Dungeon bakery

Chapter 7

“Upload Suggestion”

Baek Seol uploaded the suggestion she had worked so hard on, then stretched her arms.

Since it was her first time using a skill to write a suggestion, she had put way more effort into it than she expected. Her body felt stiff after sitting for so long.

She stood up and rolled her shoulders around. Then she stared at the suggestion board, which was still open.

New Suggestion~♡

The board had been completely empty before, but now there was exactly one post on it—hers.

“Why can’t I change the title…?”

Baek Seol was a little annoyed.

Wasn’t this just like the refund board on an online shopping site?

There had once been a turtleneck she’d bought after seeing a picture and thinking it was so pretty that she decided to splurge on it. But when it actually arrived, it was way too small. It was practically small enough to be used as a scarf.

She had wanted to write a review exposing the shopping site’s terrible behavior to everyone, but…

The post automatically became private, and the title was fixed as ‘I’d Like a Refund~♡’.

It was obvious they were trying to hide their embarrassing side from other customers, and the memory still left a bad taste in her mouth.

Just as Baek Seol was staring at the board with that uneasy feeling—

“Huff, huff…!”

The door connected to the dungeon suddenly burst open, and Lucy flapped inside.

There was a large leaf in Lucy’s beak, clearly something she had brought back from the dungeon. The leaf was huge, and it looked like Lucy had wrapped something inside it like a little bundle before carrying it back.

“Oh, you’re back already?”

Wow. I guess it really was easy to find.

Thinking she had definitely made the right choice sending Lucy, Baek Seol quickly poured a glass of water and brought it over.

“You worked hard, Lucy. Here, have some water.”

“Peep…”

The moment Lucy entered the bakery, she dropped the bundle on the floor, climbed onto the table, and sprawled out flat.

Then Lucy glared at Baek Seol with a deeply offended look.

“A supporter is supposed to relax and play around while their owner works. That’s how it’s supposed to be…”

“Who says that?”

“Everyone knows that! It’s basic common sense!”

Baek Seol scratched her cheek.

“Oh. Sorry. I guess I’m a little lacking in common sense.”

“Piiick…!”

She had apologized, so why was Lucy getting even more worked up?

Baek Seol stared blankly at Lucy, who was still lying across the table and kicking her little feet.

“So… is this the fruit of the baby Yggdrasil?”

“That’s right…”

Lucy’s voice sounded strangely empty as she answered, clearly losing all her energy when Baek Seol showed so little reaction.

Oh. So this is the ingredient for the bread?

Baek Seol rolled up her sleeves and quickly untied the bundle.

As she unfolded the leaf layer by layer, a thought suddenly crossed her mind.

So there are trees in the dungeon…

The leaf was wide and long, almost like a banana leaf. It looked incredibly fresh, as if it had just been picked.

But it was definitely a leaf that didn’t exist on Earth.

Strange patterns she had never seen before covered its entire surface.

“That’s an Yggdrasil leaf. Yggdrasil grows its children by spreading them throughout each world. Those are the baby Yggdrasils. And only the fruit grown by those baby Yggdrasils can serve as the flour used to make bread.”

Lucy cleared his throat proudly before rattling off all that information.

Honestly, Baek Seol wasn’t particularly interested.

“Ohhh. I see.”

She nodded absentmindedly and continued unfolding the leaf.

Soon, the fruits Lucy had gathered were revealed.

They were apricot-colored, about the size of Baek Seol’s fingernail, and there were quite a lot of them.

So these are turned into powder?

Hmm. So…

“…How exactly am I supposed to turn these into powder?”

The freshly picked fruits looked almost too fresh.

Baek Seol couldn’t imagine how she was supposed to turn them into powder.

“If the fruits are separated from Yggdrasil for about an hour, they naturally turn into powder. Why don’t we buy the rest of the ingredients from the Underground Shop while we wait?”

Lucy sounded strangely exhausted as he spoke.

Oh. The Underground Shop.

