The Twelfth And Final Step...Set The Table!

Mmm...it was a good sleep. But now it is time to cook. I walk down to see several dark shadows playing at one of the tables.

[Beth]

[Changling]

[High Rank Demon]

Ah...I guess they don't have to keep the pretense...hm. I think it is easier to see them this way. They seem more lively. I like it.

Actually, there are more than the four from usual.

"Ah, Ardin. I hope you don't mind making a large breakfast?"

"Not at all. Today's breakfast is similar to yesterday's, but now we have more to mix in with it. I will make several batches."

"Hoh...thank you."

I guess I can make the jalapeno scramble again, but I should also make a cheesy one and a steak and eggs one. Mmm, so many options now to make.

As the recipe is similar to the spicy breakfast scramble, I hope these count as new recipes.

[Meaty Breakfast Scramble]

[+5 Strength for 15 minutes upon consumption]

[Cheesy Breakfast Scramble]

[+5 Stamina for 15 minutes upon consumption]

[Recipes 8/10]

Nice. These will do great for everyone. I am sure they will enjoy the variety but I apologize for being rather...simple.

Now to move onto the snacks! Yes! For one, I need to make a salty, chocolatey, and nutty snack to munch on. And the other can be the sandwhiches.

I can reuse the method I used last night to make a loaf of bread instead of a bun and then cut it up into slices. But instead of my Dutch Oven, I will have to use a baking pan. Thank goodness I have one.

Now to make the meat slices. We have beef, chicken, and even ham, so I can have several different kinds of sandwiches, but since I haven't made the cheese myself, it looks like a basic cheddar cheese.

But that is fine. While I know how to make cheese, it will take too long for me to have a new kind of cheese ready in the next few days.

You know, that is what I need to do. I need to start readying up things like alcohol, vinegar, and cheese. There are a lot of foods that need time to cook, and most food tastes better after preparing it several days in advance, such as jerky and smoked meat.

But for the snacks, let me go ahead and move onto the trail mix. The bread needs to cook before I slice it up, after all.

So first, I need to make the chocolate coating for the nuts. In order to do that, I need to crush down the chocolate...nuts? I mean, they are beans here, but...whatever.

Anyways, I then heat it up and mix it up all the while. It becomes soft and mushy, slowly becoming a liquid over time. I noticed other people have arrived, but I am too busy making the snacks.

Now, regular unprocessed chocolate is incredibly bitter. So, using some honey, I mix it in until the liquid is consistent. This is really hard, and if I didn't have these tools or my moves, this would be a pain on my arms to mix it up.

This stuff is just...tough.

But this is fine. I add a little milk to soften up the mixture and sweeten it a little. This allows me to mix it even further and I felt my mitten begin to glow green, just like the Wind Gem installed on the index finger part. A slight breeze also seemed to appear out of my glove and it helped mix the chocolate.

Sure enough, Mix got added to my moveset. How come they don't sound as cool as Drew's move?

Anyways, this is now a lot easier than before. Once I feel as if the consistency is good, I mix in the almonds, pecans, and peanuts! All of them! Yeah!

I pull out a plate and use a fork to remove the nuts one at a time from the bowl. Once all of the nuts are out, I set aside the residual chocolate. I can clump it together and flatten it out into semi-bar shapes for the players.

And then to top it off with salt. Now to cool it and let the chocolate harden. Hmm...can I use the Wind Gem?

Hmm...no, nothing. I guess I just blow on it and hopefully it works. And...yeah! It did! I got the move Cool.

Kind of like Fry, Cool works the same way. I focus the spray to cover one side while I use my other hand from the other. I can see an obvious difference in the air as a light fog sets in, but the chocolate nuts look mighty good now.

Alright! Okay, bread is done. Let me just set aside the nuts and...

"Hey. Don't touch these. Okay?"

"...yeah, of course."

These guys...like hyenas or buzzards.

Anyways, I carefully slice the bread into pieces, placing different combinations of beef, chicken, and ham sandwiches with lettuce and tomatoes, while also going to start making the chips. Those go well with sandwiches.

Hmmm...it seems that no one is messing with my nuts. Good.

Alright. Now that the process to make these things have already been done, it seems to go by much faster for me.

Oh?

[Chocolatey Nut Snacks]

[+5 Wisdom for 15 minutes upon consumption]

[Simple Sandwiches]

[+2 Energy for 5 minutes upon consumption]

[Recipes 10/10]

[You have completed a Class Chain Quest!]

Hehe. Now just to finish the last one and I will become a true...Battle...Chef.

Wait. I actually have to battle, don't I?

[Battle Chef Chain Quest 5/5]

[You know how to cook, and you know what it means to fight. Now to combine the two! Use Battle Cooking to defeat an enemy!] [0/1]

Oh come on! Well, we were going into the Dungeon anyway.

"A-Ardin? Can we eat that now?"

"Hehe. No, Drew, these are for later, when we are in the Dungeon."

"Oh! Gotcha!"

"Wait you two. Let us come along."

Oh, Lars and Gary. See, I knew they would help. I wave goodbye to the Changelings and some of the players coming in to eat breakfast before grabbing some simple foodstuffs just in case.

I mean, we can find ingredients along the way, but how am I to know if the climb up the Dungeon will take a while?

As we enter the Dungeon, I notice that Gary just seems content to push Lars along. Wait, are they not going to help?

