I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 113

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 113. Steel Castella (1)
“What on earth happened while I was away?”
I couldn’t help but ask.
When I first arrived here, all that existed was Nuri’s small plant garden and a cultivation facility filled to the brim with Moisture Sprouts.
But what about now?
“That… what is that building?”
“Oh, that building you’re asking about? That’s a production line!”
“A production… line?”
“That’s right! Subunseo Cheong sells so fast that if I don’t produce at this scale, I can’t keep up with the demand.”
Nuri laughed sheepishly while scratching her head.
However, the level and scale of the production line went far beyond head-scratching.
A massive facility as if I’d entered some large-scale factory.
Inside, plump and well-grown steel Moisture Sprouts, nurtured with purifying salt, were being carefully processed into Subunseo Cheong.
And furthermore…
“The packaging is… automatic too?”
“At first, I packaged everything by hand, but that took way too long. So I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and just went for it.”
Mechanical arms whirred and precisely transferred Subunseo Cheong into bottles.
And not only did they package it neatly, but they also attached pretty labels on the outside.
“Wait, where did all this money come from…?”
“Where else? All from selling Subunseo Cheong! We’re rich now! Hahaha!”
Honestly, I hadn’t checked the details properly.
I knew a surprisingly large amount of money had come in, but I never expected it to be this much.
I never imagined they could afford equipment of this caliber.
Meanwhile, Nuri quietly leaned in close and whispered in my ear.
“Honestly, it would’ve been really tough without the little ones you sent.”
“Ah. How are the Gingerbread Men doing?”
This was definitely something worth whispering about.
In the early days before Gora arrived, I had to make each Subunseo Cheong myself and send it here, where they only handled diluting and bottling.
As purchases increased, I found myself having to make Subunseo Cheong all day long, leaving no time to actually bake the bread I needed to sell the next day.
But now that was no longer necessary.
All I had to do was dispatch the Ginger Man Legion created by Gora’s ability here to make Subunseo Cheong.
“Yep. They’re all sitting inside the mechanical arms over there. See those slightly round bumps sticking out?”
Following Nuri’s words, I looked at the mechanical arms again and noticed distinctly protruding spaces on each arm.
When Subunseo Cheong flowed toward those spots, the Gingerbread Men inside were probably working diligently.
“Ever since doing this, meeting production targets has become so much easier.”
“It’s made things easier for me too. By the way…”
Just as I was about to say something, I noticed another peculiarity.
Shiny stones were attached to each mechanical arm.
Every time they performed more intricate work, I felt a humming vibration, and it looked exactly like…
“Could those be… Mana Stones?”
“Huh? You knew about Uchi-ki? Your eye for detail is truly extraordinary.”
“A genuine mana stone?”
A mana stone.
Unlike the spirit stone I’d received from Seung-hyun, it was a gate product formed from pure concentrated mana.
One mana scholar had explained that, much like pearls, they grow slowly over long periods within a monster’s body.
Mana stones themselves could be called extraordinarily rare.
They’d attached such a precious mana stone there?
Whether Nuri sensed my thoughts or not, he exhaled a long sigh and answered as if lamenting the hardships he’d endured.
“Since we’re producing so much, the equipment kept heating up and overheating. Malfunctions happened pretty frequently too. That’s when Han Yul suggested we try doing it this way.”
“Haha. Our guild happens to have quite a surplus of low-quality mana stones.”
The man burst into hearty laughter and shrugged his shoulders.
A familiar face.
He was one of the hunters who’d been dying after being drained by Moisture Sprout when Sky conquered the Gangneung gate back then.
I remembered thinking his prowess was impressive—fighting the Salt Giant bare-handed without even a shield.
From what I heard, the Blue Dragon Guild, his guild, genuinely had low-grade mana stones piling up.
Well, a guild like the Blue Dragon would have continuously hunted monsters, so they’d naturally possess multiple mana stones.
They used the high-grade ones for crafting equipment and such, while the low-purity low-grade mana stones accumulated in storage.
Han Yul, remembering this fact, had proposed it to Nuri first.
“The Guild Leader approved it readily!”
“Then that’s fortunate…”
It was fortunate that Sky, the Guild Leader, had given permission.
Otherwise, friction with the massive Blue Dragon Guild would have arisen.
“But who is this person…?”
“Oh! This is the person who taught me how to cultivate Moisture Sprout. A truly grateful benefactor. He even provided funds and made investments with me.”
“My goodness! Really!”
“Haha. Yes.”
Before coming here, I’d coordinated my story with Nuri.
Nuri was the only person who truly knew I was a Witch.
The others only knew that Nuri had established Witchfood on orders from some mysterious entity within a gate.
So Nuri couldn’t treat me with excessive deference or call me things like “teacher.”
I’d positioned myself as a co-investor in this place.
Since I’d actually invested some of my own money into the cash flow for his sake, there should be no problem.
“You’re truly remarkable! I always thought Nuri was the best when it came to gate-origin plants! How does someone running a bakery possess such information!”
“Haha… just coincidence. Pure coincidence. Haha.”
“All hunters in the world should be grateful to you, Owner! Hunter mortality rates inside gates have plummeted since this appeared!”
“Is that so?”
