CH847

He was already pushing the next door open as he asked and rushing through to the one beyond it, barely even noting the lack of a rest area that all of the magic towers had given them with his curiosity not able to be contained. The first floor had been both fun and a challenge, certainly something he could have completed in a far easier manner if he’d let himself but that would have cut down on some of the entertainment he’d gotten from it, something he was already hoping he’d get again as he passed through to the next stage.

With that one looking like it might be a bit easier at first glance. All around him were raw materials, metals and woods and stones and clay, with the tools to use them too, all just waiting for him to get his hands on them with a new plaque waiting in it all to tell him the rules.

“Including walls and a roof, build your ideal kitchen. Floor ends in five hours.” He read aloud, feeling his brow crease as he did. 

Unlike the last floor, this one’s win condition seemed murky. Hell, all it had said he needed to make was the walls and ceiling. If his ideal kitchen was just an empty room where he stored fresh fruits and vegetables to snack on, would that be enough to finish that section?

He supposed it was possible but he didn’t want to risk it when there were other factors he didn’t know about. What if it asked him to use it after and he was left missing a pivotal tool, making whatever dish it would want him to cook impossible to make? Or worse, what if it forced the others with him to do some cooking to satisfy the second floor of the trial?

In both of those situations, he was sure he’d be able to make it work but it was better to try and do things right the first time and immediately got started, this time employing his magic now that there was a time limit as he looked at what he’d been given to use and began shaping it to his desires, wood being reshaped into a knife block with the knives following soon after, pots and pans and cutting boards being next along with shelves to hold them all and a few other storage bits too.

And then, what was a kitchen without dishware? Plates and bowls were all easy and cutlery no worse, leaving him to only have the bigger items to focus on soon after. A stove, an oven, a cooler, and a freezer, all necessities to make a proper kitchen and all things that needed enchantments placed. The gods hadn’t seen fit to grace him with any magic materials for power among what he’d been provided and while anything he made could be powered entirely through one's own personal mana supply, there was no rule stating he couldn’t use anything he’d brought himself and if he was supposed to be making his own ideal kitchen then a part of that ideal included something with a power source, it was a conveniences he just couldn’t give up on.

Then with magic materials out anyway, he thought of more he’d like, thinking back to the conveniences of Earth that weren’t so commonly found on his new world and finding plenty of inspiration in that as he built and shaped a mixer and blender to give himself some more variety and continued on, adding whatever little touches he felt were missing before equipment-wise, he was complete.

Once that was finished though, all that left was containing it, putting some of the remaining materials to create counter spaces, walls, and a roof for his ideal kitchen, making sure it was plenty spacious to move around in but otherwise being done, only an hour being spent.

“Uh, did you do something wrong?” Jake asked him as he looked around. “Doesn’t look like we got an exit.”

“The sign said the floor ends in five hours, I’m taking that as both the time limit and the soonest we can leave.”

“And if you’re wrong?” Amy asked him, not seeing how he could feel so sure of that while he just shrugged.

“I’ve done exactly what it asked me to, I’ve made everything I’d want for a kitchen. Technically, I could add more but at a certain point that just becomes clutter that I wouldn’t want, I can’t make it much better than it already is. Still, gotta say I’m happy with it. I really should make a few of these things for home too when we finish up here.”

“But are things supposed to go this smoothly?” Will asked, the only one among them who hadn’t yet challenged a tower. “I was kind of under the assumption that not having a real team with you would be a handicap.”

“Hush now, don’t go wishing any evil like that on me. If it seems like it’s easy, that’s just because I’ve got the advantages of high levels, an extra-relevant magic in the form of my material manipulation, and the ability to think a thousand things at once. Trust me, without that last one especially, we’d still be in the first floor and probably stuck there for a couple days while I worked through every possible recipe I could think of before finding the best one. I may have made it look easy but that thing was hard. Like, from a technical standpoint, that might have actually been the hardest first floor I’ve seen yet.”

“Sure didn’t feel like it though,” Jake chimed in.

“That’s because all of my efforts haven’t been completely useless. If you go out of your way to learn the medical and chemical properties of every studied plant on the world while also studying enough alchemy to put that knowledge to use, you’d be able to finish it just as easily.”

“...Pass.”

“You sure?” Ben teased. “We could use the rest of the time on that for you, here and now. If I just pull you into my head and make a new circlet-”

“Nope, no, sorry! I’ll watch this foolish mouth of mine and make sure it doesn’t say anything so dumb again!”

Jake still remembered the lessons he’d gotten on both non-affinitied magic and general chemistry, he wasn't going to let himself go through the same again if he could help it, especially not for a subject he’d literally never use.

The reaction left Ben laughing though, slapping his friend’s back before getting up. “Alright, well since we have a while to kill and now happen to have a fully stocked kitchen on top of it, I’m going to start getting lunch sorted so all of you sit tight, it will be ready before you know it.”

Having a floor that was going to force them to wait there the full time was a bit of a shame since it meant they were on its schedule instead of their own but it also meant it was a break to be enjoyed until whatever would come next and since he didn’t know how bad it might get, he made sure to enjoy it for all it was worth until the clock finished ticking down, granting them a door and access to whatever they’d have to deal with next.