Kai had been walking for what felt like hours, and the deeper he went, the more exhausted his body became. The market had been left far behind him, and the paths were becoming quieter with fewer people passing through.
He had already asked several people about Hori, but most of them either shook their heads or said they had seen a small boy somewhere in the Dungeon but couldn’t remember exactly where. Kai was beginning to wonder if he was chasing rumors that would lead nowhere.
His stomach growled loudly, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten properly either. Kai stopped beside a wide stone wall and looked around before deciding it was a good enough place to rest.
He pulled out some of his equipment from his spatial storage and set up his small cooking area. It wasn’t exactly the restaurant he had dreamed of, but at this point, his food stall had become one of the easiest ways for him to gather information while making something useful out of his time.
Kai quickly prepared a few fish and placed them over the fire. The familiar smell of roasted fish soon spread through the dungeon, and it didn’t take long before a few passing adventurers began slowing down to look at him.
Kai smiled slightly and prepared another portion, hoping someone among them might have heard something about Hori or the woman he was searching for.
"Have any of you seen a little boy called Hori? He’s about eight years old, Japanese, and usually stays with a young woman." Kai asked, looking at a group passing his stall.
One of the men scratched his head before shaking it, saying he remembered seeing someone matching the description somewhere deeper in the Dungeon, but he couldn’t remember which path they had taken.
Another person nearby said they had also heard rumors about a woman traveling with a child, but there were so many people moving through the Dungeon that it was difficult to know whether they were talking about the same people.
Kai thanked them anyway before handing over the roasted fish they had traded for, realizing that even small pieces of information could eventually help him find Hori.
As more people came by, Kai continued trading his food for dungeon materials. Some gave him stones, monster parts, strange herbs and other objects he still didn’t completely understand.
He didn’t mind because almost everything had some kind of use, especially now that his equipment was slowly improving.
He had just finished handing another fish to a customer when three men approached his stall together, carrying something wrapped in a large piece of cloth.
"Can you cook this?" One of the men asked, placing the bundle down in front of Kai.
Kai stared at the meat suspiciously before slowly pulling back the cloth. The moment he saw what was inside, his eyebrows rose. The meat was pale and covered with strange veins, and even from where he stood, he could smell something unpleasant coming from it.
"What exactly is this?" Kai asked, leaning closer but immediately regretting it when the smell became stronger.
"We don’t know. We killed a monster deeper inside and found it afterward. We tried roasting it, but the smell was horrible, so we figured you might know what to do with it." One of the men said. Read the latest chapters at g.com.
Kai frowned as he looked at the meat. Normally, he wouldn’t have touched something that smelled this bad, especially after learning how many strange monsters existed inside the Dungeon.
However, his curiosity as a culinary student was already getting the better of him. He activated Food Appraisal, and a window appeared in front of his eyes.
[POKYUS MEAT]
[A MONSTER SPECIES RESEMBLING PORK.]
Kai blinked several times before looking back at the meat. Pork?
"Well, that’s interesting." Kai said, rubbing his chin.
The three men looked at him expectantly while Kai began examining the meat more carefully. If it was similar to pork, then there were several ways he could prepare it.
The strange smell was probably caused by something in the meat itself, meaning he needed to clean and remove whatever was causing it before cooking.
Kai pulled out his cooking equipment and began working. He carefully trimmed away the unpleasant parts, washed the meat and prepared it the way he would have prepared pork back home.
He added a few ingredients he had collected from the Dungeon, allowing their aromas to cover the remaining smell before placing the meat over the fire.
The three men watched silently as the smell slowly changed. What had started as a disgusting odor gradually became something much more appetizing.
Kai turned the meat over several times until the outside became nicely roasted, then cut off a small piece to check whether it was properly cooked.
He took a bite.
Kai’s eyes widened.
"This is actually pretty good." Kai said, surprised by how similar the texture was to pork.
The three men immediately looked at each other before asking for a piece. Kai cut several portions and handed them over, watching their expressions change after tasting it. Whatever doubts they had about the strange meat disappeared almost instantly.
"How did you make this taste so good?" One of the men asked.
Kai shrugged while continuing to cut the meat, saying that he was a culinary student before coming to the Dungeon and that cooking was basically the only thing he was good at.
The trio laughed before offering Kai several valuable materials in exchange for the rest of the meat. Kai accepted without hesitation, placing the items into his spatial storage before looking at them again. This chapter was copied from novelping . com without permission.
"Since you guys seem to have traveled deeper than most people here, can I ask you something?" Kai asked.
"Depends on what you want to know." One of the men said.
"Have you seen a woman traveling with a little boy? The boy’s name is Hori. I’ve been searching for him for a while." Kai said.
The three men exchanged glances, and Kai immediately noticed their expressions change.
"Actually, I think we have." One of them said.
Kai straightened immediately.
"You have?" Kai asked.
"Yeah. We saw a woman matching that description farther ahead. She definitely had a child with her, although we didn’t speak to them." The man said.
Kai’s heart began beating faster. It wasn’t much, but it was the clearest lead he had received since entering the Dungeon.
"Do you remember which direction they went?" Kai asked.
The man pointed toward one of the deeper paths before telling Kai that the woman had continued farther into the Dungeon with the child. He couldn’t remember exactly how long ago it had been, but it hadn’t been too long.
Kai looked toward the path, his exhaustion suddenly feeling less important.
"Thanks. That’s enough for me." Kai said.
The three men wished him luck before continuing on their own journey, leaving Kai standing beside his little food stall. He looked down at the remaining ingredients and equipment before packing everything away.
For the first time in hours, Kai wasn’t following a rumor.
He finally had a direction.
And if Hori really was somewhere deeper in the Dungeon, Kai wasn’t going to stop until he found him.