Versatile: Alternate World

Wait, that's it? Did I just get the EX Job already while just looking at this old man? That's not supposed to be what should happen since, in the info I knew, he said that he got it by cooking food from this guy for the entire day before the EX Job appeared, he just had to complete all of his tasks to complete it so getting it this early immediately is something unexpected to me.

But before I can react, my quest log popped up and a new quest appeared which I have no recollection of accepting. I opened it up and I finally realized why I got the EX Job so fast.

[What it means to Cook Food]

Info: The mysterious old man gave you an epiphany that allows you to awaken your passion for cooking. However, the path to cooking food does not stop there. Cook food and comprehend the importance of cooking. Once you have already obtained a complete understanding of it, this quest will be immediately completed.

Reward: EX Job Master Chef will change to ???

Another reward with a question mark again. And this quest is something I didn't have any idea how to easily complete. Complete understanding of cooking huh? So that means the Master Chef isn't its final form and it can still change but what would be the changes once that is actually done? I have so many questions and yet I don't have a single answer.

"Are you already comprehending what it means to cook food boy? Just don't do it and comprehend it slowly, boy. Rushing on it will just make you more confused and your progression on what it means to cook would just lose its purpose. Remember all of the points, I didn't just show my skills to you without thinking anything and seeing from your reaction, you have indeed gained some of my knowledge in cooking. Now go, bring all of these dishes with you, eat them, give them to others or whatever you wanted to do about it. Once you have figured everything out, come back here and I will give you something."

And before I can respond, he vanished. All that was left is a dilapidated building without any single utensils on the counter. The tables and chairs are broken and the interior looked like it hasn't been used for many years which caught me by surprise. The only thing remaining there are the dishes he and I cooked before. Was that an illusion? No, illusions cannot cook so elaborately and if it was also an illusion, the food should have been gone as they, too, are part of the illusion. But it remained which is the big question. That old man, is he really an old man? Or is he just posing as one just to make sure to give his cooking abilities to someone?

I can only shake my head at this. There is no need for me to think too much about it. Why make a headache out of this?

After putting all of the dishes inside my inventory, I left the dilapidated building and went to a nearby marketplace where the portable kitchen set is up for sale. Without any kitchen utensils to use for cooking, how can I practice? The tools I use for cooking before are just a little campfire and some basic cooking tools as I don't need fancy tools due to how simple my cooking is and since cooking without the EX Job just screams of failure,

Once I got my own kitchen, I started buying ingredients in a bulk. Of course, I only bought those that take time to farm like some certain vegetables such as cabbage and rice which do not appear in the wild for harvest. As for the other vegetables and ingredients, I have plenty of them in different varieties so I don't have to buy anything unless I ran out of them.

After a mass shopping spree, I returned to my vacation house and set up my kitchen outside. I didn't forget to set up the campfire as that will still work wonders. Now, time to test out what the EX Job Master Chef does compare to Cook and Chef.

Preparing all the ingredients, compared to before when I had just the average speed of preparing them, the moment I grab the knife now while facing the ingredients, something welled up to me that I can't explain. I grab the first ingredient, prepare and put it on the tray containing the ingredients done then rinse and repeat.

I just realized that I didn't fumble in my way of preparing them now. I didn't even slow down and sometimes, instinctively, I can continue doing it even if I am not paying attention or I have my eyes closed which is amazing despite not being that groundbreaking. That alone is good, especially in the upcoming patch.

Now that all of the ingredients are all good to go, I started the fire on my stove and campfire and begin cooking different food that I remembered in my past timeline. I didn't even need to think of what to do next after a certain action. And before I knew it, I have completed multiple dishes in one go.

Putting them all on the table, I just realized that I made a literal feast in front of me but there is no way I can eat them all alone. Without thinking twice, I summoned all of my followers and pets out to try the food I cooked. Its lunch time anyways so I guess it's the right occasion. I started cooking portions for Leona and Mizuchi too even though they will just eat monsters for food, they still enjoy human food, especially Leona. As for Mizuchi, he likes more on raw meat but for the first time, he decided to eat a cooked one which is surprising, but somehow makes sense after I obtained the EX Job.

It didn't take long for everyone to finish their meal and seeing everyone's looks made the cooking practice I did, very valuable. However, even though I felt things like that, the current quest that appeared after I obtained the EX Job didn't click completed. It means the clear conditions are a bit more complicated or my thoughts are just shallow enough and not genuine. Either way, it might end up a very long time before I can finish this quest alone, or I might never clear it entirely.

Without any way to determine how to complete the task, I can only continue the grind. Might as well have some warm-ups and hopefully get a better gain later on.

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Ugh, after playing for about 5 hours, I can feel the fatigue going down to my body, I logged out of the game after the grind but this fatigue is not due to how I overexerted myself. More like this is due to what happened to the banquet that happened and even though I didn't participate much while talking to other merfolk, the atmosphere is indeed not that good to me.

Getting up from the bed took a few minutes before I managed to properly escape from the grasp of my bed. I looked at my holophone and it was almost morning already, 2:36 early morning already but I don't feel sleepy at all which means all the mana training I did before is slowly affecting my body which now slowly requires less sleep yet keeping my body healthy. I don't feel sleepy at all. In fact, my hands are itchy on doing something which is strange if you think about it.

Slowly descending the stairs, I went to the kitchen and open the refrigerator. I have done my groceries the other day so it is packed with stuff. I don't know if what I did in the game has already influenced me in real life but I get that little urge that I needed to do some cooking in real life.

Grabbing the ingredients that I think would do for a quick cook grub and grabbing the frying pan, knife, and spatula, I started to create a vegetable stir fry. Now I don't usually create vegetable stir fry as I prefer the original stir fry but I get the urge to try veggies for the first time. What is strange is that I don't usually know the recipe for vegetable stir fry but for some reason, I already have an idea of what to do by using the items I have at my disposal.

While I am cooking, I just realized that my body seems to have already memorized cooking a stir fry. I didn't think much and yet the stir fry is forming right before my eyes. No, I am not dreaming and I am not playing the game, in fact, I am not even watching someone else cook but I, myself, am watching MYSELF cook.

Holy f*ck, this EX Job is even affecting me in real life! This is not a big joke at all!