Kitchen Waltz

Skyler had a minor challenge ahead of him. If he was going to successfully cook his meal. He would need to fillet his fish first. It wasn't like he didn't know how, but this would be a first. He had seen this done many times on cooking shows, but never had to deal with one himself. It wasn't like he went to the fish market or fished for his own fish. But as the saying goes, there is a first time for everything. He picked up his five pound salmon and brought it over to the cutting board. Notably, the fish was cold to the touch and slimy, making it quite slippery.

Emily watched Skyler carefully as he went to work. He picked up a fillet knife and made two straight cuts. One along the fish's collar, and the second one nearby, just above and along its spine. He pulled up the flesh and, with only an inch of the blade, started to cut along the spine to the tail fin. After doing so, he repositioned the knife where he had started, pulling up the flesh again and started to cut a inch or so deeper, doing his best to remove as much meat as possible while moving along the spine again. This continued until he cut all the way through.

Emily watched Skyler in amazement as he worked. He repeated this process on the other side, resulting in two beautiful fillets of salmon. He reached for a pair of tweezers as his other hand reached underneath one of the fillets. She tilted her head slightly. "What are you doing?" He started to run a hand underneath the fillet, causing several white pin bones to poke out. "I'm removing pin bones. They can be harmful when eaten." She nodded while continuing to watch. A new red exclamation flashed that he allowed to pop up.

Achievement Unlocked!

Center of Attention!

Be at the center of attention for over a minute.

Reward: 5 xp and 2 Charisma

P.S. Look at you go! Am I watching? Oh my, I'm watching too! :P

Charisma has increased from 20 to 22.

Skyler couldn't help, but glare at the pop up upon reading that. The only thing that came to mind was the word, figures. His hand stopped for just a moment as he mentally removed that pop up from the center of his view. Emily gently poked his shoulder. "Um, is everything okay?" He nodded slightly. "Yeah, I just got lost in thought." A few minutes later, he successfully removed all of the pin bones from the two fillets. Her eyes continued to watch in delight. "I don't think I've seen such a beautiful cut in person."

Before Skyler could reply, one of the fillets was pulled off the cutting board accompanied by a soft purring sound. Upon eating some of the meat, Daiki let out a soft moan. "Mm, tasty!" Emily gasped before moving quickly in between Skyler and Daiki. "Why aren't you wearing clothing!?" Daiki took another bite before lifting a brow. "Because I was too hungry after riding Rodovar." Speaking of which, Rodovar walked out of the bedroom without any clothing on as well, leaving his form on full display.

Emily's cheeks reddened upon seeing Rodovar's impressive member. She looked away with a scoff. "Do neither of you have any common decency?" Skyler shook his head, not wanting to join in on this comedy routine as he cut the fish into smaller sections, roughly four inches per section, before seasoning it. After that, he cut up his vegetables to steam, peeled an orange, set up a piece of bread to the side to make toast later, and greased up a pan to bake the seared salmon. During this time, Emily dragged Daiki off into the bedroom to get her dressed. Shortly after, Rodovar's clothing was tossed out of the room so he could get dressed as well.

Rodovar slowly got dressed while chuckling. "Mm, looks like she wanted some of this too." Skyler sighed. "Probably. I'm sure you can find out later." Rodovar smirked. "Definitely. Hmm, is that jealousy I hear in your voice?" Skyler's eyes watched as the pieces of salmon began to change color. "What is there to be jealous about? Women don't want me like that. They never have and never will." Rodovar moved to sit down at the table. "Of course not. That attitude won't get you anywhere with women." Skyler smirked as his heart sank. "This isn't an attitude. It's the truth."

Rodovar lifted a brow. "Your truth maybe. From what I saw Emily and Shady were both worried about you. Well, from what little I saw of them." Skyler shook his head. "That's their maternal instinct kicking in. It makes them want to protect a weak creature like me instead of sending me back out into the wild. To give you an example, I'm like a small kitten. Sure, I have some tiny claws and sharp teeth, but I'm not an actual threat to anyone." Rodovar started to laugh. "You are definitely underestimating yourself. We wouldn't be here without you." His score ticked up to 10. Skyler shook his head again. "No, I just got Daiki out a little faster."

