Chapter 12

Chapter 12. Arriving at the Outpost

"Huh? You're going to cook? You, Oppa?"

Jeong Ye-rim asked in bewilderment.

"I used to be a chef. I'll handle the food up to the second floor."

"A chef? Awesome! But if you cook, the smell..."

She was worried that Monsters might be drawn by the smell of food.

"That'll be fine. Joel, step back for a moment."

"Yes, Hyung."

As Joel, who had been on guard, stepped back, I cast Acresia to match the size of the passage and blocked it off.

"This way, my Subspace Storage skill will absorb even the smell. While it's active, Monsters won't be able to approach carelessly either."

Keeping Acresia active did drain quite a bit of Mana, but it wasn't a burden I couldn't handle.

"Whoa! Hyung-nim, is this really Subspace Storage? What's with the size..."

"What exactly are you, Oppa?"

What identity did I have to speak of?

"Just an ordinary chef."

With a Michelin three-star rating and Second Awakening thrown in.

I then pulled out a table, cooking utensils, and ingredients from Acresia.

The dish I was making this time was toast.

First, I took the water canteen Jeong Ye-rim had been shaking and poured its contents into a pot.

Instant soup powder had to be added before boiling and stirred well so it wouldn't clump.

'If you stir it after it boils, it's too late.'

Once the powdered soup was properly dissolved, I immediately moved on to preparing the toast.

I cut the vegetables on the cutting board on the table into uniform sizes.

Watching this, Jeong Ye-rim gasped in admiration.

"Wow, your knife skills are art. How do you cut the vegetables to exactly the same size without even a hair's breadth of error? It's like a machine cutting them."

"It's nothing special. You can do it with practice."

Actually, not everyone could do it.

The culinary world was full of chefs who could never manage it no matter how hard they tried.

It was beyond the realm of effort and into the realm of talent.

I put the cut ingredients into a mixing bowl and whisked in eggs.

After coating the pan with butter, I shaped the shredded vegetable and egg mixture into a square and began cooking it.

The key was topping it with mozzarella cheese.

I also grilled bread in the buttered pan, along with ham and bacon.

"I never thought I'd see someone making crispy toast in a dungeon."

"Right? I thought we'd be stuck drinking cold water mixed with soup powder and eating jerky and bacon for a while. But warm soup and toast?"

Cold soup water got old fast.

That was why I had to step in.

Soon all the toast ingredients were cooked.

And here was the kicker.

'Apple-cherry sauce.'

The fruit that tasted like apples and cherries from when I'd been attacked by the High-Grade Harpy.

I'd eaten a little bit every day in case it was poisonous, but my body showed no adverse reactions.

Still, just to be safe, I'd boiled it down into a sauce.

The result?

'An insanely delicious sauce was born.'

In a good way.

It tasted as good as the kiwi sauce from crispy toast.

I spread that sauce on the inside of the bread, stacked ham, eggs, romaine lettuce, and shredded cabbage in layers, covered it with a bread blanket, plated it, and finished by lightly drizzling truffle oil to add fragrance.

Then.

[Master's Toast]

[Blessing of Dexterity Effect: Health & Mana recovery speed increased by 25% for 2 hours, Health increased by 8%]

All four toasts triggered the Blessing of Dexterity effect.

'I made this simply, but it actually succeeded...?'

Perhaps it was because I'd used the rare ingredient of apple-cherry sauce.

To trigger the Blessing of Dexterity, the completion quality of the food was important, but it seemed what ingredients were used mattered greatly as well.

'Maybe because it's simple food, a temporary Buff effect appeared instead of a permanent stat increase.'

It was good that the effect appeared, but... I had no idea how to explain this to my party members.

As I pondered this, Joel picked up a ladle and bowl.

"Hyung-nim, I'll dish out the soup."

"Oh, sure..."

Whatever, I didn't care anymore.

I'd already made it and the skill had activated, so what could I do?

I couldn't very well remake it.

'They're waiting like that.'

The party members were swallowing their saliva in anticipation.

I placed forks and knives on each plate with toast and handed them to the party members.

Each person gasped as they received theirs.

