Chapter Thirty: Invitation?

  Those who have eaten braised beef in brown sauce all praised it, as if they had never tasted such a delicious dish before. A group of people eating one piece is not enough, and even want to come again.

  But at this moment Old Mack rushed over.

  "How is this possible! How could my black pepper steak lose to something with such a weird color and cut into little pieces!"

  Old Mac grabbed the plate of braised beef with his hands and then also didn't use any utensils, just picked up a piece and stuffed it into his own mouth.

  After chewing for a while, Old Mack fell silent. With difficulty, he swallowed the beef and let out a sigh, putting the braised beef on the table: "I lost."

  Admitting defeat was a very difficult thing for Old Mike. After all, he had been doing this for his whole life, and now he was being surpassed by someone under the age of twenty, which was indeed hard to accept.

  Although dwarves are indeed stubborn, they have a frank personality. When they lose, they just admit defeat and won't make excuses.

  "Alright alright, disperse! Hmph, seeing Old Mack's joke, aren't you all delighted? Gather around again, tonight the price of wine and water will be doubled!"

  As the owner of the tavern, Old Mack's authority was still considerable. The adventurers who came to watch the excitement were indeed eyeing that plate of braised beef, but there wasn't much left, and with Old Mack's threat, they could only laugh awkwardly and disperse.

  "Alright, I've lost. I'll go get the ice beer for you." Having conceded defeat, Old Mack wouldn't welch on his bet either. He quickly turned around and went into the back room, soon returning with a bucket of beer.

  "Come on, Old Mac, you're not busy anyway, let's have a drink together!" Lays naturally didn't want to quarrel with this old friend, so he invited Old Mac to have a drink together.

  Old Mac didn't stand on ceremony either, he sat down at once and, hugging the keg, poured out a cupful for each of us, took one himself, and drank it off with a smack.

  "Hmm... Ah, today I have to thank you guys, otherwise, I wouldn't have opened a barrel of ice-cold beer! Haha, young man, your dish is indeed not bad, I can say that I've never had this flavor of beef before. Your cooking skills are also unprecedented, it's really peculiar!"

  After drinking, Old Mai also seemed to have vented out his frustration of losing the game a bit and started praising Ji Ran.

  As a shy young man, Ji Ran naturally had to be humble at this time.

  "To be honest, the main reason is that my dish has never appeared here before, so everyone feels it's quite fresh. If I must say about taste, your black pepper beef steak is also pretty good."

  Old Mc heard this and burst out laughing, then shook his head: "Lost is lost, I won't make excuses. If the dish you made doesn't taste good, no matter how novel or fresh it is, no one will think it's better than mine. Your cooking skills have indeed surpassed me, even surpassing the dwarven culinary masters of Ironforge!"

  Ironforge is located in the heart of the Dragon's Spine mountain range in the northern part of the continent, and it is the largest gathering place for dwarves. For almost all dwarves, it is their hometown. The dwarf cooking masters there undoubtedly represent the highest culinary art of the dwarves.

  Dwarves are a race that likes mining, smelting, fine wine and good food. When they work, it's non-stop mining and smelting, when they're off-duty, it's all about eating and drinking. Their master chefs can even be considered among the top cooks on the continent.

  "So, I've decided to invite you to Ironforge to exchange cooking techniques with our master chef! A gourmet and cook like yourself will surely be welcomed by the dwarves!" Old McMillan let out a belch and gave Ji Ran a hearty slap on the back - he probably meant to pat him on the shoulder, but his height made it impossible.

  "What? Inviting Ji Ran to Ironforge? Isn't that a bit too sudden?" Lays heard Old McKenzie's words and was greatly shocked.

  It's not every dwarf who gets to invite humans to Ironforge, and it's not something that just anyone can get the privilege of doing... Dwarves have always been a bit xenophobic, and in their eyes, humans are sneaky and untrustworthy. Not many people have earned their recognition.

  "I know you're surprised, but I have my reasons." Old Mack put down his mug and stroked his beard. "The culinary masters of Ironforge have been stuck in a bottleneck for a long time. They think there must be a way forward for the art of cooking, but they can't see it. Not even the cooking techniques of humans or elves can inspire them... But I think this young man's dish can help them break through!"

  Old Mack looked at Ji Ran's eyes, full of frenzy.

  "This is a cooking method I've never seen before, yet it can produce such delicious dishes! It's completely different from any cooking technique on the mainland, it's a brand new cooking method! Your cooking method will definitely break the shackles of the dwarven master chefs' minds and allow them to create even more delicious dishes! Of course, I'm not saying you should teach your cooking skills to them, just learn from each other..."

