Chapter 2: We Got Entrails as a Drop!

The first floor of the meat dungeon.

“What tranquil scenery...” The first floor of the meat dungeon was a wide grassland.

Though from what I heard, all the floors in the dungeon looked like this, the only difference between them was the monsters that appeared.

I was riding on Fel’s back as we moved through the floor.

There were a total of four teleportation circles that connected the first floor to the second, and we were heading for the farthest one. We decided on going for the farthest because I’d been told that the closest ones to the entrance had lines of adventurers waiting to go down. So we decided that rather than wait in a line, it’d be better to take in the scenery of the dungeon while going for an empty circle, especially since it wouldn’t take long riding on top of Fel.

The monsters that appeared on this floor were white sheep and big rabbits. White sheep dropped intestines, and big rabbits dropped their meat and fur. Apparently getting the fur from big rabbits was considered a terrible drop.

Here and there I could see herds of white sheep munching on grass and big rabbits hopping around.

“They’re straight up just sheep and rabbits, aren’t they? Though they’re a little bigger than normal.” The white sheep looked about 1.5 times bigger than a normal sheep, and the big rabbits seemed like they might even be twice as big as a normal rabbit.

The white sheep and big rabbits on this floor wouldn’t attack unless you got too close or bothered them first, or so I’d heard. I did think, Then they’re just regular animals! But they really were monsters, since they’d turn ferocious once you set them off.

Still, pretty much no adventurers of even an average level were active on this floor. On top of there being little profit to be made here, the meat from the white sheep was gamey and hard to handle, and big rabbit meat was tough. Neither of those meats were even close to delicious.

Instead of adventurers, this floor was occupied by the little tykes from the orphanage. There were even some girls amongst them, though they were few and far between. I watched them in action as they slowly separated a white sheep from its herd without it noticing before jumping it and beating it up through sheer numbers. They weren’t strong enough to take on an entire herd, so this was a pretty clever solution in my opinion. The weapons the boys and girls were using were basically small clubs, which seemed quite brave of them to me.

As I was watching these children in action from the side during our trip to the teleportation point, I heard a scream.

“Kyaaaahhhh!!!”

“W-WAAAAAHHH!!!!”

“Susanna!! Geraldo!!” There was a girl who had fallen on her back, a boy who was trying to stand her up, a white sheep that was charging at them, and a bunch of other boys who could only watch.

“Dora-chan!”

《Oh fine.》 I called on Dora-chan, who boasted the most mobility, to help. While he didn’t seem too enthused about it, he still got to work quickly.

Dora-chan let loose some ice magic.

“Meeehhh...” An icicle that was smaller than the ones I usually saw flew and hit the wild sheep directly in the head, causing the monster to fall lifelessly in front of the children.

“Heeyy, you guys all right?” I got off of Fel’s back with a grunt of effort and called out to the children, and they looked over at me with surprised expressions still on their faces.

“Waaaggh! I-It’s a huge wolf! A-And a small dragon!” The first one to react and shout something was one of the boys.

“Ah, the wolf and dragon here are my familiars, so don’t worry about them.”

“Huh? Familiar... Are you a tamer, old man?” O-Old man............? I-I’m not old. Not old at all! I’m still in my 20’s!

“That’s right. Also, I’m not an old man. I’m still in my 20’s. Call me big bro.”

“Why? You’re an old man so why shouldn’t I call you one?”

“You’re wrong, kid. People in their 20’s are still young. Call me big bro, got it?”

“Fiiine.”

Fel, Dora-chan, you stop laughing.

“Ah, thanks for rescuing my friends, big bro!” The boy who called me an old man looked like the leader of this group. When he spoke, the other kids who’d gotten back up and regrouped all chorused, “Thanks!”

They wouldn’t die just from a white sheep’s tackle, but they’d still be sent flying and become unable to move for two or three days afterward.

If they got hit in the wrong place, the sheep could even break bones, so the kids thanked me since I really did save them.

“You guys sure have it tough.”

“We usually do pretty good, actually. Susanna did mess up today, though.” The leader kid said as he looked at the girl who was apparently Susanna.

“Teehee, I tripped.”

