...

"Hey, Carrig. Drop eight."

*Tssshhhhhhh*

Always hated how day shift left eggshells in the grease traps.

"I'm out of patties, you feel like fetching me some more?"

"Fine. You're cleaning that grill in the morning, though."

"Yeah, I know."

Those boxes of smash patties weigh around 30 pounds. I can't lift that much.

You can thank a drunk driver for... that...

...

Wait.

I don't want to be here. Why am I here?

No! Let me the hell out! Why can't I move?!

This isn't me anymore! Please... Please! This is just a dream, right?

...

"Carrig. Take over my station, I've gotta go clean the pavement outside."

"You want me to do orders, grill, and plating? Gotcha. Let me get right on that. Maybe this time I wont collapse."

"Put on your mask and deal with it. I need my smoke break."

"..."

Sure, take your four hour smoke break. Dickhead. Sure, dump all your work on the cripple. He can handle it.

Not like he'll get any kind of punishment for that four hour break. The person who couldn't handle the work and collapses gets punished.

Ain't that bass-ackwards? I should throw this spatula at him. Maybe a few patties, too.

...

Do it! You fucking..., MOVE!

I know I don't exist here anymore! Fuck this place!

...

*sssSHK*

It hits the back of his left arm, leaving a spatula-shaped red mark.

"GAAH! CARRIG! WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM!?"

What the hell...? I wasn't going to actually do that! Why would I... I'm going to be fired!

Shit! I needed to save up for...-

Why am I picking up another spatula!?

Stop! I don't want to rot in prison!

"CARRIG! PUT THAT THE FU-kch"

What the hell! I shoved it into his neck! Why did I move so fast!?

There's... That's a lot of blood...! He didn't deserve this!

Why... Why! What is...

...

"I'm dreaming, aren't I."

Only took literal murder to figure that out.

Yeah, this is a nightmare. Thank god.

Well, I'm lucid now. Time to burn this place to the ground.