Come to think of it, she had been told that getting the ingredients would automatically unlock the Underground Shop.

And new recipes too.

Feeling a little excited, Baek Seol held the fruits and put them into her inventory.

This should work, right…?

Apparently, she was right.

A window immediately appeared.

<System: The ‘First Ingredient Obtained’ condition has been met. The Underground Shop has been unlocked.>

<System: The ‘First Ingredient Obtained’ condition has been met. A new recipe has been unlocked.>

Yes!

Looking pleased, Baek Seol opened the recipe first.

<New Recipe Acquired

New! Moist White Bread

The basic and most fundamental bread of a bakery. Extremely moist.

Species Compatibility: Slime ◎, ???

Effect: Makes the body moist.**

So this is the bread slimes like.

Baek Seol lowered her eyes and checked the ingredients for the moist white bread.

<Required Ingredients: Baby Yggdrasil Fruit Powder, Dungeon Sugar, Dungeon Salt, Dungeon Fresh Yeast, Butter Made from the Milk of a Rainbow Unicorn, Water>

Wait.

Dungeon sugar and salt, fresh yeast…

And a Rainbow Unicorn…?

“Why are there so many ingredients…?”

“That’s just how baking works.”

Baek Seol had never been interested in baking or cooking at all.

Seeing such a ridiculously long list of ingredients already gave her a headache.

Can I even buy all of these from the Underground Shop…?

Apparently, she had been worrying for nothing.

Baek Seol opened the newly unlocked Underground Shop tab and looked through the list of items for sale.

She slowly closed her mouth.

There are… so many…

The shop was packed with ingredients she had never seen in her life.

But fitting for a place called the Underground Shop, the prices were absolutely ridiculous.

“Wait. Dungeon sugar is 1,000 points for one bag?!”

The bag didn’t even look bigger than her fist.

The dungeon salt and fresh yeast were the same.

Actually, those were among the cheaper items.

“Gasp. This little piece of butter is 2,000 points…?”

Isn’t that way too expensive?!

While Baek Seol stared at the prices with wide eyes, Lucy plopped down onto the table and grumbled.

“Of course it’s expensive. You’re getting ingredients without having to gather them yourself. There’ll probably be a limit on how many you can buy too.”

“Ugh. You’re right.”

Just as Lucy had said, every ingredient had a purchase limit of two.

And judging by the timer underneath the shop—

‘6 days 23 hours 55 minutes…’

—the limit seemed to reset once every week.

I guess I have to buy them.

Baek Seol had exactly 10,000 points left from completing the quest.

And she had already spent around 4,000 points decorating the bakery.

If I buy these, I’ll have nothing left.

Can’t I just… not buy them?

Baek Seol glanced at Lucy.

As if he had somehow understood what she was thinking, Lucy quickly backed away.

“You can’t get those ingredients yourself. They’re not something I can gather.”

“…Hmm.”

His voice was unusually serious and determined.

If Lucy was saying it that firmly, those ingredients really must be difficult to obtain.

Ugh. Guess I have no choice.

I’ll earn money once I complete quests, anyway…

It felt like she was spending more than she was earning, but she had to continue the quest for now.

It wasn’t just about the money.

For some reason, the disappointed look on the slime’s face kept lingering in her mind.

Without any more hesitation, Baek Seol bought the ingredients.

Chrrrk.

She heard the sound of her points disappearing as the ingredients piled up in her inventory.

“Okay. Now I just have to wait until the baby Yggdrasil fruits turn into powder…”

Exactly one hour later, just as Lucy had said, the fruits turned into powder.

Baek Seol stared at the apricot-colored powder that had once been fruit in her inventory, then headed into the kitchen.

She had all the ingredients now.

It was time to try the Baking skill.

“Baking.”

Perhaps because she had a recipe this time, a different system window appeared.

<System: Using the Baking skill. The ‘Moist White Bread’ recipe has been automatically selected.>

<System: Required ingredients will be consumed.>

Then Baek Seol’s hands, which had never baked anything in their life, suddenly began moving on their own.

