#409 - Seiya: Who says a chef can't be a gourmet hunter?

"Welcome, please come again!"

However, upon leaving the Gourmet Association, Seiya and Minezaki ultimately bit the bullet and spent two million yen to buy two pounds of Elephant Bear meat, and another million yen for a map and a rare ingredient encyclopedia.

They bought "Elephant Bear meat" because Minezaki's mouth was watering just looking at it, and Seiya himself wanted to try the so-called rare ingredient to see what was so special about it.

"I can understand buying the meat, but why did you also buy a map and an ingredient encyclopedia?

We're chefs, not those so-called 'Gourmet Hunters'.

Could it be… you thought the sales lady was pretty, so you wanted to help her meet her quota…?"

Before Minezaki could finish speaking, Seiya smacked her on the head.

"Besides eating, what else is in that head of yours except for thinking about nonsense!

What's the difference between a chef who doesn't recognize ingredients and a doctor who doesn't recognize medicinal herbs?

And are you planning to let them fleece us again next time we come here?"

Seiya's explanation convinced Minezaki, but she quickly picked up the map and asked, "I won't say anything about the rare ingredient encyclopedia, but what's with this Gourmet World map!"

Seiya and Minezaki had just learned from the sales lady that the world they lived in actually had other regions.

Why was this camp built here? It's because north of the camp is the entrance to the Gourmet World.

And the area where they currently lived was called the Human World.

It was also because of the different regions that ordinary people had never seen those exotic flowers, rare herbs, and dangerous creatures.

The map Seiya just bought from the Gourmet Association was actually a partial map of the Gourmet World.

Seeing Seiya guiltily turn his head away, Minezaki immediately puffed up her cheeks, forcibly turned Seiya's head back with her hands, and looked at him with her eyes, saying, "I knew it! You bought this map because you want to go to that so-called 'Gourmet World' to adventure, right!

Why!

Didn't you hear what the sales lady just said? It takes ten soldiers to subdue just a level 1 Gourmet Rabbit.

We're chefs, not hunters, why do we have to go to such a dangerous place?"

Minezaki really didn't understand Seiya's plan to go to the Gourmet World to adventure.

With Seiya's culinary skills, he definitely had a bright future.

Rare ingredients were hard to come by, but with Seiya's culinary talent, he would definitely not lack such things in the future.

With that being the case, why did Seiya still insist on going on an adventure?

"Minezaki, do you understand?

We've been working our butts off in the restaurant for almost two months, and the money we've earned is only enough to buy a few pounds of meat here.

And this so-called 'Woolly Mammoth Bear,' even though it's the best ingredient in this camp, is only a level 20 rare ingredient.

If we want to obtain higher-level ingredients, how long do you think we'll have to work hard with our current business model?

A year?

For a chef, if I didn't know about these things before, that would be one thing, but now that I know there's a place like the 'Gourmet World' in this world, how could I possibly continue to be a chef in peace?

If we can't afford those rare ingredients, then it's very simple, I can become a Gourmet Hunter myself!"

A level 1 rare ingredient is comparable to the fighting power of ten ordinary soldiers.

If ordinary chefs heard about such a difference in fighting power, they might be discouraged.

However, that level of power couldn't scare Seiya at all.

He was kidding himself.

He had always felt that his super combat power, which was enough to dominate ordinary society, was useless in a culinary world.

As a result, what he didn't expect was that in addition to the Human World, there was actually a so-called Gourmet World!

The Gourmet World was full of rare ingredients.

It was said that some extremely dangerous species, even without special cooking, were enough to surpass most top-notch dishes just with their meat.

Fighting monsters to get ingredients, and in a culinary world, was there a world more suitable for him than this?

No!

In fact, from the moment he heard from Senzaemon Nakiri that rare ingredients lived in sparsely populated and dangerous restricted areas, Seiya had the idea of trying it out.

The so-called human restricted area was for ordinary people.

But was he, Seiya, an ordinary person?

Judging from his physical structure, he should be considered a human, but Seiya felt that it might not be appropriate to judge him with the concepts of ordinary humans.

Because the conditions in the wild were limited, the two pounds of Elephant Bear meat they bought from the Gourmet Association were ultimately made into grilled meat by Seiya in a very simple way.

Even so, when the Elephant Bear meat was roasted, its fragrant aroma still attracted many Gourmet Hunters in the camp.

When looking at the fragrant, juicy Elephant Bear meat, some people eventually became malicious, but some recognized Seiya and his companion.

After hesitating for a moment, they finally chose to turn around and leave.

Anyone who dared to cook a level 20 "Elephant Bear meat" so brazenly outside the camp could not be an ordinary person.

The other party was either a fool who didn't know anything, or someone who had absolute confidence in their own strength.

Experienced Gourmet Hunters felt that it was not worth provoking trouble for such a small profit, so in the end, only those hotheads who thought highly of themselves and didn't have much strength would approach Seiya and his companion.

And the facts proved that the experienced Gourmet Hunters' intuition was correct.

Because in the short tens of minutes that Seiya and his companion grilled the meat, many clueless Gourmet Hunters were already lying around them.

"Why didn't I know before that you, this guy, look tall and thin, but you're so good at fighting?"

The extremely high quality of the Elephant Bear meat itself, coupled with Seiya's excellent cooking skills, even in the most basic conditions, the Elephant Bear meat was still roasted by Seiya to a tempting color and fragrant state.

Minezaki ate a large skewer of meat in one bite, exclaiming that it was so delicious that she almost swallowed her tongue.

At the same time, she looked at the Gourmet Hunters who had been beaten to the ground by Seiya, and became even more curious about Seiya.

Although Seiya had taught the tall, burly, beer-bellied man a lesson in the camp before, Minezaki didn't expect Seiya to be even better at fighting than she had imagined.

She, Minezaki, didn't quite understand the level of those Gourmet Hunters who had been eyeing them before, but if guys of their level could explore the Gourmet World, then Seiya, who could easily defeat them, should be fine as long as he didn't go deep into those dangerous areas of the Gourmet World, right… …