Chapter 59
Choi Yeonseung perfectly detected the monsters from the front. In combat, he tanked and dragged their enemies’ aggro. Moreover, he did all of that alone and without taking shifts. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that he did a few people’s share alone. He would be welcomed by any clan or team despite being a martial artist!
‘Even if his firepower is a bit lacking...’
The higher the rating, the?less powerful?martial artists were. Magic rapidly increased in firepower the higher the magic circle. Meanwhile, martial artists could at most cut with sword energy. They’d likely be able to deal with small or medium monsters, but they’d find it extremely difficult to deal with?large monsters. They wouldn’t be able to deal with a huge golem if it came toward them, considering cutting off some parts of it wouldn’t be enough to overcome it.
‘... He's likely a first-class martial artist.’
However, Choi Yeonseung was still qualified to join a top team despite lacking firepower. If Elisabeth was the team leader, she definitely would’ve scouted a hunter like Choi Yeonseung and put him on the team. Having him made the entire team whole! He didn’t need to have strong skills. Other people could do that.
However, there was something Elisabeth didn’t know: martial artists had Concentrated Energy Arts that allowed them to use concentrated energy, which was even stronger than sword energy. Moreover, Choi Yeonseung used to hunt huge monsters in the Abyss with his sword energy alone!
***
Whittaker was an excellent hunter. He acquired goodwill by finding out what the other person wanted and fulfilling it. Smallwood fell for his kindness when Whittaker brought him subtitled foreign martial arts movies such as ‘Arahan.’ Whittaker then blocked him on Facebook, which deeply angered him!
-Knowing your opponent is fundamental when hunting.
Having confirmed that Choi Yeonseung was a jewel, Whittaker asked him a series of questions to figure out what he wanted.
“Tell me what you like.”
“Talking about it is a bit embarrassing...”
“Hahaha! Feel free to tell me anything. It doesn’t matter if it’s a nasty or lewd hobby. I’d understand. Well? What do you like?”
“Bench presses.”
“......”
Whittaker was speechless. Was this person joking?
“B-bench presses?”
“Yes. Huhu. Everyone looks at me strangely when I say this. You wouldn’t do that, would you?”
“O-Of course not!”
Whittaker controlled his expression as best as he could. He had dealt with many hunters so far. He couldn’t be shaken!
“What else…?”
“Hmm… Side lateral raises?”
“......”
‘Something like that…’
Whittaker wondered if Choi Yeonseung was making fun of him, but Choi Yeonseung looked serious.
‘Wow. I heard there are many workaholics among Asians, but...’
Whittaker came to a realization. Choi Yeonseung truly had no greed! There were very few people like him, but there had been hunters who weren’t interested in money or honor. They were just obsessed with killing monsters. Like priests and monks, they had no desires!
Whittaker didn’t know how to approach a type he had only heard about.
‘Bah. I’ll find a way.’
If they weren’t greedy, then sympathizing with their hobbies or words should be enough.
“Bench press is a good workout. Would you like to join me?”
“What? You refused when I asked you to work out,” Elisabeth interjected, seemingly dumbfounded. “Who was the one who said, ‘I don’t need it because I won’t fight in front of you?’”
Nevertheless, Whittaker remained brazen.
“That’s all in the past. It’s different now.”
“?”
Whittaker panicked when Choi Yeonseung suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder. Why was he acting like this?
“Well...”
“? ”
“Well said!”
“H-huh?”
.
“I want to train with you. Training with someone is better than training alone.”
“Oh...”
Choi Yeonseung spoke passionately, but this only caused Whittaker to feel anxious. It was as if he had ventured into a mistake!
“Can I join you if you are going to do personal training?” Elisabeth asked from the side.
“Of course.”
“Thank you. Training certainly is better with others than alone.”
Elisabeth laughed. Hunters rarely did strength and agility training unless their specialization revolved around it. Why would they when they could just fire magic from a distance? However, Elisabeth fought mainly in melee combat! To be honest, she was happy that Choi Yeonseung joined the clan. It was rare for her to find a training partner.
Choi Yeonseung laughed. Training should definitely be enjoyed along with many people.
“Do you want me to teach you martial arts as well?”
“... No thanks. I’m a magician.”
Unlike last time, Elisabeth thought about it for a second before refusing.
Listening to their conversation made Whittaker start to regret his decision. ‘They both seem crazy about training...’
***
“Food’s ready.”
“Woah~ Very exciting, isn’t it?” Smallwood commented with a gloomy expression. The packaged set before them, commonly referred to as dungeon food, was the culmination of a high-tech product that was nutritionally balanced and could be cooked with the push of a button.
… It didn’t taste that good, though. Since it had to be compressed as much as possible and made to last for a long time, its taste was pushed off the priority list. A good dungeon food was compact, long-lasting, and high in nutrients and calories! Experienced hunters would bring some seasonings or snacks, but that wasn’t enough.
“We have to eat to conduct raids. Sigh...”
“We at least got beef today, which is great.”
“Can’t we pick and choose the menu to take with us? Ernest is a really strict person.”
Apart from the items that the hunters owned, everything else they brought in was provided by the clan. Of course, the dungeon food menu was random! Beef marinated with salt and spices, hard crackers, peanut butter, small candies, chocolate, etc. Dragon Industry?also made dungeon food. Among them, this beef MRE set?was extremely popular. Of course, that didn’t mean it was delicious.
‘No, Hyung...’
Choi Yeonseung was shocked. Hwang Gyeongryong himself was used as a model on the dungeon food wrapper. There had to be a limit to foolishness!
Munch munch.
