The news of Jin Park's success with the Yeti assignment and the massive grant awarded by Dean Elara spread through the Prime Division like wildfire. The other twenty-nine students, who had initially viewed him as a strange but ultimately harmless fluke, were now forced to re-evaluate.
He was no longer just "the Chef." He was "the Chef with a 500,000 Aurum research grant and the Dean's personal attention." This new title carried a weight that even the most arrogant among them could not ignore.
The change was most noticeable in their daily interactions. When he walked into the Prime Division's exclusive dining hall, students would nod respectfully. The snickers were gone, replaced by whispers of curiosity. They saw him not as a peer to be challenged, but as a valuable resource to be courted.
A third-year Beast Tamer, whose prized Griffin was suffering from a rare mana-alignment sickness, approached him. "Mr. Park," she began, her tone formal. "I heard about your work with the Yeti. I was wondering if you might be able to design a dietary supplement to help stabilize my companion's core."
A fourth-year Enchanter, struggling to find a medium that could hold a complex spell matrix, asked, "I read the patent for your 'Yeti's Sorrow' dish. The principles of thermal paradox you employed... could they be applied to a runic inscription?"
Jin Park graciously accepted these consultations. He saw them for what they were: transactions. My knowledge for your observation. Each interaction was a chance to study a new set of high-grade skills and talents up close, cataloging them for future use. For a small fee of rare materials delivered directly to his lab, he would provide revolutionary insights that solved problems their own professors couldn't.
He was building a new kind of power—not of combat, but of influence. He was becoming an indispensable part of the Prime Division's ecosystem.
Meanwhile, his true growth continued unabated in the solitude of his lab. The five hundred thousand Aurum felt like an infinite resource. He requisitioned a vast array of monster parts and herbs, from the common to the Ultrarare.
His days were a blur of synergistic creation.
First, he would use his new skill, Ingredient Enhancement. He'd take a Rare-grade "Iron-Shelled Crab" leg and pour his mana into it.
[Activating Skill: Ingredient Enhancement (Rare) - Lv. 1]
[Target ingredient has been temporarily elevated to Ultrarare-grade.]
Then, with his now higher-quality ingredient, he would cook. His Cooking skill and his System Weaver talent worked in perfect harmony, allowing him to produce "Masterpiece" quality dishes with astonishing consistency.
[You have created 'Enhanced Crab Bisque' (Ultrarare-grade dish). Quality: Masterpiece.]
[You have gained a massive amount of experience.]
The XP from this cycle was staggering. He was leveling up almost every other day.
[You have leveled up!]
[You are now Lv. 11!]
[You are now Lv. 12!]
His Cooking skill leveled rapidly, and with every level, his dishes became more refined, their buffs more potent. He was also training his other skills. He'd use Material Synthesis to create new, improved kitchen tools, leveling the skill with each creation. At night, he would face the training dummy, practicing his combat style with the reinforced skillet, leveling his Chop and Power Strike skills. His growth was comprehensive and terrifyingly efficient.
One evening, as he was documenting the effects of a new agility-boosting consommé, a memory fragment surfaced. It was triggered by the sheer luxury of his situation.
…the cramped, one-room apartment he shared after his first master threw him out. He was nineteen, in a kitchen in Paris, and had just been fired for suggesting a 'more efficient' way to prep the sauces. He remembered the hunger, the gnawing emptiness in his stomach as he spent his last few francs not on food, but on a single, perfect tomato from the market. He spent all night studying it, deconstructing its flavor, trying to understand the 'system' behind its perfection. That single tomato became the foundation for the dish that would eventually earn him his first Michelin star…
He blinked, the memory fading. He looked at the vast, state-of-the-art lab around him, funded by a half-million Aurum grant. He had started with nothing in two different lives. The core principle remained the same: understand the system, respect the ingredients, and forge your own path.
His gaze fell upon his internal clock.
[Divine Copy Cooldown Remaining: 4 days, 21 hours, 10 minutes.]
The time was drawing near. His preparations were almost complete. His level was higher, his skills were sharper, and his reputation was now a tool he could wield.
He had already laid the groundwork for his approach to Ren. He had learned through the student network that Ren, the quiet mana theorist, was obsessed with an ancient, untranslatable text on 'Metaphysical Mana Theory,' specifically a chapter rumored to discuss 'Mana Entropy'. He had used a small portion of his grant to purchase exclusive access to a digital copy of a recently discovered companion scroll to that very text from the NHA's academic archives—a scroll filled with commentaries from a long-dead Archmage.
He wouldn't be approaching Ren with a mere compliment. He would be approaching him with a key, a priceless piece of knowledge that the quiet mana theorist would be utterly incapable of resisting.
The stage was set. The bait was ready.