Mid-morning Kit finally had a breakthrough with his chicken gnocchi. A notification rang in Kit’s ears making him let out a loud whoop in excitement.

Ding!

[Gloomy pecking ice gnocchi created.]

Quality level: Poor

Quality bonus: Chills down the spine for 1 hour. Chance of frostbite occurring on consumption.

A light and fluffy mouthwatering meal to warm the heart.

+ 5,000 health

Temporary skill: Fly like a chicken: ability to fly for a few seconds, then glide down to the ground.

2,000 resistance to ice attacks.

Active for 2 hours

[Restricted: chef level 100 to unlock for sale]

Reward: 75,000 EXP, 75,000 culinary EXP, 50 gold, 5,000 culinary points.

Ding!

[Congratulations, you are now Level 50 Chef]

Ding!

[Congratulations, you are now Level 51 Chef]

Kit’s heart started to pound after reading the information. Holy fried mushrooms! This was beyond his expectations, this creation was too fantastic! Who the hell didn’t want to fly! Even if it was only for a moment, it was still an amazing skill to have.

Kit’s eyes ran down the screen to see the chef level needed to sell his new creation. A sigh left his mouth, he already had a hunch that with that amazing temporary skill, he wouldn’t be able to sell this creation for a while.

Frustration filled his heart for a second, then dissipated. The ingredients from the Piabbits domain were by far giving him amazing results, the only issue was that the creations were at a higher level. Kit was happy he could make high level creations, it was just right now he needed new meals he could sell in his restaurant right away.

Thinking of what he could sell, Kit’s eyes moved on to the last notification. He had finally reached level 50! He could now add the Glowgo splice sorbet and Lucky sticky apple cider to his menu. A feeling of elation swept over him, finally he could sell a dessert!

Kit felt he was finally heading in the right direction for his restaurant promotion. He was still lacking a few dishes on the menu for the promotion to be a big splash. Kit scratched his head as he thought about this problem.

Maybe instead of working with the ingredients from the Piabbits domain he should leave them for later experiments. From what he had already created he had a feeling that each creation using those ingredients would be at a level he couldn’t sell until his chef level rose dramatically.

Kit made plans to speak to Grandpa on return to Spartan Fire to get him to take him to an area he where he could collect ingredients that were more in line with his current level. That way any creations he made should be ready for sale straight away.

With that decision made, Kit felt like his promotion wouldn’t be far away. Kit cleaned up the mess he had made making the chicken gnocchi and decided to head over to the market stall for his final inspection. Tomorrow he would log out and when he returned, he wanted to leave straight away.

Kit made his way through the maze of stalls to his shop. A line of customers ran along the outside of his market stall waiting to enter. The line was steadily moving, but the customers entering the end of the queue were also constant.

It was no wonder his stall was making so much money. With a bounce in his step Kit entered the stall and headed towards the Kitchen area. Bree was bustling around the kitchen instructing two of the new employees on what to make next.

Bree looked up and noticed Kit standing in the kitchen. “Kit, are you here to help?” Kit started to shake his head. It looked like Bree had everything under control, “No I just wanted to see how everyone was going today.”

Kit looked around at his staff, although they were busy no one looked flustered. This eased Kits worries about the new staff being unable to handle the business in the shop. Kit felt his body relax, he hadn’t even known that he was that worried about the stall until the relief washed over him.

He didn’t stay long, he didn’t want to distract the others from there tasks. He decided to have a look around the market for a gift for Mars. Kit wandered the stalls, he was unsure what to get his friend, he was hoping something would jump out at him as he walked.

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After an hour of browsing Kit finally found something of interest. It was a small stall on the outer edges of the market. The stall only had a few scattered products on a blanket spread out on the ground.

What had caught his attention was a glittering piece of sky blue cloth. Mars taste in clothes was unusual so this bright piece drew Kit’s eye. He walked over and squatted down to inspect the cloth, soft smooth silk caressed his hand as he picked the item up.

“Good sir you have a great eye, this is sky cloud silk made from the sky cloud silkworms. It will give the wearer 10 magical attack resistance.” Kit looked up to see a pair of friendly green eyes staring straight at him.

The man selling the cloth had a bushy beard and was dressed in the animal skins that most natives to the Forsaken state wore. Kit became happy when he heard that the silk had some stats attached, he decided to buy this piece for Mars.

“How much is it?” When he was quoted 20 bronze crowns, Kit was surprised. He thought that it would cost more than that. “Do you have any more of this silk?” considering how cheap it was, Kit wanted to get a few more pieces for his friend.

The green eyed man started to shake his head. “Sorry, this is the only piece I have. I usually don’t sell items, I mainly collect plants. These were just a few items I picked up along my travels.” Kit looked at the few items on the blanket and frowned, none of them were plants. “Are you selling plants today?”

