“I think I just misheard you, but...did you just say…cook?” my voice cracking as I sent an incredulous look towards him

'Great, I'm going to be playing as Gordon Ramsay in this world'

“Don’t give me that look. You haven’t even tried it yet and your already regretting!” putting both his hands in front of him while smiling

“Give it a shot first before you say anything else”

Some people overheard our conversation a few meters away from us. They gave me pitying looks, while some of them laughed outright

“Who would even want to play as a cook in an rpg?”

“Poor guy, didn’t even know what he was getting into”

“Hey, maybe he can choke his enemies to death with his food” putting both his hand on his neck while pretending to choke

“Or beat them with a toaster until they submit” swinging his arms up and down in front of him

“This crab is so undercooked! I could still hear it singing ‘Under the sea’!” one person said, making the others laugh

'Great, It hasn't even been a minute and someone's already making fun of me'

“Quiet down, I think he can hear us” as they all stare at me while they quieted down

My face turns beet-red and I look away from them

“Ignore them, they don’t know what they’re talking about” he gestures for me to go to a room near the stairs

“It doesn’t seem like anyone else would be interested anyway, so let’s get this over with so you can start already” he sits down behind a desk, takes out a piece of paper from one of its drawers and scribbles some things on it

“Before you can start your journey as a cook, I want you to first gather a few things for me” he hands the paper to me and I read the contents aloud.

“Bristle back boar meat, laughing onions, celery, baby carrots, and butter made from charged cows’s milk?” i looked at him for a few seconds.

"Isn't this a grocery list?" turning over the paper to check if there was anything else written at the back

Errand boy John, here to save the world! What? You want me to deliver something instead? Of course sir, right away

He holds his left hand up, making me stop what I was about to say

"Now now, save your silly little questions for later."

“You can find bristle back boars in the forest to the east. The other things in that list can be found in the market. Go on then, chop chop”

I exit the building and walk towards the busy market area of Loam. Looking around, I see an assortment of foods and delicacies that were unfamiliar to me.

There were purple fruits hanging on a rope with large spikes all over it, a large fruit that has its gigantic seed protruding out of it, a pure white turtle that’s neck stretches for a meter long and other weird looking stuffs.

I asked around the place and got the ingredients except for the butter, which were sold out from all the places that I went. They did tell me where they got it from, it was the farm to the south where I did the peto swine request.

I walked for fifteen minutes before i saw the red barn. The farmer was outside tending his fields.

"Hello again, do you have some...what was it again? charged butter or something?" i asked the man, not sure of what it was called, since i lost the list while i was haggling with the people in the market

I'm already doing some shopping, so why not haggle to lower its price right?

“Oh, ya want some of em butter ey? I dun’ have any on me self right now, but ya can try to milk the 'ol gal if ya want and I’ll make some butter for ya” he gives me a bucket and ushers me inside the barn.

A blue cow with yellow spots on it appears before us.

“Don’t startle her or squeeze too hard ya hear. She doesn’t like it if ya do that”

“Ok, I just gotta squeeze the udders and milk comes out right?” he gives a nod and I squeezed the udders of the cow.

Milk didn’t come out and I squeezed harder, still nothing so I squeezed more

"Hah?"

The cow gave out a “MOOO!” as I felt my body tingling for a moment, and everything turned pitch black.

“…oy…ya…kay?..an…y..hea..me?” I heard muffled talking as I opened my eyes.

I was now laying on the ground, a few feet away from where the cow is.

“What happened?” I rub my head while trying to get up

“Ya squeezed too hard and the 'ol gal shocked ya, then gave ya a good love tap, sendin' ya flyin' to the side. Told ya not to go too hard on her”

“Shocked me? How did it shock me?”

“She releases electric currents when she feels threatened or scared. Should’ve listened to what I said boy”

“You could’ve gave me a heads up on being electrocuted!” I look at my HP, it was at 63/110, so i casted First Aid.

I went to go milk the cow again, but this time more gently. Succeeding getting milk from the cow, the farmer then went inside with the freshly squeezed milk and went out after ten minutes carrying a jar of butter.

