Middle of the Night…
Sol's house, Terravon…
A man burped and pat his stomach, letting out a little chuckle of satisfaction. The kitchen was quite messy with large stew pots on the stove, a deep fryer near it, and even an air fryer. The bloody knife in which he used to fillet his prey rested in the sink. The man lit a cigarette, gave it a puff, and propped his foot on the table in front of him.
"Damn, they were right," he said in a deep voice. "You could cook an elder dragon in hundreds of different ways. It tasted so good."
He laughed. The spell to force monsters back into their natural state was simple. Being a chef, well, not so much for most people.
He twirled his fork. "My day just couldn't get any shittier. They told me there was a giant chicken somewhere, but it hadn't shown up yet. Some stupid man gives me a business card, promising me an interesting but suspicious endeavor." The man stood. "Fuck it, I'm not waiting. The elder dragon was delicious enough, yet pretty damned disappointing."
He licked his lips. "Oh well, they don't call me the Devourer for nothing."
The man looked at his phone and suddenly, the most urgent alarm erupted through his mind. His crimson aura shot around him as he gaped, then narrowed his eyes. This was terrible. Awful. Enough to make him murderous. Enough to make him frustrated... The worst possible news ever.
He was…
What happened was…
"FUCK! I'm missing the market sale! Thirty percent off will never come again."
The man knocked over a lit candle on the way out, his magic to Jump already charging. And as the Devourer vanished, the Falcon's hidden house burst into flames, threatening to take away all evidence of intrusion.
**
When Risa returned after receiving the news of Sol's death, she found herself feeling conflicted. After royally messing up with her best friend, Chiyo…assuming she'd accept her again, she decided to change. And that meant never returning to the Soulless household again. The head was just too much of a negative influence and pushed her into an insufferable drive to climb the ranks.
When Sol made a selfless decision to revive the elder dragon, Risa for the first time knew that somewhere deep down, there was in fact a sliver of good in him. That's when she decided that she'd tug him on the road of change too. He squashed all of that potential by attacking those who bit back with one hundred times more ferocity. The Falcon was killed by a horned owl.
Risa halted the flames with just a single wave of her finger, saving the house. Mixed into the ash, the elder dragon picked up the scent of two visitors. The first froze her blood. An elder dragon of a rival family waited for her, possibly in ambush. The second scent…made no sense.
Risa gazed at the respawn doll in her hands. The spell on it would alter the resurrected person's memories. She didn't exactly know for sure—the elder dragon had no real way to test it.
"Hey lady."
Risa flinched then turned around to see …Dire smiling at her.
"You… how did you…" Risa could barely get the words out of her mouth. The silver-haired kid giggled, then raised a finger.
"Don't worry, I'm not here to do bad things," Dire said. "Quite the opposite. You're about to commit a naughty."
Dire teleported next to Risa and snatched the respawn doll out of her hands. Risa's eyes widened in panic, but what could she do against such power? She didn't want to die again. She didn't want to feel that hurt.
"My master said farming these are next to impossible, whatever that means," Dire said, voice cheerful and upbeat. "I can't let you waste it on bringing back someone who's better off dead. That bird's a meanie, beanie, dummy-head." Her voice became uncharacteristically serious. "You do know that this won't affect the memories of one of the five, right? He'd come back, not listen to you, and gun for revenge. Maybe he'll kill your friends and family first. I only know that because rumors about the Falcon going all murder-happy spread in the underground. I'm not sure who started it though." The kid tilted her head, then smiled, reigniting the chipper tone. "You and I are both alike, Rita? Was it Rita? Rito? Reamer? Reset?"
"It's Risa," Risa said, annoyed. "Elder…" She shut her mouth, hoping the brat didn't kill her.
"Ah Risa," Dire said. "As I was saying, we're alike. We want stupid men. The only difference between my master and yours is that one, he's smarter, handsomer, wiser, honorable, and way, way, WAY better than yours."
Risa rolled her eyes. "I only wanted to change him, not because I liked him or some silly mess like that. Sol is young and was misled by what he called, the Bright Ones. At first, I thought he referred to the Watchers, but they are not the same. Hell, getting that man to talk about himself is an accomplishment…so I flexed my family's resources to look deeper into his home realm only to find something horrible in the archives. An unknown group of higher power beings took control of his realm a thousand years ago with an excuse of saying they're doing the universe a favor. Only two were known among that group. Fatalus and Bacchus. Hey, why are you sleeping!"
