<978 – Sword Saint (2)>
Singing and Jiang were freshly reminded that Oknodie was the daughter of a wealthy family.
This meant that they had gotten quite tired of Cooking Oknodie’s terrible culinary skills.
“Phew.”
“Tastes bad.”
“How could this be?! This is too much…!”
Jiang presented the salt-preserved rice balls.
“If this is an assassination tool that kills with salt, fine. But if it’s for eating, I’ll die of thirst. You don’t think of me as a sea fish, do you?”
Singing cut through the meat with a fork to show the cross-section.
The contrast between the blackened, charred exterior and the completely raw interior was impressive.
“If it’s a piece of art, a mix of various colors can be beautiful, but if it’s food, don’t mess with it. The cooking is completely uneven.”
“Ugh! I worked hard on this, and you call it a joke?!”
In this world, there are some things that are simply unforgivable, regardless of the effort put in by the person involved.
Unbearably badly made food was a prime example.
—
Sadi was the only one who had seen the answer sheet.
Because they could read Oknodie’s hidden feelings.
“Why did Cooking Oknodie come in? With your Cooking Handbook powers, wouldn’t just Foodie Oknodie be enough?”
Sadi honestly felt a twinge of suspicion.
A child who does nothing but eat.
Oknodie’s cooking skills were atrocious.
Even if Oknodie was incapable, Sadi Chocolate could easily overpower Cooking Oknodie to make it scream as a morning wake-up call.
“That’s because of ‘mindset’!”
“Mindset?”
“It’s easy to think that only [Function] is contained in a doppelganger, but as the mastery of doppelganger technique increases, it becomes possible to contain aspects like [Temperament] as well!”
Not [Function] but [Temperament].
Once they learned that fact and looked at the answer sheet again, secrets previously unseen were revealed.
“This child’s cooking buffs were a trick, huh?”
“Gasp! You’ve caught on already?!”
“This is ‘artificial Titosso,’ isn’t it?”
To protect a weak friend, Oknodie would increase their combat power and display more wisdom.
If they threw that kind of friend who was lacking yet couldn’t be hated to Oknodie?
Even near impossible missions could succeed.
Just look at the combination.
‘Glutton’ Oknodie and ‘Cooking’ Oknodie.
There’s no closer fateful bond than this.
For Glutton Oknodie, as long as they could raise Cooking Oknodie well, their meals for life were guaranteed.
“There’s a contradiction here. Why would such a precious one leave without their doppelganger friend?”
“That’s…”
“That’s?”
“Lack of contribution!”
“…Does that mean it can’t come out for life?”
“I don’t particularly care. I’m not really a fan of cooking. It’s a hassle for me.”
Indeed.
Even if it was garbage, thinking of it as a little evil dragon’s behavior made sense.
However, why did Sadi Chocolate feel an ominous sensation?
Something about it felt like Oknodie had done something outrageous.
What could be the problem?
Was there truly still a problem lingering?
Sadi Chocolate’s sharp mind informed her of what made her uneasy.
“Hmm? Then, is the ‘Temperament’ resembling Titosso absent?”
“Isn’t it okay if it’s missing?”
“!”
That was the problem.
If Cooking Oknodie couldn’t escape, the puny weakness resembling Titosso implanted in Cooking Oknodie would be unable to escape from the Picture World.
The title is the Tomb of the Sword.
Those who slumber in that tomb are not just Cooking Oknodie.
Oknodie’s insignificance, weakness, humanity.
The part that had been positioned like the border between evil dragons and little evil dragons would vanish.
“…If Jiang and Singing don’t try very hard, it won’t work out properly.”
Sadi Chocolate never thought she would one day cheer for someone.
But right now, she genuinely hoped Jiang and Singing would escape with Cooking Oknodie.
If Cooking Oknodie got sealed in the endlessly rolling Picture World, Oknodie might challenge the worst beyond the great evil.
Yes, that outcome would indeed be what the Director desired.
The evolved form of the cold and cynical Dark Princess, who sees all connections as useless.
The birth trigger of Evil Dragon Oknodie rivaling Demon King Oknodie.
—
The two, blissfully unaware of the staggering trials they were shouldering, threw themselves into Cooking Oknodie’s training.
“Gahh… this is so hard…!”
“Whining won’t help.”
“It’s not whining… it’s just really too hard…”
Jiang realized one reason Cooking Oknodie couldn’t cook.
This child had way too low stats.
Originally, they couldn’t hope for an escape, like the doppelganger that was thrown away; they only had identity and a strange personality, but their abilities as a combatant were subpar.
“Try stir-frying again.”
“It’s heavy…!”
The fried rice spilled all over the ground.
“…Try cutting some vegetables.”
“Scary…!”
The slow chopping of the vegetables made the Ghost Swordsman feel sick.
“Measuring.”
“Waaah! I spilled it…!”
The situation was so embarrassingly low that they might need to start with rehabilitation training rather than actual cooking.
