Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 101: Poisonous Toad King

The smoke was a sign of corrosion. However, Minhyuk’s frying pan was a legendary artifact, and would not corrode that easily. With the poison easily blocked by his frying pan, Minhyuk hurriedly turned the frying pan to catch the poison that was going to fall on the ground before quickly reaching out to his Food Storage Inventory.

“Do you have any secret weapons for something unexpected like this?” Rovan asked anxiously as he looked at the Poisonous Toad King while Minhyuk searched through his inventory. Minhyuk nodded solemnly as he finally pulled out what he was looking for.

“Fi…fish cake...?” Rovan stuttered in confusion.

What Minhyuk pulled out of his inventory was not just some fish cake, but steaming hot fish cake! This was something that Minhyuk had prepared and kept in his Food Storage Inventory just in case he got hungry and had no time to cook something. Minhyuk swiftly placed the fish cake on the frying pan that was filled with soy sauce before cutting it in half and placing it in his mouth. The Poisonous Soy Sauce wrapped gently around the fish cake. It tasted divine in Minhyuk’s mouth! It was so delicious that his eyes widened imperceptibly! It was salty, yet extremely savory and deep.

[You have eaten the poison from the Poisonous Toad King.]

[Your HP is decreasing rapidly.]

[You have temporarily fallen into a Hallucination.]

[The Eccentric Food God skill has been triggered. The food penalty has been ignored.]

“....Hey. How can you eat something like that?!” Rovan asked. He was completely flabbergasted. He thought that Minhyuk just pulled out some fish cake since he was hungry due to their continuous battles. To think that Minhyuk had dipped it in poison! As it turned out, Minhyuk was completely fine.

[You have eaten the poison from the Poisonous Toad King.]

[You have gained 4 SP.]

“Chew, chew, chew. Ah! Delicious!”

Completely oblivious to Rovan’s concerns, Minhyuk was in awe of the tasty poison. He happily ate the fish cake dipped in Poisonous Soy Sauce. Then, he made eye contact with the Poisonous Toad King.

Pause!

The Poisonous Toad King paused and took a step back. When Rovan saw this scene, he could not help but feel for the Poisonous Toad King. It seemed like he understood what it was feeling at this moment. He thought,?‘You have never seen someone like that before, right? Me too...’

Shaken with fear, the Poisonous Toad King hurriedly spewed out poison to try and get rid of the man who gave it such a strange, ominous feeling.

Puhaaaaaaaaaa!

The pores in its body suddenly opened widely as small poisonous beads shot out from it! The poisonous beads flew to where Minhyuk and Rovan were.

Puhaaaaaaaaack!

[Rampant Sword.]

[A flurry of rampant swords with additional 30% attack power will be created for 5 seconds.]

The flurry of swords clashed with the poisonous beads in the air, stopping them in their tracks as Minhyuk hurriedly opened his mouth to catch the poison that was falling on the ground.

“Slurp!?Oh! This is not too salty, so it’s delicious even if you eat it alone!”

Minhyuk’s antics were quite a sight to see. He was dashing forward and drinking the poison that flew towards his face as he slapped the poisonous beads away, while continuously narrowing the distance between him and the Poisonous Toad King. The Poisonous Toad King’s expression was suddenly filled with dread and fear. It started to slowly back away. It seemed like it felt that Minhyuk wanted to catch it alive to extract poison from it.

***

Rovan looked at the Poisonous Toad King with pity. When it appeared in front of them, it was filled with pride and dignity. It felt like it was telling them…

I am the Great Mage Arfield’s Poisonous Toad King! I am the boss monster at the end of the Trial of the Seven Deadly Sins’ Gluttony!

However, right now, the Poisonous Toad King was in danger of being reduced to a soy sauce extraction tool. The moment Minhyuk captured the Poisonous Toad King, he tied it with a rope and had been catching the poison that it spewed out of its mouth into his frying pan ever since. On top of that, in front of the pitiful monster, Minhyuk happily sang, “Hey toad, hey toad. I’ll give you a punch, you give me soy sauce. Hey toad, hey toad. I’ll give you a punch, you give me soy sauce.”

