Life full of lemons (Mentor/Invite)

[Shuwen]

Words: 379

Shuwen was reaching the limit of what he could do in regards to cooking on his own. Fragmented experiences and knowledge from back on Earth, and the occasional hand from another chef had helped him advance his cooking skills. While there were a few other chefs around, there weren’t any he was really willing (read as: could sum up the nerve to) ask, and was willing to teach him. He’d tried relocating that chef that had helped him out during the Coconia festival, but to no avail. Though he could probably raise his cooking level by grinding, mainly flipping hamburgers and frying potato chips, he didn’t feel that he would really improve that way, and he didn’t want to end up specializing in fried food.

Until he could find a proper chef to teach him, the Monk tried to stay productive by expanding his chef skills in another direction; brewing. Even though they were different classes, it seemed they could make the basic recipes of each others classes due to their similarities, or perhaps their mutual unpopularity, he wasn’t sure. He started by trying to make a simple mixed drink; lemonade. Since it was both easy to make and popular among children, even he knew the recipe for it, or at least the ingredients; lemon juice and sugar. However, getting the proportions right would require a little experimentation.

That was how he found himself where he was, sitting at a table at one of the local inns. On his left was a small pile of lemons, on his right was a small bag of sugar. In the middle were several cups, one of which contained several lemons he’d pulverized to extract the juice. He was mixing together different proportions of lemon juice and sugar, trying to obtain an ideal balance between sweet and bitter. It was probably a bit more work then he really needed to do to make lemonade, but it was good practice. He’d gotten a few odd looks from the other patrons, mostly Landers. The Adventurers seemed to have an easier time understanding what he was doing, or at least didn’t care as much. Shuwen was trying very hard not to notice the looks he was getting, trying to focus entirely on the task at hand.

[Deleted]

505 words		She's Not Even Drunk Yet
Caerbannog wanted to get drunk. Where was the Dwarf? What was he up to? Aside from the presence of a wolf-hair who was looking for some alcoholic drinks in broad daylight, all seemed to be well in Londinium. The streets were moderately crowded though nowhere near as busy as the other-world's London. It seemed more like a medieval kind of busyness wherein the roads had wagons and cows and street criers, and the markets had loud hagglers with their hoods and bags of gold. The wolf-hair looked on at all the busy figures around her; she was just a face in the crowd to them, and to her they were about the same. Caer walked on without finding any interest on the wares and vendors around her, that is until she hopped past a small inn. Nothing fancy, nothing that seemed to be worth anyone's time, except if that anyone was ill-pressed from a roof over their heads and some warm soup in their tummy. The wolf-hair, her attention grabbed by a peculiar sight within, walked into the inn. Her black schoolgirl uniform an odd sight to those who'd lived in the Land since their younger days; and an odd sight to those who knew the appearance from Earth... what was a schoolgirl doing in this place? She had no weapons on her, wolf ears were hidden away in her hair; fangs and golden eyes had not surfaced. Indeed she looked just like a kid on her way home from middle school. But this "kid" did not walk into the inn just for a light snack, no. "That's a lot of lemons!" she said out loud to some dude named Shuwen who seemed to be rather inconspicuous even with his absurdly yellow pile of fruit, "And you know what they say... when life gives you lemons-" She promptly flipped the table. Whether he dodged or even tried his best to keep the table on the floor, Caerbannog did not caer for any of that. The schoolgirl pulled a chair and placed it beside the- she checked his class- monk. Figures. Monks and drinks always seemed to come together. Wait, if he's a monk and he was making a drink, as made obvious by the ridiculous amount of lemons in front of him; which, by the way, even as a small pile was still far more than any one person would usually use- then could he be a brewer?! And if he was a brewer... "Get me drunk!" Caerbannog exclaimed as she sat herself down on the chair beside Shuwen, "Or I'll make my centipede eat you!" An empty threat, sure, if the one who said it did not have a four-meter centipede. She kept Mukade hidden away in the mean time and hoped that the brewer would simply give her something to drink. Something alcoholic to drink. Who drinks lemonade anyway?! Kids, that's who! "I want it now!" her voice was getting louder by the minute, "Now, NOW! Or my Beech will make you sorry!"

[Shuwen]

Words: 491

Shuwen’s concentration was briefly broken by the entrance of a young woman named @dindeen, wearing a Japanese school girl’s uniform. Why she’d chosen to wear a school girl’s uniform in what used to be a game, he had no idea. Perhaps he should have also been worried about the feeling of dread that settled into his stomach as she walked in, but since he was bad at dealing with both girls and large groups of people, he’d simply attributed it to those issues and attempted to keep working. Was that a good idea? Probably not. And since he was focused on said work, he didn’t even realize she was approaching him until it was too late.

He almost dropped the cup he was holding when she commented on his lemon pile. He cursed inwardly. He knew doing something so odd in the middle of an inn could draw unwanted attention, but up until then, no one had actually bothered to ask him about it, much to his relief. However, that invisible barrier of safety had now been shattered by a single person, and left him unable to respond properly.

“W-w-w-w-w-w-wh-” Too surprised by her forthrightness to properly respond, he could do nothing but stutter until she flipped the table on him. Is she- His thoughts were interrupted by what used to be the top of the table, along with all the lemons and drink mixes he’d been experimenting with coming down on him, soaking him with callous impunity. “Mumphfulaph!” He cried, a little muffled by the table he was under.

Once he recovered, he pushed the table up into a side-ways position, which he hid behind as the woman delivered her ultimatum. “But I haven’t even started working on alcohol!” The Monk whined, “I haven’t even finished figuring out how to mix lemonade properly!” He realized that his complains were both exaggerated and might not make as much sense, but the woman’s sudden appearance had rattled his head, and he was really just buying time until his wits returned. “Go find a brewer if you want to get drunk that badly!” He figured that even if brewers were rarer then chefs, that a brewer was more likely to be farther along in making drinks then a chef like him would, and their odds of being able to satisfy the monster before him were much higher. “Wait…” the second half of her demand finally registered in his brain. “Centipede?” He couldn’t remember running into any centipede monsters back when Elder Tales was just a game. Of course, he hadn’t exactly been much of an explorer, relying on online guides to find the best places for someone like him to level up and quest with little fuss. That meant there were plenty of zones he hadn’t been to, and creatures he hadn’t meant. Just how threatening was the hypothetical centipede monster she was threatening to sic on him? The Monk sure didn’t know.

