New Dish Created: Basic Barb-tailed Tiger Steak

The girl grinned.

A perfect row of white teeth flashed. He ignored the fangs. He ignored the blood dripping steadily down her arms. She was perfect. Confident. Powerful. Good looking.

"You want me to cook it?" He asked, pointing at the giant corpse.

Oddly enough, she seemed to understand that, at least. So Emery did as he was told. He cooked.

'What type of dish would I be able to cook from a dead monster tiger with a barbed tail?'

"But before that…" He muttered, staring at the screen that hovered ever so slightly to the corner of his eyes.

It was the cause of all of this. He didn't know why or how but he was sure of that at the very least.

[Summon has killed a Class Ten threat]

[5 Energy points awarded]

[10 exp awarded to Host and Summon]

[Achievement accomplished!]

[Baby's First Kills]

Emery's first thought was an Awakening. But that didn't make sense. Since when could Awakened see floating screens and summon girls out of nowhere?

But what did that matter? She was hungry and his job as a chef was to feed the hungry.

'Is there a way I can see what this thing does or is it just useless?'

[Ding!]

[Name: Emery Fenon]

[Job: Chef]

[Level: One…Exp:10/50]

[EP: 5]

[Attributes:

STR- Not enough data

AGI- Not enough data

INT- Class Ten

DEF- Not enough data

DEX- Class Ten]

[Skills: Basic Knife Skills, Basic Cooking]

[Summons: One– ???]

[Status: Critically Harmed. Seek medical attention as soon as possible]

This screen was longer than the rest and the information was more detailed. It made him understand the general gist of the situation soon enough and he didn't like it one bit.

'Stay calm. Stay calm. A good chef is one that stays calm,'

But he wasn't calm. His whole life and body's status were summarized on a tiny screen that only he could see.

'What would Dad do in this situation?'

Emery knew exactly what his dad would do. He would say to ignore everything and walk as if nothing ever happened.

'Sorry, Dad.'

He shook the thought out of his mind and sorted the established information one more time. 

'Is restoration even possible? Maybe I really am just imagining everything that happened before. Maybe there really was no Class Five monster. Maybe Carlos just hit me a little too hard and this happened.'

His dad's words crossed his mind, and he seemed even more tempted than ever to just take it.

But…

"Okay, let's get to cooking this thing."

There was a hungry customer. The last thing he wanted to do was leave a hungry person starving.

"I think we start by removing the fur?" He muttered grabbing a hold of the creature.

Shing~!

He pulled out his blade next. "This is going to get messy."

And it did. He was covered in hot blood an hour later, questioning all his life choices. A great deal of it seeped into the cuts and wounds that ran across his skin, increasing the vague burning sensation that had remained there ever since.

A small huff of breath emerged from him. Both his arms dangled to the side weakly as he stared at the mess he'd made. The white-haired girl stared curiously through the whole process, not interrupting once.

"Can you carry that?" he pointed at the bloody, skinned monster's corpse.

The girl cocked her head slightly in response, then walked over and picked it off the ground with ease.

"Come on, follow me."

He needed a fire and a pot to cook. Both things he currently lacked.

Emery sighed and trudged along quickly. They navigated through the debris and flames, making sure not to step on anything sharp. They didn't, luckily. But they did step on something else.

Splotch~!

It was soft and squishy. Emery's heart sank the longer he remained standing on it.

'Ignore it, ignore it.' his dad said.

This time he listened.

After that, the rest of the journey was much more mundane. He did see a lot of things he'd have rather much avoided but there was no helping it, especially in this case.

Finally, they reached the alleyway he'd lived in before.

It was as bad as the other areas that the Class Five had devastated. Oddly enough, his barrel still stood. Amidst the rubble and charred remains, the singular pale brown barrel remained standing upright with his makeshift pot calmly resting atop.

Something he himself hadn't been able to do.

"Okay, I only have a bit of oil and some spices left over. On the bright side, it means the cooking won't take long." He got out a matchstick from his little pouch and started the fire, 

"On the other hand, the food won't taste half as good."

He got out his small bottle of oil and poured some onto the pan. But Emery paused afterwards. Who was he talking to? It wasn't as if the girl would suddenly learn English while he ran his mouth off.

'Whatever. Time to do this.'

He pulled out the small wooden slate he'd managed to carry around with him so far and placed a sliced piece of meat on top of it. Afterwards, he slapped a decent amount of salt and pepper–the only spices he had–onto the large slab of meat.

The meat wasn't washed and there wasn't half enough time for marinating but this would have to do now.

"Unhygienic and brutish, but I really hope it isn't too bad."

He picked up the firm cut of meat and slapped on it once, then massaged the stringy flesh even more to make it more tender before cooking. Then, he cut out even slices into all sides of the slab of meat and made sure all the spices got around adequately.

Then after making sure everything was in order, he placed the slab of meat onto the fire and let the sizzle take over completely.

TSSSS~

A tantalizing aroma filled the air quickly enough, intertwining with the smoke and dust of the environment. It was chaotic, but it somehow made sense. Emery grabbed the pan and nudged it, causing the meat to fly into the air and flip over once.

Butter, herbs, wine, garlic, thyme. All those were missing but he could still smell it. The wonderful smell of a good dish.

He got out his ladle and turned over to another side of the steak after one minute. He repeated this process multiple times until it was brown with thick crusts on all sides. This brought the chunky exterior out even more.

Wind whipped around, threatening to blow dust and dirt into his dish but he stopped it just in time. And, after a few more minutes, the dish was done.

[Ding!]

[Job Action performed. 5 exp gained!]

[Level: One…Exp:15/50]

[New Dish Created: Basic Barb-tailed Tiger Steak]

[Name: Basic Barb-tailed Tiger Steak]

[Effect: Passive wound restoration for one hour. The effect is dispelled after a second piece of the same size.]

Emery waved the screens away as he took the steak off the flames. He exchanged a brief glance with the white-haired girl and nodded.

It was his first time cooking with such a large amount of meat after the apocalypse, and it was his first time with a consumer who would respond.

Hopefully, it wasn't as terrible as he hoped.

****

Author's note: The last part is me talking haha. I'm pretty decent at cooking but writing about cooking is a whole different story. How are you finding the book so far, though?