Leveling Up through Eating

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

PR: MattForgenti

Minhyuk’s eyes were glittering brightly and his mouth was watering. He was so excited that he ran towards the chocolate tree as fast as he could.

When he reached the tree, he finally realized how big it was. He looked so small as he stood beside the gigantic chocolate tree. Looking up, he could see the infinitely sweet chocolates that were hanging on every branch of the chocolate tree.

Minhyuk slowly stretched his hand out to touch the chocolate tree.

[You have found the Legendary Chocolate Tree.]

[You have gained 30 reputation points.]

[The first and second chocolate that you will harvest will be even more special.]

[Once you harvest two chocolates, you will be able to acquire the chocolate tree.]

“Oho.”

When Minhyuk read the last notification, he was quite sure that it was the artifact material that Card was talking about. The Sacred Branch of the Spirit King.

Minhyuk focused his strength on both his legs and jumped. He snapped off two of the chocolates that were hanging on a branch of the chocolate tree. Suddenly, the color of one of the chocolates started to turn white.

[You have acquired the Legendary White Chocolate.]

[You have acquired the Legendary Black Chocolate.]

[You have acquired the Legendary Chocolate Tree. You will be able to harvest plenty of chocolates from the chocolate tree every day. The chocolate that you obtained from the chocolate tree is much more delicious than normal chocolates.]

[To harvest chocolate from the chocolate tree, you only need to think of Harvest Chocolate and you will be able to acquire the chocolates.]

After the notifications ended, the giant chocolate tree in front of Minhyuk started to shrink until it turned into a chocolate tree that could fit in one of his hands. Then, it immediately went into his inventory. Minhyuk did not waste any time, he quickly checked on the information of the things that he acquired

(The Legend’s White Chocolate)

Material Grade: Medicine

Special Abilities: ━ Heals the diseases and injuries of a person on the brink of death

Description: This is the white chocolate that has an amazing power, it can only be harvested from the Legendary Chocolate Tree. The taste is, of course, extremely delicious.

(The Legend’s Black Chocolate)

Material Grade: Medicine

Special Abilities:

━ STM +100

━ WIS +100

Description: This is the black chocolate that has an amazing power, it can only be harvested from the Legendary Chocolate Tree. The taste is, of course, extremely delicious.

Minhyuk shook his head happily. Then, he harvested the normal chocolates from the chocolate tree.

“Harvest Chocolate.”

[You can only harvest 20 pieces of chocolate per day.]

[The amount that can be harvested today: 20/20]

Minhyuk only harvested one first, he would harvest the rest once he went out of the dungeon. A chocolate fruit appeared in front of him. The chocolate fruit looked like it was an apple and the color was exactly like that of a chocolate. He also checked the normal chocolate that he harvested from the chocolate tree.

(Chocolate Tree’s Chocolate)

Material Grade: D

Special Abilities: ━ There’s no chocolate that is much more delicious than this in all of Athenae. It is so delicious that you will never stop biting on it.

There weren’t any special abilities from the chocolate that could be harvested daily from the chocolate tree. After all, it wouldn’t make any sense if it had special abilities. However, it was already amazing that one could harvest chocolate from it every day.

‘There’s no chocolate in Athenae that is much more delicious than this……!’

Minhyuk smiled brightly as he placed the chocolate in his mouth.

“Chew!”

A thick and sweet flavor slowly spread in his mouth. The chocolate was so sweet and thick that he couldn’t stop himself from continuously chewing and putting it in his mouth. Sometimes, when someone ate chocolate continuously, they would get tired of the taste and stop from eating. However, just like what the description has said, you will never stop biting on it.

It feels like I’ve been charging my sugar battery with chocolate after quite a long time? Or maybe, this is what Changwook felt like when he wanted to sell his soul to the army just to eat chocopie!

“Keuha!”

Minhyuk’s lips were smeared with chocolate. After he finished eating one, he couldn’t help but think…

‘The legendary chocolates probably taste the same as the normal chocolate from the chocolate tree. I’ll use the black chocolate for the brownies and I’ll keep the white chocolate in my inventory for the meantime.’ 

Although Minhyuk loved to eat food, he thought that there would probably be a day where he would still need to use the Legend’s White Chocolate.

[You only have 5 seconds left until the entrance closes. The countdown will now begin.]

[5 seconds, 4 seconds, 3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 second.]

After the countdown ended, Minhyuk was immediately warped out of the dungeon and appeared outside. Once he went out of the mines, he saw Lee Sangmin and the rest of the members of the Horde Guild being taken into custody. They disappeared along with the soldiers of the Empire.

“Ellie left earlier.”

“Yes.”

Minhyuk could see that Hyemin’sDad was waiting for him. Hyemin told his dad that Minhyuk promised to give him the best tasting chocolate in the world. He was really thankful to him.

“Ah, wait! I received the artifact material!”

Minhyuk has already checked his spoils as he was walking out of the mines so he was able to easily pull out the Sacred Branch from his inventory. The Sacred Branch was a branch that has an unusual color.

Hyemin’sDad immediately checked the Sacred Branch that he received. Once he finished checking, he was stunned speechless as he looked at Minhyuk.

***

Hyemin’sDad had a look of disbelief on his face.

‘Don’t tell me Card knew about the material grade of this material?’

Card was the 2nd in the blacksmith’s ranking and the thought of him knowing the material grade of this artifact material quickly flashed through his mind.

When he thought about it, Card was someone who was influential and popular so he was wondering why he was overcome with greed to do things like that. However, once he saw the description of this material, he understood the reason why. Of course, if he was the one who knew about it he would never do something so cruel and horrible.

The grade of the artifact materials were similar to the grade of the cooking ingredients. Their grade rankings start from D until SSS.

