Magic Puppet

Today's lunch and dinner menu includes Cheese Baked Mashed Potatoes, Salt and Pepper River Shrimp, and Tomato Soup.

The good fortune from the morning didn't continue, and in the next half of the day, the restaurant only welcomed a few townspeople buying vegetables. Naturally, there was no need to frequently change the menu.

Ina and Lusen's lunch was Cheese Baked Mashed Potatoes. Ina was very appreciative of the system's decision to classify cheese as a seasoning, allowing her to exchange a large amount at once.

The boiled potatoes were mashed finely, mixed with a little milk, salt, onion paste, and black pepper, and finally topped with a thick layer of cheese before being baked in the oven for half an hour.

If desired, a few bits of ham could be sprinkled on top of the cheese. Lusen loved this method, and when Ina asked about his taste preferences, Lusen's eyes sparkled like a wildly wagging dog's tail.

After lunch, Ina began to ponder her experiences running the restaurant these past few days. The main problem the restaurant faced was the contradiction between the growing demand for ingredients and the outdated supply. River produce could only be obtained by Ina hunting, the vegetable planting area covered less than two square meters, and while smoked meat and flour were easy to buy, they were the main food for the townspeople and had no appeal to them.

Ina sorted out all the ingredients she had. The food from the lottery included: 9 instant seaweed egg drop soup packs, which tasted good when Lusen tried one on his first day. These could be used as emergency soup when the restaurant was busy. There were also 4 sandwich hams, and even after adding ham to various dishes in the past few days, they had only consumed one. 8 fruit cans were kept as promotional prizes for the coming week. The 5 chocolate bricks remained unchanged, despite selling several hot chocolate milk.

In addition, the only sustainable source of ingredients was the mushroom cultivation room, which could harvest 10 pounds of random mushrooms every day. The first day only yielded common enoki mushrooms, but today they got lucky and got rare porcini mushrooms with a two-star rating. Aside from porcini mushrooms, all the vegetables Ina grew were rated half a star, referred to as "ordinary ingredients that can only fill the stomach and have no special effects" in the system evaluation.

The game Ina brought back from Midnight Marsh was the most precious of all the ingredients: two three-star Cold Thorn Fish, three one-star palm-sized river clams, and nine one-and-a-half-star slate-colored giant river shrimps. In addition, there were some purchased flour, a piece of smoked bacon, and two sausages.

These foods were enough for an ordinary person to eat for half a month, but they were a bit tight for running a restaurant. What she needed was a long-term, stable food supply chain, like a farm, a fish pond, or, if nothing else, a mushroom cultivation room. "We need to increase production comprehensively," Ina said to Lusen.

Lusen actively supports his boss. He takes out a mechanical puppet with slightly uncoordinated proportions. The puppet has a large hole in its chest, and its outstretched arm is tightly clenched. Ina asks, "Is it a magic mechanical device?" To be honest, this is the first time Ina has seen such a crude magical device, and she only recognized it by the magic pattern on the puppet's chest.

Lusen enthusiastically promotes it to Ina: "This is my final project for the elective course in the magic mechanical study, mainly applied to potion making. As long as you put a magic crystal stone here," he points to the puppet's chest, "and place the ingredients in order, it can make basic potions below level two!" His intention in taking the elective course was to free potion makers from boring primary potion-making, and he succeeded in doing so!

"Why is it so dusty, then?" Ina blows off a layer of dust from the puppet's head, leaving Lusen with a face covered in dust.

He touches his head and reveals an awkward smile, "The magic crystal stones are too expensive... The potions made are not even worth half the value of the stones."

"However," he raises his head confidently, "I've made improvements to it. Now it can function with a simple restoration magic circle and a winding mechanism."

"Wait," Ina interrupts, "What does this have to do with increasing our ingredient production?"

"The magic puppet won't get tired, and it's more efficient at planting vegetables than me."

Excited, Lusen moves to the bathtub farm, puts a handful of lettuce seeds in the mechanical puppet's hand, and says, "Lettuce has the shortest growth time, only twelve seconds." He adjusts the winding mechanism to the proper position, "Every twelve seconds, the puppet will start to move."

Ina watches as the ugly mechanical puppet grabs a few lettuce seeds, presses them into the soil, and then maintains its outstretched hand for a dozen seconds as if it froze. When the lettuce seeds sprout and grow to a harvestable height, the puppet pulls them out and smoothly plants the next seed.

Ina applauds slowly, "Very good, now our restaurant has two employees."

Unexpectedly, the system really pops up a dialogue box. [You have gained a new employee 1-1 (affiliated with Employee 1-Lusen). Click here to rename]

The name 1-1 isn't that great and lacks memorability. Ina thinks about it and renames the mechanical puppet "Uproot."

Freed from the mechanical task of planting vegetables, Ina still hasn't figured out how to expand the industry. A small splash of water splatters beneath her feet as a river clam in the basin spits out water. Feeling agitated, Ina decides to go fishing by the river to cleanse her restless soul.

Lusen hesitates and calls out to her, "Miss Ina, could you allow me to study the inscriptions on the cupboard?"

He knew that his idea was somewhat offensive, but for a mage, a well-preserved and extremely precious time branch inscription was like buttered bread in front of a vagrant or a bonfire on a cold night, tempting him all the time. If Ina refused him, he could let go of this thought and avoid being restless every time he took ingredients from the cupboard.

Ina casually waved her hand: "As you wish."

On the Moro Continent, inscriptions are even more precious than magic arrays. There are many types of magic arrays, and their drawing difficulties vary according to their effects. Even a novice mage apprentice can learn one or two of the simplest basic magic arrays, while a senior mage often can explore new ones. However, inscriptions are said to be gifts from gods, and each of them has a powerful effect.

Though they may look like slightly complicated drawings, copying them is extremely difficult. A mage needs to control the rampaging magic power to draw lines, which is as difficult as holding a monkey's hand to copy famous paintings of the world. An experienced mage may retain some dignity in front of the monkey, while a rusty mage can only watch the magic power run wild like a monkey.

Ina spends the night fishing with her homemade fishing rod by the river in Midnight Swamp. As dawn breaks and she still enjoys fishing, she becomes worried about the situation in the restaurant and calls out the system to inquire, "Is there a camera-like function? I have something to tell Lusen." If she could add NPC as a friend, Ina would have chatted with Lusen privately. Now, with only herself as a player on the continent, the communication function is merely a decoration.

Surprisingly, such a function exists. The scene inside the restaurant appears in front of Ina: The first batch of customers hasn't arrived yet, and Lusen is drawing something on a table. Seeing his bloodshot eyes, it seems that he hasn't slept all night.

"Lusen, can you hear me?" Lusen looks around in surprise, and after recognizing Ina's voice, he becomes more composed. He has grown accustomed to his boss's vast magical powers and casual freedom.

"I can hear you clearly, Miss Ina." Ina, still enjoying her fishing, entrusts Lusen with the task of choosing the lucky customer who will receive the canned fruit.

Lusen readily agrees and casually asks, "How's your catch?"

Ina laughs, "Not bad. If this fish takes the bait, I'll have caught three."

After a second of thought, Lusen shows a puzzled expression, "Well... That's quite a few."

"By the way, how's your study of the inscriptions going?"

Lusen shyly pulls the parchment on the table closer to him, "I'm just one stroke away from drawing it."

Great!

Inscriptions, in order to maintain the flow of magic power, seem to require only one stroke. Today is another day of tacit cooperation and mutual progress with the employees!