Chuck slowly drew his knife and spatula. One of the small scurrying creatures was slowly moving his way. Chuck's nerves began to tighten up. He had never really killed anything before. The only time he put a creature to death was when he went fishing with his good buddy back home. But that was different.
*Squeak* *Squeak*
As the creature got closer, Chuck could see that it was a rat that was almost a foot long. Information suddenly appeared in his mind.
It was cave rat. Its bite could deal damage and it had a high chance of causing infection. But he also learned its week points. The rat slowly came closer.
When it was a foot away, Chuck moved.
The flat of his spatula came flying down and held it's fist sized head against the ground. Forcing its mouth to remain shut. Chuck was surprised by the power behind the rat. It felt like a large dog was struggling under his spatula. Before it could escape, his knife came in from the side and pierce its neck.
Acting on his chef's instincts. Chuck picked up the dead rat by the tail and let all the blood quickly drain from the animal. This would cause the meat to have a better flavor.
[Level 3 Cave Rat defeated. +30 XP]
[Level 0: 30/100XP]
He then noticed that he might have made a mistake. The five other rats had caught the smell of blood and were rushing over.
The rat in hand disappeared into his inventory as the nearest enemy jumped towards the chef.
*Whack*
The flat of the spatula sent the rat flying away but it also caused Chuck to tumble backwards. Another rat came lunging at him. With a flick of his wrist, Chuck sliced down the stomach of the rat, causing its innards to tumble out. He pushed back to his feet and stepped on its head.
[Level 3 Cave Rat defeated. +30 XP]
[Level 0: 60/100XP]
*Squeak* *Squeak*
The rats were furious.
Chuck used his spatula to fend off the creatures while his knife claimed their lives. All the while he kicked at the ones that his tools couldn't reach. After a full minute, all the rates had died.
[Congratulations, you have reached level 1]
[Level 1: 80/200 XP]
'Ha, ha, great, my first level.'
*Bam*
"Ofhh."
Chuck was thrown sideways after something hard slammed into his side. His knife and spatula were flung from his hands.
Chuck only had 10 health points, but now it was already down to 2.
"Bad man, you kill my food! What will Crumb eat tomorrow? Crumb eat you."
*Whap*
Before Chuck could say anything else he was knocked unconscious.
"Ahh." He hissed as he woke up. His head hurt like crazy.
Chuck tried to move but found his arms and legs had been bound.
Opening his eyes, he saw a small green goblin set down several dead rats near the edge of the fire. Seeing how his attacker was still cleaning up, Chuck guessed that he hadn't been out too long.
'Fuck me.' Chuck thought to himself.
He knew that he had messed up this time.
In the corner of his vision, he saw a transparent flashing light. With a thought, the interface expanded.
He quickly shut his eyes and pretended to still be knocked out.
His stat page was in front of him. His level up gave him 2 stat points to spend. With the multiplier from his class, that number became 20.
The stats that he was able to level up were, strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma.
[Hint: Every category is important to an immortal chef. Some ingredients will require massive amounts of strength to butcher and process. Dexterity is important in the kitchen. Quick and accurate movements are always vital. With a low constitution, a chef may not be able to withstand the cooking process. Intelligence is required to create new recipes and substitute ingredients into current recipes. Wisdom will help you maintain order in the kitchen and be able to watch over many procedures at the same time. A chef without charisma is like to forever remain unpopular, severely reducing the number of potential customers.]
Chuck quickly processed the information and understood that he would need to have balanced stats to reach the peak of his profession. But right now, was different. His health was flashing at 1 HP.
He put ten points into constitution. Each point gave him 2 HP bring his total to 21/30 HP. He then put 5 into strength and 5 into dexterity.
The goblin kicked Chuck's legs.
"Wake up."
Chuck shook his head and pretended to wake up.
"What, where am I? Ah! Who are you?" Chuck asked the goblin who standing over.
"You break into Crumb's house." The goblin said while pointing at Chuck. "You kill my food. Why I tell you who I am?"
Although his stats were raised, Chuck still had no idea how strong he was compared to Crumb.
"Oh, no, this is your house? I had no idea." Chuck said while nodding profusely. "I was so hungry and was looking for food, I thought this was just a rat cave. I am sorry, please forgive me."
"…" Crumb looked intently at Chuck and even tilted his head as if he was thinking as hard as he could.
Chuck noticed that his spatula and knife were tucked into Crumb's belt.
"Why I believe you?" Crumb asked.
*Grumble*
The heavens must have heard his prayer because Chuck's stomach let out a loud grumble.
Crumb took a step back and thought again. "Okay, I believe you, being hungry make people dumb. You need to check if people own cave. Eat." Said Crumb as he through a dead rat to Chuck's side.
Then he sat down and directly bit into the flesh of another. After chewing and swallowing it he looked at Chuck again. "Eat. You get weak and die if you don't eat. You wasted my food; you work for me until I get more food."
Chuck squirmed around until he was sitting upright. "I can make the food taste a lot better if you untie my hands."
Crumb glared at Chuck and thought it over.
"What if you attack Crumb and try to take all food for yourself?"
