I made my way to the door that housed the kitchen, domain of Grethra, the cook. Or maybe calling her a chef would be more appropriate, I had yet to meet her, so I wasn't sure. The door a a symbol on it, after a second, I realised that it was supposed to be a large, witch-style cauldron, just in this case, it was more likely to represent a soup-pot.

When I opened the door, I almost had to take a step back when a cloud of hot and moist air blew into my face, which was rather unpleasant, especially after being in the cool and pleasant mountain-air before.

“Get in or get away, I don’t care which, but make your choice!” a loud voice from inside, reminding me of the prototypical drill-sergeant, scolded me, For a second, I wondered if they had used the same voice-actor for Sergeant Lee and this character before coming to my senses and entering the room, before I was shouted at again. Inside, I instantly started to sweat, it was hot and humid, even worse than the cloud that had escaped before. Looking around, I noticed a great many fire-places, some below cauldrons like the one embossed outside, others beneath metal containers that I identified as ovens but it quickly became obvious where the heat was coming from. On a closer look, the cauldrons were mostly in a state of boil, sending small clouds of steam into the room, explaining the humidity.

“Now, tell me who you are and what you want, or I might check if I can fit you on a spit.” the same voice from before got my attention and I focused on the owner of said voice. It was a dwarven woman, that much was obvious, but she was quite the impressive specimen. Before, most dwarves had been of similar height, somewhere between a meter ten and maybe a meter thirty or something along those lines, but this one, she took the cake. While she was even wider than the dwarves I had seen before, she wasn’t just short, she was shorter. Without measuring, it was hard to say, but I doubted that she was above ninety centimeters, if that, roughly half my size. But the meat-cleaver in her hand told me that she’d be happy to cut me down to size, if necessary.

“Greetings, my name is Chrystal. I was recently called into this world by the Irminsul and am looking for instruction on how to cook.” I quickly introduced myself, before she got any ideas that using her cleaver was a good idea.

“Chrystal, eh? Tell me, why do you want to learn how to cook? Want to woo your lover? Want to open a restaurant? Come, give me your reason.” the short dwarf interrogated, her voice still rather harsh, mocking even.

For a split-second, I considered a serious answer, trying to come up with something good, maybe something along the lines of food and drink being among the most primal needs one had to sate, before deciding that I’d just give as good as I could. There was the temptation to insult her, maybe suggesting that I wanted to learn how to spit someone as fat as her, and how long she’d need to grill but considering the bloody cleaver in her hand, I decided that, while it would be a good idea, it wasn’t a smart idea.

“Why, I want to learn how to prepare a human. I heard they are rather stringy and taste a little vile, so I came here, hoping to be instructed.” I suggested, hoping that I’d hit the right tone, somewhere between bloodthirsty savage and eager student.

The cook I was talking to reacted with laughter at my bold statement, before wiping a tear from her eye and sweat from her forehead.

“That’s a good one, aye. But preparing humans is difficult, you see, most of them are full of shit, so you need to get rid of that first, otherwise, well, your dish will be spoiled.” she announced, in a joking voice, before continuing.

“I will teach you, orc, but know that to master cooking, you need dexterous hands to prepare your ingredients, a keen intuition to know what ingredients to use and the endurance to stand the heat of a kitchen. Unless you have all three, your work will never be more than passable. That being said, do you still want to learn cooking?” she asked, her voice serious. As I considered her words, realising that she had just told me which attributes were the key-attributes for cooking, a blue window opened, giving me the option to become a Chef.

New Profession offered

Cooking - How to become a true Chef

You were offered training for the Profession of the Chef, learning how to prepare all sorts of food and beverages. Some say, that those who master the profession are able to prepare feasts that do more than sate hunger, they strengthen the body, the mind or even the soul for the tasks of the future.

Do you want to chose Chef as your first Profession?

[Warning, you can only have two Professions at the same time] Accept Decline

After a second of contemplation, I mentally clicked the Accept-Button and a soft chime, similar to the one for levelling up went off in my mind. In addition, I gained access to a cook.bock and a few skills to prepare meals, one of which allowed me to easily start a small fire, if I had the right supplies. If only I had that one earlier, maybe I would be able to use it in complement with my Arsonist-title.

“Good, that was the first step on the path of being a true Chef. From now on, you can call me Chef Grethra.” the rotund dwarf finally smiled, before she wiped her sweat again and continued.

“If you want to learn how to gather ingredients from the game you slay, talk to Draem over there, he can teach you how to butcher things, it’s his speciality. Otherwise, I have a task for you, I want you to prepare ten portions of mutton-stew and deliver them to Zear, he’s mostly hanging around in the barn. That’ll be your first challenge as a chef.” she finished, gesturing to another dwarf, standing at a chopping block with another cleaver. I would have to get one of those for myself, they looked like they might be useful in a fight. Maybe as some sort of throwing weapon, I wanted one anyway and throwing cleavers had some charm to it.

After accepting the quest that had popped up when Grethra had finished, I checked my cook book and found the recipe for mutton stew, even if I hadn’t the foggiest idea where to get the ingredients, mutton, I’d obviously get from sheep but I doubted that the dwarves would look kindly upon me going ham on their domesticated animals. So, I would have to look for some wild sheep or maybe there was a butcher where I could buy the stuff. But getting potatoes, carrots and some other produce, that was a whole different question, so for now, I tabled the idea of levelling my profession. Not that I wanted to bring it to ten before getting my class there anyway.

“Thank you, Chef Grethra. I’ll return to you once the task is done.” I took my leave, walking over to the butcher. The exchange with him was far less spirited but I acquired my second profession, Butchery. He even sold me a meat-cleaver that I could use to take apart my kills, but when I asked him if he sold other things or if he bought things, he wasn’t interested in anything I had to sell.

So, hoping to get some more information and unload the trash-loot I had been carrying around, I asked him if there was some sort of general goods or produce-vendor in the area, hoping to get rid of it there, maybe even buying some of the stuff I needed. In response, he told me that there was, but it was on another level. I’d have to go outside, take the stairs to get to another level, before getting into the merchant’s hallway. It was a little confusing, but that was just how the city was designed. I thanked him before taking my leave, considering where to go first, the merchant’s hallway to unload loot or directly to Glonar.

After a moment of contemplation, I decided that I wanted to know what Glonar had for me, it might be some interesting task, so I went outside and started to climb down the stairs, again, considering if I would be able to take a flying leap, just to avoid some of them.