Alex stared at the obsidian pillar and inspected the new chef’s outfit.  “You know Fufi, something that has been bugging me that I’ve thought about it a little bit was that this outfit is +3.  But the last attempt at making an outfit with a greater cuteness bonus only gave +2.  Why is that?”

 

Fufi considered a moment. “It seems a bit contradictory doesn’t it?  I am not a master tailor but I think there are more things that determine how successful a craft is.  Like what makes a magical girl costume best is very detailed.  Can the same be said about a chef’s outfit?”

 

“I doubt it, being functional is the most important thing for work clothes.” Alex considered the bird’s point.

 

“Also, consider which is better.  A bonus to a stat or a skill?” Fufi added.

 

“Well, I’d think having a stat would have a broader effect.  Something that makes one better with swords isn’t as good as something that makes one get higher strength.  That would help for swords, axes, and saws.” Alex realized it made a bit of sense that certain things would be harder to give a bonus to than others.

 

Fixing her hair up into the hat and dusting herself off with the feather duster, Alex stepped through the portal. Fufi waved a wing and vanished from Alex’s view.

 

The teaching kitchen faded into view, the same as before.  A big red button stood prominent in the middle of the room, begging to be pressed.  A quick glance around the empty room and Alex ran up and pushed the button.  As soon as the button was pressed, party streamers shot out from the button and carnival music from nowhere played a fanfare.

 

Alex cringed.  Why did everything need to be so over the top?

 

Three puffs of smoke signaled the arrival of the other contestants of the cooking contest.  As the smoke cleared their appearance became clear.  They could only be described as demons.  Green, Blue and red horned and tailed humanoids popped into existence.  They all wore chef’s outfits that matched the color of their skin.

 

“Behold, I am demon red!”  The red demon in the middle raised its hand high.

 

“Bask in my magnificence for I am demon blue!”  The blue demon to the right of the red demon kneeled slightly and held its hands to the right.

 

“Tremble at my awesomeness mortals for I am demon yellow!” The yellow demon matched demon blue’s pose but to the left.

 

Alex thought back to some of the talks with Fufi about demonic cultivation.  The demons picked something to cultivate to accelerate their growth into higher tiers.  The ice demon was blue like demon blue but a lighter shade and much bigger.  If Alex had to guess, these demons were not as strong.  It would have been nice to give Alex some kind of identify skill.  But that would be asking too much apparently.  Did the Hero get a cheat skill like that?  No wonder he could be so confident. Alex’s mental pondering got cut off rather abruptly when the demons started bickering.

 

“I, demon red, leader of team demon will dominate this culinary battle!” The red demon proclaimed.

 

The two other demons didn’t like this.  Instantly they turned on one another.

 

“Who made you leader? I’m not going to kowtow to someone who is a weaker cook than me.” Demon blue glared at demon red.  “I will be the leader.  Be grateful that I will allow you to participate in my victory along with demon yellow.”

 

“Us fire cultivators have always been the leaders of demons.  You two should know your place.” Demon red sneered at the other two demons.

 

Demon yellow rolled its eyes. “Like anyone would follow you.  Both of your abilities are unproven.”

 

The demons argued, yelling and talking over one another.  The rather well choreographed introduction shattered in an instant.  These creatures did not play well together without someone in charge.

 

“Um, hello, I’m Alex. I look forward to cooking with all of you.” Alex tried to be polite.

 

The three demons gave Alex a predatory look. “May the best demon win.”

 

Alex blinked.  “Not all of us are demons.”

 

Demon red gave a sinister smile. “That Doesn’t make what we said wrong.”

 

Alex frowned but didn’t say anything.

 

Before the demons could go back to bickering, a voice sounded through the room.  “Round one will be soup.  Contestants to your stations!”

 

The stations were color coded and quite close to one another.  Everyone headed to their areas which were color coded.  Alex’s station was colored an off white.

 

Things started off okay.  The demons went to their cooking with their noses held high, each confident in being the best.  However, they seemed to have superhuman speed and stuffed their pots with ingredients in moments, they didn’t have the spark that showed that the cooking would become good.

 

Alex’s cooking skill shined, she picked out beans, spices, and meats for the soup. Her cooking skill shined helping to identify the best things to add and how to add them.  It was obvious after a few minutes when the soup came to a boil.  The aroma from the pot filled the room and attracted everyone’s attention.   

 

Originally, the demons ignored Alex.  They treated her like she was an inferior human and would just lose.

 

“Tsk,” The red demon waved a hand and all of the flames from the oven jumped into its palm.

 

Alex gasped and regarded the now smoldering, flameless oven. “What was that for?”

 

“Know your place human.” The red demon stuck its nose up.

 

While Alex looked in disbelief at the red demon the yellow demon did something behind her back that caused some bricks in the wall to come loose and knock the pot off the stove and cause the contents to spill out all over the floor.

 

“You too.” Alex pointed an accusing finger at the demon yellow.

 

The yellow-skinned demon chef chuckled. “Demon red had a point.  Don’t you think you are getting a little too cocky?”

 

“Now clean up your mess.  What kind of bar wench spills soup all over the kitchen floor?” Demon yellow decided to be an absolute bastard.

 

“Here let me help you with that.”  Demon blue held out a hand and water started forming in a blob before the outstretched arm.

 

Alex placed her hands on her hips and got serious. “You want to dance?  Okay let's dance.”

