Leveling Up Through Eating

Chapter 142: Ballad’s Cup, Shabu-shabu

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

PR: MattForgenti

"......!"

After checking the satisfaction level he couldn't help but be surprised. After all, it increased by 33%!

And it did not end there.

[Kongie is evolving.]

[Kongie is evolving.]

Kongie who also ate a legendary dish had his EXP increase. In result, he had leveled up twice in a row! Just like what Minhyuk had expected, Kongie's body floated up in the air like his previous evolution. Then, his body shined brightly.

'Will there be any changes with him this time?'

And once the bright light disappeared…

"Oink!"

"......Still the same."

Nothing changed in Kongie at all.

Minhyuk rubbed his chin in thought.

'Yeah. Maybe Kongie will only have some changes once he grows up.'

But perhaps, it might be better if he still remained as a baby piggy. With that thought in mind, Minhyuk checked Kongie's stat window.

(Kongie)

Rank: ???

Race: Pet

Level: 5

Attack Power: 514

Defensive Power: 3,541

Summoning Duration per Day: 4 hours.

Summoning Waiting Time: 20 hours

Special Abilities:

━ It will immediately detect if there is a medicine nearby.

━ Pet Owner’s attack power will be increased by 13%.

━ Pet Owner's defensive power will be increased by 8%.

━ Passive Skill: Instinctual Protection

━ Can now wear two artifacts.

Condition for Growth: The more delicious the food the owner eats, the higher the EXP and the higher the level it could evolve.

Potential: 184

Experience Value: 32% / 100%

When he looked at Kongie's changes, he could see that his attack power had increased by 300 and his defensive power had increased by 200. In addition to that, the summoning time had increased by 2 hours and there was even an increase of 8% in the Pet Owner’s defensive power. The most surprising change in Kongie was……

'Can wear two artifacts?'

Minhyuk had heard before that there were cases where the pet could wear artifacts. He nodded his head in agreement as he turned to look at Juis.

Juis waved her hand in the air.

The moment her hand moved, a notification rang in Minhyuk's head.

It was the surprising notification about the catastrophe being lifted in the Northern Continent and the EXP acquisition rate and item drop rate increasing by 25% over the course of 1 month! A catastrophe might have passed over them briefly but the users would eventually cheer for this end result. The 25% increase had literally become an event for all of the users in the Northern Continent.

Then, the notification about the completion of Minhyuk’s quest had finally arrived.

[Kingdom Quest: Make a Legendary Dish for God Juis, Completed.]

[You can now eat sushi made out of S-ranked ingredients.]

[You will receive the Ballad’s Cup from God Juis.]

Flash!

A bright light suddenly flashed in front of God Juis. The light was so intense that he couldn’t help but cover his eyes from the blinding glare. Once the light faded away, a large golden goblet filled with water appeared in front of him. The cup was exactly as big as a pot.

“Huhuhu!”

“......?”

Juis was confused when she saw Minhyuk grinning at the cup as he tilted his head side by side.

‘Why is he tilting his head as he looked at the cup?’

Huh?

Juis couldn’t help herself as she tilted her head sideways too. Not long after, Juis handed Ballad’s cup over to Minhyuk.

[You have acquired one of God’s Treasures: Ballad’s Cup.]

‘Yay! The size is just exactly what I want. With this, I can definitely……!’

Huhuhu! I will definitely make that dish that goes well with sushi!

“Thank you very much, God Juis-nim! You’ll definitely be blessed with good fortune!”

Minhyuk bowed his head to express his gratitude. Juis smiled at Minhyuk.

“I’m not yet done giving you gifts.”

“......?”

Minhyuk was quite taken aback since he had already received all of the rewards for his quest.

***

[God Juis’ satisfaction has reached the maximum level.]

This was the notification that Park Minggyu, the Team Leader of the Special Users Management Team, had seen.

This meant that God Juis was extremely pleased right now.

Plenty of people had gathered in front of the monitor that Team Leader Park was looking at. There was only one reason! All of them were curious about who cleared the quest. Was it User Minhyuk’s side or was it Iris Guild’s side?

In all honesty, Team Leader Park and Lee Minhwa were silently rooting for Minhyuk in their hearts.

