Changwook smiled softly as he watched the scene in front of him.
'I've never seen Minhyuk look this happy before.'
In fact, Changwook only came to know Minhyuk when he had bulimia and for all the years that they have known each other, the very first time that he had seen him laugh so delightedly was when he ate hard bread in Athenae. However, right now, he had a much brighter smile compared to that time.
"Ah. That's right. You must be hungry now."
Changwook approached them quickly.
"We have a buffet ready for today."
"Oh! A buffet!"
"Buffet!"
All of them looked like they were injected with chicken blood.
In this country where everything you eat is controlled, are we finally able to eat food that looks like legit food?!
Not long after, Changwook led them to the place where the buffet was held.
"Well then. Please help yourself. There's tomato steak, tomato juice, tomato chips, tomato..."
"Keok..."
They were shocked by the newest trend in the world, a tomato buffet.
However, Minhyuk was enjoying all of it so Jihye peeked at him and said carefully…
"Minhyukie, by any chance, do you want to join our guild?"
Minhyuk froze with a tomato hanging on his lips.
When Rovan asked him about joining his guild, he told him that he wanted to be with his friends if he would join a guild. Of course, the premise was that they wouldn't steal his food. But when he was finally facing them, he was now filled with anxiety. He did not know whether he would join their guild or not.
But he was fine now. He had finally realized what they think of him.
"Sure."
Jisoo, Jihye and Seoktae's expressions all brightened with his answer. But Jihye hesitated to say something…
"What is it?"
The quick-witted Minhyuk realized that she wanted to say something so he prompted her with a question.
"You see, I checked your cooking skills when you handed me the steak you made for King Varen."
"And then?"
Minhyuk looked like he knew where this was going.
"I know that it hasn't been a long time since we've met but I wanted to ask you for a favor."
"A favor?"
Minhyuk tilted his head at them while Jihye looked like she was truly apologetic.
"Yeah. Can you cook buffed dishes for our guild members?"
He thought for a moment.
The second dish of God's Legacy Dishes!
A restaurant's full course meal!
With the first dish, he was able to level up his God's Cooking Skill and he was also able to acquire the invincible body. And the jokbal set was truly delicious.
So what about the second dish? How will a restaurant's full course meal taste? What abilities will it give me?
However, he had to cook for others for him to be able to receive it quickly. Of course, with his skill 'The Joy of Eating Together.' he would gain great merit even if he cooked for others.
The only thing that was worse was…
'King Varen only gave me a 5% increase in satisfaction. I believe it would be hard for ordinary users to give me a 1% increase.'
According to his class quest 'To Have a Feast with Other People.', there were a lot of factors that could influence the increase in the satisfaction level like position, level and abilities. If he thought about it, then the members of the Legend Guild were the best guests that he could have. After all, they were high-leveled unofficial rankers.
Then, Jihye spoke.
"Of course I'm not asking you to do it for free."
Even if they were guild members, who would cook for others for free? No, it was because Jihye wanted to give Minhyuk the best treatment for him to agree to this request.
"We'll pay you as much as you want. And, we will also bring you the ingredients for the food. Minhyukie only needs to prepare it and cook the dishes."
It was an interesting offer.
They would bring the ingredients for Minhyuk to cook and he would be able to eat with them.
That's good. Those are the best terms.
"I'll give you however much you want depending on the amount of buff the dishes would have."
"To be honest, I don't really need any money."
"Ah. R, really?"
Jihye nodded her head after she thought about it.
When she saw Minhyuk, she knew that not only were his artifacts great… they were all more than amazing. When they were attacked in the carriage, his armor bounced off physical attacks and his frying pan, which boasted a high defense, could even bounce off magical attacks. Even his sword was not something that was easy to break.
"It's just… If you don't need money... then what should we do? Should we help you bomb your way through your levels?"
The Legend Guild would drive a bus!
Anyone would kill for this opportunity. However, Minhyuk still shook his head.
"No. Whenever I cook, you have to bring me delicious ingredients."
"De, delicious ingredients?"
"Yeah. Delicious ingredients! Something more special than the regular ingredients!"
"For example?"
"From ranked cooking ingredients to S-ranked cooking ingredients!"
To be honest with himself, there were still plenty of ingredients that Minhyuk could not get because of his level. There were quite a lot of ingredients hidden in high-leveled hunting grounds and he was sure that the Legend Guild could bring it to him. Or they could probably find a way and buy it themselves.
"OK!"
Jihye readily accepted his conditions.
And Minhyuk, who was waiting for the right timing, said…
"Then, should we access Athenae first? This is too tasteless… I want to go and eat something delicious..."
"A, agreed..."
They all readily agreed.
"Is there a capsule room here?"
Jihye asked.
Minhyuk nodded his head.
"Yes. This building has it."
Minhyuk guided them to a room that was filled with capsules.
"Wow... L, look at all these capsules... A, all of them are new!"
"This is awesome... This is class...!"
They all went into the capsules with awe in their eyes.
Meanwhile, Minhyuk went to his room since he could only fit in his extra large capsule.
Varen, who finally met with Ellie, went together to Eivelis Empire's Imperial Palace and ate dinner with her. He was given the warm welcome that he was promised.
'If the Eivelis Empire can help the Northern Continent with the monster situation then we will give them as much information and support as we can.'
