Too Stubborn to Die Chapter 45
Aaron threw ingredients together like a possessed child let loose in the kitchen, grabbing items for the benefit, more so than anything that resembled a recipe built for taste.
It was lucky for him that he had the gut of an ogre, because the path Oozagh had set him on had nothing to do with flavor. This was purely about buffs and boons. About foul concoctions designed with a singular thought in mind: how many buffs can be squeezed into a single meal?
Swirling through the kitchen, he sauteed, deep-fried, and baked. But there was no order to it. He threw deep-fried meats and vegetables into pots of stew, frying them not for taste, but to take advantage of the Rare oils he filled the fryer with.
His dimples dug deeper and his smile wickedly wide as the hours dragged on and his dishes grew increasingly obscure and quite frankly, scary. Feathers and beaks protruded, and an eyeball floated to the top after giving his mixture a good stir. Mustard went in, of course. Seven kinds of mustard, including an elite-grade green mustard that had just been added to the kitchen after his last trial.
Inhaling the fumes, a burning sensation filled Aaron. Mustard and peppers masked the endless list of ingredients he had thrown together.
“That’s it. I’ve done it!” He cackled like a madman over the bubbling cauldron of purplish-green sludge. “I’ve created a masterpiece!”
Experience rewarded for discovering a recipe!
Ding!
[ Ogre Taste Tester ] has LEVELED UP!
16 → 17
Tainted Chili Con… Everything [ Epic — F grade ]
What exactly is in this… chili? Even calling it a chili is rather generous. In truth, it is a disturbing mixture of all kinds of ingredients, both edible and not so edible. !!!WARNING! SEVERE SIDE EFFECTS! WARNING!!! INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DEATH!!!
Provides: Softens skin, provides energy, and virility. Strengthens and powers stamina veins. Improves mana bandwidth and mental processing. Turns breath rancid, but also into flammable methane. Hallucinogenic effects are also experienced by some.
Aftereffects: Painful and drawn-out death
“Huh,” Aaron nodded to himself as he read the mildly concerning notification. It sounded kind of dangerous, but he was immune to side effects.
Err, this should be fine, right?
“Right?” He echoed with fading uncertainty.
Remembering Oozagh’s words, his resolve strengthened. The ogre god seemed to want him to succeed, so it didn’t really make sense that it would lead him to do something that would get him killed.
It’ll be fine. Besides, I can just respawn anyway.
As much as he wanted to give his new recipe a try, Aaron still had ingredients leftover, so he got back to work.
The mad cooking binge lasted days, some foul mixtures more potent and effective than others. Still, everything had its place, and he could always use the weaker ones as backups.
But ultimately, he was beyond happy with the results. He had been increasingly worried that his aimless cooking would lead him to a bottleneck sooner or later. Or even just provide him with a shitty evolution when he reached E grade. Now, that had been wiped entirely from his thoughts. Oozagh had shown him the way, and he was powering toward it with vigour.
To those looking in, it might have seemed as if he was just mindlessly throwing things together, but there was a mad, incomprehensible logic to what he was doing. But heck, even Aaron couldn’t put it into words. It was like a new instinct he had picked up from the godly ogre.
Somehow, he just knew what nonsensical combinations of ingredients to throw together. Almost as if he were doing the complete opposite of what a real chef would do. Making his dishes as unpalatable as ogrely possible.
This madness continued until all of his ingredients were used.
Experience rewarded for discovering a recipe!
Experience rewarded for discovering a recipe!
Ding!
[ Ogre Taste Tester ] has LEVELED UP!
17 → 18
Experience rewarded for discovering a recipe!
Ding!
[ Ogre Taste Tester ] has LEVELED UP!
18 → 19
A smile crept across his food-stained face as he rocked back and forth in the dishevelled kitchen, strewn with food waste and burn marks. All he needed was a straitjacket to complete the look.
