A line was forming between Shelby's cart and the town gates. She had made a batch of 40 pretzels to complete several snack delivery contracts in rapid succession, but troubles with running out of salt and flour had thrown a wrench in her baking pipeline. She summoned flour one cup at a time, and it took 10 seconds to cast. Salt came in a tablespoon after 15 seconds. Despite the strange work rhythm, after few rounds of summoning, preparing, baking, and serving, Shelby had the whole recipe down to about 2 minutes. Not forever, but still a long wait if there were 30 people waiting in front of you.

  A few Daizi near the back of the line gave up on waiting and returned to hauling, but Shelby's pretzels were now in the hands of a good proportion of the tireless laborers shuffling about. Shelby's contracts had pushed the town restoration up another 1.2%, and that meant they were on the verge of the 10% milestone!

  Even Mogu came to collect a snack for his break, even though he mostly just stood on raised platforms and shouted down at his villagers. He gave Shelby a curt nod as he stuffed half of the pretzel into one cheek and then hobbled off to yell at a stout capybara toting a huge beam.

  The fifth turn-in caused Snack Break I to progress to Snack Break II. The new contract needed more food, and it also had to have a larger necessary variety of recipes.

  Shelby had a few recipes that could optionally include vegetables, like an omelet with peppers, or a pasta dish with tomato sauce. While those examples would be simple to make, they didn't seem like they would be easy for workers to eat on the go. They really seemed to appreciate the portability of a pretzel, so Shelby decided to work on new recipes that would be easier to carry around.

  "First up, let's try to make dumplings!" Shelby told AIDAN.

  "I am unfamiliar with essentially all meals." AIDAN said, "would you like to inform me about dumplings?"

  "Of course! Dumplings are cute little balls of dough that have meat or vegetables inside. Oh, usually I would steam them in baskets, but I don't have anything like that... I think that they can also be made with frying and then steaming in a frying pan..." Shelby trailed off as she looked through her inventory for a suitable pot lid, but didn't find one.

  "I have noted that dumplings can be prepared using a variety of methods," AIDAN said, glowing a dull orange.

  Shelby had to summon the majority of her ingredients for the attempt at dumplings, and, as a result, the overall quality ended up being Poor. She tried one of the resulting morsels, and it was indeed not the best food she had ever made. The Poor-ness came through in a couple of disappointing ways. The buns were quite burned, and their bottoms were a crispy black mess. They were also leaky, and their insides, while tasty, lacked a certain heft. It felt like she was eating a tough bun full of shredded lettuce.

  Shelby sighed and fed the remaining three buns to Elizabeth, who ate them enthusiastically, "Too many summoned ingredients are no good..."

  "Your resulting meals will inherit their quality from the base ingredients, but the quality can also be improved through your aggregate Baking or Cooking skill levels," AIDAN said.

  "That's why my bread was Good!" Shelby said, "any idea when I can make a Normal quality bun?"

  Shelby's Baking skill was currently at 14. Levels had come quickly initially, but were much slower now.

  "I believe that Advanced recipes require at least a baking or cooking skill level of 20 to guarantee Normal quality," AIDAN replied.

  "Shoot, we're not close..." Shelby chewed on her lip as she hopped back into the wagon, "what about Basic recipes?"

  "That should only require level 10," AIDAN said cheerfully.

  "Gotcha, so maybe there's another basic one that can be modified to include a vegetable or fruit..." Shelby opened her recipes and scrolled through the Basic Baking recipes.

  She stopped as she read over 'Quick Bread,' That term sounds familiar...

  Shelby squinted at the recipe and mumbled to herself, "Isn't this... a pancake? Or, maybe if I added a vegetable it would be more like zucchini cake..."

  A pancake was still not particularly portable. A crepe would be a little better, but Shelby didn't know if that would be a whole new recipe or not. A hand-sized carrot cake loaf would be perfect, but that would require a specialized pan, and Shelby's tool kit was absent of baking pans. Frustrated, Shelby dug through her inventory and basic culinary supplies. She had a frying pan, that would make a pancake, some cutlery, which was useless, and...

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  "Aha! If I cook it in my sauce pan that will make a cute little round cake!" Shelby cheered. A slice of cake isn't perfect, but at least it can be carried around in your hand!

  "Now what should we add to it," Shelby wondered, "Do you have a favorite fruit, AIDAN?"

  "I do not. However, I did find the cherries you delivered to Ms. Nisa to be aesthetically interesting," he responded.

  "Cherry cake... that sounds like it could be good," Shelby said.

  Summon Vegetation was an intense spell. It required 45 seconds and 20 Mana, which was close to Shelby's upper limit. Mana regenerated at about 1 per 5 seconds, so she wasn't having a lot of problems keeping up with her constant summoning spells for bread, but Summon Vegetation wouldn't be sustainable. When it completed, Shelby was prompted to choose from a list of vegetables and fruits. The vegetables had carrots, cucumbers, and a bunch of other types she had encountered at Nisa's inn. The fruits similarly seemed to come from things she had seen before, and included grapes, cherries, and kumquats. Grape or kumquat bread sounds gross...

  Luckily, the spell summoned a quart of the chosen vegetation. Shelby chopped up the spirit cherries into eighths, then combined them with the Quick Bread mixture. As she spooned through the result, she swore under her breath. Baking blunder... how could you fall for it, Shells?

  It was too late for this batch, but as she let the result of the recipe cool, she started over and excluded the cherries from the Mix spell. When the base was mixed, she then added the cherries to the top of the batter after pouring it into her sauce pan. As predicted, the first cake's cherries were mostly at the bottom of the bread. It had a fun pink coloration with vibrant red polka dots around the cherries, but looked uneven. I'm sure it still tastes good. Her intuition told her that this was about 4 servings, so she cut the cake into quarters. Each was about 2 inches tall and stocky, since her sauce pan was fairly small.

