ARIFURETA: Cooking to be the Strongest?

The next day, Shin was consumed by a singular, burning desire: fire. He spent hours striking various stones against each other. Frustration mounted with each failed attempt.

"Huh~, still no good," Shin grumbled, holding two stones that finally managed to produce a spark.

"Even getting a spark, the materials are strangely fireproof, even furs, and the place is too damp to start a fire."

He'd even considered using his clothes as fuel and fashioning new ones from the pelts and hides of monsters he'd hunted, but his kingdom-issued gear had fireproof enchantments.

Adding to his woes, he hadn't seen any plants growing in this place, and the only illumination came from the dim glow of certain light-emitting crystals.

The inability to produce even a sustained flame began to irritate him deeply.

He dedicated the entire day to this task, but no results materialized.

"Sigh~" Shin sighed in annoyance and irritation, but there was nothing much he could do in the situation.

At least for now, he still had meat left from the shark-like monster, which was a welcome change from other raw alternatives.

He retired for the night after eating, dreaming of cooking again and enjoying the chatter with his friends.

***************

The next morning, Shin sat summoning and resummoning his obsidian knife. Since his last attempts to summon the other tools had failed, he hadn't bothered trying again, satisfied with just the knife.

Then, for some reason, out of sheer curiosity, Shin tried to summon the other tools once more. This time, one responded. It materialized in front of him.

"Eh? A book?"

In front of Shin was an old, tattered book.

He tried to open it, but its pages were empty—no words, no notes, no contents, just an old, wordless book.

Thinking it might at least be useful for taking notes, he held it, but then, the book strangely began to record his very thoughts.

"Ooo~, it's a self-logging book," he mused, astonished.

The book seemed to instantly log whatever he was currently thinking and doing.

"Hmm… Why are there so many pages for this medium-looking book?"

Then, with no particular reason, while Shin was checking how many pages this book had (it seemed to go on continuously, never running out), he was struck by a lightning bolt of an idea.

It was a book, a book with infinite pages, and the pages were made of paper.

Paper was combustible! This meant he could finally pursue his idea to make fire.

With this revelation, Shin eagerly tried to tear a single page from the book, but it didn't budge even an inch. He then tried using his daggers, but they left not a single scratch on its pages.

Left with no choice, Shin summoned the obsidian knife. He then tried to cut the book.

The moment his knife touched the book, he felt his stamina draining too quickly.

"How hard is this single piece of paper!!"

Unlike other materials, the knife struggled to cut the book. Around 20 seconds passed before Shin could clip a single page, and already, 20% of his stamina was depleted.

"What!! Even hunting monsters didn't drain this much stamina!"

Shin, feeling the drain, now held a piece of paper in his hand. He looked at the book, and strangely, it began to regenerate the cut part.

Shin also felt something being drained from him; it was the accumulating energy inside of him, which he couldn't access. It drained about 2% of that energy to restore the whole page.

Shin, not caring about that and finding it didn't burden him, proceeded to light the paper. Unlike when it was attached to the book, the paper now seemed easily cut by the obsidian knife and didn't drain much stamina.

Though it still had resistance, he could also rip it slowly.

Shin, prioritizing making fire, no longer thought about the book and paper's peculiar properties and proceeded to shred the cut page into tiny strips for easier combustion.

He tested banging the rocks he'd found that produced the earlier sparks.

When a spark made contact with the pile of shredded paper, it easily ignited, betraying its original toughness and dampness of the place.

Shin stared, his eyes fixed on the shredded pieces of paper turning into fire. Without further ado, he began to tear more pages.

With his current stamina, he managed to tear at least three more pages, leaving him thoroughly exhausted.

But the strange part was the fire. It was still burning even after a minute. Considering the size of an A4 paper (21 x 29.7 centimeters), it should have long died out, yet two minutes had already passed, and the shredded paper was still burning.

Shin watched the fire, noticing that most of the paper hadn't even burned entirely; only the tips seemed to be radiating the flames. Five minutes passed, and the fire was still ongoing, barely consuming 10% of the shredded paper.

Snapping out of his trance, Shin decided to set aside the cut paper for now and proceeded to prepare sharpened bone sticks and cut meat into cubes from the shark-like monster. He created ten BBQ sticks of the shark-like monster meat, piercing each piece with a stick.

Since the pile of burning paper was too small, Shin shredded the other two pages he'd torn and spread the fire to accommodate all ten meat skewers. He then started piercing the BBQ sticks into the ground, surrounding the burning paper.

*********

Five minutes later, a sizzling sound filled the air as the skewers began to cook.

Though unseasoned, the meat carried a sweet scent from its own rendering fat. Shin stared with bloodshot eyes at the skewers, the wafting aroma drifting through his cave.

He was already drooling, meticulously checking each one to ensure it cooked perfectly.

Each sizzle was music to his ears, his heart thrumming with every sound. The sweet scent grasped his stomach, wetting his appetite.

At the right moment, when they were perfectly cooked, Shin didn't hesitate.

He removed them one by one from the fire.

Shin now sat, staring at the well-cooked skewers of shark-like monster meat.

With the fire flickering and the cooked meat glistening with its own oil, the skewers seemed to shine in the cave.

Shin gulped, and took one.

"Itadakimasu," he murmured.

For a long time, eating raw monster meat had made him forget to give thanks for the grace of food, as it was often a wretched experience. But this time, before a well-cooked skewer, he again uttered those forgotten words.

Without further ado, Shin bit into the skewer. Then, a surge of flavors attacked his mouth. A sweet taste from its own oil and the concentrated umami it held. Though without seasonings, it did not disappoint in its flavor.

With each bite, his heart pounded.

With each taste, his mind drifted into bliss.

With each swallow, his body rejoiced.

With each partaking of this meal, his soul resonated and felt like it was ascending.

His stamina recovered faster. The energy that accumulated inside him now accumulated more rapidly as he ate this dish. His body felt stronger.

The moment Shin finished eating, he was smiling for the first time in a while since being dropped into this abyss. Then, with closed eyes, feeling utterly satisfied, he opened them again, his face lit by the Holy Crystal and the still-ongoing flame.

Shin muttered, "Not bad~"