Thud...!
[Green Mane Great Warrior]
[Freshness: Top → Medium]
The giant warrior took Gwangil’s fist clean, then his body toppled to the ground.
Watching it, I whooped inwardly.
‘Yes!’
Even at a glance, this monster looked stronger than that chieftain or whatever we met last time.
And he took down that monster—alone?
“All that trouble was worth it...!”
How much had I gone through
to put a proper martial art into that guy’s hands.
This was the moment that effort truly shone.
“C-Corporal Jeon Gwangil...?”
“He was already strong, but that is...!”
“That’s a whole different class.”
Unlike me, who had a rough sense of how strong Gwangil had become,
the soldiers were flustered by what they saw.
In the midst of that,
a few with sharp eyes focused on something other than Gwangil’s raw strength.
“No way.”
Minjae’s eyes widened.
“Is he... controlling the Madness?”
“It’s not perfect, it seems. For now.”
I shrugged and answered.
“My god. Didn’t you go to Yanggu County to seek allies?”
“That’s true. But hey. A win’s a win, right?”
“No, fine for Gwangil, but even the others came back that strong? And also—”
It wasn’t just Gwangil and me returning from our work at Myohyangsa.
These were soldiers who had already been the elite of the elite of the Legion.
Each of them came back having learned a martial art of their own.
And—
“...Who are those two?”
“Our new instructors.”
“...?”
Two martial arts instructors,
and Kkamang, erupting from the shadows to sweep the field.
In the world now, fights aren’t decided by numbers alone.
A single powerhouse matters more than ten weaklings.
The ten or so assets I brought
were performing at a level that numbers couldn’t express.
‘If their strength were what it used to be, that would be one thing.’
The tribe had taken heavy losses from Ariella’s disruption in the rear.
Right now, we could push them out one way or another.
“Well. Watching from here is about all I’ll do.”
Time for me to work too.
With an [Old-Pattern Sashimi Knife] in one hand and a [Black Chinese Cleaver] in the other,
I pulled out combat rations and stuffed them into my mouth.
Before coming here, Gwangil and the others had already eaten proper food with me.
I could feel the massive buffs coil around my body.
But in that moment—
‘...Huh?’
The “Green Mane Great Warrior” that Gwangil had felled—
near that body,
something like a black shadow rippled.
‘What is that?’
When that shadow settled atop the Great Warrior’s body,
it tore apart.
I stared, eyes wide, aghast.
‘What a waste!’
He had collapsed from Gwangil’s blow,
but he only looked critically injured and unconscious; his life seemed intact.
If so—
‘With the right dish and the right pitch, he could’ve been mine...!’
Like Lieutenant Kim, a few criminals—
and Ariella, whom I had brought under me.
I’d been hoping I could break that one, too, one way or another.
And you take that?
I watched in disbelief.
The Great Warrior’s body, in pieces, floated into the air.
And then—
Flare!
It began to hurtle toward me.
“So I was the target!?”
[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]
[Freshness: Lowest]
[Race: Spirit of Darkness (High-grade)]
I figured out the identity of that black energy right away.
A Spirit of Darkness.
I’d seen Hyunji use a water spirit as a bio-drone,
and I’d seen the Green Manes use earth spirits.
‘But a Spirit of Darkness?’
A name I’d never heard before.
It looked dangerous at a glance.
I was rattled,
but there was no time to be rattled.
With two knives already in my hands,
I swung and batted aside the storm of flesh shards pouring toward me.
However—
after I cut through the first wave, I realized:
‘There are too many.’
The Great Warrior’s body, in pieces, was cradled by the black shadow, floating in midair.
Even if I swung both blades,
there was too much to parry it all.
“Sergeant Shin!”
“Damn it! Block it!”
My squadmates, seeing me under attack, sprinted in to support—
but we had thought this sector was already cleared, so there weren’t many of our people nearby.
To respond to the torrent rushing me...
was probably impossible.
A clear crisis.
Therefore—
“...Good.”
I let out a sigh of relief instead.
Because—
‘Back then, I would’ve just died, no questions asked.’
My two knives swept the first attacks aside.
My body was completely open.
In that instant—
KANG!
From within the shadow,
a large object ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) appeared.
“Ah!?”
“Th-that’s—”
The black shadow rebounded off the object with a clang.
It looked, at a glance, like a giant shield.
What it actually was—
“A wok...?”
“I’m not seeing things, right?”
A broad pan often used in Chinese cooking.
A wok.
And not just that.
From every direction, the black miasma’s attacks poured in.
“...What is that.”
“A frying pan?”
“Knives... and what’s with the spatula?”
“Is that a cutlet mallet?”
Timed to each attack,
cooking tools popped out of the shadow.
KANG!
Clang—
A chef’s knife pinned the Great Warrior’s head.
Huge griddle plates, woks, and frying pans intercepted the attacks coming for me.
“Cooking tools are flying through the air...?”
The volume of attacks was enormous.
Alone, I could not possibly have blocked that firepower.
[Assistant Chef]
I was not alone.
The “assistant chefs” actively helping me—
the invisible helpers—were defending me from the assault.
Those unseen chefs share my stats.
It’s a shame they don’t share traits and skills, but—
[Applied Cooking Effects – 4]
With the dish effects stacked, my stats
were beyond imagination.
‘I stacked four... I’m going to pay for that later.’
