Just as Aaron placed his newly created, shimmering dish into his scabbard, Sooty came storming into the kitchen.

  “Bossman! Finally, you’re done with ye cooking, are ye? Tis been an age!”

  “Yeah. Wait, finally?”

  “Aye. Ye've been in here for about a week, ye have.”

  Aaron sighed. He knew it had been a while, but that was a little overkill. Then again, besides the very start of the trials, it was his fastest run of leveling.

  If only I could unlock a Legendary dish every time I cooked.

  “Say, Sooty, wanna help me select some Skills?”

  “Do I?” Sooty bounced around gleefully. “Ye needn’t even ask!”

  The first Skill selection was rather disappointing, but after a few minutes of back and forth, they decided on [ Perfect Measurements ] for the first Skill. It was the only Elite rarity active Skill listed that appealed to Aaron. And he wanted to fill out his slots before considering replacing Skills unless he came across something truly exciting.

  Besides, [ Perfect Measurements ] sounded pretty cool. It was similar to an inspect Skill, but now, when activated, he could get the exact volume and weight of anything he inspected. Which could potentially have uses beyond the kitchen.

  With that done, he opened his second Skill purchase and shared the screen with Sooty.

  Meat Maniac [ Rare ] Meat, meat, meat, meat, meat. You love meat. When activated, Meat Maniac can turn any shitty vegetable or fruit into pure, delicious meat. Skill provides no other benefits, but why would it need to?

  Universal Chef [ Rare ] Why be forced to choose who does and doesn’t enjoy your cooking? Why not please everyone? When activated, this Skill allows the user to change the flavor profile of dishes they have created, tailoring them to any race in the multiverse. Skill only changes flavor, and has zero impact on any buffs or side effects provided by dishes.

  Soul Cooking [ Elite ] You don’t just cook with ingredients and recipes, but infuse a portion of your soul into everything you make. Passively imparts aether into dishes cooked by the user, adding additional buffs and improving the user’s chance to discover aether-based recipes.

  Spirit Hands [ Elite ] [ Set: 1 of 4 ] Your hands transcend the mortal realm, literally. Any food they touch also takes on a portion of the supernatural. When activated, the user’s cooking enters a midway state between the mortal and spirit plane. Foods touched by the spirit plane are consumable by spirits, and as such, can impart their buffs and side effects onto said spirits.

  Secret Ingredient [Epic] Every good dish has a secret ingredient, and every chef has a favorite ingredient. Passively allows the user to set a favorite ingredient and add it to any dish without harming the dish's synergy. The dish will gain the benefits of the secret ingredient, as well as its side effects.

  “Umm, Sooty.”

  “Aye?”

  “What’s a set?”

  “Aye,” Sooty flashed a toothy grin. “Nice, ain’t it? Sets are rare, they are. If you manage to collect all four Skills in the set, they’ll combine into a super Skill. Powerful stuff. Not only are those Skills extremely strong, but they free up the other three Skill slots once you get them. Downside is that if it takes you a long while to get, you could be stuck with three full Skill slots used up. Not only that, but there’s no guarantee you’ll get the other Skills in the set. They usually increase in rarity, too, especially towards the end. You might get stuck needing to unlock a Legendary, or even higher rarity Skil,l to finish the set. And the System doesn’t give those away easily. There are many tales of powers around the multiverse getting stuck on a powerful set. It’s enough to drive a man mad. Then again, the individual Skills might be good enough that you want to keep them anyway, and say screw it to the set,” Sooty shrugged.

  “I see,” Aaron rubbed his fluffy chin. He needed a shave. “So, is it being part of a set enough reason to pick it?”

  “Lemme see. Hmm… The first two are all flavor-related. Not very useful if you are just looking to get stronger.”

  Aaron nodded. Although he was pretty tempted by [ Universal Chef ], after all, it would make cooking for humans a lot easier. It would allow him to continue on his path without worrying about whether or not his food was edible. But Sooty wasn’t wrong. It seemed like a waste when there were other useful Skills available.

  “Soul cooking could be very useful. You can use aether, and have unlocked your aether soul, so having a Skill that allows you to incorporate it into your food is great. Not only that, but discovering aether recipes is going to pay off long-term. It’s definitely something worth considering.”

