"Cruel! Bro is cruel!" Rogue scurried toward the crates, muttering under his breath as he shot a glare at Liam. "Whatever. I’m still getting that cape. I’ll look like a shadow in the wind..."

"No capes," Liam interrupted, his voice dropping into a stern, clinical tone "Capes are a tactical liability; they snag on the environment, get caught in boss attacks, and provide an easy handhold for enemies to snap your neck. Do you want to be cool, or do you want to stay alive? In this world, ’cool’ gets you a funeral."

Rogue pouted, hugging the egg. "Fine, no cape. But I want a hood with ears, Mirra gets ears! Elizabeth has ears! Why don’t I get ears?"

"Because you’re a seal," Liam said, finally standing up and wiping his blood-stained knives on a tuft of grass.

He turned to the group, his red eyes scanning the treeline one last time. That feeling, the eyes in the dark, was still there, lurking just outside his detection range. It made his skin crawl, but he had a more pressing issue. His internal UI was flashing a notification that was far more dangerous than a hidden stalker.

[Goddess Hestia: "LIAM! THE SCREEN IS BLACK! THE FANS ARE REVOLTING! IF I DON’T SEE SOME QUALITY CONTENT IN THE NEXT HOUR, I AM REVOKING YOUR ’CHEF’S GRACE’ BUFF!"]

Crap "pack it up," Liam ordered, his voice urgent ",pack it up, we’re heading back to town now."

"Wait, now?" Elizabeth asked, still trying to fix her dress. "We haven’t even finished the harvest!"

"The EXP is settled, the meat is prepped, and the ’Divine’ demand for entertainment is peaking," Liam said, already hoisting a massive bag of serpent meat into his inventory.

"I need to get home and start the stream. Hestia is getting grumpy, and a grumpy Goddess means bad luck for everyone, and bad food for everyone"

Mirra stood up, stretching her arms and letting out a soft, feline yawn that made Rogue’s eyes nearly pop out of his head. "Well, if the Chef needs to go perform for his lady, far be it from us to stop him. Though" she glanced at Elizabeth’s frustrated expression and smirked, "some of us might need a little ’private’ entertainment later to make up for the abrupt ending."

Elizabeth ignored her, but as they began the trek back, she found herself walking just a half step behind Liam. She watched the way his back muscles shifted under the weight of his armour, her mind drifting back to the way he licked her neck.

She immediately went bright red and started walking faster, nearly tripping over a tree root.

The moment they crossed the threshold, heads began to turn.

"Look, it’s the iron Hearth girls," Rogue muttered, puffing out his chest and trying to look cool despite lugging a silver egg and a mountain of monster skin.

A group of girls from the Iron Hearth guild paused their conversation. Their eyes widened as they took in Elizabeth’s ruined, mud-stained dress and the sheer amount of silver scales Rogue was carrying.

"Is that... Serpent hide?" one whispered, her hand over her mouth. "Did the Chef actually clear the lake?"

"He’s still alive?" another giggled, her eyes lingering on Liam’s scorched, bare torso. "and he looks... well fed."

Their admiration was short-lived, however, as a group of players with crimson insignias on their cloaks pushed through the crowd.

The Ruby Eyed Guild. They didn’t take kindly to a Chef stealing their glory. "Kicking up dust for a cook?" the lead swordsman spat, laughing as he kicked a cloud of dirt toward Liam’s boots.

"Enjoy your little fish-fry while it lasts, Chef, a Vanguard who spends more time with a spatula than a shield is just a walking loot drop. You’ll hit a wall soon enough, and we’ll be there to pick up the pieces."

Liam didn’t even blink. He just adjusted the strap of his [Bottomless Ingredients Satchel].

"The only wall I see is your lack of a Balanced Diet buff. Your Agility looks sluggish; you should eat more greens, your pulse is erratic, your skin is sallow, and your ’Ruby’ insignias are trembling. You’ve been grinding for forty-eight hours straight without a single high-quality meal. Your ’Strength’ stat is currently suffering a 15% Malnutrition Debuff."

The Ruby Eyed members snarled, but the town guards were watching they hat to settle for more jeering as Liam’s group moved toward the market district.

"Alright, split up," Liam commanded.

"Mirra, Rogue, go do whatever it is you do when you aren’t being a liability. Elizabeth, go home and take a shower your tail is matted."

"It... It is not!" Elizabeth snapped, though she immediately began trying to smooth her tail. She looked at Liam, waiting for a softer goodbye, but he was already walking away.

"Fine! Enjoy your stupid stove!"

Mirra gave a wink to the fuming Elizabeth and dragged a protesting Rogue toward the tavern district, leaving Liam to head toward the market stalls area.

Liam navigated the winding backstreets until he reached a storefront overflowing with crates of dried herbs, rusted iron, and questionable monster parts. This was the hub of the market district, run by Spring, the man who knew the price of everything and the value of nothing.

"Liam! You’re alive!" Spring shouted, dragging Liam inside the cramped shop."I sent you on that mission for the Taro because I thought you were the only one crazy enough to try, but I’ve been sweating bullets. In this place, nobody comes back from the Lake, Liam, no one even goes near it because the trees are too thick to see through, you could have been slaughtered, and no one would have heard a sound."

[SYSTEM TOOLTIP]: 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

[Item]: Bottomless Ingredients Satchel (Unique).

[Effect]: Negates the weight of food items, maintains 100% freshness.

[Party Morale]:

Liam: 100% Focused on the stream prep.

Elizabeth: 110% Flustered and thinking about "Grinding."

Rogue: 50% Sad about the lack of capes.

Mirra: 100% enjoying the new atmosphere.

[Goddess Hestia’s Note]: "Finally! Get to the house, Liam! Take that shirt off, fire up the stove, and let’s give the people what they paid for! And don’t you dare touch that egg until the cameras are rolling!"