Chapter 58: Cooking Power Burger

Lus sighed and looked around the kitchen, then looked down at his injured hands. This was going to be interesting. He had considered spending his extra time resting, but if he wanted to keep leveling up, he had to keep cooking.

Besides, after reaming Leviathan for not giving him enough recipes, he would feel guilty if he wasted the chance to try his newest reward.

The [Power Burger] sounded delicious and useful, though he hadn't taken the time to read exactly what it did for him yet. He just hoped it wasn't another [Simple Sweet and Savory Sandwich] situation.

Pulling up the [Recipe] tab, he opened the new recipe. He skimmed the history and found his way to the paragraph about the power.

'The Power Burger is powerful in flavor and boost. This burger imbues you with a generous [+10 Strength] and [+5 Stamina]. Almost as generous a gift as the homemade sauce is to your taste buds.'

Lus shook his head at the wording that sounded like an advertisement. "It's not like I need to be convinced," he muttered. [+10 Strength] and [+5 Stamina], huh? That was a powerful burger indeed.

He scrolled down to the ingredients list, praying that he had everything he needed. It had been a bit since they'd had a full resupply, but they still had a good stock of ingredients.

"Sliced bread or rolls, raw gervin meat, salt, peppin, harvic, cherda cheese, raw kabrage, pickled cumbers, amyo, yellow stumard, and fresh tamos," he read.

Lus headed to the interbox to check. He knew he had gervin, salt, peppin, harvic, cherda, and at least one more head of raw kabrage, so he quickly got those out and piled them on the nearest counter.

He found a questionable jar of pickled cumber slices after some digging. He opened it and gave it a sniff, wrinkling his nose at the familiar, strong scent. It smelled like pickled cumbers, as far as he could tell, so he put the lid back on and added it to the counter with the other ingredients.

Amyo and stumard were on the door. He had never used them himself, but Dasy-Jonil often set them out with the lunchtime sandwiches.

Finally, he began searching all the produce drawers for fresh tamos. He knew what they looked like, though he'd never used them for his cooking. He found a half drawer of them and blinked in surprise for a moment before remembering that these were also a common sandwich ingredient.

With everything he needed out, it was time to dive into the prep. He skimmed through the instructions to get an idea of what all he'd need to do. The recipe made four burgers, so he decided to try one now and save the other four.

Can I freeze them? He wondered.

[No]

He nearly laughed aloud at the very blunt, brusque [Chef's Intuition] answer.

What if I just store the cooked meat patties in the freezer and make up new condiments when I'm ready to eat them? He thought.

[Acceptable]

Nodding, he set to work. Since the condiments didn't need to be a certain temperature, he started with chopping. He sliced just enough cheese for one burger and set it on a clean plate. Next, he rinsed the head of kabrage and sliced just a small piece off, not worrying about cutting out the stem since he didn't need much.

Lus used the shredder to shred the piece of kabrage. He added the shreds to the plate with the cheese.

The tamos were next. It was harder than he expected to cut the tamos into even slices. The skin was thick and hard to cut cleanly through and the insides were squishy, with pockets of goo and seeds that made it difficult to get an even slice without just smashing the whole vegetable. The tamo juice also stung his cuts, making him wince.

He managed to get a few nice slices. The rest he just ate as a snack, enjoying the mild, cool taste. The cutting board was covered in tamo juice and seeds, so he threw it in the sink, rinsed his hands, and grabbed a clean one.

Lus turned his attention to the pickled cumber slices. He had to chop them into small pieces. He used a fork to pull them out of the acidic pickling liquid and set them on the new cutting board, just getting out a few. He was quartering the sauce recipe, so he only needed three pickled cumbers.

The cumbers hurt his hand even more, though he tried to be careful and only touch them with his fingertips. Once he had them finely chopped, he dropped them in a small bowl and rinsed his hands again, sighing at the relief of the cool water on his cuts.

He then measured in a small teaspoon of amyo and a half teaspoon of stumard. He mixed it all together into a pale yellow sauce with chunks of pickled cumber.

Now it was time to do the actual cooking.

Not wanting to go through the pain he'd had to endure as he sliced the pickled cumbers, Lus looked around for some kind of protection. His eyes fell on an old pair of gloves hanging on the wall. 

He wasn't sure whose they were or what they were used for, but the material looked slick and easy to clean, so he decided to give them a try. They slid on easily and were a little loose, but he figured he'd make them work.

Grabbing a scale, he set a clean plate on it and began pulling out chunks of raw gervin meat to weigh. Once he had a full half kilogram, he put it in a bowl and cleaned up before washing his gloved hands. He then added salt, peppin, and harvic, then mixed it in with his hands.

The gloves made his movements a little awkward, but he didn't care. The relief of not having meat juices leaking into his cuts was worth it.

Once the seasonings were mixed in well, he separated the meat into four equal parts and rolled them into balls, then flattened them into meat patties.

