Tasty Things
I took the dogs and raided the Stubborn Man's House. There was no mandrake, but all the other ingredients from the posting were intact. It turned out to be a pretty decent haul. 'This is nice.'
Normally, wandering around the Stubborn Man's House was dangerous and tedious. Thanks to the event, though, the place was clean. I loaded the ingredients onto the backs of the dogs, who had done nothing but enjoy their walk. At least bringing them along had proven useful.
We returned to the store. The trip back was short. I had only gotten lost because I didn't know where the Stubborn Man's House was; the actual distance wasn't that far.
When I stepped inside, Baengnae was stirring a ladle inside the Cauldron. The moment she spotted me, she flinched. Her reaction was suspicious. I approached her slowly.
"What are you doing?"
"Um..."
Baengnae pressed her lips shut, glanced around once, then pointed at the table with her finger. Three slime pufferfish sat there, already cleaned and prepared.
"You had three pufferfish?"
"Madda."
I was genuinely impressed. Slime pufferfish weren't particularly strong, but defeating event enemies three-to-one was worth praising. And she had even cleaned them? Then something felt off.
'But... having three pufferfish and whatever she's making in the cauldron shouldn't be related...?'
The realization hit me. I snatched the ladle from her hand. Baengnae protested loudly.
"Baengnae was making it!"
The Cauldron contained various fish and seasonings from the 3-1 wave. A rich, savory aroma filled the air. It bubbled invitingly.
"You little..."
Just as I suspected, Baengnae had been making pufferfish seafood stew. This was unacceptable. Slime pufferfish were unique ingredients, meaning they could only be obtained through Special Dishes. These ingredients usually provided powerful or permanent buffs. However, they could also be used in dishes that granted no buffs at all.
The pufferfish stew before me was exactly that—a dish offering fantastic taste but zero buffs. A delicious piece of trash. The community had been fiercely divided on the topic. Some argued that experiencing the once-in-a-lifetime taste of pufferfish stew was better than a minor buff. Others insisted that skipping buffs in a world where death could come at any moment was pure stupidity.
I firmly belonged to the latter camp.
I glared at Baengnae. If I had arrived even a little later, I would have been forced to eat that stew. Hands on my hips, I declared firmly,
"We're eating pufferfish salad."
The taste rating was abysmal, but pufferfish salad granted a permanent buff. It was the rational choice. It slightly increased the summoned creatures' strength—barely more than an ant's toenail, but still a permanent effect.
Baengnae, however, clearly disliked salad. She made a sulky face and pointed at the table.
"Three pufferfish. Baengnae caught them all."
She was arguing that since she had caught three, she should at least get to make stew. That wasn't happening.
"If there are three pufferfish, that means three times the salad, right?"
Baengnae pouted hard, her lips sticking out. But there would be no compromise. I had just experienced the danger of the difficulty spike through the Chatty Ingredients. There was no room for casually eating tasty food.
"Go chop some vegetables for the salad."
"...Understood..."
Baengnae trudged over and began preparing the vegetables. Meanwhile, I used the Slicer to thinly cut the slime pufferfish. Swish—swish— The already strong smell became even more pungent when sliced. Even I, accustomed to foul odors, grimaced. I barely held back the urge to gag.
'Hmm... it's pretty nasty.'
Unable to endure the smell, Baengnae left the chopped vegetables beside me and fled to a corner of the store. She plugged her nose and stared at her phone.
'Fine. If you're not helping, at least don't get in the way.'
I pursed my lips, glanced at Baengnae on her phone, then focused back on the pufferfish. It was unfair, but this was all for her sake. Feeding her something tasteless was a million times easier on my conscience than losing her.
Swish—swish—
The community was how Baengnae studied. She absorbed the world's knowledge, language, and know-how. The side effect was that she had started coming up with strange tricks ever since. The seafood pufferfish stew was a prime example. The curse of knowledge had made her realize "scarcity."
Still, I intended to stick with this teaching method. Even if Baengnae got greedy, the most she would do was ask for stew. With three pufferfish available, her rebellion amounted to nothing more than wanting to eat one as something tasty. But the benefits were countless. Learning how to prepare ingredients, how to utilize Tools, and so on—all self-taught through the community. Lately, she had been reading posts about exercise, and her posture had improved noticeably. She had even found animal workout routines to help train the dogs. Minor side effects could be overlooked.
"Alright, done!"
I mixed the finely sliced slime pufferfish with the vegetables and drizzled a light soy sauce dressing. The smell was still strong, but it was edible if I held my nose. I divided it into seven portions.
While I was setting the salad on the table, Baengnae approached and held out her phone. The screen displayed recipes for every dish that could be made with mandrake. So that was what she had been looking for.
