After Ainen finished shopping for his Catalyst food dish, he returned to the Inn.
He took out the kitchen inside the Inn after making some sizable empty space by shifting the walls, and entered.
He opened the window so he could see everything outside. Ron, Syl, and the foxes were also in the house rather than in the kitchen.
Ainen took out the ingredients he had gotten so far.
Tier-2 Imerfon Fireheart Fruit. (Fire)
Tier-2 Waterloo Enchant Vines. (Water)
Tier-2 Cloudroot Plant. (Wind)
Tier-2 Shockspore Fungus (Lightning)
Tier-3 Geopulse Flower (Earth)
These were the five main ingredients he decided on for his catalyst.
Usually, people must use Tier-2 resources to create their catalyst because, as Awakened-rank, if they used Tier-3 resources, which were higher in magic potency, it could mess up the whole creation, and the catalyst would fail.
Even if one succeeded, the resulting potency would still need to be evened out. Otherwise, their Magic Core itself might shatter.
As such, the quality and power of one's catalyst were wholly determined by the creativity that went into the recipe of the Mana Cultivation Catalyst.
There were ranks to Mana Cultivation Methods, but that didn't mean higher-ranked Mana Cultivation methods were better.
It just meant that the Mana Cultivation had enough knowledge and steps until that rank.
In short, a Tier-6 Mana Cultivation method meant that it could be used until one reached a King-rank lifeform.
But Ainen's Mana Cultivation Method was unique. It only had information up to Tier-2, which was the basic, since Mana Cultivation Methods started from Tier-2.
So what about the next Tiers? Well, he would have cooked them in his style, just like the catalyst he was going to cook.
'Next, Magic Cores of the monsters.'
Ainen took out five specific Magic Cores that he had bought.
Each magic core belonged to a monster of a specific attribute.
Indeed. They were magic cores bearing attributes of Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning, and Earth.
Ainen took out an item.
A Tier-1 Epic grade weapon.
Then, he took out another item.
Moonveil Leather Armor.
And, another one. Last one.
Silverend Twilight Bow.
Ainen focused on them, intending to make them ingredients.
This was his first time, but he knew that the 'things' that were crafted already were not passively considered ingredients.
But he had his innate talent—I Cook Limitlessly!
Anything, any living or dead, material or ethereal, anything he can see can become an ingredient for him!
'Let's start. I have to focus.'
Ainen's expression became serene. All other emotions were suppressed, except for one.
From that, his thirst was born.
'I have to break through in my focus rating. This can't be a C-rank recipe, no matter what.'
Ainen took a deep breath and began.
Recipe of Everything!
'Envision the catalyst.'
What he needed to do was to take all aspects of these ingredients, and then imagine, design, and create a catalyst capable of nurturing the powers he envisioned by combining their aspects.
Half an hour later, Ron came, but saw that Ainen was standing still, his eyes closed.
No matter how much he called, Ainen was like a tight shut door, not opening even a bit.
"Dummy. Don't disturb him. He is focused."
"Maybe he is cooking something, hehe."
"That's what he says, so he is definitly cooking something."
Suddenly, both of them heard a familiar chuckle and turned to Ainen, who had just opened his eyes. Thɪs chapter is updated by NoveIＦire.net
"Well, I have finished cooking." Ainen grinned.
[ Recipe: Pentatronix Dynamo Club Cocktail ]
"Now then, I'll be busy making something crazy, so if you tell me anything, say it now."
"Okie, brother Ain. You finish doing your stuff, then we will go out again, right?"
"So you want to go out?" Ainen smiled. "Of course. Once I am done making a cocktail from these ingredients, we will go out."
"Brother, can we take a quest and go on an Adventure?" Ron said with a serious face. "We learned Mana Blade, and we are ready to hunt monsters and level up."
Ainen wryly smiled and ruffled their head. "You fellows, it's still early for you."
"It's not, brother! Kids start training way early, and we already saw some ten-year-olds training in the Adventurer's Plaza's training ground."
"Ok, ok. Listen. I am going to teach you one more skill, like Mana Blade. Once you learn it, I will let you hunt. But aside from that, once I am done creating my catalyst, we will go take on a quest, okay?" Ainen smiled.
And so, Ron and Syl listened to Ainen.
After they left the kitchen, Ainen rolled his sleeves and raised his arms.
'The recipe is ready. Now it's time to execute the ingredients.'
'I am eager to see this. How will your skill handle preparing the sword and cores?'
Ainen grinned. 'Just watch.'
Perfect Ingredient Execution!
All ingredients shone brightly before their shapes and substance transformed.
The magic cores of Monsters turned into liquid soup.
The sword, armor, and bow transformed into strange metal bars with glowing patterns on them.
The meat and other stuff were cut into fine chunks.
And the five elemental resources were separated and prepared into different bowls.
The Tier-3 Geopulse Flower transformed into crushed shining brown powder.
"This is going to be a different type of cooking." Ainen waved his hand as exotic tools he imagined appeared. He imagined and designed these tools according to these ingredients, so that they can use and transform them into a cocktail.
'I am completely lost.' Lord Black said as he looked at the tools and the ingredients that were prepared.
Ainen smiled. 'Using these tools, I will extract the essence of these ingredients.'
When he heard that, Lord Black suddenly understood. 'So you want to use these tools to concentrate their essence into one place and extract that. So that's the cocktail?'
'Of course, but it's not that simple. I will have to put some of these multiple times through the tools to extract their essence properly.'
'I just hope I don't spend too much time on this. I have to cook them to perfection. Seriously, I can't imagine doing this without Fire Manipulation.'
Indeed. All recipes and things that Ainen imagined and designed were on the basis of his own parameters, mainly his Fire Manipulation of S-rank.
He realized that if he had A-rank Fire Manipulation instead, he wouldn't have been able to cook this catalyst recipe.
The art of subtly sensing heat and entirely controlling the temperature to perfection, in order to bring a precise change to the ingredient. This wasn't something A-rank Fire Manipulation could allow him to do.
'Let's start. Time to cook this to perfection, I envisioned. Anything less is unacceptable.'
And so, two hours passed by in the blink of an eye before four glasses stood before Ainen.
Each glass was a cocktail. Pentatronix Dynamo Club Cocktail.
[ Congratulations. You have created a food dish worthy of acquiring the label of Cooked to Perfection. A suitable bonus effect will be applied to the cocktail. ]
Ainen curiously looked at its effects.
'W-What?!' Lord Black's broken voice rang in a high-pitched manner.
Ainen was dumbfounded, his mouth wide open. The effects of this cocktail had surpassed all of his expectations and more!
[ Pentatronix Dynamo Club Cocktail - Cooked to Perfection ]
Rating: Tier-2 / A (Cooked To Perfection)