"Wow!" Rovan could not help but let out a sound of admiration. 

Duck bulgogi was a dish that glistened with a bright red color. Some would even go as far as to call it ‘rubbed duck’. What would happen if they placed that sizzling, spicy and sweet duck bulgogi in their mouths?

'Very nice!' Rovan thought, saliva already dripping down his chin at the thought of duck bulgogi. 

Then, Minhyuk told him,  "Hey, if you're bored and have nothing to do, please go and pick some lettuce. I saw that there were some lettuce heads over there when we passed by earlier."

"...Yes," Rovan answered. His shoulders dropped down in sadness. He felt like he had become Minhyuk's subordinate. He slowly stood up to go and pick some lettuce. However, to his dismay, he could not pick them. He had a scuffle with them for about five minutes before he ran back to Minhyuk and said, "That... I can't pick the lettuce..." 

"Wow. Hey, you can't even pick some lettuce? You're a grown man!" 

"..." 

Rovan slowly felt like he was becoming smaller and smaller in front of this person. He thought, 'I'm the number one ranker in Versal... I also have the legendary class, Berserker... But I'm being scolded for not being able to pick lettuce... sob, sob!' 

Minhyuk quickly hurried to where the lettuce was. 

'No, he probably wouldn’t be able to pick it without the digging skill... Eh?!' Rovan thought, but Minhyuk easily picked the lettuce. After picking enough, he quickly returned to their temporary camping site. 

"Wash these and prepare the place where we will eat!" 

"...Yes," Rovan answered meekly. He had now turned into a well-behaved kitchen assistant.

Meanwhile, Minhyuk started to cook in earnest. His ingredients were duck meat, onions, carrots, potatoes, cheongyang pepper, perilla leaf, minced garlic, gochujang, red pepper powder, plum juice extract, soy sauce and pepper. 

He decided to cook one duck first. He started off with stir-frying the duck meat as he sprinkled some pepper over it. Then, he immediately added the carrots and potatoes to cook it well. The reason why he needed to cook the carrots and potatoes earlier was because it would take quite a lot of time for these vegetables to cook. 

After he stir-fried the meat, potatoes and carrots for quite some time, he added a spoonful of red chili paste, five spoonfuls of red pepper powder, two spoonfuls of plum juice extract, a bit of soy sauce and the minced garlic to the pan. 

Shwaaaaaa—

Adding the seasonings to the stir-fried meat gave off an enticing and fragrant aroma. Minhyuk continued to stir-fry the meat well to make sure that the meat and vegetables were coated with the seasonings well. When the dish was almost done, he added the onions and cheongyang peppers. Onions tend to get cooked easily, so it was usually added towards the end to make sure that they would not become soft, and that they would retain some of their crunchy and crispy texture. 

Finally, the perilla leaves. Minhyuk might have mentioned it before, but he really liked dishes with perilla leaves. Adding a few perilla leaves to some dishes could result in a vast difference in flavor. He strongly believed that perilla leaves could magically change the taste and flavor of the food. He placed the chopped perilla leaves on top of the stir-fried meat and vegetables. 

Sizzle, bubble, sizzle—

Minhyuk continued to stir-fry the dish in the pan to fully incorporate the flavor of the ingredients that were added towards the end. This was the recipe for a regular serving, the standard size to be exact.

Minhyuk took advantage of the frying pan's gigantification to stir fry and cook all 40 of the ducks that they had killed earlier. In fact, cooking this much would usually be a hard feat since 40 ducks could serve at least 100 servings of duck bulgogi. However, Minhyuk's frying pan could easily allow him to cook such a large serving without worrying about its state. His frying pan had the option to boil, stew, and cook the dishes well, regardless of the serving size. Even if someone was stunned and scared thinking about the golden ratio, the magic would automatically stop by itself once the dish was cooked. 

"Kyaa!" 

"Kgghk!" 

The two people were overcome with awe. Rovan was now sitting excitedly in front of their set-up, he was prepared to eat the moment Minhyuk gave him the orders. Their set-up was similar to the set-up when people were going to eat grilled pork belly. They have sliced garlic, spicy dipping sauce, pickled spring onions, seasoned leeks, lettuce, perilla leaves and even thinly sliced radish.

“Well then. Shall we eat?” 

Nod, nod, nod!

The moment he heard Minhyuk’s words, Rovan immediately nodded in excitement. Minhyuk first picked a big piece of the still hot duck bulgogi. Then, he blew on it gently to lessen the heat a bit before placing it in his mouth. The big piece of meat was immediately eaten in one big bite! As soon as he chewed the meat in his mouth, he could immediately taste the sweet and spicy flavor of the sauce slowly spreading in his mouth which was immediately followed by the soft texture of the meat. The oils of the duck meat would come out in every bite! Duck oil was an extremely healthy oil and was definitely good for your body!

