Chapter 39: Irreversible Words

“Great warrior Maengho!”

Maengho shouted an embarrassing line and charged at the severed crab.

“Maengho! No!”

Luke tried to stop Maengho from rushing without a plan, but it was too late.

“One-Point Thrust!”

Maengho used the skill One-Point Thrust.

Seeing this, Irim was slightly surprised.

He hadn’t seen anyone else use One-Point Thrust besides himself until now.

But.

Tang!

‘Huh?’

Maengho’s spear stabbed a random spot, not the death point of the severed crab.

The spear tip only slightly embedded in the severed crab’s shell, dealing no significant damage.

The severed crab swung its sharp front claw.

“Whoops!”

Maengho quickly retreated to dodge it and used the skill again.

“One-Point Thrust!”

The words One-Point Thrust exploded in the air, and the spear rushed forward once more.

But again, it missed the death point.

Watching this, Irim was convinced.

‘He got One-Point Thrust without Death Point Vision.’

The acquisition condition for Death Point Vision is ‘pierce monster carcasses for the first time 1,000 times or more’.

In short, no other player besides Irim could obtain it.

On the other hand, One-Point Thrust’s condition is ‘kill 50 monsters by stabbing their death points’.

Maengho must have hunted countless monsters, so blindly stabbing, he likely exceeded 50 monsters dying from death point hits.

‘Or there’s another achievement condition to get Death Point Vision.’

While Irim organized his thoughts, the three NPCs lined up on either side of Maengho.

The four soon cooperated and charged at the severed crab.

Then, the severed crab focused only on defense and gradually struggled.

That was when.

Mio~!

At Mio’s sudden cry, Irim turned around.

Then, another severed crab that appeared from nowhere was swinging its pincer at Irim from close range!

‘Hard to dodge!’

Unprepared, he was in danger of getting hit.

But Mio lowered its stance and activated a skill.

Haaak!

[Hiss F activated. Enemy is frightened.]

The 20% chance worked.

The frightened severed crab retracted its swinging pincer and sidestepped slowly.

But after 2 seconds, it charged even more fiercely, as if not understanding why it tried to flee.

Irim held the Boning Sword in one hand and the square iron shield in the other.

The death point of the 2-star monster severed crab was clearly visible in his sight.

‘Not catching it easily.’

In the past, he would have pierced the death point with One-Point Thrust already, but he didn’t.

Irim dodged the severed crab’s front claw attacks left and right, blocked with the shield, and swung the Boning Sword whenever an opening appeared.

Unfamiliar with this combat style, his movements were clumsy, but his high base stats kept him from being pushed back.

Numerous exchanges occurred between Irim and the severed crab.

Scars appeared all over the severed crab’s shell, and its health gradually dropped.

But Irim only lost satiety, not allowing a single effective hit.

‘The sword embeds surprisingly well?’

Maengho’s spear, even with the skill, couldn’t cleanly pierce the severed crab’s shell.

Yet Irim was inflicting wounds just by swinging haphazardly at openings.

Irim’s base stats were that exceptional, and it was possible because he had attribute points.

Currently, Irim had 10 points in all attributes.

The severed crab’s attribute was water.

Water is strong against fire but weak to earth.

Thus, the 10 earth attribute Irim acquired added that much extra damage.

‘Even without aiming for the death point, steadily hitting should let me solo it.’

The attack pattern was surprisingly simple, making it not hard to counter.

That was when Irim finished analyzing the severed crab.

Suddenly, several gusts of wind brushed past Irim.

It was Maengho and the NPCs.

They unleashed a combined attack and hunted the severed crab in an instant.

Gururuk!!

The severed crab, its pincers cut off, foamed and collapsed.

Strangely, the dead crab’s size shrank drastically, becoming the size of a normal sea crab.

“Phew. These guys have insane defense.”

Maengho wiped sweat from his forehead.

“Not just defense. Attack power is ridiculous too; one careless hit is definitely critical.”

Karen said that to warn caution.

Her gaze turned to Irim.

“By the way, Rice. Not bad? I thought you sucked at combat.”

“I do suck.”

Pouring cold water.

It was Xyle examining the dead severed crab’s carcass.

“Your form against the severed crab was total newbie.”

“But you dealt some damage.”

“In my view…….”

Xyle pointed at the sword Irim held.

“That seems like an amazing item.”

“Item carry?”

Maengho asked.

“With that messy form dealing this much damage, that’s the only answer. And you’re a chef?”

“Even so, can one weapon make this possible?”

Karen objected to Xyle’s opinion.

“It’s item carry.”

As the two heated up, Irim just accepted it.

“See.”

Xyle smiled victoriously.

Despite his cool, handsome appearance, he was the type to stake his life on small things.

Irim collected the severed crab’s carcass.

He wanted to cook and eat them right away, but the hurrying companions made it impossible.

So Irim decided to make a dish he could prepare while walking.

***

Pajijik! Pajik!

Sparks flew from the bodies of three shrimps blocking the party’s path.

The shrimps were the size of small dogs.