There was even evidence that users of the Eivelis Empire colluded with the Cordis Empire so countless quests were given to the users of the Eivelis Empire.
"Foreigners, pay heed! We are recruiting troops to subjugate the monsters of the Northern Continent!"
"Hey, hey. Amazing. We should definitely do that quest!"
"Kyaa. Pioneering the Northern Continents!"
It weren't just the users of the Eivelis Empire who were jumping on the quests related to the Northern Continent, even Cordis Empire wanted to get a piece of the cake.
"Right now, Eivelis Empire will be doing their best to explore the Northern Continent. But we must be the first to conquer and succeed in this exploration! We need to be the first to get the monster drops and valuable resources! Are there any foreigners who want to join this conquest?!"
It might have been asked in a different way but the fact that they wanted to explore the Northern Continent remain unchanged.
He was also able to meet with all of the members of Legend Guild who had protected and escorted him together with Ellie's 500 soldiers and 50 knights. The surviving soldiers of the Valkyrie Kingdom also came out to welcome him.
"Your Highness! We're very sorry!"
"Keuhuhuhuhuk!"
His loyal subjects welcomed him with tears in their eyes.
And together with Varen, the members of the Legend Guild were the first ones to see Valkyrie Kingdom.
[You are the first to discover Valkyrie Kingdom.]
[You have gained 30 reputation points.]
[The people have been informed that you have saved King Varen.]
[In the Valkyrie Kingdom, the Legend Guild will be known as the heroes who saved King Varen.]
[You can purchase items, skill books and potions with a 10% discount.]
[Your high favorability with the citizens of Valkyrie Kingdom will make it easier for you to receive quests.]
"Kyaa!"
Ace suddenly gave a short exclamation of surprise.
"There's definitely a Robin-like woman in this place, right?"
"You're going to go out with an NPC?"
"Hyung. NPCs are human beings too!"
Crow clicked his tongue at him.
"When is GM-nim coming?"
"She'll arrive soon, right?"
Genie, Khan and Locke were all currently logged out but they could easily come here with the 'Valkyrie Kingdom Return Stone' that Varen had given them. Giving the return stones or any items between guild members was easy. They only needed to place it in the guild vault and they would be able to receive it right away.
"But I still wonder what kind of territory King Varen would give us?"
"I know right?"
"Genie-noona is going to be the one who will receive it, right?"
"Of course. The one with the highest reputation in the guild is Genie."
Genie's reputation points were overwhelmingly high. It was almost twice the reputation points of all of the members of the guild combined.
Usually, if the guild received a title or territory, the person with the highest reputation would be the one to receive it and not the GM. That way, it would be easier to manage the land and the soldiers.
They arrived at Verce, the capital city of Valkyrie Kingdom.
All of the members tilted their heads in confusion.
"What's this? Why are they all so busy?"
Ace was quite taken aback. When their King arrived, they weren't this busy. The knight assigned to guide them, he was a knight from Valkyrie Kingdom's Silver Knights, explained the situation to them.
"It's because we're currently preparing for a ritual."
"A ritual?"
"Yes. Our Valkyrie Kingdom is protected by the God Juis. Because of the blessings of the God Juis, monsters do not invade our Valkyrie Kingdom."
"Hoo."
There were many gods in Athenae and the highest among them was Athenae. Athenae was also more commonly known to its users as the supercomputer who oversees the worldview of Athenae. There were also five other gods besides him, and one of them is God Juis.
"Once a year, everyone would gather together with the priests to hold a week-long memorial and ritual service to express our gratitude to the God Juis."
"Keok... A week..."
"We are very grateful to her so a week is only natural."
The knight looked up at the sky, folded his hands together, and prayed for a bit before talking to them again.
"And the God Juis is a gourmand who has an extremely demanding taste for food."
"Gourmand?"
Crow's interest suddenly peaked.
"Yes. After each ancestral rite, the God Juis will come down to the earth to taste the dishes made by the legendary chef, Rald, before ascending once again. She has a really picky appetite. There was a time when a salmon, which had been spoiled, was sent up by mistake."
"Yes."
"The God Juis was extremely furious and the Northern Continent did not experience any rain for quite a long time. Even the monsters were extremely ferocious and dared to attack the villages at the outskirts of Valkyrie Kingdom. It was a punishment from God Juis. Ever since then, every citizen had been meticulous in the details of the ritual."
Crow nodded his head.
'So to put it simply, she turned the table upside down because the rice was not good. Right?'
He must be a very difficult and demanding God.
At that moment…
[Guild Chatting: Guild Master Genie has logged in.]
Genie had logged in and she had something to say right away.
[Guild Master Genie: I have some good news. We have two new guild members joining us.]
Ace and Crow looked at the chat with interest.
[Guild Master Genie: The first one is Lute-nim.]
"Oh. Lute-nim's skills with the bow are amazing."
Crow was a bit in awe.
Then…
[Guild Master Genie: And the other one is the Frying Pan Killer who killed Rumad. In fact, his real job is...]
Genie paused for a moment and both Crow and Ace tilted their heads in anticipation.
[Guild Master Genie: A chef who can make buffed dishes.]
"Keok?!"
"OMG?! This was more shocking than that time when White Beard died!"
Ace and Crow's eyes met.
A chef has such a ridiculous power?!
The guild chat was suddenly filled with activity.
[Guild Chatting: Minhyuk-nim has joined Legend Guild.]