Chapter 36

If You Fry It, Everything Tastes Good (4)

After throwing my griddle-cooked dish at the monster, we re-entered the warehouse after a brief pause.

Amid the griddles scattered all over the floor.

Creeeeak…!

A black, lump-like lifeform was curled up there and the small sounds we could hear.

Crunch!

Crunch!

Crack!

“That sound is…”

“It’s eating.”

And pretty enthusiastically, at that and once it had taken my cooking into its mouth.

The sauce mixed into it. There was no way it could escape the effects.

As I took another step closer.

Flinch!

It must have noticed our approach.

The thing twitched slightly, what mattered was what it did next.

Kiiiiiik…!

Startled, it fled into the corner.

“Don’t let it escape!”

The soldiers and I spread out, blocking its escape routes.

In the end, the monster was driven into a corner of the warehouse…With nowhere left to run.

Creeeeak…!

It curled up, trembling.

‘What the hell?’

‘Looking at it like this…’

“Isn’t it kind of cute?”

“I know, right.”

Compared to the steel-clad monstrosity it had been just moments ago.

Now it looked like a small, black ball of fluff.

If not for the four tiny legs sticking out, you might have mistaken it for a lump of black cotton.

“Still, this is incredible.”

“That monster that was so powerful is shaking like this.”

“So this is the effect of Sergeant Shin’s cooking…”

The effect of the dish I fed it was ‘a sense of defeat.’

‘If this thing tried to fight right now, it might be able to wipe all of us out.’

That was how powerful it was. But that only applied when it still had the will to fight.

Right now, this thing was nothing more than a weak creature, crushed by defeat, trembling in fear.

Shing!

“Let me send you off without pain.”

I drew my kitchen knife. The way to process this thing was ‘cutting it into bite-sized pieces.’ Which meant that the main body itself was a fragile lifeform with no real weak point.

If I just sliced its neck with this knife,

“Wait a moment!”

That was when it happened.

Corporal Lee Gong-woo grabbed my hand as I was about to swing the blade.

“What is it?”

I asked with a slight frown.

The effects of my cooking were not permanent. We had to deal with it while the ‘sense of defeat’ was still active. We had no idea when it might start rampaging again. We didn’t have time to waste, and yet he was stopping me.

“If you’re about to say you feel bad killing a monster that isn’t resisting—”

“That’s not it, sir. Please take a look at this.”

“At what?”

As he spoke, Lee Gong-woo lifted something up.

What he was holding was a griddle. One of the many ordinary griddles scattered across the floor.

“What about that—”

The moment I looked closely at the griddle.

『Ingredient Appraisal』

‘Huh?’

The trait activated.

『Griddle of Mac, Reinforced with Mana』

『A griddle reinforced by special mana.』

『The quality of the material is high, but due to poor hygiene and cleanliness, it is not recommended for use as a cooking ingredient.』

…?

‘What the hell.’

For a moment, I thought I was seeing things. The thing that activated was clearly 『Ingredient Appraisal』. But what it was appraising was a griddle.

The problem was…

‘Why is this trait activating… now?’

“Aha. I guess even if I told you to look, you wouldn’t be able to see it. Only combat engineers have the 『Material Appraisal』 trait.”

‘Right, normally, I wouldn’t be able to see the effects of a griddle that wasn’t even a cooking ingredient.’

Still confused by the sudden activation of my trait, Lee Gong-woo spoke first.

“This griddle isn’t a normal griddle.”

Not a normal griddle.

Was it the same thing I had just seen?

“Corporal Lee Gong-woo?”

“What do you mean, it’s not a normal griddle?”

“It’s been reinforced by that monster’s mana.”

As expected, exactly what I had seen through the system message.

“I actually found it strange during the last battle. No matter how thick a griddle is, it doesn’t make sense for awakened warriors to only leave scratches on it. And the griddles that monster was wearing weren’t even that thick.”

“So you’re saying it strengthened the griddles itself?”

“Yeah. And more importantly.”

Lee Gong-woo pointed at the trembling monster.

