Chapter 77: Chocolate Mine

Shortly after Hyemin’sDaddy disappeared, Blacksmith Ron barged inside the smithy with awe and surprise on his face, as he looked at Minhyuk and asked, “Boy... What in the world did you do?!”

In fact, Ron’s expression right now was closer to shock than awe. There was no other reason except that he had lived in this place for five years already, but his neighbors were closer to Minhyuk than him! In such a short time! That was not all, Minhyuk was even able to bring in new contracts, and they were of significant amounts too!

“I just ate delicious food, walked around, helped others with their work, and even cooked for them.”

“...R…really?” Ron asked, speechless at what he heard.

Hearing Ron’s reminder, Minhyuk went ahead and checked his Fame Progress Bar. The Fame had already reached 100%, so he was now filled with expectations.

“You’ve worked hard,” Ron said. A week had not even passed, but Ron believed that Minhyuk did enough. The moment Ron finished speaking, the notifications came in.

[You have completed the Hidden Quest: Solve Blacksmith Ron’s Worries.]

[You have acquired 300,000 EXP.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[...leveled up.]

Minhyuk heard eight consecutive leveling up notifications. However, the notifications did not end there.

[You have achieved 100% Fame.]

[If you wish to learn blacksmithing from Blacksmith Ron, you can immediately learn the skill.]

[You can get the Fantastic Special Pancake Dish Set.]

After the notifications rang, Ron handed a luxurious box to Minhyuk. Minhyuk opened the box and saw all of the ingredients for a pancake dish set! The first set of ingredients he saw was the ingredients for ‘skewered meat pancake’.

Skewered meat pancake was made by putting meat, ham, crabstick, pickled radish, leeks, and mushroom in a skewer, before coating it with flour and egg and frying it in sizzling oil. This was how a tasty skewered skewered meat pancake was made! Skewered meat pancakes’ names differed from region to region too!

Then, there were the ingredients for fried tofu patty, pumpkin pancake and pollock pancake! Every single pancake that could be made with these ingredients was definitely going to be delicious! These pancakes would definitely taste best if he snooped around next to his mom making these delicious pancakes and sneaked some of the finished ones away!

As he looked through the box, he could see plenty of ingredients for pancakes. However, it did not end there. Ron kept on piling up similar boxes in front of Minhyuk and the contents inside were all the same. It was quite a fair amount of boxes. Minhyuk smiled slightly as he looked at all the pancake ingredients placed in front of him.

In fact, Minhyuk had not experienced or celebrated any national holiday for a long time. He never had the chance to experience a proper holiday ever since he suffered from eating addiction. All of the people around him knew what would happen to Minhyuk if he ever smelled the scent of the savory oil when someone was cooking.

It was a long time ago since he experienced someone nagging at him during the holidays. It also seemed like a lifetime ago since he last ate holiday food that anyone could eat easily. Because of that, Minhyuk felt that these ingredients for pancakes were a bit more special and dear to him.

“Let me check the ingredients,” Minhyuk said, picking up a perilla leaf among the set of ingredients.

(Fantastic Perilla Leaf)

Material Grade: B

Special Abilities:

WIS +10

?Magical Defense +30

Description: If you think that this is a regular perilla leaf, then you’re mistaken. This is a fantastic perilla leaf that is one in ten thousand. It has a deeper fragrance and flavor compared to others.

“Wow! Wow! Wow!” Minhyuk burst out in exclamation. He was happy not because of the increase in WIS or magical defense, but because he could eat a perilla leaf that had a deeper fragrance and flavor. Minhyuk?liked dishes with perilla leaves. However, the taste would differ significantly depending on what dish it was used for. It had a certain taste when used in a stew, and another when used in a seaweed roll.

The same was true for any other ingredients. When he clicked on the ham, he saw the description as?‘A ham made with great care by a master craftsman, it is so delicious that no regular ham could ever compare.’. The ingredients in the Fantastic Special Pancake Dish Set had a lot of special abilities, but one thing was for certain; they were all?more delicious?than normal ingredients.

In addition, there were also ingredients that boasted?‘Greatly increases the skill proficiency of blacksmithing.’.?This only meant one thing… if he had blacksmithing skills, then he would be able to easily level up because of this ingredient’s special ability.

