Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 132: His Worth

All Collodis Empire players were on alert. The Valkyrie Kingdom from the Northern Continent and the Eivelis Empire had formed an alliance. This meant that there was a high possibility that the players from Eivelis Empire would have monopoly over countless artifacts, information and other various valuable things. In addition, there was also a possibility that the guilds stationed in the Eivelis Empire could outclass and outperform the guilds from Collodis Empire.

Player Callian was the guild master of Iris Guild, one of the top four guilds in the country. He was ranked 22nd in the overall local rankings, and was considered to be one of the strongest players in the country. In addition, Iris Guild was so overwhelmingly strong that when players were asked?‘Which’s the best guild in the country?’?all of them would answer:?‘Of course it’s Iris Guild!’. There might be four great guilds in the country but among the four, Iris Guild had the most advantageous position.

Iris Guild’s Callian was standing in front of a cave with a grave expression on his face. The door that led inside the cave was shut tight and the person who was inside the closed-off cave was none other than Necromancer Bach.

‘Bach. You’re the only one I can trust.’

Necromancer Bach had an outstanding ability–soul summoning! If the soul summoning skill was triggered successfully, they would be able to summon a soul and ask them some questions. However, this was a special skill that had a rare chance of being successfully triggered. In addition, there would be a large penalty inflicted on Bach with each question asked.

Bang, bang, bang!

The door of the cave slowly opened and the black-robed Bach walked out.

“Did the soul summoning succeed?” Callian asked.

Bach slowly nodded. What he summoned was the soul of a deceased priest from Valkyrie Kingdom. The body was recovered by Iris Guild in case the raid to take away King Varen failed. Through the body, they could summon the soul and locate the Valkyrie Kingdom.

“Can it help us change the situation of the game right now?”

Bach smiled deeply and said, “Yes. There’s actually a simpler way to drive out Legend Guild from Valkyrie Kingdom.”

“...Oho?!” Callian exclaimed in surprise.

There was a simpler way to drive out Legend Guild. Right now, all of the guilds were trying to find a way to keep the growth of Legend Guild in check since they were set to be the first guild to acquire a territory in Valkyrie Kingdom.

Bach chuckled deeply before explaining, “You can poison the ritual food for Goddess Juis.”

“Poison the ritual food for Goddess Juis?” Callian asked, looking at Bach in doubt as Bach retold him the stories that he had heard inside.

It was said that Goddess Juis once found the ritual food to be distasteful and cast a terrible drought over the kingdom for several days. Therefore, what if the food was poisoned?

“There would be a great disaster...” Callian murmured to himself.

What if the ritual food that would be served to Goddess Juis was something that she did not like? What if they went beyond that and gave her something that was laden with poison? It was likely that a devastating catastrophe might sweep the whole of the Northern Continent.

“The priest was a high ranking priest.”

“Really?”

“And I received a lot of information from him, you know?”

If the soul summoning was successful then the summoned soul had no choice but to answer the question of the summoner.

Then, Bach said, “The Valkyrie Kingdom will be thrown into disarray for quite some time because of the angry Goddess Juis. And since it will happen during the appearance of the Legend Guild, the public will be furious.”

Callian nodded. It definitely made sense. However, what could they get from something like this? Was he saying that they could only achieve the fall of Legend Guild and nothing else?

Bach spoke as if he had read his mind, “We can find a way to save them from their situation. Originally, the priest was someone amazing. He was someone that could give a hidden quest to players. He said that if we want to calm the angry Goddess Juis, then we have to find the ‘Corrupted Juis’ Dungeon’. If we find the dungeon, then we will be able to find the ‘Spirit of the Wrathful Juis’ inside. Once we find the ‘Spirit of the Wrathful Juis,’ we can calm her down if we offer her a sumptuous banquet. He also said that there will be amazing rewards.”

Callian once again nodded at his remarks. It was definitely an extremely high-ranking quest. In this update, the players were told that there were SS-ranked quests that were released so this might be one of them. Of course, this quest was something that they needed to fabricate. Especially placing and retrieving the poison.

“...What if we broadcast it live?”

Iris Guild was related to a game broadcasting channel called ‘Dungeon Attack Live!’. If they were to broadcast how they clear an SS-ranked quest as well as saving the day like heroes, it would definitely be an interesting feed. If they did this quest, the Collodis Empire would be the one to save Valkyrie Kingdom. Perhaps King Varen would even become close enough with Iris Guild instead of the other guilds. It was also possible to hide the fact that Iris Guild was involved with the raid since it was only Ares Guild and Rumad that attacked him.

“There are two problems.”

Callian rubbed his chin in thought as he listed the two problems. He said, “The first problem… How do we get the poison in the food?”

“Of course, I’ve already asked the soul I have summoned about the whereabouts and the exact situation of Valkyrie Kingdom,” Bach grinned widely, he was after all, a very meticulous person.

Then came their second problem…

“Who will cook the banquet?”

…It was easy to find the location of the Wrathful Spirit of Juis. However, it would be a big problem if they could not satisfy her with the meal that they brought. However, who could make a dish that could satisfy a Goddess? The two of them were lost in thought for quite some time. Not long after, Callian’s finger popped up as if he had thought of something.

Pop!

“The Twilight Chef, Black!”

***

Minhyuk looked disappointed after accessing?Athenae. He came in to eat the sushi made by the Legendary Chef! But when he came in, the Legendary Chef and King Varen were both busy preparing for the ritual and ceremony. However there was nothing that Minhyuk could do, this was something that was necessary for the Valkyrie Kingdom. He just had to wait for a bit.

In the meantime, Minhyuk tried to find other ways to eat delicious food.

