Chapter 107
Magic power management was essential for hunters raiding dungeons. If they wasted their magic power and couldn’t use it when needed, they would die. There was a reason why the other clans’ hunters saved their healing magic, regardless of whether they realized it or not.
… However, the hunter in front of them seemed to be using magic power to cook.
‘Shouldn’t we stop him?’
‘He isn’t from our clan, so what can we say?’
‘That’s true, but...’
As everyone was frozen in shock, Choi Yeonseung finished the preparations.
‘Next?is smoke.’
He wanted to infuse smoke into the meat to give it a distinctive flavor. He could just cook it, but Choi Yeonseung decided to respect the people here. They were roughly all Americans, so...
‘They would like it with bacon.’
Choi Yeonseung thought of bacon and fried eggs, which was an appropriately nutritious meal. It was such a ridiculous prejudice that if the hunters here heard it, they would’ve been dumbfounded and said, ‘No, it doesn’t have to be bacon...’
“Don’t tell me... Are you trying to smoke it?” one of the dazed hunters spoke.
“Oh. You’re familiar with it?”
The hunter couldn’t believe what he was seeing. This person cut down a nearby tree, stacked it up, and hung the meat over it.
“You’re going to do it here?”
“Yes.”
“Uh... Shouldn’t you use a special scented wood to smoke it?” the hunter asked. He had experience with the barbecuing process as well. Wasn’t Choi Yeonseung just using a random tree?
“Scented woods are nice, but they unfortunately can’t be found in dungeons. I’ll just use a special flame instead.”
No one on Earth could match Choi Yeonseung when it came to processing the meat of Abyss monsters. Choi Yeonseung suffered from eating all types of meat by itself since he didn’t have any ingredients to cook with it. Having ingredients were great, but he could still cook even if he didn’t have any.
Choi Yeonseung used the Samadhi True Fire, which caused blue flames that bloomed with pure internal energy to rise from his hands. A martial artist who had reached a particular stage could do this with internal energy.
Unaware of that, the hunters were startled. The flames filled with pure magic power amazed them.
‘Isn’t Choi Yeonseung a martial artist?’
‘Isn’t that fire magic?’
‘Why is he using it for cooking?’
‘... I have no idea.’
Pure internal energy flames burned the wood. Smoke soon enveloped the meat. Choi Yeonseung released internal energy from his hands and gathered the wind around him into one place. Smoke then quickly gathered and permeated into the meat.
“Hunter Choi Yeonseung. Should you really be wasting magic power like this?”
“What? Don’t you want to eat it?”
“No… That’s not it. Well, I certainly don’t want to, but I’m more concerned about your magic power.”
“I have enough magic power left to fight, so you don’t have to worry.”
Choi Yeonseung’s words agitated the hunters. If he were telling the truth, then he was simply confident he still had a lot of magic power even after wasting some!
‘Does he really have that much?’
‘Isn’t he just bluffing?’
Meanwhile, Choi Yeonseung had finished cooking. Once all the work was done, he cut through the thick meat with a knife. Gloss flowed down the soft, greasy cross-section. The hunters involuntarily gulped. They knew it was monster meat, but they started drooling anyway!
Choi Yeonseung cracked the eggs and poured them into the adamantium frying pan, creating sizzling sounds. Soon, the fried turtle eggs were ready.
“Arenas. Come here.”
“Uh... Okay.”
Arenas stood up as if possessed. Arenas initially thought, ‘Choi Yeonseung did save me, but I have to refuse that somehow.’?However, as soon as the mouth-watering smell entered his nostrils, his body stopped listening to his head.
“Here’s your plate.”
“What is this rock plate?”
“I sculpted it out of a nearby rock.”
“?! !”
“Try it.”
A few, thick greasy slices of bacon and fried turtle eggs. Arenas unknowingly pulled out a fork, used it to pick a piece up, and ate it.
Gulp.
It melted in his mouth. He hadn’t even chewed it a few times yet when it literally melted down his throat.
“......!!!”
At the same time, he felt his used-up magic power exploding. Arenas forgot everything else and ate in a hurry.
One, two, three...
The other hunters involuntarily watched him with longing eyes.
I want to try it too!
Arenas spoke as he admired Choi Yeonseung.
“I see it now, Choi Yeonseung! You wasted so much magic power because you can restore your magic power like this! You recover more than you use! You used magic flames to infuse more magic power with the smoke!”
The enlightened Arenas exclaimed with excitement. He felt relieved when he had finally made sense of all of Choi Yeonseung’s incomprehensible actions. Now that he had thought about it, the Icarus clan was amazing. They even developed this method to restore magic power.
“No?”
.
“...No?”
“I did that to the bacon because I thought Americans liked their bacon cooked that way.”
“N-No. That’s just a prejudice.”
“I see. What did you eat before entering the dungeon, then?”
“I had bacon and fried eggs...”
Arenas paused midsentence. Choi Yeonseung stared at him with an expression that said, ‘Exactly my point.’
“I just ate this casually and without much thought, but I usually eat a variety of things! It is a prejudice that this is the only meal we eat!”
“Shut up. So it didn’t taste good?”
“N... No. This is the best meal I’ve eaten in my entire life. It’s better than any restaurant I’ve eaten at,” Arenas spoke sincerely.
It was so excessive that the hunters around him doubted him.
‘Is he going that far because he’s afraid he’ll get hit?’
‘I think he’s being too sincere.’
“It should be okay, then. Eat up, everyone.”
Choi Yeonseung also invited the other New York Fires hunters.
