The Honey and the Monster

Pioneering the jungle was no gentle work. Put the professionals of the monkey scout brigade on it, though, and a great deal of the suffering could be spared. There was no need for him to wander the jungle himself, hunting high and low for something to eat.

The monkeys ranged far, and they knew the surrounding country inside and out.

Send them to survey the jungle, and the moment a new food source turned up? That was when Minhyuk's legion stepped in and finished the job. In practice, jungle pioneering had become something he could all but take for free.

"Ook—!"

Before long the Monkey Scout Captain and his officers entered the Safe Zone and snapped a salute. Minhyuk returned it lightly and came to the point.

"Nothing complicated. I need information on the ground around the jungle's edge."

"Ook-ook?"

The Monkey Scout Captain scratched his head, then held out a stone tablet. At first Minhyuk thought he had kept some written record.

"......Hm?"

His expression turned peculiar.

A drawing...?

A rough silhouette of the whole deserted island was sketched across the tablet. Only the very bottom—the island's southernmost tip—had been filled in, and even that only modestly, with terrain and paths packed tight across a small stretch.

Look at it any way he liked, it was a map.

And with the thought came the chime of an item window.

"Whoa......"

Minhyuk let the admiration out under his breath. Real-time positioning, automatic records of the terrain and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠items around him, and zoom on top of all that.

This is basically a navigation system carved out of stone.

That Monkey Doctor. Far more capable than he had expected. At this level, doctor hardly seemed the word. Wizard would have fit him better.

Then again, if the completion rate is only four percent... the monkeys' range isn't all that wide, is it?

Or was it the opposite? Proof that this deserted island was staggeringly vast?

Either way.

"Let's have a look."

Minhyuk crossed his legs and studied the stone map with care. A drawing of a sweet potato stood out first of all, but it sat much too far from the Safe Zone, clinging precariously to the very edge of the recorded ground.

So the sweet potato was out. The next thing to catch his eye—

...Black beans? Walnuts? Peanuts?

A drawing of some unidentifiable nut. It didn't tempt him, so he passed it over. What did hold his gaze was a honey jar, near enough to reach and more than enough to set his mouth watering.

There's a refined sweetness in honey that sugar and fruit can't imitate.

With honey, a far wider table opened up. Fruit and vegetables dipped in it, of course. It could be the kick that lifted a dish's flavor, or a warm cup of honey water to savor deep in the night.

In a word, an all-purpose ingredient. Only... what was that bear drawn beside the jar?

"Your Majesty..." The Monkey Scout Captain's voice was thick with worry. "Surely you do not desire the honey...?"

Why? Was there some story he couldn't bring himself to tell?

A chime answered him.

......So there was one.

"Your honey was stolen?"

He asked it lightly, and a monkey officer nodded, crestfallen. From the sound of it, honey was their favorite treat after bananas, and the bear had kept them from tasting so much as a drop.

With a sub-quest already up, there's no reason not to take it.

One hundred and fifty experience? A very tidy sum. Wild honey on top of that, and the monkeys' loyalty besides.

"You truly mean to...?" the captain pressed, uneasy. "The bear is terribly violent..."

Now, now. A villain who had seized his people's honey. As their king, it was only right he teach the brute a proper lesson.

It had been a while. Time to reinforce the ranks with Legion Manufacture.

Ah—but before that.

"You haven't eaten, have you?"

"Ook—!"

"Ook-ook—!"

"Good. Then eat before you go. I'll make you something tasty."

There was such a thing as a Korean's hospitality. Call someone over, and you sent them off fed.

Minhyuk rolled up his sleeves and set to work on lunch, starting with the simple dishes.

The knife went through cucumber, cherry tomato, and banana in a steady rhythm, cutting each down to an easy bite. Cherry tomatoes in half. Banana in mouthfuls. Cucumber sliced thin, as if for a julienne.

He tipped the vegetables into a wooden bowl and showered them with a homemade dressing of coconut water and the tart juice of underripe cherry tomatoes.

And so the so-called CucTomBan salad—cucumber, cherry tomato, and banana—was complete.

Perhaps because the cooking had been so simple, it fell short of the potato-tomato soup in both how long the effect lasted and how far the stats climbed. So what? So long as it tasted good.

"Okay. Next."

What he meant to make next was a potato-and-corn salad to set beside it. Mashed potatoes with steamed corn folded in—that was the idea.

The pot he had set over the campfire beforehand was already bubbling. He dropped the potatoes in without hesitation, set a steamer over the top, and steamed the corn above them. Two birds with one pot, you might say.

He was waiting for the potatoes and corn to finish when a notice surfaced.

"Boss!"

Elia was back in the Safe Zone.

"You sold it all already? Even the cherry tomatoes?"

"Nuh-uh! I came to eat!"

"Huh? Then what about the crops—"

Ah. She wasn't minding a street stall anymore. She traded out of a proper shop now, so it didn't matter. Locking the door for a break was the owner's privilege, after all.

Elia perched on a wooden chair and promptly peeled a banana, munching away.

These days, this was his single greatest worry. Elia, who once would have named potato pancakes and french fries as her favorite foods, had fallen hard for bananas.

Eating a great many of them was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no problem. If there was one thing they had far more of than they could use, it was bananas.

The worry, such as it was, lay in her filling her stomach on bananas alone and skipping meals entirely.

The meerkats, for the record, were every bit as hooked, cheeks bulging as they chewed. For them it hardly mattered, since fruit was their staple food anyway. Elia, though, was a child still deep in her growing years.

Is it really all right if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she eats nothing but bananas forever...?

He wouldn't know. He was still single.

Anyway.

By then the potatoes and corn were done. Call the work eighty percent finished, and you wouldn't be far off.

