The moment Kael stepped onto Uto Island, he felt it.
An overwhelming Intimidation crashed down on him without warning.
His senses were sharper than Toriko's and the others'. And this pressure… it was completely different from anything he'd felt from ordinary beasts.
Now that he had mastered Enbu, even if he hadn't reached a level comparable to the Monkey King Bambina, he was far from weak. His combat power had already reached a terrifying height.
At the edge of Area 8, there weren't many creatures that could truly threaten him.
But this—
This was the kind of threat that felt absolutely irresistible.
"There shouldn't be anything this terrifying on Uto Island… unless it's that?"
A thought flashed through his mind.
Thousands of years ago, the Horse King Heracles had left behind a single hoofprint here. In the original story, that very footprint had shaken Toriko and his group to their core.
The Eight Kings were powerful enough to alter the natural world itself. Whenever they moved, the traces they left behind continued to influence the environment for ages.
When the Horse King left that footprint, it had been furious. As a result, nothing grew around it. All living creatures avoided the area. Even after thousands of years, its lingering aura remained.
Weaker lifeforms would simply die if they got too close.
When Toriko and the others arrived, they were so overwhelmed that even their movements slowed.
On the Sixth Continent, the Snake King and the Whale King had once clashed. Their battle created endless mother Mother Tornados in the sky above the continent, turning the airspace into a forbidden zone.
The sea wasn't any better.
The hurricanes above were remnants of the Snake King. The Whale King Moon's traces lay beneath the ocean—its movements had churned the entire sea. Even islands drifted rapidly across the surface, and the violent currents alone were enough to make anyone shudder.
That was the terror of the Eight Kings.
The crisis Kael sensed was almost certainly the Horse King's hoofprint.
Instead of avoiding it, he headed straight for it.
He wanted to experience that Intimidation for himself.
Even if it was thousands of years old, adapting to it in advance wasn't a bad idea. According to his plans, he would eventually have to face the Horse King head-on.
Getting used to its aura early would only help.
As long as he didn't anger it, things should be manageable.
Among the Eight Kings, only the Monkey King Bambina was impossible to communicate with. The rest could be reasoned with—at least in theory. The Monkey King was too playful. It would attack before you even had a chance to speak.
Toriko had lost an arm because of that.
The Horse King accepted offerings from the Bewitching Food World. That meant negotiation was possible.
Soon, Kael arrived at the hoofprint.
It was enormous.
"And it's still this terrifying…"
Even with Enbu unifying his cells and minimizing the impact, he could clearly feel the Intimidation pouring from the massive hoofprint.
But unlike Toriko's group, he wasn't slowed down.
Yes, his very life instinctively screamed at him. Yes, he felt danger.
But it wasn't enough to restrict his movements.
Then he noticed something surprising.
His Gourmet Cells were adapting.
Rapidly.
The oppressive pressure that had felt suffocating moments ago began to weaken.
Before long, the lingering Intimidation no longer posed a threat.
Gourmet Cells really were absurd.
For anyone else, adaptation would take far longer—if it happened at all. But Kael's cells were on a completely different level.
Once he had fully adjusted, he left the hoofprint behind.
Next stop: the Golden Swamp.
As for breathing underwater, that wasn't an issue.
The moment he knew he would head into the Golden Swamp without a camping beast, he had already begun training his Gourmet Cells to adapt to underwater respiration.
For normal humans, that would be impossible. He didn't grow gills, either.
Instead, every cell in his body participated in breathing.
After some experimentation, he achieved it.
Now he could breathe underwater like a fish—without evolving any visible gills at all.
When the Golden Swamp finally came into view, he couldn't help but pause.
"Spectacular…"
The swamp stretched endlessly, glowing with a golden radiance. Thick clouds overhead made the light stand out even more.
If not for how deadly it was, this place would've been the perfect vacation spot.
Unfortunately, it was a swamp.
You never knew when the ground beneath you would collapse. And countless beasts lurked within.
Once every few hundred years, Iron Clouds descended and wiped out the surface life entirely. But since that only happened once in centuries, life always returned.
Many creatures had evolved to survive inside the swamp itself. When Iron Clouds fell, they simply retreated below.
In the canon, Toriko and the others arrived at the worst possible time. Iron Downpour, forcing them into the labyrinth beneath the swamp.
Kael suspected it wasn't coincidence.
