Chapter 115 – Making Potato Pancakes

“Is this really delicious?”

A white-haired, handsome man who looked haggard because he was missing ten front teeth stared at the purple soup with suspicious eyes,

“Slurp.”

He carefully took a sip.

Flash.

The eyes of Kellion, who drank the sweet potato soup, widened without him realizing it. It was delicious! The sweet taste and aroma of the sweet potato were felt in his mouth.

‘There’s meat in it too.’

The locust meat, which had been boiled and simmered for a long time, was chewed by his molars. It was soft enough to be swallowed without chewing, so it was not burdensome for Kellion to eat.

Gulp.

As Kellion swallowed the soup after savoring the taste, a hot energy flowed down his throat, and a warm energy entered his stomach.

“Keuha!”

Before he knew it, Kellion, who had finished the soup, let out an exclamation of admiration without realizing it.

“Shall I eat just one more bowl?”

Kellion hurriedly moved the white dragon statue to transport the soup.

***

“Meow meow meow.”

Se-jun, who had eaten breakfast, hung Theo on his leg, and

Pluck.

[You have harvested a ripe Magical Cherry Tomato.]

[There are 48,792 times left until the completion of the job quest.]

[Your job experience increases very slightly.]

[The proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 5 increases very slightly.]

[You have gained 30 experience points.]

While he was harvesting hard in the cherry tomato field to complete the job quest,

Kkueng!

Cuengi’s cry came from the kitchen.

“Huh?! What’s wrong?”

Se-jun, who had left Cuengi as he was because Cuengi had fallen fast asleep while eating the soup, hurried over to see what was going on.

When Se-jun entered the kitchen,

Kkueng!

He saw Cuengi crying sorrowfully while holding onto the empty large pot.

“Cuengi, what’s wrong?”

Kkueng!

[When I woke up, the soup was gone, kkueng!]

“Didn’t you eat it in your sleep?”

It was a reasonable suspicion, as Se-jun had seen Cuengi eating in his sleep several times before.

Kkueng! Kkueng!

[No, kkueng! I didn’t eat it, kkueng!]

Cuengi was feeling wronged by Se-jun’s words.

“No?”

Kkueng! Kkueng!

[Yes, kkueng! The dragon grandpas must have stolen and eaten it, kkueng!]

Cuengi’s suspicion was also quite reasonable. Dragons could definitely do that. The dragons loved food immensely while pretending they didn’t. Yet, their pride was so incredibly strong that they wouldn’t admit they liked food.

“Alright. Wait just a moment, and I’ll make it for you again. Let’s eat this for now. Crop Gigantification.”

Se-jun used the skill on a Sweet Potato of Strength, making it a giant sweet potato, and gave it to Cuengi.

Crunch.

Kkueng!

[It’s delicious, kkueng!]

Upon eating food, Cuengi immediately beamed with a bright smile, rejoicing.

“Right. Eat a lot.”

Se-jun patted Cuengi’s head and then pulled out purple locust meat from the subspace warehouse again.

“Puhuhu. Is it my turn to step up, meow?”

Theo extended his claws to slice the meat.

However,

“No. Representative Theo, you don’t have to do it anymore. Golden Bat, please cut this.”

(Yes!)

Flutter. Flutter.

The Golden Bat, who had been hovering around Se-jun, flew over quickly at Se-jun’s call and began to slice the meat.

“What is it, meow?! I feel like my role is disappearing, meow! I can cut well too, meow!”

Theo said, complaining to Se-jun. It wasn’t originally a job he liked, but being stopped from doing it made him feel angry for some reason.

“Alright. Then Theo, peel the potatoes.”

“Understood, meow!”

Pour.

Se-jun, who had been wanting chewy potato pancakes for lunch anyway and thought it worked out well since Theo asked for something to do, poured about 1,000 potatoes in front of Theo.

For the potatoes, the fur could be cleanly removed if they were rinsed with water at the end.

“Meow?! Isn’t this too many, meow?!”

As there were too many potatoes to peel, Theo did not want to work anymore.

But,

“You don’t want to? Then I’ll have the Golden Bat do it, and…”

“No, meow! I will do it, meow!”

He didn’t want it to be taken by someone else.

Scritch. Scritch.

