Valen grinned and said, "This is something that I don't need anymore, not right now anyway."

As a person who did not refuse any gifts, Minhyuk decided to receive the sword first.

"But Instructor… All I did was make a meal for you?"

"So, you don't like it?"

Minhyuk quickly hugged the sword to his chest when he saw Valen slowly reaching out to take it back.

"That's not it! Hehe… I'll use it well!"

"That's right. Boy, are you leaving soon?"

"I think so."

"Then, bring enough of that hard bread."

"I'm truly grateful to you in so many ways."

Valen laughed silently as he said, "It was a delicious treat. I’m really grateful to you."

'I'll probably never forget it in my life.' This thought flashed in Valen’s mind.

"I'll go to the hunting grounds, but I'll come back to play often."

"Sure. Oh yeah, you should check that out."

Valen turned around and laid himself down on the sofa in order to rest after the scrumptious meal.

‘The means of confirmation and checking is probably the same as the others.’

"Item check."

(Sword of Rebellion)

Class: Rare

Restriction: None

Durability: 2,000/2,000

Attack Power: 211

Special Abilities:

•STR +4, AGI +3.

•Skill: Dauntless Strike

Description: A well-maintained sword that Valen used in the past.

After Minhyuk read through the information about the sword, he mumbled, “Skills Window.”

(Dauntless Strike)

Artifact Skill

Level: None

Mana Required: 10

Cooldown: 1 minute

Effect: Each attack inflicts additional 20% damage.

Description: A skill attached to the Sword of Rebellion. Perfect for striking when in battle.

‘This skill isn’t that bad.’

Items were classified as normal, magic, rare, unique, epic, legendary and god. The fact that the sword was a rare class item was enough to satisfy Minhyuk. He examined the sword more carefully and saw a pattern of a dragon, seemingly ascending the heavens, on its hilt.

Then, Minhyuk finally brought up the reason for the impromptu visit and meal.

"Uhh… Instructor."

Valen turned his head to look at him.

"Can you lend me some tableware and cooking utensils?"

"...Why don't you just go and pull one of the pillars out there too?" Valen answered with a wide grin on his face.

***

Minhyuk executed his last strike on the scarecrow before finally proceeding to the exit of the training grounds.

"Phew!" Minhyuk exhaled nervously.

Was he nervous because he was scared of hunting? No, that was not the case at all.

'I can eat chicken now….!'

Minhyuk's inventory was full of the items that he had borrowed from Instructor Valen. In fact, he was just borrowing them, but after a lot of twists and turns, he somehow ended up owning them. The items included basic cooking equipment and utensils like a frying pan, pots, portable stove and simple condiments.

The moment he stepped out of the scarecrow training grounds, Minhyuk could see other players hunting chickens.

"Hu— huaaaaaack… That chicken is flying!"

One of the chickens suddenly flew up in the sky and pecked back at a player viciously.

'Uhmm…'

It seemed like the players were the ones pecked to death, and not the other way around. From what it looked like, the chickens were no easy prey. Players had to deal at least a couple of strikes to kill a chicken successfully.

'I was told to find the hunting instructor, Roina.'

Instructor Valen had told him that he would be able to easily spot the hunting instructor, Roina, the moment he arrived at the hunting training site. Sure enough, he immediately saw a woman wearing a leather jacket with jet-black hair tied up in a high ponytail. The woman was standing right at the entrance of the village, near the border separating the novice zone from the rest of the game.

At that moment, she was staring fiercely at the hunting site with her arms crossed in front of her chest. This meant that anyone who wanted to get out of the novice zone had to hunt chickens.

Minhyuk approached the woman, quickly wolfing down the bread in his hands as he went to greet her.

"Hello, Instructor."

"I'm Roina, the Instructor for these hunting training grounds. Bring me five chickens, and I will give you rewards."

Ding!

[Quest: Hunt Five Chickens]

Rank: Tutorial

Limit: None

Rewards: Bonus points +3 and 3,000 gold

Penalty for Failure: None

Description: It's time to learn how to hunt. Hunt five chickens. However, hunting these chickens won't give you any increase in experience. It's because these are tutorial monsters!

The quest that Minhyuk received wasn’t that much different from the quest that he received from Instructor Valen.

While Minhyuk was busy checking the quest, Roina was also looking at him. Her eyes widened when she saw the sword hanging at the boy’s waist.

"By… by any chance, is that the Sword of Rebellion?"

"Yes, you're right."

"H… How did you get that…"

Roina’s pupils were shaking, waiting for an answer. However, Minhyuk had already turned around to proceed with his quest. He was in a hurry to hunt some chickens. Roina did not pay any attention to the lack of an answer. However…

'The Sword of Rebellion can only be in the hands of a person acknowledged by Instructor Valen!'

