Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 138 Enlightening The Masses About The Wondrous Occupation Of True Spiritual Cooking!

With body language that expressed a slight haste-filled panic, Master Chef Kim gradually sped up his judging speed as he approached Elizabeth's Jambalaya. As a Spirit Realm Spiritual Cook, the slight increase in speed wouldn't undermine his judging, but there was a clear toll to the level of respect he had garnered.

Eventually, he arrived before Elizabeth's block. He was practically swooning as a reasonable portion of Jambalaya and rice was already prepared, ready for tasting. Unlike the first sample test he conducted for the Mirroring Stage, for this Freestyle Stage, the Master Chef was given free rein to sample every aspect of the dish. Now being able to take several tastes to measure everything from how well the flavors combined, to if all the ingredients were properly cooked and integrated, Master Chef Kim looked less and less respectable as an elder as he didn't even try to hide the pleasure he felt from eating Elizabeth's food.

Granted, a major part of why people started looking down on him was because of their own jealousy that he could taste the "Divine Jambalaya" whilst they had to suffer in reprise. Many made the excuse that he was a disgrace to the Martial Society for not being able to handle his desires and expressing them so adamantly and that they wouldn't even bat an eye if they confronted Elizabeth's Jambalaya themselves. It was nothing but the ramblings of the malicious, as the grand majority of martial practitioners present had already been enticed by the mere smell of Elizabeth's food.

When Master Chef Kim had practically eaten halfway through the entire plate of food, the more absurd effects of the Spiritual Meal began to see the light of day. Namely, the heightened regeneration was the only effect that truly affected Master Chef Kim as virtually all the other buffs would be canceled by his Spirit Realm cultivation base. The heightened regeneration also took a major cut in prowess, but to Master Chef Kim who was in the Spirit Realm, his extremely sensitive senses easily let him perceive the effect as he felt some old burn scars that he never bothered to get treated, start to wriggle and heal.

Dumbfounded, Master Chef Kim asked, "Y-your food… It can heal?!"

"Mhmm… it does much more than heal, but given your Spirit Realm cultivation base nothing but the regenerative properties emerge." Realizing the fact that she had forgotten Master Chef Kim's cultivation base and the fact that she couldn't really gauge the effects of Mortal Grade Spiritual Cooking, Elizabeth decided to slowly lead the "Master Chef" in on the fact that Spiritual meals ought to possess special properties.

"What?! What else could your food do… for Mortal Realm Practitioners?" A bit downhearted that he couldn't experience the other effects the godsent jambalaya could provide, the Master Chef still retained most of his eager attitude.

"Each plate of Jambalaya, like the one you've been eating from, grants anyone from the Peak of the Saint Realm to the bottom rung of the Mortal Realm, enough Inner Strength to refill an Early Phase Saint Stage practitioner's energy reserves, the same regenerative properties you're experiencing, only heightened of course, and a general boost to all their parameters, both physical and spiritual. Alas, the boosting effects only last for a couple hours..."

"... Are you serious?" It wasn't just Master Chef Kim… literally no one listening to Elizabeth believed that EACH plate granted all those benefits. Moreover… "Alas? Alas what! Fuck you and your alas! Wouldn't it kill her to be humble?! How could you not be satisfied if it were ever possible to grant such bullshit properties!" They were furious… furious that Elizabeth dared to feel unsatisfied even after propping her cooking to "obviously" unattainable levels.

Of course, the white-haired lass had not a shred of deceit on her face. She didn't even flinch as the jealousy and malice of the crowd pervaded and concentrated on her person. Instead, only saying, "Why not test it out with a volunteer? Pick someone you trust and have them waste some Qi. Then, if my cooking somehow fails, everyone already knows that I'm a doctor as well. So, I can restore their Qi free of charge~"

Before Master Chef Kim could even begin speaking, there was already a cacophony of willing and able practitioners vying for the yet to be confirmed test. Helplessly, after getting word from the announcer that the various higher-ups watching on wished to see if Elizabeth could work out another miracle, Master Chef Kim could only acquiesce and randomly pick out the nearest practitioner.

However, before the lucky practitioner could delve into the pleasures of the Divine Jambalaya, Elizabeth said, "Ay, could we do a quick strength test to compare the boosting effects of the meal? I used uh… Fire Qi in particular whilst cooking to improve the boosts to strength."

Master Chef Kim nodded his head before turning to the lucky testee to say, "Sure… Alright kid, use up your Qi to fight me as hard as you can until you run out of energy." Although it was crude to the extreme, this was the best Master Chef Kim could come up with on such short notice.

