A sense of novelty

An articulate voice of a young female.

This was not a game. It wasn't a dream, either.

But, the voice of the magnificent being resounded within my head. I could see the quest window floating on top of my head as well.

Whilst faintly reinstating the context from my previous world, I cautiously approached the data presented in the window status.

[Level: 1560 Class: warrior (Squire), Second class: Chef (Devourer King Chef), Third class: Mage (Novice Sorcerer). Personal statistics: Agility: 700 (+1000), Defense: 20, Strength: 50 (+600), Skills effect duplication: 1000(+800). Title: None, Quest: Advance towards the forsaken Ophrean.]

As soon as I got the contents from the window I began to cuss reflexively

"Aww…. This is such an interesting life".

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I've spent the last 56 years of my life pursuing a career as a world-class chef with renowned achievements in the culinary culture.

I began to search for a sense of novelty as soon as I became a distinguished chef who has been serving as the personal chef for several generations of Japanese Prime ministers. The hefty pay from the government sure was an intoxicating motive when I started serving meals for the first Japanese prime minister after the monarchy of Japan was abolished.

I was lost amid my wandering thoughts when the second-in-command head chef came and consulted about the upcoming menu in reservation for a foreign diplomatic crew.

The second-in-command head chef was a prime example of a successful man, a tall man in his 30s with half-Italian blood flowing in his veins. He was pursuing greater achievements as he suddenly polished himself with exotic possessions such as sports cars and high-end branding garments in the past month.

"Good evening head chef Pancho Tsukamoto, I am Jake Tuslee Takahashi. I'm going to be accompanying you to this great event with the foreign Oil trading family. Please take keen consideration in this matter"

I once again thought to myself 'The Razakov Petrol&Gas industry again? How long will the Government have to rely on the Razakov for the gas shortages crisis'

I began to talk animatedly to Jake.

"The Razakovs are just a family that's been monopolizing the Oil Industry for several decades, consequently their immense wealth isn't going to be questionable. In regards to that they will not digest anything that isn't considered the finest so just shove them up with whatever you considered the best ingredients you can get from the market"

"And also I've decided to quit my job as the head chef of the prime minister's family next week. I've left behind all of the recipes, a prodigy chef who's the best in your generation should be able to comprehend that much"

I've already arranged a journey in search of a sense of novelty in preparing meals.

A 56 years old unmarried maniac whose sole purpose was to achieve the pinnacle of making the finest meal. At the end of my journey, I've never had a single friend, colleague or even a partner whom I can express my humanistic instincts with.

Even as a child, the only psychological pleasure that I ever had was the abundant and flavorful taste of a plate of food that could stir my palate to its fullest.

At the time when I realized that employing my instinctual drives in the field of cooking wasn't going to do me any good at reaching the peak of my career, I forsaken and repressed all of the contentment and started doing all I can to progress to this transparent ideal position as a chef.

I looked at Jake again with consoling eyes and began to give him some more instructions on the menu preparation.

______________________________________

It was a sunny day at the Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez airport, I barely prepared anything apart from the research about the ancient Mayan culinary culture that I'd been composing for several years back when I was doing my PhD at the Le Cordon Bleu French culinary university.

Part of the reason behind my inconsiderate preparations of the Amazon jungle where the Mayan ruins are located is that the maid who has been serving me ever since I became a world-class Chef with several Micheline-grade restaurants around the world has left her duty to reunite with her family back in France.

I felt faint spite when she proposed to me her resignation.

I quickly cleared my head and began to join the explorer crew that I'd hired. The crew is combined with prominent British expeditionary explorers, I believe that having competent people working for me can compensate for my lack of general understanding and preparations for my arrangements at the Mayan ruins

30 explorers were talking animatedly when the leader of the group started to greet me with high energy

"Top o' the day Pan, nice day for a visit to an Ancient ruin aye? Haha you'll be completely fine with us around in the jungle, to be honest, Amazon feels more like a home to us than anyone else's"

I believe that I've tried arranging the top-class experts at exploring ruins after I shared with Jake my interests in the Amazon jungle. I didn't regard the current situation with much attention right as I'm approaching the dreams of my life ever since my desire for novelty once again stumbled on.

A jet-black expedition SUV was prepared at the front of the estate that I'd purchased if I ever retired from making fine dining dishes and decided to live my retired life in Mexico. After a warm farewell with the housekeepers, the expeditionary crew and I immediately travelled to the Amazon jungle.

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It has been the second day in the Amazon jungle, the expeditionary crew has secured a camping base with all of the essential items for the exploration of the Mayan ruins. Pan was having an enjoyable morning stroll when the leader of the crew came and spoke to Pan.

"Wassup old man, I wish I can enjoy a fine morning like you when I've already accumulated enough wealth on my hands haha. Anyhow, I've already checked with my mates and they said that we can go to the ruins to do whatever a rich lad like you want to do at 9:00 am, I'm sure that your fancy Omega watch can prolly do you the timing well".

Pan was immediately caught up to his insights as soon as Arthur, the leader of the expeditionary crew informed him about the entrance to the Mayan ruins.

