GalaxyTL
Slapping.
It’s a beautiful Korean tradition that involves getting someone else to do the work you don’t want to do.
Whether it’s a team project in a major in college, a group in the military, or a group of people sharing a job.
When people gather and form an organization, a hierarchy naturally arises; there will always be a place for slapping in this world.
As soon as I realized that I was being slapped by the senior maids, a reflexive expletive came out of my mouth.
<Yes, I see, and your shift starts at 6 am like any other?>
<Yep. 6 a.m….>
<What are you talking about, Catherine? Lilith, your kitchen assistant duties start at 4 am.>
<That’s right. You can report to work here at 4 am. You’ll probably know what to do as soon as you get here, so even if we’re a little late, you’ll have a head start~.>
<Oh, that’s right…. It was four o’clock, four o’clock!>
<Okay, okay, seniors, I’ll see you again tomorrow at four in the morning.>
A conversation from yesterday evening flashed through my mind as soon as I ensured no one was in the kitchen.
Up until that point, I had a hunch that something was off, but I didn’t realize it.
‘Our conversation was a little awkward for some reason…. did these bitches screw me over…?’
They’re only a year more experienced than me, and they’ve already learned to be mean.
I was so focused on my work as a maid that I didn’t even think about it.
Those bitches would probably sneak out at six o’clock, right on time for work. No matter how often they slapped me, they wouldn’t miss work…
…and they would work just as lazily as I did on the work I did earlier.
…Yes, I can tolerate that much.
It’s a game world, a fantasy world, and it’s where people live together.
The idea of expecting moral rectitude from a maid working for a ducal family was odd in the first place.
In reality, this situation, where I’d been dealt with in a hurry, wasn’t so bad for me.
Especially since it allowed me to achieve my true purposes for which I had truly hoped to work in the kitchen.
‘It’s always better to practice magic when no one’s around.’
Normally, I would have been practicing my magic in secret, avoiding the watchful eyes of the other senior maids.
Now that I was alone with no one else, it meant I could use magic to my heart’s content without anyone noticing.
So, essentially, the situation wasn’t so bad.
In this world, there are three main ways to increase the maximum amount of mana one can have.
The best way is to drain it to the bottom and then fill it back up again to perfection.
It was a law of this world that just by repeating this, the maximum amount of mana would increase regardless of level.
There were two other methods, but this was the only one I could utilize right now.
I couldn’t expect to grow by hunting monsters and leveling up right now.
‘I have magic at my disposal, and I have a means of replenishing my mana…. is it really better off just being alone…?’
A place where you can use magic to your heart’s content without being detected.
A place where you can replenish your mana with food as soon as it is used up.
For the senior maids, it was the perfect environment to be thankful for the slapping.
‘You won’t be able to grow at higher levels because you’ll need to replenish your mana, so you should put as much as you can in while you’re still at level 2.’
Maximizing one’s mana by draining it to the bottom and refilling it is much harder at higher levels.
While mana consumption is the same between the low and high levels, maxing out the amount of mana at high levels was bound to have its limitations.
Once you’ve drained triple and even quadruple-digit amounts of mana, it’s quite an arduous task to replenish it.
In this world, the only means of restoring mana other than sleep is through food, and the human stomach has limits to what it can digest at once.
An apple restores 30 mana, so even if you ate three, you wouldn’t reach the full 100.
You’d have to eat 34 apples to get to 1,000 mana, which is well into the four digits, and at that point, you’re begging to get bulimia in the next few months.
Even in-game, there are limits to how much hp you can replenish with food. There’s an invisible satiety meter in the interface that tells you that if you feed too much, a message will appear telling you that you can’t eat anymore.
Many of the most efficient items were either ridiculously expensive and only used when it mattered most or were impossible to eat because most characters hated them.
Aside from that distant future, my current maximum mana is only 21.
I had used it all up, and an apple was all I needed to replenish it, so now was the most efficient time to increase it.
Moreover, this kitchen should be full of the aforementioned ‘efficient items.’
“Probably around here… Ah, I found it.”
Amidst the various sacks of old crops and vegetables, I spotted one that looked unusually small.
As expected, it contained a bunch of magic replenishment items.
Alongside the other ingredients was a sizable bundle of garlic, almost as if it had been plucked from a field.
‘I’m not really a fan of chewing raw garlic… but I don’t have anything better to eat right now.’
If I were the game character, Lilith herself, I wouldn’t even be able to eat it, but fortunately for me, the contents of Lilith were Lee Ji-Hwan, a healthy young man from South Korea.
As a Korean, having lived in a nation of spices, I’d be happy to replenish my magic by chewing on raw garlic.
‘I should probably learn some magic before I eat it.’
Even if I replenished my mana while my mana was full, it wouldn’t increase my total mana, so I had to empty my mana with magic first.