The boy nodded his head and began displaying the standard fighting prowess of a Late Phase Warrior. It didn't take long for him to run out of Qi, as he, like most Martial Practitioners, wasn't in proficient in energy control. Moreover, his reserves were not even at the baseline for Early Phase Warrior as he forcefully transcended his level had he been cultivating the path of perfection through the prowess of his physical parameters only.

Thus, after a solid minute of wastefully emptying his Qi reserves, both the crowd and Master Chef Kim accurately assessed the boy's abilities. Thereafter, the lucky boy could finally eat his plate of Jambalaya. Although he devoured the food like a vacuum cleaner, he still thoroughly enjoyed it as could be seen by the heartbroken face he showed to the world after finishing his last bite.

Prompting the body out of his sadness to display his abilities once again, a chilling silence momentarily plagued the entire arena. The silence only lasting a couple brief moment before the hard-hitting sounds of the boy's fists clashing with Master Chef Kim overwhelmed everything else. If before, the boy's punches sounded like gunshots, now they were comparable to miniature bombs. Moreover, with his Speed and Intelligence Stats increased, even though the bombing like clashes sounded off even faster than before, the body lasted for a much longer period of time demonstrating his abilities before the arena.

"S-she wasn't kidding..." Master Chef Kim didn't have to confirm it as the crowd could obviously tell how absurd a change had transpired after the boy ate Elizabeth's Jambalaya. But, taking note of the details to report the totality of the effects Elizabeth's Jambalaya granted, Master Chef Kim moved on to sample the last couple competitors. Though it truly felt it was a shame to have to taste obviously inferior food after sampling Elizabeth's cooking, it was part of the job, so he could do nothing but complain in his heart.

A couple minutes later, the extent of her Jambalaya's effects was disclosed as Elizabeth took first place for the Cooking Event. Though Master Chef Kim couldn't test for the duration of the Jambalaya's effects, he could rather accurately surmise the effects of the Jambalaya. At least when compared to Elizabeth's Status Function's assessment, his judgment was not too far off.

[Name: Triple "S" Jambalaya (Sweet, Savory, and Spicy)

Grade: High-tier Mortal Grade Meal

Description: Crafted by the user, this is a magical meal imbued with Neutral and Fire Magic as well as various Cooking Principles which surpass Basic-tier. Perfectly balancing the three main flavor profiles for Jambalaya, this dish naturally inspires the feeling of eating a home-cooked meal.

Effects: For Level 30 or below: + 110 Strength + 78 Speed + 82 Endurance + 110 Defense + 75 Intelligence for 8 hours and + 12,000,000 Inner Strength recovered. Natural Regeneration factor also quintuples for Saints, sextuples for Kings, etc… until it increases to a factor of 10 for Mortal Stage practitioners and then to a factor of 20 for non-practitioners.]

It was a borderline cheat for anyone to eat a plate of this food and many were hard-pressed to believe such exaggerated claims, even if a Spirit Realm elder like Master Chef Kim was the one disclosing the facts. In any case, by taking first place again, Elizabeth's Title count rose to four, now also being known as the Demon Chef.

She also earned the right to learn any cooking technique in the entirety of the Martial Society, though she didn't have many high hopes as even their sole Spirit Realm sponsor failed to know about the special properties of true Spiritual Meals. She was given free rein to pick ten high-grade ingredients from the resources department and that was the extent to the rewards given for winning the Cooking Event. Although it was to be expected by how few people competed and the sub-par quality of the Event as a whole, with respect to the Tournament as a whole no less, Elizabeth lamented the fact that she could have used the time spent attending this Event on more fruitful activities.

Sighing as she prepared to leave the stage to pick up her rewards, Elizabeth stopped as Master Chef Kim asked her, "Ms. Ultimatia! What are you going to do with the meals you created during the Event?"

For a second, she forgot that she was given the right to take away everything she had produced while competing. But, as she thought about his question, she realized she didn't really need much of the foods already prepared. Opting to only take two servings of Jambalaya, one for herself and the other for the patient she would be seeing shortly, Elizabeth said, "Mhmm… I only need two portions of Jambalaya. The rest will spoil since I won't be eating it anytime soon, so… Could you help me find someone to sell it to?" Naturally, the idea of giving her food away for free never crossed her mind as she understood more than anyone the value of true Spiritual Cooking; especially in a world ignorant to the benefits said cooking possessed.

Smiling as if he had heard news of a gold rush, Master Chef Kim said, "I'll buy another two servings from you and help promote your food to others." Although he wasn't a glutton, it goes to show how delicious Elizabeth's Jambalaya was, seeing as how a Spirit Realm Elder who gained nothing but satisfaction from the cooking's flavor went in to ask for seconds and thirds…

Chapter end