Part 51: Bakery Quest

Bakery Quest

Music: Monster Village


Today starts like any other fall day: With a cooking grind I've kept mostly offscreen. Shoving a yam in an oven produces a roasted yam, which sells for a lot more on top of the skill grind benefit. Look at the sale price difference even with the second one being two levels lower! (No, cooking does not reduce item levels, in fact it actually increases them. I just didn't notice I screenshotted a level 9 yam in one and the product of roasting a level 6 yam in the other.)

At least I'm selling so many of them that everyone in Norad is going to be very regular now.


I don't want to talk, but this is about the only way to get new dialogue out of you, so let's do this.


Oddly, he's not in his house. Most requests for the settlement residents warp them to their tents.


Instead, he's just hanging out in the desert rain. The oddly frequent desert rain. So frequent that it's almost like the devs were to lazy to/didn't have the time to implement different weather for different dungeons, even when it doesn't make sense for them to have the same climate as town.



So I wanted to get something special for Kuruna.
A...Pre...pre...pre...
A present?
Y-Yes! I want to get her a present. Is that weird?
Not at all! I'm sure she'd like that!
R-Really?!
What are you going to get her?
A sword...wouldn't be good, right?
No.
Then what should I get her?!


Kuruna has made her opinions very clear on this matter.

Oh! Nice idea! Oh, but I can't make a cake...Link, could you make it?
Then what's the point? I'll get you the ingredients, and you do the rest.
Yeah, you're right...Okay!! I'm counting on you! Wait, what am I making?
Well...How about a chocolate cake.
Chocolate cake, OK! I bet we could find the recipe in Kuruna's room!


I'm 99% sure I know the recipe for Chocolate Cake already, but cutscenes don't give a shit.

*pant pant*...The recipe...I found it...It's Flour, Butter, Chocolate, and Large Milk.
You're crazy.
I'm counting on you, Link. It's Flour, Butter, Chocolate, Large Milk, OK?!
Okay. I won't let you down, Zaid!


If only Hazel knew.


I'll get milk(and an extra milk to make butter with) tomorrow, so this was all I needed. The rest of the day is spent thumb-twiddling.



I hope they bloom sometime.
Y-Yes.



He would let some strange girl like me work for him...But that's not all, he even gave me a room to stay in.
Yes. He's really a good person.





You know...you're right! I'll stay here forEVER and EVER! And have my vengeance on squid!

>I'll go with you!

No, you won't. It's underwater. But I appreciate the sentiment!

Option 3 is being Mean to Pia, and is therefore not allowed.


Remember when Collette almost had character development after Blaise went "it doesn't matter how tall a chef is, where did you even get that idea from"? Yeah, me neither.


Even the game's nudging me to get married already.


I'm getting the impression Yue's running out of stuff to say.



He costs me a lot in repairs, not to mention the fish escaping. He's really hurting business.

Carlos that's great and all, but get the fuck out of my doorway.


No, she doesn't. Try Flavored Radish, Dried Sardines, or Miso Eggplant instead. Or even colored grasses. But curry? Nope.


Catch fish. Fry fish. Knife fish. Repeat until you're sick of fish. Welcome to Rune Factory.


I'm so bored I actually use my sickle for something other than leveling up seeds. Using your sickle to cut grasses and weeds is kind of a waste, but it does increase Wind Magic skill slightly.


Lv10 butter. Only the finest butter to used where ingredient quality doesn't matter.

Incidentally, if I had picked the flowers option instead of sweets, I would have been stuck waiting for specific flowers to grow. Fuck that. Cake every time.



I wonder if I can do this...alone.
I'm sure you can. Even if you fail, if your feelings get across to Kuruna, that should be enough.

Also she's a huge chocoholic and cake addict. I'm pretty sure chocolate cake literally cannot fail to be a good gift for her.

Link...Heh, don't be so cheesy.
Good luck.


Oh???


