The Hunter

That's what they say, but Nanxu didn't actually trick them.

The market price of powerful seventh-grade cooking skills like Fire Refining Palm and Frost Condensation Finger is already much higher than that of weaker seventh-grade cooking skills.

The passive skill "Long Eyes and Flying Ears" is even more expensive; exchanging a little bit of it for a fifth-grade ingredient wouldn't be a loss.

Soon, the players had chosen their preferred cooking skills.

It's worth mentioning that Nanxu also offered the option to exchange ingredients for silver, and actually one or two players chose this option, including gummy bears.

"This is the money I borrowed from you before, plus interest."

The ingredients of the sixth grade were very valuable, and after Xiaogumang paid off his debts, he still had a large sum of money left.

Seeing this, Xiaoyao Suifeng was somewhat surprised: "You're not going to learn any skills?"

"Of course! I don't lack skills that much right now, but if I had money, I could order Nanxu's dishes more often," Little Gummy Bear said matter-of-factly.

Upon hearing this, Xiaoyao Suifeng slapped his thigh in regret.

Oh dear, I should have done that too. Why didn't he think of that?

Unfortunately, he was too quick; the job was already done.

"Um, Mr. Nanxu, I have some other ingredients here, would you like to buy them?" Xiaoyao Suifeng smiled awkwardly.

"Do you need silver? Sure, no problem."

After Nan Xu examined it and confirmed that there were no problems with the quality, he put it directly into the food treasure bag.

Xiaoyao Suifeng's empty wallet swelled up again. He paid off all the players' debts and listened to the crisp sound of the silver clinking together, revealing a happy expression.

With this money, he could eat three meals a day at Nanxu's place until the closed beta ended!

The other players, however, were not in such a good mood.

Although they got back a considerable amount of the money they gave out, which was enough for a novice player to have some savings, it was still not enough to fill their stomachs at a restaurant of Ningquanju's caliber.

Thinking of this, they both showed expressions of regret.

How could my deadly move have been so swift?

I should have known they wouldn't want those advanced culinary skills and would have asked for money instead!

Of course, they could also earn some money if they gave up the opportunity to sample six dishes for free.

But those are high-quality dishes made with top-quality ingredients!

Giving up this opportunity to buy food would be putting the cart before the horse.

However... compared to eating coarse food every day and only being able to taste a small bite of the six-course dishes cooked by Nanxu, it might be more cost-effective to eat the seven-course dishes freely in the following days.

Which one should I choose?

The players all wore conflicted expressions.

On the other hand, Brother Time, unusually, fell into deep thought.

Logically speaking, the Long Eyes and Flying Ears skill, a seventh-grade culinary technique, could greatly enhance his combat power, and being a passive skill, it would be a perfect choice for him.

But he didn't immediately exchange for the cooking skill; instead, he remained silent for a moment before speaking:

"Master Nanxu, I have a question I'd like to ask you. I wonder if you could answer it for me?"

Nan Xu nodded slightly: "Please feel free to ask, but my knowledge may be limited and may not be able to resolve your doubts."

The passing time hesitated for a moment, then said:

"My question might seem a bit strange to you... If I don't want to be a chef, and only want to learn martial arts, what kind of skill should I learn?"

"To be honest, I have never had any talent for cooking since I was a child, and I think that people like me are probably the majority in this world."

"So, in this world... there must be a path they can walk, right?"

Nan Xu smiled and said, "Actually, you've fallen into a misconception, which is that you're separating cooking skills from martial arts skills too much."

"In the Great Mystic School, cooking and martial arts are inseparable. In fact, I can tell you with certainty that many culinary techniques originated from simple martial arts, which were later developed by chefs for use in cooking."

"But if you want to be a pure martial artist, only learning martial arts and not cooking, you can still buy cooking skills to learn, just don't practice the cooking parts."

"If that's the case, you'll spend less effort in this area and it will be easier for you to master your martial arts."

The passing time breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that if cooking skills were used as martial arts skills, there would be no restriction on skill level due to culinary talent.

Because it requires fewer experience points, leveling up can even be faster.

The passing time pondered again: "So, if I master martial arts, are there any suitable professions for me?"

According to the official website, he knew that after reaching level 10, the only way to continue leveling up was to change jobs.

If that's the case, then this game should have more than just the chef profession.

"Of course." Nan Xu nodded.

In the previous game's statistics on player professions, even after removing the majority of casual players without professions and including part-time players, only 30-40% of the players were chefs who had reached a certain rank.

The class with the highest number of players is...

"Since you can hunt mushroom pigs all by yourself, I think 'Flavor Hunter' is a very suitable profession for you," Nan Xu said slowly.

"A predator?"

Upon hearing this, Vanishing Time was moved.

"A 'food hunter' is someone who uses their superior martial arts skills and expertise to find rare ingredients. Their status is no less than that of a chef," Nan Xu explained. "Many high-ranking chefs collaborate with food hunters, and some even work as food hunters themselves."

"Most food hunters are people who want to enjoy delicious food but don't have the skills. It just so happens that chefs need to focus on honing their culinary skills and may not have the time to search for rare ingredients."

"So the two parties hit it off immediately. The hunters would find ingredients and hand them over to the chefs, who would then pay them and provide the finished dishes for the hunters to taste."

"The balance of power between the two fluctuates constantly as their strength becomes more balanced. The rare ingredients hunted by powerful hunters often require chefs to pay significantly more in exchange."

"A highly skilled chef can completely offset the value of rare ingredients simply by providing his or her culinary skills, and sometimes the hunters even need to add other compensation."

"I see..." Vanished Time murmured to himself, a hint of interest flashing in his eyes.

Seeing this, Nan Xu smiled slightly: "If you're not that interested in tasting delicious food, you can join the army to serve your country, or do chivalrous deeds, taking money to help others... However, I see that you are quite interested in hunting for delicacies."

The passing time came to its senses and bowed deeply to Nan Xu.

"Master Nanxu, thank you so much for your guidance!"

This was extremely important intelligence during the closed beta testing period when our understanding of the world was not yet deep!

"It's nothing. If you really become a food hunter in the future, just remember to patronize my business often." Nan Xu smiled and shook his head.