To celebrate, Hex Food World held a banquet. After the Daruma Hermit announced the opening, almost everyone ran home excitedly and fetched the food they have.
There are not many people in the Hex Food World, but compared to the human world—which has a population of tens of billions—that number seems small. It is called a village, but it resembles a small city more than anything else.
The folk customs in the Hex Food World are simple and heartfelt. Everyone remembered how much the seven-colored fish brought by Zed had helped them, so they felt deeply grateful to him in this moment.
The banquet lasted all night. The next morning, as everyone gradually dispersed, Zed retrieved the map the Daruma Hermit had provided. This map was quite precious. After all, without some strength, no one would dare to travel in the Gourmet World. Any satellite that was detected hovering over Gourmet World was shot down immediately.
Regarding the Eighth King territory, one may enter their territory. The Eighth Continent is like an important human city: one may visit but cannot explore freely. This is why any satellite that detected the Gourmet World was shot down: no king would allow a monitor over his realm or his movements.
Most people from the human world perish at the entrance to the Gourmet World. Many manage to enter, become frightened, and flee immediately. Most, however, die during exploration. Only few can traverse the Gourmet World freely like Ichiryuu and others to gather information.
After obtaining the map, Zed did not rush to explore. He needed to test whether he could use Takeover Magic to temporarily obtain food luck. So, Zed gathered everyone together.
"Next, you will use Takeover Magic to Takeover these colorful fish. If the food luck can truly attach to you, it will be much more convenient in the future. If not, I can only wait until my strength is sufficient to share food luck with you," Zed said. He hoped the other four would Take over the colorful fish. He did not need it himself, since his Gourmet Skill was superior to that of the seven-color fish.
"Let me try first!" Mirajane said. Using Takeover Magic was her domain. In fact, she, Lisanna, and Elfman had Takeover other creatures before. During the war, they used their strongest receiving form and had even Takeover creatures like fish and birds when special forms were required. Now that they were strong, those environments had little effect on them, so they did not need to Takeover creatures just for adaptation. But food luck was different; it was something they could not acquire on their own.
Mirajane approached a colorful fish, placed her hand on it, and launched Takeover Magic. The colorful fish before her gradually shrank, then turned into a ray of light and sank into Mirajane's body. At the same time, her appearance changed. Colorful fish scales appeared on her arms and neck. Two fins grew on her forearms, and her lower body transformed into a massive fish tail. Although she was on land, Mirajane's physical strength was great. Even though she was not accustomed to the fish tail, she could use it to support herself without falling.
"So beautiful! Isn't this a mermaid from a fairy tale?!" Erina and Hisako exclaimed. Mirajane looked as if she had stepped out of a storybook.
Zed was amazed as well. Indeed, mermaids exist only in fairy tales. He had seen The Little Mermaid as a child—though it would have been better without that sequel.
Mirajane was indeed very beautiful, and Zed observed that her food luck had skyrocketed. After using Takeover Magic, Mirajane's food luck was completely fused with the colorful fish, making her very powerful.
"Success! The food luck of the colorful fish has been fused into Mirajane," Zed said with a smile. Everyone was surprised. After all, this had been only a guess until now, and it was wonderful to see it confirmed.
Afterward, Erina and the other two took turns using Takeover Magic. Each transformed into a mermaid.
Rukia said, shaking her fish tail, "It feels very awkward like this, and my strength has not improved." Unlike the others, Erina and Hisako came from noble families and had learned various etiquette. Although they felt somewhat uncomfortable in mermaid form, they did not feel constrained.
Mirajane was even more comfortable. After all, in the world of Fairy Tail, Mirajane had Takeover fish before, but when using Takeover Magic at that time, she had taken on a fish-like appearance rather than this mermaid form.
As for Rukia, although she later joined the Kuchiki family and learned various etiquette, her personality remained lively and she disliked being confined. In this state, her strength was not enhanced. Instead, her unfamiliarity with the form weakened her combat power. Therefore, she immediately cancelled the Takeover Magic.