"Huh?!"

"Goodness!"

"What is this?!"

The party members were shocked after seeing the Blessing of Dexterity skill effect message.

"A Buff effect? What on earth is this, Hyung?"

"Is this your skill, Oppa? Amazing...!"

"Hyung-nim, you have a massive Subspace Storage and even a cooking skill. What exactly do you do?"

There was no good way to explain it.

"I'll tell you later. Let's eat first."

I glossed over it for now and continued with the meal.

The soup just tasted like an instant product.

The toast tasted like toast from a famous franchise.

Except with homemade apple-cherry sauce.

"Wow, it's so good!"

"The sauce is crazy good! The subtle truffle fragrance that seems to float away is so nice too."

"This is way better than store-bought. Hyung-nim really is a chef! I acknowledge it!"

The reason it tasted better than store-bought was probably because they were hungry from all the walking.

After finishing the toast and soup, I even brewed coffee for them with ground beans, boiled water, and a filter.

"Wow! The coffee aroma is insane."

"Oppa, what beans did you use? The aroma is completely different from franchise coffee."

Jeong Ye-rim was quite perceptive.

"It's a bean called Panama Geisha."

"Oh my gosh...! That's super expensive, isn't it? No wonder the aroma and smoothness are different."

It was expensive.

That was why I'd considered using cheap beans, but since this was the first time I was brewing coffee for them, I'd decided to use something special.

Next time, I planned to use budget beans.

My bank account wasn't in such good shape.

'But I gave Ria only the best of everything.'

She'd repaid me hundreds of times over, so I didn't regret a single thing when it came to Ria.

Soon, party leader Kim Myeong-hun approached me.

"Hyung, just how big is your Subspace Storage to fit the party's luggage plus a table, cooking utensils, and ingredients?"

"Pretty big. Big enough to hold just about any ingredients?"

"Wow...! If it's that big, Hyung, you could go to the second-floor Korean Hunter Outpost and do business."

This guy was perceptive too.

And he added another comment.

"With Buffs attached to your cooking, you could name your price."

"I was planning to do business, but I wasn't planning to sell food with stat bonuses..."

"If it were me, I'd sell it."

My original plan had been to sell only regular food.

But he was right that if I sold cooking with Buffs or stats attached, I could definitely make big money.

Should I just sell it?

I did need a lot of money because there were many things to buy.

"I'll think about it."

Originally, I'd planned to hide the Blessing of Dexterity skill.

If I started doing business in the Rift, I'd draw attention as someone with an absurdly large Subspace Storage.

But then it turned out I'd also achieved Second Awakening, which less than three percent of Hunters managed?

Wouldn't that be controversial?

'Am I being overly self-conscious?'

Well, they wouldn't arrest me just for hiding my Second Awakening.

Thinking about the profits I could make from stat-boosting food, my heart gradually leaned toward selling it.

***

And so we spent two days in the dungeon, repeating the cycle of moving, fighting, eating, and sleeping.

And finally, as we were passing through the conquered boss room that served as the entrance to the second floor.

"Monster ahead!"

As Joel at the front shouted, everyone assumed combat positions.

The Monster that revealed itself.

'A two-tailed fox?'

It was classified as a Low-Grade Monster in the Monster encyclopedia.

The first floor of a Rift was usually populated mainly by Lowest-Grade Monsters, with occasional Low-Grade Monsters appearing.

This was the first Low-Grade Monster our party had encountered since entering the Rift.

"Among Low-Grade Monsters, the two-tailed fox is at the very top, so it's dangerous. We'll take it down! Hyung, fall back with Ye-rim!"

"Got it."

We'd fought Lowest-Grade Monsters several times.

I'd grown so accustomed to the spear that I could easily hunt two or so now.

I felt like I could easily hunt a Low-Grade Monster too, but...

I should still listen to the party leader.

'I'll have opportunities on the second floor.'

Soon the two-tailed fox charged, and combat began.

Though it was called a fox, its build was as large as a wolf's.

As the creature charged and Joel blocked it with his large shield, his body was pushed back.

'Since it's a creature at the top of the Low-Grade Monster tier, it's definitely much stronger than Lowest-Grade ones.'