Dire yawned. "Sorry. When people try to dump exposition on me, I tend to fall asleep. Anyway lady, even if what you're saying is true, I have no reason to care." She stuck her tongue out at the elder dragon. "Good luck finding another one." She winked. "And be grateful I'm not telling the Devourer on you. He wants to eat you, ya know."
Dire vanished, leaving Risa standing there in sadness, confusion, and just tired. She needed to find out more about the Bright Ones and why they set the Falcon on the negative path during the stone-viper games.
Hope of that was now gone…
**
Midmorning…
Lot City, Yaponiya…
[Ki increased x 3 thanks to the Bracelet's of New Path. You'd better thank Natalia.]
[You are beginning to feel the effects of the large Ki gains.]
[Tessa, Alice, Harumi, Yuki, Tear, Chika, Melody.]
"Welcome to Yoshi's," a black-haired young woman greeted as Clyde and Team Stone entered the restaurant.
Yuki held up the flyer. "We're here to help Master Chef Yoshi."
The girl's eyes lit up. "Grandpa! We've got help. Wow there sure are a lot of you." She bowed. "I don't know how to thank you. Most people wouldn't work without a guarantee of compensation."
Ruri's tail wagged as she sniffed the delicious scents with Matsume behind her smiling. The Stone Maiden, Ichika, seemed to be bickering with Neko and Ako about something. Her skirt lifted up a just enough for Clyde to get a glimpsed of surprising lingerie. Asu's influence for sure. Or maybe Stone Maidens secretly had their fashion tastes?
An older man greeted the group dressed in a Japanese chef's outfit…Clyde debated on whether he should refer to it as Yaponiyan or something.
"All of you are volunteering?" Yoshi asked, surprise in his eyes. They drifted mostly on the female members of Team Stone. He offered a hand. "I'm Yoshi."
Clyde accepted the handshake. "I'm Clyde. This is Team Stone."
The old man's eyes widened. His granddaughter quickly grabbed Clyde's hand, shaking.
"It's an honor to have you here," she said. "I'm Rin. We really appreciate the help."
"Do you mind explaining the situation a bit," Clyde asked Yoshi. The old man nodded.
"Rin, bring our guests some tea," Yoshi said then turned to the young man. "Have a seat. You may as well relax before hearing our struggle to save this place. As hopeless as it may be."
"It's not hopeless," Rin said then hurried off to do as her grandfather ordered. Airi sat next to Clyde and Yuki.
Yoshi explained what they knew already, but a more enhanced version. The creditors were actually demons after his world star fragment for an unknown purpose.
"Something happens when you bring all seven together," Yoshi said. "What it is, I certainly don't know. No one has ever done so in my lifetime."
"Finding seven glowing crystals scattered in random places across the planet isn't exactly a realistic—"
Airi covered Clyde's mouth. "Anyway, Chef, we'd love to help, but you see, whether you pay your debt or not won't matter. As long as you have the fragment, the creditors will raise their aggression. Soon, your entire family will be put in danger."
Yoshi nodded. "You have a point young lady, which is why I propose this. If your team can earn the funds needed to keep possession of our restaurant, I will happily give you the fragment. You can do whatever you want with it…just…just…this place means a lot to my granddaughter and me. So much love built this place up…" Yoshi bowed. "Please save it. I beg you."
"Please raise your head," Clyde said. "What you're calling hopeless is just another challenge to us." He grinned. "Besides, I have a pretty good plan. They're not dressed in hot maid outfits for nothing. Let's call our time here the promotion period and just leave it to us."
"Okay," Yoshi said as he stood, although the young man noticed that the chef was hunched over a little. "Rin, please do your best to assist them." He gazed at Clyde. "I leave my trust in your team."
As Rin walked with her grandfather to see him off, Seth said, "she's totally hot."
Suddenly, the door swung open, revealing Maya and her assistant, Nuri.
"Sorry I'm late," Maya said.
"And who are you? Wait…you're…the CEO of Nowie's," Yoshi said. "What's a hotshot like you doing here."
"Being called a hotshot by someone as amazing as you," Maya said. "You honor me, Master Chef." She gave him a respectful short bow. "We've partnered up with Chika Corp to run advertisement and get rid of those nasty creditors."
"Hi," Chika said, waving at her.
Maya waved back. "Chika figured paying them won't simply be enough, so we're going to get this place back into the public's eye." She dashed over to Seth. "And you'll be helping me, my perverted boyfriend." She pulled Seth away to an office space. Nuri followed carrying a laptop and a bag. She gave Clyde a brilliant smile and waved before continuing on.
