As he moved closer, the first thing that caught his attention was a small orange cake with a bright yellow filling. Kit carefully lifted the glass case containing the cake and used identify to examine it.

[Unable to identify]

Kit's hand trembled as he held the glass box, afraid of dropping it. He quickly returned it to the shelf before any damage could be done to the cake inside. He couldn't afford to ruin such a valuable creation.

But his attention turned to the woman beside him. If he wanted to know the stats of the cake, he would have to ask. "Excuse me, can you tell me what the stats are for this item?"

The woman smiled at his request. "Certainly, it's called Forever Orange Agility. It permanently increases your Agility by 10,000." Kit's heart raced with excitement and disbelief. How was that even possible?

He turned back to look at the small cake in awe. "That's incredible! How did you make something like this?"

More laughter bubbled from the woman. "Are you a chef by any chance?"

"How did you guess?" Kit was sure anyone would react the same way after hearing about the cake's insane stats, so how did she know he was a chef?

Amusement danced in her eyes. "I watched you eagerly browsing through all my creations. Most people who come into my shop for the first time aren't as enthusiastic as you are, so it was easy to tell that you're a fellow chef."

Kit nodded in understanding, realising he may have been too excited since entering the shop. But he couldn't help it; this was the first time he had seen such high-stats creations in one place. This woman must truly be amazing if she can create all these items.

"Oh, I'm Kit by the way," he introduced himself, hoping to make a friend out of this talented woman.

"I'm Ellory, nice to meet you Kit." She smiled warmly.

"Ellory, I know you can't share recipes, but do you think you could give me some advice to improve my craft?" Kit knew it was a long shot to ask a stranger for advice, but he didn't want to miss this opportunity.

To his surprise, Ellory smiled and agreed. "Of course, but can I ask if you've created anything on your own yet?"

Kit nodded and excitedly told her about his creations and his current chef level. Ellory seemed impressed by his progress. "Well, that's unexpected. You have a good chance of becoming a top chef like the rest of us on this street."

She paused in thought before continuing, "From what you've told me, all your creations so far are at a low level. But that's not surprising since you haven't reached chef level 100 yet. Most high-level creations can only be made after overcoming that hurdle."

Kit was momentarily confused; he had even mentioned his highest-stats creation that he couldn't sell yet. But then again, compared to the Forever Orange Agility cake, they were indeed considered low level.

Ellory noticed Kit's confusion and decided to clarify. She pointed to some of her other creations on the shelf in front of them, explaining that each one would permanently increase a stat by a significant amount. Kit was amazed - he thought the Orange cake would be the most impressive creation on display, but he wasn't expecting everything else to be just as spectacular.

Before Kit could even express his surprise, Ellory went on. "These are all considered medium level creations," she said nonchalantly, dropping a bombshell on Kit's head. "To become a master chef, you need to create at least this level of dishes."

"Once you reach master chef status, it's a whole different game. But I'll save that explanation for later; you won't understand until you get there," Ellory clicked her tongue in annoyance. "I got off track - I haven't even given you any advice yet."

Ellory tapped her chin thoughtfully, pondering what advice would be most useful to Kit. Suddenly, her eyes lit up with an idea. "I have just the thing! Instead of relying on your identifying skills when selecting ingredients, focus on carefully examining them and learning how to distinguish between low-level and higher-level ingredients. You'll be surprised at how helpful this tip will be in the future," she hummed.

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Kit studied Ellory, noting her lack of malice and constant helpfulness since he arrived. He decided to take her advice from now on. "Thank you, Ellory. I will make sure to practice this from now on."

Ellory's face lit up with delight that he would follow her suggestion. "Then I can't wait to see you in the Master's tournaments in the future."

Kit raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Master's tournaments?"

"Oh my, surely you know about them?" Ellory looked astonished. Kit shook his head. "The Master's tournaments are held once a year for chefs to compete and earn a ranking on the leaderboards. Prizes are awarded to the top 1,000 in each state and continent."

Kit's mouth formed an "O" shape as he realised how chefs made it onto the leaderboards. It all made sense now.

"Kit, my dear, you should definitely visit a culinary guild and sign up for their beginner tournament. The prizes are worth drooling over," Ellory suggested.

"They have tournaments for beginners?" Kit was taken aback by this new information.

Ellory chuckled, "Of course! But before you enter, make sure to unlock as many skills as possible." She winked at him.

