Otome? [#1]

"...huh."

Being rejected hurts.

Dying hurts.

Being reborn in another world alongside 100 other people who were all summoned alongside you to fight against an inevitable war that will happen in the future, possibly killing everyone? That is quite the shock!

And then he learned that everyone who was summoned received some sort of special abilities or skills- him? Well, after he received the [Status Card] from the elf man who was assigned to be his helper, he learned a lot.

Let me show you-

—

[Status]

Name: Andarius Hollow

Class -

Class History -

Age: 26

Gender: Male

Mana: 105/105 [5 - Per Minute]

Vitality: 255/255 [5 - Per Hour]

Scores - Affinities - Resistances

Strength: 22

Constitution: 22

Vitality: 28

Dexterity: 18

Agility: 18

Intelligence: 10

Willpower: 33

Wisdom: 20

Charisma: 10

Affinities -

Fire: 5

Water: 6

Earth: 5

Air: 7

Dark: 8

Light: 9

Death: 1

Life: 1

Space: 2

Time: 6

Resistances -

Fire: 92

Water: 91

Earth: 98

Air: 90

Dark: 100

Light: 100

Death: 100

Life: 100

Space: 99

Time: 96

Inherited Skills -

[Otome - Lvl 1]

[Cooking - Lvl 1]

Acquired Skills - Passive

Acquired Skills - Active

—

See this? This was, according to the elf man- his name was Azural -one of the most weird [Status Cards] he has ever seen in his 345 years of life! He explained that magic to him would be nigh impossible, seeing as how crap his Affinities were. He could try to learn some non-affinited magic, but it would take ages for him to increase his Mana to the point where magic could be useful to him. His two [Inherited Skills] were also weird, seeing as the only one they knew was the [Cooking] one, the other being a mystery for him. So, after being summoned by the gods of this world, they're meant to wait until the nations, kings and queens, start to make offers to them so they can be trained to become good warriors.

Without much of a direction, Andraius was hoping somebody could help- and he learned easily what the [Otome] skill did! It basically allowed him access to this weird system that was like an Otome Game! He can only see two basic things: the [Likeness Meter] and the [Dialog Options]. The first one seemed to numerize how much people liked him, and the other would give him options to choose from, and those options were phrases that would lead to an outcome. He mentally selected one and ended up accidentally flirting with Azural (because once selected he will say whatever he chose), who reacted politely- But Andraius could see his [Likeness Meter] going down.

With nothing better to do, he waited. He waited for whatever country or queen or whatever- and none came.

Nobody wanted him.

So he left! With no ties to anybody else summoned and with clearly no useful abilities for the coming interdimensional war, Andraius decided to stay out of the way for the others and settled down in this quaint little town. People of his age should have had at least 9 classes completed, and because of his [Cooking] skill, he chose his very first class to be the [Apprentice Cook] class. After all, he loved food! I mean, who doesn't like a good meal? With that in mind, the town of Azathema received a new [Apprentice Cook] who- with the money received from the church for not being chosen by the gods or by any nation -was able to open a small tavern.

And that's basically what happened in the last month to today! Nothing much changed on his [Status Card] besides having the [Apprentice Cook] class at Level 76 relatively quickly with the experience he had at a kitchen. His [Cooking] skill seemed to be working wonders because every dish he made turned out to be much, much better than he could ever make before! His tavern was a humble establishment with not many people coming or going, seeing as he opened shop two days ago and still hasn't received his alcohol delivery yet and thus the adventurers were not that interested in his little quaint tavern.

Andraius then decided to register as an adventurer because of the freedom it would give him to collect his own materials in the wild to cook with! As per rule of the Adventurers Guild and the law of the land, Andraius had to be assigned to a temporary older and more experienced adventurer of at least a rank higher than his for the first few weeks to allow everyone who registered to learn the ropes about the life of adventuring! Because he was registered as an [Apprentice Cook], he wasn't assigned a strong combatant, instead been given one of the "worst ones", according to all the whispering that rolled out from the people around him once they learned he was going to be partnered up with Garök, one of the meanest Orcs of the town.

The best way to describe Garök was that he was a beast of a man. 7 feet tall, wearing tribal traditional garbs with a loincloth that left very little to the imagination, and sporting a cocky grin as he held his ax behind his back. He was calles "Rookie Ranger", or "Newblood Breaker", because people seem to shy away from him for some reason... Maybe he beats up the new people? "Heh. This one is tiny and whimpy too." Rolling his eyes, Garök huffed: "When are they gonna let true warriors to register? I'm tired of babysitting these kids!" Even as an asshole, he was drop dead hot- Seriously, Andraius had to check to see if he had a degradation kink or something like that, because the green skinned guy was hot.

[Dialog Options Activated!]

[Option 1: "Well, I might a wimp, but at least I'm not stupid like you. I don't want to be your adventurer partner either!"]

[Option 2: "It's nice to meet you, Garök." *try to shake his hand*]

[Option 3: "...Well, I guess we're stuck together, huh?"]