[Deleted]

535 words		Revelations
"Did you just call me a kid?" exclaimed Caerbannog when the monk Shuwen said something about lemonade, "I'm a twenty year old adult! AAAA-DUUUUULT!" She sure didn't act like one. Unmindful of the possibly-painful ordeal that her target had just gone through, the female wolf-hair's attention drifted back to what the young man said: look for a brewer. If he was a brewer, why did he say that then? Could he be trying to get Caerbannog to leave him alone? And what was that quizzical way of asking about centipedes? "Centipede... centipede!" Caer flailed her arms, "You know, the thing with many legs! They crawl around and get eaten by spiders, except MY Mukade eats spiders instead! He's big and gentlemanly but he can eat your face! I also have a dwagon, Beech." By then, the ruckus that the black-haired female caused had attracted a lot of attention. Only a few things caused Caerbannog to act up like this: when she wanted to get drunk, when she was drunk, and when she lacked sleep. It didn't help any that she had stayed up all night while waiting for Kumori to finish his paperwork. In the end, before the couple could go out for a drink, the assassin had fallen asleep on his office desk; he slept like a rock and snored like a bear, so the wolf-hair high-tailed out of there in search of a bar. But because dawn had cracked and daylight had flooded the streets, her usual outings were either closed or closing and would remain so until the sun once again set down below the horizon. "ANYWAY! I'm looking for a brewer and you ARE one, aren't you?" the little lady wagged a finger at the other wolf-hair, "You're a monk and you were making lemonade, so you ARE a brewer!" It escaped her logic that he could be a chef who was trying to mix drinks, or some confident adventurer who tried his hand at cooking or mixing even without the appropriate subclasses. Caer only wanted to get drunk. "I'd make my own drinks if I could, but I'm just a chef," she sighed, "And I don't think I can mix my own stuff if I'm already drunk anyway." Having taken a moment to look at the crowd around them and the angry or annoyed glances that they shot at the adventurers, the little lady took one look at the overturned table and other things. Lemons on the floor, that stuff. She -should- pick those up. Caer stood up from her chair and stepped over to a little lemon which minded its own business. That big lander on a nearby table gave her a look like 'pick that up and stop messing around'. The blue-eyed adventurer looked at the lemon and then at the lander's face, and then at the lemon and then at the lander's face again, and once again at the lemon... which she promptly kicked at the lander's face. Being a lemon, it squished upon impact but the girl's leg strength also made the fruit leave a bright red mark on the big lander's forehead. Caerbannog huffed and crossed her arms as she waited for the lemoned lander to react.

[Shuwen]

Words: 700

“Wh-” His confusion quickly turned into denial. “No I didn’t!” Though honestly, with how childish she was acting it was probably just a matter of time before he’d done so. That was one landmine he managed to avoid, sort of.

His response to her bringing up her centipede was better received, at least it seemed to be. She briefly tried to describe what a centipede looked like, following up by describing what they ate, and a threat to make hers eat his face off if she didn’t comply. She also mentioned she had a dragon. That time, the Monk decided not to press her.

She also pressed about him being a brewer. While her being so aggressive had put him off balance, her taking the time to talk about centipedes had given him a chance to mentally recover a little and respond more rationally. “No, I’m not a brewer, see?” He hit a button on his interface that would display his character information in a little more detail, revealing his subclasses and their levels, revealing that his production class was in fact, chef, not brewer.

She also brought up the fact that she too was a chef, he… wasn’t really sure how to react to that. Considering she should have been just as capable at making drinks as he was, why was she bothering to bully him into doing so? “Brewers and Chefs can make some of the basic recipes from each others crafting lists!” He attempted to explain, raising his voice in spite of himself. “As long as you aren’t trying to attach any special effects onto it, you should be perfectly capable of making your own booze!” He almost stumbled over a few words and ran out of breath; yelling and trying to be articulate at the same time was harder then it looked.

It looked like things were about to calm down; despite her being overly focused on getting drunk, she gave Shuwen the change he needed to explain it was something she could probably do herself. She even looked like she was even considering helping him clean up the lemons she’d knocked over. However, his relief was short-lived as she promptly punted one of the fruits into the face of a nearby lander, leaving a conspicuous mark on his face. Oh sh- The large lander growled something, kicked his own table out of the way, and started cracking his knuckles. Nonononononononononono. If this turned into an all out fight, they could probably destroy the entire building, especially since neither one of them seemed to be inclined to be wary of their surroundings. The fact the bigger guy appeared to be a lander didn't help matters either, as he carried the risk of permanently dying if he was killed here. Though the royal guard would probably step in pretty quickly, who knew how much damage they would cause in the meantime. I gotta stop this before it starts. Maybe I can do something to cool them both down?

The burly lander charged. He was significantly higher leveled then Shuwen, and would probably swat him down without too much difficulty if they traded blows. Fortunately, he seemed to be focused mostly on the samurai in front of him, if the the Monk wanted to do something, now was the time. The burly lander charged. Shuwen stepped between them, keeping his body low so they were less likely to notice him. An instant later, the adventurer’s legs collided with his midsection. Shuwen lost at a small chunk of his HP in the process, but it cost the lander his balance. Shuwen fell onto his back as the adventurer fell forward. As they fell, Shuwen grabbed the lander’s arms and lifted one leg into his midsection, causing the larger man to go flying over his head. A move known as a Sacrifice throw Due to the lack of space available, he’d probably end up flying directly at Caerbannog, causing all three of them to go down in a heap, forcing them to either continue the fight from the ground, or untangle themselves and stand up before they could continue. Hopefully the Royal Guard would appear before they were ready to continue.

