Leveling Up through Eating

Minhyuk was happily smiling after he had received the Moon’s Wheat quest right after logging back in to Athenae.

‘Delicious noodles!’ 

There was now a ‘0 kg / 5 kg’ flashing on his upper left corner beside the name Moon’s Wheat. Right now, he was holding a bow to raise his DEX and play nogada. 

(Abyss’ Bow)

Rank: Epic

Restrictions: 400 DEX, 300 AGI

Durability: 5,000 / 5,000

Attack Power: 126

Primary Special Abilities:

━ For every 100 DEX, the hit rate, fatal blow rate and fatal blow power will increase by 10%.

━ Increase of 13% in AGI.

━ Active Skill: Master Archer’s Archery.

Description: A bow used by a Master Archer in the past who’s now deep asleep at the bottom of the abyss.

This was one of the artifacts that he had gotten from hunting the clam golem before and was the perfect artifact for Minhyuk to use right now.

It’s attack power was clearly significantly lower than most of the artifacts in his possession. This was because the attack power of both the bow and arrow would be combined. Before Minhyuk came here, he made sure to buy plenty of arrows with an attached 10% increase in critical hit rate from Valkyrie Kingdom. He also briefly unequipped Ellie’s Kitchen Knife from Barraca’s Greatsword and equipped it on the bow. He only had one reason to do so.

‘I can’t give up the x4 increase in my DEX acquisition rate.’ 

After finishing all of his preparations, Minhyuk was finally on his way to Ructo’s Tomb. Before he could arrive at Ructo’s Tomb, he had to face and hunt the monsters like the Owl Bear which appeared at the half a day journey towards the tomb. In the meantime, he thought that it was a good time to eat noodles while he went and collected the Moon’s Wheat on his way.

As he was walking, he finally saw a monster from a distance. It was an Owl Bear. Owl Bears were called like that because they had the huge body of a bear and the head of an owl. They were approximately 2m tall and although it was a monster at Lv300, it’s strength was comparable to any mob at Lv330. However, its defense was still quite low.

“Grrrrrrreuoooo!”

Minhyuk reached for his back as he grabbed an arrow and nocked it on the bow. The moment he pulled the strings of the bow, Minhyuk could clearly see a large red dot appear on the center of the Owl Bear’s body. Even a child could understand the meaning of this red dot.

Minhyuk pulled the strings taut before releasing his hold.

Shweeeeeeek!

The arrow flew at an incomprehensible speed as it pierced straight through the Owl Bear’s neck.

[You have dealt a fatal blow.]

“Keuooooo!” 

The Owl Bear shrieked as it fell down with a thud.

“……OMG?”

Minhyuk was quite surprised. He already knew that it was due to the effect of the Abyss’ Bow and due to his DEX being high, his hit rate, fatal blow rate as well as fatal blow power were all increased by 150%.

Generally, archer’s artifacts had a tendency to increase those probabilities through DEX. Among them epic archer artifacts, the Abyss’ Bow was on the superior side. Usually, artifacts at this rank would only have an increase of around 3%~5% but the Abyss’ Bow had an increase of 10%. Right now, the destructive power of Minhyuk’s bow was already comparable to any archer user at his level. No, it was even a lot more than that.

And Minhyuk could clearly see…

The Moon’s Wheat that dropped!

[You have acquired 2,031 gold.]

[You have acquired 210g of Moon’s Wheat.]

“Kgghk!” 

Minhyuk looked at it in satisfaction and awe. And just like that, he was filled with motivation to hunt Owl Bears. Once he had gathered around 3kg of Moon’s Wheat, he whipped out the noodle maker that he had purchased at Valkyrie Kingdom and prepared some noodles.

“Hiyaa……” 

He quickly prepared a dough which he passed through the noodle maker. Thin and long strips of noodles slowly came out of the noodle maker. Then, he boiled the noodles before putting them in his pre-made broth. He added some garnishes on top of the noodles which included eggs, shredded zucchini, julienned carrots, chopped kimchi, and some seaweed flakes sprinkled on top of it all.

