Lee Jun-ho took a deep breath and then accepted the Rocket Store’s proposal.
Immediately upon his acceptance, a long system message appeared.
[Halfling O’Donnell’s Trial]
Requester: Halfling Survival Chef O’Donnell
Content: This is not a simple cooking request. Creating the best dish for any situation using ingredients that can be procured on-site, whenever and wherever—that is the path of the Survival Chef I pursue.
* All food ingredients used in the cooking must be procured directly on-site. (Excluding seasonings)
* Submit the finished dish through the Rocket Store, utilizing local ingredients to the fullest to bring out the best flavor.
Success Reward: World’s first class change to Survival Chef and unlocking the Survival Chef class for humanity.
Failure Condition: Giving up the trial or if the submitted dish fails to meet the standards.
After confirming the contents of the trial, Lee Jun-ho swallowed hard.
It was a difficult test that was simple yet allowed for a comprehensive evaluation of a chef’s skill.
However, he did not let fear take hold.
“In fact, this is the path of cooking I’ve wanted!”
“Leon, Albert. I’m sorry, but could you stay with me a little longer?”
At Lee Jun-ho’s sudden request, Leon tilted his head.
“Of course. Is something the matter?”
“Actually, I just received a special request through the Rocket Store. It says that if I pass this trial, a new class will be unlocked for humanity.”
Leon’s eyes widened at Lee Jun-ho’s words.
“If it’s for the Rocket Store that helped us, I will cooperate actively.”
“Please tell me anything I can do to help!”
Leon’s voice was full of excitement.
Albert also nodded, volunteering to be Lee Jun-ho’s reliable supporter.
”Thank you.”
“This trial is about procuring ingredients on-site to make the most delicious dish.”
“Then, what should we do to help?”
“Please hunt an Alpha Red Wolf.”
The biggest difference between the 3rd and 4th floors was the existence of the Alpha Red Wolf.
While only ordinary Red Wolves appeared on the 3rd floor, much larger and more ferocious Alpha Red Wolves appeared on the 4th floor.
“Have you decided what dish you will make?”
“Yes. I’m going to make a stew with the Alpha Red Wolf.”
“Understood. Don’t worry. He was a guy we had to hunt anyway.”
With Leon’s hearty words, the hunt began in earnest.
The Alpha Red Wolf was powerful, as expected.
Leon used his swordsmanship skills to draw the Red Wolf’s attention, and Albert took that opportunity to pour out magic attacks.
Lee Jun-ho helped them by using common skills to hinder the Red Wolf’s movements.
After a fierce battle, the giant Red Wolf finally collapsed.
“Phew…..”
Leon let out a rough breath and nodded toward Lee Jun-ho.
Lee Jun-ho immediately approached the fallen Alpha Red Wolf and began bleeding it out.
While it was rare for an ordinary chef hunter to butcher such a large monster from scratch, Lee Jun-ho was different.
In fact, he found it interesting.
“It really helps that I used to butcher monsters whole out of curiosity in the past. It turns out this suits my aptitude quite well.”
He skillfully cut away the thigh meat of the Red Wolf and removed the fascia and fat.
The Red Wolves on the 4th floor had large bodies and tough meat, but they boasted a correspondingly rich flavor.
Lee Jun-ho pounded the meat with a stone to tenderize it and cut it into bite-sized pieces.
Next, he gathered ingredients growing on the 4th floor, such as Stone Potatoes, Vitality Herbs, and Shade Mushrooms, and sorted them meticulously.
“The key, besides the main ingredient, is the Vitality Herb.”
Usually, it was widely known only as an ingredient for making lower-grade potions, but the roots of the Vitality Herb, which aren’t used in potion making, were effective in removing the gamey smell.
Once all the ingredients were prepared, he finally pulled out his set of cooking tools.
“Now, I’ll make a broth with the bones…”
But the moment Lee Jun-ho tried to lift the pot, he panicked and set the cooking tool set back down on the ground.
“No way.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I think the cooking tools I had in my backpack were damaged during the battle.”
It seemed his backpack had been grazed by a monster’s attack during the fight without him realizing it.
The blade of the kitchen knife was broken, and one side of the pot was severely dented.
“I can’t cook properly like this…”
He reproached himself, thinking he should have taken out the potions and put them in his bag instead of putting the cooking tools in his inventory, but it was too late for regrets.
“I’ll try to straighten out the pot somehow.”
“The problem is the kitchen knife.”
Lee Jun-ho’s mind went blank with panic and a sense of frustration.
It was right then.
[Emergency support from the Rocket Store has arrived!]
“Wh-What is this?”
Lee Jun-ho couldn’t believe the system message appearing before his eyes.
Below the message, an accept button was blinking.
He pressed the button as if clutching at a straw.
Then, a rocket with a large box attached appeared in mid-air.
“Rocket Delivery!”
The rocket, which deployed a parachute at an appropriate altitude, dropped the box right in front of Lee Jun-ho and vanished.
Inside it was a new set of cooking tools that Lee Jun-ho needed right this moment.
“With this… I can do it!”
***
After confirming Lee Jun-ho’s acceptance message, I immediately pulled up a hologram window.
The first trial for an alien race to pass a class down to humanity.
I couldn’t get directly involved, but as the manager of the Rocket Store, I could watch this whole process in real-time.
My first impression of Lee Jun-ho was simple.
“He’s quite unique.”
In The Tower, where combat is life, climbing The Tower as a non-combatant could be seen as madness.
However, even after a near-death experience on the 3rd floor, Lee Jun-ho did not give up after becoming a member of the Rocket Store and even hired mercenaries to conquer the 4th floor.
Seeing him happy while cooking on the 4th floor and observing his attitude, I was certain.
