Speechless.

Absolute silence.

The penalty of a million mana stones left the young envoys of the three races utterly and completely devastated. They had come with fanatic eagerness for victory, only to fall into the depths of despair.

All this happened because they crossed one man.

Kairos Astroire.

Born of humble origins, inheriting no status, power, money, nor even talent. He is called the undefeatable, the indomitable one.

On Gaia, the legendary Great General, the unparalleled supreme commander of the Snowdrifts is the only non-Paramount Cultivator to be ranked within the most powerful warriors.

Now, such a being has graced Axis Mundi.

As before, in the face of overwhelming odds, he remained infallible.

A rigged bet that was never meant for him to win. Yet the result was determined the moment they view him as prey. In the trap meant for rabbits, they discovered a dragon.

Those who often succeed have powerful means, but luck will always play a part.

Like the elf’s team. They were ready before the bet begin, yet the manticore’s egg was a dud and they never reached their goal.

On the other hand, the more often a person remain triumphant, the less he allows things to chance.

Simply put, Kairos took on the bet despite it being the first time for his team was assured of victory from the start.

Such assurance come from leaving almost nothing to chance. Like the elf’s team, he had something prepared. Yet when Kairos used his Heart’s Echo and failed, he had a second technique to use: the Veritable Sight.

If that had failed, he will try the God’s Tongue again. Otherwise, his Demiurge Aura had some interesting theories he wants to try out.

Other than these four methods, Kairos has Aisa and his dragonlings. They will be able to sneak in and out of the glass box with no one noticing.

After all, from the beginning, the bet between them had never been a gamble. In a match like this, anyone who would leave it to luck will be defeated.

The result was as expected, Kairos had won.

The other side, besides failing their mission, they are in a debt they can hardly repay.

“It’s over,” the young human girl that is part of the elf’s team muttered feebly.

The elf and the gnome might be able to bargain down their penalty, but it is impossible for her… because the one who mouthed off and insulted the dwarven princess is from the human race.

Her two companions looked over coldly. Whatever alliance and friendship they had before today is broken.

The elf and the gnome fared no better.

They sat there listlessly, shooting dirty looks every so frequently at the human pair.

The healers have arrived and are checking up on all of them. It looks like besides the young man who had a broken foot, everyone had received more or less some mental damage.

The guards ushered to have them all checked, especially when they discovered the young man’s entire leg were wounded – every bone from his toes to his femur shown signs of fracture.

Only after they are deemed healthy will the guards make arrangements for them to repay the fines. Of course, besides that, they also have to report home what happened today. Just thinking about it, the three of them felt their soul leaving their body. They looked at the unconscious young man envious of his state of oblivion.

Throughout all this, their friend, the girlie had disappeared. Nowhere to be seen.

Meanwhile, Sparrow and her father was invited to dinner.

“Sparrow, you have to come. Kairos is actually a really good cook!” Relestia exclaims.

“Heeeehh?! Besides a brewer he is a chef too?”

“Big brother is the best!” Linda jumps around. Her little tummy is so flat she can probably poke herself on her waist and touch the other end.

Sigh.

Linda feels like she has bad luck whenever it comes to food.

Maybe she had wasted too much food in her past life, so now she is cursed?

But, whatever curse she had before, all of that are gone when she met big brother. Now little Linda will proudly tell anyone who would listen that she is a member of the Kairos fan club.

Their club president is also very commendable, because she is her big sister. The princess Relestia.

From her club president, Linda heard stories about other members. Apparently, those people are still living in a place called Gaia. Although Linda had not met them before, all of them sounded very capable.

There is their vice-president, Luciette Baixue. A rich heiress who Relestia described as incredibly beautiful and powerful enough to beat down ten grown men with one hand while instructing an entire army with the other hand.

Just thinking of such a figure made Linda’s dreams at night spectacular every day.

Besides the vice-president, there is also the club’s head clerk, Snow. A meticulous and knowledgeable person. She is intelligent and well-learned, and her family are historians that recorded all the things that happened in Gaia for a million years.

Such a person is managing their club funds. Just how tremendous is this fan club?

Of course, looking at her big brother, Linda quickly understood. Such a person is worthy of being followed by a great multitude.

Snow’s sister, Leaf, is the club’s head of marketing.

She is an independent woman who single-handedly dealt with all the fan club’s recruitment. To date, there are more than eight thousand members. Moreover, their fan club is separated into three groups, the outer group which Kairos knows about, the inner group that is kept secret because they are made up of members who knows Kairos, and the hidden group – people who quietly founded the fan club or made great contributions.

