Yes, I’m a chef

Kit decided to start teaching Crackers and Cupcake with his easiest meal to make on the menu. He took them through the process of making Lucky sticky candy apples. This was his most popular item on the menu, so if they only learnt that today he would be happy.

Kit was pleased when both of them followed his steps without any mistakes. As he was coming to the last step of the process Kit noticed a problem. There was only one magic multiplier plate!

Previously he was the only one to use the plate in the kitchen. Iris and Mars had just helped him to prepare the ingredients, not finalise the meals.

He would have to find a way to purchase more magic multiplier plates. Having only one would create a problem when there were more items available to sell on the menu.

There was nothing he could do about this matter at the moment. They would just have to time plating the meals at different intervals. Kit pulled out his magic multiplier plate and placed it on the bench. He then completed a batch of candy apples.

Three pairs of eyes stared at the swirling blue sheen. Kit turned his face so he could watch the expressions of their faces at the colourful sight.

He smiled when he saw the delighted looks on Crackers and Cupcakes faces at seeing a completed stats item. A feeling of pride welled up inside his chest. This was his creation he was sharing and only he could teach it to others.

Once the blue sheen disappeared Kit placed them in the time freeze storage shelf. He then walked back to the bench and placed the magic multiplier plate down. He then motioned to Crackers to have a turn with her ingredients.

"Your turn Crackers." Kit looked at Crackers nervous movements as she approached the plate.

Kit watched as Crackers dipped an apple into the sticky hard candy mixture with shaky hands. He then kept an eye on her face as she plated a candy apple.

He didn't want to miss her reaction as she attempted the stats snack on her own. His eyes crinkled as she stared at the swirling blue sheen in amazement. Her eyes went round with glee when she was successful at her first attempt at the candy apple.

"Kit, I did it!" Crackers let out a delighted laugh.

Kit smiled at the clear pleasure on her face. He could understand her fascination with the swirling blue light. He himself still got dazed at times when he completed any of his stats creations.

"This is my first time making a stats item. Kit thank you so much."

Kit could see tears forming in the young girls' eyes. She quickly blinked them away. Kit pretended not to see her movements, he didn't want to embarrass her.

"It's my pleasure Crackers. You will be helping me greatly by learning all the items on the menu."

Crackers swung her head towards Kit. "I will be learning all of them?"

"Yes, I will teach you and Cupcake. Why do you think I hired you?"

"No Kit it's just … well it is not normal for you to teach us all the stats items. Only the head chefs deal with the important stats items on the menu. This is so there is less chance of someone stealing the recipe."

Kit remembered when he went to watch Morrigan for his final chef examination. Morrigan was the only one to make the secret sauce for the chicken skewers. It seemed like what Crackers had said was true.

Kit frowned, was he going to have to worry about his recipes being stolen. Did the contract not stop this from happening? Kit voiced his idea to Crackers.

"Well majority of the time a contract is enough to stop a theft from happening. But there are magical items out there that can void the contract bindings. It is rare to find one, so I don't think you have to worry."

Kit realised he had been a little bit too reliant on contracts stopping the theft of his creations. He didn't know what else he could do to guard his recipes. At the moment all of his creations that he could sell were all low level, so he didn't think he had to worry about that right now.

Plus, he had Snickers as an extra layer of protection against this. She could see if someone had bad intentions by their aura. He would have to chat with Snickers about this when his restaurant developed to a stage where people would be eyeing his creations.

"Thankyou for telling me this Crackers. As you know I'm brand new to having a restaurant, I still have a lot to learn."

Crackers gave Kit a soft smile. "You're welcome Kit. By the way what is your best selling item. You should keep that recipe to yourself for now. You should only teach it to us when you feel like we have proved our loyalty to you."

Kit started to laugh. "Crackers what you just made is my best selling item." Kit grinned at her stunned reaction.

Kit watched as she stared at the candy apple in front of her. He could tell she was checking the stats of the candy apple.

"OMG Kit it has luck! How did you even create this?"

Kit watched as Cupcake came over to the candy apple Crackers had just made. Kit watched as the large man scrutinised the candy apple. Kit then watched as Cupcake showed a similar reaction to Crackers.

Cupcakes mouth formed and oh. He then turned to Kit "Chef!"

Kit chuckled "Yes, I'm a chef, Cupcake."

The large man grunted. Then motioned Crackers to move her apple to the time freeze storage shelf.

"Oh, sorry Cupcake. I guess you want to have a turn at making a stats item too."

Kit was eager to watch Cupcake complete the apples, he wanted to see if his chef level really was 130. When the large man finally placed his candy apple on the magic multiplier plate Kit watch the number 130 appear above the plate.

Kit sucked in a breath. He really was chef level 130! This man alone could fill the time freeze storage shelves without dropping a sweat. Kit's eyes greedily ran over Cupcake, that man could double, no triple his daily profits all on his own!

"Cupcake you are amazing!"

Kit could not help but to praise the large man. Kit watched as a slight dusting of red covered the man's cheeks. The smile on Kit's face grew even wider. Cupcake was a great find! He would have to thank Snickers later for hiring the big man.

The large man thumped his chest, "Cupcake is good!"

Cupcake seemed to be very happy about Kit's compliment.

Ding!

[CAL]

Player Kit is now the owner of a small farm in Spartan Fire.

Land bound to player Kit.

Unlocked: land development.

Ding!

[Boarding house]

Player Kit can build a boarding house.

Building requirements: wood, stone, glass.

Kit froze when he read the notification. He hadn't been expecting any to pop up. How had Mars made a land purchase in his name, let alone purchasing the boarding house blueprint for him. What was going on?

"Kit what's the matter? You suddenly froze."

"Ahh sorry Crackers, I got a little distracted for a moment."

