A couple of days later, Kevin still didn't understand how he'd been able to further unlock the strange spoon that the goddess Morrigan had given him. However, his pasta had been a huge hit, and even with the restaurant's higher prices, the dish had been pulling in significantly more regular customers. Now, when Kevin worked in the kitchen, all he did for the most part was prepare Alfredo pasta. The other cooks could handle whatever protein a customer wanted, and they could also help him with the Alfredo sauce.

Meanwhile, whenever Kevin got extra time, he tried to figure out how he’d been able to level up his mysterious spoon. He had several ideas for why it might have happened.

The first was that the dish he created had been absolutely perfectly seasoned. With that in mind, several times since then, he had taken extra time and care to season a dish, in some cases only using one or two grains of salt at a time until he was satisfied it was the right amount. It hadn't worked.

Another idea he had was that he created a new, unique dish for this world, and that's why it had worked. This hypothesis felt a little closer to the truth for him, but after creating a few obscure dishes that he could barely remember from his first life on EArth, he wasn't sure anymore. It wasn't until three days after he'd unlocked the second level of the wooden spoon that he finally figured it out.

That day, he got to the restaurant early, and even though it was past normal breakfast time, decided to fix himself a breakfast sandwich. It had been several lifetimes since he'd had a good Jimmy Dean, and luckily, sausage, eggs, and bread were very easy to come by. Yellow cheese wasn’t a challenge, either. Even though it was a simple meal, there were still varying degrees of quality, and Kevin put a decent amount of effort into the task at hand.

He buttered the bread, toasting both sides in a pan on the burner. The egg he fried to perfection, only slightly runny as was his preference. And the sausage was not only perfectly cooked on the grill, but Kevin used his spoon to sense that whoever had done food prep for sausage had put too much pepper in it. There were various ways to fix this, but what he eventually did was just cut out some of another sausage—the part of it that wasn't as heavily seasoned as the rest—and add it to the original. Then it was a simple matter of adding trace amounts of the seasonings that had already been in the meat, and also adding tiny amounts of a couple more herbs for good measure. [The Spoon of Perfect Seasoning] let Kevin know it was about as close to perfect as he was going to get, at least for the taste profile he was chasing.

When the whole sandwich was done, it smelled absolutely delicious. Kevin took a bite and closed his eyes in ecstasy, tilting his head back as he groaned, enjoying the taste and textures of his favorite breakfast food. When he opened his eyes, he noticed the kitchen staff around him, all staring at the Jimmy Dean in his hand. Wordlessly, Kevin put the sandwich down on his plate, cut it in half, and then cut the half he hadn’t bit into thirds, which he handed out.

In seconds, the Elves in the kitchen were also making rapturous looks.

Suddenly, he saw the window he’d been chasing.

[The Spoon of Perfect Seasoning] 3 / 3

There was a short but intense burst of pain in Kevin's head before he felt fundamentally…different. He picked up what had been [The Spoon of Perfect Seasoning] and could instinctively feel now that it had been turned into nothing more than a mundane spoon. With respect, he gently laid the implement on the table and tried to get a grip on what had changed within himself. He could sense that he didn't need to be holding the spoon anymore to sense seasonings and such. However, as he glanced around the kitchen, he definitely felt a new set of senses that hadn't been there before, too.

One of the line cooks caught his attention, Swan Grace. The Elf had a depth to her, one that Kevin had never felt before, and he didn't understand at first until he really rolled the sensation over in his mind. Then he realized that it was similar to what he’d felt through instinct, or maybe gut feelings before. With this in mind, after a leap of intuition, he decided it might be his new ability, [Perfect Seasoning], telling him that the Elf was dangerous.

The moment he thought so, it felt like truth. Even beyond any gut feelings, thinking about it logically, he decided it was probably accurate.

But with no extra information, he couldn’t be sure. Maybe he could help confirm it if he knew more. That made Kevin remember he was going to be leaving in a couple of days on his Magi Guild quest anyway. So, he took a chance and also took advantage of the current good mood in the kitchen to just bluntly ask, "I'm sorry for the sudden question, but I've been wondering. Have you all always been cooks? Did you train, or were you a warrior before, or are you still one now?" He directed the question at all of them, but looked directly at Swan Grace as he spoke.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

All three Elves in the kitchen immediately stopped staring into space as they pondered the Jimmy Dean, and got blank expressions, especially Swan Grace, who was the first one to break the silence. She said, "As a matter of fact, I have trained before. Why do you ask?"

Kevin scratched his cheek and tried to pass it off. "It's just something in the way you move. I don't know, I guess I can't explain it in words."

Piney Scent muttered, "Perceptive eyes," but she gave him a half-smile before returning back to what she'd been doing before coming over to check out Kevin’s new food experiment.

