KWAAANG!!
The miracle of Shia’s [Holy Body Destruction], similar to a vast shock miracle, swept through the Blood Swamp, causing the mutated slimes that were about to ambush in the swamp to burst out in unison.
Naturally, Yane’s purple miracle, manifested by her as a Bug Princess, was weaker and had a smaller radius compared to Shia’s destructive miracle.
If it had been Shia, she would have wiped out all the slimes nearby, but Yane’s miracle only took care of a dozen or so slimes close by.
Despite having enough fuel, she hadn’t used a miracle much, so there must have been issues with output due to her lack of familiarity.
The mutated slimes, realizing that Yane’s miracle was less powerful than expected, paid no mind to their comrades bursting and started to crawl toward Yane, stretching their liquid tentacles to devour her or claim her body.
Once [Mother]’s voice vanished, their hatred towards the intruder grew, and they began to attack Yane frenziedly.
However, Yane merely smiled at the slimes coming at her.
CRUNCH!
Yane’s sharp teeth chewed through the slimes like a hungry beast. Despite the slime’s body melting human flesh in an instant, Yane persisted, tearing and clawing at the slimes with her bare hands and teeth.
CRUNCH!
CHOMP!
She bit into the slime and crushed its core.
“GEEEK…!”
[…!]
[!!]
SQUELCH!
The ferocious appearance of Yane, resembling a beast, caused the momentum of the slimes to diminish, but the mutated slimes, their hatred amplified by [Mother]’s absence, charged at Yane without hesitation.
Yane regarded those slimes with narrow eyes.
With a crescent-like smile on her face, Yane licked the ground with her tongue, unfazed by the red liquid of the swamp staining her.
Like a starving beast.
Like a monster.
And as a Bug Princess,
Messy, greedy.
And charmingly ugly.
“KYAAAACK!!”
THUDD!
SQUELCH!
SMACK!
SLAP!
SLAP!
The clash between countless slimes and Yane looked like a monster battle play out before their eyes.
Yane’s centipede tail, armed with blades, whipped around like a whip, and the slimes pierced by the blades had their cores shattered, stopping their life activities.
But the slimes were undeterred.
Some attempted to forcefully push themselves into Yane’s mouth to steal her body, while others clung to her arms or legs, trying to dissolve her limbs.
“AWOO!? *GULP….!?”
SHHHHH!
In actuality, the acidic properties of the mutated slimes took a toll on Yane as well.
Although the sound of her skin sizzling was heard, Yane’s skin, which only looked like human skin, was, in fact, wrapped in a mana-coated, hard, high-strength chitin shell like the Bladed Centipedes of the Rotten Mountain dungeon.
Of course, it was possible for her to withstand acid far longer than a human, and the Bug Princess’s body had the absurd recovery and body reconstruction capabilities of her owner, the Mangja Seongnyeo.
CRUNCH!
Yane bit down on a slime trying to get into her mouth and devoured it whole, struggling like a beast to shake off the slimes clinging to her limbs.
CREAK!
CHOMP!
GULP!
She tore and chewed.
And chewed some more.
“HAH…HAH…?”
As the attacking slimes were completely wiped out, Yane stretched out blissfully and shouted.
“Blood sausage!”
Eating the slime fragments clinging to her body made Yane reminisce about the blood sausage soup she had eaten when she first became human.
Indeed, aside from the acidity, the flesh of the mutated slime was quite similar in taste and texture to blood sausage.
“Mermaid, Princess! Tasty! Blood sausage flavor! KKEEK!”
“Yeah, yeah. I get it.”
Then Yane lifted the Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess, who was sitting weakly on the tree.
Though the Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess wasn’t powerless, Yane could handle the ambush of the mutated slimes all on her own.
After all, she had been forcibly dragged along with Yane, who had gotten stuck at their side.
It was right for Yane to take on all the physical labor.
“Whew, now let’s see…”
The Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess sighed and placed her hand on the Blood Swamp.
A small wave started from the Mermaid Princess’s hand and spread across the Blood Swamp.
If someone had stepped into the Blood Swamp, they would have been caught in the Mermaid Princess’s wave, but unfortunately, the surroundings were just as empty.
There was no sign of Shia, nor any other Hunters within a 3 km radius.
“Not here either. I’ve come quite far… hmmm.”
GKEE…
Though the exact area was unknown – the Blood Swamp – was a massive dungeon nearly occupying the Geumgangsan area.
