Chapter 821: Wound
Until now, the various skills and traits had all been carried out with the System’s assistance.
In fact, this was precisely the part that had most astonished the races from other worlds when they looked at awakened beings.
People who had not trained for a long time, who until not long ago had been nothing more than ordinary civilians.
And yet those people handled highly advanced techniques as if it were nothing.
Because it was something that made far too little sense.
All of it had originated from the wish of the old god, who wanted its descendants to survive in this world.
I had no idea where it had scraped all those techniques together from.
But awakened beings had been used as mediums for power, while the manifestation of that power had been carried out on their behalf by the System.
But now.
Those techniques of an absurdly advanced level.
Those powerful techniques that had only been possible to perform with the System’s assistance.
[Demigod-Level Cooking Proficiency]
Were unfolding from my hands, through my will alone.
'The firepower is weak.'
I was someone who had handled enough firepower back at that fortress to literally transform matter itself.
Even if these were pieces of equipment made for me by the Legion members.
I had reached a point where I could no longer be satisfied with firepower of this level.
“It was definitely...... something like this, right?”
I closed my eyes and recalled the effects the System had once produced inside my body.
The movement of that mana and will...... and reproduced it.
Then.
[Elemental Cooking - Fire]
FWAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!
The mana residing inside my body was ‘cooked.’
And transformed into an overwhelmingly enormous amount of firepower.
In truth.
Even for me, reproducing memories engraved into my body exactly as they were was not an easy thing.
If this had been something like the combat techniques of combat classes, then even if I used the absurd capabilities of this body to remember how they were used, I would not have been able to actually use them.
And yet the reason this was possible...... well, it was simple.
'I’m a cook.'
To those otherworlders, awakened beings must have looked like existences capable of using highly advanced techniques without undergoing any training.
I too had probably once been like that.
But not anymore.
'A cook with quite a few years under his belt.'
Several years had passed since I began cooking as an awakened being.
And over those years, I had gone through countless experiences of a density overwhelmingly greater than anyone else’s.
I had been cooking this deeply for all that time.
If losing nothing more than a single tool called the System meant I could no longer cook, there could hardly be anything more embarrassing than that.
Because I had that experience, at least when it came to abilities related to cooking, I had now become capable of handling them myself.
And.
'This one said it had been trapped here for a long time while injured and lost its memories, right.'
If I could cook.
Then there were quite a few things I could do.
An injury.
And problems that arose from remaining in one place for a long time while suffering from aftereffects caused by that injury.
And problems like these...... no matter how many different causes and mechanisms they might have.
In the end, fundamentally, they all came down to one cause.
'Malnutrition.'
Nutrition needed for the body’s recovery.
Or nutrition needed to trigger the mechanisms responsible for that recovery.
Either way, it happened because there was not enough nutrition!
The way to solve that problem was simple.
'You just have to eat well and rest.'
The missing nutrition.
That was something I could provide.
FWAAASH!
Watching the cooking continue.
I recalled another power that had once been carried out inside my body.
I remembered how it worked...... and reproduced that method exactly.
Rustle.......
My body, which had become absurdly powerful and healthy after the battles I had gone through.
A portion of that body’s vitality was transferred.
[Health Food]
A power that used my own stamina to restore another’s health.
That power was manifested through my will alone and infused into this dish.
[Chef’s Special Sauce - Clarity]
A technique that had become capable of planting emotions and thoughts, even memories, in the one who ate it.
I made the special sauce and poured it over the food.
'If the System were here, I’d probably be hearing a ding right about now.'
Like that.
'Along with a message saying [The dish has been completed.].'
The dish was complete.
There was no System message and no notification in front of me.
But if there had been one, it would probably have displayed a message like this.
[Full Set of Stir-Fried Pork with Health and Clarity, Prepared with the Devotion of a Demigod-Level Cook]
“All right, it’s done.”
I could feel some kind of power filling up inside my body.