"You want to make pancakes?"
"Madda."
Unlike pufferfish, mandrake wasn't a unique ingredient, so there were no recipes that granted permanent buffs. We hadn't brought regular mandrake either, but there weren't any special recipes anyway.
'Well... it doesn't matter.'
There was no reason to refuse at this point. Short-term buffs could be overcome through other means. I agreed readily.
"Sure, let's make pancakes. But we'll need oil for that. Oil is a special ingredient."
Obtaining oil required an expedition to the northern edge of the city. Too much trouble just for pancakes. Still, I didn't want to refuse again. Sensing my hesitation, Baengnae tapped the Start Battle button on her screen.
"This will give us some."
"Oh, right."
There were six types of Special Stores in total. A 1/6 chance of getting oil.
"Then let's do this. We don't know which stores will appear, but we'll cook using whatever ingredients we get. In exchange, you get to choose the menu."
Baengnae smiled brightly and nodded.
"Hi-hi. Baengnae picks."
"Good. Now let's eat."
I called the dogs, who had fled from the pufferfish smell. When they returned to the store and caught a whiff of the salad, they immediately buried their faces in the floor and foamed at the mouth as if they were dying.
'Guess the dogs can't handle it?'
I couldn't blame them. With their developed sense of smell, they were probably experiencing something several times worse than what I smelled.
"Can't be helped. Baengnae, you eat all the salad."
Baengnae looked shocked. She stared at me as if asking what on earth I meant.
"The dogs are big and strong. But you're scrawny, so you need to eat more, don't you?"
At my words, Baengnae rolled up her sleeve and thrust her arm forward. Her arm showed decent muscle and looked healthy—clearly much more developed than before. I rolled up my own sleeve and placed it next to hers. Suddenly, her previously healthy-looking arm appeared as thin as a twig.
"Yeah, Baengnae should eat it."
Baengnae pointed furiously at the dogs, her face filled with rage and injustice.
"Dogs...! Dogs...!"
"Hey, quiet. Let's just eat."
Baengnae ate six portions of salad. Her strength increased by about an ant's toenail.
***
After the meal came free time. I walked straight toward the eastern side of the store, trying to memorize as much of the scenery as possible. This was how I searched for event 'areas.' I had to play spot-the-difference until I found a specific anomaly.
'This is frustrating without information... I bet the first user who encountered Special Dishes felt the same way when they wrote about it.'
I returned to the store without any gains. The event wouldn't be a problem as long as we cleared it before the boss fight. I would think more after handling 3-2. I gathered the zombies who were enjoying their free time.
"Everyone, gather up. Time to work."
At my words, Baengnae began putting on her equipment. Something felt off, though. The claw that should have been on her left hand was missing.
"Baengnae, what happened to your claw?"
Baengnae answered casually.
"Pufferfish ate it."
The pufferfish ate it? When I gave her a puzzled look, she brought over a melted lump of metal she had stashed in the corner.
"Here."
It was clearly dissolved by strong acid. Claws were weapons worn on the hands. If the claw was damaged this badly, her hand shouldn't have been fine.
"Are you okay?"
"Um..."
Baengnae tried to explain, then decided showing would be better. She picked up a sword and lightly cut her fingertip. Red blood flowed out. But soon the skin wriggled, and within ten seconds, the wound had completely healed.
'What...? Ah, the regeneration cells?'
"Pufferfish ate Baengnae's hand too. But it got better."
The slime pufferfish's poison had melted both the claw and her hand, and her hand had recovered through Regeneration Cells. That interpretation seemed correct.
This was a remarkable discovery. I had thought it was just an ability that allowed infinite training, but its effects were beyond imagination.
"That's amazing."
"Madda. Baengnae is great."
'No... not you, the regeneration cells.'
Suddenly, I wondered how Baengnae compared to other users at the same stage. Regeneration Cells wasn't a gift from Cat. That meant other users likely had something similar through fixed rewards.
'Still weaker than the Russian Bear, I suppose?'
If she utilized poison and regeneration well, maybe she could put up a fight. But thinking again, the Russian Bear probably had unique abilities too. In that case, we were nowhere near ready.
'Man, that takes the wind out of my sails.'
Then a realization struck me. Did I really need to beat him? A bear would always be a bear, but zombies could infect that bear and make it mine eventually. Zombies were the ultimate late-game summons.
"Zombies... not bad, huh?"
"Madda. Baengnae is great."
"Yeah, yeah. Let's go hunt some dwarves."
I placed my finger on Start Battle. The bear could wait. Right now, it was time to obtain dwarf zombies.