Chapter 88: Dear Childhood Friend

A few moments later, Leila and Vincent reached the food court. There were a lot of restaurants in this place, each run by a magic chef. The restaurants were selling a large variety of food.

"I told you, we'll meet again pretty soon." 

A hearty voice sounded in the ears of Vincent and Leila as a handsome young man approached them.

"Eh, What are you doing here?" Vincent said as he looked at Damien with a look that said, are you a stalker?

"Isn't it obvious enough?" Damien pointed at the badge on his shoulder as he said that, "I work as a chef in this place." He hurriedly added, dispelling the misunderstanding aroused in Vincent's eyes.

Their eyes widened in shock as they stared at him. 'Such a young magic chef!'

Magic chef is a profession. A magic chef purifies evolution materials obtained from beasts of different ranks and creates dishes out of them. The dishes they cook are typically brimming with Ability cells. A person comes to contain Ability Cells in their bloodstream after eating such a dish.

Once they possess a certain amount of Ability Cells in their bloodstream, they enter the awakening evolution process. They obtain an ability after successfully crossing the awakening process.

Magic chefs who create evolution dishes were extremely important to the Earth Federation. As without them, a person can only obtain an ability through the self-awakening evolution process, which can only occur if two conditions are met.

First of all, Ability Cells are hibernating in the body already.

Secondly, the person is experiencing extreme emotions such as stress, grief, and anger, or life-threatening danger. 

"I-I was sorry for accusing you. My bad," Vincent said in an apologetic voice.

He had labeled Damien as a stalker without knowing that he was a magic chef working in the food court.

"No problem," Damien flashed them a smile. "I believe you are here to eat food. My small and popular restaurant sells both normal and magical food. Which one would you like?"

He took out the menu of his restaurant from his spatial earring before handing it out to Vincent.

"You can select for us," Vincent said after he handed out the menu to Leila.

"Okay, big brother." Leila began to look through the menu. Immediately after, her eyes widened to the size of saucers as she looked at the unbelievable costs of the dishes.

"If you need anything, you can call one of the waiters working for me," Damien said as he began to walk away.

"Wait, I have a question to ask," Vincent hurriedly called out to stop him from going away.

Damien halted in his footsteps, turned around to look at him, and said, "Hmm, what is it?"

"What's the cost of preparing a dish from evolution material?" Vincent asked with a look of anticipation on his face.

"It will cost 10000 contribution points to purify the meat of a demonic beast and another 5000 to create a dish out of it," Damien said. 

"What about low-level beasts?" Vincent asked as he looked at Damien.

"A low-level beast, eh?" Damien couldn't believe that this person was thinking of eating a dish prepared from the evolution material of a mere magical beast.

"I am talking about magical beasts," Vincent said, believing that Damien probably doesn't know about the terms used for beasts on planet Earth.

"Oh, it will be around 1500 contribution points, but I will cut you some slacks and create a dish out of it for like 500 points." Damien said, "Which beast's meat is it?"

"Red Tusk Elephant," Vincent replied.

"According to the Gourmet Association, the safe consumption level of Red Tusk Elephant's meat is 100 grams. Any more than that, and it will lead to an ugly physical mutation."

"What?" Vincent didn't have much knowledge about this subject. He was surprised to hear that the evolution material obtained from the elephant can only be consumed to a certain limit.

"Yes, you might grow a horn out of your head if you eat more than 100 grams of Red Tusk Elephant's meat. So, just provide me with 100 grams of its meat. Of course, a dish created from 100 grams of its evolution material won't help you awaken. It will just increase the Ability cell counts in your bloodstream if it can contain fire ability cells. You will need to eat a few more fire-related evolution materials to awaken." Damien explained with his arms crossed before his chest.

"I understand." Vincent nodded.

Vincent believes that Damien had said the truth yet, he decided to confirm it through other sources just to be sure.

"Do you want me to prepare it now?" He asked.

"Not now, I don't have enough contributions points to afford your service," Vincent said honestly.

Damien smiled charmingly and said, "If you are in a hurry to awaken and want to eat evolution material, I can prepare them for you after you write me an IOU agreement."

Vincent shook his head, "No thanks." They were honestly strangers to each other, but Damien was treating him extra well and good for some reason.

He didn't believe that a stranger he just met was acting nice to him without any underlying intentions.

Damien sighed and left them alone after telling them to call a waiter if they had decided to eat something.

Meanwhile, the students sitting in the same area were surprised to see the prince of cooking personally attending to two newly enlisted students, which they found out by looking at their uniforms. Just how are they? What is their relation with our Prince? 

"I am feeling so jealous of them. How come they get his attention while I never had." A female simping for Damien's love said, biting her lips as jealousy flooded out of her eyes.

Vincent and Leila were oblivious to the things happening in their surroundings.

"Big Brother, this place is a little bit too costly," Leila said, feeling embarrassed because she wasn't rich enough to afford such luxurious food.