Darius could make stuff like fried eggs, boiled eggs, boiled rice, and fry bacon or sausages, but that was truly entry-level stuff. His knowledge regarding cooking pretty much ended there, since he had usually left that task to either his personal chef or had gone out to eat at some fancy restaurant.

Darius scratched his head and moved away from the tree he had rested under. He made sure to pick up some dry wood from the area around its roots and bark, gathering them into a pile.

He found some stones and formed a ring out of them. He then dug out the center of it with his iron dagger and removed the grass, leaving only the bare earth. Fatigued once again, he took another short break before tossing the dry wood in the middle.

Darius then cast an Ember spell onto the wood, which instantly caught fire, saving him from actually getting the wood to light up, arguably the hardest part of creating a cooking fire. Magic certainly made one’s life easier.

Once the fire reached a suitable level, Darius created a spit over it with a bunch of longer and thicker branches he had found. Now came another hard part…

Darius fetched sand from the earth around and concentrated.

[Would you like to change the handful of sand into a handful of kosher salt? This will cost 0.001 Conversion Points.]

Darius made the conversion. The dark brown sand became a pristine white mineral that every human who ate food worshiped, the almighty salt. Without this divine sediment, most food would taste like garbage.

One could make food without fancy spices by just using salt and still end up with a gourmet-level meal, whereas making a meal only using fancy spices could easily make good food taste like crap.

Darius held up the blessed salt and praised the gods in heaven that this sediment existed in Faust before placing a majority of it into his Inventory, saving only a smattering of it for his current meal.

In his left, he had spawned one of the cuts from the Grey Bear’s meat. It was still as bloody and taut as it had been when Darius had cut it out, making him frown. However, he simply pierced it horizontally with a shaved and washed branch with enough thickness to hold the weight.

The moment the meat came over the fire, the blood dripped down and made a sizzling sound as it was quickly burnt up. Unsurprisingly, fire made by magic was far more potent than fire made from rubbing two sticks together really fast.

Darius carefully spread the salt over the meat after a lot more of the blood had drained away, using his hands to smear it over the fire. He should have probably done this before putting it on the spit, but he had dreaded the idea of salt mixed in with bloody meat.

After doing this, he carefully stirred the meat over the fire slowly, but his eyes weren’t actually on the ingredient, instead they were fixed on his notifications, eagerly waiting for the one that would grant him the knowledge of cooking.

It took 5 minutes of continuous rotation of the meat for the desired result to appear.

[Congratulations! You have learned the skill, Cooking!]

[Cooking – Level 1 Skill

Cost: 2 Stamina per minute

Description: Prepare many dishes with a seasoned hand. The quality of all cooked meals is raised by 5%.]

Immediately, Darius stopped what he was doing as he felt the knowledge of the fundamentals of cooking assimilate with his mind. It was almost as if he had been a basic cook for years and had simply forgotten how to perform the vocation temporarily.

Once this was done, he tossed what he had been making to the side as he stood up. Darius wanted a proper meal, not whatever abomination would have come out of his amateurish attempt just now. He was aware that he could not get a meal like those he had enjoyed on Earth here unless he used his Conversion Points, but that would be wasteful.

He would have to be smart about his life in Faust and find a compromise between what was acceptable for his palate and what would be filling enough to carry him until he encountered civilization.

Darius smiled when an idea came to mind.

He took out his iron dagger and cut some sticks of wood into thinner versions with a flat end at the bottom and a pointed end at the top. After that, he cut the meat of the Grey Bear into smaller cubical shapes.

Darius walked over to a bush nearby and plucked some leaves.

[Would you like to change a variegated leaf into a fresh onion? This will cost 0.003 Conversion Points.]

Darius made the change. The leaf expanded and became a ripe, pink onion that looked freshly harvested. He wasted no time in shaving off its skin and cutting it into quarters as well, then taking the smallest sections of each quarter.

After carefully washing it using his Pure Water and then coating the meat with a healthy amount of salt, he was ready to assemble his meal: khebabs.

That’s right, it was the best option Darius could come up with given his limited ingredients, Conversion Points, and acceptable palate. Luckily, onions existed in this world too, but he would need to add some more stuff before he could describe his work as done.

Darius assembled the khebab traditionally. One cut of meat, one onion, another cut of meat, another onion, and so on until there were five cubes of meat with four onion slices between them.

Darius had carved five small branches into khebab sticks, so he repeated the assembly for the others. Now that he had done this, he placed the sticks at an angle over the fire, sticking their butt end firmly into the earth.

He then poured some of his water into his palm.

[Would you like to change a handful of Pure Water into a handful of cooking oil? This will cost 0.005 Conversion Points.]

Darius smeared the oil over the khebabs gently and firmly, making sure to give them a nice coating of it. Sighing with relief, he washed his hand with the rest of his water thoroughly before creating some more of it.

With almost every done, Darius created his last ingredient that would perfect the flavor.

[Would you like to change the handful of sand into a handful of suya spice? This will cost 0.0012 Conversion Points.]

Sprinkling the reddish spice over the glazed khebabs that had been turned over about 3 times, Darius extracted them from the fire and inspected them.

[Sub-Saharan khebab – Consumable

Durability: 1/1

Description: A unique meat skewer that tastes as good as its smells. Can restore up to 2 points of Stamina and Health out of combat.]