"Thanks" I put the jar inside my Inventory and thanked him

"Is nothing, come back again if I need help though"

After that, I went out to the east city gates to find the bristle back boars. Making sure I stay away from the wolves inside the forest

"Boars, boars, they're pigs right?" trying to remember what the things looked like

I spotted one drinking from a stream, it’s back filled with needle like quills and has long tusks in front of it.

"Ohhh, 'bristle back'. I get it"

I carefully approach and use my dagger to slash at one of its hind legs. It squeals as it turns towards me.

*Squeel*

It charges, trying to pierce me with its tusks. I dodge to the left but the boar dives on its side and rolls over

“SHIT!” impaling a few of its quills on my right leg

Taking the quills out and using First Aid twice, I looked at my HP bar as it goes up to 77/100

"I need to get to higher ground"

I run away from the boar, but it charges at me again

I weave left and right through the trees, but it still kept coming

It was getting closer so I decide to climb a tree.

"Up we go!" grabbing a branch and pulling myself up

The boar charged at the tree and kept doing it until one of its tusk got stuck in it.

"This one's feisty" looking at the thing, as it kept shaking it's body along with the tree

I find my chance to strike, going down the tree to stab at its snout and body.

*SQUEAL!* after ten stabs, the boar pulled out its tusk after some wiggling and it charges at me again.

Caught off guard, its tusk pierces my left flank and drags me against the ground.

"ARGHH!" I give out a painful cry before it tosses me to the side, getting ready to charge one more time.

I saw two tree's a few meters to my side, I trudge forward and jumping in between the both of them with just enough space that'll let me pass through the gaps. Hoping that it follows me and get its tusks stuck.

The boar charges and impales its tusk on the trees. Not wasting the chance that's in front of me, I stab and slashed a dozen times at its head before giving a last squeal and dies.

"Hah...Hah...That was harder than i thought" panting while i sit down next to it

Resting for ten minutes to recover my MP to use First Aid. I constantly checked my surroundings for any potential danger.

"All good then"

With no looming threat, I disassemble the boar carcass, taking two pairs of tusk, one piece of boar meat and, five pieces of quill from its body before disappearing.

I head back to the guild to deliver Mageiras the things he asked for, careful of the wolves that loiter this forest.

"At last, I'm safe" heaving a sigh of relief

I made it back safe and sound, going towards the fourth floor of the guild building, where my cooking teacher was.

He nods his head, while examining the things that I brought in front of him

“Good work, now let’s go to the cooking stations” we proceed to the back of the second floor of the guild building where there were three stations filled with pots and pans.

He lays the ingredients on one station and takes out a knife, cutting the vegetables while laughing, looking like a lunatic from one of those horror films.

'Sheesh, someone's too happy from cooking something. Is this what happens when you have no friends or someone to talk to around you?'

Noticing that I was looking at him weirdly, he explained why he was laughing.

“It’s the onions, they’ll make you laugh”

"Oh, haha" scratching the back of my head

Continuing on, he then pours vegetable oil into a large pot. Seasoning the chuck roast with salt and black pepper and browning the meat on both sides in the hot oil, and transfers to a plate. He then stirs the carrots, celery, and onion into the pot. Cooking and stirring until the vegetables start to release their juices. He then adds the butter, then sprinkles in some herbs while stirring the vegetables and putting the roast back into the pot. A *ding* sound comes from the pot and he removes the lid, putting the roast on a plate with the vegetables.

“Here, give it a try” handing me a fork.

I get small bits of everything before shoving it into my mouth.

“!!!, This is delicious!!” devouring it, bite after bite, until nothing was left

He smiles as he see's me enjoying stuffing my mouth with the food he made

“The cooks main role is to provide scrumptious meals to others. It gives certain benefits when someone eats food that they prepared for a certain duration. For example, this dish increases strength when consumed”

I verify what he said by openning my status window to see that my str stat has indeed increased by ten

“You can only put things inside the pot if its classified as an ‘Ingredient’ and it will fail if a none ‘Ingredient’ gets mixed in” pointing at the pot

“Also, we are not without some of our own techniques to handle dangerous situations. We developed instincts on where to naturally get the best cuts from an animal without wasting any of its meat” he hands me a knife with a silver handle, a wet stone, and a pot

“You can only use weapons classified as Knives and will not be able to equip anything else including daggers and shields. Cooks need to prepare first and knowledge on what kinds of dishes you can make that bests suits the situation you are about to face. So, go out there and discover recipes that will help you on your journey”.