Maya felt like a beauty wasted on Seth, but at least someone would keep him in check.
"Well I'll be damned," Yoshi said. "I look forward to your results. Rin will report to me at the end of the week."
[You have been given temporary ownership over Yoshi's restaurant.]
[Your party has entered the battle to save Yoshi's. This is a mandatory quest with a world star fragment on the line. If things go smoothly, this could be the easiest fragment you'll earn on your own.]
[You will be utilizing the Point System while running the establishment. Each actively participating member of Team Stone will have a base set of points, which will reveal their skill levels. At the end of a workday, you will receive 10 points and with those, you may distribute to any of your team members. Even 1 point is better than none. You will have a starting balance and sometimes opportunities to earn bonus points should they arise. Then at the end of the day, total points racked, and cash earned will be shown to you as well as the percentage of completing the quest. Warning, you cannot use your own cash toward the balance owed or the YRS will arrest Yoshi. So don't be an idiot, desu. Revenue to the restaurant must be earned and able to continue on its own legs.]
Wow System, way to shit diarrhea on me, Clyde thought after he finished reading the prompt. As he looked at his team, the young man figured the point system was going to be a huge blessing. Only Yuki and Rin knew anything about running a restaurant. Tear, Chika, and Alice knew administration. Even if forced into it, the half-demoness still added much-needed manager power to the pool.
Except…Tear made it clear that she wanted to be a sexy waitress and not a manager. Seeing how she ran the succubus network, which paved his way to success, Clyde had no choice but to honor her wish. She did say she was going to jump the young man and do him in the uniform.
Enticing as that sounded, the parameters for beating the quest were tight. In fact, this would be virtually impossible for normal people. Who the hell had a ton of ridiculously rich friends, connections, and superpowers? He turned to Toru, only to receive a blank stare. Clyde's eye twitched.
"Anything you'd like us to do?" Toru asked. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com <a href="https://www.webnovel.com">www.webnovel.com</a> for visiting.
"Rin should be back in a bit," Clyde said. "We'll start training or whatever when she returns."
Clyde selected the new menu and viewed everyone's stats. And he grimaced.
Middle of the Night…
Sol's house, Terravon…
A man burped and pat his stomach, letting out a little chuckle of satisfaction. The kitchen was quite messy with large stew pots on the stove, a deep fryer near it, and even an air fryer. The bloody knife in which he used to fillet his prey rested in the sink. The man lit a cigarette, gave it a puff, and propped his foot on the table in front of him.
"Damn, they were right," he said in a deep voice. "You could cook an elder dragon in hundreds of different ways. It tasted so good."
He laughed. The spell to force monsters back into their natural state was simple. Being a chef, well, not so much for most people.
He twirled his fork. "My day just couldn't get any shittier. They told me there was a giant chicken somewhere, but it hadn't shown up yet. Some stupid man gives me a business card, promising me an interesting but suspicious endeavor." The man stood. "Fuck it, I'm not waiting. The elder dragon was delicious enough, yet pretty damned disappointing."
He licked his lips. "Oh well, they don't call me the Devourer for nothing."
The man looked at his phone and suddenly, the most urgent alarm erupted through his mind. His crimson aura shot around him as he gaped, then narrowed his eyes. This was terrible. Awful. Enough to make him murderous. Enough to make him frustrated... The worst possible news ever.
He was…
What happened was…
"FUCK! I'm missing the market sale! Thirty percent off will never come again."
The man knocked over a lit candle on the way out, his magic to Jump already charging. And as the Devourer vanished, the Falcon's hidden house burst into flames, threatening to take away all evidence of intrusion.
**
When Risa returned after receiving the news of Sol's death, she found herself feeling conflicted. After royally messing up with her best friend, Chiyo…assuming she'd accept her again, she decided to change. And that meant never returning to the Soulless household again. The head was just too much of a negative influence and pushed her into an insufferable drive to climb the ranks.
When Sol made a selfless decision to revive the elder dragon, Risa for the first time knew that somewhere deep down, there was in fact a sliver of good in him. That's when she decided that she'd tug him on the road of change too. He squashed all of that potential by attacking those who bit back with one hundred times more ferocity. The Falcon was killed by a horned owl.
Risa halted the flames with just a single wave of her finger, saving the house. Mixed into the ash, the elder dragon picked up the scent of two visitors. The first froze her blood. An elder dragon of a rival family waited for her, possibly in ambush. The second scent…made no sense.
