Temporary skill

With the decision made to let the Piabbits stay if they agreed to the new terms, Kit headed over to the restaurant with Bai yue, Snowball and the midnight guardians. When he arrived the Piabbits were already waiting at the doorstep of his restaurant.

A moment of fear past over him as he started at all the Piabbits, it looked like every one of them was waiting for him to arrive. Every single pair of eyes from the Piabbits was centred on Snowball who was standing next to him.

Kit sucked in a deep breath to calm his nerves then started to speak. "Last night was not acceptable, you broke my trust in letting you stay here." Kit made sure his words held clear disappointment. "From now on the midnight guardians will be in charge of you all or you can find somewhere else to stay."

He left no room for negotiation in his words. If they wanted this to work out, then they had to behave. Clear boundaries would need to be placed with them or there would be chaos once again in the future.

"You already signed a contract not to hurt any of my employees, then last night you tried to remove them from their home. Did you think that Snowball or I would be ok with that?" He really needed to get through to them today how bad their behaviour was last night.

Squeals left the mouths of the Piabbits, Kit turned to Bai yue. "The Piabbits are stating that they would not have harmed your employees in anyway. They would not break the contract signed with you."

Kit pinched his brow in frustration. Technically they really had not broken the contract they had agreed upon together. This however did not excuse there behaviour, Kit decided to explain why he was so angry. "Would you like it if someone came into your home and made you move out?"

Soft whines filled the air and all of the Piabbits heads drooped. A single Piabbit moved to the front of the group and started to grunt softly. Snowball let out a growl in response, the Piabbit that came forwards quickly rolled onto its back in a submissive gesture towards Snowball.

Snowball yipped once, then a wave of Piabbits rolled onto their backs. Kit's jaw dropped in astonishment. Wide eyes stared at the small fluffy dog and Kit swallowed. He was very glad that Snowball was his companion right now, it was terrifying to see how much power the little dog had over the growing spiritual beasts.

Kit wide eyes turned to Bai yue, a delighted chuckle left the white cat's mouth. "The Piabbits know that they did wrong and accept your terms to let them stay."

After seeing there display of supplication towards Snowball he wasn't surprised that their acceptance came so smoothly. "Ok, good." Kit was still in a state of shock to say more.

The Piabbits started to right themselves, once they were on their feet they came up to Kit. Each of them spat out a small cloth covered bundle then moved off to the side.

Kit bent down to pick up one of the bundles and a chinking sound emerged from the cloth. He pulled the cloth tie apart and inside was a small pile of coins.

"The Piabbits want to know if this is enough to repair the damage to the boarding house." Bai yue informed Kit.

Gold, silver and bronze coins fell into his palm as he pulled the cloth away. If all the bags contained this much money, then it would even pay for the upgrade of the boarding house. He was even positive that there would still be plenty left over afterwards.

He quickly bent down to open another bag. Gold, silver and bronze coins greeted his gaze once again. "Thank you. This will more than cover the repairs of the house." Kit thought about how desperate the little pigs were to move in with Snowball. If they upgraded the boarding house, then maybe he could make a room for the Piabbits like he did for the midnight guardians.

After finding out that the Piabbits were orphans he was sure that the rest of his family wouldn't mind if they moved in. First, he would need to make sure that the contract with the midnight guardians was in effect. "Bai yue is the contract done with the midnight guardians?"

He could see one of the Piabbits chattering with the midnight guardians of to the side. "Yes, friend Kit, there was no resistance from them signing it." The white cat looked as surprised as he was about the Piabbits compliance.

Kit turned his gaze back to the little pastel blue pigs. "Next time there is something you want you need to discuss it with me first. Do you still all want to live with Snowball?" A tentative whine left one of the Piabbits mouth.

"They would like to but do not want to upset Snowball or you further." Kit nodded in understanding, he then proceeded to explain to them about the boarding house upgrade. The Piabbits became excited about the prospect of moving into the boarding house. Kit left the midnight guardians to explain the rules of the house to them.

He was positive that they wouldn't disturb the boarding house again, especially now he had given them hope about moving in. With last night's matter settled Kit decided that it was time to get to work creating some new dishes.

Snickers walked around the restaurant as Kit was about to go inside. "Morning Kit, where are the others? We need to get ready for opening today." Kit slapped his head then asked Bai yue to go back and tell his staff everything was resolved, he didn't forget to give the white cat a reward.

Then he and Snickers entered the restaurant, he went straight to the kitchen with a bounce in his step. He was going to start another day of experimenting!

Kit pulled out a new piece of paper ready to write down some new recipe ideas. He thought about his existing menu, it really was in a dismal state.

None of his creations yesterday could be added to the menu yet. This left him a little sour, he needed a big increase to his chef level to be able to place them on the menu. That was why he decided to work with the ingredients from the Piabbits domain today.

He felt that they would be a high level like the moon juice magic he created from Bai yue's realm. This thought sent a tingling through his limbs, he remembered how his chef level rose dramatically after he created the spiritual moon juice magic.

Blue crystal shards swam in his mind, he had collected just what he needed for a boost in his chef level last night after the Piabbits fight. A greedy smirk twisted his lips. He rubbed his hands together and made a list of all the ingredients that he had to work with.

The top of the list had eggs written with a shaky hand. He could see the writing was warped from his excitement thinking about the hard oval eggs. Multiple recipes swirled in his head just thinking about them.

He quickly pulled out another piece of paper and frantically started to write. When he was done, he looked at the list, meringue cookies, pavlova, lemon meringue pie, custard tarts, cheese cake and finally an omelette.

