NOVEL NEXT CH.511 Visiting the Kitchen Knights
Today, I was paying a visit to a certain cooking clan I got somewhat acquainted with during the entire final day terrorist attack on the adventuring tournament. That being the Kitchen Knights clan.
They had sent me a letter inviting me to visit their clan headquarters soon after the adventuring tournament, but because of the distance, the letter came all the way to Alewatch for me, it took almost a month for it to arrive.
And this is why this world needs the Internet, or some other better communication network.
So because I’m me, and I think sending letters that take a year to get there, so I asked Lawrence to deliver it instead. But he sent Chloe to do the delivery.
Yes, both of them have Card Summoner. I gave them the orbs. They also have basic GX style duel disks. They don’t have many cards, but they both have a single B.E.S. ship and a single smaller ship. As well as a few decently powerful monsters to protect themselves.
And since I have the mana flowers in two of the three Kingdoms planted, the mapping software I made using the mana beacons held at each flower location is decently accurate, even if you end up in areas that aren’t surrounded by the flowers.
Yes, I will soon be planting the flowers in Narra Kingdom. It just takes a while to not only prepare the flowers, but also all the magic stones that are needed for it.
But that is for another day. I have some meat to prepare, so I can take it to the Kitchen Knights when I visit. In return, I’ll hopefully get some recipes.
The Kitchen Knights headquarters was a nice big building. It was in the city of Tyrin, the city that was next to the Hero’s country on the Bella Kingdom’s side. Similar to how Oroco City is on the Ruiso Kingdom side.
We entered the building and it looked more like a restaurant than an adventuring clans headquarters, but that was because the Kitchen Knights run a full eatery in their clan headquarters.
I won’t call it a restaurant, as it doesn’t actually have a menu or anything, they just have a serving station, you pick out foods from what is available and pay for it.
We decided to enjoy what was available, before we report that we are here for an actual meeting, because I wanted to see how their food compared to HomeBase food.
We picked up some of the nicer stuff, like a plant dish made of C-rank plant monster and some B-rank monster meat. I picked some of the clans mead for a drink, while Lua pondered if she should complain because they don’t offer any blood.
She ended up not bringing attention to it, and we paid for the food. And despite the high class ingredients, our meals only came to 9 bronze a person. Drinks were a bit extra.
But that is still very cheap for C and B-rank monster material meals. Sure you can get a meal for one bronze, but that comes with no drink or just water, and it is made of the cheapest stuff with only basic seasonings. This stuff is decently high class and very well seasoned.
As we were eating, a member of the Kitchen Knights came to our table and asked if he could speak with us. I recognized him as the person I asked to cook dragon meat, so I agreed and he sat down.
He began by asking how our meals were, and we gave our honest opinions. They were great. Lua then told him about the lack of blood as a drink option, which the man was apologetic about and told us he could bring some from the butchering area. Lua simply told him she had her own flask, so she wouldn’t need any, but said that since they have the blood anyway, they should maybe keep some for people who do drink it. He answered that they do keep all the blood and send it to the nearest dhampir safe village, which Lua was happy to hear. At least they don’t waste it.
I then asked him about how they prepared the foods, but he said it would be better to just show me. He then asked how I get dragon meat, while locking eyes with Janina for a moment. He must have realized Janina is a dragon in humanoid form. I just answered that it would be better if I just showed him.
So after we ate, he took us to the kitchen.
The kitchen was quite amazing. You could really see that it was important to the clan.
It had top of the line magic ovens, burners, freezers and refrigerators. Their current magic ovens are even designed by someone at the commission of the Kitchen Knights, and it is considered the most advanced magic oven available.
The kitchen wasn’t super busy, probably because the lunch rush is now over, and they are calming down before starting dinner preparations.
As we were shown around the kitchen, a few members of the Kitchen Knights joined the tour, adding information here and there.
I then asked about the preparations of the meals served, and they explained their process, even telling me that if I’d like, I can observe the dinner service, as long as I don’t get in the way and offer them some dragon meat.
I agreed to that, because my entire experience in seeing professional kitchens is from TV shows, so seeing one in action might be cool.
They then showed us their spice cabinets and their sauce selection. Sadly they didn’t give us the recipes for the sauces, but I think I can live with that.
Then it was time for my half of the bargain. At first they wanted us to head to the butchering area, but I told them there wouldn’t be enough space. I asked them to bring a few large trays and head outside, while I changed my race to Wolf-kin and got a few cards out.
