Rabyn
Several n walked over to Rabyn as he was looking over the table he had been led to. While he only recognized one of them, and that was from reputation alone, their outfits told him exactly who they were. These were the judges of the competition. All of them here, daring to think they had any right to inspect his creations.
Frankly, he considered Jordan Hamsy a fool. The man's books were nothing but pompous works of nonsense aid at the type of person who had never actually cooked anything in their life. But for the sake of the others, he would put on his best smile and win these n over.
“So, looking over your entry into this competition. Are you the Rabyn, the lost prince?” one of them, so sort of Troll, asked.
“I don't know that I would consider myself lost. I am right here after all, ready to cook in front of a crowd,” he replied, keeping the smile up. In truth, he didn't even have to fake it at the mont. He knew the fact that he'd revealed himself like this to the watching crowd would annoy so of the many, many enemies he had made in his life, not to ntion the ones he had inherited.
His great-grandfather had betrayed their long-held pacifism and made sure that forever their line would be rembered. Rabyn knew that at least that man would understand what his life had beco, even if no one else in the family would. He hoped, though, that so day, when he t them all again in the afterlife, they would enjoy the artist underneath the violence.
“Well, I can tell you with complete honesty that is sothing our audience did not expect. To see the last heir of a forgotten Orcish dynasty appear before us as a humble chef competing for an up-and-coming faction while his greatest enemies sit in the audience. Are you not afraid that the Plutorian Empire will use this opportunity to finish you off?” the Troll continued.
“The only thing I fear is disappointing those who taste my creations. And as that is sothing that is yet to happen to , I think today will again be a resounding success for all of my skills. May those who watch with other considerations in mind rember that my true class is that of War Chef. I follow the path of the Battle Gourt. And today, everyone will see just what that ans,” Rabyn replied, pulling out one of his cleavers for a quick flourish, proud of how well he had phrased that little speech.
“Interesting cleaver work you have there. Where did you pick up the path for the Battle Gourt? It's not a common classpath, even for the War Chef, as far as I know,” A different voice, belonging to a tall Pachydresti, asked.
“Ah, yes. You wouldn't see that very often. My War Chef class is sothing I put together from various other things I learned during my enslavent. Specifically, my cleaver skills were taught to by an old chef I spent so ti with in passing in an encampnt. The Singing Blades beca determined that I should learn better cooking skills because they thought it was funny for to be their servant.”
Rabyn suspected he knew what the judge was getting at, but he wasn't willing to out who his teacher was there. There were few people in all of the spiral capable of doing what he could with a cleaver. Tony Dainour was just too much of a legendary figure in the world of cooking for Rabyn to admit that he was one of his first masters. It would lead to a whole new level of chaos that they didn't need right now.
The fact that he ran into the man at all at such a low point in his life was sowhat of a mystery to the Orc. He had his suspicions. And all of them pointed at Floor Master. Though why the spider would never have confessed any of those things to him in their many etings, he wasn't sure. That was the only thing that made him doubt his oldest friend, who was behind the serendipitous eting.
“Still, it's a rather unique form of cleaver use. Perhaps after the competition, you and I could talk for a little while,” the Pachydresti judge continued.
“I believe that can be arranged once we win. I will let Dave know that you wish to speak to the faction,” Rabyn replied, letting his ego shine through. He knew that wasn't exactly what the judges ant, but it was best to keep him off guard.
“Alright, everyone, I think that's been a good enough interview for the war chef, Rabyn, and it's ti for him to get cooking. Since you'll be doing this alone, you will receive full points, but your ti will not change. You have fifteen minutes to prepare your dish,” Jordan Hamsy said.
That was less ti than Rabyn had expected. Not that it really bothered him, he'd been expecting shenanigans from the start. If anything, it focused him. He knew exactly what he needed to do.
For the first step, he pulled all of his ingredients from his storage space, feeling the magic of the juices, scanning each one as it appeared. Not even checking if anyone cried foul, he continued with his plan. There was no ti to wait for their judgnts yet.
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He chopped the onions, the eggplant, and the potatoes at lightning speed. Each one was carefully tossed into a different pan, pulled from the storage space exactly as it was needed. He didn't want to waste ti on the equipnt provided. No stove was going to be as fast as his own cooking abilities. So instead, the mont the pan had exactly what it needed, he tossed it on top of a phantom cooktop, letting it begin to simr.
