The High Angel in the Cave

"From what I heard, that quest is supposed to be incredibly popular among chefs..."

"It used to be, but the number of people doing it has plummeted lately."

The chef player began to explain. The quest to satisfy the suspicious sage inside the cave was indeed popular at first. The difficulty wasn't too high, and the suspicious sage gave decent rewards.

—"I brought the dish."

—"88 points! As a reward, I shall give you this [Item]!"

—"Ah! Thank you! By any chance, are you associated with the Phytos Church?"

—"No, I am not."

—"Then how did you get this...?"

—"Now, bring me a more precious dish next time. I would love to eat an egg dish made from a Wyvern's egg!"

—"..."

—"*Pant, pant.* I barely managed to get it. There were no fresh eggs on the auction house, so I had to pay a premium to buy one and make this Wyvern Egg Roll..."

—"43 points. It is a failure."

—"W-What? That makes no sense! Do you know how well I made this? Even the system message said it was a success!"

—"There is absolutely no creativity in your choice of ingredients or cooking method."

—"..."

Once the difficulty spiked, the quest turned into an absolute nightmare with no clear solution. It demanded expensive and rare ingredients, but passing it was almost impossible—a total garbage quest! It was only natural that the chefs threw their hands up in frustration and abandoned it.

"Are you a chef too?"

"Hmm... I am a chef, but..."

"I won't say anything too harsh, but you'd better give up. I don't know what kind of NPC he is, but he's incredibly annoying."

The chef player grumbled. Seeing this, Tae-hyun felt a slight tension.

"It seems the difficulty is quite high?"

Ryu Da-young asked, tilting her head.

"What is your Cooking skill level?"

"It's only at the entry level of the Highest tier."

"..."

Ryu Da-young was speechless. "Only"? It was absurd enough for a combat class to raise a cooking skill past Intermediate, but reaching the Highest tier was utterly unbelievable. Unless he did nothing but cook all day...

"I see! Did you raise it while preparing dinner for Cain?"

"...Did you really raise it for that reason—wait, no. Oppa. That's in real life!"

Ryu Da-young almost fell for it before snapping back to reality.

"If it's at the early stages of the Highest tier, the skill level itself should be more than enough."

"No. Judging by their reactions, it seems we need to tailor it to the target."

There were no easy profession skills in the world. Cooking was the same. High-difficulty quests couldn't be cleared just because your cooking skill was high. You had to grasp the target's tastes, find out what they liked, and cook accordingly to succeed.

"Let's go in and meet him first. I'll use my Speech skill during the conversation to figure it out."

"You have to pay gold to enter here."

"Ah. I see. For your funeral expenses..."

Tae-hyun immediately reached to draw his sword. A reaction taking less than 0.1 seconds! Lee Se-yeon quickly stopped him.

"We came here to clear a quest, not to start a fight."

"Doing some large-scale PvP while ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠clearing a quest would be great practice."

"Ah. That is an excellent idea."

Lee Se-yeon regretted bringing Ryu Tae-su along once again. *Should I have just left him out?*

To outsiders, they might think, *Aren't Kim Tae-hyun and Lee Se-yeon both cold and brutal players?* Sometimes their playstyles did feel similar.

However, experts who had been victimized by Kim Tae-hyun countless times said in unison:

—"Lee Se-yeon and Kim Tae-hyun are completely different!"

—"Especially because Kim Tae-hyun is a much bigger bastard!"

Lee Se-yeon would often ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠avoid fights even if the opponent made unreasonable demands, as long as it wasn't a situation where she absolutely had to fight. If large guilds occupied a dungeon and restricted entry, she would just avoid it unless she absolutely needed to go in.

But Tae-hyun...

—"If you love that dungeon so much, use it as your grave!"

—"Aaargh!"

He was someone who had fought so much that his sword would swing automatically if the opponent talked nonsense.

Tae-hyun looked at the player blocking the path with an indifferent expression and asked, "Tell me why we have to pay a toll to enter this cave."

"Because the door blocking this cave won't open unless you put gold in."

Some dungeons or areas required a price to enter. Collecting gold this way was quite unusual, but...

"Ah. So that's what it was. Sorry for the misunderstanding."

"Misunderstanding?"

"I thought some large guild was blocking the way to extort toll fees."

Tae-hyun apologized sincerely.

Then, the opposing player laughed and said, "Hahaha! Well, that's also true."

"?"

"You have to pay the gold to get in there, and you also have to pay the gold to tribute to our guild. That's the toll."

"...I see. Here, take this."

Tae-hyun drew his sword again.

"Are you going to pay with your sword instead?"

"No."

*Slash! Stab!*

"Aaargh! Are you crazy?!"

"Tell your guild master to come to the Valley if they have a problem with this."

Tae-hyun cleared the guild member in a single strike. He shouldn't have bothered apologizing!

"..."

"Tae-hyun-nim. You said you would only show him good words and good behavior..."

"This couldn't be helped!"

Tae-hyun clicked his tongue and shouted to the surrounding players, "The guild member is gone, so you don't have to pay him any toll!"

