The Military Chef of a Ruined World

“Defend!”

“The front line must not collapse! Advance!”

BOOOOOM.......

The place where this country’s capital had once stood.

A fierce war was raging nearby.

Against the surging monsters, the soldiers shouted until their throats tore and swung their weapons.

‘Take up a formation for facing a single powerful enemy.’

Those monsters pouring in from beyond the city.

After somehow pushing them back.

They had to take up the formation ordered by the Legion Commander.

POP-POP-POP-POP.......

Amid the chaotic war.

The gazes of several people turned toward the area near that city.

No, to be precise.......

Toward the place that had been a city.

‘Even the last building.’

Although it had not been a prosperous nation, it was still the place that had served as the capital of a country.

But just now.

Even that country’s final building had collapsed and fallen.

The city that had originally stood there had already been destroyed to the point that not even its shape remained.

The reason was simple.

[Thousand Mountain Twelve Formations]

CLANG, CLANG......!

A man who had walked out from near that city.

And the twelve beastkin who had rushed at him in order to stop him.

The aftermath caused by their battle.

Even though they had no intention whatsoever of destroying the city.

Simply because their battle had taken place there, the entire nearby city had vanished, leaving behind nothing but powder.

FWAAAAASH.......

The man surrounded by the twelve beastkin.

Some kind of golden light kept trying to leak out from his body.

“Cheonho!”

“GRRROOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!”

BOOOOOM!

The beastkin desperately suppressed that light.

Thanks to them, the rest of the battlefield was dominated by the light pouring from the bodies of the Legion soldiers.

It was also the reason the Legion soldiers were somehow able to fight those monsters while reorganizing their formation.

However.......

......FLASH.

‘That light.......’

‘It is gradually escaping.’

At first, the golden light had been suppressed by the beastkin’s momentum and could not even be seen.

But that light gradually began leaking through the gaps, until it had now become visible even to the Legion soldiers fighting on the battlefield.

‘There is not much time left.’

No matter how hard they tried to suppress it, the limit was clear.

Before long, that golden light would once again burst out.

The Legion soldiers frowned as they thought.

‘When that happens, will we be able to fight him?’

Their will to fight had not been lost.

The Legion soldiers were prepared to stand and fight against any hardship.

But that was merely their will to fight, merely their resolve.

No matter how resolved they were.

When they thought about it calmly...... they could not deny the fact that the probability of defeating that being in battle would be extremely low.

‘Even so, the Legion Commander ordered us to take up formation.’

The Legion Commander’s order had been given with battle against that man in mind.

That order must have come from the judgment that the Legion soldiers would be useful in the fight against him.

Something impossible for the Legion soldiers as they were now.

And yet, the fact that the Legion Commander thought so meant.

“......Probably.”

The Legion soldiers looked up at the sky.

The gigantic fortress floating in the sky.

That enormous stronghold was enduring by releasing mana, but it was now falling.

‘It must be because of what is happening in there.’

Inside it.

They could feel an absurdly powerful mana raging.

***

“......Then.”

I recalled something from the past.

Something from when I was young, during my school days.

Whenever we ate at school, the teachers made the students say things such as, Thank you for the meal.

At the time, I had only thought of it as bothersome.

Even so, I remembered the reason they had made us say those words.

‘It meant that we should express gratitude to the cafeteria ladies who made the food, the farmers who worked hard to provide the ingredients so that we could eat, and others like them.’

And now, the cook was none other than me.

There was no need to express gratitude to myself.

In that case.......

“Gratefully.”

Including the gratitude that should have been directed toward the cook.

“Thank you for the meal.”

Expressing gratitude to the one who had prepared this ingredient.

I placed the dish into my mouth.

[You have consumed the dish.]

That comforting taste.

A rich and enormous power unimaginable from that taste melted into my body.

[You have consumed a dish containing an immense amount of vital energy!]

After the Day of Ruin.

As a result of struggling desperately to survive, aftereffects that were difficult to recover from had settled into my body.

[Vital Energy Loss]

It would have been better if I could have solved it quickly.

Because I spent time without finding a way to recover, my level continued to grow stronger and stronger.

My vital energy remained lost, while the vessel that had to be filled in order to restore it only continued growing larger.

Eventually, it reached the point where it became a problem that could not be solved no matter what I did.

Even Luca had given up on treating it, which said everything that needed to be said.