Instructor Roina was well-acquainted with Valen. She had been his subordinate before they became Athenae’s guardians. That was the reason why Roina was shocked at the sword hanging at the waist of the player that continued to eat bread. She could not help but be curious, her eyes unconsciously following the boy’s figure.

Meanwhile, Minhyuk stood in front of a chicken.

"Bok, bok!"

‘This chicken looks a bit strange, no… It's very strange.’

The chicken was staring at Minhyuk. When Minhyuk turned around, he saw that the other chickens were also staring at him.

Shiiing—

He unsheathed the Sword of Rebellion. Then…

Flap flap flap!

The chicken immediately flew towards Minhyuk. However, Minhyuk was calmer than expected. After all, he was someone who was not particularly afraid of chickens, or pigeons, or any fowl for that matter. Besides, he had been doing kendo for a long time now, so something like this would not cause him to be flustered.

Minhyuk swung the Sword of Rebellion towards the flying chicken.

‘Come on.’

"Bok, bok!"

Slash!

The chicken fell down in just one strike.

"...?!"

Instructor Roina’s eyes widened in surprise as she watched the scene from afar.

'In… In one strike…?!'

Usually, most novices would need at least three strikes just to kill one chicken. However, that player had only needed one strike.

'Was it because of the Sword of Rebellion? No… It doesn’t look like it was just because of the sword.'

She could tell that the weight of the strike did not come from the Sword of Rebellion.

'Did he increase his stats by hitting the scarecrows? If he has been hitting them for a long time, then it makes sense that he’s good at swinging his sword.'

Roina nodded. However, she still could not figure out why Instructor Valen would hand the Sword of Rebellion to this player.

While she was busy thinking of a plausible reason, the boy had already sat himself on the ground. Then, he took out a burner, a pot, a water bottle, a small knife, and a cutting board. The boy grabbed the knife and aimed for the chicken’s neck.

Snap!

Then, he started to clean the chicken. It was a bit sloppy, but the boy worked diligently. After plucking the feathers, he poured enough water into the pot and placed the chicken inside. Then, he waited for the water to boil.

"Wha, what the hell is he doing…?" Roina mumbled to herself, puzzled.

Soon, Minhyuk stood up with a satisfied smile on his face.

'Chicken is going to be really delicious!'

"Hey, look at that player."

"Oh my god. Is he really making boiled chicken right now?"

"...So it's true. The more you play Athenae, the more types of people you'll see, just like in the army."

The other players whispered and giggled at what Minhyuk was doing, but he did not pay them any heed. He just hummed as he placed the pot of water down and started hunting the chickens near him again.

Slash!

"...Did, did you see that?! He… He killed the chicken in one strike!"

"Gasp!"

"What the… Why is that player so strong?!"

"Hey, hey! Did you see his sword? It wasn't a wooden sword, right?"

"Oh my god… How can he still be in the novice zone…"

The other players in the vicinity cried out in surprise.

However, Minhyuk remained nonchalant. He just reached out to take the items that dropped before dealing with the second chicken the same way he did before.

[You acquired 52 gold.]

[You have acquired Chicken Feather.]

In Athenae, currency did not exist in multiple metals such as bronze, silver or gold coins, like in other virtual reality games. The game only had one standard currency and that was gold. And the price of gold was set to be as close to reality as possible. For example, one hard bread would cost 500 gold per piece, with the quality of the hard bread, it would be around 500 won in real life. However, the conversion rate of gold to cash was at 20:1. In other words, earning 100 gold in the game would give the player five won in cash. The rate was very low. However, considering the larger hunting grounds that the player would go to the higher their levels, the amount of gold and items that they would be able to collect from the drops would definitely not be low.

When hunting, the body of the hunted monster would disappear after fifteen minutes. However, touching the body or putting it inside the inventory would increase the time by another fifteen minutes. In other words, these could not be stored for long periods of time.

So, Minhyuk started to clean the chicken that he hunted once again.

***

After hunting five chickens, Minhyuk was able to gain three bonus points and 3,000 gold. He added two of his bonus points to his STR and the remaining one to his AGI.

Minhyuk rubbed his hands in anticipation.

'Well then, shall we start?'

He grinned widely as he slowly opened the lid.

'I feel a bit sad that I don’t have any frying powder in hand, but there’s nothing I can do about it.'

He wanted to give a warm welcome to the almighty chicken, but he could not get his hands on any frying powder right now. Instead, he decided to go with ginseng chicken soup.

