Srsli
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9: The Matron
🕑 Added 2025-08-09 13:25:03 +0000 UTCEarly the next morning, it felt strange waking up in such a large room by myself. I’d gone from sleeping in a barracks-style dormitory, to a tiny bedroom at the temple, to an even smaller closet at the inn—and now? Now I had a spacious bedroom all to myself.
Taking it in, I noticed some very worn cloth sheets covering the windows. Curious, I went over and tried to open them. To my surprise, it was easier than I expected; they were simply looped over a metal bar at the top.
With the room now brighter, I could see it more clearly: a set of drawers stood to one side, next to what looked like a small closet, and a modest desk with a once-polished sheet of metal sitting on it.
I left the room shortly after my brief exploration, checking on the stew while making sure to stay quiet—I didn’t want to wake Micca. The coals in the hearth had mostly burned out, and when I opened the pot, the stew was still warm but no longer hot. I relit the fire to finish it off.
It was still a little while before I needed to meet Geo; the sun hadn’t fully crested the horizon yet.
That’s when I noticed a notification I hadn’t seen before.
Did… someone eat some of my food?
Notifications:
You have reached Level 2 in Basic Meal Prep
Oh wow, I still didn’t know what this skill did in terms of affecting my ability to make a meal, but I guess this stew pushed me over the edge on experience.
Seeing that my mana and stamina had fully recovered while I slept, I considered using Infuse Flavour on the stew. My hesitation, though, was whether it might remove the healing aspect and replace it with a stat buff. After all, a +1 Dexterity boost wouldn’t be of any use to someone suffering from an illness.
Ultimately, I decided against it. Instead, I refreshed the water bucket and started wiping down the kitchen, getting some cleaning done before meeting up with Geo.
When the time finally came, I took one bowl of stew out, covered the top with a plate, and left it on the table, hoping Micca would see it when she woke up; she had asked for a bowl, after all. The rest I placed into my storage. I was a little worried it might take just the stew and leave the pot behind, but luckily, that didn’t happen.
Would you like to store 1x [Common] Boar Stew for 5 mana? Yes/No
Nice! I thought. That was helpful. I hoped the pavilion had something to hold the stew or could serve it up straight away, as I wasn’t about to leave that pot there. What if it got lost?
Heading outside into the cool, fresh air, I made my way to the usual path to meet up with Geo, only to find he was already waiting for me.
"You're early today," I said.
"Yeah, I didn't have this annoying kid to wake up before I came down," Geo retorted, laughing a little.
Heading into the markets, we did our usual shopping. This time, I bought nothing myself since I wasn’t sure if the Pavilion would even accept my food.
"If you're up for it, I wanted to test something with your storage," Geo asked. "It might be possible that items don’t perish in there. Some of the more expensive bags of holding have almost a time-stop ability, where items placed inside don’t perish at all. The cheaper versions—if they could even be called cheap—have a time-slowing aspect, where goods won’t perish at the normal rate, but they still will eventually."
I simply shrugged and was handed a small fish to store.
"That usually has a pungent odour after half a day, so it’ll be a good test," Geo said.
A moment later, Geo said, "Actually, thinking about it, fish stew isn’t something I normally make. However, it might be worth buying a few to see if you get butchery experience for it."
We went back to the stall selling lake fish, but unfortunately, we couldn’t find any fish that weren’t already gutted. Based on our previous experiments, any assistance would cause no experience.
"Well, that’s disappointing," said Geo. "I thought we were on to something there."
"Well, I mean, you might still be on to something. I just need to get hold of some freshly caught fish. That shouldn’t be too hard," I responded.
In the end, we went with a rabbit and mushroom stew again. I was beginning to think this might be Geo’s favourite since he cooked it at least once a week. I didn’t end up storing everything for Geo today as expected, since he reminded me I still had to visit the Pavilion and he wasn’t going to wait in the kitchen with nothing.
I parted ways with him, hearing his parting words as I left: “Good luck! Remember to emphasise the healing aspects!”
A short walk later, I entered the doorway to the Medical Pavilion, where I was greeted by a young man in a white robe.
"Welcome to the Medical Pavilion. Are you in need of healing today?" he asked with a neutral smile.
