Morning Aches and Orcs on the Horizon
It was already midday, and I wanted to get moving, but my entire body ached. Perhaps it was the tension from yesterday combined with mental exhaustion, but I felt genuinely awful.
“Urgh… I need to feed the territory residents…”
Even through the pain, the first thought that came to mind was my people. This was my fifth day as lord. It wasn’t a role I had asked for, yet it suited me surprisingly well. So far, none of the residents had proven strange. That only made me care about them more.
I was browsing the market for something to ease my condition when I remembered that my rank had risen during yesterday’s mass summoning. I pulled up my status to check.
“Ugh… It only went up one grade? I’m just 2nd Grade now?”
I had poured magic stones out like water. Even after summoning the entire Snow Leopard tribe, I’d assumed plenty of mana remained. Yet my rank had only increased by a single step. There seemed to be a limit to how many grades you could gain at once. Otherwise, it would be too easy—just offer stones and watch your rank soar.
Besides, the rank-up hadn’t granted any new abilities. Normally, increasing your grade strengthened the body as well. But right now I felt worse than before. For some reason, the pain was sharper than it had been prior to the increase.
“Is it because I didn’t rank up the normal way?”
The normal way meant hunting monsters—whether from gates, dungeons, or breaks. It was common knowledge that slaying monsters raised your rank. I had checked the Awakened community as well. No matter how thoroughly I searched, I found no other cases of someone ranking up purely with magic stones. With no precedents, I couldn’t even guess why it hurt. All I could do was assume these were growing pains.
“Ugh… I should at least drink a potion…”
My whole body tingled. My arms and legs in particular felt less numb and more like they were being zapped with electricity. Hoping even a little relief might come, I moved to buy a potion.
“Whoa.”
I had spent a considerable amount of gold yesterday. Yet the balance I saw now exceeded 400,000. The reason was simple: the Sea Trolls I had listed in the early morning had all sold. Apparently people couldn’t wait for the auction to end—every last one of the twenty had sold instantly. They went for 12,000 gold each. The remaining twenty averaged over 8,000 gold apiece.
I hadn’t realized it at the time, but my actions were the cause. Half the Sea Troll corpses I sold had been 8th Grade. That meant an 8th Grade potion with a fifty-fifty success rate. 8th Grade potions were already difficult to craft, yet twenty of them had flooded the market yesterday. The alchemists’ existing stock ran dry. To replenish it they needed more high-grade troll bodies.
Normally those would be hard to obtain, but there they were in the market. The only catch was the auction timer. If you waited, you could buy them—but right now 8th Grade potions were completely sold out. What if the buyers wanted more? Twenty wasn’t a small number. For 8th Grade Awakened, it could literally be a matter of life and death.
So the Alchemist Guild—currently ranked first—made a decision. Even at a slight loss, they would secure roughly ten in reserve. That was why they had bought the first twenty of those fifty-fifty corpses. They stayed up all night crafting 8th Grade potions, but no further orders came. At least the buyers weren’t terrible people; the guild comforted themselves with the thought that the purchasers must have recovered well. That was the story of last night.
“Awakened really do earn money easily…”
Ten thousand gold equaled a billion won. Which meant 400,000 gold was forty billion. Come to think of it, I had spent over a billion last night alone. Of course, buying homes for twenty-three Snow Leopards at that price was actually cheap. They weren’t real houses, after all. Still, the quality was excellent, so there was no problem. The Snow Leopards themselves had said the houses were too good.
Compared to sleeping on their tails in the snowy mountains, there was no contest. Their complexions had improved dramatically after switching from porridge to meat. If they had to go back to gruel now, they probably wouldn’t want to. Once you know flavor, it’s hard to settle for less.
That was why I wanted to take even better care of them.
My current rank was 2nd Grade, so I purchased a 2nd Grade potion.
“Seriously… just one gold?”
My sense of economics had gone completely haywire. One gold was ten thousand won. The potion bottle was smaller than a regular drink can—maybe 100 milliliters at most. Ten thousand won for that. Before I awakened, my hands would have shaken at the thought. I used to scrape by on less than ten thousand won per meal.
Spending that much on what was essentially a health drink? Utterly unimaginable back then. Now it barely registered. If it would make me feel better, I was ready to drink several bottles without hesitation. So I bought one immediately and downed it.
“Mmm~ Strawberry flavor.”
The sweet, refreshing strawberry-scented potion quickly improved my condition. Once I felt steady enough to stand, I got up right away. After a quick wash, I stepped outside.
The scene that greeted me was heartwarming.
“Waaaaah~”
“Ahahaha~”
Snow Leopard children were running and playing. The adults watched them with gentle, contented smiles. It truly felt like a village where people lived.
