Multiverse Gourmet Hunter

Xiang En knew she probably had only one chance to speak.

If this worked, she could survive. If it failed, the only thing awaiting her was the Dark Cooking Society’s punishment—a fate that could easily be worse than death.

She took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the fear in her heart before meeting Haruto’s gaze.

"I need the Jewel Meat."

"And I’m willing to trade this for it."

As she spoke, Xiang En took out a grayish-black stone about the size of a fist.

Its surface was coarse and completely unremarkable. It had none of the warm luster of jade or the unusual beauty of a collector’s stone. At first glance, it looked no different from an ordinary rock one might find lying beside the road.

If someone tossed it onto the ground, most people probably would not even bother bending down for a second look.

Haruto stared at the stone with obvious puzzlement.

There was nothing unusual about it whatsoever.

He looked back at Xiang En.

Her face held nothing now except the grim seriousness of someone staking everything on one final gamble.

Haruto knew very well that the pressure he had released earlier was more than enough to make Xiang En understand the enormous gulf in strength between them.

Even if she had ten times her current courage, she would not dare try to fool him with a worthless rock.

Which meant this thing was definitely not ordinary.

"Keep talking."

Haruto decided to give her a chance to explain.

Xiang En’s tense shoulders loosened for the briefest moment.

She did not dare waste any time.

"I don’t know whether you’ve heard of the Legendary Kitchen Tools—"

"There’s no need for all that."

Haruto cut her off impatiently.

"I know more about the Legendary Kitchen Tools than you do. Get to the point."

Xiang En’s words died in her throat.

A flicker of embarrassment crossed her face, but she did not dare show the slightest irritation.

After drawing another breath and calming herself, she continued.

"This stone is a piece of the meteorite ore left over after the Eight Legendary Kitchen Tools were forged."

Haruto’s expression immediately sharpened.

One moment, he was standing several steps away.

The next, he appeared directly in front of Xiang En like a ghost.

His speed exceeded what ordinary eyes could follow. The air displaced by his movement tossed the loose strands of hair across Xiang En’s forehead, while an even heavier pressure than before wrapped around her entire body.

For an instant, she felt as though all the blood in her veins had frozen.

Then she realized that the gray-black stone she had been clutching tightly was already in Haruto’s hand.

Haruto paid no attention to Xiang En’s deathly pale face.

Every bit of his focus was now fixed on the utterly ordinary-looking stone in his palm.

His fingers tightened.

With Haruto’s current physical strength, even steel could be bent and reshaped in his hands almost like clay.

Yet even when he exerted his full strength, the rough gray-black stone did not move in the slightest.

Surprise flashed through his eyes.

Then came unmistakable excitement.

He now believed Xiang En’s story by at least seventy or eighty percent.

At the very least, the hardness of this stone was already comparable to diamond.

The idea that it might truly be leftover meteorite ore from the forging of the Legendary Kitchen Tools no longer seemed far-fetched.

Haruto opened a tiny rift between reality and the Gourmet Restaurant and attempted to analyze the stone using the realm’s abilities.

The examination failed.

Whatever this stone was, it apparently exceeded the current limits of the Gourmet Restaurant’s analytical capabilities.

Rather than disappointing Haruto, that result made him even more convinced that he was holding the genuine article.

There was still one thing he could not understand, however.

How could a treasure like this possibly have fallen into Xiang En’s hands?

Haruto looked at her and asked directly,

"Where did you get it?"

Xiang En forced herself to remain calm.

"I found it by chance in a temple deep in the mountains."

Haruto raised an eyebrow and rubbed his thumb across the stone’s rough surface as understanding gradually dawned on him.

The temple she was referring to was most likely the same one associated with the Seven-Star Knives she carried.

If so, this stone had probably originally belonged to Luo Xie, the master bladesmith who created them.

Luo Xie’s forging ability had been among the finest of his era, and his craft clearly came from a genuine tradition rather than being something he had taught himself.

For a smith of that caliber to possess a piece of meteorite ore left over from the forging of the Legendary Kitchen Tools was not particularly strange.

