Versatile: Alternate World

It was kind of a surprise even for me to see Sigma around us. To a player who never had a guild and is known for being a wanderer with no permanent party to join with, she is known for that legend alone. Still, I wonder why she would join us if she was a loner in the past timeline? Perhaps it was due to Mr. Bear? I don't know but perhaps he was the cause. I never heard of someone named Mr. Bear before so he might be someone who never got famous in the past timeline. I am also sure that Sigma and Mr. Bear did not meet at all. If they did, it would have caused Mr. Bear to be popular as well.

"Son! Finally, you are back! What took you so long? Is the quest really that hard?" my father appeared carrying a pot of food that I don't have any idea what.

"Not that much but it took a bit of time to plan out which is why it took me a bit longer to return than usual."

My mother followed suit behind Father while wiping her hands on her apron.

"Your timing is very good, I just managed to finish the dish that I just learned from my mentor. I can guarantee the taste. Don't be shy and eat some!"

"You leveled up again, Mom? I don't think I recognize this food at all."

"Haha, of course, you won't, I just mentioned earlier right? This was the secret recipe from my mentor and she kindly teach me about it after I managed to reach level 50 in cooking."

"Level 50? You grind too hard this past week Mom?!"

"Hahaha, you underestimate your Mother's Gamer Mode, son. Once she gets serious, she will be capable of doing what she can do without any problem."

I didn't expect my Mother to take the cooking in the game so seriously. She is not this serious in real life. And to reach level 50 in cooking, that is pretty advanced and high level already. Not only that but the benefit of becoming a level 50 cook is that you can create very good food with various strong buffs. Not only that but if you cook a bad dish, you can use that as a weapon against an enemy. Throwing that dish to the enemy can either inflict a very bad debuff or just straight up lose health.

"But Man- I mean, Bladeheart, this game is pretty realistic. Even cooking here needed the same principle in the real world. There wasn't even any shortcut in creating batches of food. I really like it!" I can tell in my mother's expression she really likes playing the game.

"Well, this game follows the logic of the real world too. That is why everything that can be done here can also be done in the real world too."

"Alright, alright. That should be enough talking, we should start eating the food or else, it will get cold and it wouldn't be as enjoyable anymore," Father quickly handed me a plate of food.

Since I know that Mom is capable of cooking various delicious kinds of food, I doubt this food is bad. In fact, I can tell from the smell alone this will be really good.

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"Did everyone enjoy the food?" Mom asked everyone.

"Of course, aunty! Your food is still the best! I just hope my mom can also cook this good too. Only our cooks at home cook things and I am tired of their cooking, to be honest," Dolly sighed.

"Aren't your cooks certified to be good chefs that are good enough to qualify in some high-class restaurants?" Hagane was surprised.

"If you want them as professionals, sure. But if you eat them, again and again, every day, you will surely get bored with them. I am not like my parents who are too much of a gourmand and are addicted to those kinds of dishes, I wanted normal but tasty food too. These kinds are much more fulfilling compared to the food we eat every day. It was so full of style but I can barely feel the food going down the throat due to how small the portion is."

"Haha, you flatter me, Dolly-chan. However, if you wanted to eat more in the real world, you can just visit us in Nagoya. I will make sure to give you a good meal if you visit us!" Mom put a thumbs up.

"You are the best! Aunty! Hey Bladeheart, can you give me your mother? Pretty please!"

"Dude, stop that. Anyways, it seems everyone is already good to listen to me now."

Despite the fact that there are some people are someone I still couldn't trust enough just yet, perhaps I can use this chance to know if they are loyal enough or not and see if they are worthy to become a teammate that will watch our back and we can entrust our backs with. Harmless Sparrow and Chase are people I still have doubts I will let to enter. Sigma and Mr. Bear are also candidates but Sigma is pretty much a trustworthy one since she doesn't belong to any guild. As for Mr. Bear, I don't have a slightest idea about him just yet.

"You are announcing something, brother?" Iron asked.

"Yeah. Everyone listen. I have accepted an EX Tier Quest. However, this quest is pretty hard and it needed a lot of players to complete. It's not a raid either but this will be a really hard quest. Not only that but we have a chance to receive Heroic weapon sets or some legendary rarity weapon as a reward."

"Wow, isn't that pretty generous? So everyone who participates in the quest gets the chance to earn something?" Chase who was still eating asked.

"Yeah. From the quest alone, it is going to be some sort of contribution type. Depending on your contributions, you will gain something based on the amount of contribution to get."

"So that means, we will have to work hard to gain a good reward in the process?" Hagane tried to guess.

"Yes. And according to the quest giver, we will be fighting bosses from bosses. It will be a really hard quest and it is not similar to the dungeon raids, this will be hellish and dangerous. The more players there are, the better."

"How dangerous are we talking about, Bladeheart?" Harmless Sparrow asked.

"You guys should be familiar with the Abyss level bosses right since you guys frequently go to dungeon diving many times already. Am I correct on this?"

"Yes, of course," everyone simultaneously answered.

"Well, those bosses should be normal mobs in this quest. And we got multiple of them."

And yes, I am not exaggerating. The Frozen Desert is not for the faint in the heart and when I say the normal mobs are Abyssal levels, they are abyssal levels and the bosses are much, much harder than them. And that was just a normal raid down there, what if we add the difficulty of the quest here? It will ramp up a lot and it wouldn't be just something anyone would like to handle in solo. Even I would feel a little overwhelmed if I fight the monsters in solo in my current state. Perhaps if my level is on par with my previous timeline's level, perhaps, I will get a decent chance of winning.

"So how many players are you trying to recruit, Bladeheart?" Dolly asked.

"I want to say I needed a lot but I also wanted to limit the amount of players that knows the quest. Of course, this quest is currently exclusive to me and unless I don't share the quest on them, they won't have any access to it. However, I wanted it to be a secret, something that only a few trusted people knows. I don't want this to be publicized since it will cause chaos to players especially if they knew about the rewards.

"Indeed. Your decision is indeed correct, boss. Having limited players know about this quest, the better. With a quest that has a lot of big bosses, that means big loot and chances of getting high tier loot is something that we can look forward into. Even I would try to limit the amount of people who knows it too, so I understand your decision on this one, if you needed some healing help, you can recruit me," Chase grinned.

"Wow, Chase you really want the dibs in the loot huh?" Hagane grinned and put his hands to his neck.

"Of course, This is a chance in a lifetime. Besides, players in Alternate World can sometimes be greedy bastards. If we got a quest this good and can be shared, it is only natural I will grab the opportunity to join in. I also needed to be stronger to become the Combat Medic I aspire to be!"

The others also chimed in and it seems they are enthusiastic. Harmless Sparrow also wanted to join but she was hesitant.

"Aren't you going to join?" Sigma suddenly asked making Harmless Sparrow surprised.

"I-I don't know. I have a guild and if I joined, my guildmembers might get furious at me in the process for being selfish."

"So you just wanted to waste this opportunity due to some players who are not even someone you like to team up with?"

I am just listening in the sideline but it seems there is already some internal conflict inside the guild of Harmless Sparrow. Is this due to the Vice President of the guild that is causing her to be this hesitant?