Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 156: The Great Mage Arfield

That was not the end of the notifications. A sudden quest window popped up in front of Minhyuk!

[Unexpected Class Quest: Dragon King’s Palace in Crisis.]

Rank: SS

Requirements: Food God

Rewards: Dragon King’s Snow Crab.

Penalty for Failure: All Stats -30

Description: The Food God had saved the Dragon Palace in the past, establishing a good relationship with the Dragon King. The Dragon King even prepared and carefully selected Snow Crabs to give as gifts to the Food God once they met again. However, he never came back. But you, his descendant, have come! Solve the crisis and save the Dragon Palace! Then you will be able to eat the Snow Crabs that the Dragon King had carefully prepared.

‘...!’

Minhyuk was shocked by the sudden quest. He thought,?‘S…snow crabs?!’

Snow crabs were an extremely amazing delicacy that ordinary people could only taste on special occasions. If one held both sides of the snow crab and pulled it apart, they would be able to see that plump, white, soft snow crab meat that was hidden inside. What happens when you took a bite out of it? You would definitely taste a whole new world of flavor. There was a reason why Minhyuk was particularly interested in snow crabs.

‘My dad really likes it...’

Minhyuk’s father, Kang Minhoo, loved this food.

“How dare you stand in front of me in a daze...!” Raphael snarled. He frowned when he saw Minhyuk standing in a daze, and he quickly launched a ferocious attack to deal with this bastard that had neglected his existence.

Swooosh!

Minhyuk hurriedly dodged the attack with Step.

‘He’s an undead...’?Minhyuk thought, coming back to his senses.

Then, he wondered. ‘Undead?’?He looked around and surveyed his surroundings. Perhaps all of the creatures around them were undead? Minhyuk turned his sight towards ‘Radin’. He looked at him cautiously as he watched him prepare for another attack.

Dash!

Ben slammed his feet on the ground and dashed forward.

Clang!

Ben’s spear immediately bypassed Minhyuk and countered Raphael’s katana. His spear struck and pushed the katana upwards. Then, he began to attack Raphael at a rapid pace.

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

Raphael’s eyes widened in shock. The spear that was attacking him was moving at a tremendous speed that he could not afford to do anything aside from defending. After realizing that all of the enemies around them were undead, Minhyuk quickly applied Pandora’s helmet’s skill on Ben.

[God’s Targeted Praise]

[The holy power of the specified target will increase to the same level as the holy power of the helmet’s bearer. The target’s previously possessed holy power cannot be used alongside this skill.]

A bright light popped out of Pandora’s Helmet that flew straight towards Ben’s body. Minhyuk also quickly summoned Beanie.

[Beanie has been summoned.]

[Pet Summoning Buff. Your attack has temporarily increased by 13% and your defense has temporarily increased by 8%.]

[Pet Artifact Buff. Your STR has temporarily increased by 4% and your defense has temporarily increased by 10%.]

A powerful force flowed through Minhyuk’s body as Ben’s spear grazed Raphael’s flanks.

Shiiiiiing!

“Aaack...!” Raphael groaned in shock. The tip of the spear only grazed his side, but there was already a numbing pain spreading in his body. It felt like he had been attacked by a powerful skill from the degree of pain. The attacks did not end there. Once Ben saw that there were creatures that wanted to attack Minhyuk sneakily, he immediately used the second chapter of his Ghost Spearmanship.

[Ghost’s Attacking Spear]

[Dozens of spears will stab through the enemies’ vital points.]

Spearlights immediately appeared and flew towards the enemies, piercing through their vital points.

Stab!

Stab!

Stab!

Stab!

Stab!

Stab!

The enemies fell down one after the other after being stabbed on their vital points. Raphael moved, taking advantage of the gap. He was possessing the body of one of the Dragon King’s children, and he was originally a capable person, so he was quite confident with his skills. A black light engulfed his sword, the tell-tale sign of his assassination skill that could immediately double both his movement and attacking speed, which would allow him to instantly approach and pierce through his enemy’s neck.

Raphael narrowed the distance between him and Ben, stabbing his katana towards Ben’s abdomen. He thought,?‘You’re done for...!’

He believed that this farce would end once he had dealt with Ben. However, something surprising happened.

Stab!

“...What the hell?”

