I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 227: Unbelievably Amazing

“Is this really a trial?!” Argentum could not help but shout in a tone of anger, wondering whether the inheritance he had entered was the same Flame Spirit Inheritance in Aurus’s memories. Although it had the same name, the same location, and what seemed to be the same rewards in reference to his memories, the same could not be said with its mechanics.

Eventually, Argentum let out a long sigh, removing all of the anger and confusion that was pent up inside his body alongside it. He then took a look at the five slabs of meat that were organized in a horizontal line a decent away from him. At this moment, he changed his mindset to that of someone eager to clear trials no matter how crazy the mechanics of the trials are, radiating an aura of seriousness as he pondered on how he was going to cook the slabs of meat laid out in front of him.

“The inheritance did say that this trial is highly reliant on my prowess over [Lesser Fire Magic], plus it also said that it’ll tell me when I’ve cooked a slab of meat to perfection,” Argentum muttered to himself as he pondered, gradually making his way towards the leftmost slab of meat. At the very instant he had closed the gap between him and the first slab of meat he had to cook, Argentum was instantly mesmerized by the beauty of the meat in front of him.

“Such glorious marbling…” Argentum could not help but say as Aurus’s memories of watching a lot of cooking videos while eating surfaced in his mind, making him salivate even though he was a body made out of energy. He then placed one of his hands on the meat to get a better feeling for it, letting out a sigh of awe as he soon said, “It also has a plump texture as well.”

“No, wait. I shouldn’t be thinking about these things,” he said to himself as he realized that his train of thought had gone off-course. He then shook his head vigorously to return his train of thought to that of clearing the trial, prompting him to place his index finger and thumb under his chin as he rubbed it, thinking on how he was going to cook these big slabs of meat.

‘Do I throw a fireball at it?’ This was the first thought Argentum had in his mind when the thought of cooking these slabs of meat came to mind. The reason as to why Argentum thought that this would be the way to cook these slabs of meat was due to the thickness of the cuts, being as wide as Argentum’s arm. Eventually, he thought a bit deeper into this idea, discarding the idea as he muttered, “That would just burn the meat.”

“Hmm…” Argentum pondered a bit more on how he was going to cook such a huge slab of meat…well, five huge slabs of meat, making sure that he had enough control over the power of the flames in order for them to be cooked to perfection, which was the requirement to clear the trial. While he was mulling over this problem, he rummaged through Aurus’s memories, specifically the memories in his past life where he would cook for himself.

Surprisingly, it did not take long for Argentum to realize what he needed to do, watching Aurus cook an egg through the memory. Reverting his focus to that of the slab of meat in front of him, he soon conjured a fireball that was not around the size of his palm. He then went ahead and slowly brought the fireball closer to the slab of meat, eventually stopping the fireball at a distance of a few centimeters from the surface of the meat.

He then used [Keen Vision] to get a closer look at what the fireball was doing to the meat since he wanted to know whether this thought would be a better choice than just throwing fireballs all over the slabs of meat and making sure that each part is covered. After about a minute or so, an incredibly small part on the surface of the meat, which was in close contact with the heat radiating from the fireball, gradually turned brown, eliciting a light chuckle from Argentum as he knew that he was going to use this method.

“Although this method would be slow, it’s something that a few more fireballs would be able to fix,” Argentum said with confidence, remembering that the inheritance told him that the goal was to cook all 5 slabs of meat to perfection, not cook them to perfection at the fastest time possible. If the goal of this trial was the latter, then he might have gone with the fireball throwing method, making sure to reduce the power stored within them in order to not burn the meat.

But since there was no need for Argentum to rush it, he decided that this method would be better in the long term, allowing Argentum great control over the cooking of the meat.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Seeing that one fireball was not enough to cook a decently sized part of the meat, Argentum went ahead and conjured three more fireballs and manipulated them to stop a few centimeters away from the surface of the meat in other parts of it, bringing the total number of fireballs simultaneously cooking the first slab of meat to four.