The purpose of Subunseo Cheong was water absorption.
So the only real change was being able to drink water inside gates—there shouldn’t be much else that changed.
But Han Yul shook his head vigorously at my words and answered.
“That’s knowing one thing while missing two! Do you have any idea how barren the environment inside gates is!”
The average amount of water a person needs daily is roughly 2-3 liters for a healthy adult.
Normally about 20% comes from food, but for Hunters exploring gates, that’s nothing but a dream.
“All we can do is bring heavily dried and preserved rations treated with mana conservation methods.”
Moreover, since Hunters engage in intense activity inside gates, they need additional water per hour.
Han Yul explained that several gate conquests had actually failed due to Hunters suffering from dehydration.
In fact, dehydration was one of the major causes of death inside gates.
“That’s why Hunters with skills to create water regardless of quantity command such high salaries.”
“Ah. From what I know, those individuals belong to the Church.”
“Exactly. Whew. That’s why we had no end of headaches. Until this came along!”
The Subunseo Cheong emerged precisely because the Church had been aggressively recruiting Hunters capable of creating moisture through skills, giving them a monopoly that caused considerable trouble.
Han Yul explained that as gate conquest success rates rose simultaneously, support for expeditions became abundant—the best possible situation.
“That’s why it’s so remarkable! And then this new recipe you gave us this time! That was moving too! It’s going to be revolutionary!”
“Even so, I wouldn’t say it’s that much…”
“It is that much! A castella that triples defense power!”
Han Yul poured out praise for the castella, one of the new products we were about to launch.
Yeah, I did put in some effort, to be honest.
The Subunseo Cheong was work that could be completed simply by following the recipe, but the castella was different.
The castella I first created used a recipe with silver-spined mugwort.
Its effect was allowing one to fully feel and empathize with the target’s heart.
But what good would it do for Hunters to eat such bread?
“So I did extensive research on the recipe.”
I first conceived of a modified castella recipe for Dayeon’s sake.
Drawing from the etymology of the name castella, which contains the meaning of “castle,” I incorporated an effect that increased defense power by five times.
However, this effect had the drawback of requiring Nana and the Gingerbread Man to put in direct effort to create it.
After careful consideration for mass production and sales, I managed to create a recipe that compromised appropriately, producing about three times the effect.
“Plus, we went through even more trouble making it so Hunters could prepare and eat it directly inside gates.”
“That’s innovation itself!”
Castella isn’t actually suitable as a preserved food.
It crumbles easily, and since it contains eggs and milk, it spoils readily.
So Nuri and I wanted to solve this problem through a DIY approach.
After much deliberation, what emerged was…
“It’s better to see it directly! Here it is!”
Nuri handed me a compact packaging container that fit perfectly in one hand, just like the commercial baking mix products sold in stores.
I took it and tore open the packaging.
The composition was simple.
A paper mold designed as a collapsible heat-resistant container.
And a measuring cup for holding water.
Plus flavor ampules in stick packaging containing honey, vanilla oil, and liquid butter all in one place.
All of this was prepared under thorough calculation, but what I invested the most effort into was something else.
“This actually works.”
Powder packaged in a ziplock bag.
The true identity of what I’d named the All-in-One Mix.
It wasn’t just cake flour and sugar—it contained whole egg powder made by drying both the whites and yolks, full-fat milk powder, and even a touch of baking powder for proper aeration, making it the perfect premixed batter base.
“That’s right! You really worked so hard on it.”
“Yes. You really did work hard.”
As I stared at the powder, a status window materialized in my mind.
[Steel Castella Powder]
▷ A powder that creates Steel Castella batter with just water and shaking. It contains fairy wing powder, golden wheat flour, and cockatrice eggs blended in perfect proportions.
This status window would never occur to ordinary hunters.
Only I, who mixed it myself, could see it.
Golden wheat flour was something I always used, and I added fairy wing powder to make fermentation easier.
What creates the steel-like effect that triples defense power is none other than the cockatrice egg.
“It was really so exhausting…”
Just like in legends, the cockatrice is a ferocious monster combining the form of a rooster with that of a lizard.
Moreover, merely meeting its gaze or touching its breath inflicts petrification curse, and its body is so incredibly durable that ordinary attacks don’t work—it’s classified as A-rank for good reason.
I could never have done it alone, but this time I was able to borrow Miracle’s power.
‘Didn’t I promise to bring you anything you desire, Yeon-gi?’
Though in that process, Noir did regurgitate a letter with gratitude toward me written in one sweeping stroke.
In any case, thanks to that, I obtained a fresh cockatrice egg and used it to create this product.
“Should we try making it quickly?”
“Sounds good! I’m very curious! But where are Pil-seong and Siwoo?”
“I think they said they were doing one last experiment over there?”
“An experiment? Ah.”
I recalled hearing about it before.
Siwoo had mentioned creating portable cooking equipment and selling it together.
I was curious what it would look like.
That was when it happened.
BOOOOOOOM!
“What in the world!”
“What’s going on!”
“Meow!”
A massive explosion loud enough to startle Nuri, Han Yul, and Doo-sik.
And the source was coming from where Pil-seong and Siwoo had been conducting their final experiment.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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