One more day passed by at the Bluedge Forest before it was finally time to depart.

Ainen officially reached the peak of Ascendant rank in terms of stats and level. And he only leveled this fast because he hunted Lord-rank Monsters.

If he had hunted just Ascendant-rank, he wouldn't have reached level 350 this fast.

His SSS-rank class upgraded to level 2, and it did two things. First, the power of his class perk that increases buffs on him by 200% increased to 300%. Second, he got a new class perk.

[ Mystic Chef ]

-Class rank: SSS

-Class level: 2 [ 117 / 2,000 ]

-Class Perk:

— All kinds of buffs on you have their effects increased by 300%.

— All kinds of debuffs on you have their effects reduced by 50% if you have a buff from your food ongoing.

-Class Tree:

Active Skills

— 1. Perfect Ingredient Execution.

— 2. Precise Ingredient Fusion Pot.

Passive Skills

— 1. Recipe of Everything.

— 2. Mystic Chef's Eyes.

Being more powerful than ever, Ainen was ready to continue the journey.

Ainen created a flying carriage using Water, Earth, and Sand, on which everyone could sit comfortably and fly to the next destination.

Labyrinth City Javaxin

After looking around the city, there was only one place that fit the size Ainen wanted, and it was in the periphery area of the city with not much traffic.

But Ainen didn't care about the area's traffic because once he started selling food, the traffic would increase automatically.

Ainen started cooking since he had tons of monster meat and herbs from Bluedge Forest.

Dylan and Sofia went to the Magic Tower to call their people to eat the food.

Lady Ruoin was checking the status of her daughters as well as watching over Ron and Syl, who were using Lightning and Ice that they awakened thanks to Ainen's food a day ago. Yelian (Lilian and Yelvina) were teaching and training Ron and Syl.

An hour passed, and Ainen had finished cooking 5000 dishes already.

He made a pause and went out just to see Dylan and Sofia returning with over thirty people consisting of Ascendant-rank and Lord-rank.

Ainen welcomed them with a smile. "Well, perfect timing. Come on in."

Everyone entered inside and sat down at the tables—six people at each table, as they occupied a total of six tables.

"Now then, I'll be serving the food with a snap of my finger. Before that, let me tell you a bit about it. First, all food dishes will be of Tier-5, meaning that they will give buffs and boosts to Lord-rank and below. Each food dish will cost 100 Mid-grade Mana Stones."

Everyone was surprised.

"Only 100 Mid-grade Mana Stones?"

"That's the cheapest price I've ever heard for a Tier-5 food dish."

"And we don't get a menu?"

Ainen chuckled. "Nobody gets a menu here. People must eat what I cook. If they don't like it, they can leave."

"Well, Dylan and Sofia praised your food so much that we thought they were possessed or cursed, so let us have it." A middle-aged woman smiled. "Let's see exactly how tasty it is."

Sofia grinned. "You all have no idea what you've walked into."

"For real." Dylan laughed.

"Now then, enjoy your food." Ainen snapped his fingers and filled each table with twenty random food dishes.

The bombs of fragrance exploded. For a second, everyone was stunned, and some stomachs immediately growled as their appetites that were usually dead got aroused instantly.

After they took their first bite, it was over.

A brief silence after shattering their tongue virginity—their brains were bamboozled, and they ate while talking and praising the food non-stop.

"Goddamn, this is so spicy but tasty!"

"What is that? Give me a sip!"

"The buffs are crazy! What the fuck?!"

"Absurd…"

"Fuck, I finished whatever it's called. Can I have the same dish again, please?!"

"Try the other ones, fool! All of them are crazy good!"

"What is this drink?! It's so frigging good."

"My mind is exploding with fireworks as I eat this!"

Soon, all of them finished eating. Every single plate was so clean it was like they were washed and dried.

Before leaving, all of them bought more food dishes to eat later, especially for when the Labyrinth resets again a day later.

Ainen earned a total of 28,400 Mid-grade Mana Stones from those 35 people.

Although there wasn't much traffic, a small group of Ascendant-rank Adventurers who had just entered the city were passing by and saw a big sign that Ainen had put floating in the sky.

100 Mid-grade Mana Stones per Tier-4 Food Dish.

300 Mid-grade Mana Stones per Tier-5 Food Dish.

(+50 for eating inside, and eating inside will increase the duration of buffs by one hour.)

(If you are unsatisfied, you can get your money back twice the amount you spent.)

Seeing this sign, the first group of young Ascendant-rank Adventurers in their mid to late twenties from a smaller Magic Tower arrived and left feeling like they were dreaming.

They spread the word alongside the people of Mistbound Magic Tower who left earlier, and soon, more and more people started coming.

The food was extremely cheap compared to others and was absurdly better compared to others. People were dumbfounded at such a weird restaurant, but the traffic continued to increase.

Two hours later, the ground was filled with over a hundred people eating at tables Ainen had created, and the Cafe Bistro's tables were also constantly full.

"Ainen, they are almost done. Can we go to your kitchen?" Lady Ruoin approached Ainen. "Saffa, Clovelle, and Fraisea will emerge from their evolution cocoon soon."

