Ramen That Spits Fire
Living with a greatsword is the ultimate romance. I was in a good mood right now. Ehehehehe.
How good? Well, I couldn’t even think of a way to describe it.
“How long has it been since I last had cup ramen?”
In my hand was a steaming cup of instant noodles, hot vapor curling up in fragrant waves. How could modern Earth convenience food exist in a medieval fantasy world? The answer was simple: my awakening ability.
Back when I tore through the Goblin Lord’s wooden fortress and hit level 10, the minimap and shop window had unlocked. That shop window had everything. All kinds of goods, magic items, even modern objects and mind-bending artifacts from other worlds.
Slurp—!
“Delicious!”
The taste of MSG after so long was pure brain-melting bliss. How did I ever live without this? I don’t think I can ever go back.
Slurp—!
Before I knew it, the noodles were gone and only the broth remained.
“Should I buy another?”
I pulled a gold coin from my inventory, hesitating. It was the request fee I’d received from the investigation team that had arrived in Dorua ahead of me.
“Ah, screw it!”
I tossed the gold straight into the shop window. It vanished on contact.
1,000,000 won has been deposited.
One gold apparently counted as a million won. Easy to remember. Nice.
“This time it’s buldak!”
The legendary fire chicken stir-fried noodles that once had a cult following! The spicy deliciousness that addicts chased for months, the same one that caused hoarding frenzies overseas!
“Ow! It’s spicy!”
Maybe because I was now in a body with zero spice tolerance, it felt even hotter than I remembered. My mouth felt like it was actually on fire!
Whoosh—!
“Real flames came out?!”
For a second, actual fire had burst from my lips. What the hell was going on? I clamped my mouth shut before anything worse could happen.
“Did I burn myself?”
I checked inside my mouth. Thankfully, no burns.
“Was I secretly a dragon descendant? Why is fire suddenly shooting out of my mouth?”
I nearly screamed from the shock. After calming my racing heart, I finished the rest of the buldak.
“Spicy!”
Whoosh—!
Fire came out again, but this time I simply closed my mouth without panicking. Looked like I had a convenient fire-starting method whenever I needed it.
“Is this even right?”
Anyway, after finishing the meal I left the inn, a peach iced tea in one hand.
“So refreshing.”
The sweet, cold flavor melted all my stress away. This is amazing.
One of the most inconvenient things about medieval fantasy was the lack of flavor. My brain, which remembered the wide variety of tastes from my previous life, struggled to endure the blandness typical of this world. If I had been a high-ranking noble enjoying all sorts of delicacies, it might have been different. Unfortunately, my current position was that of a lowly mercenary—a job that made good food hard to come by.
At least the pay was decent, so I could still eat decently. If I’d been a farmer in some rural village, I probably would have survived on slop and oat porridge. Just thinking about it gave me chills. What a miserable life that would have been.
“Guess I have even more reason to earn money now.”
As I walked the streets, I browsed various items in the shop window. It really did have everything.
“Hmm, there are all sorts of magic items.”
From simple lighting tools to items that concealed your presence, even ones that doubled a person’s strength.
“Wait a second…?”
If the shop sold all kinds of goods, maybe it sold Aura Cultivation Methods too? It was possible!
With my heart pounding, I searched for “Aura Cultivation Method” in the search bar.
The results scrolled down.
Lina's Lethal Sword Cultivation Method [Low Grade]
Hydrin's Silent Cultivation Method [High Grade]
Lexion's Terra Cultivation Method [Mid Grade]
They really existed! I had never seen or even heard of these methods before, yet here were so many different ones.
There are grades too? Does a higher grade mean better efficiency?
I scrolled through the category and examined them one by one. It seemed the grades reflected stability more than raw power. No matter how good the effects were, if the method was unstable or dangerous it received a lower grade. Even if efficiency was mediocre, outstanding stability earned a higher grade.
“But the prices…”
A low-grade Aura Cultivation Method cost 100 gold. That was at least 100 million won. Looked like I would be living on a tight budget again.
Aura isn’t optional. It’s mandatory.
The difference between having aura and not having it was night and day. Like eating steamed buns with no red bean paste. Or fish-shaped bread with no cream. For a knight, aura was absolutely essential.
I need to take requests that pay well.
If other people heard that you could simply buy an Aura Cultivation Method with money, they would have called it bullshit. That was how difficult they were to obtain normally.