At Se-jun’s words, Theo waved his front paws and hurriedly began peeling the potatoes. Because of his greed, Theo was doing work he didn’t need to do, entering the potato-peeling hell of his own accord.

While Theo was peeling the potatoes like that,

(Se-jun, I’ve cut it all!)

The preparation of the soup ingredients was finished.

Splash. Splash.

The ingredients were dropped into three large pots. Now they just had to simmer it and season it to complete it.

And,

Thud.

He brought out a fire ant’s exoskeleton from the subspace warehouse. Since it was made of a metal-like material, it was perfect for making a grater to grate potatoes.

“Representative Theo, please make some holes in this.”

“Understood, meow.”

Poke. Poke. Poke.

Theo’s claws penetrated the fire ant’s exoskeleton, creating the holes that Se-jun wanted.

“How is it, meow? The power of my claws?”

Theo, who was tired of peeling potatoes, became smug and sneakily clung to Se-jun’s lap.

‘I knew he would do that.’

Se-jun smiled, hung Theo on his leg, and began to grate 100 potatoes peeled by Theo on the grater.

Scrape. Scrape.

The potatoes were grated through the holes Theo had made, and the grated potatoes fell underneath.

“Nice. It grates well.”

“It’s only natural since I made it, meow!”

“Right.”

“Then, since I did well, give me Churu, meow!”

“No. I don’t have a spare hand right now. I’ll give it to you later.”

He was truly a cat who knew neither humility nor timing. Like that, Se-jun grated potatoes while the soup was being completed.

And,

“Cuengi, please squeeze this.”

Se-jun handed the grated potato mixture to Cuengi. This was because the moisture had to be removed to eat potato pancakes that were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Kkueng!

At Se-jun’s request, when Cuengi lightly grabbed the potato mixture and applied force,

Drip.

Moisture was drained from the potato pancake mixture.

He made it into a crumbly mixture state, almost as if it had been spun in a dehydrator.

“Keep squeezing it like that.”

Kkueng!

Se-jun left the potato mixture to Cuengi and went to the soup, which had boiled sufficiently and turned purple, to season it.

A moment later,

[You have completed the Purple Sweet Potato Soup.]

[The proficiency of Cooking Lv. 4 increases slightly.]

The soup was completed.

“Here. Take this.”

Se-jun ladled the soup into Cuengi’s bowl, slowly poured out the water that Cuengi had squeezed out, and poured the starch settled at the bottom back into the potato mixture. Now, it was complete once he pan-fried it.

At that moment,

-Ahem. It is already lunchtime. Kellion, shall we have a bowl of soup?

-Hem, hem. Shall we? Oops! Kaiser, we timed it perfectly!

The two dragon statues, which had been waiting for the soup to be finished, flew in while performing terrible acting and sat in front of the table as if it were natural.

“I thought you said dragons don’t usually eat much? Didn’t you say only roasted sweet potatoes suited your palate?”

Se-jun asked, looking at Kaiser. Kaiser had definitely said that dragons did not feel hunger and did not eat often. But for him to come back to eat again just a few hours after eating… it was suspicious.

“I guess the soup suited your palate?”

-……

-……

The two dragons avoided answering by looking elsewhere at Se-jun’s question. Se-jun was convinced that the culprits who stole Cuengi’s soup were the two dragons in front of him.

“Here you go. Don’t go around stealing and eating what kids eat.”

Se-jun said, scooping up the soup and giving it to the two dragons.

-Ahem!

-Hem! Hem!

Perhaps embarrassed by Se-jun’s words, the two dragons coughed and swallowed the soup, transmitting it to their main bodies.

After giving the soup to the dragons like that, Se-jun gave the soup to the rabbits who came for lunch, heated the frying pan, and prepared to make potato pancakes. He had no cooking oil, but he had fat saved up every time he caught an eel.

Slowly.

Se-jun brought his hand close to the frying pan to check if the frying pan was well heated.

‘It’s ready.’

When he felt the hot heat from the frying pan,

Toss.

Se-jun tossed a piece of eel fat the size of his thumbnail into the frying pan.

Sizzle.

The fat melted in the heat of the heated frying pan, quickly turning into liquid and coating the frying pan with oil.

Squeak?

Ppya?

Ppirik?

At the sound of the fat melting while emitting a savory smell, the rabbits’ ears perked up.

“Good.”

