The Skeleton's Secret Recipe
Looking at the house and then the ingredients, I thought, 'I've lived alone for years now. Simple cooking should be no problem.' The key to making delicious fried rice is using rice that's cooled and gained some firmness, adding pre-cooked eggs with oyster sauce at the very end, and adjusting the heat while stir-frying everything together like you're working a wok. 'Heh... Is there anything I can't do?'
Wangwang suddenly started barking as if to scold me for getting carried away with my own praise. "Woof! Woof!"
'I told you not to bark... We'll get complaints.' Yeonhee was eating something deliciously, and Wangwang, curious about what it was, started sniffing around. She scooped some rice into a small bowl and offered it to him. To my surprise, Wangwang devoured it in an instant. '...This guy, is there anything he won't eat?' It seemed he didn't only eat bones.
"Huff huff— Woof! Woof woof!" He was even demanding more. Watching that, I felt a moment of curiosity. Between the rice I made and bones, which would he prefer more? It was an obvious matchup, but just in case, I tossed him an orc bone. He dropped the bone into the bowl of fried rice Yeonhee had given him, stirred it around with his front paws, and ate it all together. Crunch crunch— chomp chomp— He was really enjoying it. '...Weird.'
But it was strange. Yeonhee had been eating at home for days now, and he hadn't shown much interest before. Today, though, he was unusually excited. Yeonhee gave me a thumbs-up, polished off two full bowls of fried rice in no time, then held out her bowl asking for more. '......Was it that good?'
"Nom nom— It was really delicious—" Yeonhee's face looked like she was dying from how good it was. She seemed much more energetic than yesterday. The change came right after eating, so it wasn't just from getting enough sleep. 'Hmm...'
Tilting my head, I started stir-frying another batch when— "Huh? Wha—?" Yeonhee had been watching me cook with a pleased expression when she suddenly cried out like something shocking had happened. "Clack?"
"......It says your stamina recovery rate has temporarily increased. Ilwol?"
"......Clack?" What was that supposed to mean?
"Uh... From what the message says, eating food made by Ilwol gives a stamina recovery buff...? Hmm... How is that possible?" 'How would I know? Ah, maybe because I cooked the rice with Irmana's water?' I'd been too lazy to open bottled water and just used the otherworldly lake water instead. That must have created this effect. I'd have to compare it later with regular water. I showed Yeonhee the Ancient Kettle, and she let out an exclamation, clapping her hands and saying that water really was all-purpose. Irmana's water truly had endless possibilities. 'Irmana... I'll spend today honoring you as well...' The god still gave no response, but I didn't hesitate to worship Irmana.
'The quest is still far off, but I wonder what the reward will be later... Anyway, Yeonhee took a long time to recover?' Of course, it was because of being trapped for a week, but Yeonhee had slept more than a full day just yesterday and today. Still, after two days of proper rest, her stamina seemed fully restored. From now on, rest time would have to increase in proportion to combat time. If this cooking helped, I planned to make full use of it.
"Shall we go?" Nod— It was already late afternoon, but Yeonhee and I headed out again. Our destination was the area where C-rank and B-rank dungeons were clustered, to look at houses we'd mentioned before. And today we had company.
"Oh my! Yeonhee!" "Ah, hello." It was Kang Yeonsu of the White Knight Guild. When we moved to our current place, she'd felt bad about not giving proper advice, so she'd offered to personally show us a few places she'd selected. 'Honestly, it was half-forced.' To be honest, wandering around with Yeonhee and weighing options would have been its own kind of fun. She butted in at the worst time. But when someone as strong as Kang Yeonsu was offering to help, even calling directly, what could I say? I could only nod and agree. I suddenly recalled the moment she'd clashed with Jo Giman and drawn out her power. I hadn't seen Jo Giman unleash everything he was hiding, but the gap between the combat strength I'd estimated for him and Kang Yeonsu wasn't so vast that one could call it overwhelming. With the right equipment, artifacts, and support, Kang Yeonsu could hold her own. That was about the level of difference. The fact that I'd rated her that highly meant I held her in extremely high regard. 'Which means I shouldn't get on her bad side.'
Just like Helen, Kang Yeonsu started the conversation by grabbing and squishing Yeonhee's cheeks, but she kept reaching for me too, which I didn't particularly appreciate. "Ooh— Who is this?! Isn't this the skeleton soldier?" "Clack..." She looked genuinely surprised when she saw me. Damn it, I was getting incredibly nervous. I was worried this cursed woman might figure out all my potential.
"Wow— You've grown so much? What's your secret?" "Huh? Ah... Well, just... We were trapped for a week and fought hard..." Yeonhee tried to brush it off, but Kang Yeonsu's eyes had already gone beyond surprise into the realm of curiosity. I knew that look well... Those spiraling eyes were definitely the ones she got when collecting her collection. "Slurp— Hmm— Really? Hehe..." 'Ah, those crazy swirling eyes. They're seriously terrifying...' In my past life, Kang Yeonsu had been relatively gentle with me, but whenever I saw that look, my legs would go weak. And even now, it still gave me chills. 'Monster magic stone collector...' She had an unusual hobby to match her combative personality—collecting monster magic stones. She gathered magic stones from monsters and boss monsters by type, and even included variants and individuals with unique behavior patterns in her collection. And now she was licking her lips while looking at me. The way she was staring at my head made it clear she could see the shining core inside. 'Damn it, stop being interested in me! I don't even drop a magic stone when I die!' Of course, that was just me screaming internally.
