Dungeon Bakery Chapter 11

“Wait. Come to think of it, ppi…….”

Lucy, who had been lazily lying on the table while munching on white bread, tilted his head.

“Did I ever warn her to be careful of mandragoras, ppi?”

Lucy’s black eyes blinked slowly. His head tilted to one side, then gradually returned to its original position.

“I must have, ppi. There’s no way I would have forgotten something that important, ppi. There’s no way I could have forgotten to tell her that pulling out a mandragora near an Yggdrasil tree in broad daylight makes a sound that excites the Black Cows, and that it becomes extremely dangerous because of that, ppi.”

Because he was the greatest Staff of the World!

Ppi-beep, ppi-beep. Lucy chuckled as he made little beeping noises, nearly rolling off the table.

Whew. The world had nearly suffered a great loss.

For such a magnificent being as himself to fall onto the floor? Unthinkable.

Lucy wiped the cold sweat beading on his forehead with his wing and returned to his carefree daily routine.

 

***

 

“Ugh, so noisy!”

At the tremendous roar, Baek Seol hurriedly covered her ears and kicked the thing as hard as she could. Even after being sent flying quite a distance, it continued to howl.

Still covering her ears, Baek Seol began moving away from it.

There had been something like that near the Yggdrasil tree?

Lucy never said anything about it.

After walking a good distance away, Baek Seol was just about to ignore the noise and start picking the fruits when she saw something black approaching from far away.

“Huh? Why is that cow…… I-is it running toward me?”

It was the black cow that had been peacefully grazing only moments ago with a mild expression on its face.

But now, its face was flushed red as it charged toward her at full speed.

There was no mistaking it. It clearly intended to attack her.

What happened afterward was a chase between the black cow and Baek Seol.

Remembering what had happened before the chase began, Baek Seol panted heavily.

“Huff. Huff…….”

She was gradually growing exhausted. Her mouth tasted metallic, and her calves were losing strength. Her entire body had stiffened from tension, making her joints creak with every movement. The bag on her back felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

Her speed was gradually slowing.

I’m going to get caught!

Panicking, Baek Seol mustered her courage and glanced over her shoulder.

The black cow was charging after her, brutally trampling the small trees in its path.

Perhaps looking back for even that brief moment had been her mistake.

“Eek!”

Her right foot seemed to catch on a protruding tree root. It twisted awkwardly, throwing her balance off.

She rolled across the ground.

She hurriedly tried to get back up, but apparently she had sprained her right foot when she fell, and it refused to cooperate.

“GROOO—!”

In the meantime, the black cow leaped all the way to where Baek Seol was in a single bound.

Landing on the ground with steam snorting from its nostrils, the black cow bared its gleaming teeth.

At this rate, she was going to become its meal.

As the black cow lowered its head and charged straight at her, Baek Seol frantically rummaged through her inventory.

Then she thrust out whatever her hand happened to grab.

“Moo?”

It was the +10 mop.

Astonishingly, the mop was strong enough to block the black cow’s headbutt!

“Huh……?”

Why was it that Lucy’s words suddenly flashed through her mind?

“If you want to strip away the years of grime in the bakery, an ordinary mop won’t even come close.”

So that was what he meant.

This mop really was extraordinary.

Still, even if it had been fully upgraded, how could it be this powerful?

This mop…… Could it actually be an SSS-rank mop? One that had been blessed with the Vajra-Body technique on top of that?

Baek Seol’s face brightened.

“……Moo-hng!”

The black cow, now wearing the head of the mop over its head like a wig, twitched its nose as if utterly dumbfounded by the situation.

Then it pushed against the mop with all its strength.

And just like that, forget the Vajra-Body technique—the mop snapped cleanly in two.

“……”

“……Mmph.”

……Did that black cow just laugh at her?

She wasn’t imagining it, was she?

Rather than the fact that she was in grave danger, Baek Seol was more devastated by the fact that the black cow had just laughed at her.

Because of that, she failed to notice the pink figure that suddenly appeared right in front of her.

“Kyung!”

Nor did she immediately realize that the figure had let out an adorable cry before melting the black cow away in an instant.

Even though it had happened right before her eyes, Baek Seol could barely process it. She simply blinked.

“Slime…… No. 97?”

The pink body glistening with moisture thanks to all the Moist White Bread it had eaten, the heart-shaped antenna swaying atop its head—

There was no doubt.

It was Slime No. 97.

As if happy that it had recognized her, Slime No. 97 bounced up and down.

Only belatedly realizing that the slime had saved her, Baek Seol hurriedly got to her feet and bowed.

“Uh…… Thank you for saving me……?”

A bead of cold sweat rolled down the back of her neck.

The scene of the slime swallowing the black cow in a single bite replayed before her eyes in slow motion.

This guy…… No, this customer is incredible……?

Afterward, Slime No. 97 escorted Baek Seol all the way to where the Yggdrasil tree was and guarded her until she returned to the bakery.

It was quite a terrifying yet reassuring sight as the slime bounced adorably across the grassland, melting away the strange ginseng-like plants that had been making those bizarre noises one by one.

Thanks to it, Baek Seol was able to safely fill her bag with Young Yggdrasil fruits before making her way back.

At the door leading to the bakery, she waved at the slime, which bounced up and down and waved its antenna as if saying they would see each other again soon.

Then Baek Seol entered the bakery.

“Whew……. I almost died.”

