Table Upgrade

"It's a very simple small gold chain. But… these stats are… godly. What the hell, how can something this simple hold such powerful enchantments?!? Who was the master who made this?? Was it your master?"

"No, it was kuhum-ahEM- AGHHAH-KAH-KUGH!!" Zeeth started coughing profusely and didn't stop until he forgot what he was talking about. "Do you wanna start preparing some animals? And can you show me the stats?" All these new thoughts suddenly came to his head and he just spurted them out.

Tarud looked at him with concern for a bit but realized that he was alright and he pulled up a bag and dumped a bunch of animals onto the ground where the table picked them up and started cutting them. He then put the monocle next to a screen that he just pulled out of a small purple bag. He tapped the monocle with a blue side of a wire that had come along with the S.S. and tapped the red side of the wire to the screen. He pushed some light behind the screen with his hand and it showed the screen

-luck +100.

-Luck (1000%.)

-Binding

- Shield

"Woah, this looks a lot like the screen that G-he showed me. What are those weird symbols?"

"I'm not sure. Someone encoded one of the enchantments and it's a pretty strong one too. It's able to hide from my monocle. But this luck is incredible, a normal person has average luck of about 10. I only have the luck of about 80. You have at least 1000 luck, and that's not considering your own personal luck."

"Yeah, G-ackha-ACKHAA KUHAM." Zeeth started to have another coughing fit and leaned on one of the boxes, gasping for breath. "Um. What was I saying? Oh, look at the table." they both looked at the table and soon forgot everything that he was about to say. A heap of masterfully cut up and pristine-looking meats were stacked on the table and it was still cutting more rabbits and random animals.

"We can cook them if you want, and then we can feed the others. Right, I still have to show you how it cooks."Zeeth grabbed the horn again and gave it a shake and was moving to the table when Tarud stopped him.

"No, this fire isn't big enough. Light it to this rechargeable torch and we'll cook it with a larger fire. But we'll first move it to a fire-safe room, this place is still too dangerous." He silently packed up all the meat and Zeeth tucked away from the table and they both walked out of the room quietly so that they wouldn't wake up Eviry, and went through the same procedure on the inside, and they went into another entrance. "I'm showing you so many of my secret entrances. Make sure never to tell anyone about these. Haa, I didn't want to use this room. I wanted to keep it unused until I got my first grandchild, then we could play in here. Oh well, you're too dangerous to keep in my mystery room."

"Okay." This room didn't have nearly as thorough of security as the last one, it simply had to be lifted with the right amount of speed and force to open. It was made without any magic, just engineering. This room was a bit smaller, but still very spacious. It was enough to fit a pool table and about 8 people, so it was enough for the two.

All the walls, ceiling, and floor were made up of one metal that never seemed to disconnect. The entire room seemed to be made out of one giant sheet of metal.

He set the table down and started the fire under the table. The table turned a silvery shade and strands of the thread started whipping around and diligently cooking multiple things at once. Zeeth and Tarud both had experience cooking for themselves and started seasoning the meats. The smell and the sound of the meat sizzling quickly spread through the entire room and their mouths started watering.

Zeeth took a small piece of meat that Tarud made and ate it, and the flavor was astonishing. Afir often made salty foods, but his version of the meats was sweet and a little crunchier than he was used to. They were so strange, he never would've thought that sweet food would taste so good.

"Wooaah! I've never eaten stuff like this before! How is it sweet and so good?"

"Oh, is it that good? Hehe, not many people have ever complimented my food before." Tarud looked a little embarrassed but his smile was genuine. "Thank you. And your side smells amazing too, who taught you to cook like that?"

"Afir. he said he's gone all over the world with some pirates before. I think it was the ashtray pirates or something."

"Ashtray? Never heard of them. Wait, do you mean the Astra pirates? No way."

"Oh, yeah! Those guys. Why, are they famous?"

"Boy, you're just one surprise after another. Yes, they were the first pirate group to have founded the legendary treasure called the Ultimate Core. legend says that with it, you can destroy the world at any given moment. This meant power over every individual, and this was why they were so promptly dealt with by the Navy. They even teamed up with other pirates, the Battle of Betrayal was so famous because it quite literally decided the fate of the world.

Well, as you should know, the Astra pirates lost, but because at the very last second, one of them used a dying skill to send a holographic message to everyone in half the world and showed them the dealings that the Navy had with other pirates and the underhanded tactics they used during the battle and the navy lost all respect. The Astra pirates actually had quite a reputation, and it was a good one amongst many. After their fall, many leaders and civilians came together to the funeral and told countless stories of their heroism, losing the Navy even more respect, thus losing them a lot of funds.

Today, the navy is but a shell of it's former, prideful and powerful self.

Too bad all those that they were on good terms with didn't know about the trap. If they did, the Astra Pirates surely would've won that fight. The loss of such powerful and good men like them is a true shame."

The table on Taruds side had started changing color. It became a shade of red while Zeeths side stayed steely and shiny.

"What's going on with your side by the way? It's turning red?"

"Huh? I should be asking you that. Maybe it's because I'm using a different cooking style that it's not used to?"

"Hmm. Oh, the red is spreading to the hairs on your end! I think it's getting accustomed to cooking with your style. The red is slowly spreading to my end." Soon, the red spread completely through the entire table and it still had the silvery look, with just a hint of red whenever it gets cooked on.

"Alright, I think this is enough food for everyone here. I'll keep the others in a freezer bag. Let's serve it soon before it cools down." by the time they were done afternoon had come around and everyone was hungry once again. The last time they ate was at the big dinner when they met Zeeth.