...

~~~

...

Hm. Something smells good. What is...

There's a bowl of stew in front of me, with a small spoon.

It looks like beef stew, but smells so much... better? It's different. I can't describe it.

I wonder what they seasoned it with.

That comfortable fireplace is still there, and someone gave a pillow and a blanket.

I want to say I didn't think twice before scarfing down the stew, but I straight up didn't think once.

Like one of those videos where you wake a dog up with a snack.

Savory meat, sweet green and orange vegetables. It's salted just right.

When I ate stews before, I never drank the soup. That changed today.

It didn't have that metal-like flavor that every soup had to me.

Ah. It's gone. Damn it.

...

I just ate an entire bowl of stew without sitting up. Am I actually a dog?

I can still hear rain, but it's much lighter than when I first went to sleep.

"Hi Carrig. Sorry for not wakin' you up for dinner, you just looked so comfortable."

It's Annelie. She looks groggy, and has messy hair.

"From now on, don't worry about waking me up to eat. That stew was about ten times better than my sleep."

"Well, I figured that out when you ate an entire bowl of cold stew in thirty seconds."

"It was cold?"

"Yes...? You've been asleep all night, so it's been sittin' there."

All night? Ah, shit.

"Oh, good morning."

"Mornin'. So, you still feel like eatin' breakfast?"

"Yes. If you need help with anything just tell me what to do."

"Ahh, we're not gonna make you help just yet. You can do the dishes, though."

"Gotcha. Thank you, by the way."

I say, standing up to put the pillow and blanket on the couch.

Yeah, this shirt is too big for me. It's hanging off of my shoulder. Good thing Annelie is already walking towards the kitchen.

"Hey Carrig? How do you like your eggs?"

"English scrambled."

"English scrambled? I've never heard of that before. How do you make them?"

"Cook regular scrambled eggs, on a low heat, and in a saucepan. Add butter half way through. Oh, you do have butter here, right?"

"Saucepan? ... Ah, we do have butter! I guess I forgot to tell you this, but a lot of you guys from earth bring stuff over. So don't be surprised if you see chocolate, or ice cream."

"That makes sense, actually. I wonder just how much stuff from earth is here. Mayonnaise, soy sauce, ranch..."

"We do have those, but since soy beans don't exist here, the guy who brought it over used anibeans."

She says, taking down a cast iron pot. There are six eggs laid out. She grabs some kind of oil as well.

"Anibeans... Oh, I get it. Any beans. So let me guess, the person who made all that was japanese, right?"

"Yep! Oh, and in case you're wondering how I know all this despite only guiding northern transmigrators, almost all of those inventive transmigrators from Earth write everythin' down. Most libraries have a lot of books on Earth stuff, but it's mostly about food."

"So this place has a printing- Wait, I'm getting into that "ask way too many questions" mood again."

"You're fine! Gives me somethin' to talk about while I'm cookin'."

"Well, in that case... I'm a northern transmigrator? That means there are ones for the other directions as well, right?"

"Mhm! Every continent has a few guides. The northern, southern, western, eastern, and central continent are the most inhabited places in our world."

"I really cannot wait to find a library. There is a printing press in this world, right?"

"Nah. I've seen those in books, super impractical when we can just use magic for all that "high-tech earth stuff" anyway. There's a library in the capital here, we live somewhere pretty sparsely populated so big libraries wont be in any nearby towns."

"Well, if they have anything about this world, I would gladly read about it. There are maps too, right? I'm interested in figuring out what this world looks like as a whole."

Ah, I can hear sizzling. That's gonna be too hot.

I should ask to make them... I really don't want her to be upset, but I hate wasting food.

"You wouldn't mind if I cooked the eggs, would you? The kind I like are a little difficult to make on the first try."

"Sure... But you'll let me try some, right?"

"Of course. You can have all of it if you want. I feel kinda bad about just taking over your kitchen, it's like I'm saying "hey, no, you're doing it wrong. Let me do it.", and that feels really rude to me."

"You're fine! Seriously, I was more worried about messin' them up. I was gonna make you help with lunch, so I can show you how our stove works now."

"Thank you. Right, forgot that everything is magic here. I was wondering how you had light switches."

"Oh all that stuff is super simple, even a kid could make a stove if he wanted. It's all connector crystals. you can just give them a function, and connect them to each other with mana."

"That sounds so incredibly convenient that it's like something from a game. So it's like, you make one crystal control a crystal that makes light? Or for the stove, it just controls the heat?"

