Ch.214[Chapter 214] Dungeon 5th Floor

Consommé made from sprouted potatoes and rotten onions, boiled until they melted away.

This was the dish that Boss Entrée and Entree had ambitiously presented.

“We added a bit of starch for satiety.”

“Or perhaps it’s collagen!”

Entrée and Entree stroked the mustache on their bear-like face while stirring the soup with a ladle.

A bubbling, semi-transparent, fluorescent green sticky liquid flowed back down the ladle into the pot.

Sir Dominic frowned as he looked at the boss’s soup.

Is that even edible? Sir Dominic wondered.

However, he seemed to be the only one thinking this, as the judges raised their silver spoons with expressions of anticipation.

John Doe was the first to try the soup.

He first smelled the aroma of the soup, then took about half a spoonful to his mouth.

“Hm… puhuhuh… huhuhahahahaha!”

And then he started laughing like a madman!

“This, this is a taste that brings nothing but laughter!”

John Doe raised his spoon, roaring with laughter.

His silver spoon had turned black, which meant this soup was blatantly full of poison.

“It’s thrilling. So thrilling. The numbing, tingling sensation. It’s not easy for this sensation to feel good!”

John Doe licked his lips as if his tongue was twisted.

His tongue was already twisting into a purple color.

“Above all, by serving this dish first, you numb the taste buds to neutralize the challenger’s dish that comes after! This is the dignity of a court chef! Vileness that spares no means or methods! Truly the ultimate technique of one trained in politics and social awareness!”

John Doe stood up abruptly and gave a standing ovation.

Then, as the numbness spread throughout his body, he slumped back down.

Watching this, Entrée and Entree nodded as if it were only natural.

“But unfortunately, I think the taste itself was rather ordinary. So I’ll give 1 point for ingredients, 2 points for recipe, and 2 points for taste.”

An unexpectedly cold result!

“Why!”

“It was a perfect soup! A soup worth full marks!”

Entrée and Entree protested at John Doe’s words.

But John Doe had a reason for giving such scores.

A very clear reason.

“Using schemes and tricks is fine, but the judging criteria are already obvious.”

The food eaten every day, the recipe used every day, the taste experienced every day.

That was why John Doe gave such low scores.

“I think the same.”

Catherine elegantly wiped around her mouth with a handkerchief.

“We were looking for something fresh, not ugly and dirty politics and machinations. I’ll also give 2, 2, and 2 points.”

Catherine said as she put down her blackened silver spoon with a clack.

As if it wasn’t even worth eating anymore.

That casual action deeply wounded the hearts of Entrée and Entree.

“…This is worse than the potato soup I usually eat.”

Mary said, stirring the soup in her bowl with her spoon.

She was openly showing her reluctance to eat it.

“I’ll just give 0 points. The basics of being a chef is making something delicious. Not making something worse and more like garbage.”

Entrée and Entree were now backing away, gasping as if they were about to pass out.

“…How could you say such harsh things!”

“Our soup is the best in the world!”

But soon Entrée and Entree were seized by great anger.

They thought the judges’ taste buds must have gone bad.

They were so angry that their four arms were rolling up their sleeves, acting as if they were about to charge forward.

That’s when it happened.

A cheerful bell sound rang out.

Everyone’s gaze turned toward the direction of the bell.

And there, where everyone’s eyes were focused, stood Sir Dominic.

“It’s ready.”

Sir Dominic spoke lightly as if it were nothing special.

But Sir Dominic’s dish, where people’s gazes had landed, was anything but light.

Because there stood a jelly tower that must have been 2 meters tall.

On top of the massive tower, built with jelly bricks cemented together with dissolved sugar water, was a candy figurine holding a candy cane, looking through the window of the tower’s top floor as if waiting for someone.

“…Beautiful.”

Catherine lost herself gazing at the dessert that was close to a work of art.

In fact, it wasn’t just Catherine.

Mary, John Doe, and even the bosses Entrée and Entree were captivated by the beautiful craftsmanship.

Even Sir Dominic himself.

It was truly a miraculous result produced by a “somehow it’ll work out” mindset.

“…How should we eat this?”

Catherine asked Sir Dominic.

She spoke as if she was desperate to put this sweet dessert in her mouth right away.

