Chapter 143 - Ballad's Cup, Shabu

Chapter 143: Ballad’s Cup, Shabu-shabu

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

PR: MattForgenti

“Shabu-shabu......”

Rald smiled a bit when he heard his words.

Shabu-shabu and sushi were surprisingly a good combination. The soup of shabu-shabu usually had a dull color but as it was boiled over time its color tended to go darker and more flavorful. And Minhyuk who had visited a sushi buffet restaurant back in the day had always seen shabu-shabu being served.

‘Eating sushi and shabu-shabu? Kgghk!’

He didn’t let out any exclamation, but the excitement was clear on his face.

“There are enough ingredients. But I don’t think that there will be enough S-ranked ingredients. The ingredients for sushi are easy to get since we are near the Sea of the Dragon King, but the ingredients for shabu-shabu are mostly vegetables so we will have a hard time getting S-ranked ingredients for it.”

“That’s fine. Are you going to get the ingredients?”

“Of course.”

“Wow!”

Minhyuk was truly impressed. Rald smiled widely at him.

‘Ah. He’s such a likeable fellow.’

This was what Rald thought when he interacted with Minhyuk more. In fact, he even felt that he would do anything for him. However, even though Rald was a legendary chef, there wasn’t much that he could do for him. The only thing that he could do was cook delicious food. He couldn’t believe that he was already happy even though Rald said that there were not enough S-ranked ingredients and there were only sub-par ingredients in his kitchen.

“This way.”

“Yes.”

Minhyuk walked with him once they arrived at the restaurant, his body couldn’t help but tremble.

“Heok......!”

There was nothing else that he could do, all he could do was be surprised with the sight in front of him.

The restaurant was located in the palace!

Once he entered the restaurant, he felt like he went to Japan for a vacation. With its dark and subdued atmosphere and with chairs all lined up on the counter, he felt like he truly entered an authentic sushi restaurant.

“His Highness, Varen, also likes to eat sushi. Please sit down and wait for a moment.”

Rald went out for a bit. When he came back he was already holding an armful of ingredients on his bosom.

“I also want to have such a dining area at home.”

Rald smiled at him as he began to prepare the ingredients for the shabu-shabu.

However, at that moment...

“Please wait!”

“Eh?”

“Could you please excuse me for a bit?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll go out for a bit then when I come in please say irasshaimase! Please do it just like this.”

“Huh. Uhmm......? Wh, why?”

Rald was quite flustered.

“I think I would be able to eat it more deliciously that way.”

In Rald’s eyes, Minhyuk was akin to a good-hearted person.

“Is that so? It will be more delicious that way......?”

“......”

“Yes! Please do it like this! Please! Just once!”

“......”

He certainly looked like he was a good-hearted person.

Then, Minhyuk quickly rushed outside before coming back in. And he showed him what he was saying.

“Oh, so there was a sushi restaurant like this in here? Oh. What a nice atmosphere.”

“I, irasshaimase!”

He looked like he was a good man but he was certainly a strange man.

Minhyuk even spoke to him as if they had never seen each other before.

“Hello owner-nim!”

“Yes...... hello......”

“This is my first time coming here. You have such a nice atmosphere going on in here.”

“Is, is that so? I paid great attention to the arrangement of the furniture here. Hahahahaha......!”Ne/w novel chapters are published at novelhall.com

“I’ll take, uhm...... your D-course. Oh. Do you also serve shabu-shabu here? I’ll have that one too, please!”

“Yes, I understand.”

Rald chopped the ingredients for shabu-shabu. Then his expression suddenly turned blank.

‘W, what did I just do......?’

He placed the chopped ingredients in front of Minhyuk. There were a variety of vegetables placed on the table which included bean sprouts, cabbage leaves, chilis, button mushrooms, enoki mushrooms and even oyster mushrooms. There were also fresh blue crabs, shrimps and thinly sliced beef off to the side.

Minhyuk quickly took out his portable stove and turned it on with a click. Then, he placed his shabu-shabu pot(?) on top of the open flame.

‘Oh, did he put the pot on the flame already? The pot that God Juis gave him?’

Rald, who was busily preparing the sushi, slightly tilted his head up to look at the said pot. When he saw the item in question, Rald’s body screeched to a halt.

“Hihi! I already boiled the water for the broth earlier~”

The young man in front of him started to season the broth and prepare his shabu-shabu base with the water that he had boiled earlier in the pot(?) that he took out.

Rald’s body trembled in fear when he saw such a scene.

[......made by the Legendary Chef.]

[You have gained 40 reputation points.]

Next was the egg sushi. Egg sushi was the simplest sushi. However, the taste and the texture of the egg would determine the ability of the sushi chef who made it. Once he placed the egg sushi in his mouth, he could feel its soft and fluffy texture. The sweetness of the rice as well as the light flavor of the egg slowly spread in his mouth as he continued to chew. The taste was so scrumptious that he couldn’t stop himself from smiling and grinning foolishly.