"Ilwol revives if he dies too, right?" "Huh? Uh... Yeah." "Hehe, I just got curious all of a sudden." "Right..." 'Don't ask things like that...' We ended up visiting several places together. Kang Yeonsu was still a chatterbox when it came to Yeonhee—enough to make me worry her ears might start bleeding. But despite her endlessly lighthearted attitude, every place she'd selected perfectly matched both the location and the conditions we'd wanted.
"But they're all so expensive..." The problem was that the cheapest ones started at over three billion won. Good locations naturally came with high prices. Yeonhee scratched her head awkwardly, and Kang Yeonsu praised her, saying this much was nothing to her and there was no need to worry. 'I can see right through you.' "You don't have much money right now, do you? At most two or three hundred million? Or did you earn more than that? If so, sorry. Anyway, I can lend you whatever you're short on." Kang Yeonsu was reeling Yeonhee in exactly as expected. The easiest way to bind someone beneath you was to tempt them with something fancier and higher-class, pull them in step by step, then shackle them with money. Showing the best house first and gradually showing worse ones was also a method she might have considered. The memory of those nice houses we'd seen first kept flashing in our minds, while the strongest reinforcement-type hunter kept pumping us up about lending money. And since Kang Yeonsu was also good with words, there was no way we could refuse. In the end, we'd find a compromise, settle on one of the houses she'd shown, and end up owing her a debt. From then on, Yeonhee would firmly align with Kang Yeonsu's faction in the White Knight Guild. It had its own merits, but it would also be tiring to be on the bad side of other power players. And just as expected—
"Y-We'll take this one." "Oho— Excellent choice. Honestly, this was my favorite too. Hehe." After much deliberation, Yeonhee chose the second house we'd seen. The price was a whopping 3.8 billion won. Kang Yeonsu even offered to cover the entire amount herself. 'She's gone completely mad too. Does she really think she can push out Jo Giman?' Still, it worked out well for us. 'But it feels burdensome...' Even knowing this situation benefited Kang Yeonsu, it still felt like taking on debt.
"First, use the money you have now to pay off the debt to the guild. You can pay this back slowly later." "I-Is that okay?" "You said you saved up five hundred million, right? At this pace, you'll pay it back in no time. Don't worry about it." In the end, we moved into a 3.8 billion won house without spending a single won of our own. Kang Yeonsu, who had noticed our income was better than expected, seemed to be deep in thought. 'She should've aimed for something even more expensive. That's probably what she's thinking.' But the contract was already signed, and we'd agreed to move in a week. 'Even being conservative, we should be able to pay off 3.8 billion within half a year.' After that, we had a light coffee and chat with Kang Yeonsu. When she suddenly got called away, we headed straight to the Hunter Market. There was no guarantee we wouldn't get trapped in a dungeon again like last time, so we needed to stock up on food supplies. We weren't the only ones thinking that—the Hunter Market was packed so full you could barely walk. It was the largest market in the area, and hundreds of hunters were crammed inside.
"Huh? Those people... They're the ones who went through the hidden dungeon with us. Ah, over there too." We kept spotting people who'd gone through the dungeon with us. As expected, those who'd experienced it firsthand were preparing differently. "Woof— This is delicious! Is it bulgogi flavor?" "Clack clack!" Most of the portable rations eaten inside dungeons were similar to jerky. You just tore them open and chewed. "But do we really need to buy this much?" "Clack clack." I stayed hidden to avoid causing a commotion, but communicated with her through sound. The rations we bought were premium ones at around 12,000 won per serving, with five different flavors. We'd invested a full 100 million won in them. Bulk purchases came with massive discounts. When we bought enough for ten thousand people, the seller's mouth stretched ear to ear, but the stock at the market wasn't enough, so we had to follow him to the factory. After emptying an entire mountain of rations from the warehouse in an instant and coming back out, the seller's jaw dropped. Of course, we made him sign a simple oath to keep his mouth shut. "Now that food's taken care of, should we buy some daily necessities too? Like toilet paper and shampoo? Or should we stock up on bottled water? Ah! We have the kettle, so we don't need that, right? But doing this makes it feel like the world's about to end, which is kind of weird." 'It will end. Not right away, but... We probably can't stop it either.' It depended on what standard you used to define "ending," but if it was a world where students couldn't go to school and had to fight monsters for survival, calling it ended wouldn't be an exaggeration. So from now on, it would be good to invest a certain portion of our earnings into preparing for the future like this. 'Maybe we should stock up on fruits and vegetables too...' Or prepare to start farming... There was a lot to do. Lost in various thoughts, we headed home. It was already evening. "We didn't even do much, but it's already dark. Hehe—" 'That's because you overslept, Yeonhee.' "Huh? Are you thinking it's because I overslept?" "Clack clack!" "No? Your expression made it look like that. Hmm—" 'What kind of expression am I making...'