Kai’s little food post continued to receive more attention than he had expected. At first, he thought it would only be the three men and a few other people who had seen it, but as the hours passed, more comments appeared underneath it.
Some people asked where he was located, while others wanted to know if he was actually selling the food. A few even accused him of making everything up, claiming that an F-rank couldn’t possibly be cooking in the middle of a dungeon.
Kai didn’t really care about those comments. What interested him were the people who were actually willing to trade. Before long, several people began arriving at his little shelter, each carrying different items they had collected from the dungeon.
"I heard you’re the guy selling food." One man said as he approached.
"Yeah, that’s me." Kai said.
"How much for a meal?" The man asked.
Kai looked through the ingredients he had gathered before giving him a price. The man seemed surprised that Kai wasn’t asking for ordinary money. Instead, he wanted dungeon materials. Kai had quickly realised that normal money wasn’t going to be very useful here, but rare materials and monster parts could be used for much more.
Soon, his little campsite became busier. One person would arrive, then another, and before long, Kai had several people sitting around his fire eating meals he had prepared.
Some wanted fish, others wanted vegetables, while a few simply asked him to make whatever he thought would taste good. Kai didn’t mind. Every meal meant another useful item for him.
"This place really isn’t so bad." Kai said while looking at the growing pile of materials beside him.
He had already received several strange pieces of metal, monster bones, crystals, and other items he didn’t even know the purpose of. Once he had enough, he decided to use his Food Equipment Creation skill again.
The materials floated into the air and began changing shape.
Kai watched with excitement as a pot, several knives, plates, spoons, and other cooking tools appeared one after another.
"Now this is what I’m talking about." Kai said, picking up one of the knives.
His little cooking area was finally starting to look like an actual kitchen instead of some random campsite.
Just as Kai was admiring his new equipment, he heard familiar voices approaching.
"Brother! There you are!"
Kai turned around and saw the three men from before walking toward him. However, something seemed different about them. They looked much more energetic than when he had last seen them.
"You guys came back?" Kai asked.
"We had to!" One of them said excitedly. "Your food is incredible!"
Kai blinked.
"I know it tastes good, but you don’t have to look so excited about it."
"No, that’s not what I mean." The man said before pointing at himself. "Your food healed us!"
Kai froze.
"Healed you?"
"Yes! After we left here, we got attacked by monsters. We were injured and completely exhausted, but after eating the food you gave us, our injuries recovered much faster and our strength came back almost immediately." The man explained. This story is hosted at novelping . com.
Kai stared at him.
He thought back to the armored person from before. They had also seemed much better after eating his food, but Kai had assumed they had simply rested.
"So that’s what happened..." Kai muttered.
The three men looked at him strangely.
"You didn’t know?" One of them asked.
Kai shook his head.
"Honestly, I thought my food just tasted good."
The three men stared at him in disbelief.
"You seriously didn’t know?!"
Kai rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "No?"
The three men exchanged glances before laughing. Kai wasn’t sure what was so funny, but then an idea suddenly crossed his mind.
If his food really had different effects, then perhaps he could use that to his advantage.
Kai immediately grabbed a piece of paper and began writing down everything he knew about the ingredients he had collected. His Food Appraisal skill could tell him whether something was edible, and perhaps if he paid closer attention, he could figure out what else they did.
He picked up one of the Fire Carrots.
"Fire Carrot." Kai said.
[ITEM: FIRE CARROT]
[EFFECT: RESTORES ENERGY AND WARMS THE BODY]
Kai’s eyes widened.
"So it actually tells me the effects too?"
He quickly checked the other ingredients.
[THUNDER MUSHROOM]
[EFFECT: RESTORES MAGICAL ENERGY]
[GIANT TOMATO]
[EFFECT: IMPROVES RECOVERY]
[FOREST BERRY]
[EFFECT: REDUCES FATIGUE]
"Why didn’t I think of this earlier?"
He began taking pictures of each ingredient and writing down their effects. Soon, he uploaded another post, this time showing the meals along with their benefits.
Fire Carrot Soup — Restores energy and warms the body.
Thunder Mushroom Rice — Restores magical energy.
Forest Berry Dessert — Reduces fatigue.
Dungeon Fish — Helps the body recover from injuries.
Kai looked at the post proudly.
"This should make things easier." Kai said.
He expected a few people to be interested.
Instead, his phone immediately began vibrating nonstop.
Notifications flooded his screen one after another.
[RESTORES MAGICAL ENERGY?!]
[WAIT, THAT FISH HEALS INJURIES?!]
[WHERE IS THIS RESTAURANT?!]
[I’ll trade a D-rank weapon for three meals!]
[I’ll give you ten monster cores!]
Kai’s mouth slowly opened.
"...Ten monster cores?"
The three men standing beside him stared at the phone before looking at each other.
One of them swallowed.
"Brother..."
"What?" Kai asked.
"You might have just made yourself very rich."
Kai looked at the flood of messages and then at his small cooking area.
He had originally only wanted food.
Now people were offering him treasures just to eat it.
For the first time, Kai began wondering just how far he could take this.