"And most importantly, the Bluedge Forest has abundant monsters and a vast variety of resources since it borders the ocean. Monsters that can live both in the sea and on land are also there. That forest is the perfect ground for Ainen to cook a variety of food and get stronger, faster."

Ainen's eyes shone. He also wanted a wide variety of resources to cook more recipes and gain experience to upgrade his class. "That place sounds even more wonderful now. If I can get a variety of resources with different attributes, I can progress a lot in many areas. And you all will also get stronger with me, you know that, right?"

Dylan and Sofia gulped. They knew. They knew that Ainen could make everyone around him stronger and faster, at least in terms of gaining stats and giving temporary buffs to overcome tougher challenges with his food.

"Well, we are already going there, so let's go." Dylan wryly smiled.

…

Soon, the ice ship of Lady Ruoin arrived at the periphery of the Bluedge Forest.

They didn't go deeper and just set up camp there.

Café Bistro out, No-Entry Barrier on. Now, even if an Emperor-rank monster arrived, it wouldn't be able to enter the barrier for 24 hours.

After everything was set up, Ainen went deeper alone because he could easily detect resources in the open with his Elemental Resonance passive skill.

Moreover, his pace of combat was entirely different from Dylan and Sofia, even though they also broke through to Ascendant-rank like Ainen. The last requirement was only expanding the size of their Magic Core using Mana Stones, and it wasn't hard. However, those two had no chance of keeping up with him, so they stayed in the camp with Lady Ruoin, securing the perimeter and training Ron and Syl as per Ainen's request.

Ron and Syl were at the peak of Mortal-rank and had learned sufficient control of Mana, so it was time for them to learn some beginner skills.

Ainen's plan was also to finally make food to awaken the elemental manipulation they wanted. He just lacked some Tier-1 resources that he initially planned to get easily after going to Sacred Aurelian, but this forest could also provide them.

In just the first hour, Ainen hunted tons of monsters and acquired 23 resources, most being Tier-1 and Tier-2 since he was still in the outer area of the forest.

The monsters, however, were all Awakened-rank and Adept-rank so far.

Since Ainen's control was high and his energy was wholly confined within one meter of himself, the other monsters had no way of sensing his threat level like usual, so they pounced on him after seeing him—only to become ingredients for Ainen.

After going deeper and hunting some peak Adept-rank monsters, Ainen finally encountered Ascendant-rank monsters.

Ainen hid within the ground, completely concealed as he observed the Four-Horned Molten Bull.

[Four-Horned Molten Bull]

Level: 231

Liferank: Ascendant

Innate Talent:

—> Magma Armor.

Stats:

—> Vitality: Ⅳ 34 Ⅳ +26%

—> Strength: Ⅳ 42 +26%

—> Stamina: Ⅳ 48 Ⅳ +26%

—> Agility: Ⅳ 31 Ⅳ +26%

—> Cognition: Ⅳ 29 Ⅳ +26%

—> Arcane: Ⅳ 32 Ⅳ +26%

—> Mana: Ⅳ 40 Ⅳ +26%

'Hmm, alright, I can one-shot it since my stats are already a bit higher than it while my skills far surpass it.'

Ainen's hand emerged from the ground, his index finger pointing at the bull that was feeding on an Adept-rank Verdant Cap Elephant it had just killed.

In front of his index finger that pointed at the bull, a projectile instantly manifested, made of Earth, Glass, and Wind. It was a drill.

Snap!

The drill shot forward while spinning rapidly, giving it powerful penetration force. It shattered the bull's Magma Armor before boring a hole into its head as it fell with a thud.

[You have reached level 204. You have acquired 20 stat points.]

'Alright, time to level up more.'

Ainen stored it and continued, encountering more Ascendant-rank monsters as he quietly, sneakily, and swiftly killed them without causing a ruckus or attracting unwanted attention—he didn't want to mess with a Lord-rank monster or high-leveled Ascendant-rank monsters.

As he continued, Ainen could still one-shot Ascendant-rank monsters of level 250–300 due to his powerful arsenal of skills.

But as he encountered a level 328 monster, it didn't die with one shot. The difference in stats was getting bigger. However, Ainen had to expend a bit more energy in a single skill to one-shot them, so it wasn't a problem.

Ainen continued a bit more, killing a total of 42 Ascendant-rank monsters before finally returning.

'This should be enough to increase my stats significantly.'