Raphael was pretty sure that his katana had stabbed through Ben’s abdomen. However, when he looked closely, he could see that his katana did not penetrate nor push through. In other words, his successful stab was only the tip of his sword scratching a little into Ben’s abdomen.

Whenever an enemy moved to attack Ben’s body, he could easily utilize his Ghost Defensive Arts, which would create something called ‘Ghost’s Armor’ and protect his body. This Ghost’s Armor would instantly double his defense. Ben had also received the God’s Targeted Praise from Minhyuk which increased his defense against the undead.

Then...

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

…Minhyuk joined the fray, using Scattering Sword against the now-defenseless Raphael. Blood spurted out from the injury.

Spurt!

“Urk?!” Radin groaned from the excruciating pain. The blow that he received was unbelievably strong. However, the problem was the attack did not end with just one blow. Instead, five more excruciatingly painful strikes landed on him one after the other, bringing forth unimaginable damage to his body.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

Blood continued to gush out from Raphael’s wounds as new injuries appeared on his body. In the end, he collapsed on the ground.

Thud!

As soon as Radin’s body fell down, a black entity flew out and shrieked loudly.

“Keuaaaaaaack!”

The black entity slowly disappeared along with its shrieks. Not a single trace of its existence could be seen from the aftermath.

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

Minhyuk saw his EXP rising sharply as he fought against them. It seemed like they were being regarded as monsters which led to the rise in his EXP. After dealing with the enemies around them, Ben and Minhyuk finally had the time to examine the bodies of their enemies in detail.

‘They look fine?’

The turtle looked fine. Rather, it looked like he had fallen into a deep and sweet sleep. Minhyuk looked at them in wonder. When he looked up, he saw that Ben was looking at the bodies with a look of surprise and understanding.

“Don’t tell me...”

Ben was one of the Pinnacle Strong Men in the past. Of course, Arfield was in the same generation as him. However, even if he knew the other Pinnacle Strong Men, that did not mean that he was aware of their exact abilities and strength. However, Arfield was pretty famous for his abilities, so he knew quite a bit about it. It was at this moment that Ben finally became certain. He said, “Soul exchange.”

“Soul exchange?”

“That’s right. It’s a high-leveled black magic that allows the undead to get inside another person’s body. Once you attack a body that was possessed by an undead, the body will not die, but the soul of the undead that entered it will.”

“Ah...”

Minhyuk understood it to some extent. In other words, what Ben and Minhyuk had hunted and killed earlier was not the real Radin, but instead, the undead named Raphael that had entered his body.

“However, the only person who can perform this soul exchange is the Great Mage Arfield...”

“The Great Mage Arfield...”

Minhyuk had once encountered and faced one of his curses, one of the Seven Deadly Sins so he was quite familiar with the name.

“Yes. Perhaps there was something unusual that had happened in the Dragon Palace. Maybe the Dragon King is possessed by the Great Mage Arfield.”

Minhyuk’s teeth gritted in anger. This meant that the person who wanted to split his stomach and take the Rabbit's Liver inside him was Arfield.

‘Maybe he knew about the Rabbit's Liver’s hidden power?’

That was possible. Then…

Baaaaaaaaaang!

…a powerful shock wave rocked the palace. Minhyuk and Ben quickly turned their heads behind.

“Keuaaaack!”

“Aaaaack!”

“Graaaaaaa!”

Screams began to resonate within the palace.

***

Two hours ago.

Jevis finally opened her eyes after fainting. She recalled the last piece of memory that she had before she lost consciousness. She remembered hiding the Rabbit's Liver near the secret entrance to the cave before attracting the attention of the Clam Golem with her aggro skills. This entrance was only known to a select few people inside the palace.

Jevis had hidden the Rabbit's Liver just in case she was killed or eaten by the predator, even though she believed that it would not happen. However, she still hid just to be on the safe side.

After hiding the Rabbit's Liver, she immediately used her aggro skills. However, there was a problem. She had used her aggro skills on the day when the predator became angry. The Angry Clam Golem had dragged her inside the cave. That was when Jevis realized that there was a way to enter the cave even if they were not foreigners, which was when the owner of the cave allowed them entry.

The predator ate a variety of things, which included other creatures from the sea. In other words, they would be able to enter the cave once the predator had deemed and recognized them as food. Jevis tried to fight against it with all her might. However, she realized that she was no match for it so she quickly ran away outside.