  Old Mack became more and more excited, but in the end he still realized that this world had a problem with inheritance. It's not just magic and martial arts, other skills are also inherited. No one will easily pass on their own heritage to others, even cooking techniques.

  But if you bring it up for exchange and verification, then there's no problem. Are you saying that after learning a set of earth-shocking sword techniques, you never engage in a battle with others? If someone can learn your technique just by watching you use it, then this thing doesn't even qualify as an extraordinary sword technique.

  Ji Ran smiled and nodded, but his expression soon became awkward again.

  "My culinary skills are not worthy of being called a master, I just learned from a young age. I'm more than happy to exchange with the dwarf cooking masters, but I'll be heading to the Azure Sky Academy soon..."

  Old McLaughlin burst out laughing: "No worries! That group of old guys have waited for half a lifetime, and they won't mind waiting two more years! You can go to Ironforge during the school holidays, or even wait until after graduation - it's not too late! After all, dwarves live a long life, hahaha..."

  What he said was true, the dwarves' lifespan is generally between three hundred to five hundred years. Old Mack may be called Old Mack, but at two hundred and nine years old, he can't really be considered old.

  "That's settled then. Anyway, I'm definitely going to travel the continent in the future, so Ironforge can be one of my important stops. I like dwarves' personalities and I believe I should get along with you guys quite well."

  This isn't a bad thing, and Ji Ran agreed right away. Dwarves are generally considered to be pretty good teammates in all Western fantasies... of course, the Dark Iron Dwarves don't count.

  "Haha, you're really a great kid! Seeing you team up with Lays and the others, I knew you were definitely a good kid! Here, I have something for you, take it."

  As he spoke, Old Mac pulled out a delicate, flask-like object from a small bag at his waist.

  The wine jug is made entirely of reddish-brown metal, with bold and vigorous floral patterns carved on its surface. This wine jug is full of typical dwarf style, simple and unadorned, but in no way looks crude.

  "Take this, and when the dwarves see it, they'll know you're a good friend of old Mac's. That way, you can go to Ironforge yourself without any trouble. And if you go shopping at the dwarven equipment shop or tavern, you might even get a discount... Don't worry, old Mac still has a lot of face among the dwarves!"

  Ji Ran looked at the wine jug, narrowed his eyes and measured it, revealing a surprised expression.

  "Is this... made of pure copper?"

  Copper essence, a precious metal material, is refined from copper ore. However, the ore that can refine one kilogram of red copper can only refine a few grams of copper essence at most. Therefore, this is absolutely a rare and precious material.

  "Hey, young fellow's got a good eye for things! You're even more to old Mac's liking now! This flask is indeed made of pure copper, and it's the pure copper that I personally refined. Don't look at me like this, but in my younger days, I was quite a famous dwarf blacksmith too! Haha, take it, compared to your dish and the inspiration it brought to my cooking skills, this copper flask is nothing!"

  Unable to decline, Ji Ran could only take over the wine jug. Then, turning his head, he saw the strange expressions of Lais and Aileen and others. But it seemed that because Old Mack was present, they didn't say anything.

  Next, of course, was to continue eating and drinking. Although Ji Ran wasn't very good at drinking, this ice wine smelled quite refreshing and emitted a cool air. In this hot summer, having a cup like this shouldn't be a bad thing.

  And in fact, it was just as he had thought. The Ice Dew wine had a peculiar taste, with a hint of faint grassy fragrance. It was incredibly refreshing to drink, directly dispelling the heat from his body. One couldn't help but say that this wine was indeed worth Les and the others' anticipation.

  "How's that, not bad, right? This is a fine wine I've been saving for a long time, and it was no easy feat getting it from the elf. The taste is indeed good, but it lacks a bit of masculinity. If you ask me, this stuff is more suitable for women to drink."

  Old Mack saw Ji Ran's surprised look after drinking the ice dew wine and couldn't help but feel proud. But in the end, he still showed a hint of regret that the wine wasn't strong enough.

  It was actually the liquor brewed by the elves... No wonder it's so refreshing, and doesn't match the dwarves' style at all. Ji Ran suddenly realized, but immediately began to ponder again in his heart.

  In your cooking skills, there are also many brewing formulas. Why don't you try brewing some wine to play with?

  The brewing formulas in cooking skills naturally have various effects, but they all require some special materials to be added before the effect appears. If ordinary materials are used instead of those rare materials, even if the taste changes a bit, it won't make much difference, right?

  Refining equipment can no longer be used to make money, and cooking is not easy to handle. You can't just open a restaurant yourself, that would take up all your time and you wouldn't have any left to improve your strength! But brewing... it only takes some time when the brew comes out, but selling it can be done by others completely!

  And this candidate... right in front of me, there is a very suitable person.

  That's right, it's Beck.