"About me... did you see something?"
"I did not see it exactly. But... I had the conviction that it is necessary."
Through my cooking, Sergeant Park Taejun unfolded [Astrology] at a level never seen before.
That Taejun bastard.
He saw something related to my future.
"So. Is it that I have to steal the achievement you made?"
"Since the party himself is giving it, stealing is not the precise word. Would it not be correct to say I have to take it?"
"..."
The achievement he made.
That I have to make it my achievement.
What that meant was simple.
I am already being massively overestimated compared to my actual ability.
"That I have to be evaluated even more highly than now."
"Yes."
The unit members already think of me as half a superhuman.
A pileup of several misunderstandings made it happen.
Judging that it is not entirely bad,
I had in fact been leaving it alone to a certain extent.
"Now even Taejun’s [Astrology] has to be made into my achievement?"
My profession is a chef.
I am a chef, yet I would be exhibiting a wide-area information capability as well.
I would become a real superhuman.
My evaluation has already shot up to the sky.
It would pierce the ceiling and rise all the way to space.
That I have to do such a thing.
"What on earth is going to happen?"
"As I said. I do not know well either. Just because the ability became stronger does not mean the inconvenient parts disappeared. But it will certainly help."
It will help, huh.
"Well, it will not hurt."
The leader of a legion must be strong.
That premise still holds.
The more the rumor spreads that I am an extraordinary figure,
regardless of the truth, the legionnaires will feel stability.
Even that part alone is a definite advantage.
If there is a problem,
"I just do not welcome it that much."
Since the day of ruin,
it is true that things somehow went well for me.
In that process I do not think I had no ability at all.
However.
Considering my ability, the evaluation I am hearing now is viciously overblown.
I am deliberately maintaining that evaluation,
but to be honest... it is a bit heavy mentally.
Besides,
last time there was trouble over a similar issue with Gwangil.
From overestimating me excessively,
that powerful warrior, Corporal Jeon Gwangil,
was at the point of being under the illusion that I am stronger than he is.
If it were a simple illusion, that would be one thing, but
once someone receives the illusion that I am that strong, at the same time...
"Expectations arise."
No matter what problem occurs,
there will be the expectation that if it is Shin Youngjun, he can solve it.
"For me... it is only a bewildering expectation."
Until now I have really been lucky.
By rolling around somehow I managed to meet that expectation.
However, whenever I receive such excessive expectation and evaluation,
there were times I felt as if I might be crushed to death by the pressure.
As a leader,
I must always maintain a strong front.
"I cannot show weakness to others."
Those who know that I am not a person of that level are truly a tiny few.
Corporal Jeon Gwangil, Sergeant Lee Minjae,
and probably this Taejun bastard in front of me and Corporal Seo Suhyeok.
I have to live bearing tremendous pressure,
but those who can understand that can be counted on one hand.
"From here my evaluation has to rise even further."
Exactly
what am I supposed to do that it has to become like that.
"...if it is too burdensome, you can treat it as if you did not hear it."
"No. I cannot do that."
Sergeant Park Taejun spoke while watching my reaction,
as if he noticed that I do not welcome it.
However.
I could not just pass it off as if I did not hear.
"Life in the military is originally like that."
It is true it is a bit heavy,
but the military is originally like that.
Hardship is normal.
"If it is something that must be done."
"..."
"Then, I have to do it."
I shrugged my shoulders and answered like that.
If that bastard drew out [Astrology] in the best condition ever,
and the result that came out of it says so,
then I have to follow it without fail.
"Are you really fine with it?"
"It is nothing much for me alone to suffer. It is not even physically hard. I can endure it enough."
"..."
In Sergeant Park Taejun’s expression as he looked at me,
there was a slightly complicated emotion.
"I have no intention of leaving here..."
"Hm?"
"If it is ever too hard or anything, come by anytime."
He has always been quick on the uptake.
Besides, among those in this unit he is the one who has been friendly with me the longest.
He must have quickly noticed that I am finding it heavy.
A snort.
"What, are you worrying about me?"
"What does it mean that a classmate is good. No matter how great a treatment you end up getting. In the end, you are my classmate."
