Chapter 52: 52 | Grade 4 Arcane Cuisine!
The effects would remain excellent and easy to digest, while dramatically increasing the amount of time his limited supply would last.
Still, the more he calculated the upcoming expenses, the more painful the numbers became.
Furniture, medicine, food and high-grade ingredients.
By tomorrow night, the thirty thousand dollars would probably be gone. Completely gone.
Fortunately—
Dexter already knew the solution to his financial worries.
The Hero Association.
Tomorrow, he would officially register as a Hero, complete the testing, and obtain his physical Hero License.
Once that happened, he could finally enter the regulated dungeons around the city.
The thought alone caused a surge of quiet excitement to run through him.
Dungeons meant monsters.
Monsters meant valuable drops and materials he could sell.
Money meant more investments into his wives.
Investments meant powerful returns from the system.
Returns meant rapid increases in his personal strength.
Strength meant better protection for his home.
And protection meant a peaceful, stable future for the girls.
It was a perfect, self-sustaining cycle.
The stronger he became, the more he could invest in them. The more he invested in them, the stronger all of them would become together.
For the first time in his difficult life...
Dexter could actually see a clear, bright path forward. A real future.
After finalizing his plans for tomorrow, Dexter slowly closed his eyes.
His breathing became calm and steady.
The thick mana from the surrounding world immediately began flowing toward his body like rivers returning to the sea.
With his extraordinary SS-Rank Mana Affinity, cultivation no longer felt like a struggle to absorb scarce energy. Instead, it felt as though the physical world itself was willingly offering its power to him.
The Limitless Grand Cosmos Scripture began to circulate automatically through his pathways, guiding the mana smoothly.
Inside the endless darkness of his inner universe, the two brilliant Star Nodes continued to shine quietly like eternal stars.
Meanwhile, the partially awakened Cosmic DNA Helix rested silently between them.
The first segment glowed with brilliant, stable light.
The second shone with equal, warm radiance.
The third segment flickered softly in the dark, only partially illuminated, like a sleeping giant waiting for the right moment to awaken.
Dexter slowly sank deeper into his meditation, searching the vast inner universe of his mind for the location of the third star.
While quietly, in the background, the Buddha Endurance technique transformed the physical pain of the three girls and into raw strength, slowly raising his attributes.
•••
The next morning, Dexter woke up early, just as the first pale light of dawn began to touch the windows of the bungalow.
Today was a special day.
Not only was he planning to visit the Hunter Association later, but he also wanted to try an advanced cooking experiment he had been thinking about all night.
Cooking with actual Heavenly Treasures.
Standing inside the small, clean kitchen, Dexter opened the kitchen window first to let the cool morning air circulate.
He tied his simple fabric apron around his waist and began taking out his ingredients one by one, placing them carefully on the wooden counter.
The Diamond Rice.
The Origin Sun Fruit.
The Star Essence Serum.
The Heavenly Marrow Cleansing Capsule.
The Millennium Blood Ginseng.
The Void Spirit Lotus.
And finally...
The Restoration Pill.
Dexter looked at the small, glowing pill resting in his palm for a long, quiet moment.
Originally, when he first received it, he had intended to keep it safe in his storage. After all, he only possessed one.
If he gave it to only one of the girls, only one of them would have her severely damaged meridians healed, while the other two would remain crippled and in pain. That felt deeply unfair to him. He could not bring himself to choose one over the other.
But now...
A new, highly practical idea had appeared in his mind.
As a Great Grandmaster Foodsmith, he possessed the advanced ability to dissolve the concentrated medicinal properties of high-grade treasures and pills directly into a Arcane meal.
By doing this, the healing effect would be slightly weaker than if one person consumed the pill directly, but all three girls would be able to share and benefit from its properties simultaneously.
A gentle smile appeared on his face.
"Perfect," he whispered.
He took out his trusty Type-2 Cooking Pot and placed it on the stove before igniting his Alchemist Flame.
A warm, golden flame immediately rose beneath the dark pot, casting a bright light across the kitchen walls.
Unlike his previous, daily cooking plans, he did not mix any ordinary rice into the pot today. Today, he wanted absolute perfection. He wanted to create the most powerful medicinal dish he could possibly manage with his current skills.
One by one, the extremely rare ingredients entered the pot.
The small kitchen was soon filled with an astonishing, sweet fragrance that began to drift down the hallway.
Dexter controlled the temperature of the golden flames with extreme care, while simultaneously circulating his own mana through his hands and into the pot.
Every single bit of his concentration was focused entirely on the cooking process.
The Diamond Rice slowly began to soften, melting down into a pure, glowing spiritual essence.
The heavy medicinal ingredients dissolved, their distinct properties merging together under his careful guidance.
The fragrance in the kitchen grew richer, more intense, and incredibly heavenly.
Beads of sweat soon appeared on Dexter’s forehead, trickling down his face, but he did not dare to look away. Creating a dish of this caliber was far more difficult and mentally exhausting than anything he had ever cooked before.
He continuously infused his own dense, Superhuman-realm mana into the mixture, carefully balancing the volatile medicinal properties of the treasures to ensure they did not reject each other.
An hour of intense concentration later—
’Buzz!’
A powerful, distinct wave of pure spiritual energy erupted from the pot, rippling through the kitchen.
Dexter’s eyes widened as he looked at the glowing content.
He had actually succeeded.
[Ding! Congratulations, you have successfully created the Celestial Origin Star Rice (Grade 4)]
Originally, given his current level, the meal should have only reached the peak of Grade Three.
However, by using multiple genuine Heavenly Treasures and pouring nearly all of his refined Superhuman mana into the cooking process, he had forcefully elevated the final product to a genuine Grade Four Spiritual Meal.
It was a meal that was fully comparable to a Grade Four Heavenly Treasure!
Even Dexter, with his calm mind, could not help but inhale sharply at the realization.
A Grade Four Heavenly Treasure...
In the entire history of this city, such an item had only appeared a handful of times.
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