From the notifications before, he could learn the blacksmithing skills from Ron right away. Originally, players were supposed to be taught, like the Novice Bandage skill with McCann, but it seemed that he got preferential treatment since he had filled the fame progress bar to 100%. Furthermore, it seemed like he would be able to increase his proficiency the moment he ate these ingredients which would definitely increase his Blacksmithing skill!

“I’d like to learn blacksmithing skills from Ron!”

“I understand.”

[You have mastered the skill, Novice Blacksmithing.]

[You have gained 20 DEX.]

Without wasting any time, Minhyuk quickly checked on the details of his newly acquired skill.

(Novice Blacksmithing)

Passive Skill

Level: 1

Effects:

?Additional +5%+3% on repairs.

?There is a possibility of an additional +4%+2.4% during smelting.

Repair meant that it restored or increased the durability of any artifact that had low durability. Smelting referred to the process of removing impurities of the ore and getting a purer form of the?ore.?Minhyuk had heard before that these two effects were the basic foundation of Novice Blacksmithing. He also heard that only after the Novice Blacksmithing evolved into Intermediate Blacksmithing that he could start producing artifacts. After checking everything, Minhyuk smiled widely as he rubbed his hands together. He said, “Shall we start?”

He looked completely serious and somber before asking, “Can I cook here?”

“Sure,” Ron agreed.

When Ron came in earlier, Minhyuk had heard a lot of notifications about Ron's favor towards him increasing. That was also the reason why Ron happily agreed. Minhyuk started setting everything up.

He poured flour on a flat surface, then prepared some egg wash that he would use to coat the pancakes before frying. For the skewered meat pancake, he skewered the meat and vegetables on a skewer. For the perilla leaf pancake, he ground some of the ingredients of the fried tofu patty and wrapped them in perilla leaf to fry. This was the better option for this dish.

After he finished setting up the ingredients, he greased the frying pan with oil and let it heat up. When he judged that the pan was hot enough, he picked a skewer and coated it with flour and egg wash, before placing it quickly on the frying pan.

Sizzleeee!

The skewered meat pancake was slowly being fried and cooked deliciously in the savory oil. Once one side was golden brown, he flipped it over to cook the other side. Just like that, the pancakes were cooked until they were golden brown.

“It smells delicious,” Ron said, nose twitching at the smell of the oil and the freshly cooked pancakes wafting in the air. This was practically torture to someone who was just watching by the sidelines. Ron wanted to eat something right away.

Minhyuk finished cooking grilled beef skewers, perilla leaf pancake, pollock pancake, zucchini pancake, leek pancake, tofu pancake, and skewered meat pancake. The plate was overflowing with pancakes. Just then, a single hand slowly reached out to take a piece of pancake…

Thwack!

“No!” Minhyuk chided seriously. Ron had no choice but to suck on his fingers that had been slapped by a spoon. Then, Minhyuk finally prepared the soy sauce-based dip as he started to prepare to eat.

Finally, the highlight. The one thing that should never be left out during holidays… The continuous nagging of the adults around you.

“Can you please nag at me?”

“Huh? What in the world are you saying?”

“It’s because I really wanted to eat pancakes while feeling the spirit of the holidays!”

“...Boy. Aren’t you really someone strange?”

However, Minhyuk just shrugged. It was as if he was telling him that he would not give Ron any pancakes if he did not do it. So, Ron started to nag at Minhyuk, like what his mother did to him in the past.

“I heard that the next door’s Lumie is now working at a good smithy. Minhyuk-ah, shouldn’t you go out and get a job quickly?”

“Good, good. This really feels like a holiday!”

Hyeminnie sat beside Minhyuk and muttered to herself, “Poopy piggy is really strange...”

Ron continued on nagging, so much so that he even started to get excited. He said, “Huh?! You should start being independent and get a job! Stop eating off of your parents' backs! Yeah? When are you getting married?! Do you even have a girlfriend? Are you going to keep on playing everyday? How will you get a good job if that’s what you do all day?!”

“...”

“And Minhyuk,-ah you… how will you even get married if you eat so much? When will you even get married? How will you be able to live in this tough world if you’re like this? When I was younger,?chatter, chatter, chatter...”

The dreaded, famous line.?‘When I was younger.’?However, Minhyuk mumbled unknowingly as Ron continued to nag, “I know that I was the one who asked this of him, but now I just want to flip over a table or something...”

