[F01-SP] «Earning a Living»

[Randal 0]

Spoiler

Randal: SP 3/8 // HP 60/60 // Energy 6/6 // 1 DMG // 5 MIT // 1 ACC // 1 REGEN

Randal remembers his past life fondly, the days of spending time with his girlfriend and working as a good nutritionist we’re important memories that he treasured, he knows that it will be a nearly never ending fight to the get out of this death game but he is not willing to stop trying.

Randal also knows from the guide that if one were to head over to a particular set of places, one would be able to learn a skill set that could use to improve or entertain their lives.

Thinking that he could definitely use a special something to spice up his life, Randal got to reading. He was not clear on how long he had been reading, but he was certainly assured of why he wanted to do now.

He had to see Maggie Spatulin! She was a very renowned Chef that could be located somewhere on the first floor. She was described as very strong and very eager in the reviews of the guide. All things Randal thought was worth visiting.

Cooking again and handling food might just be the closest thing to home right now.

Edited November 21, 2019 by Randal

[Randal 0]

After Randal definitely found his way there in an extremely short amount of time, he was brutally greeted by a sheer beast of a woman who practically leaped for a joy if only any amount of force could life her into the air long enough to be considered a jump.

”Hi” Randal greeted back, “I am here to learn how to be a c—!!!”. 

She incredibly swiftly sheathed her kitchen knife and reached out her Iron Lady-like hands before grabbing me by my hand wraps and dragging me into the building.

”I knew from the start you were an aspiring cook!” She gleefully said with crescent moon eyes and deep crinkles around the side of the mouth.

”Oh darn!” She cursed before coming to such a forceful stop that Randal’s body could do nothing but rag doll right into M’am Maggie’s folds before sliding back out.

”We seem to be out of ingredients... I tell you what, every Chef must learn to brave the dangers of the outside world in order to reach and experience lands that hold amazing types of ingredients and condiments! Go forth and bring back 5 ingredients from the wild and we’ll teach you how to cook yea?”. She said and quickly ushered Randal out by pointing him in the right direction.

Without a doubt in his mind, and certainly without checking his map, Randal set off.

 

[Randal 0]

Randal exited the town in the direction that Maggie had set him towards, north west was the way for him. He could sort of tell that this was the north western region of the Town of Beginners when he exited and saw a dense forestry with canopies that ranged drastically from towering giants to small saplings.

Incredible light rays would cascade from the crown of the trees through steaks of light that would light up the forest floor to show wild animals just loitering around the front.

Not willing to go very far from safety to collect his materials, Randal started wandering around a safe perimeter to scout around when he noticed lying on the floor a beautiful acorn.

Spoiler

 ID# 129870

LD: 16 (Success)

1/5 Ingredients Found

Admiring his find, he noticed how the light rays would reflect of the beautful shell of the acorn. Filling Randal with the feeling of Nature’s prosperity and leaving his throughly revelling in Nature.

Edited November 21, 2019 by Randal

[Randal 0]

Carrying on his way, Randal walked in a curved fashion ensuring that all time he could see the walls of the Town of Beginners that separated danger from safety. He continued to maintain such a distance that he was never too far away from the wall. 

As he journeyed through the perimeter of the forest, he avoided the possibility of running into any monsters by ensuring that he checked all the guidelines he was slowly building up in this world.

1. Check your blind spots.

2. Watch where you’re going.

3. Avoid noisy footpaths.

Behind each lesson was a story and behind each story was something embarrassing so Randal would keep this news to himself.

Spoiler

 ID# 129871

LD: 4

As Randal looked around and at his feet, checking behind him and ensuring that at no single moment, would he be blindsided by a random enemy. But he definitely forgot to look up at the mushrooms that were growing on a tree branch about 30 feet behind him.

Edited November 21, 2019 by Randal

[Randal 0]

Spoiler

 ID# 129872

LD: 17 (success)

Truly without making mistakes one might never learn, this was why introspection was so important to Randal. Since he was young he could never wrap his head around ideas in theory, well, he did know what his mistakes would mean logically, that doing a certain thing could possibly result in harms for himself, but he never learned until one day those harms really presented themselves.

