Chapter 1 - Passing

*Bang* *Bang*

*Slice*

*Frying Sound*

After a couple of minutes.

"It's done." said Leo with a cheerful voice.

A sweet aroma dashed into his nose. Before he could gulp his handmade delicacy, he felt a soft hand nearing his back. 

*Pat*

"Good job, disciple. Now you have completely surpassed. Even gods won't be able to refuse your godly cooking." said a hoarse, yet peaceful voice to Leo while patting his back.

"Mhm master, stop making fun of me. You are always mentioning that gods would fight over just to eat your cooking leftovers." replied Leo with a mocking expression.

"You brat! This old man is no longer in his prime, or I would have already dragged you to those gods for authenticating my cooking." 

"Sure, master! Then why don't you show me something that you got from them as a reward for your heavenly cooking that they would fight for?"

"It's not the right time to show you." replied the old man with a pleasant surprise on his face, "Well, I will show it to you tonight." he added before turning away to leave the kitchen.

"What?" asked Leo surprisingly. Before he could think about anything else, a voice ringed in his head.

*Ding*

"Master, you leveled up to Lv.100."

An obedient voice came from his depths of soul that he had almost forgotten about 3 years ago when he met his master.

Leo was an orphan who had always remained average on earth. He had a normal life of a clerk. One night when he was walking to his apartment, truck-kun ran over him, after which he found himself on a grassland of this village. 

He was summoned as a hero to save the world from otherworldly forces. To his surprise, there were already heroes that were doing his hero work. Due to this situation, his system didn't give him any quests or goals to complete.

Leo always dreamt to open his own restaurant and make it famous with his outstanding cooking skills when he was on earth. In this world he had already opened one, and it was booming with business.

It was all gloomy before he met an old man that pointed out his mistakes just from sniffing the porridge he had made. After he corrected his mistakes, the porridge had no shortcomings at all. Leo didn't hesitate and acknowledged that old man as his master. 

The old man also didn't hesitate to accept Leo as his only disciple. Since the day he started living with him, a hellish training became for Leo.

For the sake of perfecting his cooking, he didn't budge, no matter how hard it was to last. The training only involved basic skills such as chopping, marinating, and other sets of physical training that he was forced to do. The most difficult part was learning the various types of herbs that amounted to more than tens of thousands name, let alone their specific descriptions. 

Leo had started leveling up only from maxing out the cooking skills he had.

Out of curiosity, he summoned his status panel, and his face immediately beamed with a curvy smile that his lips could handle.

[Name: Leo

Race: Human

Occupation: Hero

Level: Maximum (100)

Skills: A Successful Cook(#?!*@)]

He questioned the system, "Hey, system! Why is the rank of my skill still not determined even after 3 years of living in this world?"

But he was unaware that his maximum cooking had already reached an unprecedented level of perfection.

Yes, he didn't acquire any combat skills and his system never showed him his stats. It was his own choice because there were people out there who were doing the 'hero work' that was supposed to be his duty.

He didn't mind it at all as cooking was his only aspect of praise according to him.

Discarding all the thoughts about his skill's rank and shifting to the praises of his master, he felt delighted to the peak, just like how people would feel like eating sweets after a hot sizzling dinner.

Leo went after his master and saw him sitting cross-legged on the bed, meditating. He didn't disturb his master, went back to look after the staff.

Time passed really slow for Leo as he was excited to see what his master would show him. He had already thought that how he would make fun of his master when he narrated another exaggerated journey of his life.

It was already time for their master-disciple when Leo had entered his master's room, only to find him nowhere.

He slowly walked to the kitchen with a silent footwork so that he could catch his old man eating sugar cubes.

To his surprise, his master was boiling water and stood there staring at it closely when he suddenly broke the silence with his hoarse yet caring voice. He said, My dear disciple, I once made a promise to 10 God thousands of years ago. I said that as long as there is someone who can surpass me in the path of cooking, I will accept that person as my only disciple."

Leo didn't reply immediately as he had read the room and already knew that what he was listening to was something he had to listen just like the same lessons when he was taught about thousands of herbs.

Hearing no response from his disciple, he continued, "I thought that there will be no one to surpass me, but I was too hung up on my pride. It was only 3 years ago when I met you and saw that same spark and passion in you that I had in my youth."

In an instant, the boiling water served in a bowl appeared in his hands before he said with a cheerful and at the same time exhausted voice, "The time of my passing has arrived, I hope you won't blame me for the future."

His master drank the hot water before giving him the instructions to sleep early.

It was a long night for Leo because his master had mentioned some crazy talk that he would never guess to hear from his mouth. He didn't have a peaceful sleep as he was worried to live a day without his master, but soon he tried to divert his mind to something else and fell asleep.

Next day, in the morning. It was a gloomy atmosphere in the house…

Leo saw what he couldn't even think of, even in his wildest dreams.

His master was lying… dead.