Kit let out a big sigh, he had just finished the dinner service for tonight. It went the same as last night. Including Kai turning up at the last minute for a meal before attempting to catch the Adorable shrewd shifter. Kit had mustered up the courage to try his luck again in trying to convince Kai to let them join him on his quest. Kai didn’t try to embarrass him this time, he was just met with a flat refusal.

Kit sat down at the bar next to Mars. Iris put a plate of roast burly rabbit in front of them.

“Thanks Iris, I’m starved. As much as I enjoy serving, I am exhausted at the end.”

“Once you have more experience it won’t be so tiring. If you want a career in waiting you should buy the appropriate attire for serving. It makes a big difference. You can get magic shoes, clothes, accessories, and better aprons to improve your abilities as a server.”

“It’s not a bad career choice, or even a side job. Once you boys leave Sweet Meadow you can look for work at any of the restaurants in the towns you visit. There is always work available for good young lads like yourselves.”

“Here, I’ll give you both a recommendation letter to take with you. It will make it a lot easier to find work.”

[CAL]

Ding!

[Received: Recommendation letter from Iris]

Iris handed them both a white envelope with a red wax seal. Stamped in the middle of the wax was a picture of a fat duck.

“Thank you, Iris.” They both replied in unison.

Kit was curious about the clothing Iris mentioned. He looked at the attire Iris was wearing. She wore black pants, a black button up shirt, black shoes and a white apron that looked a better quality than the one Mars and he were wearing.

Iris not only looks professional in her work clothing, it also has added benefits.

‘I’ll have to invest in a work uniform to improve my abilities as well. I’ll need some armour for adventuring too. I can see my money disappearing before my eyes.’

Kit’s mood had picked up after the dinner service but after thinking about his money disappearing, he sunk back down into depression.

Kit shook his head to try to dispel his negative thoughts. He thought of something more positive, he moved his thoughts onto tomorrow.

“Thanks for the tip, Iris. What time would you like me to come in the morning to learn the basics of cooking and, how to make beer?”

“I start preparing meals around six in the morning, come to the kitchen then. Thank you for your help tonight boys. I really appreciate it.”

Ding!

[CAL]

Quest complete: The Waddling Duck waiter, common.

Rewards: 100 experience, 50 bronze crowns, 10 reputation points with Inn Keeper Iris.

“You’re welcome Iris. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Mars and Kit finished their meals, then filled Iris in on how they killed the Spectral Nile Reptiles. Once their story was finished, they headed to the stable to turn in for the night.

Kit woke early the next morning and headed straight to the kitchen. Iris was pressing images on a screen in the front of what Kit assumed was a refrigerator. It was a large shiny metal box about twice the size of a refrigerator. Two doors opened from the middle, a large display screen took up half of one of the doors.

“What is that appliance, Iris?”

Iris jumped in fright when Kit spoke. “Kit dear, make some noise next time, you will give me a heart attack by doing that.”

“Sorry Iris. I will announce myself next time, and good morning.” Kit gave Iris a large smile.

“Good morning, Kit. To answer your question, this is called a magic fridge. It stores my ingredients in a dimensional space, like the food storage shelf.”

“The images I’m pressing are pictures of the ingredients I have in stock inside the fridge. I then enter how many I would like to withdraw, and it deposits it on a shelf. It can also tell me how much stock I have left as well.”

Kit was expecting more from the fridge. ‘I guess not all the appliances will be exciting.’

This realisation was a little disappointing.

Iris opened the fridge and pulled out some potatoes, she then took them over to the cutting board. It was a plain looking wooden cutting board, no different from any you would find in any household. It was covered in small groves from repeated use from a knife. On top of the cutting board was a knife with a black handle and a sharp silver blade.

Iris placed the potatoes on the cutting board, then turned to Kit with a grin.

“You will like this part. PEEL AND CHOP!”

Iris kept her eyes on Kit to see his reaction. The knife lifted without any help and started to peel a potato when it had finished peeling it started to chop the potato into pieces.

Iris was right, Kit did like the magic cutting board. He couldn’t take his eyes off the knife’s movements. All his disappointment about the fridge disappeared. He could feel the silly grin slide onto his face, his body started to feel giddy from his excitement.

