When Nami emerged from the Midnight Swamp carrying two thornfish, she spotted a figure standing outside the tavern from afar. The radiance stone's light was steady and enduring, illuminating the person's brown hair.
Oh no, the tavern wasn't ready to receive customers yet.
Nami walked to the entrance and called out, "Hello?" The person instantly turned around, their gaze showing momentary confusion before quickly composing themselves: "Ma'am, my name is Lusen. Are you looking for a server?"
The person appeared to be seventeen or eighteen years old, with a slightly round, childlike face that made him seem unreliable, but his deep blue eyes lent him an air of sincerity.
"Yes," Nami hesitated, "but as you can see, I haven't posted the wages yet."
The thornfish in her hands suddenly began struggling violently, their tails thrashing wildly with loud "slap slap" sounds. Nami hadn't expected their vitality to be so strong and frowned as she tossed them onto the doorstep. Looking up to see the young man staring at the ice thornfish, she asked, "Do you know this type of fish? How do they taste?"
The young man looked somewhat embarrassed and waved his hands: "No, no, while I recognize thornfish, it's only as fish bones used for magical materials. I've never eaten them."
Magical materials? Nami cast an identification spell at him.
[Name: Lusen (Commoner) Profession: Mage Race: Human Age: 17 Level: 22 Assessment: A newly breakthrough beginner mage, fourth-year student in the Potion Studies program at Starlight Magic Academy, experienced part-time worker]
He was a young mage. Nami went with the flow: "Are these magical materials valuable enough to hire a tavern server?"
Lusen was overjoyed. He had been prepared to work even without pay, since by Misty Town's standards, room and board was already decent compensation. Thornfish bone powder was a main ingredient for frost potions - a palm-sized fish bone could sell for 50 silver coins, let alone these large fish the size of a forearm.
After they reached an agreement, Nami turned to remove the dagger pinned to the door. The two long daggers were pulled out, yet the wooden door remained perfectly in its frame, achieving a delicate balance.
Nami didn't want to break the illusion that "the door seemed to be fixed," and said while turning around, "My name is Nami. You don't mind entering through the window, do you?"
Lusen's eyes showed deep confusion. This strange young woman had made no effort to hide her eccentric behavior since they'd met.
She had a beautiful appearance and seaweed-like long hair, wearing a thin dress in this weather, revealing a section of pale calf. Keep in mind that while the Midnight Swamp in Jiyue didn't freeze, the temperature wasn't exactly friendly.
Perhaps she was a witch - he'd heard some witches liked to use potions to turn their hair vivid colors. But seeing her casual treatment of the thornfish, Lusen wasn't sure. Would a witch who caught thornfish discard the bones that could be made into magical materials and keep the worthless meat?
While he puzzled over this, Nami had already jumped through the open window. Lusen hurriedly picked up the two still-flopping large fish and followed.
Lusen quietly surveyed the tavern's interior. This wasn't his first time at the Dragon Flame Tavern in Misty Town, so he keenly noticed changes in the tavern's decor. The beeswax candles that used to sit on tables were gone. The previous owner disliked overly bright light, so the tavern had always been dim and gloomy. Now the room was filled with just the right amount of light - even sunlight has variations in brightness, but the lighting here delivered illumination equally to every corner.
The entire tavern was transformed, extensively using warm country-style colors that looked very cozy, making Lusen almost forget the Dragon Flame Tavern he used to jokingly call "the dark wizard's little workshop."
As soon as Nami returned to the tavern, the system's cheerful voice rang in her ears: [You have met the opening conditions: repair the broken wooden door (1/1), have one staff member (1/1). Reward: 1000 achievement points. Please work hard to serve more customers and gain experience and reputation points!]
Nami's expression was somewhat subtle. The system was so eager for her to open for business that it would even tell such a shameless lie about the door being fixed.
Achievement points were a new type of reward. When Nami checked their function, she was surprised to discover they were a type of lottery token that could be obtained through missions and daily operations. The prize pool contained seeds, decorations, coins, and many special items. Every 100 achievement points allowed one draw, and 1000 points was exactly enough for a ten-pull, with each ten-pull guaranteed to have a three-star reward.
Nami's gaze swept across the top of the prize pool, and those golden five-star rewards nearly blinded her. Don't try to trick her into grinding the game - she saw nothing!
[Automatic Meal Preparation Mechanical Bee Swarm★★★★★], [Sword Saint-level Guard Golem★★★★★], [Space Extension Magic Array★★★★★], [World Tree Seed★★★★★], [Sacred Oak Brewing Barrel★★★★☆], [Scholar's Tome★★★★☆]...
Nami: Everything I see before me are illusory bubbles that will gradually fade in the river of time. Only by extinguishing the fire of delusion can I achieve temporary peace... Wuu wuu wuu how can I get them!
She cursed the system while unhesitatingly doing a ten-pull.
