Leveling Up through Eating

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

PR: MattForgenti

23 Budaejjigae Made with an Elixir

“Hoo.”

Ellie breathed lightly as she sheathed the wooden sword in her hands.

“Wow……”

Minhyuk let out a gasp of surprise. Even someone like him, who was always preoccupied with the thought of food, was astonished with the amount of destructive power that she has.

“I’ll teach you the moves. It consists of four moves in total.” 

“Yes!”

“You should repeatedly strike the wooden puppets with those moves. I will give you one week to master the movements.”

“I understand.”

Ellie proceeded to demonstrate and teach him a set of movements.

Lunge, brandish the sword indiscriminately, step back quickly and slash from top to bottom. The way that NPCs usually train users was quite monotonous. It was made that way so the users would understand the contents of the training and would be able to follow and learn it easily.

[You have mastered the basics of Ellie’s Swordsmanship.]

[Please repeat the movements to train Ellie’s Swordsmanship.]

[Your training progress has been created invisibly.]

[Your training progress will remain invisible for a week.]

“What does having your training progress be invisible mean?”

“It means that it’s not definite.”

“Not definite?”

“It will depend on the amount of effort and perseverance you will put in the training.”

“Aha.”

Ellie spoke briefly but Minhyuk was still able to understand.

This means that the power that I could exert using Ellie’s Swordsmanship will depend on how much effort I will use to train in one week.

“Anyway, work hard. I’ll give you an ingredient for every two puppets you destroy. Just one. No more than that.”

“Yes!”

Ellie stepped out of the training grounds while Minhyuk sat down on the spot and started searching on the official homepage of Athenae.

‘The food in the Imperial Palace of Eivelis Empie.’

Once he searched for that, plenty of related search words and articles popped out.

[Nims, I’ve got a job as a chef in the Imperial Palace of Eivelis Empire. I even got a hidden class, yeye. ‘Master of Peeling.’ I can peel onions really well. I can peel five in under 1 minute.

gsdfadl3: hahahahahaha, are you really peeling onions in the game?

shinchanisthirsty: My life…… A laborer inside the game……

BlackDragontheCookingKing: But it’s alright. You can try a lot of different things in here. The food here is so damn delicious ㅠㅠ 

Janggeumie: What if Ellie asks you, will you say ‘How can I answer why it tastes like onions when it really tastes like onions?’. Hahahahaha

AGourmet: Oh, but since you can eat a lot of delicious food then it’s okay, right? What’s the most delicious food?

BlackDragontheCookingKing: It’s ham. Ellie really likes spam so maybe that’s why the ham in here is really delicious. And all the ham in here are made out of C-rank ingredients. Yeye. But of course, I still can’t eat ham that often in here.

Janggeumie: Lies. Which Empress would eat spam?]

“Oho. So it’s ham!”

So it’s regular ham right after spam!

Minhyuk now had a general idea of what dish he would want to make after finishing his training.

“Bu, budaejjigae……!”

With ham, kimchi, dumplings and ramyeon noodles boiled together, budaejjigae was a dish that people of all ages definitely liked.

Minhyuk has finally decided on what to eat. Since he had set his goal, he stood up and walked in front of a white wooden puppet to start his training.

Tempting me with ingredients?

I’m going to live up to your expectations and work hard to get all the ingredients I need for budaejjigae!

Minhyuk continuously striked at the wooden puppet without any rest.

After 1 hour, his back started to ache and his arms were getting numb. He was even dripping in sweat. There was a strong desire to take a rest bubbling up inside him. However, Minhyuk endured it.

‘It will be very delicious if I put have ramyeon noodles in my budaejjigae!’

Thwack! Slash!

After 2 hours of intense training…

His back felt like it was going to break and he couldn’t even feel his wrists anymore. But the wooden puppet still remained spotless without any scratch on its surface.

‘Two of you should die if I want to get one ingredient and taste that spicy soup!’

Slash! Stab!

After three hours…

He was drenched in sweat and his whole body was shaking so hard that he couldn’t even move a finger. But he still persevered.

Eating something delicious after finishing a hard day’s work is always the best.

Minhyuk always lived by those words.

No matter how hard he tried in reality he couldn’t eat any delicious food. But it was possible for him to do so in here.

