8 Judgement (1)

Having only five hours for the hunting and the cooking was definitely short for the students.

Especially for those who hunt for meat with a richer taste but had a backdrop of having some strong game flavor.

Marinating for long periods was not an option for everyone for they only had a very few hours to cook.

Miss Laura was casually wandering around the ten kitchen counters observing the mainline chefs how will they be dealing with this kind of setup.

The different scent of herbs and spices puffs around, sizzling sound of the pan travels across from side to side. Cook-offs even simple as a class group work was always a sight to behold.

On the side of the bleachers where the tired battle chefs rest, the commotions about the Unicorn Bull subsided and all were focused on rooting for their mainline chefs.

Nil was observing how Miko and Nicole would deal with their meat. From what he saw Nicole was acting as the sous-chef.

Lily on the other hand was reading a book looking confident on the outcome of Mirone's cooking.

...

An hour was remaining for everyone before the tasting and judgment.

Each student was already on their final cooking process while some poor ones were still stuck on their trial and error cooking. Even Miko and Nicole were having their hard time dealing with such meat Nil brought. They already tested a couple portions and only left with 3 more cuts of the meat.

Even so, the face of the ever stoic Miko was not bothered by that fact.

"I need a whole head of garlic crushed clove by clove, no need to peel it out," Miko ordered which Nicole immediately followed. Miko started to pick something out of his bag, it was a small container filled with some white milk-like substance. There he soaked the whole ribeye portion of the meat. After a minute or so of soaking the whole meat, Miko pulled it out and used some special-looking table towel to remove the remaining 'milk' on the meat. It was almost to remove the moist from the meat.

Nicole on the side was watching carefully she long admitted from their trial and errors that Miko was definitely more skilled than her. After ensuring the meat was dry Miko started to season it out with some salt, pepper, and a mixture of spice.

"We will now start to sear this thing off. Give me a hand." Miko ordered again.

On a large well-heated skillet with some drizzled oil Miko started to sear the ribeye steak cut he chose.

His focus was on its peak that Nicole on the side was pressured just by following up from an endless stream of order.

"Garlic"

"Rosemary"

"Thyme"

"Give me that blue labeled container"

"Prepare some thyme, turtle leaves, and minced onion and garlic. Sear it in red wine."

Some ingredients were inaudible for the surrounding, perhaps it was some secret ingredient that only the lucky Nicole could hear.

Basting, searing, flipping over every half a minute or so, streams of different requests.

It lasted for at least 3 quarters of an hour before a luxurious-looking 3 palm-sized sliced steak with a pinkish center was plated with some reddish-brown glimmering sauce and coleslaw-like side dish.

It was very pleasing and tempting to the eyes. The medium-rare golden brown outer crust of pinkish-centered steak seems to be a little crispy. Juices that poured out from the meat mixed with the reddish-brown sauce making it glisten that gives a shiny look.

It was the very definition of a perfect steak.

The sweet aroma of their meal was intoxicating without even the little hint of gaminess.

'Miko became a whole different person when he gets serious, I'm a hundred percent sure that I'm not his match in the kitchen. But just for now!' That was the only thought Nicole was able to think while she was overwhelmed by how they manage to cook the steak.

...

An hour had passed, Laura already rejected 4 dishes from 4 different groups who failed to prepare a dish she was expecting.

The pressure of time and the fact that a freshly hunted raw ingredient would be prepared by a mainline chef was only one of the challenges they would be facing. 'Not all the time they will have prepared and washed ingredients readied transformed into a proper dish. Mainline's should know early the difficulty of this.' Laura thought.

It was not that the dishes prepared by those four groups were bad, it was more than enough for the common folks but definitely not good for the standards of judging.

The first one to have a positive judgment was Mirone who prepared a loin steak from the Porktopus. It was exquisitely plated, drizzled around by the porktopus' black ink which was specially prepared to have a perfect harmony with the meat.

The students were shocked after hearing that Lily alone captured the Porktopus but Laura, on the other hand, was satisfied as she knows that Lily already stepped into the realm of the Apprentice Rank, it was still quite a feat but Laura expected it nonetheless.

4 other groups were accepted and now it was Nicole, Miko and Nil's group to have their dish presented to miss Laura. The judgment goes step by step. From the report of how did the Battle Chef captured their meat, to the tasting and reporting how did the Mainline chefs prepared and cooked the dish.

Everyone's attention was captured by this group, all of them were surprised to know that Lily alone managed to hunt down the Porktopus but it was just how the rumors of Lily's strength go. But the strengths of the Porktopus and Unicorn Bulls had a significant difference despite both having the same apprehension rank. The former was on the first or second step while the latter stood on the pinnacle.

Their guesses and the rumors would be confirmed once Nil reported that it was really the Unicorn Bull's meat he gathered.

The three students bowed in front of miss Laura. Miko leaves the explaining to Nicole, unless he needed to step in, he will not be bothered to speak.

Nicole placed their dish on the white table in front of miss Laura.

"Unicorn Bull's ribeye steak in red wine and dark chocolate sauce."

Nicole said in a tone where everyone could hear her.

'It was true!'

'No wonder we can't find that beast!'

'That's a topnotcher for you, he must be really a cut from class A.'

'No shit? How? He was alone!'

'My credits would be for the guy, Miko. No normal student can prepare that meat on their first try!'

The commotion started to fill among the students again. But Nil only shrugged, it was none of his business right now.

"Now tell me how did you capture this sneaky beast?" Miss Laura asked her tone was overwhelming, hinting that if you lie you'll be in trouble.

Nil started to recount what happened back on the field adding some occasional lies to make him look like just a lucky guy who passed by the Unicorn Bull. But he didn't dare to change the story on how he battled against the beasts for he fears that Laura sent some observers to watch the students while hunting.

Everyone was shocked after hearing Nil's report, even the class B needed to team up to battle out one of those Unicorn Bulls and Nil manage to have 3 of them? Though he only battled one, it was still insane!

Even Laura showed a hint of surprise on her face and didn't hold back to ask what was Nil's current level.

"This is important, what's your current level now on training yourself?" Laura asked.

Knowing that the system had an incognito-like system to hide his prowess Nil instantly answered to make it look normal.

"3rd level of the apprentice rank." Nil chose that level perfectly. Lily on the side was a first-level apprentice.

And from his casual strolling around the campus to estimate the student's level he was sure that those big shots on class A were on the 4th level of the apprentice rank. So it wouldn't be wrong to be on the level of them for he was originally a cut from class A.

"I see that you trained hard! That's a good thing and keep it up! And now for this meat." Miss Laura pressed the back of the fork she was holding on the surface of the steak where an endless stream of juices flowed out and the way the meat react showed how tender this dish could be. Miss Laura's eyes widened she was yet again surprised just how perfect that ribeye steak could be!