"It's an aurora!"
The instant he saw it, Kael's face lit up with excitement—because an aurora meant only one thing here.
Century Soup.
What surprised him, though, was that he couldn't smell anything.
His sense of smell was on the level of a demon king's.
Yet there was nothing.
After spotting the Century Soup itself, he quickly understood why. It hadn't been heated yet. It wasn't frozen either, but without warmth, its flavor simply didn't disperse into the air.
That was probably one of Century Soup's peculiar traits—unless it was heated, not even something like Devil's Sense of Smell could detect it.
And the moment Kael focused on it, his Divine Sight nearly skipped over the soup entirely.
Its transparency was ridiculous—so close to invisible that even with enhanced vision it was hard to make out. It was honestly unbelievable. Tens or even hundreds of thousands of ingredients condensed into pure essence… without the slightest impurity left behind.
"Wait… isn't there way too much of it?"
Kael suddenly frowned.
Hell Boras had already been immobilized with Knocking, which meant the timeline should be right around the start of the original story.
No one in the outside world had ever pinned down the exact moment Century Soup fully formed—only a rough window.
In canon, aside from the final drop Komatsu drank, only about a single bowl's worth had remained.
But what Kael was seeing now?
This was enough to fill over a hundred bowls.
"So that means… before anyone found it, the Wall Penguins must've already drunk a lot of it."
That made sense. The soup had been sitting here the whole time, and the Wall Penguins lived in this place. By the time it was discovered in the original story, plenty of it had probably already been consumed.
Without hesitation, Kael collected every last drop.
He had no intention of leaving any behind.
This batch was the final one anyway—and eventually it would fall into Gourmet Corp's hands. If that was the case, he might as well take it now.
As for the Wall Penguins… drinking Century Soup was just a hobby for them. They didn't rely on it to survive. Otherwise, the species would've gone extinct long ago.
After storing everything away, Kael took out a single bowl.
Now came the important part.
He didn't bother with a spoon.
He tipped the bowl back and downed it in one go.
The moment the soup slid down his throat, Kael closed his eyes, focusing entirely on memorizing its flavor.
What met him was… indescribable.
The taste was beyond anything words could express—layer upon layer of transformations exploding across his palate. And alongside it came an overwhelming sense of happiness, surging up from the depths of his heart and flooding his entire body.
His face twitched.
It was trying to smile on its own.
Realizing that, Kael snapped back to his senses.
He knew exactly how creepy his grin could get if he let it run wild.
Better not fall into that trap.
That kind of expression was controllable, anyway. The architect who'd once built Toriko a castle was proof—so pessimistic that even Century Soup had only earned a faint smile from him.
Kael forcibly suppressed the urge.
The very next second, every muscle in his body ballooned outward.
His clothes tore apart under the sudden expansion.
But the state only lasted a few seconds before the swelling rapidly shrank back down, his physique returning to normal.
Kael immediately sensed the difference.
This wasn't just a simple level-up.
This was Gourmet Cell activation.
Normally, Gourmet Cells rose one level at a time.
Activation was something else entirely—skipping several levels at once… sometimes dozens.
In the later stages, a single activation could vault someone hundreds—or even thousands—of levels in one leap.
It was a complete, all-around enhancement.
And this was Kael's first time experiencing it.
Drawing on Toriko's inherited knowledge, he quickly judged the result.
His cell level had reached 49.
That was an increase of more than twenty levels in one shot.
As for actual combat strength… he estimated he was sitting somewhere around level 90 now.
It was an absurd jump.
He had no intention of hoarding Century Soup to break through some mythical limit later. He'd read the original story—plenty of ingredients out there had similar effects.
The priority now was raw growth.
Only with enough strength could he go harvest those monsters.
With the activation complete, Kael planned to capture a few more ingredients in Ice Hell before leaving.
And if the Tundra Dragon was still alive…
He might as well take that too.
The thing was supposed to be the gatekeeper here, but in canon it had already been dead when it first appeared—killed by Gourmet Corp's sous chef, Tommyrod.
The lunatic had slaughtered the dragon, crawled into its belly, eaten it from the inside out, and taken a nap.
He only popped back out after Toriko and the others reached the glacier.
Honestly? Classic tortoise-and-hare syndrome.
So convinced he was untouchable that he lounged around instead of moving.
And what happened?
He got absolutely wrecked later.
Sure, Tommyrod had been stronger than Toriko at the time.
But Teppei was there too.
And Teppei—personally trained by Master Jiro—was in an entirely different league.
Kael wasn't worried about running into Tommyrod right now.
At this point, Tommyrod was probably only around level sixty or seventy. The Parasite Emperor inside him capped out at capture level 81.
