Lus stepped into the kitchen and was surprised by a feeling of contentment. It seemed like only yesterday that entering the kitchen brought a feeling of panic and inadequacy.

While he still had a lot to learn, he had made a lot of progress. That felt good!

Rubbing his hands together and reveling in how much more comfortable he felt amongst the dishes and appliances, he called up his system screen and moved to the [Recipes] tab.

“Since I’ve got some free time today, I might as well make use of it,” he murmured. He planned to use the bread dough recipe to make pizza today. With a canned sauce, motsa cheese, and perroni sausage, it wouldn’t take too long.

With an hour before he needed to start dinner prep, he planned to try out another system recipe. He had been meaning to try galloping scallops, and he’d finally managed to snag a half kg of scallops with his personal funds the last time he went for supplies.

He tapped the recipe for galloping scallops and scrolled past all the annoying text about the history and who knew what else. Someday he might actually try reading it, but he didn’t feel like sparing the time today.

The ingredients list for the scallops themselves was surprisingly simple: butter, oil, salt, peppin, scallops, and fresh harvic. For the sauce, he would need more butter, ellon juice, and kechin broth.

Lus started with the fresh harvic. He pulled four small, cream-colored, tear-shaped cloves from the bunch. He had to first peel off the papery outside layer.

He then laid the inner part on a small cutting board and cut off the bottom where it had attached to the rest of the harvic bunch. This allowed him to peel off the final outer layer, revealing the smooth insides.

Taking his small knife, he carefully began cutting the small clove into tiny pieces. It was a lot harder than he expected because the insides were surprisingly wet and almost slimy. As the harvic juices coated his hands, he had a hard time holding the cloves still while he cut them up.

When he finished, he looked at his pile with a frown. At least he’d managed to break the two cloves down into small bits, but the pieces were very unevenly sized. He shrugged and set the knife down so he could wash the pungent juices off his hands.

Once his hands were clean, he pulled out a pan and set it on the stove. He poured in the oil and the butter and let them melt and heat together while he prepared the scallops.

Scallops were small, off-white, and round. He found them wet and somewhat slimy to the touch. Grimacing at the unpleasant feel against his fingers, he took a towel and patted them dry, one at a time. Once the dried scallops were all set on a plate by the pan, he dampened his fingers and flicked the water at the oil.

It made a nice, loud sizzling and popping sound, a sure sign that it was hot enough. He looked back at the scallops and picked up the first one to set in the pan.

[Season first]

The unexpected system notification stopped him in his tracks. He glanced back down at the plain scallop.

“That’s right,” he muttered. He returned the scallop in his hand to the plate and grabbed the salt and peppin. He sprinkled them over all the scallops, then flipped the scallops over and seasoned the other side.

Taking the now-seasoned scallops, he carefully set the first one in the pan. He hissed in pain as drops of hot oil shot out, landing on his unprotected arm.

“Well that’s not ideal,” he said. He looked around for a moment, then grabbed a pair of metal tongs. He used those to place the rest of the scallops in the pan, careful to keep them from touching each other.

He set a timer for 2 minutes and watched the scallops cook. Hopefully this worked. He didn’t know when he’d have the chance to get ahold of scallops again. As a sea creature native to Nemarian planets, they were hard to come by unless you found a Nemarian market, which was harder the farther you got from Nemarian planets.

The timer beeped loudly, cutting into Lus’ thoughts. He quickly grabbed the tongs and flipped the scallops to the other side. He set the timer again, this time for just 1 minute.

The minute flew by and he did as the recipe instructed to test the doneness of the scallops, gently touching them. They felt firm with a little bounce, so he moved them to a clean plate.

Now it was time to start on the sauce. He added more butter to the pan and let it melt in with the remaining oil and the small bits of harvic.

[Remove from heat and prep other ingredients]

He paused, then turned off the burner. He hadn’t even thought about getting the other ingredients ready. This [Cook’s Intuition] was already proving very handy!

He turned and stepped away to get the ellon juice and broth, then stopped as another notification popped up.

[Place scallops in warming pan]

He nodded as though the system could see him. Turning back, he grabbed the plate of scallops and used the tongs to transfer them into a small, glass pan. He then placed it in the oven and turned the heat on low enough to keep from burning them while keeping them warm.

