"Here's your pancakes with the syrup." Carrie says as she hands out the plate to a very eager imp thats dressed like a waiter/server. Sort of. Given that imps are no more then 2 ft tall, all the little thing was wearing is a small cloth around its waist acting as a waiter's apron. Said imp takes the plate with a grin and a bow, then zooms away to a magic circle that quickly lights up to send it away.

The next imp comes up, dressed the same as the one before. So are the other three behind it. "One omelette and a side of toast," it says, with a toothy smile, holding up its serving tray. Ready to take the order as soon as it was done.

Carrie nods before saying "Right up" and quickly starts making the new order. Things have been busy for the last few weeks for the lesser skeleton. Thalmor had somehow gotten permission to refurbish the testing room that Carrie had been in all those months ago into a proper kitchen of sort for her to use.

Here she was not only able to cook and make things as she pleased. But she was also serving the working staff that was under Thalmor's command. It was mostly imps she served though, mainly due to the fact that they where the easiest for the lesser skeleton to serve. And the fact that there was more of them then there where of other people of the staff. Thalmor had various people working for him. Ranging from several types of lesser demons to monsters and undead.

Carrie remember while still being in one of the cells seeing Thalmor ordering around various creatures and thinking to herself "What does he need all these people for?" She had seen him use them for various tasks around the tower. Some were for cleaning, some for carrying goods, and some to guard the cells. And much more yet.

The Warden Lord runs a tight crew though, and no one is assigned a role they can't do. In the imps case, they are mostly incharge of menial labor. Doing all sorts of tasks around the area thats under Thalmor's control. Wether it be cleaning a room or flying around carrying various things to wherever it needs to be. Carrie sometimes swears there most be a hive somewhere that was spitting out the little things given how numorous they are.

And like all living creatures, they had needs as well. Thalmor knows that a happy imp is less likely to cause any mischief or chaos. And takes good care of the buggers. And some of the things a imp loves the most are good meals.

Which is where Carrie comes in. Truth be told, Thalmor has had some issues when it comes to the meals the imps eat. Mainly in the fact there aren't enough hands to feed them. Imps are not picky eaters, know to even eat stuff from the trash if it means they can survive another day. But like any other thinking being, theres only so much they are willing to put up with before enough is enough.

Carrie found little to complain about the whole thing though. Sure, making food for the weakest of demons was not something she expected to do but at least she's finally doing what she has always wanted to do but never got the chance to.

Besides, she was having a lot of fun. She had been given 7 imps as her own staff, five of which acted as waiters while the last two was busy cleaning all the dirty dishes as fast as they could. Making sure that the plates and other kitchenware were spotless before putting them away. Or hand them right to Carrie to use.

She of course made sure that when each shift is over, the imps are rewarded with their own freshly made meal, along with some treats Carrie made the night before just for them.

And Irene was proving to be quite the helper as well thanks to the [Cooking Support] skill. One would think a bird, much less a crow of all things, acting as a helper in a kitchen would be a disaster waiting. But surprsingly, it was the complete opposite. Irene had a knack for it. She would grab ingredients with her beak, toss them around, and somehow always knew where to place them. She'd watch over the stove with keen eyes, ensuring nothing burned while Carrie was busy preparing other dishes. And if she ever did mess up, it was always something minor, like knocking over a pinch of salt or dropping one of the utensils to the ground.

Or that one time the crow had confused sugar for salt several times thanks to one very hectic dinner rush. But even then, she had learned from her mistakes, and now made a point to double-check everything she grabbed. The kitchen was a symphony of clangs, sizzles, and the occasional flap of wings or caw as Carrie and Irene worked in harmony to keep the imps well-fed.

And if there was anything Carrie would complain about? It was the variety of ingredients. Thalmor had provided her with a decent stock of food, but it was mostly the basics. Eggs, cheese, a few vegetables and meat that would not spoil easily, some fruits and a small bag of sugar. Several bags of flour of either wheat or rye to make bread or any other flour based dish.

The thing she had the most surplus of was herbs. Basil, mint, thyme, rosemary, and a few more. Along with a a huge bag of salt and pepper each, and several smaller bags of other spices she would find in most kitchens. She hopes anyways.

But that did not stop her from making a menu that offered a wide range of dishes for the imps to chose for breakfeast, lunch and dinner. Sure, she had to make so that certain meals where only at certain times, but that was part of the fun. It was like a game for her, seeing what she could whip up with what she had on hand.

Some of her most popular items was the breakfeast sandwiches with freshly made bread right from the oven. With fresh veggies, well cooked meat of either pork or chicken, with melted cheese on top or inside. A sprinkle of basil and a dash of pepper. It was a simple meal that hit all the right spots for a lot of imps in the early morning.

With a selection of freshly made blaze apple juice, cold water or a selection of four different teas as your choice of drink. Carrie wanted to have some milk as well to serve the small drink bar she'd set up for the waiters to fill the ordered drinks. But any milk had to be used to make the bread or other dishes. Not to mention she was only given so much milk to use, as there was no safe way for her to store it here long.

