Kit walked over to the table and pulled out a parchment. Now that he had officially hired new employees, he would have to work out a contract with each of them.

“Ok, so the first thing we will all have to do is sign a contract. I can’t let any of you start working until it until it is signed as we will be working with the restaurant’s secrets.”

Kit remembered the advice he had received from Morgan the master chef and Instructor Phi to sign a contract with all employees so they couldn’t steal his recipes.

“The first thing we will discuss is your weekly wage. How much do you each think you should be paid?”

Kit had no clue on what the average wage inside the game was. He was hoping to learn this from the group. When he looked around the room blank looks were on most of their faces. Kit felt his eyes start to twitch.

Camomile was the first to speak in the group.

“I was paid 20 bronze crowns a day at my previous job. But if meals and lodging are included in our contract, I will be happy to work for 5 bronze crowns a day.”

Kit was a little thrown by the request of accommodation. Was offering board to employees a normal expectation in the game. If so, he wasn’t at all ready to house all these people. Kit looked at the rest of the room, was their thoughts the same?

“I was paid the same. I would be happy to have the same contract as Camomile though. There is no place to rent lodgings in the village.”

Kit looked at Charlotte with surprise. The village really had no place people could rent. He hadn’t even thought about the issue of sleeping quarters prior to the interviews. Even if he wanted to offer a place for them to stay there was nothing available.

“I will have a chat with Grandpa later and see if we can come up with a solution to the accommodation problem. Hopefully we can have it sorted out before tonight.”

Kit didn’t know whether to agree with their request for lodging or not.

“Let’s leave the lodging out of the contract for now. Three meals a day can be done. Ladies what wages do you think would be fair without the lodging?”

“Kit, let me draw the contracts. It is easy to leave the lodging in the contract. It will automatically come into effect when the quarters are arranged.”

Kit thanked Snickers, contracts were not his strong suit. Kit watched as Snickers swiftly wrote up six contracts and left a section blank for the wage amount with lodging and without. Kit was very impressed by her work.

He then glanced at Camomile. “What wage would be appropriate without lodging?”

“15 bronze crowns.”

Kit nodded in agreement. He thought it sounded very fair.

“I will be happy with the same,” replied Charlotte.

Snickers finalised Camomile and Charlotte’s contracts. Kit felt a sense of accomplishment as he watched them sign the contract. He then turned his eyes to the other four new employees in the room.

Kit looked over at Cupcake. He was curious to see how much the man earnt previously. Hopefully the wage he could offer would be satisfactory to the large man.

“How much did you earn when you worked at the farm?”

“…”

“Cupcake did you earn money at the farm?”

“No.”

“Then how did they pay you?”

“Bed, bad food.”

Kit was surprised at this answer. He glanced over at Bundt to see the man nodding his head. He had not expected that people would get exploited in the game. A wave of sympathy washed over Kit.

He really would have to sort some form of accommodation for the group. He had a feeling Cupcake and Bundt didn’t have any money.

He didn’t think that any of them could afford to purchase land to build a house. He could be wrong, but he didn’t think so.

“Do you all want lodging and meals in your contract?”

“Yes” They all chorused together.

Kit sighed, he hoped Grandpa would turn up before he opened the restaurant today so this could be sorted out. All the people in the room agreed to the price of 5 bronze crowns a day with meals and lodging provided.

Kit was about to arrange each person a designated job in the restaurant when Grandpa, Twix and Mars walked through the door. All eyes turned to the newcomers. Kit started a round of introductions.

“Grandpa can I have a word?”

“What do you need my boy?”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Kit took Grandpa over to a table away from the others.

“None of my new employees have a place to stay. Is there anything available to rent out to them?”

Grandpa frowned. “This is actually not the first time this has been brought up. I am currently trying to persuade someone to build an Inn in the village. So far, I haven’t been successful. I was actually hoping to get your help with this.”

“My help? What can I do to convince others to move to Spartan Fire.” Kit gave Grandpa a confused face. “But Grandpa I don’t think an Inn is quite what I’m looking for. I was looking for something a little more permanent for the employees.”

“Hmm, maybe a boarding house is what you need. That way your employees could stay there until they can afford a permanent residence of their own.”

“That sound exactly what I’m looking for. Do you think we could get it built before tonight?”

“That would be simple. The only problem is I don’t think the village has enough points to purchase the boarding house blueprint.”

“What do you mean?”

Last time Kit looked there was still a fair amount of points available to spend. He didn’t think the boarding house blueprint would be too expensive. He also didn’t receive a prompt that blueprints had been brought from the town hall.

He remembered that when the warehouse had been purchased he received a notification. Why had he not received it this time?

“That you should talk to Mars and Twix.”

Kit looked over at Mars and Twix. He caught the eye of Mars, and he came over to them.

“What’s the matter?”

“Mars is there any funds available to purchase a new blueprint for Spartan Fire?”

“Ohh sorry Kit, I don’t think there will be enough left. This morning Twix and I spoke with some new arrivals to the village. They were business owners and to keep them from leaving we purchased the corresponding blueprints so they could open their stores.”

