Glug glug, gulp.
As Shia chewed on the slime still causing chaos in her throat and brain, she inadvertently felt like she was hearing the screams of the dungeon boss that had just been devoured.
[Aaaaaaaaaah!!]
No, it wasn’t just a feeling; it seemed she was genuinely letting out screams.
It took a while for the core she swallowed to digest, and since the slime’s body was almost like a fluid, it managed to maintain some semblance of life even when physically consumed.
Of course, soon enough, it would melt in Shia’s soul furnace, turning into nutrients that extracted the malicious essence, and the malevolence expelled by this dungeon boss slime would become the materials needed for Shia to solve her hunger, maintain her intellect and soul, and use her miracles.
‘It’s tastier than I expected! Tastes similar to the sundae soup restaurant in front of my house!’
And upon further thought, Shia hadn’t even intended to eat the dungeon boss first. Rather, it had been the slime’s Mother that had tried to eat Shia.
After Shia firmly clamped her mouth shut, it willingly jumped into her mouth as if saying, ‘Please eat me!’ so it was hard to argue about fault here. This could be considered an unavoidable act of negligence on Shia’s part.
In the first place, what kind of fault or sin is there against a monster that is hostile to humans? Just by existing, monsters earn their justifiable reason to die.
Exercising mercy towards them is the privilege of those who possess the certainty of being able to overpower their opponents like Shia.
Ahh, hick… hic!?
Of course, the pieces of slime that were entering Shia’s brain via her ears were flailing around in a desperate struggle for survival, but from Shia’s perspective, it only felt ticklish in her head.
Not ticklish in that sense, but her body’s sensations were wildly erratic. To someone like Shia, who had long since graduated from trivial pains, the sudden shivers through her body were not quite unpleasant.
Hii, hii… uh… my brain is shaking!
Had she been any other human, her brain might have been overtaken by the slime long ago, losing her body, but Shia was the Mangja Seongnyeo.
Since her heart had never really been beating even from the beginning, the slime could occupy her heart and do nothing, and her brain had always been out of order.
‘In the first place, the fact that my body has memories, thoughts, and reason isn’t so much due to my brain functioning properly; it’s more because my ‘soul’ as the Mangja Seongnyeo is in charge. Or perhaps it’s because of the ‘starlight corpse’ that resides inside my soul.’
Honestly, Shia didn’t fully understand it.
It was still a mystery why, even after more than 60 years in this body, the memories and thoughts were unaffected despite her brain hardly functioning.
Teresa seemed to know something about it, but it wasn’t important, so she wasn’t particularly curious either.
Well, more importantly, what matters right now is naengmyeon!
With that thought, Shia set aside the broth for the other hunters and began picking up the massive blood slime fragments scattered around her.
Possibly due to losing its core, the slime lay weakly stretched out, but objectively speaking, the Mother of the slimes was a ridiculously severe mutation among the mutants.
It wasn’t just an easy clean-up; if the other hunters had confronted it head-on, it could have resulted in countless casualties.
The powerful acid that could dissolve human flesh in an instant, and a fluid body that was tougher and more elastic than the Minotaur.
And the capability of ‘adaptation’ along with its massive size that could cover the nearby region.
It was undeniably a powerful monster far beyond the typical frame of a slime.
Well, that strong monster ended up dying foolishly when it tried to occupy Shia’s body and she chewed its core like a delicacy.
Anyway, Shia decided to focus on that slime’s characteristic of ‘adaptation.’
[Miracle – Purification]
Using the miracle of purification, she cleaned up the slime’s fragments, transforming the blood-red slime pieces into clear jelly.
Should I take a bite?
Hic.
Glug glug.
Yum, it’s like sundae!
Fortunately, even after using the miracle of purification, the taste remained the same.
Jelly meat.
It was a rather bizarre food you’d expect to find only in England, but unlike English food, it was quite delicious.
For reference, Shia had traveled to England during her human days and had a few occasions of tasting their food, so she still remembered just how atrocious and horrifying it was.
Eww, was it sardine potato jelly? Even though it was food from before the Great Rift, it tasted so bad, it was as if a monster had been mixed in….
In any case, Shia laid out the naengmyeon cooking set in front of her and gazed at the purified slime pieces beside it.
These brain-eating mutant slimes originally didn’t possess acidity; rather, it was a result of that ‘adaptation’ trait.
The acidity observed was merely a product of that adaptation trait, so if she could just utilize that ‘adaptation’ well, it could surely be applied to cooking as well.
Shia took a handful of salt she brought from the transporting drone and sprinkled it over the purified slime.
As soon as the salt touched the clear slime pieces, it disappeared like snow, and Shia took a bite out of the fragments.
Oh, it’s salty!
With only a handful of salt, she couldn’t make all of that large slime salty, but this slime fragment had absorbed the ‘adaptation’ to the salt and had become highly saline.
Had this slime still been alive and aggressive, it might’ve adapted its body to attack people by crystallizing them with salt or developing the ability to preserve its body even when submerged in highly saline areas. However, having lost its core, the purified slime fragments reacted to salt as if painting something onto a blank sheet of paper, effectively absorbing the characteristics of the salt.