The test room might have become a much better kitchen then when she was here the first time, but most of the stoarge space was used up to have enough kitchenware, plates and other things needed to serve so many meals. The ingredients she had were kept in a small pantry in the corner. It was organized as best as she could manage with the limited space. But it was enough for her to work her magic with.

Even when night hits and everyone is asleep, Carrie would still be in the kitchen. Using the late hours to prepare for tomorrows rush and do some research of new dishes.

At least once a week, Carrie was allowed to go and forage her own ingredients in the local forest.Thanks to that, Carrie's inventory is being filled with all sorts of magical plants and other magical edibles to use for her cooking. Putting aside the ones that cause poisoning or some other negative effects, she gave those to Ironwing to use for his alchemy.

Along with some of the more useful stuff. Like medicinal herbs or the odd manashroom she finds every now and then when out foraging. They where used to make healing or mana recovery potions, along with the various poisonus ones used to mostly make antidotes. The fact that Carre was able to give him a fresh source of the stuff every now and again was apparently well worth trading other ingredients for it.

Her sage stock was a bit low as a result, since it was importent for a lot of health potion recepies, but she did not mind it one bit. Hell, she'd even asked Ironwing if he could teach her the basic recipe for a health potion. Something the gargoyle had no issue with, given that a basic one can be easily made with just a pot, clean water, a spoon and the right ingredients.

He even taught her a basic antidote and stamina potion as well. Carrie may not be a alchemist or mage, but Ironwing says that her cook class could allow her to learn a wide variety of recipes if they follow the basic in most forms of cooking.

So yeah, she can also make some potions as well despite being a cook. Not that she minded one bit. It was something that could be useful one day. Even if they where useless to her as a undead skeleton. Heck, the minor health potion she can make can even hurt her for chirst sake! It was not a unheard thing that adventures or any one with half a brain would throw a health potion at undead to damage them when running away or to make the fight easier.

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Not that it happened very often. Any potion no matter how minor was not cheap to get. With at least a few dozen coppers being the bare minumum for even the cheapest. And that was before you had to haggle with the vendor. So if someone ever threw a health potion at her, she'd just shake her head at their wasted resources.

Then there was the result of her own research with magical ingredients. With the help of two books that she was currently borrowing from the library the fortress have, one called Miss River's Homemade Remedies and the other Magical Ingredient Handling for Dummies, she's been having some interesting results.

For one was that a lot of the more magical stuff did not like being handeld roughtly both in the gathering and prep stages. Granted, some types, especially if they where vegetables or certain parts of a body, could handle being rough a lot better then others. There was also the fact that some needed special tools, equipment or even skills to even be gathered or prepared before use. Something Carrie did not have at all at the moment.

That did not mean she was not learning a new recipe or two from the borrowed books. Within the week, she'd been able to learn the recipe that uses the grettle herbs to cure minor poisoning. With a few modifications to it after she had her little imp staff try it out after she'd made a successful brew.

The original recipe only uses the herb and water to make the tea, though it is not like you can just throw both into a pot and leave it to boil for the next hour. No, first you have to get the roots, as they are the only needed part of the plant for the brew. The rest of the plant is just right up useless, so Carrie just threw that bit into the trash.

Next you need to clean the roots good. Dirt and other nasty stuff clings to them like stubborn mules and let they air dry for the next two hours. Then cut them up into small enough peices they can be put in a mortar and pestle, then grind the pieces into a thick paste. Once that is done, you add water to a pot and let it get to a boil before adding the paste little by little, stirring now and again to make sure it properly mix.

Once it gains a nice deep green colour and starts to smell a bit earthy, you got yourself grettle tea. The tea is pretty good when it comes to curing oneself of minor poisons. But the taste is basically nonexistent. To a criminal degree if what the imps said was anything to go by. The description she got from her identify skill seems to be in agreement.

As such, Carrie had spent better part of the week trying to modify the tea to make it easier to drink. Sure being tasteless isn't bad all things considered, but its not good either. In the end, Carrie found that by adding either some honey, fruit juice, mint or a combination of the two, the tea suddenly had a taste. One that was a lot more palatable. If how the imps and even Thalmor, who'd come for a quick visit to check upon her, were eagerly drinking the stuff down with gusto.

According to the Warden Lord, he can say with confident he'll never drink grettle tea the usual way ever again after that cup. The imps nodding their heads hard and quick enough Carrie worried they might snap off their necks. Though she had to admit, she was quite proud of herself. It had taken her a while to find the right balance of ingredients to not only make it palatable but to keep the potency of the tea.

She's currently working on another tea. One that involves the frostberries she had found a while back. The tea made from the berries are used to help fighting high fevers and Carrie see no reason not to know how to make it too. It was just a lot more difficult to make in a whole nother way given she did not have a lot of the berries at the moment. Frostberries are most often found around winter and theres still a month or two yet before she can find more.

But that is not the only difficulty she has with the berries. Due to the natural cold aura around the berries, water tend to freeze pretty darn quickly and she can't use proper warm water either at this stage. Unless she wants to ruin the berries.