Some of their eyes widened as they saw me growing out a tail, but they didn’t ask, so I didn’t explain.
When we got outside, I got to work. First up, I used Mystik Wok on Tyrant Dragon. Yes, he is still my go-to tribute to the Wok.
We watched as the dragon was cleaved to pieces, the pieces finding their places on the trays the Kitchen Knights brought out. While it happened, I explained that this was all done by my unique skill, and that the dragon I just butchered would come back to life by tomorrow. I also explained that that is why a certain dragon doesn’t mind me doing so.
We waited while the Kitchen Knights took the meat to their butchering room, because while it was butchered already, they wanted to confirm it.
I then took out another Wok, activated it, and this time, I took apart a Judgment Dragon.
Judgment Dragon tastes very different from Tyrant Dragon. Tyrant Dragon has what I call a ‘traditional dragon flavor’, while Judgment Dragon carries a more … gamey flavor. It is just a bit muskier or something.
As a human, I don’t like it as much as Tyrant Dragon, but if I’m a beast-folk race, especially Wolf-folk or Wolf-kin, I prefer Judgment Dragon.
I then asked the Kitchen Knights for an empty barrel, as I got out the next two cards. Destruct Potion and Ruddy Rose Dragon.
Like Mystik Wok, Destruct Potion takes a monster and turns it into a consumable that heals you based on the monster's Attack stat. With Wok, it is food, and Destruct Potion makes drinks.
With Ruddy Rose Dragon specifically, it makes a really tasty rosé wine. And it is non-alcoholic. With just one dragon tributed, it makes about 30 liters of the wine. Which admittedly isn’t that much considering how much meat you can get from a single dragon, but in return, the healing effect is condensed. Not that the wine or food will ever compete with actual healing items, unless I forcefully supercondence the healing. And yes, that can be done, but I usually don’t, because I don’t make the food for the healing effect. I make it to be food.
The Kitchen Knights then asked if I had any more favorite monsters that I cook up for myself, and if I’d share some, so I ended up using more Woks to get some more raw meat.
D.3.S. Frog, Terrorking Salmon (for the roe), Royal Swamp Eel, Golden Flying Fish and Naturia Bamboo Shoot all found themselves on the Wok.
… okay, they actually came out raw, because I wanted them to. And as a Wolf-kin the card agrees with me, because Wolf-kin can actually stomach raw food.
Well, a human can as well, but way worse. Just differences in biology.
With all the incidents I handed them, I managed to talk the Kitchen Knights into sharing a bunch of the recipes that they didn’t originally share, including all of their secret sauces.
They were kind of nice, and I definitely accepted the trade. I mean, Woking all those cards didn’t cost me anything, but I got a bunch of recipes out of it. So yeah. A fantastic trade deal if you ask me.
With dinner preparation starting up next, I took a ‘seat’ in the air near the corner of the kitchen, so I could observe everything. The girls weren’t too interested, so they headed out to the city to … do whatever they were going to do. They’ll probably just shop around or something.
As for how the kitchen ran during dinner service. The dinner service wasn’t an open line of available foods, but instead à la carte style. So order from a menu, and the kitchen will prepare it for you. Much like a traditional restaurant you think of.
The kitchen honestly was way more quiet than I expected. I think I just assumed a lot of yelling would be involved, because I had unrealistic expectations from TV shows.
There was basically none. The head chef would simply call out orders, the chefs at their stations would know what to do, and the food would get prepared at a super fast pace.
It also showed the Cooking skill these guys must have, and honestly just their overall stats. They were moving around quickly, at speeds a LV.1 person probably couldn’t follow with their eyes. Sure it was no problem for me, but I still think this is very impressive.
It also shows just how efficient their kitchen appliances are, because those appliances kept up with their crazy speeds.
Eventually I decided I’d seen enough, and asked one of the stand-by members, who were ready to take over any of the stations if something bad happened, if I could get a table and taste some of the foods.
One of them brought me to private room, which was kept empty for important guests that may not want to preserve a table, and then said they’d make sure I get a nice assortment of dishes.
I then messaged my girls that they should return if they want to have dinner with me.
My entrées arrived before the girls got here, but I made sure to save them some, and when they messaged me that they were here, I asked the Kitchen Knight standing in the room to bring them in.
We then enjoyed the meals the Kitchen Knights were serving, and yeah, it was really good. Definitely rivals HomeBase, probably even exceeds it.
But HomeBase has better desserts. That I can 100% confirm, and we all agreed on it.