‘We’ve been through hell and back these past few days because of what Iris Guild did!’

In the first place, wasn’t this farce the plot and drama that Iris Guild created themselves? The disaster was something that happened because of the drama that Iris Guild created. It was only a matter of fact that the employees from the Special Users Management Team and the other departments weren’t able to leave their posts because of the catastrophe. However, Minhyuk easily solved it unlike Iris Guild who was not able to break the quest. This was the first time that Minhyuk looked handsome in the eyes of Team Leader Park.

“This is a problem.”

President Kang Taehoon suddenly spoke.

“God Juis is a god that has extreme liberties.”

Typically, gods had more freedom in terms of what they could and could not do compared to ordinary NPCs. Whether in terms of what they could give, what they could increase or what they could curse, the gods had looser restrictions on whatever they did.

And because of that, whatever happened next would be a problem for them. Right now, God Juis, the freest of them all, was very satisfied.

Does she really want to give Minhyuk additional compensations?

Ballad’s cup, which he had already received, was a medicine of incredible power that no medicine could ever compare.

It’s estimated price?

It would amount to billions of won.

Right now, Athenae was not just a simple game. It had now become a part of everyone’s daily routine. For the sake of rare and powerful artifacts the world’s richest would spend millions to billions of won just to acquire them.

The estimated price of such an item was only in the billions but considering the rarity of the item and the competition between bidders then it would probably create more than twice as much if it was put up in an auction.

At that moment, God Juis finally opened her mouth.

[I’m not yet done with giving you gifts.]

Worry and concern could be heard from the voice of God Juis, as if she was worried that Minhyuk wouldn’t like what she would give. Not long after, an item appeared on Juis’ hand.

As soon as President Kang Taehoon saw the item in her hand, his eyes widened ever so slightly.

“Pandora’s Helmet!!!”

“Heok!”

Surprised voices came from the members of the production team while Team Leader Park and Lee Minhwa looked at them in confusion. The both of them were unaware about the artifacts since their department was not in charge of these.

There were hundreds of millions of artifacts available in Athenae. In fact, even the production team who was in charge of these artifacts still needed to look for information because they did not know a thing about the artifact at all.

“Is it really that great?”

“It, it’s truly amazing! It’s an artifact that can never be bought with money and it’s also a legendary item.”

“......!”

Team Leader Park and Lee Minhwa were quite shocked when they heard his words. Team Leader Park couldn’t help but sigh.

“No. He has three legendary artifacts alone……”

“In a way, he has four.”

He had Hepas’ Legendary Frying Pan, the Armor of Immortality, Pandora’s Helmet, and Rumad’s Demon Greatsword that he would sell. In fact, once Minhyuk had sold Rumad’s artifact then, he would have received the same amount for a legendary artifact.

“And look at that expression……”

Kang Taehoon murmured to himself as he continued to look at the monitor. Minhyuk finally opened his mouth after receiving the item.

[Thank you. I’ll use it well. I’m really happy!]

“Keok!”

“Keoheok!”

The reason why everyone was surprised was because Minhyuk’s expression was screaming something along the lines of ‘Well, I guess I got another item.’! Then, he quickly turned around to leave.

***

“Thank you. I’ll use it well. I’m really happy!”

“Wa, wait……!”

Juis was a bit embarrassed.

Wait? What did I mean by wait?

She was obviously grateful to Minhyuk since he satisfied her with an exceptional food. It was the food that she could only eat once a year! And since the food was truly delicious she had decided to give him the helmet just so she could repay this favor.

However, Minhyuk looked at it with a sullen expression on his face.

‘Eyy. I thought she was going to give me something to eat!’

If she ever knew what was going on inside Minhyuk’s head she would totally think that he was sick in the head. However, he truly appreciated the gift that Juis had given him but he now had a place that he had to hurry to so he wanted to leave quickly.

He quickly wanted to go where Rald, whose skin was rotting, was! He knew that he could definitely be cured now so he wanted to hurry and cure him just so he could eat that delicious sushi!

He tried to quickly leave but Juis stopped him from leaving. He hurriedly turned his head to look at her with a curious expression on his face.