To operate such a massive operation, even the young Linda was amazed.

Snow’s boyfriend, Tommy, is the club’s head of security.

Luciette’s boyfriend, Edward, is the club’s event organiser.

The princess, Relestia, herself did not have a role given that she was unconscious for the past four years. However, she is still registered as a member, and is now holding the title of Kairos’ Number One fan!

It didn’t matter if the only person who said so was Relestia herself. Linda will believe her, because she is a princess!

Incidentally, Alan, Jim, Sasha, Long, John, Silvers, and a few people, are not in this exclusive club.

They are Kairos’ buddies, but were not trusted with the secret fan club, yet as a little girl she is already a full-fledge member – as Relestia claims.

This made Linda swell up her chest with pride.

For now, she is only an outer member, but the little girl strive to one day become one of the inner member, or even a hidden member.

Hehe!

Linda is certain she will raise through the ranks! After all, most members do not know there is an inner group and a hidden group.

The group walked quickly towards the inn. All of them are famished now. Even though Sparrow’s father appeared polite and reluctant to impose on them, the man is clearly walking faster than most of them.

Of course, Sparrow did not lagged behind either.

That night, Kairos and Leo borrowed the inn’s kitchen to whip up some dishes of their own.

When Leo came over, all the chefs gave him their utmost respect.

The past month Leo had been cooking for Linda had been generous in giving tips to the chefs. In their eyes, they already consider this man their master. So when Leo wanted to bring along a young man into their sacred place – the kitchen that should be off-limits to guests, Kairos received a pass without any trouble.

Thinking back, Leo really had fought hard to be allowed in the kitchen. He even went through a challenge to prove he could cook before they allowed him to borrow their equipment. Usually, in an inn, you must order your food from the kitchen, otherwise it was an insult to the cooks.

However, because Linda couldn’t swallow most dishes even if she tried her hardest, Leo must prepare her food.

The chefs silently waited on the side as Leo walked over.

The man was friendly towards them and humble, because in his heart he is also a student.

When Leo reached the counter, the chefs were surprised because he did not take the lead.

Instead, it was the young man who stood in front like a head chef whereas Leo was behaving like a sous chef.

They watched on curiously, completely silenced by the strange scene.

No matter how they looked, Kairos appeared to be no older than twenty. In fact, if they have to guess, he will be fifteen or sixteen.

The next moment, with a wave of his hands, huge amounts of ingredients appeared around the table.

Almost at once, everyone’s eyes fell on Leo.

The reason is simple. Leo had often told them that for a chef to excel, they need to deal with what they could, unless that chef is like his master. For Leo, preparing one ingredient at a time is his limit, and he does so with all his heart to perfectly bring out the flavour.

Yet this young boy is intending to cook all these at once?

Moreover, those are items famously difficult to prepare. Like the Ocean Star, an animal that floats around in the sea that is covered with spines. Those spines can elongate to impale prey and are filled with paralytic toxins. Yet, this is already one of the easier food to prepare among those on the table.

Did this boy think he is Leo’s master?

The next moment, Kairos turned towards Leo and said, “Get all these washed.”

“Yes master chef,” Leo happily replied and took the seafood and vegetables away.

The whole kitchen went quiet.

The incredible chef that taught them all and earned their heartfelt respect is taking orders from a young boy.

They look on in disbelief, at least until the moment Kairos picked up a chef knife.

He held it with such command that those who looked were absorbed by his every movement.

Then, his hands danced across the ribs of a great beast. Before they could see what he did, they saw a flash of silver as the knife swam through meat, tendons, and bones.

The most unreal sight entered their eyes as the chef watched the speed of each cut, while slow, was expertly smooth.

It was an amazing thing. A near prosperous impossibility.

All because while making cuts, Kairos’ knife had been making turns without hitting any bones, and yet easily slicing through difficult tendons. And he did this without harming the muscle tissues.

An outsider will only be taken by the elegance of his carving technique, but for expert chefs like those in this kitchen, it was a skill of gods, a frightening art form that they can only watch while prostrated on the ground.

The sheer difference in skill made them feel as though they are viewing a mountain at its foot: the peak is far too high up to be seen and a terrifying sense of being miniscule.

Kairos is of course using Laksa’s Carving Technique.

It is one of his only External martial arts he can freely use without deteriorating his health.