She mixed the fruit powder with water, added the dungeon sugar, salt, fresh yeast, and butter in the proper amounts, and began kneading the dough.

Her hands moved so fast that they were almost impossible to see.

Whoa… I’m already done kneading it.

So now I just let it rise?

While waiting for Lucy, Baek Seol had searched online for how baking worked on her smartphone.

She knew that proofing came after kneading.

But her hands didn’t stop after the dough was finished.

An orange light began glowing from her hands as they hovered over the dough.

The dough slowly started to rise.

Can it even proof the dough automatically?

As if confirming her thoughts, her hands began punching the risen dough to release the air, then divided it into three equal pieces.

After that, they pulled a bread pan from a drawer—Baek Seol had no idea when it had even been put there—and neatly placed the dough inside.

Then the pan went straight into an oven that seemed to have already been preheated.

The whole process had taken less than five minutes.

Is the skill done now?

Do I have to wait until the bread finishes baking?

As if laughing at her thoughts, the oven immediately went—

Ding!

Huh?

Her hands moved automatically again.

She carefully opened the oven and took out the bread.

Then they brushed a little of the remaining butter over the top, sliced the bread into easy-to-eat pieces with a bread knife, and finally stopped.

“……”

The warm, buttery smell of freshly baked bread drifted past her nose.

This Baking skill is seriously amazing…

It made bread in no time at all!

“Hmph. It’s still too early to be surprised by something like that. There are plenty more things that’ll surprise you…”

For some reason, Lucy seemed to be standing far away with his shoulders raised proudly.

But Baek Seol was too amazed to pay any attention to him.

The delicious smell filled the bakery and began slipping out through the cracks of the brown door.

And as if it had smelled the bread from outside—

Jingle!

The brown door opened.

“Kkyu!”

Baek Seol hurried outside with the bread in her hands.

There was the pink slime that had left earlier with such a disappointed look on its face.

The slime was bouncing around excitedly.

Can I sell this now?

Baek Seol quickly moved the red bean buns from the display shelf into her inventory and placed the fresh bread on display.

The slime immediately bounced toward the display at lightning speed.

“Kkyuu!”

The moment Baek Seol thought she saw its tiny black eyes sparkle, the slime jumped and snatched the bread.

The still-steaming loaf instantly disappeared into the slime’s body and began melting away.

Gulp.

A satisfaction bar slowly appeared above the slime.

Baek Seol watched it anxiously.

At that same moment, a new post appeared on Another.

[Title: Guys. Did you see the post on the suggestion board?]
[Writer: Noble Hunter]

Hey guys. Remember the post I made before? I said that a separate suggestion board had appeared.

Well, someone posted on it.

Who wrote it? And there’s even a reply.

I tried to read it, but it just says, ‘This is a private post,’ so I can’t see anything.

Anyone know who wrote it? Please share.

—Comments:

AfricaYouth: That’s not important right now.

Noble Hunter: Huh?

AfricaYouth: You don’t know? The system window design changed. All the hunters are going crazy over it.

Noble Hunter: What do you mean the design changed?

AfricaYouth: I mean the system window that appears for every Awakened has changed!

EggWithNoFace: Honestly, the old system window looked awful. The new one is so much better.

InsuranceOfSinbad: Yeah. The old system window was seriously annoying. Didn’t everyone think so? No idea why it suddenly changed, but I’m not complaining. LOL.

Noble Hunter: Holy crap…

The satisfaction bar continued slowly rising.

Then, all of a sudden, a system window appeared.

<System: A reply has been posted on the suggestion board.>

Oh. There’s already a reply?

It had only been a little over ten minutes.

But right now, Baek Seol cared much more about the slime’s satisfaction than the reply.

So she only skimmed the next system window that appeared.

<System: Your suggestion has been accepted. The system will be modified. The system design will be changed.>

Baek Seol stared at the satisfaction bar above the slime’s head.

A few hours ago, it had stopped at around 70%.

But this time, it kept rising.