From Chef To Crafter To Conqueror: Book1 - Chef Read online

  FROM CHEF

  TO

  CRAFTER

  TO

  CONQUEROR

  Also by Gabriel Rathweg

  Eyrth Online

  Episodes 1 – 6

  I Am Gamer

  Books 1 – 4

  The Tragic Kingdom

  Book 1

  Warrior Academy

  Episodes 1 – 5

  White Soul

  Book 1

  FROM CHEF

  TO CRAFTER

  TO CONQUEROR

  Book 1 – Chef

  By:

  Gabriel L. Rathweg

  Cover Art By:

  José Manuel Bethencourt Suárez

  Text copyright © 2021 by Gabriel L. Rathweg

  From Chef To Crafter To Conqueror, characters, names, and related indica are trademarks of © Gabriel L. Rathweg. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

  SPOTIFY LINK:

  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5xvPHi29Xq6fFC1zvFKZLw?si=947c6dd07e2b45fc

  YOUTUBE LINK:

  https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4EpaEEUcnmfAcU1pOjZwfeFnd8bixA3c

  To Maggie, you are my love, my heart, and my life. I love you so much and am so glad you have become a part of my world. You make me believe in love, life, and magic. I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together.

  (P.S. I love the kitties as well.)

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1 – Conquest by The White Stripes, Ride On Shooting Star by The Pillows, Slowly by Natalie Lafourcade and Leiva

  CHAPTER 2 – Days by The Drums, Sometime Around Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event

  CHAPTER 3 – How Soon Is Now? by The Smiths, The Start Of Something by Voxtrot

  CHAPTER 4 – Tender by Blur, The Underdog by Spoon

  CHAPTER 5 – Bad Decisions by The Strokes, Excuses by The Morning Benders

  CHAPTER 6 – A Long December by Counting Crows, I Am by AWOLNATION

  CHAPTER 7 – A.M. 180 by Grandaddy, Wraith Pinned To The Mist And Other Games by Of Montreal

  CHAPTER 8 – Romeo And Juliet by The Killers, Dreams by Japanese Breakfast

  CHAPTER 9 – Buttons by The Weeks, El Scorcho by Weezer

  CHAPTER 10 – War Pigs by Cake, Stronger by Kanye West

  CHAPTER 11 – Pumped Up Kicks by Foster The People, Should I Stay Or Should I Go by The Clash

  CHAPTER 12 – Saturday Night Special by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Feel The Pain by Dinosaur Jr.

  CHAPTER 13 – Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones, Just What I Needed by The Cars

  CHAPTER 14 – Suspicious Minds by My Morning Jacket, Why Can’t We Be Friends by War

  CHAPTER 15 – Cry Baby by Janis Joplin, Alright by Supergrass

  CHAPTER 16 – Drunk Girl by Something Corporate, Punching In A Dream by The Naked And Famous, Young

  Blood by The Naked And Famous

  CHAPTER 17 – Fight Test by The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2 by The Flaming Lips

  CHAPTER 18 – It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over by Lenny Kravitz, Young Forever by Jay-Z & Mr. Hudson, Dura by Daddy Yankee

  CHAPTER 19 – I Fought The Law by The Clash, Peace Frog by The Doors, Beast And The Harlot by Avenged Sevenfold

  CHAPTER 20 – First by Cold War Kids, Miracle Mile by Cold War Kids

  EPILOGUE – Ambling Alp by Yeasayer, Lets Go Surfing by The Drums

  AFTERWORD

  FROM CHEF

  TO CRAFTER

  TO CONQUEROR

  BOOK 1

  CHEF

  CHAPTER 1

  “Hiiiiiyaaa!” The diminutive pixie-like assassin yelled as she streaked forward screaming like a banshee and striking out at my seemingly unprotected face.

  My military-issued Neural Implant zoomed my vision in and highlighted my opponent showing me the most likely vectors of her attack. A small grin broke out on my face as I backstepped the fierce woman’s flying double kick then deflected it with a couple of slight nudges with my left and right forearms.

  After successfully warding off her blows, I reversed my momentum and shuffled forward with small balanced but quick steps, bringing me into close range with my tiny opponent. My plan was to use my superior size and strength advantage to make this a grappling fight. That was my first mistake.

  My second was forgetting my opponent had her own Neural Implant. Stupid technology messing up my tactics! Why can’t things just be like they used to be? I bigah’ and strongah’ than you so I win! You lose!

  She growled at me in response to my smile her face turning an even darker shade of red. And not only did she not retreat she moved forward with a surprising quickness coming into my grappling range of her own volition.

  The move surprised me and instead of me grabbing her and taking her down to the ground for a submission hold she moved inside getting under my guard. Then she gripped my right arm with both her own and pulled me forward while using my momentum to take me down to the ground, hard.

  Simultaneously, she jumped up and onto my back still gripping my arm then turning the hold into an armbar, she rode me down to the mat like a rodeo cowgirl. I fell uncontrollably, crashing into the floor like her human mount.

