Chapter 84
"Looks like the ingredient prep is going to be a little rough."
The moment Hong Man-gi quietly spoke, the black blade Full Moon began dancing through strange trajectories in his hand.
[Clang!]
[Clang-clang!]
The Black Hound leader's daggers collided with Hong Man-gi's sword and were knocked aside.
A painful shock ran through the leader's wrist, forcing him backward.
"You bastard...!"
Taking advantage of the opening, Kang Jae-min helped Lee Yu-han retreat behind a safe tree.
Kang Jae-min, still covered in dirt from being tripped by the chain, breathed heavily while watching the battle.
"How's your injury...?"
"Y, yes... I'm okay. But Hunter Kang Jae-min, look over there."
Lee Yu-han pointed toward Hong Man-gi.
Five professional PK Hunters surrounded him.
Under normal circumstances, it should have been a desperate situation.
However,
"Hup! Hah!"
What happened next completely exceeded common sense.
"That's not even fighting... that's...."
Kang Jae-min stared blankly.
Even with all the battlefields he had experienced as a B-rank Hunter, Hong Man-gi's movements were beyond anything he could understand.
[Swish.]
[Pap!]
Rather than dodging the axe-wielding man's fierce charge, Hong Man-gi moved half a step sideways as though dancing.
Then he lightly tapped the inside of the man's wrist with the end of his sword handle.
[Tap.]
"Agh!"
The axe fell from his hand.
Hong Man-gi had struck the exact point where the joint lost strength.
The movement resembled a skilled chef separating meat from bone.
Kang Jae-min's eyes widened.
"He's... cooking."
Lee Yu-han looked at him.
"Cooking? People?"
"Look carefully. He's reading their bodies the same way he reads ingredients."
Hong Man-gi's eyes moved over the enemies.
"Hmm... tough skin. Hard bones and spines."
Then he tilted his head.
"The skin's too tough. Better peel it."
Hong Man-gi reached into his pocket.
He took out a handful of Paralysis Mushrooms he had gathered earlier and a bottle of boar fat saved from the Ironback Boar.
[Whoosh!]
Blue mana rose from his hands.
The authority of the Gourmet Alchemist,
[Material Reconstruction]
activated.
"Wh, what the hell are you doing?!"
The Black Hound members hesitated.
Inside Hong Man-gi's hands, the mushrooms and fat rapidly broke apart and recombined.
The paralyzing toxin from the mushrooms was altered using the fat as a medium, making it easy to vaporize.
"First, we season the ingredients."
Hong Man-gi scattered the completed mixture above their heads.
At the same time, he struck a stone with the tip of his sword and created a spark.
[Pop! Pop-pop!]
Small explosions erupted.
Purple smoke spread in every direction.
"Cough! Wh, what is this?!"
"My eyes... I can't see! My body won't move!"
The Black Hound members staggered while coughing violently.
It was an improvised paralysis gas bomb.
Because of the sticky boar fat, the poisonous mist did not disperse easily.
It clung to their skin and respiratory systems.
"Wow... that's insane."
Lee Yu-han stared from behind the tree.
"What is that? Magic?"
Kang Jae-min swallowed.
"No. That's... a combination of alchemy and cooking."
He continued in disbelief.
"He extracted the toxin from poisonous mushrooms, dissolved it in fat, then used heat to vaporize it. Chef is turning the dungeon ecosystem itself into a weapon."
Kang Jae-min laughed weakly.
"Guess surviving an S-rank dungeon really wasn't just bragging."
Inside the purple mist,
Hong Man-gi moved like a ghost.
Full Moon changed shape in his hand.
The slender blade became something resembling a heavy Chinese cleaver.
A large armored man swung his chain wildly.
"You coward! Poison isn't fair!"
Hong Man-gi tilted his head.
"Fair? This is just a cooking method that makes proper use of ingredient properties."
The cleaver slipped between the joints of the man's armor.
[Scrape!]
With a twist,
a section of armor peeled away like a crab shell.
"Basic rule when dealing with crustaceans. Attack the joints."
Hong Man-gi grabbed the man's exposed arm.
Then he kicked behind his knee.
[Boom!]
The huge man dropped to his knees.
"Next."
A nimble man wielding two swords charged.
Full Moon changed again.
This time it became a long sashimi knife.
[Clang! Clang! Clang!]
Hong Man-gi redirected each strike.
He did not meet the attacks head-on.
Instead, he read the grain of the opponent's movement and guided the force away.
