Minhyuk was giggling at what he read. The user was locked up in prison in one article. He continued to browse through the articles that came out of his search.
[Is it really a fact that the Empress is looking for an heir?
hkdad31: yeye. Real fact. There's only one condition and it's really hard. You have to win the Eivelis Empire's tournament.]
"Tournament?"
Athenae would host competitions and tournaments every so often. Competitions and tournaments were usually held as events. And through these events, talented users could gain fame.
Minhyuk scrutinized the contents of the article seriously.
[Don't you think that there would be lots of fun in this coming tournament that will be held in the Eivelis Empire?
GrowYourHair: I'm excited to see all the fun too. The tournament participants will definitely be amazing... But I think the champion is already decided.
afhjl25: ikr [1]… One of the participants this time is the sister of the top 3 in our domestic rankings, Cain. What's more surprising is that she's more talented and more physical than Cain. She even has a legendary class. They said that everything about her is overwhelming. And her level is still low now.]
"Hoo..."
3rd in the rankings…
Minhyuk continued to scroll down.
[I'm posting details and information about how the tournament will be held. First, all of the participants will be placed on a small island together. Please check the map.]
Minhyuk clicked on the map. The map showed a tiny island. However, they weren't sure what they would be asked to do on the island yet. They could be asked to hunt for monsters or even asked to fight with other users.
However, Minhyuk's eyes were still trained on the center of the map.
"Huh...?!"
His eyes couldn't stay away from that place. There was something located on the center of the island.
It was none other than a…
Convenience Store!
It reminded him of the logos of the 3 convenience stores in the country.
"Heok?! W, what's this?!"
Minhyuk was very surprised that he quickly went and searched Eivelis Empire's Convenience Stores in the search bar.
[Does anyone know what the convenience store on the island in the competition is?
SevenDeleven: Hello, dumb customer [2]. We have prepared this for you. It would be expensive so please buy from us a lot.
faddadd5413: is the person above real LOL hahaha, convenience store. It's going to be used as a rest area for the users during the game. They say that you can use and eat as much as you want of the food and items you can find in there. I heard that all of the convenience stores in the country combined and integrated for this so there will be no missing items in there.]
"Wow…!"
An unprecedented amount of interest rose in him. Earlier, he was just clearly looking through these articles just in case he wanted to take the quest on a whim but then he saw the convenience store.
Minhyuk recalled the feeling of sneaking out. When everyone should be asleep at two o'clock in the morning and eating late-night snacks at home could possibly wake everyone up.
Then he would slowly and quietly tiptoe his way to the door. Then at that critical moment, he would press the open button and close it quietly so as not to make a 'ttiriri' sound when it closed.
Then he would quickly run to the convenience store that was closest to his house. He would then buy a cup ramyeon, a triangle gimbap and a hot bar. He would microwave it in there and eat it to his heart's content.
It would be nice if the weather was just right. The night would feel neither hot nor cold but just right.
He would taste the triangle gimbap first. It was considered to be the crown prince of the convenience stores just like bibim was in Jeonju. It was best paired with tuna mayo or tuna mayo ramyeon.
Then, he would open the cup ramyeon, add some seaweed in it and use his chopsticks to stir it well. Then he would slurp it up. And when he felt like it was too dry after taking a bite out of the triangle gimbap, then he would sip the ramyeon's soup.
"Keuhaaaaa!"
Minhyuk unconsciously burst out in awe.
What would it taste like if I took a bite of that lightly flavored hot bar and chewed on it?
Chew, chew—
Minhyuk's mouth moved with his thoughts.
Was that all? Of course, they said that it was best to grab a green tea ice cream from Manistop on their way back home.
'There's nothing missing from that convenience store!'
His unprecedented attention was further amplified.
At that moment, he finally decided about what he should do.
'I have to participate in that tournament…!'
Minhyuk became more enthusiastic with his search. He first read through the consolidated announcements and information.
"You can participate if you're at Lv80."
The reason why Lv80 was the threshold was because at that level, the label of being a "beginner" was removed to some extent.
Unexpectedly, this tournament would be more exciting than watching low-leveled users fight in the novice level tournament.
Because even if low-leveled players appeared, there would be hidden classes, secret classes and even legendary classes who would participate in the tournament and raise the users' expectations.
It was also said that many rankers would be watching from the VIP section in this competition.
He saw a familiar name on the list…
'Alicia?'
It was the girl who said that she would treat Minhyuk to a meal.
Minhyuk finished searching and decided to check his status on his mobile phone.
(Minhyuk)
Level: 22
Class: Food Fighter (Food God) 90%
HP: 851 MP: 360
STR: 134+17 AGI: 90+35 STM: 65+15
WIS: 25+11 INT: 25+11 DEX: 13+40
Cha: 2 Rep: 50
Fullness: 100%
Bonus Point: 0
His DEX stat has increased quite a bit. It was only possible because Minhyuk only cooked all day long.
He still needed to gain 52 levels so he could participate in the tournament. Minhyuk realized that he did not have enough time so he stood up and went to the capsule to access Athenae.
Minhyuk's hunting and eating spree continued on for three days.
During that time, Minhyuk was able to raise his level to 55. His hunting speed was ridiculously fast that his levels would have soared further if he did not have the ⅓ experience penalty for his God Class.
"These bastards are as tasteless as herbal medicine!"
"Chwiiik. H, human... Crazy human...!"
The orcs who were fighting against Minhyuk broke down once they heard his unknown words.
