The Basic First Aid and Drug Store owner, McCann, was sitting in her store, deep in thought, ‘Which blacksmith should I sign a new contract with? Ron is extremely skilled but...’ 

McCann had decided to cancel their contract because of the delay in delivery, and mostly because of Ron’s bad temper. As she thought about what to do next, she saw a young man peeking through the door. She asked, “How may I help you?” 

McCann was one of the guardians that players could learn ‘Novice Bandage’ from, so it was common for players to peek and snoop around in her place. However, most of them would turn their backs on her the moment they found out the measly amount of recovery that they would get from learning the skill. It was truly abysmal. Besides, even if they used the skill, it would still take a long time for them to recover. So, most of them would not give her time out of their lives.

The young man standing in front of her store was munching on some food. Looking closely, McCann realized that it was a hotteok[1] from the nearby store. The man was holding a sweet pancake wrapped in a paper wrapper with his one hand, while the other was holding an extremely large, black plastic bag. He said, “Hello! I came here on Ron’s request.” 

“Did you say Ron?” McCann asked again, expression sinking. She continued to say, “You’re not asking me to renew the contract, right?” 

“Hehe, Ron wanted me to tell you that he was extremely sorry about what happened before.”

“Hmph! Don’t bother. I won’t renew it. There are a lot of blacksmiths that are better than him.”

“Phew... Is that so?” The man asked, still munching on his hotteok. Then, the man continued to say, “I don’t believe that the gentle and beautiful McCann would be someone so cold-hearted.”

“Hoho, that kind of flattery won’t work on me.”

“...”

The man paused and looked at her curiously, then his expression suddenly turned extremely worried. However, he did not stop eating his sweet pancake. McCann was sure that the sweetness of the honey in the hotteok was definitely spreading in his mouth whenever he bit on it. Just the thought alone made McCann imagine herself biting on that sweet pancake and tasting that sweetness in her mouth.

‘If you bite on a freshly made hotteok, you can easily lick the hot, sweet sugar that’s inside. The sugar may be a bit hot, but the chewy, soft hotteok is truly delicious...’

Gulp━

McCann unknowingly gulped down her saliva. She thought, ‘Huh, what’s wrong with me? Why am I salivating over a hotteok that can be bought everywhere?’

McCann had money. She could definitely buy and eat it herself. So, why was she reacting like this?

Chew, chew. “Hmm, is there really no other way? I’m begging you,” the man said, still eating his hotteok. After he finished a piece, he would just reach inside his plastic bag and start on another one.

McCann was very shocked to see that. She thought, ‘Are you telling me that his plastic bag that can carry 20 kilograms of rice is filled with hotteoks?!’

McCann was left speechless as she watched the man continue to eat hotteoks in front of her. He did not leave! On the other hand, she was still on a diet! In the end, she could not resist the temptation. She ran out and went directly to the stall that was selling hotteoks. She said, “Haden, please give me three hotteoks!”

“I’m sorry, Miss McCann. A foreigner bought all of my hotteoks today.”

“B…but I want to eat some right now...!” McCann said in disbelief. Then she thought, ‘D…don’t tell me… Yeah, it seems like he’s the one who bought them all. He probably has a skill to make others extremely hungry. Knowing that, he must have bought all of the hotteoks so he could make me hungry and encourage me to make peace with Ron!’

‘My goodness! How can a foreigner have such an ability? He’s such a shameless man!’

When McCann returned to her store, she heard the man grumble, “Phew. There are only five hotteoks left. Chomp!”

Then, the man continued to eat the hotteoks, not knowing that his words had struck a nerve with McCann. Then, he ate a second piece.

‘N…no! Don’t eat all of the hotteoks!’ McCann thought, glaring at him. She wanted the man to at least have a bitter expression, since she did not want to renew the contract!

Then, the man took out another hotteok and quipped, “Chomp, well, it can’t be helped. I’ll go on ahead.”

When he was turning around to leave, McCann could see him reaching out for the second-last piece of hotteok in the bag! She hurriedly shouted, “E…excuse me!”

“Yes?”

“Can you sell me just one piece of hotteok?”

“...?”

***

Minhyuk looked at her strangely. Sell her a hotteok? What did she suddenly mean?

“I lost. Your power is really amazing. You’re basically like the male version of a siren. Look at how much you made me drool over that!”

“???”

Minhyuk looked at her blankly. It seemed like she wanted to eat hotteoks that badly? Minhyuk quickly analyzed the situation. He was just eating a delicious hotteok in his own paper wrapper, but this woman was suddenly coming straight for his hotteok!

