Otherworldly God of Cooking Trait That Could Revive the Dead

The next day.

"Mm."

The heavy feeling on his chest slowly woke the sleeping Guter. He rubbed his eyes and looked down, then let out a helpless sigh.

"How should I put this... do all elves have such terrible sleeping habits?"

At that moment, Serie was tightly wrapped in the blanket, lying sideways across Guter like a little croissant.

She occasionally wriggled a little. Paired with her steady breathing, the "old lady" was sleeping quite soundly.

Guter braced a hand against his chest and carefully pulled himself free, then gently set the "croissant" down.

After putting on his coat, Guter stood nearby. First, he silently marveled at that "masterpiece" of a sleeping pose, then picked up a stick and poked through the ashes of last night's fire in the fireplace.

After confirming that the fire had gone out, Guter looked through the window at the sky outside.

The sun had just risen, and the morning light was not yet harsh. If he moved quickly, he would still have time to make breakfast.

Carrying a bucket from the mountain cabin in each hand, Guter quietly closed the door and headed toward a nearby water source he had noted while traveling last night.

The water source was a small stream.

Though its flow was not strong, it ran endlessly and received plenty of sunlight, so the water quality was good. Many animals nearby came here to drink as well.

By the stream, Guter lowered the buckets to collect water while watching the other animals drinking nearby, pondering what to make for breakfast.

That stag?

Not ideal. It was too large to finish in one sitting, and venison was difficult to cook.

Then what about that little wild boar over there?

That did not seem much better. Not only was it troublesome to prepare, but without enough seasonings in the wilderness, it would be hard to cover up its gamey smell.

So what should he make?

Suddenly, two flashes of reflected light in the stream made Guter's eyes light up.

Got it!

Grilled fish, along with a pot of delicious fresh fish soup.

Having decided on the dishes, Guter tossed the buckets onto the bank, crouched down, and watched the upper reaches of the stream, ready to act at any moment.

A few breaths later, another flash passed through the stream, and Guter's hand shot out like lightning.

"Splash! Splash!"

A huge river fish thrashed violently in Guter's palm. Its slippery body sent water spraying everywhere, and Guter nearly failed to hold on, almost letting it slip away.

Without taking the time to inspect it closely, Guter tossed it into the bucket beside him. Only after making sure it could no longer escape did he crouch down to examine it carefully.

"With that shape, and that mouth... could it be a common carp?"

Guter made the uncertain judgment. Common carp liked living in fast-flowing shallows and mountain streams, but they were generally small fish and rarely weighed more than a few ounces.

Yet the one he had just caught weighed at least half a pound. That was truly unusual.

Forget it.

Guter shook his head and stopped thinking about it. He was going to eat it anyway, so wasn't more meat a good thing?

And so, relying on his exceptionally strong body, Guter crouched beside the stream, listening to the rushing water and watching the reflections on its surface.

Whenever he spotted an opportunity, his hands would dart out like lightning and clamp tightly around the big fish he had set his sights on.

Caught up in the focus and joy of fishing, Guter soon lost track of time. All he could feel was the satisfaction of catching one big fish after another.

It was not until the blazing sun overhead made the back of his neck sting that Guter suddenly remembered why he was fishing in the first place.

Looking at the bucket beside him, completely filled with fish, Guter scratched his head sheepishly. I hope Teacher still isn't awake.

The mountain cabin.

Wrapped tightly in the blanket, Serie wriggled a few times on the bed, keeping her eyes firmly closed against the sunlight outside the window.

But a sudden growl from her stomach forced her consciousness to wake up a little.

"Guter... isn't back yet?"

"Mm... I'll sleep a little longer. Just a little longer..."

"Zzzzz."

Another quarter of an hour later, Guter finally returned to the mountain cabin.

At that moment, one bucket was filled with clear, sweet mountain spring water. Warmed by the sunlight, it was not cold at all and even carried a faint hint of warmth.

The other bucket was filled with plentiful ingredients.

It held more than half a bucket of river fish that had been scaled and cleaned, along with mushrooms and wild vegetables Guter had gathered on the way back.

After setting everything down, Guter looked at the "little croissant" leaning against the wall and spoke somewhat apologetically.

"Teacher, sorry to keep you waiting."

The elf, whose eyes were still closed, nodded. A growl from her stomach spoke for her.

"Understood. Please bear with it a little longer, Teacher."

After saying that, Guter stepped forward and rubbed Serie's ears twice before washing his hands and starting to cook.

After relighting the fire in the cabin, Guter placed a small iron pot over it. Instead of adding water, he first put several cleaned common carp into the pot.

As the iron pot heated up, the plump common carp slowly released oil from their bodies, filling the air with a unique, enticing fragrance.

While the common carp roasted, Guter took out another small pot and placed it beside the first. He began boiling a pot of stream water, then sharpened several wooden sticks with a knife, skewered the cleaned river fish one by one, and roasted them beside the fire.

Using the spatula from the cabin, he constantly turned the common carp in the pot, allowing them to release as much fragrant oil as possible without frying them black.

"Bubble, bubble."

Beside him, with the help of Guter's Flame Magic, the pot of water quickly began to steam.

Guter glanced at the fish pot and found that the fish had been fried to just the right point.

So he lifted the pot of boiling water and poured it directly into the fish pot.