This was the first time I'd seen Joel get pushed back.

Soon Kim Myeong-hun swung his sword at the creature blocked by the shield, but...

It quickly retreated, narrowly dodging the sword.

Then the two men charged at the two-tailed fox.

Joel deflected with his shield and struck with his axe.

Kim Myeong-hun swung his sword at the retreating creature.

'Those two definitely have good coordination.'

Their combos flowed naturally like water.

That must be why they prided themselves on being an average C-Rank level party.

Then, when the two-tailed fox wounded them.

"Healing!"

Jeong Ye-rim, the Healer who'd been standing back, quickly used her healing skill.

The wounds closed rapidly.

'Magic and skills really are different.'

Ria's recovery magic only stopped bleeding and greatly increased the recovery speed.

It couldn't heal wounds instantly like a skill.

I felt once again that the two worlds were different.

The two-tailed fox suffered many wounds from the two men's attacks and let out a pitiful cry.

It was bleeding so much it looked like it would collapse any moment.

Then.

-Kiyaaa!!

Cornered, the two-tailed fox emanated red Mana from its entire body, and two more tails sprouted.

"Damn it, this one's a variant! It Mutated!"

I'd read about this in the Monster encyclopedia too.

Occasionally, among two-tailed foxes, there were variants that became four-tailed during combat.

When that happened, they displayed strength at the level of an entry-level Mid-Grade Monster.

As if to prove it, the creature's speed and strength increased by half.

"Ugh!"

The two men's wounds multiplied.

Even without my help, the two would eventually win, but they'd be badly hurt.

If they got injured somewhere like their eyes, even recovery skills couldn't heal it.

"I'll help too!"

I gripped my spear tightly and stepped forward.

Then I ran forward and, keeping my distance, thrust my spear toward the creature's flank.

Activating the Spatial Thrust skill.

Then.

Thunk!

The creature sensed danger and tried to dodge hastily, but the spear struck its rear thigh.

Seeing this, Kim Myeong-hun shouted.

"Now! Kill it!"

Soon Kim Myeong-hun and Joel rushed in and finished the creature off.

Joel wiped his sweat.

"It's a very strong Monster even among Low-Grade ones, and it suddenly Mutated, so I was shocked. If Hyung hadn't helped, we would've been badly hurt."

"Right. We caught it thanks to Hyung. If the weakest Mid-Grade level is this much, just how strong are High-Grade Monsters?"

The High-Grade Harpy came to mind.

Even if our party risked our lives, we probably couldn't kill it.

"Probably very strong...?"

Soon we extracted the Magic Stone from the variant two-tailed fox and even skinned it.

According to Joel, the fur sold for a decent price.

After finishing up.

We stood before the Rift entrance leading to the second floor.

Then we stepped onto the second floor.

As we passed through the entrance, our view changed, and we emerged from the dark dungeon onto a bright plain.

'This is the second floor.'

The gathering point where all the world's Hunters departed from different Rift dungeons and converged in one place.

However, it was so vast that each nation had its own separate Outpost.

Some nations didn't have their own Outposts.

'The area is estimated to be roughly twice the size of the Korean Peninsula.'

The terrain wasn't very different from the Rift where Ria and I had been staying.

Soon Kim Myeong-hun spoke.

"Then we'll move quickly to the Outpost without resting. It's dangerous when it gets dark."

From our current position to the Korean Outpost, we had to travel roughly fifteen kilometers.

We began moving and fought Low-Grade Monsters twice along the route.

After traveling like that, we arrived at the Korean Outpost.

A place on a hill surrounded by wooden palisades.

"That's the Outpost."

"We finally made it!"

"We did it!"

My party members were very happy.

Of course, I was excited too.

At the thought of selling food there.

'I need to make as much money as I can before Ria returns.'

I planned to install a mobile home in the Rift where Ria and I stayed.

I hadn't yet decided whether to open the restaurant on the second floor of the Rift or on the floor where Ria and I stayed.

It would probably depend on whether the S-Rank party with the Sword Saint joining them succeeded in conquering the third floor or not.