I was an apprentice in Ferren

Chapter 12 Practice
Judy, the halfling standing on the stool, looked at the stove with a look of contentment in her eyes.

As a retired adventurer, he didn't need to worry about employment, but his love for food led him to become a chef, after which he turned down many invitations to come here.

Compared to a normal restaurant, many tasks at the mage academy can be handled by magical servants. Apprentices also help with cleaning using spells. His main job is to create recipes, select ingredients, and adjust the flavors of the dishes. Compared to his fellow villagers who work in taverns, his salary is not only more generous, but he also has a particularly easy and comfortable job.

There's no shortage of money here, nor is there an abundance of all sorts of strange and unusual prey; he can fully unleash his imagination.

Of course, occasionally the college leaders would ask him to cook some exquisite dishes for himself, which would take up some of his personal time, but Judy would cook an extra portion for herself at these times to enjoy the hard-won high-quality ingredients.

And you don't even need to spend your own money.

However, today is Friday, and some teachers and students in the college will leave after school to go home, which makes his work much easier and gives him the energy to use the extra ingredients to cook a few dishes for himself and entertain himself.

But before he could finish his work, a cough suddenly came from the previously empty cafeteria: "Hello, teacher."

The sudden greeting surprised and alarmed the chef. It would be fine if it was a student, but it would be awkward if someone else came over and teased him about getting special treatment for him.

He quickly turned off the fire elemental magic circle used for rapid heating, put the lid on the pot, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the person who came was a student: "Why are you so late? Is the food not to your liking today?"

"No." DuPont was very polite; the halfling's nameplate was silver. "I heard the sound of a pig being slaughtered this morning. Are pigs being raised on campus?"

Hearing this, the half-man breathed a sigh of relief: "No, that's not it. We have purchase agreements with nearby villages and the town's market. To prevent anyone from poisoning us and endangering everyone's safety, and to ensure we get the freshest and most delicious meat, they send the livestock needed for the canteen to our kitchen for slaughter every day to avoid any unnecessary trouble."

As he spoke, he seemed to remember something: "Student, if you find the pig slaughtering noisy, just close the window in time. We have deliberately extended the slaughtering time to 6 o'clock, otherwise it will be too late for breakfast."

“It’s not that I’m afraid of noise.” DuPont shook his head, his expression very serious. “It’s like this: as a mage apprentice, my teacher has always taught us to be mentally strong and not to waver no matter what happens. Otherwise, if there are problems with the spell, it will either fail or backfire, which will cause serious problems.”

The halfling nodded. Although he didn't know much about magic, he understood the basic principles from what he'd heard: "So what you mean is?"

"I've never killed anything before." DuPont smiled shyly. "If I get up early tomorrow, I wonder if I could help slaughter a pig and toughen myself up?"

"Huh?" The halfling was puzzled. "You want to kill a pig? That's fine, the academy doesn't have any similar rules as long as you're careful not to get hurt. But I heard you guys mention during dinner that there are anatomy classes at the school, from goblins to werewolves and vampires, and sometimes they even say there are demons. Do you really need to go to the slaughterhouse to do this experiment?"

DuPont almost vomited blood when he heard this. This was a rare opportunity for him to gain experience, and he had to run into this mess.
He doesn't recall ever participating.
However, DuPont quickly came up with an answer, and said with a face full of shame, "Teacher, I am an architecture major, and such opportunities are not common, but actually I would really like to try what it's like to be an adventurer."

"Oh, I see." The halfling nodded in understanding. "No problem. Be at the canteen by 5:50 tomorrow morning. I'll have that barbarian butcher give you a chance to train."

"Thank you," DuPont quickly agreed, adding before leaving, "Teacher, are you cooking? My hometown has some unique dishes; we can exchange ideas sometime." Judy nodded in agreement, but didn't really think much of it.

Halflings love food, and those who can become chefs are the best among them. They are invited to work in taverns, inns, and private kitchens of nobles. This little kid probably doesn't even recognize most spices at his age, yet he dares to say he can cook.
This is utter nonsense, but the halfling is too lazy to bother with such a trivial matter. Instead, he quickly opened the lid on the stove after DuPont left.

His food is still in the pot; I need to check on it quickly.

A lot of the soup was gone, but thankfully it didn't burn, thanks to him turning the heat down a bit.

But why would the other person deliberately remind him? Does he really know how to cook?

DuPont does know how to cook, and he does it quite well.

Thanks to the internet, many chefs teach cooking online. Although some talented but unethical individuals are just trying to gain popularity, and while their dishes are good, they never reveal the key secret sauce recipes, there are also many chefs who are willing to teach sincerely. During his spare time at the construction site, he would occasionally exchange ideas with the chefs.

As a junior manager on the construction site, no one would stop him from using the stove if he had the time. If he was feeling lazy, the canteen staff would cook special meals for him.

Through his observations over the past two days, he found that the cafeteria mainly served soups, barbecued dishes, and fried foods. While the taste was not bad, he couldn't find any delicious braised or stir-fried dishes, which left him somewhat disappointed.

In this world, it's naturally quite difficult to get rich through cooking skills. For example, the halfling chefs here may not earn as much as formal mages.

But if he could make more friends through his cooking skills, that would be a great thing, which would be very important for him given his current lack of information.

After all, he's not a true native. The old DuPont was a rather introverted and quiet person, and there are many things he still needs to explore on his own.

Aside from all that, compared to the finance department staff who have to be careful about accepting small gifts, it's not a big deal for chefs to openly steal food.

Since ancient times, what chef has never stolen food?
Even their leaders would have to tolerate it if they knew, not even the emperor.

If you get along well with them, you can enjoy some delicious meals prepared by them, saving money on food and improving your mood. It's a win-win situation.

But that's for tomorrow; for now, he needs to go back and diligently copy the exam papers.

He's exempted this week, but he still has to hand it in next week. He's been busy giving away and exchanging scrolls these past few days, and he still only has 6 scrolls left. Five of them are pre-stored offensive spells. He still needs to copy one of the spells, like Magic Missile, into his spellbook to keep for later self-study. He can't afford not to catch up with the progress.

(End of this chapter)