Gear supplies where now going to be handled by my own hands. It’ll take some time for me to create but in the meantime, I needed to secure provisions for my soldiers. Just the orcs and Mordred alone would require a lot of food to maintain. With that in mind it was a good idea to see how my new Gnoll farmers were doing.

  At this time, they should have more than enough food grown to help satisfy their relentless hunger. They must have dabbled in cooking at one point. I’m sure I could find us a chef that could make us some nutritious and long-lasting food for the conquest. ~

  With Paimoth at my side we traveled to my Gnolls’ home base. Of course, we had to take off our adventurer disguise. I was rather surprised that when we entered their territory that the place had really changed.

  There were multiple fields at different stages of growths, some of which I noticed was produce I didn’t provide for them. Seems they decided to take the matter in their own hands and cultivate more types of crops. From a quick inspect I listed some [Corn], [Grapes], [Garlic], and even [Onion] fields! I had to wonder how they managed to procure them in the first place. They already where at the final stages of growth too. It wasn’t that long since I last checked on them, right? ....

  “Ah, Chieftain! You came!” One Gnoll called out after hauling some of the crops that they had harvested.

  I waved back to them as they all stopped what they were doing to greet me. With their bodies bigger than mine they looked down at me but had made sure to show their submissiveness towards me.

  They all seemed a lot more civilized compared to when I first met them, it would be easy to confuse them for Beastmen. Without the threat of hunger making them aggressive they proven to be rather productive and civilized creatures.

  “Have you come here to check on our progress? As you can see, we have really expanded since your last visited” One of them announced with a noticeable swishing tail.

  I took another moment to look around before answering. “That is one of the reasons.”

  As I scanned the area, I noticed something else of interest. It seems that they had imitated the stone oven I crafted for them and made a whole area dedicated to cooking. I smiled with satisfaction upon seeing it.

  “Tell me... have you guys picked up on cooking recently?”

  Several of them came up, looking rather proud of themselves as one of them spoke for them. “We sure have! Seeing you at work on creating something so delicious Chieftain inspired us to try our hand at it as well! We tried all kinds of things with the tools you provided us!”

  As if on cue, some of them had presented some dishes in front of me while on their knees so it was within my eye level.

  Some of the food seem rather basic like stew that was mixed with vegetables and meat or simply made bread which even then was impressive enough considering they were learning from scratch! But then what really surprised me was when I noticed some roasted potatoes with onions and even roasted meat with some garlic seasoned on. It was easy to tell there was hard earned practice in these dishes.

  I pointed at the cooked meat as I called out. “The one who made this, come forth.”

  One of them froze up as they timidly walked up to me, refusing to let their larger stature tower above me as they waited for my response. Upon a closer look I noticed their appearance was a bit different from the others, having longer hair on their backs and of a larger upper build in comparison and yet had a rather timid demeanor.

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  Ready to taste his food I quickly forged some utensils as I took a bite of the roasted meat. They tensed up as they wondered how I was going to think of the dish.

  Taking a moment to chew and taste the meat I stayed silent before walking up to the Gnoll who cooked the dish as I placed a claw over their chest which made him widen his eyes.

  “.... This is absolutely delicious!” I finally said, my praise getting them all to wag their tails like dogs getting head scratches.

  I cracked a smile before laughing “Veehahahahaha! I’ve decided, why do you think of joining me in being my personal chef! ~”

  “R-really?!” My gnoll asked, shocked over my offer.

  The rest of his brethren were stunned as well. They looked at one another, questioning how they should handle this situation.

  The gnoll I gave the offer to seemed to slink his head lower. Less so of submission but from what I could tell more out of embarrassment.

  “A-are you sure?..... I mean I only just started to learn how to do this....”

  He started to rub his two fingers together with that gesture of shyness I would never expect to see from the ravenous gnolls. Huh, I guess there are all types from among even different monster species.

  I looked back at the others as I questioned them. “The rest of you don’t mind if I take him, do you?”

  They all shook their heads as the one closest to me spoke for them. “Not at all Chieftain! You are the one who taught us these things after all. It’s only right.”

  “We’re just happy to no longer have to be hungry anymore!”

  I smiled as I turned back to the nervous gnoll. “Well, you heard them. I’ll even make you a henchman and give you a name too.”

  His eyes lit up, bringing his head back up just enough to look down at me. “Re-really?! I-if I join up with you Chieftain, does that mean I get to do more of this amazing cooking?”

  I nodded while providing a smile, all the while wiping the corner of my mouth over thinking all the possible delicious food I will finally get to eat again. Granted I have started to grow accustomed to this world’s simple foods I still missed my old worlds dishes. With a passionate cook like him I may finally get to taste them again!

  I quickly noticed I was daydreaming as I recomposed myself. “A-anyway does that mean you’re taking my offer of promotion?”

  The gnoll cook’s eyes darted around to the others who all gave approving looks. “......Ok.... I’ll happily take your offer to be your personal chef Chieftain!!”

  “Veehahahahaha!! Then it’s settled! Now it’s the matter of making you into a henchman and giving you an awesome name! I’ve even thought of the perfect one too!”

  I concentrated as I pulled out my [Game Screen]. I had never promoted a minion to henchman before. I haven’t even fully grasped how the system determines whether someone becomes a minion or henchman. But I was starting to get an idea.

  I started to fiddle around with the menus, taking a look through the followers list. I tried to see if there were any other ways to interact with the list. After a few seconds I managed to find that I could touch the gnoll list and pull out a separate menu that seemed to indicate the individual gnolls.

  It was a bit weird going through it, especially for the fact that us monsters don’t normally have a name. As a substitute for a name, it instead listed them as a number instead. As an example, there was Gnoll 1, Gnoll 2, Gnoll 3, and so on. With twenty-seven of them I had thought it would be a difficult task to find the right one.

  Lucky for me when I hovered over each name in the list it pulled out the familiar floating names over each gnoll and appear over each of their heads as well as the line around their body that indicated their follower status growing slightly more intense.

  I had thought I would need to go through each one individual, but I found that I could simply focus on my target, and they would be selected instead. It made it a lot easier, and I was ready to promote my new chef.

  All of which was a simple drag and drop motion from the minion section to the henchman one. All that was left was to give the gnoll chef a name. When I finished, I saw that they all were looking at me weird, probably because of the fact I was moving my claws on empty air.

  “Alright all done. You are now officially my henchman!” I announced as I extended my claw up towards my new personal chef before declaring his new name. “Congratulations to your new promotion, Jordan Hamsey! ~”

  Jordan stared back; eyes widen as he processed his new name. They seem to sparkle with excitement before he gave off a large and toothy grin. “Jordan Hamsey…. Yes, I won’t disappoint you Chieftain!”

  He clenched his fist as he pumped it in the air. “I’ll learn all kinds of delicious food for you!!”

  His fellow gnolls clapped for him, happy for his future succession. Meanwhile I couldn’t help but think of all the tasty food I’ll finally get to eat and already thinking on what he could make first. Veehahahahaha~