Chapter 830: Imbalance
The hole Sergeant Park Taejun had made leading outside.
Through that hole, I intended to find some clue that might help me overcome the destruction I would face in the future.
Originally, I thought I might have to wander through several different worlds.
But whether I should call it good luck or bad luck.
The one I encountered in the very first world told me that it could help me.
‘It wasn’t exactly trustworthy, though.’
Well, I had nothing to lose.
It didn’t seem to be lying...... so I decided to do as it told me.
And the first condition it said was necessary in order to help me was.
‘Do what you must in this land, and make your name known.’
In truth.
Under normal circumstances, fulfilling that condition would not have been especially easy.
I had become fairly strong in my own way.
But that did not mean I had transcended the limits of being human.
The limitations of being a chef also still remained quite clearly.
In other words...... it wasn’t as though I could suddenly put a hand to my forehead, teleport, and go hopping around the entire planet.
My name was already known in places like South Korea and China.
If I wanted to spread my fame any further, I would have to go to other countries.
But even as I was now, there was no particularly convenient way to reach distant places other than running there myself.
Especially in this world, where you ran into a monster once every three steps.
Even for me, traveling to another region would inevitably take quite a long time.
‘Normally, that is.’
But...... how should I put it.
In this case, there was nothing else to call it but good luck.
After all.
‘I’m glad I prepared for this in advance.’
For situations where I might have to reach another country as quickly as possible.
I had already made preparations to some extent.
Flap.......
And this was exactly what I had prepared.
‘Kkamangi.’
The black steel dragon beating its enormous wings with me riding on its back.
[Steel-Eating Beast]
Despite the name, it was actually a monster that grew stronger by consuming all kinds of minerals.
It was also the powerful enemy that had given our guild, the [Steel Legion], its first brush with total annihilation after its formation.
‘When it was smallest, it was only the size of a kitten. And after growing, it became a dragon.’
The more minerals it ate, the stronger it became.
When we first encountered it, it had been the size of a huge bear, and after weakening afterward, it maintained the size of a small cat for a long time.......
Last time.
During the battle against Avaritia, when I gathered together fragments of Bimana, the ruins of the destroyed city, and even Avaritia’s energy and cooked them all together.
This thing took on the form of an enormous golden dragon.
‘This is probably the final form its species can take.’
I could still feed it more even in this state.
But even then, it only grew larger without changing its form.
Perhaps this very form of a ‘dragon’ was the final point that a living creature could reach.
And as befitted such a final form, Kkamangi in this state was undoubtedly powerful.
Even during the battle against Avaritia, although it had been far larger than it was now, it had actually endured Avaritia’s attack with its own body.
If there was one problem.
‘Its fuel efficiency is terrible.’
During the battle against Avaritia, it had grown enormous after eating that Golden Paradise.
But the moment the effect of my cooking ended, it instantly shrank to a much smaller size.
Basically, it grew stronger by consuming minerals.
But at the same time, it also used them as food.
Just because it grew larger did not mean that state could be maintained forever.
Unless I intended to let it devour every last resource the Legion possessed.
There was no way it could maintain this enormous form.
In the end, if I wanted Kkamangi to fight at full strength, I needed another method.
In other words, well.
‘My cooking.’
Even with the same amount of minerals, once they passed through my cooking, their effects were amplified to a degree that could not even be compared to before.
Feeding it ordinary minerals was not enough to maintain this thing’s power.
But if I kept it close and continuously fed it meals, even a relatively small amount of minerals was enough to keep it in the form of a dragon.
That was why Kkamangi had not participated in the Legion’s expedition.
It had been rolling around diligently in its kitten-like form back at our base in Chuncheon.
Until I tempted it with the promise of cooking for it.
Flap-!
The Legion had developed its technology around concentrating firepower on the ground in order to survive in the immediate future.
As a consequence, we still had made no progress in technologies such as aerial flight.
This thing was different.
“Fast. Really fast.”
A dragon flying through the sky without having to care about any of the conditions on the ground.
Bimana could also fly, but true to its nature as a ‘fortress’, its high walls and various facilities meant that even its movement speed was not particularly fast.
Kkamangi, with its sharp, streamlined body, was different.
A structure optimized for flight.
Its speed was so great that traveling aboard Bimana could not even compare.
Since the Legion’s resources were not infinite either, I had prepared and fed it only enough food for it to take on the ‘dragon’ form.
Naturally, it was far smaller than it had been during the battle against Avaritia.
And unlike back then, when it had been golden, now it was simply black.
That previous form had been the result of feeding it an entire city, an entire fortress, and even the energy of a divinity all mixed together, so there was no way I could easily reproduce that state.
Even so.
“Already here?”
Its speed remained unchanged even in this state.
Having departed the moment I finished feeding Kkamangi, I reached my destination in no time.
At first, I had intended to head across the sea.
The enemy that had descended upon Japan seemed difficult even for the Legion members to deal with.
But...... there was an existence increasing its power here.
After sensing its presence, I changed my mind and began heading north.
“......Wow, that thing looks vicious.”
I muttered as I looked at the monster visible in the distance.
[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]
[Chef’s Eyes]
[Nergalon of Proliferation]
[A beast of destruction that uses all existing things as sources of mana and endlessly divides for as long as the mana it has absorbed allows. This is Nergalon.]