As a matter of fact, there was no SS or SSS grade material that has been released or found in the country. The Dragon Sword that Hyemin’sDad made before was made from the bones of the ancient dragon. The material was only ranked S. The only reason Hyemin’sDad was able to make an extremely amazing artifact that shocked the world was because of his strength.

At that time, he thought that the effects and options of the material were the best but right now he considered those S grade materials as his lowest criteria when choosing materials for an artifact.

Just like the Spirit of Gryphon that he acquired not long ago, it was also an S grade material. It has much better effects and options compared to the material he got for the Dragon Sword so he thought that he could make something much more amazing. 

Then, the Sacred Branch appeared in front of him. This was an SS grade material and was of the lowest rank among the SS grade materials. He heard that some materials like this were released abroad but since the servers were not yet merged he was still not able to find the best artifact material in Athenae. Although this material was the lowest among the SS grade materials, its effects were more than enough to fit that grade.

(Sacred Branch)

Material Grade: SS

Special Abilities: 

━ +10~12% increase in all stats.

━ +60% increase in Magical Defense.

━ You can include all 5 attributes and properties in the artifact.

━ There will be a sharp increase in your spirit affinity.

Description: A sacred branch that was obtained from the Legendary Chocolate Tree from Chocolate Paradise. This branch contains the power of Elaim, the King of Spirits.

‘I really can’t believe that it came out.’

Artifacts were not made with only just a single material. It could only be made through the smelting and joining of various materials. And all those materials had various abilities and effects. In addition, the effects that would be written in the description would depend on the person who made the artifact.

The figures listed on the material’s description might not necessarily come out in the artifact but the likelihood for such numbers to appear was quite high.

“I believe I can make you a satisfactory frying pan with this. I can finish it by the end of today.”

He would be able to finish the artifact quickly since he would just be adding the Sacred Branch to the almost finished frying pan.

“Yes. I understand.”

“Are you going back to Ron’s smithy?”

“Yes. I’m going to make brownies there.”

Minhyuk’s face was filled with excitement. He was like a child that finally got the toy that he was wanted.

***

Minhyuk said goodbye to Ruan, Leton and the other miners and quickly made his way to Ron’s smithy.

As soon as he arrived at the smithy, he quickly started his preparations to make brownies.

Making brownies was not that difficult. He only needed to prepare the chocolate, butter, sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and powdered sugar.

“Finally, the chocolate……!”

Hyemin arrived just in time while Ron looked at Minhyuk seriously.

“You’re going to give me some this time, right……?”

Minhyuk also thought that he should give Ron some food this time. Because he felt like he would cry if he did not give him any!

He first melted the butter in a hot water bath then once the butter was melted completely he added the sugar, vanilla extract, and the well-beaten eggs and mixed them well. After he mixed them well, he sprinkled the mixture of all-purpose flour, cocoa powder and baking powder over the mixture with a sieve. Then he mixed it well. After mixing everything well, he would bake the brownie mixture in an oven that was preheated to 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

Before Minhyuk came to the smithy, he first went to the bakery nearby and borrowed an oven from Helo-ssi.

Minhyuk placed the brownie mixture that was placed in a baking pan and set the timer.

“I can’t wait to taste these guys.”

“Me too!”

Hyemin also smiled excitedly. Minhyuk rubbed her head once and stood in front of the oven to look at the brownies.

He made a lot of batches of brownies. One of the batches was made with Legend’s Black Chocolate. He did not forget that cooking the medicine grade ingredient would give him additional effects.

After 20 minutes.

The ding! sound rang loudly in the smithy.

“Yayy!”

Minhyuk grinned widely as he pulled the brownies out of the oven.

The brownies that were fresh out of the oven might burn their tongues if they ate it right away so they had to cool it down for a bit. And if you tried to cut the brownies before it cooled down then it would probably break!

Once the brownies have cooled down, Minhyuk carefully cut them into bite-sized pieces. Then he sprinkled some powdered sugar on top of them. The powdered sugar fell lightly on the brownies, they looked like snow falling down from the skies.

“Then, let’s eat!”

“Yeah!”

“Right!”

Ron followed Hyemin and nodded his head along.

Minhyuk picked the one made out of Legend’s Black Chocolate. In fact, everything tasted the same so he didn’t cheat Hyemin out of anything. Before he started eating, Minhyuk pulled something out of his inventory and placed it on the table with a thud.

It was none other than a barrel that was filled with 10L of iced americano.

“……Is this filled with americano?”

“Yes!”

“……”

Ron was left speechless.

That’s a huge amount of americano!

Of course, for Hyemin, he prepared a cold glass of milk. 

Minhyuk poured americano in a cup then put the slightly warm brownie in his mouth.

“Waaaaaaaang. Chew!”

As soon as he chewed on the brownie, a soft and sweet flavor slowly spread in his mouth. The more he chewed, the stickier and chewier the chocolate brownie had become. Then, he sipped some iced americano with a straw. The bitter americano amplified the flavor and sweetness of the brownie and showed the best taste that it could have.

“Delicious!”

“Hyeminie also thinks it’s delicious!”

Hyemin was eating very well now. Minhyuk smiled at her. He was extremely happy that the Hyemin who got scared of eating due to the side effects of the treatment was eating again. He also hoped that she would continue to cherish these delicious things like this brownie.

Once he finished eating all of the brownies made with Legend’s Black Chocolate, a series of notifications rang in his head.

[You have made brownies with Legend’s Black Chocolate.]

[The Food Fighter’s Greatness.]

[The penalty for the medicine has been ignored. However, this does not work for many people.]

[A Medicine Dish. You have obtained additional stats.]

[You have gained +113 STM and +110 WIS.]

***

TL’s corner!!!

Well. I want to make brownies now.

PR’s corner!

Welp. Time to bust out my secret molten brownie recipe.

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