27 – Episode 27. Heel_(4)
It’s so expensive.
Wasn’t it a good mood just 4 seconds ago?
I was excited because I liked the ingredients and cooking process brought from the tower, while the shop owner sang wine and waited for the tasting.
Among them, Dana was the most excited.
It couldn’t have seemed so much fun to sit and watch while I cooked.
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She didn’t look excited anymore.
Thick drops of broth drip down onto the table.
“Whisper… Huh…”
It sounds like a psychopath to say this at this timing, but those drops of broth signified the success of this dish.
It means that my chicken soup touched her memories.
But whether it was my will or the tower’s force.
It’s a bad thing to steal someone’s memory, so it’s better to tell the truth now.
“I’m sorry. It’s the food you saw in your memory when you heard the voice.”
“…”
She looked me in the eye without answering, then looked back at the bowl.
And with a spoon.
He scooped up the broth and meat chunks into one spoon and started blowing on them.
The tears didn’t stop even as the wind blew on her cheeks.
And after taking the first bite…
“Whoa…”
He spit out hot steam while trembling in mischief.
He looked at me and laughed.
I laughed with full power, unable to point out the tears and snot on my face.
The laughter is so strong that it feels like it even touches me.
“How is it? Do you feel the same way?”
“No… Not at all.”
Ugh.
Your expression was nice, but you answered so sternly.
The material in my memory must have been a rogue bird… Where did I make a mistake?
At the moment when I was embarrassed to have been excited by myself, Dana immediately raised a second spoon and said.
“Dohyeon, my mom’s soup is… It’s not that delicious. On soup day, the number of customers was cut in half. Lol…”
That’s what you meant.
Well, I remember my mom’s cooking was pretty rough.
Since I can’t follow that kind of quick cooking even if I want to, was it decided that I would fail from the beginning?
It’s just good that it’s still delicious.
With those words, Dana stopped crying.
Blowing on the soup to the point that her tear-dried cheeks turned bright red.
“What is this and is it so delicious?”
“I also discovered it for the first time. Its name is Smir. Don’t you think it would be delicious to bake?”
“Yes! Try baking it next time!”
She looked at the ingredients of the soup one by one and opened up a barrage of questions.
Did I learn it when I was running a bar with my mom?
Dana seems to treat her food more like a vendor than a customer.
She wished she had her cooking card too.
“Ahh… Delicious! What can I do… I can’t stop!”
They looked so happy eating the soup like that, and so did the shop owner.
For a while, I rested my chin on her chin and watched her mukbang.
The bowl is empty in an instant.
Not an idiomatic expression, but now there was nothing left in the real bowl.
The broth is completely cooked.
In the empty hall, only the sound of scraping dishes and smacking one’s mouth can be heard.
“Aww, I ate it all already… Too bad.”
I thought about it while cooking, but I really like it when Dana eats my food.
It’s nice to eat it with all my might, and it’s thrilling to point out the parts I’ve worked hard on one by one.
So that’s what Dana said
[You can eat it again next time. If you think of something you want to eat, tell me. I’ll make it.]
I wanted to answer
, But I just couldn’t.
Sometimes the shop owner notices from the side.
Even if that’s not the case.
I don’t know how much longer I’ll be staying in this town, but I’ve already stayed much longer than expected.
Because if one day I leave this town, as Dana’s mother did, Dana will be as lonely as the conversations I enjoyed.
I just decided to keep my mouth shut.
He always has a bright expression, but today I feel particularly relieved by that smile.
“Yes, Dohyeon.”
“Yes.”
“Actually. I still don’t know why my mom left.”
You can.
I almost said.
Shut up and listen.
“At first, he hated leaving me, so I tried to forget him… Strangely, nothing is forgotten in this town? So… what am I talking about…”
“…”
“Thank you, hehehe… I won’t be able to forget it forever anyway, but I think it’s good to think about the old days like this sometimes… It feels like I’m with my mom after a long time.”
Drreuk-
At that moment, Dana jumped up from her seat.
Then she trudged toward me, grabbed my arm, pulled me up, and began to drag me into the kitchen.
“Dohyeon! Come here for a second!”
“Why is this? No way, am I going to be beaten from now on?”
“Why am I hitting you?! It’s not like that, I heard a voice! Come here quickly!”
“Voice?”
She sat down on her floor as soon as she entered her kitchen.
Then she looked around her head for something and started sweeping the corner of her kitchen.
A gap can be seen where the soil has disappeared.
A square-shaped gap and a hole small enough for a hand to fit through.
Is there a secret passage in the floor?
Even though this is Dana’s house, Dana had the most surprised expression.
My eyes are going to pop out.
“Wow… You really are? I never dreamed that something like this existed…”
“Did the voice tell you?”