“Geraldo, if you’re gonna try and save the girl you like, you should be faster about it,” the leader kid said, causing the other one named Geraldo to turn bright red and go, “Wha-?!”

Ah, to be young again.

“Here you go, big bro. The drops are yours.” The leader kid handed over the drops from the white sheep I just saved them from.

“No, I don’t need it. We’re going for meat further down. You all can keep it.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Yeah,” I said, and the girls and boys all cheered.

“That means we won’t have to go back empty-handed.”

“Yeah. They’re all waiting for us, too.” I asked them about it, and they told me that the food they caught here went straight to their dinner table.

The children from the orphanage all waited for the results of their hunting on this floor every day.

“It’s hard, but I hear that we have it better here than a lot of other orphanages.”

Well, that’s probably true. Just the fact that they’re able to eat meat every day means they’re pretty lucky.

“But even though the meat goes to everyone at the orphanage, the director says that we can sell everything else to buy stuff for ourselves, so it’s worth it.”

“Yeah. We can save up money to buy weapons for when we become adventurers!”

I see. So while the meat is for the orphanage, the kids can use everything else freely. Sounds like the orphanage director in this town is pretty nice.

“Still, your familiars are really strong, aren’t they...” The leader kid said while looking at Dora-chan.

“That huge wolf looks strong too.” The kid looked up at Fel, who was several times bigger than he was.

“Yeah.” Yep. He’s stronger than me, his master, as well.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen a tamer, and you’re really strong. Can I become a tamer?”

“Stuuuupid. Tamers need to have an affinity for it. You can’t just become one because you want to.”

“Y-You don’t know if I have an affinity or not!”

“Ahh, fine, fine. Don’t fight.”

“Shh! Everyone, look at that.” The leader kid suddenly seemed serious as he pointed at something: a larger than normal chicken that looked like a broiler.

“It’s a wild chicken!”

“Wooaahh, we’re super lucky today, aren’t we!” The boys whispered to each other.

“Let’s surround it while making sure it doesn’t notice us.”

““““Okay.”””” With practiced movements, the kids quietly surrounded the bird that was apparently called a wild chicken.

Then...

“Now!!” *Rustle rustle*

The leader kid shouted the signal, and all the other kids jumped out at once.

“Raaaggh!!” “Eeiii!!” “Yaahhh!!” “Haagghh!!” “Oraaaa!!” Bang! Snap! Clong! Clang! Bong!

The chicken didn’t even have time to fight back as the kids all used their clubs to gang up on it.

“Cluck cluck...” The chicken only managed a small death cry.

While I felt bad for the bird, there was nothing else for it.

This was a dungeon, after all.

“YEEAAHHH! We got meat!”

“I heard that only white sheep and big rabbits appeared here. I guess that wasn’t everything though,” I commented to them.

“Actually, this wild chicken is from the 2nd floor, big bro. Sometimes one gets ‘lost’ and ends up on the 1st floor like this. You know, this thing’s delicious and not gamey at all!” The kids were all making a fuss about the feast they were going to have.

They’re so pure, acting like that even though they’ll only get a little of the chicken after it’s split between everyone. Okay. Let’s help them a little then.

I’d been concerned about their clubs for a while now.

“Hey, do you guys all only have those clubs?”

“Yeah. It’s cuz we don’t have any money to buy weapons. So we just picked out some pieces of firewood that seemed solid and tough. They still break sometimes though, so we do carry spares.”

So these were all originally firewood...

“I’ll make it a bit better for you. Let me see it?”

“Hm? Sure, but whadda you mean by better?”

“Oh. I’m just going to make it harder and easier to grip. I’m not going to be the one doing this, though... Sui, wake up.” I shook the bag that was hanging from my shoulder a little.

《Hmmm~? Masterrrr, what’s up?》 Sui slowly got out of the bag.

“This is my familiar, Sui the slime.” I introduced Sui to the kids.

“Sui can do all sorts of things... Can you make this club like this so it’s easier to hold, and suck out all the water so it’s harder?” I drew a picture on a pad I had on me to show Sui.

《Okay, that’s easy! Sui will try!》 I handed over the leader kid’s club to Sui.

《Masteerrr, it’s done!》 It didn’t even take a minute to finish the wooden bat.

