Kit arrived back at the Inn before Mars. He decided to find Iris and see what she had prepared for them. Kit found Iris at the bar talking to a customer. He sat down on one of the seats to wait until she had finished.

Iris finished with her customer and headed over to Kit.

“Have you got everything you need?”

“I think so, Mars has experience with camping so I’m following his lead.”

“You boys will be fine, you took care of the Spectral Nile Reptiles. At least I won’t worry about you boys being hurt. I’ll just fret you will starve, I’ve prepared a gift basket, it has some food that will keep well on your travel. They have no bonus stats but they will keep the hunger away.”

Iris handed over a cloth wrapped bundle. Kit opened the cloth, inside was a woven basket filled with fresh fruits, cheese, bread, and an assortment of processed meat.

“Thank you Iris, this is great.” Kit beamed.

“That should last the both of you the three day journey to Flower Field town.” Iris looked at Kit then glanced down at a letter in her hands.

“I was wondering if you had the time, could you take this letter to my cousin. She lives on a farm just outside of Flower Field town.”

“Of course, we can Iris.”

Iris handed Kit the letter.

Ding!

[CAL]

Quest accepted.

Deliver Iris’ Letter, uncommon.

Bring the letter to Iris’ cousin.

“Iris where is your cousin’s house located?”

“Just set it on the magic map like you did for my house dear. It will guide you to my cousin’s house.”

“Thanks Iris that will make things a lot easier. With this trail to follow we should find our way without getting lost. Can I grab the barrel of beer? Mars should be back anytime now.”

“It’s outside in the barn. I left it there so you would see it when you went to get Pint. I’ll come outside with you so I can say goodbye.” Iris turned to talk to her customer briefly, then headed out the door after Kit.

Mars walked in the gate as Iris and Kit walked outside.

“Good timing, we were just coming to look for you,” said Kit.

“Did you already get everything?” Mars gave Kit an inquisitive look.

“Yes, Boots in the general store was very helpful and Iris gave us a care package to take with us.” Kit lifted the bundle in his hands to show Mars.

“Thanks Iris that’s mighty nice of you,” Mars smiled at Iris.

“You’re welcome. Ok I’m terrible at goodbyes, so I’ll leave you both here and get back to work. Travel safe and don’t forget to invite me to your restaurant opening once you have one. If you pass through Sweet Meadow again you must come visit me or I won’t forgive you.” Iris walked over to each of them and gave them a hug. Kit could see tears in her eyes.

“Iris we would never pass through town without visiting you.” Kit gave Iris a sincere look. A tear escaped Iris eye. She quickly wiped it away then gave them a shooing motion.

Kit and Mars in unison said, “Goodbye Iris.”

Kit also didn’t want to prolong his goodbye, he had become attached to Iris and did not want to leave her warm company. He imagined what it would have been like to have Iris as his mother. He could see her making him breakfast, packing him a school lunch and giving him warm hugs when he was upset. She would have been completely different from his real mother.

It saddened him that a stranger was kinder to him that his biological mother. He could feel himself starting to tear. He was worried he would never see Iris again now that they were leaving.

Iris waved, then walked back inside the Inn.

“I will miss Iris, she was very good to us,” said Mars

“Me too, I felt comfortable talking to her.” Kit sighed then walked towards the barn.

“Come on Mars let’s go, or it might take us another day to get there. I want to stop in and see Snowball on the way.”

Inside the barn Kit put the beer into his pouch then turned to see where Mars was, he was trying to coax a saddle on Pint.

“Come on Pint, it will be comfortable. I brought a nice expensive one. Look the saddle is nice and soft.” Pint snorted at Mars and moved a step away. Kit could not blame the horse, the saddle was a garish green with red swirl print.

Mars had an aggrieved look on his face.

“It’s ok Mars we don’t have to ride Pint, he can just walk with us. Maybe after he gets to know us better, he’ll let us ride him. Didn’t you say we had to build a bond with the animals in CAL?” Mars face brightened after hearing Kit speak.

“Yes, I forgot for a moment. Ok Pint, I’ll just use a lead rope.” Mars went to attach the rope to Pint’s halter. Pint snorted and stamped his front foot.

“Oops! Forgot I must give him beer first,” Mars turned to Kit to get some beer.