“Yeah… I want to give you what’s inside. I don’t know what.”
The door on the floor was a small cupboard.
When I opened the lid, a pot was revealed in a small space.
About the size of a rice cooker?
Dana picked it up and handed it to me without examining it.
“Come on, it’s yours. I’m sorry I ate the soup for free… Will this be my reward?”
“Your mother left it, can I not look at it?”
“Yes. It’s enough now that I think about it sometimes. Stop making new memories.”
Dana said calmly, but for some reason, a corner of her chest felt pricked.
She took her jar to her.
I could see small letters engraved under her jar.
It’s been so long that most of it has been erased… But I can still make out some of the writing.
‘Atri…?’
What does it mean? Maybe it’s a person’s name.
It seems strange that I remember seeing it somewhere…
The more I try to recall, the more the memory fades.
Someday I’ll remember something.
Now I’ll have to look at the pot’s abilities.
Finally… I got an artifact exclusive to my first class!
[Libya’s Living Urn/Wandering Chef Exclusive Artifact]
– A cooking utensil used by Libyan alchemists.
– If you store ingredients, their condition changes in an instant.
– The effect of alchemy varies depending on the material.
The ability of the artifact thus confirmed is…
I couldn’t figure it out just by reading the text.
Still, it looks like a jar, and seeing that the state of the ingredients changes just by putting them in…
Maybe that’s it too?
It seems that the effect is roughly known.
If the effect of the artifact is as I expected, this was the jackpot of the jackpots.
I might be able to make the food that humans from this world want the most.
hehehe, I’ll have to try it later.
“Dohyun-ah. Now I want to rest, so I’ll go up to my room.”
“Yes.”
Dana smiled and turned her head away.
The mission is obviously a success.
Seeing her disappearing back makes me feel guilty.
You can bring back memories on your own, but you can’t offer comforting words. You’ve done all sorts of things.
Of course, I wanted to make an excuse that it was the Tower’s prank, but the store owner’s words made even that excuse disappear.
『Everything that happens in the tower is a climber’s choice. The tower never interferes with that will.”
That might be right.
When I sold her wild boar meat to Dana, I thought I wanted to feed her something else.
If only that momentary thought had brought things to this point.
If it was my will that created this ambiguous situation.
What on earth do I want to do?
I don’t know.
Still…
Wouldn’t it be okay to wear heels like this?
“Dana.”
“Huh? Why?”
“There are too many items. Can I leave them here?”
“Of course not! You can stay as long as you want!”
“Then, when you come back later to look for items, let’s cook together again.”
Then her mouth opened slightly, and in an instant she came within a safe distance of me and swung her fist at me.
Puck!
Aww!
You know how strong you are.
A cook is beaten to death by an inadvertently swinging fist.
I feel like my shoulder will fall off.
Still, I thought it was a good thing to say.
Her expression as she exits her kitchen seems to be back to normal now.
The moment she saw that bright smile, a voice came to her head.
“Your first customers can’t be more appreciative of your cooking. And now, realizing that there are no customers in town, you start preparing for your next journey.』
『Congratulations! The first job-only event has been completed.』
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『The level goes up by one level!』
『Please distribute the new stats!』
Level up?
It was an unexpected reward at an unexpected timing.
Originally, the condition for leveling up in TOE was to climb the tower 10 floors.
It looks very small, but the effect of each ability is enormous, so you can feel the tremendous growth effect with just that.
But you can level up with just one event…
‘There is a degree to growth type… This is too expensive, isn’t it?’
But… Considering my initial stats, it might be rather balanced.
While S-rank jobs start with at least 10 stats, I have all 0.
It is understandable only when there is a growth point like this.
If… It would be a different story if you met dozens of customers on every floor.
At that time, the genre of TOE might change to hack and slash.
[Points available for investment: 1]
When I opened the dog tag, there was one distributable ability point.
I’ll have to decide what to invest in before entering the next tower.
I’m worried about too many items, and I’m also worried about the sudden appearance of stats.
It is full of happy worries.
“Hey, Mr. Dohyeon?”
“Ah, you are still here. Are you ready to negotiate?”
But my reward was still long away.
Because now we have to start negotiating with the store owner on an individual-to-person basis.
If you could get more than 1 gold by selling a bowl of soup…
The artifact [Hotel Armadillo] That I couldn’t get even after two years of hard work is now in my hands.
And even acquiring a membership card in the shortest period!
There are so many good things.
Strangely, why does my head keep going up to the second floor?
Somehow… I feel like the event isn’t over.
Or maybe it’s not that it’s not over, it’s that you don’t want it to end.
“Aww, why do you keep wasting time! Let’s taste it to see if it’s really good enough to make me cry… I have a lot of money!”
“If you want to do that, you should trade. But, how long have you been looking for it?”