*Ding* a window pops up in front of me

Your class has now been changed to 'Cook'!

“Go on then. Come back if you have any other questions” he smiles while he heads towards the door and opening it

“Thank you for guiding me, I’ll make sure to use the things you taught me”

'By wantonly killing monsters that I see' I said under my breath

He nods and I leave the room

I go down to the first floor of the building and check my status window

Status Level 11(134/3400)

Name RedGender Male

Class CookSubclass N/A

Affiliation Grand Crimson Empire

State None

Physical attack 22Magical attack 1

Physical def 4Magical def 1

Evasion 0%Critical 1%, +40% added to damage

Resist None

Status Points75

Str 10Vit6

Agi 6Con1

Dex 6Luk 1

Wis 1Int 1

Skills Basic Human Necessity( First Aid, Disassemble, Camp, Inventory, Improvised Cooking), Mixed Cooking, Butchers Instinct lvl1, Knife Sharpening, Knife Finesse lvl1, Culinary Expertise, Poison Treatment, Julienne lvl1, Insatiable Hunger

Mixed Cooking - Mixes ingredients into one large pot, Food cooked using this skill will give benefits to those who consume it. Stat/Effect bonuses depends on Dex, Int, Luk and ingredients used. 20 MP per use

Butchers Instinct (Active Buff) -Butchers live to cut meat all day every day, instinctively cutting into a carcass getting every bit of meat off it. Red lines will appear on the body of monsters. Cutting into these lines will deal a definite critical attack and adds a high chance of inflicting Bleeding status on the enemy. Draining 2 MP per second, MP drain will decrease with skill lvl and Dex. Does not work against Plants and monsters who have no flesh.

Knife Sharpening (Active) – Sharpens the knife using a wet stone, increasing damage dealt and critical damage by 10% for 5 minutes. Damage % bonus increases per point of Dex by .1% per points invested.

Knife Finesse (Passive) – Your knife wielding skill grows with repetitive usage. Increasing your damage by .5%, attack speed by 1%, and granting bonus Dex by 1% of the base stat per skill lvl.

Culinary Expertise (Passive) - Chefs need to be able to cook precisely and efficiently. They also need to be skilled at recognizing flavors, and judging the balance of seasonings. Increases Mixed Cooking Success by 5% and food buff duration by 3 minutes

Poison Treatment (Active) – Removes poison from the target and ingredients that you will use. 20 MP

Julienne (Active) – Deals 5 quick strikes to an enemy, Dealing 50% per strike, increases damage per strike by 2% per skill lvl. Consumes 15 MP, increasing by 1 MP per skill lvl

Insatiable Hunger (Passive) – Increases all stats by 30% of the base stat when you are 'Starving'

'So my main priority should be dex' reading some of my skills description

I put twenty five points into dex, fifteen to str, five to vit, fifteen to agi, five to luk and ten to int. My total HP now is 160, MP is at 80 and stamina is at 145.

“Hey! John! Over here!” I turn to where the voice was coming from and see Karen waving her hands at me, with Lorelein at one of the couches in the lobby

Going over to them and sitting on one of the couches

“Hey, Luc and Jim aren’t with you?”

“Nope, I only saw Lorelein an hour ago in the plaza sitting besides the fountain. What have you been up to though? I was just doing some chores inside the city for a few hours, Lorel here was doing the same thing as me” making a motion that looks like she was holding a broom

"It was sooo boring! I had to sweep a whole mansion just to get 5 silver coins!"

“That sounds...fun? While you were busy sweeping, I was busy killing rats and stuff"

“That sounds more fun than what we did” her eyes shinning at the mention of fighting something

“If what you mean by fun was dying a few times and stuff, then sure. I have some experience, ranging from biting rats to bristle back boars trying to impale me. Did you know that if you get hurt inside the game you’ll feel it too?” I caution them both.

“Oh,,, that sounds like it hurt a lot.” Both of them winced

"It did!" shouting out my pent up resentment towards those things that tried to kill me.

“Let's change the topic...Did you guys get a class yet?”

