Leveling Up through Eating

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

PR: MattForgenti

29 Odd Companion

It was an unknown number. In all honesty, his phone did not usually ring for calls. Minhyuk tilted his head in curiosity as he answered his phone.

[I love you. Dumb customer-nim, you can now replace your mobile phone for free…..]

Click━

Minhyuk hung the phone up as his mouth twitched in shock. Then, he opened the messages left by Jihye on his message window.

‘H, her mouth is this rough and unbridled……?’

As soon as he clicked on the message, he was greeted with a string of curses.

[Im Jihye: #%”&!ⓒ#%$! You pig, %#@%@%% you shitty pig @$@#$ you wild boar, #$#% you honey pig!]

Even with all that curses and words of abuse, the word pig still came for Minhyuk one after the other. At that time, he had a large appetite and Jihye was also chubby so it was a name that they naturally used to call each other. The two of them were well-known as the two great pigs of the mountains. Of course, Minhyuk was only called like that as a joke since he was always exercising hard.

As he read through the messages among the curses: I’m sad. How can you do that, you bastard, I miss you and so on. Minhyuk laughed at her messages. He continuously checked the messages.

[Im Jihye: Jisoo was quite old-fashioned when we were young right? That’s why we always tell him ‘Is Jisoo’s father here?’. Do you remember? But now……]

Jihye sent him a message filled with suspense.

They say that ugly kids will grow up handsome!

Minhyuk clicked the next message with great anticipation.

[Im Jihye: He now looks like the head of the bandits! Hehehehe. He had a rough beard ever since he was a kid and now he likes bananas just like a monkey. When I threw a banana at him he clapped and said that he liked it. Hehehe.]

It had been such a long time since Minhyuk laughed like this. Recalling his memories with his friends had been such a joy for him.

[Im Jihye: And Seoktae has grown to become a handsome man. Yeye. But I don’t have any feelings for him. He still has that shocking taste of his as always.]

Seoktae was his handsome friend.

I guess he’s still working hard to maintain his appearance.

At that moment…

[Im Jihye: And I have become a beautiful woman who’s 163cm tall and weighs 49kg. Once you see me, you’ll probably get excited and say ‘Hekhek, please give me your number!’. Just so you know, I won’t give you my number, you pig.]

“Oh. For real?”

He couldn’t tell if what she was saying was real or not. Then, as he read through her messages he saw…

[Im Jihye: All three of us are now playing Athenae. If you’re playing Athenae, you must send me a whisper right away. You know my nickname right? My nickname code is 41462.]

“Oh……”

Minhyuk’s lips curled in a smile.

These guys are playing Athenae? They have always played well.

The thought of them being quite influential in the game crossed his mind. 

Minhyuk shook his head when the thought of ‘Should I contact them?’ passed by. He still had the goal of losing weight.

‘Once I get back to my original weight……’

Once he reached his goal, he would go and meet with his friends proudly. He felt sorry and at the same time thankful that they were waiting for him like this.

When he weighed himself yesterday, he could see that his weight has reduced to 165kg. He was already changing.

As he went in front of the mirror, he looked at himself and talked to Im Hyejin, his diet manager.

“Oh. Noona. Don’t you think that I’m not fat and chubby anymore?”

“……Y, yeah. I, I guess so. Hohoho!”

“Hahahahahaha!”

In fact, whether it was 165 or 170 it still looked the same to Hyejin.

Minhyuk smiled cheerfully as he thought of what he was going to do next in Athenae.

‘The Shrieking Hills.’

There were some monster quests available there. When Minhyuk checked it out, he saw that powerful users around his level would go and play there. Only powerful users would go and play there because the monsters that reside in that area were quite strong for their level. He also knew that the place would give a lot of experience.

And the reason why the Shrieking Hills was most attractive to Minhyuk was because the Screaming Hills quest was a quest that could be received from the army of the Kingdom of Barras and the rewards included duck meat. Duck meat was considered to be one of the specialties of the Kingdom of Barras. He also knew that the rewards included plenty of gold and EXP.

Minhyuk quickly entered his capsule and logged back in to Athenae so he could meet with his friends sooner.