[Deleted]

540 words		The Chase
Caerbannog was not thoroughly convinced of the fact that the monk was -not- a brewer until he showed her more his character information. She raised an eyebrow at the young man, looked at the displayed info and then she sighed. But even that did not tear the wolf-hair away from poor Shuwen. She stuck around to cause a scene while in her head, she considered teaching this poor misguided chef on how to be an actual chef. But it seemed that her antics would not go unnoticed this time even if she was a cute little girl. Also, the wolf-hair had completely forgotten that she was no longer a Level 90 samurai but was a mere Level 10 heretic. Whoops! Scary, so scary! The lander was much bigger than she first though, and the wolf-hair's fear of large people kicked in. But that was just an accident, right? Her foot slipped and the lemon went straight for the man's face! As Caerbannog was about to pull a cutesy apology, Shuwen took it upon himself to call the Guards. Well, he didn't actually call the Guards but using a skill against someone sure called one over. The massive Guard loomed over the pile of lander, Caer and monk. Because the person of the land was in the way, the Guard could not punish the adventurers. It was time to escape! The female wolf-hair grabbed the monk by his collar as the lander struggled to stand up. While that person was in the way, they could ruuuun! "To the Abbey!" Caerbannog yelled at Shuwen's face. The heretic stood up and half-led, half-dragged the monk out of the establishment. It took a few moment's before the Guard noticed that its target was no longer beneath the lander. As for the large man, he stood there rather relieved that he had not dealt the first blow otherwise his x1 Life would have already been slashed to bloody bits. The inn had seen better days and lemons on the floor sure were difficult to gather, but the innkeeper was more than relieved that the troublesome adventurers had already left. "Keep running!" Caer yelled at the monk without checking to see if he was behind her. A short distance away, the Guard had crashed through the wall of the inn- okay, so maybe the innkeeper was not so happy now- and slowly turned towards the direction of its target. Caerbannog wove through the crowd and went into narrow alleys so as to delay the Guard that soon sped towards them. "Almost there! I'll teach you chef stuff so you don't have to worry about going back to the inn! Just ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!" once again, the heretic yelled at the monk. She hoped that he was still there behind her, in one piece instead of two. Then again, it would have been easier to just die by the Guard's hands. That would have been a shortcut to the Abbey... but death, no matter how trivial and no matter how less painful than what one would expect, was still death and Caerbannog did not want a pointless one. Westminster Abbey soon came into view. Now, if only they could run through the doors, they would be safe from the Guard.

[Shuwen]

Words: 443

As expected, the exchange of damage, small as it was, was enough to summon one of the Royal Guard. Of course, what Shuwen hadn’t factored in yet was due to being involved in the exchange, the guard would be coming after him too. Uh oh! Before he could say anything, the girl grabbed him by the collar and made a run for it. “Gyah!” Shuwen tried to say something, but with his collar choking him, he couldn’t respond properly. He wanted to try and shake her off so he could head back and try to explain the situation to someone; anyone, and not end up fleeing the scene like a common criminal, but he quickly changed his mind when he saw that the guard had busted through the inn wall during his attempt to pursue. Then again, if he’s that serious… maybe not. If the Guard was already busting through buildings to get to them, it was unlikely he’d be able to reason with him. Aw well. He started running in earnest. As temporary as death had become for them, it didn’t seem either of them wanted to die over something so stupid.

Their escape was, unlike the predicament they’d found themselves in, surprisingly thought out. It seemed the Heratic had some experience escaping from people already, because she already had a pretty good idea of how to escape pursuit, even pursuit as menacing as a royal guard, finding narrow openings between buildings and people. For Shuwen, it felt less like being chased and more like going through a demented obstacle course.

After a grueling run, they managed to reach the inside of the Abbey. Shuwen had managed to avoid dying thus far, so he hadn’t actually been inside the place yet. The outside still had a half-ruined look like most of the buildings in London had, but the interior appeared to be in much better condition, even showing signs of habitation. I guess the guards can’t follow us in here? He wasn’t sure why, he thought that Cathedrals were all public buildings, for use by all adventurers, but apparently that wasn’t necessarily the case. Frowning, he brought up the building’s data on the interface. To his surprise, the building was in fact, owned by someone, though the revival area didn’t seem to have been included as part of that ownership. That would be a nightmare. Shaking off the feeling of unease, he turned towards the person who’d gotten him into this mess. “So… have you learned your lesson about making pointless commotions?” He had a feeling he was going to get a stupid answer in response, but it was worth a try.

[Deleted]

500 words		Soggy Cracker Sandwich
"SAFE!" Caerbannog yelled as soon as she ran through the Abbey's doors and the sound of her voice reverberated down the halls. Some of the landers who had visited the place for peace and quiet sighed, annoyed. Adventurers who had just been resurrected looked at the monk and the heretic; the attendants of the Abbey who were familiar with Caerbannog went on with their duties. The little wolf-hair peeked through the door and saw the Guard right outside. It had probably 'lost' its target; the Guard then disappeared as mysteriously as it had appeared. "It's gone, as expected!" Caer then turned to Shuwen, "It can't go into player-controlled areas like our guild house here!" She pointed at the Aeryn-owned piece of the Abbey. "And people can't hurt each other in a sanctuary so that's probably off-limits to Guards as well," the blue-eyed wolf-hair continued as she pointed at the revival area of the place. Shuwen then asked something about a pointless commotion. Caer turned to him with an eyebrow raised. "Huuuh? Whatchu talkin' 'bout?" the girl said. She blinked a few times and then ushered (read: grabbed and dragged) the monk further into the Aeryn-owned zone. While that area was controlled by the guild, it was open to the public due to the various crafting facilities and offices wherein alliance talks and such were held. A turn to the left and then a turn to the right and then a couple more turns later, the pair arrived at a small kitchen. It seemed to be the back part of a cafe that was halfway through completion. There was a counter, some cupboards, supply cabinets and crates, an oven with a four-part stove that had barely been used, and shelves full of cooking tools. "Well well, what do you think?" Caer let go of the monk (finally) and waved at the kitchen before them, "So first, I'll teach you to make Unfounded Food. That shitty thing that landers make. Then we'll make Ordinary Food so that you'll see the difference!" The chef quickly gathered the ingredients for a simple sandwich: slices of bread (one of which she balanced on her head and shall remain there for the duration of the cooking session), a head of lettuce, whole tomatoes and one whole chunk of pre-cooked ham. "Now put these in your inventory," she instructed the young man, the slice of bread balanced still on her head, "Pull up your chef skills list and click the recipe Unfounded Food. Think of what you want to make, which should be 'sandwich' but if you want to make a salad out of this, that's fine too. The crafting system should do its best to create a sandwich that's similar to what you thought of." Caerbannog waited to the monk to do as he was told. Once that was done, she would have him test the sandwich for himself. Of course, because it was Unfounded Food, it would taste like soggy crackers despite having a decent appearance.
OOC Note: Use your post to create an Unfounded Sammich (of Doom?) Unfounded Food Materials Required: 3 Food Ingredients Posts Required: 1 Requirement: N/A The default result of mixing food ingredients together using the system menu. Craftable by any player, even those who are not Chefs. Using this option will all