“Puhaaaaaaak!”

“Ooooooooh. Thanks!”

Minhyuk quickly repeated the action of stopping the poison that was spewed out and quickly catching the falling poison with his frying pan. As time went by, Rovan could see that the body of the Poisonous Toad King was slowly getting smaller and smaller. Originally, the monster was about the size of a two-ton truck but now, it was already half the size of that!

‘Huh...?’

At some point, the body of the Poisonous Toad King drooped lifelessly. Then, notifications began to ring in Minhyuk and Rovan’s heads.

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[...leveled up.]

Minhyuk heard around ten leveling up notifications. It did not end there.

[Class Quest: You have unsealed the Food God’s Legacy Quest.]

Minhyuk quickly clicked on the quest to check all of the information from the quest.

[Class Quest: Food God’s Legacy]

Rank: ?

Requirements: Level 150

Rewards: 100,000 EXP

Penalty for Failure: -100 on all of your stats

Description: During his lifetime, the Food God traveled all over Athenae and encountered plenty of myths, legends and strong people. He also left some of his most delicious and magnificent dishes during the process for his descendants to find. The Food God has named these dishes: God’s Dishes. There are five God’s Dishes in total. Only the tower master of the Chef Tower, Boroto, knows the location of the first dish. Meet him and confirm the whereabouts of the first God’s Dish.

‘Wow...’

The mere mention of the name made his heart flutter in excitement. It seemed like the Food God had as much appetite as Minhyuk. And that person had personally made and selected five dishes for his descendants! Minhyuk nodded as he recalled something else. He thought,?‘Ah, the Golden Land’s map!’

This map was something that dropped from the players that ambushed him when he was in the Goblin Subjugation Force. At that time, it was also sealed due to Minhyuk’s low level. However, his level had long passed the required level and he could easily check it now.

(Golden Land’s Treasure Map)

Requirements: Level 130

Description: Once you tear the map, you will be warped to the Golden Land. You will be able to see the location of the treasure during your warp.

Minhyuk nodded. The Golden Land! Once he logged out and returned to reality, he would go and investigate this matter properly.

[Party: You have acquired 1,510,230,000 gold.]

[Party: Minhyuk has acquired Great Mage Arfield’s Cape.]

[Party: Rovan has acquired Great Mage Arfield’s Staff.]

Minhyuk immediately checked the item that he acquired.

(Great Mage Arfield’s Cape)

Rank: Epic

Requirements: Level 250

Durability: 2,500 / 2,500

Defense: 60

Special Abilities:

?Skill: Invisibility

?Magical Defense+50

?Ignore all status abnormalities

It was another epic artifact! ?Minhyuk had not yet reached the level threshold so he would not be able to wear it immediately. However, the attached skill was something really incredible. It was the Invisibility skill. What was more surprising was that the player could attack for two seconds under the state of invisibility. Furthermore, the ‘ignore all status abnormalities’ meant that he would be able to ignore all abnormal states once he wore the artifact. Poison, brainwashing, magic, and everything else! It was a very good reward. The same was true for the staff that Rovan had received.

“It, it’s an epic artifact! Wow! It’s even an informational artifact!”

The informational artifact that Rovan mentioned referred to an artifact that one could check and verify even if it was sealed. Minhyuk’s Ellie’s Kitchen Knife could be regarded as an informational artifact. In other words, if one did not reach the level, then they would not be able to read the information about that part.

‘I’ll use the SP so I can master the Intermediate Bandaging...!’?Minhyuk thought as he used all the SP that he gained from eating the Poisonous Soy Sauce from the Poisonous Toad King on his Intermediate Bandaging skill.

[Bandaging Skill has leveled up.]

[Bandaging Skill has leveled up.]

[Bandaging Skill...]

[You have mastered the Intermediate Level Bandaging Skill.]

[You have gained 30 REP.]

[Intermediate Bandaging Skill has evolved to Advanced Bandaging Skill.]

[You have unsealed the Bandaging Skill’s Intermediate Level Special Privilege.]

[You have acquired the skill: Material Restoration.]

[You have gained 100 DEX for acquiring the Intermediate Special Privilege.]

