[F17-SP] Becoming a Next Level Chef (Challenge of the Olympus: Cook)

[Rebekah 0]

Rebekah had woke up this morning, and was going through her inbox and notifications. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that there was a new quest that she could accept. This had shown up without her talking to anyone. As she began to read the quest, she noticed this sent to all players upon reaching level 2. She did not know how she missed this notice previously. Rebekah wanted some way to prove to everyone and herself that she was a good chef.

Rebekah received an invite to visit the 17th floor. She had previously disregarded her notice until now, as she had not went past floor 12. She had heard players being very excited for the quest rewards, so she knew it would be worth all the trouble. As she exited her shop, and head towards the teleportation gate, she knew she was ready to tackle this challenge. All she needed to do is to simply execute and complete the challenge.

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Rebekah
Level 31 | HP 620/620 | EN 80/80 | DMG: 22 | MIT:  48 | ACC: 3 | EVA: 1 | LD: 2
Battle Heal 5% | Survival +10% | Anti-freeze | EN - 2

Equipment:
Laevateinn II (T4 RAPIER) 3 [DMG]
 Silver Necklace (T4 Trinket) 3 [ACC]
Unbroken (T4 Shield) 2 [MIT] [Anti-freeze]

Skills:
Weapon Skill (R5) | 7 [DMG]
Battle Healing (R5) | 5% (31 HP)
Searching (R2) | 2 [LD] 2 [SD]

Combat Masteries:
Evasion (R1) | 1 [EVA]

Add-ons:
Ferocity | 2 [DMG]
Stamina | 2 [EN]

Extra:
Survival
Disguise

Items:
N/A

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[Rebekah 0]

As Rebekah got out of the teleportation gate into the city of Athenaia, she was amazed by the white marble architecture that dominated this city. It was the first time that she had visited the city, but she knew that she would have to come back another time to visit and tour the sites. Today was different, Rebekah knew that she will need to make her way to Olympus, but that was not an easy destination to get to. When she accepted the quest, she was prompted to visit the city of Olympus. Normally, this path was a treacherous one as there were many strong monsters that lurk around the path. However, she needed to go find her guard and ensure that the "Blessing of the Olympus" buff was active on her. After all, this is going to keep her safe on this floor as she head to an from the special city. As Rebekah checked her stats one last time, she was ready to began her trek.

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[Rebekah 0]

As Rebekah walked around the city of Athenaia, she eventually found the Satyr. "There you are." Rebekah said. She had been finding this guard all over the city, but it took her over an hour to find him. "Where were you this entire time?".

The Satyr did not respond to her comment. "Are you trying to visit Olympus?" The Satyr asked. Rebekah nodded her head and immediately saw the Satyr began chanting words in ancient greek. Rebekah did not understand a single word that was said, but after 30 seconds she noticed a new buff showed up next to her HP bar at the top of her screen. The Satyr then said, "Follow Me."

This was not a talkative Satyr as they began to make their way out of the settlement of Athenaia. Rebekah had tried to make small talk to make the trip out of the settlement less boring, but the Satyr was not responding. As they took their first step out of the Athenaia, Rebekah made sure to have her rapier ready in case anything happens. After all, she is safe from monsters but it was a habit that she always had as a girl traveling alone.

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[Rebekah 0]

As the group headed up the mountain, it was dead silent. Rebekah was begin to feel the physical effects of going up the steep mountain. In addition, she was starting to slowly feel a little bit faint. Rebekah was surprised that she was starting to tire out from the walk, and requested if the Satyr can slow down or at least let her quickly regain her breath.

"Can we slow down?" Asked the girl. The Satyr did not respond, but did began to walk a little bit slower. Rebekah knew that this was the best that could happen. After all, there were many monsters watching her climb the mountain, but they dare not go near her with the buff. It made them all watch on the side, so Rebekah did want to get to Olympus as safely as possible. The slower pace did help a lot, as Rebekah was now able to get some water into her and she felt a lot less exhausted climbing up the steep trail. She could begin to make out the settlement of Olympus in the distance.

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[Rebekah 0]

As the group entered Olympus, Rebekah was looking for Hestia. Rebekah had never paid a lot of attention in history class in school, so her knowledge of Greek Gods was very poor. She knew about Zeus but was trying to recall what she looked like. Rebekah did not know, but luckily, the Satyr knew she was a chef. Therefore, he lead the young girl towards the main battle arena in the settlement.

