Kaistra knew how to wash dishes. Washing dishes meant wearing rubber gloves while squatting by the corner of the village. Washing dishes meant foaming the sponge with soap and scrubbing the bowls with them!

[K…Kaistra...]

Penrus looked at him in a fluster. Meanwhile, Kaistra just grinned widely, showing all of his teeth at him. He said, “I…I’m alright, Penrus. R…really.”

At that moment, Penrus could see Kaistra’s eyes suddenly becoming misty. Even though Penrus saw Kaistra as a young boy, he was still a charismatic boy. He was someone who was recognized as the ninth ranker in the unofficial global rankings. However, that Kaistra was now crouched down and washing dishes!

[Wh…what in the world is...]

Penrus was shocked as he looked at Minhyuk.

‘I can’t believe that you’re making the one and only Kaistra wash the dishes!’

Then, Kaistra told him, “Penrus, please bring me the dishes that are piled up over there.”

[...]

Penrus was one of the five incarnations, the Incarnation of Light. Yet right now, he was assisting Kaistra in washing the dishes.

Meanwhile...

“Oiiiiiink...! Oink, oink!”

Another pet sat next to Kaistra while pointing at a plate. It was none other than Beanie. Beanie had both of its paws over its waist while pointing out the grease that was still left unwashed on one of the plates.

‘Do it right, oink!’

Beanie was originally the one in charge of washing the dishes. That was why it was standing beside Kaistra and severely reprimanding him as his senior.

“...”

Kaistra was left speechless with the situation that he was in right now. He thought, ‘I’m the Envoy of Incarnation... but I’m being scolded by a pig...’

Beanie even patted Kaistra on the shoulders after it had scolded him. It seemed like Beanie was using the carrot and stick strategy on him.

“Oink!” 

‘If you work hard, I’ll promote you to be the main dishwasher. Oink!’

Beanie looked pretty cute to him. Then, Kaistra saw Beanie’s tiny paws. Kaistra was a big fan of domestic animals like cats and dogs and strangely enough, those guys have a savory, nutty and mysterious smell on their paws. In fact, Kaistra had a cat so he was familiar with such a smell. He unconsciously sniffed Beanie’s paws. His eyes widened in shock when he realized what it smelled like.

‘Th…this smell...!’ 

Kaistra was shocked beyond belief after he had smelled Beanie’s paws.

***

Minhyuk held back the tears as he watched Kaistra wash the dishes. He thought, ‘Th…there’s another mouth to feed...’ 

He truly did not know why the world was always doing this to him. He quickly shook his head to shake off all of his negative thoughts. He thought, ‘Kaistra is clearly a high-level ranker.’

Minhyuk still did not know the extent of his strength as a ranker, but he could tell that he had a strong presence. That was why he thought that he could ask him to do errands and find ingredients for him. Of course, Minhyuk did not intend to use Kaistra as his hands and feet. However, Kaistra looked like he was willing to do that so he first ordered him to wash the dishes.

Ellie’s Kitchen Knife, that was currently in Minhyuk’s possession, was a versatile artifact that could transform and modify into any shape. In addition, both the frying pan and the kitchen knife were equipped with the automatic cleaning function. However, the same was not true for the bowls and plates that they had used and were piled over. In a day, Minhyuk could use more than 400 plates. Originally, Beanie was in charge of washing the dishes, but someone new came and volunteered to do it themselves.

While he was deep in thought, he could see Kaistra running towards him. He said, “Mi…Minhyuk...!”

With a shocked expression on his face, Kaistra ran towards Minhyuk while hugging Beanie in his arms.

“Oink!”

[Beanie is feeling grumpy.]

Beanie was scowling at Kaistra, who ignored it and just ran straight towards Minhyuk with Beanie in his arms. Then, he said, “Th…the smell of his paws. It, it’s an innovation!”

“...?”

Minhyuk looked at him as if there was something wrong. Not long after, he also smelled Beanie’s paws and his eyes widened in shock.

“Be…Beanie, you...”

Minhyuk was very, very shocked.