Luo Xie had almost certainly wanted to forge something from it himself.

The fact that the stone had survived untouched until now suggested only one thing.

He had been unable to work it.

No matter how skilled Luo Xie was, the material itself had simply exceeded his capabilities, leaving him with no choice but to store it away.

After his death, it had eventually found its way into Xiang En’s hands.

As for why Xiang En was willing to trade away something that could easily be called a priceless treasure, the answer was actually quite simple.

To her, this thing was nothing more than a useless lump of stone.

If even Luo Xie had been unable to work it, Xiang En had virtually no chance of finding another bladesmith capable of doing so.

Keeping it served no practical purpose.

But if she exchanged it for Jewel Meat, not only could she avoid being punished for the failed mission, she might even return to the Dark Cooking Society with a major accomplishment.

Having figured out the situation, Haruto looked at Xiang En, who was watching him with barely concealed tension.

"All right."

"I accept the trade. The Jewel Meat is yours."

With that, Haruto retrieved the Jewel Meat from the Gourmet Restaurant.

Xiang En’s gaze locked onto it immediately.

Her breathing quickened.

This was the ingredient she had gone through so much trouble to obtain.

Haruto casually handed it over.

Xiang En reached out with trembling hands and accepted it.

Only when the Jewel Meat was securely in her grasp and its warm, supple texture pressed against her palms did the tension in her heart finally disappear.

Haruto paid no further attention to anyone else.

He stored the meteorite ore inside the Gourmet Restaurant, turned around, and walked out of the estate.

His figure soon vanished beyond the gate.

As Haruto made his way along the long street back toward his lodging, an idea he had considered before resurfaced in his mind.

Now that he possessed this meteorite ore, perhaps it was finally time to seriously consider having a kitchen knife forged specifically for himself.

Unfortunately, that immediately raised a difficult question.

Who could possibly forge it?

The first name that came to Haruto’s mind was naturally Melk the Second.

As one of the world’s greatest sharpeners, Melk the Second possessed craftsmanship at the absolute pinnacle of the Toriko world.

She was also extremely close to Komatsu.

If Haruto asked Komatsu to put in a good word for him, there was a strong chance Melk the Second would agree to help him with the meteorite.

But that was precisely where the problem lay.

Whether it was the original Melk or Melk the Second, they were renowned as the world’s greatest sharpeners, not blacksmiths.

There was an important difference.

What the Melks excelled at was taking existing raw materials—claws, fangs, bones, shells, and similar parts from extraordinarily powerful creatures—and using unparalleled grinding and sharpening techniques to transform them into devastatingly sharp knives.

In other words, they specialized in refining material that already had the basic form needed for a blade.

They could take an unpolished gem and reveal all the brilliance hidden inside it.

What they did not normally do was take an inert lump of raw ore and forge it into a weapon from nothing.

If Haruto were holding the fang or claw of some top-tier beast, then Melk the Second would unquestionably be his best choice. She could draw out every bit of potential hidden within the material.

But what he possessed now was an absurdly hard chunk of extraterrestrial meteorite ore.

Turning that into a kitchen knife would first require heat intense enough to melt or soften it, followed by repeated hammering and forging until the raw material became a usable blade blank.

That was the work of a bladesmith.

Haruto rubbed his brow, momentarily stumped.

Then he gave a quiet laugh at himself and shook his head.

He was thinking too far ahead.

Forget finding a bladesmith capable of forging this meteorite—even getting Melk the Second to personally examine it was still only an idea at this stage.

The immediate priority was to return to his lodging and figure out exactly what properties this meteorite possessed.

As for forging his own kitchen knife, he would simply have to take things one step at a time.

With that thought, Haruto quickened his pace.

Unfortunately, once he returned to his room and tried every method he could think of, the only thing he managed to confirm was what he already knew.

The meteorite was incredibly hard.

Beyond that, he learned absolutely nothing.

With no better option, Haruto could only put the matter aside for the time being.

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