The rank that represented the nobility of one’s existence.
The moment I completed the dish entirely through my own will...... I had accomplished an achievement.
And through that achievement, I could feel my rank rise, even if only slightly.
“Enjoy.”
“.......”
Confidently.
I handed the completed full meal to it.
***
As the elaborate and abundant full-course meal was laid out.
The nameless little one stared blankly at the table.
'Ah.'
And.
After confidently handing over the food, I inwardly realized my mistake and opened my mouth.
“Well, this form might not be familiar to you, but this is food.”
“.......”
“Ah, you might not even have the concept of cooking. So, um...... you eat it.”
This was not Earth, and this one was a being from another world.
In the past, I had seen the cooking of a Dasmurian cook.
His cooking, as an otherworlder, had possessed a sensibility that I, as a human, could not understand at all.
You could say it was food that did not look like food no matter how you looked at it.
But in reality, that dish had been remarkable enough to extend the lifespan of the Pope of Dasmur.
Thinking back on it now, that cook had probably been at least somewhere in the high level 50s if measured by awakened standards.
'This one might be similar.'
No matter how remarkable the dish itself was.
There was no way to know what the appearance of this food would feel like to beings from another world.
To me, it looked like an appetizing meal, but to this one, it could appear just like the grotesque tentacle dish of that Dasmurian cook had looked to me.
“Just close your eyes and try it once. You scoop it up with that stick over there with the round end and eat it...... mm, do I need to feed you myself?”
Come to think of it, this one even looked almost exactly like a newborn baby.
I was wondering whether perhaps I really did need to feed it myself...... when.
'Hm?'
Because I had been concentrating only on the cooking, {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} I looked at it and.
Felt a strange sense of incongruity.
'Was it originally this big?'
It still had the appearance of a newborn baby.
Small, tiny, looking as though it might break if handled even slightly wrong.
But somehow.
'If you measured it by the growth of a newborn baby, about one day’s worth...... no, maybe half a day’s worth?'
Very, very, very, very slightly.
I had the feeling that it had grown a little.
'Must be my imagination, right?'
It was an extremely minute change.
If not for the body I had now, I probably would not even have noticed anything strange.
That was how minute the change was.
The surroundings had heated up considerably while I was cooking.
So perhaps the heat had distorted my vision slightly.
Or perhaps, since it truly did have the appearance of a newborn baby, it had simply grown a little while I was cooking.
Thinking of it that way, perhaps it was not particularly strange...... just as I was thinking that.
“Having you feed me would be a little much, so I’ll try it myself. So...... like this?”
With a slightly awkward manner, it picked up the spoon.
Then it began scooping up the food I had made and bringing it to its mouth.
'Good.'
It did not seem to properly know how to use a spoon.
Just like an actual newborn baby, it wrapped its entire palm around the spoon and began eating.
But well, the way it ate was not important.
The fact that it had eaten at all was what mattered.
'It said it spent an extremely long time here alone, right?'
The effects of cooking changed depending on the palate of the one eating it as well.
I did not know for certain, but it probably had not had proper food in its mouth for a very long time.
No matter what sort of food it had eaten before losing its memories, its palate must have deteriorated considerably by now.
Not to brag, but.
At present, I was probably a cook of a level difficult to find any precedent for throughout all of history.
And this was a dish made by someone like me while going all out.
I was confident enough that I could satisfy even a great divinity.
So I was confident that not only the wounds this one claimed to have suffered.
But even its memories could be restored in an instant.
“Chew, chew.......”
But...... somehow.
As I watched it, I felt something strange.
“Slurp.......”
It was different from the sense of incongruity I had felt just before.
If that earlier incongruity had been vague enough to make me wonder, ‘Huh? Did something change a little?’
Then the strangeness I was feeling now...... was far too obvious.
“Gulp.”
Before I knew it.
It had completely finished the food I made.
“Is this enough?”
“.......”