Surviving right now mattered more.
It was hard,
but with the assistant chefs’ help, I could block the attacks.
Only—
the deflected body fragments
were wheeling back to rush me again.
“Don’t tell me this repeats until I die?”
My squad was closing in too,
so we could probably block it a few times.
...Well.
Fine by me.
‘I’m not the type to just turtle up.’
If the enemy planned to keep attacking until I died,
there was only one answer.
‘I’ll do the cooking first.’
Crack!
With a sashimi knife in one hand and a Chinese cleaver in the other,
I charged the source spitting those body fragments—
the [Spirit of Darkness].
[Advanced Culinary Secret — ‘Insight into Butchering the Spirit of Darkness’ acquired.]
[The Spirit of Darkness has very caustic properties and is not commonly favored as an ingredient, but among certain races it is sought after to the point of scarcity.]
[Only a skilled shaman can even form a contract with them, and many cultures consider contracting with them a taboo, making it a rare ingredient to encounter—]
Into my head,
methods for effectively breaking this thing down poured in, one after another.
****
‘Unexpected.’
While the other soldiers learned martial arts from Seohwan,
I tasked the remaining three, starting with Miho, with creating new martial arts.
She took the same approach Seohwan did.
Watch a spar first, then teach the fitting art.
The sparring partner was the pig beastkin who’d been pummeled by Seohwan—
Jeochil, but...
‘Since you handle Sword Control by Will like it’s nothing, I assumed you’d already reached an astonishing realm.’
‘Snrk... Turns out you’re a weakling? I bowed my head for nothing earlier!’
The result was, well,
an expected rout.
They’d practically recoiled at [Assistant Chef],
but when we actually sparred,
even the beastkin realized my fighting ability wasn’t all that strong.
‘What, punk? Again.’
‘Snrk-snrrrk. No one likes to admit defeat.’
‘...This time, for real.’
However—
that wasn’t all there was to me.
The pig got cocky after one win.
Just letting that slide hurt my pride too much.
[Applied Cooking Effects – (4)]
I pushed it a bit.
Despite the brutal aftereffects, I juiced four dishes at once.
As a result—
‘Snrreee!? What is this—you’re completely different from before!’
‘...Indeed.’
Even then, winning was hard,
but I could at least make sure no one called me a weakling.
‘By eating dishes imbued with special functions, you can manifest new abilities...? So that is Benefactor’s power.’
‘For now.’
‘A truly strange gift. Even among the Celestial Grand Immortals, none display such a faculty.’
When I laid out the abilities I had,
Miho’s eyes went wide.
‘And yet. I do not know whether this is good... or bad.’
“What do you mean?”
‘Your power is... too exceptional, Benefactor.’
The look in her eyes
was as if she were seeing something she could not understand.
‘Your native ability is not outstanding, yet you freely wield Sword Control by Will, which even I cannot employ.’
“To be precise, it’s a little different, but...”
‘On top of Sword Control by Will, you can select and manifest various abilities by taking food as the situation demands.’
The way Miho said it
did not sound like simple admiration.
Rather—
there was a faint unease.
“Are you saying that could be bad?”
‘...I will be frank.’
She sighed and answered my question.
‘With the knowledge I possess, it is impossible to create a perfect martial art for you, Benefactor.’
What?
‘For a chef, I could craft a martial art—complicated, perhaps, but possible. But for someone as extraordinary as you... with my meager knowledge, it cannot be done.’
When I heard that,
even I felt a bit dejected.
‘If my Master returned, that might be another matter...’
Well, sure.
Even I figured it would be hard to craft a “perfect fit” martial art for a guy whose abilities swung around based on what he ate.
Even if you somehow tailored it to my conditions,
those conditions would change the moment I ate a different dish.
But
Miho didn’t stop there.
‘So... what I will make for you is the frame.’
“The frame?”
‘Yes. The frame of a martial art, before the art for Benefactor is completed.’
In Miho’s eyes as she said it,
there was not the emptiness from before, but a spirit of challenge packed to the brim.
‘Even this will take my full strength... but it is worth attempting.’
Mistress of the Martial Library, was it?
She hadn’t gotten that position for nothing.
Even though she viewed the world with a hollow gaze,
the challenge of having to create an entirely new martial art—
that gave her a peculiar thrill.
After a few weeks invested wholly by Miho and her juniors,
what they completed was this:
[Food (食) — ???]
[Proficiency Lv.1]
Not SSS+ like Gwangil’s,
not A+ like the soldiers’—
a martial art with an unknown rank, ???.
‘Because it is unfinished.’
The reason for the rank was simple.
‘With my knowledge, I cannot make a martial art that fits you, Benefactor. If anyone can, it would be you yourself.’
“Me?”
‘This martial art will be completed to fit you, Benefactor.’
Depending on which direction I grew,
flesh would knit onto the frame of the martial art.
The orientation would change with the road I took.
‘And then one day, when that state has matured enough—’
Even if Gwangil’s Celestial Execution Physique is rare,
others have existed before him,
and there were arts crafted for them.
But—
what I had learned was different.
It had not existed before,
and likely no one after me would learn it either.
‘A martial art that belongs to you alone, Benefactor, will be completed.’
A martial art just for me.
[Martial Art — Food (食) reacts to dish effects.]
A line I had never seen before
filled my vision.