***

Rovan saw a few users staying around in the Kingdom’s Army. They all seemed like they were forming a party to go to the Shrieking Hills. 

The monsters in the Shrieking Hills were usually around Lv100~130. However, if the monster’s level is at 100 then it was strong enough to be at Lv110. The same would go for a monster at Lv120, it would be strong enough to face Lv130 users. This ten-level gap in power was something that was much more troublesome than what users normally thought.

In Rovan’s case, he had received a ‘Hidden Quest’ in the Shrieking Hills. He needed to enter a path that no one knew in the Shrieking Hills to proceed with the hidden quest.

‘That’s where the Great Mage’s Power of Sin was lying in wait.’

So far, he still had no clue about what the Power of Sin was but Rovan was quite confident in himself. This was because he was ranked as the number 1 player in Versal. Everyone knew who Versal’s Rovan was. He was famously known as the crazy hunter. Unfortunately, he played Athenae at a much later date compared to others because he went to the army.

But he was definitely someone that stood above the rest. His speed in leveling up was overwhelmingly fast and he even received the legendary class ‘Berserker’. The Berserker was a class that could be obtained in Isbin Village by chance.

Rovan shook his head when he heard the words of Kemil, the representative of the Kingdom’s Army of the Kingdom of Barras.

“I won’t allow you unless you have one, no, two or three people in your party.”

“I understand.”

Information was power. Since he was gathering information, he could tell at a glance that the army was weeding out people who were alone. As he looked through the users that were still alone, he tried to find people that would fit his criteria. He needed to find someone who would not interfere with his hunt. He was someone who did not want to get disturbed when he was hunting. Or to put it simply, he needed a simple and naive user. The reason why he needed to find a simple user…

‘In the first place, he doesn’t need to come forward. This way I can eat more EXP.’

This was one of the weaknesses of the buff characters like healers. They needed to rely on parties whenever they were hunting. And whenever you hunt in a party, the EXP distribution would not necessarily be 5:5. Usually, healers would only take around 3~4 in EXP distribution. This was because their direct contribution in the hunting would always be low.

Right now, he was wishing that he could find a useless figure, someone who was much more useless than a healer. In any way, Rovan would be the one who would do most of the hunting so this was like him taking such a user in a bus. So their case would be like hitting two birds with one stone. Of course, if this was his ideal scenario then Rovan would be taking up more of the EXP and he would also be unbothered by other strangers. There was no way that a user like that would be able to take aggro from him, besides he was quite confident with his skills.

Rovan looked around with that idea in mind.

‘……Huh?’

Rovan tilted his head in confusion when he saw a user squatting down in a corner. Looking closely, he could see that the user was making kimchi pancakes.

‘Is he a chef?’

Just as he thought about that, he heard the man laugh weirdly.

“The ends of the pancakes taste so delicious……!”

‘Hooo. It tastes the best, right?’ 

Rovan also knew about it. The best part of a pancake was its crunchy and crispy sides!

Rovan who just imagined the taste smacked his lips unconsciously. Meanwhile, a small fireball appeared on top of the man’s frying pan.

‘T, that…?’ 

He saw it clearly. As far as Rovan knew, that was a fire magic that mages would use. However, right now a chef was using it for his cooking.

‘What the hell, how is that possible?’

Then, the fireball wrapped around the pancakes.

“Ooooooooooh. It’s cooking well. It’s cooking well. Good. Good!” 

The man flipped the pancakes with great timing.

Sizzle!

“Kyaha!”

“Keuha. You flipped it well……”

“……?”

Rovan subconsciously let out a gasp of admiration and praised him well. As soon as the man saw him, he quickly hid the kimchi pancakes behind his back. He looked like a pirate hiding his loots from his adversaries.

‘I’m not going to take it from you, though?!’ 

That was what Rovan wanted to say. Not long after, the man quickly finished cooking and picked a pancake up.

“Oooooh. It’s golden brown!”

‘Wow. It’s really fried to perfection, it’s golden brown!’

Rovan was in awe. The sides of the kimchi pancake were crispy and toasted to a golden brown. Rovan watched the man quickly tore a piece out of the kimchi pancake and placed it in his mouth.

