33 An Essential, once again.

Sizzle~

"MEEEEEEEEEOWO"

The cat howled and ran around.

"Woi!" Martel screamed.

"Cluck cluck."

A flaming ball of fur was speeding around the room. Lavanuk laughed and continued flapping her wings in delight.

"MEEEWO! MEOW!"

Flap~

Martel stood from his seat. His clothes fluttered in a wavy fashion and showed its full glory. He was wearing standard red chef clothing, but when he stood the light hit his clothes and it shined.

"Wow." Bob was amazed at his clothing.

"Why are you amazed by his shirt, isn't the flaming cat so much more interesting?" Fera asked Bob a relevant question.

"Fair enough."

Bob removed his stare at Martel's clothing and looked at the burning feline. The cat rolled around, trying to put out the fire, but it didn't burn out.

"Hey! Do something!" Martel screamed towards Bob. He looked hurried and his voice was contained deep worry.

"Yes. San Byou keika." Bob replied.

But Bob didn't do anything. He just stood in place after saying those strange words. Martel waited for Bob to move but Bob stayed in his seat.

'Why isn't he doing anything?'

"Yon byou keika."

Martel was visibly sweating. He worried that his cat may burn to death for an unknown reason.

'How did she even combust? Is it because of his chicken?'

He couldn't do much. The cat was panicking so he couldn't get near without getting scratched, what's more, the fire also looked hot. But he didn't need to worry.

Psssssssss~

The fire suddenly burned out.

"See? Your cat is fine!" Bob exclaimed.

"But how?!" Martel did not like Bob's answer.

"The world. It's strange, isn't it?"

Martel cocked his head at Bob's reply. The cat may have survived and avoided becoming siomai, it still suffered in pain. Martel bit his lips and looked down. He clutched his hands and said.

"Did your chicken do this?" His voice was low. Anger was evident in it.

The temperature in the room suddenly dropped. The feeling of home became a desolating atmosphere that choked everyone in the room.

"Cluck!"

"No. It must have been spontaneous cat combustion."

Bob denied the question in a flat tone. His arms were waving as to indicate that it wasn't his chicken's fault.

"You expect me to believe you?" Martel wasn't having any of Bob's antics.

"And you believe a chicken can burn your cat?" Fera interjected.

Fera believed Bob. She did not know that Lavanuk was actually a fire-attributed chicken, no one would expect a chicken to have fire abilities. In fact, nobody expected a chicken to hold any abilities.

"Hmm. Yea. Hahaha. Forgive me." Martel laughed things off.

The cold atmosphere Martel emitted earlier was no joke. But the choking sensation the atmosphere caused suddenly vanished as if it was never there in the first place.

"Cluck Cluck!"

Lavanuk spread her wings even more. She was frightened by Martel, but instead of getting scared, she was aggressive.

"Calm down, Lavanuk." Bob walked towards his chicken and held her in his arms.

"Hahahaha. She's ready to fight." Martel continued laughing.

Martel also went near his cat. The cat was busy licking its burnt fur, hoping that licking it would make it recover its beauty.

"Now, now. Anyways. Bob, although this isn't your or your chicken's fault, I'm still going to hold you accountable." Martel said as he picked his cat up.

"I'm not sure why, but okay. What would you have me do?" Bob replied positively. He didn't take any of the blame but he felt that he should repay the incident his chicken has caused.

"It seems despite the recent event, my cat still wants to lick your chicken's feathers." Martel used his hands to sweep through the cat's hair.

"Isn't that right, Monica?"

"Meow!"

Bob looked at Lavanuk for a while. The cat, named Monica, was passionately looking at Lavanuk as well. Lavanuk did not need to spin her head to look at both Bob and Monica because she could see 300 degrees.

"How about it, Lavanuk? Will you let Monica lick your feathers?"

"Cluck? Cluck." Lavanuk shook her head.

"Cluck lcuckcl uiclkclkcuclk. bubububuk."

"Okay. How about this, you close your eyes?"

"Cluck cluck."

"Still no, huh. How about I remove a feather?"

"..... cluck."

Lavanuk settled for removing a single feather to give to Monica. She could lick that singular feather all she wants.