“Ohh, thanks, Sui.” I gave it a test swing and it felt nice.

As expected from a Sui work.

“Here. It’s harder and easier to hold now, so it should be better than what you had before.”

“Ohhh~!” I handed the weapon back to the leader kid, and he immediately started swinging it around.

“This is great! It’s easier to hold so I can swing as hard as I can! Thanks, big bro!” After seeing what happened with the leader kid, the others started crowding me, all saying, “Me too! Me too!”

“Ahh, just calm down everyone. I’ll do the same for all of you, so get in line.” I had Sui improve all their clubs in order.

“Ohhh! Amazing! It’s so easy to swing!”

“Yeah! That means I can hit things as hard as I can!”

“It always felt like it’d fly out of my hands, but now I don’t have to worry about that!”

“Yeah, now we can hit things as hard as we can!” The kids were all swinging their bats around happily.

“This should help you a little. Work hard!”

“““““Thanks, big bro!””””” I saw the kids off before resuming my journey to the teleportation point.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

The 2nd floor was also a wide-open grassland.

The monsters that appeared on this floor were wild chickens and horn rabbits.

I could see new adventurers walking around here and there.

Our aim was the evolved dungeon pigs and dungeon cows from the lower floors, so we were passing through this one.

I had heard that there were also four teleportation circles on this floor, so we once again headed for the farthest circle.

No matter which circle you used, you always ended up at the same place, so apparently the closest ones were always crowded with adventurers.

I had a peek at the closest circle on our way to the farthest, and the line was long and snaking.

Since I had Fel, the distance to the teleportation circle didn’t really matter for me, but if I had to walk to our destination it’d likely take hours.

Since the drop items from this dungeon were pretty much all raw meat, it was common to only make day trips into the dungeon, so the crowding among the nearest teleportation circles was supposed to be near constant. That being the case, I was told that the crowding went on until the 8th floor, which was where most of the adventurers hunted.

There wasn’t anything really of note on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors, so we just passed through.

Then, there was the 6th floor.

That was the floor for dungeon pork.

Since the town had a high demand for dungeon pork, there were a lot of adventurers here.

“So that’s a dungeon pig. They’re pretty hefty.” Dungeon pigs had sharp tusks poking out of their lower jaw and light brown hair. They were also very round.

“What should we do? Want to hunt some?”

《We can probably just kill whatever we happen to pass by. Our real aim is their higher form, after all.》

《Yeah. The evolved ones taste better, too. If we’re going to go hunting, we should be going for the better stuff anyway.》

《Sui is fine with anything. But delicious meat is better.》

So I guess we’re focusing on the more delicious evolved forms.

“Then let’s just hunt whatever we come across on the way to the teleportation circle.”

《Indeed.》

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

As we traveled towards the teleportation circle, a herd of dungeon pigs appeared ahead of us.

“Mm.” *slash slash slash*

““““““Ooooiiiinkkk!”””””” The screams of the dungeon pigs echoed across the grasslands.

“Oh......” Wind blades flew and sliced the dungeon pigs apart.

“Is that your wind magic, Fel?”

《Indeed. They were in the way, so why not?》

To all you pigs who were decimated on a whim, I feel for you. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“I guess let’s just pick up the meat for now.”

《Quite.》 There were over 20 dungeon pigs, and they’d all turned into meat.

“It’s nice that every monster killed in this dungeon always drops something.” Each chunk of meat that dropped was neatly wrapped in leaves.

And inside...

“This... it’s the intestine! Whoohoo, that means I can make chitterling hot pot and chitterling stew! It’s even good grilled~... Oh man, I’m looking forward to this.” When I shouted after picking up the intestines, Fel and the others came over.

《Hm, what happened?》

“It’s intestines! Intestines! These are delicious~!”

《Are they? Then Sui wants some!》

《Intestines? Hmmm, but after having your cooking...》

《Yeah... Intestines are really funky, right? They aren’t inedible, but after getting used to your cooking I can’t even consider eating them...》

“But they’re really good once they’ve been properly cooked. And fresh entrails aren’t funky at all. I swear they’re really good,” I insisted, but Fel and Dora-chan were still only half convinced, saying things like, “Really?” and “That stuff?”