No wonder they couldn’t cook.
Struggling with the wok, whining when faced with fire, and timidly trying to cut vegetables with eyes closed, the results amounted to five chops per minute.
A vegetable attack speed of once every twelve seconds was surprisingly unevenly thick and large.
They were just grateful they could at least get some ingredients from Oknodie’s Food Storage.
“Did you find the curry?”
“There’s golden curry! It’s going to taste so good…!”
“…No, not the finished product, but the curry powder.”
“There’s that… But do I really have to take out the curry powder…? It’s going to taste bad if I make it… I feel sorry for the curry…”
“You’ll get better as you keep going.”
Jiang’s words were true.
A haphazard mix of roughly chopped vegetables and curry powder boiled into a terrifyingly spicy curry.
It may have tasted horrible, but the experience points definitely went up.
“Try making it again.”
The second attempt.
Their vegetable attack speed improved from once every twelve seconds to once every ten.
The amount of water diminished from the Great River to spring water.
They learned to manage medium heat, which helped eliminate the burnt taste, contributing to the improvement of cooking quality.
Cooking Oknodie’s cooking experience skyrocketed.
“Growth speed is impressive.”
“Do Sia and Isabel think so too?”
“Possibility has seemed apparent for a while. It felt like there was talent, but it wasn’t utilized at all?”
That was true.
Without Isabel, how would Oknodie have possibly filled the Cooking Handbook?
Buying food?
Touring restaurants?
Those were a given, and on top of that, the added factor was directly cooking for themselves.
“That rusty talent needs a thorough cleaning.”
“Oknodie even has some conscience; they’ve left access to the ingredient backpack open. Let’s empty the ingredient backpack.”
Oknodie’s ingredient backpack was a treasure trove of every ingredient in the world.
In terms of quantity, it easily surpassed the fruit store’s stock and the supermarket’s pantry.
In terms of rarity, it held everything from the essence of a high-ranking demon’s spirit to the tentacles of a giant monster, the fruit from Seonhwang’s offering table, and dressings made from juiced spirits—truly a collection of oddities.
“An alien’s head…? This one has really big eyes. What kind of creature is this? Did it come from the material plane?”
“The sword of the Living Sword is fun too. When heated, the sword screams while releasing mana, suffusing the meat with mana. There’s a minor warning note about overcoming a fear of self-harm, but that’s fine, right?”
Whether it was Jiang or Singing, they had long since filled their resistance to such matters to the brim.
“I’ve completed the 12-dish set menu of the spirit sacrificial table… I’m requesting a tasting…!”
“I’ve completed the 7-color spirit drink set menu… I’m requesting a taste test…!”
“Hiiiii! I grilled it without burning it! Eat this masterpiece of life now!”
Jiang felt a shift in mood, as if she were beside the cowardly, blubbering Titosso from the early days, newly empowered from training.
Despite being a loser, he strutted around and joyfully celebrated the little things; his exaggerated reactions warmed her heart.
However, this culinary training quickly ran into problems.
“Too much.”
“There’s only the two of us; why do you keep making set menus?”
“Uwaaa… if I use a lot of ingredients, the experience points shoot up… I just wanted to get strong quickly… If it was a nuisance, I’m sorry… From now on, I’ll just make a little!”
The completed dishes piled high, as if they were still gathering data for the compendium!
Got to love the passion and ambitions of a veteran player; was it perhaps why a bit of soul blended in?
Cooking Oknodie’s cooking never ceased.
If they consumed it all, they might forcibly expand their bellies.
Singing and Jiang, both sensitive to the significant matter of weight as women, showed slightly irritated expressions that made Cooking Oknodie feel noticeably worse.
“…We need to burn off a lot of calories.”
“Ghost Swordsmen! This time, let’s fight at a 1 to 10 ratio. An experienced master can pass the test with sword techniques alone. It’s not meaningless training.”
In order to eat just one more of Cooking Oknodie’s dishes, Jiang and Singing threw themselves into intense training, fighting the Ghost Swordsmen more fiercely!
The fervor of the two became ferocious enough to seal the Ghost Swordsmen back into the Tomb of the Sword and conduct their ghostly cleansing.
As they were repeatedly beaten back and forth to the grave, the ghosts finally shouted out in exasperation.
“Just let us eat!!”
“Ghosts can eat too!!”
“How can ghosts?!”
To a surprised Jiang, one of the ghosts replied.
“You place food in front of the tomb, and that’s the sacrificial offering. What is a sacrificial offering? Food honoring the soul of the deceased. It’s food for the dead. While I may not consume the physical food, I can absorb the energy and nutrients inside!”
“!”
There were only two living people, but just from a glance at the tomb, there were easily over ten thousand tombstones visible.
The ones subjected to food torture, Jiang and Singing, felt the relief, while Cooking Oknodie was struck with the shocking declaration that she would suddenly have to feed thousands!