"Although, this form is not for fighting, Food luck is very important in this world. There may be a chance to use this form, and once you learn to use food luck, it will become part of your strength to help you resist attacks," Zed said. Of course, now no one could even observe food luck, let alone control it. Although Zed could observe it, he could not control it; he needed to continue improving his strength.
"Then should we test the effect of improved food luck now?" Mirajane asked. After all, the main purpose of finding a way to improve food luck was for Erina and Hisako. As chefs, food luck was critical.
"Let's test now: can we hear the sound of the ingredients?" Zed asked as he produced many ingredients he had collected in the Gold Labyrinth. These were all Gourmet ingredients. Although not particularly precious, many were special cooking ingredients.
Finding cooking methods for special ingredients was very difficult. Even the King of Cooking Zaus and others could not do it quickly. The medicinal rice cake in the original book is a good example. As founder of medicinal rice cake, Yuda could not simplify it. Only Komatsu could hear the sound of ingredients, and the ingredients put the answer before him directly. This is like a difficult math problem: others rack their brains for a lifetime to solve it, but Komatsu suddenly receives a targeted answer that could simply be copied. This is the difference between hearing the ingredients and not.
After Zed presented the ingredients, Erina and Hisako approached them despite their fish tails. It looked a bit funny on land, but no one paid attention.
"It glows! It seems very useful now that our food luck is improved!" As they approached, the ingredients began emitting a faint golden light. Not just one ingredient, but all of them.
"I hear it: the ingredients are guiding us on how to cook, and we already know how to prepare these special ingredients!" The two seemed to catch the sound in their minds, as cooking methods flooded in.
"Congratulations! Even chefs like Zaus and Yuda couldn't hear the ingredients anytime and anywhere, but now you have," Zed said with a smile. Hearing the sound of ingredients made cooking much easier. Humans do not have Nitro's lifespan to study bit by bit.
"This is all thanks to you. If you hadn't made that guess, we would never have thought to do this, nor would we have Takeover food luck ourselves," Erina and Hisako said excitedly. After all, this was something Granny Setsu could not achieve, but now they succeeded.
At the same time, Zed Takeover two rewards: one for the indepth understanding of Food Honor, which further improved his spirit power, and Enbu. Enbu is the best way to improve combat power before level six thousand.
Zed was naturally pleased to receive the two rewards, and if nothing unexpected occurred, Mirajane and Rukia would be there soon. At that time, their experience with Food Honor and Enbu would improve, and Zed's combat power would grow even stronger. Although his cell level was only above five hundred, Zed felt he could match creatures of one to two thousand in actual combat power. Of course, he would not engage those creatures without reason, as he was not a battle maniac.
"Now try exiting your Takeover form and then Takeover again to see if the food luck dissipates," Zed said. According to Brunch, whenever a colorful fish dies, new ones spawn randomly elsewhere. In other words, food luck vanished when the colorful fish died. Now, the creatures were bound to whoever used Takeover Magic. Zed was not sure whether the food luck would consider the colorful fish dead and depart. Preserving food luck now did not guarantee it would work later. They needed to test.
After hearing Zed, everyone agreed and began to re-enter Takeover form.
"How is it, Zed-san? Is the food luck still present?" they asked, unable to detect it themselves.
"It's still there, and the amount hasn't decreased. It appears the food luck has been preserved," Zed said, nodding. His worry now seemed unnecessary.
Everyone sighed in relief. Fortunately, the food luck was preserved. Had the luck deemed the colorful fish dead and departed, they would be helpless. The number of colorful fish was limited. If food luck were truly disposable, it would not withstand many uses.
Just as everyone exited receiving form, Rukia's expression suddenly dulled, and her breathing changed.
"What happened to Rukia-san?" Mirajane asked, noticing Rukia's change. Although Takeover Magic carries risks—receiving creatures stronger than oneself may not be tamed—Elfman at first went berserk after forcibly receiving the soul of a Beast King. But the colorful fish had no fighting power. With Rukia's current strength, there should have been no problem receiving them.
"It seems... her Zanpakutō called her into her consciousness space," Zed said. He had explained that Rukia was different from the others. Others had only an unconscious Gourmet Demon in their consciousness space, but Rukia had a Sode no Shirayuki born from her soul.