"This place really is dangerous. Forget the insanely low temperatures—those winds alone are strong enough to blow a person away. And then there are the ice spears flying around nonstop. One mistake and you're done."
Kael moved toward the ice mountain. The closer he got, the more lethal the environment became. Ice Hell was defined by extreme cold—cold enough that an ordinary person, without proper gear, would freeze solid in the blink of an eye.
Even with a Lighter Suit to keep body temperature stable, the breath you exhaled would instantly crystallize in the raging wind and scatter back onto your body as ice.
Worse still, the wind itself was terrifying. The nearer one got to the ice mountain, the stronger it became. An average person wouldn't even be able to stand their ground—one gust would send them flying.
Advancing against that kind of headwind was unimaginably difficult. In the original story, Komatsu had run into the same problem, and Toriko had ended up carrying him the rest of the way.
Moving in a place like this drained stamina at an alarming rate. Once your movements slowed, even with a Lighter Suit protecting you, the cold would gradually creep in and freeze you solid. Many Gourmet Hunters had died in Ice Hell for exactly that reason.
It could only be said that those people lacked self-awareness. The dangers of Ice Hell were publicly disclosed by the IGO. Like many other hazardous regions, this place wasn't hiding its risks. If people misjudged their own strength and died here, they had no one to blame but themselves.
Still, dying for profit wasn't exactly rare. When enormous profits were on the line, most people couldn't resist the temptation. Even in the normal world, plenty of people risked their lives for money—let alone in the world of Toriko.
After all, once Century Soup was secured, a single bowl could sell for tens of billions, even hundreds of billions. For top-tier Gourmet Hunters, that kind of money might not mean much, but for ordinary people, it was enough to spend recklessly for several lifetimes. It was no surprise that so many people were willing to gamble their lives for it.
And the wind and cold were only the most basic threats. Riding those violent gusts were countless ice spears, hurtling through the air at terrifying speeds.
Moving at all in such conditions was already hard enough—add in those projectiles, and without overwhelming strength, the only ones who could make it inside the ice mountain by luck alone were probably Komatsu and Zonge, the two walking embodiments of Food Luck.
Yet Kael soon noticed something strange.
Every ice spear flying toward him either veered past his body or collided with another spear just before hitting him. Not a single one managed to touch him—not even once.
That abnormality caught his attention.
There was no way this was all coincidence. Kael immediately attributed it to Food Luck. It was a mysterious force—one that could turn mortal danger into safety, and guide people to the ingredients they sought.
These ice spears, clearly, couldn't hit him because of it.
"So my Food Luck is pretty strong too," Kael muttered. "Still… probably not on Komatsu's level. And definitely not Zonge's."
"ROAR—!"
As Kael neared the ice mountain, a series of roars suddenly echoed through the frozen wasteland. Moments later, several massive shapes charged toward him.
With his enhanced vision, Kael immediately identified them.
Ice Snow Leopards.
Capture Level 17—significantly stronger than Frozen Bison. Each one stretched over thirteen meters long and stood more than six meters tall. To humans, they were unquestionable behemoths.
But to Kael?
They weren't worth serious effort.
The instant the five beasts closed in, Kael vanished from their perception. He reappeared beside one Ice Snow Leopard, his hand slicing lightly.
No pause. He was already beside the next.
The same motion, repeated five times in an instant.
The Ice Snow Leopards never even realized what had happened. Just like the Frozen Bison before them, their heads were cleanly severed.
Their enormous bodies collapsed onto the ice.
Kael stored the corpses away. According to the Gourmet Encyclopedia passed down through Toriko's lineage, Ice Snow Leopards had no edible value.
In the world of Toriko, while almost everything could technically be considered an ingredient, that didn't mean humans could eat everything. Before tasting Another and awakening entirely new senses of flavor, many ingredients were either inedible or simply not worth eating.
Some could be eaten, sure—but tasted awful. In those cases, you were better off choosing something actually delicious.
Ice Snow Leopard meat fell into that category.
But for Kael, things were different.
He possessed Qi.
Qi could alter ingredients, and it grew stronger alongside Gourmet Cells. That meant that ingredients deemed "inedible" to others could still be consumed by him.
After dealing with the Ice Snow Leopards, Kael finally entered the interior of the ice mountain. Inside, the raging wind vanished. The temperature was still brutally low, but compared to the outside, it was far safer.
