Leveling Up Through Eating

PR: MattForgenti

Hyemin’sDad was stunned when he saw her whisper.

‘They were schoolmates? Friends?’

He tried to ask her about it carefully.

[Hyemin’sDad: Ah…… Is that so? Were you friends with him?]

[Genie: Nope. You know that two of our guild members are my classmates before, right?]

Legend Guild was a guild where only the elites were gathered. Their members were only twenty. And the three of them knew each other personally. He heard before that Genie and the other two went to the same middle school and high school. They have been working together ever since Versal, a game that they played before Athenae opened. In fact, the three of them were considered to be the main pillars of the Legend Guild.

[Hyemin’sDad: Ah, yes.]

[Genie: The two of them hate that person too……]

[Hyemin’sDad: Aha. Was the user named Brony not a good person back then?]

[Genie: Yes. Well…… ^^]

“Poopy Dad~ Hyeminie’s hungry.”

Hyemin’sDad patted Hyemin on the head and finished sending his whisper.

[Hyemin’sDad: Hyemin said that she’s hungry so I’ll log out for now. GM-nim! I’ll see you next time!]

[Genie: Ah, yes!]

***

A woman was sitting on the side resting as dozens of bone dragons lay scattered on the ground. Her great beauty was emphasized by her long and wavy hair that was tied tightly behind her back. Her beauty was even comparable to that of Alicia and Lucia. In addition, her figure was extremely alluring and glamorous that no man would probably be able to take their eyes off of her.

“It seems like everything went well. That’s a relief.”

Genie smiled softly. She let out a small breath of relief when she saw that Hyemin’sDad had logged out.

She was currently located in Azaka, or most commonly known as the Land of the Dead. Users wouldn’t usually enter Azaka since it was a place that was teeming with strong monsters that were at Lv400. Because of that reason, Genie and the rest of the Legend Guild used this place as their hunting grounds. This was the only way that they could avoid causing any friction with the other guilds.

‘Right now, we’re still in hiding……’

But we will soon reveal our face to the world.

It would be hard to hide their faces and identity forever. It was just recently that Ares Guild tried to step on their tails. They were even slowly gaining momentum and started to start a siege against them.

Perhaps they want to kill us and gain fame from it.

Then, she fixed her gaze on the huge iron gate in front of her. Monsters that were much more powerful than the bone dragons lay waiting on the other side. She tried to challenge it again and again but she almost got forced to log out with how powerful the monsters were. As a user, she felt both pity and frustration when there was a place right in front of her that she couldn’t clear.

At that moment…

Fwooooooosh━

Her hair fluttered wildly as the wind blew strongly.

“You’re here?”

She spoke without even turning to look back.

The handsome man who appeared on her right nodded his head. He was Khan, and he has a legendary class called King of Fists. In fact, he was considered to be as powerful as the number 1 in the rankings just with his fists alone.

The other man who appeared on her left was someone who was considered to be not handsome. One could even go as far as calling him ugly with his shaggy beard and an appearance that closely resembles a mountain man. This man was the Crazy Priest, Locke. He was a priest, a class related to the healer class. However, his class was something that was far away from the description of a healer. He was also a holder of a legendary class.

“I couldn’t think of anyone other than him.”

Khan and Locke shook their heads.

“You could say that the buffs should be from an excellent chef.”

Buffs created by an excellent chef.

The Legend Guild would also raid boss mobs from time to time. But compared to other guilds, they would only do it in small numbers. They also had a healer in their guild but their skills were far from what a buff could give.

“Ah. You’re a healer so why did you molbbang[1] your points in STR?”

“Ah. I already told you that I’m not cut out for giving out buffs and heals, won’t you cut it out?”

“You always tell me to ‘cut it out’ but what kind of healer is a Crazy Priest, huh?”

Crazy Priest. It was a class that was much more capable in attacking than giving out buffs and heals. Could you even believe that the monsters were being tormented when they got casted with a heal?

“In all honesty, it will be hard for a regular healer to get to where we are now.”

Genie smiled bitterly. Regular healers would not be able to get to where they were right now.

Usually, healers would have a much lower level compared to other users. And in this place where there was a powerful breath constantly pressing down on the users and even strong and tricky magic lying around, the healers would have a hard time just trying to survive.