“I forgot to get some bottles. Pulling out the barrel all the time will be no good, we can stop in at the general store on the way.” replied Kit.

“No need, bottles were on my list.” Mars handed over 10 empty glass bottles. Kit pulled out the beer barrel and quickly filled the bottles. He handed them over to Mars when he had finish and put the beer away.

Mars filled a metal bowl and placed it on the ground and Pint launched into drinking his beer. Mars attached the lead rope while Pint was distracted.

“All set lets go.”

Mars and Kit left the village heading towards the south forest where Kit had found Snowball.

“Thanks for coming. I know Flower Field town is in the other direction, but I really want to see if I can get Snowball to come with us before we go.” Kit couldn’t wait to see the cute little fluff ball once again.

“It’s ok we’re not in any rush, it doesn’t matter if it takes us a month to get there. We should improve our harvesting skill on the way. We can gather everything that’s collectable.”

“Ok it’s a good idea! I also want to improve my identify skill. When I collect things under the ingredients tab it only comes up with the name and no other information,” said Kit.

Mars tapped a finger to his temple.

“I know how to do this one. My father likes to find all unusual types of flowers, so he was talking about this one night at dinner. It will slowly increase by identifying lots of different things or we can buy some books. I remember the names of two of the books, ‘What flower is it?’ and ‘I’ve no idea what flower it is.’”

“Ha ha! What great names, I bet they had a blast thinking of all the book names. Let’s look for them when we get to town.”

Kit glanced around the surrounding meadow then headed over to a Yellow bulbine plant and started to harvest. They continued gathering plants on the way to the edge of the southern forest.

As they approached the edge of the forest Kit heard an excited yip. Kit glanced up to see a little black fluff ball on stubby legs barrel towards him. Kits felt a warm glow of happiness spread throughout his body on seeing the cute little fluff ball.

“Snowball, did you wait for me?”

Kit knelt on the ground and Snowball jumped onto his chest without slowing down. Kit rolled backwards at the force of the hit.

-100 damage

“OMG, Snowball are you trying to kill me?”

Kit felt like his ribs were broken. He took the spring water from his inventory and drank to restore his lost health. Once the pain was gone, Kit patted the little fluff ball, he was unable to be mad at the cute guy.

He was surprised at the amount of damage he received from this tiny little dog.

“You pack quite a punch for a little fellow, are you secretly a super high levelled monster?” Snowball stared at Kit with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

“I’ll take that as a no.” Kit chuckled.

“Snowball, do you want to come on an adventure with us?” Kit held the cute ball of fluff in front of his face. Snowball yiped excitedly, and licked Kit’s nose.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“That was faster than I thought. I figured we would be searching for Snowball for half a day. He must be intelligent, he knew you were coming back today so he waited.”

“Now we have Snowball we can officially head off. Do you want to go straight to Iris’ cousins house first, or go into town to the library?” inquired Kit.

“Iris’ cousin house?” Mars had a confused look on his face.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, Iris gave us a quest to deliver a letter.” Kit pulled out the letter and handed it to Mars.

“Ahh nice. I’ll set the location on the map, this makes things a lot easier. Well done Kit!” Kits ears turned red from embarrassment. ‘Ahh, I’m not used to praise from other people, I can’t say I hate the feeling though.’

Kit turned and started to head north.

“Ok, let’s start our next adventure.”

Kit could feel little tingles at the thought of heading off to find where the map led them too. He hoped once they reached the library, they would locate the information they wanted.

Kit and Mars followed the dirt road towards Flower Field town. It was a well travelled road. The dirt was packed tightly from repeated use from carts and pedestrians. The road, Kit estimated, could fit two carts abreast with a little wiggle room left over.

It was a pleasant day walking by numerous fields and collecting plants on the way. The scenery did not change much, the only variation was the plants in the fields. Kit gathered quite a selection of plants on the journey. The most eventful thing to happen was Snowball jumping around Kit and Mars feet, occasionally causing them to stumble so they wouldn’t trample the little one.

Surprisingly, Pint didn’t have the same problem. The large horse would carefully place his feet when the little creature was prancing around his legs. Once he even softly nudged the cute ball of fluff out of the way with his nose. It was strange to see the normally aggressive horse treat Snowball so gently.