When they arrived at their destination, Rebekah was nervous, she was wondering why they were heading to the middle of the fighting arena. Inside the arena, there were two nearly identical kitchens. She looked around and saw a goddess standing by one of the kitchens. Suddenly, she knew what was going to happen. This will be a cooking competition, but with a lot of spectators around her. The Satyr lead her directly to the goddess. The god spoke, "Welcome Challenger Rebekah to the Olympus. Do you wish to challenge me?" Rebekah receive a system notification and got an update in her Quest Journal.

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[Rebekah 0]

Rebekah nodded and physically entered yes in her screen pop up. Immediately, Hestia spoke, "You have 2 hours to make a dish worthy of beating me, and you will win my cauldron. This battle will be judged by the Satyr. Your 2 hours begin now."

Rebekah scrambled and look around and immediately saw a table of ingredients show up between the two kitchens. She quickly ran over to her kitchen in the arena and began to take note of what tools she had available. Hestia had begun cooking as the ingredients magically appeared at her station. Rebekah saw she had the basics pots, pans and knives. She began to head over to the table where the ingredients were here.

She did not know what the Satyr would like to eat, and thus she knew she needed to elevate a dish. She was drawing a blank in her mind as she began to go over the ingredients, proteins, vegetables, starch. This is a bit overwhelming, and she took a step back. She needed to get some inspiration from the following ingredients.

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[Rebekah 0]

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a fillet of beef. Rebekah decided to walk towards it and grab it as part of her dish. She knew she needed to make the beef the star of the show. In addition, she knew she needed to pair the beef with some ingredients, and also took some potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms back to her station. She knew that she was not done yet, and decided to head back for some flour, eggs, butter, salt, and bacon. This will do for now and she head back to her station to get everything organized.

Rebekah quickly took out a bowl and began to insert flour and salt into the giant mixing bowl. She then began to mix the flour and salt together ensuring that it was completely mixed before moving on towards the next step. She began to cut some butter cut in small pieces and slowly added it to the bowl and continued to mix the bowl. Everything was just starting to come together, so the girl began to add some cold water and continued to mix to ensure all the ingredients blended together.

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[Rebekah 0]

As the ingredients in the first bowl began being blended together, she quickly dusted the table with flour and dumb the mixture on the table. She grabbed a rolling pin and began to flatten the dough by rolling it out, flattening it and folding it back in several times. Rebekah knew that she does not want to overwork the dough to make it tough so it needed to be done just enough. Rebekah decided that she needed the dough to be strong enough and not fall a part in the oven later.

After a few times, the dough was finally smooth. Since a refrigerator did not exist, Rebekah filled a bigger bowl with ice, and put the dough in a small pan on the ice in order to cool it down. This was the first part done, and 15 minutes have already elapsed. She did not have time to look over at Hestia, her goddess challenger. Rebekah began to sear the beef. She was not planning on cooking for long but just long enough for the outside red colour to turn dark brown.

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[Rebekah 0]

As the beef began to sear on all sides, Rebekah began to dice up the mushroom into a fine paste. As she did not have a blender, this was time to show off her knife skills. As Rebekah diced the mushroom into a mush, it as perfect timing as the fillet had completely seared. This allowed her to transfer the beef back to the table and allow her to place the extremely diced mushrooms into the pan to evaporate the liquid. Essentially, she wanted the mushroom to be dry. She also started boiling a pot of water on the fire place. She made sure to salt the water to help bring down the boiling temperature.

This was perfect time for Rebekah to began working on the potatoes and carrots. She will first start with the potatoes. She needed to begin to peel both the potatoes and carrots. Since she did not have a peeler, Rebekah began to use a small knife to take the skin off of both vegetables. Luckily the potatoes were not very large, but this allowed her to to be able to quickly cut the skin off on several potatoes. Rebekah quickly cut each potato into several smaller pieces and dump it into a pot of boiling water.

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[Rebekah 0]

As the potatoes began to boil in water, Rebekah turned her attention to the carrots. She wanted something to serve as garnish on the dish. Therefore, the best idea that she came up with is to puree the carrots to go with the potatoes. Therefore, she needed to soften the carrots up into a consistency similar to a paste. In order to do this, she was going to have to boil the carrots in another pot of water once the potatoes are done. She began cutting and pealing the carrots into a smaller size to reduce the cooking time. Meanwhile, she needed to check on her roasting mushrooms to ensure it does not burn. The cooling dough and the beef are not being cooked, so there is nothing to worry about for now.

