Marco stretches from under his comforter, slowly waking up and thinking about his day. Rolling over and pushing himself to his feet Marco is the first of his party to reach the bathroom and quickly strips down and gets into the shower, basking under the hot water and scrubbing the stress of yesterday away. He smiles as he thinks about his short stint in the kitchen and hopes there isn’t any retribution from Chef Lucas.


    “Those cooks will go a long way with proper guidance.” Marco thinks, working shampoo into his dark brown hair and smiling at his unexpected adventure into the brigade system yesterday.


    Turning off the water and stepping out the shower and activating the Inscription he found yesterday.


    *Ping* Activate Bonfire (Low) Inscription?


    Marco mentally agrees and a warm wind rips around his body, removing water and drying him off. He pulls out a set of under armor and gets dressed for the day, plans not set in stone but hopefully they head back out beyond the wall and do some more Gold Rank jobs.


    He walks out of the bathroom at the head of a cloud of steam and greets his party members, “Good morning, Ben! Good morning, Lucia! I hope you slept well last night.”


    “Good morning, Marco,” says Ben through a yawn.


    “Morning!” Greets Lucia from under her comforter.


    “I am going to get an early breakfast and see if I can find any good Gold Rank jobs for later on!” Marco says, kneeling down and lacing up his boots. He leaves his armor top off, leaving the room in just his armored pants and tank top under armor.


    He makes his way to the cafeteria and joins the line as usual. Marco is greeted and complimented by many people in the dining area, all of them with nice things to say about last night’s pasta.


    He thanks everyone with a large happy smile on his face and thinks about breakfast, hoping for something like hashbrowns or maybe a frittata. Marco makes it to the front of the line but is surprised when a large man charges out of the kitchen in his direction. Marco pulls on his Affinity and quickly summons his [Salt Skin], protected in case the man tries to hit him.


    “What the hell! Why are you running at me?” Marco says, backpedaling quickly to gain distance from the man in Chef whites.


    “How dare you walk into my kitchen and change things?!” Chef Lucas screams at him, bald head shiny in the overhead light. “Who do you think you are? I’ve been Chef of the wall for longer than you’ve been alive boy.”


    “I am Marco, Traveler and Chef of Earth and I saw a problem that needed to be fixed to make sure that dinner was not only safe but delicious for everyone at the wall.” Marco explains in a calm tone.


    “You had a problem with my kitchen? A boy like you?” Lucas laughs scornfully.


    “Chef Lucas I assume? Rude of you not to introduce yourself and just run at someone like a crazy person.” Marco says, “Your kitchen was a chaotic mess yesterday when I walked in there yesterday, people working basically on top of each other. How you make food three times a day for this many people is a mystery to me.”


    Lucas cannot form sentences any longer, so angry that all he can do is splutter and gnash his teeth. He manages to keep himself under control and takes a deep breath before speaking. “I have been doing this for forty years boy, I know how to run a kitchen.”


    “Evidently not, given what I saw yesterday. That was embarrassing and your so-called Sous Chef just sits on his ass and walks others work hard.” Marco spits, “You have good cooks in that kitchen and they are propping you and your nephew up on their backs.”


    “Did you tell my cooks to continue using the brigade system even after you were gone? Why are they insisting that it is better?” Lucas says with venom.


    “Did you ask them why they thought it was better?” Marco asks, letting his [Salt Skin] fall off and crumble to dust. “Why they insist that they like it more? Do you communicate with anyone or just dictate at people and hope for the best?”


    “You cannot speak to me like this! I demand satisfaction, duel me.” Lucas yells.


    “No, thank you. I don’t want to waste my time beating up an old man.” Marco refuses, “However, I will let you challenge me to a cook-off.”


    “You would beat me up?” Lucas laughs, “I am a Gold Rank Adventurer.”


    “Yes, I’m Orichalcum Ranked.” Marco says, “I do not want to waste time with pointless duels but I am willing to cook for it.”


    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Lucas blanches to paper white, realizing he challenged someone a rank higher than him. “Fine I challenge you to a cook off.” He says, grumbling and much meeker than a moment before.


    “Conditions of the challenge? If I win, I want you to change your ways and respect your cooks more.” Marco says, mind starting to spin with ideas for the competition.


    “Neutral party judge, System backed challenge and rewards.” Lucas says.


    “Accepted.” Marco says.


    *Ping* Challenge Accepted


    You have accepted a challenge, Cook-Off, against Lucas Archimagirus


    Challenge: Cook-Off Breakfast


    One Hour to make a delicious breakfast.


    Judge: Nelson Iceborn


    “Interesting that the System can mediate things like this. I guess the saying ‘All is Fair Under the Sun’ holds true.” Marco thinks. “I don’t understand why the System is working for this but maybe it’s just one of those quirks?”


    *Ping* Time starts one minute after you set up your station


    Marco walks past Lucas and into the kitchen, preparing his menu mentally. “Maybe benedict? I don’t think I’ve seen that on this world yet. I can make a flavored hollandaise over some quick smoked salmon.”


