I Cook Limitlessly In a Fantasy World

"Now then, let's open the treasure chests."

Ainen sat on a boulder near the statue-pedestal and took out the first Treasure Chest.

'Master, we'll go and find some resources and herbs we can in this area.'

'Alright, thanks.'

As the foxes left, Ainen touched the lock, and it opened automatically.

Sparkling with blue motes inside, it soon revealed, or rather, manifested, neatly placed Mana Stones.

1000 low-grade Mana Stones.

"Tsk." Ainen clicked his tongue. If there was one thing he didn't lack, it was Mana Stones!

Putting the stones in his Inventory and throwing the chest, Ainen took out another Tier-2 treasure chest.

He got a total of five and opened all of them one by one.

Three of them gave him Mana Stones. One of them gave 1500 Mana Stones instead of 1000.

The other two gave useless equipment. Tier-2 Uncommon-grade Boots, and Tier-2 Rare-grade Helmet, none of which were useful for him.

But they were Tier-2 and one of them was Rare-grade, so they could easily sell for a thousand or two low-grade Mana Stones combined.

'More challenges. I want to fight the floor boss.'

Ainen was about to fly up and pick up the foxes before leaving when he suddenly heard some sounds.

He also sensed a heat signature nearby, akin to humans. Powerful humans.

Shortly, four people showed themseleves, coming out of the tall and thick bushes from the left.

"This area is annoying."

"Oh, there's someone there."

Ainen blinked. 'It's a Torion Kingdom's Party.'

'Three Adept-rank and one Awakened-rank.'

"Oh, it's you. The food was great." One of the three Adept-rank, a curly-haired girl in her late twenties, said with a smile. She was level 172.

The group approached Ainen while looking around.

"By the way, is that a challenge trigger there?" the bulky black-haired man asked. He was another Adept-rank, level 148.

"Yep. But I already cleared it." Ainen smiled.

"Brother, since we met here, would you like to come with us? Exploring alone is dangerous, especially for Awakened-rank."

Ainen blinked. "How come you all found each other? Aren't we separated upon entry?"

"Yes, but we have a magic device implanted within our bodies that can track each other." The third Adept-rank, a blue-haired, lean, handsome guy, level 168, said with a chuckle. "We are on our way to meet the rest of the teammates."

Ainen smiled. "I see. Well, thanks for the offer, but I prefer going alone."

"That's good, you know?" the bulky black-haired man laughed. "Makes things easier."

Right as he finished speaking, Ainen suddenly felt nauseated, his vision blurring.

'Ainen!' Lord Black shouted.

Right then, the bulky black-haired man appeared beside Ainen like a ghost, his palm going for his head.

Ainen knew…if that hit him in the head, it'd be his death.

Saffa, Clovelle, and Fraisea were also not here.

BOOM!

Ainen tried his best move and dodge, using Jet Blaze Flight to burst upward and fly away, but the palm still struck his chest and created a loud, blazing explosion.

Ainen shot like a bullet, crashing into trees one after another as his chest cracked all over, his breathing literally stopped, and his heart began bleeding from the shockwave that entered inside.

He slammed into a mudwall of the ascending mountain a hundred meters behind the statue and finally stopped.

"And he is dead. Now we just need to find those cubs."

"I'll get his storage ring and check if he is dead." The Awakened-rank spiky-haired guy rushed towards Ainen.

Ainen's eyes were barely open, and pain was flooding him all over.

'Ainen! Take out the soup fast and heal yourself! Fuck!' Lord Black was anxious.

If not for Ainen having S-rank Fire Manipulation and trying to fly up to save his head, he would have died!

That bulky guy held nothing back when striking Ainen. Fortunately, he had Fire Manipulation, so the full power of his attack didn't hit Ainen.

Still, the difference in physical prowess between Awakened-rank and Adept-rank was too much.

The strike would have finished him off if it had hit his head as intended by that guy, but even though Ainen saved himself from that got hit in the chest, he was still forced to hang at death's door.

Ainen's consciousness gradually cleared, his mind buzzing.

'W-What happened? Why…'

'Boy, heal yourself fast!'

'Heal…'

Ainen's vitality was dangerously low. His heart was bleeding.

Moving was impossible for him. The bones that broke in his chest and bleeding heart weren't the only major damage. His spine was broken as well.

But he didn't need hands to eat food.

He took out soup from his Inventory, directly into his mouth.

"Huh, you're still alive?" The spiky-haired guy was surprised and pointed his sword at Ainen. "Well, I'll finish you o-"

Before he could finish speaking, he was frozen into a popsicle.

"Howl!!"

Saffa, Clovelle, and Fraisea arrived before Ainen, their eyes enraged, their fangs out.

'Kill them all, sisters!'

"Shit, the cubs are here."

"Be careful! They won't die easily, so don't hold back, or we will die."

Ainen was healing himself fast with soup.

'Saffa, Clove, Frai, be careful!'

Lord Black snorted. 'No need to worry about them. Those three are going to die without a doubt. They aren't strong enough to fight against those beasts.'

After all, Saffa, Clovelle, and Fraisea had S-rank Ice Manipulation, multiple talents, and inborn skills from their Bloodline pool of both parents!

Ainen watched the battle from the sky after he healed himself, but it was over quickly.

Those three were indeed no match at all.

In the end, only thumb-sized frozen chunks of their bodies remained in this area, scattered.

'Why did they attack me? They fucking wanted to kill, but for what?' Ainen frowned.

'To loot you, perhaps? I also don't understand, but you were told to be cautious of others. It is absolutely common for Adventurers to kill each other in Dungeons and Labyrinths.'

Ainen wryly smiled. 'I was careless. If I had summoned my restaurant and used the barrier skill, this wouldn't have happened.'

'Tsk, how can they kill me after eating my food?'

Shaking his head, Ainen descended and grabbed their storage rings and pouches before he continued his journey.

'Fucking people are so strong they can kill me instantly. I need to get strong faster.'

No more carelessness.

…

Outside, the people noticed some names vanishing from the leaderboard as the rankings suddenly shifted.

Everyone was stirred.

"People died."

"Multiple at once."

"N-No… my juniors." A man in his thirties noticed who had vanished, and his lips trembled.

"They should be on the first floor, but three Adept-rank died…hehe, it looks like they were killed, but we'll never know who killed them."

Irnia bit her nails. 'They were one of the parties that Maurin commissioned to kill Ainen. Did they fail?'

Her fists clenched tightly. 'I hope I don't have to use the card I placed…'

Away from this place, high in the sky, three different pairs of eyes appeared.

'Oh my, look at that Labyrinth. Thirty-day activation time.'

'That's perfect, isn't it?'

'The location it spawned in is indeed not bad. If not A, then B.'

'Let's inverse it. We need souls and negativity of ten million people, and if this Labyrinth inverts, people of both the Belrik Kingdom and the Torion Kingdom will die. We'll reach the desired number fast.'

'I'll call the organization's Tier-3 squads first before we make the move.'

'Call our top-tier Adept-rank individuals. We need to kill everyone inside the Labyrinth to succeed. If trash goes in and dies instead of accomplishing inversion activation, we'll lose the chance because both Magic Towers will send people. Even if we kill those two bitches fast or capture them, they have ways to send an emergency alert.'

'Alright.'