Grabbing a meaty bone hanging from the ceiling on a hook, Alex took it and strode up to the blue demon channeling water magic.  Holding the possible cow leg in a batters pose, Alex activated [dance partner] and took a swing at the water-using demon, thoughts filled with violence.

 

The round bounced off the blue demon harmlessly.  

 

“Haha, don’t you think we’ve all tried that already?  This is a cooking contest where only cooking-related actions are allowed.” The blue demon chortled arrogantly.  Then the water splashed all over the floor, soaking Alex’s shoes and socks.  “Let me clean up the filth someone left here and wash her down the drain.  We can’t have a kitchen with spilled soup all over the floor.”

 

Luckily, Alex’s dance partner skill stayed attuned to the blue demon and keeping her footing, being a requirement of continuing the dance didn’t pose any problems.

 

“Ugh, you are terrible.” Alex complained. She set the bone-with-meat-on-it down on the counter top. 

 

All three demons chuckled, confirming that yes, demons were terrible.

 

The soup wasn’t going to cook itself, so Alex started over.  Picking out another pot and starting up the fire again.  As soon as the flames started up again Alex shot a gaze at the red demon, confirming some strange gestures again.  Demon red was going to steal the fire again.

 

Alex focused on the cooking skill for a solution while staring at the large hunk of raw meat.  A culinary epiphany came to Alex.  “This cut of meat, I think it needs some tenderizing.  It is much too tough to be any good right now.”  Alex switched her dance partner to the red demon, grabbed the protruding bone of the meat with both hands and leaped at the red demon, bringing the cut of meat down with an overhead swing.  Alex’s speed suddenly switched from that of a low leveled human to that of a cultivator on the demon’s level.

 

The demon, blinking in surprise at the sudden change in physical abilities but looked unconcerned. The red-skinned demon smugly said, “She’s not a very quick learner this one…”  But was cut off by being smacked upside the head with a large hunk of meat.

 

The demon, apparently having a much tougher head than a human, only staggered back a step.  “What how?  Attacking each other was the first thing we tried and were blocked.”

 

“Who is attacking?  I just found something hard to tenderize this meat against.” Alex smacked the demon again and again, hitting the head from the left and again from the right.

 

The demon raised an arm to block, but Alex just punished the arms instead with the meat.  Not following his own advice, the demon launched a haymaker at Alex who just grinned.

 

Taking a guess about the physics being broken in this area, Alex pointed a pinky fingernail right into the middle of the powerful blow.  

 

The red demon’s fist caved in on itself with a sickening crunch.  The little finger that it struck didn’t move an inch.

 

The demon cursed and started giving off smoke, literally, in frustration.  “You little…”  Much profanity escaped the demon's lips. It cradled its hand in pain.  

 

Some other confrontations happened but each time they ended with a demon being pummeled by a quick shift of the dance partner skill and copious amounts of meat tenderizing.  Towards the end, when the soup just needed to have the meat added, the yellow demon caused blades of sharp stone to sprout from the floor.  Alex took advantage of this by hitting the slab of meat repeatedly against the blades, sending cuts of meat flying at the yellow demon.  The skill caused them to fly at the demon at speeds impossible for a normal human to accomplish.  To show off, Alex did it one handed with a serving tray in the other hand.  She danced around the blades and caught each hunk of meat that bounced off the yellow demon in the tray.  Nothing touched the floor.

 

After that display, none of the demons seemed to be brave enough to try anything funny.  When everyone poured bowls of soup to serve, the voice announced the time to judge the results of the contest.

 

Oddly enough, no one came to judge the contest.  The announcer said that everyone needs to try each other's dish.

 

Three bowls of soup with spoons were placed in front of Alex.  In turn, Alex placed three bowls of beef and veggie soup in front of the demons.

Alex tasted the soup of the red demon.  It wasn’t bad, but it lacked the heart that one could feel from someone that cooked with care for their family and loved ones.  The other two bowls lacked that special something. Alex took a spoonful of her own soup and could tell that it was the best of the group.  

 

The other contestants likewise saved Alex’s soup for last, fearing the worst.

 

“Such texture, such flavor. Kyhaaaa”  Demon red’s clothing exploded.  The red-skinned demon let out a sensual sound at the taste.  Now naked, the demon ran away in embarrassment.  

 

“Haaaaah!” Demon blue moaned, clothing exploding into sheets of fabric.

 

“Neeeaaaah!” Demon yellow cried out in ecstasy from the taste. 

 

The torn fabric of chef outfits float down from the room.  All the demons fled, luckily they didn’t have anything resembling genitals so it definitely wasn’t erotic. Nope, those were just noises that someone might make while enjoying food immensely.

 

Alex threw a towel over her shoulder and said, “I hope you enjoyed the meal,” a proud grin on her face.

 

A treasure box popped into existence by the red button.  Alex walked over and opened it.  Inside was a kettle.  It has a tag attached to it.

 

[Everflowing Kettle:

This kettle pours out boiling water, perfect for tea.  It will never run out but will only work if someone who has magic or a skill related to culinary arts of some sorts is using it]

 

The dungeon being completed, Alex hurriedly placed knives, plates, ladles and other cooking utensils into the chest.  Grabbing some steel knives, cast iron pots and glass mixing bowls, the magical girl slowly dragged the too-heavy chest back through the portal.