[SP-17] <<Challenge Of Olympus: Cook>>

[Cordelia 0]

Cordelia drummed a set of fingers against the hard wooden counter of her shop as she gnawed on a small dried up bamboo shoot. She had actually been chewing these a lot more recently, sometimes, they weren’t even buffed. It just became a pass time for her whenever she became bored. It was pretty tasteless in it of itself so it wasn’t like she was eating it because she liked it.

No, it was more like it was just. . . really crunchy, tasteless gum that she could swallow.

NIGHT came by to her shop the other day, her first customer, and to be honest, Cordelia hadn’t expected her to buy all of the stock. She really hadn’t expected her to buy anything. Maybe people actually dried bamboo shoots? She heard it went well with ramen. . . but her cooking capabilities weren’t high enough to make ramen. . . yet.

[Cordelia 0]

She was midway through finishing the shoot when a notification ping suddenly rang through her desolate shop. “Hah?” She exclaimed, opening up her HUD menu, and frankly, was quite surprised that she had a message from. . . someone or whatever, but, but. A rare quest? She chuckled. Don’t mind if she did! 

She quickly chewed down the remnants of her snack and leaped over the counter. It was about time she finds something! 

Cordelia shivered as she left the warm embrace of her shop. She had quickly forgotten how cold it was on floor four. . . which was a reason why she had decided to make a ramen shop here of all places. It was a bad idea yet a good idea. A nice bowl of ramen was nice for anyone traveling by, right? Yeah, sure. She just hoped that the cold wouldn’t drive away most of the potential customers.

[Cordelia 0]

When Cordelia arrived at floor seventeen. . . well, let’s just say she was somewhat surprised. There it was. Half man, half goat thing. She was surprised because. . . well, it was a half man, half goat thing, but that was also the exact reason why she wasn’t surprised. This was Aincrad, she shouldn’t be surprised by this kind of stuff anymore.

Cordelia looked up at the man-- thing, as he approached her.

“Are you Cordelia?”

“I’m assuming that you have something to do with the reason why I came up here, and yes.”

“Miss Cordelia!” The satyr roared, which nearly left her and a few other players and NPCs around her with a heart attack. “You are wanted in Mount Olympus by her grace, Hestia!” He boomed, before looking down at her again.

“Wow, thanks,” she muttered once she had finally gotten her hearing back. “It’s an honor, really, and I mean really, but I have a slight problem, Mr. Half Man, Half Goat.”

[Cordelia 0]

The creature gave her a pointed look. “What is it?” He asked, his voice not lowering one bit.

“Well, first, your voice is making my head hurt. . . and,” she paused, giving him an equally pointed look. 

“How the hell do you expect me to go up a bloody mountain with stilettos?” She queried with a passive-aggressive tone as she held up a booted foot.

“I-”

“You don’t. That is the answer. So listen here Mr. Half Man, Half Goat--”

“I’m a satyr--”

“I’m not done talking.” That shut him up rather quickly, actually. “As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted. You don’t, and I repeat, you don’t expect me to walk up that mountain with stilettos.”

What? It was pointless trying to talk to NPCs nicely nowadays. Plus, it lets her act like a total asshole sometimes. She has to let off steam somehow, right?

[Cordelia 0]

“So listen here, Goat Man--”

“I’m a satyr--”

“Shut up. So as I was saying, again. I am not going to walk up a mountain with stilettos. I repeat, I am not.” She paused, clasping her hands in front of her as she narrowed her eyes at the satyr. “These legs aren’t going to be carried by themselves, Mr. Goat Man.”

[ON MOUNT OLYMPUS. . .]

“Jesus Christ!” She exclaimed as she hopped off of the satyr’s back. “You didn’t tell me you could run like a bloody bullet train!” Cordelia frowned, tucking her strands of loose silver hair back into place. 

“That’s what you get for calling me Mr Half--”

“Did I ask?” She said, giving the half goat half man creature a look before she shuffled away from him. Satyrs these days. She shook her head. Always so rowdy.

Cordelia tilted her chin up as she arrived at the gates of hell-- oh wait, wrong place-- I meant Olympia.

