‘The legend of the Food God is something that almost all of the chefs in the Chef Tower know about,’ Gordon thought, nodding as he started to explain.

However, he still erred on the side of caution and explained some things to him before starting his story. He said, “There are plenty of unrealistic stories that you can hear out there, so you can just think about them as legends.”

“Yes.”

“I heard the stories related to the Food God from the tower master of the Chef Tower, Boroto.”

Minhyuk nodded to show Gordon that he was listening. Gordon continued to say, “From what I heard, there was once a man strong enough to split the sky and make the earth shake. He also said that the man loves to eat and his cooking skills were so superb that no other chef could catch up to him. Everyone that tasted his dishes all fell in love with him and the taste of his food.”

“I see.”

“There were also a lot of people who followed him. However, this legend is just so outrageously absurd.”

“Outrageously absurd?”

“Yeah,” Gordon said, lips curling into a smile at the ridiculous story. He continued to say, “The Food God had the chance to sit on the emperor’s throne. But you know what he did? The Food God said ‘Ah I’m hungry, being an emperor is such a nuisance! Hey, Kerron. You are the emperor, I’m going to eat.’”

Gordon shook his head as he went on, “And that Emperor Kerron? He was the emperor of the Bocelli Empire, also known to be the greatest emperor in the history of the continent. And that’s not all.”

Gordon started to get excited. His hands slammed on the table as his saliva spluttered everywhere, “He met with the most atrocious and brutal character in history, Black Dragon Lord Khan. Did you know what he said to him when the Food God met him?” 

“What did he say?”

“‘I’m going to eat barbeque today, so use Breath to roast these. If you burn my food, I will rip your scales, understand?’ You see, does this legend make any sense at all?”

“Using Breath to roast meat sounds delicious.”

“Yeah. It sounds delicious... No! That’s not the point. The story just doesn’t make sense, that’s the point.”

Minhyuk looked at Gordon in doubt. He asked, “Why doesn’t it make sense? How come?”

“No, of course it doesn’t. It doesn’t make sense to ask a dragon, the greatest creature to ever exist on earth, to use Breath to grill barbeque!”

“But, what if he had really wanted to eat barbeque so much?”

“Huh...?” Gordon asked dumbly, tilting his head to stare blankly at him. His expression looked like he was wondering what was on Minhyuk’s mind. He continued to say, “It doesn’t make any sense. He even went to the King of the Dwarves, Golden Hammer Lant, and told him ‘Make me a tool that can help me grill vegetable pancakes well!’ and he even brought God’s mineral amantadium! My god! I can’t believe that he asked the Dwarf King to make him a pancake making tool using amantadium. It’s the mineral that was dubbed as God’s mineral!”

“Wow, how nice would it be to have a tool like that? I’m so jealous.”

“...”

By now, Gordon was looking at Minhyuk, wondering if there was something wrong with him, when he saw a flash of regret in Minyuk’s expression.

“That’s not the end of it. The Mother Tree, the guardian deity of the fairies and pixies, grows a flower called Lefenderser. And that Lefenderser produces sacred honey, but this crazy Food God stole the Lefenderser and squeezed its honey just so he could dip his grilled rice cakes in it. I can’t believe that he used that valuable and expensive Lefenderser’s Honey just to eat grilled rice cakes!”

“He really knows how to eat it!”

“Yeah. I know that dipping grilled rice cakes in honey is really delicious!” Gordon said, gulping. However, he quickly realized what he said so he stopped in his tracks. He coughed loudly to clear his embarrassment. He asked, “Are you the descendant of the Food God? How can you even understand those situations well?”

“That’s right, I’m the Food God.”

“Eh?”

“I’m the Food God. I don’t know about the descendant thing, but my class is Food God,” Minhyuk said. He felt that he did not need to hide it. Besides, if they knew that he was the Food God, then he would be able to find more about the Food God. Of course, his intentions were definitely different. Minhyuk thought, ‘I’m not too sure, but it’s possible that the Food God has hidden something delicious!’

Gordon pondered something for a moment. He thought, ‘Boroto said that the Food God would one day appear at the Chef Tower. He also said that I should tell him where the Food God was if he ever appeared. Back then, I thought that he was crazy.’

So, Gordon spoke carefully, “If you’re really the Food God, why don’t you go and meet with the Chef Tower’s tower master, Boroto?”

Then, Minhyuk heard a notification in his head.

[This quest overlaps with the Food God’s Legacy quest.]

‘Ah...!’