"..."
"When it feels too hard, you can come rest."
I appreciate the concern, but
"a bit of mental strain is nothing. Compared to when I first transferred in and hauled food waste, it is nothing."
A slight mental hardship.
Other soldiers in fierce battles end up losing their lives.
There are not just one or two soldiers who died like that.
Compared to that, how comfortable am I, who is in a rear support role.
The hardship I go through is not even hardship.
"A trifling bit of pressure."
I will be able to endure it enough,
and by doing so,
if the probability that I and the soldiers survive goes up even a little,
"I have to endure it."
****
After all the soldiers who had been with me decided to remain at the 423rd Battalion,
I left the 423rd Battalion I had visited after a long while and
"...it is Sergeant Shin."
"Corps Commander. Have you returned?"
I returned to Chuncheon where the Vimana is stationed,
to the legion’s main base.
When I went alone inside the Vimana’s castle gate,
I felt the gazes of the soldiers who were active inside.
"...they already used to look at me a bit specially."
The gazes of the soldiers looking at me now.
Even for me, who is not exactly sensitive,
I could at least tell they had changed a little.
Though I carry the grand title of Corps Commander,
in the end I am also a sergeant.
That is, a mere soldier.
Basically I often approach fellow unit members in a friendly way.
Corps Commander or whatever,
there were many cases where soldiers looking at me also approached me quite familiarly.
"..."
"Gulp."
It was a little different now.
An incomprehensible...
sense as if looking at something transcendent.
"Well, that would be normal, I suppose."
The guild message I sent this time.
Its content was what Sergeant Park Taejun found out.
What I did was only interpret it and pass it along.
"I roughly heard how the subjugations proceeded."
Because of the message I sent,
soldiers easily disposed of monsters that would have been overwhelmingly stronger than themselves.
Up to now there were many achievements I had accomplished.
In fact, the soldiers have become a bit nonchalant about miracles that occur through my cooking now.
However.
This time there was no room for my cooking or combat ability to be exercised.
The soldiers themselves
were enabled to hunt other monsters.
"It must have hit harder."
They themselves can only best know that their own ability is not at that level.
Nevertheless,
they were able to wage an overwhelming fight against enemies that cannot be compared by objective ability.
They would be more shocked than by effects from cooking.
And
according to what that Taejun bastard said,
it seems I have to pile up even more renown than now.
"Everyone worked hard."
As if this much is nothing,
I opened my mouth like that.
****
Thanks to that Taejun bastard, we greatly suppressed the damage,
but there are still many monsters released from the military bases.
"Gather the soldiers and move out immediately."
"Yes."
Most of the monsters were resolved by sending the “counter picks” that Taejun bastard told us,
but the remainder are monsters that cannot be solved in that manner.
To resolve those bastards, purely strong power is needed...
"Among the areas you mentioned, some have already been taken by other squad leaders."
"Then we do not have to worry about those."
It seemed we did not need to worry about most.
Corporal Jeon Gwangil has grown so strong that one starts to think even a true boss monster should not be at that level anymore.
Sergeant Lee Minjae, who recently gained a new vassal.
And even Corporal Seo Suhyeok, who has never made a single mistake in handling matters up to now.
Since they have gone out for subjugation,
even if intact monsters are staying there, they can subjugate them enough.
"I have to get to work quickly too."
It is not something I can leave only to other squad leaders.
Before those monsters spread and cause troublesome incidents, I tried to move out for swift subjugation, but
"Ah, Sergeant Shin!"
"Hm?"
At the moment I was about to leave the Vimana with the soldiers,
I turned at the voice calling from behind and saw an engineer running from afar.
"Take this along."
"What is this?"
What that engineer hurried over and handed to me
was a small object the size of a palm.
"The thing you ordered last time, they say it is finally finished..."
"Ah."
The very item I had specially commissioned.
****
-Kwooooooorrrk!!!
Monsters that did not seem to have any reason.
Hundreds of them were destroying the surrounding buildings.
[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]
[Thick-Muscled Masir]
[Due to extremely high-density muscle, this race boasts powerful strength.]