[Cordelia 0]

“Ah, I see that you have made it, Cordelia,” a warm, almost angelic voice greeted her as she stepped through the gates. “A bit roughed up, I see?”

Cordelia deadpanned. “Yeah, no thanks to Mr. Goat Man over here.” She pointed over her shoulder and towards the satyr. 

Hestia gave a gentle laugh. “I suppose it happens. Well, I assume that you are curious as to why I sent you up here?”

Honestly, she wasn’t all that curious. She just wanted to get some EXP down from a quest, and that was pretty much it. She could care less what its contents were.

“Er. . . sure, let’s go with that. So why did you bring me up here?” She asked, tilting her head. 

“I called for you because I would like to challenge you to a battle--”

“Oh, a battle, you say? Let’s go, Hestia! I’ll take you, one on one. Fists only!” She exclaimed, getting into a fighting stance.

[Cordelia 0]

The goddess looked surprised for a second before she went back to her default features. “No, no, dear. A battle of the crafts, as you might say. I have seen you have acquired a nice little shop in a small snow covered town, yes?” She asked, to which Cordelia silently nodded. “You have been getting quite good at cooking--”

“Well, if you can call boiling and drying bamboo cooking--”

“-- so I would like for you to test your skills on the battlefield. The battlefield of crafts, that is.”

Lame. Well, that was her first thought, anyway. She wanted to fight in a real battlefield. . . not whatever this was, but then she realized that this might actually be fun. She hadn’t ever really cooked before. Course, she watched Oscar cook all the time and. . . she saw Rosie cook before, a few times at least, but that was a long time ago.

[Cordelia 0]

”Hm, alright, Hestia. I accept your challenge!” Cordelia exclaimed, beaming up at the goddess.

“Splendid! We shall get right to work!” The figure exclaimed, clapping her hands, and poof. Cordelia had suddenly found herself in a completely different location, but she was still pretty sure she was somewhere on the mountain, but this time, there was a whole kitchen’s worth of equipment and ingredients piled high on tall shelves.

“Oh wow,” Cordelia said under her breath incredulously. 

“I shall give you ten minutes to think of what to do!” Hestia’s voice boomed as she took a spot on the opposite side of the ‘kitchen’. “Once you hear the bell ring, you may be free to get your ingredients and tools to help you on this challenge!”

This sort of reminded her of a cooking show she had once seen on TV before.

“Hey, do I get to sabotage you?” She called towards the goddess.

[Cordelia 0]

”No,” she replied flatly before smiling again. She raised her hand above her head and inhaled. “The ten minute planning period may now commence!” She brought her hand down and the sound of a gong being stroked rang through Cordelia’s ears.

“Ah, [censored],” she whispered, scrambling to her place, which was behind a couple of stainless steel counters with nothing on them but a small notepad and pen on it.

What would she even make? She’s never made anything before! She doubted that she would win by boiling just a couple of bamboo shoots down and plopping it on a plate! No, no. She needed to make something grand. Something big. Something awesome. She bit her lip in thought.

What was something relatively easy to make yet a fulfilling meal? Her thoughts drifted back to her childhood. To her sitting on a high chair while she watched a familiar figure handle the stove. 

Cordelia smiled to herself unconsciously, and that’s when it had hit her.

[Cordelia 0]

Ramen.

How had she not seen it before? Ramen!

It was easy. It was simple. It was good! It was. . . somewhat fast. 

Cordelia grinned. Heck yeah, she was going to make ramen! She began noting down some of the things she was going to need in her super-duper awesome soup.

Noodles, wheat. She might have to make them herself if they didn’t have it.

Broth, most likely a lot of soy sauce and other things. . . mushrooms, maybe? Shittake? 

Chansu. Her mouth nearly watered at the thought. Yep, definitely going to get that! 

Ah. . . what else? Egg? Soft or hard-boiled? She always preferred soft, so maybe that was the right choice.

Maybe a lot of green onion, that was always a nice thing to have.

She laughed under her breath. This was actually going a lot better than she had thought it would be.

“And. . . the ten minutes is up!”

[Cordelia 0]

Cordelia had barely registered the gong being bashed again before her body instinctively went to wherever the ingredients were. 