It had cleaned the entire table without leaving anything behind, enough to make the thought that I might have made far too much without considering that tiny body seem meaningless.
But.
“You.......”
Seeing that.
I could only mutter blankly.
“Don’t you feel any kind of change in your body?”
“Change?”
“Something that changed because you ate my food.”
Because.
Even though it had clearly eaten a dish I had made while going all out.
“If you mean a change caused by this meal...... I don’t think there’s anything in particular.”
From its body.
I could not see any effect whatsoever caused by my cooking.
***
'That makes no sense.'
My class was cook.
And a fairly remarkable cook at that.
I had reached a level where calling myself a cook capable of satisfying even gods would not particularly be an exaggeration, and this was a dish I had made while going all out.
And yet.
“I’m sorry. Was some kind of change supposed to happen?”
“.......”
Despite having eaten my cooking.
There was no change whatsoever in it.
I could not even feel something like the pleasant fullness that came from eating delicious food.
'It really makes no sense...... but it actually happened.'
If there had to be a reason something like this had happened.
There were a few possibilities that came to mind.
'Maybe the cooking I thought I had performed properly actually wasn’t done correctly.'
In my own mind, I had confidently believed that I had perfectly reproduced [Demigod-Level Cooking Proficiency] even without the System’s assistance.
But...... since my connection to the System had been severed, it was not as though a message like [You have successfully reproduced Demigod-Level Cooking Proficiency without the System’s assistance!] had appeared in front of me.
Perhaps believing I had reproduced it perfectly was nothing more than my own misconception.
Maybe all I had done was make an ordinary plate of stir-fried pork at the level of a military cook.
'No, but that firepower...... [Elemental Cooking] definitely worked properly.'
If my abilities really had worked correctly.
Then the next possibility that came to mind was.
'Maybe this one’s palate is absurdly refined.'
Back when I was still only in my twenties in terms of level.
When I fed my cooking to the Pope of Dasmur.
The Pope, who had been eating the cooking of a Dasmurian cook estimated to be above level 50, had judged my all-out cooking as merely decent enough to eat.
My attempt to interfere with the Pope’s mind had likewise ended in a futile failure.
The effects of cooking were determined by the target’s palate.
Against a being with a low palate, those effects became exponentially stronger.
But if the palate was too refined, the effects could instead be reduced.
'Even so, a palate that refined?'
Back when I was in my twenties in level, I had simply accepted that cases like that could happen.
But now, I could not.
Even if some being called the god of cooking or whatever existed, and even if this one ate that being’s cooking every single day,
With my current cooking skill, there should at least have been a minute change.......
In other words, a change on the level of having eaten food that was ‘decent enough to eat.’
If my current cooking was not enough to suit its palate, I could not even imagine how refined that palate would have to be.
“It seems something must have gone wrong.”
“.......”
“I’m sorry. It seems I failed to meet your expectations again.”
That was why I thought it made no sense.
By common sense, there was no way my current cooking should have absolutely no effect.
“Still...... just in case, I should mention something.”
So...... if there was one final possible reason.
“The fact that what you expected didn’t happen probably isn’t your fault.”
“What?”
If there was nothing wrong with my cooking.
And the problem...... lay somewhere else.
“It’s a little embarrassing, so I was trying not to show you...... but there is one possible cause that comes to mind.”
With those words.
It opened its mouth wide.
At the same time, it lifted the unfamiliar-style clothing it was wearing.
“......!”
And...... seeing that, I could not help but widen my eyes in surprise.
The fact that it had suddenly lifted its clothes was somewhat bewildering.
But naturally, that was not the reason.
“What do you think?”
Its open mouth.
And inside the clothing it had lifted.
Inside its mouth and abdomen.......
'There’s nothing.'
No tongue, no teeth.
No navel, no stomach.
In the places where there should have been organs meant to taste food and store food.
There was only a deep darkness with no visible end.
“It's a little ugly, isn’t it?”