Green Monster Epic

Chapter 707: Clarification

As Allen led Albard back to Green Lake Town, the cooking in the mountaintop castle was still in full swing. Even from the outer city, Allen could smell the exotic fragrances, which stirred up the appetite.

Green Lake Town also had a mage tower, but most wilderness mage towers only had the form without the true power of a real mage tower.

The mage tower, located next to the Magic Academy, had a decent flow of people. After all, the tribe's current population was quite large, and there were still many goblins with spellcasting talents. What Allen found unsettling was that almost all the goblins entering and exiting the mage tower were short goblins. It was rare to see even two or three large earth goblins or bear goblins.

"From now on, this mage tower will be your research place. If you need anything, just tell the supervisor here. If you need any rare or scarce resources that the supervisor can't solve, go find Tris, and he will help you solve it."

"Also, in a while, I'll have a human mage named Gunther come to visit you. He should bring a lot of mage-related information that might be helpful to you."

Allen settled Albard in the mage tower, in a temporarily tidied-up room. Although it was a bit shabby at the moment, it was convenient for Albard to enter and exit, and the space was not small, especially since it was close to the laboratory and the data room.

Upon returning, Allen had carefully examined Albard's body. With the digestion and absorption of the lotus seed's energy, his condition had finally stabilized. Not only was he more energetic, but even his body had become full of vitality.

Judging from the energy dissipation in Albard's body, Allen believed that the lotus seed he had given him should have bought him about five more years of life. And this was after Albard had made multiple modifications to his body, and his original body was already at its limit. Otherwise, the lotus seed's effect would have been even stronger.

Five years, judging from the ingredients and materials Allen used for cooking, couldn't be considered very successful, but Allen felt it was worth it. With these five years, Allen believed that with Albard's will and talent, he should have a chance to advance. Even if he ultimately failed to advance and returned to the River Styx, Allen would have repaid this child who had silently contributed to the tribe, and he would no longer feel guilty towards him.

As for those seemingly precious materials and potions, Allen, with his personality, didn't feel any heartache at all.

"Okay, Chieftain."

Albard nodded obediently. Seeing the goblins moving his materials and collections and carelessly handling his things, he immediately focused his attention on these precious items: "Be careful, there are reagents that I collected with great difficulty inside!!"

Seeing that Albard had regained some vitality, although he was still an old goblin and his movements were not smooth, Allen was relieved. After instructing the supervisor in the mage tower, he flew to the castle on the mountaintop.

"Didn't you say you were going to stay there for a while longer? Why are you back so soon?"

Various exquisite foods were placed on the table in front of Figlas, who had transformed into a bear goblin. The dragon, with a greasy mouth, was lying on a lounge chair on the second-floor balcony, with Swala, the legendary earth goblin, standing beside him.

"The matter is settled, so I came back. Without your company, I'm very bored!!"

Allen rarely made a joke and fooled the dragon. If this dragon had been by his side at that time, the little lotus seed that Allen cooked wouldn't have been enough for the dragon to fill the gap between its teeth!

"Tch!!"

Figlas raised the corner of his mouth and was too lazy to pay attention to this bear goblin. He must have come back because he lost his free labor. Who didn't know who!

"How's the progress now? How much longer will it take to complete the rating of all our recipes?"

Allen turned his head and asked the chefs who were still busy in the square.

"We have now completed the difficulty rating of 82 cooking recipes, but the time required for the subsequent cooking ratings will probably be longer. It may not be possible to rate the remaining recipes within two months."

Swala knew that Allen was asking her and replied in a deep voice: "Many of the ingredients, auxiliary materials, and spices for the later recipes have not been fully prepared yet, and it will take some time. At the same time, many chefs have not learned many of the current recipes, which may affect the accuracy of the recipe ratings."

"… …"

Allen was expressionless, but he felt a bit more emotional in his heart. It seemed that things were much more difficult than he had imagined.

The slow progress had disadvantages, but it also had advantages. The disadvantages were self-evident, but the advantages proved the broad prospects and future of magic cuisine, and its professionalism was not inferior to alchemy.

Through the comparison of potion alchemy and magic cuisine, the chefs who specialized in cooking and the tribal scholars who accepted Allen's tasks jointly came to a conclusion that should be considered a correct summary: the potions made by alchemy often focus on short-term and timely characteristic enhancements, helping users to obtain effective assistance when encountering danger or need; while magic cooking focuses more on modifying the individual's physique and talent through gentle dietary therapy, allowing them to have greater potential.

There was no superior or inferior between the two. Although they seemed to target the same direction, they were actually different. Although their recipes also had aspects that the other emphasized, the two were still biased in general.

