A few months later.....
Samael has been constantly practicing cooking, aromas are constantly defusing from the practice kitchens and some of them smelt horrible.
"Cousin try this, it is grilled squid dressed in peanut butter mixed with chilli flakes."
The cousin he was speaking to was much taller and bigger than Sami, he had bronzed skin, short brown hair and lightning blue eyes. All together making him look like a mini general.
Samael's Cousin, Alexander who is 5 years older than Sami, was looking at the dish in horror. Sami is currently in Realm 1 and as Realm 1 is the peak of a Mortal's cooking, it encompasses all types of different cuisines and how to handle different types of dishes. Some of these dishes are quite... exotic.
As Alexander ate the squid he tensed, ready for his body to violently spasm and for him to die , however the flavour exploded in to his mouth, the tenderness and saline taste of the squid contrasted with the charred, Smokey taste of the grill marks. The chilli flakes added a well needed kick and the texture and taste of the peanut butter blended with the squid well. A sweet aftertaste began to come through perfecting the dish.
Sweet?
"Samael, where does the sweetness of the dish come from?" Alex asked quite confused.
"I added a mix of honey and buttermilk, honey has nice sweetness that blended and contrasted the umami of the fish, I used buttermilk to dilute the sweetness making it more subtle and buttermilk tenderises the squid making it taste better."
"I have no clue what that means but nice" Alex sheepishly said.
"Aren't you a cook too?"
"Nope, not everyone in the Forte Family has a talent for cooking, I have decided to focus on combat, I really like fighting" as Alexander said those last words his voice was full of impatience as if he wanted to fight right now.
Samael was a little frightened feeling the excitement from Alex, "Bye cousin, I'm going to practice now." and he quickly left before Alex had a chance to react.
In the Martial courtyard, Sami sat in a meditative position and began recalling his cooking process.
"I cut the squid too thin leading to some of the edges being overcooked I need to practice the Chef's Dance" Samael thought.
The Chef's Dance is a sword technique that can be used in combat and in cooking, it is part of Andhrmnir's Art, it incorporates all types of knife skills : like butchering meat or more delicate things like cutting tofu threads.
To improve his accuracy Samael is going to practice Nihility's Eye a technique in the Swallowing Nihility Body's inheritance. At perfection, nothing in the world can block your sight.
Techniques are broken into 4 stages initiation, understanding, mastery and perfection. Each stage takes longer to get to than the last and not all techniques have a high difficulty, however the stronger the technique the longer it takes to understand.
Nihility's Eye is a very high level technique and may take lifetimes to master if given to a normal person but our protagonist is not normal at all.
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Two weeks later...
Fortuna's Market
Samael is currently walking around the biggest commercial region in his families Dukedom using NE (Nihility's Eye) to look for the best ingredients for his cooking and any treasures if he comes across one. He is currently with Alice.
Nihility's Eye has reached the middle of Initiation which an absolute absurd speed even a genius may take a few months to a year to reach the same stage.
As he passed a vendor, the corner of his eye spotted a seemingly mundane necklace, he was shocked this was a growth treasure.
"Alice follow me!" Sami said as he unconsciously grabbed Alice's hand causing the little girl's face to look like a tomato.
Alice's protector following them was furious "How dare this boy touch the princess' hand, if he wasn't the Forte Family heir I would have struck him where he stood."
As they approached the vendor Samael realised what he was doing and quickly released Alice's hand, "Sorry" he said apologetically.
"I want to give you a present" Samael said as he quickly bought the necklace and gave it to Alice.
Just as she was going to take the necklace and put it on, her Protector teleported between the two his anger clearly showing on his face, his shoulders trembled and his eyebrow furrowed. He looked as if he was about to explode.
"How dare YOU! How dare you give the Royal Princess something so hideous, she is the daughter of heaven and deserves the sun, moon and stars but you give her this, this trash."
"Leave Sami alone, I love it" Alice bawled, tears threatening to spill from her eyes, she was mad that her protector was so bold to shout at her only true friend other than her mom.
Even though, Alice was young she knew that many people didn't actually like her, they just wanted to get on her good side as she was the Princess, she was talented.
She just wanted to be Alice but no one could see that.
Except Sami, he never hid his emotions with her, never tried to please her but was just her friend, so she could not tolerate it if anyone dared to be rude to him.
Samael patted Alice's head his heart felt warm from her outburst, however he knew how to deal with this.
"Alice don't worry, even I am not so tacky to give you this, do you trust me" Samael gently asked looking into the little girls eyes. If they were older this would be quite romantic scene but due to their small age it just looked cute.
"Of course" Alice firmly declared "I trust you with all my heart"
The protector clearly shocked from this turn of events, was about to speak once more yet was interrupted by a confident tone.
"Alice if you trust me place a drop of blood on the necklace you will receive a pleasant surprise"
She quickly snatched the necklace from the protector, bit her finger and dropped some blood onto to the necklace, as soon as the blood fell onto the necklace it began to float the black coating began to fall off revealing a gold and amethyst necklace that radiated with nobility and power.
As the necklace awakened it released an aura to the surroundings and anyone who breathed it in felt their comprehension improve, removing any previous bottlenecks in their technique or cultivation.
A magical scene occurred, dozens of people sat in a crossed legged position their aura sky rocketing showing signs of a breakthrough, others began practicing their techniques reaching at least mastery.
Samael as one of the closest to the necklace had an epiphany, his mind quickly shuttled through everything he ever cooked, even his past life's dishes this experience superimposed allowing to him to skyrocket in understanding reaching the beginning of Realm 2.
Even the protector an Emperor realm Powerhouse experienced an increase in his understanding and solidified his foundation as he only became an Emperor due to a special treasure lessening his understanding of the realm.
Alice the new owner of the necklace received the biggest benefit, her understanding of her Five Element God Body and bloodline was deepening, her body began to glow six colours red, blue, green, yellow and silver corresponding to the elements of fire, water, wood, earth and metal.
The sixth colour was an ominous black glowing where her heart was, it gave of the feeling of death... cold and ruthless death.