Around noon when the sun was at its highest in the sky, Kit decided it was time for a break for lunch. Kit looked around for a shady tree so they could prepare lunch. A large tree with over hanging branches could be seen up ahead, Kit decided that would be a good stopping point.

“Mars how about a break for lunch, that tree looks good.”

Kit pointed to the tree in the distance. Mars nodded and led Pint over to where Kit had directed. He then tied Pint to the tree, then came and sat down. Kit pulled out the cloth wrapped basket from Iris. He used the cloth as a makeshift picnic rug and started to put together a meal with the ingredients inside the basket. He took out the rusty knife to cut some slices from the bread loaf.

The knife was not the best for cutting bread, it didn’t have a serrated edge. As he started to slice the bread the loaf would flatten due to the pressure needed to cut a portion off. The shorn off piece ended up looking mutilated.

Kit gave a dismayed look at the unappetizing chunk of bread. ‘It might have been better to tear a chunk off. These don’t even look like slices of bread. It’s just a mushed piece of flattened dough. I need a bread knife.’

Ding!

[Skill learnt: Crude knife sawing]

The knife moves backwards and forwards to cut through the food. Smashing against a rock will have the same effect as your cutting skills.

Agility + 4

Intelligence + 3

Kits face froze as he saw the message pop up. ‘OMG YES, it’s my first skill as a chef. Granted its terrible description but who cares it’s a start.’

Kit felt his heart start to pound. This was his goal in the game. He just learnt his first skill. He could visualise his dream becoming a reality. He had his first chef skill as well as his first recipe. Kit felt nothing could stop his dream from coming true.

‘Day three of playing and I have already started my journey to becoming a proper chef. What will I be like in three months time?’ Kit hoped nothing would come between him and his dream. He didn’t know what he would do if he couldn’t achieve his goal.

Mars saw the surprised look on Kit’s face and mistook it for something else.

“What is it? Did you cut yourself? I packed a first aid kit, hang on.” Mars quickly pulled out a white box from his bag.

Kit started to chuckle “No, I’m ok. I didn’t cut myself. I got my first Chef skill I was just surprised. I worked in Iris’ kitchen and didn’t get one so this shocked me.”

“Oh, good. I’m glad you didn’t hurt yourself. Congratulations on your first Chef skill.” Mars beamed at Kit.

“Thank you, Mars. I feel so happy right now.” Kit felt his smile bloom.

“You aren’t going to do that happy dance again are you?”

“Shut up Mars.” Kit started to shake his body. He was so happy he didn’t even care that Mars was trying to tease him.

Mars started to laugh. Kit continued to be a goof for a little longer, then calmed down.

“Did you do any skills in Iris’ kitchen. Ahh that sounded bad. I mean, did the equipment do all the work for you?”

“Oh, I see what you mean. Yes, I only took the ingredients to the equipment. I was too excited about their functions to take notice of the fact I really didn’t have to use any skills. That explains why I’m only now getting a skill.” Kit looked down at the food in the basket with an excited expression.

‘Can I unlock any more skills?’

Kit cut some cheese and fruits to go with the bread, then handed Mars his share. Kit had a look of disappointment on his face when he failed to unlock more chef skills.

‘Unfortunately, I did not unlock anything else. I’ll try again tonight.’

While he was eating his lunch Kit thought about what he could do to learn more skill while they were travelling. ‘I’ll need some material to work with. I have some herbs we collected today, but I’ll need more than that to make meals and unlock skills.’

“Mars I’m going to practice cooking on the journey. I figure I need more than beer to open a restaurant so I can work on creating meals along the way. But I’m going to need supplies to practice with.”

Kit had a look inside his pouch, there wasn‘t much of a variety of materials. Kit soon had a dejected appearance this would be a lot harder than he thought.

Mars saw Kit’s mood change from the look of elation to disappointment.

“That’s easily fixed we can catch some monsters for meat. We’ve already gathered some herbs, just practice your skills until we can get a good supply up of materials. It’s all here for us to take.” Mars spread his arms showing the surrounding fields.

“You’re right Mars. I’m only at the beginning I can’t expect to already have it all. Let’s go catch us some MEAT.” Kit pumped his fist with determination.

“Can we finish lunch first?”

Kit laughed. “Right, of course, lunch first.”

Kit popped a piece of fruit in his mouth and pulled a chunk of cheese off for Snowball while thinking of what they would catch.