There was only one problem: Chef didn’t have an oven. Well, there were two problems if you wanted to get even more fundamental; the second was just that Chef had no idea how to bake. But what he did know was that he wanted something sweet and believed his two new summoned flavorings would make that happen.

He added just a little bit of sticky gold while using Knead on the flour as he just let it go wild. Meanwhile, Chef was trying to figure out how best to use this black powder. As he tried different things while looking at the flour doing, well, not much of anything, he realized he was missing something. But Chef was an expert and a genius, especially when it came to cooking, so he tried to Connive a solution. The answer was obvious.

Just add water!

He emptied the oil pan, making use of what he could and tossing the rest, cleaned it much to his dismay, and then took it to the creek to get some water. The heat from the pan even had the benefit of boiling a little of the water that he grabbed, but Chef didn’t understand how good that was for him. Walking back, he used the same method he had used before with the oil to add water to the flour and black powder. That is, he just brought it over one spoonful at a time.

This was going to take a while. Eventually, Chef realized that he needed to stir the flour and powder, and that they could all be mixed together. So he did exactly that. Within a few minutes, he’d made a big mushy pile of stuff in his pan. Chef frowned at the familiar texture.

“It’s goop… why is it always goop…”

He added a little bit of the sticky gold, but stirring that in just made it even more goopy. Chef felt defeated once more by his inability to cook, curling up in a ball on the burnt forest floor as he contemplated his life. But just as depression was about to sink in, Chef decided to try one last thing. Using Knead to press the mixture down flat, He put the pan on the fire he’d been using for the oil.

He had a theory. He’d been watching and paying attention to the things he’d been doing, even if the science behind his actions were unknown to him. What he did know at this point was that he could remove water from a thing by applying heat, and that the more heat was applied the more water would come out. But he’d burnt meat before and was scared to burn this goop, even if he really really didn’t want to eat more goop.

So, Chef put the pan on a low fire and, very slowly, raised the heat. Then he watched. Nothing else mattered right now, no, nothing even existed except for Chef and his soon to be bread. Eyes peeled open, staring at the slowly cooking mixture, he could smell it as it cooked, immediately validating his decision. But now came the hard part.

If you’ve never cooked something before, how do you know when it’s done? It was hard to say, honestly, but he needed to pull it off the fire eventually and had no idea what color indicated success. Naturally if he burnt it then he’d know he went too far, but Chef was unwilling to risk that.

Eventually he decided that the golden color reminiscent of his sticky gold must be good enough and pulled it from the flame. Chef couldn’t wait another second to try it, dropping the temperature of both pan and bread. Raising the unrisen golden disc resembling a pancake to his mouth, he took a bite that changed his life forever.

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Flavor and sweetness rushed into his mouth all with a savory backdrop supporting it. Closing his eyes, Chef felt complete bliss as, before he knew it, the entire thing disappeared into his mouth. He really needed more flour.

*Ping*

Congratulations! You have learned Rise!

Well, if that wasn’t the most unusual timing and name he’d ever seen.

It must have something to do with baking, but how am I supposed to know what stage to use it? Really these abilities need descriptions.

Rise: raises bread or other cooked goods.

Well, better descriptions. I mean what the hell is bread and why would I raise it?

Chef mused to himself as he finished swallowing the last of his bread. Truly, life was full of mysteries, especially when you knew so little. But now at least Chef had another question to ask the master chef when he returned to the village; he just needed to cook up something truly impressive in order to earn it. That and he’d need to feed something to the others otherwise they’d never finish work on that mill. He needed more flour and he needed it bad. A life without that delicious golden snack was a life Chef had no interest in living.

But the problem remained: he was quite naked. So, Chef wandered back into the cave that he decided would be his new home and looked at the small bear hides before him. They had all been blackened and burnt by the fire, but if he cut a piece here and there, he could fashion something like what he had before.

Still, he didn’t want to keep ending up naked any more than he wanted to be forced to make a new set of clothes every single time he ended up in a fire. It was happening fairly often for some reason. This time, Chef would prepare multiple outfits for himself just in case. He set up a little hanging area in the back of the cave so that other creatures wouldn’t interfere with it. Then he hung up each of the bear hides for inspection.

Cutting out pieces that were too destroyed to be trusted, he still had plenty of material to make at least two sets of clothes. It took a while, but he did exactly that. Well, he started to do exactly that. His lack of sleep returned with a vengeance, leaving him unconscious in the cave for a full day before he woke up to the sounds of birds chirping, sunlight streaming in through the entrance to the cave.

He had fallen asleep while carrying the big fur around, and it had happened to fall over him as he passed out.

Turns out this stuff is also very comfortable for sleeping! I really need to find more bears to hunt and kill. But that can wait for later.

Chef stretched, left his new home, and got back to work on some thatch. He finished up his hide carving and decided to use the small ones strung together as his backup with the big bear being his first choice. Of course, with how hard it had been to see from under the cloak, he decided to go back to wearing skulls on his head.

But Chef had a brilliant new idea he wanted to try out, one that had worked very well on the hides. He held the skull upside down in his hands and pretended like it was a bowl. Then, he activated the spell Wash Dishes in order to scrub it clean. He had done this earlier with the hide by imagining it to be a pan, shocked but excited when it had worked. This time was no different, yielding a head so clean you could eat out of it.

He didn’t, of course, but he did dry it over some low embers and then put it on.

“Right. Eye holes.”

One more step and then he’d be ready to head out. With eye holes carved out, bear fur cinched around him, and a sack full of salty meat sitting in the cauldron he was holding, Chef headed back to town prepared to shock and amaze.