AWB Chapter 98 : Pastry Chef?
Chapter 98 : Pastry Chef?
Pastry Chef?A dazzling flash of synthesized white light burst before her eyes. With it, Cecilia's figure instantly materialized in the spacious central square.
Although it was only a little past six in the morning, as it was the first day of the version update, many players had stayed up all night to experience the new content as early as possible. So, aside from Cecilia, the vast square was already filled with quite a few players.
From the fragments of conversation between small groups nearby, Cecilia could vaguely pick up some details. These people must have also participated in the lottery, and had the same two chances as she did. It seemed the system made no exceptions for anyone when it came to the lottery mechanism.
She just didn't know if any of them were as lucky as herself.
Rubbing the pendant hanging over her chest through her clothes, she set off, leaving the crowd behind and heading for a street with fewer people.
As for what exactly had changed in this version update, she still had no clue. The game officials hadn't issued any clear announcements yet; everything had to be discovered by players themselves, exploring with their own legs.
Although troublesome—and not suitable for the current restless age of players—it was still rather interesting.
To be honest, besides the combat system, Cecilia never cared much about other updates.
After a period of attempts, she now had a rudimentary cooperative relationship with the outside world. Both Dawn's Light and Yuewu could gather information for her and handle some miscellaneous tasks. Little Persimmon Puppy could collect materials and items for her and also provide a stable place to offload her loot.
With such a strong team in charge of her logistics, the only thing left for Cecilia to do was probably just to fight.
Of course, there was one more thing she had been eagerly waiting to do: traveling far and wide, she planned on heading to Hanfu and the Japanese servers, to fulfill the two necessary conditions for unlocking her mount feature.
Unfortunately, Cecilia still didn't know where the Main Cities of the other servers were, nor how far away they might be. So, for now, she decided to wander around the updated Main City. If luck was on her side, she might stumble upon something like a teleportation item.
After passing a couple of blocks, she saw a large crowd of players gathered ahead, packed tightly at the entrance of a store as if they were lining up to buy something.
While people-watching had always been a national trait—Cecilia was an exception.
Since childhood, she had always hated crowded places.
Even a single glance made her feel an inexplicable urge to suffocate.
In the past, when confronted with such scenes, she would probably have walked straight past without looking, and even if she was curious, she would have sent a PM to Little Persimmon Puppy later instead of squeezing in to find out for herself.
However, it was the first day after the version update, and seeing how enthusiastic these players were, Cecilia couldn't help but waver inside.
What exactly were they scrambling for...?
Surely, it couldn't be for something free, could it?
After struggling internally for a while, not wanting to miss out on potential goodies, Cecilia finally slowed her pace, changed direction, and headed towards the crowded street.
Just at that moment, a player emerged from the mass of people, his face beaming with joy, fingers tapping frantically as though messaging a friend.
Before he could lift his head, a small, snow-white hand silently reached out from the side and landed on his shoulder, scaring the male player into trembling on the spot.
He turned and snapped,
"Who the hell are you? Walking around silent like a ghost, like giving people heart attacks?"
However, when he caught sight of the culprit responsible for startling him, his almost-blurted rude words stuck in his throat, his expression freezing in shock.
Glittering silver hair in the morning light, a peerless face even top-tier Photoshop artists couldn't touch, cold, light blue eyes, and a maid outfit of black and white embossed with rose patterns.
His body stiffened in shock, trembling even more than before.
Ce... Cecilia?!
Although it wasn't the first time he'd seen Cecilia in person—he'd caught glimpses of her in the Main City before—it had always been from a distance. He'd never in his life imagined he would someday meet her face-to-face.
But her gaze seemed anything but friendly...
The girl in front of him was frowning, her delicate brows drawn together, her thin cherry lips pursed, their moist sheen extra enticing. Even the most beautiful flowers would pale in comparison to her enchanting face.
Blood rushed to his head; the male player felt his mind turn into a thick paste. He forced a slightly embarrassed smile, not knowing what to say, and blurted,
"Uh... hey, hey, isn't this Cecilia? Haven't seen you in a few days...you're even more gorgeous up close!"