With everything taken care of, he headed to the interbox for the large, half-full bottle of ellon juice that had been left in there by the previous cook.

He then went to the seasonings cupboard for the powdered kechin broth. He scooped out a small spoonful into a glass dish and added half a cup of water, then popped it into the microwave heater for a minute.

The minute was long enough to heat the water to boiling and dissolve the yellow powder, turning it into kechin broth.

Lus carried the glass container carefully back to the stove and set it next to the ellon juice bottle.

The butter in the bottom of the pot had started to solidify. He turned the heat back on and watched it melt. Once the clear liquids in the bottom were hot again, he dumped in the broth, then measured a half cup of ellon juice.

He stirred the liquids together until they began to simmer, then set another 2-minute timer.

When the sauce was done, he turned off the burner again and pulled the scallops out of the oven.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Placing the scallops back on their plate, he got out a spoon and used it to drizzle the sauce over them.

[Cooking Complete]

[XP Gained: 100]

He smiled and got himself a fork. Stabbing one of the scallops, he dragged it through the sauce on the plate and popped it into his mouth.

A feast of new flavors burst out in his mouth. The scallop had a subtle flavor that tasted like seafood without the fishiness he was used to. The butter, harvic, and ellon married with the scallop’s flavor in a beautiful symphony.

He swallowed, then glanced up at the clock. He had half an hour until he really needed to start the pizza, so he let himself take time to savor the rest of the scallops and sauce.

When he was finished, he put the plate and fork next to the sink, then cleared away the rest of the dishes from his personal cooking session. Once he had it cleaned up, he was ready to get started on the pizza.

He clicked out of the [Galloping Scallops] and into [Tasty Buns].

Gathering the yeast, sugar, flour, baking fat,salt, and flour, he set them all on the counter. He grabbed the largest bowl and started the dough.

First the warm water, then the yeast and sugar. As the mixture began to bubble, he measured in the baking fat and stirred until it was reduced to small,pea-sized bits.

The salt and flour went in last, and he dug in with his hands. He found it relaxing to knead the dough together. His hands flew as he pushed and pulled until it was smooth all the way through.

Placing a damp towel over the bowl, he set it in the oven and turned it on as low as the settings allowed. While the dough was rising, he got busy with the toppings.

He pulled two large jars of pre-seasoned red tamo sauce from the cupboard of canned foods. He planned to make seven pizzas. Hopefully that would be enough to feed the entire crew.

Lus then went to the interbox and grabbed a huge block of motsa cheese. He had seen it at the market and decided that it would be fun to try his hand at making pizza, since he had a dough recipe.

Now that he had the huge block of cheese in his hand, he decided it was a little too much to shred all at once.

He cut open the wrapper and pulled it back. The cheese was soft and wet, but not slimy like the scallops. He broke off a large chunk and found the shredder.

Setting the large, silver implement on top of one of the largest plates he could find, Lus began shredding the cheese. His hands moved up and down, faster than he had ever moved before. The [Speed] gained from the [Galloping Scallops] was incredible. His arm ached as the cheese disappeared under his vigorous shredding.

He was moving so quickly, he almost sliced his finger with the last of the cheese.

“Wow, galloping indeed,” he said with a smile. “Just as long as I don’t cut off a finger.”

Lus grabbed another chunk of cheese and continued his ultra-efficient shredding. He made it through the entire block of motsa much faster than he could have imagined. He was just about to start slicing the perroni when another notification popped up.

[Check the dough]

“Right,” he said, snapping his fingers. He’d forgotten to set a timer for the rising dough. He peeked into the oven and saw the cloth rising in the middle, pushed up by the dough.

Pulling out the warm bowl, he lifted off the cloth and pulled out seven of the large baking sheets. Breaking off pieces of dough, he tried to get it into even sevenths. He ended up with too much on the first tray, so he kept breaking off little bits to move to the others until they finally all looked at least similar.

He grabbed the rolling pin and began rolling out the dough in the pan. It worked better than he had expected, though he had to use his fingers to push the dough all the way to the edges.

