The Skill Maker

When they returned to the base, they said they were going to wash up and left somewhere.

‘I heard the sauna is really nice, so maybe they went there?’

The staff came out and started taking the plastic bags that the hunters were carrying.

They were trying to take the flower as well, so Hyun-Soo quickly intercepted.

Eugene and Katrina left as well, so Hyun-Soo was the only one there.

He pulled the cart that had the flowers and moved it near the dorm.

Rip.

When he arrived at the dorm, he opened the bag and saw the flowers sitting in there.

‘Thankfully, they’re still in good condition.’

But the ones that were sitting on the bottom were bent and pressed.

Hyun-Soo separated the flowers based on the condition. A little over 30% of the flowers weren’t in the best condition.

‘It’s unfortunate that they turned out this way, but if they don’t grow, then I can just pluck them and use it.’

He decided to plant the good ones in the garden.

It was disappointing, but it’s not like he was going to throw them away, so he felt better about it.

‘What would be the best way to eat this?’

Even though it was a little over 30% of the entire flower, there was still a lot.

There was so much that a large sink wouldn’t be enough to hold the flowers.

Hyun-Soo took out a portion and started cleaning them up.

He got rid of the dirt on the flowers and washed them.

He didn’t have that much time until he had to prepare the food, so he couldn’t analyze the flower.

That’s when Hyun-Soo thought about how this should be eaten so that there won’t be any suspicion.

Chew, chew.

He ripped the petal of the flower and tried chewing it.

‘Hm…it smells nice, but the taste is whatever. It’s like chewing grass.’

Next was the stem and leaf.

It was totally different than the plants in the real world and the blue stem and leaves were tougher than he expected.

His jaw was starting to hurt.

‘Maybe there’s a lot of fiber? It’s too tough to eat it raw.’

The petal was too eye-catching, so it was impossible.

The stem and the leaves didn’t have the greatest texture, so using them raw wouldn’t be a good idea.

‘The root…I should try making tea with it and see how it tastes. It would be good to dry the petals and try making tea with it too.’

The flower had thick roots and instead of throwing them away, he gathered them in one spot.

People tend to slightly boil plants and eat them.

Hyun-Soo thought of an idea through that and decided to try boiling the flower.

Boil, boil!

The water in the pot was boiling.

Hyun-Soo placed the stem and leaf that he cleaned into the pot.

‘Huh?’

As it started cooking, the color started changing to a light brown color.

It seems like the color changes when it gets cooked.

‘That’s a relief.’

He wondered how he would explain the blue color of the flower, but it was a relief that the color changed.

Just from one look, it looked like other ordinary plants.

‘If it looks ordinary, then they won’t ask what the original color was.’

It’s going to be mixed in with red chili paste anyways, so as long as it wasn’t the blue color, it would be fine.

As Hyun-Soo was feeling proud, he used his chopsticks to grab the plants and then ate it.

‘It’s gotten much more tender. The texture isn’t so bad when chewing it.’

Since the color changed, he could say it’s similar to fernbrake.

It was kind of crunchy, but was aromatic.

It was similar to mugwort.

He was worried that it would change for the worse, but he made the right decision to boil it.

‘Let’s see how much of my stamina has been increased.’

Hyun-Soo used Interface.

Excluding the roots, he ate the entire flower, so he was checking its effects.

‘Oh.’

When he checked, it increased by 37 points.

‘Is it because I didn’t eat the roots? It’s supposed to give me a total of 40 points.’

If he excludes the petals, then it’ll drop more.

It was unfortunate, but Hyun-Soo had to get rid of the petals so that he wouldn’t get caught.

He tried boiling the petals too, but the color remained the same.

It would’ve been nice if the color changed, but since the shiny silver color remained, he gave up on putting that in.

Boil, boil!

Hyun-Soo put aside the roots and petals and boiled the remaining parts.

‘Hunters that didn’t join the hunt will be there as well. Taking two to three handfuls of the ingredients should be enough.’

He looked at the clock and noticed that a lot of time had passed.

Hyun-Soo quickly cleaned the remaining flowers and boiled them to finish his preparations.

***

“Hyon-Ssoo! You’re making Bibimbap, right?”

“Y-yeah. Are you okay with spicy food?”

“Yeah, thanks to Yoo-Na, I’m able to eat some. Fire Chicken and Spicy Ribs are delicious.”

Katrina greeted Hyun-Soo in the cafeteria and licked her lips as she named the dishes she liked.

He asked where she ate them and she replied by saying that she ate them at a Korean restaurant in Manhattan.

‘I should adjust the amount of the chili paste.’

There’s a high chance that the Korean restaurant in Manhattan adjusted the level of the spice so that the locals would be able to eat it.

Using that as a reference, Hyun-Soo entered the kitchen.

The restaurant staff went home for the day after preparing the basics before the hunters came.

Because of that, the inside was completely empty.

The hunters were the only ones there.

In order to cook the food, the hunters came into the kitchen and after glancing over at Hyun-Soo, they focused on their own task.

“Since you’re still new, I’ll help.”

“Okay, then tell me where the ingredients are.”

Katrina dragged Hyun-Soo throughout the kitchen and told him where everything was.

The location of the plates, various seasoning and sauces, dry ingredients, and the ones that were in the refrigerator.

He had an idea of where everything was.

Lastly, Katrina warned Hyun-Soo.

“After using them, you must put them back. If not, the chefs will get really mad.”