“Nope, I’m still level 8 while Lorel here is level 9. We were planning on partying up and doing a few more requests to level up so we can change at the same time”

I thought about it for a moment, before I gave them a suggestion

“Want me to help you guys with the requests?”

Lorelein shakes her head from side to side

“Eh? Why not? It would be faster with three people” tilting my head to the side at their sudden refusal

“It’s not that we don’t want your help. It’s just that the reward from the requests gets split up per person in the party, So it’ll take longer to level up with just doing the requests. Also, from what I heard from other people, the monsters outside aren’t high enough to give good exp or they'll just outright kill you within a second. So, it's better if we just do some low leveled ones”

“Oh, that sucks...Good luck then guys, I’ll go hunting at the forest to the east in the meantime.” I wave at them and as I was heading out, I turned back towards them

“Oh, I almost forgot. Register me as a friend and send me a message when you see the other two...Wait...How do you register someone as a friend anyway?” going back to the couches.

“Oh, just think or say ‘Friends List’ and a window will open in front of you. Then enter the name next to the ‘Add Friends’” I did as I was told and a window with two columns appear in front of me

“What are your names then?”asking them both

She puffs up her chest

“My nicknames Princess Karen” happily smiling at her own nickname

“Hah... Wait, really? Princess Karen? Can’t you come up with a better one than that!?” I registered her on my friends list while laughing.

“What about you, huh? What kind of super cool nickname has his greatness come up with then?” she checks her friends list for my name

She gave me an incredulous look

“Red? Really? You criticize my name and all you can come up with was a stupid color? Oh, how has his greatness fallen so low as to use a color as his nickname?” the both of them laughed.

“It was a mistake! I said something out loud and it registered it as my name!” trying to convince them

Karen just outright dismisses my claims while laughing

"It really did happen..."

Giving up on convincing the two girls, I asked Lorelein for hers.

“Sigh…what’s your name Lorelein?” I ask the quiet girl next to me.

“Lorelei” she says, as she makes a thumbs up while making a triumphant look

“Well...at least it’s better than ‘Princess Karen’”

“Shut up ‘Red’. His greatness has no right to criticize other people’s names, while he himself is a pleb”

I stand up from the couch

“Heh, ok then, I’ll see you guys around. Contact me if you either see Luc or Jim ok?”

“Sure sure, happy hunting Red” she grins while both of them wave at me

I head to the forest again, to test out my new skills, I wanted to test my Mixed Cooking skill but I didn’t have any ingredients on me right now.

Walking for a minute while I traversed the woods, I see a wolf staring at me from a bush twenty feet away. I try to get closer and when I was ten feet away, it charges at me.

*Grrrrr*

I dodge to the right, avoiding its bite and activated Butchers Instinct displaying red lines along its torso, neck and head.

"Hoh~ nice. It's like one of those drawing books that Mrs. Lane bought for me back then"

I sliced at the red line thats crossing all over its neck. The wolf yelps and stumbles backward looking haggard with blood flowing non-stop from the wound. I charge and tried to trace the red line at its head with my knife, but it dodges and tries to flee whimpering.

"Come back here!" I chase it down and delivered an amateur flying kick with my momentum

It lands and the wolf is sent flying to a nearby tree.

I rush forward and traced the lines at its torso, killing the wolf

"I feel stronger already" glad that I had at least one useful skill for fighting

Dismantling it for its fur and meat, then putting it in my inventory. I do this for thirty minutes killing thirteen wolves in that span of time.

After killing the thirteenth wolf, I hear a loud howl and something tackles me from behind. Taking a huge bite from my shoulder, eliciting a scream out of me. I turn around and swing my knife, not hitting anything, only to see a wolf with red and black fur that's growling a few feet away.

*Grrrrrrrrrrrrr* it stares at me for a few seconds.

I check my HP to see it’s at 93/160, casting First Aid 5 times to heal myself. While doing so, the wolf lunges at me again, I dodge to the right, but it still took a bite out of my arm. I grit through the pain and activated Butchers Instinct charging towards it before it lands, and slash at one of the lines at its body, making the wolf snarl and going in for another bite. I dodge it this time and slash one of the red lines at its body again, eliciting a yelp out of its mouth.

"You fuck!" I swing my knife again, this time at its head making a diagonal wound from its right eye going down to its jaw.