Risa gazed at the respawn doll in her hands. The spell on it would alter the resurrected person's memories. She didn't exactly know for sure—the elder dragon had no real way to test it.
"Hey lady."
Risa flinched then turned around to see …Dire smiling at her.
"You… how did you…" Risa could barely get the words out of her mouth. The silver-haired kid giggled, then raised a finger.
"Don't worry, I'm not here to do bad things," Dire said. "Quite the opposite. You're about to commit a naughty."
Dire teleported next to Risa and snatched the respawn doll out of her hands. Risa's eyes widened in panic, but what could she do against such power? She didn't want to die again. She didn't want to feel that hurt.
"My master said farming these are next to impossible, whatever that means," Dire said, voice cheerful and upbeat. "I can't let you waste it on bringing back someone who's better off dead. That bird's a meanie, beanie, dummy-head." Her voice became uncharacteristically serious. "You do know that this won't affect the memories of one of the five, right? He'd come back, not listen to you, and gun for revenge. Maybe he'll kill your friends and family first. I only know that because rumors about the Falcon going all murder-happy spread in the underground. I'm not sure who started it though." The kid tilted her head, then smiled, reigniting the chipper tone. "You and I are both alike, Rita? Was it Rita? Rito? Reamer? Reset?"
"It's Risa," Risa said, annoyed. "Elder…" She shut her mouth, hoping the brat didn't kill her.
"Ah Risa," Dire said. "As I was saying, we're alike. We want stupid men. The only difference between my master and yours is that one, he's smarter, handsomer, wiser, honorable, and way, way, WAY better than yours."
Risa rolled her eyes. "I only wanted to change him, not because I liked him or some silly mess like that. Sol is young and was misled by what he called, the Bright Ones. At first, I thought he referred to the Watchers, but they are not the same. Hell, getting that man to talk about himself is an accomplishment…so I flexed my family's resources to look deeper into his home realm only to find something horrible in the archives. An unknown group of higher power beings took control of his realm a thousand years ago with an excuse of saying they're doing the universe a favor. Only two were known among that group. Fatalus and Bacchus. Hey, why are you sleeping!"
Dire yawned. "Sorry. When people try to dump exposition on me, I tend to fall asleep. Anyway lady, even if what you're saying is true, I have no reason to care." She stuck her tongue out at the elder dragon. "Good luck finding another one." She winked. "And be grateful I'm not telling the Devourer on you. He wants to eat you, ya know."
Dire vanished, leaving Risa standing there in sadness, confusion, and just tired. She needed to find out more about the Bright Ones and why they set the Falcon on the negative path during the stone-viper games.
Hope of that was now gone…
**
Midmorning…
Lot City, Yaponiya…
[Ki increased x 3 thanks to the Bracelet's of New Path. You'd better thank Natalia.]
[You are beginning to feel the effects of the large Ki gains.]
[Tessa, Alice, Harumi, Yuki, Tear, Chika, Melody.]
"Welcome to Yoshi's," a black-haired young woman greeted as Clyde and Team Stone entered the restaurant.
Yuki held up the flyer. "We're here to help Master Chef Yoshi."
The girl's eyes lit up. "Grandpa! We've got help. Wow there sure are a lot of you." She bowed. "I don't know how to thank you. Most people wouldn't work without a guarantee of compensation."
Ruri's tail wagged as she sniffed the delicious scents with Matsume behind her smiling. The Stone Maiden, Ichika, seemed to be bickering with Neko and Ako about something. Her skirt lifted up a just enough for Clyde to get a glimpsed of surprising lingerie. Asu's influence for sure. Or maybe Stone Maidens secretly had their fashion tastes?
An older man greeted the group dressed in a Japanese chef's outfit…Clyde debated on whether he should refer to it as Yaponiyan or something.
"All of you are volunteering?" Yoshi asked, surprise in his eyes. They drifted mostly on the female members of Team Stone. He offered a hand. "I'm Yoshi."
Clyde accepted the handshake. "I'm Clyde. This is Team Stone."
The old man's eyes widened. His granddaughter quickly grabbed Clyde's hand, shaking.
"It's an honor to have you here," she said. "I'm Rin. We really appreciate the help."
"Do you mind explaining the situation a bit," Clyde asked Yoshi. The old man nodded.
"Rin, bring our guests some tea," Yoshi said then turned to the young man. "Have a seat. You may as well relax before hearing our struggle to save this place. As hopeless as it may be."
