I blinked, and silently just stared at the woman waiting for my answer. The question that I had just received mentally floated within my mind, waiting for my decision.
Cooking. I’ve never shown an interest in it ever, and I doubt I’ll even have the inspiration to even drive myself further into that craft. Besides, I’m going to be mostly fighting and brawling my way through this world, when would cooking take place in my life?
… probably a lot. All those isekai novels did have their main characters continuously level up their cooking stat for a variety of reasons that related to their current position. For example, how in one novel I read, certain well-cooked meals could upgrade stats and skills, restore health like potions, or even temporary buffs for combat.
Unfortunately, the world I was in did not provide any benefits from eating well cooked food at all. In fact, the only time you could buy and use food was when you had a follower and you wanted to improve relations with them, or in some certain storyline scenarios where you could taint the meal with some random toxic material to remove an obstacle in your path.
Case in short, there weren’t much benefits for me on investing into cooking. I highly doubted my own capability of making friends, and there was absolutely zero chance that good food was going to help at all, so the first option was out. While the second one was nice, the possibility of me fooling or deceiving someone into devouring a plate of food was pretty nill.
However, there were practical reasons to learning how to cook. First off, that was a survival skill all in itself. Without knowing how to cook, odds are that the only thing I’d be able to make is some charcoal beef. Knowing the exact procedure to making a piece of beef become edible was something I’d definitely use in the future way more often that I’d like to think.
Secondly, the morale boost. If my body is subconsciously dreading the moment when I have to go back home and eat another bowl of fucking chicken stew, then I know full well that my sanity wasn’t going to hold out well if I only ate grilled meat every day. I’d have to get some kind of variation in my life, and importantly, to be able to bring diversity into my home.
Finally, the cost for learning this was free. I wouldn’t have to expend any EXP Points, levels, money, or mana. All this would take was my time, which amounted to possibly a single day. Doable and easily replaceable, especially since I wasn’t going to try to exercise or do any kind of training without professional guidance.
I still don’t know why I didn’t get any kind of new skill when I trained at night a month ago, but that’s old news by now. What mattered now was my response to her, and I think I kept her waiting for far too long.
“Yes, can we start now?” I asked, inserting some cuteness into my voice and putting on my best puppy dog face, in hopes of getting her to not instantly regret this decision and revoke her offer.
She looked at me for a brief moment, before giving me a soft smile and patting my head. “Alright then, let’s get started then. We’ll try making something simple then.”
Then, my mind burst open as messages filled my head, informing me on the details that I needed to know about this venture.
[You have accepted to learn this new skill. You have obtained Cooking at Lvl 0/10, with your current skill level at Beginner.]
[In order to become a Novice, you must reach the maximum level cap for Beginner rank. EXP to next level: 100]
100 EXP just to get to Level 2 for Beginner? That seemed to be a lot, especially when there was ten freaking levels that needed to be obtained just to level up to Novice. Seriously, how the hell was I going to obtain that much EXP?
Granted, I did get a lot of EXP from gaining a level, but to ask me to go and use the hard earned resources gained from nearly dying to increase the skill of cooking… that’s a bit much for me.
Rather, the logical step would be to see if practicing with a skilled professional can increase my level. Besides, there’s not a single chance that anything bad could result from this single trial.
Nevertheless, despite all these thoughts running through my head, I was still aware of what was occuring outside in the real world. I had been following Sally’s mom the whole time into the kitchen, where my exposure to the cooking world awaited.
The kitchen for the bakery was not as big as I envisioned. Then again, considering the fact that this was a village that didn’t relatively earn much income daily, there shouldn’t have been much to be impressed by.
A large brick oven stood inside the room, with a wide table hosting a good amount of tools that I could recognize rather easily. There were some that seemed off, like the bit that seemed to be the broken end of a broom brush, but that might just be tools that haven’t had the chance to get revolutionized.
At least, I was hoping so. I’d be dreadfully shocked if it turns out that the broom brush tool was actually used in modern Japan.
“So, this is our little kitchen Feliza,” she said as she started to show me around the place, and grabbed a bowl with a load of yellow gritty powder with some grains, “Let’s start with simple: bread! This only requires a few ingredients to make, so this should be quick and simple!”
“Some flour to make the bread itself will be the important ingredient, along with a splash of beer, a dose of honey, a few sprinkles of salt, and a few splashes of water! Then, mix them all together to form a sticky base, before forming a ball and setting it down to rest!”
