Chapter 20
Once the Gate Break incident was over.
“Ugh... I’m seriously dying.”
When I got home, I collapsed without a fight.
I sprawled out flat on my back right there in the entryway.
I felt like I’d turned into a slime.
My eyes were slowly closing, too. Had I really turned into a slime?
Smack—!
“Ow—! No, I need to snap out of it.”
I barely managed to pull myself back from the brink of losing consciousness.
Did being low on mana normally make fatigue hit this hard?
That unmistakably sweet sensation felt kind of scary.
“…First, I need to deal with this mana shortage.”
Even after I came to my senses, there was no sign that this damn dizziness or the System warning messages would go away.
If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve been more careful using my skill...
“…But it was cool, wasn’t it?”
Well, it was cool, so that was all that mattered.
Besides, I’d more or less expected this.
At least this gave me a chance to see what I was lacking.
It was all good in the end.
“Then first... I need to deal with this damn mana.”
I immediately brought up the Shop window in front of me.
Why the Shop window, of all things?
Because it might help me make up for what I was lacking,
and if I was lucky,
I could solve my mana shortage in an instant.
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
Shop.
1. Skill Draw. 1 point.
2. Recipe Draw. 2 points.
3. Item Draw. 2 points
4. Ingredient Draw. 3 points.
Remaining points: 15
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“Hmm... I nearly died because I didn’t use them, but now that they’ve actually paid off, I feel weird.”
Seeing the points left in the Shop window gave me a strange feeling.
At the hidden boss, I’d nearly died because of my stupid confidence and not using my points.
But now the points I’d saved had turned out to be a boon.
“Well, I’ll think about that later.”
I held my dizzy head and reached toward Recipe Draw.
I planned to enlist the power of a recipe to deal with this dizziness.
“Ah, wait. There’s no guarantee I’ll get what I want...”
Then I started having second thoughts.
Thoughts like, What if I don’t get what I’m hoping for? held back my hand.
“Well, a new recipe’s a win either way.”
If I didn’t get it,
well, I’d just die then.
Either way, I’d come out ahead.
As if there were no need to hesitate, I pressed Recipe Draw right away.
“Please, just give it to me on the first try...! I still have to draw a skill!”
I clasped my hands together and prayed to every god I could think of.
Please, let it come up on the first try...
And then.
“You fucking piece of shit!”
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
[Dud], [Dud], [Dud].
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
What greeted me was the sight of the three letters spelling DUD lined up in the slot machine inside the blue window.
I hadn’t even known you could get a dud.
My brain was filled with rage, dizziness be damned.
They hadn’t even revealed the odds—was this why?
Those crafty bastards.
“Phew... No, I still have plenty of points.”
I pulled myself together again and moved my hand to the draw button.
Surely I wouldn’t get another dud.
They wouldn’t do something that awful unless they were completely insane.
With the tiniest bit of faith, I pressed the draw button with a trembling hand.
And the result was...
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
[Dud] [Dud] [Dud]
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
“Ah, I’m dizzy—”
A beautiful sight: three duds in a row.
“Where the hell do you live, huh? I’m this close to coming over and normalizing your rates...!”
They say if you can endure three times, you can avoid killing someone.
This was the third time.
The boiling impulse and adrenaline had already made me forget the damn dizziness.
I was starting to wonder if this was actually how to solve mana depletion.
But even so, I couldn’t stop.
“…Fuck.”
Because the meaningless hope that maybe I’d get it this time was holding me back.
“Seriously, normalize already, please.”
I had 7 points left.
I first forced down the anger welling up inside me.
I glared at the System window and pressed the draw button.
Rrrr—
The slot machine started spinning rapidly.
Gulp—
Why was I so nervous over this?
I still had to draw a skill, too. I was going to lose my mind.
After a long, agonizing wait,
what greeted me was...
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
[7] [7] [7]
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
[Jackpot!]
“It hittt!”
So beautiful, I felt like I might go blind just looking at it.
It was a jackpot.
What would it give me this time?
I waited for the next message with a pounding heart.
[Congratulations. You have acquired the recipes Mana-Condensing Jelly and Scorpion Barbecue Sauce.]
“Ooh... So this is what a jackpot gets me?!”
As if to make up for all the duds so far,
the message window gleamed brilliantly before my eyes.
Maybe this was the true triumph of the human spirit.
I’d gotten two whole recipes.
Mana-Condensing Jelly and Scorpion Barbecue Sauce.
The results were so satisfying just to look at, a smile came to my face.
“So, what effects might they have~?”
What kinds of effects were waiting for me?
Filled with anticipation, I brought up the System window to check the recipes’ effects.
