Dungeon Bakery – Chapter 14

Author: isuzuuy

It hurts.

With her consciousness hazy, Baek Seol thought blankly.

Her entire body ached, and her breathing was labored. There was no doubt about it—she had come down with a bad case of the flu.

“Ugh…….”

She was cold.

Baek Seol murmured softly as she opened her eyes.

She didn’t know whether the tears gathering in her eyes were from the fever or from the pain, but she could feel them trickling down the sides of her face.

Ah.

In the end, she really had gotten sick.

Baek Seol raised a hand to wipe away her tears, but the moment she slipped it slightly out from under the blanket, a skin-piercing chill washed over her.

She quickly tucked it back in.

Her vision was blurry from the tears in her eyes.

As Baek Seol slowly blinked, she thought she heard a small voice.

‘Seol must be really sick.’

Huh……?

That was her mother’s voice.

Baek Seol thought hazily.

Was she unable to distinguish between dream and reality?

No.

Was she already dreaming?

“Mom…….”

‘Oh dear. Our Seol has a fever.’

This voice sounded a little younger than it did now……

Her father’s voice.

‘Should we hold her, Mom?’

‘If she lies between Mom and Dad, she’ll get better in no time. There’s nothing warmer than being in Mom and Dad’s arms.’

This was a dream.

There was no way her father’s voice could sound this warm unless it was a dream.

“…….”

She felt as though someone was gently stroking her forehead.

‘Our pretty Seol. Daddy’s greatest treasure.’

Her father’s voice was endlessly warm and tender.

“That’s a lie…….”

Baek Seol murmured softly and closed her eyes.

Soon, her consciousness faded away.

She wanted to escape from this warmth as quickly as possible.

“……Hmm.”

Her body felt a little lighter.

When Baek Seol finally opened her eyes again, she saw a world of pure white.

“What……?”

A hoarse voice escaped her throat.

Frowning, she tried to focus on the white thing in front of her.

It wasn’t that everything around her was white.

Something white had been placed right in front of her face, making everything appear white.

She thought she could vaguely make out feathers.

Feathers……?

And there was also a strange breathing sound.

Snore, growl…… Snore, growl…….

“…….”

Baek Seol raised a hand and gently pushed aside whatever was covering her eyes.

Something that had been warmly covering her forehead rolled away and fell to the floor.

Rumble, plop!

“Snore…… Krr? Ppi, ppik!”

Flap!

The thing that had fallen to the floor immediately took flight, frantically flapping its wings.

Watching it fly around wildly in every direction, Baek Seol slowly sat up.

“It’s an attack, ppi! How dare you attack the great Staff of the World, ppi!”

What attack?

Baek Seol gathered her disheveled hair and roughly tied it back before getting out of bed.

She felt slightly dizzy, but she was definitely feeling better than before.

Stretching her stiff, creaky body, Baek Seol casually said,

“Lucy, good morning.”

“Ppi…… Ppik? You’re awake, ppi?”

Lucy came fluttering over with a little bump on his head, then frantically circled around Baek Seol.

Thanks to him, the dizziness she’d finally gotten rid of seemed ready to return.

Baek Seol lightly caught the flying Lucy and had to spend a while calming him down.

“So…… I was sick for an entire day?”

“That is correct, ppi. I was worried something might happen to you, ppi.”

“I thought I’d only fallen asleep for a little while…….”

After leaving Lucy, who had finally calmed down a little, Baek Seol washed up.

It was only then that she realized she had been sick for a full day.

Her right leg was still a little uncomfortable, too.

“Don’t overexert yourself from now on, ppi. Now that I think about it, you don’t seem to take very good care of yourself, ppi.”

“I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily true…….”

Baek Seol subtly looked away from Lucy, who was deliberately putting on a stern expression.

She felt as though she’d been caught.

Her friends often told her the same thing.

She would charge ahead like an unstoppable locomotive, chugging along without stopping, only to suddenly collapse.

It seemed that time had finally come.

Baek Seol lightly scratched the back of her head and nodded for now.

“Okay, okay. Now, could you give me a little space?”

Lucy hadn’t left her side since she got up.

