Mikoto squatted beside Zephyr, watching his handiwork with focused eyes. A look of brief bewilderment appeared on her usually tranquil face.
When Zephyr dismantled the Gourmet Creature, his knife skills were extremely refined, as if he had rehearsed it beforehand, sliding along the gaps in the bone joints.
"What are you doing?" Mikoto asked.
"It should be pretty obvious. I'm just butchering ingredients."
"Butchering... ingredients?"
"Mhm."
Mikoto observed Zephyr's movements, falling into a state of deep thought.
Soon, Zephyr had completely cut off the most valuable essence of the Soldier Frog—the leg meat alone was estimated to weigh over fifty kilograms.
Likewise, he didn't miss the other parts of the Gourmet Creature in front of him, including the meat on the chest and abdomen.
After finishing these tasks, he noticed Mikoto's furrowed brow.
Zephyr weighed the cut leg meat, his tone calm as he explained to Mikoto, "I feel that when frog-type creatures are cooked into dishes, the taste won't be bad at all. You just have to control the cooking technique to bring out the flavor perfectly."
Hearing his supplementary explanation, Mikoto's expression almost cracked. After all, the confident attitude Zephyr had when saying this was as if he were talking about something commonplace and conventional.
But for Mikoto, the act of cooking monsters from the Dungeon into dishes was already beyond her cognitive scope.
And to even match the corresponding cooking method according to the monster's characteristics?
However, she remembered Zephyr's Braised Spicy Beef from yesterday. Perhaps only by holding such a spirit could one eventually cook such subversive monster cuisine.
She asked, "Um... won't the monster meat be poisonous?"
"You'll know once you eat it."
"..."
She didn't know why, but she felt that Zephyr being alive and becoming a Level 2 Adventurer felt like a miracle of some sort. To think he hadn't been poisoned to death by the monster dishes he cooked himself.
After all, when she first arrived in Orario, Takemikazuchi had warned her that maintaining vigilance against unknown ingredients was basic survival common sense for an Adventurer.
But Zephyr clearly didn't care about survival common sense. Relying on his obsession with food, he had stubbornly carved out a unique path of exploration in the Dungeon.
Looking at the Soldier Frog, perhaps it would be easier to accept once it was cooked into a dish.
She asked, "What's next? Are you going to continue exploring the Dungeon?"
"Hmm..." Zephyr thought for a moment, not answering immediately.
The goal of exploring the Dungeon was to find a Gourmet Creature. Now that the goal had been achieved, there was no need to continue exploring deeper. After all, those ordinary Dungeon monsters didn't provide a particularly significant increase in stats after being killed. As for exploring floors, the team size limitation was right there.
Unless they waited for the members of the Loki Familia to return to Orario to make a breakthrough.
If they really bit the bullet and pushed into the depths at this stage, and they encountered another Monster Feast or other abnormal situations, it was possible they would end up finished in the Dungeon.
Thinking of this, Zephyr's gaze swept over Lili and Lefiya, who were huddled together not far away and he spoke up, "Today's exploration should end here. After resting here for a while, we plan to return to Orario."
"Okay." Mikoto nodded.
She took out the bento she hadn't been able to give away since the morning, and looked at Zephyr.
"Then, since we are going to rest, could you try this dish I cooked?"
"No problem."
After all, he had already promised her earlier. It was just that the sudden Monster Feast and the Gourmet Creature incident had caused a slight delay.
He opened it to look. Inside the bento were deep-fried tempura, kimbap, a few well-shaped pieces of nigiri sushi, and a few brightly colored pickled vegetables as a garnish.
Zephyr picked up a shrimp tempura and asked with some curiosity, "These are all cooked by you?"
"Yes." Mikoto nodded, her eyes full of intense anticipation.
Zephyr felt the texture, flavor, ingredients, and other factors contained in the dishes in front of him.
The saltiness of the rice in the kimbap.
The freshness of the fish in the nigiri sushi.
The pickling time of the pickled vegetables.
All the details were clearly captured by him through [Absolute Taste].
Mikoto's culinary level had quite a few areas that needed improvement. But overall, it was passable.
After tasting each item in the bento, Zephyr said, "Um... do you want to hear the truth or...?"
"The truth." Mikoto answered without hesitation.
Zephyr pointed out the specific problems in the dishes. "The tempura batter is a bit too sticky, the texture after frying is noticeably affected. When mixing the batter, the water temperature wasn't controlled well, which caused too much gluten to form."
"Also..."
Zephyr picked up the nigiri sushi. "The handling of the ingredients isn't particularly good either. It's best to drain the blood from the meat thoroughly. This can effectively reduce the fishy smell of the ingredients."
Did her cooking really have that many problems?
Mikoto was unable to hide the trace of surprise deep in her eyes for a moment.
So, Zephyr could accurately point out all the problems in the dishes from such a brief tasting. Just this level of sensory acuity was already far beyond the scope of an ordinary chef.
"Then how exactly should I adjust it?" Mikoto put away the complex emotions surging in her heart and asked Zephyr for advice.
Based on the feedback from [Absolute Taste], he explained all the shortcomings and the areas that needed correction.
Mikoto carefully memorized these experiences in her mind.
Ater Zephyr finished his quick explanation, she bowed. "I have noted everything down. Thank you, Zephyr-san."
"It was no trouble at all." Zephyr smiled.
Meanwhile, standing not far away was Ouka. He watched the bizarre atmosphere of Culinary Exchange between Zephyr and his own Familia member.
Just a moment ago, they were fighting monsters for their lives, and now they had turned around and started discussing.
'Mikoto... She couldn't possibly be interested in monster cuisine, right?' Ouka scratched his head.
As the Familia captain, he was naturally quite familiar with his party members' hobbies, but Mikoto's change had clearly happened recently.
As for the specific reason...
He glanced at Zephyr and had already guessed the general idea, especially after hearing that Zephyr didn't intend to continue exploring.
"Um..."
He pondered for a moment before walking over to Zephyr. "Zephyr-san, since you two have finished discussing, our Familia will be withdrawing first. We really troubled you today."
"We're just helping each other out." Zephyr waved his hand.
"Then..."
Just as she was about to leave with the team, Mikoto suddenly stopped in her tracks. She turned around with a serious expression and said, "Then I'll come see you again once I've adjusted."
"Sure."
Zephyr didn't think much of it. After all, something like a culinary exchange was no burden to him. The most important thing was that Mikoto's attitude was quite serious.
"Then we'll be heading off now."
Ouka took the initiative to signal his Familia members to enter a retreat formation.
Zephyr waved to watch the team leave. After the backs of Ouka, Mikoto, Chigusa, and the others gradually moved away, he shifted his attention back to the corpse of the Soldier Frog in front of him. Next was the time for his own cooking.