Seven Falls, Eight Rises, and 'That Pizza'

—Ding! The empathy target's special privilege 「Fire Dragon's Heat Fire」 has been activated!

“What the heck is this all of a sudden? Raylin’s special privilege…?”

The abilities and special privileges of empathy targets. Abilities were, simply put, unique skills—each dragon clan’s signature attribute techniques, one-of-a-kind powers that never overlapped with other dragons. Information I’d seen in the game trailer came flooding back.

If abilities were active skills, then a character’s special privileges were closer to passives. In other words, each character possessed two techniques, just like I had Beast Taming and Gourmet Feeding.

Derke’s Wraith Legion and Dragon’s Touch were easy examples. The Wraith Legion required direct commands to function, while Dragon’s Touch activated naturally as she helped me. Both had clear activation methods.

Even at the worship-level favorability, these skills couldn’t be used anytime. Only after forming a pact with the characters, as the previous system message had shown, could I freely utilize them whenever needed.

“The heat ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from the flames reaches all the way here…? It’s so hot it feels like I walked into a sauna.”

Yet Raylin, with whom I hadn’t even formed a pact, was using her special privilege for me right now. It seemed the Gourmet Feeding effect I’d triggered earlier had ignited. After she tasted the T-bone steak in the kitchen earlier, hadn’t a notification appeared saying she’d do anything for me today?

—Whoosh…! Roar!

A sound like an effect for the special privilege activating echoed from the furnace. Flames hotter than usual surged upward.

“But 「Fire Dragon’s Heat Fire」? What does this special privilege even do? I can’t tell what’s changed at all…”

Right on cue, explanations appeared a beat late, as if the special privilege had taken effect. Even the detailed duration was specified. From the description, it seemed like a technique befitting a Fire Dragon—annihilating enemies with scorching breath. Probably something ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like “Purgatory Breath.”

“That aside… all stats doubled?”

I couldn’t close my mouth as I stared at the status window floating before me. Getting a stat boost just from warming up by the fire? It was an intuitive yet excellent spec. No buff could top this.

Given Raylin’s setting with the special equipment called Myeolma Hwapo, she was clearly a dealer-type. Yet she also possessed a buff that doubled all stats… As expected, SSR-rank characters were on another level. She could deal damage and serve as a buffer too. At this rate, she was definitely one of Destiny Dragons’ most overpowered characters.

One slight downside was that I had no real sense of what “double stats” actually meant in practice. After all, I’d never once seen numerical stat information. Favorability and skill proficiency didn’t have numbers either. I could only guess by feel.

Still, it hadn’t been inconvenient so far. And one thing was certain.

—Thump, thump, thump, thump…!!

Thanks to the flames Raylin emitted, my body grew hot. Even standing still, my heart rate soared. Hot blood circulated through my entire body, instantly blowing away any sense of fatigue.

“In this state, I feel like I could do anything…!”

Was this what they called a high? Suddenly, confidence surged within me. It felt as if all my nerves had awakened. If I had to compare it, it was similar to the feeling right after being discharged from the military—when you feel like you could do anything.

“Whitey? How long are you going to just stand there blankly?”

“Ah, sis?”

“Come on, show me your skills! Just like you did at the restaurant earlier—I want to see that confident side of you again!”

Raylin encouraged me with a voice full of passion, as if fanning the sparks of enthusiasm that had just caught in my body.

—Thump, thump, thump…!!!

Maybe because of that, the confidence in my chest began to blaze brightly.

“Thanks! Thanks to you, I’ve got some confidence now!”

—Clatter! Thud…!

I immediately picked up a fresh batch of dough. The fear of failure had completely vanished. As they say, seven falls and eight rises—once I succeed this time, that’s all that matters. With the confidence that I could do anything welling up deep in my chest, there was no hesitation in my actions.

—Sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle…!

I scattered a generous amount of flour on the dough and the surface. The reason was simple: to keep the dough from sticking to my hands and to help it spread evenly.

—Press, press, press…!

With the flour sprinkled, the dough became noticeably easier to handle.

“I can’t believe I forgot the basics… I was too hasty earlier.”

At first, I’d been desperate to speed up. I’d just run vaguely toward the goal, ignoring even the fundamentals. You really couldn’t afford to overlook details in the process. Expecting good results while skipping the basics was nothing but a scammer’s mindset.

“Hohwawa—? Now it’s got a pretty decent shape, hasn’t it?”

Raylin grinned as she looked at the dough. I found myself smiling along with her. Finally, the dough had taken the shape I wanted. I pressed on, stretching the dough out further. It spread much more easily than before. Maybe it was because warmth had returned to my palms? That thing they call the “hands of the sun,” or whatever. Anyway, everything was progressing smoothly.

