Aethelgard: The Survival Game (Chloe) novel Chapter 8

Chapter 8 Selling The BBQ Grill

Fair enough. Special seeds came with strings attached.

Chloe tucked the seed away and pulled off the Flora Whisperer’s Cap. The thing had more than proved its worth, though. It earned every bit of that rare quality tag.

The smell of roasting rabbit grew harder to ignore. Chloe sat down nearby and pulled up the random stat card she’d drawn from the silver chest earlier that day.

She’d wanted to crack it open the moment she got it and had barely held off until now. ‘A little extra strength would go a long way, she thought. One measly point in the stat made her dead weight in a fight.

The card dissolved in a burst of light. When the glow faded, Chloe checked her stats and found that her magic had gone up by one. She stared at the screen.

Eight points in magic now, and she still had zero clue what the stat actually did for her. Endurance would’ve been way more useful. Still, a free point was a free point.

Right on cue, the system chimed. The rabbit was done. Rich, smoky aroma rolled off the grill, heavy with rendered fat and char. Two days without a proper meal had taken more of a toll than she’d expected.

Chloe had never been much of a meat person, but that smell set her stomach growling loud enough to echo. She swallowed hard. ‘Gosh, smell incredible. Pure, unapologetic meat,’ she told herself.

She grabbed a piece, washed it down with dew, and dug in.

The rabbit turned out better than expected. Tender, juicy, with just enough fat to coat every bite. The thigh meat had real chew to it without being stringy, the kind of texture only came from an animal that actually got its exercise.

‘Toss in some salt, pepper, cumin powder, maybe a hit of plum powder, and this’d be perfect, she thought. Chloe had a habit of documenting her daily life, and the system was kind enough to include a camera function. She snapped a photo of the meal. It would make solid promo material for the grill later.

She polished off the last bite and noticed her energy bar inching back up. The recovery was slow. A status icon blinked beside it.

[Joyful Dining: Gradually restores up to 10 Energy while eating.]

Ten points wasn’t much, but it beat nothing.

The logic tracked. If work drained energy, rest and food should give some of it back.

While Chloe still had the stamina, she built another grill at the crafting table. She’d need the remaining energy for tonight’s monster hunt.

She confirmed the material cost, and a brand–new grill popped into existence. She stashed it in her inventory and opened the trading post.

MinnieMint: [Oh shit, it’s almost dark again. I’m honestly terrified. My energy was so low today I barely caught anything, and the heat was unbearable.]

MoonGlow: [Does anyone have water? I’ll trade whatever basic materials you want.]

NoMoreBadLuck: [Made it through another night. Looking to buy a fire source…]

Rich DragonWolf: [You gotta be kidding me! I’ve got all this venison and every time I try grilling it over a campfire, it fails. This system is absolute trash.

[You can’t cook anything without system equipment. Unless you’ve got a special cooking skill, whatever you throw on the fire turns into inedible garbage. Honestly, you’re better off eating it raw.

SpringBreeze: [Help, my item’s durability hit zero. Any way to fix it? Interface says “Damaged, repairable,” but ! can’t figure out how.]

AAA WeaponDepot: [My talent handles repairs. Ain’t cheap though. DM me if you’re interested.]

1/3

Chapter 8 Selling The BBQ Grill

ForgetMeNot: [Just unlock a level–two crafting table and you can repair stuff yourself. No special talent needed.]

*****

Chloe had spent most of the day fishing, killing slimes, and cracking open chests. She’d barely glanced at the trading post. Something about being trapped in a harsh, closed–off world made people cling to whatever scraps of connection they could find.

Scrolling through the chat taught her something useful. Most food required special methods to prepare. Around noon, a player with a cooking skill had posted in Trading Post, buying up raw ingredients in bulk and offering to grill them for a fee. Twenty units per cook.

That meant her spare grill was worth even more than she’d thought.

Durability was the only catch. The grill came with 20 charges, and after she’d cooked her rabbit meat, the counter had already ticked down to 19.

The dew collector, on the other hand, didn’t have a durability stat at all. That little device was a gift that kept on giving.

Flames still flickered across the grill. The game gave her the option to shut it off, and after a moment’s thought, she did.

Tonight, Chloe wanted to try hunting the monsters herself.

If creatures only attacked during the first hour of darkness, the risk was worth taking.

Everything she’d read on the trading post backed that up. Night monsters dropped cookable meat, and with novice protection still in effect, food hadn’t been nearly as hard to come by as she’d expected.

Chloe checked the going rates on the board and posted at a fair price.

Chloe: [Selling a spare BBQ grill. Looking for 300 units of basic materials. Wooden Logs, stone, iron scraps, or glass preferred. Also open to healing items or slime ooze.

[Got about 1.3 gallons of extra clean water. Same trade terms.

[Blueprints welcome. Hit me up.]

Her inbox blew up within seconds.

By the second day, clean water had overtaken fire as the scarcest resource in the game. The midday sun beat down without mercy, and fresh sources were almost impossible to come by.

Night at least guaranteed meat from monster drops, but scoring clean water during the day came down to sheer luck. Prices stayed through the roof.

Chloe’s total supply came to seven liters at best. A single large bottle only held 17 fl oz.

She sold off five liters and kept two for herself, roughly four bottles‘ worth, plus around five fl oz of collected dew left over after watering her carrots and drinking her share. Buyers had to bring their own containers or make do with plastic bags.

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