Leveling Up through Eating

Translators: ChubbyCheeks

He stuffed the chewy and spicy noodles in his mouth before picking up more noodles with his chopsticks.

“Sluuuuuuuuurp!” 

Minhyuk’s chopsticks naturally headed towards the well-ripened kimchi that he had pulled out from his inventory earlier.

Crunch, crunch─

Since the kimchi had a bit of sourness in it, it added a flair on the spicy noodles.

Then, he placed some gimbap in his mouth. As soon as the gimbap landed in his mouth, he could taste the pickled radish, the eggs, the ham, the spinach, the cucumber and the burdock packed inside of the roll. Even the scent of the sesame oil that was brushed on top of the gimbap stimulated his appetite and put a smile on his face.

When he felt that his throat was getting a bit dry, he quickly lifted the bowl of ramyeon and slurped the spicy soup loudly.

“Hoo! So good!” 

He let out a sound of admiration as he picked up the well-cooked egg in the ramyeon. He couldn’t help but smile when he tasted the yolk of the egg that absorbed the spicy and sweet soup of the ramyeon.

“It’s really delicious!” 

Meanwhile, in front of him, Kerry continued to hunt. He felt like he really couldn’t understand Minhyuk at all.

***

Kerry really couldn’t understand.

‘How can that user be so easy-going?’ 

This was the competition where his life was dependent on. In addition, didn’t he have the reason to win the MVP title and dedicate it to his late father?

Kerry might not know this but if his goal and pursuit was to win this competition then Minhyuk’s goal was to achieve happiness with the food this competition had to offer.

For Minhyuk, eating was more important since it could make him happy more than anything else in the world. He could even remember the scent of the market as he held his mother’s hands. He was happy that he could relive that memory once again.

[The number of summons that the Painting's Monarch Vhad had summoned has exceeded thirty!]

Vhad’s and Fabian’s positions were simple.

Fabian, as a Bomb Mage, could make bombs from anything. He could make bombs from the trees, soil, rocks or even monsters. In the beginning, he quickly made bombs from the trees, the soil and the rocks to hunt the monsters. Then, he made bombs from the remains of the monsters. Monsters had various properties. Wind, fire, earth, lightning and many others. And the power of his bombs were dependent on the properties.

And once Fabian had hunted the monsters, Vhad would draw the dead monsters and summon them back to life. Vhad’s skill ‘Painting Control’ could only be used and triggered if he drew dead monsters. But there was definitely a restriction on the numbers that he could draw and summon.

So he truly couldn’t draw an impossible number of monsters. But with the increase in the amount of candles that were extinguished, stronger monsters materialized and appeared in front of them. And once they had killed stronger monsters, then their hunting speed was bound to accelerate.

Before they knew it, Vhad was already extinguishing their 50th candle.

[Vhad already extinguished their 50th candle. He’s coming up to 2nd place at a really fast pace!]

[He really looks like a strong favorite to win this competiton!]

[Even the summons that Vhad had summoned are great! They have at least 80% of their original power!]

[Until when will Player Minhyuk eat?]

Kerry turned to look back at Vhad who was fast approaching their position. It was unfortunate, but there was a thin and transparent barrier that separated him from Vhad who was right next to them.

Vhad turned to look at Kerry as he smiled darkly and mockingly at him. It was an obvious smile of mockery. But Kerry did not care at all.

‘Now…… Slowly……’

Kerry was also among the select few who could be chosen as a representative player for the country. He currently extinguished seven candles all by himself. He quietly approached another candle as he blew on it. Ten candles were extinguished in one go. Right now, monsters at Lv380~420 had appeared. Kerry quickly moved his fishing rod as soon as he saw the monster appear.

[Casting Hook]

[Dozens of fishing hooks are cast as they snatch the targets.]

Dozens of thin fishing lines sprang up in the air.

“Keuheeeeeek!”

“Kiheeeeeeek!”

And dozens of fishing hooks also penetrated the bodies of the rushing monsters.

Tak, tak, tak, tak, tak, tak, tak─

The monsters that were hooked all rose up in the air as if they were fish hooked with bait.

[Ah! Player Kerry! He used the skills that he has been hiding.]

[Don’t forget that Player Kerry is one of the representative players of the production classes.]

[The monsters hooked with the fishing lines look like fish that were hooked with bait.]