Kit didn't want to give away that the accommodation had been purchased. He was happy that his surprise could go ahead tonight. Kit smiled to himself and thought about what their reactions might be when they found out. He couldn't wait to spring this on them later.

Kit got back to working in the kitchen. It didn't take long to fill the time freeze storage shelf allotted to the lucky sticky candy apples thanks to Cupcakes high chef level.

Kit then moved on to teaching the rest of the recipes. He wasn't going to hold back any of his recipes from them. He didn't want any of his employees to feel like he didn't trust them.

He didn't think that would be a good way to run his business. He wanted mutual trust from everyone. He would rather put his faith in his employees than be paranoid someone was going to steal his secrets.

He didn't think he could work in a place that had no belief in him so he wouldn't do that to others. Kit hoped this was the right move for his restaurant. With his mind set on trusting his employees Kit lost all worry about his recipes being stolen.

Instead, he concentrated on filling the time freeze storage shelves. With Cupcakes help this didn't take long at all!

Once all the storage shelves were full Kit walked out to the restaurant to inform Snickers that they could open for the day.

Today was his easiest time by far inside the kitchen for Kit. Thanks to Crackers and Cupcake he felt no pressure at keeping the time freeze storage shelves fully stocked. Usually by the end of the day they were basically bare. Today there were still fully stocked at closing time.

Crackers and Cupcake had no issues making any of his recipes. Kit finally felt like he could have a day off soon. Once the two had fully settled in Kit had the idea that he would take the mornings off so he could resume raising his swordsman level with Grandpa's training.

Kit walked out to the closed dining area with Crackers and Cupcake to join the rest of his employees and friends to have dinner. Kit couldn't wait to hear how the others fared today, he hoped they did as well as Crackers and Cupcake.

The tables had been all pulled together to form one long line so they could all socialize together. As Kit sat down at the table Mud placed a plate of food in front of him. "Thank you Mud."

"Welcome boss." Mud hurried away to grab more plates.

Kit glanced around the room to see that Mars and Leonard were missing from the table. He guessed they were working on the boarding house. He would have to remember to take them some food later.

He didn't know how long the building would take to finish. He was glad that he had kept it as a surprise in case it wasn't finished tonight. It's just he still didn't know where he would house everyone if it wasn't complete.

Kit decided he would ask Mars how much longer it would take after eating dinner. Then he could worry about plans for sleeping arrangements. He then waited for everyone to be seated so he could enquire how the others day had gone.

Bundt was the first to speak.

"It was no problem lad. Though if I may say, you could increase your profits by quite a lot if you didn't limit the number of Lucky sticky candy apples that each person could buy."

Kit was very happy that Bundt wanted to increase the restaurants profits.

"Yes, I know Bundt, thank you for pointing it out though. We originally had to limit the number sold because I couldn't keep up with demand. Though with Crackers and Cupcake in the kitchen I can probably raise the amount per person now."

"I thought that might have been the case. I just thought I should check though."

Kit smiled and nodded at the man. It was good that Bundt felt like he could raise concerns with him. He wouldn't have to worry about the man keeping things to himself. Kit focused moved to Camomile he could feel her gaze on his face.

"Kit I was just wondering how long it would be before you increased the size of your restaurant. Although your customers are great at waiting for a table now, it mightn't be the case in the future. I noticed that at peak times the wait can be more than 2 hours for a table."

Kit was shocked by this, he didn't realise people waited so long. He thought because there was a takeaway section people would naturally take meals to eat outside his restaurant. He couldn't understand why they waited for so long.

"This is as big as I can make the restaurant right now Camomile. I need to wait for Spartan Fire to be promoted from a small village to a village before I can increase the size."

Camomile nodded in understanding, then opened her mouth once again.

"Then what about upgrading your restaurant. You must be able to do that by now. You have a good variety on your menu for a small establishment and the number of customers your small restaurant receives is very good. I'm actually curious as to why you haven't done the upgrade already."

Kit couldn't remember the last time he checked how his progress was going with the restaurant promotion requirements. Was he close to being able to achieve a one star? Kit opened the restaurant menu and accessed the promotion information.

Spartan Fire Restaurant Promotion Requirements

0/1 star promotion token

2,573/1,000 customer visits to Spartan Fire Restaurant

Chef Level: Novice/Beginner

Employees: 9/1 complete

Magic multiplier plate: 1/1 complete

Create a menu: 6/5 meals, 1/2 drinks

(Unavailable until Spartan Fire size: village)

Kit let out a delighted chuckle when he looked at the menu. He had almost completed the tasks. If he created another drink that he could sell inside the restaurant all he would have to do was get a promotion token and visit a culinary guild.

Then once Spartan Fire promoted to a village, he could finally have a shiny gold star on the outside of his building. Kit felt a thumping in his chest at the thought of promoting his restaurant. What would it look like after gaining a one star.

Kit couldn't wait to see the options that would be available to him when it was promoted to a one star restaurant. Before he could reply to Camomile, Snickers jumped in the conversation.

"Kit, I didn't realise we were so close to promotion. I just checked as well. We shouldn't put off finalising the requirements. Tomorrow, I'll take you to get the ingredients for making rum. Then we should organise you leaving to go to the closest culinary guild to promote yourself to a Beginner chef."

"Wait, you are only at a Novice level chef? How is that even possible!" Crackers looked at Kit like he had grown two heads.

Kit blushed, he knew Crackers was a higher tier chef than him he also thought Cupcake should be as well. He hadn't planned to expose this fact just yet, he didn't know how his employees would feel working for someone at such a low tier.

He had planned to ease his employees into learning about his lack of experience. Kit hadn't foreseen that Snickers would drop the bomb instead of himself.

"This is indeed true!"