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
NEW! Mana-Condensing Jelly.
Effect - Restores 50% of the user’s mana.
Instant Cooking.
Manual Cooking.
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
“Hmm, I really am lucky.”
It was exactly the effect I wanted.
How had it shown up at just the right time?
I wanted to kiss it.
“Then, next!”
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
NEW! Scorpion Barbecue Sauce.
Effect – Its poison is potent enough to melt skin.
Instant Cooking.
Manual Cooking.
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
“Is this... cooking?”
Could I even call this cooking?
I had my doubts.
How could its effect be that it was highly toxic?
It seemed useful in a fight, but it felt like it had gone beyond the title of cooking.
“Well, I’m sure I’ll figure something out.”
I set the scorpion recipe aside for now and returned to Mana-Condensing Jelly.
As the dopamine and adrenaline gradually wore off, the symptoms of mana depletion started rearing their heads again.
Tremble, tremble, tremble—
At last, it was time to say goodbye to these tedious tremors and dizziness.
I grabbed my trembling hand and brought up the Mana-Condensing Jelly recipe.
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Mana-Condensing Jelly.
1. Pour any juice (200 mL) into a pot, sprinkle in sugar, and warm it gently over the stove.
2. Slice the slime jelly thinly and soak it in water.
3. Squeeze the water out of the soaked slime jelly, add it to the warmed juice, and stir until it dissolves completely.
4. Pour the juice into a mold or similar container and refrigerate until set.
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“Hmm... It’s a pretty standard jelly recipe.”
The recipe was so simple it was downright easy.
The problem was...
Tremble, tremble, tremble—
My hands and arms were practically useless right now.
“Ugh—You idiot, could you just stay still for a second?”
I was shaking like crazy and could barely hold a knife properly.
At this rate, I’d end up cooking my fingers instead of jelly.
But what could I do?
If I didn’t, I had no idea how long these shitty side effects would last.
“I can do this all day.”
I gritted my teeth and got moving.
“I’m sure there was some Coolpis left over from last time...”
I rummaged through the fridge and spotted the familiar pink color.
“Found it.”
Luckily, there was enough left to fill most of the big carton.
It looked like it was well over 200 mL,
so I immediately poured it into a pot.
Click. Click. Click.
Whoosh—
Maybe because I’d deposited money into the ATM, the stove lit up.
“What’s next?”
Up to this point, there hadn’t been a single hitch.
The problem was what came next.
“Slime jelly...”
I looked around.
Was there anything I could use to replace that slime jelly somehow?
No.
My room looked like something out of a Western, with tumbleweeds rolling through it.
I was going crazy because I couldn’t find the most important ingredient.
Just then,
“Oh, right. I have you, don’t I?”
A memory smacked me right upside the head.
The King Slime Jelly I’d gone through all that trouble to get last time,
then shoved in a corner because I was too tired.
“All right, you’ll have to do.”
Better a chicken than nothing.
It was the same kind of slime, only higher quality, so it was actually better.
I set the King Slime Jelly on the cutting board and started slicing it into thin sheets.
I was admiring the jelly as I cut it into thin slices, one by one, when—
Swish—
“Whoa—! Shit, you scared me.”
A chill ran down my spine.
The trembling suddenly intensified, and the knife slipped out of my control.
“This damn mana-depleted state nearly got me in serious trouble...!”
I managed to stop it just one centimeter before it touched my finger.
“Hurry... I’m really gonna die...”
I sliced it roughly and tossed it into water.
I let out a sigh.
“This is cooking?! This is war. Get a grip, Lee Jiha!”
I mixed the sliced, soaked jelly into the Coolpis,
then shoved it haphazardly into the fridge with hands trembling like a leaf.
And then came the wait.
“Oh man, air-raid alert! Waiting is going to kill me...”
Just like waiting for cup noodles to cook,
this refrigeration time was pure torture for me.
Especially when I felt like I was about to die.
Only after enduring that hellish stretch of time
could I finally take the jelly out.
“I’ve been through so much.”
The moment I took it out, I shoved it into my mouth.
Feelings? Those were a luxury for someone who’d endured a hellish stretch like that.
As usual, it looked like crap,
but it wasn’t as bad as Goblin Head Smoothie, so I just shoved it down.
Maybe this was what a real tough-as-nails person was.
“Whew, I finally feel alive.”
Once I swallowed all the jelly, I felt something start to fill me up from inside,
and my dizzy head and trembling hands began to settle.
With my body stable again, I leaned against the wall and caught my breath,
“I win, you bastards...!” I was fully revived, free of mana depletion.