Chapter 1693: Entering The Rest Area

[You have entered the Rest Area between Trials]

[For the next 24 Hours, you are allowed to rest, eat, and relax.]

[The food in the kitchen will restore your Stamina, Mana, and Divine Power rapidly.]

[The bath water is able to heal most of your wounds with ease and relax the tension of your body.]

[When you sleep in the beds, you'll have pleasant dreams and rest very well, even if you sleep for a single hour.]

[As the participant of this Trial, you have now gained access to the First Trial Shop and can purchase a myriad of items using the earned Score Points, which can only be used for this shop.]

[Once the 24-Hour passes, you will be teleported to the Second Trial immediately, so make sure to not waste your time.]

"So that's how it is, we got 24 hours here," I said. "But if we go inside my Divine Realm instead, we could have two weeks to rest, actually."

"I wonder if that's even allowed?" wondered Benladann. "Would the venerable get upset?"

"We can ask him right now, he's right here after all," I said. "Right?"

FLUOSH!

Suddenly, the paintings flared with flames, as the figure of a giant made of fire emerged.

"You can try, but you will quickly realize the time inside your Divine Realm will not be any faster than outside," he smiled. "This Trial is a dimension of its own, created out of my own divine powers. I can easily distort the passing of time even of other dimensions, as long as they're contained within it. Also, I wouldn't recommend bringing people from your divine realms, they will be instantly teleported back. I only allow you to bring things and summon monsters from there, but nothing else."

"So it's a no, oh well," I shrugged. "Can't you at least increase the time we rest?"

"If I do that, everyone else will get the same too... 24 hours is enough for you to eat, take a bath, and sleep," he said. "You are not taking some vacations after all... Don't get too cocky, dragon king!"

"Hahaha! I suppose I am quite used to a relaxing life after spending so much inside my Divine Realm," I laughed. "Thank you for the information, Venerable. We will do our best in the next trial too."

"You better do, keep fighting and bringing me entertainment, I've been very amused by what you've done and accomplished!" he smiled. "I would recommend cooking with my ingredients, I've provided you with ancient delicacies that no longer can be found in Muspelheim from ancient times. So have a feast, you deserve one."

"How nice of you, thanks," I nodded.

"Then I am off..."

FLUOSH!

With a single explosion of fire, he disappeared. While the idea of him watching over us in here wasn't really appealing, we didn't have much of an option.

Honestly, I wanted to have a week to rest at least inside my Divine Realm, and perhaps have some time with my beloved Benladann and Miranda at night, to let out all the stress of that fight, but I guess that'll be for once we're finally done.

"Alright! Right I'll prepare a feast, everyone else should go take a bath and relax," I said.

"Yaaay! Bath time~!" Yuki said, running towards the bathroom.

"Are you sure it's okay? I can help," said Rakasha.

"Nah, go to take a bath old man, you need to rest," I smiled. "Ruby too."

"I barely did anything myself... But fine," she sighed.

"Man, I'm so exhausted..." Hector yawned.

"I hope the bathroom is large," Kraxka said.

"It said there was a big, shared bath separated in genders, I have never seen such a thing before," said Larzak.

"Is it like the hot springs of the Fire Giant Mountain?" wondered Tisha.

"Maybe, yeah," Pekora nodded. "I'll wash your back and your hair, it's messy."

"Thanks, I'll wash you back as well~" Tisha kissed Pekora's cheek as the two walked to the bath.

As I saw my friends depart, I moved to the kitchen, but Benladann, Miranda, and my children accompanied me.

"You're not going for a bath?" I wondered.

"We can take one later with the whole family," Benladann hugged me, kissing me. "Let's make something yummy for everyone first."

"Yeah, we know you went through a lot as well, despite only sitting on the throne, you were constantly fighting that monster," said Miranda. "We won't leave you alone."

"Papa let me help you with the ice cream," said Kate.

"I wanted to cook too, can I?" Benladra wondered. "I've learned a few things!"

"Dadaaa! Me... meat!" Drakda was demanding meat.

"Oh well, aren't you saying more words now?" I laughed. "Alright, alright, let's make some meat first."

With my family's support, and my special Divine Cooking Magic Arts, alongside several Cooking Spirits I created, such as flying utensils, pots, plates, and also by bringing my own ingredients, we prepared a feast worthy of gods.

Roasted meat of several types of creatures, especially ancient dinosaur-like monsters, stew with their meat and many vegetables, especially red, purple, and green colored potatoes with different shapes and flavors from ancient times, and also roasted meat, meatloaf, rice, noodles with Bolognese and white sauce, lasagna, and many pastries as well as ice cream and drinks.

Once everyone was finished with their bath, they were greeted by a massive feast, we had already begun eating, but they quickly ran to their seats and started feasting with us.

"Ah, I really needed this!" Tisha sighed in relief, taking the bite of a huge dinosaur cheeseburger. "Woah, what with this meat?! So tasteful!"

"This stew is phenomenal! The potatoes are so strange... yet delicious!" said Hector. "I wish my family was here to share..."

"These noodles... I can't get enough of them~" Ruby said with a pleased smile, right after drinking some blood from her cup as if it were wine.

"Phew, the wine is also incredible!" said Rakasha, laughing.

"Enjoy as much as you want!" I nodded, as I was also frenetically eating, I was starving after all.

I filled myself with as much food as possible, the stronger Gluttony became, the more food I needed.

I ate like fifty hamburgers as the aperitive, then moved to eating whole dinosaur legs roasted one after another.

I drank wine, and also ate noodles, fried rice, fish, and anything else.

My doppelgangers were cooking, so the food kept coming.

Once I'm done eating, I'll go take a bath and check the Shop.

After all, I have to spend all these points, or they'll disappear by the next Trial!

I also have to see how expensive the things are there, and if there's what I'm actually looking for.

And based in how everyone helped me get all these points, it's obvious I need to purchase things for everyone, not only for me.

It would be extremely selfish if I used all the points only for myself, they all worked really hard, so they deserve their own rewards.

But because I am the only actual "Participant" and the rest are just "Allies" they don't get their own Score Points, unfortunately.

Nonetheless, they don't have to worry about it, I will buy things for everyone to get even stronger.