“Even now that they’ve fallen off its body, the reinforcement is still active.”

“So that means…”

“We might be able to use these reinforced griddles ourselves.”

I got the gist of what he was saying and I could already guess what he wanted.

“Sergeant Shin.”

“Yeah.”

“Could we try keeping this thing alive?”

As expected…

“You’re saying we should let the monster live?”

“Come on, that’s a bit much.”

The other soldiers all reacted negatively.

A monster was still a monster. Right now it was shaking in fear thanks to my ability, but once the effect wore off, it could try to kill us again. No, chances were, it definitely would. It would be safer to just finish it off cleanly. But…

“If we can somehow keep it alive, we might be able to make some incredible gear by using that trait. Wouldn’t it be a waste to just throw away this opportunity?”

“Hmmm.”

The benefits of obtaining reinforced materials.

Hard to just give that up.

I glanced back at the monster.

It looked like a small black bear cub. Black energy was wavering around its body. The energy that had been controlling nearby objects.

‘Wait a second.’

I pulled out a piece of cloth from my pocket.

The rag I used to wipe blood off my knife. I brought it close to the black energy wavering around the monster.

“It’s not sticking?”

It was completely different from how the metal objects had been drawn to the black energy.

“So it can’t control everything around it, only metal objects.”

If that was the case…

“Guys.”

“Yes?”

“Can someone bring me a bag? One without any metal parts like zippers or buckles.”

“Ah… I think we have one. Please wait a moment.”

Soon, one of the soldiers brought over a bag.

“Calling it a bag might be a stretch. It’s more like a pouch.”

“That’s fine. This will do.”

The pouch was made of cloth, and the opening was tied shut with a string.

Snip!

I cut off the small metal parts attached to the ends of the string.

“Let’s put it in.”

I opened the pouch wide and approached the monster.

“Ah, it’s trying to run!”

“Hey!”

“Stay still!”

After struggling together with the soldiers to restrain it, we finally managed to stuff it into the pouch.

Keeeeng…!

“It kind of feels like animal abuse.”

“Better than killing it.”

It seemed uncomfortable, but perhaps because of the deep sense of defeat, it didn’t resist too violently.

Tight…!

When I pulled the string tight, the black energy also seemed unable to escape. And what remained were the countless metal items scattered across the floor.

“Unbelievable. There’s so much…!”

Lee Gong-woo exclaimed as he looked around at all the metal materials.

When our eyes met, he scratched his cheek awkwardly.

“Ah. I guess I got a bit carried away again.”

“Yeah.”

“You probably don’t know how these look through my eyes, Sergeant Shin…”

His eyes sparkled as he looked at the materials spread across the floor.

But honestly…I wasn’t so sure about that.

‘Feels like I know exactly how you feel.’

『Ingredient Appraisal』

『Nut of Mac, Reinforced with Mana』

『Monkey Wrench of Mac, Reinforced with Mana』

『Reinforced with Mac’s Mana…』

.

.

.

For some reason, I could see the detailed information of those items as well.

When we first came to the hardware warehouse, we had just wanted ordinary materials. But what we actually found were items reinforced with mana. Nearly 90% of everything here had been strengthened by the monster’s mana. In other words…

‘A pile of treasure.’

The rewards far exceeded our expectations.

* * *

We successfully secured the materials and returned.

As long as we secured the route, we could probably make a few more trips to retrieve the rest.

“We’ll keep this thing locked up here.”

Though it was a hardware warehouse, it didn’t contain only metal.

There were wooden items as well. We lashed together wooden planks into a coffin-like container of suitable size and put the monster, ‘Mac,’ inside.

Grrrrk!!

It thrashed about as if the effect of the cooking had finally worn off.

“Hey now, quiet.”

Thump!

Kkeuk!

The main body itself was pathetically fragile. As long as there was no metal nearby for it to control, it was helpless and since it seemed to feed on metal, as long as we managed it properly, there wouldn’t be a problem.

After that, we opened the back of the truck.

The spoils of war, the combat engineers gathered to inspect the materials.

“Wow.”

“What the hell, these aren’t just normal metals.”