[Your special privilege for achieving 1,100 DEX has been released.]

[A Special Privilege will be generated for a random skill picked out from your skills and abilities related to DEX. Skills and abilities related to your Food God class will be excluded from the random picking.]

[The skill Intermediate Blacksmithing has been randomly selected.]

[You can now view the sealed special privilege.]

Minhyuk first checked Material Restoration.

(Material Restoration)

Active Skill

Level: Master

Mana Required: Depends on the material or ingredient.

Cooldown: None

Effects:

?Material Restoration

?Restoration Recipe

Minhyuk clicked on the two effects to read their detailed information.

[Material Restoration. Food that has been kept at room temperature for quite a long time, including milk and meat, can be restored to its freshest state.]

[Restoration Recipe. Not all of the food can be restored to its freshest state. The restoration recipe can help you restore very, very, very old ingredients and materials. You can also use the restoration recipe to check whether you can restore the old ingredient or material to its freshest state.]

Minhyuk smiled happily as he continued to check his Intermediate Blacksmithing skill. The notifications said that a special privilege was created just like the Bandaging skill’s special privilege. Minhyuk cheered happily after seeing the special privilege.

‘Cooking Ingredients Appraisal.’

Minhyuk heard that there were only a few of the superior blacksmiths who had the Appraisal skill. This skill could be said to be something similar to that. He said, “Detailed description of Cooking Ingredients Appraisal.”

[Cooking Ingredients Appraisal. It can show and boost the hidden abilities and effects that are hidden in the ingredients.]

Although Minhyuk still needed to spend some time to completely master the Intermediate Blacksmithing skill, he still thought that this ability would be worth it. And finally, he also confirmed the Advanced Bandaging skill.

(Advanced Bandaging)

Passive Skill

Level: 1

Effects:

?Wound and injury recovery +11% +11%

?+100% acceleration on the wound’s quick recovery pace.

Minhyuk would be able to recover 22% with his bandaging skill alone. If he added that on top of his Absorption Conversion skill, then Minhyuk would be able to recover 60% of his HP at one go. The only disadvantage with his bandaging skill was the fact that he would not be able to wrap it quickly, especially if he was in the middle of the fight. However, that was only a problem if he was alone. If he was with someone, then he would be able to use it immediately.

“Rovan, you got hurt earlier, right?” Minhyuk asked as he reached out for Rovan. ?Even though Rovan could easily recover with his Berserker skill, he would still need to wait for the cooldown to end before he could recover completely. So, Minhyuk used the bandaging skill on Rovan’s arm.

“Bandage!”

[The bandage has been wrapped perfectly.]

[You have received an additional 5% injury recovery.]

[The recovery time has become faster.]

Before, when he achieved the best bandage wrap, there was only a 2% increase in wound recovery, but it had now increased by another 3% for a total of a 5% increase. In other words, the person would recover 27% of their HP once they received his bandage. Rovan could only blink blankly when he saw his HP increase by 27% after the bandage was wrapped on his arm.

“How is it? Does it feel okay?” Minhyuk asked, grinning at his silly look. At that moment…

[You have successfully hunted the Boss Monster.]

[You can now leave the field.]

[Would you like to leave now?]

The two of them disappeared after they answered ‘yes’ at the same time. Minhyuk confirmed that they came back to the path where the Ares Guild had chased them once he opened his eyes.

Soon, Rovan removed the bandage that was wrapped on his wounds. It was already completely recovered. He looked confused as he moved his arm to test it out. After confirming that he had truly recovered, he looked straight at Minhyuk and spoke out, “Minhyuk. I have a request.”

“A request?”

When Rovan mentioned a request, Minhyuk thought that he would want to ask him for Arfield’s Cape. If that was the case, then Minhyuk was prepared to give him a good deal. After all, he gave Minhyuk the Thousand-Year-Old Tuber Fleeceflower before. However, when he heard his request, Minhyuk thought that it was quite surprising.

“Please fight with me. Just one time.”

1. It’s a KR children’s song about toads. The original lyrics goes: Hey toad, hey toad. I’ll give you an old house, you give me a new house. You can search for it as ???.