"Uh, no, sorry. I was hoping to make a donation of food today. You see, I have a rare class, and I believe my food has some healing aspects?" I said the last part as a question because, honestly, I still didn’t fully understand how it worked.
"Ah, I see. Let me get the Matron, as I’m unsure if we’re able to accept food from someone we don’t know," he said, before disappearing through a door—presumably to find the Matron.
I looked around the room, but there wasn’t much to see. Most of the paths were closed off behind doors. In this room, there were just some chairs and a desk where the young man had been standing when I entered.
I didn’t see Gemma anywhere. I wondered whether she worked out front sometimes. Maybe I could come by again and say hi then?
A short while later, an older lady appeared, with the young man following behind her. I remembered her as the one who took Gemma when we dropped her off, though I never caught her name.
"Hello there. My name is Matron Maud. I was informed you wanted to make a donation of food with healing properties?" she said warmly.
"Uh, yes. My name is Trevor, ma’am, and yes, I would—but sorry, it’s not so much healing properties as it is a form of regeneration, I think?" I tried to explain.
The look of confusion on Matron Maud’s face made me scramble to start from the beginning—I didn’t want to get thrown out as a crazy person.
"Sorry, let me start from the top," I began, but before I could continue she simply said,
"This is likely a conversation to be had behind closed doors. I remember seeing you with Elder Peter a couple of months back. Come, follow me."
She started walking back through the doors before I could respond, so I just trailed after her—better than being kicked out, I thought.
Heading through the halls, I noticed we were passing what must have been the medical rooms.
"Um, Matron, how is Gemma doing?" I asked as we walked.
"Oh, the young lady? Yes, she’s doing very well. She has quite the aptitude for potions. She’s currently in lessons, but I will let her know you dropped by. What did you say your name was again?" she said, still walking at a brisk pace.
"Trevor, ma’am. I went to the Academy with Gemma," I responded.
"Ah yes, I remember now. Come on inside here," she said, opening the door to what looked like a cross between a library and an office. The walls were lined with books and stacks of paperwork.
"Take a seat," she said, gesturing to the chair next to the desk, while she took the seat opposite me.
"Now, you mentioned it had a regeneration effect. How do you know this? And how did you discover it? Also, could you give me any other details, like the ingredients you’re using?" She asked, adopting a serious tone.
"Ah yes, well, I’ll start from the top. I have a rare class called Arcane Chef, and truthfully, we know very little about it. I discovered it had healing properties in two ways: I get notifications of experience gain when it heals an individual, but mainly, I made a soup for a friend of mine who was suffering a bad fever, and she told me she was rapidly regaining hit points," I said, trying to remember all the questions she had asked.
"As for ingredients, it’s just regular vegetables and meat I purchased at the market. What I wanted to donate today was a boar and vegetable stew I made last night," I concluded.
The Matron sat for a long while, digesting this and studying me. The silence felt intense.
"I see," she finally said. "And where is that stew now?"
"It's in my storage space," I replied.
"You have a bag of holding?" She asked, surprised.
"It's a skill I got at level 5. I’m only able to hold food-related items," I said sheepishly, unsure if I was selling it well at all. Maybe I should’ve put more points into Charisma.
"May I see it?" she asked calmly.
"Yes, of course. It will be hot. Do you want me to pull it out here? I don’t want to burn any papers or books," I said.
"That’s a good point," she said, standing up and clearing off her large wooden desk, then laying down a cloth over the surface.
"Just here will do," she added, patting the spot.
Following her instructions, I pulled out the pot and stew.
Would you like to remove 1x [Common] Boar Stew for 5 mana? Yes/No
Selecting yes, the stew appeared on the desk in front of me, with a small amount of steam still rising from it. Despite several hours having passed, it seemed no heat had been lost since this morning.
"Hmm, it doesn’t appear to have any noticeable magical properties," she said, examining it closely.
"Do you happen to have any bowls or a ladle in that storage of yours?" she asked, looking at me.
"Oh no, sorry ma’am, I don’t," I admitted, feeling embarrassed. I hadn’t even thought about utensils—I had none at all.
"No worries," she said. "One moment." With that, she left the room, leaving me alone.
When she returned, she brought several items: a bowl, a spoon, a ladle, and lastly, a small polished knife. I wasn’t sure what she had planned for that.