The first thing he did was learn from his mistakes, to stop doing that particular thing because Randal did not want to keep hurting himself. The second thing he realised was that if he could only learn from making mistakes then there was something wrong with his mentality. Some mistakes were not worth making for a lesson. And Randal was willing learn only through mistakes, so through thinking through introspectively and making mistakes, Randal could identify his baseline of what he was willing to tolerate and otherwise.

As he was rubbing the dirt with his feet during this introspection session, he realised he was standing atop a bunch of truffles!

2/5 Ingredients Found

Edited November 21, 2019 by Randal

[Randal 0]

Spoiler

 ID# 129873

LD: 2

Dashing through the forest, Randal wondered if the things in the anime and manga of his old reality was accurate. So before embarrassing himself in front of potential eyewitnesses, he ensured that no one was around and then proceeded to bend his body in a ninety degree angle. He then adjusted his hands slowly one at a time until they were both angled slightly above his body in a V shape if you were looking from the top down.

He then proceeded to start running while trying his best to look forwards. Truth be told this was an incredibly difficult feat to pull off, the strain on the back and neck as well as the triceps made this running stance incredible tiring.

Unfortunately it was only at this moment after, that Randal realised that he didn’t do a control run originally so he couldn’t actually determine which was faster. So he quickly measured how fast he was when running from Tree A to Tree B.

Edited November 21, 2019 by Randal

[Randal 0]

Tree A to Tree B didn’t take very long to run considering the distance between them wasn’t even really that far, but it still took Randal a lot of concentration just to get through.

Spoiler

ID# 129877

LD:18(success)

3/5 Ingredients Found

Immediately after he reach Tree B, Randal took a quick break to look around and catch his breath and spotted a bush of spicy fruits dangling from them, the fact they were spicy totally was something he knew before he ate them. Quickly and quietly pocketing the pretty spicy Chili, Randal looked back to Tree A and got ready his standard running stance.

And off he went sprinting as normally as he could towards Tree A while counting, it was pretty clear that this was something that Randal could do as easily as breathing but trying to maintain the concentration to count every second exactly was way too difficult for Randal to feel comfortable.

Edited November 21, 2019 by Randal

[Randal 0]

So in conclusion, Randal ran slightly faster normally then in the other stance. After thinking about he figured that it’s probably because he didn’t have to focus so much on the rest of his body when he ran normally.

Feeling a little fitter than before, probably just a placebo effect from all that speed, he decided to job the rest of the way, looking around he had reached the end of the forest area and come across a beautiful plain, with sparse trees and a gentle breeze blowing, in the distance he could see another grouping of trees with a lake in the middle, that’s where he went during his first Mission and knew that somewhere over there was a good place to gather materials.

Spoiler

 ID# 129936

LD:18(success)

While he ran, he spotted some vines wrapped around a single tree in the clearing with little cases with beans in them, collecting the ingredients he was one step away from completing his task from Maggie.

4/5 Ingredients Found

Edited November 22, 2019 by Randal

[Randal 0]

After a few moments across the clearing he had reached the outskirts of the lake and decided to venture a bit further in the area than before, in search of some fish.

So he quietly and without trouble made his way over to the side of the lake and admired the greenery as well as some small insects like butterflies and such going about their day.

Casually sorting through the dirt while on hands and knees, Randal slowly began picking up some bait that was living in the moist soil below, he was fairly comfortable in the dirt, knowing things that could hurt him usually have a red indicator.

He definitely contemplated using these worms in his dishes too but the way they wriggled in his hand made him feel icky and thought that with a fair amount of certainty, people wouldn’t eat them.

Though he did manage to gather quite a number of worms so his fishing would go smoothly.

Spoiler

 ID# 129937

LD:1(fail)

[Randal 0]

It didn’t take him very long to find a suitable place to start fishing. He noted that the whole area around this part of the lack seemed devoid of any dangerous movement and so quietly put the bait on the hook and flung the rod as far as he could. 

And then the waiting game began, he knew that most of the fun in fishing was the talking to your friends while you did but he didn’t have any friends yet and could sit by himself.

Randal had heard that you could get a pet from somewhere on this floor but he would need to read up on it a little more in the guide.

Spoiler

 ID# 129963

LD: 14(fail)

Just at that moment, the tip of rod creaked forward and Randal quickly picked up his rod and started playing the fishing game. Reeling in the fish slowly and adjusting the tension as he went, unfortunately, the fish knew and managed to escape from Randal’s clutches. 

