ARIFURETA: Cooking to be the Strongest?

"Gero!!"

A massive frog monster, swimming silently within a magma pool, erupted from the fiery depths, intent on devouring a human silhouette. With a crunch, the taste of blood met its tongue, but a strange sensation rippled through its devoured prey. It felt a sharp tingling from inside, and then, a hook with rope fashioned from monster tendons, embedded itself firmly in its mouth.

Pulled from the magma, a sudden, powerful tug hauled the frog away from its fiery domain. The creature, caught off guard by the abrupt force, was dragged effortlessly.

"GEROO!!!!"

The frog creature screamed as another four harpoon spears, each attached with rope, impaled it. The ropes, in turn, were swiftly tied to large rocks and stone pillars, securing the monster.

From the shadows, a human emerged, chewing on a piece of meat jerky. A long harpoon spear was casually slumped against his back, indicating a relaxed posture as he surveyed his captured prey.

"Hahaha, as expected of my handmade human-monster lure, it really works well luring monsters like you!"

Shin swallowed the jerky, then brandished a harpoon spear and thrust it into the frog-like monster, which was roughly his size. The harpoon initially resisted due to the frog's thick hide and skull, but Shin brute-forced the impaling. The harpoon finally pierced the frog monster's skull, and the frog's eyes dimmed, becoming lifeless.

"Fuh~ I guess this is the boss of this place," Shin murmured, looking at the summoned old book. It now displayed a detailed map of his current area. He flipped the page, and there, embedded, was various monster information regarding their ecology, strength, and weakness.

Shin then removed the impaled spear and placed a drop of the monster's blood on the page; it immediately began self-writing words, displaying the characteristics of the frog monster.

"Hee~, so the organs aren't good for eating, but it seems the hind legs are quite a delicacy due to the mutation?" Shin mused, looking at the information of the magma frog displayed in his book. Due to the heat it still emitted, Shin just dragged it with the harpoon spears still impaled to it. With his current strength, there was no need to chop it up and take it piece by piece.

Humming a certain anime song about a gourmet hunter, Shin dragged the carcass of his prey to his current hideout on the current floor.

Three weeks had passed since Shin obtained fire and transformed his abyssal meals. In his book, the floor map displayed a count of 39.

Shin had also stopped relying on his obsidian knife for hunting and had adapted to using bone harpoon spears for his hunts. The knife mostly remained a tool for butchering, cooking, and crafting.

The mysterious book also continued to reveal other uses. Beyond its endless, combustible pages, Shin discovered its appraisal functions. One day, while tearing pages and draining his stamina, he accidentally dropped some monster blood from that day's hunt onto a page. The page suddenly began to self-write, displaying various information about that particular monster. This knowledge revolutionized his hunting, making each encounter with the same type of monster more efficient and less dangerous.

What interested Shin most was that the book displayed which parts of a monster were edible. While it didn't show the best way to prepare them, it was still immensely beneficial. The book also started mapping the path where Shin traveled, which helped him map areas faster and allowed him to focus more on hunting. It even began displaying information on certain rocks and ores, truly becoming a comprehensive appraisal tool.

This newfound appraisal ability also made it possible for Shin to encounter rock salt. With this knowledge, Shin experimented tirelessly, driven by his rekindled passion for cooking. He dedicated time after each hunt to prepare his findings, transforming bizarre monster parts into surprisingly delicious steaks and skewers.

"Hmm~, Hmhmm~~"

Shin was currently preparing the frog monster's hind leg meat, washing it with water he'd fetched from the upper floor. He then rubbed a generous amount of crushed rock salt on its meat, letting it sit for a while as he prepared the fire.

Shin fetched one of his handmade tools: a piece of a certain ore that ignites when struck or rubbed. He took one of the torn book pages and shredded a quarter of it. Shin then proceeded to put the shredded paper into the roasting pit he'd made yesterday in his base.

Spark, Spark.

The makeshift flint and stone he'd crafted ignited the paper. Then, Shin added dried, roasted monster bones as fuel. He'd discovered this trick a week ago when roasting a bone steak from a bull monster, which led to the realization that the bones could be used as fuel after being roasted for hours.

With the setup complete, Shin pierced the frog monster's hind leg and began roasting it with glee.

"Ooh~ Taste like fish with the texture of chicken meat, not dry but juicy, the salt really draws out its flavor~"

Shin, now partaking in his meal, ate it with bliss. His cooked meal had evolved from unseasoned to salt-seasoned, truly drawing out the flavors of the meat with the help of the rock salt.

"Ha~~ I'm stuffed~"

Shin smiled with satisfaction, resting for a moment. He then began checking the old book for the drawn map within it.

"Looking at this, it looks like the entrance for the next floor should be around the right corner." Shin thought, looking at the map drawn by the book. He imagined circling the part he wanted to go, and the book responded, creating a red circle around the drawn area.

"I'll guess I need to rest for a day or two before going down, I need to prepare food first before proceeding," Shin murmured, planning to rest a bit on the current floor.

The next day, Shin proceeded to scout the next floor. Carrying three large spears, he cautiously investigated Floor 40. After an hour of checking the unfamiliar territory, a large flying creature suddenly appeared, heading straight for him.

It was a massive bat, roughly Shin's size, with a total wingspan of six meters.

The bat immediately engaged, and hiding seemed impossible due to its unique trait of presence detection through echolocation.

The bat kept unleashing sonic boom attacks at Shin, maintaining its distance. Shin merely dodged, patiently waiting for an optimal time to strike.

Kiiii!

The large, bat-like monster, tired of Shin's evasions, produced a wide destructive, high-frequency sonic attack and unleashed it directly at Shin.

"Tch, too noisy," Shin muttered, expertly dodging the incoming attack.

The ground where Shin had just been standing was pulverized.

The bat's powerful attack, however, created an opening for Shin to counter.

Shin threw two harpoon spears at the flying monster; one pierced its wing, and the other, its abdomen.

KIIII KIIIII!!

The bat monster writhed in pain from the attack, its wings and abdomen pierced, making its flight unstable.

"Heave Ho!!"

Shin pulled, dragging the bat monster down with ease. With its other wing punctured, the bat had difficulty hovering, causing it to crash. Shin then moved in close and punctured its head with the harpoon spear, ending its life.

"Whew, I wonder what this thing tastes like," Shin mused, feeling a little tired from how annoying the creature's sound attack had been.

As the monster's blood dripped onto the old book Shin had summoned, its information immediately began to appear.

"This said the limbs are the best part to eat."

Now on Floor 40, he dragged the corpse back to his base on Floor 39. Shin then, as usual, processed the meat of his hunt and planned to find the boss monster of Floor 40 tomorrow, moving deeper again after resting for the rest of the day.