Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 46: Eating to Acquire Skills

'What the hell is this…?'?Minhyuk thought. He had received a hint earlier about receiving something delicious once he hunted a Sweet Potato Warrior. He could not help but wonder about it when he saw this strange light.

'A monster is glowing with light?'

Minhyuk thought that there had to be a reason for this. After all, he had not seen anything like this before. He looked back at everything that he had experienced so far, and he recalled that the percentage beside his Food God class had already reached 100%. Beyond that, he did not hear any notification about it whatsoever.

"I did not see any light when I killed the orcs, the goblins and even the Sweet Potato Men though…?" Minhyuk wondered out loud.

‘So, why is black light only appearing on this Sweet Potato Warrior?’

***

Team Leader Park murmured, "Because… that's a named monster."

Hearing his words, Lee Minhwa nodded in agreement. The two of them were monitoring Player Minhyuk’s movements when he reached 100% in his class. It meant that he was ready for the second class advancement now. Before reaching that point, he would not have noticed the black light on monsters, especially named monsters.

"The first class of the Food God focuses on the usual and most common food."

If that was the case, then what did the Food God’s second class focus on?

"I wonder if Player Minhyuk is willing to eat monsters?"

“However, Player Minhyuk is?really?lucky. If he did not enter the hidden dungeon, then he might have had to deal with eating the common monsters first.”

"Yeah. That's the hardest part."

No matter how much Player Minhyuk loved to eat, could he stomach eating a monster? That was the hardest part with this class change. However, Player Minhyuk was very blessed to meet an appropriate monster for his first time, protecting him from something else that might have been gross and unappealing.

"Anyway, a monster is a monster. Who can stomach eating them in the first place?”

“But… he still needs to eat a monster to satisfy the condition for his second class advancement, right? If he fails to eat a monster within two weeks of reaching 100%, then he will not be able to change to his second class and only remain at the Food God’s first class, right?”

"Yeah. If Player Minhyuk fails to reach the conditions within the time limit, he will remain as a God Class that’s only good at cooking.”

However, the question still remained. Would he eat monsters? Once he did that…

'He'll be able to acquire more special abilities.'

***

Minhyuk thought for a while and came to the conclusion that he would find his answer after hunting the Sweet Potato Warrior.

"Gumaaa…!" The Sweet Potato Warrior roared as it launched the first attack.

[Bardy Swordsmanship]

[+12 increase to all 5 basic stats for 6 minutes.]

Power filled Minhyuk’s body as he watched the Sweet Potato Warrior thrust its spear towards him.

Clang!

Minhyuk easily parried the Sweet Potato Warrior's strike and scattered the force behind it. At that moment…

Crackle, swoosh!

The Salamander's Double Ring's effect came into play and set the body of the Sweet Potato Warrior on fire.

[Salamander's Blaze]

[Your attacks will inflict continuous damage to the enemy.]

At that moment…

Sniff, sniff, sniff—

Minhyuk's nose twitched at the aroma that wafted through the air. It was a very familiar smell.

"T, this…!" Minhyuk shouted, his eyes widening in disbelief. He continued to say, "Roasted sweet potato!"

"Gumaaaaaaa?!" The Sweet Potato Warrior roared as it struggled to put out the fire on its body. Strangely enough, Minhyuk felt his hunger soar. He licked his lips in anticipation.

"Roasted sweet potato... Delicious..."

Roasted sweet potatoes tasted completely different from boiled sweet potatoes. Roasted sweet potatoes bought on the street had slightly burnt skin and steam rising off of it. Whenever one peeled off its skin and took a bite they would say, "Hot, hot, hot, hot!" And, no matter how hot it was, one would still bite it. In fact, the best way to cool it down was to roll it around in their mouth. After all, no one would be willing to waste the sweet flavor of hot sweet potato that spread in the mouth.

"Gumaaaa!" ?The Sweet Potato Warrior roared nervously as it watched Minhyuk gulp down his saliva.

'De, devil…?'

Minhyuk's throat bobbed as he gulped once more, his lips turning moist. Subconsciously, he was licking his tongue over them as he said, "You look very yummy right now, you know?"

Screech!

The Sweet Potato Warrior was trying to put out the fire on its body when it suddenly stopped and took a step back.

