Leveling Up through Eating

“Hoo.”

The 15th in the official power rankings of the virtual reality game Athens, the black wizard Ali, has reached the summit of the Berest [1] Mountains. 

‘It took me two months just to find this thousand-year-old ginseng.’

The thousand-year-old ginseng is a rare medicinal item that increases your magical power by 1.5 times permanently upon consumption and is considered to be worth 200 million won in cash.

It is well-known that the higher the level of the player, the harder it is to raise the mana [2] reserve. Hence, the thousand-year-old ginseng is considered to be the best item for this drawback in the game.

‘I can go and exceed the limits of the game.’

Ali can’t help but hook up the corners of his mouth. [3]

He reached his destination shortly but Ali’s face distorted.

“Huh, it’s not here…?!”

He has no other choice but to be shocked. There are obvious traces that someone has taken the thousand-year-old ginseng. 

‘Who the hell took it…?!’

Did someone receive a duplicate quest?

No, completing this quest is impossible if you’re not a high ranker. 

Ali scratched the thought from his mind and approached it objectively.

‘Perhaps he’s still in the vicinity’

I’ve spent 2 months just to get it.

A blue light came out of Ali’s hands. 

[Tracking Magic Activated]

Once this tracking magic is used you can easily find the item if it is within 1km from its origin.

Ding! 

[Target is within 300m radius] 

[Commencing tracking]

An arrow slowly floated in front of him.

‘Even if I have to PK, I have to get it at all costs!’

Ali chased the arrow quickly. After following the arrow for 100m, a small cave appeared in front of him.

Whoosh! 

[Hellfire]

[A huge fire from hell has been created.]

As expected from an 8th class magician, he summoned a huge fireball in front of him in case of an emergency since he doesn’t know anything about the situation ahead.

He slowly walked inside the cave. As he went further inside, Ali smelt something enticing.

This smells familiar. 

‘This…’

Since he is a Korean user, he can tell what it smells like, it smells like samgyetang [4].

As he went further inside, Ali was shocked with what he saw. In front of him was a man, a fire and a big cauldron.

“Samgyetang should really have actual ginseng in it.”

“H-hey…” 

Ali’s voice trembled as the man with a neat, black hairstyle turned around.

Ali didn’t want to believe.

“T-that’s not the thousand-year-old ginseng, right?”

The thousand-year-old ginseng… Gone.

Special items lose their effectiveness the moment they get split or cut, and the system even prevents others from sharing. 

If you’re not an idiot and you’re a user of Athens, you should definitely know that.

“Yeah?”

The man spoke slowly while cramming the food in his mouth as if someone would take it away from him.

“A th… thousand-year-old ginseng, which bastard will cook a thousand-year-old ginseng and put it in a samgyetang?!” 

“Here.”

The man answered calmly.

***

[1] 베레스트 : This is the name of the mountain. It can either be Verest or Berest. Back

[2] Mana : or magic, is the energy used to cast spells in games. Back

[3] Hook up the corners of his mouth : smile a bit, smirk Back

[4] samgyetang : a soup with chicken stuffed with ginseng, garlic and jujube. Read more here: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/samgyetang Back