Things were going well within the village when a blacksmith joined them. Shen was no longer worried about using his sword to hunt the monsters.
When the night arrived, everyone gathered in front of ZhenZhen's house. Wealthy Guy looked at the two guys and confused, 'Why are they so eager to eat the food?'
"You must be wondering why we are eager to eat the food, right, Brother Jiang?" Shen smiled at the older man. The latter nodded his head, "Because we have been eating berries. I have been here for two months, and this guy has been here for a month. Can you imagine how excited we are to have real food?"
WealthyGuy nodded his head understandingly. That made sense to him. He had seen that aside from these three, no one was around. The only NPC was the Elder inside the house, but they would not sell food or other things for them.
"Must be hard for you guys," WealthyGuy sympathized with them, especially Tang Shaoyang who had been staying here longer than any of them. Staying alone in this place for two months was kinda crazy. Especially since this was an RPG game, Runner would spend most of his time in the game as the RPG game was a time-consuming game yet he had no one to talk with.
"But the wait is paying off. Now I have you guys here." Shen maintained his smile, "Especially you, Brother Jiang. Now I can use a real sword to fight the monsters."
"What do you mean? You don't use your sword all this time?" Brother Jiang could not understand Shen.
"No, I can't use the sword, or else it will break." Shen explained, "We don't have a blacksmith to repair the sword or an NPC who sells whetstone."
"I see…" WealthyGuy understood. The young man in front of him went through more hardship than he thought. Not only did Runner have to bear the loneliness in this place, but he was also forced to hunt without using his sword.
"Wait!?" WealthyGuy realized something strange here, "If you don't use your sword, then what did you use to hunt the monster?" There was no way that Runner was using his fist to hunt the monster. It was unheard of even on the forum that no one had tried to hunt using their fist.
Shen took out the Guardian Fish's snout and showed it to WealthyGuy, "I have been using this to hunt the monster. While it can be used to hunt, it does not grant me bonus damage and I can't use a skill with this as well."
WealthyGuy reached the snout-like spearhead. It was a material, not a weapon. Just like Runner said, it did not give bonus damage if used as a weapon. As for skill, he did not understand that much about skill. He handed the material back to Runner.
"Even if you said so, Runner. I can't help you to repair your weapon," WealthyGuy shook his head, "I haven't learned anything from my Teacher. He told me to join you guys with the training."
"It's okay, it will take no time before you learn it, Brother Jiang." Ming was the one who responded to WealthyGuy, "Just like ZhenZhen, she also joined the training with us. But in three days, her Teacher taught her something. It will be quick."
"I see!" WealthyGuy was kinda curious as to what kind of training this was even though a cook was asked to join the training, "So what kind of training?"
Ming explained the training he had gone through. As they continued chatting, an aromatic aroma assaulted their noses. It was so aromatic that the three immediately looked in the direction. ZhenZhen was bringing a steaming pot with her hand as she ran toward them.
Ming immediately stood up and rushed toward her, "Do you need help? I can bring the pot for you."
Looking at how Ming interacted with ZhenZhen, WealthyGuy looked at Shen with an inquiring gaze. Shen responded with a nod and WealthyGuy nodded understandingly.
Ming was the one who carried the pot and placed it in front of the three. ZhenZhen returned with four bowls and four spoons. They could not eat the stew without the bowl.
"Are we just eating mushroom stew? do you have rice or maybe bake some bread?" Brother Jiang asked ZhenZhen. It was weird to eat stew without rice, at least, that was what he felt.
ZhenZhen shook her head, "Unfortunately we don't have anything like that. Just bear with this for now unless you get us the rice grains or maybe flour if you want me to make bread."
"I guess I will bear with this now." WealthyGuy nodded his head and took the bowl from her. ZhenZhen returned to her house while Shen scooped the mushroom stew. He did not care whether it was with rice or without rice. He just wanted to eat real food, no more fruits.
The orange-colored stew looked tantalizing in his eyes as he took three scoops into his bow before passing the ladle to Ming. Taking the wooden spoon, he scooped the first spoon into his mouth. As he tasted the stew, his eyes widened in surprise. The mushroom stew was freaking good.
It was sweet and spicy, and the mushroom was soft yet chewy. He felt a little bitterness from the mushroom, but that was fine. No, the slight bitterness was good in fact.
"Hey, wait for me!" ZhenZhen called out as she brought out a big plate of skewer mushrooms. She rushed toward them but Shen ignored her as he could not stop eating the stew. He could feel that his face was heated as he kept eating the stew.
[You have eaten the mushroom stew made by Guru Spices Successor! You gain a temporary boost! +100 HP and +100 Stamina!]
Shen's eyes widened into a shock. He thought the purpose of the food was to recover from hunger. But it was more than that. The food could give a boost to those who ate it. This was a big deal, Cook was not just a normal production class, not even inferior to a Blacksmith.
Just imagine that there was a war between two forces later and one force ate the food that could boost the soldiers. This was more than food, it could be a key to winning a war in the future.