I could only watch as she used her hands to create magic and life. While she recited the exact recipe from her heart, her whole body moved in perfect unison with each other, using the boom brush tool to create the starting base before quickly switching on over to her hands.
All of this was completed within an instant, and the result was a smooth ball that was of a pale yellow color, resting on the counter and waiting for what was next.
“Now, we wait for a few minutes for the entire dough to rise up to twice its size!” While she said these words, Sally’s mother was already prepping another batch of ingredients, this time setting all of them in front of me and the others.
“And since all of these ingredients didn’t really cost much to obtain at all, go ahead and try your best to make your own loaf!”
With that resounding invitation, who could resist? Buan instantly jumped in and tried to recreate what Sally’s mother had done, with little to zero results. His technique was rough and harsh, and every bit of the mixture started to fly all around the table. In the end, he achieved nothing more than a giant mess.
Sally was a bit better, but she didn’t seem to really be putting in all that much effort. While she did end up completing something in the end, hers ended up more like a pile of mush than an actual ball of dough.
Esther’s was by far the closest thing to the end result. Her ball of dough, while not smooth, was still a ball that was capable of holding its shape well. I wasn’t surprised, considering the fact that she did make me several bowls of stew previously.
As for mine, I would love to say that mine was an exact replica of what the professional had created, if not better, and that everyone was looking at me with shock and awe. That, however, would have been a big fat lie.
My dough ball came out to be a mixture of Esther’s and Sally. While the end result was something that was holding its shape, the whole thing looked less like a ball and more like a goopy, melty mess that was barely keeping its form up and was slowly dripping down the sides.
I don’t understand how this could happen at all. I made sure I followed her steps to the best of my ability, even if I did mess up here and there. Granted, I may have put in not enough flour and had just punched the ball shape together, but the mixing part was all correct… mostly.
There definitely was room for improvement, but at least I had something that was somewhat usable. That was a start at the least.
The next step we had to do was simply wait. Just stay still and allow the bread dough to rise up to double its size within thirty or so minutes
Nothing really happened in those thirty minutes, besides me just looking at the pastry. Esther’s was the only one that actually rose up to double its original size, and her s was starting to look like the original version.
Mine did grow too… just not as much. Probably around an inch, but that was still progress at least.
Too bad the ball looked more like one of those art pieces where there were melting clocks. That made me a little concerned about what the final product would look like in the end.
But things can’t turn out that bad. This was something still salvageable, after all. The ball was still usable in some shape or form, so just stick it in the oven and things will go well.
After a few minutes being baked, Lisette came and took out the finished products. Esther’s looked like a nearly perfect replica of the sample loaf, Sally’s looked like a pale brick, while my bread-
… It’s black. The so called bread that I was meant to bake perfectly to a golden brown had come out of the oven looking exactly like charcoal. All of us just stared at the smoking pile of black stone, and a single message popped up within my head.
[Update! Cooking has been advanced by 1 EXP! Requires 99 EXP to reach level 2 of Beginner level.]
Was that a pity point? Are you telling me that I fucked up so bad that the system felt sorry for me and gave me that single digit reward just to make me feel like all that effort wasn’t for nothing?
Fuck that. I don’t want your damn pity! I’ll make this loaf of bread perfect by any means necessary, even if that means having to work another job!
“Um… excuse me, Miss Lisette, do you mind if I could come back and learn how to get better at this? I promise to try to pay for the ingredients I use up!” At the same time, I turned on my puppy dog eyes and looked at her directly with them.
She looked at me with soft eyes, before sighing softly and then… patting my head? She’s patting my head? Why?
“Ara, Feliza. Don’t worry about paying for the ingredients, I’ll be perfectly fine taking you on as my little apprentice.” She stated, making no room up for debate on this issue. She clearly was open to the idea of getting someone to help her with her work, and she obviously was super glad that I showed such enthusiasm for cooking.
“That being said, if you continually make a lot of burnt goods, I will have to rethink the apprenticeship.” She warned me, waving a finger and letting me know what the consequences for continuous failure was.
Normally I’d be worried, but since the leveling system would come to my assistance in this situation, there were no concerns on my mind about this situation. The only thing I could think of right now was my brand new skill and how good I’ll be at cooking after all this practice.
“I’m ready to learn!” I shouted as happily as possible. Honestly, the reward for all this effort better be worth it.
I already wasted enough time as is. I don’t want to waste any more time at all, especially considering what’s on the line.
I just hope grinding EXP for this skill won’t be painfully long.