Then, Kerry gestured as if he was winding the fishing line. Every time he closed in on the fishing line, the hooked monsters went higher and higher in the air.

[What a spectacular sight!]

[The flailing monsters were all 30m above the ground!]

Kerry then formed the image of a scissor with his index finger and middle finger before making a gesture as if he was cutting the fishing lines with his fingers. As soon as he made the gesture, the monsters that were flailing high above ground began to crash towards the ground one by one.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

The monsters that fell from the sky died instantly. They bursted out like tomatoes that fell from a high place.

[Wow! Player Kerry is doing a good job defending their position.]

[This is such an unexpected outcome. Team 11 is already running towards their 100th candle.]

But it did not end there.

‘The strength that I have concealed before……’ 

[Fisherman’s Lure.]

[You can control the monsters that you have hooked in the head.]

As if not wanting to stop, Kerry extinguished five candles as he began his dance with his fishing rod. The long and thin fishing lines passed through and hooked the heads of the monsters. Then, they began to act like puppets.

[Wh, what an astounding sight!]

[This is the first time that Fisherman Kerry has revealed this ability!]

[An unexpected dark horse. The tension is high. The gap between Team 4 and Team 11 is not narrowing at all!]

Meanwhile, Vhad just looked at him with interest.

‘That ability looks like it can’t control a lot of monsters.’ 

Vhad nodded his head as if his thoughts were correct.

In order for someone to perform a summons, the user needed to have a stat called ‘Leadership’. And there were limits to the stat Leadership. Vhad thought that he would definitely experience a huge setback once his Leadership stat reached its limit.

However, right now, Vhad had 50 monsters to play with. Fabian nodded his head when he received the signal. Fabian quickly extinguished 30 candles in one go. As soon as the candles went out, more powerful monsters appeared. And 20 summoned monsters immediately jumped in the monsters’ midst. The monsters began to fight and tangle with each other as Vhad started painting.

The picture Vhad was painting was none other than the monsters fighting against each other. When he erased some of the images that he painted, the 20 summoned monsters immediately disappeared among the monsters. Then, he activated his skill.

[The Erased Summoner’s Rampage.]

[The summoner’s summons will exert their final strength before they disappear.]

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

The summons then appeared and surrounded the monsters. And at that exact same moment, a 30 appeared in their scores.

“……!” 

Kerry looked at the scene in askance. In just an instant, the gap between them narrowed and they came in nipping closely at their heels. As soon as this happened, Kerry desperately thought that he needed Minhyuk’s help now. He turned around to look at Minhyuk.

“Please hurry up and stop eating now……!” 

But when he turned around, the scene that he saw left him speechless.

“Wh, what is that thing on your shoulders?!” 

The commentators had a similar reaction with him.

[J, just now, what’s that thing that appeared on Player Minhyuk’s shoulders?]

[It seems like it has a black skin and a sheep’s head. Its lower body looks like it’s from a horse too. But it’s as small as Kongie.]

[Huh? I think I heard about that thing at least once before.]

One of the commentators suddenly blurted out.

[Doesn’t it look like the miniature version of Baphomet?]

***

Team Leader Park Minggyu was sitting together with the officials. There were players who participated in other games sitting together and talking in front of them.

“Even if it’s called Eat Quickly Contest, no matter how you look at it, it’s just a monster hunt. Right?” 

“Yeah. But Player Minhyuk is stupid enough to just eat.” 

“Tch. The competition is not a joke.” 

Team Leader Park, who was listening quietly to their words, smirked.

‘You’re the stupid ones!’ 

The Eat Quickly Contest. The operators have announced it clearly that they would be able to recover their HP, MP and other stats if they ate the food. They would even be able to gain special powers from time to time.

However, he thought that the other officials also had a point. The gap they had made with the other players would narrow if he kept on eating like that.

However, if that happened then Joy Co. Ltd. thought that the essence of the Eat Quickly Contest would lose its ‘significance’. And even the supercomputer Athenae thought that way. So Athenae hid a ‘special’ power that could only be revealed if they ate. That special power was truly a sight to behold. It was an amazing and extraordinary power. 

And he was also confident that User Minhyuk could turn everything around even if they caught up with him.

What if he finds something special while he’s eating? If that happens then it would be an extraordinary surprise to everyone.