In addition, because of the nature of Legend Guild wherein they mostly focus on individual play it was necessary for them to have an excellent chef. An excellent chef would definitely be able to make dishes with quite a long storage time and good buffs.

“It would be nice to have the Twilight Chef with us.”

“Ah, that’s right!”

Locke looked like he remembered something.

“How about the user who recently became famous for his buffed tonkatsu?”

Khan supported his forehead in distress while Genie continued to smile bitterly.

“That famous user is a fake, Locke.”

Khan clicked his tongue at him.

“Didn’t you see it when our guild members said that it was fake? Which user at Lv15~20 would be able to make a buffed dish that could increase your attack and defense by 4%? It would be good if you used your brains to live.”

“Hey!!!”

Locke refuted Khan with a scream as Khan shuddered with his answer.

“I’m also thinking!”

“Wow…… You’re thinking…… You’re really amazing…… Clap…… clap……”

Khan even accompanied his words with an applause. Genie sighed as she stood up.

“Let’s get going.”

They were going to challenge it once again. That iron gate. It was just that they would easily clear it if they have an excellent chef who could cook good buffed dishes. However, they didn’t have one right now so they could only try and challenge it with their own abilities.

As she was walking, she suddenly paused and muttered to herself.

“Will that guy attend the reunion this time?”

Khan and Locke did not say anything. They only smiled bitterly at her sentiments.

“That damn bastard. How could he do that to us? He suddenly transferred to another school back in middle school and now we couldn’t contact him. He should have at least told us if he was dead or alive!”

Locke yelled out his frustrations as Khan nodded his head in agreement.

“I’ll slap his cheek like a janggu when I meet him!”

His words might have been a bit nasty but they all looked like they were reminiscing precious memories.

“I’ll try to contact him again after we finish this raid.”

Genie said this as she pulled out her spear.

Creaaaaaaaaaak━

Bang!

The iron door opened with a bang and they all entered inside.

***

Minhyuk was sitting on a chair eating his cherry tomatoes after he finished his exercise. He quickly finished his exercise since he went right on it after logging out of the game. Meanwhile, Changwook, who was sitting beside him, was admiring Hepas’ Legendary Frying Pan on his phone.

“Hiyaa… I want to hit you on the back of your head and take it away from you. Won’t this be able to bounce back almost all of the magic away? Even its defense is over 800. My armor is only at 700.”

There was only one reason why Changwook was in awe of the defensive power of Minhyuk’s artifact. Usually, artifacts with high stats like this would be restricted and could only be used and worn by high-leveled users. Of course, these types of artifacts would have a much higher defense than the artifacts that novice players would wear.

However, Minhyuk who was at Lv80 had an artifact that had the same defense as that of the artifacts that Lv400 rankers wield. No. It even had more options and effects compared to what they have.

But when he saw the restrictions in the artifact he thought…

‘D, dexterity stat at 500……? That’s a high restriction.’

Then, Changwook suddenly thought of something.

“You’ll be Lv100 soon, right?”

“Yes.”

Chomp, chomp.

Minhyuk nodded his head as he continued to eat his tasteless cherry tomatoes while Changwook rubbed his chin in contemplation.

“Once you reach Lv100, quests related to your job class would pop out. Of course, regular classes would get their quests from their respective job class’ tower.”

“I know this too!”

Minhyuk was studying Athenae continuously. The reason why he studied about Athenae was because he could eat delicious food well if he knew about things. However, he still wondered about how he would receive his quests.

‘I think I have to reach Lv150 before I start the legacy?’

This was also the reason why Minhyuk thought that he should level up for a bit once he logged back in the game. Of course, before he could do quests for leveling up, he had to check if delicious food was included in the rewards.

“There’s also the episode quest once you reach Lv100.”

“I know about this too. Hyung.”

“Really? How about this? A large quest like the episode quest will not be given to you if you don’t have any reputation points.”

“I know that too. And I think I’ll be able to receive it.”

Changwook chuckled and smiled meaningfully when he heard his words. In fact, large quests like episode quests and Imperial quests were really possible for Lv100 users however most of the time it was all talk. The only reason was because Lv100 users couldn’t participate with the reputation that they have. Reputation and reputation points could be gained whenever users get close and build a friendly relationship with NPCs, otherwise they could gain reputation by doing something special through quests or other various things. But it was never an easy task.

