Chef in the Apocalypse

"Everybody! Please accept my faction invite!" Jayce sat Macie up, before getting to his feet and shouting out across the ramparts.

He received a few weird looks, but once they figured out that it was Jayce, the same person who had just saved them earlier, their faces softened considerably. Everyone who was able, opened up their notifications, seeing the invite to Hell’s Kitchen flashing in front of them.

"Please, hit accept. I promise you won’t regret it." He followed up, his hoarse voice echoing over the city walls.

"Whoa!" The swordsman that Jayce had just saved from the monstrous Ape exclaimed out loud, rising to his feet in elation.

"Oh my god, what is this strength?" He exclaimed with glee, looking in disbelief at his arms which now seemed to pulse with power.

Where there was one, there would be others. Similar cries of elation echoed out upon the ramparts, from women to men, mages to archers and then some. They all experienced the great benefits of Jayce’s Executive chef skill, filling them with great power.

Macie looked confused, wondering what the point of this whole exercise was. While she was privy to a lot of information, her class and abilities didn’t allow her to know everything, she was not omniscient.

She looked at Jayce with question, however he paid her no attention, staring at the faction screen in front of him.

Faction: Hell’s Kitchen

Leader: Let Me Cook

Vice Leader: Divine Shield

Faction Level: 2

Members: 80/150

Average level: 25

82/150

88/150

93/150 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

More and more outcries occurred across the ramparts as the citizens of Bastion accepted the invite and began to be affected by Jayce’s skill. A grin formed on his face, looking forward to the moment he could finally finish his class upgrade quest.

[Please do not spam invitations]

[Cooldown 60:00 minutes]

His grin faltered for a moment. ’Wasn’t the cooldown time only 5 minutes? Why did it jump to an hour?’ Jayce suddenly felt a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach, his anxiety climbing up to his throat.

He hastily opened up the faction screen again, his eyes glued to the number of members as it continued to slowly crawl upwards in number.

Members: 96/150

97/150

98/150

However, it suddenly stopped at 98 members causing Jayce to grit his teeth. He looked around in a panic, trying to find anyone that didn’t seem to be filled with strength.

It was then that Heath spoke up, his deep and familiar voice soothing Jayce. "Jayce, what is the matter?"

He turned to Heath, taking a deep breath before responding. "It’s not enough. I need two more people to join my faction, or it won’t work."

"Oh, you mean we just need to accept this faction invite?" Heath said, sounding as if it was an easy problem to fix.

"Ah." Jayce’s mind went blank for a moment, before his heart burst with joy. He had forgotten that he could not invite Macie or Heath to Hell’s Kitchen before the battle started, due to his member limit still being 50 at the time.

"Y-Yes. Heath, Macie..." Jayce straightened up, addressing the two in front of him respectfully.

Bowing his head at 90 degrees, he asked politely, "Please accept my invitation to join Hell’s Kitchen."

Heath felt a little embarrassed by the formality of the question, but before he could get up to help Jayce up, Macie held him back and smiled. She reciprocated the bow, dragging her husband to do the same, before responding gleefully. "It would be our honor, Leader."

With that, the ceremony was complete. Heath and Macie both accessed the notification and promptly selected accept, feeling their bodies begin to fill up with strength. Surprise and Joy filled Heath’s face as he quickly opened his status window, checking out his stats.

His joyful face quickly turned dumbstruck, seeing the outlandish numbers in brackets next to his modest stats. "W-What the hell is this??" he yelled out in shock.

Jayce did not hear anything happening around him after the two had accepted the faction invites. His attention solely focused on the information in front of him and the monotonous voice of the system that resonated inside of his head.

[Executive Chef class upgrade Quest (Main)]

Kill Boss Monsters: [5/3] ✓

Prepare and cook Boss Monster: [1/1] ✓

Recruit Staff: [100/100] ✓

Prepare dishes: [2770/2000] ✓

[You have completed Class Upgrade Quest]

[Please standby for Class Upgrade]

[Calculating...]

[Player has skipped 3 tiers]

[Recalculating...]

Jayce grinned earnestly. As he had expected, the Executive Chef class upgrade should have only been made available to him once he hit level 80. There were a lot of factors that went into him getting this opportunity, all of which seemed unlikely even on their own.

Firstly he had to clear his hidden class upgrade prerequisite, which he was only able to discover after asking Rubick. Even then, he had to single-handedly prepare a feast for 10 times as many people as what was asked for in order for the class to become available.

This was even before talking about the class upgrade quest itself, which would have put any other person in his position at a loss. To kill 3 boss monsters, even going as far as to cook and prepare one of them as a level 30 Chef, it was nigh impossible.

Most people would have likely been stuck at level 30 for their whole lives, with no hope of completing the quest unless they were carried. However not Jayce, not only had he been able to find access to the tier 4 class, he had also completed its quest in merely a few months.

He continued to watch on as the information filled his screen, basking in the feeling of success when one completes a tough quest.

[Congratulations, your class has now been upgraded to Executive Chef]

[Skill: Basic Cooking has been upgraded to Expert Cooking]

[Skill: Ingredient Analysis has been upgraded to Analyze]

[Skill: Taste Enhancement has been upgraded to Enhancement]

[Executive Chef skill detected. Recalculating...]

[Unique Skill: Executive Chef has been upgraded to Domain]

[Unique Skill: Dinner Rush has been acquired]

"...Holy shit."