Chapter 331

Once Kagura and Kanna had entered the Gourmet Restaurant, Haruto closed the passage behind them.

He took a deep breath, feeling the intense heat saturating the air, then turned and continued toward the Mars Ball.

The closer he got, the higher the temperature climbed.

The ground beneath his feet had already begun glowing faintly red, while the acrid smell of scorched stone hung heavily in the air.

It took nearly half an hour to make his way through the dense forest of gigantic cacti before Haruto finally reached the area directly beneath the Mars Ball.

Seeing it from this close, even he could not help being impressed.

The Mars Ball floated silently several hundred meters above the ground. It was at least a hundred meters across, resembling an enormous golden-red planet suspended in the sky, with blazing light and heat continuously radiating from its surface.

Haruto checked the surrounding temperature and narrowed his eyes.

It had already reached an astonishing twelve hundred degrees Celsius—more than enough to melt many ordinary metals.

The heat itself could not harm him, but Haruto still had to circulate Nen around his body, forming a protective layer over his clothes so they would not burst into flames.

Once he was ready, Haruto manifested the Gourmet Restaurant and enveloped the enormous Mars Ball within its domain, beginning an Ingredient Deconstruction analysis.

The results left him with a strange expression.

The Mars Ball possessed an extremely unusual two-layer structure.

Its outer shell consisted of dozens of meters of rock, but the material was not ordinary stone. Minerals absorbed from beneath the ground by the surrounding cactus roots had accumulated and condensed into this shell, forming both a protective barrier and the source of the immense heat constantly radiating outward.

The inside of the Mars Ball, meanwhile, was essentially an enormous natural stew pot.

A vast pot of soup was simmering within it.

Even more surprising was that the dish was not yet complete.

The Mars Ball continued absorbing fresh nutrients, causing its flavor to change by tiny degrees every moment.

And the secret behind that process lay with the giant cacti surrounding it.

Their root systems spread throughout the entire cactus field.

Whenever a beast wandered into the area and died from the extreme heat, the roots would rapidly break down its corpse, absorb the nutrients, and transport them into the Mars Ball, adding another ingredient to the soup simmering inside.

"This makes things difficult."

Haruto rubbed his chin and looked up at the enormous fruit with hesitation.

As things stood, the more beasts the Mars Ball absorbed, the richer and deeper the soup inside would become.

Even Haruto could not accurately predict just how delicious it might eventually become.

If he harvested the Mars Ball now, however, he would only obtain a soup that was merely "pretty good."

For someone constantly pursuing better flavor, that felt like an enormous waste.

But leaving it to mature naturally presented another problem.

Who knew how long that would take?

The Mars Ball itself could not move, and wild beasts were not foolish enough to deliberately wander into a place this dangerously hot.

Most creatures would detect the abnormal temperature and avoid the entire region.

Very few would ever become nutrients for the Mars Ball.

At the current rate, the soup might need another thousand years or more before reaching true maturity.

Haruto paced beneath the Mars Ball while his mind raced.

Then his eyes suddenly lit up.

If nature was too slow, he could simply help it along.

And he already had an idea how.

Haruto spent most of the day putting his plan into action.

He brought several black crystals out of the Gourmet Restaurant and carved runes into their surfaces.

Then he placed them at several key points around the Mars Ball and infused them with Nen.

The runes began glowing with a dim blue light.

A transparent barrier, almost invisible to the naked eye, expanded outward until it covered the entire cactus region.

Haruto called it the Beast-Trapping Barrier.

Any beast that entered its territory would be prevented from escaping, eventually succumbing to the extreme heat and becoming nutrients for the Mars Ball.

The barrier itself drew power from the heat released by the Mars Ball, meaning Haruto only needed to provide the initial activation energy.

After that, it could maintain itself without any additional input.

Even if a sufficiently powerful beast managed to break through the barrier, the formation could use energy from the Mars Ball to repair itself within roughly two hours.

Haruto still felt that was not enough.

He opened the Gourmet Restaurant again and brought out a large collection of ingredients he had previously captured: Prankster Strawberry Turtles, Snake-Tail Chickens, Sea Kings, wyverns, serpent yōkai, and more.

He placed all of them beneath the giant cacti as an "appetizer" for the Mars Ball soup.

