Leveling Up Through Eating

PR: MattForgenti

And that wasn’t the end of all the notifications. It was immediately followed by a sudden appearance of a new quest! A quest window had suddenly just popped out in front of him.

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

Rank: SS

Restrictions: Food God

Rewards: Dragon King’s Snow Crab.

Penalty for Failure: All Stats -30

Description: The Food God had saved the Dragon King’s Palace in the past and at that time, he had established a good relationship with the Dragon King. The Dragon King even prepared and carefully selected Snow Crabs to give as gifts for 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 King’s Palace! Then you will be able to eat the Snow Crabs that the Dragon King had carefully prepared.

Minhyuk’s eyes widened when he read the quest.

‘S, snow crabs?!’

Snow crabs. A snow crab was 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, they would be able to see that plump, white and soft snow crab meat that was hidden inside. What about 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 father really likes it……’

Minhyuk’s father, Kang Minhoo, loved this food. This was why Minhyuk was extremely interested in its taste.

“How dare you stand in front of me in a daze……!”

Radin frowned when he saw Minhyuk standing in a daze. He quickly launched a ferocious attack to deal with this bastard who had neglected his existence.

Swooosh!

Minhyuk hurriedly dodged the attack with Step.

‘He’s an undead……’

Minhyuk finally came back to his senses. However, he had no choice but to wonder.

Undead?

He looked around and surveyed his surroundings.

Are you telling me that all of the creatures in here are undead?

Minhyuk turned his sight towards Radin. He looked at him cautiously as he watched him prepare for another attack.

Dash!

Ben kicked the ground with his feet from behind Minhyuk.

Clang!

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

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

Radin’s eyes widened in shock. The spear that was attacking him was moving at a tremendous speed that he couldn’t even dare to do anything aside from defending from its attacks.

Meanwhile, since Minhyuk had realized that all of the enemies surrounding them were undead, he quickly applied Pandora’s Helmet’s skills on Ben.

[God’s Targeted Praise]

[The holy power of the specified target will increase to the holy power of the helmet’s bearer. You can’t use the holy power that the target previously had.]

Once the skill was triggered, a bright light came out of Pandora’s Helmet which flew straight at Ben and entered his body. Without missing a gap, Minhyuk also summoned Kongie out.

[Kongie has been summoned.]

[Pet summoning buff. Your attack power has increased by 13% and your defensive power has increased by 8%.]

[Pet artifact buff. Your STR has increased by 4% and your defensive power has increased by 10%.]

Minhyuk felt a powerful force filling his body.

Then, the tip of Ben’s spear passed by Radin’s side.

Shiiiiiing!

“Keoheok……!”

Radin was completely shocked. The tip of the spear only passed by his side but he could feel a pain on his side. It felt like he had been attacked by a powerful skill with how painful his sides were.

And 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 String of Spears]

[Dozens of spears will attack and instantly strike the enemy’s vital points.]

Images of spears immediately sprung up on empty air. The spears turned towards the enemies and immediately flocked to where they were. In just a blink of an eye, the spears had already pierced through the enemies’ vital points.

Plop!

Plop!

Plop!

Plop!

Plop!

Plop!

The enemies that were struck by the spears on their vital points fell down the floor one by one. Radin quickly took advantage of the gap in attacks as he moved. He had 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. It was the telltale sign of an assasination skill that could immediately double both his movement and attacking speed and would allow him to instantly approach and pierce through his enemy’s neck.

Radin, who immediately closed the distance between him and Ben, thrusted his katana on Ben’s abdomen with all his might.

‘You’re done for……!’

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

Stab!

“......What the hell?”

Radin was pretty sure that his katana had stabbed through Ben’s abdomen. However, when he looked closely, he could see that his katana couldn’t penetrate and push through. In other words, his successful stab was only the tip of his sword digging a little through his 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 immediately increase his defensive power by x2. In addition, he 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 rushed into the fight.

He immediately used Rampant Sword, Connection (Inherit) against Radin who was left defenseless. Blood gushed out from the injury on Radin’s chest that he had allowed due to his carelessness.

Spurt!

“Keoheok?!”

He couldn’t help but let out a groan in pain after all the blow that he had received was unbelievably strong. However, the attack did not end with just a single blow, six more excruciatingly painful blows brought forth unimaginable damage on him.