Before him stretched a maze-like network of frozen tunnels.
Kael chose to trust his Food Luck. He picked a tunnel at random and walked in.
He wasn't worried about getting lost. For someone with sufficiently strong Food Luck, that was never an issue—you'd always find your way out.
Just like when Komatsu and the others entered the Golden Marsh. That place was a guaranteed death trap for the Gourmet World's residents, yet for Komatsu's group, it was nothing more than a stroll. Not only did they escape safely, they also collected plenty of ingredients—most importantly, Ghost Shellfish.
At this moment, Kael couldn't help but feel a little envious of Zebra's abilities. Each of the Four Heavenly Kings had their own strengths. Later on, Toriko could even smell information buried in souls and genes.
But in the early stages, Zebra's echolocation was undeniably the most practical. Activating it consumed a lot of stamina, but it was basically a full 3D map. In the early game, that kind of ability was ridiculously useful.
Following one ice tunnel deeper in, Kael soon entered a much larger cavern. Above him, countless ingredients were frozen into the ceiling.
These were supplies gathered by people in ancient times. For reasons unknown, they were never retrieved. Over the ages, they froze solid, and under immense pressure, their essences were slowly squeezed out.
Through natural processes, those essences eventually fused into a miracle ingredient—Century Soup.
Even though Komatsu later created an artificial version of Century Soup, at its core, it still relied on Wall Penguin saliva. That saliva worked only because generations of Wall Penguins had consumed Century Soup in these caves.
Over time, the soup became part of their bodies, even passing down through their genes.
Judging from the Wall Penguin saliva, Century Soup was a product of pure natural gestation—something human effort simply couldn't replicate. That was why Setsuno always got stuck at the final step.
Komatsu succeeded only because of his Food Luck—because he happened to take a Wall Penguin chick with him.
Kael, however, couldn't replicate Century Soup the same way. Even if he had a complete sample, it wouldn't work. He simply hadn't tasted enough ingredients from this world.
To substitute extinct ingredients, you needed an enormous base of culinary knowledge.
It was the same problem he'd faced when training his super senses. Without sufficient knowledge to support it, even if he had the ability, he couldn't reproduce the result.
Of course, now wasn't the time to dwell on that.
Kael still needed to find the real Century Soup. If it truly existed, then Food Luck would lead him to it.
As he passed through the third massive cavern, Kael spotted an enormous creature sealed in ice.
It was Hell Boros—the ruler of Ice Hell, frozen here after being struck by Knocking from Master Jiro.
Hell Boros had been unlucky. As the undisputed tyrant of Ice Hell, it was practically a local emperor, with a Capture Level of 72.
Its body towered over forty meters tall, grotesquely misshapen, constantly shifting in form. Honestly, it looked less like a creature from Toriko and more like something out of cosmic horror—an existence that chipped away at your sanity just by looking at it.
Its flesh was classified as completely inedible.
Kael had no interest in tasting it anyway. Even through the ice, he could smell a nauseating stench—like rotting flesh.
Without the ice sealing it, the smell would've been unimaginable.
Kael was confident he could turn inedible food into something edible—but that didn't mean he'd eat anything.
By strict logic, even feces could be considered an ingredient in this world, since it was just food residue. Qi could theoretically alter it too.
But would he ever do that?
Absolutely not.
So even with a Capture Level of 72, Hell Boros was something Kael would never consider eating.
After a single glance, he moved on without hesitation.
Kael continued wandering through the tunnels. There were hardly any living creatures here—this had been Hell Boros's territory, after all. Even sealed for so long, its lingering presence kept others away.
After more than an hour, Kael encountered another species.
Wall Penguins.
These adults were nothing like the soft, adorable chick Komatsu had met. Fully grown Wall Penguins stood over twenty meters tall. Their bodies had lost all traces of pink fluff, looking instead like massive, ordinary penguins.
They were also far more aggressive. Perhaps this was nature's way of compensating for their chicks' dangerously naive tendency to approach other creatures without fear.
Without powerful parents to protect them, Wall Penguin chicks would have an abysmal survival rate.
Kael didn't disturb them. Wall Penguins weren't meant to be eaten—and maybe it was Komatsu's influence, but Kael had no desire to harm them.
After walking a bit longer, Kael entered a brand-new cavern.
And there—
He saw the aurora.