Leveling Up through Eating

Chapter 105: Hungry Monsters

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

PR: MattForgenti

33 Hungry Monsters

“……Phoenix eggs?”

“Yes. The Phoenix is considered to be a noble monster in Athenae. My father said that the Food God suddenly brought in these Phoenix eggs one day. Then, he suddenly started to cook it on the spot.”

“Hoo.”

“Then he made this jangjorim. He said that his descendants will one day come to eat this.”

Minhyuk looked down at the jangjorim in his hands.

The taste is definitely superb. It’s so yummy that I can’t even describe its taste.

‘Did the Food God only eat food as delicious as this?’

He was suddenly filled with a great sense of jealousy.

But he still said…

“The Phoenix eggs already taste this good, I wonder how much tastier a Phoenix is?”

“Y, you really are the Food God.”

If he were a normal person he would say ‘No?! I ate the eggs of a legendary monster?!’ once he knew about it but the only thing that he thought of was that it was delicious!

Nevertheless, Boroto continued to tell his stories.

“I’ll tell you about the Food God’s legacy. The Food God had countless subordinates that followed him.”

The Food God’s subordinates!

Minhyuk listened to him carefully as he continued to eat since this was an important story.

“They were all important friends of the Food God, however, they were also his loyal subordinates. Most of them were considered to be legendary figures that have dominated and reigned supreme in the entirety of the Asgan Continent. Some could order a million troops to move in a single command, there were also heroes who have fought and won against the demon army, there were also plenty of kings and emperors who ruled their own races. The Food God had entrusted some of them with the God’s Cuisine, some were even entrusted with clues on how to find cooking ingredients. All of them were entrusted with these just so they could give these and inform the Food God’s descendants.”

Minhyuk’s attention was trained on his words as he continued to eat his rice.

“Those dishes were said to allow his descendants to exert incredible powers once it was eaten. In addition, after the death of the Food God, it was also said that his loyal friends and subordinates also sealed their powers on these dishes. This was to express their longing for the Food God in their hearts. This is the first of the five dishes in God’s Cuisine.”

Boroto looked at Minhyuk before continuing to talk.

“I only know that the power of the first dish of God’s Legacy Cuisine is related to the Phoenix eggs.”

“This dish?”

“Yes. I don’t know which subordinate sealed their power in the dish though. But if you eat God’s Legacy dishes then you will be able to fill in the abilities that you lack from being a Food God.”

“Abilities that I lack……”

Something flashed through Minhyuk’s head as he thought of those words deeply.

‘Don’t tell me……?!’

The Food God’s Cooking and Ingredient Tracking skill had not been able to move past the ‘not yet leveled up’ category.

Was that the hint?

“Please go to the land of Salov in front of here. You will be able to find the hint for the first dish if you go there.”

[Class Quest: Go to the land of Salov.]

Rank: ?

Restrictions: Lv150

Rewards: 300,000 EXP

Penalty for Failure: Unable to progress further for the Food Fighter’s Legacy.

Description: That was all of what Boroto knew. You must go to the land of Salov to find the hint!

Minhyuk was somewhat confused.

‘What do I need to find? If I go there without knowing anything can I even find the hint?’

It was quite vague and mysterious but he still nodded his head to accept the quest.

Then, Boroto raised his doubts.

“But, Food God.”

“Yes?”

Just before Minhyuk ate his last spoonful, Boroto asked him this question.

“Where is your apostle?”

“Apostle?”

“……?”

Boroto tilted his head in confusion. According to the legends, the Food God would always take the best chef with him. And this man, the apostle, was also a man with great power. He carefully spoke as he tried to remember the words that his father told him before.

“It’s the Twilight Chef.”

“……?”

Minhyuk was taken aback since this was the first time that he had heard of this.

“What kind of work does the apostle do?”

“He did a lot of different things with the Food God. He’s good at everything. He could use his farming skills to grow new crops, dig up minerals in the mines and even track ingredients.”

As Minhyuk continued to listen, he thought that these things were strangely familiar.

“Is that what the legends say?”

When he thought about it, Len did not give him any quest. However, he was still able to master abilities related to dexterity and even receive an artifact.

Was it supposed to be originally for that guy?

“I already have all those abilities. And I prefer not having any apostles.”

“H, how come? The apostle is like your right hand man. He’s the one that should take care of all of your troubles.”