“Well fine, I’ll just make something delicious with it anyway. You’re gonna be so surprised when you eat them. Also, if intestines get dropped here then they might also be dropped on the next floor with the dungeon cows too, as well as even farther down with the higher forms. We’ll be able to get lots of fresh guts so you’re all just going to be missing out if you won’t even try them.” If I managed to get a lot of entrails from dungeon pigs and dungeon cows, that’d open up a lot of cooking options for me.

It might be nice to have some chitterling hot pot for the first time in a long while with the intestines from a dungeon cow’s higher form.

I continued to pick up drops while imagining all the different dishes I could make when my surroundings started getting noisy.

“Hm?” I looked around and saw a ring of adventurers surrounding us.

“Hey, he’s a tamer, right?”

“That’s rare.”

“I know him. He’s an S-ranked tamer.”

“S-ranked?!”

“From what I heard, he conquered the dungeons in both Dolan and Aveling.”

“If that’s true, he’s amazing.”

“But, if he’s going to be hunting like that, there won’t be any left for us.”

“Yeah.”

“Even though they do pop back up eventually, that won’t be until at least the next day.” The gazes of the adventurers hurt.

S-Sorry. You guys are right.

I immediately gave up on hunting any more on this level that had lots of adventurers and decided to move on quickly.

So we took the teleportation circle to the 7th floor, where dungeon cows were.

Of course, there were a lot of adventurers here as well.

In order to avoid unnecessary friction with other adventurers, we decided to pass by this floor as well, so we quickly made for the teleportation circle to get to the 8th floor.

The 8th floor had both dungeon cows and dungeon pigs.

Compared to the 6th and 7th floors, there were slightly fewer adventurers about, but there were still quite a number of them working diligently. So once again, we decided to pass through the floor.

Then, we made it to the 9th floor.

The 9th floor had cockatrices, which often made their way into our meals.

And finally the number of adventurers had lessened greatly.

“We eat cockatrices a lot, but they’re C-ranked monsters, aren’t they?” Thanks to Fel and the others constantly obtaining good meat I almost forgot that fact. But to normal people, the orc and cockatrice meat that I used constantly was good meat that you’d have to splurge for.

“Let’s get some cockatrice here.”

《Yes, their meat is serviceable.》

《Right. These things make for decent karaage.》

《Karaage~!》 My familiars scattered.

Then, before even ten minutes had passed, my surroundings were nothing but meat chunks...

“Stop! STOOOP! That’s enough! Enough already!”

《Mm? Already?》

《What, why?》

《Masteeerrr, is this really enough?》

“It’s more than enough. It’s gonna be tough having to pick all this up, you know?” Just a quick count had the total already over 30 meat chunks.

Wait... Ahhh! The other adventurers nearby are all shocked!

“Okay everyone, after we collect all the meat we’re going to the next floor.” I had everyone help me collect the cockatrice meat before we headed for the next teleportation circle.

The next floor would be our goal. We’d finally be at the 10th floor.

Everything from the 10th floor on would be our hunting grounds.

Let’s start off by hunting as much dungeon pork as we can!

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

On the 10th floor———.

Just as I’d heard, the 10th floor was basically devoid of other adventurers. From far away, I could see the huge bodies of the evolved dungeon pigs either lying down or munching on grass.

“All of you, there’s no need to hold back from here on out.”

《Yes, I know. Our aim is the higher form’s delicious meat, correct?》 Fel’s eyes glinted as he tracked an evolved dungeon pig.

《Let’s hunt our hearts out!》

《Sui will get lots of delicious meat!》 Dora-chan and Sui were also fully motivated.

“Then I’ll just concentrate on picking everything up, so do your best,” I said, and my familiars scattered.

“I was told that the higher forms are twice as big as regular dungeon pigs, but they really are huge...” The evolved dungeon pigs were so huge they looked imposing even from a distance.

While I was talking to myself, the death cries of dungeon pigs started sounding off all around me.

“Ooiiiiinkkkk!” “Oi-Oiiiinkk!” “Oink! OOiiiinnnkkk!” ...Looks like things are going well.