The wolf bites my hand in the process and pulls me forward. Dropping my knife, I punch at its head with my left hand until it lets go of me.

"HAAAAA!"

I pick up my dagger and used Julienne on the red line across its neck while it was staggering, dealing five consecutive blows of critical strikes, killing the red wolf.

"Haaah...Haaah...I...think it's...Haaah...time...to go back" panting, I sit down on the ground next to it,

Butchers instinct and Julienne draining all my MP up, so I couldn’t cast First Aid on myself.

"Haaah...I need more MP for this fights"

A window pops up in front of me

You have slain a mini-boss, the 'Red Alpha Wolf'

'So, it's a mini-boss that’s inside this forest'

Giving me additional exp as a reward. I level up and distribute my stat point, five to vit, two to con and three to int. I need more HP and MP to survive fights like this and Con gives me 2 physical def every point I put into it. I used my knife to get the wolfs red and black fur and one piece of meat. I head back to the guild to sell some of the wolf meat and fur.

Not seeing the usual green haired clerk that I used to frequent, I went to one of the female clerks instead.

“Excuse me miss, how much are you buying wolf meat, wolf fur, and tusks from a bristle back boar?” I asked one of the female clerk in front of me

“Wolf meat is 45 copper each, the fur is 1 silver each and the tusks are going for 5 silvers” she said while she inspects the fur

“I’ll sell all of this then” putting ten wolf meat, thirteen wolf fur on the desk not including the red wolfs fur and the bristle boars tusks

“That would be a total of 27 silver and 50 copper coins” taking the coins under the desk and counting them in front of me, then putting it inside a pouch

I took the pouch and thanked her

'Feels good when you have some money on you~'

I went to the quest board to check for any new quest and see a green ranked one ‘Sewer Clog’ with a 1 gold and 3500 exp reward. I take it and go to the female clerk.

“Hello again, I would like to register this request please” I put the paper in front of him,

“This is a green ranked request, with a party recommendation of three people and a time limit of twelve hours. Would you still like to register it?” she asked for my confirmation

“Can I ask how each rank differs in difficulty?”

“Brown ranks are the easiest with just doing menial tasks, going up to yellow are the gathering and hunting quests which is a lot more difficult. Then green is the highest rank of the low tier requests, said to be ten times harder than yellow. The middle and higher ranks information can be accessed on the third and fifth floor respectively. Your guild rank will automatically update after completing a set amount of missions”

I take out my guild card and saw that my rank had gone up to yellow

'It's isn't the color of shit anymore'

"There are also requests that have a brown rank for example that lower leveled players would find difficult. Same goes for the opposite, with those quests, there will be a recommended level that's attached for players to see"

“Okay, than you. Please register the request then”

“The timer will start once the request has been registered, good luck” as she finished speaking, someone taps my shoulders from behind

I turn around to see Karen and Lorelein.

“Heya, doing another request great lord?”

“Yeah, did the two of you get your class yet?” I asked the princess in disguise

“Yep, I’m now a Knight while Lorel here is a Tamer” showing off her new round shield

“Nice, now we can call you ‘Princess Knight Karen’ defender of Justice!” eliciting a snicker from Lorelein.

She pouted while crossing her arms across her chest

“Hmph, laugh all you want. I’ll show you how strong I’ll become soon” harrumphing at both of us

“Oh really? By the way have you seen Jim and Luc yet?”

“Nope, haven’t seen them yet. Maybe they’re out there still trying to level up” shrugging her shoulders

“Then in the meantime, do you guys want to come with me to the sewers in the meantime?”

“No way! I definitely don't want to go there and besides, we already took one a minute ago and it has a time limit of four hours”

“Oh...okay then, Lets party up when we’re all gathered” feeling lonesome that I didn't have anyone to come with me

I walk a lonely ro-, nope, I'm already past that phase

“Okay then, see you later. We need to go to the academy and help out a professor on something”

I move to the entrance of the sewers near the west gate and informed the guard stationed there that I took the request.

"Here I go then" opening the door in front of me

I go down and the smell from here makes me want to vomit on the spot

“I’m alone again while unclogging the sewers…Sigh, I wish I had someone here to talk with”

as I proceeded further, not knowing what kind of danger was up ahead