Chapter 33: Having Friends Is Better Than Having Enemies
Naresh ordered the food and paid 460 low-grade Mana Stones.
Ainen whipped out the food on the glass plates he had created by combining Fire and Sand.
'Great. Selling food through Wagon increases its experience, and creating recipes and cooking food increases class experience. Gotta keep this up and I'll hit the 1000 mark soon.'
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[Interdimensional Restaurant]
Stage: 1 - Wagon Diner [ 63 / 1000 Exp ]
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[ Mystic Chef ]
-Class rank: SSS
-Class level: 1 [ 23 / 1000 Exp ]
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On the other hand, seeing Naresh coming back, everyone looked at him eagerly.
"How much did it cost, leader?"
"460 low-grade Mana Stones. But he gave us a discount," Naresh said. "We'll eat some here, but keep the rest for later. The buffs will greatly help us when fighting and completing some tough missions from the Adventurer's Guild."
"We really splurged this time."
"But it's worth every bit and more."
"Boss, I will eat more. I just got one hamburger last time," Henil said with a sad face.
As the group started eating, they also inspected the Hamburgers.
Naresh revealed the truth, sensing the Burger extensively using his Mana.
"You got lucky, you bastard. No wonder this water-attributed soup with meatballs I ate didn't help me improve," Lokam said as he clicked his tongue.
"Sigh, I wish he had Wood Manipulation at S-rank too," Remia said with a sigh. "Then the food would have also helped me progress."
"If he had S-rank Earth Manipulation..." Naresh muttered. "Well, I still need to reach the peak of A-rank, and I am still a bit far from it."
Everyone wryly smiled.
It felt weird that they were hoping someone would get all S-rank elements instead of themselves.
Suddenly, Naresh looked in the direction of the Wagon while chewing. "It looks like the other party got attracted here."
Shortly, Diana and others arrived. They were hunting a group of monsters not too far, and when they continued roaming, they suddenly saw some lights from the Wagon's lanterns.
At first, they were surprised to see the Wagon and checked it out, only to see Naresh and his party sitting on the ground and eating.
"What are you all doing? Didn't you go back?" Diana blinked.
Naresh and others looked at each other and smiled.
"Here ye, here ye, a master chef has made his appearance," Henil said as he stood up, grinning and spreading his arms.
Flame whipped out and transformed into flexible mini animals.
"What?!" Sirika shouted, her eyes wide. "T-That control….you broke through to A-rank?"
Frustration welled up in her. Her rival progressed faster than her!
"Miss Diana, look at this Wagon's Menu. It's weird. How can there be buffs like that?" the young teen of Diana's party, Rufel, voiced in doubt as he finished reading the absurd Menu.
"Kiddo, everything you read is one-thousand percent truth," Remia said with a grin.
Diana and others curiously read the Menu and were dumbfounded.
Turning to Naresh, Diana blinked twice and asked. "For real?"
Naresh ruefully smiled. "As much as I want to deny the absurdity of this fortune, it's real."
"Sirika!" Hemil shouted before smirking. "Get that Blazing Burger Hamburger. Eat one, and see if you can break through. Because I ate ONE and broke through."
"He is saying that if you can't break through after eating one Blazing Burger Hamburger, he wins." Lokam translated with a chuckle. "But yeah, that Hamburger is worth way more than the Imerfon Fireheart Fruit. Way more."
"Haha, I know now! You are pranking us." Damon, the guy in his early twenties, declared with a laugh. "Say it, you all caught that guy, and Henil ate the fruit, so he broke through."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"That's quite a good reasoning, but unfortunately, we are not scamming or joking around." Naresh faintly smiled as he looked at Diana. "Here, try some from here before buying there."
"Because I assure you, you might just empty your pocket and buy it as much as you possibly can. That's what I did. Spent my 460 low-grade Mana Stones."
"What?!" Diana was shocked. "That was your week's worth of the whole party's savings, no?"
"It's worth it."
Hearing those words, Diana's party was surprised. Especially because those words came from Jason, who was a man of few words.
"Well, let's have a taste, shall we? The smell is quite nice."
One minute later, Diana went to knock on the Wagon's window.
Naresh and his party looked at each other, snickering. They didn't tell her that it was Ainen.
The window opened, and Ainen popped out.
"Oh, hi. We also meet again."
Sirika and others were startled.
However, Diana wasn't too surprised.
"I kind of expected it would be you." Diana smiled.
"What do you mean?" Ainen blinked.
"Nothing. We want to order the food."
"Sure thing."
Diana gave the order of food dishes and emptied her savings as well, forking out 560 low-grade Mana Stones.
"Naresh, how about we jointly take on that mission of killing Soronous Lake's Leviathan? With these buffs, we can clear the lair of Murlocks and kill the Leviathan in two hours without casualties and make three times the Mana Stones we spent here."
"Sounds good. We'll leave tomorrow at noon."
Seeing both leaders talking about taking on the current toughest quest in the Lainark's Adventurer's Guild, the others were dumbfounded.
However, they knew it was possible after getting buffs from these food dishes!
And they got it so cheap!
"Damn. It looks like we'll be stealing the thunder from Rockfall Brotherhood and the young duke's party both."
"They were planning to raid there next week and are competing with each other, hahaha."
"They would never imagine that our parties would complete that quest."
While both parties ate and talked together, Ainen watched them from the window for a bit after he also finished eating.
'Looks like they are reasonable people. Good party leaders.'
"Brother, we want to go out."
"Yeah. We are full, and want to train now."
"Awo, awoo!"
Saffa and others had also finished eating.
Ainen smiled. "Alright, it's time to leave. We'll hunt in the forest for a bit more and then leave for the town."
"Can't wait to see the big town, hehe."
"Me too!"
After a minute, Ainen exited the restaurant and put it away.
After talking with Diana and Naresh for a bit, he bid them farewell.
"Having friends is better than having enemies," Naresh said as he saw Ainen's figure gradually vanishing into the woods.
"What's that?" Diana turned to Naresh.
"That's what he said."
Diana chuckled. "Guess we are friends now."
"You think we'll get a friend discount next time?"
"Haha…"