“I’m a little hungry but maybe we can get something to eat after checking the dungeon out.” Alex’s stomach rumbled.

  The portal rippled and solidified.

  Alex took a step through the rift and set foot in what appeared to be a kitchen. Alex looked around and inspected the pce. The area was more like a facility for a culinary school. Alex noticed sinks, wood fired ovens, shelves with spices and pantries stuffed with supplies. A sign with a big red button was in the center of the pce it read: ‘Culinary cookoff contest. Press to start.’

  Nope.

  Alex turned around and headed right back out of the portal.

  “That was quick.” Fufi turned to look at Alex.

  Alex slumped, “It is a cooking dungeon.”

  “Like all the monsters are chefs?” Fufi asked.

  “Maybe, I didn’t press the button to start. I guess this is what I get when I enter a dungeon hungry.” Alex sighed.

  “A cooking contest sounds fun. What’s the hold up? You could do the dungeon and have a snack at the same time,” Fufi said.

  “No, I’m not getting ahead of myself here. I want to go in with all the advantages I can get. I learned my lesson in the doll tower defense dungeon. Before I start that thing I need to dress for the occasion.” Alex gred at the bird.

  “So we should head back to the warehouse and work on a new outfit?” Fufi gushed.

  “Yeah, but I don’t want to work on an empty stomach. Let's see if we can get some food and cooking practice at the same time.” Alex walked up the stairs from the basement onto the main floor of the adventurer’s guild.

  As time went by, the popution kept getting more and more cute. People sitting in the common area donned ribbons and frilly headbands. What was once a popution of hard-looking pelt-wearing unwashed barbarians now was a group of well-dressed cleanly washed people. A leaf-haired nymph sat at the counter dressed in a forest-green dress suit. She had a flower in her hair, which was likely growing from her head instead of being picked and pced there. Some people still wore pelts, but they wore them stylishly.

  The popution's transformation was likely due to a number of factors, including improved hygiene, access to better clothing, and a more rexed social atmosphere. The people seemed to be enjoying their new-found cuteness, and they took great care in their appearance. The nymph was a particurly striking example of this trend, with her flowing hair and elegant attire.

  Alex boggled, not really able to reconcile the group a couple months ago that called themselves stone ax for good reason. “Hello, do you mind if I use the kitchen for a bit? I need to practice cooking for a dungeon run.” The magical girl addressed the nymph at the counter.

  “Of course, go right ahead. But anything you cook you have to share.” The nymph smiled happily.

  Alex headed back into the rge kitchen of the guild followed by a pink fmingo.

  Alex searched for an unused cooking station and found one within minutes. She gathered some firewood and pced it in the wrought iron stove. Using a metal scoop and bucket, she pced some coals in the wood pile to get the fire started. The fire crackled and popped as it began to burn, and Alex smiled in satisfaction. She was finally going to be able to cook something to eat.

  “What are you thinking of cooking?” Fufi asked.

  Alex checked the pantry, considering the options. “Well, there is some olive oil here, some potatoes and veggies. Maybe we could do a veggie stir fry?”

  Fufi poked her head around Alex to peek into the pantry. “Oh they even have seasonings here.”

  Alex picked out some peppers. “Yeah, I think growing stuff is probably one of the best strengths the nymphs have.”

  Alex, whose skills were boosted by the system, quickly chopped some potatoes, poured some oil into a pan, and tossed the potato pieces into the now-heating oil. After the potatoes were nicely browned, she added some carrots and broccoli. Alex poured some water on the frying vegetables, covered it with a lid for a short while, and then checked the food to see if it was cooked through.

  Fufi looked a bit flustered from watching Alex cooking.

  “What is it? I know you want to say something.” Alex pointed a spatu at the bird.

  “Well, it looks good. As good as anything you’ve cooked so far but I can’t help but think that it is missing the most important thing for a magical girl.” The fmingo stomped her webbed foot.

  Alex waved the cooking utensil around. “Cuteness. You are going to say the dish doesn’t look cute enough aren't you?”

  Fufu nodded. “It’s true though! Cuteness is power for a magical girl. A good dish someone will look at and smile.”

  Alex took the pan off the stove and pted the dish on a rge wooden serving bowl. “Hmm, well maybe I should try again and see if there is any truth to what you are saying.” The magical girl poked a potato wedge with a toothpick and ate it. “It tastes good but like you said, the only thing better than what we made for the nymphs and the barbarians in the woods when we were meeting is that it is seasoned better.”

  Fufi used her beak to grab a bite as well. “It is good but I think you can take it to the next level.”

  A nymph came by and looked at the bowl of food that was sitting there. “Oh, this looks nice, do you want to share it?”

  “Yeah, I think I need to start over but if anyone wants to try this one that’s fine.” Alex gestured to the bowl. The nymph picked it up and took it out of the kitchen.

  After cleaning off the pan, Alex prepared to try again. “Well, I can try to make something that I’ve seen made but haven’t actually done before.”

  “What’s that?” Fufi asked.

  “Raw fish, rice, seaweed—wait I don’t think we have that, maybe scrambled eggs for the outside? Hmm, I’ll need a sharp knife too. And a wooden thatched mat thing to wrap the sticky rice.” Alex squinted at the stuff in the cupboard. “I think carrots and cucumbers, some pickled ginger. Wait, do we have picklings in this world?”

  Fufi nodded. “Yeah, that is where you soak something in vinegar.”

