“So this is where you live, hyung?”
Jaeseong looked around the dungeon interior with fascinated eyes.
Then he edged backward when one of the slimes tending the vegetable garden came out as though to greet him.
“This is a slime.
Its name is Recruit…
One, was it?
Or Three?”
“R-right.”
“You don’t have to be that scared.
For such a big guy, you’re awfully timid.”
Unlike me, Jaeseong had a sturdy build.
He looked like a cuddly bear, and his personality actually suited that appearance.
“So these are the guys who help you farm?”
“That’s right.”
“How strange.
How can they farm without hands or feet?”
“Before we get into that, did you bring everything I asked for?”
“I had to leave a few of the really big things behind, unfortunately, but I brought everything else.”
Jaeseong showed me the bag containing his cooking tools.
As far as I knew, he’d been learning Korean cuisine, Western cuisine, and Japanese cuisine, and had recently even started studying Chinese cooking.
I found that quite impressive.
“The ingredients I’ve got ready for you are cherry tomatoes, potatoes, and carrots.”
“That’s a pretty awkward selection.
What about onions?”
“Oh, that’s something else I should grow.”
Mentioning onions also reminded me of chili peppers.
They were practically essential for spicy dishes.
While Jaeseong was expressing his disappointment, I brought over the single potato I had left, a large quantity of cherry tomatoes, and some carrots about the same size as the tomatoes.
Jaeseong examined the ingredients in his hands, tilted his head, and sniffed them.
“The tomatoes and carrots look pretty unusual.
The potato’s the only thing I recognize.”
“Does an unusual shape make them harder to cook?”
“Not really, but if you hadn’t told me what they were, I don’t think I’d have recognized them at all.
Can I try one?”
“Yeah, of course.”
He’d already tasted the tomatoes and potatoes, but I was very curious to see how he’d react to the latest carrots.
After smelling them, Jaeseong apparently couldn’t contain his curiosity any longer.
He picked up a bite-sized carrot and put it into his mouth.
Snap!
Crunch!
As those crisp sounds rang out, Jaeseong’s expression gradually stiffened.
I watched him eagerly and asked, “How is it?”
“…Just a minute.”
He gestured for me to wait, closed his eyes, and began savoring the carrot.
For a long time, he said nothing.
About five minutes later, just when I was thinking he really ought to speak up, he put another carrot in his mouth.
“Hey, Lee Jaeseong.
You could at least say something before eating another one.”
Despite my words, he kept his eyes shut and crunched away diligently.
Only after I waited a little longer did he open his eyes and let out a deep sigh.
“This is a problem.”
“Why?
What’s wrong?”
His first words sounded negative, so I hurriedly pressed him.
But my concern proved pointless when he suddenly started rummaging through his bag.
“I’m getting ideas!
Too many of them!”
“Don’t scare me like that.
I thought something had gone wrong.”
By now, the slimes working below had wriggled up to our level.
They gathered around my younger brother, whom they were seeing for the first time, and curiously examined him.
Jaeseong had nearly jumped out of his skin when he first saw them, but now he seemed completely oblivious to their presence.
He simply carried on with what he was doing.
“I brought some other ingredients too, just in case.
I want to try a few things.
Ah, it’s such a shame you don’t have a kitchen…”
Muttering to himself, Jaeseong disappeared into his own world.
He quickly started preparing his tools, then turned to me.
“Hyung!
Where do I get water?”
“There’s water down below.”
“Then I’d better cook down there.
Help me carry this stuff.”
Once we’d moved his equipment downstairs, he began cooking in earnest.
Compared to the boiled potatoes I’d made before, this looked like a proper culinary operation.
I couldn’t help getting excited.
“Hm?
What’s that?”
“A slime.”
Jaeseong passed by Ppuu, who was still in the middle of synthesis, and began preparing the food.
“Curry?”
“Yeah.”
I spotted a familiar yellow powder.
It was turmeric.
Wobble?
All the slimes had gathered to watch Jaeseong.
They inspected everything with curious movements, apparently intrigued by the smell of spices they’d never encountered before.
“Ah, there’s not enough potato.
You don’t have any more?”
“Hmm…
If you wait a little, we might be able to harvest some soon.”
“There’s only one potato, so I’ll make a single portion with it first.
I bought a regular potato too.
Let’s cook with that as well and compare the results.”
I stared blankly as Jaeseong started preparing the ingredients.
The slimes lined up beside me and watched just as intently.
Chop, chop, chop!
Under his nimble hands, the ingredients were steadily transformed into shapes more suitable for cooking.
“Hyung, the tomatoes should be ready by now.
Turn off the heat, take them out of the water, and cool them in cold water.”
“Got it.”
I removed the cherry tomatoes from the boiling water and cooled them in cold water.
When Jaeseong immediately told me to peel them, I carefully scraped off their thin skins.
Wobble!
“Here.”
Thinking the food was already done, Mark Two had begun pestering me, so I gave it one of the peeled cherry tomatoes.
It gobbled the tomato up, then tilted its body as if asking whether this was really what it had been waiting for.
“It’s not finished yet.
Just wait a little longer.”
By the time I’d finished preparing all the tomatoes, Jaeseong had already started stir-frying the other ingredients.
He took the tomatoes from me.
“I’m a little worried.
I hope the flavors won’t be too strong together.”
He was voicing a concern I’d also vaguely entertained.
But the aroma rising from the pan was already beyond anything I could have imagined.
My mouth watered, and the waiting slimes bounced excitedly.
Gloop!
Gloop!
“Now we add the curry…”
He tipped the curry powder into the pot, where the tomatoes had melted down and were bubbling away.
“Ooh!
