For Melk the Second, the moment her father promised that he would come back to see her after some time, there was nothing left to worry about. Compared to not being able to meet him, what she had truly feared before was his safety.
After all, the First Melk hadn't used a voice amplifier back then. Although he'd told her where he was going, she had no idea where he actually was. If Kael hadn't told her the First Melk's exact location, she wouldn't have known that her father was actually nearby.
After leaving the Heavy Hole, Melk the Second immediately felt her body relax. The pressure at the bottom of the cavern was still too much for her.
The two of them rode Behemoth back to Mt. Melk. After that, Kael temporarily stayed there, because he needed to learn sharpening techniques. Mastering the polishing of Gold Cookware was anything but easy.
Gold materials were extremely special among all materials. Even for Melk the Second, forging a single knife from them would take months—sometimes even over a year.
It had to be said—the difficulty of preparing Another truly lived up to its reputation as second only to GOD. Not only was the cooking itself insanely difficult, even obtaining the necessary kitchenware was a nightmare.
Kael actually found the people of Blue Grill a bit strange. They clearly knew they were racing against time, yet they hadn't prepared Gold kitchenware in advance. Instead, they gathered the materials on the spot and forged everything afterward.
Once Gold kitchenware was completed, it could be used indefinitely—there was no need to worry about degradation over time. And yet, they still hadn't done it that way.
Because Kael was working with Gold materials, simply learning the basics and leaving wasn't an option. He had to study deeply. Even with his talent, this still required time.
"Now I'll teach you how to sharpen. Just learn through practice," Melk the Second said.
The Melk school of sharpening had no real theory to speak of. Everything was learned through hands-on practice.
Back then, Melk the Second herself had learned the same way. The First Melk taught her directly at her side. Even though she couldn't hear his voice, by observing his movements and relying on her innate sharpening talent, she could quickly grasp his intent.
It could only be said that Melk the Second was born for this profession. Her talent was absurdly high.
As Kael picked up the tools, Melk the Second began instructing him on movements, force control, and technique. After that, she demonstrated her own process for him to observe.
The Melk school's sharpening wasn't just about grinding a blade.
While sharpening, Melk the Second could perform dozens—sometimes hundreds—of grinding actions in a single second.
Each movement used a different amount of force depending on the changing state of the material. It wasn't just force—her movements and angles were constantly shifting as well.
Every second involved dozens or even hundreds of adjustments. These weren't pre-planned; they were improvised on the fly. Sharpening had already been carved into her bones.
After watching this, Kael gained some insight—but this kind of sharpening required massive amounts of trial and error. It was just like cooking.
For a chef, beyond basic skills, the most important thing was the ability to understand ingredients. If you didn't know the condition of your ingredients, everything else was meaningless.
Sharpening was the same. To know how to adjust position and force, you needed not only precise control of your hands but also a deep understanding of the material in your hands. That understanding could only come from extensive practice.
Kael knew this very well. So he continuously observed the materials, using his extremely enhanced five senses and the Devil's Sense of Smell to probe their condition in detail.
The reason Melk the Second had succeeded on her first attempt back then wasn't just her frightening talent. More importantly, she had observed the First Melk sharpening countless times and had already summarized her own experience.
Kael could do the same.
So when Melk the Second let him try, Kael succeeded on his very first attempt as well. Perfect sharpening from the Melk school produced a crisp, resonant blade hum, accompanied by a dazzling flash of light.
As the sharpening continued to succeed, the blade hum merged into a continuous sound, and blinding light erupted throughout the workshop.
This was nothing unusual to Melk the Second—it was simply how their school worked.
Kael was the same. The intense light couldn't harm his eyes at all after so many enhancements, nor could it block his vision. His gaze easily pierced through the glare, allowing him to precisely judge the material's condition.
Of course, a single success didn't mean he had mastered the essence. Kael knew this clearly. At the moment, he could only handle a single type of material.
Melk the Second could use any material at hand because of years upon years of accumulated experience.
Experience was vital in any profession. Kael knew he still needed a huge amount of practice.
As his movements grew faster, a kitchen knife gradually took shape. Because of the materials used and the fact that Kael had only just entered this field, the result could only reach the level of a low-grade Melk knife.
Melk knives sold to the outside world were divided into several tiers: low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and top-grade.
Low-grade knives were the most common. The materials were ordinary, and Melk the Second could produce hundreds of them in a single day.
Above that were mid-grade knives, made from materials that were difficult for ordinary people to obtain. Even then, she could only forge a few per day.
High-grade knives used materials that were already near the peak of the Human World. Forging one took Melk the Second over a full day.
She rarely made knives at this level—not because of the time required, but because she lacked materials.
The materials used by the First Melk were all personally obtained by him. Melk the Second didn't have that level of strength. The materials she used mostly came from what the First Melk had left behind, or from leftover materials and payments when others commissioned knives from her.
As for top-grade knives, in the canon story, the first top-grade Melk knife Melk the Second ever forged was Komatsu's.
