Chapter 43: Sweet Potato Pumpkin?

Minhyuk giggled after reading that a player had been locked up in prison. He continued to browse through the related articles.

[Is the empress really looking for an heir?

hkdad31: Yep, yep. Facts only. But there’s one condition and it’s really hard. They said that you have to join and win the tournament held in the Eivelis Empire.]

"Tournament?"

Athenae?usually hosted competitions and tournaments from time to time. These competitions and tournaments were often held as events. Talented players would be able to gain fame and reputation through these events. Curious, Minhyuk looked at the contents of the article more seriously.

[Don't you think that there would be lots of fun in this coming tournament that will be held in the Eivelis Empire?

GrowYourHair: I'm excited! I’m sure it will be fun. The tournament participants will definitely be amazing... But I think the champion is already decided.

afhjl25: IKR... One of the participants this time is the sister of the top three in our local rankings, Cain. What's more surprising is that she's more talented, more powerful than Cain. She even has a legendary class. They said that everything about her is overwhelming. The best part is, her level is still low.]

"Ho..."

Third in the rankings…

Minhyuk continued to scroll down.

[I'm posting details and information about how the tournament will be held. First, all of the participants will be placed on a small island together. Please check the map.]

Minhyuk clicked on the map that showed a tiny island. From what he read, the exact contents of the tournament and what the participants would do inside the island was still unconfirmed. For all they knew, they could be asked to hunt for monsters or even asked to fight with other players. However, Minhyuk’s eyes were trained on the center of the map.

"Huh...?!"

He could not tear his eyes away. The thing located on the center of the island was none other than a convenience store! It even reminded Minhyuk of the logos of the three convenience store franchises in the country.

"Gasp?!?W… what's this?!" Minhyuk exclaimed in shock as he searched?‘Eivelis Empire’s Convenience Store’?in the search bar.

[Does anyone know what the convenience store on the island in the tournament is?

SevenDeleven: Hello, gullible customer. We have prepared this for you. It would be expensive so please buy from us a lot.

faddadd5413: Is the person above for real LOL hahaha. The convenience store is going to be used as a rest area for the players during the game. They say that you can use and eat as much as you want of the food and items you can find in there. I heard that all of the convenience stores in the country combined and integrated for this event, so there’s practically nothing that will be missing in there.]

"Wow…!"

Minhyuk was suddenly filled with interest even though he only had the intention of checking out these articles, before deciding if he should carry out Len’s quest or not. After seeing the convenience store, it seemed like Minhyuk thought about something else.

He imagined himself awake at two in the morning while everyone was fast asleep. It was a time when eating late-night snacks at home might wake everyone else up. So, he would slowly tiptoe towards the door. Once he reached the door, he would press the open button and, this is the most critical moment, close the door gently so it would not make a sound. Then, he would run to the convenience store nearby to buy a cup of ramen, a triangle seaweed roll, and a hot bar. He would proceed to put it in a microwave inside the store, a perfect meal for the perfect weather, a night that was not too hot nor too cold, it would be just right.

The seaweed roll would be the first thing that Minhyuk would taste. After all, this was the crown prince item of convenience stores, just like Jeonju had their mixed rice. It would be the best if it was tuna mayo flavored, or paired with tuna mayo ramen. Then, he would open his steaming hot ramen and stir it with his chopsticks before slurping the noodles up. Minhyuk would also take a gulp of the ramen soup whenever he felt like the seaweed roll was a bit too dry.

"Keuhaaaaa!" Minhyuk unconsciously burst out in awe. He wondered what it would taste like if he also took a bite of the lightly flavored hot bar?

Chew, chew—

Minhyuk’s mouth unknowingly moved as he imagined the scene. But would that be everything? Of course, Minhyuk believed that grabbing some green tea ice cream from Manistop on his way home would be the perfect end for his impromptu trip!

‘Convenience?stores truly do have everything!'

Minhyuk’s interest in the tournament had reached the peak. This was the moment that he decided what he should do in the near future.

'I have to participate in that tournament…!'?Minhyuk thought as he enthusiastically searched the website for more information. The first thing that he read through was the official announcement and the consolidated information.

"Only those above Level 80 can participate."

To some extent, the label of being a?‘novice’?was somehow removed once the player reached Level 80. Besides, the viewers unexpectedly found it more exciting to watch novice tournaments than high-leveled players battling it out. After all, even if they were low-leveled, there would be hidden classes, secret classes and even legendary classes, that appeared in tournaments like this. Things like that often added more excitement for the viewers. It was also mentioned that plenty of rankers would be watching from the tournament’s VIP section. Minhyuk even saw a familiar name on the list.

'Alicia?'

This was the girl that promised to treat Minhyuk to a meal. After searching for information, Minhyuk checked his status on his phone.

(Minhyuk)

Level: 22

Class: Food God 90%

HP: 851?MP: 360

STR: 134+17??AGI: 90+35 ?STM: 65+15

WIS: 25+11 ?INT: 25+11?DEX: 13+40

Charisma (CHA): 2?REP: 50

Fullness: 100%

Bonus Point: 0

Minhyuk’s DEX had increased by quite a bit after cooking all day long. However, he still needed to increase his level by 58 to be able to participate in the tournament. After realizing that he did not have any time to dilly-dally, Minhyuk stood up and went inside the capsule to log in to?Athenae.

***

Minhyuk hunted and ate for three consecutive days inside the game. He was able to raise his level to Level 55 during that time. Although he had the God Class Penalty and could only level up after gaining thrice the normal EXP amount, his speed was still ridiculously fast.

"Tasteless bastards! You taste like herbal medicine!"