That smells incredible!”
I was starting to feel hungry again even though I’d already eaten.
Jaeseong, however, merely stirred the pot with a careful expression.
“Just a little longer and it’ll be done.”
He put the lid on the pot, and we endured the remaining wait.
The slimes bounced adorably and clamored for food, but I told them to be patient.
“By the way, hyung.”
“Hmm?”
“Do these guys eat too?”
“Of course.
Why do you think they’re all waiting?”
“Ah…”
“Some of them eat the equivalent of ten human portions.”
“What do we do?
I didn’t bring nearly that much food.”
“They’ve already filled their stomachs.
Just give them a taste.”
I’d let them eat their fill while we were harvesting the carrots.
Admittedly, judging from their appetites, there might not actually be any limit to how much they could eat.
“There.
Finished.”
The curry was complete.
When Jaeseong lifted the lid, a heavenly aroma spread throughout the dungeon.
“Wow, hurry up and get the plates!
Wait, what about the rice?”
“Here.”
He ladled the curry over fluffy white rice.
There were carrots, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, and pieces of meat.
It looked excellent, and the smell above all made it impossible to wait any longer.
“Go on, try it.
Normally I’d taste the curry while adjusting the seasoning, but this time I held back too.”
Jaeseong presented the finished dish with an expectant expression.
I scooped up a spoonful, breathed in the mind-bending fragrance, and put it into my mouth.
“…!”
The ecstatic scenes I’d seen in cooking comics as a child had always seemed so exaggerated that they’d made me laugh.
But now one of those scenes had become reality.
Gulp.
Even as the curry sauce slid down my throat, it continued to overwhelm my tongue.
And the aroma was beyond description.
Mana Cherry Tomatoes, potatoes grown here in the dungeon, and Mana Carrots.
I’d thought combining such intense ingredients might be too much, but instead they complemented one another, creating an explosion of fragrance.
‘Ah, the curry itself is a little disappointing.’
The distinctive flavors of the ingredients were so powerful that the turmeric aroma was nearly buried.
Maybe I should try growing turmeric myself.
“How is it?
Hyung!
Tell me how it is!”
“It’s insane.
I’m speechless.”
“How am I supposed to understand that?”
“Just taste it yourself.
It tastes so good that I’m wondering whether I’ll ever get to eat curry like this again in my entire life.”
Jaeseong didn’t hesitate.
He immediately took a bite, and his eyes flew wide open before he shut them again to savor the flavor.
But seriously, watching someone spend nearly five minutes appreciating a single mouthful was a little frustrating.
“Here, all of you can have a bite too.”
While Jaeseong analyzed the flavor, I let each of the slimes that had been waiting so patiently try some curry.
Their bodies trembled with delight as they ate.
“Haha!
Is it really that good?”
They looked so adorable that I kept wanting to feed them even tastier things.
I’d never married or raised a child, but I wondered if this was a little like how parents felt.
After I fed each slime a mouthful, the curry disappeared in no time.
I finally snapped Jaeseong out of his reverie and had him make another batch, this time with the ordinary potato.
“Hmmm…”
The new curry certainly wasn’t bad, but something was missing.
“We should’ve eaten this one first.
It doesn’t do much for me now.”
“It’s still tasty, isn’t it?”
“Of course it is.
I’m just saying it’s disappointing compared to the first one.”
Even this curry would probably have customers lining up if we sold it outside.
But having just tasted something far superior, I was judging it harshly.
“Anyway, there are lots of other things I can cook, so start growing onions, green onions, and garlic.
Chili peppers and sesame seeds too, if you can.
I’d like to make gochujang and sesame oil.”
“Okay.
These guys are the experts anyway.
All I have to do is plant the seeds.”
So far, none of our crops had failed.
Some hadn’t been harvested yet, but they all looked healthy, so I wasn’t worried.
Listening to Jaeseong, I also began wondering what gochujang, sesame oil, doenjang, and soy sauce would taste like if they were made from my own crops.
‘Doenjang might be tricky because you need fermented soybean blocks.
But if we can make those, we could also make soy sauce at the same time.
It’s worth considering.’
While Jaeseong and I discussed these possibilities, the slimes happily polished off the curry we’d prepared.
We’d made quite a lot with the regular potato, enough to leave them reasonably satisfied.
“Wow, they’ve cleaned it all out.
We won’t even have to wash the dishes.”
“Our little ones certainly know how to eat.”
“By the way, when will these crops be ready to harvest?
Three or four months?”
“Huh?
What are you talking about?
About a week.”
“…Hyung, what are you talking about?
How can crops be ready for harvest in just a week?
Oh!
You mean they’ve nearly finished growing, so they’ll be ready in another week?”
“No.
I mean it takes about a week from sowing the seeds to harvesting them.
Honestly, tomatoes and carrots seem to take only three days.
They actually took just two days at first.
Now that their varieties have been improved, they take a little longer.”
“…”
Jaeseong stared at my fields, completely at a loss for words.
Looking at it from the perspective of common sense, though, I could understand his reaction perfectly well.
“But, hyung.”
“Yeah?”
“Do the slimes really work nonstop without ever resting?”
He looked at the slimes, which had already finished eating the curry and returned to the fields, and asked in bewilderment.
“They play nonstop, without resting.”
“What?”
“Farming isn’t work to them.
It’s play.”
“Hyung, I know you’re my older brother, but exploiting workers is a bit…”
“What are you talking about?!
Where are you going to find a better boss than me?!”
I let them play in the fields to their hearts’ content, fed them every single day, and had even brought in a personal chef for them.
How could anyone look at me and call that labor exploitation?
I was a slime welfare officer, damn it!