After parting ways with Yeongseong hyung, I returned to the dungeon.
Fortunately, the newly made juice had a much stronger effect, and I’d confirmed that his wife’s treatment was making significant progress.
“I’m back.”
The slimes hurried over and greeted me affectionately, bouncing as though they were dancing.
Wobble!
“Yeah, yeah.
Good work, everyone.”
Mark Two, wearing its straw hat, grabbed the leg of my pants and wriggled as though asking for something.
I crouched down and gently kneaded its soft little body.
“Anything happen today?”
Gloop!
“Oh?
It’s almost time to harvest something?”
I was slowly beginning to understand the language of slimes.
Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that I was getting a vague sense of what their gestures meant.
“But what’s ready for harvesting?”
After playing with the slime in my hands for a while, I reluctantly stood up.
If I could, I’d have spent the rest of my life sitting there with it, but I couldn’t afford to be lazy.
“Up we go.
Shall we take a look?”
The slimes trailed along behind me, while Mark Two led the way.
We eventually reached the potatoes we hadn’t managed to harvest last time.
Would these finally be potatoes imbued with mana?
Full of anticipation, I began digging into the soil with my bare hands.
“I do have a perfectly good hoe.
What am I doing…?”
I couldn’t bear to wait long enough to go upstairs, fetch the hoe, and come back.
Besides, my body had become incredibly sturdy after my second awakening.
I decided to become a human excavator.
Rustle!
As I dug into the ridge, plump potato tubers emerged.
Their irregular shapes somehow made them look even more appetizing.
“First, let’s check!”
I picked up the first potato I’d harvested and looked for an item information window.
[Mana-Infused Potato LV.1]
[Contains faint mana.]
[Upon consumption, increases stamina for 3 minutes according to the user’s mana capacity.
Satiety will not decrease temporarily.]
It worked!
Unlike last time, the potato properly registered as an item.
I did a little dance of joy and continued digging.
Before long, potatoes were coming out in clusters and covering the field.
The slimes scurried around beside me, diligently moving the potatoes and trimming off their stems and leaves.
After turning over the soil for quite some time, we finally reached the end.
I straightened my back and looked around, realizing just how large an area I’d planted with potatoes.
Wobble!
“Oh!
We’re done?”
The slimes bounced around after collecting the last potatoes.
Then Mark Two emerged from among them, politely carrying a potato.
Gloop!
“Hm?
What’s that?”
Gloop!
Gloop!
Mark Two was practically crying out for me to cook some potatoes.
Boiled potatoes!
It wanted boiled potatoes!
The other slimes crowded around it and gave me their most imploring looks, or at least that was what it felt like.
Of course, none of them had mouths or eyes.
“Haa, I suppose it can’t be helped.
I’ll have to step in again.”
I made a show of how much trouble I was going to, then accepted the potato from Mark Two.
Considering how much the slimes ate, that one potato was nowhere near enough.
In the end, I brought the entire portable gas burner downstairs.
With the slimes huddled beside the storage room, I fetched water from the pond and began cooking the potatoes, just as I’d done before.
The difference this time was that I knew exactly how long to boil them.
I didn’t need to poke them repeatedly to check whether they were cooked.
‘Jaeseong said that doing that lets water get into the potatoes and spoils the flavor.’
He’d taught me the precise cooking time as well, and I still remembered it.
Once the time was up, the boiled potatoes were ready, giving off a wonderful nutty aroma.
Boing!
Boing!
Wobble!
Gloop!
The excited slimes swayed from side to side.
I calmly took my time, however, transferring the potatoes into a bowl.
I had to reserve my own portion in advance.
Otherwise, these creatures, which didn’t even seem to notice how hot the food was, would undoubtedly eat the whole batch.
Once I’d set my share aside and offered them the rest, they rushed forward, competing to reach the potatoes first.
“Whoa!”
In an instant, the slimes surrounded me and began devouring their meal.
Every one that ate a potato shivered with delight.
“There’s still plenty, so slow down a little.”
I immediately prepared another batch of potatoes.
This time, I decided to use the steamer Jaeseong had left behind on his previous visit.
Behold, steamed potatoes!
Boiling and steaming weren’t vastly different cooking methods, but with ingredients grown on my farm, perhaps there would be a noticeable difference in taste.
Following Jaeseong’s instructions, I prepared the steamer and started cooking.
While the potatoes steamed, I decided to eat the boiled potato I’d saved for myself.
“Thanks for the food.”
It had cooled just enough for me to eat, so I slowly peeled off its skin.
Even so, it was still hot enough that I had to roll it from one hand to the other.
“Phew, phew.”
Salt would normally go well with potatoes, but I couldn’t resist the rich, nutty fragrance rising from this one.
I’d already tasted potatoes from my farm before, so I knew they didn’t really need any seasoning.
Chomp!
I took a huge bite.
The savory flavor and aroma spread into every corner of my mouth and brought tears to my eyes.
“Ahh!
Haa!
Sss!
Delicious!”
I kept blowing out hot breaths, but I couldn’t stop eating.
The slimes had already finished their portions and were watching me enviously.
The potato had the soft, fluffy texture I’d expected when it first entered my mouth.
But unlike the previous potatoes, this mana-infused one seemed to melt away completely.
That wasn’t just a figure of speech.
It literally melted and disappeared, becoming a thick, wonderfully fragrant liquid that slid down my throat.
Its lingering warmth settled comfortably in my stomach.
“Haa…”
It felt like sinking into a warm bath.
My body relaxed, and a wonderful sense of fullness spread through me.
“Huh?”
I suddenly noticed that the potato in my hands had disappeared.
I’d finished it already?