Rebekah had many things going on at the same time, and already 45 minutes have elapsed. She knew she needed to keep up this multi-tasking in order to have a chance to win. She knew she was going to cut it close with the remaining time left in this challenge. As the mushroom mush was dry, it was time to take it off the pan and onto the plate. The potatoes were also cooked enough for her to take it out of the pot and replace it with carrots.

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[Rebekah 0]

Since the mushroom mixture was now ready, Rebekah began to cook the bacon lightly. She was not trying to fry into crispy bacon, but rather she was looking for some colour and for it to soak up some of the remaining flavour from the mushroom and the fillet. As the bacon did not take long to cook, and now that it was warm, she placed the bacon strips next to each other forming a rectangular shape. The next step, Rebekah then took the mushroom mixture and then scoped it out of the bowl and on top of the warm bacon. She then flatten the mixture with the back of the spoon and mixed it across the entire bacon. She wanted it to be as level and flat as possible for the next step. This will help ensure the even cooking time that she was looking for when she was going to cook everything.

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[Rebekah 0]

The next step, Rebekah then needed something to bind the mushroom to the beef. She decided to see if she could find a paste substance, something that has high viscosity. She decided to run to the ingredients pantry to grab some honey. This is perfect, she began to apply the honey across the entire fillet of beef. Then she placed the fillet on top of the mushroom. She began to wrap the bacon and mushroom around the fillet to ensure that it was fully sealed with no part of the beef showing. She took the completed product and decided to grab a cloth and roll it up as tight as she can to keep the shape as best as possible. This was an important part, and she knew she needed to make this set and not break apart. Rebekah tied this into a knot and placed it into the makeshift fridge that she was using, which was a pan in a large bowl of ice. She placed the cloth package of beef inside and put a lid on top to ensure it was going to set in the cold.

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[Rebekah 0]

Finally, the carrots were done in boiling water. Rebekah can finally move on top the next step, which was to take it out of the boiling water. She needed to mash the cooked carrots into a puree for her dish. Therefore, she began to get to work with the flat blade of her knife. Rebekah began to push down on the carrots to turn them into a liquid. Rebekah was going to have to exert a lot of physical energy today for her dish to come together. The colour of the carrots need to be just right as she mashed all the fibers into a liquid. Rebekah also knew that she needed to strain it, so she grabbed a cheese cloth as a substitute, and laid it over the container. She then push the mashed carrots against the cheese cloth and kept pushing it down. Eventually, liquid started to appear in the container, and this was a job well done by her.

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[Rebekah 0]

Now, it was finally time to focus back on the beef package. Rebekah took out the pastry and laid it down against the work station. She then took the bacon wrapped beef out of the container, and began to prepare it by placing it in the center of the puff pastry that she had made. She then began to wrap the puff pastry around the beef, ensuring that she cut off any excess pastry. While she was doing this, she made sure to get it as tight as possible in order to allow the entire product to stay tight and compact. Now was the fun part, Rebekah took a few eggs and started to break them. She separated the egg yolk from the egg whites into the bowl. She then beat the egg yolk to form a consistent yellow mixture and put it off to the side. She began to grab her knife and decided to the top of the puff pastry so that it can create a design after baking it in the oven. Rebekah knew that this was where her technical skills on a knife will shine. She began to make a little cut, not deep enough to break the pastry but just enough to ensure to help release some heat, and also it would look good.

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[Rebekah 0]

Once that was done, Rebekah decided to put the beef into a make shift oven provided at Olympus. She now had some time to take a quick breath before working on the next part of her dish, the potatoes. The plan for her was to mash the potatoes, and since she had cooked it in boiling water, she was now able to begin to smash it. Rebekah wanted to add some butter to get the make it creamy and buttery. That is the goal, so she began to break down the potatoes in a giant pot. She had planned to bake her beef in the oven for fifteen minutes. She was begin to plan the presentation of her dish and decided she needed something to go with the beef and the potatoes. She knew she had just enough time to make homemade gravy. Since there was not enough time to make a brand new beef broth, Rebekah took all the left overs from the searing of the beef, mushrooms and bacon and combined into one new pot. She began to add a slab of butter and begin to let that melt.