[Shuwen]

Words: 525

As soon as they made it into the cathedral, the Heratic yelled SAFE aloud as if they’d been playing baseball. Needless to say, that irritated Shuwen a bit, but he knew better then to comment. There were a couple people there; adventurers who’d been revived, the church’s attendents and other people he presumed to be regulars. Normally, one would expect a person like @dindeen to get a harsh reprimand for being so loud and rambunctious in such an important building, but for some reason they seemed to ignore her, barring a few long-suffering sighs. Geez, it’s like she owns the place or something.

As expected, though he tried to make sure she’d learned her lesson, she didn’t seem to have realized the whole debacle was mostly her fault for causing a ruckus. However, he had a strong feeling that making her realize that would be more trouble then it was worth, so he quickly gave up on that. Someone please save me from this crazy lady!

As they moved away from the common area, a notification came up on his interface, telling him the area was owned by a guild, one with a name he may have heard of before. A guild house? What is she, a… nevermind, I don’t want to know

To his surprise, she was actually serious about “teaching him chef stuff”. She dragged him into a kitchen and foisted some ingredients on him, telling him to make some unfounded food with it. What? Hold on, I already know how to make that. “But I alread- ugh, nevermind.” He meekly added the ingredients to his inventory (including the bread slice she’d balanced on her head, and used the menu to create a sandwich that few people would ever willingly eat if there was a better option. He hadn’t used the menu system at all once the method to making tasty food had been discovered. Was that a mistake on his part? Probably not, at least he didn’t think so. Lamenting over the waste of ingredient items, he pulled up the interface, selected the options necessary to make the food she specified. A moment later, a nifty looking ham sandwich appeared in his hands.

“Here you go, an unfounded ham sandwich.” He said, trying to keep the disgust out of his voice. Not sure what else to do with it, he quickly tried to hand the sandwich over to the Heratic, though whether she’d accept it or not, and what would happen to the sandwich afterwords, was another question all together.

To his dismay, she then instructed him eat the sandwich himself. “Wait, wha-” She probably wouldn’t give him a chance to protest either. Down it went. “Mphugmomuhmeh!” He complained, muffled by the soggy cracker sandwhich. After a few minutes of chewing, he’d eventually manage to gulp it down. “That was terrible.” He said. Though the monk didn’t consider himself a picky eater, having to eat unfounded food again didn’t sit well with his taste buds. Eating it back when he didn’t have a choice was one thing, but eating it now when he had much better options available was another matter entirely,

[Deleted]

505 words		Ordinary Sandwich
Caerbannog expected a lot more defiance from the monk Shuwen who just earlier that day was a complete stranger, but it seemed that her tone was commanding- that or she acted too fast for him to protest. But with how things went along; that is, rather smoothly for an impromptu mentoring session, the female wolf-hair was pleasantly surprised. Shuwen was tolerant of her demands and followed her instructions despite the uninterested look on his face. Or was that disgust? Well, Caer wasn't surprised. Unfounded Food really was terrible and was only fit for a) landers and b) the target of April's Fool jokes. "So? So? How was it? Was it really terrible?" came her rhetoric questions, "Isn't it weird?" The little lady laid out the ingredients on the counter. "Let's say that the bread is A," Caer pointed at the slices of bread while the one on her head remained balanced; she then pointed at the lettuce and tomatoes, "Vegetables is B! And seasoned ham is C!" She motioned over to A, B and C. "Unfounded Food brings them together BUT it seems to use numerical addition. A plus B plus C turns to E. And E stands for EEW! That's because the system does not consider the parts that make up the recipe. It only focuses on the outcome." She then pushed the ingredients over towards Shuwen. "Now make your own sandwich, with your own bare hands. Use the Ordinary Food recipe to apply the bonus thingy to it," the higher-leveled chef said, "Because the food that we make is A plus B plus C equals ABC. It is the sum of all the parts that make up the whole thing." The female wolf-hair pulled a high stool over and propped herself on it. She waited patiently for Shuwen to make his own sandwich, this time it should be a rather tasty one due to the minimal reliance on the Elder Tale crafting system. Maybe it was not exactly what the monk expected from a mentor but to Caerbannog, laying down the basics of Elder Tale cooking to a fellow chef was important. Now, if Shuwen was not a chef but some random person who wanted to learn how to 'cook', Caer would have already cooked something by herself. But because he was a chef, it was important to teach not only mixing and combining, frying and baking- but also the proper application of the Chef skills. "It's just like in Earth, right?" Caerbannog asked as soon as the monk finished crafting and ate up his sandwich, "But with our chef skills we can add buffs and things to what we cook." She looked over her chef skills and known recipes. "The first skill is a toggled one that should help you if you're testing or researching food," she explained, "And then every ten levels you gain more chef skills. Some allow you to put additional effects on food items. What recipes have you tried crafting, by the way? Aside from Unfounded and Ordinary."
OOC Note: Use your post to create an Unfounded Sammich (of Doom?) Ordinary Food Materials Required: 2 Food Ingredients, any additional choice of Food Ingredient, Seasoning, or Oil Posts Required: 2 Requirement: Level 1 Chef or Level 5 Brewer Players who have taken the Chef crafting subclass are able to create food that actually retain their taste. Doing so requires that the Chef rely not on the system menu, but on their real-life cooking skills. As such, pretty much any foods in real life can be made as long as the proper ingredients are provided. Eating this food provides a slight HP restoration. The Chef that crafts this item may rewrite its name and description. Drinks may be made by Chefs, but they will usually lack any special effects that a Brewer may otherwise be able to add.

