Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Episode 6. Minolac Yukhoe

By the time he got home, it was already late at night.

The sound of the front door closing echoed unusually loudly.

It was the hollow reverberation peculiar to an old studio apartment. A dungeon break had definitely erupted outside, half an orphanage had collapsed, and people had nearly died, yet once he shut this one door behind him, the world became quiet as though none of it had ever happened.

After stepping inside, Jinho stood in front of the shoe cabinet for quite a while. There were several reasons. The dungeon break, awakening, fighting, cooking... Too many things had happened in a single day.

Most of his injuries and physical fatigue had disappeared, but the mental exhaustion remained.

‘Even so, my rank was F.’

According to the standard hunter grading chart he had looked up on the way home, unless there were any special stats, a total stat value of 20 or less was classified as F, while anything below 100 was E.

Name: Kang Jinho

Level: 3

Title: Novice Cook

Job: Dungeon Chef

Stats: Strength 5 Agility 7 Intelligence 8

Jinho looked once more at the status window that remained unchanged no matter how many times he opened it, then took off his shoes and slowly went inside. The studio apartment was still cramped.

If he raised his head from the entrance, he could see the sink, and two more steps brought him to the bed. At best, it was just big enough for one person to lie down, eat alone, and curl up alone with his thoughts.

He set down his bag and was about to change clothes, but instead sat on the edge of the bed.

Full-time employment.

He had heard those words directly from the head chef.

The head chef had even said he would submit the menu suggestion to headquarters. Just a few months ago, he could never have imagined hearing something like that. For those words to be given to the youngest kitchen worker, who had been stuck with a trainee label while being buried in dishwashing, prep work, and deliveries.

And yet, he was not happy.

Balance: 3,200 won.

That number was still lodged in his head.

But when the detective agency withdrawal, card payment notice, and failed automatic transfer message all came back to mind at once, the strange excitement he had briefly felt in the kitchen completely cooled.

Even if he became a full-time employee, his proper salary would not come in until next month.

But this month’s card bill had to be paid this month. If he ran out of money, he would be starving starting tomorrow. The detective agency would take more money next month too.

There was more than a month’s gap between words that made it seem like his life was finally improving and money he could actually live on.

Jinho let out a long breath.

“...Ha.”

As his breath cooled, something else came to mind.

Inventory.

More precisely, what was inside it.

Minolac Yukhoe.

The yukhoe he had made like a lunatic after killing the bull-like monster inside the orphanage and butchering it. At the time, everything had been such a mess that he had not had any room to think properly.

Was it fortunate that he had at least put it into his inventory in the middle of all that?

In any case, things were different now.

It was quiet.

He had time to think.

And more than anything, he was hungry.

Jinho slowly raised a hand into the air.

The moment he thought of his inventory, an unfamiliar window opened in front of him. By now, it did not even feel awkward anymore. In one corner of the empty space, several pieces of red meat remained just as they were.

Minolac Yukhoe. The moment he thought of the name, a small information window appeared after it.

[Minolac Yukhoe (Grade D)]

- A raw dish made by preparing Minolac eye of round.

- It has been rendered safe for consumption through a Dungeon Chef’s purification.

- The ingredient is reasonably fresh, but the finished quality is not high due to the cook’s low proficiency.

- Stamina +10 will be bound to the first valid consumer. (However, tasting by the Dungeon Chef is excluded from the first-consumption judgment.)

- Effect: Stamina +10

Stamina +10.

After staring at the final line for a long time, Jinho carefully took it out and placed it on a plate.

A cold sensation touched his fingertips. Just a few pieces of red meat with no elaborate presentation.

At a glance, it looked ordinary enough to have come from a butcher shop. Except for the fact that it had still been a monster that afternoon.

The problem was that this fact was anything but trivial.

Monster meat.

Common sense said he should not eat it.

He had no idea what it had eaten while growing inside the dungeon, whether it had parasites or poison, or even whether it was something humans could consume in the first place.

And yet the explanation floating in front of him was clear.

‘This gives Stamina +10 when eaten?’

Jinho looked down at the yukhoe.

He was hungry right now, had no money, and his refrigerator contained only two eggs and a little kimchi.

In a situation like this, people compromised far more quickly than one might expect. Especially when all he had to do was confirm whether the thing in front of him was poison or an actual breakthrough.

“...I’ll know if I eat it.”

After muttering to no one in particular, he picked up a piece of yukhoe.

Was it really safe to eat?

No, before that, would eating this really increase his stamina?

As he hesitated, a new sentence appeared beneath the information window.

[Dungeon Chef Trait: Cook’s Exemption]

- Even if a Dungeon Chef tastes food they personally made, they are not included in the first valid consumer judgment.

‘What is that supposed to mean?’

After reading it, Jinho hesitated a little longer before putting it into his mouth.

The moment he did, the meat melted softly in his mouth.

He had expected a fishy or gamey smell to hit him first.

But it did not.

It was much cleaner than expected. The cold red meat melted over his tongue, leaving behind a strange savoriness. Even without a single bit of seasoning, it tasted good.

It was not completely devoid of an animal smell, but at the very least, there was none of the repulsiveness one might expect from ‘monster meat.’ If anything, it was mild, like freshly prepared yukhoe.