"Hoo."
Minhyuk looked at his stats window after letting out a breath.
(Minhyuk)
Level: 55
Class: Food Fighter (Food God) 100%
HP: 1,239 MP: 360
STR: 220+17 AGI: 117+35 STM: 100+15
WIS: 25+11 INT: 25+11 DEX: 41+40
Cha: 2 Rep: 50
Fullness: 100%
Bonus Point: 0
Minhyuk cooked steadily and with his DEX acquisition at x4 his dexterity increased very fast.
"Oh?"
As he looked through the drops from the orcs he hunted, Minhyuk saw a skill book.
Skill books could be obtained like this just by hunting and killing monsters.
[You have acquired the Orc's molar teeth.]
[You have acquired 315 gold.]
[You have acquired the skill book Warrior's Roar.]
Minhyuk checked the contents of the skill book right away.
(Warrior's Roar)
Active Skill
Rank: Rare
Restrictions: STR 100, AGI 100.
Mana Required: 50
Cooldown: 3 minutes
Effects: — Once the roar breaks out, there's a 60% chance of frightening away all the enemies in the surrounding area. Probability will drop or increase depending on the level difference.
It wasn't that bad of a skill.
Warrior users tend to hoard skill books like these just so they could amass a lot of skills.
Minhyuk thought that he had hunted enough and wanted to learn this skill.
"Learn."
Just by reaching out his hand, he would be able to learn those skills.
However, he soon heard the notification.
[Unable to learn.]
"Huh?"
Minhyuk looked at it strangely.
I can't learn it?
He did not understand it at all. He met all of the restrictions, so why was he unable to learn the skill?
'What the hell, I'm not even familiar with how to acquire skills like this?'
Why can other users do it, but I can't?
Minhyuk searched through the official homepage of Athenae and looked for the answers curiously.
[Are there any special cases where you can't learn the skill in a skill book?
kbmbmvm73: It's simple. It can be the case where you have exceeded the amount of skill books that you can learn, you haven't met the restrictions, or it could be this really, really rare case where your class acquires skills in a different way.]
"...Huh?"
Minhyuk's head tilted in confusion.
A different way of acquiring skills?
Come to think of it, in my case, I only learned my skills because Len and Roina taught me. So does this mean that I can still acquire skills by learning from the NPCs?
He continuously looked through the search results.
Most of the answers said that there were special cases where the skill books couldn't be learned because of the special class characteristics.
From what he read, there were two cases for this.
One was that there were too many skills so the user couldn't acquire the skill because it was a special skill, and the other was that the user should really acquire skills using a different method.
'Hmm…'
Learning skills were also something that made Athenae more fun and interesting.
'I'm going to have to sell this.'
It was finally time to go back to the village. Minhyuk looked through his inventory and pulled out his return stone.
Soldier Rand was in front of the military's training center and giving out the rewards for all the users who completed the conquest.
The moment he saw Minhyuk, his face brightened up with a smile.
"Oh. Captain Mabal has been waiting for you, boy."
"Where is he?"
"He's over there."
"Yes. Thank you."
"Ah, Venetto has been looking for you quite a lot these days."
'Eeeek...!'
Minhyuk hurriedly rushed to where Mabal was. When Mabal saw him, he welcomed him warmly.
"Oh, you're here. Rand will be giving you thrice the amount of the promised Sun's Wheat. And you will also get this special reward."
"Yes?"
Mabal handed over a golden key. Minhyuk accepted the key and looked at it curiously.
[You have obtained the key to the Hidden Dungeon as a reward for your contributions to the subjugation force.]
[You have acquired 10 reputation points.]
"You are the top on the subjugation contributions board so I'm giving you an additional reward. You know how to use this key, right?"
"Of course."
Minhyuk knew about these golden keys. One can open the hidden dungeon with this key or move the dungeon by saying 'move' and holding the key tight. This golden key belonged to the difficult to obtain cases.
For the hidden dungeon, once the dungeon was discovered until the user left the dungeon the experience and drop would have a x2 acquisition rate.
'Can this help me get to Lv80 sooner?'
This thought passed through Minhyuk's head.
"I heard that there's something to eat there. You're the only one I'm telling this information, you know."
Mabal was both the subjugation force's leader as well as a special NPC. That was why he knew some things about the hidden dungeon. He also only told this information to Minhyuk because his favorability with him was at the highest.
"Oooooh... Is it something delicious?!"
Minhyuk was very surprised.
What kind of delicious food is it?
His excitement and anticipation about the hidden dungeon intensified.
Minhyuk bowed towards the subjugation force's captain and went ahead to receive his rewards from Rand.
"Captain said that I should go and get my rewards from Soldier Rand."
"Yeah. Here's four times the amount of the Sun's Wheat."
Rand squinted his eyes and stretched his fist towards him for a fist bump.
'Huhu… This is a service from Rand-nim.'
He was supposed to receive thrice the amount of the rewards, but he was very happy to receive four times the reward.
Minhyuk clenched his fists and tapped them with Rand for a fist bump. He then took the four 5kg sacks of Sun's Wheat that Rand had packed earlier.
[You have completed the Bordy Plains Subjugation Quest.]
[You have received 20kg of Sun's Wheat.]
[You have the highest contribution in the quest.]
[You have gained 8,000 EXP.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[...leveled up.]
Footnotes
[1] I admit, I approve, I know. Equivalent slang is ikr.
[2] idk how that worked but it's a slang for an easy to take advantage of customer