“What? What did you just say to your mom?!” Ron shouted. Caught up in the excitement of roleplaying, it seemed that he could not even distinguish whether he was Blacksmith Ron or Minhyuk’s mother.

“Then, shall we eat?”

Chatter, chatter, chatter.

Ignoring the chattering and nagging Ron behind him, Minhyuk picked up a skewered meat pancake. Then, he bit on one side of the skewered meat pancake. This was the best way to eat skewered meat pancakes, since one could taste all of the flavor of all of the ingredients in the skewer. As soon as he bit down on the skewered meat pancake, he could taste the savory flavor of the oil spreading in his mouth. On top of that, the deep flavors of chives, ham, meat, pickled radish, crabstick, mushrooms and eggs blended well in his mouth.

“Wow…. It’s really delicious,” Minhyuk said. He had not eaten any pancakes in years.

‘If one hasn’t eaten it at all, then one wouldn’t know the pain of knowing the taste. But, not being able to eat the food in front of you, when you knew the taste, was plain torture!’

Minhyuk had always wanted to eat skewered meat pancakes! He was smiling brightly as he savored the taste of the pancakes. Then, he picked up the pollock pancake next. He dipped it in soy sauce before taking a big bite out of it. His lips naturally curled into a smile as he tasted the salty, meaty flavor of the pancake.

Then, it was the perilla leaf pancake. The remaining flavor of the previous pancake, along with the ingredients from the fried tofu patty that he placed inside the perilla leaf pancake, improved the flavor of the bland perilla leaf and made it more delicious.

Then came the tofu pancake. Tofu was a very unique existence. The tofu that was made from soybeans could work well with any kind of recipe. It was delicious no matter how one ate it. Whether it was boiled, grilled, fried, or even by itself, it would still be delicious. It was even more delicious when it was salted and fried with egg.

“Hahaha,” Minhyuk laughed loudly as he continued to taste more delicious pancakes.

Next was the fried tofu patty. It was a delicious pancake whether dipped in soy sauce or not. Once he placed it in his mouth, he could taste the rich meaty flavor of the meat and vegetables. The more he chewed, the richer the flavor that spread in his mouth became.

“...Boy, are you crying right now?”

“It’s because it’s really,?really?delicious.”

Ron suddenly stopped nagging. He watched Minhyuk cry while eating the pancakes. He was crying, but his face was painted with a bright and happy smile. Ron laughed out loud when he saw him like that. It seemed like the Fantastic Special Pancake Set was really delicious to make him laugh and cry like that! With a happy smile like that, Minhyuk finished all of the dishes in front of him. He said, “Delicious food is the best!

“Delicious food really is the best!” Hyeminnie repeated with gusto, holding a skewered meat pancake that she clamored for earlier. It seemed like she truly agreed with Minhyuk.

“...I want to say that too,” Ron said, looking at them sadly. It was because he was not able to eat a single thing!

Earlier, as Minhyuk was eating, he continuously heard notifications ringing in his head. So he decided to check his notifications window to check what he got.

[You have eaten the Fantastic Special Pancake Dish’s Skewered Meat Pancake.]

[You have gained 7,000 blacksmithing skill proficiency.]

[Your Novice Blacksmithing skill has leveled up.]

[Your Novice Blacksmithing skill has leveled up.]

[Your Novice Blacksmithing skill…..]

[You have eaten the Fantastic Special Pancake Dish’s Fried Tofu Patty.]

[You have gained 10,000 blacksmithing skill proficiency.]

[Your Novice Blacksmithing skill has leveled up.]

[Your Novice Blacksmithing skill…..]

Minhyuk’s blacksmithing skill had leveled up nine times consecutively. In other words, his Novice Blacksmithing skill had reached Level 10 in one go.

[You have eaten the Fantastic Special Pancake Dish’s Perilla Leaf Pancake.]

[You have gained 10 WIS.]

[You have gained 30 Magical Defense.]

[You have eaten the Fantastic Special Pancake Dish’s Pollock Pancake.]

[You have gained 30 DEX.]

[You have accumulated a total of 1,000 DEX.]

[Your privilege for achieving 1,000 DEX has been released.]

Minhyuk continued to check his notifications with great anticipation.