Dungeon Bakery – Chapter 24

Author: isuzuuy

<System: Beginning Recipe Creation. Please select your ingredients.>

Let’s see. What was Aunt Eunju’s cookie recipe again?

Baek Seol rested her chin in her hand as she recalled the past.

‘Your mother and I used to bake cookies together from time to time. It was back when Seol was only about as tall as my thigh.’

‘……I don’t remember.’

‘Of course you don’t. You were very young.’

It had not been long since that person had left for another country and Baek Seol had started living with Aunt Eunju and Uncle Changho.

Back then, Aunt Eunju had tried to coax Baek Seol out of her room, where she shut herself away, with the scent of freshly baked cookies.

She was around twelve years old then.

Still young, she had been drawn out of her room by the faintly familiar scent of cookies that reminded her of her mother.

‘Seol. Do you want to make cookies with me?’

From then on, she would occasionally make cookies with Aunt Eunju.

The iron wall she had firmly built around her heart would loosen just a little during those moments.

The kitchen filled with the gentle, nutty sweetness of freshly baked cookies.

The soft, pliable texture of the dough beneath her hands.

Aunt Eunju whispered stories about her mother.

She loved those moments.

‘Because they were the only times.’

After her mother passed away, Aunt Eunju was the only person who ever talked about her mother in front of Baek Seol.

Even then, she usually avoided bringing her up because she was afraid it would hurt Baek Seol. But whenever they made cookies, she would gently bring up those stories in a warm voice.

‘Your mother was an amazing person. She was strong and beautiful. Seol, you look exactly like your mother.’

Those moments continued from time to time until Baek Seol became an adult, but they came to an end when she moved out on her own.

Even so, she still remembered them vividly.

The stories Aunt Eunju had told her, and the cookie recipe her mother and Aunt Eunju had shared.

Baek Seol began measuring out the ingredients.

In other words, this was also her mother’s recipe.

‘A lot more sugar here…….’

She added several times more sugar than the original recipe called for and kneaded the dough thoroughly.

“It’s here, ppi. The water from boiling the mandragora thoroughly, ppi.”

The fact that Lucy had processed the mandragora without being asked seemed to mean that he had decided it was too much for Baek Seol to handle herself.

Baek Seol stared at the small bottle Lucy held in his beak.

Inside the little bottle, a purple liquid gently sloshed.

“Thanks, Lucy.”

“Heh. Think nothing of it, ppi.”

Baek Seol casually ignored Lucy’s shoulders shooting sky-high with pride and continued baking.

She slowly poured the water extracted from the mandragora into the prepared dough, adjusting the consistency as she went.

“Good. Now I just need to shape them……”

With practiced hands, Baek Seol pressed the cookie cutters into the dough one by one, creating their shapes.

Lucy, who had been watching her work from beside her, spoke with a slightly surprised tone.

“You said you’d never made anything like bread before, ppi. But now that I see you, you can make things pretty well even without a skill, ppi.”

“It’s true that I’ve never made bread before. Cookies aren’t bread, are they?”

“Hmmm……”

When she selected a recipe using the Baking skill, her body moved automatically, meaning she could rely on the skill even if she didn’t actually know how to make bread.

But apparently, Recipe Creation required her to do everything herself, from measuring the ingredients to putting the dough into the oven.

“All right. Now they go into the oven.”

Baek Seol carefully placed the shaped cookies into the oven.

This should be about the right amount of time.

“Recipe Creation definitely doesn’t shorten the time.”

Baek Seol muttered as she set the timer on the oven.

When she selected a recipe, all the time required for things like dough fermentation and baking was shortened.

Creation didn’t have any of that.

“It’s Recipe Creation, after all, ppi. But once you successfully complete a recipe, you’ll be able to select that recipe and make it quickly from then on, ppi.”

“Really? Then that’s a relief……”

It had been a long time since she had made cookies herself, so she was worried about whether she had gotten the proportions right.

Especially since she had added ingredients she normally never used……

“I should wash up while I wait for the cookies to finish. I think my clothes got stained green after rolling around on the grass earlier.”

Baek Seol interlaced her fingers and stretched both arms high above her head.

