.

The girl was covered in volcanic grit from her fingers to her elbows and it had somehow gotten on her cheeks and into her hair.

The pot beside her was marginally less disgusting than when she’d started.

"I can’t figure this shit out," Ezra said, holding up the pendulum.

"Have you tried throwing it?"

"Throwing it? Like in the air?"

"I dunno. It’s your toy."

"Watch your heads, everyone," Ezra said to the Harkenians walking by.

’Five thousand tokens for this.’

He threw it straight up and it went higher than he intended. It was up there for a good three seconds before it cracked against the ground somewhere down the commons near the smith’s workshop.

The girl leaned out of the kitchen to look at where it landed.

"It didn’t do anything," she said.

"No shit."

"Maybe throw it harder next time."

Ezra ignored her and went to retrieve the pendulum. The smith was nowhere in sight and the obsidian spear he’d been hammering was gone too.

He picked it up by the chain and almost didn’t notice.

The stone was pulling to the right, farther than gravity should allow.

Ezra raised it at a different angle for the hell of it and the stone held the same direction.

’Holy shit.’

He took a step to the right and the pull nearly threw him off his feet.

The Harkenians started gathering around him.

"I found water."