Right now, he was flying beside her while gripping a handful of her long hair and flapping his wings.

Ow.

Ow, ow.

That hurts.

My hair.

Lucy quickly let go of her hair and flew away.

“Hmph……! Anyone listening would think the great Staff of the World had been glued to you the entire time you were sick, ppi!”

So he really had stayed glued to her side all day while she was sick.

From Lucy’s red-faced shouting, Baek Seol realized just how worried he had actually been about her.

For some reason, her heart felt soft.

Baek Seol sniffed and wiped her nose.

Feeling a little awkward, she turned on her smartphone.

Come to think of it, she had been exchanging messages with someone before she lost consciousness.

Who was it again?

“Huh……?”

Then Baek Seol froze.

There were missed calls from Seo Doha.

More than ten of them.

“Ahh. What is going on?”

That number-one Hunter disguised as her junior had been slowly creeping into her life, but he’d never bombarded her with calls like this before.

He had always kept a reasonable distance while hovering around her.

Baek Seol felt her heart sink as she hurriedly opened their message thread.

Then, after seeing the message she had sent, she suddenly developed a terrible headache and pressed a hand to her forehead.

“Oh my God…… I can’t believe this.”

“What happened, ppi? Are you sick again, ppi?”

Lucy, who had been farther away, flew over with a flap and began frantically circling around her again.

But Baek Seol had no time to calm him down.

The two characters she had sent were just too……

Too damn careless.

[Yeah.]

Baek Seol felt her cheeks burning and repeatedly fanned her face with her hand.

At the same time, she did her best to insult her past self in her head.

What were you thinking, Baek Seol?

Even if you were out of your mind from being sick, how could you send a message like this to that terrifying man?!

“Ughhhh……. What am I supposed to do…….”

Wait.

What had Seo Doha said before she sent that text?

[Seo Doha: Senior. You haven’t replied at all, so I was wondering. Are you feeling unwell?]

[Seo Doha: ……Are you sick?]

And beneath those messages was her reply.

[Yeah.]

……He had asked if she was sick, and she had said yes.

Unless he was completely heartless, he had probably called just to check on her.

That was probably why Seo Doha had called so many times.

Maybe he had actually been worried that something had happened to her……

“Ugh.”

What?

He was worried about her?

What kind of ridiculous thought was that?

A memory flashed through her mind of Seo Doha coldly speaking to his seniors in the past.

‘It looks like I’m going to have to attend this place from now on. Nobody can know who I am, though. Who I am, what I do. None of it.’

‘Gasp!’

‘But you guys already know who I am. That could make things a little difficult.’

Baek Seol rubbed her shoulders and shook her head.

It was more likely that he had called to check whether anything had happened to someone he suspected was in trouble, rather than because he was worried about her.

Of course.

That had to be it.

As if trying to knock some sense into herself, Baek Seol slapped her cheeks twice.

She swallowed hard and began typing a message to Seo Doha.

As casually as possible, as though nothing had happened……

[Sorry ^^; I sent that message by mistake.]

No.

What was this emoticon?

Baek Seol frowned, deleted the message, and typed again.

[I’m sorry. The message was sent by mistake.]

This was too stiff……

Maybe she should write the way she normally talks.

Baek Seol deleted the message again.

How did I normally talk to Seo Doha?

“…….”

No.

Now that she thought about it, she had barely ever talked to Seo Doha in the first place.

Their conversations mostly consisted of one-word answers.

‘Sunbae, good morning.’

‘Ah, yes.’

‘Did you have breakfast?’

‘No.’

‘You should eat breakfast…… I brought a sandwich. Would you like it?’

‘I’m fine. I’ll be going now.’

Right.

It had been like that.

Looking back, her walls around him had been impressively high.

Someone who had always been like that suddenly sending him a message saying she was sick would understandably leave him confused.

Baek Seol let out a deep sigh and began typing again.

[Sorry. I sent that message by mistake. You don’t need to call.]

Good.

That was concise enough.

She pressed send and finally relaxed her stiff shoulders.

Phew.

Since when has sending one text become this difficult?

Baek Seol put on her apron and quickly shoved her smartphone deep into her pocket.

She didn’t plan on looking at it for a while.

