The coachman was trembling in terror as he watched them narrow their distance.
The monsters that appeared were like snakes that have the characteristics of men. Their long tongues lashed out as if they were mocking their prey. Their hands carried weapons. There was a shield in one hand and a rusty chipped sword on the other. The monsters were also clothed in shabby armor. These monsters are the Lv90 Lizard Men.
"Kikikik!"
"Kikikik!"
"O, of all the times that they will appear it has to be today…"
It wasn't like there were no other cases of Lizard Men appearing when people went out of town. But they appeared so sparsely that the occurrence was as rare as a bolt of lightning out of the blue.
It just has to be today...!
'That woman named Lucia is not here right now, and that young man…'
Isn't he a chef?
"Hihihing!"
The frightened white horse fled at the sight of danger.
At that moment…
He saw the young man coming out from the bushes. Baran quickly gestured to him with the tip of his chin.
'Run away, now!'
Baran liked this young man very much. Most of the foreigners who rode his carriage were thoughtless.
Baran might be a part of the game setting, but in this world he lost his wife and child a few years back. Because of that, every time he saw a young man he always felt like it was his son.
Aside from that, he always liked the fresh and bright smile that this young man always had on his face. The foreigners said that it would be fine even if they died but he wished that no harm could ever come to this boy.
And there weren't any foreigners who would want to take damage for them.
However, the young man quickly pulled the sword out of his waist.
Shiiiing!
"I told you to run away! I'll draw their attention, so run!"
But the man still came in a run.
Then…
Swoosh!
Stab!
"Kikikiik?!"
The flash of the dark figure arrived in front of the Lizard Men and quickly stabbed one straight in the middle of its chest.
Flutter!
Like it was a lie, the Lizard Man that was stabbed on its chest began to turn into ashes.
At that moment, Lucia was slowly coming out of the carriage. She quickly pulled up her mask. The mask covered most of her face, it only showed her big eyes.
Shiiing—
Two daggers were pulled out of her waist.
"It's dangerous so you should stay still, Minhyuk-nim and coachman-nim."
"B, but they are Lv90. And there are three of them too…"
Before Baran could even finish his words…
Tap!
Lucia was already up in the air.
A Lizard Man quickly thrust its sword towards her the moment she flew up. The sword pierced exactly at her chest.
Staaab!
At that moment…
Poof!
Her body scattered in a smoke. It was just an image and what appeared was a wood in her stead.
Then her hand extended from the shadows of the Lizard Man and swiped at its legs. She was able to cut off one of the Lizard Man's legs.
Spuurt!
Once more, the Lizard Man turned into ashes.
Lucia disappeared as she hid in the shadows again.
Her dagger appeared in another Lizard Man's shadow. She stabbed at its vital points for a total of four times. She stabbed at its throat, its chest, its sides and its thigh. These vital points were only visible to her.
[You have dealt a fatal blow.]
[You have dealt a fatal blow.]
[...fatal blow.]
Three out of her four stabs were fatal. She once again killed a Lizard Man. Then, she narrowed her distance with another Lizard Man as she quickly thrusted her dagger towards its neck.
Stab!
Spurt!
She easily pulled her dagger out then she let out a breath.
"Hoo, are you alright?"
Flop.
Baran collapsed as his legs became weak. Minhyuk who was a bit further away looked at them blankly. She felt a bit awkward so she raised her hand in a V and placed it right next to her face.
"Was I cool?"
"Ooooooh—"
Minhyuk came running towards her. She quickly backed away in surprise.
He went straight towards a tree and reached out for the mushrooms there. He looked below the tree and not on her.
"There's a mushroom here too! Wow! This one tastes like enoki mushrooms!"
"Am I not cool?!"
Lucia was a bit disappointed as she shrugged her shoulders off.
I wanted to get his praise!
"Ah~ You're really cool, I'm shocked and in awe. I will kneel down in admiration~"
His voice had the least bit of interest in her.
Lucia grinned.
'Really attractive…'
Then she spoke…
"You tried to fight as a chef?"
"I can fight well."
Lucia grinned.
He is close to the coachman so it's possible that he's trying to take a huge risk for him.
It was like a joke.
