Chapter 06: Learning to cook

"Are you spying on my whole life?" asked Alan looking at the system screen "this is like an invasion of privacy, but I can't complain about having so many opportunities to grow as a person".

"I'm home" Alan announced as he opened the door, surprisingly the house was unoccupied, he went to the kitchen to check and found a note taped to the fridge.

"mom left on a business trip" mumbled Alan with a smile on his face as he remembered another detail "Emily said she was staying at one of her classmates house, so the house is for me" the smile on Alan's face grew bigger and his eyes glowed strangely almost as if he had an evil plan in his mind.

After he had left all his belongings in his room he went to the kitchen, took out several ingredients from the fridge and put them on the table "it's time to practice, just wait, you will be surprised with my culinary skills".

A couple of minutes later a plate of salty rice and tomato sauce appeared, looking suspicious.

[Name: Rice with tomato sauce]

[Status: Suspicious looking]

[The first dish of the player Alan Turly, demonstrates the ability of a player with zero ability in the kitchen, when consuming it is recommended to drink copious amounts of water]

[Effects: 30 minutes of stomach ache level 1]

[Rating: E]

"can the system classify things?" asked Alan as he saw the screens that appeared in front of his eyes with the respective messages "suspicious looking... it's really not very encouraging."

[You obtained the basic cooking skill level 1].

[The flavors of your meals will now be more tasty]

"a skill?" asked Alan looking at the new system windows "a cooking skill is a passive one.... Perfect!"

With the recent message in mind, Alan set out to cook the dish from before again, this time with his new skill.

[Do you wish to prepare 'Suspicious-looking rice with tomato sauce' again?]

[Yes / NO]

Alan stared at the message, without hesitation he denied the request and went back to his own thing, he got the ingredients and started cooking, this time he knew what he was doing in a weird way, he followed the same steps, but he gave more care to the preparation in the details he had failed before like for example the amount of salt he uses in each thing. When he finally finished the dish was in front of him on the table.

"analyze"

[Name: Rice with tomato sauce]

[Status: novice cooking]

[A dish cooked by Alan Turly based on his previous attempt at cooking, the dogs on the street would probably covet it]

[Effects: 40 minutes of bad taste sensation in the mouth]

[Rating: E+]

"The dogs?!" exclaimed Alan frustrated, but he soon calmed down, took a few breaths and sighed a few times to start again focused again on what he really had to do.

'To prepare the dish once again I will have to spend more materials and there is nothing to confirm that the next dish will have the necessary qualities' Alan pondered in his mind, he walked to the fridge checked inside and went over the ingredients once again 'I could prepare noodles or maybe bread.... What should I make that is simple and doesn't waste a lot of ingredients?' as Alan pondered his thoughts one of the ingredients in the bottom of the fridge gave him an idea.

"French fries!" he exclaimed with a smile on his face reaching for all the potatoes in the fridge, the oil on one of the shelves and the salt, which was declared enemy number 3 for Alan.

It wasn't long before he was ready for the final step, frying the potatoes and getting one more recipe in the system.

[Name: French fries]

[Status: Decent]

[After stepping on his tail several times, the player decided to try a dish that even children would have a hard time failing at]

[Effects: every 100 grams you get 312 calories]

[Rating: C]

"only a C"

[You gained the basic cooking skill level 2] [You got the basic cooking skill level 2]

[The flavors of your meals will now be tastier].

Seeing the latest messages on the system screen made Alan's mood rise immediately, if the skill increased then the flavors of his dishes would instantly increase.

"Let's go again" Alan folded his sleeves several times and started frying more fries, the night went on and Alan kept frying fries, he didn't care about anything but his stats at that moment.

When the fries were finally finished the system threw up a new prompt that Alan had been waiting for quite a while for.

[Name: French fries]

[Status: Delicious]

[Cook Alan Turly found a way to make French fries as crunchy and delicious as regular fries, but generating fewer calories]

[Effects: every 100 grams yields 200 calories]

[Rating: B+]

[You obtained the basic cooking skill level 4]

[The flavors of your meals will now be more tasty]

"it looks like level 4 is as far as I can go this time, I don't have any more fries on hand and I don't think I can cook much more" Alan sat down on a chair and looked at the amount of fries on the table, all with different stats and descriptions.

"no matter how hard I try I can't get an A in the rankings, I should try other things, I mean I already understand how to get a skill... I think" Alan stood still for a moment and stood up once more, he walked to the sink and started washing the dishes quickly, focusing all his attention on the dishes and making sure he washed in every nook and cranny, waiting for the system message to appear then his theory would be right.

[You obtained the basic dishwashing skill level 1.]

[You can wash dishes faster]

"BINGO!" exclaimed Alan happily, with the previous message his theory was proven he could get skills from even the smallest things he just had to focus flatly on what he needed.

"I just have to repeat an action several times and it will transform into an ability, it's a simple method" Alan was thrilled with his discovery, but the questions came to his mind once again "why didn't the ability to run appear earlier or the ability to write? don't those abilities exist?"

With Alan's new discovery new doubts arose, but at the same time joy arose in his heart, now he knew he could do much more with the system.

[Name: Alan Turly]

[Race: Human]

[Title: None]

[Condition: Cushing's syndrome]

[Vitality: 1.0]

[Strength: 1]

[Intelligence: 5]

[Agility: 1.0]

[Stamina: 1.5]

[Charisma: 1]

[Points: 1]

Skills:

Passive:

[Stubborn Loser: Prevents the host from perishing at his own hands.]

[Cooking (basic) level 4]

[Dishwashing (basic) level 1]