“Now then, I should get to work too.” First, I worked my way towards Fel, who was hunting down dungeon pigs with wild abandon. Wherever he passed through, the ground was littered with dungeon pig meat chunks.

I diligently worked to pick up every single one.

Meanwhile, Fel was finding new herds of dungeon pigs with great accuracy and hunting them down one after the other. After finding a herd of evolved dungeon pigs, he’d charge into the group. Fel’s hunting style was both simple and highly effective.

He would swing a front leg towards a dungeon pig. That was the sign he was using his original skill, Rending Claws. By gathering magic power in his claws and releasing it, he could create a slashing attack that would fly through the air and cut apart his enemies. It was a ridiculous skill, capable of decimating an entire herd of dungeon pigs with a single use before he moved on to the next.

“He’s killing them so quickly I can’t catch up...” I couldn’t help but complain as I fell farther and farther behind Fel, who kept turning entire herds into meat faster than I could collect them.

“Ahh! He’s so far ahead already!” Fel was already far away, killing yet another herd.

“Oh, whatever. I’ll just leave Fel’s for later, let’s go try to pick up Dora-chan and Sui’s kills.” I decided to collect the fruits of Dora-chan’s and Sui’s efforts, since they were closer.

Let’s start with Dora-chan.

He was also hunting entire herds using ice magic. Pointed pillars of ice floated in the air before raining down on the dungeon pigs.

“Ooiiink!” “Oi-Oiiink!” “Oink!” The dungeon pigs that got skewered by the pillars of ice screamed before falling over, their huge bodies thudding loudly on the ground.

“Looks like Dora-chan’s doing well too.”

《Well, of course! Right, next. Gonna keep getting as much meat as I can!》 Dora-chan said before heading for the next herd.

I diligently picked up the chunks of meat he left behind. And there were intestines mixed in too, of course. Then I went over to where Sui was.

Sui was also happily killing dungeon pigs by the herd.

It used its specialty, Acid Bullet, to turn the dungeon pigs into chunks of meat.

*Pew pew pew pew pew*

Sui’s shots were both accurate and precise, and the dungeon pigs screamed before falling over without resistance.

“That’s awesome, Sui!”

《Heheheh~, is Sui awesome? But there’s still lots more to hunt! Sui won’t lose to Uncle Fel and Dora-chan!》

“I see!”

《Masteeerrr, Sui’s gonna go beat even more pigs~!》

“Sure! Be careful, got it?”

《Okaayyy!》 Sui said before leaving for the next herd of dungeon pigs.

I started diligently picking up the meat chunks Sui left behind.

“Whew, there’s really no end to this. Well, at least I’m getting lots of good meat out of it, so I’ll just have to pull my socks up.” I continued picking up chunks of meat one after the other as soon as I found one.

Then, an hour later———...

“Agghh, my waist hurts.” I’d been bending over to pick up meat this entire time and it was starting to take a toll. I tried to stretch my aches away for a bit.

“I picked up a lot, but...” When I looked around, the ground was still littered with chunks of meat.

“The amount of meat chunks in my Item Box is already in the triple digits, too...” Giannino said that he’d like ten chunks each of dungeon beef and dungeon pork if possible.

Even considering that, I had more than enough.

“Wait, no way...” I know I said there was no need to hold back, but there is a limit to everything. I think they know that, right? I’ve got a bad feeling... No, they’ve got to realize there’s a limit. They’ve got to.

While that ran its way through my mind, I heard my familiar’s voices from behind me.

《Hey, I am done.》

《We hunted so much!》

《Sui got looooots of meat!》

I slowly turned around, and I could imagine every joint in my body creaking like a rusted clockwork doll.

“Finished? What do you mean?”

《Finished hunting the dungeon pigs, of course.》

《We got every last one! Didn’t we?》

《Yep! There’s looots and looooooots of meat!》

............

Every last one... So much meat...

I looked around the 10th floor’s grasslands.

...None. I see no dungeon pigs anywhere.

“YOU GUYYYS YOU KILLED TOO MANNNYYYYYYY!”

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

“Whew~, finally done collecting all of it. That was awful.”