Jevis fled as far as she could and hid among the rocks. However, due to the adrenaline and stress wearing off, she could not stop herself from losing consciousness. When she opened her eyes again, she knew that a lot of time had passed. However, she was still unaware of how long she had lost consciousness.

Just to make sure, she once again approached the area in the vicinity of the cave. She slowly tried to enter again. However, she found it surprising that no force had pushed her away when she tried to enter the cave.

When Jevis ventured deep inside, she could see traces of a fight between the Clam Golem and someone else. She went to the wall where she had hidden the Rabbit's Liver, and found it to be gone. It seemed like whoever entered the cave had successfully defeated the Clam Golem and took away her Rabbit's Liver.

Jevis was aware that she would not be able to go after the person in her current condition. So she quickly went outside to treat her wounds and recover. However, her abilities were limited since she was focused on a special buff, instead of healing. With a body riddled with wounds, Jevis dragged herself back into the palace.

“Jevis!”

The oldest child, Kiari, immediately hugged her to her bosom once she saw her. Once she was in the arms of a familiar person, Jevis could not help but cry.

“Heuk... heukheukheukheuk...?In the end, I couldn’t hunt the Clam Golem, Unnie...! The Dragon King... I wanted to save the Dragon King but...! Our Dragon King would have already returned to his old self but...!”

All Kiari could do for the crying Jevis was to hug her tightly and give her comfort and warmth. She said, “It’s alright Jevis. It’s alright...”

In a way, what Jevis did was something stupid. She had wanted to create a potion that could cure the Dragon King using the ingredients that she had hunted from the Clam Golem.

‘No. It’s not stupid. Perhaps what she did was better than what I have done,’?Kiari thought, smiling bitterly. She stepped out and did something in order to deal with their situation.

Jevis finally calmed down after letting out all of her grievances. Kiari gently led her to a chair and served her a cup of tea. After moistening her throat with tea, Jevis said, “I... I actually have another thing to say to you...”

Kiari’s ears could not stop twitching as she pricked her ears to listen.

“...I’ve lost my liver.”

“...!”

When Kiari heard her confession, she was surprised. She lost her liver? Kiari also had a Rabbit's Liver, but all she knew was that she needed to die before it could be removed from her body. Did Jevis know of another way to do that?

“I can live freely with or without my liver...”

After finally letting out her worries, Jevis narrated the events that happened in the cave.

“When you went back inside the liver was already gone...? This means that someone had successfully hunted the Angry Clam Golem, right?”

Jevis slowly nodded as she continued to speak, “Sea God Roves actually gave my liver special powers. In truth, it was actually Sea God Roves’ Treasure. However, Sea God Roves clearly told me this...?‘Give this liver to?him?as a gift later.’.”

Kiari tilted her head in confusion. Then she said, “In the past, the palace was left in danger. Maybe you were tasked to give it to the one who saved the palace before.”

“Ah...”

Kiari nodded. He was an exceptional man. In the past, the Dragon Palace was facing a crisis. At that time, plenty of powerful land dwellers sought to take away the gold, silver and all the treasures in the Dragon Palace. The palace was filled with screams of pain as the people of the palace began to get pushed back. At that moment, a mysterious man appeared in front of them. That man said,?‘I heard that the seafood here is much more delicious than others? But... What's wrong with this place?’

He then talked with the Dragon King and the Dragon King welcomed him warmly as he served him the most precious meal in the entirety of the Dragon King’s Sea. The next day, he came back as a legend.

‘Dragon King, the lobster I had yesterday was amazing! I don’t know about anyone else but I won’t be able to forget about the delicious kindness that you have given me!’

He went out of the palace along with his subordinates and fought against hundreds of thousands of monsters. The most powerful human, the emperor, dispatched knights while the Dragon Lord sent his dragons to aid him. After a fierce battle, the Dragon Palace experienced peace once more.

That happened when Kiari was still very young. Jevis was born years after that incident.

“Sea God Roves had told me to give it to him once he gets back...”

“Ah...”

Kiari finally realized something. Sea God Roves could not involve himself directly with the affairs of the palace. So perhaps, he had sent Jevis as a gift for the palace and along with her, the gift for that legendary man.