Iron Stomach is derived from Gyokutai-Ko one of the 72 techniques of the Shaolin.
Overview[]
Iron Stomach is the ultimate technique of Kitchen Kung Fu. While its name may lead one to think it is related to the Tie Niu Gong art in actuality it is an Internal Martial Arts technique. While external training of the muscles and flesh is important the technique focuses mainly on internal reinforcement with breathing techniques. Iron Stomach is the physical embodiment of savoriness and Appetite Energy, the source of life and all known ingredients. Iron Stomach grants extreme regenerative and strength-enhancing qualities, can empower evolution, but most importantly greatly enhance flavor of any organism they are part of. A delicious apple becomes more delicious, delicious beef becomes more delicious and if you combine this with the human body what happens. The result, a successfully combined human obtains overwhelming life force power and becomes a superman. What’s more that true power, if they eat delicious things, by the degree they eat, it levels up.
When mastered the hunter gains a supernaturally adaptive metabolism, which allows them to withstand virtually any toxin/pathogen, survive incredibly harsh conditions and recover at amazing speed from otherwise lethal damage. They can build up their physical abilities to potentially infinite levels through increasingly harder training, and develop powerful elemental resistances via gradual exposure. This flexibility extends also to their brain cells, allowing them to learn at an accelerated rate, and they prove highly compatible with enhancing drugs and similar empowering substances, permanently incorporating the enhancements and quickly nullifying their various side-effects.
While all of the qualities of Iron Stomach makes it an extremely powerful and useful technique, it does have limitations. Iron Stomach has extremely high energy demands, so users must frequently consume large amounts of delicious food, lest they start to undergo atrophy. Its strength and regeneration-enhancing qualities is dependent on the user's calorie intake and their mental state and fortitude. Mental training in disciplines such as Food Honor can make a vast difference in how effectively and efficiently the user expends energy. Sufficiently powerful techniques can also simply exceed the powers of an individual.