"Okay, I'll work on unlocking more skills," Kit promised the young woman. As Ellory showed him some of her other creations, Kit couldn't help but feel more and more impressed by her talent.

When Mars and Peaches finally found Kit, he was in a daze. "Kit, are you okay?" Mars asked with concern at his expression. The sound of tinkling laughter caught Mars' attention and he turned to see a lady standing next to Kit.

"Don't worry about your friend, we were just admiring all the creations on this wall," Ellory said, gesturing behind her. "But I should go now, one of the staff members needs my help." She pointed to someone waving at her from across the room.

“Oh, okay.” Kit snapped back to attention. “Thank you for your advice today, Ellory.” Kit gave the young woman a formal bow.

“No need for formalities, Kit. We chefs should support each other.” Smiled Ellory, but her smile quickly faded into a frown. “Just so you know, not everyone on this street is friendly towards fellow chefs. Be careful who else you talk to.”

Kit wasn’t surprised; he had dealt with rival chefs before. He took Ellory’s warning seriously and nodded in understanding.

“Kit I’ve really enjoyed our chat today, but I really have to go now. I'll make sure to visit your restaurant sometime.” Ellory waved and headed towards the counter.

“She seemed nice,” commented Mars, and Kit smiled in agreement. “Now that we've finished looking around this store, want to head to the next one?” asked Mars.

Kit's heart raced with excitement at the thought of seeing the creations of other stores on the street.

But his hopes were soon dashed as they walked towards the end of the street without being able to enter another establishment. So far, Ellory's store was the only one that didn't require a reservation to enter.

“How will I know how much I need to improve my restaurant if I can't even see what others are doing?” grumbled Kit in frustration.

Mars gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder. “Don't worry yet, we still have three more restaurants to visit. And even if we can't get into one on this street, there are plenty more restaurants in the city for us to explore.”

Peaches interjected with a soft tone, "Mars is right Kit, I've heard of other restaurants nearby from customers waiting in line."

A wide smile appeared on Kit's face once again. "You're right, there are plenty more fish in the sea! I meant restaurants in the city!"

It didn't take long for the group to reach the end of the street. "Well, that was disappointing. I even tried to make a reservation for tonight. You know what happened? They laughed at me," Mars pouted.

This time, it was Kit's turn to comfort his foodie friend. "Now that I think about it, that's to be expected. Those restaurants are all 3-stars and above." Instead of being upset, Kit was determined to improve his own restaurant. He wanted to have customers booking months in advance, just like the popular shops on this street!

Although he had only visited one shop on this street, Kit was grateful that he had decided to come here. The experience had inspired him to improve his cooking and the quality of his restaurant. "Let's return to Spartan Fire," he suggested.

Peaches and Mars looked at him as if he had said something absurd. "Seriously? Don't you want to try at least one other establishment while we're here?" asked Mars. Kit shook his head in response, causing Mars to blink in confusion.

"It's a smart idea to go back now. We have to log out in a few hours anyway," Peaches chimed in. "And we can always visit the capital whenever we want now."

Kit stood there flabbergasted. "That's right! We can use the travel gates!" exclaimed Mars with excitement. "Let's make a reservation so we can come back and dine!" Without waiting for a reply, Mars dashed off towards the tallest building on the street.

As they waited for Mars to return, Peaches and Kit gazed at the impressive four-star restaurant called 'Deep Sea Blue'. Kit wondered what kind of culinary wonders awaited him inside such a highly rated establishment.

His thoughts were interrupted by an exuberant Mars returning. "I did it! I booked us a table!" Kit could feel his anticipation rising as he imagined the delectable dishes that awaited them. "We're scheduled for three months from now! Someone cancelled while I was there and I managed to snag the spot!" Mars puffed out his chest proudly.

"What?! Three months?!" spluttered Kit.

"Hey, before that guy cancelled, it was a five-month wait!" informed Mars.

"Well, I'm definitely looking forward to trying the food," stated Peaches, gesturing towards a group leaving Deep Sea Blue with satisfied expressions.

Kit's eyes followed their gaze. "Three months...okay… we can wait three months," he muttered before turning to Mars. "Great job!"

Mars beamed at the praise. "Alright, let's head back. It's time to shock Kat with our earnings!"

At Mars prompt, Kit remembered his sister. He couldn't contain his excitement at the thought of seeing Kat's reaction to their newfound wealth. “Yes! Let’s give her a nice surprise!”