《You are the one who said there was no need to hold back.》

《Yeah!》

《Sui thought it was okay to get lots of meat...》

“Okay, I guess I did say that... But there’s limits, right? Killing literally every single thing on this floor is going too far!” I had everyone help me pick meat up using the magic bag, and the final count of dungeon pork was almost 400 pieces.

It actually took longer to pick everything up than to kill the monsters that dropped it.

“I picked it all up since leaving it would be a waste, but make sure to moderate yourselves on the next floor. If we want more we can always come back. We just got here, after all.” I already paid a week’s worth of rent on the house too, and I might still decide to extend that.

《Mrr, fine.》

《Sure, sure.》

《Okayyy!》

“Then, let’s go to the 11th floor.”

《Wait. Food is first.》

《Agreed. I’m getting hungry!》

《Sui’s also hungry~!》

True, now that they mention it. We dove into the dungeon early in the day, and getting through the floors took some time...

“All right then, let’s eat.” Now then, what should I make? The 11th and 12th floors are waiting after this meal, so I can’t take too long... I actually really want to cook these intestines, but it takes a while to prepare them... So...

I took out some chunks of meat that were dropped on this floor.

The dungeon pork’s layers of red meat and fat were clearly defined, and the meat as a whole was just beautiful. It looked like really delectable belly meat.

The entrails that dropped on this floor were always in their own packages, so I appraised the other drops, wondering if they were all separated into different cuts, and they were. I had shoulder, shoulder roast, loin, fillet, belly, and thighs.

This really is a meat-specialized dungeon.

The first thing to come to mind was a stir-fry.

Belly meat’s really good for stir-fry, too.

But I was feeling pretty tired from collecting all the meat, so the dish I chose, which would also help recover some stamina, was......

“Yeah, it’s gotta be pork kimchi stir-fry. I have rice ready in my Item Box too, so actually, I should make it a pork kimchi rice bowl.” With that decided, I had to buy ingredients with my skill.

The most important thing was kimchi with Chinese cabbage. Then I needed onions, spring onion shoots, garlic, sesame oil, and hot spring eggs.

As for spices, I didn’t really need anything I didn’t already have.

First, slice the dungeon pork belly into thin, bite-sized pieces before seasoning with sake, salt, and pepper.

Next, mince the garlic, vertically slice the onions into thin pieces, and cut the spring onion shoots into small pieces.

If the Chinese cabbage kimchi is too big or chunky, cut it down to size.

Then all that’s left is to stir-fry it all together in a frying pan. To do that, oil up the frying pan with the sesame oil and immediately add in the minced garlic. Once the garlic has started to release some fragrance, add in the dungeon pork belly. Once the meat changes color, add in the thinly sliced onions and continue to cook. When the onions wilt, add in the Chinese cabbage kimchi and stir so the kimchi blends with everything.

Lastly, add mentsuyu and mayonnaise to the mix to round out the flavor and continue to cook for a little longer to finish it. Adding mayonnaise makes the kimchi’s spiciness milder and deepens the flavor.

And that should also allow Sui to enjoy the dish too.

“I’ll just pile up some fresh, steamy rice straight out of the pot, then layer on lots of pork and kimchi...” Ohh! It already looks delicious, and this isn’t even its final form!

I put the hot spring egg right in the middle of the pork and kimchi bowl, then sprinkled some spring onion shoots on top.

“Great, it’s finished! Fel, Dora-ch-...” They were already on standby right behind me; I didn’t even have to call for them.

They were all drooling, too.

“Here.” I served the food to my familiars, and they started scarfing it down like they’d been waiting for this food their entire lives.

《Mrr, this spiciness carries a unique flavor to it. This is pretty addictive.》

《Yeah. It’s the kind of flavor that always has me wanting another bite.》

《It’s a little spicy, but Sui can stand it! It’s delicious!》 I was a little wary about using kimchi since it was a bit pungent, but it seemed to have gone over fairly well.

That’s great. It’s been a while since I’ve had kimchi. I should dig in too.

I stuffed my mouth with the pork and kimchi.

Yeah, kimchi really does go great with rice. The dungeon pork is incredibly good, too.

The combination of fat and red meat goodness from the dungeon pork belly had a very good, savory taste that didn’t get overwhelmed by the strength of the kimchi’s flavor. And the kimchi’s spiciness was mellowed out by the mayonnaise too, so it was much easier to eat.

