Chapter 64

Honestly, this is a method I really don’t want to consider, but… just in case, let’s at least think it through.

“Melt Melt. Can I talk to you for a second about a ‘what if’?”

“Huh? What kind of talk?”

If I ignore all risks, this would be the most efficient method. But there’s a potential problem with it.

I explain that possibility to Melt.

“What if I became a cruel, inhuman monster—and couldn’t come back?”

“…Why are you asking something like that?”

“Because… if I took the shortest route to power, I might not be myself anymore.”

“No. Absolutely not. I would cry. If my family turned into something like that… I’d cry. I probably wouldn’t be able to stop you, couldn’t save you, and it would just hurt… and I’d cry.”

Yeah… rejected. No matter how fast it seems, the long way is still the better path.

“Got it. I won’t do it. I was already feeling like it was too dangerous.”

“Good. Please don’t. You’re all the family I have, Shizuma.”

“Sorry for bringing up something weird. I promise—I’ll never choose that path.”

Among all the characters I’ve ever played, there’s one who’s the strongest.

That character was so strong that the developers had to nerf the entire class.

As a result, that class ended up being totally outclassed in PvP by specific counter-classes, and even in most dungeons, it was heavily nerfed.

But in this world, those nerfs probably don’t apply.

With its broken skills, I could probably take over a whole country—alone, no exaggeration.

However… there’s a major downside.

In the original story, this class is evil and ends in the worst possible way.

In other words, it’s highly likely that the character comes with a personality that curses the world itself.

“Mmmm…”

“Shizuma, you’re thinking about something difficult again… Here, water.”

“Ah, thanks. Speaking of which, where does the water in this house come from? I mean, it comes from the faucet, but…”

“I think it’s groundwater. It tastes different, you know?”

“Whoa, really? I can’t taste the difference in water at all.”

“Hehe~ I care a lot about my water, you know?”

She’s honestly such a cute girl. The way she talks and acts—it’s so charming.

…Yeah. There’s no way I could let that kind of dangerous personality get close to a girl like her.

For the same reason, my second-strongest character is out of the question too.

Not evil—but definitely carrying a warped backstory.

In fact, the story for that class ends in a bad ending.

The character is forced to carry overwhelming responsibility, and in the end dies a tragic, unfair death… That’s the kind of background it has.

No doubt, the personality would be distorted. So—rejected.

“Here’s a refill.”

“Thanks. *glug glug*… Man, this water really is good. So cold too.”

“Maybe it’s because of the season? And groundwater tends to be cold, after all.”

“I see. That makes sense.”

Come to think of it, rural areas on Earth had houses like that too.

I lived in an apartment, so I never experienced it myself.

“Hmm… Melt, do you know anything about this country’s religion or beliefs?”

“Hmm? You mean like, what people believe in?”

“Yeah, exactly. This country—Lendia—its name kind of sounds like a religious state. I was wondering if there’s a prominent religion here.”

“Umm, I don’t know much about the country, but generally, people here worship the ‘Earth Mother Goddess’. The religion is called ‘Elkudism’.”

“Oh, right. I think I heard that name before.”

That fake ‘Elkud Commerce Guild’ from the last incident was involved, wasn’t it?

So Elkud was the actual name of the religion.

“There are also some minor tribes? They have their own small-scale religions. One I know is the ‘Flying Hamster Faith’.”

“There it is again… Flying hamsters…”

“Right? If flying is normal for them, they didn’t need to name the religion after it, you know?”

“…Huh?”

“Huh?”

Let’s… stop thinking too hard about that.

Anyway, so this world has religion, and the concept of belief is taken seriously.

That means… even my third-strongest character could be dangerous.

The third one is… violent and terrifying.

The setting alone is scary, and the character’s story is disturbing too.

And personality-wise—he’s basically a lunatic.

He’s not evil. If anything, he’s officially categorized as being “more good than bad”… but still, terrifying.

In terms of strength, this character is PvP’s strongest, top-tier single-target damage, and best at mob clearing.

