NOVEL NEXT Chapter 13: Registration
[Congratulations. You have completed the side-quest: Survive (1)]
'Great.'
[You are rewarded with 1000 Cook Points.]
[You are rewarded with a Random Skill Box.]
[You can use Cook points to evolve ingredients and upgrade the Limitless Chef system.]
'System upgrade?' Ainen raised his eyebrows.
[Limitless Chef system requires 100,000 Cook Points to upgrade from beginner to intermediate stage.]
'Well, that's a long way to go.'
Suddenly, a new side-quest popped up.
[Side-Quest: Survive (2)]
Objective:
—> Survive for 30 days.
Reward:
—> 100,000 Cook Points.
—> 10 x Limitless Gacha Draws.
'Nice. I can use cook points without worry. After thirty days, I'll upgrade the system.'
Ainen subsided the pop-up with his mental thought and continued flying towards the town.
'First, I'll gather some general knowledge at the Adventurer's Guild. Using the Mana Cultivation Tower ticket will be after that.'
…
The town was bustling with people at this time. When Ainen arrived using his Flight, many recognized him.
The talk about his food increasing the stats had spread to all adventurers in the town.
There were only around a hundred adventurers native to the town, with merchants and adventurers from other towns often coming to explore the Tubadin forest for hunting monsters and gathering various resources.
Ainen saw people looking at him and talking as he arrived at the Adventurer's Yard, but he went straight inside.
'I should register as an Adventurer first before asking for information.'
"Hello, I would like to register as an Adventurer."
The receptionist girl, who was around twenty years old, raised her head and was startled upon seeing Ainen.
"Ah, Mr. Ainen. Hello! I am Kristy. So you want to register, right? Please come with me."
Kristy looked enthusiastic and even slightly excited, confusing Ainen a bit.
She looked at him and smiled. "We'll have to head to the second floor for your Adventurer card's creation and registration."
"Alright."
Ainen started casual chatter while walking, hoping to get some information, mainly the power of this town. Fortunately, Kristy answered everything with enthusiasm.
Turned out, the strongest Adventurer in the town is a lone adventurer who usually drinks at the pub and rarely goes out. Apparently, he was the only Adept-rank Adventurer.
Aside from him, the Guild master of this town was an Awakened-rank Adventurer, and there was only one party that had their leader and vice-leader at Awakened-rank, though they also just recently broke through.
The rest of the Adventurers were all in the Mortal rank, below level 50.
"Guild Master will come here soon and do your assessment."
"Guild Master?" Ainen blinked.
Kristy softly giggled. "Of course. You are a special person, so he will personally do that. After hearing about you from Roman's party, as well as yesterday's mystic food you made, you have grabbed his attention."
Ainen wryly smiled and jokingly said, "I hope that's not a bad thing."
"Bwahahaha, that might not be necessarily true."
A robust voice entered the large room as a man with a bulky figure and muscles walked, his arms were bare as he only wore a sleeveless jacket over a thin linen t-shirt with brown trousers.
Flaring black hair and beard matched his look and the aura of resilience he gave off perfectly.
Ainen blinked as his status came into view.
[???]
Level: 88
Life rank: Awakened
Class: Juggernaut
Innate Talent:
—> Accumulative Rage.
Stats:
—> Vitality: Ⅱ 98 Ⅱ
—> Strength: Ⅱ 79 Ⅱ
—> Stamina: Ⅱ 89 Ⅱ
—> Agility: Ⅱ 71 Ⅱ
—> Cognition: Ⅱ 73 Ⅱ
—> Arcane: Ⅱ 72 Ⅱ
—> Mana: Ⅱ 81 Ⅱ
Skills: ???
'Looks like I can't see the skills.'
"I came here to assess you, but it seems you started assessing me first."
Ainen coughed as he embarrassingly smiled and stretched his hand for a handshake. "Apologize. I am Ainen. Nice to meet you."
'He shouldn't know that I can see status, but I guess he felt something.'
"No worries. I am called Hammer, though I am more like a shield," Hammer said with a grin.
"Now, let's check your stats without further ado."
Ainen looked at a strange mirror with patterns on its frame. It gave off a clear magical reading, and it was the only notable thing in the room.
Hammer walked towards the mirror while Kristy stood at the side.
"Stand in front of the mirror for five seconds."
Ainen did as told.
[Mystic Assessment Mirror]
-Grade: Special
-Effect:
—> It can assess parameters of lifeforms at Ascendant-rank and below.
—> Upon injecting a Tier-1 Mana stone in it, the mirror can create and print out assessed parameters onto a magic card.
-Note: Crafted by Artisan Fuguaire.
'Interesting. Looks like Ascendant is a rank somewhere above Adept.'
Five seconds passed by, and Ainen's level and stats appeared on the mirror.
[ Level: 24 ]
—Life rank: Mortal
—> Vitality: 43
—> Strength: 41
—> Stamina: 42
—> Agility: 38
—> Cognition: 49
—> Arcane: 48
—> Mana: 50
'As expected, the mirror can't show everything. Just level, life rank, and stats.'
"So high?!" Kristy exclaimed. Rubbing his eyes, she muttered. "I am not dreaming, right?"
"You are indeed not dreaming, Kristy. Bwahaha, as expected of a young talent. You must have eaten your mystic food that increased your stats. How envious."
Hammer laughed as he walked towards Ainen and slapped his back a couple of times. "A rare talent indeed!"
Ainen felt like his organs were shaking at those slaps as he dryly smiled.
"Oh yeah. The mystic food." Kristy blinked and looked at the mirror. "But he is closing in to reach the peak of Mortal-rank before even maxing his level…"
"Indeed. Ainen, you must have hunted monsters and cooked them, right?" Hammer smiled. "And judging by these stats, you must have hunted a lot."
'Well, not me, but those foxes did hunt a lot of monsters.'
But he didn't want to expose the cute foxes. They were going to be his companion beasts! No way in hell he would let someone else snatch them.
"Here, the card is ready."
Hammer got the card from the mirror's side slot and gave it to Ainen.
"Here, the registration costs 10 Tier-1 Mana stones, but you can just feed us your food once." Hammer grinned.
Ainen smiled and nodded. "Sure."
"Ah, that reminded me, I need a bit of your help."
"Oh? What do you need?"
Ainen smiled. "I cooked a new dish today in large quantities, and I am planning to sell it. However, I don't know what price to set on it, so I would like to get your advice on that. Hold on, I'll give you a portion."
He had collected tree trunks and branches to make a stall, so he took out one of the branches from his Inventory.
"Wait a second, I'll make the bowls first."
leek, bright, and steady, each one humming with a control so precise they barely shed heat. With a casual wave, the blades danced through the wood. Not a spark flew, not a splinter cracked.
In smooth, flowing motions, these flexible knives that remained sharp yet bent and curved with his control finished carving and designing the bowls.
Within seconds, two perfect bowls emerged—palm-sized, polished, and warm to the touch with a sleek sheen on them, as though shaped and refined by a craftsman's hands rather than conjured flame. He also crafted spoons!
'Perfect.'
Pouring the food into the bowls, he looked at the duo and handed them. "Here, I've named the dish Exotic Wilderness Hotpot."
However, both Kristy and Hammer were looking at him as if they had seen a ghost, their expressions shocked with their mouths wide open.
"Hmm? What's the matter?"