Chapter 52: The Grace of Rice

In front of the ten players, including Irim, who had entered the cave, ten monsters stood blocking the path.

Their name: Potato Warriors.

They were monsters about the size of an adult torso, formed from clusters of potato tubers. 

The Potato Warriors had eyes and a mouth on their bodies, and their arms and legs sprouted in the form of shoots.

“Let’s each take one; there are exactly ten of them.”

Someone spoke, and everyone grabbed one Potato Warrior each and began fighting.

As the name suggested, the Potato Warriors used boxing-style attacks.

They were the type with very high attack and defense.

However, their agility was relatively low.

So, if you dodged their attacks well and landed one or two hits at a time, you could hunt them even if it took a while.

But if you accidentally took even one clean hit, things could get seriously bad.

THUD!

“Argh! One punch and half my HP is gone?!”

A player named “Backstab” who had let his guard down and taken a fist to the stomach was understandably flustered.

One more mistake and it would be game over.

Just as the Potato Warrior charged at the stunned Backstab to swing again!

“Charge!”

BOOM!

A huge man suddenly rushed in and rammed the Potato Warrior with an iron shield as tall as himself.

His name was “Aegis.”

His class was a warrior who served as a tank.

Thanks to the class perks, he boasted monstrous defense and wielded a massive shield and a morning star.

A morning star is a flail with spikes embedded in the iron ball at the end.

Aegis ran to the fallen Potato Warrior that was trying to stand up, kicked it, then swung his morning star.

THWACK!

Seeing this, Backstab hurriedly ran over and attacked the Potato Warrior together with him.

Yet even while sprawled on the ground, the Potato Warrior swung its fist, hit Backstab, and ultimately knocked him down for good.

“Damn it…”

As soon as Backstab died, a message appeared for everyone.

[One player has died. Two items have been dropped. The dropped items have been transferred to the shared inventory.]

Shared Inventory (INVENTORY)  

Rucola [12]  

Throwing Dagger [1]

Necklace of Wind [1]

Items dropped upon death inside the cave were also sent to the shared inventory.

Which meant the player who killed the boss monster would take everything.

In other words, here you could legally take items others had dropped.

Irim checked the information of the items Backstab had dropped.

[Necklace of Wind]  

– A necklace containing the blessing of the wind spirit Sylph  

– Agility +15, Wind attribute +20

‘Whoa.’

The throwing dagger was whatever, but the Necklace of Wind had pretty decent stats.

Other players who checked the item info the same way stopped fighting the Potato Warriors for a moment and let out gasps of admiration.

While that was happening, Aegis finished off the Potato Warrior that had killed Backstab.

He had already killed the one he was originally fighting before coming to help.

Aegis looked around to see if anyone else needed help.

Most were dodging the Potato Warriors’ attacks and steadily dealing damage.

But one person looked dangerously close to dying.

It was Irim.

He was taking the Potato Warrior’s slow attacks head-on and engaging in close-quarters brawling.

Yet, for some reason, a mackerel-striped cat was perched on his head, chewing on shrimp while kneading with its paws.

Seeing that sight, Aegis thought to himself.

‘That’s surprising in two different ways.’

One was that he was eating every single one of the slow Potato Warrior’s attacks.

The other was that even after taking all those hits, he still hadn’t collapsed.

‘His defense must be insane.’

Aegis was half right.

Irim’s defense was indeed high.

But even for him, each Potato Warrior attack shaved off about 10% of his HP.

The reason he could endure dozens of hits was because Mio was continuously casting healing magic on him.

Plus, he was swinging the Sturdy Horn instead of the boning sword.

The more he got hit and the more he hit, the more his attack and defense stats would rise.

‘Should I help him?’

Aegis hesitated for a moment but soon lost interest.

He had only stepped in for Backstab because they had run into each other several times while playing and were somewhat acquainted.

There was no reason to extend that kindness to a complete stranger.

The other players felt the same way.

None of them had any intention of helping Irim even after finishing their own Potato Warriors.

In fact, they were hoping he would die.

Because then he would drop items.

But Irim endured all those hits and ultimately knocked his Potato Warrior down.

STAB!

Gurgle!

The Potato Warrior that received the final blow collapsed with a deflating sound.

“Phew.”

Irim wiped his sweat and looked ahead.

Every player was staring at him as if he were pathetic.

“Let’s move quickly.”

“…Isn’t it a bit rude to waste everyone else’s time with skill like that?”

“But his defense must be insane? He just wouldn’t go down.”

“Those clothes he’s wearing… they look pretty good.”

The eyes of the players observing Irim shifted from annoyance to greed.

They believed the secret to him tanking the Potato Warrior’s attacks lay in the armor he was wearing.

‘Please die and leave some good gear behind.’

Every single player was thinking that.

Their greed was so blatantly written on their faces that even Irim could read it perfectly.

Walking at the very back of the advancing party, Irim continued collecting rucola whenever he saw it and checked the shared inventory.

Shared Inventory (INVENTORY) 

Rucola [19]  

Throwing Dagger [1]  

Necklace of Wind [1]  

Potatoes [50]

A whopping 50 potatoes had been gathered.

It seemed each Potato Warrior dropped 5 potatoes.

Continuing straight down the path, they encountered monsters again.

This time, they were giant carrots about the size of a medium-sized dog.

The monster’s name: Carrot Mages.

These had no arms or legs and floated in midair.

