Beginnings of the Battlecook

– Oy, Aeren, something just popped up in my eyes!

– What are you talking about? Should I worry?

– No, it's just… give me a second.

Aeren watched closely as Katsumi moved her eyes left and right. She was clearly looking at something he didn't see.

– What the hell… – Katsumi tucked her chin.

– Should I order you some water? Perhaps call a doctor?

– Nah, it already disappeared. I guess it was some sort of… magical message.

– What did it say?

– Nothing of importance. Just a that I'm cool.

Playing down the situation, she hid the goosebumps on her back.

'I was reincarnated in a fantasy world. That's a good thing. It appears this world has a class system and I just unlocked one. Am I in a game world? Hope I'm not, I never played MMORPG's and I know this clishé! I was more of a MOBA player and a bad one at that. I miss my laptop…'

In the center of the table stood a tall bronze rod. On the top of it stood a small hook to which Aeren hooked a brown card.

– What are you doing?

– Based on which color you pick a different waitress will come out. We're here to apply to the hero guild, so I hanged a brown one. This way a special waitress will great us with all the necessary paperwork.

– Cool! Little man, you're smart!

– I just read the sign at the entrance. It's all written there. – Aeren scraped his head.

Soon enough a middle-aged woman came to their table with papers in hand. She had long black hair and a motherly smile that contradicted the feeling her strong, white uniform gave. She had a hat that resembled that of a marine's.

– Welcome to the Hero Guild of Titannica. We're part of the hero program, which means your deeds contribute to the global hero ranking. The cost of this procedure is two gold. If you don't have that currently, don't worry! We'll just take that from the reward of your first mission. Please sir, if you could cite your name!

– Enque Aeren of the Celestial family.

– Sex?

– Male.

– Race?

– Half-drow. – hearing this, Katsumi raised her head in surprise.

– Class?

– Arcane Archer.

– Subclass or anything special?

– None yet.

– Thank you, sir. Mam, if you could cite your name!

– Momo Katsumi!

– Sex?

– Yes! I mean woman!

– Haven't heard that one before… – thinking it was a bad joke, she didn't notice Katsumi shaking from the anxiety this interrogation made her feel. – Race?

– Human!

– Class?

– Cook!

The woman stopped writing and looked the girl in the eyes.

– Are you serious?

– Yes!

– You do know that you'll gain experience with your chosen class, right?

– Oh… yeah! I'm aware of that!

– Alright. – the woman sighed. – To enter the hero ranking and gain your own dog tags, you first have to complete a mission. You can choose missions from the billboard at the entrance. Different missions have different challenge ratings, ranging from zero to ten. Zero indicates a mission with no battle experience required. This means helping out a local farmer, cleaning up the streets and so on. Missions with a challenge rating of ten are rare in this area and only heroes of the highest divisions can apply to them. Any questions?

– Yes! – Katsumi raised her hand. – I'm new to this hero stuff and I don't understand how experience works.

– Didn't your parents teach you that? You equip a class and bind it to your soul and as you gain experience from different tasks, you unlock new abilities and passives to that class. Go to a local library and catch up on these or you'll have a hard time fighting monsters.

– Thank you. – Katsumi nodded. – Do I have stats?

– Of course. You can check your stats by asking a magic user to cast a 'clairvoyance' spell on you. Any magic user with at least one magic point can do that.

Katsumi let out a loud sigh. This meant that she wasn't in a videogame world and what she saw in her eyes was normal. Still, that didn't really make her situation any easier.

– I'm not going to give a history lesson here or anything – the woman leaned closer –, but tell me, do you know why our calendar writes such a young date?

– Huh, what do you mean?

– Today is one hundred forty-eight, after clairvoyance, Third month of the Second season, the twelfth.

– Uh… so you mean it's August twelfth.

– Months have no names since the birth of clairvoyance. We use plain old numbers instead. People like it when good numbers go up and bad numbers go down. That's the present we live in. Good numbers go up, bad numbers go down. Good number go up, bad numbers go down…

She left the table repeating the same sentence. The two young heroes watched her disappear behind a swinging door, still hearing her repeat the same words in the other room.

– What's her problem? – Aeren asked.

– I guess she hates her job. To be honest, who doesn't?

– Oh yeah – he gave the girl an angry look, squinting so hard his eyes almost closed –, so you're a hero AND a cook?

– Haven't seen one before? – she grinned.

– This isn't funny! We're going to fight monsters and evildoers! What happens when we go out there and for some reason I cannot defend you?

– Easy! I just find a huge stick and beat the monsters to a pulp.

– But you're not proficient with a weapon! And you don't have offensive abilities! And you're… gahh!

– Chillax, little buddy. It will be fine!

With differing emotions, they approached the board full of different missions waiting for braves heroes to come. There were many of them, ranging from challenge rating zero to eight, the rewards unique for each mission. Aeren took one of the papers off and showed it to Katsumi.

– This has a challenge rating of one, we'll handle it with ease.

– What's the mission?

– 'Local drunk won't leave tavern, need someone to kick him out'.

– I'm not gonna' lie, it sounds funny.

– Nonetheless, it grants us enough experience points to level up.

– And we won't do it.

– Okay, then how about this? Challenge rating two, 'Mountain wolves keep stealing my sheep, need someone to dispose of them'.

– Absolutely not.

– What? – Aeren stomped on the wooden floor. – Why not? Should we go even higher? Would that please the queen?

– Oh no, I think you misunderstand. – she said with a casual tone. – We really shouldn't push our luck with these. I get that you want to level up fast and stuff, but it can wait.

– No, it absolutely cannot! Come on, what can a drunkard do with the two of us?

– Anything. He might have a hidden knife or he might just be the world's greatest wizard in disguise.

– What are you talking about?

Katsumi crouched down so they're were on the same level. She looked him in the eye and continued with a casual, yet confident voice.

– Being weak is not something you should be ashamed of. If you know your capabilities, accept them and make your decisions based on that knowledge, you don't have to be ashamed. True weakness lies in not accepting the facts and banging your head against the wall over and over again.

– I'm… is that true?

– Yup. – she smiled. – We're weak. If things go south, we can end up hurt and worst of all, without the job done. Let's be careful and go on an easy mission first, okay?

A bit hesitant at first, but Aeren accepted her advice. With a slight nod he returned to search for a suitable mission.

– 'Farmer needs help with cutting out tree, needs wood to build barn for horses'.

– Ah come on, we can do better than that! – she winked.

– You're so complicated…

– How sweet of you!

– 'My daughter's been out with his boyfriend for a week now, help her home for a huge reward'. Sound easy and I think we can do this without resorting to violence.

– Even if it comes to that, you stay back and I beat the fucker up!

– Oh, I'm sure of that, Miss Battlecook. – Aeren chuckled.

– Battlecook. – she repeated, gazing into the distance.

– Yes! Oh sorry, I didn't mean to mock you.

– What? No, it's fine. I just like the sound of it. Cook is below chef, which implies I still have much to learn. Yosh! I think I'll go with that.

She leaned forward, bowing before the half-drow. He stepped back and covered his face in embarrassment.

– W-What are you doing, Miss?

– Hereby I, Momo Katsumi, past citizen of Terra, new citizen of Titannia, up and coming hero of this world and the first ever battlecook pledge my allegiance to you, Enque Aeren of the Celestial family.

She stood back up with a committed smile on her face, holding her hand out for a handshake. Aeren watched her soft hand stand still in the air. It was an ordinary girl's hand, yet its sight gave an insight to the hidden power of a mountain. Equipping the same smile, he grabbed Katsumi's hand for the handshake.

– Let's become the best we can!