Enormously large for shrimps.

They floated in the air on water droplets, casting electric magic.

Pachijik!

The three shrimps simultaneously fired lightning bolts.

“Everyone dodge!”

At Luke’s shout, the party scattered.

Pachik! Jjeong! Jjeojeong!

The lightning orbs that lost targets scorched the innocent cave walls.

Momentarily, the sparks flickering on the shrimps weakened.

They had a 10-second cooldown after casting magic once.

“Hap!”

Luke seized the gap and swung his two-hand sword widely horizontally.

Seogeok!

It cut the water droplets the electric shrimps rode.

Teolpeodeok! Teolpeok!

The electric shrimps fell from the droplets and flopped on the ground.

Without water droplets, they couldn’t move properly.

The others who seized the chance rushed in unison and chopped the shrimps.

Irim was among them.

His gaze kept going to the shrimps’ death points.

He almost stabbed them unconsciously but held back.

‘Raise stats.’

Irim diligently struck, avoiding death points.

With five people ganging up, the three shrimps died before their magic cooldown returned.

Like severed crabs, electric shrimps shrank to black tiger shrimp size upon becoming carcasses.

‘Good’

Irim put the shrimps’ carcasses in his inventory.

The five-member subjugation team walked the long continuing passage again.

***

After so many battles that counting became annoying.

[Attack power increased by 1.]

‘Oh!’

The long-desired message appeared.

Beating monsters diligently raised attack power.

From this, Irim hypothesized.

‘If I get hit a lot, maybe defense rises?’

He immediately accessed the fan cafe and searched.

Many users had posted about it, and reading confirmed Irim’s guess was correct.

Additionally, narrowly dodging monster attacks a lot raises agility.

‘Good. This time, I’ll take hits.’

As Irim thought that.

“I’m a bit hungry. Rice. Any dish you can make?”

It was Luke’s words.

“There is, but it needs a bit more time to finish.”

While walking the dungeon with the party, Irim made something in spare moments.

It was a seasoning sauce with chili, minced ginger, minced garlic, gochujang, soy sauce, red pepper powder, sesame seeds.

Soy sauce and sesame seeds couldn’t be obtained immediately.

With groundsel flowers, boiling water with petals could make soy sauce, but no time to light a fire.

So Irim obtained soy sauce and sesame seeds with the unused Chef’s Luck skill.

He dumped appropriate amounts of needed ingredients into a large bowl, mixed, and completed a red, appetizing seasoning sauce.

Next, he prepared ten severed crabs.

Washed cleanly with water Maengho gave, removed the top shell and gills, halved into edible sizes.

Coated every nook with the pre-made seasoning sauce, stored in a large pot.

What he was making was seasoned crab.

He didn’t put the pot in inventory.

Inventory preserves food state as is.

Putting it in would prevent seasoning from seeping into every corner of the crab meat.

About an hour passed in that state.

The cave temperature wasn’t too hot, so no worry of crab meat spoiling.

Just hoping the seasoning seeps quickly.

Irim checked the crabs in the pot.

[Delicious Seasoned Crab]

Satiety +20 upon consumption

‘Perfect.’

Crab size was small, so satiety low, but with ‘delicious’ prefix, taste was guaranteed.

“R-Rice. That…… c-could it be!”

Maengho trembled confirming the pot contents Irim held.

Irim nodded.

“Yes. Seasoned crab.”

“Uoooooo!”

Maengho punched the air repeatedly.

“Seasoned crab! This isn’t a dream, right? It’s my absolute favorite food!”

“Really?”

“Yes. Look at that color. But, wanting rice too would be greedy, right?”

“I’d cook it if I had rice, unfortunately.”

How could Irim not know the happiness of squeezing seasoned crab meat onto hot white rice and taking a big bite.

But no rice, so just enjoy seasoned crab.

But then.

“Rice? I have some?”

Unexpected words from Karen.

“You have rice?”

“Yeah. I prefer rice over bread, so I always carry it. But forgot the pot this time, making it useless.”

Karen unfastened the leather pouch at her waist and offered it.

It contained enough rice for five adult men to eat two meals.

“Oooo! Simply Light Karen!”

Maengho tried to hug Karen.

Karen quietly equipped knuckles on both fists.

Maengho hugged Xyle beside him.

“Damn!”

Xyle shuddered.

Amid the small commotion, Irim poured rice and water into the pot.

Soaked for about 15 minutes, then washed well.

Now to cook rice, fire was needed, but in the cave, nothing to burn.

Anticipating this, Irim had collected dry branches and firewood before entering the cave.

Placed the rice-filled pot over the blazing bonfire.

“Ahh. White rice with seasoned crab. Just thinking makes me go.”

Karen and Luke grew highly expectant of the seasoned crab and rice harmony from Maengho’s reaction.

But Xyle looked utterly displeased.

‘Eating raw crab?’

It was completely incomprehensible in his common sense.

“Sorry, but that seasoned crab or whatever, I won’t eat.”

In the end, Xyle uttered irreversible words.