Because of that, I had always been forced to fight against this ruin while never being in a complete state.

Because I had become unable to obtain enough power to fill the vessel that had grown far too large...... or so it had been.

‘This is a little.’

Now, things were different.

The power that allowed a creature bound to the earth to escape the laws of the world and rise into the heavens.

The moment I consumed that power as it was.

‘It may be a little too much......!’

The emptiness that had settled inside my body.

I could feel an explosive wave beginning to fill it with raging energy.

“Ghk......!”

Power raging violently with the desire to fill every empty place, as though it did not care about my body at all......!

[The effect of Trait - Taste Bud Enhancement (Enhanced) activates.]

[The effect of the dish is amplified!]

That wave accumulated inside the empty space in an instant.

And soon.

[Penalty - ‘Vital Energy Loss’ has been resolved!]

The empty space had been so enormous that I had thought it could never be completely filled.

That space...... had been filled without leaving even a single gap.

‘Is it...... over?’

The sensation of explosive power raging inside my body was painful enough to be called agony.

As I endured the pain, I saw the message floating before my eyes and felt relieved.

But soon...... I realized that relief had come a little too early.

RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE......!

‘No, it is not.’

An overwhelmingly immense amount of energy.

That energy had clearly filled all of my empty vital energy.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM......!

‘Damn it!’

And yet it continued raging.

Circling inside my body.

***

That inner core.......

If I had eaten the dragon pearl as it was.

Its original effect would probably have ended after filling my empty vital energy.

But my class was Chef.

‘I cooked that dragon pearl.’

The effect of the cooked dragon pearl became even more overwhelming than before.

‘I consumed it with Taste Bud Enhancement.’

The dish that had gained an overwhelmingly greater effect than the raw ingredient.

Was then amplified even further and absorbed due to my trait.

Something I had done without thinking much about it.

It had been nothing more than the simple thought that the stronger the effect, the better~.

BOOOOOM.......

Right now.

That enormous power was literally rampaging with enough force to explode my body.

PSHHK.......

My skin split open, and wounds appeared.

The power overflowing inside lost the place where it was supposed to go and wandered.

Then it began trying to escape outside, even if it had to wound my body in order to do so.

If things continued like this, only one of two outcomes would remain.

‘Either I will be unable to withstand this tremendous power and explode.’

Or.

‘I will survive by wounding my body and releasing the remaining power outside.’

They were no different from the options of either dying or living.

‘That is a little.......’

But...... how should I put it.

Naturally.

‘I do not like it.’

Neither of them.

Neither was a direction I liked.

‘Do not explode.’

I concentrated my entire mind and controlled that energy.

‘Do not leave either.’

I calmed and stabilized the energy that was rampaging after losing the place where it belonged.

I tried somehow to make it remain inside my body.

Then.

[The memories and experiences within the dish blossom.]

That energy, which had come under my control.

Began moving on its own.

FWAAAAASH......!

An enormous energy that I could not handle.

When I decided not to choose the option of letting it go.

The direction that energy chose was another one.

[The memories and experiences within the dish cause changes in the body.]

It could not remain in this narrow place.

And it could not leave.

In that case.......

[The mana holes are forcibly opened.]

[The acupoints are forcibly expanded.]

Make this narrow place.

A little wider.

[The body cells’ responsiveness to mana is forcibly increased.]

[The mana-condensing ability of the blood inside the body is forcibly increased.]

Make this old structure.

A little more efficient.

[The fusion compatibility of Avaros’s tendons, the Wandering Clown’s mana holes, Karstein’s blood...... and 51 other types of bodily organs is forcibly increased.]

[The foreign bodily organs have been perfectly fused.]

Make this chaotically mixed body.......

More perfect.

CRACK, CRACK......!

The shape of my muscles changed, and the positions of my bones shifted.

The structure of my cells transformed, and my entire body changed into a more efficient form.

In the past.

My body had been modified by Luca.

A procedure that strengthened my body by using the bodily organs of stronger monsters.

Through Luca’s godlike medical skill, those organs had settled into my body reasonably well.......

But as Luca himself had mentioned, it was originally a method that belonged to the unorthodox path.

But this was not like that.

The energy filling my body was changing the structure of my body on its own.

A far more difficult and arduous path.

And for that very reason, this was a path worthy of being called the orthodox path.