"That's exactly how it works. You're pretty sharp, ain't ya? Bet I don't even need to show you how the stove works."

After walking into the kitchen, I take a look at the stove.

Yep. It's literally the same as a gas burner, only the burner is a red crystal. It has a small ring of fire coming out of it.

For the dial, it's a rectangular crystal with a pointed end. There are numbers, and she has it set to seven.

Let me just... turn that down to four.

"That seems pretty low... The eggs will still cook, right?"

"Yep. You wouldn't happen to have a toaster too, right?"

"Oh, yeah. It's right over here. Bread's in the cabinet above it."

It's a regular, metal toaster. I don't know what I was expecting. The only thing different about it are the crystal heating elements inside.

... Fuck it. Might as well look through their kitchen to see if I can cook a big ass breakfast.

There's a small whisk above their stove, in the corner of the kitchen is, without a doubt, a refrigerator.

"You look like you wanna just cook everybody breakfast. I'm not gonna stop you as long as you let me watch, 'cause it seems like you've cooked before."

"Yeah, I used to cook. I had to be good at it since I... uh, hated wasting food. Cooking was the only job I could do back then."

"I'm looking forward to it, then!"

"Oh, don't worry about the dishes. I'll clean as I go."

She gives me a thumbs up, and I start walking to what I think is the fridge.

Yep. It's a fridge. I should really just start expecting the simplest answer. Thank you, Occam.

Maybe there are vine tomatoes in here... I see a bunch of condiments, juice, and some water. Oh, cheese. Hell yes.

The compartment in the bottom is probably where they keep their vegetables.

That is just what I was looking for. Hopefully these are similar to vine tomatoes, cause they look the same.

"Hey Annelie, is it alright if I use these?"

"Ooh! I was actually about to cook those myself! Sure, go ahead!"

"Awesome. So what are these called?"

"Vine alents."

So tomatoes are called alents here. Good to know. I might just start calling things what I want, seems difficult to learn entirely new names for things.

Right. I take down a small cast-iron pan, and put a bit of oil in it. Low heat, vine tomatoes.

Starting to seem familiar yet? Yeah. I copy a lot of my cooking from a certain british chef.

There aren't any mushrooms, though.

Bread time. It's a loaf, nothing like that bagged garbage I used to get. Like it's from a bakery.

Bread knife... There it is.

It's toasting, I should start the eggs. Should only take a second.

Hmm... I should get more eggs, since I'm making enough for everybody.

Four more should be enough.

I have the butter on standby.

Crack the eggs into the saucepan, whisk for a bit, add butter.

Off the heat, on the heat.

They're not sticking at all. This is great. I just hope I'm not scratching up their cookware.

Toast is done, just in time. Three plates, eggs onto the toast...

...

My hands arent shaking. Normally I can't plate things at all, and just end up making a mess.

I hold my hand out in front of my eyes. It's completely still. My fingers can move without disturbing the others.

"You okay there, bud?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. I'm just now noticing that I can move my hands how I want."

I say, taking the vine tomatoes out of the pan.

"You're just now noticing that?"

"Old injury I had made things difficult."

Oops, crap. No more depressing backstory, please.

"Oh, uh... Sorry to hear that... but that looks really good! Did you take cooking classes, or somethin'?"

Thank you, kind guide.

"I'm self taught. The only thing that was taught to me was how to flip things on a griddle. By the way, where's the salt and pepper?"

"It's right here. The silverware is in this drawer, can you set the table for us? I'll go wake Rook up."

I give her a thumbs-up and a smile.

She walks towards the hallway. But not before sneaking a bite of her scrambled eggs.

I'm not gonna try taking three plates at a time. Sorry, last plate. You won't be alone for long.

I wonder if they have any napkins. They probably do, I should start expecting luxury.

Table's set. I should get some drinks, too.

Let's see if I can find any cups...

Ah, there they are. Cabinet next to the fridge.

Speaking of the fridge, time to look through it again.

They wont mind. I'm pretty sure they wont, at least. I've got apologies at the ready.

What kind of juice do they have... Oh, agelo juice. Picked that one pretty fast. It has a small paper label, probably artisanal.

I won't open it, but I'll bring it to the table, with three cups.

Looks like I'm right on time, Rook walks out of the hallway like he's still asleep.

"Mornin'."

"Good morning."

"C'mon, Rook! You gotta try them!"

"Yeah, I'm hurryin'."

"It's okay that I brought out some agelo juice, right? I wanted to try it."

"That's absolutely fine! You cooked for us, after all!"