"Let's go." Ainen grinned, eager and thrilled to see Saffa, Clovelle, and Fraisea after their power-up.

After entering the kitchen, Lady Ruoin took out three eccentric cocoons with black and white patterns. The light around the cocoons was getting sucked into the shadows while sparkling white snowflakes whirled around them as well.

All three of them were pulsing, and suddenly, they cracked simultaneously.

A second later, all three cocoons shattered and turned into motes while revealing three cute foxes with nine tails, with the tips of their tails, ears, and parts of their bodies having black patches.

They howled before they glowed and suddenly transformed, becoming humanoid—Beastfolks, with smooth pale skin with pink flushes, their long snow-white hair cascading with fluffy ears and tails.

"Oh!" Ainen was dumbfounded and quickly turned around, his ears red. "Wear some clothes!"

'Damn.'

The three girls looked like they were in their late teens to early twenties and were crazy beautiful with well-developed figures!

"Master!"

Alas, the three of them jumped on Ainen from behind and pushed him down.

"Hehe, now we are the same as Master!" Saffa shouted as she rubbed her head on Ainen's head.

Ainen's face was buried in the ground with those three on top of him.

"Can you three wear clothes first?"

"Hehe, Master is embarrassed."

Ruoin chuckled. "Alright, girls. Get up and get dressed."

"Master, we want to eat."

"So hungry!"

Ainen wryly smiled as he saw them again. Their hair had different shades of white with some blues in them, and they were all kingdom-toppling beauties in terms of appearance.

But to him, they were the puppies he had found not even a month ago.

After Saffa, Clovelle, and Fraisea finished eating, they excitedly went to meet others.

Ron and Syl were shocked and couldn't believe it at first.

And soon, Saffa, Clovelle, and Fraisea joined as staff and poster girls of the Cafe, wearing cute maid-like clothes as Ainen gave them food dishes, and they randomly served customers.

Ainen was taking a break as he lay beneath a tree not too far from the cafe.

'I need Legendary-rank Tier-5 resources to get my new Magic Core's catalyst so I won't have to change again when I breakthrough to Lord-rank.'

'The best bet is the Tier-5 Labyrinth here,' Lord Black said. 'You will gain plenty of Tier-5 and Tier-6 resources there since you'll be doing top scores on all floors. The leaderboard's number one rank will change soon.'

Ainen grinned. 'I can't wait to enter.'

'It looks like someone's approaching you.'

Ainen blinked as he saw three people walking toward him.

One was a young man with pale blue hair and violet eyes. He had a peculiar aura about him and was the leader of the group—a Lord-rank powerhouse of level 468.

The other two were King-rank powerhouses, one woman and one man, both middle-aged.

"You are the chef, it seems."

"That I am." Ainen smiled as he stood up and stretched his hand. "Chef Ainen. Nice to meet you."

The young man shook hands with Ainen and said, "I am Voren Styxian."

"Styxian?" Ainen blinked. 'I've heard of this.'

"Young chef, you are facing the youngest prince of the Styxian Dynasty," the middle-aged woman with red hair indifferently said.

"Ah, now I remember." Ainen smiled. "So what brings you here?"

"I would like to recruit you to our Styxian Dynasty," Voren said with a somber expression. "I assure you that you will live a king's life and will be granted everything."

Ainen chuckled as he lightly shook his head. "I am already living a king's life, and I have everything."

"And I would also like to have those three Beastfolk ladies as my concubines. You must dissolve the contract you have with them," Voren continued with a straight face.

Ainen frowned. "Are you stupid?"

Suddenly, a pressuring aura descended on Ainen from the two King-ranks.

"Boy, watch what you speak."

Lady Ruoin, Dylan, and Sofia arrived there quickly while Yelina led Ron and Syl into the Cafe's kitchen.

"What's going on?" Lady Ruoin asked.

The middle-aged man looked at Ruoin and the others as he waved his hand and pushed them away while creating a barrier that trapped Ainen with them.

Ainen's eyes turned cold. 'What the fuck are they doing?'

'Well, you turned out to be too tempting, but I knew this would happen sooner or later when your food caught the eyes of some ambitious and greedy folks. And it turns out, the strongest force on this continent is one of them. Surprised? I am not,' Lord Black said in a rueful tone.

'But you are safe. Just kick them out of the No-Entry Barrier and enter the Labyrinth as soon as possible through the underground after entering the Cafe. They shouldn't have any Emperor-rank powerhouses here.'

"Why do you reject such an offer?" Voren frowned in confusion. "Your class is a chef, and you can have the backing of the strongest force on this continent. You can have everything you want in exchange for just cooking food for a few hours every day. With you, we can increase our force rapidly and will soon be able to take over the continent."

"After that, you can be unstoppable with us as the backing. We can also start our influence in the Runebound Continent after that."

"Doesn't such a future excite you?"

Ainen's brows furrowed. He didn't like this person at all.

"I am going to reject the offer once and for all. Now, would you please get the fuck out?"

"How da—"

Before the middle-aged woman could finish speaking, all three of them vanished and appeared outside the barrier.

"Alright, everyone! The cafe is closed now. If you want to blame someone, blame those assholes from Styxian Dynasty."