Emery got out three bowls and several portions of the stir fry for himself, Elyn and Citro. After so many years of cooking for fun he'd gotten over the taste of his own cooking but now… he found himself watering at the mouth in expectation.
Elyn and Citro weren't any better.
"Quick quick quick!"
"Eeeeeep!!"
The chef rolled his eyes a little and handed them their respective bowls. "Jeez, relax a little."
They ignored him and shot straight for the meal in front of them. Emery didn't mind that. He waited for the first crunch and to see the expressions on their face.
Citro was first. The mongoose picked up a slice of the bird meat and put it into his small mouth. A human-like look of joy spread over the creature's face as soon as that happened and without even swallowing the original piece of meat, dug straight for the rest of the Stirfry.
Emery sighed in satisfaction. This was proof that his cooking didn't fail.
The silver-haired girl, on the other hand, had her eyes closed. She chewed the stir fry slowly and took her time with it, but when she was finished…
"UMMMMMM!"
Her purple eyes snapped open, seemingly brimming with even more energy than before.
'I wonder how it tastes,'
The thought lingered on his mind for a few seconds until he decided to finally pick up a fork of the stir fry and put it into his mouth.r
His chef's instinct was to first find out the flaws of the dish, but he just couldn't. He chewed through the crispy brown meat and the soft vegetables. The tastes meshed and sometimes contrasted but the more he chewed the more he saw.
Eventually, he swallowed his first bite and could only say one thing about the dish itself.
"It's magnificent."
[Ding!]
[Your injuries are being healed slightly. Your speed has been increased slightly for the next hour!]
Emery ignored the notification and then went on to finish the bowl of stir fry. It was just that good. Only after did he turn to the system notifications to see what had happened.
"I don't feel any different," he muttered.
Well, not completely. A slight warm feeling spread from his stomach to the parts of his body where the injury was. The only way he was able to tell was because it was a similar feeling to when the healers in Hemp's building used their powers on him.
As for the speed increase. He couldn't feel anything at all.
'I'll test it out later,' he thought, then returned his attention to the rest of the food.
A few dozen minute later they'd completely finished the rest of the food and were left unsatisfied by the result.
"I want more."
"Eep."
Emery agreed. They still had a bunch of more beasts that would be difficult but semi-feasible to cook, but he didn't want to do that just yet.
"Citro, you said those beasts were too weak, right?"
"Eep." the mongoose nodded, using a claw to pick its teeth disdainfully.
The other two looked at its antics speechlessly before waving it off, "Good, let's go hunt a Class Nine Beast. I'll cook after we deal with it."
Citro stared sceptically but nodded soon after.
"Okay, give me a second,"
He retrieved all his tools and placed them back into his pantry. But could he put any corpses into the Pantry also? It was too risky to leave them in somewhere so open. Other Awakened would steal the corpses without any second thought.
So there was only one way to find out.
'Pantry!' he yelled inwardly.
A white light appeared at his fingertips and enveloped the small mountain of Class 10 corpses. A second later there was nothing else there.
'That's convenient,'
His chef mindset came into play in this instant. Did this mean he could carry an entire kitchen everywhere with him? That would be a total game-changer. With this, he probably wouldn't run out of ingredients or tools and maybe even have a ready-made workstation ready for him.
"Okay, let's go now!"
He yelled then ran forward as fast as he could without waiting for Elyn and Citro to react. It was an appropriate time to see how the speed buff was on all three of them.
The wind caressed his skin as he stepped on the ground. He could go faster but the shrapnel and debris on the ground wouldn't allow him to do so.
'I can still try!'
He leapt into the air, avoiding a large rock, and landed on the ground a second later. This brief stunt allowed his summons to catch up to him. Neither looked like they were struggling at all.
Emery appreciated that very much. Meaning if things grew too out of hand, they could still escape properly.
They were pretty much running aimlessly, but it didn't take long for them to come upon a straggling Class Nine Threat. It was a large snake-like creature with black scales and a wide head.
At this point, Emery couldn't help but grin. This match gave him access to two very important comparisons.
"A snake beast again, but it's weaker than that wyvern from the forest and I'm stronger since that time. A beast of the same species, let's see how I fare against it."
But on the other hand, there was no way he would miss this near cultural event. Their parents had taught them about it in the form of stories, and he would never forget this one.
"Citro, you go first." he grinned at the little creature on the ground, "I really want to see a real-life Mongoose vs Snake!"
. . . .
At the same time, not far from where Emery was.
"Why is he trying to fight against a Class Nine?" a voice asked.
Chris didn't know either but he knew the kid wasn't stupid. Someone who could sense his influence definitely couldn't be a stupid person.
"No one interfere in the battle, I want to see how he handles the situation. He's only had his powers for three days, so if he's able to kill a Class Nine Threat in so little time I suggest we recruit him."
"You mean?"
"Yeah, we take him to meet the boss."
Citro dug into the earth. That was right.
The Jade Eyed mongoose burrowed into the soil after a little struggle in its approach to reach the large dark snake. What was the snake, even?
[Ding!]
[Name: Darkness King Cobra]
[Race: Beast]
[Threat rank: Class Nine Threat]
[Attributes:
STR- Class Nine
AGI- Class Nine
INT- Class Ten
DEF- Class Ten
DEX- Class Nine]
[Skills: Snake Bite, Ferocious Bite, Darkness fangs, Tail Whip, Venomous Bite, Darkness Surge, Darkness Tail]
Emery grew a lot worried as he watched their large opponent slither on the ground. It was as large as an entire building when it stood upright. Its tongue came out from time to time, from it, a dark unknown liquid dropping.