“Keuhahaha!”

“Ugh. Ahahaha!”

The two companions laughed loudly as they tasted the delicious flavor of the duck bulgogi.

“Ah, you should try putting some duck bulgogi on top of some thinly sliced radish,” Minhyuk said, spreading the fresh, green, thinly-sliced radish on top of his own plate and placing a heap of duck bulgogi on top of it. Then, he rolled the thinly sliced radish, picked it with his chopsticks and placed it in his mouth.

Crunch, crunch.

The crunchy texture of the thinly sliced radish along with the sweet and spicy flavor of the duck bulgogi blended to create this feast of a dish in his mouth. Minhyuk quickly pulled two cups and some ice out of his inventory and poured the cider into them.

Glug, glug, glug, glug—

The bubbly sound of liquid pouring down in a cup filled with ice resounded. Minhyuk emptied the cans of cider in a quick and efficient manner.

Fwish!

Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug—

“Wow, wow!” Rovan could not stop himself from exclaiming in admiration. Just when he was savoring the greasy taste of the meat, an iced cider suddenly appeared in front of him!

“It’s not refreshing at all if you ordered cola or cider in a restaurant, and they give it to you lukewarm! Only iced soda is refreshing!”

“Hoho. I loved iced drinks so I always ordered iced drinks at restaurants!”

“Cheers!”

“Cheers!”

Clink!

The two of them clinked their glasses filled with iced cider together in a toast. Minhyuk quickly gulped down his cider.  Cider and cola were known as the two big shots in the world of iced drinks. In the case of cider, it had a more clean and refreshing taste when compared to cola.

“Kyaa! This tingling in my throat!”

After Minhyuk drank cider to the point where he could feel a tingling in his throat, he started to eat duck bulgogi again. This time, he placed the duck bulgogi on top of a perilla leaf and added some sliced garlic, seasoned leeks and ssamjang, before wrapping it well and placing it in his mouth. Then… Chew!

“Uhmmm. Delicious!”

“It’s really delicious!”

Rovan might have experienced a lot of difficulties during the duration of his party with this man, but he truly could not deny that this was the best part of forming a party with him. To be honest, he had never felt anything like this ever since he played virtual reality games. He thought, ‘I thought that food eaten in games like this is just made to fill the fullness stat.’

This was also the reason why he only carried dried jerky, hard bread and nuts whenever he went on a hunting spree. It was because he thought that food was just made to fill his stat.

‘This isn’t bad either.’

It was like he had opened a new door to something fun. As he thought like that, Rovan finally felt full and stopped moving his chopsticks. Then, he looked up and saw Minhyuk, only to stare blankly at him. 

‘Wow...’

The second one.

‘My god...’

The third one.

‘Crazy...’

The fourth one.

‘Is he a wild boar?’

Rovan watched Minhyuk in amazement. He watched as Minhyuk took a pair of scissors and cut the duck bulgogi before throwing the rice in the pan along with the lettuce and perilla leaves that he also cut with his scissors. He also showered the food with a heaping amount of sesame oil. Just like that, he started to stir fry the duck bulgogi, rice, lettuce and perilla leaves. This was another charm of duck bulgogi, fried rice.

Shwaaaaaaaaaaaa!

After Minhyuk spread the fried rice on the bottom of the pan to make it scorched and cooked well, the fire made by magic disappeared on its own. Then, Minhyuk sprinkled a lot of seaweed on top of it. The seaweed seemed like it was some toasty and crispy seaweed that was roasted before. The seaweed danced and fluttered on top of the hot rice. At that moment, Rovan still held his spoon up even though he clearly felt that he was full.

“Didn’t you finish eating already?” Minhyuk asked, looking at Rovan sharply.

Rovan had no choice but to cough awkwardly when he saw the dagger-like stare. He tried his luck anyway, “We have separate stomachs for the main course and the fried rice.”

“Hmm,” Minhyuk hummed, shaking his head as he spread the fried rice with his spoon. Then, he scooped a spoonful of the fried rice and blew on it gently before placing it in his mouth. The savory taste of the sesame oil along with the seaweeds, chopped duck meat, vegetables and rice combined to produce a harmonious flavor that was extremely delicious. Once the two of them finished their meals, a string of notifications rang in their heads.

[You have eaten Duck Bulgogi.]

[Your attack power and defensive power will increase by 4% for 6 hours.]

“...Gasp. Your cooking buff is much better than what I thought!”

An increase of 4% in both the attack and defensive power was something that could not easily be encountered by anyone. Minhyuk smiled when he looked at the amazed Rovan. He thought that he should at least do this while they were in a party together.

“Wow. With this kind of buffing ability, you will be treated well wherever you go, right?”