He scooped the peeled potatoes and loose corn kernels into a wooden bowl, added the mayonnaise he had bought from the Survivor shop for five coins, and mashed the lot with a spoon until he could shape it into soft little rounds.

The silky corn-potato salad was finished as well. For the record, its effect stood level with the CucTomBan salad. For thirty minutes, Strength and Stamina each rose by fifteen percent.

"All right. Let's eat."

"Ook......?"

The Monkey Scout Captain cocked his head at the unfamiliar food, then lifted a spoonful of corn-potato salad and took a bite.

"Ook-ee—!"

He smacked his lips, clapped those long arms, and bounced in place—the Monkey Scout Captain, meeting the fruits of human civilization for the first time.

Mm-hm. That's right. Mayonnaise with potatoes and corn? Let the power of nature be as great as it liked. It was never going to win this one.

Elia swallowed at the savory, salty smell.

"Want to try a bite?"

"Uh-huh."

"It's hot, so I'll cool it for you. Hoo, hoo—open wide."

"Aaaah—"

The instant it went into her mouth, the unguarded truth of her reaction wrote itself straight across her brow.

"Mmm~ So savory~"

Well? Not something a banana could ever measure up to, was it?

Bellies comfortably full, it was time to prepare in earnest for the bear hunt.

He needed to build up his firepower. Wasn't the best defense a good offense?

He leveled in the spare moments, too.

He crafted five more Little Wooden Soldiers. He had half considered simply heading out as he was. Still, a bear was bound to be stronger than a wild boar.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Krrung—!"

Stuffed with bananas, Kkureung was in peak condition, and his magic power had climbed nicely as well.

Still only the first stage, of course. Even so, it was surely sturdier than before.

"All right, men! Let's go slurp up some honey!"

"Hup—!"

Stone-tablet map in one hand, Minhyuk strode into the jungle with the Little Wooden Soldiers as his escort. His position updated in real time, so there was no danger of losing the way.

Birds chittered overhead. Leaves lay thick upon leaves, shutting the sunlight out of the lush jungle.

It should be right around here...

Before long his live coordinates drew up alongside the honey-jar-and-bear mark. All around him, though, were nothing but trees and brush. A bear might come crashing out with a roar at any moment.

"Kkureung. You know the drill, right? If there's even a hint of danger, you signal me at once."

"Krrung—!"

Kkureung thumped his chest with his short arms, as if to say Minhyuk need trust no one but him. The gesture was terribly grave. To Minhyuk, it was simply adorable.

How long they went on like that, he could not have said.

"K-krrung—!"

Kkureung came through again today.

It was not a hidden beast he had found. A cliff? Look one way or the other, and there was nothing but undergrowth.

Minhyuk eased forward. In the jungle, even a stone bridge wanted testing before you crossed it. He gently parted the dense grass—

"Whoa... that was nearly a disaster."

A cliff some ten meters high had been lying in wait. One more step and he would have walked straight off it to his death. He swept a hand across his brow, dizzy with the near miss, and a suspicious sight caught his eye.

"......Huh?"

A broad plain opened beneath the cliff, and at its center sat an enormous rock. No—a cave. It was so vast that the cows scattered around it looked like miniatures.

One more thing was strange.

...Ropes?

The cows were tied, as if someone were pasturing them.

Other monkeys?

Minhyuk was searching for a way down the cliff, the better to draw closer, when the ground answered him. Thud. Thud. Thud.

A bear came out of the cave.

No... could that thing even be called a bear?

A roar tore out of it, powerful enough to shake heaven and earth. The body had to stand a good ten meters tall. A left eye was warped around a vertical scar, and the knuckles of both fists were fitted with blades of cold blue steel.

"......?"

It was nothing like the bears Minhyuk had seen at the zoo. Did the thing even possess a mind? With one hand it snatched up a cow and lumbered back into the cave. Those cattle were being kept as food. Of that he was certain.

A somewhat violent bear, you said. You monkeys...

Who looks at that and calls it a bear? If it isn't a monster, it's a beast. Pick one.

Which means that honey jar is inside the cave, doesn't it?

He had set Kkureung to Observe, and still no hive was anywhere in sight. Minhyuk stared at the moss-grown cavern, thinking hard, then turned and gave the Little Wooden Soldiers their orders.

"All right, men."

"Hup—!"

"The enemy's position is confirmed, so today's mission ends here. All units, withdraw!"

Better to fall back for now. Poke that thing the wrong way and it would be a funeral for the whole line.

Time was on Minhyuk's side regardless. Drag the fight out long enough and victory was guaranteed. He had brought down the tribe's representative—that testosterone-jacked monkey—in much the same fashion.

This time... two hundred years, maybe?

The problem was time. Crushing that grotesque bear under raw stats? Possible, in theory. Each crop raised a stat by 0.01. Be generous: fifty thousand each of potatoes, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, corn, and bananas. Eat 250,000 crops in all, and he might just be able to scrap with it.

"Hmm... motion denied."

Minhyuk shook his head, decisive. Think it through however he liked, it was impossible. Waiting for the bear to die of natural causes would be faster.

"Should I try cooking some buff food?"

Mix this and that, experiment a little, and something decent might turn up. Recipes, he had in abundance.

Well... honestly, even that would only go so far.

Still, in the spirit of doing something, he had just stepped up to the food storehouse—

"......Hm?"

Something stabbed straight into view. Inside the rough shed, an item sat under a film of dust. The moment he laid eyes on the stack of hides he had half forgotten, a slow smile crept across Minhyuk's lips.

Hmm. Well, well.

Looked like he was about to take up thieving—work that had never been in his stars.