Kit already had plans for the trampling thickhead meat. He had just not got around to experimenting with the recipe. now it looked like he would have to scrap his original idea. If the meat went well with the ingredients from the Piabbits’ domain, then it would be worth it.

“Wow, it’s so big!” Pretzel was staring at the giant slab with round eyes.

Kit chuckled, he had a feeling if Pretzel had seen the original size of the meat, the boy would have been stunned mute. “It was a huge monster to begin with.”

He started carving the thick slab, his knife made the work easy, it went through the meat like it was butter. “How are we going to cook this meat, Kit?” Pretzel was engrossed in watching Kit’s movements as he spoke.

“I think we will keep it simple for the first attempt. Let’s try a simple pan seared steak first.” Once Kit had the meat divided into thick steaks, Kit pulled out a pan and placed it on the stove top to heat. He then took out some salt and pepper and added the seasoning and rubbed it into the tender steaks.

Once he was done seasoning, he hovered his hand over the pan, heat engulfed his palm. “Why did you do that Kit?” Pretzel really was full of questions today.

“To see if the pan was hot enough, for the best results for a steak it’s better to place the steak into a hot pan.” As he was speaking, he added butter to the hot surface, then placed two steaks into the sizzling pan.

As he watched the steak change colour, a blue and purple hue started to frantically swirl on the meat. Kit thought even if this recipe didn’t turn out, he was excited to try the trampling thickhead meat.

When the steak was finished it had a nice golden brown crust, Kit couldn’t wait to slice into the meat. He transferred the meat onto the waiting plate, this time the coloured hues didn’t disappear! They started to blend and intensify.

Kit felt his heart pound in his chest as he stared at the plate. After a full minute the hues started to slowly disappear. It looked like he was still missing something. This dish would probably be his highest creation yet, so he didn’t think it would be easy to complete. At least now he knew he was on the right track.

“Kit we were so close! Do you know why it didn’t work?” Pretzel looked crestfallen for the first time today.

“Not yet but we will figure it out. This is part of the process, the good news is we are getting closer. We can try cooking the meat in different ways and see if that makes a difference.”

Pretzel’s smile soon returned and he gave Kit a firm nod. “Then let’s get to work!” Pretzel walked back over to the bench and started preparing another round of vegetables. Before Kit joined Pretzel continuing the experiments, Kit cut a portion of the meat.

Kit took a deep breath, and a delectable rich meaty fragrance tantalised his senses. He quickly placed the meat in his mouth and started to chew. The meat was tender and warm, the plain seasoning brought out the flavour of the steak.

A muffled hum left his mouth, he felt this was the most perfect steak he had ever tasted! The desire to keep experimenting with the meat increased. He quickly polished off the rest of the steak and didn’t forget to pull Pretzel over to try it as well.

“Kit, it’s delicious!” Pretzel praised around the steak in his mouth.

The pair continued to try different ways to cook the meat until they were interrupted by Crackers. “Kit it be time for dinner.” Crackers walked into the room then stopped. She lifted her head and sniffed the air. Kit watched as her eyes started to twinkle and search the room for the source of the smell.

When her eyes landed on Kit’s latest attempt, she walked towards the plate ignoring everyone else in the room. “Can I be havin’ this for dinner?”

“Yes! It tastes amazing Crackers.” Pretzel puffed out his chest.

There were numerous attempts from the days experimenting in Kit’s pouch, so he started to pull them out. “Pretzel, can you start to take these out to the dining area.” Now that it was dinner time Kit decided to stop cooking for the day. He helped Pretzel take the meals out to the waiting staff.

After dinner he went to his room to think about where he could improve the recipe he was trying to create. Snowball was sitting on his lap as he sat on his lounge chair. “Snowball, I don’t have much time to get this recipe right, so what am I missing?”

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Snowball tilted his head and gave a soft yip. Kit thought it would be great if that yip really had the answer. He ruffled Snowballs hair, then opened his inventory, he was going to go through each item one by one.

Kit’s eyes flicked over the list, the further he went down the more frustrated he became. Nothing was jumping out at him. It wasn’t until he got near the bottom of the contents that his eyes stilled. “Snowball, I think I found it!” Kit hugged the small dog and squeezed a bit hard in his excitement, Snowball let out a grunt. Kit quickly released his grip. “Sorry!”

He placed Snowball on the ground and ran out the door towards the kitchen. He couldn’t wait until tomorrow to see if he had really found the answer to the recipe. He had to find out now! Kit went through the motions of preparing the vegetables, when he got to the steak, he once again seasoned it with salt and pepper.

Before he placed it on the pan, he was going to add one more ingredient. Kit pulled a Piabbits shard from his pouch, then ground it with a mortar and pestle. Once it was a fine powder, he sprinkled it over the steak.