  “Yeah,” Aaron agreed. Those were exactly his thoughts, and when he read it, he had briefly considered it his first choice.

  “Spirit Hands, as we said, is a set. That’s incredibly valuable in and of itself. As for what the Skill does? Well, I suppose that depends on whether or not you’re planning on using that spirit of yours. If you are, it could be strong. Though I don’t really know enough about spirits to say any more than that.”

  Aaron nodded thoughtfully. He certainly intended to use his spirit, but he also didn’t know how useful being able to eat in spirit form really was.

  “And then there’s Secret Ingredient, the only epic Skill. This is good. Very good. If you set your secret ingredient to something very powerful, then that could have major effects on the dishes you make. And with that ogre gut of yours, its benefits are likely to multiply. If you don’t have to worry about side effects, you can go ham. Who knows. Ye could create incredibly powerful dishes with that.”

  “Hmmm…”

  Sooy wasn’t wrong. Secret Ingredient wasn’t something he could just scroll past. Not only was it powerful, but he was right. It had huge potential with Ogre Gut.

  And yet, he hesitated. He didn’t want to just follow in Oozagh’s steps, he realized. He wanted to follow his own path, and Secret Ingredient wasn’t that.

  He eyed over the list again. It was part pure curiosity that he kept coming back to [ Spirit Hands ]. Based on the Skill description itself, it didn’t sound like the most powerful option. In fact, in the short term, it might come third most powerful if he had to guess.

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  But something told Aaron that his spirit side wasn’t to be underestimated. Buffing himself and eating were no doubt useful, and it had gotten him far. But was it comparable to his ability to shrug off death?

  Aaron shook his head.

  The decision seemed obvious the more he thought about it. He needed to follow his own path, and if [ Spirit Hands ] allowed him to strengthen his spirit form, then he really had no choice.

  The more he thought about it, the more he decided that it wasn’t even being part of a set that made him want the Skill. The set was just a bonus. What he really wanted was to see just how far he could take his spirit.

  “I think I’m going with Spirit Hands.”

  “Aye,” Sooty nodded. “It’ll be exciting to see where it goes at least. Gonna be fun seeing what other options ye get down the line.”

  “You agree with the decision then?” Aaron raised a brow, surprised by Sooty’s response.

  “Do I agree it's the best Skill ye got here?” Sooty shrugged. “Probably not. But it’s certainly the most interesting. Besides, if the set works out for ye, it’ll def be worthwhile long term.”

  Great, so he thinks Secret Ingredient is better short term…

  “Though then again, sounds like it’s a passive. Ye already got yer passives filled, don’t ye? Ye’d have to lose one to take it.”

  “Oh yeah,” Aaron replied, nodding.

  Glancing at his passives, he realized that he really only had one he could swap out safely, and that was Questionable Recipes. It was a useful Skill still, but not integral to his Path. That said, he would still need to give it up to take Secret Ingredient, while he could freely take Spirit Hands because he still had 2 Active slots free.

  With the momentous task of beating Mo’han before him, Aaron had to think this through. Secret Ingredient had the potential to allow him to craft a more powerful dish that could be the tipping point in their duel. But at the same time, if one secret ingredient was enough to be the tipping point, that would mean that he could have gotten there without it if he just worked a little harder.

  He went back and forth on the selection. Whilst he could personally live without beating Mo’han, he didn’t want to fail the quest.

  Then again, maybe empowering his spirit would provide him enough strength to do it on his own.

  He turned to ask Sooty another question, but the goblin had started to yap on about the difference between plasma and combustion engines for some reason.

  Truth was, he didn’t need to ask. He wanted to follow his own path, and he was too stubborn to be talked out of it at this point.

  “Sooty, I’m choosing Spirit Hands.”

  “--more torque. Huh? Oh, yeah. Sounds good, bossman!”

  Glancing over the options once more, Aaron confirmed his selection.

  He also had 40 Stat points to spend, but he held his hand. He decided it was probably best to first figure out his spirit punch attack, and hit level 30. Probably even have a duel or two first.

  Once he had a really good idea of what he wanted to boost, he could then spend the points so that they would most benefit his fight against Mo’han.

  But for now, those points were better banked until he had a clear idea of how he was going to handle the mighty asura.

  And with that thought, he opened his status page.