Pluck~

Bob removed a feather. He did it without warning Lavanuk at all.

"Never should have come here!" Fera suddenly unsheathed her weapon and exclaimed.

"Ehhh?" Both Bob and Martel reacted poorly.

Fera realized what she just did and bowed her head in apology.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what got into me. I suddenly felt mad and thought that there was an intruder." She explained.

"It's alright. Just don't do it again." Martel uttered while holding Monica tightly.

"Cluck. Cluck." Bob replied.

Lavanuk looked at Bob as if he was being strange, and Fera retracted her bowing head.

"Anywho, it has been a wonderful night. I just need you to give Monica that piece of feather and then you can go." Martel informed Bob.

Bob acted accordingly and offered the feather to Monica, who snatched the feather and suddenly licked it aggressively.

"Mewo mewo mewo mewo mewo mewo."

Monica's tongue had God Grid's dexterity. It licked the entirety of the feather in a matter of seconds and repeated the same process.

"That's one weird cat. Anyways, have a wonderful night, Chef Martel." Fera said and turned towards the door.

"See you again, Sir Martel." Bob also bade his farewell.

The door opened and two people, and a chicken, went outside. The door closed and the room was left in silence, except for a licking sound.

"I feel like I forgot something." Martel said to himself.

He looked at Monica, who was still busy licking the feather. And then it got to him.

"Oh yeah. I forgot to tell Bob about his mother. Oh well, maybe next time."

-

*Party Member 'Annera' is now online.

[Woi Bob! Where are you?]

Annera's voice echoed in Bob's ears. The sound came from the party chat that suddenly opened itself.

"I'm still within the church. I'm coming to you." Bob replied to Annera's call.

He stood from the bed that recently became his, and then opened the room door. The room he was in was a residential room reserved for a Gourmet's Knight.

"Neat."

Bob walked towards the dining area hurriedly.

"Cluck"

And Lavanuk was perched on his head.

-

"So, what are we going to do?" Bob asked.

"We are going to level up. Let's surprise everyone with our levels when they reconnect to the game." Annera excitedly said.

She was thinking about Bob's cheat the entire time she was cooking and eating. She couldn't take it off her mind about how she could exploit that fact.

"For now, let's go grind levels at a place that have at least level 20 mobs. You can tank all of their hits while you can continuously hit them, that should be easy, right?" Annera continued.

"You mean I'll just take all of their hits? No can do. It hurts. I don't want to experience pain anymore." Bob complained. The last time he got hurt, it was a massive wound that hit him from head to toe.

"What? Hurts? I have a question for you, Bob. Did you set the pain factor to the default settings?"

"Pain factor?"

"The default pain factor is there to let players know that they got injured. Which will make players value their HP, which is important. However, you don't need to care for your HP."

"What do you mean?"

"Just ask the system to set Pain Factor to zero. That should suffice."

"Okay. System! Set Pain Factor to Zero!"

*Pain factor is set to zero. Be careful, you might die before you realize.

Bob couldn't believe what the system said. His sensation surely couldn't be controlled by a system, or so he thought.

Slap~

Annera suddenly slapped Bob in the face. And Bob did not react.

"What?"

No, he couldn't react. There was no pain.

"What is happening?"

"Neat, isn't it?" Annera said with a full smile.

Bob touched his face with both of his palms. He couldn't quite get the science behind what just happened. He could still feel his face on his palms but he couldn't feel the pain.

"System, you were keeping this from me the entire time?"

*The system is currently busy. Please try again another time.

"Well, what do you say? Shall we go hunt some monsters that are significantly stronger than us?" Annera asked Bob once again.

"I can just turn the pain back on, right?" Bob was worried that he would live his entire life without pain.

"Of course!"

"Then let's do it!"

Bob, Annera, and Lavanuk made their way towards the outer plains of Donut City. It was currently night time in-game, but the moon gave enough illumination to light their path.

*Your HP value has reached 0.

*You are an Essential. You can't die.

*HP is set back to minimum.

*You have killed a Lv 20 Mother Brog.

*You have gained 400 (+80) experience.

*Your contracted monster 'Lavanuk' leveled up.