The steaming bowl of banquet noodles was done just like that. There were even plates filled with the red and appetizing kimchi and kkakdugi beside it.

“Banquet noodles can only be complete with kimchi and kkakdugi.”

Minhyuk picked the bowl with his left hand while he took his chopsticks and stirred the contents. Then, he lifted up a bunch of noodles. The amount of noodles that he lifted could already be considered to be quite a lot but he believed that banquet noodles were best enjoyed if he placed everything that he could in his mouth.

“Sluuuuuuurp!” 

He easily inhaled the noodles in one go. The noodles that were soaked in the savory and tasty broth made him smile happily. Once his cheeks were filled to the brim with noodles, he finally decided to cut it off before putting some kimchi in his mouth.

Crunch, crunch━

Because of Gorac’s Aging Jar, his kimchi could mature and ripen easily compared to before when he still needed to wait a few days before he could eat it. Chewing on the crunchy, sweet and sour kimchi added a bit more flavor to the savory noodles. Then, he put his lips near the lip of the bowl, blew gently on the soup as he gulped it down.

“Sluuuuurp. Hoo. Good.”

He couldn’t help but let out a gasp in awe at the combination of flavors. This time, instead of eating kimchi with his noodles, he clamped on some kkakdugi and chomped on it.

Crunch, crunch━

The chewy texture of the noodles and the crunchy texture of the kkakdugi met and created a perfect harmony of texture in his mouth.

“Sluuuuurp!” 

Minhyuk easily finished the banquet noodles made from Moon’s Wheat. He had made dozens of bowls with the 3kg that he had gathered but he still finished them quickly and easily.

“It’s really delicious.” 

There was a big smile hanging on his mouth but he still said……

“I, I’m hungry……!”

The noodles made him feel like his stomach was quickly emptied. But it was also a matter of fact that he was always hungry.

Minhyuk continued to hunt as he headed towards Ructo’s Tomb.

[You have gained 1 DEX.]

[You have gained 1 DEX.]

He was finally able to hear the notification about his DEX increasing which had been stagnant recently.

‘Oh……? It’s increasing much faster than using my production skills? It feels the same when I just started learning production skills.’

He was quite confused at the speed but he still happily laughed when he thought of having more delicious food with his increase in DEX.

***

“T, Team Leader-nim. User Minhyuk has started to increase his DEX quickly again.”

“Huh?”

When he heard Lee Minhwa’s words, Team Leader Park moved away from the screen where he was watching other users. He quickly moved and approached Lee Minhwa to see what she was talking about.

“……He’s increasing his DEX by using a bow.”

Acquiring DEX points by using a bow was a very good method. Especially for people who were in the same situation as User Minhyuk who had their DEX stay stagnant at their current level. He smartly used the bow to get away from the stagnation of his stats. Using a bow or the archer job class was the only combative job class that required a dexterity stat. Their attack power and hit rate tended to vary depending on the amount of dexterity that they had. And there was actually something hidden behind the increase in the dexterity stat while using a bow.

‘When you use a bow, the acquisition rate of the dexterity stat tends to increase faster until that person reaches a certain number of dexterity.’

The reason was simple. It was because the bow was the weapon that was considered to be the biggest inspiration of the ‘dexterity’ stat. In fact, anyone could wield a sword and it also was the same for the axe but it certainly was not the same for the bow. The bow itself was a very tricky weapon and because of the hit rate, the difficulty in handling such a weapon had further increased. In addition, anyone who had just started to use the bow would know that it was a weapon that had the biggest difference in the hit rate. The hit rate was entirely dependent on the person who handled the bow and shot the arrow. 

To make up for such inconsistencies, the DEX would increase more quickly until it reached a certain level. And in the case of the DEX acquisition rate through the use of a bow, the speed at which the user would gain the stat would not decrease even though their level was high.

But User Minhyuk is having a faster time since he has a x4 increase in his acquisition rate due to Ellie’s Kitchen Knife, right?

“Team Leader……” 

Lee Minhwa looked at Team Leader Park seriously.