God damn, was Hestia loaded. She literally had a whole supermarket in here or something! Cordelia frowned, this was going to be hell.

It had taken her precisely an hour and twenty-six minutes to gather all of the ingredients she needed for this ramen. Keep in mind, she had only needed about ten to fifteen things. Yet, it had taken her more than an hour to get it all. That was exactly how big this mini supermarket was!

Once she was back at her work spot, Cordelia let an exhausted sigh. She wasn’t even cooking yet and she was already exhausted? Weak.

“Er, Hestia!” She called. “Exactly how much time do we have for this. . . battle of the crafts?”

“However long you want, dear!” A voice claimed by the goddess replied back.

[Cordelia 0]

Ah, well that was nice. She can probably be cooking here forever and no one would even know it.

Knowing that she literally had an eternity to do this, Cordelia looked behind her, to where all the tools were placed. She was talking pots and pans of every frekin’ kind. This was not a joke. 

Ten minutes was how long it took for her to haul the equipment back to her workspace. Thanks a lot, skinny limbs.

Cordelia gulped as she clapped her hands together. “Alright, ramen time!” She exclaimed as she began to dump a whole bunch of liquids into the pot. She was talking a whole hell lot of soy sauce, water, and whatever else you put into ramen, including the meat.

She wondered if she could’ve just gotten a packaged ramen bowl and called it a day. Would that have even worked? Was there even packaged ramen in Aincrad? Hm, she was going to have to change that.

[Cordelia 0]

While she was waiting for the broth to be ready, Cordelia went off to make the most important part of the ramen. The noodles! You would just have soggy meat and vegetables if you didn’t have noodles! Yeah, Cordelia was going to get right on to that. Noodles were probably one of the hardest things she was going to have to make while making this ramen. 

Trial one ended in some very liquidy. . . dough?

Trial two didn’t have enough liquid, which practically just made it really crumbly flour.

Trial three ended with noodles the size of plastic straws.

Trial four ended with noodles that were smaller than a toothpick.

It was only then did she try to make noodles for the fifth time did she succeed. They were in no way perfect, but it was good enough for her! Cordelia set the strands of flour on a strainer while she got ready for the next step.

The chashu.

[Cordelia 0]

Probably one of her most favorite parts of the ramen was the chashu, or the meat, or whatever. It was savory, it was salty, it was so many things! 

Of course, like with the noodles. She had to get these just right. Not perfect, but at least enough to be edible and somewhat good. 

She started up by rolling up the pork belly into a tight roll. Somewhat like one of those cakes. . . but with meat. She then quickly tied it together with a couple of threads of string before she set it in the fridge. . . which was apparently a thing here?

While she waited for that to get all nice and ready, she pulled out her eggs. Another one of her favorite parts of the ramen. Seriously, the egg is so underrated! 

Cordelia cackled as she prepared the marinade for it, which really just consisted of all soy sauce with a bit of other sauces, but yeah. There was her marinade.

[Cordelia 0]

While she let the eggs set in in the marinade, she moved back to the broth. By now, everything should be finished mixing together. At first, she didn’t know what to expect when she lifted the lid off of the pot. Something along the lines of a dead animal, but no, it actually smelled kind of good. Again, not perfect, but she was pretty sure it was a decent broth for a first-timer!

She turned the heat off and hummed in thought. Well. She guessed it was just playing the waiting game for now. 

She needed to wait for the chashu to freeze and for the eggs to marinade. That was going to take a couple of hours at the very least. Well. . . she really had all the time in the world here, though, right? A small nap couldn’t really hurt. Right? Yeah, yeah, it won’t. It definitely won’t.

[Cordelia 0]

Cordelia jolted awake. 

“Hah?” She mumbled tiredly, rubbing her head with a frown. Where did she even fall asleep. . . oh, on a table. Neat. 

Everything should be ready, and she said should because she was pretty sure disaster could strike any given time. 

Cordelia blinked as she took the tray of pork belly out of the chilly fridge before she plopped it down on the table. What. . . what was she supposed to do with this again? She was pretty she spent at least ten minutes just staring at the pork belly, wondering what to do with the thing before she had that ‘aha’ moment. 

