Chapter 39
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Taste Training (1)
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Grumbling to myself, Lirian came back from the ingredient storage room carrying a few chunks of meat.
"This is troll meat. As it is, it has a stench you could almost call foul, and the texture is incredibly tough."
She urged me to try it myself, slicing up the meat into small pieces. She grilled one and boiled another before handing them over to me. Appearance-wise, it just looked like beef... no, more like the horse meat I'd had in Jeju back in the day?
-Chew chew
'............'
The exterior was convincing enough, but the moment it hit my mouth, I knew something was wrong. The meat was tough and chewy, refusing to break down properly, and it gave off a weird smell.
"Not great, right? Troll meat can't be eaten raw like this. It has to go through tenderizing first, then eaten with spices."
With that, Lirian brought over various fruits, onions, a few powders, and a meat mallet for cooking.
"Monster meat is usually tough, so it absolutely needs tenderizing. Fruits from the surface work okay, but the ones harvested from the Labyrinth's forest layers are even better. Ent fruit in particular has excellent protein breakdown, making it perfect for tenderizing."
She explained the other fruits and vegetables that could be used for tenderizing, then showed me hands-on how to marinate, pound, and tenderize the meat. She added that as your [Cooking] skill levels up, these processes get shorter.
"Now, try it yourself with the meat I gave you... Hey, get rid of that."
She snapped again when she noticed I'd set up the troll meat I'd brought along. Guess I'll have to sneak a taste when she's not looking.
The poisons from the troll hunt were too precious to just toss—I'd mixed in whatever I had. Ingredients like that aren't easy to get unless you're harvesting them yourself. And Alensia had gotten some banned items under her name.
I snuck my meat away, listened intently to Lirian, and first soaked the normal troll meat she'd given me in the tenderizer. Normally you'd wait a while, but after tossing it in some cooking tool for 10 minutes, the tenderizing was done. She said it was an insanely expensive device that accelerated time for the ingredients inside. Kinda tempting. Ever since learning to cook, I'd wanted to make kimchi.
Lirian then grilled the tenderized meat and handed it to me. Chewing it, it was definitely different—proper texture now, and the smell was mostly masked by the fruit scents.
Still, the smell lingered a bit.
"Once the texture's good, next up are spices. Powders like these are fine, but..."
While sidelong glancing at Lirian mixing spices in front of the cooking tools, I snuck my poison-laden troll meat onto the grill. The high-end griddle didn't let any smell or smoke escape, making it easy to cook undetected.
I chimed in with agreements to her explanations, flipped the meat, and took it off once it seemed done. Just in case, I used [Poison Cooking] to weaken the venom, then pulled out an antidote from the potions I'd bought at the alchemy guild.
Seizing a moment when Lirian wasn't looking, I quickly shoved the meat into my mouth. Chewing, ready to spit if it was off.
'......Huh?'
"Tastes good?"
"If you simmer it like this for a long time... What did you say?"
The words slipped out before I knew it, and Lirian noticed, freaking out.
"What are you doing! Spit it out now!"
"Wait... just a sec."
Ignoring her protests, I even activated [Sensory Amplification] to fully savor the taste and aroma. The poison soaked into the troll's blood had seeped into every bit of the meat via internal bleeding, breaking down proteins and making it incredibly tender. Softer even than the tenderizer version.
And as I chewed, the juices flowed... no, poison juices? Anyway, the troll's unique meaty scent fused with the poison didn't repulse—instead, it gave a deep umami. What was this?
"Damn, paralyzed? I need to call a priest..."
"No, I'm fine."
Thanks mostly to [Poison Resistance], but the heat weakened the venom a lot, and [Poison Cooking] further reduced it—no issues. Actually, it was delicious!
"This is good. The poison softened the texture, and the toxic herbs inside acted like spices, or maybe some other reason... it's really good."
"Good... tastes good?"
[Venom Mastery] skill growth adds effects to [Poison Cooking] skill.
During [Poison Cooking], poison positively influences taste.
As if answering my confusion, a system message popped up. What kind of effect? [Poison Cooking] counts as 'cooking'? I hadn't expected a taste bonus. Did [Cooking] and [Poison Cooking] synergize for the flavor? Ridiculous.
"Give it here!"
"Ah, wait..."
At my words, Lirian suddenly bristled, snatched another piece I'd grilled, and popped it in her mouth. Her eyes went wide, chewing sped up, then slowed dramatically.
"Lirian?"
".....Grrr."
"Lirian? Lirian!"
The venom was weakened, but it was still potent! Did she think it was safe just because I ate it?
Luckily, the weakened poison was fully neutralized with my antidote. Close call—I almost caused a murder.
Detoxified but still in shock, Lirian couldn't snap out of it.
