Leveling Up through Eating

Minhyuk headed towards the Papal Office at Rowena’s request. He meekly and obediently accepted Rowena’s request because of only one thing.

‘Wine and tteok?’

Every time a special occasion happened, the Papal Office would personally make and cut special tteoks and wine made by the Pope himself. Of course, Rowena meant for him to give his greetings to the Pope but Minhyuk was solely interested in the tteoks. So when he asked her if he could eat the tteoks with her, she readily agreed.

Tteok was a kind of snack that had a chewy and soft texture. They had a wide range of variety and among them, what Minhyuk liked the most were the injeolmi and honey tteok. He could imagine the sweetness and chewiness of the injeolmi that was covered with yellow bean powder as he placed it in his mouth.

With those pictures in his mind, Minhyuk finally arrived at the Papal Office. It was at that place where he met Pope Carunu.

“Boy, are you the one who moved the Saint’s sword?” 

“That’s right, Holy Father.” 

“That’s surprising. A heroic hero like you will definitely lead our Athenae Religion to salvation.”

The pope smiled softly at him.

Not long after, the Papal Knight Voloch stood in front of Minhyuk. He handed Minhyuk a cloth that was filled with the carefully selected set of tteok. He also handed a huge glass jar that was filled with wine.

“Since this is blessed with God’s strength, the tteoks inside will not cool down. Please deliver these tteoks to the entire Athenae Believers.”

[Quest: Deliver the Tteok and Wine to the Athenae Believers.]

Rank: B

Restriction: Have pulled out the Saint’s Sword.

Rewards: Papal Relic.

Penalty for Failure: A decrease in the favorability with the Pope.

Description: You’re the special person who pulled out the Saint’s Sword. By simply delivering these tteoks and wine, you will be given one of the four Papal Relics.

‘Oh……’

Minhyuk shook his head. He was the one who pulled out the Saint’s sword so he had to do it. And despite being a simple quest, the rewards seemed to be exceptional.

Then, a thought suddenly flashed in his head.

“Are there any extremely delicious foods that represent the Athenae Religion? Perhaps something that only the pope can eat?”

“Something I eat… Haha!”

The pope laughed his head off. Minhyuk was trying to get other quests that the pope would give if he would reward him with that kind of food. Thoughts were brewing in his head when the pope continued to speak.

“Ah, boy. I guess you haven’t heard that yet. Well, that’s understandable. I heard that you met with Rowena after pulling the Saint’s Sword out. Then you came straight here.”

“Yes.”

“Athenae’s Rowena will serve a special food to the person who moved the Saint’s sword.”

“Special food?”

This story was something new to him. And the reason why Pope Carunu, or to be precise, Demon Verus told him something like this was simple. He hoped that he could hurriedly present a great disaster to the Athenae Religion.

“Yes. The special food is the tteok dumpling soup.”

“……!”

Minhyuk’s body trembled and shuddered in shock.

“Wh, what?”

“Tteok dumpling soup. The priests of Athenae would farm and make the tteok dumpling soup with carefully selected ingredients that can only be found every 100 year. Of course, it doesn’t have any meat in it but it has Gorad’s Meat Tree which tastes similar to meat. It tastes really good. It’s a special dish served every 100 years and is something that is specially made for the nobles.”

“Wow……!”

A tteok dumpling soup that was made with carefully selected ingredients and can only be served once every 100 years!

When he thought about that, Minhyuk felt a bit angry.

‘How can Rowena-nim ask me to do this while forgetting something very important?’

“I have to quickly deliver these tteoks and wine!”

“Yes. That would be great.”

Carunu smiled generously at him as Minhyuk left the Papal Office. As soon as Minhyuk stepped out, Carunu’s mouth was almost torn with how wide he was grinning. He suddenly caught onto one thing.

