Leveling Up Through Eating

Chapter 787

Those in politics and business, in fact almost everyone in the world, wanted to forge a relationship with Rausch. However, none of them was able to win his heart. For Rausch, everything was simply a business transaction.

But now, Rausch, who was called Calauhel in Athenae, was looking at Minhyuk with red eyes. He looked like he was deeply moved.

‘N, no. I know that this is a sweet and sudden windfall, but what’s the matter with your eyes?’

Minhyuk felt like the blazing look from Calauhel was completely burdensome. However, Calauhel was still the king of the Rothschilde Kingdom. So, he hurriedly tried to hide his expression.

Then, Lesso stepped forward and said, “You said that you’re offering a deal and that you’re going to yield over the King Above Kings to His Majesty Calauhel. However, just like you said, only after the kings slumbering here have acknowledged the challenger will the King Above Kings be given. In other words, our kingdom has to receive the recognition and acknowledgement of the kings. How will you do that?”

It was a very reasonable question. What did being recognized have anything to do with the Food God?

Then, Minhyuk looked incredulously at Lesso and said, “After watching me earlier, did you come to believe that I’m a combat class?”

“…!”

Lesso and the other players were very shocked to hear those words.

‘That’s right. The Food God is not someone with a combat class…’

‘I mistook him for someone with a combat class because of how strong he was.’

Goosebumps rose all over their bodies. They had forgotten that Minhyuk was not from a combat class, even though he was excellent in combat and even his abilities were outstanding.

‘He can live and survive on his own in the world, no?’

As the thought flashed in their heads, they heard Minhyuk say, “As I mentioned earlier, I will receive 90% of the rewards. On top of that, I will require one God-grade ingredient, as well as 200,000 platinum.”

God-grade ingredients were valuable and priceless ingredients. However, there was even a 200,000 platinum fee on top of that. That amount was enough to pay for an entire kingdom’s maintenance fee for a year.

“That’s too much…”

Lesso, who was caught in a fit of rage, was about to step forward. However, Calauhel was a step faster than him. He stopped Lesso while looking at Minhyuk deeply and said, “I understand.”

“…I, I see. Thanks for your kind and willing response.”

Twitch—

“…”

Calauhel’s burdensome gaze made Minhyuk want to flee.

Then, Lesso said, “No matter how powerful you are, how dare you demand a god-grade ingredient?”

“We have one anyway, so does it really matter?”

“Your Majesty, you know how hard we worked to get it…”

“Lesso, let’s be honest, where will that God-grade ingredient be used?”

Lesso’s eyes grew wide. That was right. Food God Minhyuk had a skill that allowed him to feed more than ten people with a single dish. Of course, this skill could only be used if they were from the same guild or were allies. In other words, this was the method that Minhyuk would use to help Calauhel get recognized and acknowledged.

‘There will be at least ten people that can eat buffed dishes made from the God-grade ingredients in this place.’

“It’s actually been a while since we acquired this God-grade ingredient. But if it’s you, I think you won’t find it tricky to deal with.”

Calauhel had seen videos of Food God Minhyuk cooking God-grade ingredients. Most of the God-grade ingredients can cause huge amounts of damage to the chef handling them. However, the ingredient that they had in their hand was special.

“The ingredient is sealed. However, all of the people that unsealed it and tried to cook it died.”

It was most definitely a strange and unfamiliar ingredient.

“So far, most of the god-grade ingredients have only caused damage when cooking. What killed them?”

“It’s magic. The ingredient constantly casts magic, high-class magic at that. Do you think it’s fine?” Calauhel asked gently as he looked at Minhyuk.

‘If you think that it’s too dangerous, then you don’t have to do it, my dear and precious friend.’

Minhyuk shied away from his gaze and said, “I’ll do it.”

Minhyuk had added the ingredient to the deal since it was a way for him to help the others here become strong. However, he had other reasons too.

‘God-grade ingredients are very delicious. Fufufu.’

He was getting paid for eating something delicious.

Calauhel nodded as he pulled out the ingredient from his inventory. It was inside a fancy box. When Minhyuk received it, the notifications rang.

[You have acquired 600g of Vicious Magic’s Pork Ribs.]

[It is currently in a sealed state inside the ‘Box of Suppression.’]

“…Ho?”

Minhyuk was amazed. The ingredient that Calauhel took out was truly great.

‘If we’re talking about ribs, then…’ Minhyuk grinned. ‘I can make some braised pork ribs.’

Just the thought alone was enough to make Minhyuk’s mouth water. He imagined himself picking up a piece of the steaming ribs from the still-boiling braised dish. Then, he would put everything in his mouth and pull the bones out, leaving only the lean meat inside. Minhyuk preferred to have the meat fall cleanly off when it came to braised pork ribs.

‘Braised pork ribs is one of the Korean dishes that foreigners love the most.’

He was sure that the others, who would eat this dish through the skill Everyone’s Delight, would also be very satisfied.

“Heh…” Minhyuk drooled. He was already very delighted with the dish even though he was just imagining it.

“Don’t open it yet. Open it once we get far enough.”

Those words sounded cowardly, but what else could Calauhel do? He and the Rothschilde Kingdom’s troops still had to survive. Calauhel knew that an overwhelming amount of magic would pour out the moment Minhyuk opened that box.

Minhyuk just shook his head when faced with Calahuel’s apprehension of the box. He said, “You’ll be fine.”

Then, Minhyuk triggered his skill.

“Let’s Have a Meal.”

This was an absolute barrier that would remain standing for at most half an hour. Attacks made within the barrier would also not affect the others. After doing all that, Minhyuk quickly checked the pork ribs’ information.

(Vicious Magic’s Pork Ribs)

Ingredient Grade: God

Special Abilities:

•You can supplement the parts that you want to supplement.

