He added that to the long list of things he would have to make time for. Kit realised he had been so lost in his thoughts that the pile of peeled apples was enough to make 5 pies. He stopped peeling and started to cut them into fine slivers. He then placed them in the bowl with the butter, and cinnamon.
Kit then got to work on making some pie pastry. Once he had a big ball of pastry dough ready to roll flat, he realised he didn’t have a pie tin.
“This kitchen needs an upgrade so badly. It is worse than my camping kitchen. How can I run a restaurant like this.”
Kit sighed. He was having to use his brain a lot lately to counter all the problems that were cropping up. When he had planned his restaurant in his head before starting the game it went nothing like what was happening to him now.
“I guess this is reality vs imagination. Never mind, everyone must start somewhere.”
With that thought Kit continued to think about how to solve his latest problem. Kit glanced around his kitchen and his eyes landed on the large clay pots. “They will have to do for now.”
Kit rolled the pastry dough then lined the clay pots with the pastry. He then went over to the tray with the sugar crystals. To his delight the crystals had dried out. Clumps of sugar sat in the tray. Kit pulled out a large lump and ground it in his mortar and pestle. What was left when he had finished looked like fine white sand.
He then added the white sugar to the apple mix. He stared at the mixture in front of him contemplating if he should add anything else. He felt like just using two ingredients from the same area wasn’t enough. Kit went over everything he had collected. He thought about the Soft blue ball and how if he hadn’t been told about its use in healing potions he would have never known the flower could produce stats.
His mind then wandered to the Twin blooming hope. Maybe the delicate bicolour flower was the same? Kit decided to give it a go. He would try one pie with the flower and one without. With his mind made up Kit filled two of the pies with the apple mixture and added a crushed Twin blooming hope to one.
He then placed a pie pastry covering on top of the pies. So he would be able to tell them apart he added a flower on top of the one with the extra ingredients inside. He sprinkled some sugar over each for the finishing touch. Kit left the lids off the clay pots and placed them in the fire pit.
He then busied himself with crushing sugar. Once he was finished, he went over to the magic pantry and purchased some simple glass jars. He loved how handy the purchasing from the pantry was. This addition to the kitchen made things a lot easier for him.
Once all the jars were filled with sugar. Kit went about cleaning up the mess he had made. As he was finishing the smell from the pies was hanging thick in the air. A crisp fresh apple sent mixed with mouth watering spices filled the kitchen. Kit had his fingers crossed that one of his pies would be a stats meal. Kit thought even if they weren’t the pies would be a favourite with his friends at least.
Kit put on his oven mitts and picked up the clay pots. He looked at he pie with nervous anticipation. Steam rose and the smell of baked apples became stronger. He looked at the finished pie with pursed lips. This one was not a stats creation. There was no familiar blue sheen.
Ding!
[Skill learnt: Beginner Baking]
Player can use the process of cooking with dry heat to surround food to produce a flavoursome taste. Player has basic backing skills.
+ 20 Agility
+ 30 Intelligence
+ 20 Speed
The disappointment from the plain apple pie disappeared at the sight of a new unlocked skill. Kit’s heart gave a flutter at the sight. He quickly moved on to the next clay pot with a tingling heart.
Kit looked at the next pie he pulled out of the coals. A smile broke out on Kit’s face. A blue sheen was swirling over the pie. He held his breath to see if it would intensify to complete a stats dish. He picked up the blood root jar and sprinkled some of the red powder over the top of the pie. He watched the blue sheen with twinkling eyes.
Slowly the blue sheen started to fade. Kit wasn’t disappointed though. This meant that he was close. He had already experienced this when trying to create the moon juice magic. With a bit of tampering with the ingredients he would eventually make it into a stats meal.
He was very happy with his accomplishments today. He noticed the pie that had the blue sheen swirling was the one with the Twin blooming hope. He had been right, the flower must have some properties that could make it a part of a stats dish. He couldn’t wait to see what the stats were going to be.
Kit had one more attempt with the apple pie in the leftover clay pot, the result was still the same. He decided to move on, today had been a good day already. He would try his luck with the pie tomorrow.
Kit then he returned to making the Wallowing blue poison to fill a tray in the time freeze storage shelf. He knew he couldn’t sell it yet, but he needed to work on raising his chef level and cooking meals helped with that. This time instead of using the magic multiplier plate he used ordinary plates so he could help raise his level with the extra meals.
Kit was happily making meals in the kitchen when he was interrupted by Twix.
“Kit, are you going to stop anytime soon it’s dinner time.”
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Kit raised his head and started at Twix. He then glanced outside through the kitchen window. He had been so absorbed in his cooking he hadn’t even realised the amount of time that had passed.
“Ahh thanks for reminding me Twix. I think I got a bit lost in cooking. Let me just finish up with this last meal and I’ll come out with some food.”
Kit placed the last of the meals inside the time freeze storage shelf then called Snickers to help him distribute the meals. Kit glanced at the table and realised they had an extra person tonight. Kit felt a moment of joy at having his first customer until he realised it was just Leonard.
Kit shook away his disappointment. His opening really had been a flop. Hopefully the grand opening would do better. If not, at least he would be raising his cooking level as he toured the different villages close to Spartan Fire.
Tonight, the party took up two tables, they had been dragged together to create one long table. Kit and Snickers placed the meals then sat down to enjoy their own meal.
“Kit, what is tonight’s dish?”
Grandpa was looking at his food with ravenous eyes. Kit beamed then looked around the table. The same look greeted him from the entire party. Kit felt a swelling of pride once again at his creation.
“This is the new dish I made Wallowing blue poison. Make sure you save some room, there is also dessert tonight.”