She went upstairs, took a shower, and when she returned to the kitchen, the cookies were already finished.

With a slight flutter of nerves, she opened the oven.

<System: Recipe Creation complete! You have discovered a new recipe.>

A new recipe.

Baek Seol took the baking tray out of the oven and placed it on the kitchen table.

The sweet scent of freshly baked cookies reached her nose.

“They smell delicious……”

The cookies smelled much sweeter than the ones she used to make with Aunt Eunju, but they were still cookies.

Baek Seol picked one up and checked its information.

[Memory-Infused Enhanced Sugar Cookie]

Description: A cookie packed with sugar. Sweet.

Race Compatibility: Black Rabbit ◎, Black Elephant ◎, Human ◎◎

(Humans should exercise caution when consuming this product due to its highly addictive nature. Withdrawal symptoms may occur in the event of addiction.)

Effect upon Consumption: Sugar. It only fills you with sugar.

She understood that this was an incredibly sweet sugar cookie, but what were those adjectives attached to the front of its name?

When Baek Seol placed her hand over that section, additional information appeared.

When special experiences and ingredients are added during Recipe Creation, modifiers are attached to the recipe.

-Memory-Infused: Warm memories are infused into the recipe, giving it a deeper flavor.

-Enhanced: The effects of the mandragora enhance its sweetness.

So modifiers were added when she created a recipe through Recipe Creation.

Baek Seol nodded as she learned something new.

“Oh. Is it finished, ppi? Let me have a taste, ppi!”

“Not a chance. No. Do you know how hard it was to catch that mandragora? I’m selling these exclusively to customers.”

Baek Seol firmly blocked Lucy’s beak as he eagerly poked it toward the cookies, then carried them over to the display shelves.

There were only two display shelves.

Should she remove the red bean buns first?

‘Tomorrow is Sunday…… Normally, that would be my day off. I guess I’ll have to open it temporarily.’

The Black Rabbit would need the bakery door to be open if it wanted to visit, so Baek Seol thought it would be better not to take the day off tomorrow.

She moved the red bean buns from the display shelf into her inventory and arranged the sugar cookies instead.

The purple sugar embedded in the surface of the cookies sparkled.

Baek Seol smiled brightly, satisfied with her productive day, and went to sleep.

***

“……Why isn’t it coming?”

The next day.

Baek Seol was sprawled across the table as she muttered to herself.

She glanced at the clock.

The small hand was already pointing at eight.

It wasn’t eight in the morning.

It was eight at night.

“Maybe it’s busy, ppi.”

“Hmmmm. My gut is telling me that’s absolutely not the reason.”

Baek Seol pressed her cheek against the table, her expression uneasy.

For some reason, the scene she had witnessed yesterday kept replaying in her mind.

‘It fought its own kind to save the elephant.’

Hmmm.

Even though it had obviously been going to lose.

Baek Seol gnawed lightly on her lip before suddenly asking Lucy,

“By the way, Lucy. Do you know much about Black Rabbits and Black Elephants?”

“Heh. Of course I do, ppi. As I told you before, the Dungeon of Beginnings is the place where □□□□□ first arranged things in this world, ppi. I came here with him back then, too, ppi. All the monsters inside the Dungeon of Beginnings are practically within the grasp of my hand, ppi.”

Baek Seol lifted her cheek from the table, her eyes shining.

“Then tell me about Black Rabbits and Black Elephants. I know they both like sugarcane…… So I guess that’s why they don’t get along, right?”

Judging from the way the Black Rabbits had been bullying the Black Elephant yesterday……

Lucy answered firmly.

“No, ppi. Black Rabbits and Black Elephants normally get along well, ppi.”

“Huh? They get along?”

“Yes, ppi. Although they were rivals because they had similar diets, the two species cooperated and lived in symbiosis, ppi. They were among the weaker monsters in the dungeon, ppi.”

They had gotten along all along?

That was unexpected.

‘Then the Black Rabbit that came to the bakery protecting the Black Elephant…… That was actually normal?’

And the other Black Rabbits were the strange ones?

Baek Seol blinked.

Lucy continued.