Se-jun scooped a large ladle of potato mixture and placed it on the frying pan.

Siiiiizzle.

He began to spread the potato pancake mixture, which was cooking with a golden sound, by pressing it down with a ladle.

And when the front side was cooked moderately,

“Hup.”

With a snap of his wrist, he flipped the potato pancake.

Plop.

Thanks to his high Agility stat, the potato pancake beautifully drew a parabola, rotated 180 degrees, and landed perfectly on the frying pan.

“Hmph.”

While Se-jun raised his nose high and enjoyed his smugness out of satisfaction from flipping the potato pancake without ruining it,

Squeak!

Ppya!

Ppirik!

The rabbits called Se-jun from behind him, holding their bowls.

“Huh? Ah, you want to try it? Hold on.”

Se-jun placed the potato pancake on a wide plate, tore it into pieces with chopsticks, and

Glug. Glug. Glug.

Poured three glugs of honey into the side bowl.

“You can eat it just like this, but once it cools down a bit, dip it in the honey here. It’s more delicious that way.”

Se-jun taught the rabbits how to eat potato pancakes, and

Sizzle.

Prepared the next potato pancake while adding eel oil.

Like that, he grilled about ten potato pancakes, and the rabbits ate their fill and went back to work, leaving only Cuengi, who was busy dipping the potato pancakes in honey and eating them.

Kkueng!

Cuengi, who put a whole potato pancake dipped generously in honey into his mouth, could not contain his joy and waved his arms, expressing his excitement.

“Is it that delicious?”

Kkueng!

Cuengi answered with a firm nod. Seeing Cuengi eat so deliciously, he could not hold back anymore.

“I should eat one too.”

Trickle.

Se-jun took out a new sauce that Theo had obtained this time and poured the black liquid into a small dish. It was soy sauce.

Chop. Chop. Chop.

On top of that, he chopped and added one Cheongyang pepper. This way, the salty and spicy flavors harmonized, making one keep eating potato pancakes without feeling greasy, no matter how many they ate.

“Hehehe. Shall I try it?”

When Se-jun picked up a piece of potato pancake with his chopsticks and dipped it in soy sauce,

-What is that?

-What is that made of?

The two dragons, who had finished the soup, showed interest in the potato pancakes. Although they were originally picky eaters, they decided to taste and judge what Se-jun made first.

***

The 55th floor of the tower.

While Iona defeated Grid, the wolves, the Black Rabbit, and Pyupyu defeated the guards defending the mansion. The barrier and the Dragon Tooth Soldiers disappeared the moment Kellion went to the 99th floor of the tower.

Thanks to that, they easily occupied the mansion. Grid’s grand mansion was filled with massive treasures. And the storage was full of crops.

Seeing these, Iona was able to realize once again just how greedy Grid had been.

“Let’s ask Se-jun about how to dispose of these later. Seal!”

Iona sealed the grand mansion with magic, went outside, and began to liberate the rabbits by roaming around the neighboring villages.

Of course, there was resistance from the wild boars, but they were only lazy guards who managed the rabbits on the farm. They were no match for Iona and the animals.

As they occupied a few villages in that manner, the number of joined rabbits increased to 300. There were more rabbits captured by Grid than expected.

“Power of mana. Attack the enemy according to my command. Bombardment!”

Along with Iona’s magic, thousands of Magic Missiles poured down on the wild boar tribe at the front of the defense line. Iona chose the magic that caused the least damage to ensure the crops were not harmed.

“Drive out the wild boars!”

“Defeat the enemy!”

The Black Wolf tribe and the Silver Wolf tribe ran toward the collapsed defense line.

Ppyak!

Ppyok!

Ppyop!

On the backs of those wolves, the Black Rabbit holding a hammer and the slave rabbits holding farming tools who joined from the 55th floor of the tower accompanied them.

Although the rabbits looked like they had difficulty even moving due to their long life of slavery, they willingly lent their strength to drive out the wild boars.

As the battle continued like that, the wild boars began to flee to other floors. Having lost their core focal point, they would never be able to target the 55th floor of the tower again.

Thus, for the first time in 100 years since the fall of the Red Ribbon Kingdom, the flag of the Red Ribbon Kingdom began to flutter on the 55th floor of the tower again, and the reconstruction of the kingdom began to be known to other floors.