Crunch, crunch!

“Waaaaaaang, so delicious!”

He could hear the crunchy sound as the man chewed on the kimchi pancake. Rovan gulped down his saliva that threatened to overflow.

‘Wow. That pancake…… It would definitely be crunchy in every bite, right? How about I make something crispy with flour later?’

He could already imagine himself going home and making some pancakes for himself.

Just when the man finished eating a pancake, the representative from the Kingdom’s army suddenly spoke to him.

“That……” 

“Yes?”

“I’ll take you in as my partner so please give me one piece of pancake! Boy, you haven’t been able to find any companion for an hour now!”

When he heard those words, Rovan suddenly understood.

‘Ah. That user is a chef so no one wanted to take him to their party!’

It was the truth. No one wanted such a useless member as that man.

Then the man said…

“But Kemil-nim needs to protect and guard this place.”

“Ah. You’re right.”

Suddenly, Kemil slapped his fists on his open palm in a gesture of ‘Aha!’! Rovan looked at him as if he was looking at an idiot.

‘Is he a moron?’ 

But after hearing what Kemil had to say, Rovan started to get convinced to some extent.

“Boy, I wanted to give something to you in exchange for some pancakes but that’s too bad. Hmm, hmm.”

In all honesty, Rovan also wanted to taste the pancakes that the man made.

“Then, shall I give you a piece of pancake?”

“Ooooooooh. Are you really giving me a piece?”

“Yes. You know, I love duck meat. Whisper, whisper……”

“Ah. I’ll definitely pack some more for you.”

“Oooooooooh. Thank you!”

‘What’s this? I don’t know if that user is dumb or clever?’

Rovan couldn’t quite understand the man as he looked at him. The man gave out some pancakes but in return he got more rewards. However, users would generally ask for more gold or a way to increase their attack power whenever they ask for higher quest rewards.

But that user wanted to have more duck meat?

The man made another piece of pancake and handed it over to Kemil. Kemil quickly tore the pancake and placed a piece in his mouth. Then, he quickly looked at Minhyuk and the pancake in his hands with admiration on his face.

“Wow…… Waaaaaa……”

He was left speechless in admiration as he looked alternatively at the pancake and Minhyuk.

“Delicious. It’s really delicious…… Wow……”

Rovan wanted to hear what it tasted like but Kemil was left speechless. He got irritated at him for no reason at all.

‘Damn. Talk! Why won’t you talk?!’

Then, as if waking up from some sort of dream, he paused.

‘Why am I getting so worked up like this over a piece of pancake……?’

Then Kemil said…

“It’s really really delicious……”

He looked like he would cry with how delicious tha pancake was.

“I’ll also give you a bit more gold for the rewards.”

“Oooh! Thank you!”

‘Keok……!’

Rovan was quite shocked when he heard their conversation.

‘Im, impossible……!’

Did he plan all of this? Did he expect to have an increase in the gold rewards if he asked for an increase in the duck meat rewards?! S, so meticulous! Smart!

This only meant that the user was very confident with his cooking.

After finishing his pancakes, the man washed his frying pan with magic and placed it behind his back. Strangely enough, his figure was quite familiar.

‘If he hits a monster with that frying pan I think it would ring loudly with a clang! or something like that.’

It would be more perfect if he was riding a motorcycle with a helmet on his head.

Rovan finally decided… He would take that user with him.

That user was a chef but he could use some special magic so he thought that maybe he was someone who had a hidden class.

Something like The Frying Pan Mage?

But he was sure of one thing. If he took that user with him, he would definitely be able to eat delicious food while he takes that user on a bus with him. He could also tell that user to just sit still and he could just take most of the EXP away.

Then, his guild chat window suddenly popped up.

[Guild Master Genie: Rovan-nim, are you leveling well? I can’t wait ^^]

***

TL’s corner!!!

Heh. Look at what food can do. Although I’m not a big fan of vegetable pancakes I still firmly believe that it’s quite delicious.

PR’s corner!

Heh, more of Minhyuk’s calculated (?) charm.

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