Granted, this doesn’t mean he can go all out either. At most he can use about half of his full power with this Knife Art without harming himself. Kairos made his estimation over how strenuous each technique is, for the more physically demanding skills like Eternal Empyrean and Astral Cataclysm, he can only use up to a-tenth of the strength before being exhausted.

Still, his skills with a blade almost blinded all the chefs watching.

After a while, a great beast that is called the Chef Killer had been perfectly prepared.

As its name suggests, many were killed cooking this giant reptile that is filled with different toxins in its body.

The animal does not carry any toxic of its own but acquire it from devouring dangerous poisonous creatures. Because the concoction of the venom is always a unique mixture, there is no cure if the chef accidentally gets pricked by one of its many spikes on its back or its razor-sharp tail.

The other reason for being named the Chef Killer is because of cooks that served this animal without properly cleaning out the poisons can harm those who eat it.

Fortunately, while the venomous spikes are highly lethal, those who are poisoned from eating improperly cleansed meat usually survive, mainly because the reptile prefers venomous prey over poisonous ones. However, the chef’s career will most definitely be over.

Next, Kairos prepared an animal called the Diseased Boar. This creature is even more dangerous than the previous. Its permanently wet bristles are a cradle for all kinds of illness. However, the beast itself is immune to almost any disease. In fact, those who ate its flesh are well-known to have boosted immune system and thus it is a very prized dish.

Unfortunately, not many chefs knows how to properly prepare it.

When Kairos took this animal out of his Time-space ring, it is sealed in a silver pot meant to keep it sterile. However, the chefs still immediately recognised the ingredient from its container.

Most chefs will burn off all the bristles of this animal to prevent catching contagious diseases, but the quality of the meat will greatly suffer. In Kairos’ eyes, the boar is of the water element and burning it with powerful flames is definitely unwise.

It needs to be treated by rubbing clean soil over it and removing all the dangers first. Afterwards, one can remove all the bristles then roast the boar to pristine perfection.

However, Kairos gained another trick up his sleeve after coming to Axis Mundi.

He released a frightening aura over the boar.

Immediately all the illnesses that are too small for the eyes to see were slain. If one can enlarge what they are looking at, they will see that the microorganisms on the boar had all been sliced into tiny pieces.

All the bristles had also been removed, and the outer layer of leather peeled.

The chefs looked at each other in shock. They know of Aura Masters and Aura Knights from the human kingdom, but the Aura that Kairos released was very strange. It was nothing they had heard before, but if forced to describe it, it will be like a kitchen knife aura.

Of course, they never heard of such a thing before, because this is a newly created Aura.

It is so original that it does not even have a name yet, so it’s impossible for others to hear of it.

Perhaps, in the scroll containing all the Auras, the ancient sages might have theorised the existence of this Aura and it might have a name that Kairos do not know. Therefore, Kairos do not intend to name it.

The Aura is actually based on his weapon mastery over the chef knife. Any weapon, when practised to a certain level, will display unfathomable powers. Like Jones who displayed the fourth form of sword mastery back in his first year of the academy could project Sword Ki to strike an opponent from far and even reabsorb the Ki afterwards.

Kairos who had been practicing Laksa’s Carving Technique had long since developed Knife Mastery, he just combined it with how Aura works and made a new thing. That was why every germ were cut cleanly by his new… cooking aura. Maybe it is better to call it the Carving Aura? Kairos promises himself to check out the names of all the Auras once the human kingdoms deliver their books on Aura.

Surprisingly, the Diseased Boar was prepared just as quickly as the Chef Killer.

Next, Kairos took a crustacean that Leo had washed, the Corpse Maker Lobster.

This is a completely poisonous animal with strange bacteria living in their flesh. If killed, the microorganisms will quickly enhance the poisons to the point where even a tiny piece will be lethal upon ingestion. However, the desirable taste that people love comes from the poison.

That means, Kairos must completely understand the ingredient and find the perfect window of time after the lobster’s death where the poison is tasteful but not yet lethal.

In fact, good chefs often fail to find this tiny safe period, and only the best can do it reliably.

Furthermore, even within the safe period of time, if the lobster was cooked too soon, the taste of the poison is mild and if cooked too late the person who ate it will have their tongue numbed and enjoy nothing.

It is a highly challenging dish for any chef, so when Kairos finished preparing it just as quickly as the previous food ingredients, the other chefs wanted to tear their eyes out in disbelief.

Many of these men are prideful. Dwarves tend to seek the paramount of any craft they partake.

But right now, they only feel that all the decades they had spent honing their cooking skills are wasted.