Kit felt his blood start to pump as he placed the steak on the pan. The moment it connected a brilliant blue and purple hue exploded. A roaring started in Kit’s ears and his whole body started to tremble.

When the steak was almost done, Kit added the honeyed vegetables and mash to the plate. Blood dripped from the steak as he removed it from the pan and placed it on the waiting space. He was so nervous he felt like ants were crawling over his skin.

Kit bit his nail as he watched the blue and purple hues mingle. Little sparks of white started to flicker as the blue and purple light intensified. At one point Kit had to close his eyes against the extreme brightness.

Ding!

[Spiritual thickhead steak, with honey vegetables and glowing blue mash created]

Quality level: Poor

Quality bonus: violent poison, fatal when consumed.

Permanent boost: Physical strength increased by 1,000. (Only available on first consumption.)

Temporary Skill: Ice breath, releases a mist that freezes opponents.

Immune to freezing temperatures.

For 7 days.

[Restricted: chef level 300 to unlock for sale]

Reward: 200,000 EXP, 175,000 culinary EXP, 500 gold, 20,000 culinary points.

Ding!

[Congratulations, you are now Level 53 Chef]

Ding!

[Congratulations, you are now Level 54 Chef]

Ding!

[Congratulations, you are now Level 55 Chef] …

The rise in his chef level stopped at level 61. Kit felt his jaw drop to the floor, how incredible was this recipe! Kit shook his head, that didn’t matter right now, what he needed to check was the number of culinary points received!

He skipped the bulk of the information and ran his eyes to the bottom. He felt his heart skip a beat when his eyes collided with 20,000 culinary points. Popping pink peppers! He did it! Now he had enough points for all the blueprints for the kitchen and dining area!

Kit slumped back on the bench and started to laugh, he felt like he was high on happiness. At that moment he wanted to share his joy, he quickly rushed up the stairs and started pounding on Mars door.

A sleepy Mars pulled the door open a crack. “What’s the matter?” Kit pushed Mars’ door open grabbed his wrist and dragged him down the stairs. He then pointed to the meal on the bench.

Mars blinked the remaining sleep from his eyes, then examined the plate. Kit watched in delight as Mars’ jaw dropped. “Holy shit! Kit, how is that even possible, it has a permanent rise in physical strength!”

“What?” Kit looked at the meal and realised he didn’t even read all the information. He had been too focused on the culinary points. He opened his interface and looked at the recipe. Kit’s face froze as he realised Mars was right, then he noticed that there were more surprises.

The recipe also had a temporary skill that could be activated. When he read the description, his mind automatically returned to the first time he saw the Piabbits, had they not frozen the large cat? If that was the same skill, then it was powerful.

Kit couldn’t wait to get his hands on it. He looked to see what the side effects of consuming the meal before he was at a chef level to safely make it. A pout pulled his lips, it would be fatal! Kit dashed all his plans to try the food.

He went over to the plate and quickly scrapped the meal into a bin. It would be bad if someone accidentally consumed it.

“Kit, how long do you think it will be before you get to chef level 300?” Kit choked at Mars’ words, it would be a long time! The higher the level the more experience it would take to go up a level. Kit also felt that this wasn’t all to raising his chef level.

If it was, then every chef could have a high level, he made plans to ask at the culinary guild next time he visited. “Don’t even think about it for now. This dish will be off limits for a long time!”

“Shame, that rise to physical strength would have been great!” Mars really looked dejected that he couldn’t eat the meal. “Is there anyway you can make a lower level meal with a rise in strength?”

“I’m not sure, I can give it a try.” Kit thought about which ingredient would be most likely to have added the strength. “I feel like the physical strength came from the trampling thickhead meat. I’ll have a play around with it over the next couple of days.”

“Great! Kit, do you think you could also make a mental resistance recipe?” asked Mars.

“Probably not, I haven’t come across an ingredient that has mental properties. We should keep an eye out for something like that though.” Having a wide range of products would help his restaurant grow.

Kit sighed, growing his business was a never ending task. He would have to speak to Grandpa about heading out once again to gather more ingredients. Now that his one star promotion was imminent he had to start thinking about the next stage.

A flick to his head brought him out of his thoughts. “Hey!”

“Whatever you’re thinking about stop. You should be still basking in the new recipe’s success.” Mars scolded.

“Ok, ok you’ re right.” Kit’s smile quickly grew once again.

“Come on let’s head in for the night, it’s late and I’m sure you still have plenty to do tomorrow.” Mars pushed Kit up the stairs back to his room.

The next few days went by in a flurry before he knew it, it was the day before his new restaurant was due to be finished.