Kael didn't know how long he'd been at it when suddenly, his knife slipped. Up until then, every cut had been precise to the millimeter—but now, his control faltered completely.
It wasn't because his Divine Touch had failed. His body had just hit its limit.
His physical strength wasn't bad by any means, but that training suit was brutal. Every single motion demanded his full power just to overcome its resistance. Under those conditions, his stamina drained fast. The only reason he hadn't noticed sooner was because he'd been so immersed in the rhythm of progress—lost in the flow of it all.
Only when exhaustion hit did that trance finally break.
"Ah—damn, this feels worse than lifting dumbbells a few hundred times..."
The moment he snapped back to reality, Kael felt the deep ache spreading through his arms. It reminded him of something from his college days—his roommate had a pair of ten-kilogram dumbbells, and Kael had once gotten curious enough to try them. He'd managed over a hundred reps before collapsing. The next morning, his arms hurt so bad he couldn't even raise them, and it took more than a week to recover.
This pain? Way worse. If he didn't take a break, he might not even be able to lift his hands.
"Fine. If my arms can't move, I'll train something else."
Thanks to Kaiyu's knowledge, Kael knew exactly what to do next. The medicated bath worked on the whole body, not just one part. If he only trained his arms, the effects would be wasted.
So he switched to stance training—borrowing from Kaiyu's martial techniques.
The martial arts of the Chuuka Ichiban! world weren't like inner-energy cultivation, but more akin to traditional martial arts—just with a lower upper limit.
The best martial artists in that world could run along rooftops or unleash brief bursts of superhuman strength, but that was about it.
Even Jie Lu, one of the strongest, could only snap steel chains by unlocking his muscles for a single explosive moment—and even that trick couldn't be repeated quickly without risking permanent damage.
The true power in that world didn't come from martial arts—it came from Qigong. Reaching a high enough mastery of Qi allowed feats bordering on the supernatural. Martial arts were just the entryway to understanding Qi faster.
So while martial arts in Chuuka Ichiban! weren't "high-level," they were still way beyond what anyone in the World of Food Wars could achieve.
Using Divine Touch to fine-tune his posture, Kael's stance practice improved rapidly. He constantly adjusted his balance, breathing, and muscle tension to reach the optimal state.
Half an hour later, his legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the ground. His entire body felt drained—completely empty of strength.
After resting for a bit, he regained enough energy to leave the Dark Cooking Society space and begin his medicinal bath.
"Whoa… that's powerful. Only a few minutes in, and the muscle soreness is already fading."
Even after a short soak, Kael could feel the stiffness in his muscles easing up. According to Kaiyu's notes, the ideal duration for the bath was about thirty minutes.
It really was something else. No wonder Kaiyu had been such a monster—his knowledge from the Chuuka Ichiban! world was on a completely different level.
When the thirty minutes were up, Kael climbed out of the tub, feeling completely rejuvenated. His fatigue was gone, his body almost humming with energy.
He didn't drain the water. The mixture could be reused several times, and he had plenty more training ahead.
A chef's fundamentals weren't just about knife work, after all. There was also fire control, seasoning balance, pan handling—every core technique had to be trained. Without solid basics, a chef couldn't go far.
Following Kaiyu's training regimen, Kael tackled each discipline in order. Some—like flavor pairing and ingredient analysis—didn't require much stamina. Others, like pan tossing, were pure physical torture.
By the end of one full rotation through his training cycle, he'd already used the medicinal bath three times just to keep his body at its peak.
Days passed in that rhythm—train, soak, rest, repeat. It was monotonous to anyone else, but Kael started to understand why Rēn had enjoyed this kind of grind so much.
And then, something strange caught his attention. The Faction Inheritance seemed to have hidden perks.
Thanks to Kaiyu's memories, Kael had a clear sense of how strong his body and talent should be. His current potential was technically higher than Kaiyu's, but not by much. Yet his improvement rate was skyrocketing—far beyond what should've been possible.
Kaiyu had become the Dark Cooking Society's leader through pure hard work, enduring years of harsh training. As a kid, he'd suffered through conditions that would've broken most people.
Comparing that to his own progress, Kael realized something didn't add up.
After a few days of testing, he found the pattern: when he trained inside the Dark Cooking Society, his progress speed was ridiculous—blazing fast. But outside? It dropped noticeably.
Even then, his improvement outside was still dozens of times faster than a normal person's—but nowhere near his speed in the faction's training grounds.
That's when it clicked. The Faction Inheritance wasn't just granting him access to the Dark Cooking Society's facilities—it was actively boosting his growth while he trained inside it.
The discovery thrilled him. It meant he wasn't just a "cheat character" anymore—he was stacking multiple cheats at once.
If he didn't take full advantage of this, he'd never forgive himself.
So Kael threw himself into training with reckless abandon, guided by a single belief: if it doesn't kill me, I'll train harder.
Under that insane regimen, his fundamentals improved at breakneck speed.
He wasn't a total amateur before—he could cook, sure—but that was it. Even back in his original world, his skills were just average. Here, in the World of Food Wars, that level was nothing.
But now? After a month of nonstop, all-out training, everything had changed.
Aside from quick grocery runs, Kael barely left his apartment. Still, he wasn't completely disconnected from the outside world. Whenever he had downtime, he'd use his computer to research this world's details.
He might've watched the anime and read the manga before, but those barely scratched the surface. This was a real, living world now—and he needed to understand it fully.
Over time, he learned plenty of things that didn't exist in the original story—like the WGO's chef ranking system.
In this version of the world, the WGO had officially classified chefs into nine tiers, from one-star to nine-star.
Assessments for one- to six-star levels were held monthly at local WGO branches, while higher ranks—seven through nine—were handled by direct appointment.
Once a chef reached that point, they could register for an exam at any time, and the WGO would arrange a personal assessment within three days.