As time passed, a savory aroma started to suffuse from the slab of meat Argentum was cooking, spreading throughout the room as Argentum unhesitatingly inhaled its scent, letting out a sigh of wonder in response. He went ahead and looked at the progress of the four fireballs in cooking the first slab of meat, noticing that they have already browned quite a decent area of the meat’s surface.

Looking at the browned parts of the meat, Argentum could not help but feel like salivating once more, muttering, “If I were an Animate, from the scent it was giving off alone, I’m definitely sure that I’d die happy after eating just a tiny piece of it.”

“Too bad cooking these meats is a part of the trial though,” Argentum said not long after, letting out a sigh of slight dejection. “I’m pretty sure they’ll be moved somewhere after I successfully finish the trial.”

Whoosh!

Just as Argentum focused his sense of vision back on the fireballs, making sure to slowly move them to cook the other parts of the meat in an even manner, a long rectangle appeared on the floor a few decimeters away from the slab of meat Argentum was cooking, glowing quite intensely, which made Argentum focus his sense of vision towards it in slight annoyance.

Wondering why such a rectangle would appear at this moment the rectangle’s inner area was soon filled to around 1/6 of the way, making Argentum wonder even more. Fortunately, the disembodied voice of the inheritance resounded at the very instant Argentum was about to ask the inheritance about this, saying, “To help the inheritor out in making sure that the slabs of meat have been cooked to perfection, once a slab of meat has been cooked to a certain point, a glowing rectangle would appear below the slab of meat, telling the inheritor how close to perfection the cooked meat is.”

“Once the glowing rectangle is filled up halfway, that means the slab of meat has been cooked to perfection,” the disembodied voice said not long after, to which Argentum muttered to himself, “Ah, so this is how the inheritance is going to help me out.”

Just as he was about to focus his sense of vision back on the slab of meat he was cooking, a spark of inspiration flashed in his mind as he thought about the glowing rectangle, prompting him to look at the slab of meat beside the slab of meat he was currently cooking. As he placed his index finger and thumb under his chin once more as his sense of vision moved towards the ceiling, it did not take long for a plan to be formulated in Argentum’s mind that would take advantage of the glowing rectangle, increasing the speed at which he would cook all of the slabs of meat while making sure that they were cooked to perfection.

“Now that I think about it, I contradict myself sometimes,” Argentum could not help but chuckle as this thought came across his mind. “I went with this method of cooking the meat so I have better control over the browning of the meat, which meant that I was sacrificing speed in exchange for quality. But here I am, wanting to conjure more fireballs to cook the other slabs simultaneously while I rely on the guide of the glowing rectangle to tell me whether the slabs of meat have been cooked to perfection.”

“Oh, well. I’ll just think that there’s an additional reward if I cook them fast enough, just to justify my actions,” he said afterward, letting out another chuckle as he went ahead and conjured 4 more fireballs before manipulating them to head towards the second slab of meat. In an instant, he felt a great increase in the burden in his mind from controlling 8 fireballs at once. Moving the 4 fireballs he had just conjured to slowly cook the second slab of meat, the burden he felt had increased by a few more notches, making Argentum feel that this was his limit for now unless if he pushed himself.

Nonetheless, cooking another slab of meat at the same time meant that was he was clearing the trial at twice the speed, with the first slab of meat eventually being cooked to perfection after around 30 minutes or so.

A great aroma could be smelled from the first slab of meat, while its appearance, which was akin to a large piece of perfectly cooked steak, made Argentum feel like he was looking at a culinary work of art. Not only that, but there was also the oils of the cooked meat on the floor of the large stone room, tempting Argentum a bit as he knew that the oils that dripped from such a piece of meat would surely be heavenly.

Fortunately, Argentum composed himself, moving the 4 fireballs that cooked the first slab of meat onto the third slab of meat, forcing himself to actively ignore the aroma of the perfectly cooked first slab of meat as he radiated an aura of melancholy.