“No way! This is the last hotteok!”

“Just sell me this one, why are you even saying no to me after you left me salivating over it!”

“I never made you drool over it!”

“You did! You even showed your shamelessness by buying all of the hotteoks from the stall!” 

“When did I ever do that?!” Minhyuk retorted. He was already very upset after eating all of the hotteoks in one go. It was just too delicious. Yet now, there was someone that was pestering him to sell his last piece of hotteok. Then, he suddenly thought of something.

“By any chance, are you hungry?” 

“Yes. I was originally on a diet, but now I’m in big trouble because of you!” 

“I’ll make a hotteok for you. But, if you enjoy the hotteok that I make, then please renew the contract with Ron.” 

“Ahem. I’ll think about it.”

“Then, please wait a moment,” Minhyuk said, basically flying out of the store to buy some hotteok mix. He thought, ‘That’s right, why did I not think of this way to get close with others?’

Minhyuk could use his buffing ability. Besides, he was much better than others when it came to cooking! McCann meekly allowed Minhyuk to freely enter the store. This was only because she really wanted to eat those hotteoks. After buying what he needed, Minhyuk came back and prepared what he needed to do. Preparations were easily done since what Minhyuk bought was easy-to-make hotteok mix. So, the only thing that he needed to do was pour the mix into a bowl and add 180 milliliters of lukewarm water. Then, he put on his gloves and kneaded the dough. After kneading the dough, Minhyuk let it rest. He needed to set it aside for an hour.

During the time where he left the mixture aside, Minhyuk decided to do something. He said, “Can I learn the Novice Bandage while we wait for the hotteok?” 

“The non-combat skills that a foreigner can learn are limited. You better think about it carefully.”

Players could only learn one non-combat skill before they reached Level 200, and an additional two before they reached Level 400. However, Minhyuk insisted on it since he had no restrictions and he did not care about it at all. He said, “I definitely want to learn it!”

McCann shook her head at him. She said, “Then, please give me 100,000 gold.”

Novice Bandage might have been shunned by most players, but there were still some people who have managed to master the skill. The effects of the skill might be abysmal but increasing the recovery rate was always a good thing. Besides, learning the Novice Bandage was an easy task.

[Please fill the Bandaging Progress Bar to 100%.]

Then, McCann approached a mannequin. She said, “This is a magic mannequin. If you cut it with a knife like this…”

She cut the mannequin with her knife, and just like the flesh of a real person, a wound opened up at the spot where she cut.

“Then, you can wrap the bandage around the wound like this. If you keep on repeating this, you will be able to master the skill! Well then, try it once.”

“Yes!” Minhyuk said, nodding in understanding, before cutting the mannequin with a knife. A wound opened up without any gushing blood, just like before. Then, he proceeded to wrap the bandage around the open wound. However, Minhyuk saw it! He clearly saw the places where he needed to wind and wrap the bandage more tightly!

Minhyuk looked at the mannequin and the bandage in his hands curiously. He asked, “Is this how one masters the bandaging skill? I can see the areas where I need to wrap the wound?”

“Huh? What are you saying?”

“N…nothing,” Minhyuk quickly replied. He realized that what he was seeing was not normal. Then, he wrapped the bandage around the wound. The movement of his hands looked similar to that of a trained paramedic that had faced hundreds of emergency situations!

‘Why, why can I do this so well?’ Minhyuk wondered. He had never done this before, but he was progressing really well. He skillfully wrapped the bandage over the open wound. However, the recovery would depend on how skilled the player was in binding and tightening the bandage. In that regard, Minhyuk was exceptionally adept at it. That was when Minhyuk realized.

‘Ah...! That’s right, isn’t my DEX around 900?’

A few days after eating the elixir, Minhyuk was able to increase his DEX rapidly. It had increased by 180 when he ate the Army Stew in the Imperial Palace, and another 300 in the Chef Tower, right? That was definitely the reason why he was doing well right now! After all, DEX did not only affect the taste of the dishes that he had made, it also affected a variety of things. And Minhyuk's DEX was enough to cover almost everything.

[The bandage has been wrapped well.]

[You have gained an additional +1% injury recovery.]

[Your recovery time has become slightly faster.]

His skilled movements were enough to gain additional effects. Simply put, this was similar to ‘critical hits’ in attacks, which were usually triggered by a whole variety of factors, including luck. When a critical hit was achieved, the damage dealt to the enemies was usually higher. Just like that, the better the bandaging job, the better the recovery of the injury. For Minhyuk, this was something that was bound to happen frequently in the future. After all, having a high DEX meant that he would be able to produce better results.