'It's not good to get close to NPCs like that.'
It's better to keep a moderate distance. Why would I try to fight at the expense of him?
'Well, is that his charm?'
In fact, Lucia believed that Minhyuk's power was equivalent to a Lv50 warrior. After all, there was a limit to being a chef.
The carriage was almost at the palace.
When the coachman came inside the carriage, he saw Minhyuk mixing something.
It was the bibimbap that he made from the vegetables and mushrooms that he continuously picked on their way.
His drool slipped down his mouth like slippery oil. Even Lucia was biting the spoon in her mouth as she grabbed her belly. Both of them gulped their saliva down.
"Then, here's the one for Lucinim and here's the one for coachman-nim."
"Please give me some more."
"No. You'll gain weight."
"...I don't gain weight inside here. And I have to gain some weight because I'm skinny."
"No, no. I'm really worried about Lucinim that's why I can't give you anymore."
Of course it was just Minhyuk's meticulous lie.
"Then why do you have such a big egg in your bowl? It's good to eat bibimbap openly!"
"It's because I'm fat. Hooray for being fat!"
Minhyuk swayed his shoulders as if he was dancing while Lucia shook her head in surrender.
A bowl of siraegi [1] was placed besides Minhyuk's bibimbap. There was also a siraegi soup made with doenjang. When eating bibimbap, it was best to eat it with siraegi soup with doenjang.
He scooped a big spoonful of bibimbap. It wasn't too salty nor too bland. It looked quite good since the gochujang and the sesame oil were mixed perfectly well.
Once he placed a spoonful in his mouth and chewed on it, the savory aroma and flavor of the sesame oil greeted his senses. The taste of sesame oil could always whet one's appetite if it was added moderately.
After tasting the savory sesame oil, the spicy flavor of the gochujang spread out in his mouth. Which was followed by the wonderful harmony of taste and flavor of the various vegetables, eggs and rice. Whenever he felt that his throat was a bit dry, then he would sip from the bowl of soup to his side.
Baran spoke after the three of them were almost finished with eating the bibimbap.
"Boy, you really look like you love eating and you're also really good at cooking."
"Thank you very much!"
"By any chance, do you know about the Kingdom of Barras?"
"Kingdom of Barras..."
Lucia was the one who answered his question first.
"What kind of place is it?"
"It's like a kingdom of production job classes. There are places there like the blacksmith's tower, the chef's tower, the farmer's tower and even the sculptor's tower."
"Oho."
"And…"
Lucia grinned at Minhyuk.
"It's a place full of delicious things."
Minhyuk's spoon stopped moving, it showed just how surprised he was.
"It was inevitable since there are a lot of chefs there. I also heard that they always give out a lot of food quests around the kingdom. This was made so plenty of chefs will be able to get various cooking ingredients."
"Waaaah... it's like heaven on earth."
Minhyuk shook his head.
"There's this blacksmith there, his name is Ron. He was a colleague that I used to work with."
It was the story about a blacksmith. But Minhyuk was not that much interested in a blacksmith so he continued to scoop up and eat his bibimbap.
"I heard that Ron has special cooking ingredients that are very hard to get."
Lucia was shocked.
'Q, quest...!'
And it was definitely not just a simple quest either, it should be a quest with special rewards.
"Ooooooh!"
Minhyuk started to show some great interest.
"Why don't you first meet Ron and talk to him?"
[Linked Quest: Meet the Blacksmith Ron.]
Rank: D rank
Restrictions: Mastery of Cooking Skills, Baran's favorability.
Rewards: 5,000 EXP
Penalty for Failure: None.
Description: When Baran heard news about his former blacksmith colleague, Ron, he recommended this quest to you.
"Yes, I'll go and meet with him."
"The Kingdom of Barras is not that far from the Emperor's City so you will get there fast."
"Yes!"
Minhyuk smiled happily after he received the quest.
'What kind of ingredients will it be? Chicken? Beef? Pork? Or… don't tell me… Duck?!'
He could already picture various ingredients in his head.
"Why don't you give me a quest? I even saved you coachman-nim."
"That friend is a weak chef but he risked his life for me."
"I'm a fragile woman too."
