Emery got out three bowls and several portions of the stir fry for himself, Elyn and Citro. After so many years of cooking for fun he'd gotten over the taste of his own cooking but now… he found himself watering at the mouth in expectation.
Elyn and Citro weren't any better.
"Quick quick quick!"
"Eeeeeep!!"
The chef rolled his eyes a little and handed them their respective bowls. "Jeez, relax a little."
They ignored him and shot straight for the meal in front of them. Emery didn't mind that. He waited for the first crunch and to see the expressions on their face.
Citro was first. The mongoose picked up a slice of the bird meat and put it into his small mouth. A human-like look of joy spread over the creature's face as soon as that happened and without even swallowing the original piece of meat, dug straight for the rest of the Stirfry.
Emery sighed in satisfaction. This was proof that his cooking didn't fail.
The silver-haired girl, on the other hand, had her eyes closed. She chewed the stir fry slowly and took her time with it, but when she was finished…
"UMMMMMM!"
Her purple eyes snapped open, seemingly brimming with even more energy than before.
'I wonder how it tastes,'
The thought lingered on his mind for a few seconds until he decided to finally pick up a fork of the stir fry and put it into his mouth.r
His chef's instinct was to first find out the flaws of the dish, but he just couldn't. He chewed through the crispy brown meat and the soft vegetables. The tastes meshed and sometimes contrasted but the more he chewed the more he saw.
Eventually, he swallowed his first bite and could only say one thing about the dish itself.
"It's magnificent."
[Ding!]
[Your injuries are being healed slightly. Your speed has been increased slightly for the next hour!]
Emery ignored the notification and then went on to finish the bowl of stir fry. It was just that good. Only after did he turn to the system notifications to see what had happened.
"I don't feel any different," he muttered.
Well, not completely. A slight warm feeling spread from his stomach to the parts of his body where the injury was. The only way he was able to tell was because it was a similar feeling to when the healers in Hemp's building used their powers on him.
As for the speed increase. He couldn't feel anything at all.
'I'll test it out later,' he thought, then returned his attention to the rest of the food.
A few dozen minute later they'd completely finished the rest of the food and were left unsatisfied by the result.
"I want more."
"Eep."
Emery agreed. They still had a bunch of more beasts that would be difficult but semi-feasible to cook, but he didn't want to do that just yet.
"Citro, you said those beasts were too weak, right?"
"Eep." the mongoose nodded, using a claw to pick its teeth disdainfully.
The other two looked at its antics speechlessly before waving it off, "Good, let's go hunt a Class Nine Beast. I'll cook after we deal with it."
Citro stared sceptically but nodded soon after.
"Okay, give me a second,"
He retrieved all his tools and placed them back into his pantry. But could he put any corpses into the Pantry also? It was too risky to leave them in somewhere so open. Other Awakened would steal the corpses without any second thought.
So there was only one way to find out.
'Pantry!' he yelled inwardly.
A white light appeared at his fingertips and enveloped the small mountain of Class 10 corpses. A second later there was nothing else there.
'That's convenient,'
His chef mindset came into play in this instant. Did this mean he could carry an entire kitchen everywhere with him? That would be a total game-changer. With this, he probably wouldn't run out of ingredients or tools and maybe even have a ready-made workstation ready for him.
"Okay, let's go now!"
He yelled then ran forward as fast as he could without waiting for Elyn and Citro to react. It was an appropriate time to see how the speed buff was on all three of them.
The wind caressed his skin as he stepped on the ground. He could go faster but the shrapnel and debris on the ground wouldn't allow him to do so.
'I can still try!'
He leapt into the air, avoiding a large rock, and landed on the ground a second later. This brief stunt allowed his summons to catch up to him. Neither looked like they were struggling at all.
Emery appreciated that very much. Meaning if things grew too out of hand, they could still escape properly.
They were pretty much running aimlessly, but it didn't take long for them to come upon a straggling Class Nine Threat. It was a large snake-like creature with black scales and a wide head.
At this point, Emery couldn't help but grin. This match gave him access to two very important comparisons.
"A snake beast again, but it's weaker than that wyvern from the forest and I'm stronger since that time. A beast of the same species, let's see how I fare against it."
But on the other hand, there was no way he would miss this near cultural event. Their parents had taught them about it in the form of stories, and he would never forget this one.
"Citro, you go first." he grinned at the little creature on the ground, "I really want to see a real-life Mongoose vs Snake!"
. . . .
At the same time, not far from where Emery was.
"Why is he trying to fight against a Class Nine?" a voice asked.
Chris didn't know either but he knew the kid wasn't stupid. Someone who could sense his influence definitely couldn't be a stupid person.
"No one interfere in the battle, I want to see how he handles the situation. He's only had his powers for three days, so if he's able to kill a Class Nine Threat in so little time I suggest we recruit him."
"You mean?"
"Yeah, we take him to meet the boss."