She was supposed to cut it, duh. . . when did she get so stupid? Maybe napping wasn’t the best of ideas she has had today, but hey. It felt nice. That was all that mattered. Though, her sleep schedule was probably going to be permanently effed after this quest.

[Cordelia 0]

Cordelia took a kitchen knife and began to slowly cut the pork belly into strips, which was probably one of the most satisfying things she had ever done her life. 

Once she was done with that. . . then came the fun part. She chuckled under her breath as she grabbed the blowtorch. She could’ve used other methods to cooking this, but where exactly was the fun in that? Zero. The answer was that there was zero fun in that. Everyone needed a little bit of fire in their life, so she assumed that this was the perfect time to have a little bit of it in hers. 

Searing the pork belly was a lot less cooler than she thought it would be, but she still felt pretty awesome when she was holding the blowtorch. Again, who wouldn’t feel awesome holding a blowtorch? Everyone. That was the answer. Everyone would feel cooler holding a blowtorch.

[Cordelia 0]

By the time she had finished her time with her lovely, lovely, lovely blowtorch, the pork belly was already a nice but bold brow and gold color, not to mention how gorgeous that swirl was, yum. She set the tray aside. Now it was time to pull the baby eggs out of their container! Once she had pulled out of the eggs, she sighed in relief when the outside was a nice, sort of. . . gray-ish brown color? Okay, it wasn’t really that nice to look at but she was sure that the inside look okay! Using a small kitchen knife and a cutting board, she slowly cut open a few eggs and thank God that they looked okay. Of course, they weren’t in the marinade for long so it wasn’t as nice as it could be but Cordelia really didn’t want to stay here for more than a couple of hours.

[Cordelia 0]

It didn’t take long before she had the whole bowl of ramen ready. She just pretty much had to put everything together. Like a puzzle! First came the noodles, then the toppings like the egg, chashu, and green onion-- which she had cut up shortly before she had prepared the bowl-- and then finally, the broth. God, by the time she had filled the bowl with broth, she just wanted to fall flat on her face and die. She wasn’t that physically tired but she was pretty sure her brain had been toaster fried. 

“Uh, alright, Hestia. I think I’m done!” She called, to which the sound of a gong being rang filled the air again.

Hestia strutted over to her counter and grinned. “Wonderful, young Cordelia! It looks simply splendid!” Hestia exclaimed, clapping her hands together as she examined the bowl of ramen Cordelia had.

“Well, shall we let the judges have a taste, then?”

[Cordelia 0]

"Eh, judge?" Cordelia echoed, her expression suddenly darkening. Oh crap. A judge. Stupid, stupid, stupid! It was a frekin' cooking competition! How could she forget that there would be a judge?! 

She felt stupid. No, she felt beyond stupid. It was okay, though. No, it was fine. "Ah, I see. . . well, who's the judge?" She asked. Hestia nodded over to a small table, where. . . oh my God.

Mr. Goat Man!.

Cordelia could feel herself sweat. Oh crap. She should not have made him carry her up a mountain 

[AFTER THE JUDGING]

Okay, so it turns out that he didn't even remember carrying her up a mountain! What a relief, she was pretty sure she would've lost if he had remembered. . . haha. . . Oh well. SO basically how the judging was was basically him just trying out her and Hestia's food. Of course, Hestia's food was perfect since she was a literal goddess but something about the comment the satyr had given to her made her smile. "It tasted like you put heart into it," she chuckled. Maybe the half goat man wasn't so bad after all. 

By the time the night had started to set, Cordelia was already about to leave the mountain, but before she could, Hestia stopped her. Cordelia had almost forgotten about the reward until Hestia had mentioned it. She just. . . wanted to go home.

"Here, it should help you in cooking for now on," Hestia murmured, casting Cordelia a smile. From the palms of her hands, a blue purple fire emitted, slowly circling around Cordelia before it disappeared. "May the Gods be with you, young one," she whispered, nodding her head to the player before she vanished in a gust of wind.

Cordelia placed her hands on her hips, somewhat content with how the day had been.

"Well, Mr. Goat Man, you ready to carry me back down?"