SSS-Grade Cafe in Front of The Dungeon

‘Is Ash sleeping?’

“Waeong (Nope).”

‘What?’

The clock has already struck midnight. It’s late, and the city is in chaos because of the monster branches. Where did he go at this time?

“Nyaaaa (He saw the news earlier and ran out. He told us not to worry about him)!”

There’s no way I wouldn’t be worried about him. I immediately call him, but he doesn’t answer.

He has been going somewhere for the last few days, I wonder if he went there? I hope he’s somewhere safe … I tucked away the nagging worry. It made me nervous, but there’s got to be a reason.

Anyway, I had to do what I had to do.

“Wait here for a moment.”

The space was gated, allowing only me to enter and exit. I told them to wait and headed into the dimension.

Unexpectedly, Mieum and Lime followed me instead of asking the two to play.

“Waeoolg (The atmosphere is burdensome)!”

“Kkyuu! Kkyuu!”

Beside her, Lime enthusiastically agreed with Mieum.

Hmm …. I guess they didn’t want to be between Ki Yoohyun and Choi Yichan.

Within this space, I was greeted by the branches of the real World Tree, Yggdrasil, not the dangerous monster branches. I headed to the place where I planted the seeds given to me by Lee Chorok. Near the field where the dungeon sugarcanes were planted, the seeds still hadn’t sprouted.

‘Shhhh. Shhhh. Shush. Shhhh.’

Next to it, the tooth carrot made a strange noise and glared its teeth. It’s quite a bizarre sight, this carrot, which I’ve only just planted without any additional care, is so full of life.

Maybe the tooth carrot sucked all the nutrients out of the ginger seeds and that’s why the ginger didn’t sprout. I have no proof, but that’s what I thought when I saw that fresh carrot.

I took out the Mandragora Dungeon Ginger nutritional supplement from my inventory.

‘Please, it has to work.’

The nutrient was a viscous, greenish liquid. I scooped it up with a spoon and sprinkled it on the field, and the response was immediate

“……! Look, it’s sprouting!”

Almost simultaneously with the green leaves emerging, a status window that had not been visible until now appeared.

[Item: Mandragora Dungeon Ginger (★★☆☆☆)

Type: Plant

It has a spicy taste that will make your eyes light up.

Status: Growing

Time remaining until growth: 00:10:00]

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Done. It was correctly named ginger.

It took 10 minutes for the ginger to grow all the way through. As I watched the stem of the ginger grow upwards, I spoke to Mieum.

“Mieum-ah, do you know anything about the Sephirot Branch of the False World?”

“I know, waeong!”

“…uh, really?”

I asked without any expectations, but surprisingly the answer came back saying that she knew about it. No matter what I asked her, she always said she didn’t know, so I thought she wouldn’t know this time either.

“Kyaooong! How do you see me!”

Mieum raised her front paws with a flick of her tail and explained, “That is, of course, a branch of the Sephiroth tree from the False World.”

“……A false world?”

“It refers to a world that is now long gone. The Sephiroth Tree was the world tree that supported that world.”

It’s a world tree, but it’s the world tree of a lost world, not this world? So does that mean there are other worlds besides this one? Well, I’ve seen a lot of such settings in fantasy novels, but … it doesn’t quite ring true.

Umh…..

Then again, I’m the kind of person who gets confused by long worldbuilding explanations, so it would be nice if new concepts were introduced one at a time.

“Human, it has nothing to do with you … waeong.”

Mieum finished with a reluctant tone. Something’s fishy, but she won’t tell me more.

If she doesn’t want to tell me, that’s fine. I’m going to grab my ginger and go kill that monster branch any minute now, so I can figure it out for myself.

But….

“Will this ginger really work?”

I muttered to myself in anxiety. After all, this ginger looks like just a ginger, compared to the monster branch’s epic name.

“Waeeong … don’t be anxious. The Sephiroth branch feeds on dreaming souls. On the contrary, Mandragora Dungeon Ginger can wake up any dream. It works.”

Really?”

“You are the only Awakened who can make buff coffee. With your powers, you could save people, meow!”

“Kkyuu! Kkyuu!”

Mieum cheered me on with an earnest tone, and beside her, Lime chimed in. Somehow, the sight of them made my anxiety melt away like snow.

“……Yes.”

Haha, these animals have a way of comforting me.

[Item: Mandragora Dungeon Ginger (★★☆☆☆)

Type: Plant

It has a spicy taste that will make your eyes light up.

Status: Growing Well.]

Just then, all the ginger has fully grown. I grabbed the stem and pulled the ginger straight out.

“Oh, this, it looks like a really ordinary ginger … ugh.”

I held the freshly plucked stalk of ginger and gulped. The root was shaped like a human. The hollow parts reminded me of eyes, nose, and mouth. In other words, it looked pretty creepy. I’m thankful it didn’t scream or move.

The problem is that I only have two ginger plants. I need to save 999 people, and two is ridiculously insufficient.

What can I do? I’ve planted all the seeds I received from Lee Chorok before. Can I increase the amount with these two?

“Kkyuu! Kkyuuuu! Kkyu!”

Lime cried wildly as if they had something to say. I pulled out my slime language translator and tried to translate their words.

‘1+1=3’

Huh?

“Kkyuu! Kkyuuu!”