The expeditionary crew started to align a grappling hook at the top of a boulder, Arthur and a few of his close comrades were going through the overall analysis of the ancient ruins.

"Hmm lads, we've got a tricky case here. The ruin is all the way down this bloody cave, it's about 500 meters deep. Not too deep in my opinion but we wouldn't have received any signal from the base as soon as we progressed 200 meters into the– -actual ruin itself. For god sake, the old man must be a fearless chap, the ruin is literally an undiscovered one and if he just wanted to do the rich people exploring thing, man could have booked a trip to a pre-discovered ruin around like other rich folks." Arthur grumbled hastily.

Larry one of the archaeologists of the expeditionary crew skims through the reports that he has received from his subordinates

'Arthur is a bit rough with his words, I'm sure that the customer doesn't particularly like his way of working but apart from Arthur who's willing to do anything for money even discovering a sacred ruin like this without any form of legal rights.'

Larry and the other archaeologists who had arrived earlier sipped on the top-notched mineral water handed out by Pan's culinary Association employee and shared cordial words.

"To be honest, I'm not gonna blame Arthur for being a lunatic about money. Apart from the hefty check that we've received from the world-class chef, all of the facilities and supplies that we're currently using are excellent! I never could have imagined that every single one of us is drinking Beverly Hills 90H20 mineral water and being served fine dining dishes from the Tsukamoto culinary association in the middle of the Amazon jungle."

Larry's thoughts were suddenly disrupted by Luc, a young explorer from Arthur's crew.

The men continued enjoying the services from Pan for a while. Larry walked to Arthur with an IPad and started sharing one of his thoughts.

"Hey Arthur, I know that this is a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity for us despite the fact that we're not abiding by the regulations from the Mexican government and our crew might even be suppressed from conducting any archaeological activities after this event. However, the ruin is genuinely giving me some uncertain feelings."

Larry stopped talking and stared nonchalantly at Arthur for a short moment.

"According to the data that we've gathered so far, the ruin seemed very peculiar in many aspects. First of all, many pre-discovered ruins around the Amazon jungle have been documented with similar civilization and cultural acts, the intel from these ruins are also accessible from the Mexican and British archaeology department as well. Conversely, we can not dig out any information that is particularly essential to conduct the archaeological activity. Fortunately, the information that we've received from the world-class chef himself is somewhat adequate for us to start an expedition into the ruin."

Larry scrolled down the IPad

"On the second hand, the civilization from the ancient periods of this ruin feels very much alike a narrative straight out of a fantasy world. From the ancient religious practice records, we can assume that they worshipped the God Antares. The folk story emphasized that Antares was the god of the Sun as well as the god of war, Antares also taught the humans the way of processing the primitive ingredients to excellent quality food to bestow upon his Altar chamber..."

"Cut to the chase Larry, I know you're addressing him as a world-class chef due to your professional way of dealing with things around you. Are you trying to tell me that his purpose at the ruin is just to get his portfolio written down the history a bit longer and there aren't any ill intentions behind that?"

Larry can barely accept Arthur with his articulation but he has to acknowledge that Arthur is a distinguished explorer.

"Yes, you've understood half of what I'm trying to discuss with you. However, don't you ever question yourself why the chef is so overly excited about this? Just from the common perspective of looking at his behaviours so far during these 2 days, I would never have believed that a man with such respectable noble etiquette would be behaving so nonchalantly. Especially the scene from yesterday when he was drunk and started throwing a sequence of gibberish rambling at our camp."

Arthur stroked his hair and looked back at Larry with his eyes

"Well my man just retired not too long ago, the world was going crazy about the resignation of a world-class chef. He's prolly just enjoying himself instinctually now haha"

Larry has met a lot of rich customers who are willing to spend a large sum of money on doing one of the most questionable deeds. Larry remembered a Chinese customer who booked a whole reservation at a pyramid in Egypt just to satiate his sexual fetish of drinking a barely matured girl's urine mixed with the finest booze prepared by well-known bartenders. However, Larry still questioned himself about Pan from his intuition.

Arthur and Larry exchanged words for a while before the 2 men resumed their work.

______________________________________

The explorers began gliding down the cable cord, the grappling hook attached on top of a boulder at the entrance of the cave leading to the ruin started to vibrate vigorously as the 30 men glided down.

Pan carefully observed the expeditionary crew.

'Arthur was sharp with his senses despite his blatant obsession with money and manner of speaking....' Pan paused his thought for a second and began to focus his stare on the archaeologist standing at the back of the 30 men's crew.

'I've been acting like a carefree old man who just got rid of the shackling burden in life for the past few days. I even went overboard by sharing drinks with the men in– -their crew on the other day, yet that archaeologist has never once kept his doubtful glare off me, the archaeologist wouldn't let his guard down until the discovery of the ruin is over. I'm sure that he has had a discussion with Arthur about me after his private surveillance at my chamber yesterday. Moreover, his rear position arrangement of the crew is likely a proposal from himself to Arthur to keep me in check.'

I continued to dive into my thoughts until an assistant informed me that a cockpit had been prepared for me to get down the cave tunnel.