It was Food Luck.
Food Luck brought opportunity—but it also brought danger.
To obtain ingredients, sometimes you had to be pushed into risk.
Toriko's group had been forced underground to find Ogre Shell.
Just then, Kael noticed the clouds above thickening at an alarming speed.
"…You're not trying to push me down there the same way, are you?"
He sighed.
"There's no need. That labyrinth is exactly where I'm headed."
Without hesitation, he found an entrance and dove into the Golden Swamp.
Below wasn't pitch-black.
The swamp itself emitted a golden glow, illuminating the entire labyrinth. Even if it had been dark, it wouldn't matter—his eyes had long since adapted to night vision.
His entire body breathed naturally. The environment posed no hindrance at all.
He moved with ease.
What he didn't know was that the Iron Clouds above slowed their accumulation the moment he entered.
Food Luck was that unreasonable.
When strong enough, it could even influence nature—or determine the outcome of a great battle.
But Kael wasn't thinking about that.
He wandered through the labyrinth casually.
He didn't map it.
He didn't calculate directions.
He simply walked wherever his instincts led him.
Food Luck would guide him to what he needed.
It would also help him avoid dangers he couldn't handle.
But that didn't mean no fighting.
The dangers it avoided were the ones beyond his ability. As for the rest? He still had to deal with them himself.
And there were plenty of beasts in this maze.
The labyrinth had originally been created by the Nitro race—likely as entertainment. They had placed numerous treasure chests inside.
Now, however, it had long been abandoned.
Most Red Nitro had fallen into dormancy. The few remaining ones had either gone mad or been modified by the Blue Nitro.
The Blue Nitro saw the Red Nitro as inferior—both technologically and in strength. They treated them like slaves and experimental subjects.
Many Red Nitro lost their ability to speak and their sanity.
Once awakened, they were nothing but beasts.
Only the Three Taste Hermits had escaped such a fate—because their culinary skills were too valuable.
As for resurrection—
Red Nitro died permanently.
Blue Nitro, on the other hand, would revive as long as appetite existed in the world.
That was why they didn't fear death.
Unless they were sealed away like NEO, devoured into another dimension, they would always return.
Kael continued strolling through the maze, casually dealing with reckless beasts along the way.
Before long, he had collected a large number of ingredients.
The Nitro were impressive when it came to preservation. Despite being stored for who knew how long, the ingredients in the treasure chests hadn't spoiled.
Though some flavor had faded over time, Kael didn't care.
His Qi could restore freshness.
And as his Gourmet Cells grew, so did the quality of his Qi.
Then—
He stopped.
In front of him was a Gold Can.
His eyes lit up.
"Found it. The Gold Can."
Inside was his true objective.
The Ogre Shell.
Compared to this, the other ingredients were insignificant.
The Blue Nitro only used Gold Cans to seal beings of immense power—creatures at the level of the Eight Kings or entities with immortality like NEO.
Nothing sealed within a Gold Can was ordinary.
Ogre Shell was no exception.
It was powerful enough to devour an entire ocean.
Yet the Blue Nitro hadn't realized it was also an extraordinary ingredient.
That was the difference when you weren't favored by Food Luck.
Even with a supreme ingredient in your hands, you might never recognize its true value.
Kael didn't open the can here.
The environment wasn't ideal.
He stored it away and resumed wandering—this time with a clear objective.
Leaving.
Food Luck responded to intention.
If he sought ingredients, it would lead him to them.
If he sought an exit, it would guide him out.
Soon enough, he found an upward passage and emerged from the Golden Swamp.
When he resurfaced, just like Toriko in the original story, he had arrived in the Heavy Rain Area.
Area 8 was also known as the Rain Continent.
Here, all kinds of rain fell.
In this region, each raindrop could be dozens—or even hundreds—of meters wide.
They weren't raindrops anymore. They were falling lakes.
In the canon, there had also been Soul Rain near the Bewitching Food World, Poison Rain and Laser Rain on the way to AIR, even Meteor Rain.
All of it traced back to one being.
The Horse King Heracles.
The clouds here were formed by its breath.
Air was its food.
What it exhaled was toxic. When that breath combined with environmental factors, it created these bizarre cloud formations and rains.
The Eight Kings truly lived up to their legend.
Compared to this, planet-busting fighters in other worlds felt almost mundane.