Chapter 45: This Wasn't in the Plan? (1) (45/225)
"Whew…"
A sigh slipped out of Jinseo as he sat beside the scooter.He had only participated in the battle for a very short time, but the moment he confirmed the Cockatrice King was dead, all the tension drained out of him at once and his strength ebbed away.
He was a food-service worker, not someone specialized for combat.
Understanding that, the others let Jinseo rest while they proceeded with dismantling the Cockatrice King.
"Over there! Don't peel that skin off—cut it out with the skin still on. It's a part you can sell to mages for a high price, and it fetches more when the skin's attached."
"Ah, right? It's so huge I forgot. A normal cockatrice isn't this big. Here—like this, right?"
"Yes, you cut it perfectly for full value. Next, about the claws—you only need to cut them off above the ankle."
"Like this?"
"Yes, and after that…"
Under Julien's directions, the two men worked hard to break down the Cockatrice King's corpse.
Craid handled the rough, large cuts, while Hayward stepped in when a specific part needed delicate separation.
Julien handled the blood and other tasks smoothly with magic.
"Even if we only strip out the edible parts, the amount is insane, isn't it?"
Even just the breast meat—the highest-protein part if it were a chicken—had piled up higher than his height.
The reason Hayward was amazed was simple.
It was his first time properly dismantling the meat of a monster this huge.
And that made sense. When a giant monster was killed, unless a large workforce was mobilized, most of the pure meat was usually discarded.
Because you had to prioritize collecting the parts with market value.
There was also the method of using subspace storage, but the capacity of subspace storage was proportional to the mage's ability to implement it.
Just the ingredients they had already put into the scooter's subspace storage while coming down to the lowest floor was an enormous amount.
That was why, to a small party that had explored the dungeon with few people, Jinseo didn't look like a mere cook.
He was a mage who freely operated an unknown magical tool called a food truck, and at the same time a fighter who used mysterious martial arts from a country none of them had ever been to.
Even so, Jinseo's attitude—never putting on airs—was more than enough for the two men who had met him first to feel goodwill toward him.
Even if they still felt like he kept a certain distance.
"Alright, that's it! Now it's really over!"
After storing all the meat and valuable parts into the subspace storage, Hayward dusted off his hands and walked over to Jinseo.
Only then did Jinseo regain his senses, stand up, and hand him a drink.
"Good work, everyone."
"What work… Still, I'm glad it ended way faster than I expected. After we brought that thing down, my breath suddenly caught in my throat. I was thinking about how we'd ever strip all that flesh off."
Even while saying that, Hayward was the one who worked hardest after the battle ended.The coffee effect would last at least a full day.
Rather than fearing the insomnia that would come later, he optimistically accepted it as, "I'll just do what I can right now."
Ah, I need to check that.
Jinseo reopened the status window he had closed and belatedly started reading the messages he hadn't checked.
{ Unexpected Quest has been completed. Rewards will be granted. }{ 50,000 Mileage and 50,000 Mana have been granted. }{ The base physical grade of Lee Jinseo, owner of the Food Truck, has been increased to A. The owner's possessed abilities have been adjusted in bulk to Grade A accordingly. }{ Lee Jinseo's current adjusted physical grade is A−. When exiting the dungeon, it will return to the original grade A. }
Next, it was time to confirm the reason the Cockatrice King had raged—now that it had been completely dismantled and stored away.
Jinseo looked down into the hole created beneath the altar when the Cockatrice King burst out.
For a space that had hidden a giant monster, it wasn't very deep, and because of that, the reason for its rage was easy to find in the corners.
Egg white and yolk were mixed all over, and shards like broken fragments were scattered everywhere.
"Did it fall asleep lying on them?"
"What are you looking at? Is there another monster?"
Hayward came up beside Jinseo and peered down into the hole.
At first he reacted like, why are you looking at nothing, but when he turned his head to where Jinseo pointed, he finally noticed the broken eggs and blinked.
"Huh? That was there?"
"Those are cockatrice eggs, right?"
"Wait… I think so. But they're all smashed."
"Don't tell me they broke and that's why it went berserk and came at us like that? Even launching all its feathers to target us?"
"Still, thanks to that, we didn't have to suffer through plucking feathers."
Jinseo had heard cockatrice feathers had their uses, but he didn't dwell on it.Surviving and bringing the monster down had been the priority.
"By the way, what's cockatrice meat like?"
At Jinseo's question, Hayward carefully recalled the taste of the monster meats that had ended up in his mouth so far.
"I've never eaten it, but I've heard it's similar to chicken. No—maybe they said it's much better?"
"Is that so? Then…"
Meat similar to chicken, but much better.
That meant Jinseo could just treat it as chicken and cook it accordingly.
There were many dishes you could make with chicken: baeksuk, samgyetang, dakbokkeumtang, jjimdak, chicken porridge, and so on.
But for a modern Korean, the most beloved chicken dish only brought one thing to mind.
"When we get out of the dungeon, I'll make you chicken."
"Chicken? Is that a new kind of bunsik?"
"It's not bunsik, but it's one of the foods I can confidently claim as the best from where I'm from. It's a dish recognized overseas too, so trust me."
Back in Korea, Jinseo's days had been a repetition of preparing ingredients, practicing new recipes, and sleeping.
Because of that, it had been quite a while since he'd eaten chicken.
As Jinseo imagined taking a huge bite, saliva pooled in his mouth.
"Wow, it's the first time I've heard you talk like that. I'm really looking forward to it."
"I've learned how to make chicken for quite a long time, so you can look forward to it."
Back when he ran Jinseo's Snack Bar, Jinseo had once considered switching the business into a chicken shop.
But before that, Jinseo's Snack Bar shut down, and it became something that never happened.
