Early the next morning I arose from a very restless sleep, lots of thoughts running through my mind the predominant one being that I made the right choice, however in the end it seemed right and worst case I could save up my money and figure something out.
Packing my belongings, which just consisted of an old tattered academy uniform I had not worn again since I left, the spare tunic and pants provided by the temple and my 5 copper held in a tiny leather pouch provided by Martin.
With that he left his room for the last time, heading into the main hall he decided not to say good bye to Martin again, although it certainly crossed his mind instead heading out of the Temple into the town, even at this time of the morning the streets were bustling with activity.
After making his way over to The Roaring Inn, he walked inside being greeted almost immediately by his new boss Larry behind the bar area.
"Ah you're here early, that works, follow me!" Larry called out after noticing me
"Come let me introduce you to Geo he's working in the kitchen and you'll be working along side him, as well as Micca rounding out our team" with that Larry went through the door to the kitchen, I quickly followed after him Immediately struck by two things, how small this kitchen was in comparison to the Temple, but also how chaotic it looked in comparison, there were pots and pans hanging from the walls, a variety of utensils hanging off hooks, what looked to be meat drying on hooks near a air vent.
"Geo" Larry called out grabbing the small mans attention "This here is Trevor, I've hired him as a Kitchen Hand and all rounder so when you need assistance this is your man, I don't want to see you try and put a kitchen knife in my hand again" Larry chuckled
"Trevor this is Geo, he's the Cook here at The Roaring Inn, and he works wonders most of the time" Larry grinned hoping to get a rise out of the cook, he was not successful
"Hello Trevor its great to finally have some help" Geo said holding out his hand to shake
Introductions done Geo went straight back to work, "Right there is rarely a quiet moment here" Larry said, "I'll show you were you are sleeping, it's not much I'll warn you, but its better than nothing"
Larry led him through another door heading deeper into the Inn, "On the right there is my office, it's off limits unless you need me, always knock, on the left is the pantry for the Kitchen, Geo will show you all that when you start with him" and stopping before a room that was barely larger than the mattress that was sitting on the floor in it Larry said "and this is you, I gave you some fresh bedding but it will be your job to ensure it stays clean from now on, there is a hook up there to hang any belongings you have up"
I looked at the space it was really very small but, how much room did I really need?
"Thank you" I said, "what would you like me to do first?" I asked
Larry pondered for a moment "I'm heading back to the bar, but I'll leave you with Geo to show you the ropes, for Lunch period I'll have you out front I'll show you how to pour a drink and you can help Micca"
I was guided back to the kitchen where I was left feeling a little bit lost as Larry left him there returning to the front of the Inn back to the bar area, snapping me out of my thought I heard Geo speaking
"You don't look like a boy with the cook class, far to built for it" pausing for a moment Geo looked to be studying me "Ever worked in a kitchen before?"
"Yes sir I have, I have worked at the Temple kitchen for the last two weeks, I do have a cook class but currently I can't gain any experience except for my Knifework skill" I responded,
"Its not sir, you're in a kitchen not a noble house call me Geo or G I don't really mind, what do you mean you can't get experience, just cook it's easy" Geo responded a bit sceptically
"I got a Rare class called Arcane Chef, but I've been unable to level it up even after cooking at the Temple" I responded again feeling embarrassed as this should be the easy part
"Did you say Rare?" Geo said shocked "well, that's certainly something I have never heard of it so I can't help you much with experience gains, what skills do you have Trev"
Pulling up his status sheet he showed his skills to Geo
Basic Meal Prep
Level: 1
Experience: 0/100
"Can craft basic meals at an increased pace"
Butchery
Level: 1
Experience: 0/100
"Able to identify usable parts, Increased yield from target"
Knifework
Level: 4
Experience: 84/1056
"Efficiency with a kitchen knife"
"I had the chance to butcher the rump of a boar at the Temple as well, but I got no experience for that either" I said after showing him my skills
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"That's it?" Geo asked a bit shocked "Are you sure you're telling me the truth Trev those skills don't look very rare" he chuckled "You didn't lie to Larry did you" still laughing to himself
"No, sorry I'll show you" I quickly responded not wanting to be thrown out
Name: Trevor
Class: Arcane Chef
Rarity: Rare
Level: 1
Experience: 0/100
"Feed the body, Grow the soul"
Hit points: 140/140
Mana: 50/50
Stamina: 140/140
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 11
Endurance: 14
Intelligence: 5
Wisdom: 4
Charisma: 3
Willpower: 12
Perception: 8
Luck: 6
Geo just stared at him, mouth open a little bit "that's rare alright, curious those abilities are worse than I started with and I am a common Cook"
"Well there's nothing we can do about it, I'll show you around quickly Trev and then put you to work who knows it might kick in one of these days and you'll become world famous like other rare class people" Geo said finally, wiping his hands off at the basin before showing him around the kitchen.
It was entirely as chaotic as it first appeared, there were plates and bowls in cupboards above and below the cooking areas, the pantry was stocked with dry goods there was no cold room like the Temple had, instead Geo explained he got fresh meat and veg from the market area every morning, pointing to the drying meat.
"Up there we dry any meat we don't use using the smoke from the stove making it into jerky which we sell out the front or we can rehydrate it in a stew if we get desperate"
walking me outside he pointed over to a pump "That's where we draw water from, that's going to be you most of the time, we use a lot of water between the dishes and washing up so its good you have so much strength"
heading back into the kitchen he showed me to large pot that already had some veg in the bottom of it.