Of course, he was also nerfed, but even so, in large-scale raids, this class was always included as the DPS lead.

Honestly, my strongest and second-strongest characters were more like situationally OP but now sealed due to nerfs.

Which is why—this third character is actually my most practically powerful one.

But… he’s violent and could have a bad influence on Melt.

To sum it up in one word, he’s a fanatic—at least according to the class’s lore.

“Alright. Melt, starting today, I’ll be switching to a different ‘form’ again. The one that’s good at cooking—I’ve shown you once before.”

“Ah, right! You showed me at the inn, didn’t you? What was the name again…”

“Seira. The appearance changes, but I’m still the same on the inside—like me and Same. So don’t worry, just be careful not to mix up the name.”

“Got it! So you’re good at cooking, huh… This house has a fancy kitchen, and there’s even an outdoor one, right? I’m looking forward to it!”

“Leave it to me! I’m excited too…”

This is the conclusion I reached:

I’ll inherit combat-use skills exclusive to crafting classes.

The MMO I played, ElderSea Online, had a fascinating system where combining jobs resulted in unique synergy skills—not just the usual “main and sub-job” combo.

However, there were strict rules and limitations.

Most notably:

Crafting jobs cannot be set as sub-jobs

If you set a combat job as a sub to a crafting job, you can’t learn the combat skills

In short: crafting classes can never be front-line fighters.

Of course, their base stats are low, and even though they can equip weapons via sub-classes, their performance is mediocre.

Still, the game had scenarios where combat was unavoidable.

That’s why exclusive skills were given to crafting jobs as a kind of safety net.

Many of these skills reflect the nature of the job—unique in effect, but incredibly powerful.

So powerful, in fact, that combat classes can’t use them.

But now… I can learn them—regardless of class.

“Can’t wait for your cooking~! I wonder what kinds of dishes you can make?”

“Probably just about anything. Wanna help me find a dish you’ll like?”

“Yay! I’m so excited! I wonder what we’ll get to eat!”

For example, the ‘Chef’ class has a unique skill called “Gourmet”.

Its effect is simple but broken: “Eating food grants regeneration and prevents stamina loss for a set time.”

Stamina governs movement speed in the field, skill cool downs, and even status debuffs.

The ability to not lose stamina… is completely overpowered.

And in the game, the effect lasted five real-world hours.

If the same holds true in this world…

Then I could train endlessly, without fatigue.

Even with my current low stats, I might be able to move and fight nonstop—just like Same and the others.

“Alright! Then I’m going to transform now!”

“O-Okay!”

And with that, I changed the character selection to Seira.

Suddenly, my vision was engulfed in light, and I could feel my height increasing.

My consciousness… was still my own. I could still think like myself.

“Phew… Alright, no problem.”

“Wow… You’re really tall after all.”

“Don’t say that while looking at my chest. Anyway, let’s try cooking something right away.”

Come to think of it, I’d never actually stood in the kitchen as Seira before.

At most, I’d just peeled an apple with a knife. Even that had inherited a “Cooking Lv1” skill.

When I was Same, just standing in the kitchen with that “Cooking Lv1” skill was enough for recipe ideas to pop into my head. So now, standing here as the fully mastered Seira—

“Ugh… ah…”

The moment I stood in front of the kitchen, my knees buckled and I collapsed.

A headache spread through my entire body.

“Shizu—Seira!?”

“Ugh…”

My brain was shaking. It was burning. My head… felt like it was going to split open.

Unknown, never-before-seen images were being forcibly crammed into my mind.

A whirlpool of knowledge was squeezing my head tight.

It was a flood of information far beyond what I’d experienced earlier—it made me feel nauseous.

“Seira… here, some water.”

“Thanks… Melt…”

Delicious. Cool, soft water.

Most likely groundwater—not from minerals, but from decayed leaves and abundant natural greenery flowing underground.

A high-quality water with even a faint sweetness. Since soft water is better for making broth, this quality is a big plus.

“Hm?”

