All Chapters of Recipe for the Apocalypse: I Cooked an S-Rank Monster: Chapter 1
- Chapter 7
7 chapters
Chapter 1: The Last Order at The Rusty Skillet
"Hey, Cook. If a monster comes through that wall, what are you gonna throw at it? A spatula?"The voice cut through the buzz of the neon light above the counter. Griggs leaned over the steel surface, grinning. Rank-D Hunter. Claw scars across his jaw, too much beer in his blood. Two of his buddies snickered behind him.Dash didn't look up. The fillet knife in his right hand kept moving, slicing a Rustmaw Rat, a thing the size of a sewer rat, into paper-thin sheets. Precise. No hesitation. Not for serving. For disposal. Monster meat never goes on a plate. First rule of Ironway."I'm talking to you, Cook." Griggs rapped his knuckles on the counter. "You hear me, or are your ears plugged with grease?""I heard you," Dash said. Flat voice. He set the last slice on a metal tray and shoved it toward the waste bin under the counter. "And the answer is a spatula, if it's sharp enough."Griggs burst out laughing. "You hear that? Our CIV-7 wants to go to war with a spatula!"In the corner of th
Last Updated : 2026-10-05
Chapter 2: Dry-Brine and Blood
"Dead. Dead. DEAD!"Dash twisted the cleaver in the Ashback Jackal's neck with every last ounce of strength left in his arm. Not a chop. Not a swing. A twist. Like separating a chicken thigh from the body. The joint. He was looking for the joint.His brain wasn't thinking like a fighter. His brain was thinking like a cook who had cut meat off the bone ten thousand times. Right here. Between the third and fourth vertebra. There's a gap. There's always a gap.The cleaver crunched. Cartilage snapped.The Ashback Jackal let out one final howl, a sound like a saw biting through green timber, and its whole body convulsed. Its hind legs clawed at the tile. Then it dropped. Its side slammed into the spice rack. Bottles shattered. Hot ash burst from its back like embers doused with water.Then silence.Dash collapsed to the floor. His back hit the steel counter. His breath came in short, ragged gasps, like someone just hauled out of deep water. His left arm, from elbow to wrist, was blistering
Last Updated : 2026-10-05
Chapter 3: You Cook or You Die
Morning came with no sleep, and Dash could still feel the ghost of warmth at his fingertips, even though he knew the buff had worn off three hours ago.He knelt on the kitchen floor, scrubbing the Ashback Jackal's black blood off the tile with coarse salt and a wire brush. The monster's bones were already wrapped in burlap and hidden behind the waste bins at the back of The Rusty Skillet. The skillet was washed. The counter was wiped down. No trace left.Except on his arm. The skin that had been blistering last night was smooth now. Too smooth. Like hot ash had never touched it. Dash pulled his sleeve down to his wrist and covered it.He had just tossed the brush into the bucket when the kitchen door opened. Not a customer. Not Griggs.Sergeant Voss walked in with two gray-uniformed officers behind him. Head of civilian sector security. Narrow face. Stiff jaw. His eyes swept the kitchen like he was inspecting a barracks."Dashiell Vreeland," Voss said. Not a question."Yes.""You're C
Last Updated : 2026-10-05
Chapter 4: The Denaturation Theory
"Get inside. Before the next alarm makes us both deaf."Theo shoved the back door of The Rusty Skillet open with his shoulder, the notebook still strapped to his chest. Dash followed him in, shut the door, and locked it. Outside, the alarm was still wailing, five long notes that hadn't stopped for two minutes straight. But inside the kitchen, with the steel door sealed, the sound dulled to a low hum that rattled the glasses on the shelf."You said you had a theory," Dash said. He pulled two chairs from behind the counter and set them facing each other. "Talk."Theo sat down. Set his thermos on the floor. Opened the notebook on his lap to the first page. His thin fingers tapped a hand-drawn molecular diagram, a hexagonal structure with side chains crossed out in red."You know why people die when they eat monster meat?" Theo asked."Poison," Dash said. "Everyone knows that.""Right. But the poison isn't arsenic. Isn't cyanide. Isn't a bacterial toxin." Theo flipped a page. "It's protei
Last Updated : 2026-10-05
Chapter 5: Cooking Under Fire
The sky above Ironway's southern perimeter turned red at seventeen minutes past three in the morning, and Dash knew, from the vibration crawling through the kitchen tile into the soles of his feet, that tonight was no ordinary breach.Not one monster. Not four.Dozens.The alarm screamed again. Not five notes. Not seven. This time it never stopped. One long, unbroken tone, like a machine wailing because it knows it is about to die. From the speakers, Aldric's voice came through, and for the first time it didn't sound like an order. It sounded like a warning."All Hunters, southern perimeter. CIV-7, evacuate to Sector Four and Sector Seven bunkers. Now. This is not a drill."Dash was already in the kitchen. Theo, who had been outside for barely three minutes, came sprinting back in, gasping, the notebook still strapped to his chest. "Sector Nine is too far," he said, doubled over in the doorway. "I won't make it. Safer here.""Nothing is safe," Dash said. He pulled Theo behind the coun
Last Updated : 2026-10-05
Chapter 6: Raw Materials
"I need ten Rank-B Hunters for next week's perimeter patrol. They need buffs. Can you cook for them?"Kael stood at the counter of The Rusty Skillet with both hands on her hips. Not sitting. Not sipping soup in the corner. Standing. Like she was delivering a briefing. Like she was demanding an answer.Dash was wiping down the cast-iron skillet with a rag. He didn't look up. "Ten portions. Rank-C technique. Dry-brine and slow render. I can do it.""Can you?""I can." Dash set the skillet down. Looked at her. "But I need ingredients. And not five kilos scraped off carcasses you drag in during a siege. I need thirty kilos minimum. Fresh meat. Glands intact. And I can't hunt on my own."Kael nodded. Like she already knew what he would say. "Then you come with me. Outside the walls."Silence. Dash stared at her. Kael stared back."I'm CIV-7," Dash said."I know.""CIV-7s aren't allowed outside the perimeter. Aldric's rule. It's written on every guard post.""I know," Kael repeated. She pul
Last Updated : 2026-10-05
Chapter 7: At the Commander's Table
"You're a CIV-7. You went outside the perimeter without authorization. You brought unquarantined monster tissue into the fort."Aldric Sonnenveld didn't shout. He didn't slam his fist on the desk. His voice was flat as untempered steel, hard, cold, with no room to argue. He sat behind the command desk with his back straight, two officers flanking him, and in the corner of the room Griggs stood with a smile he couldn't quite hide.Dash stood in the center of the room. Beside him was a cooler holding thirty kilos of Sandvein Lizard meat. Kael had carried it in, but Voss ordered her out before Dash entered. This is civilian business, Voss had said. Hunters don't get a say."Do you know the penalty?" Aldric asked."Execution or exile," Dash answered."Yes." Aldric stared at him. His eyes were gray. Unblinking. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't do both. Right now. Tonight."In the corner, Griggs smiled wider.Dash didn't answer with words. He knelt down. Opened the cooler. Pulled out two
Last Updated : 2026-10-05