Another problem emerged in Kit’s head as he watched her head towards the kitchen. How are we going to wash the dishes? Kit quickly got up and followed Snickers into the kitchen.

“Snickers there was no sink available to purchase. How are we going to clean the plates?” The anxiety was clear in Kit’s voice. To Kit’s surprise Snickers laughed.

“Kit how did you wash the food?”

“I just used the water from inside a barrel. Ahh, I see where you’re going with this.”

Kit pulled out a plain water barrel. Even though it would be fine to do it this way for a while, it would become a problem once they had a steady stream of customers. He added a sink to the list of blueprints he needed to find a way to unlock without the upgrade to a 1 star.

Kit left the cleaning of the dishes to Snickers. He then decided to fill one of the trays inside the time freeze storage shelf in case he had any paying customers turn up. Kit busied himself with his task.

Once he had a stack of 100 meals prepared it was well into the afternoon. He looked into the dining area to see it was empty. He had been so involved in his task he had ignored everyone else. Kit felt a stab of disappointment in himself for being so rude.

‘I can’t let myself become so distracted in the future that I forget about everyone around me.’

Kit sighed. He would apologise to everyone later. After cleaning up the kitchen he walked back out into the dining area. He noticed the menu board.

“Ahh I still haven’t created my menu.”

Even though he didn’t have much available for sale he felt it was still important to place something on the board. He walked over to the plain chalk board. As he brushed his hand over the top of the black background a screen popped up in front of him. Inside the screen was the image of the blackboard and a list of his creations and the recipe he learnt from Iris on the side. Kit clicked on the Apelop salad.

The Apelop salad and a description of stats and a little blurb about the meal appeared on the blackboard. Underneath was a set price of 15 bronze crowns. Kit tried to interact with the price of the meal.

[Option unavailable]

“Rotten garbage! I can’t even control the price of the meals.”

Kit sighed, then shrugged. This was a good price for the meal anyway. He then clicked on the Sweet Meadow beer. The same thing happened, and the beer was now listed on the board, it was set to 5 bronze crowns per cup.

He then moved on to the moon juice magic. This time however nothing happened. Kit tried once again.

[Option unavailable, please raise chef level]

Kit’s eyes went wide at the sight. What did it mean please raise his chef level? Kit’s eyes darted over to the description of the moon juice magic. It wasn’t until he came to the end of the information that he noticed something he hadn’t paid attention to before.

The moon juice magic was restricted for sale! He could only sell it once he reached level 75. This was inhumane! How was he going to get customers if he only sold two items? This was a complete disaster.

Kit looked at the rest of the list. He couldn’t sell oil and the fluffy dragon head tea was so common almost everyone knew how to make it. This wasn’t something he would put up for sale inside his restaurant.

Kit didn’t even bother to glance at Spiritual moon juice magic if the plain moon juice magic was restricted to level 75 he didn’t want to see about the other.

Kit had a moment of pure frustration. He now had a working restaurant but no choices to offer to his customers. Tomorrow he would have to work hard at finding new ingredients and experimenting with them.

Kit closed the screen and looked at the sad blackboard.

“Soon I will make you shine.”

“Who are you making shine Kit?”

Kit jumped in fright. Snickers was standing next to him.

“Snickers you scared me.”

The little one had a smirk on her face.

“That was the plan. Your menu is looking terrible, you need to work on that.”

Kit could only nod his head in agreement. He could feel his whole body droop with his disappointment.

“Don’t look so sad. I know a little trick to help you with your creations.”

Kit’s eyes lit up at her words.

“Don’t get too excited. It only works for low level stats meals.”

“That’s fine. That’s just what I need right now.”

Kit couldn’t contain his excitement at her words. Snickers smiled at his beaming face.

“It is really easy to make you happy.”

Kit could only smile and nod, waiting for her to continue.

“Just look for ingredients that are all in the same area. They will have a high compatibility with each other. The high compatibility will make it easier for you to produce a stats meal. Mind this only works for low level stats meals. Things become harder to create and blend once the stats rate climbs, understand?”

“Yes, I understand. Thank you for telling me Snickers, it means a lot to me that you trusted me with this knowledge.”

“Well, we are in this together now. So, I want you to make this restaurant into something I can brag about.”

A sight red tinge ghosted her cheeks.

“Snickers speaking of being in this together, how is your dress coming along?”

Kit remembered she had been making her uniform for the restaurant and it was one of the bonuses she came with. He couldn’t wait to see the dress.