[You obtained: Cucumber seeds☆*10, Tomato seeds☆*10, Decoration - Imitation stone fireplace★☆1, Copper coins97, Instant seaweed and egg drop soup packets★10, Silver coins3, Sandwich ham★*5, Onion seeds☆*10, Multi-purpose kitchen set★, Mushroom cultivation house★★★*1]
[The seed shop has unlocked purchasing rights for cucumber, tomato, and onion seeds!]
A row of items immediately appeared on the counter, and the tavern panel's funds jumped twice, becoming 18 silver coins and 97 copper coins. Nami dragged the imitation stone fireplace to the southwest corner, and the fireplace with its exquisite carved reliefs immediately burst into warm flames.
Lusen's eyes widened at the suddenly appearing fireplace. His fish-filleting motions paused as he tried not to seem too surprised. The boss not only had spatial storage devices but also mental power strong enough to remotely manipulate heavy objects like fireplaces. Why would such a powerful person come to a remote town to run a tavern?
While Lusen puzzled over this, Nami had already left the kitchen to find a room for the mushroom cultivation house. She had wanted to take it directly from her backpack to look at it first, but the system warned her it was a big item that needed a dedicated empty room.
[Mushroom Cultivation House★★★: Mushrooms, a great ingredient that can grow well without sunlight. Add sufficient nutrient solution, and harvest ten pounds of random mushroom varieties daily. Spend achievement points to increase yield. Harvest countdown: 24:00:00]
Rows of shelves with straw appeared in the room, with a glowing groove beside them indicating where Nami should pour the nutrient solution. Filling the groove consumed ten portions of nutrient solution. If this was just one day's usage, it seemed like quite a lot. Nami only had about a hundred portions of nutrient solution, and with the tavern not operating, the slime recycling house had almost no output. She still needed to serve customers quickly - maybe she could even get achievement points and do another ten-pull. But the system said the nutrient solution would last about a week, which put Nami at ease.
When she returned to the kitchen, Lusen had already prepared the thornfish. Rows of snow-white, delicate fish fillets were arranged on porcelain plates, uniform in size and very pleasing to anyone with OCD.
Nami directed him to put the fillets in the cabinet refrigerator. As they passed each other, she heard a loud rumbling sound. Outside the window was pitch black - it was indeed time for dinner. Since she had promised room and board, Nami certainly wouldn't shortchange this diligent little mage, but looking at the available food, she felt somewhat troubled.
Would just seaweed and egg drop soup for dinner leave them too hungry to sleep? She thought while unwrapping the package. The prepared seaweed and egg drop soup had thick ham added to it, floating together with the light, thin egg ribbons, looking quite appetizing.
As for why they weren't eating the prepared fish fillets - of course, it was because no one present knew how to cook fish.
Nami ladled a small bowl of seaweed and egg drop soup to taste. The flavor was surprisingly good, with no trace of being a packaged instant product. The system's products were indeed premium quality.
Lusen sat by the warm fireplace holding a large full bowl. He took a big sip of the soup, and the delicate egg ribbons with their soft texture slid across his tongue. The savory broth mixed with the salty fragrance of ham drove away the damp cold and hunger for this travel-weary guest in the foggy town. Lusen leaned back in the comfortable chair, relaxing his tense nerves as waves of fatigue washed over him.
There wasn't much to do in the tavern anyway, so Nami showed Lusen to his room and let him rest.
Unlike Lusen's weariness, Nami was quite energetic, in that highly engaged state of just getting the hang of a new game. She looked at the new mission that had appeared while making the seaweed and egg drop soup and rubbed her hands together, ready to get to work.
[Professional Entry Mission: Create a dish with over 90% completion rate. Reward: Chef skill book [Home Cooking Encyclopedia]]
Nami learned that a dish's star rating depended on both ingredients and the chef's skill level. Even a top chef with the most professional techniques and exquisite seasoning would be limited by the raw materials' quality and couldn't make a green salad reach five-star level.
But completion rate was purely a test of the chef's technique. For a cooking novice like Nami, simpler dishes were naturally better for completing the mission.
Forget the green salad - remembering the system's harsh evaluation, Nami quietly put down the lettuce seeds she was holding.
Let's plant some cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions first!
This time with nutrient solution, the crops no longer looked withered and yellowed like the lettuce. Nami quickly harvested a small pile of tomatoes and onions. Only after the cucumber seeds sprouted did Nami realize cucumber vines needed trellises. With the speed crops grew in the bathtub farm, there was no time to set them up. The cucumbers growing on vines sprawled on the ground looked hideously ugly, with yellowed areas where they touched the ground.
[Congratulations on completing side mission 1-1: Harvest 10 times from the tavern's affiliated farm. Reward: 500 achievement points.] Farming also gave achievement points!
Crops could be harvested every few minutes. Nami got addicted to farming, and by the time she snapped out of it, she had used up all the seeds from the lottery. The table was piled high with vegetables. Fortunately, the cabinet refrigerator could keep things fresh, or all these vegetables would have rotted.
It was getting late. Nami stored the vegetables and returned to her room to sleep. The black dragon didn't seem to need to maintain human sleep schedules, and she didn't feel tired either, but she habitually felt it was time to sleep.