Kit glanced at the desk. Cecile was nowhere in sight. He moved his gaze over to the chairs lining the walls. Two people were nervously sitting in the chairs. A young girl was fidgeting with her hands, next to her was a young boy bouncing his legs uncontrollably. Kit wondered if they were waiting to start their examinations or were like him and now waiting to complete their qualifications.

Kit sat down on the opposite side to the pair to wait for his turn. He didn’t have to wait long. He heard foots steps approaching from down the hall. Laughter joined in the echoes from their feet. Soon Cecile appeared with a short man. The short man had a jolly appearance. He was round and had a happy twinkle in his eyes. He greeted the two nervous people waiting with a friendly hello.

Cecile saw him sitting on the opposite side.

“Kit you are back.”

The short man turned his head when Cecile greeted him.

“Hello, another one. My what a good day. Will you be joining us as well for your examination young man?”

The short man’s eyes crinkled as he spoke. Kit looked at the man’s friendly face and sighed. He wished he had come in today to complete his examination. He didn’t think he would have had such a hard time with this man as he did with instructor Phi.

Then he thought about all he had learned from Morrigan, and those thoughts disappeared. If he had not struggled through the harsh treatment from instructions of Phi, he wouldn’t have learned about the bloodroot. He would go through the torment of yesterday anytime to have the chance to learn from Morrigan.

“No sorry, I am here to hand in my last task given by my instructor.”

“Already finished good for you. Who is your instructor? Cecile will get them for you.”

“Instructor Phi.”

The man flinched when Kit said the name. He then looked at Kit with curiosity in his eyes.

“Out of curiosity. Where did the old grump send you?”

Kit didn’t know if he was allowed to tell him where he went for the last task. Kit glanced at Cecile to see if she could help.

“It’s ok Kit, you can tell him. It gets written down in our logbooks anyway.”

“I went to the Large Fuzzy Chicken to find master chef Morrigan.”

The short man’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth then closed it again. He had a look of disbelief on his face. Then a look of greed entered his eyes. All the good thoughts Kit had about this man went up in smoke at the calculating look in his eyes.

“Oh, that sounds like an interesting story. How about after I finished with these two, we have a chat. I love hearing about all the students’ experiences. We can go over what you learned with Morrigan together, to see if you missed anything important.”

The short man was almost salivating at the thought of hearing Kit’s story. Kit felt a shiver of revulsion ripple down his spine.

“No, it’s ok. I will go over everything with my instructor. I feel more comfortable with someone I know.”

“Lad I’m sure that’s not true. We all know instructor Phi is a grump. Are you scared of him, is that why you don’t want to talk to me? Don’t worry he won’t mind.”

Kit saw a familiar figure in the doorway behind the short man. Kit didn’t know how long the instructor had been standing there listening. But from the look on his face, it was long enough to anger the scary man.

“Little fat man. If you come near my student again, I will skin you alive.”

The short man paled at the words and spun around. He was trembling so hard his chin was wobbling.

“Instructor, I meant no harm. Oh, look at the time I must be off. These students need to start their examination.” The short man hustled the two students through the door. He couldn’t get out of the room fast enough.

Instructor Phi headed over to Kit and held out his hand. Kit handed over the letter Morrigan had given him. He read over the contents then grunted. He walked over to Cecile and slapped the letter on the table.

“Gold rank.” He then turned to Kit.

“Show me your new kitchen knife.” Instructor Phi held out his hand.

Kit paled. He hadn’t had time to buy a new knife yet. He had put it on his list to buy after completing his chef qualification. Kit gulped, then explained this to Instructor Phi.

“Tsk.” Phi clicked his tongue and turned on his heal and left.

Kit stood there a little embarrassed. He was hoping for a little compliment from his instructor. He sighed. He turned his attention to Cecile. Even though he was a little dissatisfied it didn’t last long. He walked over to Cecile with a happy bounce in his step.