“I’m Minhyuk, the new member. Please take good care of me,” Minhyuk said, bowing his head at the members of Legend Guild that welcomed him with a warm round of applause.

They successfully recruited the Frying Pan Killer, the person that’s currently on fire! This was an event that none of them would ignore. Then, there was also Root.

“I’m Root. Please take good care of me.”

Then, Genie said, “As I have said before, Minhyuk is also my friend in real life. Due to some things, this is our first time meeting after five years. And just like what I have said before, Minhyuk is a really, really, really good chef.”

“For real?”

“I still can’t believe it...”

The guild members were still in shock. The Frying Pan Killer was an excellent damage dealer. His strikes were so powerful that they could crush the enemy in one go. He was even comparable to rankers with his impressive armor, incredible strength, and high HP that was far higher than his level. But what the guild members thought was…

‘Buffed dishes...’

Buffed dishes!?It was not bad. However, the members were slightly apprehensive, after all, the better the effects, the more expensive the dishes were. In the case of priests, higher buffs meant having a greater consumption of their MP. Compared to the expensive buffed dishes, using MP was far more cost effective. It was the only thing that was restricting other players from purchasing plenty of buffed dishes.

“Minhyuk can make really awesome buffed dishes. But, there’s nothing free in this world, right?”

Genie smiled lightly as she continued to speak. “Whenever Minhyuk cooks for us, all of us should provide him with the ingredients.”

“Ah. That’s a matter of fact.”

“Of course.”

All of the guild members nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, Crow asked, “How much is it?”

Crow asked this since buffed dishes were literally more expensive compared to their effects. He once bought and ate a dish made by the Twilight Chef Black. It cost four platinum just for a bowl of buffed food. It’s worth at least 20 million won in cash. Of course, the effects were excellent. There was a 13% increase in EXP Acquisition Rate and a +2% on all stats for an eight-day duration. Crow was in the middle of a leveling spree so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and buy it. When he asked them why a dish was so expensive this was the answer that he got from one of the guild members of Louvert, the guild headed by Twilight Chef Black…

‘The dishes are made only with expensive ingredients.’

It was the only reason why it was expensive. It had to be expensive since they used plenty of expensive ingredients for the dish.

“Uhm. I think it’s best we make a final deal with Minhyuk here,” This was Genie’s answer. In fact, Minhyuk said that it was enough for him to get ‘Delicious Ingredients’. However, she felt that Minhyuk’s compensation should differ depending on the value of the buffed dishes that he had made.

Minhyuk understood what Genie meant. Guilds could not be kept running just on friendship. Everyone should be helpful to each other and pay for their services according to their value. Most of the guilds that depended only on friendship were still at the bottom of the ladder.

“Then, why don’t we do it like this? I’ll cook for you and you’ll get the delicious ingredients for me.”

“D…delicious ingredients?”

All of the guild members looked at him in confusion. Not millions of gold, nor a few platinum, but delicious ingredients?

“Our Minhyuk here is a glutton for food...”

“Ha, haha... That’s a bit too much,” Crow laughed awkwardly.

Genie did not bother explaining to them about Minhyuk’s condition. She also did not think that it was necessary to explain about his family.

“If you don’t mind it, how about 20 million gold for a rare buffed dish, an A-grade ingredient for a unique buffed dish, an S-grade ingredient for an epic buffed dish and two S-grade ingredients for a legendary buffed dish?”

Minhyuk made a rough calculation for the rest of the guild members. For a rare buffed dish, 20 million gold. In comparison, a rare buffed dish costs about one platinum coin from Twilight Chef Black. In the case of the unique ranked dish that Crow bought from them, it was at around 400 million gold or four platinum. If they used purely A-grade ingredients for the dish then the price could range anywhere from 50 million gold to one platinum. Chef Black’s dish was priced at four platinum. This was because a dish was priced depending on the reputation of the chef, the cost of the cooking and ingredients and the value of the grade of the dish.

What Minhyuk did was something similar. His rate would differ depending on the cost of the cooking, the price of the ingredient and the grade of the dish. However, there was still a loophole here.

“I think it’s still too expensive. GM.” Crow said.

“...I think it’s a bit cheaper,” Genie said, her words turning into a mumble as Crow tilted his head in confusion.

“Cheap?”

The other guild members were also confused.

Ace said, “Eyy. Noona. The dishes made by the world-renowned Chef Black are around 400~600 million gold but that was Chef Black. But he...”

Minhyuk was a chef that no one had ever heard of. In all honesty, his strength as the Frying Pan Killer was already proven. However, plenty of them had said that he was just lucky. Of course, aside from his strength, he had not proven his skills with cooking. People would not believe anything that they had not seen.

That was when Genie realized it. She thought,?‘I was sending out a proposal to the guild members without showing them what Minhyuk is capable of...’

Genie smiled wryly. This was an understandable response. The dishes made by Black, the Twilight Chef, were superior to the rare classed dishes made by other chefs. And there was also his name which added value to his dishes. In fact, the dishes made by Twilight Chef Black were said to be extremely delicious so the high price was completely validated.

But for Minhyuk? Nothing has been proven yet. Whether it was the buff or the taste, there was still nothing. There was also the question of whether his cooking could replace the buff of priests. Buffed dishes were basically not eaten unless they could surpass the buffs cast by priests. If they considered all of this, then it was safe to say that Minhyuk’s demands were extremely absurd.

Minhyuk stayed quiet while the guild members spoke. He assessed their responses before speaking. He said, “Twilight Chef Black? Were his buffs that good...? I don’t know about that.”

“...?”

“...?”

“...?”

All of the guild members turned to look at Minhyuk.