Part 4 - Securing future operations

I walk in the restaurant, and was greeted by a hostess. I asked to see the manager about a job and she led me to the back. There I met a rather chubby bald Caucasian man that looked to be in his mid 30s. I was told he had a few errands that I could run for him mostly buying stuff from the market and he could pay a copper each. I thought it was just a basic delivery quest; I politely declined him and asked about working in the kitchen.

"Eh listen hear young fellow don't underestimate the food industry. Your hands don't seem like they have the skill to even cut the food without cutting themselves let alone keep up with everyone else. I can't afford training some random guy off the street and there's no way I'm letting someone cook that I don't think can even cut food correctly."

"Oh I think you'll be surprised how quickly I can pick this up. I'm not asking you to trust me on the line just let me do some prep work in the back. If I mess up too much you don't have to pay me, if I cut myself too much and can't keep up same thing."

"I see you have some knowledge of the kitchen well then we'll go with what you suggested then. I'll pay you 10 copper at the end of the shift if you can do what say can."

You have demonstrated knowledge of an industry

-Mercantilism- Acquired

You have started a quest

Help keep the kitchen stocked for dinner service.

Reward: Possible employment and 10 copper pieces

Time Limit: End of restaurant's dinner service

Failure: If you make too many mistakes and can't keep up with the cooks you will not be paid and possibly not ever be hired by the chef ever.

Oh a skill! I ignore it for now and get to work. It seems what they need right now are some small diced onions. I see 2 people trying to cut up a huge pile of onions that didn't seem to be disappearing. I see them cutting them like amateurs, I later find out they were relying on their skills called -Knife Mastery- and -Cooking- instead of actual knowledge. They weren't cutting themselves surprisingly and they were cutting quite quickly, but they were using weapons not kitchen knives and cutting them so roughly by using both hands equipped with knives. Well I see an open spot near them and grab a kitchen knife and a cutting board. I grab some containers, and start peeling lots of onions first. After finishing that I start by slicing the onion in half and then without cutting all the way through cutting it evenly horizontally. Then vertically leaving the same end uncut and next I just slice away at the other end making almost perfect 6mm squares, standard medium dice that the other two seem to be trying to accomplish. After I finish an onion it starts to hurt my eyes, ouch I forgot that this isn't my own body it’s not used to onions yet ugh. I also acquire -Cooking-, -Knife Mastery-, and 2 [DEX] points for demonstrating knife skills, cooking skills, and great dexterity for not cutting myself. Awesome I push on! After the third onion I get a notification that [Blind Resist] and [Poison Resist] went up 5% and 1% respectively. It seems it counts onion juice as blinding and a mild poison. After the fifth onion it gives me another [DEX] point and both new skills level up. I finish my 20 onions I peeled and it looks like my [DEX] went up 4 points total, but my -Knife Mastery- went up level 8 and -Cooking- to 9. At the first level up it had a note that because of my connection to my profile my real life skills were quickly being assimilated.

I was about to grab another onion, when all of a sudden the onions disappeared! Between the other two were a pile of green peppers, on the opposite side of me was a container containing 10 whole chickens.

"I need those peppers cut, julienne, and I need those chickens quartered." I hear the guy yell

"Yes, Chef!" I answered.

My onions seemed to have disappeared, definitely game like, still I don't know if it cleaned the onions off from the cutting board and knife. I wash my knife and dump the cutting board on the cart where a guy was washing dishes, who glared at me. Grab a new cutting board, cleaver, and a boning knife. I start of by using the cleaver to cut the chickens in half, right down the center. I then take each half find the small section that separates the dark meat and light meet and quickly cut through them all. I gain another level of -Cooking- after doing so. I put each section in different containers and expected them to disappear like last time. Not seeing any changes I shout:

"Done with the chicken, Chef!"

"Oh that was quick, go ahead and separate the wings from the breasts then, and then skin and bone the breasts."

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"Got it, Chef!

I half expected this, which is why I grabbed the boning knife instead of just using a chef's knife. A few quick steps and done! Quick and easy. The dark meat and chicken breasts disappear and some empty pans replace them along with some eggs.

"I need those wings ready for the fryer!"

"Sorry Chef, I don't know how you season your flour."

"Oh right you're new, Jihoon go show him the seasoned flour."

One of the cooks running around which I assume was an NPC went and showed me how to make seasoned flour, while he did so I made the egg wash ready. And just a few seconds later they were ready for frying. All of a sudden they disappeared along with the cutting board and knives.