'Seriously?' He was about to choose the second option when he stumbled forward, somebody had bumped into him, and he ended up choosing option 1. How does he choose? Either mentally by focusing on his choice, or by touching the equivalent floating screen button that doesn't really exist- he doesn't know how it can be pressed if it doesn't exist, but he can press it! He felt his body straighten, looked towards the orc's green eyes and said: "Well, I might a wimp, but at least I'm not stupid like you. I don't want to be your adventurer partner either!" His voice did not stutter, his body did not shiver like he thought it would, and he absolutely did not fear for his life while saying it- it was, after all, automatic.

[-10 Favorability with Garök the Untamed]

"You got a sharp tongue, heh? Little bitch's got balls! I wonder for how long you'll keep them..." With a wide feral grin, Garök loomed over him, glaring at him with the strength of a thousand suns behind his glare... Silently, Andraius hoped the orc wouldn't truly murder him when they were alone.

———

As it turns out- no, not really.

He was being extra difficult though!

"Grip the sword right, you useless weakling!"

"Are you even trying?"

"Have you been sheltered all your life!? You don't even have the basics of a fighting skill down!"

"What the fuck is everyone teaching their fucking children-"

"Hey, spoiled brat, come here and let me show you how its done!"

"Spoiled brat, you're terrible at this-"

"How can someone not even know how to throw a dagger!?"

"...did you seriously cut yourself up with your own weapon!?"

"What the fuck is a 'gun'?"

"That's just a fancy bow then! Let's see if your aim is better than shit-"

"..."

"-how the fuck did you just- You know what? I won't say anything anymore, you're a lost cause. Why are you even trying to become an adventurer of you suck so much at this?"

"...food." Andraius said, panting. His body was covered in sweat and grime, he was filthy and deadly tired, not even able to hold a sword straight because of how badly his body hurts... He just wants to collapse and pass out, maybe he'll wake up back in his world?

"...what now?" Garök huffed, looking weirdly at the small weird elf that didn't have long ears. He was weak, stupid, and pathetic as fuck- but maybe he was judging the guy too much, at least he hasn't complained even a little bit ever since they started. "What did you just say?"

"I-i said..." Gasping for air and standing up straight, Andraius looked Garök in the eyes as he said: "I became an adventurer to gather ingredients and make good food." That was it- besides the money, he wanted to gather unique ingredients and start making good food, because food is justice and food is life! What else does he have beside this [Cooking] skill? His other one is just a nuisance with him anyway, making him say weird stuff and acting weird too. He'd rather focus completely on cooking and making good fucking food!

"...at least that's a goal." Garök rolled his eyes- Well, everyone fights for something, but food? That's the first time he has ever heard someone proclaim they wanted to fight for food! "Well, a shitty one, but a goal nonetheless." He didn't truly believe that such a goal would be worthwhile to explore and better yourself for- surely, food is great and all, but with strength? You can get whatever the fuck you want, whenever the fuck you want! Oh, and there's the whole invasion of their reality and the death of possibly 90% of the people involved.

"Shut up." Andraius huffed, having finally caught his breath: "You don't know what you're talking about... Food isn't a shitty goal- You're just too stupid to see the glory of food." If there was one little thing Andraius held onto was the glory that food had- if he himself was useless and nobody would want him, neither gods nor men, at least food won't betray him and leave him alone! Good food is a paradise created by one's own hand, and his skills reflect how much he loved food by the fact that his only second skill was the [Cooking] one! "Ignorance is not a good look on you, meathead."

"...well, if food is so superior, why don't you show me then? Mr. Cook?" Narrowing his eyes, Garök couldn't help but wonder- is this guy serious? What the fuck is he even doing?

"Oh, don't mind if I do, then!" Andraius pulled out a fying pan-

"Where did you pull that out off?"

-a basket of eggs-

"What the fuck? Did you lay them?"

-rice, a slab of meat, and a bunch of spices. He fried the eggs alongside the meat, squeezing a bit of oil from a fruit of this world that resembled a cherry, but was full of this earthy oil that was pretty delicious. He added spices that closely resembled pepper and salt, alongside a small drop of the closest thing there was to vanilla. With a small flourish of a drop, he flipped the pan and everything was in the air-

"Woah, what the fuck-"

-which he easily caught without dropping even a speck of spice-

"-HOW!?"

-and just as easily removed from the campfire that had been lit. With a soft sigh of satisfaction, he inhaled the sweet and delicious smell of food and looked disdainfully at the big orc: "Here you go, non-believer."

Garök huffed: "Well, that was kinda impressive, but there's no way this is that good-" He had taken one bite, one single bite, and his whole world changed. He felt an overwhelming sensation of love and nostalgia, thinking back about his mother who would always pester him about finding a wife who would cook well, because only a wife who cooks well is going to be a good mother! "-...huh?" He was crying? Thinking about his mother was a sore topic, seeing as she died being impaled to death by his own father.

It was a whole thing.

"See? Food is justice. Good food is life. Welcome to the Good Food Cult-"

"...Cook for me, forever."

"-I mean, okay?"

"Good. We shall be married at dawn-"

"wait what"