Kit was ecstatic, he would be raising his chef tier soon. He impatiently looked at Lindor to continue.

“Kokka village is too small for a guild yet. But Fairweather town has a culinary guild, and it’s only a two day walk from here. You can just follow the road straight from Kokka village. Come on I’ll take you to the road, so you don’t waste time finding it.”

Lindor headed in the direction of the village, Peaches and Kit followed. They entered the village through a small wooden fence that came up to Kit’s waist. Kit ran his eyes along the fence to see that it kept going around the whole village.

Kit’s eyes darted left and right taking in the sights of the village. He surmised this was what Spartan Fire would look like soon. There was a main road that had multiple shops offering their wares in their windows. Wooden houses were nestled on the outer edgings of the fence surrounding the shops. Dirt roads lead in all directions.

As Kit looked around, he realised that the town was quite plain. There were no gardens decorating buildings. There was no central market to brighten up the place. Kit felt proud of Spartan Fire although it was smaller, it had something this village did not.

Spartan Fire had a distinct pleasant atmosphere, the small village complemented the spectacular scenic view. You couldn’t help but smile when you walked down a road. Not that there were many roads in Spartan Fire yet, but still.

When he compared the two, Spartan Fire was ahead by leaps and bounds in a visual sense. Now that the Spartan Fire would have money, he didn’t think it would be long before they surpassed this village in size.

Kit couldn’t help the smile splitting across his face at this thought. He eagerly looked around for a restaurant. One of the things he wanted to do while he was away from Spartan Fire was to visit different restaurants to get ideas for his own. He couldn’t contain this thought, so he asked Lindor where the restaurant was.

Lindor looked at Kit strangely. “Kit what do you mean. Restaurants are not common in the Forsaken state, I thought you knew that. That’s why there is always a steady stream of customers at your own establishment. Kokka village doesn’t have a restaurant.”

He had momentarily forgotten about this fact in his excitement to see another restaurant. “Then does Fairweather town have one?” Lindor nodded his head.

Kit felt a swirling of anticipation course through him. He hoped the restaurant had at least one star. He was dying to see what a one star restaurant looked like. Lindor noticed his sparkling eyes and laughed.

“Kit don’t get too excited ok, I don’t want you to be disappointed when you see it. It’s not like your restaurant.” This was great news for Kit. He wanted to see something different. If it was similar to his own, he wouldn’t get inspired!

“Ok, okay I won’t. Let’s get a move on though. The faster we reach the road the faster Peaches and I can get to Fairweather town!” Kit started humming in delight. Even the thought of a two day walk couldn’t dampen his happiness.

Lindor left them at the gate of Kokka village. They made plans to met up on Kit’s return. They would meet in five days’ time at the respawn arch in Kokka village. Peaches and Kit happily started their walk towards Fairweather town.

The passing scenery was filled with bright colours. Flowers dotted the fields they passed, Kit collected samples as they walked. He had even roped Peaches into collecting the different spices. The two days past by in a flash and soon Kit could see Fairweather town off in the distance.

The town had tall wooden walls surrounding the whole town. The closer they got the more intimidating the structure was. Turrets could be seen at regular intervals around the wall. A large gate loomed up ahead.

A line had formed before the gate, Peaches and Kit joined the queue to enter. A portly man in front of them was talking to his companion, Kit listened in to relieve his boredom as they waited. “I heard that The Fancey plate will be getting a new item on the menu soon. I can’t wait to try something different, it has been such a long time since he made a new creation.”

Kit leaned closer to listen in. His curiosity had been piqued at the mention of a creation.

“Did you hear about the restaurant opening in Spartan Fire.” The portly man nodded his head to his companion. “The chef must be terrible at cooking to open in such a small place. I heard that his meals could barely even be called a stats creation and they tasted like dirt.”

Kit eyes rounded, then a blazing fire started to burn in his chest. Who was this pompous jerk to slander his restaurant! Kit knew his creations were low level, but his food still tasted good! Kit opened his mouth to give the man a serving.

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Before he could speak, he felt a tug on his sleeve. He turned his head to see Peaches shaking his head. Kit sighed, he understood Peaches was telling him not to make a scene. Kit held in his anger and blew out frustrated breath.

It was soon their turn to enter the town. “1 silver please.” Kit gapped at the guard holding out his hand for payment. Burning Boilers! This was daylight robbery, 1 silver to enter the town. Kit clenched his fist then took out his payment. There was nothing he could do, he needed to enter the town to raise his tier.

Between the man in the queue and the payment to get in Kit felt he was going to explode from anger. He didn’t know if his feeling effected his first sighting of the town, but he was left with a bitter disappointment at the sight before him.