Rabyn had a strong feeling that upon hearing the ti limit, most of the chefs would imdiately change up what dish they had in mind for making. He had no such intention and had assud that he'd be running on his own schedule from the second this all started. Sure, he had made this plan with the intention of having a few helping hands, but he wasn't worried.
He had specifically unlocked a branch of his class just for this potential problem.
-Speed Cooking\Compressed Cooking Ti | 100/100 Recipes Perfectly Prepared in 1/10 the required ti | In the middle of a battle, ti is often of the essence, and compressed cooking ti allows for the War Chef to more easily prepare all the dishes required in a rapid ti. For every recipe with the War Chef's cookbook that has been perfectly prepared in at least one-tenth of the required ti, the War Chef is able to further compress ti around all aspects of the cook. The initial compression of this field increases the speed of localized ti by a factor of ten. Further ranks in this skill allow for a stronger ti compression.
It had cost him skill ranks he had been saving for other investnts, but that was also the reason you saved them. There was always that chance that sothing changed and suddenly you needed to spend them imdiately. And this had been just such an occasion.
One of his new hobbies he had spent on Earth was searching through every cookbook he could get his hands on for interesting recipes he hadn't yet seen or tasted. This was one of those. In truth, it was barely even modified.
All he had done to the ingredients was make sure Gorpila had infused her own mana into them ahead of ti. He was about to give the judges a non-magical dish, no matter how delicious he considered aloo baingan to be. And that ant that, as everything continued its rapid preparation, he began the actual difficult part.
Infusion of soul mana, as he had learned many tis before, was an extrely delicate task. He had only successfully done it a few tis in the past, and those had been after he had learned the big trick. He had yet to do so under the pressure of being watched like this.
Carefully, he connected Gorpila’s mana threads to his own soul threads and watched as one of the judge's eyes went wide. It was the Pachydresti, and that made Rabyn all the more curious about the man. He wouldn't have expected any of the judges to be able to detect this kind of magic.
At least it ant they would know he wasn't cheating.
He closed his eyes for the last few minutes of the preparation, forcing out all of the distractions. Carefully, he wove one piece to another. Every ti, the ingredients found their exact positions, and the spices blended exactly where they needed to be, he was there, tying off the mana threads. It was a labor of love, but it was still a labor, and he could feel the sweat beading on his forehead.
With only seconds to spare, his eyes snapped open as he threw five plates onto the counter and moved with lightning-swift, practiced reflexes, filling each bowl. He only just pulled his wooden spoon away as the tir went off, signaling the end of his ti. He looked over at the judges' table and gave them all a slight bow.
Four of the bowls vanished from where he had placed them. They appeared in front of the judges, each of them holding a fork. All of them looked down with curious expressions.
Each of them tentatively took a single bite. And then all four of them, almost in unison, dug in rapidly, savoring every bit of food Rabyn had prepared. In minutes, their bowls were entirely empty, and all of them were writing sothing on a notepad.
Rabyn smiled. Whatever they had been expecting, he had gone well beyond it. That didn't an they would judge him fairly, of course, but he doubted they'd cheat at this level. At least he didn't think they would have any more than they already had.
Standing up, Jordan Hamsy called for the crowd to quiet. “Rabyn is our first contestant today to get a perfect score. Each of us has judged everything he has done to be utter perfection. And while we do acknowledge it is possible to prepare a better dish, the only way to do so would be with certain specialized ingredients that we likely wouldn't even allow within the competition. To that end, Rabyn has been awarded a perfect forty points.”
The Empire of Dave erupted in cheers, which were quickly hushed again by Jordan. “That puts the Empire of Dave out ahead after the first event, and due to the success of Rabyn, no matter what happens here, they will remain tied for first.”
Rabyn gave the crowd another bow and made his way back to his team. “Before any of you start to congratulate and tell how great I did, I need you all to know that I am extrely exhausted. I'm going to sit in that chair and sleep for the next several hours. Please don't wake up unless it's important.”
Bringing a War Chef into a dungeon could be quite the experience. There are many monsters that make great additions to various als. And a party mber who was able to rapidly turn a monster into a beneficial snack can easily elevate any adventuring party's chances within a dungeon. This is why I've partnered together with Jordan Hamsy for a future book we are calling Dungeon Cooking 101.
In it, we will cover all the different applications that have been discovered for monster cooking, as well as the various classes that best prepare them.
A Dive Into Dungeons
by Jerold Helr
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