With the help of his new broom, Griswold had been able to get from one point to the next in almost no time at all. While it could not be compared to the workings of a spatial mage, it sure as hell beat having to walk everywhere, that much stood as a rock above water. When he had been called to the royal capital to receive a promotion in light of all of his hard work in the poorest regions of the country, higher ups had not missed the opportunity to hit him up with a mission that was to be undertaken in Babel. At first, he wanted to decline the offer as he was not known for dealing with problems within the noble region of the country. There were plenty of overeager magic knights that wanted to prove themselves capable in the eyes of nobility by taking care of all of their menial little tasks.

That said, the fact that he had just been given a promotion, as well as a small amount of praise enough reason for him to not just decline the offer. For this once, he figured that he could put his loathing on a low burner and just do what needed to be done for the sake of the country. Once he had heard the details of the mission, what with some kind of ancient magical recipe being in the hands of a local chef, the first thing he thought to himself was “why did I take this stupid job”. It was but another example of someone in the noble region, likely someone with stupid amounts of money, using said wealth to obtain things they had no right in owning. Even though some kind of inquiry had been done with regards to the issue of the recipe, which found that it could be very dangerous in the wrong hands, it did not say a whole lot else.

And so, the next thing he had done had been to ask where he needed to go exactly if he was to make ends meet and see the mission through. When he was told that he was supposed to go to a restaurant that had supposedly been collecting a whole lot of old scrolls and texts with regards to cooking, stirring, frying, baking and all manners of preparing ingredients with outlandish methods, Griswold came to figure out that this place was apparently quite well known for this exact reason. They managed to bring things back to life that had been dead for decades, sometimes for centuries. And when he said “dead”, he did not meant necromancy or anything along those lines, but rather means of cooking food and making dishes that had “died” along with their creators. As stupid as it all sounded, it had also brought about some manner of interest within the elven knight.

So as he flew there ahead of time, he knew that he would be meeting Michail there, as per agreement of the mission. Before the guy would get there however, Griswold wanted to do a bit of snooping around, and maybe make the whole situation a bit less volatile. Inquiring minds had to know, this was something he understood quite well, so there would likely be no dissuading the people attempting to use this “dangerous” recipe from simply trying again at a later point in time. So, when he arrived at Babel and made his way over to the restaurant, the first thing he had done was ask for the owner of the restaurant. Without really making a show out of it, Griswold waited in the building for the chef and the owner of the place to gather and call him into the little office space above the actual restaurant.

Even though he might not have seemed like the type, Griswold was actually quite good at talking to people and making them see the error in their way of doing things. As such, he hoped that he would be able to talk to these people on their own level, allowing them to do whatever they had planned without people potentially getting hurt. As they all took a seat, it seemed like it was time for the knight to make his “demands”.

“Good day to you both, my name is Griswold of the Crimson Lion squad. It has come to our attention that you’ve recently acquired a potentially dangerous piece of literature containing an ancient recipe. I have also been made aware that you specialize in bringing back types of cooking and prepping that had, for all intents and purposes been considered lost and forgotten. I respect that, and for safety purposes, me and my partner would like to help you see things through in a safe manner. With that in mind, is there something you could tell me about it?”

From the look of things, neither the owner nor the chef had expected a member of the magic knights to show up, let alone one that wished to help them in their endeavors. For a moment, they looked at one another as if trying to figure out whether the knight in front of them was lying and was planning to lock them up, or whether he was telling the truth and really wanted to help them out. After a little while of pondering on the matter, it seemed like they had reached the point where they knew they had to trust him if they did not want to put themselves and their business into a potentially dangerous position that risked having them close their doors.

“You are correct sir, we have acquired the recipe from scholars studying here in Babel. They claimed the recipe had come from some ancient elven ruins to the northwestern portion of the fringe. It was supposed to be a special means of treating cheese with special herbs and a magical formula that should bring out the flavor while dampening the scent, as well as ripening it in a matter of hours, rather than weeks or months. The thing is, however, that we have already begun the process in the basement, and it seems to bear fruit as the cheese had ripened and grown exponentially.”