Edited November 22, 2019 by Randal

[Randal 0]

Not disheartened by the realism and factuality of fishing in this game, Randal brought the rod back up and saw that the damn fish had gotten away with his bait. 

So Randal carefully placed another piece of bait by impaling the worm at the hook and then tying it down with some peeled vines he had on his person. Raising his rod high into the air again, Randal flung his rod towards the far left of the pond this time.

Spoiler

 ID# 129965

LD:17(success)

With some time on his hands, Randal began to meditate with one hand on the pole to stay alert, who knows how much time had passed but the art of keeping still and controlling your breathing meant that time was irrelevant. 

When Randal finally opened his eyes the first thing he noticed was that a fat rat had fallen asleep while stealing from his bucket of worms, figuring he also probably forgot to reel in any fishes, the rod was useless too.

With a swift strike, he jabbed the rat and could make his way back, and that he did.

5/5 Ingredients Found

Edited November 22, 2019 by Randal

[Randal 0]

Randal had quickly withdrawn from the lake area and using his amazing sense of direction to make his back to the kitchen of M’am Maggie.

When he entered he already smelled food being made, clearly he was pretty slow in procuring food ingredients compared to a fully functioning business kitchen like hers. She probably had adventurers supplying her with ingredients all the time.

Not taking the feeling of missing out to heart, he approached the Iron Lady, and without a word she began teaching him how to cook.

Spoiler

 ID# 129976

CD: 8 LD:20 (Salvaged)

Randal observed that Ms Maggie had incredibly nimble and deft hands which alternated between chopping onions to crushing garlic to preparing her workstation for the meal.

As part of his lesson, he was to cook up a! edible meal to prove he could do so but even before got started the first ingredient refused to cooperate and was deemed a failure.

Edited November 22, 2019 by Randal

[Randal 0]

Failures are just the following steps to success. Randal wished that he could just instantly become a good cook but he knew that it was going to take him lots and lots and lots of experience just to get anywhere in this profession but he also knew that every single failure would be something to learn from, it was just like normal cooking except the degree of flexibility and the ease of preparation here is far more extensive and simple respectively, turning cooking into an even greater enjoyment if it didn’t sometimes fail.

Spoiler

 ID# 130000

CD: 1 (failure)

But this time Randal wouldn’t give up, so he spent a few more moments trying to get his preparation and ingredients in order ambit unfortunately he failed again.

He decided that before he would start working on the next thing, he would first sit down and study what he could prepare with he had, he figured he needed a better idea and theory behind his methods before he would get a success.

Edited November 22, 2019 by Randal

[Randal 0]

Randal would spend the next hour observing people who were using Maggie’s kitchen, exploring their tactics and habits as they went about they’re workload, he watched all manner of things in the kitchen and asked those he saw questions when they arose.

First, he would watch the cleaner wash the used plates and understand the importance of cleanliness in the kitchen. This would translate into a healthier work place and place to cook food because the people who would go on to ingest the food and if the work area was unclean then they might get sick or be ill, he had never heard of someone losing hp because of the food that they are but he knew that the game design was realistic and that what he learned here he might apply in the future. Even if Randal never ever had the aspirations to be a Chef in the first place, he was aware as someone who works with food how crucial it was to maintain hand hygiene and to wash his hands properly.

Edited November 22, 2019 by Randal

[Randal 0]

Randal would then go on to spend the hour after that watching apprentices go about making their preparation for their head chefs. This would involve retrieving the ingredients from the freezer or storage, washing the ingredients, and chopping them up into many different shapes and using many different knives to do so. So Randal went about familiarising himself with exactly how to chop ingredients such that the most ample flavour and texture could be achieved and learned that each type of cut would be used to accentuate different things so it would really depends on your dish at the end of the day.

He then noted the different types of knives that were used for different dishes, he did this even though it technically had no bearing because he was curious. And so Randal decided that with this amount of preparation he would begin cooking his dish in the next few minutes and such began to calm himself down.

[Randal 0]

So Randal began theorising what to make. He decided he should try to make a basic snack first, to begin small and then work his way up. So he began thinking about the kind snacks that he used to have back at home. And decided that vegetable chip snacks were the direction he wanted to go, so began asking around. Ensuring that at every step of the way he knew what he was doing.

