Too Stubborn to Die

With their objectives completed, and a map marker pointing them in the way they needed to go, it didn’t take them long to rush down to the lower floor where the exit was.

Crashing through the heavy doors that sealed off the room, Aaron led the group inside. But they barely made it a few steps in before skidding to a halt. Even Zero didn’t want to rush in.

Because unlike everywhere else in the trash world, this room not only had a portal leading to the next floor. But it was completely shrouded in vibrant vegetation. Green and purple vines covered everything, and blooming flowers with large, melon-sized, and very colorful fruits lined them.

Trash Melon [ Legendary - D grade ]

You thought durian smelled bad? That’s the amateur league in the multiverse. These melons that are found in the depths of trash dimensions contain one of the most rancid stenches in the entire multiverse. And as such, they are particularly sought after by swamp things as cologne ingredients. However, they are also a delicacy for many races. Those who can stomach the smell claim that it is also one of the most delicious fruits found in existence.

“Would you look at that?” Aaron said, his smile growing wide as he walked forward. “That is a pretty fruit, isn’t it?”

“You’re not… no, of course you are,” Talia grimaced as she watched him start to pick them. “How can you even walk in there? Well, at least you can clear them out for us,” she added, squeezing her nose.

“They’re dreadful,” Soohyun choked. “And they’re not even cut open yet. I can only imagine how bad they smell inside.”

Zero whined low and then scuttled back out of the entrance, craning his head around the doorway.

Meanwhile, Aaron was happily prancing around as he stashed away the legendary fruits. What a score, he thought. If only he could take a break and cook for a while.

It had been a little while since he spent any time in the kitchen, and his disappointment must have been showing, as the moment Talia’s gaze caught his, she cleared her throat.

“I know that look on your face. And don’t even think about it. Let’s get moving.”

“What look? Is something wrong with him?” Soohyun said, raising an inquisitive brow as she examined unusually gleeful Aaron.

“He wants to cook those things. I can tell. And I don’t want to spend another second in this awful place.”

“Wait, that might not be a terrible idea,” Soohyun said thoughtfully.

“What? No way. Don’t tell me. You’re not on his side now, are you? This place is horrid. And I’ve already emptied my stomach more times than I can I care to count.”

“No,” Soohyun shook her head. “But we’ve got plenty of time, and I’ve been thinking about that little ant. If it really is the last survivor of the hive, shouldn’t we make sure that it is dead? And since the quest is already completed, and our path to the next floor is secured, why not? The time in this place is messed up. And we don’t seem to get to keep all of the time we save on the next floor anyway. So there’s no real benefit in rushing, is there? Not only that, but we can look for others.”

“Others?”

“Yeah. Think about it. This dungeon is where everyone in our region of the world will end up. At least those who enter the dungeon, and assuming they get through the first floor, that is. But that shouldn’t be too hard. Most people who reached the trials and got a token have spent the last three months leveling up, and should have hit D-grade.”

“You’re right. It shouldn’t have been too hard to hit D-grade for most. Even if they weren’t the absolute top talents.”

“Yep. If they make it here, they might not be that far from Dober, back on our world. And who knows, maybe we can talk to them? There might be other talents nearby that are homeless like myself.”

“Yeah, good point,” Talia nodded thoughtfully. “If we leave now, we might not see them on the next floor, depending on what happens. And drawing more talent to Dober is always a good idea. Even if all we do is tell them where we are, and invite them to visit.”

“Yep!” Soohyun nodded. “My thoughts exactly.”

“And I can cook up some delicious melons!” Aaron added from the other side of the room as he got done harvesting. “So, is that our plan, then? Settle down for a day or two and make sure we’re not leaving anything useful behind?”

“Yeah, but please stop salivating. You’re making me uncomfortable,” Talia said.

“Ah, yeah,” Soohyun said, flashing Aaron a split-second glance before returning her focus to Talia. “At least a couple of days. It can be longer if necessary.”

“Sounds good. So should we go looking for the little ant first?”

Soohyun shook her head. “Let’s hit up the chat. See if we can get a hold of anybody. If we can make a few allies, maybe we can get them to help us look for it.”

“Good idea.”

Aaron whipped out his portable kitchen and got inside. It was time to get cooking. It had been a while, and somehow he found a very peculiar zen within the bowls of the trash world, and he wanted to make use of it.