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[Rebekah 0]

While this was happening, Rebekah continued to mash the potatoes, all while trying to get this gravy to work. As the butter began to melt she added an equal amount of flour to thicken the sauce. This will help bind the sauce and reduce the viscosity of it to allow it to sit on the plate. She needed to ensure the gravy does not burn so she left the potatoes for now. As the gravy was beginning to thicken, Rebekah was looking to flavour the gravy but was thinking about what to add. Normally, she would add some powder, so instead she decided to quickly dice up an onion. This was hard work, as she needed to dice it up as finely as possible so it would melt and not be noticeable, but the onion was releasing the chemical that is making her cry. This was making it harder for her to see and where her knife would go. Eventually, she was able to dice the onion and add it to the gravy for it to simmer.

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[Rebekah 0]

The beef was finally ready after 15 minutes, so Rebekah decided to take it out for the beef to rest prior to serving it. She was looking for a perfect medium rare steak. This was the target. So she sat the beef on the cutting board. The golden brown baked puff pastry with the scoring made it look delicious. She was going to sprinkle some salt on top to give it the extra flavour. This meant it was finally time to go back to the potatoes. She needed to finish mashing the potatoes to go on her dish. She gave the mash a quick taste, and it was so buttery and creamy. That was the best mash potatoes she has ever made, and perhaps one of the top meals she had ate since she was trapped in this game. She transferred the mash potato into a bowl, and she had only 10 minutes left. TIme has flown by rather quickly.

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[Rebekah 0]

Rebekah looked up at the other table, and saw Hestia was a platter of food from ancient greece. This included a grilled fish, Rebekah believes it was a swordfish with the classic combination of a homemade bread dipped in red wine. In addition, she could see a lot of vegetables, prawns glazed in a special sauce. Rebekah believes it was a honey given the colour, and finally a roasted piece of lamb on a plate. This looked like a plate from a buffet made of food for a god. Of course, there was also a glass of wine to go with everything for the Satyr.

Rebekah began putting her plate together, She first laid out the mash potato on the plate. Then she poured the gravy overtop the mash potatoes and put it into a special container for the Satyr to pour. This was the moment of truth, the beef, she slowly cut it open in the middle, hoping to find the perfect colour. It was medium rare, she was relieved. She cut two slices from the middle and placed it on to the plate, and then added the carrot puree for the extra colour in a circle around the plate. Rebekah was finally done cooking with a minute to spare. She decided to also grab a bottle of red wine to go along with her dish for the Satyr. She was finally finished.

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[Rebekah 0]

Hestia had gone first, and presented her dish to the Satyr. Rebekah had not noticed it until now due to the extreme tunnel vision, that she was cooking in a massive arena with a full audience packed with gods from Zeus to Athena. Hestia named her dish, a selection of dishes made for the Gods at the Olympus. The Satyr took one bite and immediately fell in love with the dish. Rebekah was starting to be worried, as she knew she needed to win this cook off. The Satyr comment on Hestia's dish as it was comfort food, the type of food he grew up eating all on a plate.

It was now time for Rebekah to explain her dish, she named it a "I have made a Beef Wellington. The Wellington was cooked to a beautiful medium rare, and glazed with honey. The beef is wrapped with a puff pastry in a bacon mushroom mixture. There is also some mashed potatoes with gravy and finished with a carrot puree."

The Satyr had began to cut into the beef pastry and made sure to grab a bit of mash potato and gravy on the beef before putting the bite into his mouth. He froze for a second before taking a lot more bites. The Satyr said, "I have never tasted anything like this before. The beef is so tender it just gives way the moment you cut into it."

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[Rebekah 0]

Rebekah was finally feeling a lot more relief, and she noticed a few of the gods are taking a closer look from their seats in the stadium at her dish. The Satyr was going to take a few minutes to think about the winner, and Hestia went up to her and asked, "Mortal, can I taste your dish?"

Rebekah obliged since she did not want to anger the god, especially in the city of the Olympus where the entire population is made of gods and goddess, and all their servants. Rebekah cut a piece of the beef wellington and put some mash potatoes and gravy on to another plate for the god to try. The moment Hestia bite took a bite, she collapsed onto the floor. This was the most delicious food she had ever tasted. It was a dish worthy of being someone's last supper.

"This is the best dish I have ever tasted" Hestia spoke.

A few of the gods in the audience was stunned, Hestia was giving praised to a mortal in their eyes.

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