[Shuwen]

Words: 518

@dindeen was much more interested in his observations then his suffering, but that didn’t stop him from complaining. “Yes! Yes it was terrible! Why’d you make me eat it? I know how unfounded food tastes! I had to eat it before finding out how to make regular food!” Well, everyone had to, really, so why she didn’t realize he’d already known that was a bit of a puzzle to him, but then, there were a lot of stranger things about the Heretic.

She proceeded to give an explanation on the oddities of unfounded food, though Shuwen didn’t quite get it. “If the end result is something disgusting regardless of what you put in it, how do the ingredients even matter? That’s hardly a numeric addition.” If the outcome was predetermined, how would the ingredients make any difference at all, other then determining the food’s appearance and taste?

Making a sandwich was fairly easy for him; it didn’t require any technical skill beyond stacking the ingredients in the right order. He’d already gotten that far on his own, it was the more advanced stuff he was having trouble with, because he’d never bothered to learn how back home, but it seemed his teacher wanted to start with the basics, and he didn’t really have any room to complain, so he did so. Slicing an appropriate amount of the meat and vegetables into pieces that were thin, but wide and long, he laid down a piece of bread, followed by a slice of the ham, followed by the sliced vegetables, topped with another slice of bread. Shuwen wasn’t terribly hungry, and had a feeling he’d be eating a lot more before the lesson was over, so he tried to share half the sandwich with his mentor. Who knew? She might even appreciate the gesture. Or she’d just hit him over the head with it. One of the two.

“Yes, it’s not much different then how food is prepared on Earth. My main problem is that despite picking the chef subclass, I didn’t bother to learn how to cook very much before the Apocalypse; I guess I was too reliant on the microwave or what have you, so I only know how to make a few things.”

Caerbannog briefly went over the chef subclasses’ skills. Shuwen was already somewhat familiar with them, having already unlocked the first two, but he was afraid of what would happen if he disrupted her flow. Fortunately, she soon moved on and asked him about what kinds of things he’d already made. “Well, I made some fried food for practice; a hamburger and potato chips. During the Coconia festival I made a bunch of cookies using the event recipe, but I had another chef looking over my shoulder at the time, so I don’t know if I could do it again on my own.” He gulped as he realized he was getting to the sensitive part. “I was just starting to experiment with mixing an Ordinary beverage, namely lemonade, back at the inn, when you… yeah.” It was probably best to leave it at that.

[Deleted]

510 words		Hot Steamy Custard
Regarding the Unfounded Food, Shuwen asked a good question. It made Caerbannog think for a moment while the slice of bread wobbled on her head. If everything became E, then why did the ingredients matter? “Maybe the ingredients don’t matter,” the female wolf-hair answered, “But because the system relies on what the crafter thinks of making, it comes out just as that! I mean, if you look at these ingredients, you could probably make a salad out of them instead of a sandwich. The bread could be croutons. But that’s just a maaaaybe!” It was nice that Shuwen followed her instructions and even nicer that he shared his decent sandwich with her. Now Slicey won’t be lonely! Caerbannog muttered a small Thank You and put the offered sandwich on her head. It took a bit or coercion from Caer for Slicey to accept Sammich, but in the end they became good friends. They should be able to enjoy their short lives up there until such time that the heretic would feel hungry enough to devour them. And then the monk finally explained the problem. Oh dear me, a guy can’t cook! The world will end! To Caerbannog, it did not really seem like a big issue... if not for Shuwen’s chef subclass. Yeah, it would be troublesome if a cook can’t, you know, cook. “-when I saved you from boredom!” the heretic finished the monk’s sentence, “Isn’t this a better place to learn how to cook?” Why was Caerbannog acting like such a hyperactive child? Those who know her would have said that she was probably drunk but she had not a drop of alcohol in her bloodstream. In fact, if she was like this when NOT drunk, one might wonder how she is if she ever did drink some liquor! Maybe all those extroverted friends got to her or maybe, just maybe, that Miasma went to her head. But that mattered little now. The monk needed some chef mentoring and that’s exactly what he was getting. “Let’s make something sweet then. The recipe is called Sweet Confection,” she put some milk, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract close to a mixing bowl, “Frying and boiling are easy enough to do, but it lacks variety. Have you tried steaming your food? If you don’t have an oven, you can even make a steamed cake instead of a baked one.” She put a deep pan half-full of water on the stove and the water began to heat up evenly. Caerbannog then pushed three eggs and the mixing bowl towards Shuwen. He should know what to do with that, right? Just beat it. A cup of fresh milk was then measured by the chef and also pushed over to the monk. Lastly, three spoonfuls of sugar were placed in a smaller bowl and a teaspoon of vanilla was set down beside it. “Steamed custard... should be easy enough,” Caer nodded at the monk. While Shuwen mixed the ingredients, the female wolf-hair put a cloth around the frying pan’s cover and set it beside the heated container.
OOC Note: Use your post to half-way create a custard (of doom) Sweet Confection Material Required: 3 Food Ingredients Posts Required: 2 Requirement: Level 1 Chef A specialized recipe for producing sweet candy-like foods. An item produced by this recipe instead of the basic default provides a slight MP restoration. Be careful of eating too much, lest you spoil your supper. The Chef that crafts this item may rewrite its name and description, but must retain its effect.