To put it simply, Shia had just gained a salt that was as large as her head using a handful of salt.
This mutant slime is quite the amazing byproduct, huh? If it can adapt to electricity, coal, oil, or even mana, then its usability would be pretty high…
Using this adaptation characteristic might allow for application in other resources or foods as well.
Regardless, what mattered to Shia right now was naengmyeon.
Ah, hick… my brain’s shaking… but since it has adapted to the salt, it should be able to adapt to the broth… and it could adapt to the naengmyeon too, right?!
For reference, Shia loved bibim-naengmyeon.
Also known as Hamheung naengmyeon or hoe-naengmyeon, it was characterized by having little to no broth, making it more stimulating and sweeter compared to mul-naengmyeon.
She didn’t dislike mul-naengmyeon, but she enjoyed customizing by adding broth to bibim-naengmyeon.
However, unfortunately, what Shia had in her hand was a set of mul-naengmyeon.
Hmm, that means I’ll have to make my own sauce…
No. First, she decided to dive into making the base noodles for the naengmyeon.
Isn’t it a bit disgraceful at her age that she couldn’t eat bibim-naengmyeon?
Shia first tore open the naengmyeon set bag.
What was visible was vacuum-packed fresh noodles made from potato starch, along with pickled radish, mustard, and vinegar sauce.
First, she would gather the slime fragments and use the miracle of purification on all of them.
Once the bright red hue dyeing the slimes was thoroughly returned to transparency and the impurities were completely removed with meticulous purification, it was time to test the ‘adaptation’ of those fragments.
She tore the vinegar sauce and poured it over one of the fragments.
Slurp.
Hmm, that turned into excellent vinegar!
It’s good for you.
She then proceeded to make mustard slime.
She wasn’t sure if the pickles could be adapted by the slime, but fortunately, the slime adapted excellently to both the liquid sauce and the solid state of pickles.
Giant pickles!
In a flash, Shia obtained vinegar slime, mustard slime, and pickle slime that were each as large as her face, smiling at how smoothly the cooking was proceeding beyond expectations.
Now came the most important part.
She had tested it with pickles, but the crucial question was whether the potato starch noodles for the naengmyeon could properly ‘adapt’ with the slime.
For now, she inserted a single noodle into the slime’s fragment.
……
At a glance, there was no noticeable change.
Even when she poked it with her finger, it didn’t seem to show any significant changes in texture, so Shia decided to put about half of the noodles from the vacuum packaging into the slime fragments.
Oh?!
As expected, was it that there hadn’t been enough ingredients? The surface of the slime quickly began to harden.
Now, it was no longer slime but a large lump of potato starch noodles.
Perfect!
Shia couldn’t stop drooling at the thought of devouring this perfect embodiment of carbohydrates perfected after scholars had labored long to create it.
How delicious could the naengmyeon set, well-studied and packaged for consumption among hunters, be?
Nutritionally, there was obviously no shortage in high calories.
Shia prayed that these slimes would adapt excellently to the nutrients and high calories that naengmyeon possesses.
First off, I need to wash it in running water…
Shia checked the cooking procedures on the back of the naengmyeon set, but unfortunately, there was no running water here.
Well, it was a vast swamp, but no matter how much purifying miracles she used on that bright red blood swamp, it would still feel incredibly disgusting.
If it were just for her alone to eat, she could certainly make do with it, but this was food for not only herself but for others too.
For now, I’ll use drinking water…
Normally, using drinking water like this as a survival hunter would be close to suicidal, but given that Shia had defeated the dungeon boss, it was confirmed that the Hunter Train would send a search party for survivors or stragglers.
Therefore, there was no need to conserve the water.
If it came down to it, she could just use purification miracles to generate more water.
First, I’ll boil the water then… drop the noodles into it….
The moment she thought that, Shia looked at what she was holding.
It was indeed the slime fragment that had perfectly ‘adapted’ to the naengmyeon, but it was more like a massive lump of potato starch.
That meant she had to pull out the noodles before dropping them into the boiling water.
…Huh.
Shia took a deep breath and began concentrating.
Let’s focus.
She recalled back to when she had aimed at the demons of the Demon King’s army that were sniping the Imperial Army, and when she had fought for her life in the Gongheo Gungjeon.
At that moment, Shia set aside her playful nature and laid-back attitude for a brief instant.
Bullet time.
Shia’s sensory enhancement and awareness became excessively refined, and everything felt like it was moving in slow motion.
She could see the dust floating in the air and the flow of mana, and as her brain recognized that the speed was extremely slow, Shia glared coldly at the slime naengmyeon in her hands.
You are now the Demon King.
You are now the malicious entity.
Potato starch slime, you are the wicked being who kidnapped my mother.
[Gah!]
[W-What is this energy…!]
As Shia began to unleash an overwhelming concentration that shifted her perception and reasoning, the hunter slimes trembled in fear, sensing the transformation of Shia’s energy.