But Minhyuk clarified his stance.

“I’m already short on food to eat and you still want me to take in another mouth to feed?”

“……”

“……?”

Boroto thought that there was no other person that was suited to be the Food God except for this person in front of him.

After Minhyuk ate the last spoonful of the jangjorim, he heard some notifications.

[You have eaten a dish from God’s Cuisine.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[Your resistance to the fire attribute has increased by 30%.]

[Your resistance and spirit affinity to the fire attribute have sharply increased.]

“Huh……?”

This was something that was unexpected for Minhyuk.

His EXP has increased just by eating a dish. This was the first time he had ever eaten God’s dish. So he was wondering if his EXP would increase every time he ate God’s dishes.

In addition, he received an enormous increase of 30% in his fire attribute resistance. This was the same as saying that he would be able to reduce the damage caused by fire attributed monsters by 30%.

He also received an increase in affinity with fire attributed spirits. This was a great boost considering that Minhyuk already had a high increase in his spirit affinity from the legendary frying pan. This just meant that he would have an already high degree of friendship with any spirit especially with fire attributed spirits.

After he finished chatting and talking with Boroto, Minhyuk quickly went to the land of Salov.

***

Minhyuk resumed eating the smoked duck that he was eating previously before he went and chatted with Boroto. This smoked duck was none other than the golden magic duck that they had hunted back in the Shrieking Hills.

Once he finished all of the smoked duck, he heard these notifications.

[The True Worth of Food.]

[You can acquire a random skill from the Golden Duck.]

[Would you like to acquire it?]

The golden duck was an epic monster that had plenty of magical skills in its arsenal. Minhyuk tried to acquire a random skill.

[You are attempting to acquire a random skill.]

[Acquisition rate 11%…… 22%….. 36%…… 68%…… 0%……]

[You have failed to acquire a skill.]

Minhyuk was quite disappointed that he failed to acquire a skill from the golden duck. Before realizing it, he had arrived at the land of Salov whilst sporting a face full of regret.

The monsters that resided in the land of Salov can easily be described as…

Giant spiders!

As far as Minhyuk knew, the monsters in Salov were Lv200 monsters. If anyone compared his level to those of the monsters they would know that there was an extremely huge gap between them.

Minhyuk surveyed his surroundings and saw that the land of Salov was teeming with cliffs.

‘This hunting ground is really bad……’

There was only one reason.

Even Minhyuk did not want to eat spiders!

Click, click━

Click, click, click, click━

He turned to where the sound was coming from and saw a giant spider crawling down from one of the cliffs that surrounded Salov. The Salov spider was quickly approaching Minhyuk with glinting eyes.

[Ellie’s Swordsmanship]

[All stats will have a 17% increase for 6 minutes.]

[Evasion rate has increased by 30%.]

[Fatal Strikes rate has increased by 30%.]

The title Battlefield’s Ruler was no longer available to him. In the first place, it was a title that could only be used if the user was below Lv150.

With his skill triggered, Minhyuk narrowed the distance between him and the spider. The Salov spider spewed out a dense amount of thread from its body.

[Salov’s Spiderweb.]

[Robust spiderwebs that would not break easily.]

He dodged dozens of threads of spiderwebs that were aiming towards him with Step.

[Step.]

[Quickly move a distance of 1m for two steps.]

Minhyuk easily evaded the attack as he took a side step and rushed to stab the side of the Salov spider that was as big as a one-ton truck.

[Sword of Fury.]

[There will be an additional 53% for strong lunges and stabs, if a vital strike is successful then the additional attack power will be 83%.]

Spurt!

As soon as he pulled out his sword out of the huge body of the Salov spider, green blood spurted out like a fountain. Minhyuk used Step again and dodged the other incoming attacks as he went in front of the spider.

Stab!

Bang!

Seeds suddenly fell down after Minhyuk successfully hunted the huge Salov spider that tried to ambush him.

‘Huh? What are these seeds?’

Minhyuk tilted his head in thought as he acquired them.

[You have acquired 1,034 gold.]

[You have acquired Unknown Seeds.]

(Unknown Seeds)

Material Grade: ?

Special Abilities: ?

Description: An unidentified seed.

He was a bit puzzled but he first stashed it in his inventory.

After pondering deeply, he thought that hunting the Salov spiders was quite a piece of cake for him so he immediately used Gryphon’s Cry.

