Chương 848

CH848

"Alright, guess it's time to see if I passed or not," Ben muttered once the time limit ran out and a new doorway appeared. With the reassurance that failure wouldn't mean his death like in so many other towers and trials, that meant the only way to know if he'd succeed or not was to step through and see where it would leave him, with a bit of fear inescapable as he stared at it. It was something he couldn't help.

That floor had seemed so simple, it was practically forcing him to overthink, questioning if there was some trick to it he'd just missed that was going to dictate if he'd pass or fail beyond just making his kitchen. But if there was, it's too late to worry about that now. He sighed. All I can do is see how my efforts turned out.

Based on the directions he'd been given he could only believe he'd done as asked to the best of his abilities, leaving only to step through and see if he was right so putting it off no longer he pushed open the door and let himself go beyond, freezing in place the second he did.

"Well, that's interesting." Again he was given no rest area, not that he needed one since he'd been waiting hours for the last floor to end but he'd been left completely unprepared for the new floor he'd found himself on, walking through the door only to reappear in the kitchen he'd just made, the only difference being there was now a doorway in one of the walls he'd built.

The others with him were looking around in surprise as well but he ignored them, instead walking over to the pedestal where the previous instructions had been, hoping for some guidance and getting it as he read the new goal, muttering as he did.

"Interesting."

"What?" Thera asked, the first to peek over his shoulder to see the new challenge for herself before reading it aloud for the rest of them.

"Using the tools and ingredients provided, build a dining room with a pleasing aesthetic and prepare the best three-course meal you can for all participants to be eaten before the time is up, with a time limit of four hours? The goals here seem subjective."

"They do but at least I'm seeing the benefit of the kitchen I just made. Having one floor lead into another, huh? I like it. Forcing me to live with the consequences of my last floor is a neat little gimmick. As far as trials go, I'm giving these two floors together five out of five stars."

"I don't think the gods are going to care about your ratings, Ben."

"They should, considering how many towers have floors that get zero. A perfect score from a certified trial hater? That's gotta feel a little good for anyone who helped make this that's watching."

"Okay, but maybe don't waste your time being impressed like this?"

"Alright, yeah, you got it. I'll get this over with so everyone just sit tight." She was right, he was on a time limit so wasting no more he hurried over to the door and let himself through to see just what he was going to be dealing with, finding a small hallway beyond with two more doors each as he opened the closest and looked around the small room it contained. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"So an ingredient storage then?" He said as he examined what he'd been given, with an overall reasonable selection.

He was seeing fruits and vegetables and a few cuts of meat as well, along with other staples such as eggs, grains, and seasonings across a spectrum of flavours but a good selection was only as good as the quality he'd been given, with him testing exactly that as he sprinkled a pinch of the first spice he could reach on his tongue and carried on from there to the others, eventually moving on to try one of the fruits before he finally stopped, with one fact inescapable.

"Bland," He sighed, seeing exactly where the challenge was going to lie.

"The flavour in all of this is so much weaker than it should be, it's like the spices are all old and the fruits were all picked at the wrong times but… This is still manageable. For now, I'll sort out the other part of this floor and come back to this when I'm done."

With the second part sure to be far quicker considering how the last floor had gone, with him making his way through the next door to find the same empty expanse he'd been in before he'd made his kitchen, only with piles and piles of materials to be used and the tools to do it waiting at the side for him to ignore.

Since he needed to focus on cooking he wasn't going to waste time playing around and instead spent his mana to reshape everything he'd been left as wood was bent and warped to create a large table and chairs for each person before the rest was broken down into fibre and woven in the air at his side, available dyes adding subtle touches of colour as a tablecloth and place mats were made and set down, all of it with consideration for how they'd match the plates he'd made on the previous floor since he'd been told the overall aesthetic was important, even if he didn't know how the trial was going to judge it.

He began building the walls at the same time that was all going on as well, again focusing on the overall appearance he was creating as he did by turning the stone he'd been provided into polished tiles to contain the area and considered what would be needed while a ceiling was added at the same time. Namely, lighting.

The simple answer of course was to just make some enchanted lights to illuminate the space while they ate, he was certain he could have created some that would do the job while being pleasant in both their glow and appearance but that felt too simple. He was in a trial for crafting of all things, he could get far more creative than that so what he instead made were windows, creating a view into the void beyond before he changed that.

On the other side of the panes of glass ended up being metal plates that he'd enchanted one by one with light magic, carefully creating a peaceful scene beyond as he replicated something from his memories, making it look like what waited on the other side was the park he used to like to draw in before he'd died, showing a broad grassy field with a few benches in it and a row of houses farther back, a scene of a few children at play that was consistent from one window to another as they chased each other around and leaving him more than satisfied with the job he'd done by the time he was finished.

"Which means now on to cooking. Over three hours left for three courses, easy peasy.

'Course, gotta make sure we all have time to eat everything too from the sounds of it but I can make this work." In the back of his head while he'd been constructing the dining room he'd been thinking about the flavours he'd tasted and how he might use them throughout the entire process, feeling the pressure there more than anywhere else. The instructions had told him to prepare the best meal he could for all of the participants but everyone had their own tastes.

He was confident in his cooking skills and he'd been in all of their minds on more than one occasion so it wasn't hard figuring out where their preferred flavours aligned but then it was also a matter of matching it all to what he had to use. But before his thoughts could spiral he slapped his cheeks, trying to get his mind in order.

He was a good cook, one of the best in the world by that point, and so long as he kept away from flavours that he knew any one of them actively disliked then he was certain he'd be able to pull together something delicious, all that there was left to do was make it happen and with that goal firm in his thoughts he went back to the pantry and filled his arms, carrying everything he needed back to the kitchen to finally put that room to use.