"Is this, truly a Spirit?" Chen Yu asked again, not quite believing it, and specifically glancing at the little demon to get her answer.
"Yes."
Seeing the little demon, floating in the air like a coal ball in the kitchen, nodded slightly.
"This is a Spirit."
Astonished.
What Chen Yu saw before him was—
Two balls.
Two pitch-black coal balls.
Two pitch-black, fluffy coal balls.
If not for the fact that these two coal balls had visible eyes, Chen Yu would have suspected they were sentient coal.
No!
They *were* sentient coal, weren't they?
Why was it that the Elemental Kitchen Maids were so cute, but the Elemental Spirits turned out to be sentient coal?
It could be seen that
these two coal balls seemed quite shy.
They hid behind the Elemental Kitchen Maids, their large eyes secretly observing Chen Yu. When they felt Chen Yu staring at them, they instinctively retreated a step.
"Don't stare at them like that."
Noticing the Spirits' nervousness, the little demon nudged Chen Yu's shoulder.
"Infant Spirits are very shy. It took them a lot of courage to come to you. What are you doing staring at them with those big eyes, trying to eat them?"
Hearing this, Chen Yu coughed lightly.
He raised his hand and rubbed his face.
A gentle smile appeared in his eyes.
"Hello."
He waved at the Spirits. The Elemental Kitchen Maids also seemed to say something to the Spirits, and only then did the Spirits, who had been hiding behind, float to the front of Chen Yu.
Their large eyes still looked at Chen Yu with some timidity.
"I'd like to hire you to work for me. What do you think..."
[Ding]
[You have received a hiring request from the Elemental Spirits]
Hiss.
They looked silly, but their resumes were submitted quickly.
Chen Yu tapped his finger.
He glanced at the details.
Immediately, his expression changed again.
"Hey, Barbara, these two want 3 Spirit Shards for half an hour!" Chen Yu pointed at the request on his wristband, his eyes wide with disbelief.
"Spirits are just expensive."
The little demon, however, shrugged, not finding it strange.
"Compared to Elemental Kitchen Maids, Elemental Spirits can do many things and are not limited to a single task. In fact, Elemental Spirits are more often hired for warfare. Mature Elemental Spirits are rarely hired for menial tasks. Only you, with your peculiar habits."
"They can also fight?" Chen Yu was greatly surprised.
"Mature Elemental Spirits are not inferior in strength to those in the Colorful Realm. When my Demon King's Fortress suffered severe damage, I hired three hundred thousand Elemental Spirits, and only then was the situation stabilized."
"..."
Truly a former great demon king of the underground.
The words she spoke gave some idea of how glorious she must have been in the past. Hiring three hundred thousand mature Elemental Spirits meant three hundred thousand strong individuals in the Colorful Realm?
Chen Yu was also puzzled.
Given Barbara's strong influence, with both money and people, how did she end up losing?
Afraid of upsetting the little demon.
He didn't press the matter further.
At this time, he didn't need to hire mature Elemental Spirits, nor could he necessarily afford them. He didn't think mature Elemental Spirits would want money.
If they wanted resources, his resource reserves weren't particularly abundant.
Although hiring Elemental Spirits was a bit expensive.
3 Shards.
That was 144 Shards per day, equivalent to 43,200 resource points, or a salary of 43 silver coins and 20 copper coins. Even his chief construction engineer didn't earn that much.
Elemental hires were truly unaffordable for ordinary people.
But—
Chen Yu needed Elemental Spirits to free up his hands.
"Hire!"
With a grand gesture.
The employment contract was instantly signed.
The Elemental Spirits seemed to have received Chen Yu's hiring contract. Not long ago, they were still very shy, but now they had darted to Chen Yu's shoulders.
"Jiji jiji~"
"What are they saying?!" Chen Yu asked blankly, tilting his head. The little demon shrugged. "They are thanking you for the job opportunity and asking what work you primarily need them to do. They are proficient in all basic tasks and are also skilled in cooking."
"Ya ya ya~"
Unexpectedly, the Elemental Kitchen Maids suddenly gathered around, their eyes wide, gesturing and waving their hands incessantly.
"This..."
Chen Yu was bewildered at this sight.
"The Elemental Kitchen Maids are very angry. They accuse the Elemental Spirits of trying to steal their business, denouncing them from a moral high ground for such behavior." The little demon translated.
Looking at the kitchen maids with indignant faces, and then at the Spirits cowering behind his neck.
Chen Yu couldn't help but smile.
These little things were indeed quite interesting.
"Alright, alright, no one will steal your jobs. From now on, only you little kitchen maids will do the cooking. I won't let anyone replace you." Chen Yu smiled and gently poked the little face of a kitchen maid. Then, he looked at the coal balls on his shoulders. "Can you do decomposition?"
The coal balls on his shoulders immediately jumped up and down, presumably nodding.
Leaving the magic kitchen.
Chen Yu brought the Spirits to the dissection area.
"Decompose these beast carcasses, any problem?" Chen Yu whispered, pointing at the carcasses on the ground. The Spirits did not hesitate and floated to the carcasses.
They didn't use daggers, but simply sat on the carcasses.
Then—
Chen Yu saw a magical array appear on the beast carcasses.
In about a minute.
The wild boar carcass on the ground instantly separated into flesh and bone, with the bones neatly piled up.
"No critical hits?"
Chen Yu murmured.
Clang!
The moment he spoke, a large pile of wild boar meat suddenly appeared from the pile on the ground. This sudden sight startled the Spirits quite a bit.
They stared blankly at the meat on the ground.
"Yeah!"
Chen Yu instinctively clenched his fist.
They could crit.
If this was the case, then decomposition could be completely handed over to the Spirits.
"Good, little Spirits, your job from now on is to decompose here. The decomposed meat can be stored in the refrigerator box over there, understood?"
"Ji~"
"If you have no work, I allow you to play with the kitchen maids, or roam freely within my camp."
"Ji ji~"
"Translate," Chen Yu said, looking at the little demon. The little demon looked disgusted. "They say, no problem. If they have no work, they will find things within their capabilities to do, so please rest assured."
"I'll be counting on you."
Chen Yu rubbed the heads of the two little coal balls and left the dissection area.
Hiring the Spirits.
It had solved a big problem for him.
If he bought a barbecue recipe, he wouldn't even need to personally handle barbecue in the future. Leaving the magic kitchen, before departing, Chen Yu checked the fruit reserves, which were no longer enough to sustain the Elemental Kitchen Maids' work.
He still needed to consider stocking up on fruits.
Relying on purchasing from the trading channel was clearly impossible. For survivors, fruits were high-end luxury consumables.
Extremely expensive.
For a single apple, Chen Yu saw the cheapest ones costing 3,000 resource points.
3 silver coins for an apple.
Can you believe it?
Even if Chen Yu could bargain, he couldn't bring the price down too much.
"What are you thinking about?" The little demon noticed Chen Yu's expression and whispered. Chen Yu glanced at her. "Nothing, just thinking about when to go to the city-state to buy some fruits."
"Buy fruits?"
The little demon suddenly pouted and smiled.
"What a petty bourgeois idea. Buying fruits is only treating the symptoms, not the root cause. No matter how many you buy, there will come a day when they are consumed by the Elemental Kitchen Maids. Why don't you consider buying some capital?"
"Ah?"
"For example, buy an orchard?"