It wasn’t surprising there was no sign of Shia here.
The radar embedded in the Hunter Train was also not functioning properly due to the dense mana density inside the dungeon, leaving only the option of physically searching around.
Eventually, Yane began to sprint through the Blood Swamp, still holding the Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess.
“KKEEK~” (It’s dark~)
The distance from the Hunter Train’s stationed location to where Shia was spread out quite far.
Thus, Yane had to embark on a small adventure to search for Shia, equipped as best as possible.
Sniff sniff… “This way!”
Thankfully, since Yane was one of Shia’s followers being blessed by the Mangja Seongnyeo, she had an inkling of the direction where Shia might be thanks to her sense of smell.
However, since Yane wasn’t particularly intelligent, she could only estimate where she might be at roughly.
“There are also Hunter Parties that have split up from the front line for dungeon exploration aside from the Mangja Seongnyeo.”
KKEEK~ Slurp!
HUUU…?!
As Yane licked the cheek of the Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess like candy, the princess felt goosebumps all over her body.
“Oh, ugh… Yane. Our goal is to find the Mangja Seongnyeo, but we should also bring back anyone we find during the search…”
Slurp, smack~
“Stop it already…!”
The Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess, who had been attached to Yane for a month straight, was still being diligently treated like a chew toy today.
Once, Yoonjeong had admonished Yane, saying, “Yane, isn’t it about time to stop? The Mermaid Princess doesn’t like it…” however, normally, Yane, who would listen to Yoonjeong, didn’t want to part with the Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess at all.
In similar straits.
Perhaps because she felt like a junior, Yane was offering her utmost goodwill toward the Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess, expressed in a skinship form resembling grooming, reminiscent of her nature as a Bladed Centipede monster.
Moreover, the Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess was aware that Yane held considerable affection for her, so although she verbally declined, she didn’t physically push Yane away.
Sigh, just an unusual way of expressing affection. That centipede girl likes me, and according to the Mangja Seongnyeo, she’s still not even a year old…
The Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess clearly remembered how foolish and childish she was in her younger years.
How she constantly bugged her ‘sister’, the Imugi, to stay with her anytime and didn’t think about others at all.
Compared to my childhood, Yane is nothing…
Anyway, Yane, still tightly hugging the Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess, continued through the Blood Swamp with splashes.
Wearing a form-fitting Hunter suit, Yane navigated the surroundings quite skillfully, looking like a true Hunter.
At first glance, Yane appeared to be too busy licking the Mermaid Princess like candy, but her eyes were acutely sensitive to her environment.
PLOP!
With the sound of droplets.
Even with the swaying movement of the red swamp, Yane reacted sensitively.
Having dashed around like a beast for a long time, Yane suddenly caught a whiff of Shia’s scent very close.
“KKEEK!”
“Did you find her?”
—
From a large lump of mutated slime transformed from potato starch, Yane extracted the noodles, leaving only to dissolve them in water.
“First, let’s boil the noodles in boiling water.”
According to the online recipe for cold noodles, if one wanted to eat chewy and springy noodles, the boiling time was the most crucial.
For one serving, it would be boiled for 25 to 30 seconds, but the problem was the enormous size of the slime cold noodles Shia had just dropped in.
If based on restaurant standards, the massive potato starch lump slime would definitely exceed at least 50 servings, and boiling it for only 25 seconds wouldn’t even allow it to cook properly, let alone dissolve.
Moreover, boiling for several minutes would result in the noodles becoming jelly-like and limp.
“30 seconds passed!”
However, as she was not a trained chef, Shia had no concept of adjusting the boiling time based on the amount. As soon as 30 seconds passed, she took out the still-hard slime noodles.
The noodles that emerged from boiling water at such an early stage held their heads up stiffly, but it appeared Shia felt nothing strange and commenced on her next cooking step.
“Let’s quickly rinse the noodles in cold water. It’s good to add some ice too?”
Unfortunately, there was no ice here.
To begin with, the transport drone was equipped with emergency food or survival kits to sustain themselves in the dungeon.
There wasn’t even anyone, aside from Shia, who would consider putting a refrigerator capable of freezing ice inside the transport drone.
“Hey~”
“EEK!?”
“Ugh, ohh… Mother…”
“Be quiet!”
What was with all this noise? Shia tilted her head and approached the slime hunters guarding the broth.