Nothing could be better for one’s health than ginseng chicken soup. Normally, ginseng chicken soup would contain garlic, jujube, sticky rice and leeks, but he had limited ingredients on hand, so he only added what he had with him.

Blub blub blub—

Steam rose up the moment he removed the lid. Inside the pot, Minhyuk could see the garlic Valen gave him dancing around in the broth as he poked the chicken with his chopsticks.

‘It's very tender.’

Then, he sprinkled some salt in the pot.

‘The chicken can be seasoned better this way.’

After letting it boil some more, the ginseng chicken soup was finally done. Seeing the almost-finished dish, Minhyuk felt more excited than ever. He quickly picked up a piece of chicken and placed it on a tray.

"Hiss."

Minhyuk’s fingers were burned slightly with the heat coming from the steaming hot chicken. He quickly sucked his fingers as he made the seasoning by mixing salt and pepper. With this, the ginseng chicken soup was truly and finally completed. He quickly ripped a steaming chicken leg and…

Rip—

The juicy chicken leg was easily separated from the rest of the chicken and went straight to his mouth.

"Huuu… huuu…"

Minhyuk blew with his mouth as steam rushed out of his mouth from the piping hot chicken that he just stuffed in. However, he quickly forgot about the heat, completely intoxicated by the chewy and tender meat in his mouth.

Munch, munch, munch, munch—

The chicken leg was the most tender part of the chicken. It had a very nice texture and light flavor that tasted the best in one’s mouth.

Then, Minhyuk picked up his spoon and took a sip of the soup.

"Slurp…"

‘This oily flavor! This! This is the highlight of ginseng chicken soup!’

This time, he dipped the chicken in salt before taking another big bite out of it.

"Delicious…"

‘It's really delicious.’

Tears welled up in Minhyuk’s eyes. He felt like he finally gained everything in the world after tasting this delicious food once again. In just an instant, Minhyuk finished all of the chicken in the pot. It was eaten so cleanly, with its bone licked to the marrow, that one would not be able to recognize that it was once a chicken.

"I want to eat more…!" Minhyuk said as he stood up from his seat.

The size of the pot that he used to cook was small, that was why the amount that he could cook at one time was limited. He had also brought a larger pot but the small stove was not large enough for its size. So, if he wanted to eat more, he had to cook again.

To satisfy his hunger, he recalled the taste of the ginseng chicken soup that he had just eaten, while chewing on hard bread.

Then, Minhyuk placed another chicken in the pot, cooking it the same way he did earlier.

***

"Interesting…" Instructor Roina said as she continued to watch him from afar.

This player was very unique and strong. It could be seen from how he kept hunting chickens at a high speed, despite already catching more than the amount required for the quest.

'Watching that boy makes me want to visit Instructor Valen again.'

Roina smiled wryly. A bitter and wry smile would always appear on her face whenever she thought of Valen.

'I want to see him…'

She smiled bitterly again.

At that moment…

"Gasp…!"

"Wha.. what the hell is that!"

"Why is that chicken so big!"

The players screamed loudly.

Roina’s eyes widened after seeing a golden chicken that was twice the size of regular chicken.

"Bok, bok!" The chicken cried so loudly that it sounded strangely similar to a dog’s bark.

'The golden chicken?'

Roina knew about the golden chicken. This was the boss monster of the entire novice hunting zone in Athenae. However, this chicken was not just a simple boss monster, it was a monster that was created for an ‘event’.

It seemed like it was not only Roina who recognized the identity of the chicken, even the players began to recognize it too.

"Hey fXckXrs! Kill it! We have to kill it somehow! If we kill it, we'll be able to get a chicken that lays a golden egg every day! I read it in the notice before!"

"A golden egg?"

"Yeah, man! Each golden egg is worth 200,000 gold! We have to kill it quickly!"

"Gasp!"

"Ack?!"

"Kill it! Kill that chicken!"

The players shouted loudly at the prospect of gaining 200,000 gold a day. After all, that was like getting 10,000 won every day in real life.

They started to run around wildly trying to kill the chicken. However, the golden chicken was strong and vicious. It could easily slaughter the players just by pecking them once with its sharp beak.

"Argh!"

"Ack!"

"Bok, bok!"

The golden chicken ran around playing with the users until it spotted a man nearby.

Swoosh—

Minhyuk's eyes lit up at the sight of the golden chicken.

'A golden chicken. It reminds me of Golden Olive[1].'

‘I wonder if it tastes better than normal chicken.’

Gulp—

His throat bobbed at the thought.

Dash!

Minhyuk kicked the ground with his feet and dashed towards the appetizing golden chicken.

1. A chain restaurant selling fried chicken