"Chwiiik. H…human... Crazy human...!" The orcs shouted, breaking down all at once after hearing Minhyuk’s mysterious words.

"Phew." Minhyuk let out a breath as he looked at his status window.

(Minhyuk)

Level: 55

Class: Food God 100%

HP: 1,239?MP: 360

STR: 220+17??AGI: 117+35 ?STM: 100+15

WIS: 25+11 ?INT: 25+11?DEX: 41+40

CHA: 2?REP: 50

Fullness: 100%

Bonus Point: 0

Even though he was hunting, Minhyuk still continued to cook diligently. Due to the quadraple DEX acquisition rate, his DEX increased quickly.

"Oh?" Minhyuk let out a curious gasp after seeing a skill book among the drops. Skill books were items that could be obtained by hunting and killing monsters.

[You have acquired the Orc's Molar Teeth.]

[You have gained 315 gold.]

[You have acquired the skill book, Warrior's Roar.]

Minhyuk checked the contents of the skill book right away.

(Warrior's Roar)

Active Skill

Rank: Rare

Requirements: STR 100, AGI 100

Mana Required: 50

Cooldown: 3 minutes

Effects: When the user lets out a roar, there's a 60% probability of frightening away all the enemies in the surrounding area. The probability will drop or increase depending on the level difference.

The skill was not that bad. Warrior-class players usually gather a lot of these skill books to learn plenty of skills. Minhyuk wondered if he could also learn this skill.

"Acquire."

Skills could be acquired just by reaching out one’s hands towards the skill book. However, Minhyuk heard a different notification from what he expected.

[Unable to acquire.]

"...Huh?" Minhyuk asked dumbly, looking at his hands strangely. He could not understand why the acquisition was a failure. After all, he had met all of the requirements.

‘What the hell? Are you telling me that I can’t acquire skills like this?’

Minhyuk wondered why he could not do it while the other players could. So, he searched through?Athenae’s official website to look for answers.

[Was there a special case where you can't acquire the skill in a skill book?

kbmbmvm73: It's simple. It can be the case where you have exceeded the amount of skill books that you can acquire, you haven't met the requirements, or it could be this really, really rare case where your class acquires skills in a different way.]

"...Huh?" Minhyuk's head tilted in confusion once again.

A different way of acquiring skills?

Looking back at how he acquired skills, Minhyuk realized that he had acquired his skills after learning under Len and Roina. However, anyone could learn skills from NPCs. So, he continued his search. Most of them answered that it was a special case where the player could not acquire the skill from a skill book due to the class’ special characteristic. From what Minhyuk read, there had been two prior cases. The first one was because the skill was class-specific and the player could not get it. The second one was because the class used a different method to acquire skills.

'Hmm…'

Acquiring skills was something that made?Athenae?more fun and interesting.

'I'm going to have to sell this,’?Minhyuk thought, as he took out a return stone from his inventory and went back to the village.

***

Soldier Rand was standing in front of the military training center, giving out rewards to the players that had joined and completed the subjugation quest. A kind smile bloomed on his face the moment he saw Minhyuk arrive. He said, "Oh. You’re here? Captain Vald has been waiting for you, boy."

"Where is he?"

"He's over there."

"Alright. Thank you."

"Ah, Venetto has been looking for you quite a lot these days."

'Eeeek...!'?Minhyuk shrieked in his head as he hurriedly rushed to where Vald was.

Seeing him, Vald looked happy. He said, "Oh, you're here. Rand will be giving you thrice the amount of the promised Sun's Wheat. And you will also get this special reward."

"Yes?"

Vald handed over a golden key, which Minhyuk accepted as he looked at it curiously.

[You have obtained the key to the hidden dungeon as a reward for ranking first in the subjugation troops' contributions boards.]

[You have gained 10 REP.]

“You ranked first in the subjugation troops’ contribution boards, so I’m giving this to you as an additional reward. Do you know how to use this key?”

"Yes, of course," Minhyuk answered confidently. He knew about these golden keys. They were used to open hidden dungeons. It also allowed the player to move directly to the dungeon just by holding it tight and saying?‘Move’. These golden keys were quite difficult to obtain. After all, once a player discovered a hidden dungeon, the player would gain twice the acquisition rate for EXP and item drops.

‘Maybe this can help me reach Level 80 quickly?’?Minhyuk thought.

“From what I heard, there’s something that you can eat inside that dungeon. I’m only telling you this because it’s you, boy,” Vald said. Vald might be the subjugation troops’ captain but he was also a special NPC. That was why he knew something about the hidden dungeon. He only told Minhyuk this information because Minhyuk had reached the highest favor possible with him.

"Oh... Is it something delicious?!" Minhyuk asked in surprise, wondering what kind of delicious food was inside. He was suddenly filled with expectations for the hidden dungeon. Minhyuk quickly nodded at Vald in thanks before going over to Rand to receive his rewards.

"Captain said that I should go and get my rewards from Soldier Rand."

"Yeah. Here's four times the amount of the Sun's Wheat," Rand said as he narrowed his eyes and stretched his fist towards him for a fist bump.

'Hoho… This is a bonus add-on from Rand.'

Minhyuk was originally set to receive only thrice the amount of rewards, so he was elated after receiving four times the amount. He clenched his fist and gave Rand a fist bump, before hoisting the four sacks, each filled with five kilograms of Sun's Wheat that Rand had packed earlier.

[You have completed the Bordy Plains Subjugation Quest.]

[You have received 20kg of Sun's Wheat.]

[You are the player with the highest contribution in the quest.]

[You have gained 8,000 EXP.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[...leveled up.]