‘It’s just like the first time I saw it. I could stare at this all day, I feel like I’m in a movie. Ahh, maybe I should have picked a magic class. Kit, be honest with yourself, you would suck at learning magic.’ The more he looked, the more excited he got.

Once all the potatoes were chopped the knife started to slide the potatoes with its blade towards a silver tray that was attached to the side of the chopping board. The silver tray was slanted toward the sink, the potatoes slid down the tray into a huge pot waiting in the sink.

‘Popping pumpkins! That was seriously cool. Magic is awesome. I wish I had this in real life. This makes cooking ten times more fun. Especially because it takes care of the peeling, no one likes peeling, it’s the only boring part of cooking.’

“Iris I’m going to cry from joy, this is so cool. What is it called?” Iris laughed at Kits excitement.

“That’s a preparing board, depending on the level, will depend on what it can do. The expensive ones can even sculpt images into food, what I would give for one of those.”

Iris walked over to the fridge and pressed an image again then pulled out 4 burly rabbit meats. She then walked over to the fire pit that was in the middle of the kitchen. Over the fire pit was a metal frame. It had a triangle structure on two sides and a long thin metal rod sitting on both frames allowing the rod to rest over the flames.

Iris pulled one end of the metal rod off its frame, then pierced the meat through the middle with the rod. She did the same with the other three pieces. Once the rod was placed back on the metal structure Iris said “ROTISSERIE”, the rod started to rotate around slowly, by itself.

‘OMG, I need all of this I will never leave the kitchen. Who needs adventure, they just need magic equipment.’

“What is the fire pit and frame called Iris.”

“The fire pit is exactly what it is called. The frame is a fire roaster, it roasts ingredients. I mainly use it for meat. You can look as much as you like at the equipment that I have shown you.”

“The real magic is finding a way to bring stats to your creations. You cannot become a chef without having created at least one stats item. Anyone can cook, but making a meal with stats is the hardest part for any chef.”

“Is it really hard to make something with stats Iris?”

“It can be. Some people will take years to make their first stats creation. The average chef creates between ten to fifteen stats dishes in their lifetime. It took me three years to produce the roast burly rabbit. I made so many errors and cried lots of tears, but it was worth it.”

“So little, I thought they would make more.”

Kit was a little saddened after finding out it could take him years to create a stats dish. At least Iris was going to teach him his first stats item, so he could at least become a chef as a sub class.

“Don’t be disheartened my little Kit. I have a feeling you will do just fine as a chef.” Iris gave him a reassuring smile.

“Kit I’m going to make the seasoning now for the roast burly rabbit. I’ll work in that corner over there. You can prepare the vegetables for the meals if you like, here is a list of what I need.”

Iris handed over a list of vegetables.

“YES PLEASE! Ahh, sorry about the volume, I am a bit excited. I’ll prepare the best vegetables Iris, don’t you worry.” Kit rushed over to the fridge.

‘Oh, magic fridge! Oh magic fridge! You are my new best friend!’

Kit was singing this over and over in his head as he pressed an image of a carrot, he then pressed the amount he would need. He opened the doors of the fridge. Inside it was divided into two sides. The sides split, matching up with the doors. Each side had a row of five pull-out drawers. Kit saw a picture of a carrot on one of the drawers.

He opened the corresponding drawer and found the correct number of carrots he had ordered inside. ‘Even though the fridge is not that exciting, it is still fun to operate.’

Kit collected the carrots, then carried them over to the cutting board.

‘YES, I can control the cutting board. Muhahaha! I am the master.’ Kit cackled to himself like an evil villain.

“PEEL AND CHOP!”

‘Look at that, it’s working. I’ll have the carrots ready in no time.’ As Kit continued to go back and forth between the fridge and cutting board, Iris mixed the seasoning.

“Ok Kit, I have finished with the seasoning. After I lather the rabbits with it, I will teach you how to make beer.” Iris walked over to the rabbit meat and started to cover them with a paste using a brush.

‘Yum, it smells so good now the seasoning is permeating the air. I’m so hungry, and I can’t even ask for any breakfast because none of the food is ready.’ Kit’s tummy rumbled.