Kit was curious to see what type of plants the man had for sale. “I don’t usually sell the plants at the market. I take jobs from the quest board and hand them in for the rewards.” Kit felt some disappointment at not being able to see some new plants.

The green eyed man noticed Kit’s disappointment and scratched his chin. “I have some extra plants I collected but didn’t need to hand in for a reward if you want to look at those.”

“Thanks, that would be great!” Kit instantly perked up.

The man pulled a large backpack over to his side and started to take out a range of plants. Around twenty different types of flora were spread out on the mat making the space crowded.

Kit ran his eyes over the plants to see if anything caught his eye. Kit felt his eyes go wide when they landed on a dark purple fruit that was in the form of an elongated pod. Before he knew what he was doing Kit had picked up the pod and had split it open.

Inside the pod had numerous ridges running along its length, numerous seeds covered in sticky white pulp sat inside. Kit felt his hands holding the pod start to shake. “Sir, can you show me where you got this fruit from?”

The man scratched his head as he looked at the pod. “Hmm, I think I remember where I collected this fruit. But I don’t need to head back to that area for a while. I can let you know when I am heading there again if you give me a way to contact you.”

Kit didn’t want to wait, who knew how long it would take for this man to head to this area again. He looked at the fruit in his hands, if he was correct this fruit was from a Cocoa tree. That meant that the seeds inside where cacao beans!

After this thought Kit had to confirm him guess he immediately used identify on the fruit.

[Purple Cocoa fruit]

A bitter fruit that can produce a magical taste if prepared with other ingredients.

Kit felt his heart start to pound, if he could get his hands on the location of this fruit, he could make chocolate! He locked eyes with the stall owner, “I can pay you to take me there, name your price.”

Right now, he didn’t care if the man even quoted him a gold crown. Getting his hand on the Cocoa fruit was more important. He could make so many recipes with this one ingredient!

The man tilted his head and studied Kit. “What is so special about this fruit? I’ve tasted it and it is not delicious.”

Kit studied the man’s eyes and didn’t see any greed when Kit told him to name his price, all Kit could see was curiosity. So, Kit decided to be honest with the man. “I’m a chef and I can make something really tasty with this fruit.”

The man blinked his eyes, “You the chef that just opened his market stall?” Kit nodded his head. “Hm, your food is pretty damn tasty. Can you really make something good from this?” Kit nodded his head once again. “Alright, I will take you there, but I don’t want any money. You just have to let me taste what you make from this fruit. I’m really curious to see how you will make this taste good.”

“Deal!” Kit grabbed the man’s hand and shook it. “I’m Kit by the way.”

“Tuna’s my name. So, when do you want to leave?” Kit’s excitement came to a halt. He remembered that he would have to log out tomorrow.

Kit couldn’t help a groan escaping from his mouth. “I have something to do for the next six days, will you be free after then?”

“Can be, where do you want to meet?” Tuna inquired.

“I’m currently staying at the Travellers Bed. I’ll meet you there first thing in the morning in seven day’s time.” With the arrangements done, Kit paid for the gift for Mars and the fruit he had taken. He then headed back to the Inn.

To Kit’s delight Mars was in the lounge room when he arrived. “Mars you’re just who I wanted to see. I have a gift for you.” Kit took out the strip of blue silk and handed it to his friend. Mars eyes sparkled as he received the silk.

Mars immediately stood up and tied the silk around his waist, then twisted his body trying to inspect how the silk looked with his current outfit. Mars must have been pleased because the sparkle in his eyes intensified.

Kit’s eyes twitched as he looked at Mars, maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to give him sky blue silk. The colour clashed with his orange jumpsuit. It was too late now to change his mind. Kit made a mental note to make sure he didn’t add to Mars’ outlandish fashion in the future.

“It looks very smart Kit, thank you. Was there any more of this silk?” Thankfully Kit could answer honestly that there was not.

“Shame, never mind I’ll keep an eye out for more of it.” Mars sat back down on the couch.

Now that Kit had given Mars his gift, he couldn’t wait to tell Mars the rest of his news. He quickly filled Mars in on the Cocoa fruit. “Chocolate! Ahhh! This is fantastic! Who cares if Snickers will kill us for being late.” Kit choked on his own spit after hearing Mars mention Snickers.

“Oh no! Last time I was late, Snickers twisted my ear.” Kit couldn’t help but to rub his ear after that memory popped up.

“No pain no gain my friend.” Mars had a smirk on his face as he spoke. “Besides, do you really want to chance that you can find this man again if you don’t go at the designated time?”

Kit really didn’t want to give up the chance to find the Cocoa. “I guess it is settled, we are going to find Cocoa!”