Minhyuk remembered that he received the ‘Food God’s Legacy’ quest when he changed into his second class, Eccentric Food God. However, because of level requirements, the information about the quest was still not available.

‘Perhaps I’m supposed to meet with the chef named Boroto?’ Minhyuk thought, already half-certain of his conjectures. He said, “I understand.”

Just then, Gordon thought of something else, but before he could even say it to Minhyuk…

[The God of Athenae is imposing sanctions on you.]

[Please don’t disclose any more information.]

That was the moment that Gordon realized that what Minhyuk said was the truth. He thought, ‘H, he’s really the Food God!’

However, it seemed like the man in front of Gordon had yet to fulfill the conditions to become the full-fledged Food God. In the end, Gordon had no choice but to stay quiet. He said, “That’s all that I can say.”

“I see. Thank you for the stories. Phew...” Minhyuk said, looking depressed.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think I was a bit too complacent. I should have eaten much more diligently. Just like him...”

“N…no. You’re already eating well enough.”

“Nope. It’s not enough. I should go and set a goal too.”

“...?”

“I’ll definitely go and grill some barbecue using Breath, and I’ll also dip grilled rice cakes in Lefenderser’s honey,” Minhyuk vowed, his eyes glimmering brightly as he clenched his fists. His actions showed his dedication and seriousness towards this goal that he had just set.

“...”

“Then, I will get going.”

Gordon stared blankly at the spot where Minhyuk disappeared from. He said, “This person is not in his right mind either.”

Harmel looked at him and asked, “Why didn’t you say anything back then?”

There was still a very important part in the legends that Gordon did not say. Thankfully, Harmel, the junior employee, did not say anything when she saw Gordon stop talking about it.

“It seemed like the God of Athenae wanted him to find them on his own. The Dragon Lord Khan, the Golden Hammer Dwarf Lant, the Mother Tree, and plenty others.”

Gordon continued to stare at the spot where Minhyuk was at earlier, as he continued to say, “They loved food and the Food God more than anybody else, and some of their powers are hidden within the relics that the Food God had left behind.”

***

Blacksmith Ron heaved a huge sigh. He thought, ‘This is a problem, it’s a big problem.’

Ron had just been informed that no one would make any more deals with him. He was quite famous in the Kingdom of Barras for his extremely bad personality. The guards, the townspeople, and even the foreigners did not like his attitude. The only reason why he was able to do business and trade was because he was a skilled blacksmith. 

However, a mishap occurred and he was not able to deliver the goods on time, to the owner of the basic first aid drug store, McCann, as well as Farmer Brett and the others! All of them had notified him that they would not continue to trade and deal with him since he delivered the goods late! In fact, the root of all this was a young foreigner, a little girl.

‘But what can I do? I feel sad when the little one is left all alone.’ 

Ron had lost his wife and child so he felt sorry for the little foreigner girl whenever she was left alone, that was why he had allowed her to stay in the smithy. In fact, there were a lot of dangerous things in the smithy, but the girl’s foreigner father had asked him for this favor since he was not always able to accompany his daughter, due to the nature of his work. Even though Ron was known for his bad temper and attitude, he still decided to help out the father and daughter to honor the memory of his lost child.

‘It’s quite a big deal for someone to not be able to eat, due to the side effects of the treatment that they underwent.’

From what Ron had heard, the child could not stomach any food. He was told that the little girl successfully won the battle against the disease called leukemia in the foreigner’s world. Although the little girl had been cured, she was still suffering from trauma after vomiting food that she ate during the course of her treatment. His father said that he brought her here in hopes that she could overcome her fears. He had sighed bitterly and lamented the fact that she was not getting any better. Ron gave a similar sigh too, despite his cold-heartedness and bad temper.

‘What a pitiful child!’ That was what Ron thought as he went back to the smithy.

“Kyahahahahaha!”

He could hear peals of laughter coming out from the door of the smithy. The sound of laughter was something that he was extremely familiar with. It came from the young foreigner, Hyeminnie! Ron’s expression turned puzzled as he hastened his steps only to be met with an oddly heartwarming sight. An unknown foreigner was running around the smithy with Hyeminnie sitting on his shoulders as she laughed loudly. And Hyeminnie...

“Go! Piggy!”

“Oink, oink! Oink!” 

…was sitting comfortably on the shoulders of the young man, while he squealed like a pig. That was when the young man made eye contact with Ron. The man became petrified like ice, slowly letting Hyeminnie slide down from his back. The man coughed loudly to hide his embarrassment and said, “That… I’m… I must apologize for something!” 

***

One hour ago.