“They smell like pork trotters...”

That was right. Minhyuk thought that from now on, if he ever craved pork trotters, he could just smell Beanie’s feet as he ate rice.

[Beanie is feeling proud and confident.]

Beanie just shrugged its shoulders as it looked at Penrus.

‘You don’t have something like this, don’t you? Oink.’

[...]

Penrus was not envious of him at all. Nevertheless, he still walked beside Kaistra.

“Ah, I still have something that I wanted to give you.”

Minhyuk tilted his head in confusion.

“From now on, I will be unlocking Beanie’s powers.”

“...Oh.”

Minhyuk turned to look at Beanie with a bit of expectation. When Minhyuk ate the second God’s Dish, Beanie ate together with him. Both of them were able to level up after eating the delicious Restaurant Full Course Meal.

(Beanie)

Rank: ???

Race: Pet

Level: 6

Attack: 713

Defense: 3,541

Summoning Duration per Day: 5 hours.

Summoning Waiting Time: 19 hours

Special Abilities:

•It will immediately detect if there is a medicine nearby.

•Pet Owner’s attack will increase by 14%.

•Pet Owner’s defense will increase by 9%.

•Passive Skill: Instinctual Protection

•Can now equip three artifacts.

Condition for Growth: The more delicious the food the owner eats, the higher the EXP and the higher the level it could evolve.

Potential: 184

Experience Value: 32% / 100%

Beanie’s attack had increased slightly, and the number of artifacts that it could equip had increased from two to three. So, Minhyuk was a bit excited about what changes Beanie would have.

Penrus slowly approached Beanie. However, Beanie quickly flew towards Minhyuk. It was silently asking for a hug as though it was scared by Penrus’ sudden approach. Minhyuk cradled Beanie in his arms as a white light started to flow out from Penrus’ mouth. The white light slowly began to get absorbed into Beanie’s body.

“Oiiiink...!”

[Penrus’ Breath.]

[The breath of Penrus, a divine incarnation, has the power to unlock or level up a pet’s hidden strength.]

Shwaaaaaaaaa━

Penrus’ breath continued to get sucked into Beanie’s body while Beanie just blinked in confusion.

“Penrus’ breath does not feel harsh to the body, but feels warm and cozy.”

Minhyuk nodded as Penrus closed his mouth and stopped releasing his breath. Beanie’s eyes that had been closed for a while suddenly opened wide. At that exact same moment...

Flash!

…A bright light bursted out of Beanie’s body as it floated in the air.

***

Athenae was operating in dozens of countries all over the world. Each country had different empires, maps and fields. Currently, the France Athenae Server had Hell’s Battlefield. It was originally called ‘Baham’s Battlefield’, but most players refer to it as Hell’s Battlefield. The reason was simple. It was because it was a land that had never been pioneered. The Black Rose Guild, the guild that ranked fourth in France's guild rankings, once led around 400 members to try and clear Hell's Battlefield. However, the result was a catastrophic failure. What was even more shocking was that they were all wiped out in just three hours.

Currently, there was one man standing in Hell’s Battlefield. He had short, blonde hair with a fan in one hand and soft robes on his body. Not long after, a red flash of light abruptly came out of his body.

Flash!

[King’s Call.]

[A 70% ~ 90% chance of drawing the aggro and increasing your stats by 30% for 30 minutes.]

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!

The monsters that saw the flashing red light suddenly lost all their sense of reason as they began to run. There looked to be at least hundreds of monsters coming towards his direction. At that moment, the man tapped his left hand with his fan.

Rustle, rustle!

A black cape suddenly formed behind him as a black, glittering, full plate armor was slowly created around his body.

Chak!

The man suddenly opened the fan in his hand. Then...

Shwaaaaa!

…black clouds formed in the air above him as the wind picked up. In the end, strong winds blew all over the place.

“Kkiheeheheeeeeek!”

“Kahaaaaack!”