That wasn't impossible for Kael to handle anymore.
As long as he didn't run into Alfaro, he'd be fine.
That guy was already strong enough to enter the Gourmet World.
And if Alfaro showed up…
That meant Setsuno would probably appear too.
And Setsuno—while not quite on par with the three human-world titans—was still comparable to a Blue Nitro.
After changing into fresh clothes, Kael wandered around Ice Hell.
He deliberately exposed himself to the cold, letting his body take it head-on.
If he ever wanted to enter the Gourmet World without relying on others, he had to adapt to extreme environments like this.
In canon, Ichiryu's training plan for Toriko had sent him to places just as brutal.
Vegetable Sky, for example—thin oxygen, sudden freezes, violent storms, lightning…
All so Toriko's Gourmet Cells could acclimate.
Then came the Gourmet Desert for heat resistance.
Komatsu didn't count—he just needed proper gear and Toriko at his side.
His Gourmet Cells didn't even awaken until far later.
Kael wasn't about to gamble his safety on someone else.
So he had to adapt himself.
It was reckless—because while Gourmet Cells could evolve to survive such environments, there was always the chance of dying before that happened.
Kael only dared to do this because he had abundant supplies… and the ability to raise his own body temperature.
Anyone else would never attempt something this insane.
Three days later, he'd harvested a massive haul of ingredients.
His cells had also fully adapted to the extreme cold.
And he'd captured one Tundra Dragon.
The thing hadn't shown itself on day one—but after Kael started rampaging through Ice Hell and stealing Century Soup, it finally noticed him.
As the guardian beast, it couldn't tolerate intruders.
The Toriko world was full of creatures like that.
Almost like they had some kind of implanted directive.
In the Gourmet Coliseum back in the 1st Biotope, plenty of monsters existed solely to serve as stage bosses.
By natural logic, that shouldn't even be possible.
Kael couldn't figure it out.
So he didn't bother.
Free ingredients were free ingredients.
Once he was fully acclimated, Kael summoned Behemoth.
It was time to leave.
Since he couldn't fly himself, he'd have to hitch a ride.
Thanks to the world map inherited from Toriko, he already knew exactly where he was headed next.
Setsuno.
Just like countless transmigrators before him, Kael had made the same choice.
She was basically this world's tutorial village.
Anyone familiar with the plot of Toriko knew that spending the early game under Setsuno's wing was optimal.
She'd spent decades simmering Century Soup, pushing it all the way to the final step—
And then got stuck.
That was why, in canon, she'd sent Komatsu to find the finished soup once she recognized his talent… and later gave him tremendous support.
Without her, Komatsu would've taken far longer to complete it.
Some ingredients simply weren't accessible to him.
At the end of the day, he was just a five-star hotel chef.
In the Toriko world, hotel ratings went up to ten stars.
Five stars wasn't low…
But it was common.
Which meant Komatsu lacked both the channels and the money to acquire certain materials.
Setsuno had provided much of what he needed.
Kael was in an even worse position.
No official identity in this world.
If he wanted to gather massive quantities of ingredients—or recreate Century Soup himself—Setsuno was the perfect route.
The soup he carried was his bargaining chip.
Just one drop.
That was all it would take.
Add it to her near-finished batch, and she'd complete the real thing.
In return, arranging him an identity and supplying resources?
That would be trivial.
Century Soup was practically her obsession.
Decades poured into a single dish—only to fail at the very end.
Setsuno was recognized as second only to Frohze.
Even now, with Joie inhabiting Frohze's body, it wasn't guaranteed he surpassed her in cooking.
In battle, yes.
In the kitchen?
Debatable.
Kael was confident the soup could buy him everything he needed.
Riding Behemoth, he headed for Gourmet City.
Setsuno's restaurant sat on its outskirts.
Its name was Setsuno's Dining Hall.
From the outside, it looked like a plain little building—almost jarring in a city full of towering skyscrapers.
Like someone had plopped a mud-brick shack in the middle of downtown.
But no one dared complain.
This was Setsuno's territory.
A Living National Treasure.
Leader of all human-world chefs.
With Ichiryu and Jiro backing her…
And her own strength on top of that…
Plus the Setsuno Group dominating multiple industries.
She was untouchable from every angle.
Near the city, Kael dismissed Behemoth.
Dragging something that big through urban streets was just asking for attention.
He didn't even need a Gourmet ID—entering the city itself didn't require one.
And Toriko's memories included the exact location of Setsuno's place.
He just had to walk.
Following the map, Kael soon arrived.
The restaurant didn't keep regular hours.
It opened whenever it felt like it.
Reservations were supposedly booked out years in advance.
Only Setsuno would run a place like that.
And get away with it.