Now that everyone was finished greeting the midnight guardian, they all came into the kitchen. Kit watched as Chamomile stared at the four cats inside the room. She was the only one that was still reluctant about the panthers staying here.
To distract her, he quickly filled all of them in on his idea to have a welcoming party for everyone. He decided that they would close the restaurant early in four days’ time.
That was his last night in game before he and Mars had to log out. It would also give his employees time to answer any question they had before he left them to run the restaurant by themselves for the six days he would be away.
Everyone seemed very enthusiastic about having a party. All the jobs were split amongst them. Surprisingly Kit wasn’t in charge of the meals. He would be responsible in inviting extra guests. It would be a nice change having a meal cooked for him.
So far, he had mainly eaten his own creations, he liked to taste others cooking. He could get ideas for his own recipes by tasting different styles of meals.
By the time they had finished their discussion. Chamomile no longer looked like she was in a daze and color had returned to her cheeks. One of the large panthers was even sitting quietly at her feet.
The panthers hadn’t made any large movements since she had entered the room as if they could tell she was frightened by them. Kit was very happy at how well behaved they were. Any lingering doubt about the panthers moving in had disappeared at their careful actions.
Kit picked up Snowball then bid everyone goodnight. The exhaustion had finally caught back up with him. He sunk on his bed with a sigh and was asleep in no time.
He woke the next morning to find Snowball had already left. He guessed he couldn’t wait to go and play with his new friends. Kit walked out to the kitchen to find Mud behind the stove. His eyebrows shot up in surprise. He hadn’t even known that the small man could cook.
“Good morning, Kit. I’m making egg toast.”
“Morning Mud and thanks for making breakfast today.”
“You’re welcome. By the way three clean sprites turned up early this morning. They are making a home in the evergreen garden.”
Kit blinked at Mud words. Then he raced over to the window to see if he could spot them through the glass. His gaze roamed all around the garden, but he couldn’t see them.
“Mud, do you know where abouts they are making their home? I want to see what they look like.”
Mud turned his head and talked over his shoulder to Kit. “Oh, it will take them awhile to collect the materials to make their home. You can probably see them tomorrow. They were just making sure that they could move in. I told them it would be fine. I didn’t think you would mind.”
“No that’s great I don’t mind at all.” Kit was a little disappointed that he would have to wait until tomorrow to see them.
“Good, I for one am very happy to have three cleaners move in. Now I don’t have to worry about cleaning up after myself. Though to be honest I did have to convince them a bit.“ Mud blushed at his words.
“What?” Kit was confused at Mud words.
“Well, you see this house is really only big enough for one clean sprite. I told a little fib that the boarding house would be upgraded soon. Sorry Kit, I was too excited about getting them to stay. Now that I clean at work I don’t want to when I get home.”
“Mud, do clean sprite clean houses?”
“Mmm, why do you think they are called clean sprites. They grow their powers by cleaning. Kit you should get some for the restaurant as well. I’m surprised Snickers hasn’t convinced some to move in yet. Then again, your restaurant doesn’t really have a garden yet, so it makes sense none have moved in.”
Kit felt a thrill of anticipation now he understood that they were cleaners. He quickly opened the boarding house menu. There in bold was the number three next to the cleaning section, a big smile broke out on his face.
What a way to start the morning he had already solved one problem without doing a thing!
Kit sat down to wait for breakfast the others slowly trickled in and started to discuss today’s plans.
“Kit, are we going out again this morning?” Mars had a look of hope on his face.
“Yes I plan to see what ingredients need refilling then we can head over to collect them and kill some monsters as well. We need to start leveling up again.”
“Great.”
“I’ll let Grandpa know. I’ll meet you both at the restaurant.”
They quickly finished their meal, said goodbye to the others then headed out.
Kit walked over to the tanks out back of his restaurant and realized they needed to be filled. He then walked inside to check the other ingredients. He opened the fridge to see there was plenty of mud wallower meat. The cupboard also had plenty of ingredients from the swamp.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Kit guessed Lindor and his friends had been to the swamp to collect ingredients for him. Kit smiled happily. Looks like he knew where his team was going today, Red velvet lake!
Once Twix and Grandpa turned up, they headed out for the morning to Red velvet lake. They returned with six tanks filled with fresh ingredients. They had made it back in time for lunch. Kit checked on his employees and was relieved they had everything under control.
He decided he would start trying to make rum. He really felt like he wasn’t needed inside the restaurant today. It was a nice feeling to be free to do as he pleased once again.
Kit purchased a chopping board from the restaurant menu then took it outside. He ate some lunch before he started attempting making rum. Kit pulled a Base liquor barrel from his pouch and opened the lid. He then sat down on the ground and placed his chopping board in front of him.
Then he pulled out a batch of the sugar cane and scrutinized the hard surface of the cane. He first chopped the canes up into smaller pieces. Then he started to peel the outer layer of the cane with his chef’s knife.
Kit was glad the knife was so sharp. Peeling the outer layer took no effort at all. Once the outer layer was removed. Kit chopped up the inner yellow cylinder and placed the pieces directly into the Base liquor barrel. He then added some water and yeast.
He looked inside the barrel to see chunks of sugar cane floating inside, it didn’t look like it would turn into alcohol. But kit knew once he screwed the lid on it would work its magic and produce the rum.