Minhyuk entered Blacksmith Ron’s smithy but he could not find anyone in there. He carefully called out, “Excuse me? Is anybody there?”

He was quite puzzled as to why no one was inside the smithy, so he decided to look around until he found a furnace! He exclaimed “Oh.... This looks like the furnace I saw on TV. The furnace for grilled pork belly!”

Minhyuk often saw the shovel-grilled pork belly on TV! They would wrap the grilled pork belly well in foil and use a shovel to place it in the furnace. It would then cook well in just five seconds. However, Minhyuk thought that he could not do that without the smithy’s owner! 

So, he waited and waited, and waited. He tried to wait for the owner to come back, but in the end, Minhyuk failed to overcome his temptation. He hurriedly covered some of the grilled pork belly that he had prepared in advance in foil and placed it on the shovel. Then, he carefully opened the lid of the furnace before shoving the shovel inside. After a few seconds, he pulled the foiled grilled pork belly and opened it.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle━

The grilled pork belly was sizzling in its own oil! Minhyuk admired his masterpiece before directly sitting down and starting to eat his grilled pork belly. He even dipped it in salt and wrapped it in lettuce.

“Kgghk! This is really the shovel grilled pork belly! Hahaha!”

Minhyuk thought that he should hurry up and eat it quickly, but once he finished the first one, he could not help himself and grilled for a second time. It happened again a third time, and before realizing it, he had already eaten grilled pork belly ten times in a row.

Creaaaaaak━

Bang!

Minhyuk suddenly heard a loud sound. He quickly turned to look at the direction where the sound came from. It sounded like a stray cat. However, he was met with the eyes of a little child hiding in a corner and peeking at him.

“Huh?” Minhyuk said, looking at the head of the little girl sticking out from a corner.

The little girl asked, “Was it really delicious?”

“Of course! Delicious food is the best!”

“Hyeminnie gets sick when she eats...”

“That’s impossible! I don’t believe that anyone will get sick if they eat something delicious! It’s zero calories if it’s delicious!”

“Hero calories?”

“No, it’s zero calories.”

The child, Hyeminnie, shook her head showing Minhyuk that she could not understand what he meant. Then she pulled something out of her pockets and said, “Then you eat this.”

“...!”

Minhyuk’s eyes widened when he saw what Hyeminnie handed to him. It was none other than ABD chocolate[1]! For Minhyuk, chocolate was something that was in his reach but could never touch. For someone suffering from eating addiction, chocolate was like poison. He even used to cry a lot because he wanted to eat them so much. This might not mean much to others, but for Minhyuk, chocolate was a very special ‘food’. So, it was only natural that his eyes were trained on the chocolate that the little girl had on her hands. He asked, “Where did you get this precious thing?”

“My dad gave it to me to eat, but I hate eating! I get sick when I eat this!”

“No, you wouldn’t get sick if you eat something delicious though?”

“Nope. Hyeminnie gets sick,” the little girl said, rubbing her stomach pitifully. Then, she approached Minhyuk with the sweet, sweet chocolate.

“That’s why you should eat it,” Hyeminnie said, personally peeling the chocolate and handing it over to Minhyuk. then…

“Aaaaaaah!” Minhyuk opened his mouth and almost bit Hyeminnie’s little fist!

Seeing that, Hyeminnie immediately hit Minhyuk's head with her tiny fist and roared out, “This butthole! You can’t eat my hands!”

“Ah, sorry. Ahmm, delicious!” Minhyuk said, smiling at the sweet taste of chocolate in his mouth. He carefully savored the chocolate, chewing one half and melting the other half in his mouth. The sweetness spread more deeply inside his mouth.

Then, Hyeminnie gave him a whole bag of chocolate. She said, “Here, have some more.”

“Thanks! You’re such a good kid!” Minhyuk said as he started to eat the chocolates like there was no tomorrow. And without realizing it, he was already eating the last piece of chocolate.

Chew, chew?

Minhyuk felt sad knowing that there was nothing left in the bag anymore. However, when he looked up, he saw Hyeminnie’s face. She was looking at the empty bag of chocolate with sadness in her eyes. She said, “My chocolate...”

Gasp! "Sorry!” Minhyuk said. He felt a bit sorry when he realized that he could not control his appetite and ended up eating all of it.

Hyeminnie might not be able to eat chocolate, but children would still feel a great sense of loss when someone took something that they owned! Hyeminnie’s expression looked like she had lost everything in this world. She said, “You’re a piggy. You ate them all...”

Prick!

Minhyuk felt a prick in his conscience as he stood still in shock.

1. a parody of ABC chocolates ☜