Kim Soohyun: Any humans in the chat?

Talia Rhineheart: We’re reaching out to people from Earth. If you’re here, send us a message. We’d love to meet up.

Timmothy Blake: Err, are you real?

Kim Soohyun: Real? What do you mean? Of course we are!

Timmothy Blake: You know, like you’re not a bot. Say Saigon!

Talia Rhineheart: Huh? What are you talking about?

Timmothy Blake: If you’re not a bot, say Saigon!

Kim Soohyun: Oookay… you’re a little weird, Timmothy.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Timmothy Blake: I knew it! You bots can’t fool me! Back to the drawing board.

Talia Rhineheart: You’re insane, you know that? Saigon! There, are you happy? I can say more words if you like?

Timmothy Blake: Wait, you’re real?

Kim Soohyun: Of course we are!

Timmothy Blake: I see. So maybe none of them were bots? This entire time, there really have been hot girls in my area wanting to hook up. I never did a thing about it… I’M SUCH AN IDIOT!

Talia Rhineheart: What?

Maria Białkowski: Hello. Sorry if I’m interrupting. But I would like to meet up.

Kim Soohyun: Hello Maria! You seem normal! And you’re not interrupting anything! Where are you?

Maria Białkowski: In a city. It is very strange. We were being attacked by these shapeshifting doppelgangers until recently. But then they just ran off into the tunnels.

Kim Soohyun: We?

Konrad Schneider: Hello! I’m here with Maria. Sorry, I was a little busy securing our perimeter. Yes, we would both like to meet up.

The chat was getting rather annoying, and so Aaron fiddled with the interface and disabled it for now. He had important cooking to do, and seeing them popping up and dinging all the time was getting in the way of priorities.

But before he could, there was one more thing he needed to do. He needed to select his new Skill. And it was a particularly welcome one. Since he wouldn’t have to give up an old Skill to make room for one.

Hokey Pokey [ Uncommon ] You put your right hand in, and… When activated, this Skill allows you to cancel a movement and be immediately reimbursed. For example, when planning to move your arm, you can cancel the movement and take two steps with your feet.

Touch of Death [ Elite ] A single touch is all it takes. When activated, this Skill can immediately kill with a single touch. However, it only works on targets at least two grades below the user, and does not work on divine targets.

Defensive Dance [ Epic ] Your style incorporates defense into its very foundation. Passively improves the user’s defensive stance. This naturally makes defensive techniques easier, alongside making defensive Skills quicker to activate, and slightly cheaper to use.

Pinpoint Accuracy [ Epic ] Miss? Ha, what a foolish concept. Passively provides the user with an accuracy overlay that plugs straight into the System overlay. This overlay can calculate and help enhance the user’s accuracy in combat.

Defier of the System [ Legendary ] System? What System? Passively provides a weak cloak over the user that can help them to defy the System’s minor rules. This Skill doesn’t necessarily make the user any more powerful, and will do nothing to shield them if they try to defy the true truths of the System. But it will allow them to break minor rules with fewer consequences.

Aaron tilted his head. They weren’t bad options; he even got a Legendary. However, there were some mediocre options, which made him think that the System wasn’t entirely impressed with his efforts. Then again, he figured it had something to do with the mismatch of enemies he had fought.

Between the assistants and Hegemony Blanc, he had pushed himself extraordinarily hard, and he was being rewarded for that. On the other hand, he had killed a lot of weak doppelgangers, and even the trash lord boss was beneath him, even if it had a higher level. Heck, even without his skill, the monster felt weaker stat-wise than he was. After all, almost twenty levels weren’t enough to make up for all his Titles. And in all likelihood, only high D-grades and elite D-grades probably had more stat points than him now.

“Hmm, so what do I take?”

He groaned the moment he read the first Skill description. It was both confusing and sounded very weak. But most of all, it sounded like a movement Skill, which was exactly what he had been going for.

“Seriously?”

Maybe the System really is annoyed with me.

Whether it was annoyed with him or not, it wasn’t overly important. He wasn’t taking a below-average movement Skill just because he wanted one. He’d just have to keep pushing for a new and better one. And so he moved on.