“What’s wrong?”

“N, nothing…… Th, that… are you not going to check that?”

“Eyy. I can do it later when I have the time.”

“Wh, when you have the time?”

For a moment, Juis wanted to take back the item from him. But what could she do? She had already given it away.

“Aren’t you happy? Since I, a god, have given you another gift because I’m grateful to you?”

Juis highlighted her existence as a god. It was as if she was asking him to praise the gift that she had given him. Minhyuk looked down at the item in his hands and replied to her with a voice that lacked the luster of excitement.

“I have received a reaaaaaa~lly great gift. Ah, I’m really happy!”

“......”

“But I’m busy. Aren’t you really busy too?”

“Huh? Y, yeah? But wouldn’t it still be better for you to check it out?”

Right now, Juis was already blatantly telling him to check it out. Minhyuk had no choice but to cater to her wishes, all while saying ‘Ah, that’s right, gods are all really busy.’.

(Pandora’s Helmet)

Rank: Legendary

Restrictions: 200 INT, 200 Mental, 400 Holy Power

Durability: 10,000 / 10,000

Defensive Power: 741

Special Effects:

━ x2 Holy Power

━ 20% reduction in all of your skills’ cooldown.

━ 20% reduction in all of your skills’ required mana usage.

━ Skill: God’s Targeted Praise.

Description: This was the helmet that Juis had used in the past. This helmet contains a tremendous amount of holy power as well as an infinite variety of hidden abilities.

He also did not forget to click and check on the attached skill.

(God’s Targeted Praise)

Artifact Skill

Level: None.

Mana Required: 500

Cooldown: 1 week

Penalty for Use: -2 on all basic stats

Effects:  After using Praise, the skill user can bestow their holy power upon a single person for 30 minutes. It can only be given to a person without a shred of holy power.

Description: 2 points from each of the 5 basic stats will be considered as a sacrifice to the gods this will allow your targeted party member to have the same holy power stat as the holy power stat that you possess.

It wasn’t a bad skill. In other words, after consuming 2 points from all 5 of his basic stats, his targeted party member would have the same holy power stat as himself for 30 minutes. This was the reason why Juis wanted him to check the artifact so badly earlier.

Then, after hurrying out of the temple…

Knock, knock, knock.

The sound of knocking rang loudly in the area.

“Is someone in there?”

“......Who’s there?”

“I’m the foreigner named Minhyuk.”

‘Ah……!’

That person! The amazing chef who created a legendary dish!

“Please come in.”

As soon as he came inside, Minhyuk looked at Rald with undisguised anticipation. His eyes were even sparkling so brightly as his face was filled with happiness.

“Hello? Are you feeling better?”

“Ah, yes.”

When Rald tried to sit up, Minhyuk hurriedly went to his bedside to help him.

“I heard that His Highness had promised to serve you the best sushi.”

“That’s right. But your body might only be starting to feel better so it’s fine! It’s really fine. Even if I’m starving right now, it’s fine! I was supposed to eat that sushi a long time ago, but it’s alright! Are you really alright?”

“......”

Rald knew that his words and expression were contradicting. His expression was saying something along the lines of… ‘Please do it now, if you don’t do it now then I’ll make you do it.’.

“......N, no. It’s fine. Let’s go to the restaurant immediately since it has been delayed for quite some time.”

“Ah! If you insist. Hahaha. There’s nothing I can do about it. After all, it’s quite rude to say no.”

Minhyuk quickly agreed as if the word refusal was not in his dictionary at all. Then, he leaned in and sneakily whispered to Rald.

“Ah. Wait. There’s something I really want to eat with sushi and coincidentally I also received a pot from God Juis. Do you happen to have the ingredients on hand……?”

He received a pot from God Juis? Do gods have pots too?

“Is that so? May I know what kind of food you’re going to eat?”

The moment Rald asked about the food that he wanted to eat, the face of the foreigner named Minhyuk brightened. A wide smile also lingered on his face as if he was already happy with just the thought of such a food.

“It’s shabu-shabu!”

***

TL’s corner!

Pot… Pot…… I wonder how Rald will react when he sees Ballad’s cup used as a shabu-shabu pot….

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