Chapter 12: Mystery Critter!

[Innate Proficiency Requirement Met!]

[Activated! Chef Class]

[Personal Missions: Received!]

[Active Mission: Offer 10 Unique Dishes in your restaurant!]

[Information: Create 10 Unique Dishes and serve to guests.

Note: Guests must finish the meal.

Unique Dish: A dish that contains less than 50% similarity to previous submitted dishes.

Reward: 5,000 Hearth Points]

[Calibrating Existing Skills…]

[Activated: Knife Proficiency – Growth Type (Lv 1)]

[Information: Automatically gain proficiency with any kind of blade.

Type: Passive]

[Activated: Monster Instinct]

[Information: Enhances sixth sense, allowing the user to avoid various dangers.

Note: Applicable to threats close to the user’s level. Automatically improves as the user levels up.

Type: Passive]

[Activated: Strong Stomach]

[Information: Grants mild resistance against food poisoning, spoiled meals, and mild toxins. Allows the user to consume unusual or unappetizing substances without immediate harm. Slightly slows down the rate of hunger.

Note: Resistance scales with level. Does not grant immunity to deadly poisons or corrosive materials.

Type: Passive]

[Activated: Improved Palate]

[Information: Heightens taste perception to detect subtle differences in flavor, composition, and magical essence. Enables the user to distinguish the quality of ingredients, trace mana within food or drink, and sense impurities or enchantments.

Note: Accuracy increases with level. Stronger or more complex mana signatures may require higher proficiency.

Type: Passive]

[Activated: Fire Resistance]

[Information: Grants the user reduced damage and discomfort from flames, heat, and scalding surfaces. Originally developed through long exposure to kitchens and forges, it provides natural resilience against burns.

Note: Effectiveness increases with level. Does not negate fire damage entirely and offers limited protection against magical or extreme flames.

Type: Passive]

[Activated: Ingredient Scan]

[Information: Allows users to detect edible or rare ingredients within a 10 meter radius. Has a chance of giving insight into capabilities, properties, and limitations of any ingredient. The user will only be able to read ingredients he/she can consume.

Type: Active

Usage: 2-10 mana

Recovery Time: 1 minute]

[Activated: Dish Analysis]

[Information: Ability to gain insight to the ingredients contained in a dish, its effects, as well as the approximate preparation methods.

Type: Active

Usage: 2-10 mana

Recovery Time: 1 minute]

Finn read the skills for a bit. This was one of the few times he actually enjoyed reading.

So these were skills he got because he was a chef, huh? Interesting, very int—

Everything stopped when he felt furry pudginess climb his back out of nowhere. His whole body froze, and he stopped breathing. Whatever was on his back was definitely not human.

Because every creature he had encountered so far had the ability to eat his head, just the thought of something moving next to him made his blood cold.

Ba-dump, ba-dump

He gripped his bone sword, ready to fight. It was a long shot to actually cause damage, but he wasn’t about to get slaughtered after trying so friggin hard to survive!

He held on to that railing for dear life, he swam like heck despite being unable to swim, and he even traversed a monster-infested forest to find a single bald spot on the ground—how could he accept an easy death?!

His hand gripped the rough handle of the bone sword, ready to stab whatever was behind him. The angle was odd, so his accuracy could not be guaranteed, but he hoped it would be enough to get it off his back.

It kept climbing up, and he cringed, breath hitched, when he felt paws. When he felt it reach his head—damn, this thing was really pudgy—he finally gestured to attack it.

“Wao, I hadn’t seen someone carry over so many non-combat skills la~”

Finn flinched. Huh?

He unconsciously turned around, causing the thing to lose balance.

“Hey! Watch it!” It yelled, very angry, and he felt it climb over the back of his head again.

“What? Who—”

It was around this time that he recognized the voice. During the past hour, most of his notifications had been in text format only, appearing on the text box on the lower right side of his vision.

However, occasionally, including the ’welcome’ message, there was a voice. The voice was very similar to this one.

At this, he used his other hand to grab a handful of fur and flab of whatever was over his shoulder.

He threw it a few meters away from him, just in case, and his bone sword was still snug in his hand. He was prepared to defend in case it was hostile.

However, his eyes twitched and his hold of the sword faltered when he saw what it was.

…a panda?

A glittery, angry fat panda.

“How rude!” it screamed as it rolled a few meters away. Because he was still rolling when he screamed, some of the syllables were muffled.

Despite himself, his lips ended up twitching upwards in amusement.

Finn shook his head of the thoughts though, still remembering that horned rabbit-like thing from before.

Besides, like the rabbit, it looked a bit different from normal pandas, so it could be dangerous despite its initial ’cute’ appearance. For one, it was…glittery. Like the white in its fur was shiny rather than matte.

…that was it.

Other than that, it was just as bouncy and lazy-looking as a normal panda.

“So…what are you?” he asked, standing up so he could be more prepared to move. He did not dare to come closer to it, and made sure he had his weapon between them.

He watched as the panda rolled once more so it could lie on its stomach, and it pushed itself up from there, except his legs went up first, so its chubby bum wiggled as it gathered itself.

Cute,

he mused to himself, but he schooled his expression to keep its seriousness. “What is a Talking Panda doing here?”

“I’m not a talking panda—I’m the spirit of the Inn!”

“The what?”

“The Spirit of the Inn,” it repeated as if he didn’t hear it the first time. “The Inn’s Spirit!”

“…”

At this point, it was kinda clear that the thing wasn’t hostile (yet), and he honestly could not handle this tension anymore. He was about to faint.

He took a deep breath, chanting his favorite food in his head, before looking at the panda again, which was heading back to him on all fours.

It was really fluffy.

“Okay, Mister Spirit of the Inn, why are you a panda then?”

“I told you I’m not a panda,” the Panda said, his little voice pitched higher due to exasperation.

Finn’s eyes twitched. “Not a Panda? You’re obviously—”

“Spirit of the Inns aren’t creatures, silly human!” he cut him off, tone as if he was a teacher chastising a baby. “We take the form of the non-human object the Innkeeper most associated with strength. Is this Great Spirit not in the most powerful form in the Innkeeper’s mind?“

“Huh? What are you talking ab—”

His voice died down when long-buried memories resurfaced.

At this, Finn couldn’t help but rub his nose in embarrassment.

Ah, he remembered now.

Back when he was young, he owned a panda stuffed toy, which was the model of a famous cartoon called ’Caped’n Panda’, a heroic panda most children loved.

His parents bought it due to its popularity when he was an infant and he had been dragging it around until he was around four or five years old.

It was his protector from the nightmares, the bad men, and the boogeymen.

It was his security blanket or comfort toy—something every toddler had and couldn’t live without for years. It was sadly destroyed when an annoying customer and his large dog decided to play with it.

When they found it, its gut was all over the place, and the entire skin was destroyed, used as a chew toy. So many parts were missing that it couldn’t be repaired anymore.

That was the day his Caped’n Panda died.

That was the first time baby Finn felt the world ending.

It was just that the person paid his parents money, more than what it was worth monetarily, so they couldn’t go after him.

Finn remembered being bitter for a long time after that, crying himself to sleep. No other stuffed toy—even identical ones—could comfort him. This mourning period probably lasted several months, though he didn’t remember much anymore.

Pushing those memories aside for now, Finn gave the panda another look, his eyes softening.

Well… fine, maybe he could listen to it a bit more.

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