Mixed Blessing System

After a few moments, the match referee explained the rules of the competition to Annaliese and her opponent, someone from the Heise family, another organization against House Frost.

Lothur and Viktoria were not surprised when they found out about Annaliese's opponent. After all, many of their family members opponents were sworn enemies of this organization. So it was only natural that several of their early matches were against groups in collusion to defeat them.

Many families did not have enough for that, but it did not matter. The very fact that these organizations got in their way pushed the members of House Frost to try harder than they should in their first tests, which was already enough to damage the outcome of this family in later tests.

Hence, they had already accepted the fact that they would have a lot of opposition, and Annaliese tried not to overthink it as she came face to face with that other spiritual cook.

She would have to beat this person in a cooking test, something different from what her brother-in-law had done earlier.

In this game, instead of developing something to attack her opponent, Annaliese would have to cook a dish determined by the three referees on that platform. Then, this dish would be judged on taste, texture, and qualities relevant to a tasty meal.

But this was only the superficial examination in the tests for spiritual cooks. That was because a delicacy prepared by an expert cultivator could not be compared with mortal cuisine!

A dish made by a spiritual cook could contain spiritual energy, just as in medicines, even if the food used was ordinary. At the same time, Natural Laws could be added to the preparation of food, something that could bring many benefits to those who eat such dishes.

Dishes produced by renowned cooks could even induce level advancement or be crucial to a person overcoming a bottleneck regarding cultivation or even understanding!

Not only this, specific recipes had the potential to heal physical wounds, soul conditions, and even diseases.

Thus, there were several items to be checked in a spiritual cook's product, which were even more relevant than the taste, texture, temperature, and general qualities of the dish.

Therefore, as soon as Annaliese understood what she would have to do to defeat her opponent, she began to put her hands to work, grabbing all the available ingredients from her counter.

But unlike what Lothur had experienced in his second round of combat, Annaliese did not have to worry about her adversary trying to get in her way or even injure her.

They might be from the same family, and their opponents might be pursuing the same goal, the downfall of this organization. But there was a big difference between Lothur and Annaliese.

While he was someone few knew of his problematic past, someone disposable, she was the daughter of the Frost patriarch, someone who could marry into and benefit other families.

Everyone wanted the downfall of the Frost family, but that could change a lot in case others took over the power of it...

So, Annaliese and Viktoria served to marry into other families, and it would not be so interesting if they were hurt or had their lives risked. This way, naturally, their opponents would be a 'little' more loyal in their battles than they would be against Lothur.

With that, Annaliese and her opponent were soon cooking their respective dishes under the watchful eyes of the hundreds of people in the vicinity of the 5th competition platform.

The art of cooking was an exciting thing to watch. When mixed, the ingredients released unique fragrances in the surroundings and even produced fantastic effects that caught people's attention.

At the same time, various culinary masters had unique skills when it came to chopping things up, which could in itself become a beautiful presentation for the audience.

So even though there was no combat, the people in the area were focused on the platform, watching Annaliese 'dancing' with her instruments and ingredients.

...

After about 50 minutes since the start of Annaliese's first match, she had won that fight and was now in the middle of the second round.

This time she was finishing preparing some kind of salmon with rice, the dish she found easiest to prepare.

Since her opponent was a bit stronger than the previous one, she naturally used more of her skills as she threw herbs into the orange pan in front of her.

As she threw something into that pan, immediately, a green flame appeared on top of that fish meat, releasing several colorful sparks similar to small fireworks.

Amidst those sparks, a unique fragrance left that spot and soon spread over the area, reaching several noses there.

"Ah, what a delicious fragrance!" Someone said while having his face pointed upwards, with his eyes closed and a smile on his lips.

"It does look delicious..."

"It's just a shame that we have to endure this 'torture' without being able to taste anything..."

Comments erupted in the surroundings as the match referees felt it was time to evaluate the dishes for this second round.

"You have just one more minute..." Someone warned them, as the giant hourglass on top of that platform was almost out of the sand on its top.

Hearing that warning, Annaliese wiped some of the sweat on her face and began to assemble the plates to be served to those referees.

Her opponent did the same, and in the blink of an eye, time ran out, and both were forced to stop what they were doing, regardless of whether or not they had finished.

'It looks like I did more than her...' Annaliese looked at the plates of her opponent, who did not have time to finish them.

Her opponent noticed this too, so she naturally had a terrible look on her face, feeling that beating Annaliese had become much more difficult.

The appearance of a dish was critical in spiritual cooking. After all, a good-looking dish naturally induced desire in those who would taste it. And since desire could even affect the perception of a dish's flavors, it was undeniable that a bad appearance would bring negative points to a dish!

So that young woman soon clenched her fists, feeling that beating this higher-level opponent had become an almost impossible task.

Then she watched as those three referees tasted her dish after finishing Annaliese's.

"Ingeburg, the flavor of your colored rice is fabulous. You have combined each ingredient, the sweet and the salty, producing something balanced." One of the three said.

"Not only that, the combination of that rice and the Mountain Salmon surprised me, demonstrating your successes concerning your choice. But..."

"But you erred in the concentration of some ingredients, something that didn't affect the taste but decreased the energy efficiency of the dish."

The last referee nodded in agreement. "The laws in your dish were harder to distinguish than in Annaliese's, so you lose this one, Ingeburg."

Upon hearing that, the young woman fell to her knees while Annaliese raised one of her fists in glee.

"That's it!" She shouted as she saw her family's score improve a little more.

...