A Feast Fit for Dragons
Whether Pelmas was shocked or not, Galakpad spoke to the black rat, Roshark, with absolute seriousness.
"Oh my! You brought the Secret Assassins with you this time? Truly magnificent."
"Squeak."
"Us? Sigh... It is rather embarrassing to admit, but because that pathetic fellow over there botched the job, we haven't been able to extract any information from the captive we dragged all the way from the Idergo Cult."
"Squeak, squeak."
"Why have we left him be, you ask? Is it not because His Holiness the Pope is merciful and magnanimous? Though, I too believe that fellow should be driven out..."
"You bastard, what on earth are you saying?!"
Pelmas fumed, cutting Galakpad off. Before he knew it, the two of them had joined forces to corner him.
"Even if this... esteemed rat here is the leader of the Secret Assassins, this is not an easy matter to resolve! We only managed to get this far because it was us!"
"Squeak, squeak, squeak?"
"You will go in yourself and make him submit? You may certainly do so, but we feel terribly apologetic..."
Without waiting for Galakpad to finish, Roshark hopped down and scurried inside.
And one hour later.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak."
Persmes, the successor to the Bishop of the Idergo Cult, has surrendered!
Persmes submits to the Archisus Church! Reputation increases!
The animosity of the Idergo Cult...
"Ohhh! As expected!!"
"..."
Pelmas was utterly speechless. What in the world is that rat?
Since I'm back in my territory, I should take care of some delayed chores.
Many NPC priests were managing the Valley, but he couldn't delegate everything. Above all, there were many tasks only Tae-hyun could perform.
First priority...
First, extract the fragment from the Hungry Chaos armor, and use the monster meat hunted this time to cook something for Bulbul-i.
He had planned to melt down the armor obtained from the 1st Prince to extract the Hungry Chaos fragment for a while. Other churches would have gasped in horror—"Heavens! How could you use such evil power!"—but from Tae-hyun's perspective, his only reaction was, "Why act so surprised now?" The Archisus Church had survived by utilizing far worse entities.
Moreover, after completely clearing out the underground nest, they had a mountain of monster meat.
"We caught it!"
"Wait, why does it have three heads? Wasn't it supposed to have just one?"
"Fool. This is the miracle of the Archisus Church!"
"...Are miracles usually this petty and practical? Shouldn't they be a bit more grand?"
Thanks to Tae-hyun's various buffs, the raiders hunting the monsters were astonished by the sheer volume of carcasses, which yielded several times more than usual. Just like the miracle of feeding a multitude with five loaves of bread and two fish, did Kim Tae-hyun possess such a power? It felt a bit strange, but...!
In any case, it was better to use the monster meat rather than carry it around. Since the quantity was astronomical, it would be better to gather many people rather than Tae-hyun cooking it all himself...
Above all, I need to help Bulbul-i grow.
As he felt in the recent battle, Bulbul-i's growth was far too slow. If so, he would raise him by stuffing him with food!
"I should post an announcement in the Valley. Prepare a quest."
"Oh! What kind of quest do you plan to issue?"
"Gather people who are confident in cooking dragon food."
"Ah! Do you plan to cook dragon meat?"
"No..."
Tae-hyun was flustered by the priest's reaction. Where did dragon meat even come from?
"It's not? I thought you caught a new one..."
"Master...?"
"Master...??"
The two dragons stared at him with sorrowful, pleading eyes. Tae-hyun waved his hands in a panic.
"No! Not dragon meat, but food that is good for dragons!"
"Ah. Is that what you meant? My apologies."
"Master. Is this food for us?"
"No. It's food to feed Bulbul-i."
"..."
As Heuk-heuk stared at him with an incredibly sorrowful expression, Tae-hyun nodded as if he understood.
"Fine, fine. I'll have them make some for you guys too."
A new Church quest has been added to the Valley!
"They say there's a new quest?"
"Sigh. This is why newbies... Let me explain it to you clearly."
The player, who was a proud Silver Tier member of the Archisus Church, spoke in a patronizing tone.
"Since you just joined recently, you probably don't know, but Church quests appear incredibly often. Dozens of them pop up in a single day."
"Oh... I see."
"Indeed! Sifting through those quests to find the ones worth doing is what we call experience and seniority."
The Church's quests were incredibly diverse, ranging from trivial chores like [Clean the Temple], [Weed the Herb Garden], and [Deliver Pelmas's Secret Dice] to hunting quests like [Subjugate the Valley Monsters].
Experienced Valley players knew how to distinguish them.
"Looking at the current time, this is the slot when Pelmas hands out quests. Most of them are pretty terrible. It's best to skip these."
"But why is everyone running over there?"
"They just don't know any better."
"Hey! Kim Tae-hyun posted a quest!"
"Kim Tae-hyun issued a quest directly!! This is no time to be standing around!"
"Run, fast! If you're late, you won't even be able to squeeze into the square!"
"...Hey."
"N-No... This is supposed to be Pelmas's quest window..."
The Great Pope's Command
Our great Pope, His Holiness Kim Tae-hyun, who has resurrected the Church and is leading it to its golden age, has issued a decree today!
In order for the dragons under the Pope's care to grow stronger and more ferocious, they require sustenance befitting their stature. The blessings of the Church shall be bestowed upon those who offer proper food!
🎁 Reward: ?, ???, ????