"That poison... better than my recipes..."
She had pride in her cooking, but simply grilling troll meat soaked in moderate poison outperformed hers. Huge blow. I was baffled too, but what can you do when skills say so.
Shaken, she finished her prepared dish and handed it over—a stew from long-simmered troll meat to kill the stench.
It was great: stench subdued, rich meaty aroma, tender chunks in warm broth...
But separately from the cooking, my meat felt higher quality. Unavoidable.
Muttering in shock, she suddenly bowed to me with a request.
"Ian... teach me cooking..."
"No, I'm the one here to learn."
She wasn't fully recovered.
"No, it was a taste I'd never experienced. To think you'd devised a way to handle troll stench beyond my methods... with poison? Unimaginable."
She heard my explanation, right? I said I used poison hunting in the Labyrinth, but now in her head, I'd hunted trolls just to test new recipes.
"Foolish of me to try teaching you. You've already developed your own unique cooking methods."
"Stop hyping me up. It was just luck."
"But Ian, as someone who's eaten countless dishes, I can tell. You've acquired your own unique cooking skill. Not just [Cooking]."
...Is she talking about [Poison Cooking]? I saw it more as poison handling than cooking.
"It means the system recognized your unique method. Like that otherworlder who got [Molecular Gastronomy] as a separate skill."
"W-Well, I do have a skill, but it's more attack-oriented, poison handling—not really cooking."
"You adapted it to cooking, so the system skill-ified it. That taste couldn't come from ingredients alone. It had to be skill-enhanced."
True, no counter there. Especially with the new taste effect.
"Your secret's probably poison-based cooking. I want to learn it. In exchange, not just occasional lessons—we'd exchange knowledge as equals. I'd even open a shop in your name."
"No thanks. I'm an adventurer, not a chef. A poison restaurant would kill customers and get me arrested."
"But I only discovered it by chance—hard to teach. I don't even know how."
"You'll keep hunting monsters with poison in the Labyrinth, right? Bring them here, along with the poisons used."
Hmm... With [Venom Mastery], I'll use poison often. Poison-tainted monster meat's hard to sell anyway... Offloading tricky ingredients? Profitable.
"Free meals for you and your guests forever. Plus, I'll supply all ingredients and tools for your research and practice."
"...Even the level of tools in this shop?"
"Yes, as many as you want."
"Looking forward to working with you."
Free top-tier tools. Custom-made for cooking, hard to get without connections. Total win.
After the deal, Lirian stopped teaching her recipes. Better to cover basics and knowledge, she said. With my [Poison Cooking], training it would naturally grow [Cooking] too—better fit for me.
With that, she led me not to the main storage, but a small, secluded one in the corner.
"These ingredients are stored separately due to toxicity. Cooking with them suits you better."
Looking around, I was stunned. All sorts of 'ingredients'—including ultra-rare stuff like basilisk from deep Labyrinth layers.
"Use them all, Ian."
Suddenly Lirian looked angelic. Huh? Weren't there horns and bat wings? Now a halo and feathery ones?
I'd used up most poisons from the troll hunt. Alensia's were either weak beginner stuff or barely accessible advanced ones. Here, toxins ranged from mild to lethal—perfect variety.
This lets me resume stalled [Poison Resistance] and [Venom Mastery] training! ...Am I too influenced by Alensia? Whatever, it's growth.
I took a bit of mud eel meat from the 12th layer, tasted it.
"....Kuh!"
The sharp venom stung delightfully after so long. Poisons from floors 1-9 stalled [Poison Resistance] at Lv2...
Overcame lethal poison. [Poison Resistance] level rises to 3.
Another growth.
"What's this place?"
After grabbing usable ingredients and her intro, Lirian said we'd resume training—but led me not to the kitchen, somewhere else.
"I told you, teaching recipes is less useful than basics."
"Yeah, but don't basics happen in the kitchen too?"
"Hehe."
I expected tool usage, but it was just chairs, a table, a tray, and an eyemask.
"Cooking basics start with taste. This is where I train mine. Blindfolded, judging solely by tongue."
Demonstrating, she sat, donned the eyemask. Suddenly, an ingredient appeared on the tray.
"How?"
"Hehe. One tool I commissioned from the mage tower. Sit with eyemask on, and it auto-delivers preset ingredients to the tray. Taste and identify blindfolded to hone your palate."
She pulled a knife to eat, but paused, setting it down.
"Ah, could you feed me, Ian?"
"Pardon?"
"Pure taste discernment trains it best. But grabbing myself lets shape touch my fingers vaguely. Better if someone else feeds—perfect, you're here!"
She handed me fork, knife, spoon, chopsticks, sat, and opened her mouth.
"Go on... feed me?"