That was why he would swing his sword until he broke down those wooden puppets. His will to eat was really strong for him to be able to persevere this much.

Slash!

Stab!

About three and a half hours later…

Baang!

A white wooden puppet broke down into pieces.

[You have obtained 1 special point.]

[You can also invest your special points on stats that can’t be raised with bonus points.]

“Oho!”

Without any hesitation, Minhyuk invested his special point directly to his dexterity points. Then he rested for 5 minutes before continuing his hitting spree. He kept on striking and striking the wooden puppets.

[You have increased your STR by 1.]

[You have increased your AGI by 1.]

[You have increased your Will by 1.]

“Oh…… Will!”

Minhyuk was able to increase his will in the farming dungeon by at least 8 points. The will stat was vastly different compared to regular stats. That was why having an increase of 1 point was completely touching.

He might not know but the will stat was what was keeping him up whenever he felt that he would fall down due to exhaustion. Thanks to this stat, he was still able to swing at the wooden puppets continuously with all of his strength.

Bang!

***

Three days later.

Ellie headed towards the training grounds. She wasn’t able to check up on Minhyuk’s progress because she was busy with the affairs of the Empire.

“Destroying two a day would be a lot for him.”

Even if he was only able to destroy two in one day, Ellie’s swordsmanship would be able to accumulate quite a lot of progress with his invisible training progress if he continued on in a week. It would definitely give foreigners like him a significant increase in strength.

In fact, in her opinion, it was still hard for him to destroy two in one day. After all it was boring and monotonous to hit at a wooden puppet continuously.

Did he get even 1 special point during this time?

He had to hit at least 500 times for him to be able to get 1 special point.

Was there a much more boring task than this?

It would only get worse from here on out.

After all, hitting a wooden puppet alone in an empty training ground is hard and monotonous. Right?

As Ellie walked inside the training grounds, she could finally see Minhyuk and what he was doing…

“Sword of Fury.”

Minhyuk’s sword was covered in red light. He clenched the hilt of the sword tightly as he stabbed at one of the blue wooden puppets in the training grounds.

Stab!

His sword was embedded deeply in the middle of the blue wooden puppet.

“……H, how can this be.”

Ellie’s eyes grew as wide as saucers.

***

Minhyuk looked strangely at Ellie who was very surprised at what she saw.

After he mastered all four of the basic movements of Ellie’s swordsmanship he thought that he was ready to try and test out the skill. When he tried to use it during the first day, the notifications only showed him this:

[Sword of Fury.]

The usual words that were written under the skill description did not come out, even the % of the progress did not show. And when he struck the wooden puppet with the Sword of Fury all he ever did was shake the puppet and not destroy it. 

That was why Minhyuk always tried to use the skill whenever he tried to destroy a wooden puppet. As time went by, the damage that he could inflict on the wooden doll was increasing. In other words, his skill was growing as his training progressed further.

And today…

He might have failed to destroy the wooden puppet but he was finally able to embed the sword straight in the middle of its body.

“You’re here?”

Minhyuk greeted her while he wiped the sweat off of his forehead.

Ellie looked around the surroundings.

“……”

She was at a loss for words.

There were a total of sixteen wooden puppets lying down on the ground and broken into pieces.

“H, how did this happen…”

Even Ellie was astonished with his progress.

The fastest record of breaking a wooden doll was five hours. It would be possible to do this if he struck the wooden puppet 70 times in 1 hour and have 1 hour of break. But was it even possible to do that consistently? It wasn’t easy for a person to continuously strike the wooden puppet in a day.

But if he were able to break eighteen puppets then it meant that he would be able to destroy six puppets in one day.

Aside from the minimal break that he allowed himself, Minhyuk has solely devoted his time on swinging at the wooden puppets. And she could see it with her own eyes, how much effort Minhyuk has put in his training.

“You have destroyed 16 puppets so that means that you will get eight ingredients. Huhuhuhu!”

He was powered by his will to eat delicious food. She could even see that the hilt of the wooden sword in Minhyuk’s hand was dyed red with blood.

‘My god……’

This was how realistic Athenae was.

