Chapter 29: It's a Festival, Not a Funeral (4) (29/225)
"It really is enormous."
"I've been sailing for over twenty years, but this is my first time seeing a kraken this close."
"Anyway, it's a relief those people took it down, but…"
"Of all times, a kraken had to show up right before the festival. Damn it…"
Even though it was still early morning, a crowd of residents gathered at the docks.
From a distance, they stared at the kraken's corpse and tossed out comments one after another.
"Still, kraken cooking… it's been a long time since I last had it."
"They say it tastes so good it can't even be compared to squid or octopus. I wonder if that's true."
"You'll know once you eat it. Just imagining it makes my mouth water."
"But that cook—people say he practically took down the kraken on his own. Is that for real?"
As they looked at the kraken's corpse, their gazes naturally shifted toward the food truck—and toward Jinseo, who was cooking inside it.
I can't believe I actually got my hands on a real kraken. It still doesn't feel real.
Jinseo shook his head as he looked down at the kraken tentacle on the cutting board.
No—more accurately, it was only part of a tentacle.
The kraken was so massive that he had to cut and cut again just to get a piece small enough to fit on the board.
Now that I think about it, I don't think I was in my right mind. I actually went after something that huge.
Jinseo looked toward the kraken's carcass, still dominating the dock with its sheer presence.
Still, thanks to that recklessness, he could finally accomplish something he had been desperate to do ever since arriving on the Francia Continent.
Make bunsik using a "special" ingredient that existed only on the Francia Continent.
He never would have dreamed that his first attempt would be kraken tempura, though.
But it's kind of a shame. If it were just squid, I could've made squid soondae too… but it's too big for that. What am I supposed to do with this?
Wanting to present a new dish worthy of a new ingredient, Jinseo pushed down the regret and began preparing it.
Frying is the safest, right? Even if I fail, I've got plenty of material, so I can just keep testing.
Jinseo had obtained a large portion of the kraken's corpse.
Since the person who had contributed the most in the battle against the kraken was none other than Jinseo, every escort soldier agreed.
In exchange, he ceded the special parts—those used in magical reagents or forging—to the escort unit.
Jinseo hadn't killed the kraken alone, and those parts weren't ingredients anyway, so they held little value to him.
I can't exchange money unless it's earned by selling food anyway. It's better to give what the people who need it want, and get other benefits.
When Jinseo readily handed over what might have been the most valuable parts, everyone in the escort unit thanked him.
And not just verbally—Oswald promised, as he had before, that he would continue giving Jinseo even more convenience and support going forward.
The mages dispatched from the Mage Tower guaranteed they would provide benefits in multiple ways the moment they returned.
However, when Fedora tried to do something more for him, Jinseo politely declined, saying it was more than enough.
He told her receiving the Heirem Order's sacred emblem was already plenty.
"Ugh… it's really tough."
"It doesn't slice well with a normal knife, does it?"
Soldiers from the escort unit stepped in to help Jinseo, but the flesh—which looked soft and pliant—was surprisingly tough.
Only a few knights were sawing through it the way one would cut a massive tree, using aura-wrapped swords.
"This won't do. The knights and I will handle the butchering. Soldiers, move these."
Aston was classifying pieces after cutting through the tentacles more easily than most.
Because the monster was so enormous, even just cutting the tentacles down to a size that could be lifted made him sweat.
"Is something wrong?"
Meanwhile, Jinseo was chopping through the tentacle with an ordinary kitchen knife, expression perfectly calm.
"…It's cutting that easily."
"But it seems that isn't the case for everyone else."
"As you can see, we're having a hard time dismantling it, so it'll take quite a while."
"Take your time. I asked the mages earlier, and they said kraken isn't the kind of ingredient that spoils easily."
"Ingredient… I see. Now that it's been defeated, it's been demoted to an ingredient."
"And they say it tastes good, so I'll make it properly so you can try it first."
Jinseo dropped battered kraken flesh into the fryer.
A crisp frying sound spread out, and Aston swallowed without meaning to.
{Congratulations! You have achieved an achievement.}
{Achievement: Successfully cooked using a monster that exists on the Francia Continent (B-rank or higher).}{Reward: You have obtained 10,000 mana, 10,000 mileage, and 10,000 experience points.}{When an achievement is obtained, additional experience rewards are granted.}{As a first-time achievement reward, maximum mana capacity increases.}{Congratulations! Mobile cooking equipment has reached level 27.}
An achievement? This was an achievement?
The moment he lifted perfectly fried kraken tempura out of the fryer, a flood of message windows popped up, and Jinseo's eyes widened.
When I cleared quests, experience points weren't shown as a reward, but it still went up somewhat. But achievements get displayed properly? And in a huge amount too… that's great.
Especially since the maximum mana increase was a reward he had never received before, a grin rose on its own.
Wait—I'm frying right now. Focus.
Jinseo shoved aside the thrill of the rewards and focused on the fryer.
He kept pulling out golden, well-fried kraken tempura and stacking it onto plates, and a savory aroma spread everywhere.
Even as the soldiers worked hard hauling kraken parts, they kept sneaking glances at Jinseo cooking inside the food truck.
"Alright, stop what you're doing and try this first."
The escort soldiers looked down at the piled kraken tempura with half anticipation and half worry.
"So this is the kraken dish people talk about…"
"But I've never had it fried before. No, I've never had kraken at all."
"What does it taste like?"
"Can you even chew this?"
Maybe because they had just fought a kraken whose tentacles were tough enough to devastate the docks—no one stepped forward quickly. They only stared.