Thankfully, it seemed that Argentum’s determination to make sure that all 5 slabs of meat were perfectly cooked won over his intense urges of devouring the slabs of meat in front of him. In total, it took Argentum almost 3 hours to cook all slabs of meat to perfection, with every slab of meat being perfectly browned with enough charred spots that made it look like five pieces of steak cooked by a world-class chef.

Whoosh!

After the last slab of meat was cooked to perfection, the glowing rectangles that allowed Argentum to know whether he had cooked the slabs of meat perfectly, disappeared in an instant, which was soon followed up by the disembodied voice.

It said, “The inheritor has successfully cooked all 5 slabs of meat to perfection. The inheritor has successfully cleared the trial ‘Flame Control Mastery’.”

Although he was quite ecstatic that he had completed the second trial without much problem, he could not help but feel a stinging pain inside him as he knew that he would part ways with the slabs of meat he had just cooked to perfection. To him, it was akin to a chef finally cooking what seemed to be the highest quality dish they’ve ever made, only for it to be served to a customer without a sensitive palate. In other words, Argentum felt like it was a waste for the inheritance to not give the slabs of meat to him instead.

Surprisingly, the inheritance seemed to have answered his prayers, with the disembodied voice resounding throughout the room once more, telling him, “The reward of this trial is the 5 slabs of meat that the inheritor has just cooked. These slabs of meat are the meat of an Ignis Kaiser Lion, a Rank 4 Fire-based Animate. The inheritance recommends the inheritor to ingest them as fast as possible in preparation for the third trial.”

“Eh?” Listening to the disembodied voice’s words as he processed them, Argentum wondered if he had heard wrongly. The reward was the meat he had cooked? Did the inheritance just say that?

Fortunately, the disembodied voice repeated its words once more, finally allowing Argentum to be at ease as he looked at the meat in front of him with great pride and glee. Technically, this was the first piece of food Argentum was going to eat in this world. As he thought of the flavor profile of the meat he had cooked, Argentum could not help but think to himself, ‘Aw man, if the original body was awake, I would have definitely shared some of this with them.’

‘I hope you can settle with my memories instead, Aurus,’ Argentum thought to himself not long after, taking in a deep breath before moving towards the first slab of meat he had cooked. He looked at it for a bit, admiring the browning on the surface of the meat before going ahead and opening his mouth and chomping down on it, hacking off a huge piece of meat from it.

Fwoosh!

At the very instant he chewed on this piece of meat he hacked off, a gush of flavor circulated throughout his body, making him feel like he had ascended to another state of being from the taste of the meat alone. A rich salty yet savory flavor came from the meat as Argentum continued to bite, with a small spicy kick adding to the taste of the meat every once in a while. 

Due to the taste of the meat, Argentum had unknowingly hacked off another large piece from the slab of meat, gorging down all of it within a matter of seconds as he made sure to commit the taste of the meat to his mind. It was only after he had committed the memory to mind did Argentum realize that he had completely devoured the first slab of meat without difficulty.

“I already ate the first slab?” Argentum could not help but radiate confusion as he wondered what had happened to the slab of meat while he was savoring its flavor. He then focused his sense of vision towards the remaining four slabs of meat as he radiated an aura of elation and happiness.

“Then again, I still have four more slabs of meat to chow down.”

Ding!

Just as he was about to move onto the next slab of meat, a notification sound resounded in his mind, slightly confusing him as he had not obtained a skill or anything else from the inheritance that needs the system to notify him. The only thing he had obtained from the current trial was slabs of meat.

As he thought up to this point, Argentum then realized that the slab of meat he had just eaten might have special effects, hastily prompting him to open up his notification screen and skim through the latest notifications he had received. After seeing the latest notifications, Argentum was left at a loss for words from awe, which was soon replaced with elation as he shouted, “Truly befitting of an S++ grade reward!”

‘You have consumed the meat of an Ignis Kaiser Lion. The mastery level of [Lesser Flame Magic] has increased from Basic to Adept.’

‘You have consumed the meat of an Ignis Kaiser Lion. Your affinity towards the Fire element has slightly increased.’