Ellie could only imagine… For the hilt of the wooden sword to be dyed red in blood, his palms would have peeled and bleeded due to extreme training. It might have been insignificant but foreigners have natural healing powers. However, for their natural healing powers, such wounds would be easily healed in time. This only meant that Minhyuk has been swinging his sword diligently that even his natural healing power couldn’t catch up with his injuries.

She was extremely and awfully surprised but her words and expression would not easily show it. 

“How did this happen, how did you make such a mess? Let’s clean this up. Look at this mess!”

He thought that she would cut him some slack and praise him but she just scolded him for the mess. Minhyuk looked at her with a dumb expression on his face.

“Heuok! I’m gonna clean this up but you have to give me my ingredients!”

Ellie chuckled to herself when she heard his words.

‘Len…… I think I know the reason why you chose him.’

She could now see why he had obtained Ellie’s kitchen knife. In fact, she was already aware that he was a very peculiar foreigner. He liked food and it was always more important compared to anything else. But she now knew that he works hard and always gives his all no matter the task he was given.

‘He might have learned a lot of different things but there was a reason why he’s so strong.’

She nodded her head.

‘It’s completely possible.’

Even though it was just half of the 4 chapters of Ellie’s swordsmanship, she had a hunch that Minhyuk would be able to show and pull out the greatest power out of the swordsmanship.

She grinned at his figure that was frantically cleaning up the mess in the training grounds.

Ellie thought that she wanted to keep on getting closer with Minhyuk. Anyone would be surprised if they heard her say this out loud.

***

Lee Seokhoon, the Team Leader of the development team, accessed Athenae.

There was only one reason why he logged-in and accessed Athenae. It was so he could prepare for the future update of Athenae.

To proceed with an update, the administrators would often meet with influential NPCs in Athenae to discuss and naturally direct the courses of action that they should follow in the future. And because they were hailed as the envoys of the influential God of Athenae, all of the NPCs treat them favorably. Some would even go as far as to worship them.

‘We need Ellie’s help to open up the Northern Continent.’

He needed to meet with Ellie for that to happen. That was the reason why he arrived at the Imperial Palace of the Eivelis Empire.

The leader of the knights greeted him the moment he arrived at the gates of the Imperial Palace. Lee Seokhoon walked behind the knight as he thought of something…

‘I heard that User Minhyuk is also in the palace.’

I don’t know what he’s doing. Maybe the Special Users Team will know.

‘Ah, I have to speak to Ellie formally.’

Even if the development team and the God of Athenae were working together, every time Seokhoon went to see her, she would receive him with a cold stare. He always had a hard time whenever he approached her.

What envoy, if she gets offended she will definitely beat me to a pulp.

Seokhoon soon saw the door to the throne room open.

“How have you been?”

Ellie nodded her head at him as Seokhoon handed over the parchment that was filled with the instructions from the God of Athenae.

The NPCs would carry out the instructions written in these parchments or they would be marked as the enemy of the God of Athenae if they ever tried to disobey.

Ellie shook her head in thought after she read all of the contents of the parchment. Lee Seokhoon started his explanations to clear up any questions that the Empress might have.

“The God of Athenae has continuously asked the envoys to pioneer the march towards the Northern Continents. And since there are quite a number of monsters blocking our path, we are requesting the Eivelis Empire to support us with 20,000 troops.”

Right when Ellie nodded her head, the door of the throne room opened as a young man jumped inside.

“Ellie noona!”

‘D, did he just say noona?! Keok?!’

Lee Seokhoon was freaking out inside.

Did he just call Empress Ellie, noona?! Did he say noona?!

He thought that it was much better to call her auntie instead of that.

‘I don’t know what’s going through this crazy guy’s head but I’m sure that he will end up in jail.’

As Lee Seokhoon thought of this, he turned his head to look at the user.

The user was running towards Ellie excitedly. He felt that he was strangely… familiar…

It’s User Minhyuk!

“Keok?!”

This was the second gasp that he has unknowingly let out in a span of a minute.

***

TL’s corner!!!

This is a surprising revelation. So the supercomputer, the God of Athenae, gives out instructions to the administrators and the administrators have to guide the NPCs as envoys of the God to update the game. Amazing. It’s like Athenae is a world of its own and not just virtual reality. Well. The life-like NPCs were already amazing but to think that this was how updating works. Kek.

PR’s corner!

This is certainly an immersive world. I’m loving this so much now.

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