With everything laid out, she proceeded to serve up a bowl of stew. Then, before I knew it, she grabbed the knife and made a small, clean cut on her own arm. Seeing the shock on my face, she said, "I can hardly test the healing properties if I’m already at full health."
She then ate several spoonfuls of the stew. I saw the notifications pop up before she said anything.
Notifications:
You have earned 25 experience for making an enjoyable meal
You have earned 50 bonus experience for healing someone with your meal
"How curious," she said, sitting down again. The wound on her arm didn’t magically heal or anything, but the bleeding had stopped. "It seems to be a lesser form of regeneration—not actively healing the cut, but significantly increasing my hit point regeneration."
A moment later, she placed her hand over the cut, and a small green glow appeared, healing before my eyes.
My jaw dropped open. I knew healing magic existed, but I’d never seen it in person before.
"That was amazing!" I said, awe in my voice.
She chuckled. "No, my dear boy, what’s amazing is that this seemingly regular stew is healing my hit points at a noticeable rate. You said you gave it to your friend who had a bad fever—could you explain her condition and how long it took for her to recover?"
Nodding, I explained what had happened the night I went to see Micca—how she was pale, sweating heavily, barely conscious, and breathing shallowly.
"That sounds like quite a severe fever," she said in a sombre tone. "I’ll go out on a limb here, and you may not realise it, but she was lucky you arrived when you did. A fever that bad takes people as often as it spares them. Now, how long after giving her the soup did she wake up?"
Thinking for a moment, the night a blur of panic, I said, "Uh, I’m not sure exactly, but I only gave her half the bowl before she was awake."
“Remarkable,” was all the Matron said. “Yes, we’ll absolutely take the food donation.”
As she reached for the pot, two thoughts raced through my mind. “Wait!” I said. “Uh, that pot’s still going to be very hot at the handles, so you might burn yourself. But, um, I was hoping maybe you’d have something I could transfer it into—this pot is special to me.”
Only then did the Matron notice the engraving on the side. “Ah, I see—a memento. Yes, of course. How much can your storage hold? Would you be able to take another pot for all future donations? Then we can just trade pots to make it easier,” she asked.
“I really don’t know how much it can hold, but that would be perfect, thanks. I only have the one pot at the moment,” I said, embarrassed.
“I’ll go get this pot transferred over if you don’t mind just waiting a moment,” she said, grabbing a cloth to hold the handles before leaving me alone in the room once more.
I had done it—what a relief! I’d been dreading this moment, expecting the worst, but in the end, it wasn’t so bad after all.
Looking around the room to distract myself, I realised that all the books and texts were medical in nature. Although the Academy taught me very basic reading and writing—just enough in case we needed to send a message in the field—I couldn’t even make sense of the titles.
A little while later, the Matron re-entered the room carrying my pot, now completely clean. Behind her followed another member of the Pavilion dressed in white, carrying a second pot that looked quite aged—much more like the pots in the inn.
“Here is your pot back,” she said, “and here is a spare for future donations. In addition to that, I’d like you to take these to help you help others.” She then pulled out a set of utensils from the pot—a ladle, a large spoon, a wooden stirring stick with what looked like a metal handle, five copper coins, and finally, a knife—laying them all out on the table.
“You mentioned you only owned the pot, so consider this a donation from me to help you heal more people,” she said.
Once again, I was left speechless. I just looked between the Matron and the man who had followed her in, standing silently with a smile as he held the second pot.
“Uh, tha... thank you so much,” I managed to get out. “You didn’t have to.”
“Of course, but I chose to,” she responded. “You have a rare talent there, young Trevor, and I wouldn’t want to see you waste it.”
“Now get all this into your storage. I have sick people to feed,” she said with a smile.
“Yes, of course. Sorry,” I said, storing everything away. “I won’t forget this, and I’ll bring you food as often as I can.”
When everything was packed up, I bowed to the Matron. “Thank you for everything. Please say hello to Gemma for me. I’d better get back to the inn.”
Just as I was about to leave, she called softly, “When you drop by next time, the person at the front will know what to do. Thank you again, Trevor.”
I rushed back to the inn, hoping Larry hadn’t noticed my absence. He rarely came out during lunch service anyway, so I figured I’d be fine. Geo had said he’d cover for me, too, which was a relief.