Making the dish was going to involve some techniques that he had never done before. But it was fairly simple in theory, if this were real life, he was going to have to first slice the vegetables into the form that would be most appropriate to oven bake them, garnish with some oil before placing it them in batches to bake. Then he would have to make some garnish. Probably maybe figure out which combinations would make a good dip and he would have delicious and healthy-ish snack for the masses.

Spoiler

ID# 130073

CD: 9 LD:14 (salvage)

 

Edited November 23, 2019 by Randal

[Randal 0]

Randal was a very high octave person, he would never just chill around and do nothing unless he was seriously bothered or sad. And people would easily be able to tell if he were sad because he would wear it clearly not his expression, not one to hold his feelings close to his heart.

Randal looked around at the scare few players still here learning their profession and shared their sentiments in how frustrated they all looked as they tried and tried to make their own food and failed, truly the game was unforgiving.

In the real world, it would be appropriate to say that you would always succeed unless you burnt your food or mishandled the food and made it inedible but the game ran on luck and chance and based your chances on how much you’ve made so far. As a beginner, crafting was incredible difficult and Randal had experienced that first hand.

More than prepared, Randal began cooking.

Spoiler

ID# 130111

CD:9 LD: 16 (salvage)

Although his attempt was a failure, he didn’t give up and continued with the same ingredients.

Spoiler

 ID# 130112

CD: 2 LD: 5 (fail)

Again, Randal wasn’t succesful, this time the ingredients under command of the system disappeared, so he got out another set, fixed them and prepared.

Spoiler

 ID# 130118

CD: 10 LD: 15 (Uncommon Success)

With a tap of the system, a blue light appeared and Randal was that he had succeeded.

Edited November 23, 2019 by Randal

[Randal 0]

Randal was super happy that he managed to make his dish work! Even though it was a small success in the grand scale of things, it was a success nonetheless. Some players noticed his viable happiness and came over to take a look.

Randal checked the remaining two ingredients that he haven’t had the chance to make yet and decided to keep them for when he showed his dish to M’am Maggie and officially was conferred the title of cook. He knew that using this skill, he could create his own shop and sell them for Col or Materials to further enhance his abilities and so he decided then once he was out here, he should go look for a place to do that.

Thought designing and producing ingredients on such a massive scale would seem tiring, Randal didn’t seem to mind, and happily went about his way to look for his teacher.

 

[Randal 0]

His teacher was huddled over in one of the back rooms and only managed to find her after asking around with dish in hand. Randal has to explain to others that he wanted to get his dish evaluated and finally become an actual Chef.

When he entered the back room though, the atmosphere seem to change. He noticed other people sitting behind a bench and they looked like judges.

It was only after asking a bit more that he learned this was a cooking battle. M’am Maggie had been challenged by one of her former students for the rights to take over her shop, Randal supposed this might be a quest in the future for greater fame and glory, maybe to be become a great Chef or maybe as a form of kitchen smashing.

Randal had entered just as the Chef were putting on the final touches to their dishes. The first one to present was the former student and he scored 89.0 from the three judges sitting at the bench. However, when M’am Maggie presented her dish, the judges despite having eaten already started salivating from the smell, even Randal started getting hungry, shortly she received a 99.0 score and was decided the victor.

[Randal 0]

Celebrating in her victor, M’am Maggie spotted Randal and quickly came over, her speed once again nowhere near fitting for her size.

”Hello again! Do you have something for me?” She asked.

Without a word and an extremely stupid smile on his face, Randal took out his snack and presented it to her.

”Mhmm these look delicious!” With a quick hand she tasted some and gave her approval.

”Well done, I can now say that you are a cook through and through. With this you can open up your own shop. As a reward, I’ll also quietly give these 5 ingredients to you to play with. Don’t tell the rest of the kitchen hehe.” She laughed.

Randal listened to everything she said as they walked towards the exit. He was told that the hardest and most disheartening part would be the failures along the way and the effort he had to put into every day of his cooking life. Because  she said that even she would not be where she was without the years of practice and effort she put in.

With a final nugget of wisdom to send him on his way, she waved goodbye, proud to have made another student graduate.

Spoiler

Thread Summary

Quest Rewards

1 SP

5 T1 Materials

Cook Profession

Cook Shop

Successfully Crafted Item

Thread Reward

1 SP

400 Col