“Holy shit, the strength of this material is insane…!”

Everyone was marveling at it,

when Lee Gong-woo approached.

“Thank you for trusting us and prioritizing the materials.”

“No need to thank me. We secured the materials like you said. Our job’s done. From here on out… you know, right?”

“Yes. This part’s on us.”

He grinned.

“We’ll make some kickass gear.”

They carried the materials off somewhere. It looked like they were heading to the wide space behind the barracks. They even dragged a few vehicles over there, probably for the work.

I glanced at one of the vehicles.

『Low-Grade Ingredient Appraisal』

『Aluminum』

『Glass Fiber』

『Functional Ceramic』

.

.

.

Once again, the trait activated.

‘So I’m seeing the list of materials used in the vehicle. Didn’t even care about that before.’

The trait that activated was Ingredient Appraisal.

As the name suggested, it was supposed to appraise cooking ingredients. There was no way it should have activated for aluminum or ceramic.

My skills and traits came from my job as a cook. Naturally, most of them were limited to things related to cooking.

‘Guess that’s not the case anymore.’

The trait had activated when I looked at the metal items in the warehouse as well.

At the time, I hadn’t understood what was happening, but now, I think I know why.

When I succeeded in cooking using a griddle.

『You have discovered a new frontier of cooking!』

『Rewards will be granted.』

Those long, dramatic messages. And then the reward that followed was just a single line.

『The limitations of ingredients have been removed.』

“Yeah. This has to be the reason.”

At the warehouse, I’d been too busy to think about it.

I’d just brushed off that reward, wondering what it even meant. But thinking about it carefully now.

“This is a ridiculous reward…”

The limitations of ingredients being removed. That meant one of the restrictions on my abilities had been completely lifted.

『Ingredient Appraisal』

『Cook’s Eye』

And so on, many of my skills only applied to cooking or cooking ingredients, which made sense.

My job was a cook, after all. I’d always thought that was just a natural restriction, but after successfully cooking using a griddle,

the limitation on ingredients, in other words, one of the restrictions on my abilities, had effectively disappeared.

‘It won’t help much with cooking itself.’

The main people eating my food were the soldiers. Even if I could now cook aluminum or functional ceramics, it’s not like I could feed that to them.

“But Cook’s Eye is also an ability that identifies weak points.”

It had only activated on cooking ingredients before. But with the wide variety of monsters out there, it was possible that we might encounter enemies that weren’t organic.

In those cases, being able to rely on Cook’s Eye was a huge advantage.

“And the most broken part is… Ingredient Appraisal.”

It might be called Ingredient Appraisal, but with the limitation gone, it had essentially become a trait that could appraise any object. Considering that even combat engineers could only appraise materials within a limited scope, having an unrestricted appraisal trait gave me an overwhelming advantage in information.

I was sure of it, the goal of this operation had been to secure materials, and we’d achieved far better quality materials than expected. But the greatest reward by far was this.

* * *

A few days later.

“It’s finished!”

“Huh?”

The combat engineers came to find me while I was agonizinging over the next menu.

I’d been thinking about making some wraps with wild greens we gathered from the nearby mountain.

“Finished, as in, you’re finally done with the work?”

“Yes, sir. Sorry for all the noise these past few days.”

For the past few days, their work had made the area around the quarters pretty noisy during the daytime.

At least no monsters had been attracted by it.

‘Come to think of it, I never really went to see what they were making.’

I’d only heard they were reinforcing the vehicles. I’d never actually seen the process.

Filled with anticipation, I followed the engineers.

The vans and sedans the unit had been using. I half-expected them to have turned into something like armored vehicles.

“Ta-da!”

“What do you think, Sergeant Shin?!”

The engineers proudly presented their creation.

“Huh? Uh.”

It was impressive…It really was impressive, but…

“There are horns on it…?”

On the front of the once-normal van. Huge horns had been mounted. Sharp spear-like blades were even attached to the sides and wheels.

A strangely familiar visual…

‘Yeah, it looks just like…’

‘Is this Mad Max or what?’