Boom time

Alex was surprised to see the chefs eyes light up in excitement after cooking a very small piece of meat to test it's flavor. The last time this had happened was when Alex had brought the chef meat from a diablos. To date that was easily the most delicious type of meat Alex had eaten in this world as it was even better than wagyu on earth. So seeing how excited the chef was about the bazelgeuse's meat made him equally eager. some of the more observant hunters in the canteen at the time also noticed this reaction from the chef and began to wonder what Alex had brought this time.-

"Oi sid!" a eager short red headed hunter from the fifth fleet called out as he walked over. 'Yes?' Alex asked confused why the guy had tried to get his attention. "What did you hunt this time that's got the chef here so excited?" The hunter asked with a wide smile. 'Bazelgeuse , surprisingly.' Alex answered honestly. The hunter was astonished "seriously one of those damn things!?" he exclaimed loudly. 'Yeah I also didn't expect this either but you'd have to ask the master here for the details about what made this meat so special.' Alex said honestly while pointing at the head chef who was busy prepping vegetables.

"Tender and packed with fat and flavor." the chef said without looking up from what he was doing. 'You heard the man , I suppose my only gripe is that he's probably going to put in a request for a bunch of the meat. Which will undoubtedly get pushed to me to complete since the rest of you take too long getting ingredients of that size.' Alex said with a sigh causing but the hunter and the chef to laugh.-

This was usually how this happened in astera when it came to large ingredients such as whole monsters. Before Alex was a fixture the head chef could only suck it up and accept less than fresh ingredients of this size whereas now Alex can go out grab the monster and return in a few hours tops. This meant that proper preservation could be used on the meat in time to keep it from losing any flavor , making all the meals the chef cooked even better than before. Unfortunately this also meant that Alex needed to restock the food stores regularly every two weeks.-

He was of course properly compensated for his trouble with meal vouchers that nullified the cost of cooking any meal he used them on for him. Due to the shear size of the amount of food he ate these meals were horrifically expensive normally otherwise. Alex didn't really mind doing this anyways but a bit of belly aching is customary amongst people in astera. For this meal in particular the chef apparently decided to turn the meat into a massive batch of curry. Alex will never get over the sight of a huge cauldron filled with the orange brown liquid filled with chunks of onions , carrots , potatoes and bazelgeuse meat.-

The mountainous pile of rice that was also cooked to go alongside the curry was also quite the sight to see. Alex had to ignore the fervent stares of a certain handler as he divided the food between himself and the small runt that had some sort of food based sixth sense. What Alex didn't expect however was that the admiral had also joined them without asking and was helping himself to the curry and rice eagerly. The old hunter was glared at by Alex for a good five minutes but eventually won this contest of wills through skin as thick as the ancient tree.-

From the meal Alex got two traits , one of which surprised him quite a bit because it created a fused trait with one he already had. These traits were [explosive scales] and [armored scales]. The second of which merely added a level to the already existing trait Alex had but the first trait was legendary ranked and fused with [explosive poison] to create the [scale grenade] fused trait. This fused trait made Alex practically giddy as it literally turned certain shed scales into grenades. The best part though was that Alex could choose whether the scales exploded on impact or needed a trigger.

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