"Okay, this matter concerns the future of the tribe. You must take good care of these talents in the tribe and provide them with everything they need."

"Regarding the ingredients, let them write down what's missing and send it to Oliver and Tris, and let them find a way to solve it!!"

"Also, regarding the unfavorable factors such as chefs not knowing how to cook certain dishes or their strength being insufficient, you let the scholar team come up with a solution, so that at least our scoring mechanism can be relatively fair and effective."

"Understood."

Swala nodded in a deep voice and then went to communicate with the scholar team in the castle.

The spacious balcony suddenly became idle, except for a gluttonous fellow who was making annoying noises while smacking his lips.

A magical barrier, cast by Figlas with a wave of his hand, enveloped the balcony. In the faint magical halo, the figures of the two powerhouses disappeared with the balcony. Sensing the aura of magic, Allen turned his head and looked at Figlas with some incomprehension.

"I feel like you've been acting a little strange lately?"

Figlas asked curiously while eating.

"What do you mean?"

Allen was at a loss.

"You don't seem to care much about your faith church and those believers lately? We've been hunting together for more than a month, and I haven't seen you talk to me about them. Are you planning to back down?"

"… … There's no turning back from this kind of thing!!"

After hearing Figlas's question, Allen smiled bitterly: "It's just that I took your advice this time and went to the human world in the south, and I collected a lot of conjectures and information about the gods from the Council of Truth. After reading it, I do have some hesitation."

"Can you tell me what exactly is making you hesitate?"

Figlas was immediately curious. In his impression, once this bear goblin made a certain determination, he never seemed to hesitate or back down.

"… …"

Allen stared at the pair of undisguised amber eyes of the bear goblin in front of him, thought about it, and decided to share his concerns with him: "Regarding the gods, everything else is fine, but the information left by the human mages says that the gods will passively change their personalities based on the believers' fantasies about the gods and their own authority, becoming a completely different existence."

"For me, passively changing myself is not something I can accept. The choices made based on different personalities will also be different, so who can prove that the changed me is still the real me?"

"Or perhaps, the gods are just puppets of the believers, the protectors they expect in their hearts… …"

"… … … …"

Figlas was a little confused and didn't seem to understand what Allen meant until Allen casually threw out the notes of the human scholar Duncan and asked Figlas to read them.

The notes had been flipped through countless times in Allen's hands and looked much older than when they were first given to Allen, which showed that Allen had not stopped studying these materials these days.

Rarely able to peek into the secrets of the gods, Figlas naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity. After receiving the notebook thrown by Allen, he put down the food in his hand, carefully cleaned the grease from his hands, and began to flip through the notebook page by page.

The notebook itself was left by the scholar Duncan during a busy period, or perhaps as a diary before going to bed after a day of work and research. Therefore, the content was mixed and the number of words was not very large. Figlas only spent two magic hours to finish reading this notebook.

While Figlas was reading this notebook, Allen cleared a clean surface on the dining table, took out the paper and pen he carried with him, and summarized and compiled his previous gains and ideas from cooking at Fort Fart.

Now that he had decided to improve the magic chef system, the combination and selection of magic dish recipes, the rules behind innovative dishes, and so on, could no longer be based solely on Allen's feelings when cooking, but should be based on the study of ingredients, auxiliary materials, spices, and other seemingly unrelated things, exploring their internal connections bit by bit, and leaving valuable experience summaries for future generations.

Allen believes that there must be inherent rules behind the seemingly chaotic magic dishes, but he didn't pay much attention to them before, so he ignored them.

Just like when he was developing new dishes for Albard at Fort Fart, he had many considerations in the selection of ingredients at that time, and many of the experiences were unconsciously summarized from his years of cooking.

For example, choosing dragon blood potion as the dish primer, Allen valued the potion's characteristic of stimulating internal potential. As a hobgoblin who had personally used the dragon blood potion, Allen had personally experienced the scene when the energy of his whole body was stimulated by the potion, and more than once.

At the same time, he matched it with the heart blood of the smiling tiger whale, thousand-year seahorse and other auxiliary materials, which all contain the most intense vitality of the creature.

As for the blood of the demigod giant and the five-colored lotus, because they came from the Mirage Plane, they are the gathering of spiritual energy magic in the plane. For Albard, a guy whose soul is gradually decaying, this magic is the opportunity for him to be resurrected…

The complex and huge energy is mixed together. If they cannot be integrated, the risk to the recipient will be very great, especially Albard's old and decaying appearance, which cannot withstand the huge and complex energy raging in the body.

