Leveling Up through Eating

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

PR: MattForgenti

40 His Worth

All of the Cordis Empire users were on alert.

Right now, Valkyrie Kingdom from the Northern Continent and the Eivelis Empire had formed an alliance. This meant that there was a high possibility that the users from Eivelis Empire would have monopoly over countless artifacts, information and various valuable things. In addition, there was also a possibility that the guilds stationed in the Eivelis Empire could outclass and outperform the guilds from Cordis Empire.

The User Callian was the guild master of Iris Guild, one of the top 4 guilds in the country. He was ranked 22nd in the overall rankings and was considered to be one among the countless strong players in the country.

In addition, Iris Guild was so overwhelmingly strong that when users were asked ‘Who’s the best guild in the country?’ all of them would answer: ‘Of course it’s Iris Guild!’. There might be four great guilds in the country but among the four, Iris Guild had the most advantageous position.

Iris Guild’s Callian was now standing in front of a cave with a grave expression on his face. The door that led inside the cave was shut tight and the person who entered the closed off cave was none other than the Necromancer Bach.

‘Bach. You’re the only one I can trust.’

Necromancer Bach had an outstanding ability.

It was soul summoning!

If the soul summoning skill was triggered successfully then they would be able to summon a soul and ask them some questions. However, this was a special skill that had a rare chance of being successfully triggered. In addition, there would be a large penalty inflicted on Bach with each question asked.

Bang, bang, bang!

The door of the cave slowly opened and Bach, who was wearing black robes, walked out from the inside.

“Did the soul summoning succeed?”

When he heard Callian’s words, Bach slowly nodded his head.

What he summoned was the soul of a deceased priest from Valkyrie Kingdom. The body was recovered by Iris Guild in case the raid to take away King Varen failed. Through the body, they could summon the soul and locate the Kingdom of Valkyrie.

“Can it help us change the situation of the game right now?”

Bach smiled deeply.

“Yes. There’s actually a simpler way to drive out the Legend Guild from Valkyrie Kingdom.”

“……Oho?!”

Callian was caught in surprise.

There was a simpler way to drive out Legend Guild. Right now, all of the guilds were trying to find a way to keep the growth of Legend Guild in check since they were set to be the first guild to acquire a territory in Valkyrie Kingdom.

Bach chuckled deeply before explaining.

“You can poison the ritual food for God Juis.”

“Poison the ritual food for God Juis?”

Callian looked at him incomprehensibly as Bach retold him the stories he had heard inside one by one.

It was said that she found the ritual food once to be distasteful and casted a terrible drought over the kingdom for several days. So what if the food was poisoned?

“There would be a great disaster……”

Callian murmured to himself.

What if the ritual food to be served to the God Juis is something that she does not like? And beyond that it is something that is laden with poison? Then a devastating catastrophe might sweep the whole of the Northern Continent.

“The priest was a high ranking priest.”

“Really?”

“And I received a lot of information from him?”

If the soul summoning was successful then the summoned soul had no choice but to answer the question of the summoner.

Then, Bach said…

“The Valkyrie Kingdom will be thrown into disarray for quite some time because of the angry God Juis. And since it will happen during the appearance of the Legend Guild then the public will be furious.”

Callian nodded his head.

It definitely made sense. But what could they get from something like this? Was he saying that they could only achieve the fall of Legend Guild and nothing else?

Bach spoke as if he had read his mind.

“We can find a way to save them from their situation. Originally, the priest was someone amazing. He was someone who could give a hidden quest to users. He said that if we want to calm the angry God Juis, then we have to find the ‘Corrupted Juis’ Dungeon’. If we find the dungeon, then we will be able to find the ‘Spirit of the Wrathful Juis’ inside. Once we find the ‘Spirit of the Wrathful Juis’ we can calm her down if we offer her a sumptuous banquet. He also said that there will be amazing rewards.”

Callian once again nodded at his remarks.