These were just the recipes off the top of his head. A smile pulled at his lips when he realised that they were nearly all desserts. He couldn't wait to taste the final result. His eyes went back to the list of ingredients and dropped down to the second item, chicken.

Kit's mind went into overdrive once again. He had to forcefully stop himself from writing up more recipes. He had more than enough to experiment with on the list already. Kit went to go and collect some eggs from the storeroom, but before he made it two steps, he found himself rushing back to his recipe list.

A new addition stared at him from the page, creamy chicken gnocchi. Kit rolled his eyes at himself, he knew it was good to have ideas come easily but he shouldn't overload himself with work. He knew if he put to many ideas to paper, he would get overwhelmed.

He didn't want to have a panic attack because he put too much pressure on himself. Right now, he could feel himself treading a fine line between excitement and anxiety. It was lucky that cooking soothed him, or he didn't think he could control his emotions with the pressure to get things done before he promoted his restaurant.

Kit forcefully stopped his thoughts running down a negative path. He moved his legs into the storage facility and soon became lost in the task at hand, when his eyes landed on the eggs he was so excited about, a small thrill of delight coursed over him.

A woven basket filled with eggs of five different colours caught all of his attention, Kit took the basket into the kitchen then looked at his list. He decided to experiment from the top down. Meringue cookies were the first on the list. He collected the rest of the ingredients then got to work making the simple cookies.

When he cracked open his first egg, delight shone from his eyes. The inside of the egg matched the shell on the outside. Kit had picked up a blue egg as his first choice, the yolk was blue and the egg white had a blue tinge.

He separated the yolk from the whites while thinking that the cookies would look very appealing in different colours. Maybe he should put one of each colour in a bag for sale at his takeaway counter. Once he was done with separating the eggs, he added cream of tartar and salt, then started to whip the egg whites.

As he was whipping the egg white to a peak, he realised that he would need an oven to bake the cookies. He absentmindedly placed the sugar and vanilla into the mix and kept beating the eggs. He really needed to get an oven for inside the restaurant. It wasn't ideal to have to use his camping kitchen, it could only be erected outside.

Kit's arm began to feel tired out as he looked at the nice marshmallowy texture of the egg whites. A faint blue hue could be seen swirling in the mixture with little flecks of purple. A smile adorned his lips, he hoped once it was finished baking, he would have another creation to add to the menu.

Now that the mixture was finished, he happily stopped moving his arm, it ached from the repeated actions. He added an automatic mixer to the list of things he needed.

Kit got out a baking tray then lined it with grease paper. He then purchased a piping bag with a star tip from the restaurant interface. He was glad the option was available, the cookies would look nowhere near as nice if he had to just dollop them from a spoon onto the tray.

When the tray was filled with star shaped egg whites, he walked outside to use his camping kitchen. When the camping kitchen was erected, he hurriedly placed the cookie tray inside then sat on the ground to watch them bake.

Noise filtered in from his kitchen as he sat there staring into the glass surface of the oven. "Where be Kit?" Crackers voice drifted out the door to him.

"He can't be too far my dear, you can see that he is working on something on the bench over there." Bree's informed Crackers.

Kit ignored his employees for now, he would greet them when his cookies were done and by the looks of things that wouldn't be long. He could now see the blue hue swirling frantically across the surface of the cookies.

A small frown pulled at his brow when he noticed the purple flecks he saw in the blue hue earlier had started to become large swirls mixed in with the blue. An uneasy feeling at the sight caused his hand to slightly tremble.

He had never seen a purple hue in his cooking before, he hope it didn't mean something was going to go drastically wrong. He pushed the unease aside and placed an oven glove over his hand and waited.

As soon as the cookies looked hard Kit pulled the oven door open and took the tray inside.

"Kit there ya be. What ya got there?" Crackers walked over to his side and stared down at the freshly baked cookies.

"Morning Crackers, I'm trying out a batch of meringue cookies." Kit quickly placed a plate on the bench then juggled five hot cookies onto the waiting surface hoping that they weren't a failure.

Ding!

[Blue crested light step cookies created]

Quality level: Good

Quality bonus: + 50 to all stats.

A bite sized treat, hard on the outside and soft and sweet in the middle.

Temporary skill: Light steps, feels like you are walking on clouds.

Active for 1 hour.

[Unlocked: Nil level restriction.]

Reward: 7,500 EXP, 7,500 culinary EXP, 50 silver crowns, 1,000 culinary points.

Kit received a giant shock when he read the information for the cookies. Instead of the normal increase to stats, this time his creation would cause the consumer to activate a skill for one hour!

An excited hand reached out to grab one of the cooling cookies. Untamed delight filled his heart, he quickly stuffed the cookie into his mouth then waited for it to take effect.

It took him a moment to notice a difference in his body. The soles of his feet felt like they were no longer touching the ground, it felt like he was hovering just above the flat surface.

Kit lifted his foot then took a step, it felt weird to not feel the contact of the floor on the soles of his feet. He tentatively raised his foot and stepped again, when he didn't lose his balance, he became more confident and started to walk normally, except he didn't walk like he would normally, he glided smoothly across the floor.

The only way he could describe it was like skating on air. Kit let out a whoop as he whizzed around the kitchen. Hot damn, this was amazing!

Crackers and Bree started laughing at his antics, Kit encouraged them to try it out for themselves, soon the three of them were chasing each other around the kitchen. When they finally stopped, Kit was out of breath.

His gaze was drawn to the cookies once again. How was this even possible getting a temporary skill from a meal? Was this a fluke or could he expect to unlock access to more temporary skills with his cooking? Kit felt like a whole new world of possibilities had opened up.

Greedy eyes turned back to the eggs on the bench. He didn't waste any more time, he dived into making more of the cookies from each coloured egg.