Kit debated whether or not to dive straight into the spiced rum. Then he thought he should check to see if basic rum would work first. Kit screwed on the lid of the Base liquor barrel and started it up. The familiar humming sound was generated from the barrel.
If the rum worked Kit felt like it would be a very low stats item. There was only three ingredients to the concoction and the sugar cane was not in an area with high level monsters guarding the plant.
Kit waited for the barrel to stop making noise then went to open the lid. To his surprise the lid would not budge. Did I do something wrong. Kit sat down and stared at the barrel with squinted eyes. He couldn’t figure it out.
Suddenly he heard a loud beep from the barrel. Kit blinked then stood and tried to open the lid once again. This time the lid came free without any resistance.
Ding!
[Spartan Fire rum created]
Quality level: Good
Quality bonus: 15 minute time extension.
A white rum with a sweet earthy flavour made in the Spartan Fire region.
+ 4 stamina regeneration every 3 seconds for 30minutes.
[Unlocked: Nil level restriction]
Reward: 1,000 EXP, 200 culinary EXP, 50 silver crowns, 100 culinary points.
Ding!
[Skill learnt: Beginner Distiller]
Player has skills to extract alcoholic liquors by distillation.
Agility + 20
Intelligence + 30
Speed + 30
Kit let out a loud whoop in his excitement. He had made rum successfully and unlocked a new skill. He felt his hear start to pound. Now came the tricky part, getting the spice ratio right inside the rum to make a spiced rum. Kit quickly poured the rum into a plain wooden barrel then went inside to purchase some oranges.
He wanted to add orange zest to the rum along with the spices. Kit pulled out a jar of each of the spices then started to peel some more sugar canes. Once the barrel was filled with the sugar cane, yeast, and water he started to experiment with the spices and orange zest.
Kit placed the lid on the Base liquor barrel ready for his first attempt at spiced rum. His leg bounced as he waited for the loud beep. He almost knocked the barrel over in his haste to get the lid off. He quickly stabilized the barrel then peeked inside.
While looking inside the barrel, he felt a little sour when no notification dinged. He took out a cup from his pouch and tasted the rum to see where he went wrong. A strong taste of nutmeg filled his mouth. It looked like the nutmeg in the game produced a stronger flavor than on earth he would need to add less to the next batch.
Kit scrunched his nose. It was a pain to make such a large portion of spiced rum when he was at the experimental stage. But it would be too time consuming to make rum without the Base liquor barrel.
Kit didn’t want the rum to go to waste. Even though it wasn’t a stats drink, it could still be consumed. An idea popped into his head.
He popped his head around the corner of the restaurant and looked at the people waiting in line. He was going to give away free samples! Who doesn’t like free stuff, plus no one would complain about the taste if it was free!
Kit went inside to find Snickers so he could get some paper cups. She could now make them with a magic spell so they would be ready in no time.
Snickers informed him that none of the employees could help him hand out the samples as they were all too busy. Kit was disappointed he had been hoping to palm this job off to someone else. Wasting time handing out cups would eat into his experiment time.
Kit decided to leave the barrel outside the front door and let people help themselves. It was not like he was going to run out of free spiced rum any time soon. He didn’t think he would be that lucky to succeed on his next try.
Peaches walked past where he was standing as he was about to pour the rum into a plain wooden barrel.
“Peaches!”
Peaches turned to see who had called out to him. A smile bloomed on the handsome man’s face as he recognized Kit. “Hello Kit, what are you doing?”
“Trying to make spiced rum. Want to be a taste tester?” Kit thought it would be better to have two tastebuds trying his creation. Hopefully that would speed up the process.
“I haven’t done that before, but I would be delighted to help out.”
Kit grinned; he hoped some more of his friends would pass by soon so he could rope them in to helping out. Kit quickly took the barrel to the restaurant front door and left a couple of stacks of cups beside it.
Peaches was sitting on the ground with legs cross when Kit returned. “Let me quickly make another batch then we can try it.”
Peaches smiled at Kit and waited patiently for him to finish. After the beep sounded Kit lifted the lid and filled a cup for Peaches and himself. Kit swirled the liquid inside his mouth to get the full taste. Peaches was watching him, then copied his motions.
Kit swallowed the rum and felt a mild burn accompanying the liquid down his throat. “Well, what do you think?”
“I like the hint of orange, although I feel it would improve the taste if the orange flavor was stronger.”
“I agree let’s take this out the front so people can collect their free sample then we can try the next batch.”
After the 14th barrel Mars found Peaches and Kit laughing happily about the rum. “Mars come join us. No wait, first go and try the rum outside the restaurant then come tell me what you think.”
Kit wobbled to his feet as he went to open his latest try. Kit pouted when there was still no ding from the system. “Peaches quick try this one.”
“Kit, I don’t know how much more I can drink. I’m already feeling the effect of consuming so much alcohol.”
Kit was starting to feel the effect as well, but he didn’t want to stop trying to get the spiced rum right. He also didn’t want Peaches to leave. The man had amazingly sensitive tastebuds!
“Please don’t leave yet. It’s ok, I’ll just make a couple more then I’ll stop.” Kit pleaded with his eyes as well.
“Ok, a few more should be fine.”