When I reached for another one, I realized I was strangely full.
“Wow.
This is something special.”
The potato had an effect related to satiety, and apparently that effect was kicking in.
The unfortunate part was that it didn’t seem to work on the slimes and their bottomless appetites.
“Here, you guys can have these.”
I gave them the rest of the potatoes I’d reserved for myself.
There were still some steaming, after all, and one more would probably leave me completely satisfied.
The slimes were kind enough to break the potatoes into pieces and share them with one another.
Watching them, I checked the steamer.
It should be finished by now.
“Done, done.”
I turned off the heat and lifted the lid.
The steamed potatoes didn’t look very different from the boiled ones.
“They look identical.”
But how would they taste?
I carefully removed the hot potatoes and transferred them into bowls as before.
Then I distributed all but my own portion to the slimes.
They immediately swarmed in again and devoured the steamed potatoes, while I blew diligently on mine to cool it down.
After waiting for it to cool and examining it closely, I finally took a bite.
“Mmm?!”
It wasn’t dramatically different from the boiled potatoes.
If anything, the boiled version had a slightly richer flavor, probably because I’d added a little salt to the cooking water.
This one tasted milder.
On the other hand, its texture was firmer, and that somehow suited it perfectly.
I found myself chewing nonstop.
“Still delicious, even after another serving.
Actually, I could probably keep eating these forever.”
Two potatoes were enough to fill my stomach.
If I handled this right, couldn’t these potatoes become the food source of the next generation?
“Daddy!”
“?”
What was that?
I could have sworn I’d just heard a human voice.
“Give me some too, Daddy!”
I slowly turned my head.
Standing there was a naked, blond little child who had appeared without making the slightest sound.
“Huh?”
A strange noise escaped me before I could put together a proper reaction.
The child didn’t seem to care and instead stretched both little hands toward me.
“I want to eat it too!”
‘Who…
are you?’
* * *
Twitch!
Twitch!
Ears that resembled a tiger’s flicked back and forth.
Watching them move ceaselessly, apparently because their owner was happy, I examined the child more carefully.
“So you’re…
Ppuu?”
But more importantly, this is delicious!
I want more, Daddy!”
“I’m not your daddy…”
Ppuu, the mysterious level 10 slime whose status had been filled with question marks, had undergone synthesis and transformed into a human shape.
I still found it hard to believe that this child was really Ppuu, but…
[Named Slime ‘Gula of Gluttony’ has been completed.]
[Under the influence of the synthesizer, its completed form resembles the synthesizer’s species.]
These messages appeared when I examined the child.
The system might withhold information, but it didn’t lie.
So this child really was the slime produced by synthesizing Ppuu.
‘But a named slime?
And Gula of Gluttony?’
Surely not…
No, that couldn’t be right.
Gluttony was one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
It was absolutely not the sort of title that should belong to a slime.
So why did this one have it?
“Daddy!
More!”
“Ppuu, I’m not your daddy…”
“Then what are you?”
“I’m, well, um…”
Master?
No, that sounded a little strange.
But I couldn’t exactly ask the child to call me Lord, either.
“My name is Lee Gyuseong.
Just call me Gyuseong.”
“Understood!
Lee Gyuseong-Gyuseong!”
“You only need to say Gyuseong once.”
“Lee Gyuseong-Gyuseong!
I want more of this!”
The potato, skin and all, had already disappeared.
Ppuu spread out tiny hands and waited for the next one.
“I’ll make some more right away.
Just wait a little.”
“Understood!”
While the potatoes cooked, I went upstairs to see if I had any clothes that Ppuu could wear.
I couldn’t find anything suitable, so I brought down some of my own clothes instead.
By the time I returned, Ppuu had assembled the slimes and was delivering a grand speech.
“Lee Gyuseong-Gyuseong belongs to me!
And all these delicious things belong to me too!
But don’t worry!
We’ll share everything nicely!
I’m a good slime!”
What on earth was that supposed to mean?
Mark Two and the other slimes, however, were listening with remarkable attention.
“Ppuu.”
“Oh!
Lee Gyuseong-Gyuseong!
Where have you been?”
Ppuu opened both arms to welcome me, and I dressed the child in the clothes I’d brought.
Ppuu looked down at the outfit, inspected it from side to side, and tilted those little ears in confusion.
“Lee Gyuseong-Gyuseong!
What is this?”
“You have to wear clothes.”
Perhaps because Ppuu was a slime, there were no physical features that would identify a sex, but I still couldn’t leave a human-looking child running around naked.
“Oh!
These clothes smell like Lee Gyuseong-Gyuseong!
They’re mine alone!
I won’t give them to anyone!”
Ppuu’s ears stood upright as the child tried to threaten the other slimes.
It was probably intimidating in Ppuu’s own mind, but from where I stood, it was simply adorable.
Now, what was I supposed to do with this one?
Ppuu was undoubtedly a slime, but it could speak and looked human.
Treating the child exactly like the others would be difficult.
“Let’s check your abilities first.
Ppuu, come over here.”
It was still a slime, so surely I could view its status.
I’d have to change its name sometime too.
Calling a human-looking child Ppuu all the time was starting to feel odd.
“Is the delicious food ready?”
“Not yet.
Let’s just check something first.”
Ignoring Ppuu’s sparkling eyes and the drool dripping from the child’s mouth, I opened the status window.
Ding!
‘Oh, a slime is still a slime, after all.
Its status window really does…’
My thoughts slowly ground to a halt as I read Ppuu’s status.
[Gula of Gluttony (Ppuu)]
[One of the Seven Deadly Sins, a demon who governs Gluttony.
A slime possessing unknown potential.]
[Abilities: Gluttony, Breath]