I Cook Limitlessly In a Fantasy World

"Y-You…" Kristy stammered.

Hammer took a deep breath as he composed himself, his face serious. "Ainen…"

"Damn, brat! You have a legendary talent of fire!"

"Pardon?" Ainen tilted his head. 'Legendary? Is S-rank considered legendary?'

"Your fire manipulation…it's superior to my earth manipulation," Hammer said, his voice filled with amazement. "Your talent in fire manipulation is terrific. I can tell from those knives you controlled."

Kristy nodded repeatedly, agreeing vehemently.

"Brat, this is big news," Hammer said as he narrowed his eyes. "Someone like you, who not only has talent in cooking mystic food, but also legendary fire talent..."

Shaking his head, Hammer laughed. "Well, just know you will be approached by many people in the future with offers, but make sure you don't make decisions in haste."

Ainen smiled and nodded. "Understood."

Grabbing the bowl, Hammer closed his eyes briefly and said, "The fragrance is attacking my stomach non-stop, I can't take it anymore."

"Can I really take one for free?" Kristy gulped.

Ainen chuckled. "Of course. Dig in."

"Oh yeah, this is a bit incomplete. I'm planning to add potatoes and other vegetables to it before selling it."

However, Kristy and Hammer had their head down and hands moving, as they devoured one spoonful after another without a break.

A few seconds later, Hammer opened his mouth and poured the remaining bowl with small meat pieces in his big mouth.

Kristy paused after finishing half and looked at Ainen, her eyes literally whirling as if stunned and dazed. "W-Why is this so delicious?!"

"And I am feeling…"

Kristy was faintly glowing.

Her level was just 12, and that single bowl was increasing her stats crazily.

Ainen checked and saw that all of her stats had increased by at least five, and she still had half of the bowl left to finish, which she continued devouring!

"What kind of magic is this?" Hammer stared at the bowl and then at Ainen. "How did you make this? Who taught you the recipe? Do you have a secret master chef as your teacher?"

Ainen wryly smiled. "Well…I can't answer so many questions at once."

He dodged the questions, and Hammer understood.

Laughing, he said, "Putting aside the bunch of buffs and stat boost the food gives, the taste alone is worthy of an imperial feast, and I am not joking. I have never tasted anything so delicious."

Ainen nodded as he sighed in amazement. "Indeed. I am also surprised by the variety of herbs and plants in the forest that can enhance the taste like that. Simply wonderful."

"So, what should be the price of this one bowl?" Ainen asked with a smile.

"The price…" Hammer scratched his head, rubbed his chin, and looked at the ceiling.

Ten seconds passed in silence, which was broken by Kristy's scream.

Both of them looked at her, who was standing in front of the mirror.

"G-Guild master, all of my stats increased by ten to thirteen!"

"What?!" Hammer was dumbfounded. "That's more than I expected."

He himself couldn't gain any stats since the potency of this mystic food didn't have the power to enhance his Awakened lifeform stats, so he only got buffs.

Basically, the tier-1 ingredients used in this food couldn't affect his foundation (stats), which was in a tier-2 in terms of life rank.

"If I really put a price on this food, I'm afraid not many will be able to afford it." Hammer ruefully smiled as he looked at Ainen.

"Hmmm…." Ainen rubbed his chin. "Then forget about the proper price. Tell me the average cost of food here that all people of the town can afford."

"I have a ton of food, and I want everyone to be able to afford it."

"Well, this is a special feast that can make one strong with temporary buffs and permanent stats. It's daytime, and adventurers will start going into the forest, so they will all buy it. For other townsfolk, they will fork out money even if it's above average for this food."

"So go for 1 silver coin per bowl. That's not average, but everyone can still afford it."

Ainen remembered his communities in the past life and sighed.

The poor people of this world are far poorer and helpless than those on Earth. The justice for people solely depends on the strength of kind and compassionate people.

Here, might was most important, be it their own or their backers. In that regard, the lives of commoners with weak families were very cheap in many strong people's eyes.

There were kind people in the town, like the folks who helped Ainen and his siblings before he transmigrated, but there were also those who saw them as trash or tools.

"Alright, I'll keep the price at 10 silver coins and only one bowl per person." Ainen smiled. "But I will keep some food aside and distribute it to the poor folks in the town."

"For free?" Kristy blinked.

"Yep. For free."

Hammer laughed. "If that's what you want to do, so be it. If you need any help, say it now."

"Oh? In that case…" Ainen smiled. "I want a private backyard. There's one behind this Adventurer's Guild building, right?"

"Yeah. What do you need it for?" Hammer curiously asked.

"I want to increase the portion of the food. Also, I would appreciate it if you could send someone to buy a lot of vegetables. Like altogether 250 kilos of all varieties of veggies."

"250 kilos?" Hammer was startled. "How much of that soup do you have?"

"I have like 700 kilos of that hotpot with me right now." Ainen grinned. "I'll add water and vegetables with some more spices and herbs, and it will be a complete hotpot."

The foxes had gathered a lot of herbs, and he had only used half of them so far.