This really stirs the appetite.

《Hey, I want more.》

《Me too.》

《Sui wants more too!》

“Ahh, sure, sure. Just wait a second.” I served my familiars another helping of pork kimchi rice bowl.

Once everyone had their fill, we were ready to move on to the 11th floor, where the evolved dungeon cows resided.

Just you wait, dungeon cows!

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

On the 11th floor.

The giant, black evolved dungeon cows could be seen here and there, chewing on grass.

Dungeon cows looked exactly like black wagyu cows, except they were an entire size category larger. And the evolved forms on this floor were double that size and even had horns to complete the picture.

“I thought the evolved dungeon pigs on the 10th floor were big, but these cows take the cake.”

《Indeed. I do not know how much meat we will be able to get out of them, but it looks like they are quite plentiful, and delicious, to boot.》 Fel’s eyes were once again glinting as he gazed at the dungeon cows.

He’s totally ready to go on a spree...

《Meat! Meat!! I’m gonna hunt my heart out here too!》

《Tasty meat, delicious meat~!》 Dora-chan and Sui both seemed like they’d charge into the dungeon cows at any moment.

“Ahhh, I’m going to repeat this. Make sure you moderate yourselves, everyone. Remember that. Also...” I took the magic bag out of my Item Box.

“I’ll give this to you, Fel.” I hung the magic bag from Fel’s neck.

“Once you’ve got a decent amount, put it in the magic bag and just hand the bag to me.” Although everyone replied affirmatively, they didn’t seem to actually be listening. The dungeon cows already had their full attention.

《Okay. Dora, Sui, let us go!》

《You got it!》

《Sui will get lots of meat!》 At Fel’s signal, my familiars all scattered.

“Moderate yourselves! You hear?!” I repeated myself once again before my familiars got too far.

After a moment, I could hear the screams of dungeon cows in the air.

“Mmoooooo!” “Mooooo!” “Moo-Mooooooooo!” It seemed like my familiars were making short work of the cows.

“Geez, I wonder if this is all gonna be okay? Well, for now I guess I’ll just go and retrieve the meat. I can stop them if they go too far.”

...............

............

......

“I was an idiot for thinking I could stop them...” I was bent over in frustration, with countless chunks of dungeon beef littering the grasslands around me.

Even though I shouted, “We’ve got enough!” to my familiars, none of them listened.

They were all too preoccupied with hunting and weren’t even paying any attention to me.

In the end, they only stopped when they’d killed every single dungeon cow on the entire floor.

And once all the dungeon cows were gone and they’d calmed down, there was a flood of excuses...

《Mrr, we ended up killing them all without noticing.》

《Oh maaann~, when I thought about all the delicious meat, I just couldn’t help myself.》

《The meat looked good so Sui got lots and lots~!》 And they’d already killed everything, so there was nothing I could do.

It’d be a waste to leave the drops, so in the end I had everyone pick the meat up.

Giving Fel the magic bag turned out to be a stroke of genius, and the retrieval of all the meat went far faster than the 10th floor.

All in all, I ended up with enough chunks of dungeon beef to go into the triple digits.

“Then let’s go to the next floor. ...I think you all know this by now, but moderate yourselves! MODERATE. YOURSELVES.”

《You are being annoyingly persistent. I know already.》

《Yeah, yeah, I get it.》

《Okay~!》

Do they really?

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

We finally reached the last floor of this dungeon, the 12th.

“Those two look like a special evolved dungeon pig and dungeon cow over there.” There were a couple dungeon monsters that were clearly larger than even the normal evolved forms walking about here and there. On top of that, the dungeon pig’s tusks and the dungeon cow’s horns looked even thicker and sharper at the ends.

《Yes, most likely. And it seems like they plan to stand against us. The cheek.》

“Hm? Stand against? What?” I looked over at the ones I’d just picked out as special individuals, and...

“Grk!” They were looking right at us.

Then, they swiped the ground several times with their front hooves and...

“MOOOOOOOOOO!” “OOOOOIIIINNNKKKK!” With a shout, both of them dashed headlong at us.