“That, well it hit a little stumbling block. Leonard and I are still trying to get one of the materials for the dress. Hopefully we can find the spider we are after soon.”

Kit raised his eyebrows at her words. What kind of dress was she making? His eagerness to see the finished dress increased.

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“Ok come show me when it’s done. I really want to see the finished product.”

“Will do boss. Well, it’s almost time for dinner I’ll go and round everyone up. They all wanted to come back for their evening meal. Kit speaking of their meals we should start to charge them for eating meals made by you. You can’t give everything away for free all the time otherwise the restaurant will never make any money.”

Snickers tone and facial expression were admonishing Kit. He chuckled at the sight.

“Snickers I can’t charge my friends for food and Grandpa is helping me to raise my swordsman level. They will always be able to eat for free inside my restaurant just like you.”

Snickers blinked at Kits answer.

“I can eat all my meals for free as well?”

“Yes, Snickers help yourself any time. I will make sure that the time freeze storage shelf is always full.”

A large smile spread over Snickers face. “Ahh, I knew you would be a good person to work for. Thanks Kit.”

Snickers left with a bounce in her step to collect the others. Kit went into the kitchen to start cooking. Snickers was right, he would need to find a way to get paying customers soon or he really would never earn any money. He decided to bring this problem up with his friends to see if they could brainstorm an answer. With that decided he went to work finishing dinner.

By the time he started to bring the meals out everyone started to arrive. Kit noticed Twix was more lively than normal.

“You look happy Twix, did anything good happen?”

“Snickers and Leonard just became residents isn’t that great. We now have 52 residents in Spartan Fire.” Twix was beaming at Kit.

“That’s great!”

“We also finished the market and Spartan Fire quest board while you were busy. Though neither of those things took long.”

Kit smiled, he could now understand why Twix was so happy. By the sounds of things, they had all been just as busy as him.

“Well then it sounds like you should all be hungry. Tuck in.”

The meal went by in a flash and soon everyone headed back to their homes to turn in for the night. Kit’s feet were dragging the whole way home. Snowball was waiting for him at the entrance of his little hut. Kit smiled and picked the little guy up.

Kit looked at Snowballs face and realised there was something different. The little guy was holding something in his mouth. Kit held out his hand and an item dropped into his palm. A shiny wet stone glittered in the moon light.

Kit laughed at the sight. “Is this for me?”

Small yips left Snowballs mouth as if he was confirming Kit’s question.

“Are you a little thief. Where did you get this?”

There was no bite or reprimand in Kit’s tone only curiosity. He stared at the small dog, then patted his head.

“Is it a present? I like it a lot Snowball, I’ll put it in our room.”

Kit took Snowball inside then placed the stone on one of the furs in the room.

“You can put your treasures here for now until we make something for you to store them in.”

Kit remembered on Snowballs description that he was a treasure hunter. He had a feeling this was what Snowball was out doing each day. Kit remembered he had still not looked at Snowballs tab. He sighed he was too tired to look at it tonight. He would do it tomorrow. He really did need to learn more about the cute little dog.

Kit felt like he could no longer keep his eyes open. He was physically and mental exhausted from the day’s events as soon as his head touched the pillow he was out like a light.

Kit woke the next morning to shouting outside.

“Get up you lazy bones! It’s time to start!”

Kit recognised Grandpa’s voice and shot up straight in bed. He quickly got ready and headed out the door. Grandpa was standing with his hands on his hips waiting for the trio. Kit scrabbled over to his side.

“Good morning, Grandpa.”

“Morning Kit. Are you ready for today?”

Kit could only nod. He had no clue what Grandpa had in store for them today. Twix and Mars headed over as Grandpa and he had been exchanging pleasantries.

“Right now, before we go take this. Don’t drink it until I tell you to though, it only has a short activation time. It will last for 30 minutes.”

Grandpa handed them each a potion. Kit took the small glass bottle and looked at the green swirling liquid inside. The liquid looked thick and gluggy.

“What is this for Grandpa?” Kit was curious about why they needed to take the potion.

“Poison resistance. We are going to kill some mud wallowers. Their level will be low enough for you to kill on your own. It’s just the area they are in has a poisonous fog. Without the potion you wouldn’t be able to set foot in the area without dying.”

“You will have to act fast once we are there. We won’t have time to muck around, it will be straight in kill as many as you can then leave. Got it.”