Just from the name, it was clear the Carrot Mages used magic.

‘Wow! Carrots!’

Following potatoes, another harvestable vegetable appeared, and Irim was delighted.

He involuntarily shivered with excitement.

Aegis, who caught a glimpse of this out of the corner of his eye, misunderstood it as trembling from fear.

‘Pathetic.’

Sneering inwardly at Irim, Aegis surveyed the other players.

Nine players, ten Carrot Mages.

Facing numerical disadvantage, everyone looked troubled.

So Aegis stepped forward with his shield raised and shouted.

“I’ll take two! Everyone else, take one each and bring them down!”

The players moved busily according to Aegis’s instructions.

Before anyone noticed, Aegis had become the leader of this group.

Irim also began fighting one Carrot Mage like the others.

Shared Inventory (INVENTORY)  

Rucola [25]  

Throwing Dagger [1]  

Necklace of Wind [1]  

Potatoes [50]  

Carrots [50]

***

This time, they defeated the Carrot Mages without any player deaths.

And as always, Irim was the last to finish his fight.

The party moved forward again.

Irim kept collecting rucola.

Soon they encountered monsters once more.

This time, the monsters were “Corn Knights.”

Corn the size of an adult torso; they had feet but no arms.

Instead, the top of their heads formed sharply honed blades.

“Once we clear these, it’s the boss! Their corn-blade slashes don’t do huge damage, but they’re extremely fast. Don’t underestimate them just because the damage looks low; you’ll bleed out before you know it. Fight carefully!”

Once again, Aegis stepped up, gave warnings, and led the players.

‘Corn… Ahh… I want to steam it.’

Irim thought as he watched the corn approaching him.

Corn was delicious steamed, boiled, or grilled.

Long ago, when driving on the highway and hitting traffic, people used to sell steamed corn in the jam.

These days it was hard to see that; you usually just bought it at rest stops.

Irim licked his lips, reminiscing about the taste of corn.

‘Corn is delicious no matter how you cook it. But the absolute best way is…’

Butter-grilled corn.

Put a knob of butter, a spoonful of sugar, and a pinch of salt in a frying pan, melt them together, add corn broken into three pieces, and roll it around until cooked; the sauce seeps into every kernel.

One bite of butter-grilled corn like that, and rich butter flavor explodes, followed by sweet and salty notes mixing with the corn aroma with every chew; it’s downright addictive.

If you want an even more intense flavor, sprinkle Parmesan cheese powder on top.

Gulp!

Irim swallowed his saliva just thinking about corn dishes.

By then, the Corn Knight had reached him.

It quickly swung its head to slash Irim’s chest.

But Irim stepped back and dodged.

‘Fast. Dodging at the last second should help raise agility.’

Irim dodged the Corn Knight’s attacks left and right, occasionally landing a single hit.

Every time it took a hit, corn kernels scattered everywhere.

‘Ahh… what a waste.’

Watching the corn kernels fly in all directions made Irim feel an unbearable sense of loss.

The players cleared all the Corn Knights, and in the process, another player died.

The moment the battle ended, Irim checked the shared inventory.

Shared Inventory (INVENTORY) 

Rucola [41]  

Throwing Dagger [1]  

Necklace of Wind [1]  

Potatoes [50]  

Carrots [50]  

Corn [50]  

Low-Grade Fishing Tool Package [1]

Along with the corn, a Low-Grade Fishing Tool Package had been added to the shared inventory.

That was the item the deceased player had dropped.

Seeing it, the remaining seven players looked disappointed.

“If you’re gonna die anyway, at least drop something good.”

“Trash item.”

“Pfft, fishing? Why on earth were they fishing in this game? Did they think this was some leisurely game? Were they enlightened in front of 10 billion won or something?”

Everyone mocked the Low-Grade Fishing Tool Package, but Irim was different.

‘With that I could catch fish and eat sashimi, or grill them with salt. If I catch mackerel or hairtail, I could even braise them with radish and gochujang.’

Little by little, Irim began to covet everything in the shared inventory.

He still walked at the very back of the party, picking every rucola he saw.

Meanwhile, several players took food out of their own inventories and started eating.

What they were eating: samgyeopsal and pork bulgogi sandwiches.

All dishes Irim had taught at the pig restaurant.

“Wow, this is seriously delicious.”

The player eating samgyeopsal exclaimed in admiration.

The player next to him, taking a big bite of pork bulgogi sandwich, nodded.

“I really want to meet this person called Rice at least once.”

“Me too. Providing such blessed food in this barren world of Real.”

“If it weren’t for him, the best we’d have eaten until now would be biting into apples.”

“Who could disagree? This dungeon would’ve been packed even tighter otherwise.”

“At this point, calling him our benefactor wouldn’t be an exaggeration, right? You agree?”

“Agree.”

“Ahh, that was good. Personally, I still like the pork bulgogi sandwich the most.”

“I like that too, but lately samgyeopsal has been calling to me, so I stocked ten of them. Hehe.”

“I packed five of each type.”

After finishing their meal and chatting noisily, one of the players glanced back.

There was Irim, still obsessed with rucola.

“That guy’s been like that since earlier. What’s he planning to do with all that rucola?”

“Maybe he’s planning to cook or something.”

“Does he think he’s Rice or what?”

At someone’s sarcasm, the other players snickered.

Having heard everything, Irim smiled inwardly.

‘So the food I taught really is delicious, huh.’

Irim truly was a bright person.