Clenching her right fist, Cecilia gritted her teeth. She'd love nothing more than to punch him right then, but remembering that she needed something from him, she forced herself to say icily,
"I have something to ask you. If it's inconvenient, I'll just ask someone else."
"No, not inconvenient at all! Go ahead, ask me anything—I'd even give you my bank card password!"
The male player flustered, afraid that his once-in-a-lifetime encounter with her would be ruined, promptly put on his best smile to curry favor.
"What are you all crowded here for? Is that a new shop? What are they selling inside?"
Cecilia glanced at the bustling shop in the distance, her face expressionless as she asked.
"Oh, that,"
The topic seemed to open his floodgates, as if he couldn't wait to share, and he enthusiastically began to explain:
"It's a brand-new potion shop that just opened this morning. The word is, the devs thought the game was too hard, so to lower the difficulty, they're selling limited edition potions—only 7,000 bottles a day, five of each per person. Merchants and gold sellers expect prices to rise, so they've been hiring people to grab them all. I was lucky enough to get five myself."
He then pulled five small glass bottles—not one the same color—from his bag and showed them to Cecilia.
Cecilia focused on the five potions before her, her light blue eyes narrowing slightly as translucent blue windows popped up in her field of vision.
[Strength Blessing Potion (Beginner)]
Type: Consumable
Sell Price: 2 gold coins
Effect: After drinking, grants 15 attack power, 10 physical defense, and 10 magic defense for 5 minutes.
......
[Magic Blessing Potion (Beginner)]
Type: Consumable
Sell Price: 3 gold coins
Effect: After drinking, grants 20 magic, 5 mana points per second regen, and reduces other skill cooldown by 5 seconds; lasts 5 minutes.
......
Apart from these two—for Swordsman and Mage—there were also [Steel Blessing Potion], [Healing Blessing Potion], and [Eagle Eye Blessing Potion], for Paladin, priest, and Sharpshooter, each beginner level and designed for a different class.
With this, Cecilia could easily deduce that there were seven new potions in total, each matching one of the Legend of Kaloran's basic classes.
Frankly speaking, the effects of these potions felt pretty trivial to Cecilia. At her level, the buffs from potions were practically negligible.
But for regular players, they were already pretty generous. And with only a thousand bottles per kind per day, no wonder people were lining up, and some skipping the line in a desperate rush.
She closed the five windows, murmured a soft "thank you", and turned to leave the area.
As she walked down the street, reviewing what just happened, another possibility struck Cecilia:
If this update brought a unique potion for each of the seven basic classes, did her own class now have a similar potion?
She stopped in her tracks for a moment.
But it would be too soon to head back to the potion shop now, and with the streets still so crowded, she decided she'd wait for a quiet evening to go back and ask.
Continuing on, Cecilia passed through several more streets and encountered five or so new shops—tool shops, material shops, and, to her surprise, even a lavishly decorated Dessert Shop and two small taverns. Even early in the morning, the taverns were packed with players.
According to a sign at the tavern's entrance, the tavern was a new place for players to recover magic. Before this update, after using skills, players could only recover their lost mana passively or by consuming rare and expensive mana potions.
But with the new version, drinking in the tavern quickly restored lost mana, and underage players forbidden by law from drinking could instead order juice or other soft drinks.
The catch was, although drinks in the tavern were better and cheaper than mana potions, they couldn't be taken out, and couldn't be used during combat.
As for the exquisitely decorated, adorable Dessert Shop, Cecilia guessed it was probably where players would go to recover health after battle.
Through the sparkling glass windows, one could see all sorts of beautifully crafted little cakes and ice cream. Given the shop's apparent target clientele—probably female players with greater spending power—Cecilia hesitated for a while at the door before deciding to go in and take a look.
"Ding-ling~!"
As she pushed open the wooden-and-glass swing door, a string of windchimes hanging on the backdoor made a crisp, pleasant sound.
A female clerk in a pink apron, her short flaxen hair neat, stood up behind the counter. Upon seeing Cecilia in her maid outfit, her lake-blue eyes lit up, and a look of delight spread across her face.
"I never thought, on our first day open, we'd meet a cooking master such as yourself. You must be here to apply for our pastry chef position, right?"
"?"
Cecilia tilted her head, a big question mark in her mind.