It was clear to them that it was an extremely high-ranking quest. In this update, the users were told that there were SS-ranked quests that were released so this might be one of them. Of course, this quest was something that they needed to fabricate. Especially placing and retrieving the poison.

“……What if we broadcast it live?”

Iris Guild was a guild linked with a game broadcasting channel called ‘Dungeon Attack Live!’. It would definitely be interesting to broadcast a clearing of an SS-ranked quest and acting as a hero. After all, in this quest, the Cordis Empire would be the one who would save Valkyrie Kingdom. Perhaps King Varen would be close enough with Iris Guild instead of the other guilds. It was also possible that he did not know of the involvement of Iris Guild with the attack on him since it was only Ares Guild and Rumad who went there.

“There are two problems.”

Callian rubbed his chin in thought as he listed the two problems.

“The first problem… How do we get the poison in the food?”

“Of course I already asked the soul I have summoned about the whereabouts and the exact situation of Valkyrie Kingdom.”

He grinned widely. He knew that Bach was his type of person to deal with.

Then comes their second problem…

“Who will cook the banquet?”

It was easy to find the location of the Wrathful Spirit of Juis however it would be a big problem if they couldn’t satisfy her with the meal that they brought. But who could make a dish that could satisfy a God?

The two of them were lost in thought for quite some time. Not long after, Callian’s finger popped up as if he had thought of something.

Pop!

“The Twilight Chef, Black!”

***

Minhyuk looked disappointed after accessing Athenae.

He came in to eat the sushi made by the Legendary Chef! But when he came in, the legendary chef and King Varen were both busy preparing for the ritual and ceremony. However, since this was something that was necessary for the Valkyrie Kingdom, he believed that it couldn’t be helped. He just had to wait for a bit.

In the meantime, he could try and find other ways to eat delicious food.

“I’m Minhyuk, the new member. Please take good care of me.”

Minhyuk bowed his head as the members of Legend Guild welcomed him with a warm round of applause.

It was the successful recruitment of the Frying Pan Killer who was on fire these days! This was an event that could never be ignored.

Then, there was Lute who was standing right next to him.

“I’m Lute. Please take good care of me.”

Then, Genie spoke beside Minhyuk.

“As I have said before, Minhyuk-nim is also my friend in real life. Due to some things, this is our first time meeting after 5 years. And just like what I have said before, Minhyuk is a really, really, really good chef.”

“For real?”

“I still can’t believe it……”

The guild members were still left in shock. The Frying Pan Killer was an excellent damage dealer. His strikes were so powerful that it could crush the enemy in one go. He was even comparable to rankers with his impressive armor, incredible strength and high HP that was far higher than his level.

In reality, the guild members all thought of one thing…

‘Buffed dishes……’

Buffed dishes!

It wasn’t that bad. But the better the effects, the more expensive it was. In the case of priests, higher buffs meant having a greater depletion of their MP. Compared to the expensive buffed dishes, using MP was far more cost effective. It was the only thing that was restricting other users from purchasing plenty of buffed dishes.

“Minhyukie can make really awesome buffed dishes. But there’s nothing free in this world, right?”

Genie smiled lightly as she continued to speak.

“Whenever Minhyuk cooks for us, all of us should provide him with the ingredients.”

“Ah. That’s a matter of fact.”

“Of course.”

All of the guild members nodded their heads in agreement.

Meanwhile, Crow asked…

“How much is it?”

Crow asked this since buffed dishes were literally more expensive compared to their effects. He once bought and ate a dish made by the Twilight Chef Black. It cost 4 platinum just for a bowl of dish. It’s worth at least 20 million won in cash. Of course, the effects were excellent. There was a 13% increase in EXP acquisition rate and a +2% on all stats for an 8 day duration. Crow was in the middle of a leveling spree so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and buy it. When he asked them why a dish was so expensive this was the answer that he got from one of the guild members of Louvert, the guild headed by Twilight Chef Black…

‘The dishes are made only with expensive ingredients.’