Stew of Boiling #$ErRor&* [ Epic — F grade ]
You can’t see through his murky swamp-inspired stew, but something is definitely wiggling around in there. A favorite amongst ogre kind, they enjoy picking the wiggling worms from their teeth as they indulge in this delicacy.
Provides: Impressive Stat bonuses to all Sats, increases relative to how well the user’s stomach can hold down this disturbing dish.
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Aftereffects: Severe
Fried Mickelback [ Elite — F grade ]
This odd delicacy, which is oddly similar to surströmming, shares more in common with the Earthling rock band that its name rhymes with than first appears, for it is equally as divisive. You either hate it or die shortly after consuming it. However, it is loaded with omega-3 fatty acids and a variety of other vitamins, and for some reason, is enjoyed by ogres.
Provides: 50 Intelligence, a significant adrenaline boost, enhanced mental-related Skills, and an antidote against mental assaults.
Aftereffects: Severe
“Okay,” Aaron nodded as he read the recipes. “Well, at least I won’t have to worry about sharing,” Aaron chuckled to himself.
The boons were great, but he was a little worried about what his breath would be like going forward. Well, he could always brush well before meeting people.
Sighing, he shook his head and returned to his gains.
“Oh well, getting stronger is what’s important.”
The Stat gains alone had pushed Vitality up to his second-highest Stat, and Fortitude was keeping pace nicely. He didn’t see much point in continuing to stack Strength now that he had shown his powerful strike to Yendal. That and the fact that he was confident it was powerful enough for any encounter he would find himself in for a while.
He needed to get back to basics, and Agility was his most important Stat. Fortitude and Willpower for energy were both also vitally important, but he had multiple Skills providing him with additional energy now.
No, definitely Agility.
Dexterity needed to keep pace with his speed, otherwise he might get sloppy, but it seemed high enough for now. Strength also provided a speed increase, but it was undeniable that making swift, agile actions in the heart of battle mostly revolved around the Agility Stat, and since that was what would benefit him most, that’s where he placed his six free points.
[ Name: Aaron Dober ]
[ Age: 23 ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Grade: F ]
[ HP: 9100 ]
[ MP: 4900 ]
[ SP: 8000 ]
[ Class: Brawler, lvl 22 ]
[ Profession: Ogre Taste Tester, lvl 18 ]
[ Stats ]
[ Strength: 74 (+16) ]
[ Vitality: 91 (+19) ]
[ Fortitude: 80 (+26) ]
[ Dexterity: 89 (+35) ]
[ Agility: 118 (+40) ]
[ Intelligence: 5 (+5) ]
[ Willpower: 49 (+17) ]
[ Charisma: 5 (+5) ]
[ Perception: 19 (+7) ]
[ Titles: Shadow Trials Trailblazer, Stamina Control Prodigy, Mana Control Prodigy ]
[ Traits: Fate Weaver (Alpha), Moderate Blessing of Oozagh the Rotund, Moderate Blessing of Yendal the Empty-Handed ]
[ Racial Skills: Inspect, Lingua Multiversa ]
[ Profession Passive Skills (3/3): Questionable Recipes, Conductive Gut, Adipose Fusion ]
[ Profession Active Skills (2/6): Concoct Toxic Gloop, Oozagh’s Breath ]
[ Class Passive Skills (2/3): Faux Core, Equal and Opposite ]
[ Class Active Skills (5/6): Thick Skinned, Relentless Scourge, Gorgon’s Time Dilation, Overclocked Haymaker, Gust Step ]
Things were looking good, Aaron thought. It was fairly balanced, all things considered.
Now, where to test my new dishes?
There were plenty of trials to test himself against, and even though his cooking wasn’t strictly for the sake of making him stronger, there was no illusion as to why he put so much effort into it.
He wanted dishes that would buff him and make him stronger. As simple as that, and so it made the most sense to challenge himself against trials that tested his strength.
“Trial of Dominance it is,” Aaron muttered beneath his breath as he made his way to the trial.