“Tyromancy? I’ve never heard of anyone actually managing that without rigorous training. Where I come from, someone was almost eaten alive by a cheese that came to life and developed a taste for flesh...”

As he pondered on what to do, he imagined they still had a bit of time left before they would know whether or not the cheese had actually ripened to perfection and became the perfect gouda, or if it should sprout arms and legs and wanted to devour every living being within the city. Rising from his seat, Griswold tried to keep things as calm and contained as possible, though he was quite well aware of how time was of the essence. Instructing the chef and the owner to calmly and quietly escort their staff and their guests out of the building, part of him had expected them to make a scene. However, it seemed like the idea of a piece of enchanted cheese devouring them and all of their guests alive was the kind of nightmare fuel that they had not planned for. So as instructed, they quietly took everyone outside, promising them a full refund and an appointment for another day as there had been a “gas leak”.

As everyone was in the process of being shoved out of the building, Griswold saw that Michail was standing ready at the front door, and that he had likely been waiting for the crimson lion to arrive so they could enter together. Gesturing at him to step inside, the owner of the building handed Griswold the key to the cellar before walking outside as if there was absolutely nothing wrong. Closing the door behind him after Michail had made his way in, all of the preparations had been made in terms of public safety, which really just meant that they were the only two people who were at risk of getting hurt. But that was something they had signed up for when they became magic knights, when they decided to put the good of the populace ahead of themselves.

“So uh, I imagine you’d like a quick rundown of the situation. In short, the chefs tried their hands at Tyromancy using an ancient ritual of spices and magical enchantments. If they did things right, we’ll be walking into a cellar of odorless, perfectly riped and flavored cheeses. If things went wrong, which these things often do, those same cheeses might have become grotesque monsters that want to strip the flesh from our bones, and then probably eat those too. We’ve evacuated the building already, so you and me are the only people in here. Hope you don’t mind me taking some extra steps.”

Implying the latter sentence as a bit of a joke, the fact that Griswold had gone above and beyond for people in the noble realm was something that came as a shock to himself more than anybody else. Seeing as how it most likely cost a fortune to dine here, it was just as much a shock to him as his willingness to aid nobles as it was that they were so willing to just step out of the building without making trouble for the owner or the magic knights sent to fix the “gas leak”. Maybe, just maybe, not all nobles were as bad as Griswold imagined them to be. That said, they were still something he considered to be a problem in this world, as there would never be equality as long as one side of the country held all of the wealth while another portion held exactly nothing. But that was an issue for another day.

1643

From where he was standing, it was as if Michail was not overjoyed at the idea of Griswold taking things a step further by arriving earlier, evacuating everyone and making sure no one aside from them would get hurt after they went into the basement. That said, he imagined that things could still go really, really wrong in the case of them both losing and dying, at which point those cheese monsters would still get to leave the building and run amok in Babel. But given the way things were now, Griswold was not really in a losing mood. He had just been promoted after all. And more than that, he had a few new spells that he did not have last time they were out in the world to kill a bunch of Goblins. At the time, he really only had a single offensive spell that did not do an overly large amount of damage. Now though, he had the kind of spells that could probably incinerate the contents of the entire basement, depending on how big it was with a single spell.

In that respect, Griswold had been growing quite a bit since their last encounter, and that was exactly how he liked it. Last time, he had to really rely on the golems that were being deployed to take care of their enemies, as well as to give him a mount to ride so he could attack from a safe distance. Not only had his offensive power grown, he had also managed to diversify his magic to the point where he was no longer just limited to setting things on fire, which was something he really needed. Given the amount of times he actually found himself inside of a forest or other natural setting, all of his spells were running the risk of creating some kind of less than natural disaster along the lines of a forest fire. But more than that, he had even managed to increase his level of mana control to the point where he had been able to improve his mana skin method, allowing him to take more of a beating in case he ever got put into a position where such a thing was necessary.

“Yeah, I know what you mean. When I first heard that they tried their hands at Tyromancy, I hoped that all they’d amount to was a kind of cheese that had ripened so fast it had begun rotting, meaning all we would be running into would be a massively foul odor. However, I can feel from here that there is most certainly something beneath us. I can’t tell how many cheeses they tried this method on, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that there are more than one.”