"...You should have some conscience."
Before they even knew it, they had already arrived in front of the Emperor's City.
Minhyuk was once again munching on sweet potatoes.
Lucia, who was walking beside him, looked at him then paused.
"Are we… are we going to meet again?"
"Chew, chew, I guess so."
"He has no interest in me at all until the very end."
"Yes?"
Minhyuk couldn't hear her well since she talked in a small voice so he asked her again, but Lucia just shook her head and smiled bitterly.
"It's nothing. Let's add each other as friends?"
"Yes. Let's do that."
[Lucinim is asking to add you as a friend.]
[Yes / No]
"Yes."
Minhyuk nodded his head as Lucia's information popped up in his friends window.
[Lucia]
No job class or level could be seen in Lucia's case. Users could hide their job classes as long as they disabled the viewing function. Minhyuk has also disabled his job class.
"See you next time."
Lucia turned around and walked towards the city while Minhyuk logged out after he watched her back for a bit.
However, Lucia who was walking towards the city suddenly stopped and looked back at him.
"Tch...!"
Lucia's face was suddenly filled with regret.
Radem, a member of the Phoenix Knights that were personally appointed by the Emperor, was the NPC that was assigned to manage the preliminary rounds for the tournament.
Right now, he was sporting a ridiculous look on his face.
"Lucia. This foreigner, what in the world…!"
He was shocked when he looked at the report.
There were three gates set-up for the preliminary rounds. The qualification to pass the preliminary rounds was to pass through all three of the gates within 30 minutes.
The preliminaries this time were extremely intricate and completely difficult. The reason was so they could unearth truly strong players in this competition.
But right now, Lucia was breaking through all the gates at a ridiculous pace.
"14 minutes and 31 seconds?"
They expected the fastest user to complete the preliminaries in about 17 minutes. However, Lucia easily surpassed that then promptly disappeared after she had confirmed her advancement to the finals.
"Ho... it seems like that's all I can really say."
But he still thought…
'Let's see if I could recommend her to the Phoenix Knights.'
This was one of the reasons why a member of the Phoenix Knights was here. They wanted to scout and raise talented foreigners.
"Hiyaa, how can he… Wow…"
Radem was still watching Lucia's battle videos through a magic crystal ball when he got surprised by a sudden shout of exclamation.
Right at that moment, Hamel opened the door and rushed in. Hamel was the one in charge of escorting each and every foreigner that will join the tournament. He was also in charge of observing them and giving them scores.
"A, another special foreigner has appeared!"
Radem has already told Hamel in advance to report to him if there were any special foreigners that would appear in the tournament. It was necessary so they could raise plenty of talents in the palace.
"...Is that so? What's his record?"
However, he still looked uninterested as he continued to watch Lucia's videos.
"29 minutes and 57 seconds."
Radem frowned when he heard his words.
"Are you kidding me? 29 minutes and 57 seconds? He really managed to get in, and you're saying he's a special foreigner?"
"Yes, he's a special user."
However, Hamel just nodded at him.
"Did you know that he caught two Akus?"
"...What?"
Radem stood up when he heard that.
"What did you say? Quick, tell it to me straight."
No matter what he said, it was still unconvincing. Akus were monsters said to be at Lv80, however their power and standards were at level higher than that.
Hamel quickly activated the magic crystal ball that he had brought.
[Next, please.]
The images in the video started to appear.
A user soon appeared. He had a paper cup in his hand and he kept on sipping from it. As soon as he came inside, he suddenly screamed.
[Aaaaack!]
[What's wrong? Are there any problems?]
Hamel asked him urgently.
[I drank all of my sweet potato latte... Hnngh!]
He dropped to his knees as if his legs had weakened.
Radem looked at Hamel when he saw what was on the video.
"It was just like that!"
"Aigoo, this is making me frustrated."
Radem placed his hands on his forehead.
"He's really special that he's even making my head hurt, Hamel..."
"P, please keep on watching. Do you really mean that?"
"...Hmm."
Randem nodded his head first.
He's not usually like this, it's making me curious.
Footnotes
[1] Siraegi a KR ingredient made by drying the stems and leaves of a radish or cabbage.