Kael was helpless about the limits imposed by Gourmet Cell levels. In truth, he could have directly traveled to other worlds to look for ways to raise his Gourmet Cell level—but he didn't dare to act recklessly.
He was the cautious type. Unless he truly reached a point where there was no room left for progress, he wouldn't set foot in another world. If anything, he was almost overly careful. Right now, Kael's plan was simple: squeeze every last bit of value out of the Cooking Master Boy world and push his Gourmet Cells to the absolute limit.
Beyond that, there was also the third area of Gourmet Corp to unlock. He wanted to see whether the third area would provide a method to cultivate Food Honor. If it did, he would try to learn it.
Only after mastering Food Honor would he consider traveling to another world. That was the only way he'd feel secure.
After all, Food Honor was absurdly powerful. Setting everything else aside, Kael's Gourmet Cell level was only 25, yet with his combat techniques, his actual combat power could reach level 35 or higher.
That kind of boost was already impressive—but in front of Food Honor, it still wasn't enough.
Once his Food Honor reached the proficient level, then even with a Gourmet Cell level of 25, fighting an opponent at level 60 wouldn't scare him in the slightest.
That was just how domineering Food Honor was.
Of course, that was only possible after reaching true proficiency. And if he also mastered Food Immersion, his combat power could be raised even further.
So Kael wasn't in a hurry at all.
As for the development of the Cooking Master Boy world, everything was proceeding steadily. After all, he already held complete "answer sheets." Copying homework wasn't a problem for the Taiji Cuisine Realm or Lan Fei Hong.
With the new dynasty established, everything was moving in a positive direction. Life for the common people improved, and naturally, complaints faded away.
The culinary world also underwent sweeping changes. With the Taiji Cuisine Realm taking the lead and the Imperial Kitchen assisting, large numbers of exceptionally talented chefs were discovered.
With better resources at their disposal, their growth naturally became much smoother.
As for Kael, after spending several years, he finally completed the beast-taming training of the second area.
Within the second area, he had also crafted all of the potions available there. Unfortunately, those potions couldn't be taken with him. As a result, while he had fully mastered the methods of beast taming, he hadn't yet tested them extensively on truly powerful ferocious beasts.
Even so, the system judged that he had successfully completed the second stage of training.
Thus, the third area opened.
"As expected—the third area is exactly what I need. The slaughter-style Food Honor… that actually suits me quite well."
The third area matched Kael's expectations perfectly: the realm of Food Honor.
To clear this area, there was only one requirement—Food Honor had to reach the proficient level, and Food Immersion had to be mastered.
The Food Honor practiced by Gourmet Corp was known as the Slaughter Path.
It refined one's techniques and control over power through constant combat and killing.
At its core, Food Honor was about control—control over one's power. The Gratitude Path focused on cultivating a thankful mindset, using gratitude to sharpen concentration. Once focus was heightened, many details that normally went unnoticed would naturally come into view.
That was why concentration was so important.
Gourmet Corp, on the other hand, relied on technique and slaughter to cultivate Food Honor.
This method wasn't suitable for the general public, but it was perfectly suited to Gourmet Corp. After all, those who joined Gourmet Corp were people who worshiped strength. Even their chefs were never weak.
Now, Kael also felt that the Slaughter Path suited him extremely well.
The third area simulated countless combat scenarios, using the most direct and brutal methods to elevate Kael's Food Honor.
This was exactly what Kael lacked.
His raw strength was already overwhelming, which meant he lacked true combat experience. Even though he possessed Toriko's inheritance, some things simply couldn't be passed down through memory alone—such as muscle memory.
Many powerful warriors, through years of constant battle, developed instinctive reactions and ingrained muscle memory. These were things pure theoretical knowledge could never replace.
The opening of Gourmet Corp's third area perfectly filled this gap for Kael.
At the same time, unlocking the third area also granted Kael another invaluable reward: customized kitchenware.
In the world of Toriko, powerful kitchenware was essential. Otherwise, when facing certain ingredients, it was simply impossible to process them without the right tools.
Komatsu was a prime example. Despite his incredible skills, his knife couldn't handle certain ultra-hard ingredients. Forcing it only resulted in the blade snapping.
It was only after reforging a new knife that he could handle late-game ingredients.
Kael was no different.
Although he possessed the Seven-Star Knives, legendary kitchenware, and special metals, he still lacked truly high-level tools.
Legendary kitchenware was miraculous, but in terms of sheer sharpness, even an ordinary Melk knife could match it.
In the Toriko world, knives pursued extreme sharpness and hardness, because the ingredients themselves were simply too extraordinary. Without sufficient cutting power, processing them was impossible.
The materials and forging techniques used for Melk knives were far beyond anything the Cooking Master Boy world could compare to.
Of course, the knives of the Cooking Master Boy world had their own unique traits. Legendary kitchenware, forged from special metals, could carry immense amounts of Qi.
Qi endowed these tools with unbelievable abilities—something many kitchenware items in the Toriko world also possessed.
Still, Kael knew that sooner or later, he would need even stronger tools.
Now, the system had given him a perfect opportunity: custom kitchenware.
He could choose to forge them using all the materials stored in Gourmet Corp's reserves, or add in materials of his own.
The moment Kael saw this description, he immediately thought of that special metal—the metal that had been used to create legendary kitchenware and could bear such terrifying amounts of Qi.
There was no reason not to use it.
After that, Kael began selecting materials from the list provided by the system.
As for inferior materials, he didn't even consider them. If he was going to do this, he'd go for the best.
He was also deeply curious—just how good were the materials stored in Gourmet Corp's reserves?
"Good grief… did Gourmet Corp dig up Horse King's grave or something? They actually have Horse King's leg bone!"