Zeeth went to wake up Eviry as Tarud went to a wall, right across from Eviry, and pulled down a screen where he pressed a button twice and he heard from the speaker, "Guys! It's food time!"

"WHOOO!" Loud cheering erupted and all of the carts pulled to a stop at another small clearing. Zeeth and Tarud came out of the cart carrying three large plates of cooked meats and vegetables and another platter of fruit. Once they got out, Zeeth noticed that they had already been in a vast stretch of green like Afir had said. And he could see in the distance the land getting drier.

"Woaaahhh! You're really going all out today, Tarud! How did you cook all this?"

That's a secret. Over here, we have the salty meats, in my hand, we have the sweet ones, and in the middle is a mixture of the two."

When the table had mixed in with the red, the meat that was cooked afterward had both flavors blended together harmoniously and it was a nice change of pace after eating too much of the salty or sweet since it wasn't too strong in either aspect.

"A mixture of both? Will that even be good?"

"Well, it was pretty good for me. If you don't believe me, try one."

One of them took one and took a small bite and looked up to the air to decide. "Oh, wow! That is really good! I never would've expected that! This is so good!" he chomped down on the rest of his piece and everyone else came up for some as well. They placed the platters down on a platform that they drew out of the cart and everyone got their own helpings. Lady Eviry had her own platter in the carriage, but she wasn't as impressed. She had tried many other amazon foods from professional chefs her whole life, this was nothing special. But that alone made it impressive, a princess of a wealthy kingdom had no trouble getting seconds.

As everyone ate, Tarud pulled Zeeth to the side and told him, "Zeeth. I have some bad news. I'm sorry but I don't think we can accompany you to Jarlon. Something really urgent came up, the prince of Birmalu Kingdom urgently wants to meet up with Lady Eviry, something had happened there. I'm afraid we can't make the detour, you're going to have to get there yourself."

"Oh. I see." Zeeth's smile quickly turned to a frown as he looked to the ground.

"I will let everyone know after the meal. But, don't worry, we're still going in the same direction for another few hours, we can still do a lot together."

After everyone had their fill, Tarud got on top of his cart and told everyone the news and that they would have to leave Zeeth soon. After some angry gibbering, everyone accepted it and went to Zeeth to give him their farewells and they went back to their carts and started them up again.

They spent the rest of the time experimenting with what the table could do and they found out it could do a lot more than cook. If properly handled, it could open locks and play games, although it needed a human to help with the complicated tasks. They also played with the Fluctu Pearl, making sure that they had no evil intentions when using it for fear of their life. They were scared to even hold it for too long. They decided on how to transport the tentacon with Zeeth, he would simply place it on a massive cart and pull it along. Tarud told him how to keep it quiet and how to lay low from the other creatures with such a large tentacon, and how much a typical tentacon sells for so that he doesn't get tricked. He even taught him how to haggle to get even more out of it and how to argue to stay afloat in the world of trading.

"What are you going to do about the thieves?" Zeeth looked over at the happily caged thieves who were given some of the sweet and salty meat as well and they looked over at the mention of them. They had pretty much gotten accustomed to being called thieves now, that's what everyone called them and they had no right to retaliate.

"I'm gonna send them to Birmalu Kingdom prisons where they will probably have them work on building bridges and pave roads. I'll keep these magical tools, though. I do have the right to take anything that criminals are carrying if I ever catch them, according to the rules of Birmalu. That's basically how they set up bounties without having to go through every criminal."

"Oh yeah, can you teach me about these stones? I want to know more about them."

"Oh, sure! I have a lot of experience with these, what do you want to know?"

"Well, what can they be used for and stuff like that, you know?"

"Oh sure, first thing first, never directly jab at these with too much force…" They talked into the night with Lady Eviry again soon after she awoke.

Soon, they all collapsed onto some beds. Tarud and Eviry fell asleep but Zeeth lay awake, his slimes resting for him and constantly keeping him full of energy. He sat there thinking if I'm going to have to leave them soon, why don't I leave now while everyone is sleeping and save us the farewells? Now is the best time. I should really go. But...it doesn't feel right to leave like this.

He looked down and noticed something on his foot. It was a piece of paper and the inside read, "Zeeth, I'm aware that you would likely try to leave while we are asleep. This would be the best time, there will be a fork in the path that we will meet at around 1 a.m. and you should take the left one and we take the right one. I won't try to stop you, but I would like to give you one last present for allowing me to learn and experiment with the product of Faber." the following was a list of instructions leading him to a small compartment under a chair which was also seamlessly blended in.

'This cart is seriously something. All these secret compartments for storing things.' but under the chair was a small stone structure. It looked just like Zeeth, but the gear that he was wearing was all legendary, glittering items that not one person had ever held together. He looked at the sculpture in amazement, the details were so immaculate that when he looked at his face it was like looking in a stone mirror. He could even take the sword out and the polish allowed him to see his own reflection.

Beneath the instructions it read, "I first started off as a sculptor, selling my artworks for a living. That allowed me to reach these heights and I am really fond of sculpting. I have a Talent called 'Future Sculpt' where I randomly doze out at times and sculpt whatever my hands make me sculpt. The result is usually about someone or something that will be important to me or the world, but I have never sculpted something this detailed before, even with separate parts and all.

I had made this piece even before we met and kept it somewhere secret, awaiting the day when it would become useful. I completely forgot about it until just now, after we had cooked. You look frighteningly similar to this man here and I have no doubt that this would be you someday. If you plan on leaving, take this with you. I'm sure it will be useful to you someday. Maybe it will even spur you to become a sculptor yourself. I am sure you will become a great man."