“Black Rabbits have excellent senses, so they can detect predators quickly, ppi. Black Elephants can freely extend their trunks, so by working together, they could keep watch for predators while easily obtaining their staple food, sugarcane, ppi.”

“Hmm…… But then why……”

“Why were they fighting, ppi?”

Lucy toddled over until he was standing right in front of Baek Seol.

His black eyes had grown deeper.

“I don’t know, ppi. I’m not sure about that……”

A scene suddenly flashed through Baek Seol’s mind.

The sugarcane field she had seen yesterday.

It had been withering.

Baek Seol suddenly spoke.

“Could it be because of the Dungeon Sugarcane?”

“Ppi?”

Baek Seol continued.

“Yesterday, it looked like the Dungeon Sugarcane field was disappearing. It was withering just like the other dungeon plants.”

She hadn’t spent that much time in the dungeon so far, but aside from the grassland around the Yggdrasil, she had seen all the plants withering away.

Lucy nodded as if he finally understood.

“……Then, just like with the slime race, it seems the dungeon’s isolation caused a problem with the sugarcane, ppi. Their staple food has been decreasing, so it looks like conflict arose between the two species, ppi.”

Lucy continued.

“Black Rabbits reproduce quickly, so their numbers increase rapidly, ppi. Black Elephants, on the other hand, are the opposite, ppi.”

As their food supply decreased, conflict must have arisen between the two species.

The Black Rabbits, which were relatively more numerous, had begun to pressure the Black Elephants.

That seemed to be the situation, in a nutshell.

Baek Seol tilted her head.

“Then what about the Black Rabbit that came here? It was protecting the Black Elephant.”

“……I don’t know about that either, ppi. Among Black Rabbits, who prioritize their own kind above all else, it would practically be considered a mutant, ppi. Even if the Black Rabbits, who have such a strong sense of kinship, tolerate it at first…… if it keeps happening, that Black Rabbit will be in danger too, ppi.”

“……”

Right.

That Black Rabbit had been attacked by its own kind, too.

Had its injured leg been caused by them as well……?

Baek Seol, having sorted things out a little, folded her arms and leaned back in her chair.

She didn’t know why that Black Rabbit was helping the Black Elephants instead of its own kind, but if things continued like this, it seemed like the rabbit itself might end up in trouble.

‘There has to be some way I can help…….’

Lost in thought, Baek Seol suddenly startled.

Help?

Help a monster?

What was she even thinking?

She wasn’t some antihero from a movie.

Besides, what power did she have to help them?

Maybe if she were a number-one-ranked Hunter like Seo Doha, but otherwise……

Even as those thoughts passed through her mind, she couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling.

Ugh.

Baek Seol roughly messed up her hair.

‘The quest. I should just deal with the quest.’

What mattered right now wasn’t the Black Rabbit’s safety.

It was the quest.

Repeating this to herself like a mantra, Baek Seol opened the quest window.

And her eyes went round at the screen that appeared.

“Huh? What’s wrong with this?”

“What is it, ppi?”

“The quest window……”

The quest window, which should have been boldly displaying its presence in dark, prominent letters, had become noticeably faint.

Quest: The Injured Black Rabbit’s Earnest Request

Oh my! A Black Rabbit has appeared. Oh dear. It seems to be limping on one leg. Is it injured? How unfortunate. The Black Rabbit is making a sorrowful plea.

Black Rabbit: Give me something sweet.

Oh, how pitiful. Please listen to the Black Rabbit’s heartfelt and earnest request that touches the heart! Develop and sell a menu item that will satisfy the Black Rabbit!

Condition: Black Rabbit’s Satisfaction

Reward: Dungeon Bakery Owner Lv. up!

**Acquire 10,000P**

Upon Failure: Black Rabbit’s Revenge

The quest window was even blinking as if it were about to disappear.

Baek Seol shot to her feet.

The quest was disappearing.

And that meant……

“Why is the quest disappearing, Lucy?”

“……If the subject of a quest disappears, the quest disappears as well, ppi.”

“I knew it. It must be because of that, right?”

At Lucy’s serious answer, Baek Seol immediately grabbed her bag.