‘A man who likes to eat……’ 

His brows furrowed when that thought came to mind. He wasn’t sure but if that was the case then he would definitely eat the tteok and wine. But he shook his head to get rid of that thought. There was still the Pope’s Relic and it was a valuable and priceless thing that no one could buy with money! According to the rumors in the grapevine, each one of the relics were legendary artifacts.

But just in case……

‘I must lend my strength to the Devil Worshipper Carn.’ 

***

Minhyuk was vibrating in excitement as he rode the carriage on his way back to the Athenae Temple. He had the warm tteok set in his arms!

“Hiyaa. I wonder how delicious they are. This probably has a lot of delicious things like injeolmi, sirutteok, and honey tteok in here, right?”

Minhyuk laughed loudly.

‘I will be very happy if I ate this much tteoks all on my own……’

Then, a thought flashed in his head.

‘Shall we see what it looks like?’ 

It’s not a sin to look at the tteoks, right?

The symbol of the Pope of Athenae greeted him after he gently untied the cloth. He peered at the contents inside as he caressed the symbol on the lid. He could clearly see honey tteoks that were coated liberally with honey, injeolmis that were sprinkled generously with yellow bean powder, rainbow tteok and even baekseolgi.

“Wow……” 

Minhyuk gulped loudly.

Then, at that moment, he heard a sudden notification.

[Tteok Set.]

[There are hidden and unique abilities sealed inside.]

[You can use the Ingredients Appraisal Skill to check the sealed abilities.]

“Huh?” 

Minhyuk was shocked when he saw the notifications.

The hidden and unique abilities are sealed?

He had no choice but to wonder in surprise.

‘What’s this? Why is the power sealed……’

Minhyuk tilted his head in confusion. He recalled the time when he found the rabbit’s liver. This situation was somewhat similar to that time. But he thought that it was also quite strange to hide some power in this kind of food.

Why?

When he remembered the past, he also recalled that the unsealed rabbit’s liver had clearly become more delicious and special after he released the seal. So without any hesitation, Minhyuk used his Ingredients Appraisal Skill.

[Appraising ingredients.]

[A -3 on all stats will be implemented according to the penalty.]

[The ingredients have all been appraised.]

[You can now check the unique abilities sealed in the tteok set.]

(Demon Verus’ Disaster Tteok)

Ingredient Grade: Medicine containing the power of the demons.

Special Abilities:

— As soon as you eat this, a powerful explosion would happen depending on the strength of your holy power.

— As soon as you eat this, the Demon’s plague will spread everywhere. 

— If Saintess Rowena eats the special injeolmi then she would become a demonic human.

Description: This is a tteok set that Demon Verus specially prepared to destroy the Athenae Religion in preparation for the war.

“……!” 

Minhyuk’s eyes widened in shock.

The Demon Verus?

It was a name that he had heard from Gremory. But when he thought of the name……

No way!

‘The Pope is Demon Verus……?’ 

He had no choice but to think that way. And Minhyuk knew.

‘Then this……’ 

He knew that this tteok set was something that would become his and his alone.

‘Rowena-nim! This is a bad tteok that’s trying to hurt you so I’ll eat it all for you!!’

He had decided.

Rowena-nim and the Athenae Temple together with the fanatics(?), including Kenneth, that believed and followed me…… They will be killed if they eat this, right? Then, I’m going to eat everything to get rid of it!

“It’s not because I want to eat the tteoks!!!”

Then, he reached his hand out towards the tteoks.

***

“I’m going crazy!!”

Team Leader Park was already facing tremendous difficulties as soon as he came back from his vacation. Not to mention the Story Creation Team that was right behind him.

“N, noooooooooo!”

“Don’t eat thaaaaat!”

“D, don’t eat that honey tteok, you son of a bitch!!”

They had struggled for two months just to create this episode. Originally, the episode should have moved in the direction where the Demon Worshiper Carn would move the Saint’s Sword and receive the tteoks from Demon Verus to drag the Athenae Temple down to hell. In addition, the Saintess Rowena would also become a demonic human. A massive war would then break out and she would attack the human world together with the demon race and the demonic beasts. This was how the story should turn out. But right now, the story was slowly falling apart.