However…
“Uuuuugh…”
The adult male Snow Leopards looked haggard, while the females practically glowed with vitality. Just as I suspected, it seemed a rather major event had taken place during the night.
“Ah! It’s the Lord!”
“Lord~!!!”
The children spotted me and came running on quick little feet. Their bright, innocent smiles were unbearably cute and lovable. Behind them, the adult Snow Leopards gathered, each offering sincere thanks—for saving them, for feeding them such delicious food, for providing comfortable houses where they could sleep soundly, and more.
Their heartfelt gratitude left me feeling strangely bashful.
“I woke up late, so I suppose you missed breakfast?”
“Aigoo~ After what we ate yesterday, we could probably skip meals for days and still be fine.”
It seemed I had underestimated the Snow Leopards who had survived on porridge and tree bark. I gathered them once more. There wasn’t time to cook properly, and it felt wasteful, so I bought kimbap—easy to eat and convenient. Since they had healthy appetites, I handed out five rolls per person and watched them eat.
“Ooh… Hyung-nim! The flavor is so concentrated it’s incredible!”
“Older Brother! The textures are so varied and the taste is wonderful! Kimbap, was it? What an amazing food!”
Fortunately, the Snow Leopards’ reactions were positive. As a side note, I was genuinely stunned watching Mino shove two entire rolls into his mouth at once. Half a kimbap disappeared in a single bite. His face wasn’t even that large—how was that physically possible?
After checking if anyone needed seconds and providing more where required, I made a quick trip to Heugildo. Miya, Asne, Lei, and Ruin were eating kimbap for lunch and chatting pleasantly.
“Ah! Lord, remember the mithril you mentioned last time? If you dig at the very edge, I think you’ll find some!”
The casual remark came up during their conversation. The gold vein at the center of Heugildo had already formed. Next would be the mithril mine, which would take two days. It really was a cheat-like trait. The only problem was that even if you mined it, using the metal was nearly impossible. Even the world’s greatest blacksmiths could only mix in tiny amounts. Not only was the material rare, but mithril itself was extremely difficult to handle.
It would be nice if dwarves showed up…
This evening I would try my luck at the central mountain on Heugildo where the gold vein lay. Who knows—maybe a vein would summon dwarves along with it.
After everyone ate their fill, I returned to Nohwado. The atmosphere there, however, felt slightly off.
“Mino, what’s going on?”
“Ah, Hyung-nim. It’s because the orcs on the opposite island keep staring at us.”
When I asked the big man who was gazing into the distance, he pointed across the water. Beyond the broken bridge lay another island. At its edge, bulky green-skinned figures covered in fat were faintly visible.
“Hmm… Orcs… I’ve heard those taste pretty good.”
Orcs had the bodies of heavily muscled, fat humans topped with pig heads. Their skin color and lack of body hair were different, of course, but the basic silhouette was that of a bipedal humanoid. The first time I encountered them, I had considered eating orc meat barbaric. But the meat turned out to be so delicious that the rumor spread anyway. Barbaric? That word meant nothing next to flavor. Humans could become extraordinarily cruel when something tasted good. Weren’t there world-famous dishes that proved it? Foie gras, ortolan—things like that.
Now that I think about it, both are French. Tsk… What is it with France…
And that wasn’t all. Kaoya, monkey brain, shark fin—those were cruel too.
Tsk… Can’t dismiss China either.
What about our own country? We weren’t innocent. Since ancient times people have said meat tastes better when the animal is beaten first. The traditional way of preparing dog meat by chopping it while still alive could give someone trauma. And that wasn’t the only example. Even octopus tangtang, which people eat without much thought, is brutal. They hack apart a living octopus, toss the pieces in sesame oil and salt—a completely insane cooking method.
If you start looking, the world is full of rare, bizarre, and horrifying dishes.
Tsk… Sashimi is sliced while the fish is still fresh… If you nitpick every single one, there’s almost nothing left you can eat.
All for the sake of flavor. In that context, a pig that walks on two legs seems almost gentlemanly—just slit its throat cleanly and eat. The appearance is a little off-putting, that’s all. At least their hands and feet resemble jokbal, which is a relief. If they had proper human fingers and toes? Cooked or not, I’m confident I’d still freak out.
“Hyung-nim… Are those things tasty?”
“I’ve only heard stories. Never tried them myself.”
“Hmm… They don’t look that strong. Would it be all right if we went and caught some?”
“Well… If it’s you, Mino, it seems like it would be good exercise.”
“As long as we don’t involve the children, the rest of us should have no problem.”
“Really? Then shall we give it a try?”
At my words, a glint appeared in Mino’s eyes. I suddenly felt like I was about to watch a live episode of Animal Kingdom.