Cindy heard her Dad’s stomach rumble. It was like the thunder rolling in from a thunderstorm and she let out a loud laugh as he clutched his stomach. She skipped up to his ankle and tapped it gently, “Let’s get closer to the city and I’ll teach you how the cooking skill works in Gaia. It is pretty simple.”

Dad turned around and walked behind her slowly as she walked to the city walls. Daryl sat down and looked at Cindy as she rubbed her hands. “Ok Badger, how do we go about cooking food if we aren’t buying it from someone with the skill. It seemed to me that you needed skills to do anything around here.”

Cindy pushed her hat back and touched the side of her nose looking up at her dad. “That is right! You do need skills for almost anything. But there are certain universal skills that everyone has. Cooking is one of them. So you just have to think about a barbecue spit and say in your mind, ‘Time to Cook!’

Dad closed his eyes and instantly the spit popped in his massive hand and like she suspected it was as large as he needed and wasn’t the same small version she had. The magic of the world doing its job. His voice came out as he looked at the spit confused. “What do I do now?”

“Oh, I forgot about the fire. You also need to make a fire, that is another universal skill. It costs a single tennie and then it gets summoned from nowhere. It is awesome. So much easier than when you taught me how to make a fire back home.” Cindy crouched and moved her hands while thinking about a fire. Instantly the warmth spread from her hands and manifested itself as a pile of wood. A single mote of light floated from her chest into the heart of the wood and it caught fire in a moment.

“What the heck, that doesn’t make any sense.” Daryl was scratching his head with the handle of the spit as he watched the tiny fire come to life. “Plus something that small won’t cook this hunk of meat.”

“Won’t you just trust the world Dad. Now you just hold it over the fire and you are gonna start hearing a jingle. Once it reaches the end the meat turns a different color and you pull it away from the fire. If you don’t act in time it burns and tastes yucky.”

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Cindy could see that her dad wasn’t convinced so she put her own stick to the fire after summoning one of her many raw meats and started to cook it. She watched her dad to see if he heard the jingle like she did but his blank expression told her he couldn’t. Keeping her focus on the meat it turned like magic on the spit and as the tune hit the end the meat turned. She pulled it away just in time and held it above her head, “So Yummy!” She called out to the world.

Rolling his eyes Cindy watched as Dad brought his giant hunk of meat over the fire and as his eyes glazed over he jerked his hand back and looked around the area. “What the… who is playing that music?”

“Dad, aren’t you paying attention? That is the cooking jingle. Once it ends you pull it away and you have perfectly cooked meat. Now since you stopped you have ‘undercooked meat’. It tastes awful and debuffs your stamina regeneration. You can sell it for a tennie some people can reuse it in skills for other stuff.” Cindy sat down and watched her dad.

“Why can’t I just put it over the fire again?” He tried and looked confused as he turned it this way and that nothing happened at all. After a solid minute he looked at it and touched it with his hand. “It’s not hot like it should be.”

“I told you Dad. That is how things work in this world. You can’t fight the new reality. Now pull out your other meat and try again.” Cindy kicked back as she bit into her perfectly cooked meat and the juices dripped down her chin as she chewed happily.

Dad put the next one over the fire and she could see the focus in his eyes as he listened to the jingle. Just as she was singing it to herself in her mind it ended and he pulled it from the fire. He lifted it above his head, just as everyone did and yelled out, “So Yummy! What? Why did I do that?”

“Everyone does it when they do a perfect job. You don’t do it when you burn it or undercook it. It is part of how you know it is good to eat. So scarf it down and we can go. Proud of you Dad, you did it on your second try.” Cindy finished off her large hunk of meat and patted her belly surprised it wasn’t distended from the amount of food she just ate.

“Well, I guess I just eat it like normal and then we can go.” He shoved a bite into his mouth and chewed at it. The looked of being impressed flitted over his face.

“Well one day I’ll show you the meal shop! That is for advanced quests, it gives buffs!” Cindy stood and lifted her hands up into the air.

Dad sighed behind her, “Why didn’t we do that before this quest?”

Cindy laughed. “Onward!”