Skyler flipped over the salmon to sear the rest of the meat before turning on the oven to three hundred degrees. "If I hadn't done what I did, Emily would have retrieved Daiki as planned. We'd still be in that mana factory." Rodovar shrugged. "Hmm, true. But, I think you made it a lot easier for her. Regardless, it was nice of you to help me and Daiki out of there." His score ticked up to 15. Skyler smiled weakly. "Yeah, well. Nice only gets you so far." About that time, Emily and Daiki came back out of the bedroom. Daiki had finished up her meal, but she was fully dressed. Emily on the other hand, had a bit of salmon on her cheek.

Daiki leaned over to gently lick that piece of salmon off of Emily's cheek. "Mm, tasty." Emily's cheeks reddened. "I, I'm not tasty.." Daiki began to purr deeply while nuzzling against Emily's side. "Mm, yes you are." Rodovar started to laugh whereas Skyler just focused on his task at hand. After another ten minutes of cooking, he put the pieces of salmon onto the pan and slid it into the oven. He was finally done with the hard parts, but when he turned around. Everyone was looking in his direction, forcing him to lift a brow. "Is there something on my face?"

Emily looked slightly away, blushing once again. "Not that I'm aware of." Rodovar smiled real big. "Whatever you're making smells good. Can I have some?" Daiki raised a hand. "Me too!" Skyler let out a soft sigh before looking to Emily. "All right. Um, how about you?" Daiki's score ticked up to 15 and Rodovar's score ticked up to 20. Emily shook her head. "I'm fine." Rodovar looked over to Emily and smirked. "Yeah you are." Daiki smacked his side. "Not now." Emily started to chuckle before looking to Skyler, but quickly looked away.

Skyler lifted a brow. He wondered why she was avoiding him. He turned back around to set up another steamer pot for some extra vegetables. While preparing the vegetables, he thought. 'Maybe there really is something on my face.' He decided to cast Clean upon his face, but this only resulted in him wasting his mana. - 5 Mp The heat was starting to get to him, but he still had a lot of cooking to do. "Emily, would you please ask if Shady would like any of the food I'm making?" Emily got up from her chair. "Yeah, sure."

Shortly after Emily went outside, she came back inside with a very worried expression upon her face. "I don't see Shady anywhere." Skyler turned slightly and lifted a brow. "That doesn't sound good." Daiki tilted her head. "Maybe she's by the lake." Emily looked down slightly. "Maybe.." Skyler looked back to the food he was making before looking to Emily. "I'll go with you to look for her. The food won't be ready for another fifteen minutes anyway." Emily shook her head before heading back out. "I'll be back in five minutes." He tilted his head slightly. "Okay, be safe."

However, neither Emily nor Shady were back by the time the food was ready. Skyler set the table. "Hey Daiki, where's the lake?" Daiki tilted her head slightly. "It's about two minutes that way." Pointing her left hand towards the back of the room. Rodovar lifted a brow. "Planning to check on them?" Skyler nodded. "Yeah, you two enjoy." Neither of them argued as they started to eat. Skyler smiled and quickly made his way out of the cabin and quickly walked in the direction Daiki had pointed.

Skyler walked by many trees, but didn't see Emily or Shady anywhere. Upon seeing the lake, he felt like someone was watching him, but he didn't see anyone. Was this presence a threat? Or was he simply being paranoid?

Name: Skyler Peterson

Title: Fragile Prince, The Gamer

Lvl: 7 XP 173/1,400

Hp: 246/246

Hp regen: 3.306 per min

Mp: 232/232

Mp regen: 3.312 per min

Money: $2,334.29

Build: Slightly Overweight

Weight: 200 lbs

Height: 5' 10 ¾"

Dick size: 6 inches

Inventory slots 6/25 (Princess Zelda's Dress, Stasis Gel x 18, Slaver's Collar, Black Pearl Ring of Enthrallment, Small Living Core, and Vial of Slime x 2)

Unspent skill points: 0

Str: 31 + (0) + (0) End: 30 + (0) + (0)

Int: 26 + (0) + (0) Wis: 38 + (0) + (0)

Agi: 25 + (0) + (0) Cha: 22 + (0) + (0)

Lib: 19 + (0) + (0)