“W-What? What’s wrong, Seira…?”

“No, it’s just… amazing… Knowledge about cooking is flooding into me like a waterfall…”

“O-Oh…?”

“Melt, what do you want to eat? Something light? Something greasy? Anything is fine.”

Right now, I’m… invincible!

This is incredible! I feel omnipotent! (Only about cooking, though!)

The amount of knowledge is insane. The developers definitely researched every dish in the game and their recipes in detail.

Even recipes that have nothing to do with the game—like viral online ones—are included.

I bet this includes knowledge the devs picked up from watching random videos during development.

“T-Then… Meat! Beef!”

“Ah, that’s right. Things got messy at the auction and we never got around to it. Let’s cook the meat I promised you.”

“Yay! Then let’s go buy some meat!”

“It’s getting dark, so today let’s use the ingredients I… I mean I already have.”

“Oh, right. Then we’ll go shopping tomorrow, okay?”

Honestly, it’s better to get used to ingredients from this world than to rely on the ones from the game.

If I’m going to live in this world from now on, it’s more important to get used to using, eating, and understanding the ingredients available here—rather than clinging to the game’s limited stock.

It’s a bit different in meaning, but kind of like the concept of “local production for local consumption.”

“For now, let’s get some beef out… There!”

A bright red chunk of beef materialized from my item box and landed on the cutting board with a thud.

It looked like a large section taken from the side and back of the cow. I’d never seen a piece this big in real life.

And yet, I somehow knew exactly how to butcher it.

“Wow! That meat is so fresh! Seira, does your magic tool have not just a spatial stone but also a time stone? That’s a crazy valuable item, you know?”

“Judging by the name, it’s probably a ‘stone that halts the flow of time,’ unlike the one that expands space?”

“No way! There’s no way something with such a mythical effect exists. It just stops changes in nearby objects, making it look like time has stopped. That’s why it’s called that.”

“Wait… Isn’t that basically the same as stopping time?”

“Nope. If the target is something that can move on its own, it doesn’t work. It can only preserve the state of inanimate things.”

“I see?”

Still, I think that’s impressive enough… So there are materials like that here too.

Well, to be fair, anything stored in the menu screen does seem like it’s frozen in time, but some items with expiration dates still age normally, so…

“Anyway, I’m going to cook this big hunk of beef!”

“Yay! I’m starving!”

Then I’d better not go with something that takes too long.

Cooking the whole chunk as-is would be cool, but this time… I’ll slice out the best part and make a simple steak.

Sirloin or tenderloin… which should I pick?

Might as well go with the best cut.

Tenderloin… especially the very center—soft, juicy, and the highest quality…

The one and only Chateaubriand. I’ll make a steak with that…!

As for the sauce, I want to go with the classic Madeira sauce.

But I can’t make the necessary fond de veau today.

In that case, I’ll just use the drippings and juices from cooking the Chateaubriand as a substitute.

The problem is the Madeira wine… but I’ll just use regular red wine for now.

“Amazing… Knowledge I shouldn’t even know is just pouring out of me.”

“R-Rather, how can you be cutting the meat so perfectly while lost in thought like that?”

“Huh? Ah… you’re right.”

Before I realized it, I had finished butchering the huge chunk of meat and extracted the precious Chateaubriand.

To think you can only get this little from such a massive cut…!

“Alright… time to grill this piece…!”

“O-Okay?”

And thus, the dish “Chateaubriand Steak with Madeira-style Sauce” was completed.

“I’m so glad…! I’m so glad we made it out of the dungeon alive…!”

“M-Melt… You don’t have to cry that hard…”

“B-But…! It’s just too delicious…!”

“Yeah… I get it.”

Thirty minutes later, you were drowning in your own tears.

Alright…! I’ve confirmed that I can bring Melt to the peak of happiness!

To ensure I can keep inheriting skills, I need to feed her delicious food every day from now on…!

I’m going to make Melt cry every single day from now on!
(That sounds absolutely horrible when written out!)

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