While that may have sounded like useless information, the way he saw it, it could never hurt to be prepared as to what might be coming next. As for how many of them there were, just the knowledge of there being at least one flesh eating cheese monsters in the basement beneath them should be enough to put them on their toes. This way, they would not just be walking in, expecting to just find weird cheese, only for one of them to lose an arm or a leg. But like his magical power had increased, so had his ability to sense mana become quite a bit more potent too, as was shown by his ability to sense a magical presence beneath the floor. But because he did not know the layout of the basement, he did not want to waste any more time talking or pondering on what was and what might be. If there was something like a basement window or another door leading outside that was not locked, the cheese creature might be able to squeeze itself through, thus allowing it to reach and attack the populace.

Knowing how such a thing would certainly get a lot of noble panties in a twist and result in the magic knights receiving a scolding for allowing some magical threat to attack in the heart of noble country, he gestured at Michail to follow him as he took the key in hand. Heading down a quaint wooden staircase, he reached the only door he could find before turning around. Placing the key into the hole in the door, he held up his hand. Counting down from five to one, he carefully opened the door and pushed it open, allowing them to look into a storage space rather than a basement. The entire space was about as wide as the actual restaurant above it, which was often the case with older buildings such as these. Before it became easier to store stuff, people just placed it all in large storage spaces such as this one right here as it remained a certain cool, though it often became somewhat damp and ran the risk of water based decay and the growing of fungus on things that did better without the addition of fungi.

Wandering into the basement, he could see how there were several pillars up ahead, seven to be precise. One of them had been shattered, five of them just looked gross while one of them had remained intact. From what he could see from a distance, what rested on top of it was a single cheese, which could only mean one thing. As he thought about letting Michail know that they would most likely be dealing with either five or six of these creatures, he heard a rumbling in the far corner. Because light was scarce down here, he held up his hand and formed a sphere of flame on top of it, allowing the two mages to get some vision across parts of the room. Luckily, this light managed to spread far enough for them to see a grotesque lump of cheese up against the wall, trying to just force itself through but failing in the attempt. Even if it had grown exponentially and became stronger, Griswold still did not believe that something with a cheese-like substance could defeat a wall.

Now since Griswold had allowed the two of them to see the mass of cheese, it also allowed the cheese to see them right back, which could have been a bit of an issue. But as it would turn out, it wouldn’t become so much an issue as it was more of a blessing in disguise. Because when the creature turned around to face them, he could see various faces, or what could be considered faces, as well as limbs, leading him to believe that the monsters had all lumped together in order to lump together their physical mass and strength. Still, it seemed like all of them together could not force their way through the wall, though they did make for a rather perfect target. The way Griswold saw it, it was the perfect opportunity to deal a great amount of damage to all of them at once, making their job a whole lot easier. Forming a similar orb on his free hand, he turned to Michail for one moment before turning his attention back to the cheese amalgamation.

“Stand back, and watch this.”

Tossing the first sphere before instantly launching the other to follow up behind it, the sphere’s structural integrity was released in order to allow all of the compressed solar magic to create a torrent of flame that would engulf the mass of elementals. Hopefully the combined effort of two of his spells used at the same time would allow them to get rid of all of them at once, though things were hardly ever that easy when it came to the work of a magic knight. Luckily, Michail was there too in case things did not work out the way he would have liked it to. But regardless of the outcome, at least things had started off on the right track for once.


1333 (2976)

Even if his solar flames were now a whole lot more powerful than they were when he had been fighting Goblins, it seemed that the amalgamation of cheese was not exactly ready to be killed easily. Even if his two spells had both crashed into their targets turned target, no longer plural, the intense heat seemed to char much of their cheesy structure, particularly on the outside. So as the inside of the elemental would begin heating and likely becoming that much more liquid, the outside was becoming crusty to the point of blackening. This was a good thing as it would likely keep the thing from moving around as easily or as fast as it normally could, which made it a prime target for more attacks to strike the enemy without needing a whole lot of accuracy to be put into it. And that was perfect for someone like Griswold, who had most of his spells deal damage over a bit of an area rather than being single target… or accurate.