Therefore, Allen also had to consider using cooking methods to purify and extract these chaotic, and even conflicting, energies into a form that Albard could withstand.

In the end, Allen's solution was to activate the vitality of the five-colored lotus itself, allowing it to absorb the huge and complex energy in the soup, and use the plant's own condensing characteristics to complete all his ideas.

Among them, Allen made more choices and judgments based on his own experience and the domain ability he had not yet perceived at that time. But now that the cooking is successful, after carefully summarizing his ideas, Allen can still vaguely find some clues from it.

One or two summaries will definitely not yield much, and it is even very likely that Allen's summaries in the next few decades will not be able to find out the rules of magic dishes themselves, but if he does not start to summarize and study the rules now, then the so-called grand prospect of the magic chef system in the future will be nothing but a castle in the air, unable to be put on the table.

Now Allen is no longer fighting alone. Under his command, there are thousands of chefs who are walking with him on this unknown road. They can also slowly summarize and study the rules behind magic dishes, and eventually form a truly systematic knowledge like alchemy one day, so that future generations will no longer have to cross the river by feeling the stones like their predecessors.

Several blank parchment papers were filled with Common language by Allen's writing. After his own reflection and summary, he himself actually gained a lot. Especially this recipe, if there are two or three more opportunities to cook and improve it, and some ingredients and auxiliary materials are replaced, then it can be regarded as a definite recipe.

And considering the current situation in the world where there are few similar potions, as long as the tribe can cook such dishes in batches, I am afraid that legendary powerhouses will be willing to spend huge sums to extend their lives.

An old hobgoblin on the verge of death, whose life potential has been exhausted, can still extend his life for several years after eating lotus seeds, then the gains of legendary powerhouses with more tenacious and vigorous vitality after taking this thing will likely be stronger, and the extended lifespan will be at least ten years or more.

Ten years of life, this is not a number that can be ignored, even if you look at the hundreds of years of life of a legendary powerhouse, ten years is not an insignificant amount of time, especially when a legendary powerhouse is about to lose his status, wealth, power, and move towards death, no legend can resist this temptation.

Who can guarantee that in these extra ten years, they will not have a chance to go further? Or, in these ten years, they can continue to enjoy a luxurious life and arrange their affairs after death!!

“…So, you are worried about this?”

Just as Allen was writing furiously, Figlas's leisurely voice came. It seemed that he had finished reading the notebook Allen gave him, and his eyes were full of shock and surprise.

“However, the descriptions of the gods in our dragon clan's inherited knowledge have never considered them to be so-called noble and great beings.”

“In our dragon clan's eyes, most of these gods should be the most selfish and greedy guys, far more selfish than our dragon clan. For the sake of believers, these guys can launch divine wars in an instant, and countless intelligent races are buried in tragic wars; in order to satisfy their selfish desires, the gods will also descend and transform, change their appearance, and use various means to seize the beauty and power they want to enjoy!!”

“This group of seemingly glamorous, magnificent and upright guys have completely different means and desires in private from the way they are praised by their believers!!”

“It's just that these gods' incarnations act secretly, and behind them there is a huge theocratic church to help them clean up the mess, so you short-lived races are unaware of this. But in terms of our dragon clan's long lifespan and experience, there are always times when the various sordid things done by these gods' incarnations are encountered and recorded by our dragon clan's ancestors.”

“Otherwise, where do you think the so-called divine bloodlines of the human kingdoms come from? Isn't it the result of these gods' own sins and bad deeds?”

“Most of this notebook is speculation. Although I can't say it's absolutely false, judging from the historical records of my clan, the speculation in this notebook is somewhat wishful thinking.”

“Of course, based on your and my understanding of the gods, this notebook is still of great reference value, but that's all.”

As a giant dragon, Figlas certainly knows more about the gods and the church than Allen. After reading this human notebook, he came to some insights after some thought and frankly confessed to Allen without reservation.

“……”

Allen has also been thinking about this problem that has been bothering him these days, otherwise he wouldn't have been flipping through the True Knowledge Council's information about the gods.

However, the actions of Allen behind the scenes actually show that he himself is more expectant than worried about becoming a god, but he just needs a suitable reason to convince himself.

“But it still makes me feel worried!!”

“Looking forward and backward, it's not like the hobgoblin Allen I know!”

“Hum!! The matter is not happening to you, you don't have to take risks, of course you can see it openly!!”

“…………”

Undeniably, after communicating with Figlas, the hesitation and confusion in Allen's heart have also subsided a lot, and the idea of becoming a god in his heart has gradually turned towards a firm direction.

Tsk tsk, it's another five thousand words, although there is a suspicion of padding the word count, hahaha!!