He was about to receive his acceptance into the culinary guild and become a chef. Kit’s happiness radiated from his body. He felt like he was on a cloud up in the sky, nothing could bring his happiness down today.

“Look at you. Anyone can tell you are very happy right now. It’s like happiness is oozing from your pores.”

Kit smiled wide showing his pearly white teeth.

“I feel extremely happy right now Cecile. What do I have to do to complete the qualification?”

“You don’t have to do anything but hand over some money. I will do the rest. Just give me one second Kit and I will tell you how much you will need to pay. It’s been a long while since I’ve had to process a gold rank.”

Cecile opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out a large tome. She placed the large book on the table with a thud. It was a dark green with a bronze border, written on the cover was - Bronze Rank. She placed her hand on top of the book, “Gold rank.” The book responded to her words and changed from a bronze coloured border to a golden border.

The writing on the cover changed to Gold Rank. Kit didn’t have any clue what the ranking meant. He would have to ask Cecile after she had finished looking for what she was after. She flipped through the first couple of pages.

There was a listing of prices next to each chef tier. Kit realised he would have to pay a sum of money each time he wanted to raise a tier in cooking. His eye twitched. He really didn’t like parting with money.

“Right found it. You will need to pay 500 bronze crowns for a gold rank Novice Chef.”

Kit felt like his pouch had a hole in it and was dropping money. He wanted to refuse at first, except if he didn’t hand over the money his only other option was to apprentice to a master chef. He didn’t want to be stuck in someone else’s kitchen. He took a breath and retrieved the 500 bronze crowns and handed them over to Cecile.

She pulled out the forms Kit had filled in earlier and placed the money on top. The paper absorbed the coins right in front of Kit’s eyes. The paper then started to change. It turned into a single sheet of paper with a gold trim. Gold lettering covered the page.

Cecile smiled. She picked up the paper and offered it to Kit.

“Congratulations on becoming a Novice chef Kit, and welcome to the culinary guild.”

Kit took the piece of paper from Cecile.

Ding!

[CAL]

Congratulations Player Kit on choosing Chef sub class.

Rank: Gold

Tier: Novice chef

Level: 0

Requirements to next level.

Create 3 dishes: 2/3 complete

Create 1 drinks: 1/1 complete

Unlock 5 chef skills: 4/5 complete

Reach level 15: 0/15 complete.

Reward: Gold rank kitchen knife, 10,000 experience, 1000 culinary points.

Kit looked at the notification that popped up in front of him. As he started to read the information his heart started pounding. He was officially a chef. He had taken the first important step towards his dream. Kit felt lightheaded from happiness.

Kit felt jittery. The excitement felt like it was too much to contain. His face hurt from the large smile on his face. He didn’t know what to do to dispel the excess excitement building up in his body. Kit glanced at Cecile, she started to clap.

Kit started to bounce on his feet. He couldn’t contain the accumulated joy anymore. He glanced down at the paper in his hands. He noticed it was the same as the pop up notification. He had only read the first part before he got distracted. He continued to read the document.

Kit was still bouncing with excitement until he reached the requirements section. His thoughts stuttered when he read the part about needing to create one more dish for him to be able to reach the next tier. Kit didn’t think the leveling process would be so hard for a beginner chef. He was surprised.

Why would it be so hard at beginner levels? He asked Cecile for the answer.

“Oh, Kit it is because you are a gold rank. The higher the rank the harder the requirements are to increase your tier. Instructor Phi must have thought you have lots of potential or else he wouldn’t have started you off on such a high rank.”

“Chefs of all tiers would kill to be you right now. It is very hard to increase your rank once you are already a chef. Though the requirements are higher for each rank. The rewards match the requirements.”

“For example, in the bronze rank the rewarded culinary points are only 100 for a Novice chef. The requirements to increase tier are also lower. A bronze rank Novice chef only needs to create one dish instead of three to increase a tier.”