"Whooooaa!"

"Uh, but we have no reason to go to that cave anymore. It's a garbage quest."

"No, I haven't cleared the low-difficulty one yet, so I'll go in."

The players cheered... well, not enthusiastically, only about a third of them did. The rest had already paid the toll, so they didn't really benefit...

Who is Noix?

After the gods left the continent and the Demon Realm and Heavenly Realm were separated, some gods lost their believers and their power. Since the gods couldn't directly intervene, once their followers disappeared and their order was broken, resurrection was close to impossible.

The Archisus Church was a highly unusual case! Karbanog was one such forgotten god, and Noix fell into that category as well.

To think someone was using the Authority of such a god!

Huh? Is this a retainer of the god Noix?

Tae-hyun wondered. Was this a Noix Church quest?

Managing the Archisus Church is already overwhelming enough. I don't want to take on the Noix Church too.

...No. Absolutely not. Don't try to slide that in.

—"Adventurer! Have you come to offer a dish?"

"Uh... yes."

Tae-hyun looked around and asked Lee Se-yeon, "Can we not break through this?"

"Magic doesn't work on it... Authority skills are usually incredibly broken, after all."

"But before I offer it, I'd like to hear what kind of dish you want. What do you desire? If your tastes lean toward dishes related to Luck, Holiness, Demons, or the Undead, I can accommodate you."

Tae-hyun subtly mentioned his areas of expertise. While he might lose to ranked chefs who did nothing but cook, Tae-hyun had his own specialty. A domain that other chefs could never replicate!

—"...An adventurer bringing a crazy recipe I've truly never heard of... Ah, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wait. Luck, Holiness, Demons..."

The entity counted on its fingers, then spoke as if it had realized something.

—"By any chance, are you an adventurer related to Archisus?"

"If I'm the Pope of the Archisus Church, do I get a quest bonus or something?"

Flash!

"!!!"

—"As expected, you are the Avatar!"

Tae-hyun was truly shocked. To think such a distinguished figure was in such a humble place?

"Why is an angel of Archisus here?"

—"It is a very long story..."

Ryu Da-young asked from behind, looking amazed.

"How did you recognize that they were an angel of Archisus?"

"If they have three heads and six arms, you should basically assume there's a high probability they're an angel of Archisus."

"...Are you teasing me...?"

"I am not."

100% sincere! If they had three heads and six arms, they were basically an angel of Archisus. Or a crazy Chimera...

—"To put it briefly, because of the Hungry Chaos, all angels with any strength to spare are probably trying to descend to the continent right now."

"!"

This was incredibly important information. Angels from other churches were also descending one by one.

Uh-uh, Karbanog. Let's not have bad thoughts.

"...Wait. But why are you staying here instead of coming to the temple?"

—"I was ambushed by demons on my way here, so I hid."

"I see. Demons who hold a grudge against Archisus..."

—"Ah, no, not that. Just some demons I killed a few thousand years ago..."

"..."

"..."

Sabet was right next to Cain.

I've seen countless players, but I've never seen one like this!

Sabet was amazed. Cain was number one among all the players he had ever seen. Number one in terms of having zero greed!

Normally, a player would feel disappointed and resentful about being a substitute, thinking, *Just you wait.*

But Cain...

Wow, I'm a substitute? Whoa, I'm not even playing, but I made the roster? This is so incredibly happy!

He was completely satisfied with his current situation!

I see why player Kim Tae-hyun gave me such strict instructions.

For a player like this, constant whipping was the only answer.

—"Player Cain. This is something President Kim Tae-hyun only told me..."

—"Ah. What is it? Did he badmouth me by any chance?"

—"...No, not that. He said that next season, he's going to recruit players in earnest to build a solid roster..."

—"!!!"

—"In my opinion, you are in a bit of danger, Player Cain."

—"H-How dangerous??"

—"The most dangerous. Rumor has it that you are the absolute number one candidate to be kicked out."

—"...!!"

Ah. Did I say that too clumsily?

There shouldn't even be rumors yet...

—"Coach! I don't want to be kicked out! Please don't let me get kicked out! I'll do anything!"

—"Player Cain. There is only one way to avoid falling behind. You must grow. Will you follow my instructions?"

—"Yes!"

—"Excellent! I have prepared a list of dungeons. Once you clear all of them, you will have grown to the next level!"

—"*Pant, pant.* Coach. But, I'm, a tank, so why, am I, clearing, dungeons, alone?"

—"You have to clear them alone to improve your skills. If you don't want to die, you have to block well."

—"No, *urgh, cough!*"

—"Now, do not stop, Player Cain! Onto the next dungeon!"

There was one major difference between Sabet and Tae-hyun. Tae-hyun had to grow his own character, so he left Cain to his own devices to some extent...

But Sabet didn't need to do that. He could stick to Cain's side 100% of the time and constantly point out his flaws!

I should have just stuck by Kim Tae-hyun's side!

Cain cried as he cleared the dungeons. The path of clearing dungeons alone felt exceptionally lonely.