“Ohh I see. That’s good news. But why did I not receive a notification about the purchased blueprints?”

“Twix and I decided to turn the notification off. We didn’t want notifications to distract us in case we were in the middle of something important.”

He had to agree with that. He couldn’t help but to look at notifications when they popped up.

Kit was disappointed he couldn’t purchase the boarding house for his employees. At the same time, he was happy to hear Spartan Fire was still growing rapidly. They already knew that money to purchase blueprints would come to a stop, due to Spartan Fire not generating enough income to sustain it growth.

Kit tried to think of another solution to the problem. It was his issue after all. That’s right, it was his problem!

“Grandpa can I donate money to Spartan Fire?”

“Of course, you can my boy. I just don’t think it’s a good idea. You don’t want to get into the habit of fixing the villages issues using your personal money. You could get yourself into trouble doing it that way.”

“I understand. This would just be a once off. I can’t leave my new employees with nowhere to sleep tonight.”

Kit had already decided to use the funds from the restaurant to purchase the blueprint and build the boarding house. Kit went to pull up the Spartan Fire menu then realised he wasn’t in the town hall.

“Mars do you think I can trouble you to go to the town hall to purchase a boarding house blueprint and some land. I need one built for my employees. They have nowhere to sleep tonight.”

“Sure, I don’t think you will need me with all these people to help out today. So, I would have nothing to do anyway.”

“Thankyou Mars, you’re the best. How much do you think I would need to give you to purchase the blueprint. Will one gold coin be enough?”

Kit had calculated that one bronze crown equalled 1 Spartan Fire point. So that would mean that 1 gold coin would amount to 100,000 points. He thought it should be more than enough to cover a blueprint for a boarding house.

“Should be plenty. I’ll bring you back the change.”

Kit handed over the money and Mars left to complete the task. Kit felt better knowing that his employees would have a place to stay tonight. With the accommodation matter sorted Kit went back to his new staff to assign their official positions.

“Ok everyone some good news. I have found some accommodation for everyone. I’m just not sure if it will be ready by tonight.”

Kit didn’t want to get everyone’s hopes up in case the construction couldn’t be finished today. He didn’t know what type of building materials the boarding house would need. Hopefully they could find the materials in the warehouse.

Kit looked around the room to see happy faces. He knew they had been worried about where they would live.

“Now let me assign the positions to everyone. Camomile you will be the restaurant Hostess, Charlotte you will be assigned as a waitress. Mud you will be a runner, basically you will help the girls on the floor.”

Kit looked over at the rest of the group.

“Cupcake and Crackers will be chefs in the kitchen with me and Bundt I will put you in charge of the takeaway section of the restaurant. Now I know you will all have questions so I will assign you each to the people that have been doing the job that you will take over from.”

Kit left the new employees to familiarise themselves with their new tasks and took Cupcake and Crackers into the kitchen. Kit didn’t have a clue what chef level each of them were or what skills they had already unlocked.

Kit decided to find this out before he started to teach them the restaurant’s menu.

“First off, I’m just going to ask a few questions. What chef level are you, and what skills have you unlocked so far?”

Crackers was the first to speak. “I’m an Advanced Novice chef and my chef level is 55. I have unlocked most of the basic skills.”

Kit was amazed at Crackers level, this made him feel a bit inferior. Kit was well below Crackers current levels. Kit comforted himself with the thought that Cupcakes shouldn’t be above his.

Kit wondered why Crackers hadn’t got a job previously as a chef. Kit realised he didn’t know Crackers that well. She might have worked as a chef previously, he decided to ask.

“No Kit I haven’t been successful in gettin’ a job. I’ve just worked at the market selling my juice. I haven’t been able to create a stats item yet. Most places want ya to have a least made one to barter a place inside a shop.”

Kit was even more surprised to hear this. Did new chef employees have to trade a stats creation to get a job. That was such a rort! As Kit was getting furious about the unfair treatment of new employees, Crackers continued talking.

“When I make my first successful stats creation, I will give the recipe to ya.”

“Crackers NO! It’s fine, I didn’t hire you to take your recipes. If you make a stats meal or drink it will belong to you. If you make one and decide you want to sell it inside my restaurant, we can negotiate how the profits can be split for your recipe, okay?”

Crackers had a look of disbelief on her face.

“Kit that … I don’t know what to say. Umm… thank you.” Crackers leapt over and hugged him.

Kit patted her back. “Ok glad that’s sorted. Cupcake, how about you? What level are you?”

The large man had been silently observing them since they entered the kitchen.

“130.”

Kit eyes went wide. He was chef level 130! Kit felt a thrill pass through him. Could Cupcake be a high level Chef?

“Cupcake what tier chef are you?”

“Chef cooks food,” Cupcake nodded his head towards Kit and smiled.

“Ah yes Cupcake chefs cook food.”

Kit’s excitement fizzled he started to wonder if Cupcake had understood his first question. Maybe it was his fighting level that was 130. Kit shook his head. It didn’t matter, he would still teach Cupcake all he knew. He was his employee after all.

Kit dived into showing them around the kitchen.