[Shuwen]

Words: 496

So apparently, the end result of unfounded food depended on the image in the caster’s mind? That was… a bit more interesting then he wanted to admit. Even if it was a vital part of the world, was the interface really capable of doing something like that? In that case, couldn’t someone create whatever they wanted, regardless of what ingredients they had on hand, as long as they used the interface? The monk thought about it for two whole seconds before remembering that due to the lack of health restoration or taste, there probably wasn’t any point and quickly scrapped the idea.

Fortunately, @dindeen accepted her half of the sandwich easily enough, but instead of eating it on the spot like he expected her to, she put it on her head and balanced it there, along with the slice of bread she’d but there earlier. Is that supposed to be some kind of storage? Why doesn’t she just put it in her inventory?

Her interruption, and interpretation about what happened, was less welcome. He was certainly glad he was getting some instruction on being a chef, but did she have to be so crazy? He guessed it couldn’t be helped.

The next item she wanted him to make was a Sweet Confection, a custard to be specific. This actually got Shuwen a little excited. It was fairly different then anything he’d made thus far, and it increased MP instead of HP, something he found to be quite welcome. As she began making some preparations of her own, she asked him about the kinds of baking he’d done, namely steaming. “No, I haven’t done any steaming yet.” he replied. Though it looks like I’m about to learn how.

The Heratic sent some eggs and a mixing bowl his way. Fortunately, this was neither the first time he’d handled eggs, nor the first time he had to stir. He’d already learned how to handle them while making scrambled eggs, and he’d learned how to stir that time he’d had to brown ground beef. Cracking the eggs on the side of the bowl, he dumped their contents into it, being careful not to let any of the yolk drip over the side onto the counter. He then quickly began to stir, making sure to beat the eggs against the inside of the bowl. His stirring method wasn’t all that great; it included some useless movements and such, but at least it worked, and he (barely) managed not to spill anything. After a short amount of time, she passed him a measured amount of milk, which he promptly added to the bowl with the eggs, and continued to stir. The mixture was certainly weird looking at this stage, but he managed to avoid reacting to that. He noticed that Caerbannog was doing some of the preparations herself, and tried to remember what she was doing. It’d be a bummer if he couldn’t do this on his own later, after all.

[Deleted]

520 words		A Prelude to Dessert
Shuwen seemed to be eager to learn. That alone made Caerbannog's mentoring so much easier; it was nice that he wasn't picky either. Some people did not like cooking this or that and would have refused something that they'd deem a waste of their time. For example, a person who does not like sweets would have just forgone learning how to craft Sweet Confection. Caerbannog would have kicked out such a person for being a pest. Fortunately, for both the monk and the heretic, their mentoring session was working out rather nicely. The female wolf-hair glanced over to check how her fellow chef was doing and it seemed that mixing was no problem for him. There weren't any terrible spills all over the counter so all was well. Caer noticed that the monk looked over what she was doing, probably curious of how the rest of the steaming preparation would go. "You put just enough water in the pan so that it won't go in the little bowls when the water boils," the little lady explained as she pointed at the pan and then she took out tiny ceramic bowls from a cupboard. Each bowl fit nicely in the heretic's hand and the measurement seemed to be just about one cup. "Put some of the mixture in each little bowl, and then put it in the heated water," she instructed the monk, "I put cloth on the lid so that it won't let the water drip onto the bowls. Put the lid on the pan once all the bowls are inside." While that was being steamed, Caerbannog began the preparations for another recipe. This time, she was going to work on a recipe that she had not used before. However, it was similar to Sweet Confection so the actual crafting would not be a problem. All she had to do was use this recipe, Desserts, instead of the other one so that the final product would have both HP and MP restoration. Unlike most of the other crafting classes, brewing and cooking blurred the lines between the items that they craft because even similar dishes could have various effects. Then again, the buffs that food items provided were probably more akin to reforge effects which were bestowed on weapons and armor. "Let's prepare the stuff for the next recipe, we'll use the Desserts one," the heretic said as she placed another mixing bowl on the counter. A cup of fresh milk was placed beside a smaller bowl that was filled with two cups of flour. Some sugar, salt and baking powder were measured and poured into the bowl of flour. She then took out a small saucepan, placed some butter in it and placed the cooking utensils on a different stove. "Can you melt this stick of butter?" she asked the monk, "Low heat only and keep stirring with this." She handed a wooden spoon to him. "If it's half-way melted, take it off the stove and let it melt with just the heat of the saucepan," the wolf-hair instructed, "What do you think we'll be able to make with these?"
OOC Note: Use your post to finish making steamed custard. Our next posts after custard is done will start the crafting of a dessert item. Desserts Materials Required: 3 Common Ingredients with any additional choice of Common Ingredient, Common Seasoning, or Common Oil Posts Required: 2 It isn't just ordinary food, but it's much more than a sweet confection. Giving a slight restoration in both MP and HP, desserts are a carefully crafted work of art in the cooking industry with their icings and colors and decorative pieces. The Chef that crafts this item may rewrite its name and description, but must retain its effect.

[Shuwen]

Words: 431

In truth, Shuwen was a somewhat picky eater, he just didn’t have any inherent objections to cooking something he disliked, other then having to eat it at the end. Also, so far @dindeen hadn’t instructed him to make anything he outright disliked. The custard was new to him though, but under the circumstances, he was willing to give it a try. As his diet since the apocolypse had been mostly restricted to unfounded food and what he himself was capable of making, a little variety was more then welcome.

Caerbannog quickly explained the steaming process, after which she told him what to do with the mixture, attempting to steadily pour some into each of the cups. He had some trouble getting it all into the bowls as she’d specified. It kept sticking to the bowl, causing him to tilt it either too much or too little, causing some of it to run down the outside of the bowl. “Tsh.” Cursing silently, he made a mental note to clean that up at the next opportunity. Fortunately, the amount he spilled wasn’t so great as to prevent enough from getting into the bowls, and he filled them up more or less to an appropriate level.