“What kind of dessert?” Mars was the first to ask.
Kit couldn’t help laughing at the delighted twinkle in Mars eyes.
“Apple pie.”
“Yes! I’ve been waiting for you to make something sweet. I can’t wait to try it.”
Murmurs of agreement rang from the table. Kit could only chuckle. Soon the murmurs turned into appreciative hums as the food was consumed. Once everyone had finished Snickers collected the plates then handed out slices of pie. Lively conversation drifted around the table. As everyone was talking Kit became curious what the others had been doing today.
“So, what did you guys get up to today?”
“We were raising the prestige points for Spartan Fire.” Twix replied to Kit’s question.
Kit was shocked at the reply.
“How did you manage to do that?”
“It was easy. We looked at all the tasked that were currently available and picked the ones that made an improvement to the hamlet. Today we worked on the town hall. Amazingly Leonard is a master class builder. He made an ornate door for the building and beautifully etched window frames. Then he placed glass panels into the frame to finish it off.”
“We received 5 prestige points just for that. Mars and I made a garden around the building and received another 5 points now we have a total of 34 prestige points. Tomorrow we are going to work on the market and Leonard is going to build some furniture for the town hall.”
“By the end of the week we should reach our target goal of 50 prestige points. Then we can promote Spartan Fire to a small town.”
Kit goggled at his friends. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard. Laughter bubbled from his mouth and a smile split across his face.
“This is amazing! You guys are great. Wait, I thought we originally had 17 prestige points where did the extra points come from?”
“Oh that. Two points are from you and Mars building your houses. The other 5 came from the restaurant being build.”
“Nice so each building generates some prestige when built.”
“Yep, if we get an influx of residents, we also get an influx of prestige points.”
“Do you want me to help with anything tomorrow to help raise the prestige points?”
Even though he just wanted to stay inside his kitchen and create meals Kit felt guilty for not helping. The two looked at him with stern faces. Kit was surprised by their reaction. He was also a founding member and felt it was also his responsibility to help raise prestige. He thought the fierce look had something to do with him being absent from helping today.
Kit dropped his head, he was scared the stern look would morph into a look of disappointment.
“Kit don’t even think about helping. Your restaurant is opening in 2 weeks, you must be prepared. I don’t think you realise how much Forsaken state people value chefs. You just work on creating new dishes, we will take care of the town for now. There will be plenty of opportunities in the future for you to be involved with helping to raise Spartan Fire prestige.”
Kit lifted his head at Twix firm voice. He blinked at Twix’ fierce eyes. This wasn’t the reaction he had been expecting. Kit swung his eyes to Mars to see what his reaction to Twix words were. Mars had the same look on his face as Twix.
‘This look was because they didn’t want him to worry about not helping?’
Kit felt a wave of gratitude wash over him. His friends really were the best. He had to stop jumping to the wrong conclusion. If he was unsure, he should ask to clarify instead of making up assumptions on his own. A happy twinkle appeared in Kit’s eyes. Mars looked into Kit’s twinkling eyes and spoke.
“That’s right Kit, you just focus on the restaurant. You can compensate us with food for all our hard work. We are a team, your restaurant is just as important to us as the growing of Spartan Fire.”
Kit felt tears pool in his eyes. He had the most amazing friends anyone could ask for. A fire lit inside Kit, he couldn’t let them all down. Twix and his Grandpa seemed to place great importance on his restaurant and well, Mars was just a foodie. He would make a selection of tasty meals to please them.
“Ok then tomorrow let’s go to a new area for training then we can raise our fighting level as well as source new ingredients. That way I will have more of a chance of expanding my menu before I have the grand opening.”
Kit was excited about exploring a new area and finding more ingredients so he could experiment with more dishes.
“Kit slow down. You can’t go to the next area until you raise your fighting level more. The next area isn’t as easy as the Mud wallower swamp.”
Kit was disappointed by Grandpas words. The fire was lit inside him wanting to burst out. He would go right now to a new area to find ingredients if it wasn’t getting dark. Kit had to forcefully bring his mood back down.
“Ok Grandpa I will listen to you. I’m just so excited at the thought of making new meals.”
“Kit, you’re not the only one. The moment I think it’s safe to take you there I will.”
Kit nodded at Grandpa in understanding.
“Then Mars, should we continue our training tonight? We haven’t done it for a while.”
“I’m glad you brought that up, I was actually thinking the same thing. Once we have cleaned up we can start.”
“What training are you doing?” Grandpa gave Mars a curious look.
“Sword forms. Kit needs to learn the basics.”
“In that case leave the cleaning to me. You two go practice, but not for too long, we have an early start.”
Kit quickly tugged Mars out of his chair once he heard he wouldn’t have to clean tonight. They didn’t have to wander far to find an area to practice. Mars soon started to teach Kit a new sword strike. This time he was learning how to move himself and the blade to perform a strike across the body.
Kit found this manoeuvre a lot harder than a downwards strike. He need more control over the sword and had to consciously think about how his body moved. Mars was patient in his teachings so even though Kit struggled he still felt like he was getting somewhere. He practiced for an hour with Mars before he flopped on the ground in an exhausted heap.
“Mars I can’t go on. My arm is going to fall off and my wrist is sore.”
Mars chuckled at Kit’s dramatics.
“Ok we can stop. Let’s head to bed, we have to get up early tomorrow anyway.”
The pair headed towards their own huts and turned in for the night. As Kit approached his home he saw a familiar black ball of fluff waiting for him. A smile broke over Kit’s tired face, he then remembered he had yet to look at Snowball’s new tab.