‘1+1=3!’

…what?

Limey bounced back and forth in frustration, but I couldn’t figure out what they meant.

Mieum sighed next to her and explained Lime’s words, “Cut a little root from each of the two trees and plant them together, waeoong.”

“But why do I have to put in two pieces of ginger?”

Wasn’t the original seed supposed to be planted in just one?

“You can’t produce offspring by yourself, waeoong!”

“Eh…..”

I didn’t really want to know that much.

“……like this?”

I cut off the end of the human-shaped ginger, just as Mieum said. I planted the two slices together, sprayed them generously with nutrients, and soon got a response.

“That’s it……!”

A new mandragora ginger grew.

After that, it was a repeat of the same process. I planted two pieces of ginger, then another, and another, and it wasn’t long before the field was filled with ginger. Now, this would be enough to feed a thousand people.

[System information is updated as the causality is met.]

[You have acquired the new recipe ‘Ginger Ale’.]

Once the ginger grew sufficiently, the system was updated. Great, now we just need to make the recipe.

I returned to the shop with a basket full of ginger and was greeted by Ki Yoohyun and Choi Yichan. I poured my harvest onto the table. It’s a mountain of ginger.

“I’ll help you.”

“Oh, me too! I’ll do it!”

Two people offered to help and started to peel the ginger with knives, but I stopped them. They didn’t need to.

Ginger ale is a carbonated drink made with ginger. If you grate the ginger and then boil it with sugar to make a syrup, it would be perfectly flavoured … but I’m in the middle of an urgent quest. I don’t have time to make something so leisurely.

Luckily, I have a skill for that. You have to use the skills you are told to use.

‘The Barista’s Extraction.’

[The Barista’s Extraction (D)

Details: (Lv.2) Extract only the desired substance from the mixed substances.]

I used this skill to extract ginger juice.

Jurrrr. As the thick ginger juice was extracted, a pungent smell spread through the shop.

“Kyaooolg!”

“Kkyuu!”

The animals that didn’t like strong smells cried out and ran away from the table. This smell is definitely very strong. Even if I put just a little bit into the drink, it would still smell like ginger.

With the ginger juice safely made, the rest of the process was simple. I added the ginger juice and sugar syrup to a cup, added ice and sparkling water, and mixed well. As soon as I finished the drink, a status window popped up.

[Item: Ginger Ale (★★★★☆)

Status: Good (Time Remaining: 01:00:00)

Effect: It makes your eyes light up.]

The drink was golden with bubbling carbonation. I tasted it only slightly to see if it worked properly.

“…euk, cough, cough!”

“Rieul-ssi, are you okay?”

“Are you okay? Is there something wrong with that ginger?”

Seeing me coughing with tears in my eyes, two people rushed over. I shook my head to indicate that I was fine and took another sip. The inside of my mouth tingled.

The effect of the ginger ale was exactly what the status window said it would be. The taste was intense enough to bring tears to my eyes. It was already closer to dawn than night, and I suddenly came to my senses, my head dazed from tension and fatigue.

A taste like this would definitely wake anyone up from their sleep.

“That’s it, we got this drink!”

The only thing left to do was to mass-produce this ginger ale, but I don’t have time to make a batch. I extracted the juice from most of the ginger I harvested and put it in a large container. I added sugar syrup, sparkling water, and ice to match the amount of ginger juice, and whipped it up with a ladle.

It’s pretty rough, but it worked.

[Item: Ginger Ale Large Capacity (★★★★☆)

Status: Good (Time Remaining: 01:00:00)

Effect: It makes your eyes light up.

Note: This is a large batch, so many people can drink it.]

Because the status window appeared properly.

A considerable amount of time passed while I was growing the Mandragora ginger and making ginger ale. The season we’re in now was winter with short days. It’s still dark, but soon the eastern sky will lighten.

I put the container of ginger ale into my inventory and stood up.

“Let’s go. It’s time to wake up the people who have become trees.”

We decided to go straight to the monster branches, using the movement scroll. Just before tearing the scroll, I spoke to my house animals.

“I’ll be back soon, so take care of the store.”

“Kkyuuu!”

Lime answered quickly, but Mieum just looked up at me without saying a word.

“….Mieum?”

“Beware of the malicious King of Curses, he is … dangerous.”

With Mieum’s last words, the movement scroll was activated and my vision faded away.

***

“Oh, Rieul-ssi! Rieul-ssi is here….”

A giant silver tree emitted an unearthly light into the night sky. The place we arrived was in front of the warehouse of Super Buff Coffee, the store branch located in Guild Jungang-dong, where we first discovered the monster tree branch. Kwon Jiwoon and Ju Noeul, who were at the scene, saw us and stopped moving.

“Stay back! Don’t cross the safety line!”

“No drones. Hey! Hey, we told you that flying drones aren’t allowed! Catch them!”

“Hello, viewers. I’m reporter Choi Sera from Hunter TV. Now…….”

It was dawn, but the site was in an uproar. Hunters, government officials, and the media … all sorts of people were gathered around the giant silver tree.

Translator’s Corner:

I’ve been thinking about it since 100 chapters ago … but using ‘It’ for Lime really makes the sentence became awkward… from now on I will change Lime’s pronoun to “they/them” (better late than never)