Healing at the Academy convenience store

In the golden hues of twilight, I, Wolfram Von Roengreen, equipped the enigmatic Gloves of Balance. The air seemed to quiver with anticipation, as if the very world awaited my next move. As I navigated my fingers through the ethereal menu, I tapped on “Status.” Ah, the moment of unveiling, when every adventurer gets to see the fruits of their labor—or lack thereof.

Eyes gleaming like twin stars, I scanned the status window that appeared before me.

【Wolfram Von Roengreen】

【?T】

【Status:

Strength: 4

Talent: 6 + 3 (1)

Endurance: 2

Magic: 3

Will: 4】

【Owned Skills:

Royal Bloodline】

‘A marvel of talent, am I not?’ I mumbled to myself, nearly overcome by the thrill. Yet, I clenched my eyes shut and took a few grounding breaths. ‘Keep your composure, Wolfram,’ I told myself. ‘Having high willpower may offer bonuses like ‘resistance’ and ‘critical damage,’ but let’s be practical.’

Even if I had Herculean strength or prodigious magic abilities, it would hardly matter without the stamina to back it up. Aila’s innate magic stat was 19, and Eve’s was an astonishing 22. What would my humble 6 or 7 ever amount to against those monoliths of arcane prowess?

‘So, having a Talent of 9—it’s a blessing in disguise!’ I rationalized. ‘With the effects of Mix Beans, I can even bump it up to 10, a monumental leap from a measly 9.’

But despite my best efforts to see the glass half-full—or shall I say, the talent pool nearly brimming—I couldn’t quite quell the storm raging within my soul.

With a look that could only be described as a mix of despair and comical irony, I let the word escape my lips.

“Fuck.”

My Endurance remained a sorrowful ‘2,’ as if mocking my ambitions. 

Would it kill the Fates to toss a little more stamina my way?

***

“I collected quite a bunch.”

Nephti brought a cart full of leaves, and Rudika cheered upon seeing them.

“Wolfram! Are these the spicy plants Nephti brought?”

“Yes.”

“Huh? Why does your lordship seem so downcast?”

“I don’t know. He became gloomy after Rudika found the gloves and he put them on.”

“?”

As Rudika spoke in her unique manner, Nephti tilted her head, and I explained what had happened.

After hearing my story, Nephti looked at me with a stiff face and empathized.

“People with stats under 10 really exist!!!”

“…”

You too.

“Anyway, what did your lordship increase?”

“Talent went up.”

“Oh, talent! Rudika has high talent too! It’s 22!”

“Talent… I don’t think mine is that low. I remember it’s around 14, but Rudika, you’re different.”

“Really? Can’t you check it right away?”

“Huh? No. We can only check it with an appraisal letter at the temple. We usually appraise ourselves about once every six months. The priests handle everything, including skills and status.”

I nodded at Nephti’s explanation.

I gained another piece of information.

“So what will you do with these spicy plants? Is there anything else to dig up?”

“No, there’s nothing else.”

“Then shall we head down?”

“That sounds like a plan. Let’s prepare.”

“Wolfram. Wolfram. Rudika has a question.”

“What?”

“So when can Rudika eat the spicy food?”

Rudika’s question caught me off guard, and I fell into deep thought.

“Come around next Wednesday when you have time,” I replied.

“······Oh, what about today? No. How about tomorrow? Rudika will help.”

“Ha. You underestimate Wolfram Von Roengreen.”

“······?”

“I’ll have muscle pain tomorrow. Don’t come.”

“Ah.”

Nephti, please don’t say ‘Ah.’ I’m serious about the muscle pain.

And Rudika, don’t give me those pleading eyes.

I assure you, I’ll have muscle pain tomorrow, and I won’t be able to do anything.

“······Wolfram gets muscle pain even though he doesn’t do anything?”

Why is Rudika’s innocent violence directed at me for no reason!

“Ah. So, my lord, what about making it today?”

“Today?”

“Yes. Muscle pain always comes after sleep. If we make it now, won’t it be okay?”

“······.”

That’s actually quite reasonable. Are you some sort of genius?

“If we start making it on our way back to the convenience store, it will take quite a while. I’ll prepare the recipe along the way. Nephti, drive.”

“Very well… Wolfram!”

“Hmph. I’ll do it.”

As I agreed, Rudika’s eyes sparkled with excitement, and Nephti’s expression hardened slightly.