The wind began to tear the bodies of the running monsters. It lasted for about five minutes before coming to a stop. The typhoon-like strong wind had torn apart the monsters beyond recognition. Then, the fan suddenly flew out of the man’s hands all by itself before penetrating the bodies of the monsters that were still intact and alive.

Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab!

After hunting and killing off the remaining monsters, the fan shook the blood off of its body as it returned to the man’s hands. Then, the man folded the fan once more. The fan in the man’s hands was one of the disaster artifacts, Gorac’s Wind Fan. It had the ability to continuously blow cool air with just a single fan on one’s face. However, this was still a disaster artifact, and the owner of the said artifact was Calauhel.

Suddenly, a pigeon landed on his shoulders. Calauhel took out the note and checked the contents of the message. It was a note that came from South Korea.

[This is Crone. The disaster artifact was taken by a player called Frying Pan Killer. I tried to get my guild members to chase after him but he had already disappeared from sight.]

“...”

Calauhel just stared at the note silently before ending his connection to the game. As soon as he got out of the game, he began collecting information. The information was quite easy to find. Frying Pan Killer. Legend Guild. The territory they received, as well as a myriad of information related to him. He quickly sent his instructions to Crone and plenty of other people.

At that moment, someone knocked on his door.

Knock, knock?

An old butler wearing glasses and a suit entered his room. He said, “Young Master, it’s time for dinner.”

He was called Young Master.  He stood up as he nodded at the butler. He was about to step out when his eyes caught sight of his computer. Then, he laughed in ridicule before stepping outside. In the middle of his room was a large red shield engraved with a pattern. It seemed to suggest that he was a noble.

***

Flash━

The powerful light that engulfed Beanie’s body gradually faded away. A creature silently walked out of the light. Minhyuk’s eyes widened in shock at the sight before him. It walked confidently with a cold expression on its face, slowly approaching Minhyuk. Then, it turned towards Kaistra and smirked at him. It continued to look at Kaistra, Penrus, and Minhyuk with an arrogant and pompous attitude, before raising its hands to Minhyuk. It looked like it was asking him to kiss its hands in greeting.

“...”

“...”

[...]

Minhyuk, Kaistra and Penrus were all left speechless. Then, Minhyuk said, “You clearly did not remember anything. You’re just pretending.”

According to Kaistra, there was a high possibility that Beanie was unaware of its identity or that its memories were sealed. Most incarnations were born from eggs, but Beanie was not an egg when Minhyuk first met it.

“Oiink!”

[Beanie is surprised.]

Beanie placed its little paw on its head as he got lost in thought. It could not understand why it was caught just like that.

“...”

Beanie still remained the same old Beanie.

‘How come he looks the same time and time again?’

At this point, Kaistra’s myth-like story was slowly losing its credibility. However, Minhyuk had only heard Beanie level twice this time round. When Beanie ate the first God’s Dish, it was able to level up twice. When it ate the second God’s Dish, it only leveled up once. In other words, Beanie needed a lot of EXP to level up. Having an increase of two levels at one go meant that Penrus’ breath was more powerful than what he had initially thought.

Minhyuk quickly checked Beanie’s status window.

(Beanie)

Rank: The Sealed Incarnation of Gluttony

Race: Pet

Level: 8

Attack: 2,941

Defenss: 3,541

Summoning Duration per Day: 8 hours.

Summoning Waiting Time: 16 hours

Special Abilities:

•It will immediately detect if there is a medicine nearby.

•Pet Owner’s attack will increase by 20%.

•Pet Owner’s defense will increase by 20%.

•Passive Skill: Instinctual Protection

•Can now equip three artifacts.

Condition for Growth: The blood of your enemies.

Potential: 184

Experience Value: 0% / 100%

“...?”

Minhyuk could see that the rank that was previously written as “???” had turned into the Sealed Incarnation of Gluttony. In addition, There were significant changes in the attack, which had increased by more than 2,000. The attack and defense buffs had also increased significantly. As he looked through the contents, he saw that the condition for Beanie’s growth had also changed.

‘The blood of your enemies?’

Minhyuk turned to look at Beanie in shock.