Quest Complete

Go see the Chef for rewards after dinner service

Sweet, looks like I completed everything I needed to before service was up. I wash my hands and decide to help out the dish washer while waiting for the dinner service to finish. Made quick friends with the NPC named Raul. He wants to run the restaurant one day, which he might get his chance if all the prep work is done so lousily by players. I seriously think the AI on here is surprisingly deep and the restaurant is programmed very well they must have had someone from the food industry consult. We were washing dishes quickly, thanks to that my [SPD] went up 3 points before service was over and I could go see the chef. Well looks like I didn't waste any time waiting, more stat points and I can keep building my reputation with NPCs, if it's anything like other MMOs it sometimes helps with discounts or quests. If not well it never hurts to network! I go see the chef and he thanks me for the exceptional service, I'm the first to provide such exceptionally high service so quickly and he pays me an extra 2 coppers. I asked if anyone else had provided really good service, he said most of the Blessed were like the two I met earlier scraping by with mediocre products from working there. However there was a group that came in and swept through the restaurant with exceptional skill, but not quite as good as mine. They did however take over most of the jobs in the restaurant for a week which is why the restaurant is so popular now. Haha I know who those were. I tell him I'll see him tomorrow for dinner service then. He just tossed me some clothes.

Cook's Jacket

+3 DEF +5% Fire Resistance +2% Cold Resistance

Cook's Pants

+2 DEF +5% Fire Resistance

Cook's Iron-toed Shoes

+1 ATK +1 DEF +1 BAL

Oh sweet equips! Naturally anything is better than what I have on, but these look to be really good. They look too small though, well I guess it's because all I have to do is put in on the equip screen. As I do so my appearance naturally changes so that I have them on, except I still have my pouch around my waste where I store items. I head out the door and it looks like it's still dark out, I should pop by the guild hall before going to the daycare.

I enter the guild hall.

"Welcome to 'Everyone Adventuring together.' My name is Maria. We currently have 3 unoccupied rooms in the hall with plans for expansion in the coming week. We have a big public area where we serve 3 meals a day, and members are encouraged to help with the meal by cooking and/or livening up the atmosphere with music and whatever crafts they know. Our current guild tax is at 10%. This guild welcomes both Blessed and regular people, and has no requirements other than abiding by the rules. The rules of the guild are as follows:

1. Members must participate in at least one guild event a month First Earth Time. This can easily be done by helping with the served meals.

2. Members must party up with a group of 4 at minimum and do something to contribute to guild growth once a month First Earth Time.

3. Resolve all internal conflicts peacefully, however duels are allowed if sanctioned by a guild officer.

4. Do not mock other members on which skills they choose to cultivate. Our overall goal is to have fun adventuring together, and we do so by growing freely in the direction we want.

5. Most importantly have FUN!

If you think you can abide by the rules, then you are free to join. If you are just visiting feel free to join us in our common area, we charge a 5 copper entrance fee and a guild member will take your food order."

Wow quite a greeting, Maria seems familiar, but that can't be she doesn't seem to be anyone I in the real world. Ah she has a slight familial resemblance to Raul the dishwasher.

"Hello Maria, I was told by John to stop in is he in per chance? Also are you perhaps related to Raul?"

"Ah yes, I take it from your uniform that you started working next door? I work as a hostess there. John the guild master? He went out hunting with some members to get ingredients for a 'Christmas Feast,' I'm not exactly sure what that is but he had someone pulling a cart with them so he might be gone a while."

"Ah well then please tell John that Chris stopped by." As I turned to leave I hear a voice call out.

"Chef! You got your present!!!"

"Well if it isn't Yuki, I'm surprised you're not out with John." I greet a petite Japanese woman rushing down the stairs as she came flying down to greet me.

She blushed, "I actually just logged in, I took a nap right after work. Do you not have your notifications set-up?"

"Not yet, actually exploring the game I haven't even decided in what direction to go other than securing some income."

"Ah so you went next door? The rate gets better the more you work, the chef there will offer you a full position later on. Many of our NPC members are actually workers there, some of the restaurant staff that is concentrating on crafting work there; you'll recognize some of the dishes."

"Yeah I was wondering about the NPC members?"

"That's the big thing here, it's a great feature. Space is limited in the town and to travel to the capital or even the other towns is quite dangerous. It's much cheaper for NPCs to be part of a guild and travel with them rather than to keep hiring them for guard duty. Also as guild halls have rooms, because trust me you don't want to log out just anywhere and leave your in game body undefended, we can save on guards by having them live in the guild hall if they so choose. It's also much cheaper that way as it’s required for a guild to have enough rooms for their members. Are you going to join us?"

"Not yet, I want to explore this game a bit. Besides you've all been playing since β or launch I don't want to drag you guys down with my lack of knowledge."

"Oh you wouldn't do that we made the guild so we could all have fun together! Just join whenever you feel like it okay? What are you aiming for after?"

"Sure sure, I don't really know. First I need to secure some skills so I can be self reliant. Then see if I can't go hunting and see what fighting here is like."

"Then the easiest monsters at launch were the plains just a little bit north out of town. Nobody has hunted there in a while though. Everyone is busy trying to gather ore from the mine southeast of here. This is so we can finally build a transport gate, it's a town effort. Everyone from the second town is doing the same. Right now the only transport gates are in the capital transporting you to different continents. By the way there are 30 known continents in all as far as players can tell and starting continent was based on which region you first log in from."

"Cool, thanks well the sun is almost up I've got to be somewhere! I'll come by from time to time."

"Alright have fun Chef!"