It’s this guy!
“Of course, there were no other choices, but if he hadn’t met the criteria, I might have given up on him.”
Once the trial began, Lee Jun-ho didn’t hesitate long.
He requested Leon and Albert to hunt the Alpha Red Wolf to procure the main ingredient, and he didn’t miss out on participating in the battle either.
As I was praising myself for choosing well while watching Lee Jun-ho’s decisive actions—like collecting Vitality Herbs, Stone Potatoes, and Shade Mushrooms that can be found on the 4th floor after the bleeding process—I discovered the damaged cooking tools.
“Of all things, the cooking tools… Should I put cooking tools on the Rocket Store?”
Registering a product just for one person could be seen as excessive.
However, considering the result of this trial, it was worth a try.
But then, the system pulled up a new notification for me.
[Would you like to use the emergency support service?]
“Emergency support service?”
It was a system where I could designate a specific person and provide a specific product instead of bearing the cost of the product myself.
I pressed the accept button without hesitation.
Lee Jun-ho passing this trial was something that went beyond simple personal growth; it was a matter of opening up new possibilities for all of humanity.
Afterward, I immediately sent the new cooking tool set I purchased from the shopping mall to Lee Jun-ho.
“Don’t give up like this.”
Fortunately, Lee Jun-ho regained his resolve with the new cooking tools I sent.
The panicked look vanished without a trace, and his expression returned to that of a calm and confident professional.
“Is this really the same person who was panicked because his tools broke earlier? He becomes a different person when he’s cooking.”
Lee Jun-ho also began to handle the new cooking tool set expertly.
He put the Red Wolf meat, sliced precisely with the new knife, into the pot and added the ingredients procured locally—Vitality Herb roots, Stone Potatoes, and Shade Mushrooms—one after another.
“Look at that, Guardian!”
“When did you get here?”
“Just now!”
Aria, who said she was going to Terra for a bit, had settled next to me before I knew it and let out an exclamation.
“More than that, that dish looks really delicious even just seeing it through the screen!”
While I was admiring the cooking with Aria.
The dish was finished quickly and arrived to me through the system immediately.
”Wow! Seeing the food in person… I want to try a bite too.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t give you this. I have to submit it since it’s a trial assignment. I’m just the delivery man.”
“Not even one bite?”
“Yes.”
“Aw.”
I chuckled at the sight of Aria lusting after the food.
Without delay, I sent Lee Jun-ho’s finished dish, the Alpha Red Wolf Stew, to O’Donnell.
I had no worries.
Because I was already certain after seeing Aria’s eyes sparkle.
“My choice was not wrong.”
I, Aria, and Leon and Albert, who watched Lee Jun-ho’s cooking process by his side, must all be thinking the same thing.
And not long after, O’Donnell’s final evaluation message arrived, and I delivered it to Lee Jun-ho.
There was no need to specifically see Lee Jun-ho jumping for joy.
[Rocket Store member Lee Jun-ho has become the first human to change classes to Survival Chef! Please congratulate him everyone.]
[From now on, the new class ‘Survival Chef’ has been unlocked for humanity.]
In this case, I can’t help but look at the community reaction, can I?
***
As expected, it was a situation where things were going crazy.
– Did you see the global message about the advanced chef class?
– WTF, so it wasn’t just combat classes that had advanced classes?
– The message said he was a member of the Rocket Store, is that related?
– Couldn’t we find out if an interview comes out with the person who became the first one?
– The person named Lee Jun-ho?
– Probably. I wonder who will get the exclusive interview? Looking for it now.
– I thought the Rocket Store only sold things? What the hell did they do to unlock an advanced chef class?
– OMG, is this for real?
– Then does that mean there’s a possibility for other jobs to have advanced classes unlocked too?
– Looking forward to it. Please unlock advanced classes for the trash jobs.
– Seeing that a non-combat job got an advanced class unlocked, couldn’t there be advanced classes for other classes we don’t know about?
– Seriously, what exactly is the Rocket Store’s identity? I thought it was just a simple shopping mall, but it’s contributing to unlocking new classes.
– Overseas is going crazy too.
[Does this mean we’ll have chefs who make buff food from now on?]
– Our party decided not to do the Rocket Store buffet service because it’s expensive at 50,000 coins. If there’s someone who newly changed to Survival Chef, we should recruit them. NICE.
– Wow, if we go with them, we’ll get to eat warm food instead of tasteless energy bars?
– Isn’t going with other people only for boss fights?
– On higher floors, you don’t go straight into a boss fight; you have to find the boss like in a dungeon.
– Damn.
– Having buffs is also sweet.
– My party is also looking for a Survival Chef. We don’t have a healer in the party, so we should get buffs from a chef’s food and save on potions.
– For real. It’s hard to find a healer and they’re expensive, so I’m curious what a chef hunter will be like.
– Prices will probably be high since demand is spiking.
– They have to prove their effectiveness first.
Seeing the community reactions, the corners of my mouth crept up.
“Everyone is full of praise for me again.”
Praise never gets old, no matter how often you hear it.
“Surely, the more new classes are unlocked, the easier it will be to conquer The Tower, right?”
Just looking at the demand for the Halfling chef Finch right now, I could indirectly feel how many people were enthusiastic.
Of course, no matter what, there was only one Finch.
The number of parties he could cover was by no means many.
“The Survival Chefs who will newly change classes will fill that gap.”
Since a new class was unlocked with Lee Jun-ho’s class change, I also thought more deeply about that possibility.
“That means I’ll be able to be liberated from this room that much faster. On the first day, the future looked so bleak.”
Now, even if it’s slow, I felt certain that the day I would leave this room would surely come.
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