Then, once Shia finished her shift in mindset, she threw the slime naengmyeon into the air.
Concentrating to the extreme in 0.0001-second increments, Shia instantly unleashed a miracle.
A saint is one who brings the impossible to fruition…!
[Miracle – Gap Blade]!
SWISH!!!
[Hii, hiiii!]
[Mom, mommy, mommm…]
[Mother…]
[Impossible, we can’t win against that..]
In an instant, Shia unleashed thin white lines from her hand, slicing across the surroundings like they were the very fabric of the world.
Whooooosh!
Good.
Following Menelapie’s swordsmanship technique, Shia could extract naengmyeon.
It was simple. She directed the gap blade in the air, tossed the potato starch slime, and voila! The slime cleanly spat out the naengmyeon.
Hmm, good! Good!
[Hii, hiik…!]
[Mother..Mother…]
The hunter slimes squealed in panic at the very real prospect that the potato starch slime fragment would soon become their fate, but well…
That was nothing Shia particularly cared about.
○○○○
As the slime wave began to lose its strength, the hunters on the receiving end didn’t miss the momentum and smashed all the slimes to bits.
Ten thousand… no, perhaps tens of thousands of mutant slimes perished, but apart from a few injuries, there were no deaths reported.
“Wow, it’s nice to warm up again after such a long time.”
“It’s over.”
“Good job, everyone.”
“Fufu, since the first outing is over, is there no brave warrior willing to duel with this Elizaveta IV? Right now, I will…!”
“Oh, Your Majesty the Queen. Please calm down a bit. Everyone is about to drop dead here.”
“You insolent and weak fool! You still call yourself S-grade!? Hunter Yeonseo withstanded the 19th wave and fought with me!”
Perhaps the reason there had been no casualties was that there were 21 S-grade hunters present.
“…But we’re fine because we’re S-grade.”
At that moment, an S-grade hunter, sipping on water, glanced towards another direction.
At the end of his gaze stood Menelapie, who had single-handedly cut through ten thousand slimes with a single sword. Even in this moment, Menelapie was picking off the mutant slimes, executing their cores cleanly with her sword.
“I didn’t get a good look since it was so chaotic, but that one didn’t seem like an S-grade…”
“Who are they?”
“Oho, is this a new recruit for the train? The Greek libertine, the duel-obsessed British Queen, the number two from America, and that blonde swordswoman… Wow, getting first place is gonna be tough this time.”
“That blonde swordswoman is something, but who is that strange centipede resembling girl?”
“She seemed a bit intimidating.”
And the hunters looked upon a girl with a bizarre, wriggling centipede tail.
Her hair was a deep purple like toxic venom.
“Oh, Yane, you worked hard.”
Kyiiikk~ Ehehe.
At that moment, Yane had her cheeks wiped by Yoonjeong’s handkerchief.
Once Shia had turned Yane into the Insect Saint, she summoned horrifically-looking parasites to slaughter slimes, taking the front lines for her fellow hunters during the confrontation against the immense slime tide.
Of course, even while fighting, Yane’s top priority for protection had always been Yoonjeong.
Fortunately, despite the heavy presence of slimes, none had managed to reach Yoonjeong.
“Now, you got it, right, Yane? Don’t forget to come search for Shia!”
Kyiiikk~ Arah, sure. Yoonjeong, mama…
“Good. That’s right.”
As soon as the slime wave settled, Yoonjeong promptly delegated a critical mission to Yane.
“Menelapie has to deal with leftover slimes. Since Teresa is still pretty weak, our Yane must find Shia.”
“Yes, yes!”
Now, Yoonjeong couldn’t bring herself to think that Shia might die or be injured somewhere.
She was well aware of Shia’s immense strength.
Even if her body got smashed between the dungeon train and the gate, she believed without doubt that Shia would return alive and well, grumbling about it.
However, what worried Yoonjeong was that Shia had gotten lost quite far from the Hunter Train, leaving her with no choice but to rely on Yane, who could at least faintly perceive the direction of Shia’s location.
In fact, since Yane was under Shia’s command, she could somewhat sense the direction in which Shia was located.
Yoonjeong dressed Yane in a snug-fit suit like the hunters wore instead of the loose t-shirt she usually wore and handed her Shia’s portable support drones and transport drones.
“Wow, surprisingly looks good on you.”
Kyiiiinn~
Is it said that clothes make the person?
Wearing the Hunter bodysuit, Yane, with her bizarre centipede tail and antenna, exuded quite a tactical yet bio-engineered feel, resembling a special agent.
Yane turned around as if asking Yoonjeong, “Do I look good?” while swaying her centipede tail.
Yoonjeong tenderly patted Yane on the head with a warm smile.
“Yane, I’m counting on you, okay? If a monster shows up, don’t necessarily fight. If it feels dangerous, be sure to run away!”
Kyiiinn!
Thus began Yane’s brief and new adventure.
“I… should be left behind…!”
Slurp, slurp. Kyiiikk~
Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess tucked under her arm.