With the dough ready for another round of rising, he scrubbed his hands clean and turned his attention to the perroni sausage. It was in the canned food cupboard because the wrapper said that it didn’t need to be kept cool until it was opened.

Lus held the long, stiff sausage for a moment, then brandished it around like a blade. He flinched as it caught on the now-empty dough bowl, knocking it to the floor with a loud clatter.

“Oops,” he said. He set the perroni on the counter and picked up the bowl, setting it next to the sink with the dirty dishes from his scallops.

Washing his hands again to remove the grease from the perroni, he grabbed a clean cutting board and knife. There were no cutting boards long enough to fit the entire perroni, so he started by cutting it into fourths, which just barely fit.

Grabbing the first piece, he began carefully slicing it as thinly as possible. As he got into a rhythm, his hands began to speed up. He watched the knife flash and began to wish that he could somehow turn off the effects of the scallops, because this was terrifying.

He somehow managed to make it through the first quarter of perroni without cutting his hand. Breathing a sigh of relief, he got out another large, clean bowl and scooped the large pile of somewhat uneven perroni slices into it.

The next quarter went more quickly and he found his cuts becoming more uniform as he went. He also found the quick flashing of the knife less daunting.

The third piece sped by. Now that he was getting the hang of using his speed, he appreciated that he was finishing up the perroni so quickly. He hadn’t expected the cheese shredding and perroni slicing to take so long and he didn’t want the dough to over-rise.

He was almost finished with the last quarter of the perroni when his fear came true. The speeding knife caught him on the fingernail, leaving a small gash.

Lus pulled his hand up quickly, before any blood could contaminate the food. Wrapping his uninjured hand around the bloody finger, he looked around frantically until he caught sight of the emergency aid kit on the wall.

He washed his hands and wrapped a clean towel around his finger, then pulled the kit down and quickly dressed his wound with ointment and liquid-proof bandaging.

With that taken care of, he returned to the cutting board and began carefully slicing again. It took far more effort than he expected to move more slowly. He had to actively fight the effects of the scallops.

When he finally finished chopping, he was ready to turn his attention to assembly.

First he pressed the fluffy dough back down in the pans. He then spooned out the sauce, putting two spoonfuls on each pizza until he had evenly divided up the two jars.

Only once he began spreading the sauce did he realize that he might have put on too much. Shrugging, he spread it to all the edges on each pizza and reached for the giant plate of shredded cheese.

[Preheat the oven]

“Right,” he answered. He quickly turned both ovens up to the proper baking temperature, then grabbed the plate of cheese.

Using the same method as the sauce, he sprinkled two handfuls of cheese on each pizza, then started back at the beginning until they were all evenly cheesed.

Finally, the perroni went on. He carefully placed twenty slices on one pizza, then the next. He added ten more to each, then ten more.

When he realized that all the pizzas were well-covered in perroni slices, he decided to save the rest. He set the bowl aside with a mental note to move it to a smaller container and put it in the interbox once he had the pizzas in the oven.

Making sure the ovens were heated, he opened them and slid in all seven pans. It was a tight fit, but he managed to get them all in.

“Now how long should I bake them for?” he wondered aloud. Did they take as long as the rolls? Or longer, since a pizza is much bigger than a roll?

[Start low and add time]

“Of course, of course. That’s what I was going to do,” he muttered. While he appreciated the help from the system to remember things he forgot, he felt like the system was somewhat underestimating his own thinking abilities.

“Better too much help than too little, though,” he decided, shrugging it off. He set a timer for fifteen minutes, then set to work putting away the leftover perroni and other ingredients and moving the dirty dishes closer to the sink.

When the timer went off, he checked the pizzas. The cheese was starting to melt, but the crust was still pale, so he added another ten minutes.

The time crawled by slowly since he didn’t have anything else to do. The smell of pizza slowly filled the kitchen and he kept turning on the oven lights to check the progress of his creations.

Finally the timer went off. He opened the oven doors to find melted cheese, perfectly golden crust, and crisp-looking perroni slices.

Grabbing the protective gloves, he pulled each pan out and scrambled to find somewhere for all seven pans of pizza to cool. Once he was done, he looked around in awe.

“I did this,” he said with a smile. “I made pizza!”