Once I get the cultivation method and buy a suitable warhorse…
That would be the first step toward earning my knight qualifications. My motivation surged.
“No, I can’t wait. I need to go take a request right now!”
Since all my luggage was in my inventory, I could leave immediately.
What kind of requests will be available today?
The sooner I bought the cultivation method, the closer I would be to my dream.
“Oh? Nix, isn’t that you? Didn’t you finish a request yesterday? Is it okay to jump right back into work?”
The mercenary guild’s master was showing interest in me. Annoying.
“Hey there, Guild Master.”
“Your tone sounds like you’re reading from a script. Don’t tell me I’m bothering you?”
“I want to do something productive right now. Like taking requests. Since you make your living off commissions, don’t you think you shouldn’t be interfering with me?”
“Bwahaha! It’s been a while since you said something that actually made sense! Too bad, though. Unfortunately, I can’t issue you any requests at the moment.”
“What?!”
What the hell was he talking about? He couldn’t issue requests?
“You’d better explain while I’m still asking nicely! Otherwise my flaming club isn’t going to stay quiet!”
“Where is this flaming club of yours? You weren’t even born with the right equipment.”
Using cold hard facts? How cowardly! Let’s settle this with agitation and fabrication!
“Anyway, to continue… it’s simple. Orders came from above telling us not to give mercenaries any requests.”
“…Is it because of the undead?”
“Exactly.”
Made sense. A neighboring village that had been perfectly fine was suddenly wiped out by orc undead. It was only natural to raise the alert level. Even the big shots were scared of dying.
“Ugh, I need money and this happens of all times…”
Sir, if you do this to me, where the hell am I supposed to earn money?!
“Don’t look so depressed. If you want, you can go around asking people directly. But don’t leave the city. They won’t let you out.”
They were even controlling the mercenaries’ residential district now? This was straight-up dictatorship!
“What else would nobles do but act like dictators? This is the lord’s territory, remember? Dorua belongs to him.”
Right. That was true. There was no democracy in this world.
“Suddenly I’m craving a revolution. I need a sickle and hammer! And a grand orchestra!”
“Stop talking nonsense. If you get caught, it’s straight to the guillotine.”
“If it fails it’s a rebellion! If it succeeds it’s a revolution, right?! Comrade!”
“No way. I have to stop this crazy woman somehow!”
The guild master, sensing danger, moved to block me, but I wasn’t about to stop!
“No one can stop me!”
“Hey! Catch that girl!”
“Ehehehe!”
I burst out of the mercenary guild and ran through the streets. Of course I avoided harming any civilians and soon arrived at a certain shop.
“If I can’t take requests, I’ll just have to do a part-time job.”
The place I chose was an alchemy shop. Useful for customers, but known as the gates of hell for part-timers.
“Welcome, customer.”
“I’m not a customer.”
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“I’m here to do the hell part-time job.”
“Oh my goodness?! You came here voluntarily for the hell part-time job?”
Hell part-time. Just the name sounded awful. Of course, it wasn’t actually dangerous. It was simply ridiculously hard work.
“My body is quite sturdy and I’m pretty strong.”
“…Are you serious?”
The clerk gave me a doubtful look, clearly judging me by appearance. In response, I lifted my greatsword with one finger.
“P-please put that weapon away!”
“You really shouldn’t judge by looks alone. Understood?”
“I-I get it, so please put the greatsword away!”
She seemed a little scared. Maybe I overdid it?
“There happens to be an opening, so please come this way.”
I followed the clerk deeper into the shop. The scent of various herbs filled the air.
“This is the spot.”
The place she led me to was right beside a large alchemy cauldron.
“Just stir the contents with this ladle for twelve hours.”
“I only need to stir? Nothing else?”
“That’s right. All you have to do is become a golem that rotates its arm.”
This was the true identity of the hell part-time job. Using the ladle, you had to stir the solution inside the cauldron nonstop for twelve hours. It might look easy, but it was an incredibly boring and painful task.
Still, the pay was good. A full fifty silver. Two days of work equaled one gold. Twenty days meant ten gold. Two hundred days would get me a hundred gold.
But this job wasn’t popular. Hard and boring work was tolerable when it paid fifty silver, yet people still avoided it for one simple reason.
“Ugh, the smell.”
The stench coming from the alchemy cauldron was horrific. The mixture of various herbs and solutions created an odor even worse than sulfur.
“My nose is precious.”
I quickly put on a herb mask and started working. As expected, earning money was never easy.