ARIFURETA: Cooking to be the Strongest?

Meld stared at Hajime's Status Plate, his expression unreadable as he tapped and double-checked it a few times. After a long moment, he returned the plate, his gaze subtle.

"Ah… um… How to say this, you see… 'Synergist' is a crafting profession. It's very convenient for forging ironware, for instance," he stammered, clearly tongue-tied in his attempt to describe the class.

Hearing this, a cruel grin spread across Hiyama's face as he stepped towards Hajime, ready to mock him. "Hey hey, Nagumo. Could it be, you got a non-combatant class—gueh~~" His taunt ended in a choked gasp as he comically flew several meters, an invisible force sending him sprawling.

The murmurs from the other students instantly ceased, their eyes snapping to the figure now standing where Hiyama had just been.

It was Shin, his leg still slightly raised from a precise kick. "Hoh, looks like the stats don't lie. Volunteer 4 – Hiyama seems much more durable now," Shin mused aloud, a hint of impressed surprise in his tone. "Though, I can't say my own strength felt any different."

Shin then walked over to Hajime, giving his shoulder a reassuring tap. Hajime's dejected expression eased slightly at Shin's presence.

"Meld-san, my turn," Shin announced, extending his Status Plate to the stunned Commander. Meld, still processing the swift events, snapped out of his daze and took the plate.

Meld's reaction, however, was starkly different from his awkwardness with Hajime. His eyes widened at the peculiar distribution of Shin's stats—especially the Vitality and Resistance that rivaled even Kouki's. Coupled with Shin's unmistakably non-combatant profession and a baffling Magic Power of zero, Meld seemed utterly speechless.

Meld finally managed to speak, though his words came out awkwardly. "Eh, to—aside from the non-combatant profession and your unusual stat distribution, your stats are, well, excellent! The only problem is you won't be able to use magic, or your growth might be slower than others due to your, ah, zero Magic Power."

Shin, however, seemed unfazed. He'd already theorized this possibility after Meld's initial explanation. With a slight smile, he tapped Hajime's shoulder again. "Well, there goes my dream to be a magical cook," he said lightly, subtly reassuring Hajime that he wasn't alone in his own disappointing result.

Hajime was shocked, but also felt a wave of relief mixed with sadness for his friend. The other classmates, including Shin's own companions in the Hero Party, shared the same bewildered astonishment.

Shizuku's face clouded with worry, while Kouki visibly deflated, murmuring to himself about the burden of protecting his friends. Kaori's expression mirrored Shizuku's, a mix of sadness and concern for both Shin and Hajime.

A sudden groan echoed from the direction where Shin had kicked Hiyama.

Everyone snapped out of their surprise. The first to scold Shin was Aiko-sensei, her voice sharp with concern. "Takagi-kun! You can't just kick your classmate like that!!"

"Kicked? Didn't he slip right, Volun—ahem, Hiyama!" Shin's calm demeanor suddenly shifted to a friendly, almost jovial manner as he addressed Hiyama.

The others were bewildered by Shin's drastic tone change. To Hajime, this was always Shin's tone when communicating with people he labeled "volunteers." Shin's friends in the Hero Party seemed relieved by his usual demeanor.

However, to the "volunteers" themselves, his tone was anything but happy or friendly. It was a trauma-triggering voice that brought back memories of stomach pain and other unknown side effects from being fed by Shin's bizarre dishes, all delivered with an unsettling hint of eeriness.

Hiyama, ignoring the pain, forced himself to stand up as if nothing had happened. He loudly claimed he'd merely "misstepped," used "too much force," and "slipped" because he wasn't used to his new stats yet.

"Bullshit. Shin definitely kicked him and Hiyama's just afraid of Shin!" This thought resonated in the minds of most of the class, especially Hiyama's own gang.

With Hiyama and his group's reaction to Shin—their usually quiet classmate and Hajime's otaku friend—most of the class made a mental note not to get on Shin's bad side.

"See, sensei? I didn't kick him," Shin reverted to his calm demeanor, innocently telling Aiko-sensei.

"Yep, this guy has a few screws loose in his head!" the rest of the class thought.

Since Hiyama himself claimed he slipped, Aiko-sensei stopped pestering Shin, though she still looked at him with a strange expression.

_________

With the small commotion settled, Aiko-sensei turned to reveal her status. Aside from her low combat stats, she had a high magic power, a surprising number of skills, and a never-before-seen class: Farmer.

