A World Tree seed!

After almost two hours of flying, Ina finally arrived back at her cave.

The events of the day and the information she'd gathered were far more than usual, and she felt the need for a good night's rest. She estimated that Luciano, Ahti, and the other dragons would visit her restaurant after their shifts the next day. By the time she finished hosting them, she reckoned that her teleportation cooldown period back to the Moro Continent should have concluded.

Initially unaware of the teleportation cooldown, she had packed only a small amount of food in her bag. The appetite of a dragon wasn't something to scoff at. Although she didn't plan on fully satisfying the hunger of the two dragons, Ina still wanted to leave a good impression on Luciano and Ahti.

She rummaged through her bag and found a bag of flour she didn't remember packing, over a dozen tomatoes, a few beef ribs, and a couple of white radishes…

The ingredients seemed a bit limited. As she went through the restaurant management panel, Ina noticed that among the mostly grayed-out buttons, one was still lit – the lottery pool.

She glanced at her achievement points. Over time, her points had remained in the tens of thousands. She had previously used nearly 30,000 points in hopes of obtaining a World Tree seed. After completing a hidden mission in the Fallen Land, she received an additional 10,000 points. Thus, her remaining points were still quite substantial.

The lottery pool offered a variety of prizes, including coins, decorations, seeds, and even rarer high-star rewards. However, what Ina currently needed were the occasional ingredients.

[You have received: 2 Gold Coins, Selective Seasoning☆10, Fennel Seeds☆10, resturant Decoration - Rose Spotlight★☆, Fruit Cans★10, 10 Silver Coins, World Tree Seed★★★★★, Cabbage Seeds☆10, 23 Copper Coins, resturant Decoration - Stone Scroll Door★★]

A World Tree seed! What luck!

[World Tree Seed★★★★★: The World Tree, an indispensable entity in a complete dimension. Through the state of the World Tree, you can observe the development, prosperity, and decline of a dimension.]

With the World Tree seed in hand, even if the World Tree of the Moro Continent completely withers, she could plant a new one.

Sadly, the joy of winning such a big prize was hers alone. In moments like these, she wished she could share her excitement, even if it was just with the system. Recalling their previous interactions, Ina opened the Scholar's Book, hoping the system might communicate with her through it as it had done before.

Spreading the hefty leather-bound volume on her table, she skimmed through its pages filled with various "tidbits" until a line caught her eye.

[A World Tree grows in sync with the plane it inhabits. If a sapling replaces a full-grown World Tree, that plane will regress to match the developmental stage of the sapling.]

Ina's brow furrowed in concern. If she were to replace the World Tree of the Moro Continent—which had grown for tens of thousands of years—with a newly sprouted sapling, the plane might revert to its primitive state, akin to when it was first formed. It made sense; if a dormant World Tree couldn't support countless races, then a sapling certainly couldn't either.

If Ina swapped out the dormant World Tree, it might lead to "various accidents" causing large-scale human casualties, until the remaining human population could match the capacity of the sapling.

Saving the world was not as straightforward as Ina had hoped. Still, the World Tree seed wasn't entirely useless. It served as a safety net, giving the Moro Continent a second chance, should its World Tree die off completely.

The real solution for saving the Moro Continent and humanity might only be revealed once the restaurant management system reached level 10, at which point the system would provide answers.

On reflection, when she saw the exceptional World Tree seed as a prize in the pool, she wondered why she hadn't questioned its place in a management game.

The experience bar required to fully level up the restaurant to level 10 was astronomically high. Glancing at it, Ina noted that she was only halfway there:

A whopping 1 million experience points were needed. Clearly, she had to accelerate her progress. If she couldn't find a permanent solution for the dormant World Tree, even if the current plague on the continent was resolved, new calamities would soon arise.

————

Luciano and Ahti couldn't wait any longer and hurriedly headed towards the cave where the Dragonflame Restaurant was located, after handing over their duties to Lenny. On the way, the two dragons had to constantly reassure themselves: even if there was no meat today, it wouldn't matter. They had tasted grilled meat the day before, and even though it was just a small bite, it made their consumption of moonlight cookies today particularly difficult. But today, they were here purely to keep Ina company, or so they kept telling themselves.

In truth, they were just trying to keep their expectations in check to avoid any visible disappointment that might upset Ina.

By the time Luciano and Ahti arrived, Ina was busy grilling rib steaks on a hot stone slab. She had marinated them overnight in sea salt, black pepper, and olive oil. Underneath the ribs, she had placed garlic slices and rosemary. Once grilled, the ribs were crispy on the outside and tender inside and then sprinkled with a generous layer of cumin and chili powder, making them incredibly aromatic.