This was where Rovan was mistaken. Minhyuk could give the highest amount of buff but for this dish, he set the buff to the lowest amount that he could give. This was because he knew that the more he shone brightly and the more he showed his abilities, then there was a high chance that the people around him would become greedy and twisted. He did not play this game to become famous, he just wanted to enjoy his food and eat something delicious. He also knew that he would become tired and would not enjoy playing once he became famous. After the two of them finished their meals and arranged everything, they prepared themselves to resume their hunt.

“Once we kill 20 more of these monsters, our quest will be completed.”

“Yep.” Minhyuk answered with a nod. 

Meanwhile, Rovan thought, ‘I underestimated this man before, but not anymore.’

Rovan thought that he should tell Minhyuk about the details of his hidden quest. After all, he still had to go with him no matter what. At that moment…

[The Boss Monster has appeared!]

[All monsters residing in the Shrieking Hills will have a 10% increase in their abilities.]

“...”

Minhyuk and Rovan’s eyes met. There were times when boss monsters would appear in the dungeon. However, there were also times when the boss monster would not appear. The semi-boss monster appeared quite often in the Shrieking Hills. However, this was the first time that the boss monster had ever appeared in this field.

“Earlier, I told you that there’s a chance that an epic monster will appear. Right?”

“Yes.”

“Actually, I’m very certain that it’s an epic monster. So, let’s go kill it and grab that epic item!”

“Yep!”

Well, Minhyuk thought that he could eat the epic named monster, so he nodded and decided to follow through with Rovan’s plans.

***

Ares was a player with the Fighter class. He was the guild master of the Ares Guild and was currently ranked number one in the Official Local Rankings. Right now, he was looking at the whisper that Kald had sent him.

[Kald: I’m in hell... They said that I’m a pretty little thing and are acting like bandits...]

[Kald: Please, I’m begging you. Please save me... ㅠㅠ Yesterday, a troll-like bastard asked me if I can make an Aoi Sora doll since I’m a blacksmith... and if I can’t make one then he’ll think of me as Aoi Sora...ㅠㅠ ]

Ares clicked his tongue then opened the guild window. Then he clicked on Kald’s name.

“Forced expulsion.”

[Do you want to expel Kald from the Ares Guild?]

He answered with a nod.

[You have expelled Kald from the Ares Guild.]

“Stupid bastard. Tsk!” Ares spat. He could not help but curse Kald after he had tarnished the guild’s reputation. Then, he went and checked his GC.

[Guild Chat | Lava: So in the end, Kald was kicked out.]

[Guild Chat | BadgerHat: Tsk, tsk. He deserves to be kicked out.]

[Guild Chat | Code: But, we don’t have a blacksmith anymore, what do we do...ㅠㅠ]

The guild chat seemed quite reasonable and quiet with what had happened. In fact, there was no one in the Ares Guild who had not done such a dishonest act like that before. Even the guild master, Ares, had engaged in shady business. What was important was whether their actions had been made public or not.

‘I should make an official announcement. I have to tell them that Kald was working independently and was kicked out due to his rash actions. It’ll definitely blow over soon,’ Ares thought, before turning back to the information that the Secret Guild had sent him. The Secret Guild was an organization that would buy and sell any information. One would be able to get any information from them as long as they were given enough money.

‘The Legend Guild is preparing to acquire a territory... Do they want to appear in front of the public eye now?’

Legend Guild was a guild that had an unusual number of unofficial rankers. Ares was even able to get enough information from the Secret Guild. It even included the key executives of the Legend Guild. Genie, Khan and Locke.

‘These guys were also active unofficial rankers in Versal.’

Ares recalled a memory from that time. He was also one of the rankers in Versal. He tried to fight and wage a war against these three people but he always ended up in defeat. Even though his guild had an advantage in numbers, they would still always end up in defeat. He thought, ‘The shame from that time... In addition, if our guild takes care of them and kills off the Legend Guild, then, we will definitely gain fame.’

Guild wars were clearly different from slaughtering NPCs. Guild wars were something that was accepted by all players as a type of entertainment. No one would blame Ares for trying to target Legend Guild. He turned the page again. The problem was…

‘We’re unable to pinpoint their exact location.’

The Secret Guild was the best guild to contact for information. However, even if they were the foremost authority regarding information, they were still grasping at straws regarding the location of the Legend Guild.

‘This just goes to show how good the rankers are in the Legend Guild, they have enough strategies to deflect and avoid the ambush and siege of the Secret Guild.’ Ares thought, shaking his head in disappointment. They needed to kill them off before they could find the time to increase their numbers. Then…

[Guild Chat | Ruby: This person… isn’t this Versal’s crazy hunter? Rovan? (photo)]

…One of his guild members posted a picture in their guild chat. The picture was showing a man with a bright red greatsword, and another man with a frying pan on his back.

“What’s this? Who’s this guy wearing a frying pan behind him?”