The other line cook, Polished Stone, asked, "Kevin, I am impressed you could sense we’ve all been adventurers. I want to get better at burying…my past. That is not who I am anymore. If you wouldn't mind, could you give me some input? Like, if you see any tells, let me know. I don’t mind paying you a bit if you can help, either.”

Don't worry about the money," he said. "I'd be glad to help. We already work together, and I have a few more days before I head out of Clearmine. So I'll just let you know if I see anything. Does that work?"

"That would be great!" Polished Stone smiled, and Kevin turned around, trying to mask his apprehensive expression. Everything he just said was mostly bullshit. He had a background as a warrior in past lives, and he could remember little hints about the Elves in the kitchen that, in hindsight, might have helped him come to that conclusion that they were trained in combat… but not likely. The Elves were incredibly sneaky about hiding their abilities, and all of them moved like they were on greased bearings.

He couldn’t take credit for seeing through the Elves, that had been [Perfect Seasoning]. There was no solid reason to hide his skills at the moment, but he was trusting his gut. As far as he knew, other people in this world didn’t have skills in the same way he did. Now he had to convince his coworkers that he just had a sharp eye for fighters.

Later that day, he pondered how he’d finally unlocked [The Spoon of Perfect Seasoning]. Ultimately, he’d never know for certain, but he had a likely theory.

The key hadn't just been to create a “perfect” dish or create a “new” dish; it’d been to create a perfect, new dish that was also a hit with the locals. His own enjoyment hadn’t been enough.

It would have been helpful to know the rules before, he thought to himself. Luckily, it wasn't an issue now, but he decided to remember this frustrating waste of time if he ever got another present from the Morrigan. He knew he'd gotten lucky to figure out the artifact in the first place–or maybe it was more accurate to say he’d been lucky enough to accidentally stumbled into unlocking it.

Maybe if he got another artifact, he wouldn't be so fortunate. When he’d first received the spoon, he had been underwhelmed, but now he was grateful for the gift. Its powers had levels that past what the name would suggest.

He checked his character sheet again and pondered the new addition of [Spoon of Perfect Seasoning] to his power set. Where it was at, near the top, was of particular note. If his understanding of his character sheet was correct, this could mean that [Spoon of Perfect Seasoning] was a more powerful ability than anything else he currently possessed. If so, this seemed to confirm his assumption that it had other uses he hadn’t figured out yet. He vowed to do more testing while he was traveling for the Magi Guild quest.

***

The clock on the wall displayed the early morning time. This was it, the day that Kevin’s first mission through the Magic Guild began-the day he would leave Clearmine.

"Are you leaving now?" asked Rock. The goblin stood in front of Kevin, holding the money that Kevin had just put on his palm. Rock hadn't pocketed it, and the way he was holding it was awkward, like he was still expecting he needed to give it back.

"Yes," said Kevin. "I need to head out in about twenty minutes. I know I gave you some extra money, but I don't know how long I'm going to be gone. And if the worst comes to worst, hopefully, that will keep everybody warm and fed long enough to find some work."

Rock shook his head slowly and sadly. "It is…surprising that you're still helping us like this. If we were back at Tallridge Hollow…." His voice trailed off.

"What if we were back at Tallridge?" Kevin raised one curious eyebrow.

Brock shook his head again. "I just don't have a lot of good memories of Tallridge. There are good goblins left there, but not many of them." He made a sour face and acted like he was about to spit but thought better of it since they were indoors.

Kevin nodded slowly and filed the information away. "Alright, Rock, well, I'll see you later. Say goodbye to the others for me. I said goodbye last night too, but, well, you know."

"Don't die," said the older goblin roughly.

"I'll do my best not to." Kevin smiled as they clasped forearms before he left the inn.

***

The meeting place with his new team was at the Magi Guild, despite the fact all of them were not Magi Guild members. The fact the adventurers were coming to him in order to meet definitely illustrated the prestige of scholars better than words could. He was going to be the last person joining the team, and he was walking into the situation completely blind, not knowing anyone.

Kevin was a bit nervous, but also excited. After all, if the information for the quest was correct, he might encounter a truly powerful, unique monster if everything went well. And as intriguing as his new [Spoon of Perfect Seasoning] skill was, his other monster-derived abilities had been far more useful so far, at least before he'd come to Clearmine. He had a feeling that if he'd been staying in a rougher part of the city, he might not have had such a peaceful time.

I guess that’s the power of money.

He made a mental note to thank his parents profusely for the gold the next time he saw them. Kevin would have to also remember to pick up a gift for his mother that would be appropriate.

As usual, despite a number of other goblins being around the city, he got his fair share of searching looks. Some were hostile, but most were just…cautious. He was used to it by now. Part of it could be because he was a dream goblin. Almost all the other goblins in town were common goblins.

When the Magi Guild came into sight, Kevin paused briefly to get meat on a stick, his favorite street food in Clearmine. He polished it off before walking the rest of the way to the guild building. Then he took a deep breath before opening the door and entering the lobby.