  My left arm flailed wildly but eventually made it to the mat ahead of my face breaking my fall somewhat. It didn’t break it enough to stop my nose, followed by the rest of my moneymaker, and then body from slamming into the mat with a loud crunching thud.

  Having been a practitioner of the Mixed Martial Arts, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to be exact, for quite a while, I was awfully familiar with dislocated limbs and broken bones, not to mention the sounds associated with said injuries. The loud crunch I just heard was my nose breaking as it became intimately familiar with the training room floor.

  A groan escaped my lips as I lay there, blood seeping from my facial appendage and the breath in my lungs gone, blasted from my organ by the tiny human weight on my back. My groan was cut short though as my opponent choose that moment to yank up hard on my right arm that was still held in an armbar by said opponent.

  “Graaaahhhhh!” I screamed. At least I tried to but the lack of air in my body, and the excessive amount of blood blocking all my facial orifices that would inhale said air, made it a gesture in futility.

  “Oh, stop it, you big baby.” The woman on my back teased in her soft yet sultry voice that was the antithesis of the actions she had just performed.

  My arm was eventually released and the weight was removed from my back as my sparring partner let me go and stood up, clapping her hands together as if wiping them off. The blood had already stopped flowing and my broken nose was already starting to feel better as the medical nanobots in my body began their self-healing and repairing duties.

  “Did you have to break my nose? Seriously, I think you dislocated my shoulder too,” I replied, in an almost intelligibly nasal tone while rubbing my tender arm with my free hand.

  In response, my sparring partner scoffed then tossed a gym towel at me which I barely caught in time before it hit me in my tender schnoz.

  “Yes, yes I did. You know that your size and strength advantage is huge. If I don’t go all out using my quickness and superior skills you’d trounce me in a moment,” she replied, gesturing nonchalantly at me with the water bottle in her hand before taking a long deep drink.

  “I know, I know, and I’m glad that I can help you train for the upcoming fight, but it still hurts. I do have some pride you know, Mallory.” T
he bit of whine in my tone causing her to raise an eyebrow at me questioningly before grinning and setting her water bottle down and walking towards me in a sultry manner.

  “Let me take care of you, you big baby.” Her tone completely different than before containing a huskiness and sensuality that hadn’t existed just a few moments earlier.

  I studied the tiny woman as she slowly sauntered forward, her walk a stereotype as she exaggerated each movement of her hips, legs, thighs, waist, and every other one of her perfectly toned and muscled body parts. Mallory had shoulder-length platinum blonde hair put up in a tight ponytail showing off her perfect neckline, high cheekbones, sky blue eyes, a small pert nose, and ruby red petite but voluptuous lips.

  She was wearing a sports bra and pair of Capri workout pants that were so tight it looked like they were practically painted on, highlighting all her womanly gifts. The parts of her skin that were showing looked like coffee and cream-colored satin that felt even softer, which I knew from personal experience.

  I shook my head in futility as the love of my life closed in and I smiled. The blood dried to my lips and cheeks cracking as I did so. She didn’t care lasciviously grinning back.

  “Give momma some sugar,” Mallory whispered, as she stopped an inch from me her face looking up and her eyes laughing while she pulled my head down to her own and hungrily kissed me.

  The second our lips met the universe went away the world disappeared around me. The only thing I knew was the warmth of Mallory’s lips and the curve of her waist as my hands encircled her and rested on her firm muscled glutes. Our kiss seemed to last for an eternity but like all good things, it eventually came to an end.

  Well, actually more of an abrupt halt. Sirens sounded out from the ceiling above us and we immediately broke up our kiss and stepped apart, looking at the source of the ear grating sounds while simultaneously accessing our Neural Implants.

  “Alarm! Alarm! All personal to battle stations. The ship is under attack. Alarm! Alarm…” The ship’s AI called out on repeat in its slightly accented voice.

  I was always surprised that the AI had an accent at all but put it from my mind as Mallory kissed me on the lips with a quick peck and then turned and moved with a sense of purpose towards the locker room doorway. The ship's automatic doors opened when she was close enough, but she paused in the portal looking back over her shoulder.

  “See you after the battle love. Make something special for me, I’m going to be hungry.” She said the last with a wink and a sultry smile that I couldn’t help but mirror in return but before I could say anything she was gone.

  “Damn that woman is going to be the death of me…” I whispered to myself with a shake of my head, my voice trailing off at the end as I smiled and headed off to get ready to go to my own battle station.

  Currently, I was in the ship’s training room slash gym. Hurriedly, I went back into the locker room area. The hairs all over my body stood on end as I walked through the locker room entranceway. Where the nanite field that covered the portal cleaned me from head to toe down to the smallest individual dirt and sweat particle.

  Oh, the benefits of joining the Space Force. See the galaxy and do it clean as a whistle from the bottom of your toes to the tip of your head, the big and little as a matter of fact. I grinned at the old enlistment joke and quickly dressed in my duty uniform. Then rushed out of the gym, the automatic doors closing behind me as I quick timed it down the ship’s corridor.