Even the improper modifications Luca had inserted into my body were fusing into that orthodox path and transforming into something more outstanding.

Only then did I realize.

‘The power contained within a dragon pearl is the power meant to turn a mortal into an immortal...... and a beast into a dragon.’

Although a little less than half remained.

The essence of that power was unchanged.

‘The power to discard old flesh...... and take on a new form.’

Because the amount was insufficient.

Even if I could not become a dragon.

[The rearrangement of the body has been completed.]

Changing the bones that formed my foundation.

And taking on a new form...... was entirely possible.

“HAAAAAAAH......!”

Right now.

I realized that I had been reborn with a new body.

[Permanent Trait - ‘Rebirth of the Flesh’ has been added!]

[All potential and rank of the body rise absolutely.]

Not the body of a mortal human.

But a body befitting the rank of a demigod that I possessed.

***

[Rebirth of the Flesh]

I did not know exactly what the effect of that trait was.

But there was one thing I could tell.

‘The rank my body can withstand...... has increased without limit.’

That golden lord stole the prince’s body in order to create a body sufficient to withstand its rank.

But now.

I instinctively realized.

‘It is the same as the body that lord took.’

A body obtained by forcibly evolving that prince’s flesh, one that had reached a level sufficient to handle that rank.

A realm sufficient to contain a transcendent.

My current body had also reached that realm.

Thanks to my body transforming like that.

I became capable of enduring, to some extent, the energy that had grown stronger because I had ‘cooked’ it.

But.

FWAAAAASH.......

“Still......?”

The energy that remained was still explosive.

The power inherent to the raw ingredient, the dragon pearl, had been used to fill [Vital Energy Loss].

The amount strengthened through cooking had been endured by the body expanded through [Rebirth of the Flesh].

But the portion amplified by [Taste Bud Enhancement] still remained.

However.

‘......I can feel it.’

Was it thanks to the trait called [Rebirth of the Flesh]?

This energy was so explosive.

Its rank was so high.

It had seemed like something I could not properly handle.

The power that the master of that martial hall must have accumulated throughout an entire lifetime.......

‘I can guide it.’

So naturally.

It moved according to my will.

“......Over here.”

The energy that had completely filled my vital energy and, still not satisfied, had forcibly dragged my entire body to the next stage.

I moved that energy toward the center of my body.

Where would be good?

The head was dangerous because the brain was there, and the heart was dangerous because blood remained there.

A mana hole that contained mana was already located in the center of my chest.

Then this was about the only place left.

‘The abdomen.’

Near the abdomen, slightly below the navel.

I made the enormous remaining power settle there.

Even so, because it was so vast, its unstable feeling as though it might explode still remained.

SWISH.......

I moved that power.

And compressed that intangible energy into an extremely, extremely small mass.

PRESS...... PRESS.......

It was an enormous power, but in the end, it was intangible power.

It was like fog.

Once I began gathering it, it started compressing into an endlessly small size.

‘......Hmm, is this the limit of what I can do with my own power?’

But even so, there was simply far too much of it.

There was a limit to how much I could compress with my own power.

I gathered and compressed it as much as possible near my abdomen, but its size was still larger than the head of an average adult man.

If something like this settled inside my abdomen, my stomach would burst and I would die.

‘So.’

But...... I was not worried.

‘Help me, Morzan.’

RUMMMMMBLE.......

Enormous mana.

The blue giant’s hands appeared and once again pressed down on the energy that I had been unable to compress with my own hands.

FWAAAAASH.......

Mirinae’s energy began gathering and condensing in one place.

It had originally been intangible energy scattered like fog.

But just as Morzan’s infinite mana had taken the form of a blue giant possessing physical force after being compressed.

When this energy was also compressed into an extremely, extremely small form, it took on a physical shape.

RUSTLE.......

And.

I felt the cells of my body clinging to the energy that had transformed into a small orb.

The body rebuilt through [Rebirth of the Flesh].

As though saying, ‘This is what you want, right?’ that body moved freely in response to my will.

The physical shape I had created through compression connected with my body.

[You have condensed immense vital energy and compressed it into a physical form.]

[A separate energy organ, distinct from the existing ones, has settled inside the body.]

And like that.

[Permanent Buff - ‘Dragon’s Inner Core’ has been added!]

That energy became a single bodily organ.

And settled inside my body.