Only after finishing did Haruto finally nod in satisfaction.

With the barrier continuously supplying future ingredients and this first batch already feeding the roots, the soup inside the Mars Ball should become far more delicious over time.

Haruto gave the floating fruit one last reluctant look before turning away from the cactus region.

Once he had left the extreme-heat zone, he opened the Gourmet Restaurant and let Kagura and Kanna back out.

"Well?"

Kagura immediately asked, curiosity written across her face.

"Did you get the Mars Ball?"

"Not yet."

Haruto shook his head, then briefly explained what he had discovered and the arrangement he had left behind.

"When we come back next time, the soup should be much more delicious."

Kagura swallowed involuntarily.

Even Kanna’s eyes showed a faint hint of anticipation.

After a short rest, the three resumed their exploration of the Gourmet World.

Over the next several days, they traveled north and captured quite a few rare ingredients along the way.

One day, Haruto was crouching beside a small stream, examining a species of transparent, silver-scaled fish swimming through the water and considering catching them for dinner when a deafening boom erupted in the distance.

BOOM—!

The impact was strong enough to make the ground tremble.

Leaves shook loose from the surrounding trees and drifted down around them.

Haruto immediately froze and raised his head toward the sound.

He knew that noise all too well.

It was unmistakably the sound of a Breath Brachiosaurus firing an air cannon.

More importantly, it did not sound very far away.

When Haruto had first entered the Gourmet World, one of those beasts had attacked him for absolutely no reason.

At the time, the distance between them had been enormous, and because Haruto had only just entered the Gourmet World, he had reluctantly suppressed the urge to retaliate.

But he had never forgotten it.

Now it seemed he had wandered into the territory of a Breath Brachiosaurus.

Since one had appeared nearby, there was no reason to let the opportunity pass.

Haruto was also rather curious about what Breath Brachiosaurus meat tasted like.

"Kagura, help me locate the Breath Brachiosaurus."

"It should be the strongest beast nearby."

Haruto stood and brushed the dirt from his clothes.

"Leave it to me."

Kagura nodded and opened her fan.

With a gentle sweep, a soft breeze rose around her and spread rapidly in every direction.

The wind passed through treetops, skimmed across the ground, and carried back every disturbance within several kilometers.

A moment later, Kagura stopped and pointed northeast.

"That way. About three kilometers."

"Let’s go."

Once they had the location, Haruto immediately led Kagura and Kanna northeast.

Three kilometers took them only a few minutes to cover.

They could have moved even faster if they had not needed to remain alert for other dangers.

Before long, they reached a point several hundred meters from the Breath Brachiosaurus and concealed themselves behind an enormous ancient tree.

The beast was astonishingly large.

It stood more than fifty meters tall, towering well above most of the surrounding forest.

Its skin was dark gray, and its thick, elongated neck accounted for almost half its overall body length, ending in a surprisingly small head.

Its four legs were massive and powerful, each step leaving a deep footprint in the earth.

Its tail resembled a gigantic steel whip. Even a casual swing could snap a nearby tree in half.

At the moment, the Breath Brachiosaurus had lowered its head and was leisurely browsing leaves from the forest canopy, seemingly completely relaxed.

Haruto knew better.

A beast of this level possessed extraordinary senses. The slightest disturbance in its territory could draw its attention.

Any creature without that kind of vigilance either had enough power to crush everything around it—or had already been killed by something stronger.

Haruto, Kagura, and Kanna were just preparing to move closer and look for an opening when the Breath Brachiosaurus abruptly raised its head.

Its enormous skull turned directly toward the tree concealing them.

A fierce glint appeared in its eyes.

’Damn. It found us.’

Haruto’s expression changed.

Before he could react, the beast attacked.

BOOM! BOOM—!

Several compressed air cannons erupted from its nostrils, tearing through the air toward the ancient tree where the three of them were hiding.

"Move!"

Haruto grabbed Kagura with one hand and Kanna with the other.

He kicked off the ground and used Shave, disappearing backward in an instant.

A heartbeat after they escaped, the air cannons slammed into the tree.

BOOOOM!

The massive trunk, thick enough that several people together could barely wrap their arms around it, exploded into fragments.

Wood splinters and shattered stone flew in every direction, while several craters meters across appeared in the ground where the blasts struck.

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