[......made by the Legendary Chef.]

[You have gained 30 Magical Defense.]

Then, he ate the eel sushi, sashimi sushi and wagyu sushi that was grilled with a torch one by one in that order! Whenever he ate sushi, his EXP would increase and even his reputation and DEX would also increase.

To sum it all, he gained a total of 4 levels, 80 reputation points, 80 DEX and 100 in magical defense. There was also an increase of 80 in his physical attack. All in all, he was satisfied with the delicious food that he ate.

Then came the question...

‘Come to think of it, I never heard any notification about my DEX anymore?’

He had always heard a notification whenever his DEX increased by 100. However, his DEX was now at 1,401 and he did not even hear a notification for his 1,400 DEX.

‘Maybe I’ll get a notification once it reaches 1,500?’

He tilted his head in thought.

‘This idiot! What are you thinking about when there’s still food in front of you!’

His mukbang was not yet over! And, Ballad’s cup’s power would only come into full view once he had finished eating his shabu-shabu.

‘I’ll add some rice noodles on my last bowl of shabu-shabu and make some rice porridge with the remaining broth!’

He quickly placed some rice noodles in his pot of shabu-shabu.

***

Genie, Locke and Khan were all left speechless.

“Crazy...... This is the level of the global users......?”

“Wow. Isn’t this insane?”

“How can we break this?”

They were challenging the time-attack dungeon. However, they could only attack the dungeon for a total of 5 times everyday. What was worse was that the whole world was participating in this time attack dungeon event! This was also the reason why all of the users were struggling to break the record for the time attack dungeon.

Genie, Khan and Locke all thought that they would be in the top five this time since they still had the buff that Locke had received from the dish that Minhyuk had made for him. But...

[South Korea, Legend Team: 1 hr 19 mins 56 secs. Rank: 21st.]

“......”

They couldn’t do anything about it. This was the proof that there were people that were more powerful than them out there in the world.

Genie’s eyes scanned the list. Her eyes locked on the team that was ranked 1st.

[America, Black Swan Team: 59 mins 38 secs. Rank: 1st.]

There was a 20 minute gap between their clearance time. It was just 20 minutes but it was such a huge gap especially when it came to attacking the same dungeon repeatedly. It was like running a 100 meter race. The difference between a good and bad player was only around 3~4 seconds but it was still a huge gap.

But right now, there was a 20 minute difference in their dungeon attack time. The second place took about 1 hour and 7 minutes to clear the dungeon. Looking at it, the gap between them was still huge.

Khan opened his mouth as he looked at Genie’s frustrated expression.

“Genie, think about it. Wasn’t there a guild member named Julian in the Black Swan Guild? The one that was hailed as God Baveka’s child?”

“......Ah!”

Genie looked extremely surprised.

Julian, God Baveka’s child, was said to have a tremendous amount of holy power. And every time the holy power reached an increase of 100, there would always be a huge additional damage against the undead. And with Julian’s case, his party members would definitely bet on his holy powers. They would even try and find ways to maximize his holy power just for this.

“I heard that God Baveka’s Child, Julian, has 1,300 points in his holy power.”

1,300 points in holy power alone. This was a huge figure. Holy power, just like DEX, was a stat that couldn’t be raised so easily. It also couldn’t be raised with your regular bonus points. However, there were things that one could do to raise their holy power such as abstaining from cursing, eating meat, and even celibacy and other terrible things that really couldn’t be done by a normal person.

But you’re saying that he has 1,300 points in holy power? What a terrible disgrace.

“Shit. Do we also need to recruit someone with high holy powers?”

“No. No matter how high the holy power of that person was, it would be completely useless to compare with Julian. There’s only one thing that we could do now.”

“What is it?”

Locke and Khan turned to look at Genie at the same time.

“Khan and I should eat Minhyuk’s buffed dishes.”

“As expected...... It’s the only thing that we could trust.”

If the both of them could eat Minhyuk’s buffed dish then it would be possible for them to shorten their attack time significantly. It wouldn’t even be impossible for them to rise to the top 5.

‘But this is just a temporary increase in strength......’

In other words, it wasn’t their own power.

Genie had finally realized how high the walls were. They needed to climb those high walls just to get on the same level as the rest of the world.

***

Minhyuk finally finished eating his shabu-shabu porridge. He simply added some rice and egg in the remaining shabu-shabu broth before stirring it continuously and letting it boil.

Once he finished eating the rest of his porridge, the notifications rang continuously in his ears.

[You have eaten the Shabu-shabu made from the water in Ballad’s cup.]

[The Food Fighter’s Greatness.]

[The penalty for the medicine has been ignored. However, this does not work for many people.]

[A Medicine Dish. You have obtained additional stats.]

[You have gained 400 Holy Power.]

[Ballad’s cup’s blessings will permanently increase your Holy Power acquisition rate by x2.]

***

TL's corner!

When I was translating this, our dinner was sashimi so I could relate with the wasabi part. kgghk!

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