“Wouldn’t he get that opportunity once his dexterity reached 2,000?”

Team Leader Park nodded solemnly.

“That’s right. Dual Class.”

***

Once again, after he had made and eaten 2kg worth of banquet noodles, Minhyuk was shocked when he suddenly thought of something.

‘This idiot…… moron……’

There was only one reason for his outburst. It was because he forgot to make bibimguksu since the banquet noodles were extremely delicious. And the quest would be completed once he had collected 5kg of Moon’s Wheat. Minhyuk knew that the 300g of Moon’s Wheat that he needed to harvest was not enough to make bibimguksu that could satisfy him.

Minhyuk shot another Owl Bear. Once it fell down, he harvested the Moon’s Wheat that dropped.

[You have acquired 300g of Moon’s Wheat.]

[You have completed the Quest: Hunting those who have stolen Farmer Carn’s Moon’s Wheat.]

[You have gained 30,000 EXP.]

[Your EXP acquisition rate will increase by 5% for 1 week.]

“This is the final Moon’s Wheat…… Sigh……”

300g. For ordinary people, it was more than enough to make some bibimguksu. But for someone like Minhyuk who wasn’t satisfied even with 3kg worth of noodles? It was totally not enough. Minhyuk sullenly thought of using regular flour to make some to fill the gap in his stomach.

At that moment, he suddenly felt a vibration from the ground.

“Huh?”

As soon as he turned around, he saw……

“Kyaaaaak!”

A female user being chased by Owl Bears and Harpies. There were even a total of five of these monsters all together.

“I’m really sorry but if you help me hunt these monsters then I’ll give you everything that drops!”

Minhyuk could see the things that dropped when she killed some monsters while passing by.

‘……!’

It was Moon’s Wheat.

And Minhyuk faintly realized something.

‘This woman had been given the Moon’s Wheat quest too!’

His eyes glinted cunningly when he recalled the words ‘I’ll give you everything’ from earlier. In other words, the Moon’s Wheat would be a compensation and reward of some sort for him.

And Javin? She smiled darkly inside.

‘Will you be able to resist helping me?’

She was such a beautiful woman. In fact, she had long straight hair, a great figure and an innocent appearance that men couldn’t resist. So far, most of the men who had gone to help her even went as far as to scream ‘You vicious monsters! Take my sword of light and justice!’ whenever she screamed pitifully for help. Some would even pretend to be a man of great honor and tell her ‘But Nim also did a good job so you should take the items and the gold.’ It was such a good feeling that she even thought of risking her work to become an Athenean girlfriend or possibly a real life girlfriend to some.

And, Minhyuk started to pull his bow. She could see that his eyes were blazing.

‘As expected, you’re just like the rest of the guys.’

Fwooosh! Fwooosh!

[You have dealt a fatal blow.]

Minhyuk’s arrow easily shot through the spot where he wanted to shoot. Furthermore, Harpy was an airborne monster that was quite difficult for regular users to deal with. However, nothing was more amazing than him striking a vital point and the monster dropping down in one shot.

‘Wow. That’s really good.’

She had no doubts about Minhyuk being an archer. She also believed that he was an archer that was beyond Lv360. His artifact’s damage and hit rate were proof of it.

After all of the mobs were cleared, she couldn’t help but grin.

“Just like I told you earlier, you can keep all the drops.”

She smiled as gentle as she could all while trying to show off her beautiful white teeth. She even emphasized the tight leather armor that she wore that was highlighting her breasts.

She thought……

‘He’ll say No, it’s not fair, right?’

Then, Minhyuk said.

“Right. Well then.”

***

Footnotes

[Nogada] 노가다 – It is a broad term, mainly used to describe a person who works on a construction site. Can also be used to refer to doing a simple repetitive task. In this case, it is used to refer to repetitive tasks. Back.

[Master Archer] – In the text, it says 명궁 which is an abbr of some sort for a word that refers to someone who is skilled in the bow. So I used Master Archer. It’s basically a title you attach to any archer that is skilled with his trade. Back