"What am I doing right now?" were the words that had come out of Skyler's mouth as he was carefully stretching out a large piece of dough.
He was doing so carefully while also using his Qi, trying to infuse it into his techniques.
"Add slightly more Qi when you compound the dough up, and refine your control when you stretch it out," Zon ordered.
"Yes, Chef!" Skyler shouted as he continued with his work.
Skyler was imagining how he had gotten into this situation. Instead of wearing the respectable Clan clothes of the Wu Club Clan, he was wearing a chef's outfit.
Instead of his Qi being used to train and ascend into a mighty warrior that the heavens would be proud of, he was here making noodles of all things.
Tears wanted to flow from Skyler's eyes, but knowing fully who was watching him, Skyler continued to work.
"I can't believe it," Rane said, standing next to Zon. "You're not just a good cook and a good fighter, but it looks like you have an eye for selecting talent as well.
"The noodles that Skyler makes are close to yours."
"Right, but we still don't have the capacity to fully deal with all of the orders we make," Zon replied. "Ideally, I'd like the original staff to focus on prep work, and the final details to be done by those like Skyler."
When Zon saw Skyler's body, he knew he had a body and Qi perfect for crafting noodles. In fact, that was what was missing.
The power he had with his nano machine body could be replaced by Pagna warriors. But what warriors would curb their ambition to be the strongest and join a noodle shop?
This was why it didn't seem like a viable option for Zon, that was until he met Skyler during the attack, and came up with the perfect solution. Now, here the two of them were.
With Skyler on the team, Zon was closer to getting his perfect team together to create the perfect noodles.
The Perfect Noodles shop was just as busy as it usually would be, with long queues outside the door and others waiting to come in.
Finally, a man named Kelp, with green flat hair, had been called along with his group of four. In total, the five of them sat at a table and were quick to make their order.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" one of the men asked.
"I'm sure. Information passes through and is even secretly shared in these types of restaurants, and with how busy it is, I'm sure we'll find something of use. We just need to make some friends," Kelp said.
Kelp and his group were part of Alter, sent to gather information. There was a reason they had been sent, and it was because they were a special group composed of Pagna warriors.
There were no Otherworlders in their group, but they knew of the existence of Otherworlders.
Each of them were strong middle-stage warriors as well, usually working as Wanderers. However, they would make sure to hide their strength in their jobs from time to time.
Due to the squad being selected to go off on missions in different areas, it wasn't beneficial for them to catch the eye of a high-ranking clan and be recruited.
"Anyway, the rest of you follow my lead," Kelp said.
After tasting the delicious noodles, Kelp went on to offer free drinks to those at the nearby tables, all to be paid by him.
He stated that they were celebrating a successful mission, and the others kindly accepted the free drinks.
The guests would ask questions about where they were from and how they found themselves there, and Kelp and the others would reply back.
After a few joyous conversations, it was time for Kelp to start going on with the task at hand.
"We ventured over here because we had a job nearby, and we were wondering, do you know what the Dark Magus is like?" Kelp asked.
"The Dark Magus?" the man looked at him with a raised eyebrow, his face a little hot and red from the drink.
"Oh, you mean the Dark Faction leader. Things have been… mostly the same."
"Yeah!" another one shouted. "We can't really form an opinion of him because we don't even see him. Things are the same."
"I'm just happy there's a strong leader at the top. It seems to have stopped the Light Faction and the Demonic Faction from doing anything."
Kelp was unhappy with the answers he got, but he continued to persist, asking in roundabout ways about anything to do with the Dark Magus.
In the end, though, it seemed like the people knew nothing. If anything, what they had learned was that to them, the new leader of the Dark Faction just appeared out of thin air.
Since their lives hadn't been affected much, they didn't bother to look into matters.
In the restaurant, there were also a few Pagna warriors present. Most likely teachers from the academy or related to the students inside.
So Kelp went on to question them as well. During the questioning, just like before, there wasn't much to add.
However, there were other things they found out, like how all of the clans were attacked just before the Dark Magus became the leader of the Faction.
"Really!" Kelp said with his eyes lit up. "Yeah, but it wasn't by the Dark Faction leader himself. It seemed to be others around him, you know, like those from the Crimson Crane."
"Are they strong enough to take out entire clans in the Dark Faction?" Kelp replied.
"Who knows," the man shrugged. "I wasn't there, but there's someone you can ask. I believe one of the clans that had been attacked was the Wu Club Clan."
"Right, and we have a member of that clan here!" another customer said.
"Where?" Kelp asked, ecstatic to follow up with more questions, and then they saw the customers pointing at a chef behind the counter of all places.