"Don't put out the fire or you'll taste bad!"

"Gu, gumaguma..." The Sweet Potato Warrior stuttered, fear engulfing its body at Minhyuk’s words.

'Wait a minute…!'?Minhyuk thought as he stopped in his tracks.

'The black light might mean that it's an ‘ingredient’ that I can eat...'

In other words?

'I can eat it?! Oh yeah!'

Minhyuk watched the Sweet Potato Warrior extinguish the fire on its body before placing its hands on the ground. It stuck them deep underground as if the ground was some sort of soft tofu. Then, it pulled out some sweet potatoes and threw them in its mouth. Then, something surprising happened.

[The Sweet Potato Warrior's HP has recovered.]

‘Its HP recovered after eating?’

This was something strange. However, Minhyuk now knew what he needed to do. He narrowed the distance between him and the monster in a blink of an eye as he sent attacks continuously towards the Sweet Potato Warrior.

Before long, the Sweet Potato Warrior ended up as a cold, dead body that collapsed on the ground. Then, something dropped from the Sweet Potato Warrior. It was a sweet potato surrounded by a golden light.

[You have acquired a Golden Sweet Potato.]

"Oh! I got a good item, a golden sweet potato,” Minhyuk said, picking the item hurriedly and checking its information.

(Golden Sweet Potato)

Material Grade: C

Special Abilities: +20 increase in STM

Description: A more delicious golden sweet potato that can only be obtained by hunting the Sweet Potato Warrior. Even if someone ate it with you and died, you wouldn’t?know with how?delicious it is.

"Wooow! It's an even more delicious sweet potato!" Minhyuk shouted in happiness. Not only was it much more delicious than normal sweet potatoes, it could even boost his STM by 20 points. It was even bigger than Minhyuk’s fist!

Minhyuk hurriedly kept it in his inventory. What he needed to do now was to deal with the roasted sweet potato in front of him. However, he hesitated after taking a look at it.

‘Hey, it's a monster though…?’

The Sweet Potato Warrior was a monster that was just attacking him earlier.

“Well, it’s zero calories if it’s delicious!”

Minhyuk was a simple man. He moved urgently, bringing out a lot of foil from his inventory. Then, he wrapped the Sweet Potato Warrior with several layers. The Sweet Potato Warrior was so big that Minhyuk had to use a few rolls of foil just to cover everything up. After doing that, he rushed to Bran’s house and shouted, "Bran! Bran!"

Minhyuk’s voice sounded urgent.

"What's the matter?"

"Do you have any firewood?"

"Firewood?"

"Yes, can you please lend me some firewood?"

"It's in the back…?"

Fwoosh!

Minhyuk ran as fast as the wind. He even used the spell Haste. Then, he returned in front of Bran with his arm full of firewood. He looked so restless as if he wanted to get back to whatever he was doing quickly, but he knew that he still had to express his gratitude.

"Thank you for your help!"

"Boy, you look really happy?"

"Yes! I'm very,?very?happy!" Minhyuk shouted, expressing his joy loudly. He even made a joke.

"Bran, do you know what we should say to an angry, roasted sweet potato?"

"...?"

"Anything, just butter them up!! Hehehehe!"

Bran watched Minhyuk hurrying off into the distance, scratching his head at Minhyuk’s bizarre behavior.

"Just butter them up, huh? That guy is crazy…"

Soon after…

"Angry roasted sweet potatoes… just butter them up? Pfft!" Bran laughed loudly at the joke.

***

Tap, tap, tap—

Minhyuk looked very excited as he watched part of the dead Sweet Potato Warrior roasting over the firewood. When he poked it with Ellie's sword, the sword went through easily. Minhyuk cut off a portion of the roasted sweet potato. Steam wooshed out the moment he removed the foil.

[Please choose one from Buff Ability and Food God's True Worth.]

"Food God's True Worth."

[The Sweet Potato Warrior is selected as the main ingredient.]

"Hot, hot, hot, hot!" Minhyuk shouted as he transferred the sweet potato between his hands, alternating them until the sweet potato cooled down a bit. He then quickly took a big bite off of it.

"Hooo…"

The sweet potato in his mouth gave off plenty of steam.