"You defeated me easily early, I don't think I would survive if you hit me again."
Crumb nodded. "You weak. If you make good food, I know place where we can get good stuff."
He then took Chuck's knife and cut his hand's free.
"I need my tools to make good food." Chuck said.
"You want killing weapons back?" Crumb asked with hostility. "They mine now."
"Please, just let me show you what I can do with them." Chuck pleaded sincerely. He was quite curious himself. He had yet to actually try and cook anything since he came to this world.
Crumb thought it over for a minute before answering. "Okay, but I watch you."
"Sure, sure." Chuck said happily.
Crumb set the knife and spatula before him before quickly backing away. In his hands he held a large club that was ready to bash him if he did anything stupid.
At this point, Chuck realized he made a mistake. He didn't bring and pots or pans. All he had was his portable chef's station and his rack of seasoning and spices.
'It should be enough', he only needed to impress a goblin who was used to eating raw rats.
Chuck cut his legs free and slowly walked to the corner of the cave where there was a small stream that ran through it.
Crumb watched him closely the entire time.
Chuck washed his tools and then took out the first rat he had killed. With deft skills he sliced it open and removed the meat while discarding the rest.
"You waste food." Crumb grumbled but did not stop him.
Chuck then cut the meat into thin strips and then washed it again.
His mind was in his inventory, looking through the seasonings and spices he had.
"Do you prefer spicy food or sweet food?" Chuck asked.
"Crumb likes spicy. The spicier the better." Crumb said with a bit of drool oozing down his chin while thinking of spicy food.
Chuck didn't really believe him. He chose a mild chilly seasoning that had be pre-prepared with a few herbs.
He rubbed the seasoning on the strips of rat meat before laying them evenly on top of his spatula. When the spatula was full, he slowly walked over to the fire and held it above the flames while moving it back and forth so that the heat cooked it evenly.
*Sizzle*
After a few moments. A few drops of liquified rat fat ran off the edge of the spatula and dropped into the fire. A tempting aroma instantly filled the dungeon.
"Gimme, gimme, gimme." Crumb said while almost pulling the spatula from Chuck's hand.
"Just a little longer and it will taste even better."
Fortunately, Chuck had good timing. When Crumb couldn't stand it anymore, the meat was done.
Chuck took 1 strip for himself while offering the other 7 to Crumb.
The goblin grabbed all 7 pieces at once and stuffed them into his mouth and started to chew.
"Hot! Hot!" Crumb hollered while blowing out air quickly, but he didn't dare to take out the food that in his mouth.
His ugly face was blown into a wide smile, exposing his crooked and gnarled teeth. The meat quickly cooled and then he started chewing again before swallowing the large mouth full of meat.
"Good, good. Spicy! Crumb like. Food good."
Chuck let his piece cool while inspecting.
[Spicy rat meat]
[Rating: This isn't even qualified to be slop that is fed to pigs.]
Chuck was a bit turned off by the description, but he was really hungry.
'Wow, this is actually amazing. I don't think I have ever had anything this good before.' Chuck thought to himself. That lead him to wonder what the food would taste like that met the systems standards.
"More, more. Make more." Crumb said while jumping around.
He had discarded his club and was so enthralled with the food that his defenses were completely down. But Chuck had given up the idea of killing Crumb. If he could befriend this guy, he would be able to take advantage of the goblin's knowledge of the surroundings. Their may also be other benefits.
"Sure, let me try to make something else. Give me a few minutes."
Crumb plopped down on his butt by the fire and began to greedily lick every inch of his fingers.
There were still two thirds of the rat meat left. Chuck decided the shred the meat into small strands. He also took out a loave of bread and cut four slices.
He then returned to the fire.
The shredded rat was pilled on top of the spatula, and he sprinkle a bit of the mild chilly seasoning. Chuck careful moved it around and cautious flipped the meat over so that it would burn.
*Sizzle* *Sizzle*
Chuck found a somewhat clean rock near the fire and set the meat on it. Before Crumb could dive at it, he stopped him.
"Wait a bit more, I can make it taste even better."
Crumb's eyes grew wide in amazement. He eagerly waited inches away from the meat, not daring to take his eyes away from it.
Chuck took out two slices of bread and laid them on the greasy fat that had melted on his spatula and held it over the fire. It only took a little while before the bread became toasted.
Crumb only realized what was happening when Chuck took half of the meat from the rock and put it on the bread before sandwiching the two pieces together. He used the flat of the knife to press down on the sandwich and then took it away from the fire.
Chuck then stretched out the spatula to offer the shredded rat sandwich to Crumb.
The goblin quickly took it. He inspected it for only a moment before he couldn't stop himself and took a big bite.
As Chuck was toasting another set of bread he heard a loud noise behind him.
*Crash*
He quickly turned around to find Crumb laying on his back, arms outstretched while holding the sandwich above his face.
"Great, great. Impossible. To good. Magic. It magic." He then turned to Chuck. "Are you a food wizard?" He asked before taking another bite.
Chuck smiled. "People who make good food like this are called Chefs. And I am the best there is."
Crumb nodded happily while trying to cram the whole sandwich into his mouth at once.