Since he was now Ascendant-rank, he needed Ascendant-rank monsters as ingredients to gain stats.

…

After returning to the camp, Ainen went into the kitchen and started cooking.

He sat down with the first batch of ingredients, using Perfect Ingredient Executing to create an array of finely cut meat and prepared herbs and plants.

Afterward, he observed everything with focus and started triggering his Recipe of Everything skill to cook recipes.

Since he wanted to maximize creating recipes, he took his time and was only done after one whole hour.

He created tons of recipes, the majority of them being C-rank, some B-rank, and a few A-rank ones.

Afterward, he started creating tools in the kitchen and then began cooking.

In less than an hour, he finished cooking tons of recipes.

[ Mystic Chef ]

— Class rank: SSS

— Class level: 1 [794 / 1000]

'Creating recipes and cooking them in mass like this works better. A-rank recipes especially boost the experience bar a lot.'

It took him less time to cook all the recipes than to come up with them. Although it was the same for normal chefs, as they would have to do trial and error. Even he did that, but here, the process was entirely different.

Once Ainen was done cooking several tons of food, he went out.

"Time for a feast, folks."

Waving his hand, he created a large table of glass with earthen designs and filled it with food dishes.

Everyone's eyes glowed, reflecting the exotic food dishes.

"Let's dig in."

After an hour, everyone finished eating to their fill.

"I'm really, really glad my daughters and you found each other," Lady Ruoin grinned. "Or how else could I have eaten such heavenly food?"

"Burp~" Dylan burped hard before lying on the ground. "Goddamn… I can never get tired of eating your food."

"True." Sofia sighed in amazement and lay down. "And our stats… people at the Magic Tower will be dumbfounded once they see our stats."

"Hahaha, I can't wait to see their reactions."

"Brother, I'm sleepy now."

"Me too, Brother Ain."

"Come on, let's set up the bed in the café."

After putting Ron and Syl to sleep, Ainen emerged and sat down on the chair before checking his stats.

[Chef Ainen]

Level: 219

Liferank: Adept

— Magic Core: Spetrorend Pyroprism

Class: Mystic Chef (SSS)

Innate Talent:

—> I Cook Limitlessly

—> Arsenal of Arcane

Stats: 290

—> Vitality: Ⅳ 74 Ⅳ +65%

—> Strength: Ⅳ 69 +65%

—> Stamina: Ⅳ 72 Ⅳ +65%

—> Agility: Ⅳ 71 Ⅳ +65%

—> Cognition: Ⅳ 64 Ⅳ +65%

—> Arcane: Ⅳ 73 Ⅳ +65%

—> Mana: Ⅳ 79 Ⅳ +65%

'The maximum foundational stat limit and level limit of Ascendant-rank is 350. Hmm, I can maximize one stat, so…'

Ainen's eyes glinted. If he wanted to dominate in Ascendant-rank, there was one stat that could do that—Arcane.

Arcane determined the power and potency of everything that used Mana.

'Alright, no need to save anymore. Once I get Arcane to 350, I should be at least faster than early-stage Lord-rank monsters with my Blazing Wind Rider.'

Ainen's eyes glinted. There would be no threat capable of hurting him in this Bluedge Forest, and no monster capable of defending against him, except for high-level Lord-rank monsters.

And so, Ainen spent 277 out of 290 stat points, making his Arcane stat reach 350, the peak of Ascendant-rank.

"Alright, I'm going out to hunt again."

"We also got tons of buffs, so we'll go for a hunt as well."

"Can we join you?"

Ainen wryly smiled. "I am going way deeper now since I can one-shot any Ascendant-rank no matter how tough it is, and even escape from Lord-rank monsters and combat low-level Lord-rank ones. So… I can give you a ride to a safe location where you will only find low to mid-level Ascendant-ranks. You can safely farm and level up there, but you can't join me."

"…"

"Well, we'll take the halfway ride then."

"Then let's go." Ainen looked at Saffa, Clovelle, and Fraisea. "You three want to join?"

"Not them," Lady Ruoin said with a smile. "I am going to let them break through to Ascendant-rank now and awaken some of their Bloodline powers. You can look forward to them once you return."

"Very well." Ainen grinned.

In the next moment, both Dylan and Sofia were carried by a gust of wind and vanished as only Ainen's words lingered in the air for Lady Ruoin.

"I'm leaving the camp to you, ladies Yelina and lady Ruoin." Ainen chuckled's lingered a bit while he already vanished out of their sight.

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