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Join the Server– Huh? Aren’t you going to look through my recipes?
“Well, it’s not that difficult a dish. I’ve made it before.”
Of course, I’d never made it in the game, though.
I washed it clean with magic and separated the well-trimmed Blade-beat drumsticks.
The dish I was going to make now used only the drumsticks.
“It’s a bit dented… but I guess this is fine. Chorong?”
– Kkyut!
Whoosh!
Since it wasn’t a dish that took long anyway, I didn’t bother making a stove.
I brought the frying pan with the drumsticks over the flames Chorong was emitting.
‘Spirit fire really is amazing.’
Even though it was blazing fiercely before my eyes, I didn’t feel any heat.
And yet the pan was heating up so quickly.
This was why I couldn’t help but summon Chorong when cooking.
– Oh ho, salt-grilled chicken drumsticks?
“Correct!”
– A dish like this is naturally in the manual!
Sizzle sizzle!
Having placed the skin side down, chicken fat quickly rendered out, coating the bottom of the pan.
After a short while, oil had risen not only on the bottom but also moistened the top of the chicken.
– Master, now! Now!
“Yeah, I know.”
First, I lightly sprinkled pepper to remove any gamey smell.
Next came the star of today’s dish, the rock salt!
Scrape!
Scrape!
I gently scraped the rock salt with the dull top side of the kitchen knife.
Fine salt powder fell, covering the top of the chicken breast.
– Good, sprinkle it generously! Salt-grilled dishes are supposed to be generously salted to taste good!
Shortly after, when I flipped the chicken, I saw the nicely golden-brown skin.
Just looking at it made my mouth water.
I’d only sprinkled salt and pepper, yet it looked this delicious!
“Slurp!”
– Master, just a little salt and pepper on this side too!
“Ah, Manual. Do you know why we say ‘sprinkle’ in Korean when adding salt?”
– Huh? Why, master?
“Because salt in English is ‘salt’. So sprinkle…”
– Dad joke. Un-comfortable.
Uncomfortable or not, my mental age was already that of a dad.
Chatting briefly with the manual, soon the dish was ready.
The drumsticks, nicely golden-brown on both sides!
The skin especially looked so crispy I wanted to bite into it immediately.
[[Cooking Mastery Manual] – Salt-Grilled Chicken Drumsticks completed!]
All stats increase by 1 each.
[The power of the [Cooking Mastery Manual] dwells within the dish!]
< Salt-Grilled Chicken Drumsticks >
Grade: Magic
Description: A dish made by carefully preparing Blade-beak drumsticks and grilling them with only pepper and salt. Using rock salt in particular enhances the savory flavor.
Ability: Movement Speed +10% for one day.
Though it was a simple dish, perhaps thanks to using the Magic-grade Giant Blade-beak ingredient, it became a Magic-grade dish.
Movement speed +10%.
Thinking it would be quite useful, I picked up a drumstick.
Crunch!
“Ooh!”
The tender, juicy texture unique to chicken drumsticks!
There was no gamey smell at all thanks to the pepper, and the salt seemed to maximize the natural flavor of the drumstick.
Maximizing the flavor of the main ingredient.
That was the beauty of salt-grilled dishes!
– Kkyu, kkyuu!
“Haha, yeah. I can’t forget you. Here!”
– Munch!
Munch munch.
Watching Chorong eat was always adorable.
That tiny body, putting a large piece of food in its mouth and chewing away.
If I could manage the mana cost, I’d want to keep it summoned and on my shoulder all day.
– Wow, grilled perfectly. As expected, the skin needs to be this crispy for salt-grilled drumsticks to taste right!
“Exactly!”
[Due to successful fulfillment of the contract, your fire spirit Chorong is satisfied.]
[Spirit Summoning skill level increased.]
[Chorong’s unique level increased.]
The Spirit Summoning skill level, which I had struggled so hard to raise before regression.
Now, without any particular effort, it was rising quickly as if it were natural.
And on top of that, Chorong’s unique level too.
Somehow, even though I was just cooking, I felt like I was growing faster than before regression.
“Should I make another batch?”
– Kkyu! Kkyut!
Having been amazed by the taste of the salt-grilled drumsticks, this was just an excuse, but my original goal was to fill my satiety to 300.
Only after making and eating several more batches did I feel completely satisfied.
Chorong’s belly was also bulging.
“Alright, stomachs full, let’s get going properly!”
It had already been two hours since I entered Tunnel C.
A little late, but it was time to start the exploration to find ‘it.’
***
“Huh, what? Why is that user there?”
“Huh? Who?”
“The one with the [Cooking Mastery Manual]! You know!”
“Ah, that user. I’ll zoom in.”
The many monitors in the Management Department.
At Assistant Manager Lee’s urgent shout, his subordinate zoomed in on Lee Chang’s monitor.
On the screen, Lee Chang was being guided by a Vasen Mine office employee toward Tunnel C.
“Tunnel C… that’s the sealed rock salt mine, right?”
“Right. It’s not a place you can enter without considerable mining skill and NPC affinity.”
Flustered, Assistant Manager Lee checked the user’s records.