"...Wait. Isn't there way too many people?"
Tae-hyun was dumbfounded.
The square was packed tight from one end to the other. It reminded him of when he hosted a broadcast in the capital square of the Auston Kingdom to help the Guild Alliance, but the crowd here seemed just as massive.
Did this even make sense? One was an event hosted by giant corporations pouring massive investments into promotion, while the other was just a simple quest...
Yet, the reality unfolded right before his eyes.
"Kim Tae-hyun's mobilization power is insane. Just how many people gathered?"
"What's so great about that quest? Is there something I don't know?"
"Nah. Unless you're part of the Archisus Church, it's probably not even that good of a quest. I bet half the people there just gathered out of pure curiosity."
That guess was spot on. More than half of the crowd had gathered simply because they heard Kim Tae-hyun was issuing a quest in person.
"Distributing free food! Come and get it!"
"Handing out free meals! Come eat while you listen!"
"Wait, is it really free?"
"Yes! We received a massive shipment of meat."
"Wow! Thank you!"
"But what kind of meat is this?"
"Probably pork or something?"
"The color is a bit unique for pork, though...?"
The players were puzzled but accepted the food gratefully. At low levels, every single piece of food was precious. When they had to save every single silver coin, free food was a massive help.
"Wow. This skewer is delicious! I think it's better than what they sell in the cities. The meat chunks are huge, and the sauce is sweet..."
"The chefs here are surprisingly talented."
The chefs from the Power Warrior guild smirked inwardly.
Hehehe...
They smiled wickedly, but they weren't plotting anything suspicious. They were just proud.
Having learned cooking skills while traveling with Tae-hyun, and having consistently cooked in various other locations, their skills had improved exponentially.
They were so successful that this culinary group was currently aiming for the number one spot in revenue within the Power Warrior guild.
Aiming for first place against formidable competitors like the bomb-specialist mechanical blacksmith group, the begging-specialist beggar group, and the quest-info-specialist explorer group was a truly magnificent honor.
We're taking the number one spot this quarter!
We'll become the best in the guild!
Since we received so much monster meat, don't hold back and use it generously!
Having received a massive amount of meat from Tae-hyun, the Power Warrior chefs enthusiastically threw themselves into cooking.
However, even when they thought they were "not holding back," they couldn't bring themselves to use too many ingredients. It was due to their deeply ingrained habit of frugality.
"Hey! Why are you putting the whole chunk of meat into that kimchi stew! Just put the fat in, the fat! You're supposed to just dip the meat in and take it right back out!"
"...Didn't you say we could use it generously?"
"Ah, right. My mistake. Sorry about that."
"Just what did that guy do in his past life to gather people so well? Was he the Pied Piper?"
"..."
"..."
The Guild Alliance executives fell silent. There wasn't much to say, but they all agreed.
That bastard Kim Tae-hyun is incredibly good at gathering people!
It was hard to believe that during Pan-On 1, such a guy had just silently slaughtered people. Looking at his actions now, it felt like he had spent decades doing nothing but gathering crowds...
"Everyone!"
"Waaaaah!"
"Thank you all for coming to this place."
"Waaaaah!"
"The quest I am about to give you is..."
"Waaaaaaaaah!"
"I haven't even said it yet."
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaah! Kim Tae-hyun! Kim Tae-hyun! Kim Tae-hyun!"
"Didn't he plant shills in the crowd?"
"That sounds plausible. We do that all the time too."
Large guilds often planted shills to hype up the crowd during speeches or to get cool footage for videos.
"Kim Tae-hyun wouldn't use things like that."
"What do you know, you bastard!"
"A mere newcomer speaking out of turn!"
These old geezers are really giving me a hard time.
The newly appointed executive grumbled inwardly. The Guild Alliance executive meetings were a fierce political battleground. One mistake, and you couldn't survive! The only one allowed to survive after making mistakes was Su Ning.
"Still, isn't it true that Kim Tae-hyun doing well isn't necessarily bad for us?"
"..."
As a result, the tournament the Guild Alliance was hosting was heavily riding on Tae-hyun's coattails. If Tae-hyun hadn't been on the judging panel, it would have been difficult to achieve this level of success.
"It's great that it's doing well, but it's incredibly annoying. Do you have any idea how much the investors are fussing?"
"Huh? Why is that?"
"They keep demanding we put Kim Tae-hyun on screen more... Some crazy bastards even asked us to make Kim Tae-hyun give lip service about how much he likes their company. Crazy bastards. As if that would ever work!"
Rather than forcing Kim Tae-hyun to do product placement, it would be faster to have Su Ning go out and capture a dragon.
"Still... aren't things going well in other areas?"
"We also managed to bring back some pretty decent skills from the Ancient Empire University."
"Well, that is true."
The Ancient Empire University had indeed been a very pleasing harvest. The rankers belonging to the Guild Alliance had learned various secret skills and brought them back.
"If only that bastard Smith hadn't been there, we would have learned a lot more."
"He's a complete lunatic. Lately, he's even more obnoxious than Kim Tae-hyun."
"But isn't the Ancient Empire University practically at a standstill right now?"
Everyone nodded.
The Ancient Empire University was currently on a temporary pause due to a quest it had issued.
Several top-tier rankers were seriously aiming for this quest.
And the Guild Alliance was no exception.