•Your attack and defense will increase by at least 1.3x.

•Your skills or magic skills will increase tremendously.

•Complex fire control is needed for cooking.

Description: It is an ingredient found in some decrepit and ancient ruins presumed to be hidden by some god. It will send out 3rd~8th class magic and indiscriminately bomb the one that will cook the ingredients. The blood has been drained so it can be cooked right away.

Fortunately, there was some sort of silver lining. The fact that the blood was already drained meant that he did not need to spend time doing that anymore.

Minhyuk, while inside the Let’s Have a Meal barrier, slowly opened the box in front of him.

Boooooooooooom—

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

At that moment, Explosion magic was triggered one after another. Explosion was a wide area of effect 3rd class magic that Mages could learn. Its class was not extremely high, but when it came to magic, the one that cast the magic was also of great importance.

In Calauhel’s point of view, the magic that this ingredient could cast was enough to cause damage to players that were at least 60 levels higher than high-leveled mages.

The barrier created by Let’s Have a Meal could cover an area with a five-meter radius. Calauhel could not help but worry about Minhyuk after seeing the violent explosion that erupted from within the area that the barrier protected. When they first opened that ingredient, it killed those around it within five seconds.

Shwaaaaaaaa—

Everyone present could not help but gasp in awe when they saw the scene inside the barrier after the thick cloud of dust that bloomed inside finally settled down.

Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug—

They saw Minhyuk pouring water into a cauldron while enduring the explosions that erupted and engulfed his entire being.

‘I have to finish it as soon as possible.’

Something interesting also happened. Although the explosions were huge and violent, they did not create any rubble or debris. In other words, Minhyuk did not have to worry about any ashes from the explosions. The dish that he was cooking would not get dirty. Even more surprising was the fact that the explosion did not affect the ingredients that Minhyuk was using.

After pouring water into the cauldron, Minhyuk immediately swept all of the chopped pork ribs inside.

[Diss.]

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—

At that moment, a bright light flashed inside the barrier as dozens of the magic Diss pierced through Minhyuk’s body.

[Your HP has dropped below 60%.]

[The strong impact of the attack has made your vision turn blurry and hazy.]

Before he could respond, another round of Diss was triggered.

[Diss.]

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom—

Despite the light flashing brightly around him and his rapidly declining HP, Minhyuk, with his superb concentration, continued to cook. He quickly took out a bottle of potion and drank its contents in one go.

[You have consumed Mandala’s Recovery Elixir.]

[You have recovered 50% of your HP.]

He was quite relieved to see that his HP had recovered as quickly as it declined. In fact, Mandala could only make one bottle of Mandala’s Recovery Elixir each day. Prior to this expedition, God of Alchemy Mandala had made twenty bottles of this and handed them all to Minhyuk.

Immediately after that, Minhyuk took out a bottle of yellow potion and drank its contents.

[You have consumed Mandala’s Magical Defense Elixir.]

[Your magical defense has increased by 80%!]

Minhyuk had several artifacts in his possession that could increase his magical defense. With the Magical Defense Elixir that increased it by another 80%, he could easily halve the damage that he would receive.

The potions that Mandala had given Minhyuk were extremely overpowering, as they did not have any cooldown. In other words, he could recover by drinking those potions one after another.

‘If it wasn’t for Mandala then I would have already died here.’

Minhyuk looked at the pork ribs that were being cooked well, heaving a sigh of relief. Then, he took out the potatoes and stretched his hand over it.

[You cannot use the Ingredient Acquisition Skill while cooking the pork ribs.]

It was as he expected. He truly had to prepare everything personally.

[Hellfire.]

“…”

Just when Minhyuk was about to peel the potatoes, the notification made him realize that cooking this dish was truly going to be a difficult task.

Hellfire was a magic skill that was literally a ball of flames from hell. It was practically an exclusive skill for high-level mages. And this particular skill had appeared and struck Minhyuk, who was cooking inside the barrier.

“Keuaaaaaaaack!!!”

***

“Minhyuuuuuuuuuuk!!!” Calauhel called out Minhyuk’s name the moment he saw the hellfire appear and engulf his body.

“…?”

“…?”

“…?”

“…?”

The Rothschilde players and soldiers looked at Calauhel, who was calling out desperately to Minhyuk, in confusion. However, they could not deny the fact that they were also very nervous. They could not see Minhyuk’s figure from within the black flames. As if to add fuel to the fire, one disaster came after another.

[Meteor.]

[Explosion.]

[Lightning Storm.]

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaang—

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Crackleeee—

Countless magical attacks ran amok inside the small area covered by the barrier. The gigantic meteor shook the entire tomb while blazing flames and crackling lightning licked and flew inside the transparent barrier.

“This, this is not something that one can endure.”

‘No matter how powerful Minhyuk is, there’s no way that he can last against something like this!’

“What, what’s that?” Then, at that moment, one of the soldiers muttered, which made Calauhel turn his head.

There, they saw a man in the form of a spirit walking toward the barrier. The man was dressed in a pure white priestly robe.

[One of the ‘Kings’ of the Tomb of the Kings has appeared!]

The Tomb of the Kings was the place where the souls of all of the kings that had existed in the world were slumbering. Of course, there were quite a lot of special and powerful kings slumbering here too.

[The King has been recorded as a legend.]

[The King loved and cherished his people more than anybody else.]

[The King left behind the Legend of the Benevolent Ruler before turning into one of the stars in the sky.]

[The King is the one that ruled Happy Island.]

[The King came to meet the Beyond the Heavens’ King!]

[The name of the Great King recorded in history as the Benevolent Ruler is…]

[His name is Effer!]

Effer stretched his hand and touched the barrier that isolated Minhyuk.