He should have had a hot pan ready to just throw them into, but he hadn't planned that far ahead. He briefly wondered why his [Chef's Intuition] hadn't reminded him. He'd have to bug Leviathan about that later.

For now, Lus had to get his hands cleaned off again. He washed off the gloves, then removed them and set them aside to dry. Pulling out a big frying pan, he set it on the stove and turned on the heat.

He waited a couple minutes to let it heat up, then used a spatula to lift the patties into the pan. They didn't sizzle as much as he'd hoped, letting him know that the pan should have heated a bit longer. He just shrugged, since it was too late to fix it.

He checked the instructions and set a timer for the burger patties. While he waited, he began preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Lus didn't have any rolls, so he just took two slices of bread from Dasy-Jonil's sandwich stock. He set them down and slathered on all of the sauce, then arranged the slices of tamo and the shredded kabrage.

With the base ready, he just needed to wait for the burger itself. The timer to flip them went off just as he turned his attention back to the pan.

He grabbed the spatula and gave them a flip, then set another timer. The sides that had just finished cooking were deliciously browned.

While the burgers finished cooking, Lus wandered around the kitchen. The timer that always seemed to go too quickly when he was trying to muti-task dragged on forever when he didn't have something to do.

Finally it went off and he returned to the pan. He turned off the heat and scooped up one of the patties with the spatula, carefully setting it on the prepared bread. He set the other slice on top, then admired it for a moment before the notification appeared.

[Cooking Complete]

[XP Gained: 100]

Smiling, he took a large bite.

The burger was cooked and seasoned perfectly. The cheese and tamos paired perfectly with the richness of the meat. The kabrage added a nice crunch that contrasted with the softness of the other ingredients while not changing the flavor profile drastically. The sauce was savory with a bite from the pickled cumber.

He savored the bite with a groan of appreciation. The only thing that could make the burger better came right after he swallowed.

[+10 Strength]

[+5 Stamina]

He felt maybe slightly less tired, but otherwise not that different. Looking around for something to test his newfound strength, his eyes fixed on the auto-pot. It was on wheels because it was too heavy and unwieldy to carry around. He had tried lifting it once and nearly pulled a muscle.

Now, he strode forward with confidence and gave it another try. It was still heavy and he still had to strain to get it off the floor, but he could really feel the increased strength.

Setting the auto-pot carefully back down, he headed to the Interbox.

"Leviathan," he said softly.

Nothing happened.

"Come on." He tried increasing his volume.

Still no response.

He waited for a minute, then sighed and turned around. "I just wanted to thank you, stupid Demon," he muttered as he walked away.

"I'm sorry, I missed that. What did you say?" the familiar voice asked in an extra-smug tone.

Spinning, Lus stalked up to the cartoonish red face watching him from the interbox screen.

"Why didn't you answer me?" he asked.

"Well, all I ever seem to get out of these conversations of ours is a list of complaints." The Demon rolled his eyes.

"I'm not the only one who complains. You do plenty of that yourself."

Leviathan continued as though Lus hadn't spoken, "Now back to what you were saying…"

Lus decided to shove aside his pride. "Thank you for giving me another recipe. This one is very helpful. I appreciate that you listened to me."

Leviathan's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Are you trying to get some kind of extra reward out of me? Hoping that I'll generously reward your gratitude."

"Why is it always a fight with you?" Lus threw up his arms in defeat. "I just wanted to let you know that I noticed that you took my feedback."

"Feedback!" the demon spat angrily. "I do not take feedback. I am all-powerful and all-knowing. You simply hadn't given the System long enough to realize its full potential."

Lus rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, oh great, wise, all-knowing, all-trapped-in-an-interbox Leviathan."

With that parting shot, he turned and walked away. Leviathan shouted insults at his back, but he was done with the conversation. He had thought he might be getting somewhere with the prickly demon, but it was so hard to build rapport with someone who had such a fragile ego.

Instead, Lus turned his attention to taking care of the leftovers. He put the burgers in a small container and hid them in the nitrobox somewhere he was certain that nobody else would find them.

The other ingredients were easy to put away, except the head of kabrage. He wasn't sure if he could just toss it back in with a piece cut off.

As he dithered, his [Chef's Intuition] came to the rescue.

[Wrap loosely in damp cloth to preserve freshness and put in a bag]

He found a thin towel and got it wet, then wrung out all the excess water. Wrapping it loosely around the kabrage, he put it in a bag and returned it to the interbox drawer with the rest.

With everything put away, he gave the kitchen one more glance, nearly jumping out of his skin when he found a pair of red eyes glaring at him from the interbox screen.

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" he asked in surprise, staggering back.

Leviathan grinned wickedly and disappeared without a word.

"Stupid demon," Lus muttered, shaking his head. Of course Leviathan had to have the last word, even if he hadn't said anything.