Then,
[Tap.]
He struck the pivot point of one weapon.
The man's two swords collided with each other and flew from his hands.
A blade stopped beneath his chin.
"Sit."
The man immediately dropped to his knees.
In moments, four of the five Black Hound members had been subdued.
Only the leader remained.
He had escaped the paralysis gas by retreating early, but his will to fight was already gone.
His face had turned pale.
"Wh, what the hell are you...?"
He stared at Hong Man-gi.
"You're supposed to be a chef!"
Hong Man-gi walked toward him holding his knife and herbs.
"I am a chef."
His smile was calm.
"The ingredients are just resisting a little too much, so I'm educating them."
"Stay away! Stay away!"
The leader threw his daggers and turned to run.
Hong Man-gi was faster.
[Skill Activated: Shadow Movement]
He instantly appeared in front of the fleeing man.
"Where are you going? Can't have the main dish running away."
Hong Man-gi grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the ground.
[Boom!]
"Ugh!"
The leader screamed.
Hong Man-gi planted a foot on his chest and held the blade directly in front of his face.
"Now then, shall I take your order?"
His voice was low and cold.
"Who sent you?"
It was over.
The entire fight had lasted less than five minutes.
Kang Jae-min and Lee Yu-han cautiously emerged from behind the tree.
Their eyes were filled with awe.
"Wow... Chef. You're seriously... not human anymore."
Kang Jae-min shook his head.
"Five Black Hound members by yourself, without even taking a scratch... how does that make any sense? You've become seriously terrifying. When did you even get this strong...?"
Lee Yu-han excitedly added,
"Those techniques... they all came from cooking, right? When you peeled off that armor, it looked exactly like you were cleaning a king crab."
Kang Jae-min looked toward the Black Hound members groaning on their knees.
"Yeah. He reads their movements like the grain of an ingredient, finds the weak points, then dismantles them. Add instant alchemy items on top of that...."
He laughed.
"This is practically a revolution in combat tactics."
Lee Yu-han shook his head.
"Poor bastards. Of all the people they could attack, they chose the Gourmet Alchemist. If they'd just quietly hunted boars with us, at least their stomachs would be full."
Unlike the excited pair, Hong Man-gi remained calm.
He looked down at the leader beneath his foot.
"I'll ask one last time. Who ordered this?"
His eyes narrowed.
"Cha Mu-jin, right?"
The leader breathed heavily through a face twisted in pain.
Then he nodded.
"Y, yes... Team Leader Cha Mu-jin... told us to make it look like an accidental death...."
"As expected."
Hong Man-gi gave a bitter smile.
He had anticipated it.
Still, hearing the truth directly left him feeling more empty than angry.
He turned toward Kang Jae-min and Lee Yu-han.
"Jae-min, Yu-han. Strip all their equipment."
Their eyes lit up.
"What? Their equipment?"
"Yeah. They need to pay for our food somehow. Their weapons and armor look expensive, don't they?"
Hong Man-gi looked around at the defeated men.
"And if we just let these guys go, they'll probably come back."
His eyes gleamed mischievously.
"We'll use them as assistants for a while."
"Assistants?"
"Yeah. We need porters, and we need people to drive monsters toward us."
Hong Man-gi smiled.
"They should earn their meals."
A strange sight appeared in the forest shortly afterward.
Members of the infamous PK team Black Hound, completely disarmed, obediently picked mushrooms and gathered firewood under Hong Man-gi's orders.
There was not even a trace of resistance left in them.
They had become obedient sheep.
"Hey! Redhead! I told you not to damage the mushroom roots! Dig it up again!"
Lee Yu-han shouted proudly.
Back when he had been F-rank, people treated him like nothing more than a porter.
Now he was ordering high-ranking Hunters around.
"Hey, big guy! Drive another boar over here! A female this time!"
Kang Jae-min was also having the time of his life.
Hong Man-gi watched them with satisfaction.
'Cha Mu-jin. I'm making very good use of the hunting dogs you sent me.'
'You should be grateful.'
He approached the Black Hound leader.
"Send Cha Mu-jin a message. Right now."
"Wh... what should I say...?"
"Just send exactly what I write."
[Thanks for the gift. Ingredient supplies are running very smoothly thanks to you. Next time, please send someone more useful. From the owner of the Full Moon Restaurant.]
Hong Man-gi pressed the send button.
Then he took a deep breath of Bichi Forest's clean air.