Meanwhile, Caerbannog started working on whatever they were going to work on next. Shuwen felt a bit apprehensive at that; he didn’t really feel up to having to divide his focus between cooking two things at once, but she seemed to have things well in hand. It wasn’t something he’d want to do by himself, but there was another person anyways, so it wasn’t as big a deal as usual. She began to pull out more ingredients for the dish, though he couldn’t tell offhand what she was planning to make. What kind of desert was made from salt? That one in particular was probably throwing him off, but he didn’t have much time to wonder. First because he took the opportunity to grab a rag from nearby and wipe up the small puddles of custard mixture he’d spilled earlier, and partially because she had more for him to do, namely to prepare some butter. Placing the bowl it was in over onto one of the heating elements, (or whatever it was they had on top of the oven instead), and started to stir. The Heretic quizzed him briefly, asking him what kind of food he thought they were making. He just shrugged his shoulders trying not to let the distraction interrupt his stirring.. “I… don’t , know. I can’t think of any dessert dishes that use salt.”

[Deleted]

525 words		The Heart of a Doughnut
While they waited for the steamed custard to be ready, Shuwen had already taken to cleaning the counter. Caerbannog followed up on what he was doing and so she put the used utensils in the kitchen sink where she could wash them up later. "Don't worry about the mess, I can clean up later," she said. Afterwards, Shuwen worked on melting the butter as his mentor instructed. It was going well, but then the color from Caerbannog's face was soon drained as she thought that she just heard the most absurd thing from the monk. Salt? In dessert? Why? Well, why not?! She momentarily thought of hitting him with a pan but she remembered that he might spill the contents of the saucepan. The heretic merely scratched her head as she wondered how she should explain it. "I guess that's a common misconception that sweets are only sweet through and through," the blue-eyed female rubbed her nose and left some flour on it, "But of cake and such didn't have salt, we wouldn't be able to appreciate the sweetness. We won't be making cake but it's something close to that. I don't think Shuu-chan would not be able to make much use of knowing how to bake until he has his own oven and such after all." Caerbannog stepped over to the covered pan which contained the custard. She lifted the lid carefully and peered in. Since the custard had been steamed for a while, it was difficult to tell if it was still liquid of it had already taken on a semi-solid state. Nonetheless, the water had already been boiling for a while so Caer put out the fire on that stove. "Let this stand for a while, don't take the lid off. It should be ready in a few more minutes," the chef went back to the kitchen counter, "We will make some dough balls next. I think they're called doughnut holes? It can be used as a base for different desserts, or it can be dessert itself." Once she was sure that the monk was watching, Caerbannog combined the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl: flour, sugar, salt and baking power. She then made a small crater in the middle of the mixture, poured the milk and beaten eggs in it and then she waved over to Shuwen. "Put the melted butter in the middle please," Caer said and then she handed the wooden spoon over to her fellow chef, "You'll do some more stirring. Start from the middle of the crater and slowly move outward. The dry part should slowly fall into the liquid." As the other wolf-hair stirred the batter, Caerbannog put a deep-fryer pan on the stove and put a lot of cooking oil in it. She put the fire up to high heat where it would stay for a few minutes, and afterwards the fire would be toned down to medium heat just to maintain the temperature. "You can use an ice cream scoop to drop roundish batter into the fryer. Want to try? There should be a scoop in the cupboard," the wolf-hair pointed to one that was close to the monk.
OOC Note: Use your post to start making dough balls (of doom) Desserts Materials Required: 3 Common Ingredients with any additional choice of Common Ingredient, Common Seasoning, or Common Oil Posts Required: 2 It isn't just ordinary food, but it's much more than a sweet confection. Giving a slight restoration in both MP and HP, desserts are a carefully crafted work of art in the cooking industry with their icings and colors and decorative pieces. The Chef that crafts this item may rewrite its name and description, but must retain its effect.

[Shuwen]

Words: 333

@dindeen didn’t seem to be concerned about the mess, even telling him she’d take care of it later. However, she reacted quite differently when he brought up the question of salt. Seeing the look on her face, Shuwen instinctively began to set in his feet into a position suitable for dodging and circling. Fortunately, she was apparently able to get herself under control. “So it’s like a supporting ingredient, rather then one you actively taste, that makes sense.” Hopefully that comment would calm her down before she did anything. Or perhaps it would just make her mad. Who knew?

While he was thinking about it, Caer checked on the custard, and gave him some more instructions regarding them. Considering how impatient Shuwen could be while doing things like this, it was probably a good thing she told him not to take of the lid in advance, otherwise he probably would have inevitably done so. When she said “doughnut holes”, his eyes lit up in recognition. “Ahhh.” He’d only had them once or twice, but they tasted like, well, doughnuts.

When she told him too, he began pouring the melted butter into the hole in the mixture she’d made. The monk made an effort not to cringe as he felt the butter go in. As much as he liked butter, he didn’t like the look or smell of it in it’s melted form for some reason, it probably gave his subconscious a “that’s not right” feeling, or something like that. Maybe he’d gotten to used to seeing butter in it’s solid state? He wasn’t sure if it was something he wanted to dwell on. Shaking it off, he started mixing them. As she described, the continuous force from the stirring caused the outer mixture to start crumbling and mixing with the butter. he reached into the cupboard to find a scoop, which he located after a moment of searching, and started dropping scooping up some of the batter and dropping it into the fryer.