  [ Name: Aaron Dober ]

  [ Age: 23 ]

  [ Race: Human [ Awoken ] ]

  [ Grade: E ]

  [ HP: 40700 ]

  [ MP: 18500 ]

  [ SP: 30100 ]

  [ AP: 2000 ]

  [ Class: Empty-Handed Energy Monk, lvl 29 ]

  [ Profession: Ogre Gastronomist, lvl 36 ]

  [ Stats ]

  [ Strength: 256 (+108) ]

  [ Vitality: 407 (+195) ]

  [ Fortitude: 301 (+145) ]

  [ Dexterity: 222 (+106) ]

  [ Agility: 315 (+144) ]

  [ Intelligence: 195 (+83) ]

  [ Willpower: 185 (+90) ]

  [ Charisma: 100 (+44) ]

  [ Perception: 270 (+114) ]

  [ Perception: 183 (+78) ]

  [ Titles: Shadow Trials Trailblazer, Stamina Control Prodigy, Mana Control Prodigy, Vitality Control Prodigy, Holder of a True Blessing, In the Eyes of the Gods, Aether Wielder ]

  [ Traits: Fate Weaver (Alpha), Major Blessing of Oozagh the Rotund, True Blessing of Yendal the Empty-Handed, Herald of a God, Death Cheat ]

  [ Racial Skills: Inspect, Lingua Multiversa ]

  [ Profession Passive Skills (3/3): Questionable Recipes, Conductive Gut, Adipose Fusion ]

  [ Profession Active Skills (6/6): Concoct Toxic Gloop, Oozagh’s Breath, Foul Ichor, Unsightly Degustation, Perfect Measurements, Spirit Hands ]

  [ Class Passive Skills (2/3): Faux Core, Equal and Opposite ]

  [ Class Active Skills (6/6): Thick Skinned, Relentless Scourge, Gorgon’s Time Dilation, Overclocked Haymaker, Gust Step, Spectral Fist ]

  AP? That’s new.

  AP must have stood for aether points. He glanced at his new title. It was because of Aether Wielder, wasn’t it?

  It was very low, though. And he wondered how exactly it was supposed to work. After all, he already had a limited ability to draw on and use aether before he had access to the energy type in his status screen.

  Then again, he had been drawing on aether from the atmosphere. Perhaps that was why it wasn’t counted in his energy sources?

  2000 still seemed low, though, especially since he didn’t know how to increase it. He hadn’t gained any new stats, either. So that led him to believe that he didn’t have an obvious means through leveling to increase the number; still, he wasn’t about to complain about more energy. Besides, it was a new addition, and he would no doubt learn more about it as time passed.

  Moving on, he was glad to see that there was just one final free Skill slot to fill. It felt like he was getting somewhere. And of course, he had already intended to push for level 30, but he wasn’t going to do so aimlessly.

  Sighing, he remembered that a week had passed. The final days of the trial would be gone before he knew it at this rate.

  He needed someone to test his new technique on. Someone who would press him and force him to be better.

  At some point, he wanted to test himself against both Elmira and Talia, but for now, he wanted to hit level 30, and that meant finishing a trial quest.

  I guess it’s time to hit up the Trial of the Challenger again.

  An idea came over him. He really hoped Yendal wasn’t going to hold it against him, but he had got the feeling he knew exactly who would be a good test dummy for practicing his ghostly punch.

  He remembered how he had broken his hand against Oozagh the first time he challenged him. The ogre might have looked cushioned, but he felt like a brick wall. While Aaron was only level 1 at the time of that challenge, he had come to understand since then that Oozagh’s specialty in combat was being the biggest, strongest, most durable guy he could be, which sounded a lot like his asura friend. If he could damage the ogre god, then he should be able to hurt Mo’han.

  Rubbing his hands together eagerly, Aaron headed for the trial dial. It was the perfect plan, and hopefully, he would unlock an equally perfect Skill.

  “Wait, a line?”

  There were about a dozen or so people standing before the dial as one of them scratched their head, trying to decide which trial to pick.

  “Oi, hurry the fuck up!” Someone shouted from the line.

  “Yeah, I got trials to smash! If you can’t make your mind up, step aside!”

  It really is getting kind of crowded around here, isn’t it?

  There were still well over two months before the trials ended, and if it was already this bad, Aaron could only imagine what it would be like by the time it was over.

  Just… great.

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