Her solution to the problem came in form of a glass bowl, Irene using a wooden spoon stirr the water and Carrie herself keeping the bowl warm enough for the water to remain lukewarm by using her Hot Hands spell. It took some doing though as Carrie had found herself adjusting the spells effect before she got the right temprature so the water don't freeze but also don't harm the berries.

Now all she had to do now is wait for the berries become as dry as packed ramen noodles. It was a delicate process that required patience. She had to make sure they were dry enough to be safe to use in the tea but not so dry that they lost their potency. Carrie had read about a method where you could dry the berries using the warmth of the sun, but the lack of windows in the kitchen and according to the local weatherman its going to rain for next few weeks makes that impossible.

Her Hot Hands spell could work but the skeleton did not want to risk ruining the whole batch. Lucky for her, Ironwing had just what she needed. A magical drying rack.

Drying racks are very simple things as you can make one just out of very long sturdy sticks and string. But the one Ironwing gave her was not your typical drying rack. This one was made with metal bars with runes etched into them. It had a few slots that could hold the berries without them touching each other and a small compartment that was filled with some sort of magic crystal.

This drying rack was magical enchanted to speed up the drying process and keep the berries at a constant temprature with far less danger of damaging them. The crystal needed to be charged with mana to work but it lasted for quite a while before it needed to be recharged again.

Though Ironwing could not let her have one for free, due to the fact all these racks are property of the fortress, he was at least able to let her borrow one for the time being since she had need for it at the moment. Thanks to this, as long as Carrie remember to charge the crystal up twice a day, she'll have all the berries she needed dry withing the next day or two.

And it was not like she wasn't doing other things to prepare to make the tea. The Frostbite Tea needs some medicinal herb paste added to the mix, to both boost and make sure the fever reduction aspect of the berries stayed. This paste took a day to make, not because she lacked the needed herbs. No, mainly due to all the meals she had to make for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Nonetheless, a nice ratio of some medicinal flowers and sage, chopped fine and having been steeped in water for a few hours was all she needed to make the paste and later store it in a glass jar for when the berries was ready.

Then she just had to grind the dried berries into a powder, shive it a bit to make sure its fine enough and mix it with the paste. It was a tedious process but it had to be done. Carrie had made a small batch of the paste the day before. It was currently stored in a glass jar with a lid on it. The jar was placed on a shelf, the lid sealed tightly to keep it fresh. She had made sure to label it with the name of the paste and the day it was made. It was important to keep track of things like that.

There was a few other remedies that Carrie plans to learn, not just to have them incase they where needed. Learing these recipes helps all the current cooking related skills she has level up, along with what will mostly like be new skills to gain in the near future. With the best part being that she was finally gaining her levels as well.

She's been at level 1 since the day she woke up in this world. And through all these months she never really know how to gain exp to level up. Though once the lesson with Ironwing happened, she got some much needed answers.

Like in many games and stories back on earth, by killing something you gain the exp needed to level up. Though it was not the only way. Skills gain exp as well when used and some of that exp goes to ones level. According to Ironwing, she has been gaining some exp ever since her training with Thalmor. But the exp gain is of a far lesser value then if she had killed a horned rabbit or a seedling.

If Carrie was honest, she really did not want to kill anything. However, as a cook she was expected to kill animals raised and breed to be eaten. She had no issues with that, she had actually had the chance to kill a living chicken before, thanks to a school trip to a large farm when she was in high school. It had been a interesting experience, but not something she liked doing.

However, the problem lied in the fact that normal animals aren't the only things that people of the Demonic Country eats. The mentioned horned rabbit or seedling being just the tip of the iceberg. Ironwing had once brought her a list of creatures she could hunt for ingredients, and she had to admit that some of them had names that were not quite... natural.

Nor sounded something she wanted to hunt and fight against for that matter. Luckly for her, she was not expected to hunt and fight every eatable monster know. Sure, she might be ordered to go and hunt horned rabbit or some other weak monster for tonights dinner now and again. But none expect a novice cook to hunt down a dragon every other week! Cooks are mostly meant to be in the kitchen or make sure theres enough stock in the larder. Not constantly out looking hunting for the next meal.

She is nonetheless happy to know she is steadly gaining the exp though. Regardless in how it is done.

"Hey Boss!" One of the imps shouts, a quick turn makes so Carrie sees its one of the two imps on dish duty. Kronk was his name, she had learned over the week she's had him here. "What's for todays dinner? You said you had something special for us tonight?" he asks, making his dish partner also look at her to see what she has to answer.

Carrie let's out a chuckle, wishing for the the hundredth times this week she could grin again. "Oh do I. But you'll have to wait for now Kronk. We got people to feed and plates to clean, the faster we are done the better!" she says with a playful tone. The imp nods eagerly, turning back to the sink with a little extra spring in his step.

Carrie hums as she gets back to work as well. These dishes don't make themself after all. And in her mind she makes a note to make sure to set a bit of cheese aside for tonights dinner. Her little imps deserve a bit of a treat for being able to keep up with all the work despite never been in a kitchen before.

And a since juicy burger, fries and some good ale she'd managed to sneak away from the main pantry is just the thing to make for a sunday dinner. Fast food after a month worth of work always tastes the best, at least in her humble opinion.