[Deleted]

520 words		The Skin? of a Doughnut
A supporting ingredient, huh? Well that was one way to put it. Caerbannog merely nodded at Shuwen's simplification. As long as he understood the concept of having to use different flavors, that was fine. Caer did not like getting too technical anyway because to her, that would take the fun out of cooking. It was potentially something that friends could do together because it was less tiresome than smithing metals all day, and being too serious about it may make cooking boring. The female wolf-hair kept in mind to use more layman's terms and to at least explain any complicated concepts that she might have to talk about. While Shuwen was putting the dough balls in the fryer, Caer took out some paper towels from the cupboard and lined two plates with it. She then checked the steamed custard one more time and, once she was sure that they were done, the chef used pot holders to pull the little bowls out of the hot water. She placed them on a baking tray that had some tap water and then the tray was set down on the counter. "The custard is almost done, now we just let it cool off. Then we can add cream or berries to it, or just eat it as it is," the chef with bread and a sandwich on her head hopped back to the fryer. She handed a metal sieve to the monk, "Once they are golden-ish colored, take them out and put on plates please. The paper towels will absorb the oil otherwise the things will be icky when we try to coat them." And coat them with what? The wolf-hair put some powdered sugar in one bowl and some refined sugar in another. It was up to Shuwen to decide whether he would use those, or... "We can also make a glaze instead of just sugar," Caer said, "Will you try making that by yourself?" Most of the ingredients were on the counter but some extracts were still in cabinets and cupboards. The female chef just stood by the fryer and waited for Shuwen to start his mad dash to do everything. It might be stressful but he would have to learn to multitask. Monsters wouldn't exactly wait for you to complete a turn in the battlefield, and in a moment of reprieve, cooking something up quickly may be able to turn the tide. "To a cup of powdered sugar, you can add just enough fresh milk to dissolve it... about four spoonfuls," she explained at least, "You can add a very wee bit of cinnamon OR vanilla. The glaze does not have to be boiled, just mixed. It should be watery, not sticky... wet powdered sugar will harden when exposed to air after a while so the glaze will become a crumbly coating around the dough balls if we let it stand for a while." That was a mouthful. Caerbannog was reaching her limit of spoken words for the day, something that had increased due to her socialization over time but it did not mean that the word limit was completely gone.
OOC Note: Use your post to continue making dough balls (of doom) Desserts Materials Required: 3 Common Ingredients with any additional choice of Common Ingredient, Common Seasoning, or Common Oil Posts Required: 2 It isn't just ordinary food, but it's much more than a sweet confection. Giving a slight restoration in both MP and HP, desserts are a carefully crafted work of art in the cooking industry with their icings and colors and decorative pieces. The Chef that crafts this item may rewrite its name and description, but must retain its effect.

[Shuwen]

Words: 420

Well, @dindeen didn’t throw a fit over his simplification, that was a good sign, allowing them to continue cooking without incident.

Later, while he was prepping the doughballs, the Heretic lined two paper plates with disposable paper towels. He vaguely remembered having to do that for bacon when it was done beying cooked, to get rid of the excess grease. I guess it must be for the same reason. He realized, even before she explained it to him. As she went on about the ways to eat custard, he half-expected her to start dipping the food on her head in it, it seemed like the kind of thing she’d do.

When she brought up the option of coating the dough balls in something, a glaze was the first thing to come to the Monk’s mind. After all, if you were talking about doughnuts, or something pertaining to them, it had to be glazed, didn’t it? That’s what he thought. That said, he didn’t have any idea how to make it. The only thing he’d ever worked with that utilized glaze, or something like it was the frosting that came in the package of store-bought cinnamon rolls, and that experience probably wasn’t going to be much help.

As Caerbannog gave him a list of instructions, the real test began. Shuwen had to really scramble to keep up with what he was supposed to do. Plus, he was having a hard time keeping the instructions straight. He hadn’t tripped up yet, but he was dangerously close to doing so; as a person with ADHD, he did not consider himself suited for doing this kind of thing. However, it was a little too late to back out, so he didn’t complain, though the Heretic might notice the harried, somewhat wild look in his eyes as he attempted to carry out her instructions. First, he dropped four spoonfuls of milk into the powdered sugar, which, according to Caer, would be enough to dissolve it. He tried to find some vanilla to add to it, but was having trouble finding it, and gave up after a few seconds, then went back to mixing it. “Should we coat the dough balls now, or wait until they’re done frying?” He had a sneaking suspicion he was asking a stupid question, but didn’t know enough about the process to be sure. He also hadn’t noticed Caer’s growing reticence to talk. If anything, he though she was getting more energetic due to the amount of words she was using.

[Deleted]

500 words		Doughnut Dressing
Shuwen was doing great. He followed Caerbannog's instructions although he did seem a little harried, and also he missed the small bottle with brownish liquid which the heretic used earlier for the steamed custard. It was hidden behind some bags of flour and sugar so it was easy to miss. Caer took up the bottle in her hand, uncorked it and put just a teaspoon of its contents into the glaze that the monk worked on. The consistency of the mixture that he made seemed good enough to use so the heretic hopped over to the fryer and used the sieve to take out the fried food items. Indeed, he was doing great- up until he considered putting the glaze in while the dough balls were being fried. What? Caerbannog merely shook her head. She was focused on making the dessert items and scolding Shuwen for something that he probably truly did not know about would waste her energy. It wasn't that she did not enjoy cooking with the young man; even mentoring him was rather interesting. It was just that Caer was not cut out to talk much... being a chatterbox was just something that happened when she lacked sleep or was drunk. But back to the task at hand, the chef went ahead and took out all of the dough balls from the fryer. She set them down on the plates with paper towels where the lining absorbed the grease that trickled from the fried food. Once all of the dough balls were out of the fryer, she turned off the stove and went back to the kitchen counter. "NOW we put them in glaze," Caerbannog took one of the fried balls up with a spoon and she dropped it in the bowl of glaze that Shuwen worked on. Still using her spoon, the chef rolled the ball around in the glaze until it was fully coated and then she took it up and placed it on a different plate, apart from the rest of the fried food. Over time, the thin glaze hardened around the cooling dough ball and it became a candy-like coating. "If the glaze becomes too thick or hard, you can add a bit more milk. Just balance it with some more powdered sugar," the heretic said to the monk as she handed a spoon to him, "Want to try? I'll roll the others around in plain sugar." She left the spoon and the glaze to Shuwen while her attention was turned to the container with dry powdered sugar, and the other one which had refined sugar granules. Caer rolled three of the fried balls in each mound of sugar, one fine and smooth in texture, the other coarse and rough. "Both sweet but if you serve them like this, you get some contrast or variety to your dessert, right?" Caerbannog turned to the monk just then to check up on how he was doing. They could finish up soon what with the custard and dough balls almost completely done.