It was the only reason why it was expensive. It had to be expensive since they used plenty of expensive ingredients for the dish.

“Uhm. I think it’s best we make a final deal with Minhyuk here.”

This was Genie’s answer. In fact, Minhyuk said that it was enough for him to get ‘Delicious Ingredients’. But shouldn’t Minhyuk’s compensation differ depending on the value of the buffed dishes that he had made?

Minhyuk understood what Genie meant. Guilds couldn’t be kept running just on friendship. Everyone should be helpful to each other and pay their services according to their value. Most of the guilds that depended only on friendship were still at the bottom of the ladder.

“Then, why don’t we do it like this? I’ll cook for you and you’ll get the delicious ingredients for me.”

“D, delicious ingredients?”

All of the guild members tilted their head at him.

Not millions of gold, nor a few platinum but delicious ingredients?

“Our Minhyuk here is a glutton for food……”

“Ha, haha…… That’s a bit too much.”

Crow smiled awkwardly at them.

Genie did not bother explaining to them about Minhyuk’s condition. She also did not think that it was necessary to explain about his family.

“If you don’t mind this then how about 20 million gold for a rare buffed dish, an A-ranked ingredient for a unique buffed dish, an S-ranked ingredient for an epic buffed dish and two S-ranked ingredients for a legendary buffed dish?”

He made a rough calculation for the rest of the guild members.

For a rare buffed dish, 20 million gold. However, a rare buffed dish costs about 1 platinum from Twilight Chef Black. And in the case of the unique ranked dish that Crow bought from them, it was at around 400 million gold or 4 platinum. If they used purely A-ranked ingredients for the dish then the price could range anywhere from 50 million gold to 1 platinum. Chef Black’s dish was priced at 4 platinum. This was because a dish was priced depending on the reputation of the chef, the cost of the cooking and ingredients and the value of the grade of the dish.

What Minhyuk did was something similar. His rate would differ depending on the cost of the cooking, the price of the ingredient and the grade of the dish. However, there was still a loophole here.

“I think it’s still too expensive. GM-nim.”

Crow said that.

“……I think it’s a bit cheaper.”

Genie blurted out the rest of her words while Crow tilted his head in confusion.

“Cheap?”

The other guild members were buzzing in confusion while Ace was bewildered.

“Eyy. Noona. The dishes made by the world-renowned Chef Black are around 400~600 million gold but that was Chef Black. But he……”

He was a chef that no one had ever heard of. In all honesty, his strength as the Frying Pan Killer was already proven. However, plenty of them had said that he was just lucky. Of course, aside from his strength he had not proven his skills with cooking. People wouldn’t believe anything that they haven’t seen.

At that moment, Genie realized something.

‘I was sending out a proposal to the guild members without showing them what Minhyuk is capable of……’

She smiled wryly. This response was something that she could understand. The dishes made by Black, the Twilight Chef, were superior to the rare classed dishes made by other chefs. And there was also his name which added the value to his dishes. In fact, the dishes made by Twilight Chef Black were said to be extremely delicious so the high price was completely validated.

But for Minhyuk? Nothing had been proven yet. Whether it was the buff or the taste, there was still nothing. There was also the question of whether his cooking could replace the buff of priests. Buffed dishes were basically not eaten unless they could surpass the buffs casted by priests.

If they considered all of this, then it was safe to say that Minhyuk’s demands were extremely absurd.

Minhyuk stayed quiet while the guild members spoke. He assessed their responses before speaking.

“Twilight Chef Black? His buffs were that good……? I don’t know about that.”

“……?”

“……?”

“……?”

All of the guild members’ attention was focused on him.

***

TL’s corner!

Well. I really also don’t know about that. Kek. After all, he was just an apostle to the Food God so… Kek. It seems like there will be food. I’m already drooling.

PR’s corner!

Oh boy, shots fired!

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