“How much time will it take to escort you to the convenience store at night, return the cart, and then head back to the knights…?”

“Nighttime surcharge. Add 20,000 rin.”

“Fast. Safe. Accurate. Sure. It’s my faith and creed.”

Weren’t you a knight of belief?

***

On the way back to the convenience store, I tasted the freshly picked plants.

As soon as I took a bite, I felt the spiciness spreading in my mouth.

While individual tolerance may vary, in terms of Scoville units, it’s as spicy as Cheongyang chili peppers, if not spicier.

But it tastes great. Thankfully, it’s not weirdly spicy.

I think it would be amazing to eat it with grilled meat as a wrap. I’ll definitely try that later.

True to her words, Nephti got us back to the convenience store quickly, safely, accurately, and without fail. Once inside, we started discussing.

“Good work today, Nephti.”

“No, my lord.”

“You still call me ‘my lord’ even though your duties are over?”

“Oh, you’re right. No, Wolfram.”

“······.”

That was a quick change in attitude.

Anyway, I paid Nephti for her work. She drove the carriage that carried me, went through the mountain range, acted as a tank, collected ingredients, and safely assisted my return. She’s done a day’s worth of work.

“Now, let’s start cooking. Rudika, do you want something?”

“Spicy food!”

I knew it.

“Alright, it’ll take about an hour, give or take.”

“That’s fine!”

I chuckled and began to prepare. First, I grabbed a handful of grass.

“This is the grass I pulled up today.”

“Yes.”

“I carefully uprooted the grass, ensuring not to damage the roots.”

“······?”

“If you ever need someone reliable for a job like this in the future, feel free to contact me, Nephtarian, anytime.”

“Alright.”

“I can assure you more dependable work without going through knight school.”

Where did your knightly faith go?

Well, anyway, I set aside Nephti’s self-promotion.

Before me lay the red grass, known for its sleep resistance properties.

If the sleeping mountain range inflicts sleep status, then naturally occurring items like this serve as sleep resistance consumables. It’s a proper balance, right?

“Before we start cooking, I could use some help.”

“···Hmm. If I help with work this late, I wonder when I’ll get to return home.”

As Nephti pondered the situation, trying to see through it…

“Alright! Rudika will eat. Rudika will help.”

Rudika decisively responded, and Nephti’s pupils dilated.

“Then Nephti can head home, and only Rudika will stay. While it’d be nice to have two people helping, one should be enough.”

“Uh, uhuh···. No, I’ll help. This is also part of my knightly spirit.”

Just a simple knightly spirit.

“Then I will assign your tasks.”

Nephti kneaded the flour and placed it in the refrigerator, while Rudika began cutting the red grass.

As the work progressed smoothly and there was nothing else to do, we naturally started chatting.

“Come to think of it, Senior Rudika.”

“Did you just call Rudika ‘Senior,’ Nephti?”

“Yes. Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure. What is it?”

“Why do you speak like that?”

Wow, that’s a straight fastball.

But I was curious. Why does Rudika speak in such a manner?

“Rudika is from the Hotsan Shadow family in the south. The central language is still unfamiliar.”

“Oh, I see. The language in the south is completely different. I’m from a rural area in the east.”

“I see.”

“Can I ask another question?”

“You may.”

“Why are you so obsessed with spicy food? You and Prince Wolfram are the only ones who’ve ever eaten that hellishly spicy soup from the academic district, right?”

Is that soup supposed to be spicy? Seriously?

But what Rudika said next made my complaints vanish, and my expression turned serious.

“Oh, it’s nothing special. Rudika has lost her sense of taste due to extreme training.”

“What?”

“My entire body’s nerves are dead. Even pain feels faint. That’s why Rudika is the best at assassination. It’s the reason for being the strongest descendant of the Hotsan Shadow family.”

The atmosphere turned heavy with the nonchalant words.

Rudika is incredibly talented and determined. In other words, regardless of the situation, she is ‘agile’ and ‘precise,’ and her movements are never ‘slow.’

When you think about it, it’s strange. Battles in this world are different from games. When humans bleed, their movements stop, and they naturally fear pain, but there’s no difference between the way Rudika fights here and in game.

“In other words, Rudika relies on faint pain, not taste, to experience what she’s eating.”

“I, I see.”

“As Rudika gets stronger, even this will disappear. So Rudika wants to enjoy the present.”

So, that was the reason.