At that time, User Minhyuk picked up another food parchment. The words written on the parchment were ‘Market Jokbal’.

‘That parchment……’

It was a food that would give the player the power that they could use if they had a summoning stone in their hands.

Summoning stones. Sometimes the boss monsters in Athenae would drop summoning stones. However, summoning stones were really, really rare. Meanwhile, User Minhyuk had received a summoning stone as a reward for being the ‘First Person to Hunt a Demonic Monster’. And just like what was mentioned earlier, the summoning stone was an extremely rare drop. In fact, the ‘Weaker Baphomet Summoning Stone’ in Minhyuk’s hands could already summon one of the strongest existences. And he only had it with him because he received it as a reward for being the first person to hunt a Demonic Monster.

The truth however, was that he thought that the players would not gain much power from eating the food related to summoning. After all, it was rare for a user to get summoning stones for monsters above Lv300. But the summoning stone in Minhyuk’s hand, although it indicated that it was a ‘weaker’ summoning stone, was still an existence that was well over Lv400.

‘Unexpectedly, a great summoner has appeared.’

And along with his thoughts, a miniature Baphomet appeared. He could hear the commentators speaking in a fluster as he watched Minhyuk on the screen mumble something while eating. Then, with an expression of ‘Ah~ Let’s finish this and eat!’ he watched him stand up as he blew out 30 candles.

At that moment, hundreds of monsters appeared in front of him again. But before he could move, dozens of magics materialized around the miniature Baphomet. Then, those magics flew and devoured the incoming monsters.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

The huge amount of strong magic quickly devoured and killed the monsters in an instant! 

The area was surrounded by dust. But when the aftermath of the magic attacks subsided, he could see Vhad’s expression. The look on his face was so distorted it was as if he had eaten some big shit.

***

[You have acquired the Market Jokbal.]

[You have acquired the one-time use of a summoning stone hidden in one of the food parchments in the Eat Quickly Contest.]

Minhyuk heard these notifications while ripping the parchment for the Market Jokbal.

In this competition, the use of ordinary potions or consumable artifacts were prohibited. However, he had heard his HP and MP recovering while eating earlier.

‘If we’re talking about summoning stones……’

He only thought of one thing. However, he still had not turned the Weaker Baphomet into his subordinate with the use of the ‘Allurer’s Cooking’ skill. He thought that if he finished the competition now then he would be able to taste the power of the ‘Infinitely Refilling Lamb Meat’.

He knew that Baphomet’s summoning stone was only available for three hours. And right now, there was only half an hour left before the competition ended. Minhyuk quickly decided to summon Baphomet. Although its capabilities and skills were much lower than before, it was still a strong existence.

Then, he could see the space being torn apart as soon as he summoned Baphomet.

[Baphomet appears in a pet-form.]

[You can call it with the original Baphomet’s form if you want.]

[There is no difference between the pet-form Baphomet and the original Baphomet.]

What appeared was a Baphomet that was as big as Kongie. Maybe that was the reason why the Baphomet that looked extremely scary when he saw it last time looked unbearably cute. It’s hands and feet were as small as Kongie’s and it even had a tiny staff on its hands.

“Meeeeeeeeee─”

Baphomet crawled up on Minhyuk’s shoulders. Then, it lay flat on his shoulders.

‘…..A cat-dog?’

Cats that were as energetic and troublesome as puppies were called cat-dogs. But this just showed how friendly it was to the other person.

However, the miniature Baphomet was now acting like a cat-dog to him.

‘Uhm…… Well, I’ll work hard to raise you for my infinitely refilling lamb meats!’

Minhyuk gently petted Baphomet’s belly while thinking about such gloomy thoughts.

“Meeeeeeeeee~”

This punk is smiling like he’s in a good mood. Shouldn’t there be something that you should do first?

Minhyuk suddenly glanced at Vhad. When Vhad saw him looking at himself, he suddenly felt vigilant. Then, Minhyuk grinned wickedly at him.

“What did I tell you earlier?”

“……”

“I’ll feed you some big shit today.”

***

TL’s corner!

Minhyuk’s subordinate or Kongie’s subordinate? I think Kongie will gain a new follower…

PR’s corner! Definitely can see Kongie pulling rank on the mini-Baphomet.