Kit became excited about exploring a new area, he remembered what Snickers had told him yesterday about ingredients being in the same area. If they didn’t have time to explore the area the mud wallowers were in, he couldn’t create another dish from their meat.

Grandpa had said the mud wallowers were a low level monster so Kit assumed he could create a meal from them that would be low enough for him to sell in his restaurant. The more he thought about it the happier he became.

Kit told Grandpa his idea about collecting ingredients while they killed some monsters. He knew the old man was a foodie and would agree.

“Kit I’m sorry lad you won’t have enough time to kill them and explore the area. How about this, Grandpa will collect ingredients for you after we have finished. I want you to just focus on raising your level. I don’t want to waste the time you will have inside the fog.”

Kit thought that sounded fair. He knew the old man was worried about their level. Kit was a little disappointed he couldn’t collect the ingredients himself. He had a feeling he would get a better idea about what would go well together if he collected things himself. He let his disappointment fade. Raising his level in swordsman was just as important as his restaurant right now.

As Kit was about to agree to Grandpa’s request, Kit’s eyes started to shine.

“Grandpa no need to worry we can all have plenty of time in the poisonous fog.”

Kit opened his pouch and pulled a glass bottle filled with a golden glow inside. Kit had a smile plastered on his face looking at the swirling gold inside. He took out four paper cups and filled them. ‘If it’s not for sale I can freely hand them out, right?’

Kit had come to this conclusion from sharing the moon juice magic with Mars and Curt previously.

“Grandpa and Twix I will need you to keep this a secret, ok?”

He hadn’t included Mars because Kit already knew the young man wouldn’t tell anyone about his secrets without having to ask him.

All three pairs of eyes were fixed on the cups Kit had placed in their hands.

“What is this, Kit?” Twix had a look of uncertainty on his face.

“A little something I was lucky enough to stumble upon and create. I’m just not at a high enough chef level to sell it in my restaurant yet. This is why it is important I explore the poisonous fog area. I need to create low level dishes so I can sell them.”

A look of understanding past through Twix’ eyes.

“Then I will gladly accept your drink.”

Twix downed the drink in one go. He then started to cough. Kit noticed his face was starting to turn bright red. ‘Shit have I poisoned him?’ Twix held his stomach with a pained look on his face, then started to gag. Kit started to get flustered.

‘What the hell is going on?’

“My god Kit why didn’t you warn me how foul it would taste.” Twix was still spluttering as he spoke. Kit could see him swallowing, trying not to vomit. Twix was having difficulties trying to keep the fluid from coming back up.

Kit had an awful feeling when he remembered the quality bonus he had received when he created the Spiritual moon juice magic. He quickly brought up his screen to check.

Quality bonus: Foul nightmare, due to the low level of the creator the juice is unfit for human consumption. Induces vomiting upon ingestion.

“I’m so sorry Twix I forgot about the foul taste. Just bear with it, I promise if you can keep it down it will be worth it.”

Three pairs of sceptical eyes landed on Kit. To show his sincerity in his words, Kit downed his own drink. Kit wanted to spit the drink out as soon as it hit his taste buds. The taste wasn’t like anything he had experienced before.

It was like he had scooped road kill off the side of the road, let it sit in the hot sun for a month, then sprinkled some poop on top for added flavour and then made it into a drink. Kit could now understand Twix reaction. Kit forced the drink down his throat. His body was rebelling against him. He could feel a heaving from his stomach.

Kit kept swallowing madly. His face was hot and sweat broke out all over his body. He felt the last of the liquid hit his stomach. Cramps started to mix with his stomachs heaving motions. Kit hunched over and groaned. He fought the feeling to bring the liquid back up.

Pain was crippling him preventing him from speaking. This was worse than food poisoning. Kit had to keep repeating to himself that it would be over soon. He collapsed to the ground from the pain and started rolling on the ground trying to relive some of the pain.

After 5 minutes of stomach cramps, they started to subside. He glanced up to see Mars and Grandpa with a look of dread on their faces. He could tell they were unwilling to consume the drink. Kit decided to get Twix to tell them the benefits of the drink. He was still a little weak from his own experience with the juice.

“Twix how are your stats right now?”

Kit watched Twix face as his eyes went blank. When the light returned to Twix eyes a look of awe was on his face.

“Kit you are amazing! I will go through 5 minutes of torture without batting an eye in the future to get these benefits. I can enter the fog without worrying about losing any health! Kit you are truly amazing!”

Twix had a happy smile on his face. “Your turn now Mars and Grandpa.”