Bbiiiiiiiiii!

[Gryphon’s Cry.]

[You have a 70~80% chance of attracting the attention of all the monsters within a 20-m radius.]

Salov spiders started to flock to where he was. They came from all over the place, some came from the cracks of the cliffs, under some rocks and other places. The number that he was able to attract was by no means small.

If he reached Lv200, then he would be able to go to the beach. So he thought that it wasn’t that bad to level up while he tried to find a hit about the second God’s dish.

[Rampant Sword.]

[A flurry of rampant swords with additional 30% attack power will be created for 6 seconds.]

Minhyuk used his rampant sword against the swarm of Salov spiders.

[You have dealt a fatal blow.]

Spuuuuurt!

“Kkiiiiiiiiieeeeee!”

[You have dealt a fatal blow.]

Spurt!

“Kkiiii!”

[You have successfully evaded.]

[You have leveled up.]

There were times when the attack of the Salovs would hit Minhyuk. However, whenever he used Ellie’s Swordsmanship, he could ignore an attack once or twice depending on the evasion rate.

Whenever he killed a Salov, a fountain of green blood would always spurt out! And there would always be seeds falling as drops.

[You have acquired 1,011 gold.]

[You have acquired Unknown Seeds.]

[You have acquired 1,514 gold.]

[You have acquired Unknown Seeds.]

[You have acquired Salov’s Spiderweb]

“Hmm……”

Minhyuk who could not make any heads or tails about these seeds opened the official homepage of Athenae.

Unlike other virtual reality games, information was readily available in Athenae in the form of their official homepage. The homepage could easily be accessed once any battle was done or when the user was idle.

[Salov. Unknown Seeds.]

[No content found.]

“……Uhm?”

Minhyuk was quite taken aback. This was the first time that his search had resulted in nothing. The homepage simply showed that there was no content related to this search word. This meant that the unknown seeds were items that would not come out originally. To put it simply, there was a high possibility that this was an item that was related to his quest.

He tilted his head in thought.

I’ll find out more about this once I hunt a few more.

***

Puhaaaaa!

It had already been six hours! Minhyuk had already been able to acquire 200 unknown seeds from his continuous hunting of the Salovs. And Minhyuk had raised his level by 10 so far. He was originally at Lv150 and he had been hunting monsters that were 50 levels higher than him so it was a given that his level would rise at an overwhelming speed.

Then…

“Huh?”

An enticing smell tickled Minhyuk’s nose.

Where is it coming from? There’s a sweet and savory smell floating around.

Minhyuk moved to follow the tasty smell. The smell guided Minhyuk towards a cave somewhere behind one of the cliffs.

“A delicious smell……!”

This smells like that…

Like the smell of chicken when you’re in an elevator!

It was a smell that could rouse Minhyuk’s appetite even if he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was.

The moment he entered the cave, he felt that there was something wrong. The smell immediately disappeared when he stepped inside the cave. He was also able to discover a light that was leaking at the opposite end of the entrance of the cave.

“……What?”

The smell suddenly disappeared.

It was like it just guided him towards this place.

Perhaps the ‘hint’ is in here?

He slowly moved towards the light one step at a time. Once he reached that place, a shocking sight unfolded in front of him.

“Th, this is……?”

In front of him layed a vast expanse of land. And on this land were monsters with nothing but bones on them.

Piiiiiiiiiiiii!

At that moment, a loud shriek came from somewhere. Minhyuk turned his head towards the direction where the sound came from. He saw a huge bird.

It was a giant firebird with a body that was filled with blazing flames!

It was a Phoenix!

[Named Monster.]

[You were the first to discover the Legendary Phoenix Lord.]

[You have gained 30 reputation points.]

It wasn’t just an ordinary Phoenix, it was the king of Phoenixes!

The Phoenix gently and unhurriedly sat in front of Minhyuk. Then, it looked at Minhyuk closely.

This is the legendary monster, the Phoenix Lord.

Just as it looked at Minhyuk, Minhyuk also looked at it closely.

Then, Minhyuk slowly opened his mouth…

“Yummy……”

***

TL’s corner!!!

Calling Radem, the person who was facilitating the tournament before, you called it. A warm round of applause to this great sir. Lol.

I think that’s why he smelled something like chicken. KEK.