"Alright, I'll arrange it." Hammer nodded and turned to Kristy.

Kristy saluted and smiled. "Roger! I'll arrange the vegetables. But Guild Master, I would need that storage ring you have."

"Here. There's enough money inside."

Hammer gave one of his storage rings from his third finger to Kristy, who promptly left.

"That said, Ainen. I don't see any storage ring or storage pouch on you. Where did you store all the stuff?" Hammer rubbed his chin, curious.

'Oh, crap.'

"Well, what I have is not storage items." Ainen smiled as he bought some time, and a bulb lit up in his head. "But a storage spell that…ahem, I learned from someone I can't tell."

'Get a hint, Hammer. Please.'

Looking at Ainen's expression, Hammer blinked twice. 'Could it be, he really has a master?'

"Haha, I understand. Come, let me show you the way to the backyard."

And then, Hammer's jaw dropped again as Ainen started his spectacle of live flame cooking, where he created a pure flame, a solidified stove with absolute control over the temperature's spread.

"No doubt. There's no doubt, you have a legendary fire talent. This is…fucking amazing." Hammer mumbled as he looked at the art performed by Ainen. "When will I reach this realm in my earth manipulation?"

'Is it really a big deal that I am controlling flames like this?' Ainen wondered as he saw Hammer's reaction.

'Whatever. I am having fun learning it, and that's all that matters.' Ainen grinned.

"Guild master, you have Earth manipulation, right? Can you create a large pothole in the ground? With your help, I should be able to make a proper stove." Ainen grinned. "Earth and Fire combination."

Hammer's eyes lit up. "Let's do it."

…

Half an hour later, Kristy arrived with the vegetables, and Ainen started cooking.

Once he was done cooking, Ainen proudly declared. "Ladies and gentlemen, now this has evolved from Exotic Wilderness Hotpot to Exotic Wildheart Stew."

"Great name!" Kristy clapped while smiling. "The smell is already better than before. Gosh, I can't imagine how tasty this will be."

Hammer laughed. "Since we've taken part in this for this long, we might as well accompany you to the end."

Waving his hand at the empty ground, a stream of mana flowed that swiftly transformed into bowls.

"My manipulation might not be as high as yours, but I can make solid bowls at least."

The bowls began stacking, and soon, 1000 bowls were ready.

"You don't have a food cart, right? Here you go. This one might not be as sleek, but it will be usable."

Once Hammer made the bit food cart, Ainen stored everything and went to get Ron and Syl.

He first gave them a bowl each, which made them full and stronger.

Afterward, he returned to Adventurer's Yard and set up his stall.

Everyone was waiting just for this moment.

Ainen put the board of [ 10 Silver per Bowl, One Bowl Per Person ]

"Make two lines and keep order! Once you've paid, Ron and Syl will bring you the bowl!"

…

Ainen kept 100 kilos of stew to distribute to poor folks in the town and sold the rest, which was over one ton.

The total bowls sold were exactly 2829 since Hammer created more later, given the quantity of food.

Each bowl contained 600 grams of food and could increase each stat of all Mortal-rank people by 10 to 15.

Silver coins earned: 28,290.

Hammer converted them into gold coins, giving Ainen 282 gold coins and keeping 90 silver coins as his fee for all the work. With his presence out there, people didn't dare make trouble.

Moreover, many adventurers quickly left the town after finishing their bowls. They wanted to make the most of the boost in all stats and the temporary buffs they got.

"Ainen, after today, your name will probably spread to other nearby towns through the merchants and adventurers." Hammer patted Ainen's shoulder. "Get ready to deal with people."

"I'm ready." Ainen chuckled. "But for now, I am going to rest in nature's embrace with my siblings."

"Where are you going?"

"Not far. Just going to the forest area facing the riverbank. The trees are big and thinly spread there, and I want to make a treehouse to rest there before adventuring in the forest." Ainen chuckled and added. "I can make a better house there than the one I have in the town."

Hammer laughed. "Sounds fun. But you are going into the forest, so stay cautious."

"Absolutely." Ainen nodded with a smile. "Well then, I'll take my leave now. Thanks for everything."

'Well, I also want to do a lot of things, like opening rewards from the quest I can't show others. And I also want to introduce Ron and Syl to the cute foxes.'

Ainen was looking forward to all that, especially the rewards of the Main Quest he just completed!

But before that, Ainen first distributed the remaining 100 kilos of stew to the poor area of the town where Ainen's house was situated.

The whole town was talking about Ainen and praising his food.

"I...can die peacefully now."

"I can't believe I ate such divine food."

"Many adventurers who were struggling to get the last bit of those stat points got them. We are going to see a surge of new Awakened-rank adventurers in the town soon."

"I was hungry after finishing that bowl, but everything else tastes like shit now..."

"I think Ainen is the avatar of the God of Cook. Or maybe he got divine blessing of the God of Cook."

"God of Cook or God of Food?"

"Do we even have such a god?"

"There must be one. How can we explain the existence of Ainen otherwise?"

"Your empty brain actually made a good point this time. I'm amazed."