Chapter 28: It’s not the right time yet
[Buff Acquired!
Cooking with an Instructor!
Effect: +40% bonus when learning cooking related content.
Duration: While I'm in this kitchen].
Unfortunately, the bonus from learning to cook with my mother wasn't as high as the bonus from learning in a classroom. Looking at this, I could only come up with two hypotheses. The first was that the problem is that the kitchen in my house is not characterized as a real study environment, and if I studied in a real kitchen to learn, this bonus could increase. The second is that my mother is not a very good teacher, and if I studied with a more capable teacher, this buff might increase.3
But even though the buff is only 40%, it's not like this 40% bonus is too little, especially since the system already greatly increases the speed with which I learn things. Adding the speed of the system to the 40% buff would be a great improvement.
"All right Noah, making an egg is very simple. First you have to put some oil in the pan and let it heat up for a few seconds." My mother began to explain what to do.2
Just as she said, I did it.
"Now that the oil has warmed up, you're going to take an egg and tap it lightly on the edge of the sink, just enough to make the egg crack, but not break," she went on to explain.
When I gently tapped the egg, it just cracked, and I managed to crack it open on top of the pan. It may have seemed like my first attempt to her, but with all the eggs I'd had to eat in my other life because I didn't have anything else at home, at least I had the confidence to do it. More complicated dishes? I didn't even have the ingredients to make them, so at that point I really had to rely on my mother to teach me how to do things like that.
While I was preparing the eggs, listening to her tips on how to make each egg the way each of my siblings liked it, a notification appeared in front of me:
[New Skill!]
Surprised by the notification, I looked around to see how my cooking skill was improving.
[Cooking Lv 1 -> 7:1
Effect: Develops a better understanding of cooking techniques, speeds up the learning of new recipes by 7%, and promotes more efficient execution of cooking techniques by 7%. Also improves flavor retention and practical application during food preparation. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamentals of cooking and harmonizing ingredients].
When I saw that the skill was at level 7, I wasn't too surprised. Even though I knew how to cook in my previous world, it wasn't like I was a good cook; I just knew the basics. So it was understandable that the skill wasn't even at level 10. But as soon as I learned the skill, it became easier to understand my mother's tips and control both the fire and the pan. Some simple ideas even popped into my head about how to make this egg a little better.
By the time I'd finished making all 8 eggs, 2 for each of us, my skill had risen to Lv 8. Even though the gain from this skill wasn't much, and I didn't even need this skill that much, I noticed that my mother was smiling a lot more since I offered to learn to cook from her.
-------- Lauren's Comment --------
Sitting on the sofa and smiling at the camera, Lauren said excitedly, "That was really nice… Teaching Noah how to cook gave me so much satisfaction. Since he doesn't ask for help with his homework anymore, I don't think I've ever had to teach him anything. Now that he's asking me to learn how to cook, it's been so much fun."
With a dreamy look on her face, Lauren continued, "I hope he asks me to teach him more often, I think today when they're at school I'm going to watch some videos to learn new things. Maybe he'll be interested in that? It'll be good to know so I can teach him".
-------- Comment End --------
When Olivia and Ethan came downstairs and saw that I was wearing a kitchen apron, they were both surprised.
"Why are you dressed as Mom, Noah?" Ethan asked, confused.
"Haha, I'm not dressed up as Mom, buddy. I learned to cook with her, this breakfast today was made by me," I said, smiling as I stroked his hair.
"Woah!" Ethan said in surprise as he looked at the eggs on the table to see if there was anything special.
"And you managed to learn to cook without any problems?" Olivia asked, completely shocked, since cooking was more difficult for her than anything else.
"Yeah, I guess since I already have the body of someone who likes food, food must like me too," I replied jokingly as I stroked my stomach. Even though I didn't like my current body, it wasn't like I really hated myself; I just saw it as a transitional body until I actually got to my real body.
When we all sat down to eat, my mother and I looked at Ethan and Olivia expectantly. It looked like my mother had cooked this for the first time from the way she was acting, nor did she seem to have tasted the eggs yet.
Ethan was the first to taste it. He slowly cut into the egg with his spoon, and from the texture I saw, it was just right. With the egg on his spoon, Ethan brought it to his mouth and took his first bite. Even Olivia waited a while and watched Ethan with my mom and me.
I managed to count eight chews before he swallowed the egg, and then he asked with a confused look on his face, "Why does this egg look... normal?"
Hearing this question, everyone started to laugh.
"Because it's just a normal egg, and I made it according to Mom's explanation, so if it looks like what you eat every day, that's good enough," I replied with a smile.
Nodding his head, Ethan took another bite and smiled back, "It's just like the egg I had yesterday, so it's good, Noah."
Olivia and my mother also tried it and agreed that it was very good.
When I ate it, I saw that it was just an ordinary egg. With my current skill level, I couldn't feel exactly what was wrong and what could have been done better, but that was fine with me. Considering that it's a skill that I can train every day for free, and that it could become one of my main skills in the future, it's great news. Not to mention that they say the first place to conquer a woman is through her stomach, right? So as long as I get this skill up to level 50, won't it be like being a 3 Star Michelin Chef?
Shaking my head, I continued to eat and soon we were at school. My days were much better now that Jackson didn't come to school anymore. No one teased me anymore, especially since there was a rumor that I had paid someone to get back at Jackson and it was better not to mess with me, plus I didn't tease anyone, so no one felt like teasing me either.
Only Noah's old friends didn't talk to me anymore now that Jackson wasn't at school anymore, but considering that we wouldn't have much in common to talk about, I didn't have too much of a problem with that. I could use this free time to continue studying at school and improve my academic skills. Would this knowledge be useful after graduation? I don't know... But who knows? It's not like I have anything better to do at the moment.
During classes I studied the subjects in the textbooks or used my cell phone to look up more advanced books on the Internet, during breaks I studied programming while practicing my singing, and everything would still be normal if it weren't for something I heard during the break.
Sitting alone at a table, the only sound I heard was my humming, which I was humming softly, and the conversation of the other people around me. What surprised me was not anyone's conversation, but a boy singing a song to his friends while it played on his cell phone.
🎼🎶🎤
I tried my best, went so far…
But in the end, it's just a scar…
I had to fall, to lose it all…
But in the end, I just needed a call…
🎼🎶🎤
As soon as I heard the guitar, I knew I knew the song, even though the volume on his phone wasn't very loud, but when he sang the chorus of In The End, I knew it was my song. I tried to look at him covertly and realized that the boy was singing it to a group of friends while showing them the screen of his phone with a clip playing.
Judging by the look on his friends' faces, they were surprised but didn't quite know how to react. Fortunately, they were bobbing their heads to the beat, which was a good sign! It's hard to like a song you're hearing for the first time, but it's easier to like the rhythm of it, and from what I saw, I was doing well with that. I didn't want to go up to them and tell them it was my song; just watching from a distance was fine with me. It was the first time I'd seen the approval of people other than my family for my song in person, and it was pretty cool.
Seeing that boy singing my song made me want to sit next to him and sing along, but I know now that wasn't the time.