Even Jinseo never imagined he'd end up making the chicken he had given up—like this.With meat obtained from a monster in another world.
"Mr. Jinseo, I want to store this somewhere safe. Is that alright?"
"Ah, right. That."
Receiving the mana core from Julien, Jinseo opened the scooter seat and put it into the subspace storage beneath.
At that exact moment—
Paaah.
The mana core shone, and as if resonating with it, the scooter also began to radiate light in all directions.
{ Measuring the amount of mana contained in the mana core that entered subspace storage. }{ Measurement complete. If you absorb this mana core's mana, you can advance the self-repair process for correcting the spatial movement magic formula error from 20% to 75%. }{ Would you like to absorb this mana core's mana? }
"W-what is this?"
Staring blankly, Hayward looked toward Julien and asked.
"I-I don't know either. I've handled mana cores many times, but this is the first time I've seen a phenomenon like this too."
"Hm…"
Faced with something completely unexpected, the three men could only be bewildered.
There was only one person who could give an answer—the owner of the food truck in its lightweight state, Jinseo.
AI, I'll ask them first and decide.
{ Understood. }
"Can you sell me this mana core?"
He was roaming around to solve ingredients on his own, but it was still impossible to obtain every ingredient used in bunsik on the Francia Continent.
More than anything, Jinseo was born and raised in Korea, not here, and the fact that he was forced to remain on the Francia Continent until the spatial movement function was repaired weighed on him.
So if possible, he wanted to shorten the three-month period.
"As you already know, Mr. Craid, one of the food truck's functions has been having problems since about a month ago. I need mana cores to fix it."
"You did say it was acting strange."
"Really? Then sure, we'll sell it. That size isn't that expensive anyway. Julien, you agree too, right? And Craid—no need to even ask."
Once Hayward accepted it, the other two also nodded and agreed.
"Then the price would be…"
"Hey, don't do that. Why don't we keep it simple? We give you the mana core to help repair the food truck, and you let us eat bunsik worth that much."
"Pardon? That would be convenient for me, but…"
"A mana core—we can get another one if we run another dungeon. But bunsik? No one can make it except you. And the food that guy ate on the way here wasn't cheap. Thinking about how much he'll eat in the future… just treat it like we're paying in advance. While we're at it, how about we also prepay the fee we were supposed to get this time as bunsik money?"
"Then you'll have to eat quite a lot."
"You didn't think we'd eat just a few meals of something that delicious and be satisfied, did you? Not like that guy can, but still."
At Hayward's words, Craid pulled his mouth away from the GaX chocolate he had been about to bite and glared at him with a serious expression.
"I, according to my principle that respect for delicious food is to eat it up to the limit of my appetite…"
"Alright. That's enough. Everyone okay with it? Then that's what we're doing."
Hayward grinned and patted Jinseo's shoulder.
This time, Jinseo nodded in agreement.
"Thank you. There are still many dishes I haven't shown you yet, so once we leave the dungeon, I'll show you as much as you want."
"Including that chicken you mentioned earlier?"
"Of course. You can just think of it as a chicken dish."
"What kind of dish would it be? If it's chicken, boiling or grilling… It won't be insanely spicy like that tteokbokki bunsik, right? Or will it compete with savory broth flavor like ramen?"
Hayward rattled off the thoughts coming to mind.
Craid repeatedly opened and closed his left hand in the air, imagining the unknown food called "chicken" that huge hand would grip.
Julien, more than chicken, repeatedly hesitated to ask Jinseo how the food truck absorbed the mana from a mana core.
In the end, he began to infer the process based on his magical knowledge—drawing rune letters in the air with his finger.
Quietly watching the others let their imaginations run, Jinseo gave the AI the order to absorb the mana core's mana.
{ The process of absorbing mana from the mana core has been completed. }{ The self-repair process for correcting the spatial movement magic formula error has advanced to 75%. When the self-repair process is completed, forced transmission to the original world will proceed in order to undergo stabilization. Please exercise caution. }
Ten minutes after giving the command, Jinseo saw the completion message and closed the status window.
"It's done. Now all that's left is the way back."
"Before that, let's wash up and go. Once you get used to that shower thing, it feels gross if you don't wash every day."
"Wait."
Jinseo stopped Hayward as he tried to take off his top, then walked toward the hole in the altar.
A faint light flowed up from below.
With a premonition that something unusual was about to happen again, Jinseo was about to call the others—but before he could speak, they were already preparing for battle on their own.
Wary of what monster might appear, they didn't let their guard down, and in the silence, a sphere of light slowly rose from beneath the hole.
"What is that…?"
Paaah.
The sphere of light blazed, and everyone's vision turned white.
Jinseo hurriedly turned his head aside, then slowly opened his eyes and looked forward—
"An owl?"
All his strength drained away.
"That's not a monster, right?"
"Can't you tell? It's an owl. Still, don't let your guard down."
"An owl. But this feeling… it's familiar."
"An owl, hmm…"
With an owl appearing out of nowhere, the mood turned chaotic.
Jinseo studied the white owl closely.
It was his first time seeing an owl on the Francia Continent—and in Korea too.A bird of prey, despite its cute appearance.
If it were the old Jinseo, he might've been a little afraid, but on the Francia Continent where physical grades applied, there was no reason to be.
"Huh? It's coming this way."
As the owl flew toward Jinseo, Craid and Hayward instinctively tightened their grip on their weapons, but soon relaxed.
Unlike their assumption that it might be a monster disguised as an owl, they couldn't sense the murderous intent unique to monsters.
The white owl flew closer, then hovered in place in front of Jinseo with a slow flap of its wings.
"W-wait. This feeling is…"
Turning around, Julien looked at Nero sitting on the scooter seat and became certain.Before, he might have been confused, but not now.
"A… spirit! It's a spirit! Another spirit has appeared!"
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