“……But he looks like he’s really enjoying it. Wow. That honey tteok looks delicious. If I bite that then honey will flow out, right?”

“Hey, you punk! Right now, the honey tteok is not one of our problems!”

Team Leader Jung Yeongcheol, the head of the Creation Team, turned his head to look at the new Creation Team member. However, he also muttered under his breath as he looked back at the monitor.

“He, he’s eating so deliciously!! Eyy! So annoying!”

“……What should we do now?”

It was quite hard for them to touch the story once it had been created.

“The key will be the next moves that Demon Verus will make.”

Of course, that did not mean that a massive war would not break out. There was only a high probability that Saintess Rowena would be on the side of the humans instead of the side of the demons.

‘No. To be exact, that’s not the correct word.’

There’s a high chance that she will become a person who will serve under User Minhyuk.

***

Honey tteok had a variety of colors. It could come in all shades of pink, green, white or plenty of other colors. Minhyuk quickly picked up a honey tteok with his hand. His fingers were greased with oil as he placed the honey tteok in his mouth. He could taste the chewy texture of the honey tteok as well as the sweet sugary filling in every bite. It was a flavor that could make him smile happily.

The next thing that he picked up was injeolmi. The still warm injeolmi stained his fingers with some yellow-y powder before he placed it in his mouth. The injeolmi, which was as warm as freshly baked white bread, was so delicious that he couldn’t help but sigh in awe.

Next, he took a baekseolgi. Every chew of the baekseolgi would spread a bit of sweetness in his mouth. It might look like it was plain and tasteless on the surface but a single piece of baekseolgi was enough to make one feel full.

This time, he picked some bean tteok. The green tteok that was filled with sweet beans filled his mouth with a sweet and rich flavor in every bite.

“Hwahahahaha! I’ll get rid of all these bad tteoks!”

There was one thing that he needed to have while eating these tteoks. If others wanted to drink tea with their tteoks, Minhyuk tended to drink something uniquely different. It was none other than sikhye. Sikhye with ice that bobbed up and down the glass!

After taking a bottle out of his inventory, he quickly shook it with his hand to make the rice grains in the sikhye dance. After doing all that, he added a straw inside the bottle. Just like a sikhye that you could buy in the sauna. Just like that, he gulped down the sikhye eagerly. Minhyuk smiled softly at the sweet and bitter aftertaste of the sikhye.

“Kgghk!” 

He bursted in admiration after drinking sikhye until his mind turned blank.

Then, he continued to enjoy the rest of the tteoks together with his sikhye. Finally, he ate the last piece of songpyeon. 

He had been hearing notifications non-stop ever since he started eating the tteoks but all of the conditions were blocked by his invincible body. He laughed happily as he realized something.

‘Le, let’s see……’ 

Minhyuk was not able to overlook something after eating every piece of tteok.

Will they believe me if I came back to Athenae Temple and confidently told them that I ate all the tteoks that were filled with demonic power?

The answer was a straight NO. That was why he believed that it would have been better if he told the priests the reason in advance.

‘I’m, I’m in trouble……’ 

I don’t have any tteok with me right now, how will they even believe me? Will they even believe me if I said that the Pope is currently Demon Verus?

Right now, Minhyuk believed that there was a high possibility that he would be chased by the entire religion. He was something like a benefactor that was not a benefactor right now.

At that moment, he heard the voice of the coachman. He had asked the coachman to stop the carriage for a moment as he ate the tteoks.

“I think you’ll have to get off for a moment.” 

Minhyuk opened the doors of the carriage at the coachman’s words.

He saw the commander of the Paladins, Corr, and Rowena covered with sweat as they ran towards him.

***

Food Discussion Corner

Sikhye – rice punch.

Songpyeon – rice cake that represents Chuseok. Made with the fresh grains harvested during Chuseok.