Roaring out in what he could only imagine was discomfort as he doubted a creature made entirely out of cheese could actually feel pain, or anything aside from hate, it made him wonder why things like these were so intent on devouring things. It was cheese, it did not have any stomachs or other internal organs. At least he didn’t think they did. Truly, it was a weird thing to consider, and something best left for some other time. After all, something quite funny had happened, what with Michail retracting his words about letting him handle the monster on his own. In a way, he would have very much liked taking the thing down on his own as it would allow him a chance to utilize all of his newly devised spells and see just how much damage he could do with them. As things were, he still had about two spells left that he had only managed to utilize on.

When swords made out of the same icky looking blood stuff that his golems were made out off flew through the air and pinned the elemental in place, solar spells that had created the hardened exterior crust worked together strangely well with them. Although unintentionally, the two mages had managed to synergize their abilities, allowing them to pin a blob with a liquid structure to the floor. That was something that would have taken ingenuity and would have been worthy of some praise, had it been intentional, which was clearly not the case. But as the blades penetrated the exterior, it brought about a change in the situation as the elementals seemed to break away from the amalgam and make a run for it, likely believing they stood a better chance at making their way out of this situation or even winning it if they went about it on their own. A mindset Griswold understood quite well.

But as they started breaking out of the hardened crust, they needed to squeeze themselves through the holes created by the sword, which seemed to take quite a bit of time. So as Griswold prepared a third, and hopefully final sphere of solar flame and prepared to obliterate what remained now that they had been severely weakened as a collective, the elementals planned on defending themselves by giving the two mages something to struggle with so they could make a break for it. Bubbling up a bit, projectiles of cheese rapidly squirted from the main mass right towards them. Preparing to meet the attack head on with his own, he suddenly felt two hands in his side as Michail pushed him out of the way. So as he got knocked aside, leaving Michail to take on the full brunt of the attack, Griswold would not waste the opportunity this had created, as the cheese projectiles had left the elementals with a gap in their defenses, one Griswold planned on exploiting to the fullest.

While in an unstable position, the elven knight launched the solar sphere straight towards the elemental mass, setting up a second conflagration that would hit the escaping elementals quite hard before forcing itself through the exterior crust created by his previous attack, using the swords that had been tossed into it by Michail as a point of entry. Cooking the cheese from the inside out while also heating up the blades that had been forced into it like pins into a cushion, a chorus of outlandish shrieks escaped from the mass that could be heard outside for sure. Utilizing a barrel roll so as to not awkwardly tumble over like a child that had been shoved at the playground, he got up into a straight and upward position again, looking over as the cheese seemed to deflate as the shrieking got less and less loud. Once the shrieking had finally ceased and the burnt puddle stopped moving altogether, it seemed that the fight had come to an end. Looking over at Michail, he seemed mostly unharmed, but far from happy.

“You know, you didn’t have to do that right? I trained really hard to make my mana skin more dense, and my clothes probably cost a whole lot less than yours. Still, I appreciate the gesture.”

It was true that Griswold had pushed his mana skin to the point where taking a hit such as that would have meant next to nothing to him, though he did like to see that there was something more to Michail that did not include killing Goblins by the dozens. So far, he had made it seem like the only thing that really mattered to him was his family, the Ravencrests, which became evident when he had made a joke about it when last they met. As far as nobles went, using himself as a human shield was not very noble-like behavior, especially when it meant shielding a commoner. Maybe there were actually some good nobles out there, or maybe they could be good if they tried to put others ahead of themselves. Whichever one of the two was the correct answer, with the way he saw it, it was probably best not to talk about that too much now. Instead, he chose to bring up the sorry state the squirted cheese had left the Ravencrest in.

“You should probably get home and get a change of wardrobe…. and probably a shower. I’ll head out and let the owner know that we handled the “gas leak” and that they need to do some serious cleaning in the basement, because this stuff is gonna stink, and it’s gonna stink badly.”