Touch of Death was out immediately. He only struggled to fight those much higher level than himself at this point, and so he saw no reason to take a Skill that would let him easily kill weaklings. In fact, it was a pretty weak Skill. But maybe if one were harvesting souls like a shinigami was supposed to, it would come in handy.

Defensive Dance was pretty good. Making his Skills cheaper to use would be nice, but it said only slightly. [ Wraith Phse ] sounded like it would get a boon from this Passive. But was it worth it?

A slight reduction in energy cost wasn’t going to make that much of a difference. The Skill was extraordinarily expensive when used for long periods. In truth, he doubted there was any practical way of using it other than what he was already doing. This made him skeptical of picking a Skill for the purpose of enhancing it slightly.

That left him with two remaining Skills. And it wasn’t too hard to see which one he preferred.

He really didn’t know why he needed to defy the System. Some quests could be annoying, but it hadn’t really done bad by him any harm. And he wasn’t a thief like Mr. Fake. Not only that, but the Skill didn’t even sound foolproof. Sure, it was Legendary, but that was about the only thing he thought it had going for it.

Pinpoint Accuracy, on the other hand, sounded pretty damn cool, as far as he was concerned. If the Skill worked as he imagined, it would give him some kind of computer overlay that calculated hit chance, and perhaps other things.

Ultimately, even if it were disappointing, he knew that it wouldn’t take that long to find a replacement. And he really wanted to test it out, as his curiosity was bubbling.

Humming to himself as he read over them again, he decided to go with his gut and purchase [ Pinpoint Accuracy ].

He couldn’t deny that he wanted to test the Skill out there and then. But there were no enemies around, and he wasn’t sure how long he had to cook. And it wasn’t just about wanting to cook. He had wasted quite a bit of his reserves down below when collecting the corruption seeds. And so he got to work.

Besides, there was always the next floor, and he was certain he would get plenty of time to play around with his new Skill down there.

Immediately, he got to work, using [ Foul Ichor ] to fill up some pots. Out of curiosity, he took the trash he had looted from the trash monster and squeezed out the trash juice into the stock before discarding it.

Then, he started dicing up Hegemony Blanc. It might have been a step too far had he still looked human-like. But thanks to the royal guard’s own Skill, he was now a shriveled-up grey thing. Almost like a dried mushroom. And Aaron didn’t feel uncomfortable in the slightest as he diced the ant up and threw it into the stock pot.

Then, he added the last remnants of herbs he managed to dig out of his storage.

It wasn’t the perfect stock, but it would do. After all, there were limitations when cooking in the dungeon.

On the side, he pulled out something he had been waiting to try. A sorbet machine.

There were all sorts of devices and machines that came with his kitchen, most of which he had yet to test out. And it brought on a smile every time he got to play around with a new one.

And he could think of no better candidate for a delightfully light, refreshing, and not overly sweet sorbet than his new melon.

Inhaling, he took it all in, and a madness came over him as he mixed flavors that most couldn’t imagine being paired together. But this was Aaron. He wasn’t just stubborn, but a man on the frontier. Exploring new horizons of taste. And pushing the limits of culinary expertise to new heights that others couldn’t even begin to comprehend.

This was the accumulation of a mad and very stubborn man, with the formidable gut of an ogre, and it was something to admire, if not fear.

Experience rewarded for discovering a recipe!

Experience rewarded for discovering a recipe!

Delicate Ant Foie Gras Soup [ Legendary - D grade ]

The fatty liver of the evolved fire ant makes for a rich, buttery, but strangely smooth dish. It dances on the taste buds of the consumer, evoking emotions they might have never realized they possessed.

Provides: A healthy glow that radiates under the light, increases all Stats by 250, and potentially evokes forgotten childhood memories.

Aftereffects: Temporary madness and Stat weakness

Trash Melon Sorbet [ Legendary - D grade ]

This dish comes with an evocative and very foul scent, but the moment it touches one’s tongue, its light, freshening flavor makes them forget about everything, taking them on a journey of pure culinary ecstasy as they fly through the clouds of their own taste buds.

Provides: Trait: [ Lightness ], and cools and soothes all burning effects.

Aftereffects: Nil

Conditional: Requires the user to be able to stomach the stench of the Trash Melon.

Ding!

[ Ogre Gastronomist ] has LEVELED UP!

75 → 79

“Not bad,” Aaron smiled as he broke out of his daze, and wondered how long he had been out of it for.