"Ssssh!"

A burst of boiling sound erupted from the pot. Scalded by the boiling water, the broth quickly turned milky white.

Guter picked up the bucket of ingredients again, took out the mushrooms he had already cleaned after gathering them, along with several mountain delicacies, and tossed them all into the pot. He then added two more river fish meant for eating.

After covering the fish pot, Guter, who had been fully absorbed in cooking, finally noticed that someone had somehow come up behind him.

"Teacher, you'll scare me if you sneak up without making a sound."

However, Serie ignored her disciple's complaint. She merely pointed at the fish pot in front of them and asked,

"If I use magic to raise the temperature of the flames, can we eat sooner?"

Feeling the magic power stirring around Serie, Guter quickly stepped forward and grabbed his teacher.

"Don't, Teacher. A good pot of soup needs time to build up its flavor."

"Please wait a little longer. The grilled fish will be ready soon, and you can eat some of that first."

"All right."

Only after Guter soothed her did Serie gradually disperse the magic around her. She silently crouched beside the fire, breathing in the fragrance of the food.

Seeing that, Guter could not help but let out a sigh of relief.

Judging from the amount of magic gathered around his teacher just now, the flames she released might have burned straight through the bottom of the pot.

And so, the master and disciple patiently waited beside the fire. Guter dug salt and dried rations out of his luggage, while Serie distracted herself by reading a Magic Book.

As time slowly passed, the once-bright sky seemed to grow dim.

In front of them, golden oil occasionally dripped from the fish, now roasted to a crisp, fragrant brown, making the fire below suddenly flare.

The dancing flames illuminated the master and disciple.

"Drip."

Something seemed to have fallen onto the ground.

Guter looked toward the sky outside the window, which had only just turned cloudy, and murmured, "Is it going to rain? Good thing we didn't choose to travel this morning."

"The weather at this time of year really is unpredictable."

Yet even after Guter finished speaking, there was no sound of rain falling outside. The gathering clouds merely darkened further.

"Wasn't that sound rain?"

Suddenly, Guter realized something. He lightly hooked a finger beneath the Magic Book Serie was holding and pulled it down.

Sure enough, a glistening trace of moisture hung at the corner of the elf's mouth.

"Is it really that exaggerated? This makes me look like some protagonist from a cliché transmigrator novel, winning over girls with nothing but good food."

Guter shook his head, finding it somewhat amusing.

Still, the "old lady" looked rather cute like this.

Pulling the Magic Book back up to block this "Old Glutton's" gaze, Guter stood and added the final sprinkle of salt to the grilled fish, which was already seven or eight parts cooked.

Adding a thin layer of salt at this stage would form a delicate salt crust over the grilled fish, enhancing its flavor while preventing its surface from burning.

All that remained was to wait a few more minutes for the salt crust to fully seep into the fish, and then it would be ready to eat.

With a light rub of his fingers, Guter smoothly scattered an even, fine layer of salt over the final skewer of grilled fish.

However, just as Guter was about to place it back beside the fire, his series of fluid motions suddenly stopped.

Because Guter had suddenly realized something.

His cooking was truly different from when he had first transmigrated.

He had improved, and it was an improvement far beyond what an ordinary person could ever reach.

Thinking back to when he had first transmigrated, forget meat that required technique like grilled fish—even roasting a potato, he could not tell whether it was cooked through.

But now, not only was his judgment of heat practically perfect, he could even scatter salt with his hand evenly, controlling its thickness entirely at will.

"Was it because of that Talent Trait... whose special effect had never been triggered?" Guter murmured.

Trait Name: Otherworldy God of Cooking (Blue)

Trait Description: A gift you received due to an unknown resonance after transmigrating to another world

Trait Effect: Influenced by unknown factors, your cooking talent, cooking comprehension, and cooking performance have greatly improved after transmigrating; furthermore, dishes cooked by your hands have an extremely tiny chance of producing special effects (greatly restore vitality/greatly restore stamina/grant a temporary endurance boost//revive the dead)

"Heh, now that I think about it, it sounds pretty impressive. Could it have become Blue quality just by selling me a dream?"

Recalling the system's specific description of that Talent Trait, Guter could not help but complain.

Because the system's so-called extremely tiny chance was truly outrageously low.

Several years had passed since Guter transmigrated. During that time, he had cooked for himself quite often, yet the extremely tiny chance of that Talent Trait had never triggered even once.

Guter seriously suspected that the chance of triggering that Talent Trait's special effect was even lower than pulling the current featured general from a box in some ever-growing game.

And even if the Talent Trait's effect did trigger, the odds of randomly obtaining such a heaven-defying effect as reviving the dead probably would not be much higher than the chance of triggering the Talent Trait itself.

Thus, Guter had only cared about it when he first obtained it. As time passed, he gradually stopped paying attention to it and had nearly forgotten that he even possessed such a Talent Trait.

But.

Judging from how it had made Serie "drool with hunger" today, if he ignored its chance-based effects and treated it merely as a Green-quality lifestyle Talent Trait bonus, it was still quite effective.

Guter handed Serie a skewer of grilled fish, crisp on the outside and tender within, its salty fragrant crust giving way to the fish's fresh sweetness with every bite. Watching the elf's lips unconsciously curve upward in happiness after tasting the delicious food, Guter thought exactly that.