Oh. Neat concept, outclassed by all my other weapons though.



He was like "what were our ancestors thinking?!" Of course, it was my work that they were looking at.
Maybe it's better he doesn't know.


I'm starting to think we should get her an oven to bake her own damn cookies and cakes.



Just forget you, uh, ever saw that! ANYWAY, I wanted to ask you something, comrade!
What do you need?
Can you make me...a Chocolate Cookie?
Kuruna...you've really got an addiction to chocolate.
Whatever! I'll eat what I want!
Okay, okay. I'll bring it for you.
R-Really?! Here's the recipe!


I'm pretty sure this is another recipe I already have, but whatever.

You're really gung-ho about this.
*cough* ...Thank you for doing this for me.
Uh, no problem!





A chocolate cookie is pretty much what you'd expect.


I really should just keep a stock of flour and chocolate around.


The next couple hours are spent murdering cows for their milk cartons. That's how that works irl, right?


This update is making me hungry.



Music: Contest




Kuruna?!



Sorry! I was just so...HAPPY!



Great! Have a seat, then.



Can't wait to try it!
Okay, now to pour--



What? Who's there?



Am I interrupting you two?
N-No! Of course not! It's good to see you!
No, it's fine. I can come back later. I don't want to intrude!
You're not intruding.


Nope, you definitely are.

Actually, if you want to...you can join us.
Oh, I don't want to impose! Honestly!
It's okay. I don't mind.
Well, if you insist...
Of course we do.
All righty, then! Don't mind if I do!



I'm overcompensating now, I guess.
My grandfather's strict himself. He never let me have any snacks growing up! But he lets Monica get away with anything! She does what she wants, when she wants! Can you believe that?!
Parents and grandparents can be strange like that.
Looks like you two have more in common than I thought!
Yeah, I never thought I'd have much in common with a Hornless girl.
It's a shame we couldn't have been friends sooner.
I know...Well, it's time to munch on your Chocolate Cookie!
Can I have a bite?
Everyone gets a bite!



Glad you liked it!
Sorry again to butt in.on you two. It looked like I was interrupting something!
N-N-No! Nothing at all! Just your imagination!
Heh heh.

I'd say Kuruna is the worst liar, but every character in this game is the worst liar. I blame anime tropes.



She's got a way with words sometimes!
But she was right. The Chocolate Cookie was so scrumptious!
Glad I could accommodate your sweet tooth!
Thank you so much for that! Anyway, we absolutely MUST do this again! Here's a little something to thank you!
You're welcome!


Why hello there.


It's kind of nuts that this is a preset quest reward. With the Proof of Wisdom equipped, Link recovers 10 RP every 2-ish seconds. RP basically doesn't matter anymore. The RP spent on morning farm chores will be replenished by the time I even think about going into a dungeon or doing mining/fishing grinds. I have no reason to ever take a bath again, and food is now only useful for grinding Eating skill and for any secondary effects from dishes(which admittedly can be pretty powerful). If I run out of RP while crafting, it's just a matter of exiting the crafting screen and hanging around for a bit to get enough back to continue.

On top of that, it has pretty good base stats, so I might not even need to swap it out for combat purposes. The main downside is seeing the RP restoration pop up every 2 seconds for the rest of the game, even when Link's RP is maxed.

Well, that and the fact that RP is kind of a non-issue past the first week or two of the game, making this more of a convenience than anything. It's still a very nice convenience, mind you.


Here's what the RP restoration looks like in-game, btw.


Quick and easy way to grind status resistance skills: Eat a bunch of mushrooms. Their effects are random, and range from healing you to inflicting pretty much any status on you.

Just make sure you have some status cure potions on hand so you're not walking around paralyzed or poisoned the rest of the day.



This is a really rare bug...hey, why aren't you paying attention.

In other news, Sakuya needs to up her interesting finds game.


That's it. The entire conversation. Blaise.