The moment she realized she was back in her own safe space, all the strength drained from her body.

As the tension finally left her muscles, the delayed soreness came rushing in.

On top of that, the injured right foot from earlier began throbbing painfully.

“Ugh…….”

“Welcome ba…… ppi? What happened, ppi?”

Lucy, who had been flying around cheerfully, turned pale when he saw Baek Seol collapsed on the floor.

Seeing the one who had confidently declared that nothing would happen to her in the dungeon made her incredibly annoyed, but seeing the worried expression on his face made it difficult to scold him.

Baek Seol rubbed her face with both hands and shook her head.

“It’s nothing serious. Can you help me up? I think I sprained my foot. I’ll just treat it quickly and then start making the white bread.”

Looking helpless, Lucy pushed against Baek Seol’s back with all his might.

It wasn’t much force, but the warmth against her back seemed to give her a little strength.

Baek Seol got to her feet, quickly treated her right foot, and cleaned herself up.

By then, the fruits had already turned into powder.

She felt like she was pushing herself a little too hard, but there was a sense of urgency in one corner of her mind.

Something feels…… unsettling. I have a feeling I need to complete this quest as quickly as possible.

Was it because the reward was so incredible?

A system window appeared announcing that she had completed the quest to gather the ingredients, but Baek Seol ignored it and headed for the baking room.

The prerequisite quest with no particularly remarkable reward wasn’t what mattered to her right now.

It was the delivery quest—the one whose reward had been modified by the system.

Baek Seol glanced at the quest window, quickly purchased the additional ingredients she needed from the underground shop, and immediately began making white bread without taking a break.

One, two, three……

Thanks to her baking skill, the white bread was quickly made and began piling up.

“Done. I’ve made all twenty loaves!”

Once she confirmed that all the bread was finished, Baek Seol grinned and immediately headed toward the brown door.

“Are you sure you’re okay, ppi? You don’t look like you’re in good shape, ppi…….”

“When you can get something done, you should finish it all at once. I’ll be back, Lucy.”

She had a strong feeling that Slime No. 97 was waiting for her on the other side of the door, longing for her return.

And that premonition turned into a smile the moment she opened the door and saw the pink figure waiting there.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, customer. Here are the twenty loaves of Moist White Bread you ordered. Where should I deliver them?”

“Kyung…… Kyung!”

The slime’s pink body flushed reddish, almost as if it were deeply moved.

It began bouncing toward somewhere, as though telling her to follow.

Baek Seol limped after Slime No. 97.

The atmosphere feels a little different.

Unlike the grassland where the Yggdrasil tree stood, the path No. 97 led her along somehow felt desolate.

There were occasional trees and patches of grass, but even those were withering and dying.

The ground was dry and cracked.

And finally, they stopped at a small village.

The houses seemed to have been built to fit the slimes’ bodies.

They were small, simple huts.

But with their various colors and their cozy arrangement, the village as a whole looked……

“Wow. It’s pretty.”

Yes.

It was pretty and charming.

Enough to make her forget the dead plants she had seen along the way.

Baek Seol’s eyes sparkled as she looked down at the cute little houses clustered around her feet.

As she carefully walked between them, she felt like Gulliver from Gulliver’s Travels, a book she had loved reading as a child.

“Kyung!”

In what appeared to be the village square, Slime No. 97 bounced up and down.

Its heart-shaped antenna was pointing toward the ground, so it seemed to be telling her to put the bread down there.

“Alright. I’ll put them here, customer.”

The freshly baked loaves, still steaming, were packed inside picnic baskets woven from tree branches.

When Baek Seol set down the picnic baskets she had been carrying in both hands, the slime began bouncing and making noises.

“Kyuuung! Kyuuuuung!”

It sounded as though it was calling someone over.

And apparently, that was exactly what it was doing.

Soon, rustling sounds began coming from inside each of the houses.

Before long, slimes began emerging one by one.

But they were quite different from the slimes Baek Seol was familiar with.

They look…… like rocks.

The slimes gathering together in the village were completely dried out, their surfaces rough and coarse.

Some had cracks running across their bodies like the parched earth.

Others had become shriveled like deflated balloons.

As a result, they could barely bounce their bodies properly.

Moving was difficult, so they were crawling along the ground, gnawing away at their own bodies as they moved.

Their bodies were literally being worn away simply by moving.

It seemed they were drying out.

Baek Seol bit down hard on her lip.

She remembered what Lucy had said about the slimes suffering because they were trapped in the dungeon.

This isn’t just hardship.

Their very lives are in danger.

Baek Seol instinctively understood.

If things continued like this for just a little longer, every slime here would die.

Could the reason the slime appearance rate would become 0% if I failed the quest be……

Baek Seol swallowed hard.

Because they would all disappear?

“Kyung……!”

While Baek Seol was still reeling from the shock, one of the slimes whose body was as dry as stone struggled to swallow a piece of Moist White Bread.

Then something astonishing happened.

“My body……?”

The cracks covering the slime’s surface slowly began to fill in.

It was as though moisture were welling up from within.

No way.

Baek Seol looked at the description of Moist White Bread.

New! [Moist White Bread]

The most basic and fundamental bread of any bakery.

Race Compatibility: Slime-type ◎, ???

Effect: Makes the body moist.

The effect—Makes the body moist—immediately caught her attention.

Only now did she understand.

Slime No. 97 had placed a bulk order for Moist White Bread to save its fellow slimes, who were slowly drying out.