“W-We can eat as well?” they asked in surprise.
“If I was going to eat alone, I wouldn’t have prepared this many, would I?”
Choi Yeonseung looked at the hunters, seemingly dumbfounded. This casual attitude impressed the clan hunters. How could he give them food so casually?
“I’ve never seen a hunter who cares about others like you. You are like a money?tree... Cough!”
“I already told you to eat, so why are you still spouting nonsense? Is that a metaphor for wanting to be hit?”
“S-Sorry. I’ll just shut up and eat.”
The hunters shut up and sat down. The thickly cut, oily meat was different from the stiff, monotonous dungeon food. Moreover, the fried turtle eggs were soft and savory. They couldn’t get tired of eating it.
“!!!”
Soon enough, the hunters realized why Arenas was so surprised. They were regaining their magic power! The magic potions were the crystallization of human magical science. They were difficult and expensive to make. Even rich hunters didn’t waste their magic potions. For hunters who knew how much effort and preparation went into making one, they found one dish being able to restore magic power quite unbelievable.
“Did the Icarus clan develop this?”
“The Icarus clan? No. I’m the only one who knows how to cook in there.”
“!!!”
It was?Choi Yeonseung’s own skill? The hunters became even more surprised. Rather than the Icarus clan developing this, it was all made possible with Choi Yeonseung’s own skill. They thought he was just a 1st-generation martial artist, but he even had a very rare and powerful skill.
‘I didn’t know he had this skill! If it wasn’t for the Icarus clan, I would’ve immediately scouted him.’
‘This is really amazing.’
As everyone ate in silence and admired Choi Yeonseung, he also called the hunters of other clans.
“Does anyone want to eat?”
“!!!”
“U-Us? ”
“You should eat if you are hungry. There’s enough for everyone, so come and eat.”
“Why are you so good to us... Ack! Aack! W-Wait! Is it okay for a hunter from another clan to do this?!”
“Your clan’s hunters don’t seem to be thinking too much about it.”
The person looked to the side only to find his colleagues quietly grabbing plates to get meat.
“...I-I’ll just shut up and gratefully accept your offer.”
“You’re finally making some sense.”
All the hunters ate together. Everyone had different thoughts, but they all had similar feelings.
Gratitude for Choi Yeonseung! They hadn’t expected to taste this type of warm, delicious, and greasy kindness in a cold and heartless dungeon.
[You have succeeded in cooking a wonderful dish inside a dungeon and with limited resources using your own power! The power of your existence has risen!]
[Your Advanced Abyss Cooking skill has grown stronger!]
[Being worshiped has increased the power of your existence!]
‘Feeding them increases the power of my existence. This is really funny,’ Choi Yeonseung thought as he looked at the hunters.
Cooking in a dungeon was a really cost-effective way to attract hunters. Outside dungeons, doing this to be worshipped would be extremely difficult. If this were done on Earth, the hunters would’ve said, ‘Who are you to interfere with me?’ no matter what he did.
***
After frantically eating, Izidor felt slightly embarrassed. He was the person in charge of the clan, but he got so distracted that he ate too much.
“I’m sorry, Choi Yeonseung. You didn’t even get to eat. Hurry and grab some.”
“Ah. I’m going to eat something a bit different.”
“?”
Choi Yeonseung took out the rice he had cooked and fried it in the remaining bacon oil. He also added turtle eggs to it, giving the rice a nice yellowish finish. By the time he had finished cooking, the dish was already emitting a mouthwatering scent.
Despite having already eaten so much, Izidor suddenly wanted to eat again when he saw the fried rice.
Gulp.
“W-What is that?”
“Ah. You don’t know what it is because you’re American. This is called rice...”
“... There are many Korean restaurants in New York.”
Izidor was serious. It wasn’t like he was a hillbilly who didn’t know what it was! There were many famous Korean restaurants in New York. Quite a few countries other than South Korea also ate rice as a staple part of their diet.
“What? Why did you ask me if you knew, then? Are you picking a fight?”
“N-No. I’m not. It’s not that I don’t know what rice is. I was just surprised because it was too sudden...”
‘Did he have that stored in his subspace necklace?’
It didn’t seem like he was carrying rice, after all.
Izidor’s guess was correct.
Choi Yeonseung struggled because he couldn’t get rice in the Abyss, so he stored rice and various seasonings in his subspace necklace when he got back. After living in the Abyss for over 10,000 years, people were bound to develop an obsession with Earth-grown ingredients.
“I was going to eat those viands with rice. Since you seem familiar with Korean food, I’ll give you some of this as well. I thought you wouldn’t know about it.”
Izidor almost said something harsh like, ‘Shouldn’t you have asked?’ but fortunately came to his senses before he could. He shouldn’t use such abusive language on someone who saved a clan colleague and even provided him with such a magical dish.
‘I’m ashamed of myself!’
However, Choi Yeonseung’s cooking could make people lose their sense of reason. If someone had tried to take his plate while he was eating the bacon earlier, Izidor would’ve seriously attacked them. Izidor kept looking at him while making a gulping sound, making Choi Yeonseung curious.
‘Is he still hungry?’
“Do you want some?”
“I-Is it alright?”
“... Is it not supposed to be?”
Choi Yeonseung looked at Izidor as if he found him pathetic.
“I’ll just eat a little bit, then. A little bit.” Izidor coughed in embarrassment. As he accepted a plate, he suddenly felt momentarily strange.
Their surroundings had become too quiet.
“...... !”
Only then did Izidor notice the hunters around them staring at his plate with shining eyes.
“......!!!”
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