Iris laughed when she heard Kit’s stomach. “Kit was that your tummy, here, munch on a carrot nothing else is ready.”

Iris passed Kit a carrot.

“Thanks Iris.”

Kit looked at the carrot, he noticed the quality was a little below what he had seen inside the grocers yesterday. ‘So having one star really does make a difference to the stock’s quality. Does this mean I can only make low level stats meals, if my restaurant has no stars?’

Kit was even more confused now on how everything worked in CAL. Kit took a bite of the carrot hoping it would tide him over until he could eat some breakfast.

As Kit was eating the carrot, Iris led him over to a counter. Next to the counter was a large wooden barrel. It looked the same as the ones Mars and he had to fill with water for Iris.

“I usually make the beer in bulk. You don’t have to, only it’s much easier to prepare a large quantity at once. Beer is quite easy to make thanks to the alcohol barrel. You just add the ingredients, and it does the rest.” Iris pointed to the large wooden barrel as she spoke.

“Ok Kit, let’s start. First, we add water. You can see there is a line on the inside of the barrel, that’s where we will fill the water up to. Next, we add barley, hops and yeast into the water. The last step is the most important it’s the ingredients to add stats to the beer.”

“The stats of sweet meadow beer are 4 stamina regeneration every 3 seconds for 30minutes. The yellow bulbine adds stamina regeneration to the beer. Just two flower stalks are needed for this size barrel. Next is the purple heart one stalk is added. It increases the time duration that’s how the beer’s effect can last for 30 minutes.”

“How come you don’t add more of each to increase the stats Iris?”

“I have tried numerous combinations, but they all fail, only in this ratio does the beer work. I still try to improve every dish I’ve created. I also attempt to create new meals or beverages with stats on a regular basis as well. Creating stats is harder than it looks unfortunately, and failures are constant. You will need to be prepared to flop constantly.”

“But it is not only about the stats of the food you create. The meal must also taste good, or people will find other vendors to purchase their wares from. Taste is important for your reputation, if you are known for bad tasting food people will eventually stop coming, even if your stats are good. No one wants to eat foul tasting food.” Iris returned her focus to the barrel.

“Now, we have everything we need so let’s add the lid.”

Iris picked up the wooden lid next to the barrel and screwed it on top. “MIX!” A humming sound was soon heard coming from the barrel. The humming sound increased in intensity as they waited.

‘It sounds like it is about to take off with that noise.’ Twenty seconds later the noise stopped.

“Iris is that it?”

Kit looked around the barrel but could not see anything remotely magical. He was disappointed he did not see any magic involved in the beer making process. ‘Maybe there is another step left. Then hopefully I can see some magic.’

“Kit honey, you look so disappointed. I promise inside the barrel looked amazing while it was mixing. We just can’t see it because the barrel is not transparent. But yes, you are right it’s all finished now. You can have this batch to take with you, when you leave. Are Mars and you staying tonight?”

Ding!

[Recipe: Sweet meadow beer]

4 stamina regeneration every 3 seconds for 30 minutes.

A light bodied beer made in the Sweet Meadow region, it has a clean dry finish making it popular in warmer weather.

After the notification appeared, Kit felt his mood soar. He could feel his dream becoming a reality with his first recipe under his belt.

‘I can do this. I will work even harder to make my dream a reality.’ Kit could feel his determination cement inside himself.

“Kit honey, I love watching your expressions.” Iris gave Kit a huge grin.

Kit brought himself back to the present. A blush appeared on his face, he really must look like a silly fool right now. He realised he had not answered Iris’ earlier question.

“Thanks. Iris? Umm, Mars and I thought we would help tonight as well, since your regular waitress doesn’t come back ‘till tomorrow.”

Ding!

[CAL]

Quest accepted.

The Waddling Duck waiter, common

Help Iris with the dinner service, do not let any customers leave angry.

“Thank you, Kit. That would be wonderful, what are your plans for today?”

“I don’t know Mars was still sleeping when I left so I’ll go and find him, and we can decide then.”

“Ok, I guess I’ll see you two at dinner time then. Have a good day.” Iris waved goodbye to Kit.

Kit headed out to wake his sleeping friend.