“So, where do you want to go next?” I asked Alice. “Oh, and if you want me to hold onto that staff for you, just ask.” I offered.
“... I want something sweet.” Alice told me.
“Sweet? Like food? I don’t know where we would get any. It’s still a little early for lunch, so how about we wait a little longer for that. I think the Boar’s lounge might have sweets, but if we are going there for lunch, going there just for sweets might get awkward.” I told her.
“Don’t any of the stalls sell sweets?” She asked.
“I don’t think so.” I told her. “But then again, I really didn’t check them that closely yesterday.”
“Did you buy something from a stall yesterday?” Alice asked.
“Yeah, I bought a couple of burritos from one stall to act as my lunch.” I told her. “But I only saw stalls selling food, not sweets.” I added. “But we can go check it out.”
There were stalls selling different forms of skewers and then the burrito one, but none for sweets or something like that. And I’m not sure if there is a cafe in town. Actually, does coffee even exist here? I would assume nobles would have it if it did exist, but perhaps it's just not popular in this area. Or it’s too expensive for a baron’s house. Could I just add coffee to my dungeons' generatable items list with just my thoughts? Probably not, right. I mean everything else I had in some form when the dungeon learned to make it. The different fabrics that make my clothes. My cards are cardboard. And Prime Rib brought in some magic bags. Perhaps if I analyzed some seeds and then tried to convert them into coffee beans. Perhaps if I got the right card for it. Thankfully I’m not actually that big of a fan of coffee, so it can wait.
With that, I lead us towards the main square.
“What about that?” Alice asked as she pointed at a store.
We were not at the main square yet. We were just a few steps from it, when Alice noticed a building that had a store on the street level. It had a sign that read Rudevik’s cookies. A cookie store?
“I guess we can go check it out.” I told Alice. “I guess cookies count as sweets.”
“Of course they do!” Alice insisted. “Come on.” She dragged me into the store.
“Welcome.” A lady in her early thirties welcomed us to the store. She was wearing a full apron on top of some lighter clothing and had her hair tied up in a bun.
The store itself was small, having only four tables. Two two seaters and two four seaters. And the service counter, where the lady was standing behind. Is glass really cheap enough that they can have a glass front to the counter? Sure it’s just a normal straight pane of glass, but I always thought that decently clear glass would be expensive. I guess some of the stores do have glass windows that have a glass pane way larger than this one. It might actually be affordable but difficult to transport. I guess it’s possible that glass panes are a dungeon made item. Or perhaps they make it with magic. If they can make gemstones with magic, making glass wouldn’t be so far-fetched. I should ask Christina about it. She knows earth magic.
“Are you here to buy something or place an order?” The woman asked.
“We want to eat some now.” Alice answered with her eyes glued to the cookies.
“And what would you like?” She asked.
“We are here for the first time.” I told her. “Do you have something like a recommended set of different cookies?” I asked.
“Yes, I can do that. Will you be eating here or taking them with you?”
“I think we will eat here.” I told her.
“And would you like some tea with it?”
“Yes, please.” I answered.
“And how many cookies would you like?”
I looked at the cookies. They were decently sized so I don’t think we would need that many, but we could take the leftovers with us, I assume.
“We'll take eight for now.” I told her. I think four for each of us is already too many, but let’s just go with that. I can just get more if we want more.
“As you wish. Eight cookies with two teas large silver and one copper.” She told me.
I went through my wallet pouch quickly and got out a large and small silver coin. I still don’t have any copper coins, but I guess we will get some as change now. I handed the coins over to the lady.
“Thank you.” She said as I paid. “Here is your change. Please take a seat. I’ll bring over the tea and cookies in just a moment.”
My change was four copper coins. So I think that means that a small silver (or just silver) coin is five copper coins. And a large silver is 5 silver. Is gold also 5 large silver and so on?
(No, it is not, Master. A gold coin is four large silver coins.) Laura told me.
I see. And that would make a gold coin worth 100 copper.
I took a seat with Alice at one of the two-seater tables and just a bit later, a tray with our cookies, a teapot and two cups were brought to us. She then poured some tea into our cups.
“Please enjoy.” The lady said before returning behind the counter.
The tray had the eight cookies I ordered. As I thought beforehand, they were decently sized. A lot larger than your regular convenience store cookies and a lot more like the ones your mom makes at home. Well I guess that would depend on your mom.
I looked at the cookies trying to identify them. I know those two are chocolate cookies. At least I think so. That one has some berries and that one some fruit, or something.
“Alice, what do you want to start with?” I asked.
“I think I’ll go with this one.” She picked up one of the cookies with berries in it. “What about you?”
“How about we just split them in half? That way we can experience all the different cookies.” I offered.
“Yes.” Alice agreed. “Let’s do it.”
“Sure. Can you hand it over. I’ll split it.” I said to Alice.
She handed the cookie to me and I folded it in half to split it. It felt slightly warm in my hand so it was likely made this morning. Fresh cookies and tea. What could be better? I guess cake and hot chocolate. But then again, it depends on who you ask.
“Here.” I handed Alice her half.
“Thank you.” Alice said as she received it.
We both bit into our halves at the same time.
“Mmm.” Alice let out a sound of enjoyment. “This is so good. It’s better than we have at the manor.”
“It might just be.” I agreed. “I might have to try them side by side to really know.”
“No. This is better.” She insisted. “I know. I've had cookies made by Steven for my entire life, and these are better.”
“I’ll just take your word for it.” I agreed with Alice. I don’t have enough experience with them to say it 100%. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel·fıre·net
We enjoyed some more cookies, but didn’t finish them all. Out of the eight cookies I bought, we ate five. A chocolate, fruit, nut and just a plain cookie. They were all good. The chocolate one wasn’t chocolate chip, but just one with cacao powder or something similar in it.
I used the dungeon founder terminal to make a small cardboard box for the last three, before shoving them into my fanny pack. What do you mean you didn’t know I can use it to generate items outside of the dungeon. Of course I can. But they do cost double outside, so… Well, it doesn’t matter with how cheap a cardboard box is.
The lady running the store was interested in the cardboard box I made and asked about it, but I just told that they might come to the market soon and that mine was a test product.
With that, we left the store and turned towards the main square again.