But Sir Dominic’s answer was a bit barbaric.

“Just tear it apart and eat it.”

“That’s too much of a waste.”

Catherine looked at the jelly tower with genuine regret.

“This will surely be sweet, but it’s so beautiful that I don’t think I could properly appreciate the taste.”

Mary nodded at Catherine’s lament.

Mary, who knew the taste of jelly well, knew that the tower would be very delicious.

Even Mary, who was deeply into jelly, found it difficult to attempt tearing apart and eating the work of art before her.

“I don’t think I can taste this.”

Catherine turned away with clenched fists.

She wanted to reach out for that sweet spire right away, but she was trying to suppress the conflicting thoughts that it was too beautiful to eat.

“But we have a duty to taste it.”

John Doe stepped forward, rotating his tingling shoulders.

The boss’s immunity had instantly cured his low-level status ailment like numbness.

“As you know, our evaluation form has important categories: ingredients, recipe, and taste. We can’t check the taste category without eating it.”

Catherine hesitated at John Doe’s words.

Should she fulfill her duty as a judge, or preserve this artwork as someone who loves art?

Catherine closed her eyes tightly.

It was one of the deepest dilemmas she had faced in her three thousand years as a boss.

“Um, if you don’t want to eat it, would you like something else?”

Sir Dominic intervened before Mary, who was staring intently at the jelly tower while drooling, Catherine, who was lost in anguish, and John Doe, who felt guilty about having to eat the jelly tower somehow.

Sir Dominic was holding a cup of instant noodles, which he had actually put back in his inventory thinking it wouldn’t go well with the sweet jelly.

Mary, Catherine, and John Doe looked at each other.

And almost simultaneously, they looked at Sir Dominic and nodded.

It was a good solution that would allow the artwork to remain as art while still allowing for tasting.

Although the amount was small for three people to share one cup of instant noodles, it was the most delicious ramen in the world to the three judges.

…

“We lost. We have lost!”

“The challenger has achieved a technique we couldn’t!”

The two-headed mustached bear doll admitted defeat to Sir Dominic.

“Don’t get complacent just because you beat us.”

“The 4th floor won’t be as easy as this!”

Entrée and Entree growled, trying to intimidate Sir Dominic.

However, their appearance as bear dolls munching on jelly through a filter wasn’t particularly threatening.

After Entrée and Entree returned to the boss room, the floor in front of Sir Dominic slowly sank into the ground, creating stairs.

It seemed this dungeon was structured so that you could only proceed to the next area after defeating the boss.

Sir Dominic looked once more at the room where Boss Entrée and Entree would be, then moved toward the stairs.

It was now time to go to the 4th floor.

“I was surprised, by the way.”

As Sir Dominic silently descended the stairs, Mary praised him.

“To think you’d make people crave with an enormous amount of jelly, then serve another dish to the hungry people. Of course it would taste delicious.”

As the saying goes, hunger is the best sauce. Mary thought Sir Dominic had aimed for that situation.

However, Sir Dominic had merely stacked the jelly, which was one of the few fresh ingredients he had, and as he stacked, he found it fun and accidentally created an artistic dish worthy of a work of art.

If asked to make it again, Sir Dominic would simply shake his head.

But Sir Dominic didn’t show this.

It was too late to explain as Mary had already deeply misunderstood, and in such situations, it would be more helpful for Sir Dominic not to clear up the misunderstanding.

“By the way, since I gave away so much jelly, who am I going to get jelly from now…”

Mary started pondering something trivial.

A truly trivial concern.

“I still have plenty left.”

Sir Dominic responded to Mary’s concern.

More jelly than what he had given Mary so far popped out of Sir Dominic’s inventory.

The jelly rain during the abnormal weather had produced an unimaginable amount, and the quantity that went into Sir Dominic’s inventory was beyond imagination.

Mary smiled brightly with joy as soon as she realized Sir Dominic had more jelly.

“Hey, you know what? Do you need information about the 4th floor? If it’s now, I can give it to you for about this much jelly.”

Mary drew a round circle on her palm with her finger.

Sir Dominic handed over the jelly to Mary as he had done at the entrance to the 5th floor.

And so the two headed to the 4th floor, exchanging information.