One of them had quite red eyes, possibly having cried, and the other two didn’t seem all that well either.
Shia hesitated slightly before speaking up.
“Anyone here have ice or can make ice?”
“…We’re all melee-oriented…”
“…….”
“Oh, I see… Well, it can’t be helped. I guess we have to eat it as it is.”
“Wha?! You’re gonna eat it??”
“Yeah, you all must be hungry right? It seems we’ve come pretty deep into the dungeon, and I’m fine, but you all must be exhausted.”
“……..Yeah, sure…”
“Oh no…”
With the oddly scrutinizing gazes of the hunters, Shia shrugged her shoulders.
It seemed they were somewhat apprehensive at the idea of eating cold noodles made from slime.
“Don’t worry! I’ll make it really delicious!”
Trust me! Shia patted her chest confidently, but the hunters gave her a nuanced look for a moment.
“…………”
“Ugh…”
Wait, are they actually crying?
They must be really worried…
But it’ll be okay!
Just like when I had eaten the wyvern egg stew with Cheon Ah-Young Hunter back then. They’ll taste good once I make it, right?
Unexpectedly, Shia had a decent success rate when it came to treating others to food.
Menelapie also enjoyed the Bladed Centipede Soup quite a bit.
And offering Shiplani grilled meat to Olga provided the cause for the Elf’s carnivorous nature. Ironically, that was also Shia’s doing.
However, that certainly did not mean Shia was a good cook.
If the cooking process were simple enough, she relied on the quality of ingredients or expensive seasonings to make up for her lacking cooking skills with overwhelming flavor.
Moreover, cold noodles, unless using a meal kit, was notoriously difficult for a beginner to cook.
“Hmm, the broth is quite tasty!”
Surprisingly, the cold noodle broth made from the slime fragments turned out to taste quite nice.
Rather refreshing like a subtle blood sausage soup, yet still holding the unique lightness of cold noodle broth.
As it was, it seemed it would yield quite a decent flavor once the noodles were added.
“But what about ice…”
Nevertheless, having failed to procure ice, Shia returned with the broth pot to her cooking location.
The broth would likely turn out pretty well if it simply kept boiling, but the absence of ice was disappointing.
The most essential thing for cold noodles was ice, but Shia’s large transport drone was not with them here, and neither the Slime Hunters nor Shia had the capacity to create ice.
Oh, if only Binggu were here…
Helplessly, Shia cooled down the noodles with bottled water.
TRICKLE…
Though the noodles had gone in and out of the hot water for a brief moment, they now looked quite glistening and bouncy.
“Well then, the noodles seem about done…”
In truth, not at all.
“Eggs…”
And it was only natural that there were also no eggs.
Storing fresh eggs in a Hunter’s transport drone was difficult, and if there were, her fellow Hunters would probably berate her for it, given their short shelf life.
“Uh, um…”
This is bad.
The noodles aside, with no ice, no eggs…
The vegetables that were normally good to include like cucumbers or kimchi were instead replaced with slime fragments pickled in radish.
Still, having come this far, wouldn’t they have to taste it?
Shia was left with no choice but to take out the dish from the transport drone.
She first gently placed the noodles on a dish.
Then, she chopped the pickled slime fragments and laid them on top.
Finally, she poured the broth over the top.
There, done!
“Oh, it looks way too lacking…”
She hadn’t even managed to create the bibim-naengmyeon she had originally planned and now the completion of the mul-naengmyeon was quite ambiguous.
No egg.
No omelet.
No meat.
Though it was said to be served with dumplings, grilled meat, pork cutlets, or jeon, unfortunately, there was absolutely none here.
“And why are the noodles so hard…?”
Only then did Shia realize the slime noodles were in a very hard state.
Having poured in the broth now, those noodles would have to be thrown away.
Ugh, no matter how I look at it, this is a complete failure…
KKEE~!
“Phew, should I try to eat it…?”
“KKEEK!”
“KKEEK?”
At that moment, Shia realized that a familiar voice echoed in her ears.
Although the slime fragment nestled inside Shia’s ear was still wriggling, it was definitely heard.
“KKEEEKK~”
As she turned towards the direction of the sound, a familiar figure popped out from the darkness.
“Yane?”
“KKEEK~ Found you, daa~!”
An innocent-sounding voice that still resembled that of a kindergarten child.