  Alex nodded back and searched the cupboards. There was no pickled ginger to be found. “Darn, I found some vinegar and pickled cucumbers but no ginger in jars of vinegar.” Alex took some cleaned ginger roots, put them in a stone jar and poured vinegar in them. “My cooking skill… I think it is telling me that I can’t just add these to and use them without giving it some time to soak. Darn.”

  The kitchen nymph came back and watched what Alex was doing with interest.

  Alex looked at the leaf-haired woman. “Can I help you?”

  “Oh, just seeing if I can learn anything. The culinary traditions of the stone ax tribe are not very expansive,” She said.

  “We should formally introduce ourselves then. My name is Alex and this is Fufi.” Alex gestured to the fmingo at her side.

  “I’m Ninfu. How can I help?” She brightened up.

  “Do you have a sushi rolling mat?” Alex asked.

  She looked at him bnkly, no understanding her eyes.

  “It is like some bamboo twigs with strings holding them together.” Alex made some weird gestures trying to expin but failing.

  Fufi waddled off and grabbed a quill, paper and ink pot. She set them down on the table with her beak.

  Alex gave an awkward grimace to the Fmingo. “Thank you.”

  The magical girl then drew a very simple idea of the mat on the paper. “See like this, just some simple bits of wood. Then you can do this with it.” She rolled up the paper then unrolled the paper.

  “Oh, we don’t have anything like that but it’ll be really easy to make.” Ninfu nodded rapidly. She exited out the back door. She came back holding some green bamboo and a spool of thread. The thread looked oddly familiar.

  “Can you do that st part? I’m a sous chef not a seamstress.” The leaf-haired woman handed the bamboo and thread to Alex.

  Alex took the two things and nodded. “Yeah, this will be easy.” Alex stepped outside, summoned her carriage and grabbed a needle from it. Heading back in, she tied the thread to the needle and with near superhuman speed secured the bamboo together in a way that would make a good mat that could roll and unroll. “See like that.”

  Fufi and Ninfu watched the speed sewing with awe.

  Alex coughed. “Anyway, I guess we’ll have to soak some ginger in vinegar for a while. We can try to add that ingredient ter.” Alex threw some rice in a pot and added some water from the kitchen sink. She went to pce it on the stove but felt some resistance from the cooking skill. It was telling her she was going to mess up if she cooked the rice like that. “Darn it… this too?”

  “What’s wrong? Fufi poked her head up and looked into the pot filled with rice and then back to Alex.

  “Well, whenever I made rice before I just threw it into a pot, added a bit of salt and boiled it. I haven’t actually ever made sticky rice before I figured maybe it would be adding some vinegar or cooking it a bit longer but I just instinctively know that is wrong now.”

  Alex took the ginger, cut off the outside and all of the brown spots with a knife. Letting the cooking skill guide her, she sliced the ginger in thin strips that felt right. Alex pced the ginger in the jar and added vinegar into it. Then that feeling came back. “Hmm, why does it feel like I’m missing something?”

  Alex squinted and looked around. After running a hand across several ingredients, two really called out to her. The first one was some sugar and the second one was salt.

  Letting the skill guide her hand, Alex poured a bit of sugar and salt in with the vinegar and sliced ginger. “Hmm, I think I still am missing something.”

  Alex looked around and felt the oven calling to her. Following the nudge she felt, she poured the stuff in the jar in a small pot on a hot burner. “There, I think this is the next step.” Alex watched the pot until it boiled and felt the urge to take it off. She poured the heated mixture back into the jar and put a lit on it.

  “Hmm, I am not quite sure how long this is supposed to soak for but I believe it is something in a matter of days.” Alex pondered.

  Ninfu nodded. “That makes sense. It takes a while to pickle something. I’ve never heard of someone pickling ginger before though. What a novel idea!”

  Ninfu grabbed some ginger and copied what she saw Alex do. “Am I doing this right?” She asked while cutting parts of the root.

  And so, rather than getting sushi made, Alex spent the rest of the day teaching the cooks how to pickle ginger and how to soak rice. After the sun went down the rice had soaked enough that it felt right to get started.

  Several other nymphs had grabbed some rice and pced them in some water to soak as well. So when it came time to steam the rice everyone did it as a group.

  They made some other bamboo mats and everyone rolled up their own simple cucumber and carrot sushi rolls.

  “Normally we would wrap these in seaweed but I’m not sure how far away we are from the sea. But just roll it up like a burrito.” Alex used the sticky rice to wrap around the veggies with the mat and rolled it up then unrolled it.

  “What’s a burrito?” Ninfu asked.

  Fufi snickered.

  “That’s not important right now. So we take the sharp knife and slice it into bite sized bit like this.” Alex cut it up and put it on a stone pte.

  Ninfu went to take one and eat it like finger food.

  Alex winced.

  Ninfu held the simple sushi in her hand. “What’s wrong?”

  “Well, usually we use chopsticks for eating a dish like this. It just feels wrong eating it like you were going to.” Alex picked up a couple free bamboo sticks that had not been used to make the mats.

  “You can hold them in your hand like this and then pick it up and put it in your mouth.” Alex demonstrated to the audience.

  Everyone was giddy when they were introduced to a new kind of eating utensil. There were some metal knives, forks and spoons that had been salvaged from the ruin but these bamboo sticks were a big hit with the woodsy nymphs.