To do that, I needed to learn certain magical spells first, so I had to choose carefully which among them I should learn first.
The amount of skill points I could gain per level was limited anyway, and I didn’t know when I’d get the chance to level up Lilith, who was currently level 2.
‘I can’t even learn or use magic for monster hunting. Buffing spells are meaningless on their own.’
Actually, I’ve been plotting out my spells since I found out I was being transferred to the kitchen today.
I spent two of the three skill points I have right now to learn Clean.
If I were the protagonist, I would have put the other skills up first, but this was what Lilith needed most right now.
I clasped my hands together to open the information window and unlocked Clean first on the list of skills I had.
Immediately, I felt the sensation of something like magical knowledge seeping into my body.
“Oh, oh, ohhhh….”
For the first time, my mood was lifted by this strange sensation of excitement.
I wasn’t sure how it worked, but I had a feeling in my head that I could use Clean right now.
“I’ll give it a shot.”
A single Clean costs 20 mana.
That’s a lot of mana for a foundation spell, but for me, whose goal is to increase my mana total, it’s more of a benefit.
After all, it was worth the cost of the spell in the first place.
I focused my senses on the clove of garlic in my palm and used Clean as if I were releasing magic power.
The chunks of garlic neatly separated from the palm of my hand with a fine swirling motion.
In this world, Clean is used to organize dirty things.
Whether it’s peeling vegetables, wiping off dirty dishes, or cleaning a body part, it was a spell that could be used in any way you wanted.
This kind of versatility was definitely worth getting as a first spell.
『Current Mana: 1 / 21』
“…Done.”
Clean had worked, and I could see that the magic had been used up.
I consumed the remaining one mana with a rough ‘let it go’ feeling, bringing my remaining magic to zero.
I picked up one of the garlic cloves in the palm of my hand to replenish my completely emptied reservoir.
The amount of mana I could replenish with a single garlic clove was a whopping 50.
Compared to other mana-replenishing foods like apples and tangerines, this was a ridiculously efficient item.
However, due to its pungent aroma and aromatic taste, raw garlic was considered inedible by most of the characters.
The few characters who could eat it, including the main character, were allowed to eat a few grains.
Since heat destroys nutrients, I had to chew on this raw garlic thoroughly to replenish my mana efficiently.
If half a clove of garlic can replenish all my energy, why not?
If I was Lilith before I regained my memories of my previous life, I probably wouldn’t have even attempted it, but I still had the memories of Lee Ji-Hwan, who had lived in Korea for 26 years.
This much garlic is nothing for Koreans….
Crunch.
“……Ugh?!”
As soon as I chewed half of the garlic, the pungent aroma that lingered in my mouth almost made me spill its contents.
…What is this? Did garlic always taste like this?
I’ve had ssamjang *1, but I don’t think I’ve ever tasted raw garlic like this before.
Was it because I became Lilith in the game that my body’s ability to taste it had changed into Lilith’s tastes?
“Ugh…Blehhh…!”
I barely managed to steady myself as I was almost dizzy from the strong garlic scent that seemed to envelop my entire face.
I managed to swallow half of the garlic in my mouth.
I thought I could eat raw garlic without a problem, but this unexpected obstacle was going to hold me back.
It was a moment that made me reflect on all the times I’ve criticized characters in Luminor Academy for not eating garlic.
If it’s this painful, no wonder they can’t swallow it raw.
“Mana….Yes, the mana….”
Despite the pain, I had to check what needed to be checked, so I clasped my hands together again and pulled up Lilith’s information window.
There it was, clearly stating the significant change in maximum mana.
『Current Mana: 21 / 21+1』
It had been completely emptied and then refilled by eating garlic. As soon as it was replenished, the maximum amount of magic increased.
At least it was a change that confirmed that the suffering he’d just endured wasn’t pointless.
It was only an increase of 1 for now, but by level 10, it would be almost a 6 or 7 increase.
No matter how I thought about it, this was the most ‘efficient’ way to increase the maximum amount of mana.
“As far as the cult ending goes… Never….”
I couldn’t sit around whimpering now, not if I wanted to avoid a future where I’d be beaten by a damned pig.
Using Clean once more to empty my magic, I popped the remaining half of the garlic back into my mouth.
“Wow…!”
I swallowed the nausea rising in my gut and somehow managed to chew the energy supplement down the back of my throat.
After this, there’s no telling when the next opportunity will come.
I could change jobs again as soon as tomorrow, or the senior maids could decide to come in early on a whim, and this was a difficult training method to utilize.
I had to give it my all, treating every day as my last chance. I had to avoid the bad ending at all costs, even if it meant breathing a field of garlic down my neck.
No matter what happens.
T/N
Hello! Axiomatic here.
Since the site got reset, I’m changing up my TL style. I noticed that I had to do this as I was re-editing this chapter and the ones before it.
That’s all for now, thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!