“Chefs from all over CAL will do anything to increase the number of culinary points available to them. The points can be exchanges for items from the culinary guild. If you are going to open your own restaurant, then they are even more important. You will need to use the points to buy items for your restaurant.”

Kit’s eye bulged at the information. If that was true, he was happy to be a gold rank. The more points he could accumulate the better it would be for his restaurant. Kit eyed the rewards once again. He would have to work hard to create a new dish so he could earn the 1000 points. He wasn’t worried about the rest of the requirements. They would come naturally.

Kit feeling of elation grew. Not only was his dream becoming reality, he was well on his way to achieving success with a restaurant. He already had a nice sum of culinary points up his sleeve from creating new dishes.

Instructor Phi returned to see a bouncing Kit. He raised his eyebrows at Kit’s display of happiness. Kit felt his cheeks go red. Instructor Phi pushed a box towards Kit.

“For me?”

“Yes. So… stop bouncing on the spot.” The words came out harsh to Kit’s ears. He automatically stopped his lively actions.

Kit took the box with some curiosity. It was a plain white rectangle with the culinary emblem of CAL holding a knife stamped in the middle. Kit opened the lid to see a sharp silver kitchen knife nestled between silver tissue paper.

‘CAL identify.’

[Chef knife silver rank]

Made from beehoun silver, the blade sharpness will never dull.

(When equipped)

+ 100 Agility

+ 50 Speed

+ 50 Intelligence

Kit could not believe the gift he had just received from instructor Phi. Kit started to tear at the thoughtful gift. A good kitchen knife would make a world of difference to his control and ability in the kitchen. Kit couldn’t wait to try out the beautiful knife.

“Thank you, Instructor Phi. This means so much to me.”

“Stop the water works. I have high expectations, so you are not allowed to disappoint me. Understand.”

Kit only nodded, he didn’t know what to say to that. He had already placed a lot of pressure on himself to do well, now someone else did as well. This didn’t make him feel overwhelmed. He actually felt pleased. He felt like the instructor believed in his talent. He was starting to really like the prickly man.

“I hate sentimental people and I feel like you are one of those, so I am leaving. When you are ready to rank up, go to any culinary guild and I will receive the notification and will deliver your next requirements to raise tiers.”

After he finished speaking, he left Kit there stunned. He didn’t even wait for Kit to say goodbye. Kit was confused about the instructors’ words. He turned to Cecile to get some clarification.

“Oh, he applied to be your Instructor for the duration of your training. Is that not why you accepted his gift?”

Kit became even more confused. Cecile could read the look on his face.

“Kit dear, this is actually a really good thing. It can be quite hard for new chefs to find an instructor willing to be their personal guide. He will give you tasks to complete every now and then. The rewards always have culinary points.”

“How will I know I have a task to do?”

“All the culinary guilds are connected. You just have to visit a branch and hand over your token to the receptionist and she will check to see if any communications were left for you. Oh, your token! I almost forgot.”

Cecile opened her drawer once again and removed a gold token with the symbol of the cat holding a knife wearing a chef hat imprinted in the middle. She passed it over to Kit. When it made contact with his hand it started to heat up. A golden swirl came from the coin and wound around his middle finger. Kit felt a sharp sting on his finger, a drop of blood emerged.

The golden swirl sucked the blood into its stream. Kit watched the drop of blood travel along the golden thread back to the token. Once the drop of blood made contact, the gold token absorbed the blood. The golden swirl disappeared.

“All done the token is attuned to you. You are all finished here for today, Kit. Enjoy your new qualification.” Cecile gave him a bright smile.

“Thank you, Cecile. Can you please tell Instructor Phi thank you for me and I look forward to his future guidance.”

“Of course, Kit. I will pass it on. Good luck.”

Kit waved goodbye to Cecile. He couldn’t wait to find Mars and tell him about his morning. Kit left the guild with a bounce back in his step.