"This here will be the stew for tonight, that one over there" pointing to another smaller pot near the coals
"that's the left over from last night which we'll be using for lunch today" he explained before grabbing some vegetables
"Right so lets get you cutting up some veg and meat then, todays stew will be Rabbit and Mushroom, so we'll need some cheap red wine, we have some turning over in the corner there, we need to use that up before it becomes vinegar" Geo said
At that I got into action grabbing the wine for Geo and coming back to the prep area, I had some onions and and parsnips pushed in front of me, which I instinctively peeled and started dicing into cubes like I was shown at the Temple
"Uh sorry Geo where is the composting area for the peels?" I asked, not seeing an area in the tour earlier
Geo looked a bit surprised "oh we don't do that here, the turnip skins throw in the trash and the onion skins throw it into that large stock pot over by the wall there" pointing the the largest pot I had ever seen in my life.
I got into a bit of a groove dicing up the vegetables and before I knew it Geo had placed a packet of quartered rabbits in front of me
"Lets see if this helps the butchery at all" he said before continuing taking one of the quarters himself and a small knife
"I want you to copy what I do here, we'll be saving everything here bones and all it will all go in the strew but the larger chunks of meat here we want separated, so just run your knife along the bone here and it should come cleanly off, then put both parts into the pot" Geo demonstrated "Right off you go"
with that I attempted to do what Geo just did, it looked easy. I was dismayed to find out it was in fact not easy at all, it looked like I had ripped the chunk off using a wolf claw or something
Finishing up the rabbit quarters I looked at my Status again however Butchery was still at 0/100 but at least Knifework had gained a little bit now sitting at 135/1056
"Right good job, now go grab me 2 buckets of water and pour it into the stew pot while I add the finishing herbs on this" Geo said chopping up some very fragrant plant that I did not know
heading out through the main Inn to head outside I saw that Micca has started work already she quickly noticed him
"Oh hey, started already?" she called out
"Yeah I have just grabbing water for the stew" I called out heading outside
A short while later I had added the water to the stew and Geo was carrying it over to the coals, removing the other one from the heat, what shocked me was he grabbed it with his bare hands
"Isn't that hot?" I asked shocked,
Geo just laughed "Fire Resistance from the class passives Trev, I could grab a coal directly and feel nothing"
This left me stunned "You're immune to fire?" I asked in disbelief
This comment Geo seemed to have found incredibly funny because it took a little while for him to stop laughing "No, not at all, I have a resistance to cooking related fires and heat. If this were a smithing forge I'd be burnt to a crisp"
With that we cleaned up in the kitchen before I was instructed to head out into the Main Inn area, Out there I was once again greeted by Micca who seemed to be cleaning mugs behind the bar area.
"Geo said to come out and help you with whatever you need" I said heading over to the bar
"Help?" She looked around presumably a bit confused "Most things are done already, I wasn't expecting a helper today but I'll give you this bucket and cloth can you wipe down all the tables before we start lunch today"'
Following those instructions I had all the tables wiped down
"Now we wait" said Micca still cleaning mugs, although I could have sworn it was the same Mug I saw her cleaning when I first came out
Before long people started to filter into the Inn it started with what I was sure was the same drunk men the day before who sat straight at the bar, they didn't even say anything before Micca had a drink sitting in front of them, I just watched on wondering how busy it would be, when I was here yesterday there were at least 20 people inside.
After a short time Micca came over next to him and said in a low voice
"Just observe for now till you get the hang of it, if anyone asks you got a drink just come let me know its 1 copper and an ale and mead, 1 copper for lunch and Larry likes to deal with the room price because he said he can always spot a sucker" she shrugged at that
"if anyone gives you a tip it's yours" she smiled "It's where I make most of my money so make sure you're nice to customers alright"
I just nodded
Lunch service went by smoothly he floated between the front and the kitchen helping Geo plate up some bowls and delivering it to the table that Micca pointed out to him along with some bread, It never really got too crazy like he thought it would be yesterday.
How wrong he was.
This was all shattered that evening when the night service started, it started much like the lunch did, everything was smooth, but then more and more people entered the Inn, he didn't even know if there were seats, they just kept coming in.
Before he knew it he was inside the kitchen just looking out at the chaos as Larry and Micca worked together to serve everyone drinks, a voice from behind caught his attention
"It gets pretty rowdy out there at night, you get used to it" Geo said with his own mug sitting in the corner of the kitchen
"At this point we wont get many meal orders since there is nowhere to really sit and eat out there, so feel free to grab a bowl yourself and have some dinner, good work today you made it through" he said going back to his drink
Eating his bowl of Rabbit and Mushroom stew he was immediately taken by the flavour, he was sure this was the best thing he had ever eaten before, It must have shown on his face because Geo laughed "Good huh?"
"Amazing!" was all I could get out
I did not speak at all till I had finished every last bit in my bowl, getting some water to drink and waiting I knew I'd be required to clean up once it died down outside Larry told me as much when he shooed me out of the way so until then I would just wait in here.
Before Geo left for the night he let me know he would get me in the morning so I could come to the market with him and help buy the produce for the day ion case I needed to do it in the future.
After what seemed like forever the night passed and the Inn grew quiet again, people wandered off home, and other up to their respective rooms upstairs, I went outside to help Micca clean up while Larry went back to his office where iI was told he also has his bedroom.
Honestly the Inn was not as messy as I expected it to be with the level of noise I expected the place to be destroyed, but after wiping down all the tables Micca threw some buckets of water on the ground which was swept out the front door and then she called it a night.
"Have a good night Trevor! you did well" she said as she was leaving the Inn, locking the door behind herself
I went off to my room, thoughts racing over the events of the day there was so much to take in.