Kael stared at the most precious material on the list in disbelief.
It was the leg bone of a Horse King that had died an unknown number of years ago.
But when he thought about the lunatic in Gourmet Corp who fused his own body with that of the phantom beast Heracles and turned himself into a centaur, it suddenly didn't feel so unbelievable.
That guy had even dared to covet the body of Horse King's descendant—digging up graves really didn't seem that far-fetched.
After all, among the Eight Kings of the Gourmet World, not all of them existed eternally. They had their own species and generations.
Horse Kings, for example—Toriko and the others had witnessed the birth of a new Horse King. As for Wolf King and Monkey King Bambina, they were already the last of their kind.
Dragon King Derous also had a lineage, as did Wolf King.
Over the countless years of Earth's history, with Gourmet Cells spread by the Blue Nitro generation after generation, the Eight Kings had changed many times.
Finding the remains of past Eight Kings wasn't difficult.
The First Generation Melk had once discovered the corpse of an ancient Dragon King. Unfortunately, it had been dead for too long and had fossilized.
But even that was good news for Melk. Because it was fossilized, the extinction factor had greatly diminished.
Otherwise, with Melk's strength at the time, even a hundred years wouldn't have been enough to extract a single Dragon King fang. Only after fossilization could he spend several years mining it.
Gourmet Corp had clearly discovered the remains of a Horse King—and judging by the condition, it hadn't been dead for too long.
Thus, they were able to bring back its remains. And this was no ordinary bone—it was a leg bone, the hardest part of a Horse King's body.
With Horse King's leg bone combined with Kael's special metal, it was more than enough to craft the perfect kitchenware for him.
And that wasn't all.
In Gourmet Corp's inventory, Kael also found gold-based materials.
While gold-based materials weren't as hard as Horse King's leg bone, they had one extraordinary trait: they were completely immune to the erosion of time.
That meant kitchenware forged from them would never naturally decay.
After adding the metal he obtained from the Taiji Cuisine Realm, along with Horse King's leg bone and the gold-based materials from Gourmet Corp, the system began crafting kitchenware tailored perfectly to Kael.
And this wasn't just a single knife.
It was a full set—every kind of kitchen tool included.
Soon, pieces of white-and-gold kitchenware were completed.
The white came from Horse King's leg bone, the gold from the gold-based materials. As for the special metal Kael contributed, it didn't show visually at all.
However, Kael could clearly sense that these tools were now perfect vessels.
They could be infused with Qi from his body—and once infused, that Qi would remain within them permanently.
For now, Kael didn't inject Qi into them.
His Qi still wasn't strong enough. In order to search for sacred beasts and obtain more attributes, he was still only at the Dragon Chef level.
Everyone knew why he remained at that level, and no one said anything. If it were them, they would also stay at the Dragon Chef level for as long as possible—until their Qi truly couldn't improve any further.
Unfortunately, they didn't have that luxury.
That was why everyone was eagerly anticipating just how terrifying Kael would become in the future.
After unlocking the third area, Kael plunged himself into nonstop combat and slaughter within it.
At first, he struggled to adapt to this style of fighting and was utterly beaten—much like when Toriko and Komatsu first entered Shokurin Temple.
But Kael never fell into the same trap twice.
His combat power grew at a terrifying pace.
Others had no idea what Kael was doing. All they knew was that he stayed locked in his room, never went out, and barely did anything else—sometimes not even eating, as if he were under immense pressure.
In reality, Kael was completely immersed in battle.
He wasn't a battle maniac. What truly hooked him wasn't the fighting itself, but the clear, tangible sense of growth.
Nothing motivated a person more than effort rewarded with progress.
Kael felt that acutely.
With Gourmet Corp's support and his own monstrous talent, he was improving every single moment.
That constant growth was intoxicating.
Especially when he realized that in just one month, his Food Honor had already touched the threshold of proficiency—it felt like he'd been injected with pure adrenaline.
He wanted to master Food Honor as quickly as possible, reach full proficiency, and then grasp Food Immersion.
Only then would he be ready to step into a new world.
Otherwise, he wouldn't dare risk it.
Last time, he had landed in the Cooking Master Boy world—a relatively safe place.
But who could guarantee he'd be that lucky every time?
And once Food Honor reached proficiency and Food Immersion was mastered, the third area would be fully cleared.
After that, the fourth area would open.
Kael was extremely curious—what would the fourth area be? And what kind of benefits would it bring?
No matter the reason, completing the third area as soon as possible was absolutely necessary.
Kael was nothing if not stubborn.
Once he set his sights on something, he would pursue it relentlessly.
As time passed, one and a half months after opening the third area, Kael finally broke into the proficient level.
The moment his Food Honor reached proficiency, Kael realized that his control over his own body had entered an entirely new realm.
A realm so refined it bordered on the unbelievable.
Now, purely through technique, Kael could unleash attacks exceeding a hundred kilograms of force using just one percent of required strength.
That hundredfold amplification was the direct result of proficient Food Honor.
And that was only the most basic enhancement.
The true amplification was far more terrifying.
This level of technique would be considered extraordinary even in cultivation-based fantasy worlds.
And yet, it still wasn't the pinnacle of the Toriko world.
Beyond this, there were even more horrifying techniques.
Enbu wasn't the end.
After all, Enbu(Monkey Martial Arts) was merely Monkey King Bambina's personal comprehension. And there were plenty of beings stronger than Bambina.
The Toriko world was simply too vast.
What Kael had learned so far could only be considered the most basic foundation.
With Food Honor at the proficient level, Kael turned his attention to studying Food Immersion.
Only after mastering Food Immersion could he clear the third area—and unlock the fourth.
The path ahead was still long.