  She popped the pieces into her inventory so she could examine their quality.

  Shelby drummed excitedly on the side of the cart, success! After a few more bakes, she had 3 cherry cakes, 3 carrot cakes, and zero Mana. More than enough to complete the contract and have a little left over. She didn't want to risk disappointing a crowd of Daizi again, so she bundled up her cakes and headed into town. I probably need to find Diao anyways, plus I think we've hit our goal of spending 30 minutes in this body.

  "That is correct, it has been 47 minutes since changing characters," AIDAN said.

  "47?! No, stop joking around!"

  "I am not joking, and I fail to see how misrepresenting elapsed time would be humorous," AIDAN said with a suspicious tone.

  "Forget about it... but, that means we'll have plenty of time as Caramel to relocate the Hodekin..."

  As Shelby talked to AIDAN, she handed out slices of the simple cake to passersby's. Many looked startled to be randomly handed cake, but a few lit up as they saw her approach and actively went to accept their treats. Shelby felt like she was starting to recognize unique markings and hairstyles among the villagers. After wandering for a short while, Shelby ended up in the main square.

  It was starting to get dark, and the huge tree that rose up over the town had a faint red halo around its gently swaying leaves. The windmill across the plaza was turning just as slowly, and the ring of shops and two story buildings on the periphery were mostly quiet and unlit. There weren't many people in the area, since most of the damage, and the work, was on the outer rings of the town, but there were a few stragglers milling about. In fact, Diao and his fiancé were seated in a grassy patch just beneath the tree, and Elizabeth was laying down beside them. What?

  Shelby jogged over to them, "Elizabeth! How did you get here?"

  Shelby was sure that her boar was tied to the cart back at the entrance to the town. Diao and Tira startled as Shelby shouted over their heads. Diao rose and held his hands out to calm Shelby down, "Pardon, but why are you berating my Elizabeth, and how do you know her name?"

  Shelby was at a loss as she looked between Diao and Elizabeth, who oinked wearily, causing her entire frame to bounce. Diao crossed his arms, "Do you know my family, perhaps?"

  Shelby shook her head, "No, I... Elizabeth helped me carry a cart to this town just a little while ago."

  "I'm afraid that simply isn't possible, Elizabeth has been recovering here all evening. As you can see, her dainty ankle is aggrieved from a travel accident."

  Shelby looked down to Elizabeth's hoof, which was wrapped in white gauze. That wasn't there when they came here. She tilted her head, "I summoned her with my necklace whistle..."

  "You have a Clay family whistle?" Diao asked with a similarly confused expression, "we're not in the habit of handing those out to just anyone, I'll have you know."

  Shelby winced, "Ah, right, I... got this from a very good friend, in Copperglade."

  Diao frowned, "You must be talking about Ms. Caramel. Oh dear, I should have asked her not to loan out that pendant... but, she did save my dearest Tira, so I can't be too cross. Do treat your bonded boar with due care, won't you?"

  "I, sure, of course. I would never treat her badly," Shelby stammered.

  "Good, good, well shall we go see who you've summoned?" Diao asked.

  "Yeah..." Shelby couldn't wrap her head around the idea that she had summoned some other Boar, but tried to focus on her task, "I was actually looking for you anyways!"

  "Then we shall talk on the way," Diao said as he gestured for Shelby to lead him to her mysterious cart-puller.

  "Pico sent me!" Shelby said as they walked back to the town entrance, "I think she would like your help to start up a shipping network."

  Diao brightened at that, "She would? I am always saying that we need to reconnect Copperglade with the north, and not to mention the inefficiencies of trade between villages!"

  "So you'll help?" Shelby asked.

  "I would love to, but I'm afraid I cannot start any grand ventures while my fiancée, her family, and I are stranded here," Diao said thoughtfully, "but as soon as I get them back to the Clay manor, I would be happy to make arrangements with Pico! I would simply love to see the girls put to work hauling carts again."

  "The girls?" Shelby asked slowly, distracted as she handed her last two slices of cake to a pair of Daizi, "Oh, you mean the boars..."

  "Yes indeed, we have the best boars in Neant," Diao said with pride.

  Their conversation had carried them within sight of the town entrance, and Shelby hurried over to not-Elizabeth, "There she is... were you ever going to tell me who you really are?"

  "Ah, that's Madeline!" Diao exclaimed, "she's very headstrong, I'm not surprised she responded to your call."

  "Madeline!" Shelby repeated, and her boar turned her ears towards her own name, "huh... I guess that's fitting for a pig that likes baked goods."

  Diao rubbed Madeline between the ears roughly, "She has a healthy appetite, but don't forget to give her plenty of fiber and vegetables too."

  Shelby nodded, "I can do that. Is there anything else I can do to help you get home?"

  "I'm afraid we're waiting on Elizabeth to recover," Diao said, scanning Shelby's makeshift kitchen as he spoke, "but maybe you could help... I don't suppose you're familiar with making restorative boar chow?"

  "No, but if I knew the recipe I might be able to make something," Shelby said with a shrug.

  Diao frowned as he leaned against Madeline, his tiny pika body sinking into her soft fur, "I know the recipe, but I don't know that we'll be able to source the appropriate ingredients."

  Shelby smiled, "I can summon all kinds of ingredients. I'm a baking wizard."

  Diao's eyes widened, "Truly? Then we may just heal dear Elizabeth yet!"

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