Had it been him that had been covered in that stuff, he probably would not have been able to eat, let alone see cheese again for several months or years, but luckily it wasn’t. Because he had already made contact with the owner and the chef before, he figured it would only make sense for him to be the one to tell them that everything had been taken care of and that they could go back to their regular affairs, and that they should probably cease the use of the old tyromancer recipe. But if Michail wanted to be the one to tell them, Griswold would be entirely fine with that, though he imagined that as a noble, he would prefer not to be seen while covered in melted cheese. But as he was thinking about the whole Tyromancy thing, he remembered that there was still one cheese that had not turned into a grotesque monster. Wandering over to it to get a better look, he grinned a bit as he looked it over.

“Hah, seems they actually got their ratios right on this one. A perfectly ripened and odorless block of cheese, who’d have thought.”

1304 (4280)

And so, as he had said it, that was how it went. When given an out, it seemed that Michail did not see the point in staying around any longer, especially in his ruined nobles clothing that reeked of burnt cheese. Had it been him personally that it had happened to, which it very nearly was due to the wide spray that had originally been shot at the both of them, he would also not have been overjoyed to appear before others in such a sorry state. That said, he would still have done it in case it was needed, which was obviously not the case right now. As things were, Griswold appeared presentable enough to be the one that brought the restaurant owner the somewhat positive news regarding the situation. So as soon as they got outside of the building, he waited for Michail to hop on his broom and leave as he would once he was done informing the right people.

When he instead summoning one of his bloody bird magic golems and took to the skies on top of it, Griswold scratched himself behind the ear for a bit. If Michail really did not want to be seen in his current state, it would probably have been wiser not to make such a grandiose exit on top of a rather large and hard to miss bird. But that was not something Griswold needed to concern himself with. After all, what was done was done, and those that actually saw the bird would probably not have noticed who was on top of it anyway. That was one of the good things about being a junior level magic knight. One could do a whole ton of good in the world, but at the end of the day, no one really knew who you were, meaning you could just walk through any portion of the country without anyone really recognizing you for the things you’ve done, or the things you may have done wrong. In time though, he imagined fame caught up to anyone who remained on the right or the wrong path for long enough.

Once the bird had flown out of sight, Griswold made his way over to where the owner and the chef had decided to position themselves, waiting for whatever might make its way out of their building. Finding it hard to fault them for it as they did not know anything about how capable or incapable Michail and Griswold were, or what to expect of the elementals they had accidentally created through means of Tyromancy. As such, in their eyes, the likelihood of two magic knights wandering out of the building was just as big as a mass of cheese with a hunger for human flesh making it out through the front door before mingling with the populace.

“Okay, so the good news is, the cheeses that turned into violent elementals have been taken care of without destroying your stores of materials in the basement, though some of the crates may be a bit singed. Also, one of your cheeses actually went through the process in a successful manner and turned into a perfectly ripened and odorless cheese.”

With the good news out of the way, he could see how relief replaced the worry on the faces of the two men standing in front of him. At this point however, Griswold could not tell whether this was the kind of relief that came with their place of business remaining intact or because they would not be responsible for people dying due to their irresponsible means of handling ancient magical recipes. Perhaps it was both. But as relieved as they were, they still hadn’t heard about the bad news yet, and there was quite a bit of that to go around too, especially if they had any hopes of opening up again any time soon.

“The bad news however is that there is a massive chunk of burnt cheese monster stuck to the floor and the wall that will probably stink up your entire restaurant if you don’t have it removed really quickly. So uh, you should probably get to that any minute now. And unless you remember exactly what you used on each particular cheese, I’d recommend not using that recipe anymore, or I’ll be forced to come back here and take it from you.“

Even though the two probably had plenty of things to worry about already aside from having to clean all of this stuff up, there was still more Griswold had to make clear to them as they could clearly not have this same business happening twice. Not being one for kicking someone when they were down, he imagined that the two men had really not lost a whole lot here today, aside from about six large blocks of cheese and some slight fire damage. So when the owner left the conversation in order to quickly round up a cleaning crew for the basement, Griswold turned his attention towards the chef, believing him to have been the one that performed the Tyromancy ritual on the cheeses.

“I imagine we’re rather clear on what has to happen here. So, that said, have a good day… and good luck with the cleaning. You’re going to be needing it.”

884 (5164)

[End of Mission]