That knife was made using a fossil of the Dragon King's fang.
The power of a top-grade Melk knife was terrifying. With a casual swing, it could cleave Mt. Melk—thousands of meters tall—cleanly apart.
Even Komatsu, an ordinary human, could wield that knife to cut through the walls inside the Gourmet Pyramid.
Those walls had been built by the Red Nitro and had merely been buried over countless years without collapsing. Their defensive strength was obvious. Yet Komatsu could still slice through them with ease, showing just how absurd a top-grade Melk knife truly was.
Kael's own knife was already at that level.
When Melk the Second learned that Kael was a chef, she had originally planned—out of gratitude—to help him forge a knife using the Dragon King's fang fossil in addition to teaching him sharpening.
But after seeing Kael's knife, she abandoned the idea entirely.
His knife was already among the absolute best. Forging another would be pointless.
"To create a qualified knife like this on your very first try… Kael, you're incredible," Melk the Second said, completely stunned.
Back when she first succeeded at sharpening, the knife she produced hadn't even reached the level of a low-grade Melk knife.
What Kael had done truly broadened her horizons.
He wasn't even a professional sharpener—he was a Gourmet Hunter and a chef. And yet he possessed terrifying talent in so many fields. How could she not be shocked? It felt like her entire worldview was being rewritten.
After that, Kael stayed on, continuing to learn sharpening techniques. He handled the cooking during this period, since he was a professional chef.
Melk the Second could cook as well, but she wasn't a professional. And since she rarely left Mt. Melk, tasting Kael's food left her utterly astonished.
There was no helping it—Kael's culinary skill was simply terrifying. Even veteran chefs couldn't compare to him.
To taste Kael's cooking normally, you'd need to go to a ten-star restaurant—and even then, there was no guarantee the head chef would personally cook for you.
Take the Cloud Hidden Restaurant, for example. It was still open, but eating Granny Chiyo's cooking there was impossible now. She had already gone to the Gourmet Corp.
Half a month later, Kael had successfully forged high-grade Melk knives and could handle all kinds of materials with ease.
"In just half a month, your sharpening skills are starting to reach my level. That's unbelievable," Melk the Second said, staring at the high-grade Melk knife Kael had just completed, still in shock.
"It's thanks to your guidance. You saved me a lot of time," Kael replied with a smile.
His talent was indeed terrifying, but Melk the Second had helped him immensely. She had taught him her techniques without reservation, allowing him to grasp many special tricks.
Those techniques had greatly accelerated his growth, so he readily acknowledged her help.
"I'll be leaving next. There are other things I need to do. Before I go, I've prepared two gifts for you."
Kael was ready to depart. His goal here had already been achieved. Next, he planned to go to Acacia's Gourmet Shrine and absorb a wave of Food Luck.
Once he finished absorbing Food Luck and completed Century Soup, he could attempt to enter the Gourmet World.
The Gourmet World was extremely dangerous, but for someone with extremely high Food Luck, it wasn't that big of a problem.
Just look at Zonge. He was stronger than an ordinary person, sure—but only by a little. And yet he could wander around the Gourmet World freely and survive all the way until the final battle.
With enough Food Luck, you could walk unhindered in the Gourmet World.
Kael's Food Luck was already strong. After absorbing even more at the Gourmet Shrine, entering the Gourmet World would be nothing to worry about.
He was already itching to go.
With his current strength, he really could start capturing ingredients in the Gourmet World. Ingredients from the Human World were becoming less and less useful to him.
As for ingredients like the Poison Potato, he could just ask Setsuno to help collect them.
Toriko and the others needed to gather ingredients themselves to avoid becoming hothouse flowers—but Kael was different.
At the Human World level, his strength had already reached the ceiling.
As long as he didn't run into monsters that could enter the Gourmet World, there wouldn't be any problems.
"So you're leaving, Kael?" Melk the Second said, momentarily stunned.
She felt a bit reluctant to part with him, but she knew Kael couldn't stay here forever. She herself had thought about leaving with him—but she still had a lot of work on hand, and she didn't want to ruin the Melk name. So she could only stay behind.
That said, she was very curious about the gifts Kael was going to give her.
"The first gift is this," Kael said, taking out a special recipe. "It's a fusion seasoning I developed using Melk Stardust combined with other spices. Just add a little when you cook."
"The flavor can't make you forget my cooking, but it's still very good."
Kael handed over the seasoning he'd prepared along with the recipe.
During his stay, he'd completely spoiled her palate. Mt. Melk didn't have any ten-star restaurants, so it wasn't easy for her to eat good food.
Going from simple to luxurious was easy; going back was hard.
Melk the Second had actually been troubled by this lately. Seeing the seasoning now, her face lit up with delight.
With this seasoning, even if she couldn't recreate Kael's level of deliciousness, at least the food she made wouldn't disgust herself anymore.
So she accepted the seasoning without hesitation.