“I see. Then I should put my sincerity into it.”

“Wolfram?”

“Pause the cooking for a moment. There’s something I need to do.”

“Eh? Sure.”

Having stopped both of them, I opened the status window and manipulated the tabs.

I had planned to distribute the points anyway, but I thought it would be better to do it when my body was in better shape, so I decided to trust myself.

【You have allocated 1 point to your Talent stat.】

【Your Talent has reached 10. You have learned basic dexterity skills.】

【Bonus points will be added to all your ‘crafting’ completions.】

【Positive effects will be added to all your ‘actions’.】

【All your ‘action speeds’ will slightly increase.】

【Which additional skill would you like to learn?】

【Quick Sword/Quick Bow/High-speed Spear Roll/Tumbling】

【Weapon Creation/Armor Creation/Magia Craft/Accessory Creation/Potion Making/Cooking】

【Please choose one.】

First, I ruled out all the attack skills. They’d be entirely useless to me. I’d be dead before I even had a chance to fight.

Weapon and Armor creation? Could I even hold a hammer?

Magia Craft. The cost of the materials is too high, and all three have superior skills later on.

If my character has low other stats and is aiming for a non-combat ending, the essential skill to choose is potion making.

But it’s a shame to give up accessory creation and cooking.

And I am Wolfram, a veteran of this game.

Even if I’m rolling backwards, I’m a veteran who should stand up by kicking monsters and picking up legendary items.

“Huff. Huff…”

“Prince Wolfram? Do you need to use the bathroom?”

“Shh. It seems like he’s intensely focused.”

Despite the noise around me, my mind was calm.

This is important.

Could I naturally perform an action that I’ve done more than five hundred times with my body?

And, would this world accept it?

First, I pressed the first skill to learn.

【You have selected ‘Potion Making’. Is this correct?】

【Yes/No.】

And then I canceled it.

【Please select again.】

【You have selected ‘Potion Making’. Is this correct?】

【Yes/No.】

I repeated this process over and over again, warming up my body, timing it. According to my calculations, the timing had to be less than 0.1 seconds. I had to nail this.

Cancel, select, cancel, select, cancel.

And then, I simultaneously touched the skills I was about to learn!

【You have selected ‘Potion Making’.】

【You have selected ‘Accessory Creation’.】

“…I did it.”

My body trembled.

Yes, this is it. This is it. This is Acquisition Canceling, or AcqCan for short.

It’s a bug exploit where you continuously cancel until you hit a certain timing, then simultaneously touch two things, causing both to be acquired.

And I am a veteran.

Meaning…

【You have selected ‘Cooking’.】

【Yes/No.】

Adding one more, AcqCan 3-skill craft.

A rotten play that fails one out of three times even in reality.

【You have acquired ‘Potion Making’.】

【You have acquired ‘Accessory Creation’.】

【You have acquired ‘Cooking’.】

This world has acknowledged my veteran play.

Immediately afterward, I took charge of the cooking.

The skills you learn at Talent 10 are beginner skills that only reach level 1. They don’t have a major effect, but they’re definitely different.

Seeing, feeling, and acting are all completely different.

“Nephti, if you’re going to eat too, make a separate dough using only one red pepper.”

“Yes, got it.”

“Rudika, when the soup starts to boil, remove the red pepper, shake it off, cut it finely, and mix it with that seasoning.”

“Oh, got it!”

“Roughly tear off some flour dough and boil it together. When you plate it, distribute the chopped red pepper separately in front of each person.”

In fact, as soon as I came down, I had already decided what dish to make.

The spicy taste Rudika wanted. And the dishes I made. I combined them to create a harmony of fantasy in this very moment.

For example…

After a mountain hike, your body is tired and your energy is drained.

Just in the middle of a chilly night.

In that case, wouldn’t a Korean naturally have a dry throat and crave a spicy soup?

What about a bowl of sujebi made with a lot of sliced green chili peppers, with a broth made from anchovy stock?

Adding a spicy and sour chili pickle on top to eat with it.

After eating a bowl, you’d be sweating profusely, an unbearable heat rising from deep within your body, that kind of taste.

“This is it. This taste. This is… the taste I wanted to eat.”

Rudika began to cry.

“Yeaaah. Hell yeah!”

Nephti left a word of admiration with the vibe of a hard-working Sipjang.

Spicy kal-guksu at the end of a hike.

I can’t resist this.