They were filled with numerous traces of mining and traces of cooking.
“Wow. I’ve seen it before, but this user is really amazing. How can he be so good at everything?”
“Looks like he gained NPC favor through cooking. Did he regress or something? How is he this good at everything!”
“Come on, if he regressed, he’d just look up lottery numbers and live comfortably.”
“I know! It’s a joke! Anyway. Tunnel C… that’s where ‘it’ is…”
“It? Ah, it’s a salt mine, so it must be full of salt. He’ll probably cook something delicious again, right? I’m getting excited myself.”
“No, not salt!”
Assistant Manager Lee knew.
What lay at the end of Tunnel C, what the reward for the quest Lee Chang had received was.
“But the monsters there are high-level too, aren’t they? Even as the owner of the [Cooking Mastery Manual], it might be too much.”
“That’s true. Especially the boss monster is horrendous.”
“Oh, look! He’s doing something!”
The protagonist on the monitor, Lee Chang, picked up his pickaxe as soon as he entered Tunnel C.
Then, without hesitation, he swung it at the wall, mining rock salt.
Next came a cooking scene.
Thick, glossy chicken drumsticks were grilling to a perfect golden brown.
The moment Lee Chang bit into a well-grilled drumstick,
Crunch!
The sound of biting into crispy chicken skin filled the monitor room through the speakers.
“Gulp!”
“Slurp!”
After that, Lee Chang grilled and ate salt-grilled chicken several more times.
Assistant Manager Lee and his subordinate swallowed the saliva pooling in their mouths, silently watching.
The same was true for the other employees around the monitor room.
After a while, Lee Chang, having eaten his fill, went deeper inside.
As if on cue, Assistant Manager Lee and his subordinate’s eyes met simultaneously.
“Deputy, I know a place that does good salt-grilled chicken.”
“Chicken?”
“Of course.”
“Then, shall we go eat first?”
“Absolutely.”
That day, for some reason, the salt-grilled chicken restaurants around Unreal World’s headquarters were packed with employees from the Management Department.
The restaurant owners, not knowing the reason for the sudden surge, were smiling happily.
“Welcome! One order of salt-grilled chicken drumsticks, right?”
“No. Make it two per person!”
***
“The flowing water of the valley. The flowing water that purifies impurities. Wash.”
Fwoosh—!
Not long after entering the mine, I could identify the monsters the office employee had mentioned.
Moving stone statues and scorpions with hard exoskeletons.
Her description was all accurate, but the important thing was that they were all made of salt.
Even though it was salt, it was clumped together like transparent crystals, incredibly hard.
Hence, I was using my water magic, which was their weakness.
“Cooking Swordplay, Chapter 1: Meat Preparation – Cutting the Fascia.”
Slice!
The surface of the stone statue, softened by being soaked with water.
When I used Cooking Swordplay, my sword naturally slipped between the statue’s joints.
Cooking Swordplay, perfectly applicable not only to living things but also to non-living things like this.
The clean feeling of the sword piercing the statue’s joints made me smile involuntarily.
“This would have been a headache without water magic, wouldn’t it?”
– Hey, for my master, you shouldn’t be struggling with something like this!
Fortunately, its size was comparable to mine, but its physical defense was truly immense.
Moreover, Chorong’s fire attacks were practically useless against it.
Attacking with fire only produced the smell of well-grilled, delicious salt.
“…Flowing water, Wash!”
Slice!
[Level increased.]
By cutting off the tail of the salt scorpion weakened by water magic, I was able to finish the battle safely.
As I progressed, some monsters dropped items.
< Small Mana Stone >
Grade: Magic
Description: A stone containing a very small amount of mana. Mainly used as a material by mages.
“Oh, a mana stone.”
– Eh, it’s still too small, though? It’s not useful for anything.
Having reached the eighth circle in magic myself, I knew mana stones better than most.
It seemed the salt had clustered around these mana stones as cores to form the monsters.
“I was thinking of mining some rock salt, but I guess I don’t need to bother with the pickaxe.”
Defeating monsters here, everything they dropped were chunks of rock salt.
Moreover, they seemed to be of higher purity than what I could mine from the walls.
So I had been putting the rock salt chunks from defeated monsters into my Food Storage.
Slice!
– Wow, our master is strong!
Taking down monsters one by one, I soon reached the end of the dungeon.
The narrow, mine-like path ended, revealing a fairly large open space.
A space that looked, at a glance, hard to believe was made by miners.
There, a golem, standing over three meters tall even while crouching, awaited me.
Predictably, a golem made entirely of salt.
It was clearly the boss monster of this place.
– Wow, the salt that makes up its body… its purity is no joke. It seems to even contain magic essence. It must be delicious!
As I prepared for battle to hunt it down, the manual was getting excited looking at the golem.
– Master! You have to get that! You are going to hunt it, right?
“Of course.”
Having finished my preparations, I slowly walked toward the seasoning—no, the salt golem waiting for me in the cavern.
The excitement doesn't stop here! If you enjoyed this, you’ll adore I Want To Bite You. Start reading now!
Read : I Want To Bite You
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