Now all that remained was to expand it into a circle while maintaining ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even thickness.

—Pat, pat, pat, pat…!

Holding the reasonably well-spread dough, I tossed it back and forth between my palms. Even without centrifugal force, I used gravity and acceleration to widen the dough. Strangely enough, the dough began to expand. Its diameter grew more and more convincingly.

Of course, if I tossed it too long, it would tear again.

“This size should be enough, right?”

The dough was finally complete—after eight attempts. Was it thanks to Raylin’s special privilege? Suddenly, everything started going smoothly. Maybe there was a cooking stat among my abilities? Thanks to Raylin’s heat, I’d finally cleared the dough hurdle that had been blocking me.

From the next step onward, it was actually easy. All I had to do was add the toppings properly. Once I carefully placed the ingredients and baked it, it would really be done.

While a faithful base dough was certainly important for pizza flavor, it was also a dish whose taste changed dramatically depending on what went on top.

—Drizzle…!

Swish, swish…

Among the toppings, the most basic was, of course, tomato sauce. The bright red sauce made from crushed tomatoes and seasonings covered the dough. If I’d had to crush and grind the tomatoes myself, it would’ve taken quite a while. Thankfully, tomato sauce existed in the kitchen.

Tomatoes were an important ingredient here too. According to Ram-Ji, they sometimes appeared as main menu items like meatballs or tomato pasta, so they were always stocked.

—Sprinkle…!

After evenly spreading the tomato sauce, I sprinkled cheese over it. Half with regular mozzarella. The other half with pungent blue cheese.

Now, adding the key ingredients would complete half of it. Various sausages on the mozzarella. Apple slices on the blue cheese. Then another layer of cheese on top… No, it wasn’t finished yet.

—Dab, dab, dab…!

“Huh? Whitey? What are you doing? Trying to make another one?”

“Yeah, I don’t know which one you’ll like, so I’m going to try several flavors!”

“Hohwaat…? So the one you made earlier had different ingredients too?”

“That’s right. You saw correctly.”

Raylin asked, hitting the core of the matter. She might seem scatterbrained, but she had sharp eyes. Well, with a third-year’s experience, she was bound to have some intuition. Anyway, what I was making now was a half-and-half pizza. I planned to create two flavors in one pan. And since I was making two pans total, that meant four flavors altogether. In other words, by preparing multiple flavors, I was playing it safe with insurance. At least one of them should appeal to her, right?

—Drizzle…!

—Sprinkle…!

New toppings and different cheeses went onto the fresh dough. One side featured pre-grilled T-bone steak. The opposite side had basil leaves and cherry tomatoes. Then cheddar and gouda cheese were added in order.

“Phew, now it’s all done.”

After many twists and turns, all preparations were complete. All that remained was to bake them in the furnace. Now that I’d actually done it, it didn’t seem like much.

“Frustration really is scary…”

Looking back, I felt a fresh wave of emotion. It hadn’t been a big deal at all, yet in the moment, my motivation had dropped so low that I’d wanted to give up everything. Still, as long as I was with Raylin from now on, I probably wouldn’t feel that kind of frustration again.

—Slide…!

Muttering various thoughts, I placed the freshly made pizzas onto a tray and carried them to the furnace. Now I just had to rotate them evenly while baking.

“Whitey? Wait a second.”

“Huh? What’s wrong, sis?”

—Grab!

Just as I was about to put the pizza in with tongs, Raylin grabbed my shoulder and stopped me.

“You know the flames attached to the furnace right now are mine, right?”

“Of course? Did I forget something?”

“No, Fire Dragon flames are different from ordinary firewood. If you leave it in the furnace even for a moment, it’ll burn up instantly. And it’s dangerous for a human like you. Just getting close might melt your skin, you know?”

“What? Is that true? Then how am I supposed to bake it…?”

“That’s why you should leave it to this big sis—!”

“Huh?”

—Snap!

Suddenly, Raylin snatched the tongs. Then…

—Rumble…!

She placed the tray with the pizza into the furnace—

“…Done!”

“Huh? What? Already…?”

She put the pizza in and immediately pulled it back out. It didn’t even take three seconds.

—Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle……!

Yet the pizza had baked to a surprisingly appetizing degree. The dough had a nice golden-brown color. The cheese had melted just right, glistening with oil. Everything was cooked evenly, better than expected.

—Rumble, thud!

Raylin quickly baked the remaining pizza as well. Even instant pizza couldn’t be baked this fast. Two whole pizzas finished in under five seconds. As expected of a Fire Dragon, she handled flames better than anyone. She probably understood the temperature of flames better than anyone else.

It was just as Raylin pulled the last pizza from the furnace that it happened.

The star rating was nice, but… what on earth were all those question marks next to it?