    He enters the kitchen and find an empty space and grabs a cutting board, placing a moistened hand towel under the board to prevent slipping and pulls his knife from his [Inventory]. He makes eye contact with Doris across the kitchen and shoots her a questioning look, he’d talked to her yesterday and told her of English muffins and how to make them.


    She nods, walks over and hands him a ball of fresh dough, finished it second proof already. Marco stands at his station, knife placed neatly next to the cutting board and a plethora of ingredients arranged nicely to the side.


    “Ready.” Marco says, watching Lucas pile things in a disorganized fashion onto his table.


    “Ready.” Lucas says, wiping his arm across his forehead to remove some sweat.


    *Ping* 3...2...1...Begin


    Marco picks up his knife and the side of salmon he grabbed from cold storage and quickly removes the skin and cuts the full side of salmon into manageable chunks that will smoke faster. A heavy bottomed metal tray with tall sides is put on the nearest Inscription and turned on low heat, Marco grabs a couple of flakes of dry wood that he’d soaked in apple juice and puts them into the pan to create smoke.


    He conjures a lattice of [Salt] to keep the salmon pieces from touching the bottom of the pan and burning, his wooden flakes create smoke in increasing amounts before Marco places his salmon into the tray and covering it with a slab of [Salt].


    Marco turns off the heat and moves on to his next item, English muffins. He grabs a new cutting board and divides the dough into four small pieces, rolling them gently into discs and pressing both sides into semolina flour for texture. “About thirty minutes before those can be cooked.”


    He flips his cutting board over to the clean side and grabs the pair of lemons he grabbed earlier. Cutting them in half and juicing them into a small sauce pan along with some olive brine and set to reduce slightly, he adds a couple of peppercorns, a bay leaf, and a sprig of thyme. “On to the next project, potatoes.”


    He grabs the tubers and peeling and shredding them on the box grater he has on his station. Shredding all of the potatoes into a large bowl full of cold water, he rinses the shreds of potato twice to remove as much starch as he can before placing them into a large dish towel and wringing all of the water he possibly can from the potatoes.


    He puts those to the side temporarily, heating a large skillet and griddle over medium and low heat respectively. Marco places a small amount of oil into the skillet, he leaves it to heat and seasons his future hashbrowns with paprika, salt, pepper, garlic, and onion powder.


    Grabbing a small handful of potato shreds, he places them into the skillet to fry gently waiting until the edges are golden brown before flipping the hashbrown with a small offset spatula made of [Salt].


    *Ping* Thirty Minutes Have Elapsed


    Marco smirks as he hears swearing from across the kitchen, placing a large shallow pot full of water to heat for his poached eggs, he checks on the salmon. “Perfectly smoky.” He thinks to himself, casting [Flash Cure] on the smoked salmon to dry out some of the moisture.


    “Salmon, hashbrowns, and acid reduction all taken care of.” Marco thinks, flipping more hashbrowns and seasoning them once they are removed from the pan onto a stack of paper towels.


    He cracks three eggs and separates them, yolks going to a small glass bowl and butter going into a small saucepan to melt. He mixes some of acid reduction into the yolks and whisks hard before placing the bowl on top of a small saucepan of lightly bowling water. Once the egg mixture starts to thicken and Marco starts to stream in his melted butter to make his hollandaise.


    He tastes the sauce, adjusting the amount of salt with another splash of olive brine and then adding a small scoop of chopped olives into the sauce to increase the olive flavor. He puts the sauce to the side, keeping it warm so it doesn’t break and move on to the next task.


    He checks the griddle’s heat and grabs his English muffin discs. Placing them on to the griddle and watching them closely so they don’t burn. Small bubbles form on the surface and after he flips the muffin it is revealed as a beautiful golden brown. He steps away and slices his smoked salmon on a new cutting board, focusing on the thin slices of beautiful fatty salmon teaming with flavor.


    Marco grabs a plate and one of his English muffins, slicing it horizontally and placing them cut side up. He puts a healthy amount of sliced smoked salmon on the muffin and places it on a warming Inscription, and beginning to poach his eggs.


    A splash of vinegar into the water and he carefully cracks his eggs into the water, stirring it into a whirlpool. Pulling it out less than a minute later when the egg has fully set and the yolk is still nice and liquid.


    He scoops the poached eggs out of the hot water with a spoon and carefully lets the poached egg dry before he nestles the egg onto the smoked salmon.


    *Ping* Five Minute Warning!


    Marco transfers the still warm hashbrowns onto his plate, making sure there isn’t any stray oil to get on his plate arranging them nicely into a fan next to his benedict. He grabs his hollandaise and his container of cut chives, spooning the velvety sauce onto the poached egg, watching it cascade beautifully to cover the poached egg and dribble down onto the fresh English muffin.


    He carefully garnishes his Salmon Benedict and the timer hits zero.


    *Ping* One Hour has Elapsed, Hands Up!