An amorphous monster visible in the distance.
Its texture looked like slime, but its size and appearance were horrifying enough to belong in a nightmare.
Even from this far away, its enormous size was greater than Avaritia, whom I had fought not long ago.
Of course.
‘Its rank is far lower.’
The rank I could sense from its soul was on a level that could not even be compared to Avaritia.
It probably possessed nothing like the ability to manipulate laws as Avaritia had.
Even so.......
‘In terms of sheer total power, it might not be inferior.’
An entire country.
And not just any country, but most of what had once been the largest country in the world before the destruction.
A monster that had devoured all of that.
The power it had consumed that way was truly immense.
Its soul might have been low in rank, but the sheer quantity of power it possessed was enough to make up for that.
How should I put it, it felt like the sort of thing that could not compete at all in terms of quality and simply compensated with quantity.
And while I was staring at it with those thoughts.
-Why, already.
It seemed to notice my existence as well.
It turned toward me and shouted.
-How could you have appeared again so quickly......!
“Hmm?”
As I tilted my head.
It continued speaking on its own.
-I see...... even the disappearance of your presence back then was a deception.
“......?”
-You briefly hid yourself so that those who revealed themselves in hopes of growing stronger during that opportunity could be eliminated......! Terrifying. Do you truly intend to annihilate your enemies even to that extent.
And.
My impression after listening to the monster’s words was...... simple.
‘What the hell is that thing talking about.’
......I have no idea what it means!
Anyway.
What mattered was that it was a monster that did not belong to the [System].
It was a monster that had flowed into this land, but had no intention of surviving together with the life of this land.
Just as the description from [Ingredient Appraisal] said that it devoured everything.
A monster that sought to swallow everything in this land.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but.”
If that was the case.......
Then whatever it was trying to say probably did not matter.
It had devoured this land.
And that land belonged to us...... not only humanity, but all the living things that had lived on this Earth.
This creature had simply eaten that land as it pleased.
“You’re getting a beating.”
It was time to pay the price for that dine-and-dash.
***
SPOT!
I leapt from Kkamangi’s body while flying high in the air.
My body plummeted toward the monster at incredible speed.
And as I fell, I thought.
‘If this is a monster that so many Legion members had trouble dealing with...... then normally, even I shouldn’t have an easy time with it.’
I could not allow myself to misunderstand.
My class was Chef.
These days, I had gone a little beyond the realm of ordinary humans...... but that did not change the foundation of what I was.
Even in the battle against Avaritia, the reason we ultimately won was not because of my own strength.
It was because of the strength of those who had eaten my cooking.
A force equivalent to one-third of the Legion’s total strength.
This was a monster that even that force had failed to subjugate.
Normally, I too would have been forced into a difficult battle, and it would have been a powerful enemy against which I would have had to somehow find an opening through cooking.
‘But how should I put it.......’
However.
This time, the circumstances were a little different.
After all.
‘This time, the matchup is pretty favorable.’
After undergoing [Body Reforging] and obtaining the [Dragon’s Inner Core].
After my body changed so that it could withstand my mind.
My vision had become somewhat different from before.
Now, my eyes could see ‘more’ of that thing.
‘Having devoured most of this country, the power contained within it is certainly immense.’
But.
‘The rank of its soul is far too low...... it can’t handle that power.’
An enormous and powerful body.
But that body was being consumed at a tremendous rate.
Even now, it continued absorbing monsters that had been elsewhere, yet most of them were simply being consumed to maintain that power.
‘An absurd degree of imbalance.’
In the past.
When I visited [Cheonsan Martial Hall], Seohwan had spoken about the concept of ‘mind, technique, and body’.
Soul, technique, and body.
He said something about how the greatest strength could be displayed only when all three existed in harmony.
‘That thing...... is the exact opposite of what I used to be.’
Avaritia had been unable to fully wield the power contained within his soul because the rank of his body was too low.
Likewise, I had been unable to properly handle the rank of my soul because of the lingering effects of the wounds engraved into my body.
In those cases, the body had been unable to keep up with the soul.
That thing was the opposite.
Its soul was unable to keep up with its body.......
[Cooking begins!]
And.
This was exactly the kind of opponent I was most confident against.
No matter how great the power it possessed...... if there was one ‘clear weakness’.
I could find some way to exploit it.
In fact, an opponent far weaker than this but without any obvious weakness would be more difficult for me to deal with.
[Soul Cooking]
FWAAAAASH!!!
As I fell from the sky.
Ingredients burst out from within my shadow and were cooked in my hands.
[Mana Infused with the Soul-Melting Care of a Demigod-Class Chef]
[The highest-quality mana cuisine, irresistible to any being that uses mana as its primary source of nourishment.]
The dish that soon emerged was.
A masterpiece made from mana of truly, truly exceptional quality.
[However, excessive pleasure and addiction can sometimes corrupt even the soul!]
No...... to be precise.
[Even outstanding artists, the greatest minds, and iron-blooded generals have fallen before intense pleasure.]
[This dish, possessing an exquisite taste, will greatly lower the rank of the soul of whoever consumes it.]
A [bad food]...... with the finest possible taste.