The mouth-watering aroma of the grilled meat made the two dragons salivate, but they remembered the gifts they had brought with them. Luciano presented a string of luminous pearls, each radiating a dreamy glow, while Ahti handed over a fist-sized ruby gemstone.

Ina waved her hands dismissively, "It's just a meal, these gems are too precious."

Luciano looked at her, puzzled, "You've got it backward. The true treasure is the food."

Well... for dragons who came to the old god's ruins with mountains of gold ore, the untouchable gemstones indeed paled in comparison to delectable food.

"Then let's eat. The rib steaks are ready," Ina said.

Ahti carefully picked up a uniformly cut piece of rib steak. The care she took with the meat was far greater than when she had casually handed over the ruby to Ina. The texture of the meat, the melted fat, and the rich seasoning once again awakened her taste buds, which had been dormant for years.

While Luciano and Ahti relished the rib steaks with shining eyes, Ina made a tomato and mushroom soup with the remaining ingredients.

The basin-sized bowl was filled to the brim with tomato and mushroom soup. Despite the dragons' deliberate pace in eating the rib steaks, not wanting to finish them too quickly, they could easily finish the entire bowl of soup in one go.

It seemed that the food Ina prepared was still too little for the dragons. Ahti, noticing Ina's worry, volunteered, "We ate a lot of moonlight cookies before coming here, so we aren't that hungry anymore."

Ina seized this chance to ask a question that had puzzled her for a long time, "Why is food made from Thornghost Vine powder called 'moonlight cookies'? The Thornghost Vine looks menacing and is everyone's nemesis here. The food made from it doesn't taste good either, yet it carries such a dreamy name."

Luciano chimed in, "That's precisely why we give it another name. If we called it 'Thornghost Vine cookies', we'd be reminded of those tentacle-like wriggling vines every time we ate it. It would be even harder to swallow then."

Ahti elaborated further, "I'm not sure if you've noticed the moon here - that incomplete celestial body. The moon isn't always present. It appears for six continuous months each year. During these months, a perpetual white mist is released. Before we came here, this mist was the only energy source the Thornghost Vine could draw from, making it their prime growth and reproduction period. As a result, during these six months when the moon is present, the Thornghost Vines are especially rampant and ferocious.

To protect our land from being overrun by the vines, we have to kill even more of them, hence producing more Thornghost Vine powder. Because of this connection, we eventually named this food 'moonlight cookies'."

Ina nodded in understanding and then inquired, "Do you have any of that Thornghost Vine powder with you now? Could I have some?"

Luciano handed Ina a small bag, and asked with anticipation, "Can you make it as tasty as grilled meat?"

Ina chuckled, "That's quite the challenge."

She stored the small bag of Thornghost Vine powder, then flipped over the radish strip pancake in front of her, "Moonlight cookies won't be as tasty as grilled meat, but you can always come here for grilled meat."

Luciano's eyes widened in delight, "Really?"

"Of course," Ina replied with a smile, "I love company. And since this is a restaurant, you're always welcome to dine. You don't have to pay for the meals for now; the pearls you brought are more than enough."

Ahti further inquired, "Ina, why don't you come and live with us on the Dragon Island?" Dragons don't live with humans or beastmen. They reside in a place called Jade Dragon Island, which shared the same name as their home island on the Moro continent. However, the environment was drastically different; it wasn't even technically an island.

Ina shook her head, "I'm not ready to leave this place yet. It may sound strange, but this cave is very important to me."

Luciano and Ahti, clutching the freshly baked and warm radish strip pancakes, exited the restaurant. Ahti, reflecting on Ina's attachment to the cave, expressed deep empathy, "Do you remember when we first arrived here? We too hesitated at the sealed spatial portal, holding on to the faintest hope and not wanting to leave. Ina's first stop when she came here must have been this cave."

Luciano nodded repeatedly, "That's why we should visit her often in the cave," he chuckled at the thought of enjoying delicious radish strip pancakes on Dragon Island while the other dragons were stuck with moonlight cookies. Without thinking, he blurted out, "And for the delicious food, of course."

After Luciano and Ahti left, Ina glanced at the experience bar of her restaurant. Serving two dragons added a whopping two thousand experience points. To put things into perspective, initially serving a mercenary would earn her roughly fifty points. And serving an ordinary person without magic would only grant a mere ten to fifteen points.

Ina had deduced that the experience gained from serving a meal was not only based on the satisfaction level of the food but was also greatly influenced by the power of the guests themselves.

It seemed that if she wanted to level up faster, she needed to cater to more dragons. Where could she find customers more powerful than dragons who would be equally satisfied with her not-so-extravagant food?