Bland grey stone buildings filled the dirty road in front of him. Kit glanced down at his feet and lifted his boot to see the bottom covered in layer of grime. “Why is this town so filthy Peaches? It’s also an eye sore, there is not even a splash of colour to break up the dull grey.” Kit complained to vent out his negative feelings.

Peaches chuckled at Kit’s grumblings. “Well, we are not here to grade the town on its beauty luckily. Come Kit, let’s find your culinary guild. That way we can leave this eye sore faster.” Peaches was still chuckling as he spoke.

Kit pouted, then looked around to see if there was a guide waiting to show new people to their destination. Sitting against the wooden wall was a group of dirty people. Kit spied a cardboard sign with guides scribbled on it.

He motioned towards the grimy group and Peaches followed him over. Kit looked at the faces of the small group to see if there was a friendly face amongst them. He noticed a youth at the back of the group holding a small kitten. Kit’s eyes immediately lit up at the sight of the fluffy animal.

Kit locked eyes with the youth. “Hello, are you free to show us around the town?” The youth furiously nodded his head. Then he quickly tucked the cat into a sling hanging from his back. Kit was a little sad that the cute fluff ball was hidden from sight.

The youth stood and manoeuvred past the people in front of him to come and stand before Kit. “Hello good sir, I am Pretzels. Do you want a general tour or are you looking for something in particular?”

Kit was shocked when the youth stood before him. The youth had a shrunken look to his cheeks and his arms that showed through the oversized clothes were like toothpicks. Kit wanted to instantly shove some food into his mouth. This boy looked malnourished, Kit noticed a dark bruise poking out of the collar of his shirt.

The youth still had a twinkle in his eye even though it looked like he was mistreated. Kit instantly decided to take the youth back to his restaurant so he could fatten him up when he returned. He was sure he could find a job for the boy to do.

“Hello Pretzel, I’m Kit and this is Peaches, we are looking for the culinary guild.” Pretzel gave Kit a dazed look. Then a bit of drool escaped out of the side of his mouth. The kitten popped its head out from the sling and stared at Kit with big round eyes.

He noticed that the kitten was plump and its coat shined. He wondered if all the food the boy got went to the kitten. The kitten let out a soft meow tickling Kit’s heart. He couldn’t help pull out some food from his bag and shove it at the two faces in front of him.

An apple was pushed into the boy’s mouth and a piece of meat went into the kittens. Shocked eyes turned to Kit, then slowly blinked. Kit quickly spoke so that there was no awkwardness between them. “Let’s go?”

The youth nodded his head, took a big bite of the apple, then headed off down the street. The roads didn’t have any pattern to them, they were a maze of twists and turns. Kit was glad they had gotten Pretzel to show them the way.

Soon they stopped in front of a stone building with a cat wearing a chef’s hat, holding a knife carved on the door. Kit felt shivers run down his spine at the sight of the cat. He warily eyed the door, when there was no movement from the cat, he let out a relived breath.

He then turned to Peaches. “I don’t know how long this will take. Do you want to come in and wait for me or set a time for you to return?”

Peaches motioned for Kit to enter. “I will wait, Pretzel can tell me all about Fairweather town while we wait.” Pretzel flashed pearly white teeth at Peaches. Kit was happy to see his teeth were healthy. Looking at the smiling face Kit couldn’t help wanting to feed him once again. He pulled out a candy apple for each of them.

He figured if they all ate one, Pretzels wouldn’t realise he was trying to fatten him up. Once they were finished eating, he turned and pushed open the door.

Inside was decorated the same as the culinary guild in Flower field town. There were large plush red velvet chairs placed against the wall and a dark solid wood desk dominating the room. A distinguished older woman was sitting behind the desk.

A warm smile graced her face as she spotted them. “Hello, I have not seen any of you before, I am Claire. What can I help you with today.” Kit had to give the lady points she didn’t even bat an eyelash at Pretzel appearance.

“Is it alright if my friends sit here and wait? I have just come to raise my chef tier.” Kit asked politely as he could. Claire practically fell off her chair.

“You want to raise your chef tier, my this is wonderful.” Claire turned to Peaches and Pretzel “Please take a seat.” A nervous smile was settled on her face. She then clapped her hands and turned back to Kit. “Let me just grab instructor Quinn, she will be delighted to see another chef.”

Claire quickly left and headed through the door behind the desk. Kit took out his golden token ready to hand over for his identification. Claire soon returned with a woman with grey streaks through her hair. When she spotted Kit, her eyes automatically settled on the gold token sitting in his hand.

The woman’s eyes thinned and her lips pursed. “If you have stolen that then I will be needing to confiscate it. Just so you know the tokens are attuned to the chef, so impersonating one will not help you.”

Kit eyebrows shot up, what was this? Was she seriously questioning him being a chef. He had his own damn restaurant! Kit’s anger bubbled to the surface, he had already suppressed his anger twice today he was not going to do it a third time!