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

Blood continued to gush out from his wounds as well as the new holes that were created on Radin’s body. Not long after, his battered and beaten body slowly fell down with a thud.

Thud!

A screeching black entity suddenly appeared out of Radin’s body.

“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 in 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……”

He was one of the Most Powerful Men in the past. When he was still a part of the Most Powerful Men, he knew that Rafielt was also a part of that list. Of course, even if he knew the others who were part of the Most Powerful Men, that did not mean that he knew of their exact powers and strength. However, Rafielt was pretty famous for his abilities so he knew quite a bit about it.

At this moment, his doubts were finally cleared up and he was now certain.

“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 Rodel who had entered his body.

“But the only person who can perform this soul exchange is the Great Mage Rafielt……”

“The Great Mage Rafielt……”

Minhyuk had once encountered and faced against 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 has happened in the Dragon King’s Palace. Maybe the Dragon King is possessed by the Great Mage Rafielt.”

Minhyuk’s teeth gritted in anger. This meant that the person who wanted to split his stomach and take the rabbit’s liver from inside would be him.

‘Maybe he knew about the rabbit’s liver’s hidden power?’

That’s possible.

Then, at that moment…

Baaaaaaaaaang!

A powerful shock wave rocked the entirety of the palace. Minhyuk and Ben quickly turned their heads towards the back. Then……

“Keuaaaack!”

“Aaaaack!”

“Graaaaaaa!”

Screams began to resonate within the palace.

***

Two hours ago.

Jevis finally opened her eyes after she had fainted. As soon as her eyes opened, she recalled her last piece of memory 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.

She had hidden the rabbit’s liver just in case she was killed or eaten by the predator even though she believed that it wouldn’t be the case. However, she still hid just to be on the safe side.

After hiding the rabbit’s liver, she had 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 she realized that there was a way to enter the cave even if they weren’t foreigners.

It was only when the owner of the cave allowed them entry inside. When she thought about it deeply, the predator ate a variety of things as well as creatures of the sea. So they would be able to enter the cave once the predator had deemed and recognized them as food.

She 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. She fled as far as she could and hid herself among the rocks. However, due to the adrenaline and stress wearing off, she couldn’t 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 about 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 she ventured deep inside, she could see traces of a fight between the clam golem and someone else. And when she went to the wall where she had hidden the rabbit’s liver, she 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.

She was aware that she wouldn’t be able to go after him in the condition that she was in right now. So she quickly went outside to treat her wounds and recover. However, her abilities were limited since she was focused on a special buff and not on 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 couldn’t help but cry.

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

All Kiari could do for the crying Jevis was hug her tightly and give her comfort and warmth.

“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 smiled bitterly.

She stepped out and did something just to solve our situation.

Jevis finally calmed down after letting out all of her grievances in that cry. Kiari led her to sit on a chair as she served him a cup of tea.

Then, Jevis, who had finally moistened her throat with the tea, spoke…

“I…… I actually have another thing to say to you……”

Kiari’s ears couldn’t stop from twitching as she pricked her ears to listen.

“......I’ve lost my liver.”

“......!”

When Kiari heard her confession, she couldn’t help but be 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. She was unaware that it could be lost.

Does 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 her head as she continued to speak.

“God Roves actually gave my liver special powers. In truth, it was actually God Roves’ Treasure. But God Roves clearly told me this…… ‘Give this liver to him as a gift later.’.”

Kiari tilted her head in confusion.

“In the past, the palace was left in danger. Maybe you should give it to the one who saved the palace before.”

“Ah……”

Kiari nodded her head.

He was an exceptional man.

In the past, the Dragon King’s 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 King’s 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 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-nim, 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 King’s Palace experienced peace once more.

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

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

“Ah……”

Kiari finally realized something.

God Roves couldn’t involve himself directly with the affairs of the palace. So perhaps, he had sent the Jevis as a gift for the palace and along with her, the gift for that legendary man.

***

TL’s corner!

Our Food God Allen has roamed around the world saving people for food. Kek. I also want to eat lobster.

PR’s corner!

I like how at the beginning, Minhyuk received an “Unexpected Job Quest,” like even Athenae itself doesn’t know what to think about his shenanigans.

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