"Haha! Gotcha, Rabbit!"

"Are you not going to follow her, Ardin?"

I look at Lars with a doubtful face, but seeing as how I know that I need to fight, I can't say I don't understand him. Approaching a Rabbit, I recall the method to clean a rabbit I learned when I was little. First off...the kill.

Hoh...I can do this...

I am cooking, right. I need to get my cleaver.

[1st Creed activated!]

[2nd Creed activated!]

Whoa...alright. Let's go.

>>>><<<<

Ardin rushed forward, calmly and coldly. A simple twitch of his face and the arm came down on the slow Rabbit. Rather than merely killing it, he beheaded the Rabbit in one clean hit.

Quickly grabbing onto the body and head, Ardin strung them both up and pulled out a pot. He let the blood drain into the pot while preparing a skinning knife. His entire aura had changed, and even Drew felt in awe at his swift movements.

Through the power of his Creeds alone, his strength went from the lowest possible Rank to one just above Drew. He would have easily overpowered Herad in this state, but it seemed to come with some intense requirements, such as the target and equipment involved.

His lip trembling, Ardin then split the hide, skinning the Rabbit cleanly, removing the fur like it was a coat. Sticking the pot of blood, the fur, and the head into his Inventory, he then set to work pulling the meat off the bones.

If he were to let his mind wander, he would be thinking those wilderness survival lessons sure came in handy. But right now, nothing seemed to be going through his head. He was stuck in the moment.

The blood and fur of the Rabbit stained his hands, but he kept working. Eventually, he had a full Rabbit and its entire skeleton. He could use the bones to make broth and soup, and if course the meat would be cooked.

But the rest of the body had important sections. The eyeballs, the organs, maybe the brain, but Ardin never learned how to cook that...

Lars and Gary looked at each other in surprise, thinking that people like the Bookworm or Potionmaker would enjoy this newfound ability.

<<<<>>>>

[You have completed a Class Chain Quest!]

[You have shown your capability to cook and battle! You are now an honorary Battle Chef!]

[You have earned the Title Battle Chef! As you have no other Title, it has replaced Newbie automatically!]

[You have Ranked Up due to the growth of your psyche. All Stats increase by 5!]

[You have learned the Dismantle Skill!]

[You have no more room for Skills. Please Rank Up to learn more!]

[Battle Chef]

[As a person who cooks food, the duration of buffs last 8 times longer. As a person who fights constantly, basic Stats increase by 5!]

[Dismantle]

[This rare Skill allows you to leave the corpse of those you Hunted* behind for a while and take it apart to turn into new ingredients and materials.]

[*Hunted refers to the special way of killing an enemy in relation to another Skill.]

Ack, so many things. Huh? Oh...oh dear...I made a mess now. I will need to clean up.

[1st Creed has been empowered! Cleanliness is tantamount to tools!]

[2nd Creed has been empowered! Cleanliness is tantamount to ingredients!]

[3rd Creed has been empowered! Cleanliness is tantamount to customers!]

Ugh...will it never end? Can I get up now? Ah, actually, I can place weight on my legs. I feel weak all of a sudden. I guess that took a lot out of me.

Will I have to keep doing this from now on? It won't ever end...

"Ardin. Congratulations on becoming a Chef."

Huh? Oh...I see, I forgot to end the party that one time. Heh, I'm so stupid.

"You see now? Well, there are other reasons why we try not to let people see our Quests."

Huh? Gary looks solemn. Lars...what do you mean?

"This...the alerts you see, the Quests you recieve... did you notice that you didn't have to receive it from an NPC?"

Ah...no, I didn't.

"This entire world seems to focus on us. All of us in this Region are indulgent. Some people, like Gary here, became 'older', rather than younger. This seems to show that there is something else about this place."

Right. If we couldn't go back, the first thing to think would be this was the last thought I had before I died or something. Perhaps we died while feeling indulgent, or we died because of our indulgence, but...

Gary's existence refutes that thought. He didn't pass away since his peak point in life was after this period of indulgence.

"These alerts, these Skills and Titles. They are based on us. We create them. We find them and we take them in. I am Bear Man, a person who used to cut down trees and fight bears to increase my constitution in order to stand the heat of the smithy longer. I also have the Blacksmith Title among other things."

Huh...then the reason this is so annoying because I am giving me these alerts and...

I created the Battle Chef Class myself? But why would I want to fight?

"Though you are indulgent now, can you think of other moments in your past where you may have felt a strong anger or sadness?"

Yeah. I had a pretty up and down childhood. But...I mean...

"This is you. You probably have an aggressive personality normally. However, your desire to be lazy and not work is currently overpowering that feeling."

How...how would he know?

"The only way to know who you really are is to climb like this all the way to the top. The Tower Master will show you your entire life. That's right. We have died. But for some reason, we were pulled from a specific point in our life."

The time when we felt our most indulgent.

Then...are the other Regions similar? No...do I exist in those other Regions, too?

"Climb the Tower. You will then gain the power to travel to other Regions."

Ah...so...I...

I can at least see the rest of my life if I climb this tower. I can see my family and friends. I can know the way I died and how I lived...

I...just need to keep doing what I have been doing. Right. I can't lose sight of this goal. Or else I would become like Hared. Like those that live in the Mountain.

I know what I must do.