Once again, he selected Oozagh. This was for multiple reasons. But the most important thing was that he didn’t want to see Yendal just yet. He knew he would have to eventually, and he also knew that she was arguably the more important god, since her path was considerably closer to his than the ogre. But he also knew that she was no doubt going to ask about his improved blessing, and he wasn’t ready for that noise. Not yet, at least.
Within seconds, he had materialised in the humid, dense jungle above the ancient Mayan-esque town of the lizardmen. There was also another reason he was dying to do this trial.
It had been fucking hard last time. Each of the lizardmen bosses posed a difficult challenge on its own, and he doubted his chances of taking on all three back then. But he had grown a lot since then, and he was desperate to test himself against someone whose power he had already felt.
Glancing from side to side, Aaron got to work and marched toward the waterfall as before.
Without a second thought, he dived down and into the town below.
It was time to show these lizardmen how much stronger he had gotten; however, that didn’t mean he would forgo strategy, and he was careful not to agro the entire town like last time.
Marching near the waterfall, lizardmen troops were gowned in golden armor, donned in colorful feathers, and armed with spears and shields.
But this time, instead of jumping straight out and challenging them all, he took his time. Turning his head, he admired the hum of powerful mana resonating from the pyramid in the distance.
“Well, I did want a challenge, didn’t I?” He shrugged as a defiant smile crept across his face.
He had a feeling that the pyramid was the perfect place to start his rampage.
He figured that it was probably a good idea to try to get there undetected first, if possible. If the pyramid were home to some kind of magic caster, it would likely be best to take them out first. After all, casters were usually squishies.
Aaron had never been much for stealth, but sneaking out of the pool and then behind a nearby stone hut, he realized his Fate Weaver Trait had an extra use. By reading threads of fate, he could predict which way the patrols would turn, making it a lot easier to sneak around the town without actually having stealth Skills, although it was limited. He still needed to be able to see the person whose fate he was reading. If he could see the patrol, he could see where they were likely to go, and the more he focused, the further ahead of time he could see.
Seeing more than a few seconds wasn’t useful in combat, both because it required too much focus, and the likelihood of fate changing and making the threads he had read irrelevant was too high. But in a situation like this, it was quite helpful indeed.
Also, maybe his ease at sneaking around was aided by his dip in the pool masking his scent, but either way, the lizardmen didn’t seem particularly alert. Or at least it wasn’t overly hard to creep through the stone-tiled streets toward the pyramid.
It also helped that the pyramid was essentially a giant staircase from all sides. Well, not quite. The steps were about two meters high each, and would have been impossible to climb before the Integration. However, now, it barely required any effort from Aaron to bound up, allowing him to avoid the main streets and approach from the rear. In fact, he put more effort into ensuring that he landed silently than into the jump itself.
At the top of the pyramid, the thick cloud of mana was even heavier. It felt straight up muggy, and after a quick glance to make sure he hadn’t been spotted, Aaron slid around and into the door to discover a literal blanket of purple smog filling the chamber.
Smacking his lips and tasting the air, he was oddly delighted to find that the strange purple mana tasted good.
Argh, probably my ogre taste buds are screwing with me again.
There were worse problems to have than enjoying the taste of just about anything, but the thought that he’d be seen as a weirdo because of it once everything was all said and done lingered in his mind.
Oh well, not like I can do anything about it now.
He kept walking, and the fog grew thicker, but he got an idea. There was a Skill that he’d yet to test, and it seemed perfect for this situation. He activated [ Oozagh's Breath ] and blew as hard as he could.
Having the ability to blow with impressive power might not sound like the most amazing Skill, but it was certainly useful here, and a powerful gust pressed through the chamber, taking the purple fog with it and sending it swirling toward the other end.
Pots and stone tables were revealed, filling most of the room. At the far end, where the fog had been pushed, several cauldrons were bunched together, and a hunched figure growled as it turned toward him.
“I guess this is your home?”
Banetoad Shaman [ ??? ]