Soon, the customers left and the place was empty again. However, counting the days, Finn knew that the hundred adventurers from before should've reported everything back in Lotus Town and would've already spread word, even by word of mouth.

He had a feeling that the quiet life in the inn would soon end, replaced by vitality and a constant flow of people (and money).

Finn did not plan on handling that, and that was why he had many staff members. That said, he really needed a chef who could cook essence food, especially if he wasn't in the mood.

It had been fine so far because the customers weren't that many, and only a few would be able to demand essence food from him. Eventually, that might not be the case.

At this, he peeked outside to see Micc, finishing up the pottery kiln along with Durgan and Tumble. Tumble was in-charge of setting up the roofing, while Durgan helped him out.

Finn felt Durgan was overqualified to do this as a blacksmith, but without raw materials to actually do blacksmithing, what could he do but his old job of killing monsters and butchering them?

That reminded him, he still had the [Delivery Room] unbuilt. It would've been such a good thing…in theory.

Such a pity he could only connect up to 100 kilometers. He was in the middle of nowhere, the nearest place within 100 kilometers was, well, a dungeon.

Such a pity. Lotus Town was the nearest settlement, and it was more than twice that distance.

Anyway, for now, he'd better focus on handling the logistics within the inn, get good deals with the incoming adventurers and get them to sell raw materials to them at a good price.

One of the best ways to guarantee was the rare essence food! He watched as Micc finalized the kiln and they tested it with stronger fires.

He smiled after confirming that they could now easily mass produce things like bricks, ceramics, pots, and so on.

"Great! Good job!" Finn said, smiling at everyone. He then patted Micc's shoulder. "Shall we start with your lessons, assistant chef?"

"..."

…

Because Micc was busy with making the large kiln as well as helping clear out mobs when there were no guests around, he had somewhat forgotten that he was hired here as an assistant chef. After all, the boss had been using the kitchen the whole time.

To be fair, he had used the canteen kitchen a few times to whip up a few meals and practiced, so he wasn't entirely unproductive in his job. One of his inherited skills was [Recipe Determinator] and he had been practicing its application.

With it, as long as he was familiar and had held on to an ingredient, he just had to look at a dish and the list of ingredients would pop up.

Of course, knowing its components and actually cooking them well were totally different things. Even the actual ratio of the items were not listed down, so he still had to do some experimentation.

In fact, even if it were listed, it still wouldn't be so straightforward. After all, the final amount of an item might not be the same as the raw components due to things like evaporation and the like.

Using his own knowledge as well as the inherited skills, he was able to kinda recreate some of the basic dishes like the side dishes and a few starters.

Now though, he was being given a crash course in cooking, which was very productive because he had the system skills to assist him. The goblins would often stop over and watch as well, hoping to learn a few things so they could assist them better.

"This ended up being a bit sour…" Finn said after tasting his dish. "No worries. Just add a pinch of salt."

Micc nodded, and soon he didn't make the same mistakes again. And he really did learn fast, which made Finn relieved.

As expected of a talented mage. Don't think about fighters' talent being exclusive to just fighting. Most of them had some reflections and parallels in other aspects of life.

For example, the physically awakened, to excel in their craft, had to have a thorough understanding of their own bodies. The extremely excellent ones, he heard, were even aware of how each muscle moved.

Similarly, the magic awakened people had to be familiar with the cause and effect to excel, and this included how ingredients could change tastes of something else.

This was also the method of which Finn taught him. That was to say, he would help Micc understand the reasons behind the changes, so he could apply them more easily and even on other things.

Fortunately, Finn listened to a lot of cooking and nutrition audiobooks back on earth.

"Do you know why salt worked?" He asked, and Micc shook his head.

"Sourness comes from acids. While salt doesn't chemically neutralize these acids, it reduces the intensity in which our tongue's sour receptors work.

"Salt also shifts attention to other flavors, making the sourness less sharp and more…rounded."

Fortunately, the intermediate chef understood what the heck he was talking about because the others, including Ranran, only stared blankly at him.

After a few exercises, Micc was asked to make a simple jam, but he had to collect the materials himself. What he ended up doing was a bit too sweet brightsweet pear jam.

"The chosen fruit is too ripe," Finn said. "Even if just for a few hours and not visually obvious." The ingredient sense did not mention if something was too ripe or not. This was something that could be gained by experience or instinct. He had the [Farming] skill so it wasn't a problem for Finn.

Micc wouldn't mind, and it didn't taste too bad—it was better than what he was used to, but he had tasted what the master made so he knew this was really subpar..

He looked at the jam in pity. Was it wasted?

Finn shook his head. "It's fine, we can save it."

"The balancer for excessive sweetness is acid or salt. Acid would cut through the sweetness and give brightness to the taste. Salt reduces the cloying sweetness by shifting contrast and adding complexity.

"Since we're here, I'll mention ways to balance other tastes. You can neutralize bitter tastes by using sweetness and fat. Sweetness masks the bitterness. They have opposing taste pathways."

"I see…" Micc said, trying to absorb the continuous information dump.

"As examples, you can use fats and oils to coat the tongue and dull the bitter receptors. Another example, bitter basilume tea added with fruit cream can also taste good."

A few more exercises and he was asked to make a simple roasted meal with fried rice and everyone watched him cook. His movements were a bit slow, especially at first, and there was a lack of flexible movements when he was shifting counters due to his limp, but otherwise he was getting used to the process.

With the help of the added buffs of the kitchen, adding possibility to create essence food and the great ingredients provided for him, it took Micc only a few days to succeed in creating his first essence food!

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