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Join the Server“Hey! Snap out of it! Quickly!”
Smack!
“Gah!”
Even before the bright light had fully faded,
a continuous pain arose on both cheeks.
As I barely managed to open my eyes, Jackson was slapping my cheeks with a face half-flustered, half-joyful.
“Looks like you’ve come to! Hoho!”
“Mr. Jackson.”
“Yes. To think you would truly inherit that one’s will. My eye was right after all!”
Rumble—.
Along with Jackson’s shout, the cliff began to crumble.
As the debris piled up, the magnificent carving of the Great Hero Gatros was completely obscured.
“What a shame. It was a splendid carving.”
“Its role is finished, so it’s only natural.”
“More importantly. Did you really wait here all this time?”
“Hoho, of course. I have guarded this place all along to see this moment.”
Jackson said this and hugged me tightly.
He looked like someone far removed from tears,
yet I felt a warm dampness on my shoulder where his face rested.
‘Well, from Mr. Jackson’s perspective, this must be like a dream come true.’
If it hadn’t been me, Jackson would have had to guard this place indefinitely, perhaps for over ten years.
“Hoho, my apologies. I’m just so overjoyed. I’m being foolish.”
“Not at all. I’m the one who’s truly grateful.”
“Ah, instead of this, let’s go to my house! You must be exhausted.”
On the way back to Jackson’s hut,
Jackson’s mouth showed no signs of stopping.
He poured out all the stories he had been holding back, curious about—what happened inside the cliff, what kind of person the Great Hero Gatros was, and so on.
“Did you obtain the manual? If it’s alright, could you show it to me?”
“Of course.”
Having answered, I looked at the thick book gleaming with gold in my inventory.
The color indicating a legendary grade, gold.
I had obtained a manual I had only heard of, and among them, the manual of the Great Hero Gatros.
‘But why of all things the [Cooking Mastery Manual]?’
There were truly various kinds of manuals.
As such, I too had been quite curious about the name of this manual.
Though information was scarce, it was still a Great Hero.
Yet upon hearing the name [Cooking Mastery Manual], I couldn’t help but be taken aback.
< Great Hero Gatros’s [Cooking Mastery Manual] >
Grade: Legendary – Bound
Description: A manual containing the will of the Great Hero Gatros
Abilities:
1. Upon binding, all of the user’s skills related to cooking increase in level.
2. Upon binding, each time a dish recorded in the manual is cooked, a certain amount of stats increase. (Repeated increase from the same dish is not possible.)
3. Upon binding, additional effects are granted to the dishes created.
‘As expected, this is a full-on chef-exclusive item.’
Even though it had three abilities, none seemed related to combat.
Since I had developed an interest in cooking, it didn’t bother me,
but if someone else had gone through all that hardship to obtain this, the abilities would seem rather anticlimactic.
As soon as I confirmed the item information, I took the manual out with my right hand to show Jackson.
[You have taken out the Great Hero Gatros’s [Cooking Mastery Manual]. The manual is bound to Lee Chang.]
[You have changed class to ‘Executive Chef’ through the [Cooking Mastery Manual].]
Class skills: Cooking Swordplay Lv 1, Food Storage Lv MAX have been created.
Satiety limit increased from 100 → 300.
Class perk: When mana is insufficient, you can use skills by consuming satiety instead.
As expected, as soon as I took out the book, I was automatically class-changed to a chef.
‘But Executive Chef? I’ve never heard of this.’
Usually, the class users choose for cooking is the ordinary ‘Chef’.
Among those, there were of course hidden classes specialized in one area or with special abilities, but I had never heard of a name like this.
‘It roughly means head chef, I suppose.’
It was quite a grand name for a first-tier class.
Well, it was a class changed through a manual left by the Great Hero Gatros, so it should be at least this much.
As soon as I took out the book, Jackson’s eyes sparkled.
“Oh, so this is it! M-may I touch it?”
“Of course.”
Though I answered, his hand was already reaching toward the manual.
Just before Jackson’s hand touched the manual,
Flutter flutter!
“Huh? Why is it doing this?”
The book opened by itself.
Not only that, it began to flutter its body as if flapping its wings.
As if rejecting Jackson’s touch.
And then, something amazing happened.
“Hey, master! Don’t let just anyone touch this body!”
“Huh?”
“Good heavens!”
“What? What are you looking at? Never seen a talking manual before?”
I haven’t.
***
“Wow, how long has it been since I’ve smelled outside air? Master, thank you. I was so stifled!”
“A manual with an ego! As expected of that one’s manual!”
“What are you, not even the master. Would you mind not talking to me?”
Until we reached Jackson’s hut, the manual’s chatter showed no signs of stopping.
Jackson, fascinated, kept talking to the manual as well.
“But the [Cooking Mastery Manual]. I never expected such a name.”
“What? Got a problem? Not even the master.”
While the two chattered enthusiastically,
I opened my skill window.
And I couldn’t help but be puzzled.
