I’m looking for someone; he could be anywhere around Bitterstone. After walking for a while, I see a small food cart with a flag on one corner, the flag has the face of an orc and a sword going through its left eye. I approach the cart.

“Hello, are you Mart?”

“Yeah, I am. Do you want something to eat?”

“No, I want you to be my teacher.”

“Sorry boy, you have to be stronger if you want me to be your teacher.”

He’s one of the best cooks in this game, he is known for making dishes from all kind of monsters. He is said to be very strong. Of all the people who have tried to get him as a teacher, nobody has been able to. In the first place, cook is not a very popular subclass, so not a lot of people have asked him.

“How can you say I’m not strong enough if you haven’t tested me?”

“Your level is around 30 so you can’t be strong enough.”

He’s judging me as someone normal of level 30, I may be able to amaze him. I’ll try to make a bet with him. I may accomplish something.

“What if I can win against you in armwrestling?”

“If you win, I'll be your teacher but, if I win, you’ll have to buy all the dishes in the menu.”

I’ll lost a lot of money if I lose here. I’ll probably have to use all my savings.

“Fine.”

Marth brings out a small table and two chairs. We sit and prepare our muscles. I focus all my fury in my hands reaching the limit of my current body. He just stretches his hands a little and puts his arm on the table. I grab his hand.

“One, two, three!”

He uses an amazing strength as the back of my hand is slowly but surely approaching the table. I try to stop his hand with all my strength but it’s useless. Just as I’m about to touch the table I use all the muscles in my body in a way similar to Stonekick. I’m finally able to move his hand back. Our hands are in the middle again.

“Wow, to have this much strength at your level is unheard of.”

“Well, what can I say, I put all my points in strength.”

He looks at me stupefied.

“Haha, you have to be crazy to put all of your points to strength, but sadly, it’s not enough to win against me.”

I feel my hand go numb as it begins moving away. I have to use my last resource. I contract all of my muscles. My hand loses strength and goes quickly against the table but just as it is about to touch, I release all of my muscles just like Heavenhand. My hand doesn’t just stop, it takes Mart’s hand back with some amazing speed. I maintain this surge of power until Marth’s hand finally reaches the table.

“What!? What did you do? Are you cheating?”

“I just used all my strength.”

He looks at me with an amazed face. I feel some fear inside too. I’m beginning to feel NPC emotions. I shouldn’t be far from seeing their hearts.

“Well, I’m a man of word. Call me teacher? from now on.”

“Hello, teacher. I’m in your charge.”

An invitation appears on my eyes.

“Do you want to select “cook” as your subclass?”

“Yes/No”

I press yes.

“You’ve acquired cooking, monster cooking and cooking war.”

Cooking

(You get the ability to make magic food)

Monster cooking

(You can use monster parts in magic food)

Cooking war

(As the student of Marth, you can make the most out of monster ingredients)

This is great. Normally, you would only get the cooking ability. Monster cooking is an ability you don’t normally get until you reach veteran with “cooking”. Lastly, Cooking war is an ability you can only get by being Marth’s student.

“Well, I’ll give you some knowledge about ingredients and cooking, but you’ll have to practice a lot. If you have any doubt, you can contact me later.”

“Alright.”

…

I’m in the market. I need to buy ingredients if I want to start practicing. I won’t buy any monster parts; I have some and I’ll get more defeating monsters. I find the same guy who helped me with the appraising before.

“Hey, do you remember me?”

“Of course. With that face, who is able to forget you?”

“Well, I need some ingredients now.”

“Did you become a cook?”

“Yeah.”

“This is everything I got.”

He hands me a paper sheet, there are lots of ingredients listed, they also have a price tag. I didn’t think he had this much ingredients. I’ll buy a good quantity of the necessary ingredients, the other ones, I'll buy a little, just in case. I take another paper sheet and write everything I need. I hand him both papers.

“I’ll need everything listed there.”

“Ok, let me prepare all the ingredients.”

He took some time moving things between two pouches. After he finished, he handed me the pouch.

“It’ll be 56,890 bits for everything, you can keep that pouch too.”

I hand him the money. Normal space pouches are very cheap so I'll just take it.

“Thanks.”

“It’s a pleasure doing business with you. If you need anything in the future, contact me.”

“Bluebird wants to be your friend”

I accept the request.

“I’m Bluebird, from the “Money mountain” guild.”

"I’m Chrys, nice to meet you.”

We shake hands. I walk away from the place. I want to go outside the city, I need a quiet place to cook.

…

I’m in good and relaxing place, there are no monsters around. I take out all my cookware. I’ll try cooking a soup. I put all the necessary ingredients in the cooking pot. After the ingredients have been cooked for some time, I put some green lizard meat. The soup turns a little green and it begins shaking. I close the pot before it spills out. I put out the fire and after some time the pot stops shaking. I grab a spoon and try the soup. Uhm... it’s bad. The flavor is way too strong. I think I know the problem. The monster meat has too much flavor, I need to use some ingredients to counter it.

Anyway, here is the food boost.

“Green lizard soup (+5%stength), 1 hour.”

Even for a failure, the boost is quite good. Different monster's parts give different perks, green lizard meat gives a strength boost. Also, Marth said that effects get better along with flavor. I’ll have to cook until I get a better flavor with monster food.

After practicing cooking, I may play with Light. I have some things I want to try.