With both Shin and Aiko-sensei being non-combatant classes but possessing either higher stats or skill counts than Hajime, he felt dejected once more.

The skill reveal session ended with Shin cheering up Hajime after Aiko-sensei's reveal seemed to drive the final nail, confirming Hajime's average stats and skills.

For some reason, Kaori also joined in, cheering up Hajime alongside Shin.

________________________

Hiyama, who had been momentarily unconscious during Shin's status reveal, was quickly brought up to speed by one of his friends. The friend recounted the events: Shin's non-combatant class, and Commander Meld's comment that Shin might not be able to use magic, meaning his stats would grow slower due to his zero magic power.

With that revelation, Hiyama's entire aura abruptly shifted, startling his friend. A palpable murderous intent, radiating pure hate and contempt for Shin, now replaced his previous fear. His dread seemed to dwindle, replaced by a surge of vindictive glee at the thought of surpassing Shin and finally exacting his revenge.

"Let's see if you can kick me again," Hiyama muttered, a chilling grin spreading across his face as he began to meticulously plan his retribution for once he surpassed Shin.

____________________

Training days then began in earnest. Commander Meld personally handled the Hero Party, while the remaining students were trained by the Vice Commander and other elite soldiers.

Shin, as usual, continued his own rigorous training. He could sometimes be seen discreetly asking maids for the location of the palace kitchen. Shin eventually managed to secure a permit to use the kitchen, under the pretense of "testing his cook profession." At first, the old-timer cooks mocked him, reluctantly allowing him to use only the smallest, most out-of-the-way corner of the Imperial kitchen.

However, just a few days later, some of those same old-timers began calling him "teacher" or "master." This change came after Shin left a "thank you gift" for a friendly cook who had allowed him access to ingredients and cooking space. Shin, however, remained indifferent; the only convenient outcome was that they now readily yielded him space to cook. Even the head chef offered him his own station, but Shin declined, finding the idea of teaching too troublesome. He simply wanted to cook using this world's ingredients and for his friends.

Days passed, filled with training alongside Hajime, and sometimes with Imperial cooks and chefs awaiting him in the kitchen. While other students' stats grew steadily, Shin and Hajime, on the other hand, experienced slow or strange growth.

"Hajime, how's your stat growth?" Shin asked calmly, sitting beside him and staring at his own Status Plate.

"Well, it seems like I reached Level 2," Hajime answered, munching on one of Shin's otherworld ration cookies—a treat Shin also distributed to the Hero Party, and even to Ryuutaro, who wasn't typically friendly with Shin. "But my stats only increased by two points each."

That's weird, Shin thought, glancing down at his own Status Plate, which bore the exact same stats he'd had on day one.

Hajime, noticing Shin staring at his Status Plate, asked, "What's wrong?"

"Well, to cut it short, it seems my stats aren't increasing," Shin replied, tossing his Status Plate to Hajime.

Hajime looked at it. The level was still 1, and the stats appeared exactly the same as when Shin had first shown him. This was certainly weird, especially since Hajime had seen Shin training daily alongside him, and that training was far from simple.

"Should we ask the Vice Commander about this?" Hajime asked, handing the Status Plate back to Shin.

"Just leave it. It's not like they have a solution for it," Shin replied indifferently, not seeming to care about the numbers on the plate.

"Well, it's time to change training priorities. And since your growth is also slow, it means you've been training inefficiently. Wanna come?" Shin asked Hajime.

"If your training doesn't include those 'volunteer' dishes you have, I'm in," Hajime quickly agreed.

"Great, let's go," Shin said, standing up.

"Shin, may I ask what we'll be training?" Hajime inquired.

"Knowledge, skill mastery, and maximizing efficiency," Shin declared.

The two were then seldom seen training with the others. They were currently focusing on training their bodies to utilize their stats efficiently before delving into skill mastery. While completely skipping the main training sessions was impossible, Shin created an efficient regimen for Hajime, focusing more on speed and increasing his stamina, endurance, and magic power.

Since Shin couldn't use magic at all, he decided to primarily improve his physical capabilities and magic resistance. He focused on refining his own movements for maximum efficiency, eliminating any extra motions. They also became frequent visitors to the library, reading together and accumulating knowledge.

A few days passed, and Hajime's stats increased decently this time, reaching Level 10 with an increase of four points per level instead of two. With a basic mastery of their body stats and a small amount of accumulated knowledge, Shin then told Hajime it was time to start the other training: skill mastery.