‘Whew, DEX is much more useful than what I thought! But why does everyone neglect this good thing?’ Minhyuk thought, nodding as he checked the training progress.

“It increased by 20%? Wow, so it’s that easy to learn the Novice Bandage?”

“What?” McCann asked, looking at him in disbelief. No matter how easy it was to learn how to wrap a bandage, their proficiency and training progress would only increase by 2% each time they successfully wrapped a bandage. The players would need to perform the action at least 50 times to master and acquire the Novice Bandage skill. That was how the foreigners usually learned! But did this man just say that he got 20% at one go?

“Is that true?”

“Yes.” 

“Ah… Perhaps you got it as a special reward for wrapping the bandage really well on your first try. Although... I have never seen anyone get a 20% increase in just one try.”

It was only natural for the skill proficiency to increase when one did well! Minhyuk once again wrapped bandages on the mannequin. The skill proficiency rose by 10%, 12%, 14%. His Novice Bandage skill proficiency increased tremendously as he kept on repeating his actions. Every single bandage that he wrapped could surprise anyone, with how well he wrapped them.

[The bandage has been wrapped perfectly.]

[You have received an additional 2% injury recovery.]

[Your recovery time has become faster.]

[You have gained 1 DEX.]

At the same time, he achieved a 30% increase in his skill proficiency. Then, at that moment…

[You’ve mastered Novice Bandage.]

[You have gained 15 DEX.]

[You have accumulated a total of 900 DEX. All skills and abilities related to DEX will improve by 10%.]

[Due to the influence of the DEX, your Novice Bandage will improve by 60%.]

[You will be able to receive a Special DEX Privilege once you have accumulated a total of 1000 DEX.]

‘Huh? A Special DEX Privilege?’

For every 100-point increase in his DEX, DEX Privilege gave Minhyuk a 10% increase in all skills and abilities related to DEX. So, what did the notification mean when it said Special DEX Privilege? Nevertheless, Minhyuk had high expectations for it. After listening to all of the notifications, he checked the contents of the Novice Bandage skill.

(Novice Bandage)

Passive Skill

Level: 1

Effects:

•Wound and injury recovery +1% +0.6%

•+0.6 times acceleration on the very slow recovery pace.

‘It’s true that the Level 1 Novice Bandage has insignificant effects, but my Level 1 is already 1.6 times more powerful than others at the same level.’

The increase in recovery was a very powerful addition to his arsenal of skills. From what he heard, when the Novice Bandage skill increased in level and evolved to intermediate, then advanced, the recovery would increase up to 10%. Once that happened, the advantage would be even more apparent! His recovery effect would definitely be at 16% by that time.

“I’ve learned it.”

“T…that’s fast. I can’t believe this...” McCann gasped in disbelief. It had not even been an hour yet! In fact, other foreigners would need at least half a day to a whole day, in order to master the bandaging skill. There had been others who were in a hurry, or had quick tempers, they would say ‘Ah, let’s not do it anymore! Let’s just get some potions.’ before leaving. This just showed how neglected Novice Bandage was. It was useful, but it also felt like it was not that useful at all! Looking at her expression, Minhyuk decided to show off his newly acquired skill by cutting the mannequin again with a knife.

“Novice Bandage!”

Swish, fwoosh, rustle!

Minhyuk’s hands moved neatly following the proper order of bandaging. Since he had mastered the skill, it was only natural that his movements would become faster. As soon as he finished wrapping the bandage, a series of notifications rang one by one.

[The bandage has been wrapped perfectly.]

[You have received an additional 2% injury recovery.]

[The recovery time has become faster.]

After hearing the notifications, Minhyuk stepped back to acquire his work. McCann was impressed with how fast and neat his actions were. Then, Minhyuk said, “I want to buy five mannequins!”

Minhyuk knew that his cooking would taste better as long as he increased his DEX. He thought of increasing his DEX by learning many labor-intensive DEX related skills. Even wrapping a bandage would play a role in enhancing the flavor and taste of his cooking!

Once the one hour was up, Minhyuk could see that the hotteok dough rose well. Then, he took a sizable amount of dough, flattened it, and placed the jam mix in it. The jam mix was a mixture of cinnamon powder and sugar. He closed the hotteok and turned it into a sphere before dropping it on the well-oiled frying pan. He then pressed on the hotteok with a spatula to flatten it. The sizzling sound that rang out as the hotteok and oil met signaled that it was being cooked well.

Sizzle!

1. A popular Korean street snack especially during winter. It is a pancake filled with sweet fillings. ☜