She asked if he needed help with anything else, but Hyun-Soo asked Katrina to leave.

He wouldn’t be able to think if she stayed beside him and she could ask him about the flower when she sees the ingredients that he boiled.

‘They have almost all the basic ingredients. Did Eugene request it?’

Hunters weren’t professional cooks.

Because of that, the kitchen staff had already prepared the ingredients ahead of time.

The ingredients for the Bibimbap were prepared on one side of the refrigerator.

He felt weird when he saw ingredients for a Korean dish in a foreign country.

But that only lasted for a moment.

Hyun-Soo took out the ingredients and tasted them all.

‘Maybe it’s because they’re chefs. They’re perfect. Tastes good too.’

He just had to adjust the amount of the vegetables, rice and the sauce.

It felt like he was taking the easy way out, but what of it?

There was one thing that was going to make this even better.

‘There’s a reason why the saying, if treated well, a miscreant will shape up, exists.’

Hyun-Soo placed the prepared ingredients inside a large bowl.

It would be nice to decorate it like the restaurants do, but he had to hide the flower.

‘And Bibimbap is the best when they’re already mixed up.’

Even though they didn’t have a large, brass bowl, there was a large bowl, so it didn’t matter.

Hyun-Soo put a little bit more salt to adjust the taste and quickly placed the flowers that he brought into the bowl.

Thankfully, the colors changed while they were being boiled, so they blended well with the other ingredients.

He wore plastic gloves and started mixing the ingredients, but he felt something from behind.

“….?”

When he turned his head back, he noticed two hunters were looking at him with interest.

When their eyes met, Hyun-Soo smiled and they smiled back.

‘Wow. That’s a good start.’

People usually get close when eating food together.

Even though they haven’t started eating yet, Hyun-Soo was feeling good.

He scooped out the rice and while it was cooling down, he cooked some eggs and cut them up.

There was some ground beef, so after adding sesame oil, salt, soy sauce, pepper and sugar, he cooked it.

Sizzle, sizzle!

The beef sounded and smelled good.

The smell of marinated beef smelled delicious that this would’ve been enough for them to eat.

‘The red chili sauce is the main ingredient.’

Just putting in the red chili paste that they sell in markets would make him look bad.

‘Add red pepper flakes into the paste and sugar…where’s the green onion? Oh, here it is. Chop that up…and I need to mince the garlic. Add some sesame and lastly, add sesame oil…!’

And he finished making a spicy, sweet and aromatic chili sauce.

Hyun-Soo dipped his pinky into the sauce and tasted it.

‘Yum, okay. This is delicious.’

No matter how he thought about it, Kim Yoo-Na probably didn’t make the chili sauce like this.

‘Half of the container was empty, so I’m assuming that she used all of that.’

They even had an expensive looking sesame oil and seeing as how the bottle was half empty, she probably poured it all in.

‘That would definitely not taste good.’

It would be spicy, salty and greasy.

After seeing the remaining ingredients, he had an idea of what happened.

Hyun-Soo placed the rice, beef and sesame oil into one bowl and mixed them up.

And then, he took out another bowl neatly placed them inside.

‘Since it’ll be a buffet style, I’m sure they’ll take whatever they want.’

Because of that, he purposely mixed them together.

If he placed the sauce in a separate bowl, they wouldn’t know how much to put in it.

In the bowl that had all the ingredients, he placed the egg on top and sprinkled some sesame on it.

‘Done.’

Even though he made it, it looked extremely appetizing.

The rice and vegetables were mixed well with the sauce and the spicy smell was aromatic.

Hyun-Soo ate from the bowl that still had some food left.

‘This isn’t all that spicy, so it should be okay.’

If Katrina was here, he would ask her to try it.

But he asked her to leave because of the flower, so he was a bit disappointed.

He glanced over at where the other hunters were and they looked busy cooking their own dish.

One hunter applied sauce on a large piece of meat, placed it in the oven and applied the sauce again after taking it out. There was another hunter that placed a fish inside a pie and was decorating it.

He expected there to be more odd dishes, but most of them were homemade dishes.

Well, they were hunters, not cooks.

‘It’s a relief that my Bibimbap doesn’t look shabby.’

Hyun-Soo felt relieved after seeing the fish pie and assumed that his dish would be way better.

‘Anyways, I put in a lot of the flower, so maybe…’

The ratio of the flower and the other ingredients were about 1:1.

He put in a lot.

Thankfully, the texture and the taste was good, so it mixed well with the other ingredients.

He cut them up so that it was easier to eat, so no one would know how much of the flower was actually used in the dish.

‘I should check. Interface!’

————————————————–

[Levshila Bibimbap][Normal]

A Bibimbap that contains Levshila, a flower that only grows where the moonlight is shining the strongest.

It contains a lot of Levshila stem and leaves.

Effect: Upon intake +Stamina 30 [Duration: 30 Minutes]

The stamina recovery rate will increase a little bit. [Duration: 30 Minutes]

————————————————–

He was curious so he used Interface, but there really was information about it.

There was even a rank.

However, since the root and petals weren’t included, the stamina points decreased.

‘Will this…have the same effect when creating a medicine?’

He thought he could only create potions and medicine, so this was unexpected.

Now that he thought about it, this Bibimbap could be considered a food that provided a buffing effect.

However, he didn’t intentionally make this and it would be hard to consume this during a battle.

Hyun-Soo didn’t have any issues making it and with him in the lead, the other hunters were finishing up their dish as well.