"It's not hopeless," Rin said then hurried off to do as her grandfather ordered. Airi sat next to Clyde and Yuki.
Yoshi explained what they knew already, but a more enhanced version. The creditors were actually demons after his world star fragment for an unknown purpose.
"Something happens when you bring all seven together," Yoshi said. "What it is, I certainly don't know. No one has ever done so in my lifetime."
"Finding seven glowing crystals scattered in random places across the planet isn't exactly a realistic—"
Airi covered Clyde's mouth. "Anyway, Chef, we'd love to help, but you see, whether you pay your debt or not won't matter. As long as you have the fragment, the creditors will raise their aggression. Soon, your entire family will be put in danger."
Yoshi nodded. "You have a point young lady, which is why I propose this. If your team can earn the funds needed to keep possession of our restaurant, I will happily give you the fragment. You can do whatever you want with it…just…just…this place means a lot to my granddaughter and me. So much love built this place up…" Yoshi bowed. "Please save it. I beg you."
"Please raise your head," Clyde said. "What you're calling hopeless is just another challenge to us." He grinned. "Besides, I have a pretty good plan. They're not dressed in hot maid outfits for nothing. Let's call our time here the promotion period and just leave it to us."
"Okay," Yoshi said as he stood, although the young man noticed that the chef was hunched over a little. "Rin, please do your best to assist them." He gazed at Clyde. "I leave my trust in your team."
As Rin walked with her grandfather to see him off, Seth said, "she's totally hot."
Suddenly, the door swung open, revealing Maya and her assistant, Nuri.
"Sorry I'm late," Maya said.
"And who are you? Wait…you're…the CEO of Nowie's," Yoshi said. "What's a hotshot like you doing here."
"Being called a hotshot by someone as amazing as you," Maya said. "You honor me, Master Chef." She gave him a respectful short bow. "We've partnered up with Chika Corp to run advertisement and get rid of those nasty creditors."
"Hi," Chika said, waving at her.
Maya waved back. "Chika figured paying them won't simply be enough, so we're going to get this place back into the public's eye." She dashed over to Seth. "And you'll be helping me, my perverted boyfriend." She pulled Seth away to an office space. Nuri followed carrying a laptop and a bag. She gave Clyde a brilliant smile and waved before continuing on.
Maya felt like a beauty wasted on Seth, but at least someone would keep him in check.
"Well I'll be damned," Yoshi said. "I look forward to your results. Rin will report to me at the end of the week."
[You have been given temporary ownership over Yoshi's restaurant.]
[Your party has entered the battle to save Yoshi's. This is a mandatory quest with a world star fragment on the line. If things go smoothly, this could be the easiest fragment you'll earn on your own.]
[You will be utilizing the Point System while running the establishment. Each actively participating member of Team Stone will have a base set of points, which will reveal their skill levels. At the end of a workday, you will receive 10 points and with those, you may distribute to any of your team members. Even 1 point is better than none. You will have a starting balance and sometimes opportunities to earn bonus points should they arise. Then at the end of the day, total points racked, and cash earned will be shown to you as well as the percentage of completing the quest. Warning, you cannot use your own cash toward the balance owed or the YRS will arrest Yoshi. So don't be an idiot, desu. Revenue to the restaurant must be earned and able to continue on its own legs.]
Wow System, way to shit diarrhea on me, Clyde thought after he finished reading the prompt. As he looked at his team, the young man figured the point system was going to be a huge blessing. Only Yuki and Rin knew anything about running a restaurant. Tear, Chika, and Alice knew administration. Even if forced into it, the half-demoness still added much-needed manager power to the pool.
Except…Tear made it clear that she wanted to be a sexy waitress and not a manager. Seeing how she ran the succubus network, which paved his way to success, Clyde had no choice but to honor her wish. She did say she was going to jump the young man and do him in the uniform.
Enticing as that sounded, the parameters for beating the quest were tight. In fact, this would be virtually impossible for normal people. Who the hell had a ton of ridiculously rich friends, connections, and superpowers? He turned to Toru, only to receive a blank stare. Clyde's eye twitched.
"Anything you'd like us to do?" Toru asked. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com <a href="https://www.webnovel.com">www.webnovel.com</a> for visiting.
"Rin should be back in a bit," Clyde said. "We'll start training or whatever when she returns."
Clyde selected the new menu and viewed everyone's stats. And he grimaced.