Chomp—

Minhyuk blew out loudly as he rolled the steaming sweet potato around his mouth, before savoring the sweet flavor that slowly spread in his mouth.

"D, delicious…!" Minhyuk groaned in pleasure. He was quite taken aback.?Its?flavor was much sweeter compared to regular sweet potatoes. It was extremely delicious. He chewed the delicious sweet potato well and finally gulped it down.

Chew, chew—

Minhyuk quickly devoured the section of the roasted sweet potato. Then, he cut the remaining giant sweet potato into pieces and wrapped them in foil. The wrapped sweet potatoes were then placed in the fire again. He did it this way because the Sweet Potato Warrior was truly large, and it might not be cooked well if he roasted it at one go.

He had even prepared cold radish water kimchi that was covered with a thin sheet of ice, placing it in front of him. Previously, he made various kinds of kimchi to serve as side dishes when he went to eat pork. Since he could set the temperature of his Food Storage Inventory, it was easy for him to make a thin sheet of ice form on top of the radish water kimchi.

"Gulp, gulp, gulp."

Minhyuk felt his teeth chatter after drinking the cold radish water kimchi. However, the sour and refreshing taste soothed the dryness from the sweet potato. This was the cool and refreshing taste of radish water kimchi! He might have not noticed, but his smiling face was smeared with soot. Others would probably have laughed at him if they saw his appearance while he was eating his roasted sweet potatoes. When he finally finished eating all of his roasted sweet potatoes…

[Food God's True Worth.]

[You can acquire the Sweet Potato Warrior's Skill: Absorption Conversion.]

[Would you like to acquire it?]

‘What?!’

Minhyuk was shocked to find out that he could acquire skills through this method.

"Acquire," he said, deciding to give it a try.

[Acquisition rate 11%... 22%... 36%... 68%... 88%... 100%.]

[You have successfully acquired Absorption Conversion.]

[Your eccentric eyes have opened.]

[Your job has changed to Eccentric Food God.]

[The skills for Eccentric Food God have been unlocked.]

[Food God's Legacy Quest has been unlocked.]

Minhyuk pondered as he listened to the notifications. Did he really just acquire a skill by eating? This was something completely surprising. Was it truly possible to acquire skills by eating? Then, Minhyuk thought,?'Ah, so that’s why…!'

This was likely the reason why Minhyuk could not acquire skills from skill books. That was when he finally realized that his class only allowed him to acquire skills by eating. Minhyuk thought,?'The Sweet Potato Warrior probably had a skill because it was a special mob.'

And these special mobs usually appeared as boss monsters or named monsters. Then, he checked his skill window.

(Absorption Conversion)

Active Skill

Level: None

Mana Required: 200

Cooldown: 20 minutes

Effects: You can recover 30~40% HP whenever you eat something.

‘...I think… this is something extremely incredible?’

Even the foodie Minhyuk, who was usually only moved by food, could not help but click his tongue in surprise. He could recover around 30-40% of his HP by eating something through this skill? He knew that healing and recovery-type abilities were extremely expensive. So, Minhyuk quickly sent a whisper to General.

[Minhyuk: Hyung, Hyung, are you busy?]

[General: No, no. We’re doing a guild dinner and get-together. Why?]

[Minhyuk: I just wanted to ask you something.]

[General: What is it?]

[Minhyuk: It's nothing special, I just received a recovery skill.]

[General: Oh, a recovery skill? Isn’t that a good thing? Recovery skill books are much more expensive than normal skill books since they don't drop normally. What's the recovery rate? 10%? Or 15%?]

"..."

Minhyuk went speechless for a moment. He realized how amazingly game-breaking the skill he obtained was, after seeing Changwook’s message. He thought,?‘Well, potions are really expensive…’

Then Minhyuk continued to send his whispers.

[Minhyuk: It's 30~40%.]

[General:...You're not trying to make me call you hyung again, right?]

[Minhyuk: It’s true. Besides, I have never lied to you before. You know?]

[General: OMG… 30~40%? What's the skill rank? And what's the cooldown?]

[Minhyuk: There's no rank and the cooldown is 20 minutes.]

Their whisper window was silent for a moment. Minhyuk could even imagine General’s blank face right now. His reply only came after a while.

[General: You’ve hit the jackpot…]