Venom, he realized.
"Elyn, get ready to charge forward at any second." He said, staring at the white-haired girl. "This is not a simple Class Ten Threat."
"Yeah, but I believe in greeny!" she said.
'Let's hope I don't end up regretting this.'
And just as he thought that the confrontation started. The small mongoose jumped out of the earth and clawed the cobra's dark scales. A hole appeared where Citro had hit and blood came out.
That attack did far more damage than Emery had expected initially. Was this because mongooses had some sort of innate advantage over snakes?
Perhaps that was the answer.
HISSS~!
The snake let out an ear-piercing hiss and then slammed its tail onto the area where Citro was. It dodged and climbed onto a piece of rubble, then launched itself off that as well.
A strange yellowish light gathered around its claws as it sent out a wide barrage of attacks. The cobra dodged a few but was hit by multiple others on its wide head.
Blood streamed out of the holes and cuts that appeared, but it didn't deter the creature.
HISSSS~!
It coiled back several metres, then struck out. Like a spring, its body flew forward with a lot of force aiming towards the vulnerable mongoose.
"Fuck, if that hits, then it's over for Citro!" Emery yelled, then looked to his side.
Elyn was no longer there. He looked bck to the battlefield and found her clashing against the cobra.
Her jacketed arm was stuck in the snake's wide mouth.
He couldn't help but sigh in relief as he noticed that. Citro's entire body would be stuck in the snake's body had that happened.
But on the other hand, the beast had clearly not anticipated another factor. Elyn grabbed hold of that confusion and slammed her second arm on its nose bridge. It let go of the arm that was being bitten and coiled back in fear.
She followed it up with another blow. This time, a silvery aura coated her entire arm as she punched outward.
Moonlight Jolt.
It seemed different from before, though.
'No time to think about that. I need to go help them!'
The snake skidded back once more, but it looked rather tired of the constant attacks without being able to get a single hit in. At that moment, the creature noticed Emery running towards them and decided on its next target.
It swivelled around and lashed out with its tail. A dark aura enveloped the flesh and corroded any rubble that came into contact with it.
'Shit!'
Emery was running down a slope, if he stopped now he would lose his balance, then later his life to the lrge amount of debris and shrapnel everywhere.
His instincts kicked in right at that moment.
Jump!
He jumped up and to the side, where there was a bit of space for movement. The tail missed him just by a hair, colliding with a pile of stones and corroding them in nothing but an instant.
'How did i just do that?'
His entire action took place in a little less than a second but there was no time to think about that. He quickly reached into his pantry before the snake could have another chance to swing its tail.
A dull blade appeared and all the knowledge of his new skill along with it.
First, he rushed forth.
He jumped over the mess, as quickly and stealthily as he could, activating one of his other skills; Stealthy Blade.
The weapon seemingly disappeared from his hands as he approached the large Cobra creature. At this time, it had recovered. It lashed its tail against the ground, using the force to fling the rest of its body in Emery's direction.
Emery ducked down, avoiding the sudden rubble that came from the snake's actions, but now he was face to-face with the beast itself.
It wasn't over just yet. In his hopes of concentrating on Emery, he forgot all about the other opponents from before.
Citro dug into the ground and Elyn leapt forward all at the same time.
The white-haired girl kicked at the creature, a blinding silvery light appearing on her entire leg. Moonlight Jolt?
'Focus!'
The kick connected directly with the back of the snake, causing it to fall to the ground, but it didn't falter just yet. Its tail swished around and grabbed Elyn's entire leg from the back, then slammed her down.
Emery lost his composure for one entire second and increased his pace.
"Elyn!"
The Darkness King Cobra turned back to him, slithering and hissing. A dark aura emerged from its body, concentrating on its fangs. It attacked again with its darkness fangs, but Emery dodged in response.
It wasn't a flawless dodge, though. The fang hit him in the side, corroding his clothes and biting his skin.
Two things happened at once and he noticed them immediately. Venom coursed through his veins rapidly, inciting weakness within him, rioting all his bodily functions to abandon him at that moment.
But not yet.
He grasped the knife even harder until he finally reached the large snake. And then he decided to do something he would have never done before.
He jumped.
It wasn't a leap of faith. He jumped straight for the large snake creature and landed soundly on its head. The creature had only a vague idea of what happened, but it didn't want that.
'Fuck!'
The beast shook around, rearing and trying to chuck Emery off its body completely, but not yet.
'Just a bit more…'
Eventually, the darkness king cobra grew tired of this and gathered another large amount of darkness energy. This time the energy didn't concentrate on anywhere in particular, but Emery could feel it.
But not yet.
The energy gathered quickly, and when it finally reached, a large amount collapsed into itself. It was going to explode.
That was when he knew it was time.
Just before the explosion of darkness took place, Citro flew out of the ground, its whole body shining yellow. Its fang bit into the snake's scale, causing a far bigger injury than before.
Its whole attack was suspended instantly.
'Now!'
Emery's kitchen knife turned into a blur as he slid down the back scales of the snake. Tiny invisible slices were drawn across its entire body, digging into its flesh and slicing it up with laser-like precision.
Razor Knife!
And so he finally reached the end of the tail where Elyn lay. Their opponent, the large Class Nine snake beast, collapsed not long after.
[Ding!]
[Host has Killed a Class Nine Threat!]
[100 Exp awarded!]
[100 exp awarded to host, and all summons]
[Level: Three…Exp:435/900]
[Ding!]
[Host has created a new skill: Darkness Razor Knife!]
Chapter early chapter early! Vote with your power stones and review if you haven't already. Join the discord, link in synopsis
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