I Cook Limitlessly In a Fantasy World

The next day, Sofia, Hammer, Naresh, and Diana emerged from the Labyrinth one by one, alongside a few others. Naturally, they couldn't completely clear the Labyrinth, but they had progressed a lot and grown far stronger than before.

They also took their time collecting rewards, so they were loaded—aside from the final reward they got based on their performance.

Alas, they couldn't be fully happy because most of their party members were wiped out.

A couple of members from Hammer's, Diana's, and Naresh's parties were still alive, but most had died.

They had families, and they were young, so it was also going to be hard to deliver the news to them.

Since Ainen had met with everyone and cooked tons of food for Diana, Naresh, and Hammer, it was finally time to depart and begin anew.

Ainen had also broken through to Ascendent-rank, but this caused something strange—he became weaker.

Previously, all of his stats at foundation were Ⅲ 200 Ⅲ—the peak of Adept-rank.

After breaking through, the stats changed to Ⅳ 20 Ⅳ.

In short, his vessel that could hold power became bigger. Ⅲ 200 Ⅲ became Ⅳ 20 Ⅳ.

But he also shifted to a whole new qualitative state.

Mortal to Adept ranks were considered beginner, requiring the use of low-grade Mana Stones for progress, breakthroughs, and Mana recovery.

Ascendent and Lord ranks were considered median, requiring mid-grade Mana Stones.

King and Emperor ranks were considered high, requiring high-grade Mana Stones.

So, since Ainen broke through to Ascendent-rank, the buffs from his Magic Core—which used Tier-3 resources and low-grade Mana as the catalyst—were reduced.

Of course, the buffs from catalysts would always reduce whenever one ranked up, as people needed to recreate their catalyst with higher-tier resources after breaking through to a higher life rank.

Only Ainen didn't experience that when he broke through to Adept-rank because he was capable of using higher-tier resources to cook his catalyst, thus maintaining the qualitative power of his Magic Core.

His Spectrorend Burger had also included some Tier-4 resources, which was the only reason his reduction of boosts from his Magic Core/Catalyst wasn't that bad.

All stat bonuses merely reduced by 35%, while others would lose 50% or more.

But Ainen was in no hurry to cook his next catalyst, even though he had quite a lot of ingredients.

The rewards he got from the Labyrinth based on the performance of his complete run were not small.

Ainen received 10× Random Resource Boxes, 10× Random Mana Stone Boxes, 10× Random Material Boxes, 10× Random Consumable Boxes, and 10× Random Item Boxes.

That was a lot of ingredients for Ainen to cook, though everything he got was between Tier-2 and Tier-4—nothing above that. But he had acquired multiple Epic and Legendary-quality items.

…

"See you later!"

"Boss Ainen, do come visit our Sacred Aurelian even if you aren't joining us anymore!"

Ainen waved his hand and smiled. "I'll try."

"..."

"Hahaha," Hammer laughed. "Take care, brat! And have fun on your journey ahead."

And so, Ainen departed with Dylan, Sofia, Naresh, Diana, and two party members from Naresh and Diana's group. Naturally, Lilian and Yelvina, his siblings, and the fox girls were with him.

After the group arrived at Lainark Town, Naresh and Diana bid farewell to Ainen as they had to bring the sad news to the families of those who had died.

But they also expressed their desire to join Ainen later and planned to go to the Mistbound Magic Tower after this to train.

After bidding farewell to Naresh and Diana, Ainen's group left.

Destination: Belrik Capital.

After a day, the group landed not too far from Belrik Capital's gates.

Ainen, Viena, and Dylan were the only ones outside.

Ron, Syl, Saffa, Clovelle, Fraisea, and Yelian (Yelvina + Lilian) were inside Café Bistro.

Yelian were able to stay inside the café despite their large size thanks to Ainen's special biscuits he had cooked.

Biscuits that could shrink the size of a living being.

A single biscuit could shrink one's size to one-fifth of the original for twelve hours.

The main ingredient in cooking this biscuit was the blood of Saffa, Clovelle, and Fraisea.

These foxes had a natural talent for freely changing their size, which came from their fox-side bloodline. Ainen decided to experiment using their blood as ingredients and focused on creating a recipe that could shrink size without affecting stats—and it worked.

Pure magic.

Except that he could cook such magic into reality himself.

"Please enter. We've been waiting for your arrival."

As soon as they entered the capital, a luxurious royal carriage was waiting at the side.

Dylan and the others entered.

Dylan had already contacted the royal family to inform them of their arrival.

And the royal family already knew the news—that both Prince Maurin and Princess Irnia had perished at the hands of the enemy.

The shock was immense for them because those two were the future pillars of the kingdom.

Now, only the youngest prince remained, and he was just twelve years old.

Ainen, Dylan, and Sofia sat in the hall, and soon the King arrived with two men and one woman—all of them Ascendent-rank.

They were the current pillars of the royal family. Not the kingdom, but the royal bloodline.

After exchanging a few pleasantries and offering condolences, Dylan came straight to the point.

"King Belrik, would you please take us to the place where Lady Ruoin is held captive?"

The King froze. "W-what are you talking about? How come I don't know of such a thing?"

He looked at his associates. "Do any of you know about this?"

"King Belrik, please understand that this matter has already reached the Magic Tower. Let's not waste time." Dylan shook his head. "A few Red Mist seniors from the Tower are nearby. It won't take long for them to come here."

Hearing the words 'Red Mist', the eyes of all four flickered.

Ainen glanced at a misty yellow symbol on Dylan and Sofia's robes. The members there wore symbols of different colors based on their ranks.

Yellow Mist meant Adept-rank.

And Red Mist meant Lord-rank.

"Sigh… I just hope you can be lenient with us in this matter." King Belrik sighed deeply. "I wasn't aware of this at all until my son brought her here."

"Now, we have already lost too much and can't afford to lose more."