[Skill Window]
Sword Mastery Lv 4 (+1)
Spirit Summoning Lv 3 (+1)
Butchering Lv 2 (+1)
Cooking Lv 1 (+1)
Color Alchemy Lv 1 (+1)
Cooking Swordplay Lv 1 (+1)
Food Storage Lv MAX
‘Wasn’t it supposed to raise only the skill levels related to cooking?’
Contrary to the manual’s ability, all of my skills had increased in level.
Could it be a bug?
But Unreal World was the world’s first and best game, also famous for being flawless.
In the ten years I played before regression, I had never once experienced a bug.
“Hey, manual? That sounds a bit off. What should I call you?”
“Up to you, master! Oh, there’s quite a bit of food around here? Looks like there’s a garden?”
“Hoho, it’s nothing to boast about, but I do have a small garden I tend.”
“Oh, a very good move. Even if you aren’t the master.”
Watching Jackson and the manual converse felt like watching a comedy skit.
For now, the only one I could ask about skills was that manual.
So as soon as their skit ended, I spoke to it.
“One of your abilities is that cooking-related skills, or rather abilities, get stronger, right?”
“It’s this body’s ability! How about it, master? Impressive, right?”
“Yeah. It’s impressive, but something seems off. It seems like not only cooking but all my other abilities got stronger too.”
“Huh? Which abilities?”
The manual fluttered its pages like wings, flying around me.
I told it about my abilities one by one.
Sword Mastery, of course, as well as Spirit Magic and Alchemy.
But unexpectedly, its reaction was indifferent.
“What? That’s only natural, master.”
“No, they have nothing to do with cooking…”
“Look. You use a knife for cooking too, so of course it’s related to cooking. Right?”
“Th-that’s right?”
Sword Mastery I could let slide.
As for other abilities like Spirit Magic or Alchemy… wait, could it be?
“Alchemy is no different from cooking if you use it on ingredients, right? Spirits are also beings that can help when cooking.”
“Wow.”
Truly, I couldn’t help but be impressed.
That meant that even if a skill didn’t have the direct keyword ‘cooking’, as long as it had even the slightest indirect relation to cooking, its skill level would increase.
That was why all my skill levels had risen.
Since I had aimed for a jack-of-all-trades even before regression, this was an extremely welcome feature.
Just as I was about to immediately check my newly acquired skills,
Growl!
A stomach rumble loud enough to fill the hut sounded.
This time, it came from Jackson’s stomach, not mine.
“Hoho, sorry about that during our conversation. After you went in, I was so nervous I couldn’t even eat the rice balls.”
“You mean you’ve been starving all this time?”
“It’s alright! There should be some rice balls left.”
“No. Let me make you something.”
He had gone hungry waiting for me, of all people.
I had no choice but to roll up my sleeves.
‘What ingredients are left?’
I opened my inventory, but the pork was already gone.
Only a few fish I had caught in the Path of Water, the second trial, remained.
“Then I’ll make grilled mackerel again…”
“Wait, master!”
As I was about to make the grilled mackerel I had made inside the cliff since no other idea came to mind, the manual fluttered and approached urgently.
Then it began exclaiming in admiration beside the fish I had taken out.
“Oh! Master, you caught these in the Path of Water, right? Pretty decent! It’d be a waste to just grill them plain!”
“That’s true, but we don’t have any proper ingredients.”
And more than anything, I lacked the knowledge to make other dishes.
Though I occasionally cooked at home, I was not a skilled chef.
I couldn’t very well log out right now to look up recipes.
Just then,
the manual declared confidently.
“You have this body! Let’s see, what would be good?”
Fwoosh—!
The manual laid itself on the table and began flipping pages.
At a fairly rapid pace.
On the pages flitting by were recipes for various dishes.
“So the [Cooking Mastery Manual] is actually a book with real cooking recipes?”
“Huh? What else did you think it was?”
Unimaginable… no, I had expected something like that, but it was a somewhat deflating moment.
A manual left by the Great Hero Gatros was a cookbook.
The manual, which had been flipping pages rapidly, suddenly stopped moving and exclaimed in a satisfied voice.
“Good! This is it! Hey, mister! Can you bring some vegetables from outside?”
“Y-yes! Of course.”
“Then go pick them right now! Onions, potatoes, radish, green onions, peppers! You had at least those, right?”
“Hoho, indeed I do. I’ll be back shortly.”
Perhaps because of its status as Gatros’s legacy?
Even with the manual’s repeated casual speech, Jackson showed no displeasure whatsoever.
No, he seemed beyond joy—almost moved to tears.
To think that someone who had devoted himself to guarding a Great Hero’s legacy would be so moved by being sent on an errand for vegetables.
“And master! What are you doing? Hurry up and prepare the mackerel!”
“Huh? Ah, right. But what are you trying to make?”
At my question, the manual wriggled with delight.
“Our master, you’ve still got a long way to go! Can’t you tell from the ingredients? Why, braised mackerel, of course!”
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