“You must have 100 reputation points before you can participate. But Lv100 users generally have at most 50 reputation points, do you still think that you can participate……?”

As he said that, Changwook went ahead and checked Minhyuk’s reputation points on his mobile phone.

“......”

He almost bit his tongue in shock.

‘What kind of reputation is this?! It’s even higher than mine!’

Compared to Changwook’s 250 reputation points, Minhyuk’s reputation point was at an astounding 452 points.

Changwook quickly and quietly shut his mouth before he could hear Minhyuk tell him ‘Wow, hyung. You’re really bad at games.’ like the last time.

When Changwook turned silent, Minhyuk tilted his head at him as if he was asking if he was alright. Changwook slowly stood up from his seat.

“Ah, that’s right. I have to go and meet some of my friends outside!”

“Wow. Your dongsaeng is eating cherry tomatoes here all alone, without any friends at all!”

“......Should I stay?”

“Nah, I’m just kidding.”

Minhyuk grinned at him as he stepped out with a dumbfounded expression. When Changwook left, his diet manager Im Hyejin sat beside him.

‘I’m jealous.’

This was what Minhyuk thought when Changwook left to meet with his friends.

For him, bulimia was something that he suddenly contracted when he was in middle school. One day, he just ate everything that they had in the refrigerator. He hasn\'t gone to his school ever since then.

He quietly and quickly went to the United States and transferred schools. He tried to find a cure in the States but only got the term ‘Bulimia nervosa’ and another 40kg to his name. He only stayed there for 2 months. At that time, Minhyuk suffered from severe manic depression and even had an impulse to commit suicide.

Whenever he contacted his friends, he always felt that he was missing his past colorful and splendid life so he decided to change his phone number and quietly hid himself from his friends and the society. He did not want his friends to see him like this. He was also scared that they might point their fingers at him or worse hate him for what he had become.

Minhyuk had always smiled at other people and even if they called him a pig he would just say...

‘I’m a pig. Kwiiiiiiiik!’

However, even if he was the one who said it he never liked being called like that. He felt that if he did not act that way or if he did not smile then he would look like he was desperate.

‘Friends……’

He thought about this word deeply.

He also had them too. The guys that he went to the PC room whenever school ended were his friends. Back then, he was really bad at those games so his friends would say…

‘As expected. The world is fair to us all.’

‘Wow, Minhyuk-ah… You’re really bad at this game…”

‘Get off[2]!’

Minhyuk tried everything that was trendy and had fun with his friends.

The memory suddenly just flashed in his mind.

Facebook.

When he was in middle school, he had an account on Facebook. He reinstalled the app that he had deleted before and logged back in.

Once he logged back in, he saw a +999 on the bell-shaped icon that meant notification. It was news and updates. Updates about his friends, acquaintances or even his friend’s acquaintances. Minhyuk did not look through the pile of news and updates about his friends. He looked at his message window. There was also a +999 on his messages.

Minhyuk smiled as he checked through his messages. There was only one reason why he smiled. Because a few days ago, a friend of his sent a message to him.

‘Im Jihye.’

Whenever they played RPGs or shooting games, she always set her nickname as ‘Genie’. She was a girl who always insisted that she was as good as the magical fairy genie. She was someone who played games very well. At that time, she was 160cm tall and weighed 100kg. Just like the Minhyuk of today.

‘I’ll kill you if you eat my ramyeon!’

It was really scary when she shook her fist at them like that back in the days.

Just as Minhyuk clicked her message…

Chiiiiing━

His mobile phone rang loudly.

***

[King of Fists] 권왕; I searched through and I think it means someone with extremely strong physical abilities. The most stated example of a person with this attribute was Raoh from The Fist of the Northstar. Raoh was called as the King of Fists and he is well trained in assasination techniques. In this case, I think the class is an assassin class with extremely strong physical abilities.

[1] 몰빵 (molbbang): All-in, you placed everything you have in one place. It has a whole lot of meaning but it mainly means shoot/detonate all the explosives in one place.

[2] 즐쳐드셈 A slang that was initially from 즐 which meant something along the lines of Happy Gaming but was used negatively. It’s now mainly used to show dissatisfaction. It’s like a sarcastic way of saying have fun. Can mean get off or go away.

TL’s corner!!!

I called it. Kek. I knew it. I knew it.

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