However, in terms of physique, it was one that had grown far larger like Shia, the owner.
Yane had come looking for Shia in a skin-tight suit designed for large beings… no, there was Yane dressed in a hunter suit.
“Wow, Yane, how did you make it this far?”
“KKEEK! Yoonjeong and Mama told me to bring you back!”
“Oh, Mama?”
“……Hmph. Holy Lady, so you were here.”
“Ah, the Mermaid Princess has come too?”
“Don’t even mention it. This child has been running around for quite some time looking for you.”
How on earth they made it here was a mystery; Yane’s cheeks were splattered with the red fluid of the Blood Swamp.
Moreover, given that she was also cradling the Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess in her arms, it seemed she had struggled quite a bit during the journey.
“Wow, good job, Yane.”
“EMEEM!”
As Shia scratched Yane’s chin endearingly, Yane’s chest puffed up with pride, shrugging her shoulders.
“Well then, Yane. Since you’ve worked hard…”
“KKEEK?”
“Would you like to try some cold noodles?”
“Me? Right now??”
In an instant, Yane felt a sudden surge in her intelligence.
What’s going on?
Why did she suddenly feel smarter?
Yane had no idea why she felt this way.
It was closer to the realm of unconscious instinct.
Yane’s wildness, her survival instincts had inadvertently responded to Shia’s offer with a rise in her intelligence, though it was merely a momentary occurrence.
Of course, it was such a brief phenomenon that Yane merely tilted her head.
“Cold noodles?”
“Yep, cold noodles!”
At those words, Yane looked down at the bowl sitting on Shia’s hand.
Though it looked empty, it seemed it could pass as an edible dish.
Yet, the Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess furrowed her brows.
What the heck… Is this supposed to be… cold noodles?
The noodles stood up like chopsticks!?
“Holy Lady, is that…?”
“Ah! Would you like to try it too, Mermaid Princess? I poured my heart into it!”
“…….No, I think I’ll pass.”
“KKEEK?”
Despite the hyung-an’s Mermaid Princess feeling uneasy looking at the hardened noodles, Yane, unaware of their peculiar nature, sensed nothing strange.
Why is my master suddenly offering me a delicious-looking dish first…?
Suspicious…
“Sniff sniff!”
Yane cautiously sniffed at Shia’s cold noodles.
What? Why does it smell delicious?
However, the aroma was actually rather pleasant.
No, one could even say it was nice.
“Yane, you should try it already, Yane!”
“….KKEEK…”
However, Yane had no rights to refuse.
No matter how suspicious Shia seemed, Yane was still a child.
As a child, she didn’t think to overthink things.
Since the smell of the broth was good, Yane believed the taste wouldn’t be bad either, but regrettably, the most normal part of Shia’s cooking process was simply the ready-made cold noodle broth, and judging taste solely by smell was premature.
But Yane’s mouth had already welcomed that mysterious, unfinished cold noodles.
GULP.
GULP.
“That’s it! Drink the broth down! And then try the noodles!”
SLURP.
OM NOM NOM…
Thus did the naive Yane obediently eat Shia’s slime cold noodles…
WOOOM!
“……..”
“Yane, how does it taste?”
“Uhh… Uhh?!”
And just a moment later, Yane’s expression began to sour drastically.
What… what’s this?
What the heck did I just eat…??
It seemed like noodles, but the texture was incredibly hard.
Moreover, whether the noodles had been made from slime or not, the blood flavor hadn’t escaped, producing an odd fishy scent. And while the broth was ambiguously passable, the dish was completely dissonant due to the noodles.
The pickled raddish fragments were fine, but they were just okay for what they were, failing to complement any harmonies with the dish.
No, from the moment the noodles were improperly cooked, this didn’t qualify as food.
It was just poorly made!
“Ugh, UGH…..!!”
“Huh? Was it really that bad…?”
“Ugh, ugh, UGH…..!!”
“Yet, the broth was pretty good?!”
How can you call that food, you moronic master…!
As Yane retched, Shia fell into a deep dilemma.
What’s going on? Everything was supposed to be perfect!
“Oh! I just realized, I forgot to add mustard and vinegar sauce?!”
“…Holy Lady, I don’t think that’s the issue…”
“UWEH, UGGH… UWEH, UWEH, UWEHH… KKEEKK…!”
Master, you idiot…!
I should not have come to rescue you!!!