"Oh, and I didn't know how you two wanted your eggs seasoned, so I just brought the salt and pepper in here."

"Thanks."

"Thank you, Carrig!"

Annelie seems pretty excited. No idea why. They both sit down, after pouring themselves some agelo juice.

I do the same. This stuff smells super sweet, I hope it wont overpower the food.

Time to eat.

...

Wow. Was that butter tangy or something? These eggs are really good, and somewhat cheesy. A lot thinner than I thought they would be.

I never could get anything but the cheapest tomatoes, so these were wonderful. And very sweet.

Wonder what their verdict is?

Well, they look satisfied, at least.

I never really ate with people often, only cooked for them.

"Wow. Think I could get you to make this for lunch?"

Asks Rook. Guess it was good.

"Rook! I was gonna make sandwiches..."

"Oh. Sorry, Annie. I'm still wakin' up.- Ow, ow."

"Hmph!"

She pouts, while poking his shoulder. What a cute couple.

I start cleaning up the table, and taking the dishes to their sink.

Guess those connector crystals can spawn water, as well?

I don't have to wait for the water to heat up, it just comes out hot instantly.

They have a drying rack, so I'll just put the dishes I've used there, after I clean them.

"Hey Carrig. You feel like helpin' with firewood? Used most of it up last night."

"Sure, but I've got no idea how to chop wood. You'll show me, right?"

"Yep. Appreciate the help."

He steps outside. Looks like it's stopped raining.

"Psst, Carrig."

"Yes, Annelie?"

"You sure you wanna help with firewood? You're probably gonna be tired afterwards, and we have a pretty long day ahead of us."

"Yeah, I'm sure. Who knows, maybe I'll get a new skill."

"Hmm... Maybe? Well, we still gotta head towards the adventurer's guild in town. Once we get there, you can get <Mapping>."

No way. If that's a mini-map...

"That sounds like a skill I will get an absurd amount of use from."

"Why's that?"

"I'm terrible with directions. I got lost in a two room apartment once."

"Pfft... Rook's the same."

Somewhere outside I hear an "I heard that" in Rook's monotone voice

"Well, you go on out and help Rook, I'll make our lunches for the trip. Should take about a day on foot."

"Okay... They wouldn't happen to be ploughman's lunches, right? Just this feeling I've got."

"Ploughman's lunches? I was just gonna make a few sandwiches and put some agelo slices in there."

"I was on the money. It's basically just a sandwich with apples- uh, agelos and hard boiled eggs. Usually served with ale."

"Oh! Our pub has that! I wonder if they got the idea from transmigrators?"

Hmm... That keeps happening. I'll have an idea and it will just be correct. Is it because of my title?

I really hope I don't come off as some all-knowing asshole later on.

"I doubt it. I mean, you did just accidentally make part of one."

"Well, yeah... Huh. Guess it does have some pretty simple ingredients. Ah! You'd better hurry and go help Rook. He's probably waitin'."

"Alright. Oh, uh, do you think you could bring some of that agelo juice?"

"Sure!"

"Thank you very much."

I say, walking towards the door.

Now that I'm getting a better look at everything, this place is really pretty.

There's only about 12 buildings nearby, and this little hamlet is at the base of a mountain.

There are a few huge trees around. Like giant oak trees that decided they wanted to be ten times bigger than everybody else.

The architecture is similar to medieval europe... Actually, that's not it. The log cabins are surprisingly modern.

I'm guessing the pub is the building with a hanging wooden sign near it. You guessed it. It's a mug.

It's the only building here that isn't mostly logs. It has that old english house feel, with the white walls and brown supports. Big windows, too.

There's only a simple dirt road connecting everything, and wooden fences surround the houses. Some of them are cobblestone.

Rook calls me over to a shed near the side of their house. There are a bunch of logs against the wall here.

"Hey. I'll just have you chop three logs for now. Don't need a whole lot."

He says, placing a log onto the stump.

"Watch me. First up, find a crack. Like this one, and aim at it."

"Stand like this. Right hand next to the maul head, palm away from you."

He raises the axe above his head.

"Up here, move your right hand to your left. Get up on your toes, and swing down while bending your knees."

And swings down, slowly.

"Got it?"

"Yep."

"I'll do one log to show you an example."

He repeats what he's just told me. His feet are shoulder width apart.

And... Crack. The log is split in two. He picks up a piece that fell onto the ground, and chops that in half as well.

"Right. Now you. Here's the goggles."

The axe is lighter than I thought it would be. He takes another log and places it on the stump.

Okay, let's see if I can do this...

Find a crack, Feet... Axe at the waist... Hands overhead, downswing, toes, bend knees...

Alright.

...

Crack.

\\\
ALERT

===
---\
Strength +1
---/

...

Huh.

That was easy.