  Seriously though, the surgical Neural Implant and nanobots were enough for most people to enlist for at least one term in the Space Force. Who wouldn’t want to get an extra hundred and fifty years of perfect health and longevity along with access to humanity’s entire library of knowledge with just a thought?

  I guess that was a bit of an exaggeration but still it was close. Humanity had long ago learned the benefit of the carrot over the stick. Although, by no means did they stop using the stick completely they just realized that they got better results with the carrot, most of the time. One of the results was that by joining any branch of the Armed Forces one would be equipped with the latest medical treatment and nanotechnology.

  On your first day of your military service branch’s boot camp, you were given quite an extreme haircut, no matter your gender. Bye-bye luscious locks or coifed dreads. Next, they gave you your uniforms and then sent you to the hospital center to spend the majority of the rest of the day at medical call.

  Here they shot you up full of all sorts of disease-preventing, established and experimental, vaccines and other lovely medical treatments. Then you got a military-grade dose of nanobots directly into your bloodstream where they repair any and all body ailments down to the cellular level. Even those that were self-induced or genetic.

  After which, the next few hours are spent in agonizing pain in a hospital bed while your body adjusts to the new nano-sized editions to your physiology. The pain’s totally worth it though, as you never have to worry about any injury smaller than losing a limb, having your head lopped off, or complete organ destruction. Hell, you can even survive a stab to the heart, albeit some of the time.

  Another added benefit was the longer life span. The nanobots extended your life almost one hundred and fifty to two hundred years and most of that was at peak physical condition. Tack on never getting sick with any virus or disease, even the common cold and coronavirus weren’t things anymore, you really couldn’t beat the pros of enlisting.

  Once your body adjusted it was over to the optics lab where they installed your Neural Implant which had all the military-grade bells and whistles along with the standard civilian abilities. The Neural Implant allowed you to access all computer and electronic devices in your immediate vicinity, that you had valid permissions for, with only your thoughts.

  Although, some things like door plates, hand weapons, and such required manual manipulation. The implant also gave you access to the human race's greatest collection of data and information that contained all of human history and knowledge, the Encyclopedia of Humanity.

  It was connected with the universal internet and was constantly updated with all the latest information from pre-ancient Egypt to interstellar space travel and more. Anything that humans or AI had figured out that you wanted to know about was there. It could be explained to you in a modular and specific way that catered to your personal learning style.

  Whether learning was optical, auditory, or directly induced into the brain depended on what was most efficient for each person. The rub was that it could only give you access to the information, calling it up and applying it was up to the user as it had been throughout time immemorial. Ultimately, you had to use old-fashioned elbow grease and hard work to effectively apply and get skilled at anything you learned.

  The positive was that the information was there for you to access, the rest was up to you. For example, you couldn’t just jump to Advanced Particle Physics, you had to learn basic arithmetic, multiplication, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, etc. You get the idea, no free lunch as they say but they do give you the ingredients to make you the sandwich artist you’ve always aspired to become.

  I grinned at the memories of a younger more naïve me who thought I’d become a veritable super talented genius just by the addition of the tech. These thoughts and more flew through my mind as I walked down the corridor. My ruminations turned away from my past and drifted to my tiny, beautiful, sexy, and extremely formidable sparring partner.

  Sonya or I should say, Ensign Mallory, was the Senior Fire Control Officer and stationed on the bridge and as such was essential personnel during emergencies. My own position was not nearly so illustrious but even so, I was still required by battle regulations to man my station. I always remembered the answer my first Chief once told me when I asked him why during my first deployment. His response was simple, “People gotta eat.”

  I still remember his gruff raspy voice from serial vaping and I smiled a bit wider. That man taught me a metric fuck ton about how
to organize and run a mess hall. I arrived at my post with a nostalgic grin as the automatic double doors opened and I strode into my domain, the ship’s mess.

  FS3 Burkes saw me and called out as I entered. “Chief.”

  He gave me a small two-finger salute but kept on with what he was doing. Which judging by his movements and smell was kneading some dough for fresh-baked bread, of which the first loaf was already in the convection oven. I nodded in approval and continued through the dining area and into the kitchen proper joining the rest of my kitchen crew, all of whom had arrived before me.

  Calls of ‘Chief’ rang out as they saw me, I called greetings back while not interfering with any of their work. All ten of my guys and gals were damn good at what they did and were trained as well as they could be by yours truly. They all knew their duties and executed them with alacrity and professionalism.

  That was another thing my old Chief imparted, train like hell, whether in good times or bad. He always said it was all muscle memory and if the crew worked hard in training then it wouldn’t matter if it was normal breakfast prep or an emergency battle rationing during a particle beam exchange.

  “Looking good everyone, keep it up, those spacers are going to be hungry as all hell when this battle is over. Remember, people gotta eat.” My team groaned good-naturedly at my oft-repeated line.

  I cheered my expertly trained FS, Food Service, team on with a call of ‘good job’ here and a constructive suggestion on a dish there.