[They boast powerful combat ability through transcendent muscle power, but since even their brain is made of muscle, their intelligence is not high.]
"Is their strength about on par with the Lizards?"
As seen through the [Combat Power Meter],
the monsters that appeared at our unit
were at a level similar to the Lizards.
Strength is strength,
but their number was also similar to the Lizards that had appeared at our unit.
The nearby military base was said to be an independent company,
so either similar to our unit which had been a fairly small battalion,
or monsters of a slightly stronger level must have appeared.
"With our unit now, we can subjugate them without difficulty."
However.
If it is as that Taejun bastard said,
I have to be evaluated as highly as possible.
"In that case... hmm."
To look at them,
they seem like fairly strong monsters,
"this should take."
I decided
to wage the most flamboyant battle possible.
Float...
"Oh. What is that?"
"It is Sergeant Shin."
Right before the clash with the monsters,
I used [Assistant Chef].
What rose into the air
was one very thin and small kitchen knife.
"...Huh?"
"Why is there only one..."
When you use Assistant Chef, normally you can float nearly ten items.
However,
this time I deliberately floated only a single kitchen knife.
Of course...
there is no way that one knife is an ordinary kitchen knife.
Some time ago,
Grandpa Park made me a new weapon.
[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]
[Sound Kitchen Knife]
[A masterpiece made with all his might by an intermediate blacksmith who has begun to make a name as a master.]
The raw material of this knife
was the warrior of the Green Manes tribe who defeated Corporal Jeon Gwangil before he learned martial arts.
The gigantic axe he used.
[Mud Horn Axe]
[A weapon made from a demonic beast personally hunted by a stout warrior.]
[After countless battles in the hands of a great warrior, high-quality mana has dwelled in it.]
That gigantic axe
has now turned into a small kitchen knife the size of my palm.
"Boning knife."
Also called
a bone knife.
"Just looking at it like this does not even bring to mind its old size."
The two knives I hold and use,
[Old-Pattern Sashimi Knife] and [Black Chinese Cleaver], were made in the longest size possible.
Weapons I have to grip and swing myself.
As I experienced bitterly last time as well,
if you consider that they will be used against gigantic enemies, the larger the weapon the better.
Even so,
there is a reason I asked for this guy to be made in this size.
"Because it is not a knife I will use."
[Assistant Chef]
It is a knife made to maximize this skill.
This skill had one characteristic.
"The smaller the surface area, the faster it can move."
It is called Assistant Chef,
but they are kitchen tools flying through the air.
The smaller they are, the faster they are is in a sense only natural.
I made the [Sound Kitchen Knife] small for that reason.
The problem is that as small as it is, the power also weakens.
To begin with,
[Assistant Chef] is not a technique with such strong offensive power.
"Because it is a skill given to me as a chef."
At least the stats follow my stats,
but since other traits and skills do not apply, its power cannot be strong.
Rather it is suited for defensive stats...
no, to be °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° precise a skill suited to cooking.
Even if its attack power is strengthened to some degree by the poison of [Nepenthes],
as long as it does not receive the effect of traits, destructive power has a limit.
However.
"Ending it like that would be a bit unsatisfying."
What I made to offset that shortcoming
is precisely this knife.
[Sound Kitchen Knife]
"It contains the power of a great warrior who could have become a great warrior of his tribe and a mighty demonic beast that nearly took that warrior’s life."
It cannot share traits by the effect of [Assistant Chef]?
In that case,
"[Since it was used for a long time as a gigantic axe,]"
"[its power remains valid even now with its form changed.]"
A kitchen tool.
If the tool itself has usable traits, is that not enough?
"[Independently, Trait - ‘Mud Horn’s Charge’ is applied.]"
Pang!
By virtue of that small size,
the boning knife flew at an incredibly fast speed.
-Krrk!?
Because it is small and fast, it is hard to notice its movement.
The monster seemed to feel something approaching and turned back, but...
Kwooooom!!!
The shoulder of the monster covered in muscle.
That shoulder
blew apart with a great explosion sound.
