I tried to look as if I wasn't anxiously waiting for Mel to return. The beef juices were starting to dry and it was pretty fucking gross feeling.

"Other than you not losing any fingers, everything going on okay in here, Harper?"

I looked up to Berry, who was peaking around the door frame like a child expecting to be shouted out of the kitchen. "Yep, it's all great. Thanks again for the mushrooms. Sorry I kinda fled the second you gave them to me."

"It's all good. You okay if I stick around and try out the final product? Mel said you wouldn't mind, as long as I was aware that you're still pretty low level and I might end up poisoned or something."

"Hah." I glared at the back door, as if Mel would be able to feel my disappointment in her. "I wouldn't mind that. I might not have any skills, but I'm not a complete idiot. The system does kind of give me warnings."

"Yeah, but this is your first time making this dish, right?"

I nodded, unsure of where she was going.

"You've got an innate failure chance, then. And there's two types of failures - major and minor. Major failure is stuff like burning the food, or under cooking or something. Usually avoidable as long as you follow the system prompts. But minor failure can be like... over spicing. Or preparing something wrong and getting the recipient sick. Thankfully the system will tell you if you fuck up, but there's no too many ways to fix it at that point, other than starting over. Once you cook the meal once, though, your innate failure chance goes way down."

"Does the failure chance continue to go down the more I cook it?"

"Yep! And as your skills go up."

"Hm." I wrinkled my nose, trying to ignore how much it fucking itched. Where the hell was Mel with the water? "How do you know so much about the cooking system?"

"Well... So, you know how you're an adventurer-turned-chef? I'm the other way around."

She looked a little uncomfortable with this revelation, and I wasn't quite sure why. So I had to ask. "What happened?"

"Innate failure chance goes way up if you fall asleep during the cooking process." Berry smiled wide, although there was pain in her eyes. "Little tip from me to you."

The back door swung open, and Mel struggled in with the pail of water. She put it over in the washing up area, and I immediately dunked my hands in them, and then set about scrubbing off the beef juice.

"Thanks Mel," I said with a sigh of relief.

"Lesson learned?"

I nodded, as I dried my hands off on one of the scrap towels we'd gotten from Derrick and Liam. "Alright. You're both wonderful, but time for me to shoo you out of the kitchen. As soon as I get the beef seared and into the pot with everything else, I'll come hang out."

"Ooh, searing? Lah-tee-dah." Berry grinned at me, her hands firmly on her wide hips. "You sure you're only level three?"

"Almost level four," I corrected with a mirrored grin. "Though, to be honest, I'm basically just doing what I remembered my mom did when I was a kid."

"Fancy. Well, good luck. And next time, add some fucking garlic to your stew, you monster."

The cooking menu immediately let me know there was an available alteration to one of my recipes, but I ignored it.

Sure, some fresh garlic would have been an amazing addition. But I didn't have any. I wasn't about to run into town and get some, not while all of my vegetables were already cut up and my beef was ready for searing.

Mel led Berry back out into the dining area, and as soon as they were gone I fetched a [Cast Iron Frying Pan] from the cupboard. I put it over the fire, and then fetched a little of the beef fat I'd trimmed away before. It wouldn't completely melt down, but it would be easy to fish it out of the pan after I was done. And the fat that did melt would coat the pan, making it so that the beef didn't stick.

When I put the spice-rubbed [Cut of Beef] into the pan, it sizzled and hissed, and the smell of cooking beef and toasted spices immediately filled my nostrils.

Holy shit was I hungry.

I don't know what it was about cooking beef that immediately got my saliva glands moving, but I was ready to just forgo to the whole stew making process and just tear into the beef.

But I focused. Berry's warning about innate failure chance made me super nervous. I couldn't afford to get distracted. Literally and figuratively. Paying for meat that I then wasted was a bad business decision, and I didn't have enough money to just keep throwing away like that.

After a few minutes, I flipped the [Slice of Beef] onto the other side. The crust on the first side looked good. It could have been darker and a bit more even, though. Perhaps if I put some force on it while it was cooking? But wouldn't that force more of the beef juices from it? I didn't want dry beef in my stew.

Maybe Berry would know.

After the [Slice of Beef] had been cooking for about the same amount of time on the second side, I removed the pan from the fire and put it on some towels to cool.

I was glad I'd stayed watching the beef.

Both sides of the meat were well seared, and the [Slice of Beef] had a buff icon on it.

Seared: An advanced technique used to give more flavor to dishes. This ingredient will give the final dish a quality increase.

Huh.

I wondered if I could sear my vegetables, too. Like, maybe the act of searing them would increase the quality of the dish more? Or was it too much of a good thing?

Again, more questions I didn't have answers to. As useful as the cooking system was, it was lacking some serious details.

I started to prepare my [Soup Pot] for the final construction of the meal. I thought about all the building I'd done, and decided to layer stuff kind of like that. First, we had the foundation. Which, to me, meant the hearty vegetables that would stand up to some punishment. My cut [Carrots], [White Potatoes], and [Yellow Onion] lined the bottom of the soup pot pretty nicely, creating a pretty even layer.

On top of them, I nestled my [Seared] [Cut of Beef]. I then put in enough [Clean Water] to cover everything, before sprinkling in my diced [Common Mushrooms] and remaining spices.

I looked over the cooking menu. Every ingredient was grayed out and had a line through it, meaning it had been prepared and then added to the final dish.

"Alright. No time like the present."

I added the [Soup Pot] to the fire.

Immediately, I got an update to the cooking menu. It told me I needed to let the stew cook for forty minutes or longer. There was a little note that said how longer cooking would make for a more flavorful broth, but risked overcooking.

Yeah. Wasn't interested.

If what Berry said was true, my innate failure chance was already an issue. I didn't want to risk overcooking in any other way.

Thankfully, the timer stayed in the corner of my vision, even after I closed the cooking menu. It was just like a buff icon, but it didn't give any particular stat increase. Just a constant, ticking reminder that I had something on the fire. Useful, but a little distracting.

I sighed and looked around the kitchen. It had taken me well over an hour to prepare one meal, which was super inefficient. I needed to get faster if I was going to cook for paying customers. No one wanted to sit around for an hour and forty minutes for a bowl of stew.

One thing that would help was familiarity and skill gains. And that was just, you know, doing the thing.

Over and over.

And over. And over.

But the other thing was that the kitchen was set up horribly inefficiently. I'd already saw some of the problems with it when Mel and I were getting it inspected by Derrick, but now that I had actually used the set up, it became a lot more obvious how fucking stupid I was for laying it out like this. There was no flow. I had to walk so far to do anything. And like... it wasn't a very large room. I just had to literally go to every corner of it (plus outside) to prepare a single dish.

Moving everything seemed important, but I wasn't sure how I wanted it done, so I left it for now. It would become way more obvious as time went on.

I hoped.

Instead of watching my timer tick down, I set about cleaning up after myself. I brought all of my dirty dishes to the washing up area and scrubbed them down. Once the dishes were done, I was able to focus on wiping down surfaces and putting away remaining ingredients, like the spices.

By the time ten minutes had dropped off the timer, the kitchen was clean and presentable. Which left me with thirty minutes to do something else.

Almost on cue, Mel and Berry laughed.

Right.

I had a guest.

I took off my apron and draped it nicely on my clean preparation space. And then I went out into the dining room to mingle. If I made a good impression, maybe Berry would invite other adventurers. And then this whole eatery idea might actually work.