“All right, Lucy. Now, enough…… Huh? Lucy?”

“……Ppi.”

Oh dear.

Lucy seemed to have gotten thoroughly sulky after being ignored while Baek Seol was distracted by Seo Doha.

Seeing Lucy standing far away with his cheeks puffed out, Baek Seol gave him an awkward smile.

Good grief.

Lucy, too.

Baek Seol approached him with an apologetic expression when a thunderous sound suddenly echoed through the room.

Grrrrrrr!

“……!”

“……Ppik!”

The sound hadn’t come from just one place.

Baek Seol and Lucy looked at each other simultaneously.

It had come from both of their stomachs.

Come to think of it, she’d been fasting all day yesterday.

The two stared at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter.

“Haha!”

“Ppii!”

***

“So this is a treasure of the slime race?”

“That is correct, ppi. It is extremely precious, ppi.”

Lucy answered while gulping down a slice of white bread.

Baek Seol bit into a sandwich stuffed with all sorts of ingredients that she had made using the white bread.

The savory aroma of bacon and the crisp texture of the lettuce were fantastic.

Maybe it was because she was starving.

Since when has she gotten so good at making sandwiches?

No.

The sandwich was the same as always.

The only thing that had changed was Baek Seol’s mood while eating it.

‘Hehe. Having all my debt forgiven makes me feel like I could fly.’

She did suspect that the debt quest itself might have been a scheme by the system to force her into entering the dungeon.

Still, now that all her debt was gone, she felt incredibly relieved.

Right.

I really shouldn’t live with debt.

Baek Seol chewed her sandwich thoroughly before swallowing and speaking.

“Hmm. It’s extremely precious? The item description says it’s a material, though.”

“Is that so, ppi? Then I suppose it’s treated as a material that goes into something, ppi.”

Lucy answered casually, clearly not very interested.

He had called it extremely precious, but his reaction was rather lukewarm, so……

‘Maybe it’s just some random junk item.’

Thinking that she’d probably find a use for it someday, Baek Seol put the item she had left on the table, ‘Slime’s Tear,’ deep inside her inventory.

Baek Seol had no way of knowing that ‘Slime’s Tear’ was one of the rarest S-rank material items.

After all, it didn’t say anywhere that it was an S-rank material.

And so, the S-rank material ‘Slime’s Tear’ was promptly erased from Baek Seol’s mind.

“How do I make the Processing Workbench?”

Baek Seol asked as she took a sip of milk.

After leveling up, a new tab for processing materials appeared.

But she couldn’t use it.

<System: Processing cannot be performed because there is no workbench.>

There was no workbench for processing raw materials.

She had searched every corner of the bakery to find where the workbench was supposed to be attached, but she couldn’t find it anywhere.

She even checked the shop, thinking it might be there.

But there was nothing.

Instead, she had found something called a ‘Processing Workbench Blueprint,’ covered in a thick layer of dust.

Was she supposed to use this to make the workbench?

Ugh.

‘I need to start processing things already…….’

Baek Seol frowned.

And for good reason.

When her level rose to 3, the prices of materials in the underground shop had suddenly doubled.

“This is a little ridiculous.”

“Hmm. I agree, ppi.”

In tycoon games, as your level increased, it usually became easier to make money.

So, to balance the difficulty, the games would often adjust various conditions.

She assumed this was part of that.

But still……

“Doubling the price is a bit much, isn’t it……?”

Ugh.

Baek Seol buried her face in her hands.

At this rate, she’d actually lose money every time she sold a loaf of white bread.

She needed to start processing raw materials as soon as possible so she could reduce the amount of ingredients she had to buy from the underground shop.

“Didn’t you have any quests, ppi?”

“No…….”

It was as though the system had gone on strike.

No new quests had appeared since then.

Not even after she obtained the blueprint.

A thought briefly crossed her mind.

Maybe the system was slowing things down because it had seen that she was sick.

But then she shook her head.

Surely the system wouldn’t actually be considerate enough to do something like that.

Whatever the reason, Baek Seol was in a hurry.

“All right. Let’s try using this skill.”

So Baek Seol used her ‘I Have a Suggestion’ skill.