Jinho slowly chewed with his brow furrowed.

And the moment he swallowed.

A translucent window appeared at the edge of his vision.

[Stamina increases by 10.]

[You have gained experience!]

Jinho froze in place.

“...What?”

It took several seconds for him to understand what he had just seen.

He immediately picked up another piece of the remaining yukhoe. This time, he tore off a smaller portion and chewed it slowly. He swallowed just as slowly, as though checking even the sensation of it going down his throat.

No window appeared.

Jinho immediately opened his status window.

Name: Kang Jinho

Level: 3

Title: Novice Cook

Job: Dungeon Chef

Stats: Strength 5 Agility 7 Intelligence 8 Stamina 10

“...!”

He closed the status window once, then opened it again.

It was the same.

He closed it and opened it again.

Still the same.

Stamina 10.

An entry that definitely had not existed moments ago was now clearly displayed. It had not risen temporarily like a buff. The number had simply been added.

It was so simple that it felt even more bizarre. If something like ‘duration’ or ‘temporary increase’ had appeared, he might actually have felt reassured, but there was nothing like that. It had simply been added.

Jinho remained silent for a long time.

‘I thought maybe, but it really was true.’

Stamina 10 was a value high enough to let someone run ten laps around a field without getting tired.

He looked down at the yukhoe again.

Eating this increased stats.

“This is actually possible...?”

The words that escaped his mouth were barely louder than a breath.

Jinho immediately picked up his phone. He opened the Hunternet app. He placed his finger over the search bar, paused briefly, then slowly typed in a few words.

cooking hunter

food stat increase

buff food

recovery food base stats

Search results poured out, but none of them were what he wanted.

Lunchbox advertisements, dungeon recovery meal delivery services, sponsored guild food promotions, special deals on hunter stamina meals.

There were plenty of recovery foods. There were also many products advertised as helping with satiety, fatigue recovery, or wound healing.

But those were literally ‘foods.’ Supplements or lunchboxes that made the body feel better, not things that directly affected the status window.

Jinho changed the search terms.

food that increases base stats

increase stamina through food

monster cooking ability

This time was no different. A few old posts, joke posts from hunter communities, and questions confusing it with recovery items. There was not a single example anywhere of food permanently increasing base stats.

After thinking for a moment, he opened the Hunternet community board.

Of course, he had no intention of openly posting, ‘This happened to me.’ He only planned to test the waters without making it obvious.

He typed a short title.

[Chat] Any hunters who use abilities through cooking?

The body was even shorter.

Not buff food or anything like that. I mean actually affecting stats through real food. Anyone seen a job like that?

Even after posting it, he stared at the screen for a while.

The comments came faster than expected.

Picasso’sStarryNight: wtf are you talking about lol

SilverFlash: if you mean recovery meals search Doctor X

MasterOfFreshKimchi: if food raised stats guild bastards would’ve kidnapped chefs first

PleasePutBraisedRibsOnRice: if you’re making up a setting, start by changing the title

Jinho scrolled through two or three more before immediately pressing the back button. Honestly, he already knew the answer.

He knew almost nothing about hunters, but even he knew this much. There was no such thing as a way to increase the stats of an already awakened hunter. Wasn’t that basic common knowledge?

And yet, he had wanted confirmation.

Confirmation that he was not some special case.

Being special only had value when it belonged to someone with power. In the hands of someone powerless, it was worse than useless. It was poison.

If this fact became known outside, he might be kidnapped into the basement of some massive guild and experimented on, or forced to spend the rest of his life making food.

“...Crazy.”

All sorts of scenarios ran through his mind.

And another concern followed.

“...Then how am I supposed to use this?”

The mutter escaped him naturally.

Ding.

A short notification sound rang out.

“...What is it?”

At first, he thought another reply had been posted to the thread he had just made. But the alert sound was slightly different. Jinho casually pulled down the screen, then his hand froze.

[An item has been sold on the Exchange.]

“...What?”

He blinked once.

Then looked again.

The sentence was unchanged.

‘Exchange’

‘Item’

...Sold?

With a bewildered expression, Jinho opened the Exchange window. No matter how many times he looked, the same message remained.

[Sale Complete]

Minolac Yukhoe

Sale Price: 1,000,000 won

“What is this?”

The words slipped out on their own.

His brain could not immediately keep up.

‘But I just ate the yukhoe?’

Yet the sale history on the Exchange showed the exact same name. He reopened the notifications he had dismissed earlier.

‘...Part of the yukhoe I made at the orphanage was automatically transferred to the Exchange?’

With a stunned expression, he stared at the words ‘1,000,000 won.’

One million won.

For just a few pieces of yukhoe?

And from nothing more than the meat of a bull-like monster?

Almost reflexively, Jinho opened his banking app. He had no idea how it worked, but the money had been deposited automatically.

Depositor: Exchange

Amount: 1,000,000 won

‘They actually paid me?’

The moment he saw the number, it felt as though his breath stopped for a second.

The one million won sitting above his balance of 3,200 won looked unrealistically large. It looked as though someone had pasted the number there as a joke. Card bills, rent, living expenses, the detective agency—the words that had been crushing his mind were pushed aside in an instant.

One million won.

Of course, it was not enough money to completely change his life.

But it was more than enough to let him breathe right now.