The hunters started to share their meals in silence. It didn’t taste that good, but they had to eat something to regain their strength after walking nervously in a dark and narrow place all day.
“Oh? This is delicious.”
“? ? !”
“?! !”
“D-Did the Dragon Industry pay you to say that, friend?”
“No, but… Isn’t this enough to be called a feast?”
Choi Yeonseung sounded sincere, which stunned the others.
“This is delicious? Really?”
“What made you think that way?”
“... Cough. Come to think of it, it does taste a bit nice. Perhaps it’s because none of you have had to do any real hard work during raids and have had it easy all this time, but I find this sweet since I went through a lot of hardships—”
“Shut up.”
“Be quiet before I feed you mine as well, friend.”
Antony tried to join the conversation but was scolded by the group.
‘Bah. These ugly people are jealous of me.’
However, Choi Yeonseung didn’t change his opinion no matter what they said. This tasted great!
“It’s delicious. What else can I say?”
“... I thought you suffered no aftereffects from the Abyss, but it ruined your palate.”
“It’s alright, friend. It’ll go back to normal soon.”
Choi Yeonseung clicked his tongue. They were strangely upsetting people!
“Fine. If you don’t like this, I’ll do something for you.”
“What is it?”
“Are you going to cook with this? No. Don’t do that. It’ll just become worse, friend.”
Smallwood was flustered. Every now and then, there’d be hunters that thought, ‘I’ll try cooking the dungeon food again!’?Of course, it usually had disastrous results! Moreover, he couldn’t trust Choi Yeonseung in this regard at all now that he knew what his taste palate was like.
“I won’t touch the dungeon food. I’ll cook with what I killed.”
“... With what you killed?”
“The rock chameleons.”
“...... !”
The hunters were astonished. Eating monsters? It wasn’t like that had never been tried before.
Among the monsters, there were a few that were famous for being ‘delicacies.’?One of them was minotaurs. Upon encountering one in a dungeon, hunters would even throw away cores just to get its meat. Many rich gourmets all over the world wanted to eat it, but?they were rare. Hence, a gram of its meat would easily exceed thousands of dollars if auctioned off.
However, that was an exceptional case! Most monsters weren’t edible. Hunters who occasionally tried some out of curiosity shuddered at the terrible taste. To top it all off, some were even poisoned. Hunters only ever ate monsters in dungeons when driven to a corner and when they’d die of starvation if they didn’t eat anything.
Richard Parker frowned. He remembered the time when ghouls had trapped him in a basement. Back then, he briefly wondered if he should eat ghouls but immediately rejected the idea. He didn’t want to eat undead monsters. Now this man planned to eat a monster?
“I don’t want to!”
“Friend, I don’t think this is right.”
“... I don’t agree with this.”
Even Antony refused!
Choi Yeonseung was slightly hurt. “Monsters are delicious if cooked properly.”
“Friend. I heard those exact words from an English friend, so I entrusted cooking a monster to him. Do you know what happened? It became trash!”
Smallwood gritted his teeth, which made it seem like he was suffering from severe trauma. Choi Yeonseung decided to persuade them through actions instead of words.
“Alright. Let me show you.”
“No, it’s fine...”
“Do you really have to?”
Choi Yeonseung ignored the words of his teammates and took out his equipment. Everyone was dumbfounded when they saw the adamantium frying pan come out of the Space Pocket Necklace.
“You should put something else in your spatial inventory artifact, friend! Why store something like that in there?!”
“You’re wasting space!”
They didn’t know what type of frying pan Choi Yeonseung had. If they did, they would’ve already fainted!
The adamantium frying pan transformed into a large Chinese pot.
‘Hmm. How should I cook the chameleon meat?’
[You have the ‘Advanced Abyss Cooking’ skill.]
[You have identified the monster ingredient’s characteristics.]
[‘Let’s go for a simple bulgogi flavored with soy sauce...’
Monster meat was tasteless only because?they didn’t know how to cook it properly. After killing a monster, they should let its meat age properly, remove the bad smell it had, then skillfully cook it. In doing so, they’d create a tasty dish.
The most important thing was the seasoning.
‘I brought soy sauce with me, so I don’t have to use the alternative seasonings I made in the Abyss.’
Choi Yeonseung had to taste all types of ingredients in the Abyss to replace Earth’s spices and seasonings. He no longer had to do that now that he had returned to Earth, though. The first thing he did as soon as he came back was put soy sauce in his space pocket!
Choi Yeonseung used a kitchen knife to skin the chameleon, wasting not even a piece of it, and cut its meat. The hunters couldn’t help but be impressed by his skinning skill. His mastery over it showed brilliant results!
Choi Yeonseung grabbed the well-trimmed chunk of meat, dipped it in soy sauce seasoning, and aged it with internal energy. Under normal circumstances, one would have to soak it a bit and wait until it aged. However, enhancing the process with internal energy hastened it and made it more potent.
‘These ungrateful people don’t deserve the same amount of effort I put into the meat I served to my niece.’
The dish he served to Hwang Gyeongryong’s daughter was as perfect as he could make it. He made sure that the seasoning had seeped into every part of it and imbued it with just the right amount of internal energy. He even tasted it several times to ensure that he had reached the perfect balance between Earth seasoning and Abyss meat.
With his excellent knife skills and internal energy control, Choi Yeonseung could execute the so-called ‘martial arts cooking’ that no one could follow. It was almost like cheating!
-Hmm. This cut of meat is a bit tasteless. I shouldn’t give this failure to Aine.
And Aine would’ve immediately shouted at him if she heard this.
-Don’t give me such useless consideration! It’s still insanely delicious even if it’s a failure!
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