"Then I'll try it first."
In the end, Aston stepped up, picked up a piece of kraken tempura with a fork, dipped it lightly into the soy sauce dish beside him, and took a bite.
"..."
Aston closed his eyes and chewed slowly.
When he opened them again, he turned toward the escort soldiers with a faint smile and silently pointed at the plate of kraken tempura.
"Oh!"
"Wow!"
One by one, the escort soldiers took bites, and exclamations kept bursting out.
Somehow, once it was cooked, the flesh that had been unbelievably tough softened to the point it could be chewed.
But that wasn't the only reason they reacted like that.
"This is insane!"
"That bouncy texture blows squid and octopus out of the water!"
"At this level, it's worth all the trouble to catch it. No—this is the kind of taste that makes you want to catch it no matter what!"
With everyone praising it, Jinseo couldn't not taste it himself.
"Wow…"
The flavor was enough to make even Jinseo gasp.
A texture on a level no cephalopod on Earth could ever reach lingered on his tongue.
If octopus and squid could dance in your mouth, would it feel like this?
An exaggerated reaction from a cooking manga flashed through his mind, and when he opened his eyes, he saw the escort soldiers shoveling kraken tempura into their mouths in a frenzy.
"Come on, everyone else too—come try some."
The amount of flesh taken from the kraken's corpse was enormous.
Wanting more feedback, Jinseo waved to the harbor residents who had been watching from farther away.
Their reaction was explosive—but it didn't stop at praise.
What is that? That's definitely the satisfaction bar… did it get registered as a preferred food?
{Preference analysis for the relevant occupation group has been completed.}{They are sea men who sweat and toil to achieve greater catches while crossing the sea. For them, fried food made with 'Kraken' is the optimal food.}
{Fisherman baseline preference for Kraken tempura: 70.}{When preference exceeds 50, a special effect activates for the eater. The higher the preference, the greater the effect.}{Effect: Fatigue recovery, stamina enhancement, a slight increase in the probability of physical grade increasing, and a major increase in attack power, defense, and reaction speed when attempting to catch sea-dwelling monsters or creatures. Additionally, when cooking byproducts obtained through fishing, hunting, or other methods, a taste enhancement effect applies.}
This time the effect is a bit limited, but still—it'll be pretty good for fishermen.
Jinseo popped another piece of kraken tempura into his mouth and looked at the residents packed into the counter seats.
"It's not just tasty—I feel energy surging."
"Look at this! My arm muscles feel firmer!"
"You too? Same here!"
"But listen, I've only ever heard kraken dishes are delicious. I've never heard of effects like this."
"Hey, of course it's different! This isn't just any cooking—it's cooking made in a Heirem Order holy relic!"
"Ah… right."
"And that kraken corpse over there isn't scary anymore. Is it just me?"
"It's dead. Of course it isn't!"
Maybe because of the kraken tempura's effect, the harbor residents got loud and lively, and a warm atmosphere formed.
Of course, the moment they looked at the dock that had been completely destroyed, the air turned heavy again.
Even so, not a single person stopped eating the kraken tempura.
"Oh, so you finally made it!"
Oswald forced his way through the crowd around the food truck and dropped into the center counter seat with a thump.
Staring at the plate heaped with kraken tempura, he licked his upper lip.
"Did everything go well?"
"The village chief kept repeating how grateful he was, to the point it got awkward. But kraken tempura… I'll need to try this in several different ways."
Oswald straightened his posture and slowly lifted his fork.
The moment he bit down and felt the crispness, he nodded.
"Hm. Excellent. This way is good, and that way is good too."
He savored it in multiple ways—dipping it in soy sauce, eating it plain, sprinkling a little salt.
"But where is the Cardinal? Didn't she go with you?"
"She's praying at the cathedral. She said she had to thank God that not a single death occurred in this incident. Ah—give me some tteokbokki sauce."
He mixed the kraken tempura into the red tteokbokki sauce, and the instant it hit his mouth, a smile rose naturally at the corner of Oswald's lips.
Tteokbokki sauce, which had always paired well with fried food, didn't disappoint him this time either.
After wiping out an entire plate in the blink of an eye, Oswald belatedly remembered something and set his fork down.
"Ah, right. I almost forgot. May I ask you a favor?"
"What is it?"
"Hm… well…"
Oswald began explaining what he had discussed with the harbor's village chief.
Killing the kraken and saving the harbor was all fine.
But the kraken's attack had left the docks in ruins.
It was one thing to repair broken facilities, but the bigger issue was that most of the warehouses near the docks had been destroyed.
A large amount of festival supplies in production had been damaged, and to make matters worse, many stored ingredients had been ruined.
"As you can see, holding the festival in this situation is basically impossible. But for the people here, this festival is something they absolutely can't miss."
"How can I help?"
"I remember you keep quite a lot of ingredients stored in the food truck."
"I don't have much seafood, but I have plenty of other ingredients prepared."
"So here's the thing—could you provide ingredients for the festival? They were begging, saying that no matter what, they couldn't give up selling food. Of course, the harbor will cover the costs, so you don't need to worry about money."
"If it's for the festival, I can do that."
{Unexpected Quest: Participate as a stall at the Orte Harbor festival and achieve the highest possible sales. Rewards will be cumulatively granted each time you exceed a defined sales threshold.}
And right on cue, the quest appeared.
Footnote: Orte Harbor; village chief; fishermen occupation preference analysis system; Kraken tempura.
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