*ThudThudThudThudThudThudThudThudThudThudThudThudThudThudThudThudThudThud*

The sounds of their hooves pealed like thunder.

“Crap! They’re coming for us!” That wasn’t all. The special individuals managed to attract some other evolved forms who joined the charge.

“SHITSHITSHIT!” The sight of the dungeon pigs and dungeon cows charging at us was so imposing I felt like I’d wet myself.

《Do not falter! They are no match for us! Dora, Sui, we are going to give them a taste of their own medicine!》

《Of course! As if they could hold a candle to our power! I’ll turn them all into meat!》

《Yeeaahhhh! Sui will beat lots and lots!》 I might have been cowed, but on the other hand, my familiars all rushed to meet the charging dungeon monsters.

And......

*BOOOoooom!* *Cracklecracklecrackleee...*

*whoosh whoosh whoosh*

*Thudssshh Thudshhhh Thudsshh*

*slash slash slash slash*

*pew pew pew pew pew*

Lightning assaulted the dungeon pigs and dungeon cows.

Then came the slashes like sharp blades of wind.

Dora-chan would fly freely through them as well, opening up large holes while wreathed in fire.

He would also pierce through heads with pillars of ice.

Meanwhile, Sui rapidly fired its Acid Bullet at them.

The attacks from my familiars all flew through the air at the monsters.

The huge group of pigs and cows that bravely came to fight us were now pitifully routed.

“............It’s so one-sided, I’m actually pitying the dungeon pigs and cows.” Pandemonium ensued as my familiars, the invincible trio, chased around the dungeon pigs and dungeon cows, steadily decreasing their number.

Then, after a couple dozen minutes.

《All right, this is the last one! Take this!!!》 *Thudshhh*

Dora-chan, wreathed in fire, flew speedily and went right through the flank of the last special dungeon cow.

“Mmmoooooooo!” As it gave its death cry, it fell sideways.

Then all that was left of it was a large chunk of meat.

And the floor was once again quiet.

The huge army of dungeon pigs and dungeon cows had been completely wiped out.

“............Hey, Fel.”

《Mm, I know you said to use moderation, but there was no other choice this time.》

《Yeah! They’re the ones that came at us!》

《Masterrr, there’s so much meat!》

“*Sigh~* Yeah, you’re right Fel. That would have been dangerous if you didn’t kill them. Right. Well as always, it’ll be a waste to just leave the meat there so let’s get cracking. There’s a huge amount to pick up. Help me, all of you.” I started gathering the huge amount of meat along with my familiars.

“Aggghhh, it’s finally over.” I couldn’t help myself. I lay down, spread-eagled in the grass.

《My word, you are as soft as ever.》 Fel had sat down beside me and was looking down at me, exasperated.

“Oh shut up~, it was a lot of work picking all that up. All that bending over really affects my waist.”

《And that is why you are soft. Now stand up. I am hungry, let us leave.》

《Agreed. I’m getting hungry too.》

《Sui is also hungry~!》

“Ahhh, fine, fine. Hup.” I’d wanted to rest some more, but having been urged on, I got up. “Then let’s go back, I guess.”

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

When we got out of the dungeon, I found that the day had already gone and it was dark now.

It seemed like we were in the dungeon for a long time.

It was late, but since we had that request from the Adventurer’s guild’s guildmaster, Giannino, I decided to stop by there before going home.

It looked like Giannino was anxiously waiting for us, since he came over almost as soon as we entered the guild. He’d asked for ten chunks each of the dungeon pork and dungeon beef, but I handed him an extra five of each kind. Given how wild my familiars went on the 10th, 11th, and 12th floors, I could spare it after all. Hahaha...

My Item Box was currently overflowing with meat.

Giannino seemed perfectly satisfied, having finally obtained some meat from the evolved forms for the first time in a long while.

Since it’d been so long, he bought the meat at a higher price than usual, and I ended up with 360 gold in my pocket.

I quickly took the money and returned to the house I’d rented. I’d originally been planning for some sort of entrail dish for dinner, but I was far too tired to bother. I just made something simple and decided to leave the entrail dishes for later.

“I’m gonna enjoy these entrails tomorrow!”