Chapter 4: The Elves of This World Were All Gourmands
Chapter 4: The Elves of This World Were All Gourmands
Apparently the A-ranked party we met, Ark, had been living in Dolan until about half a year ago while challenging their dungeon.
“I’m a guildmaster, so I would know about any Adventurers over B-rank in my city,” said Elrand, sounding really proud for some reason.
True, guildmasters should know what high-ranking adventurers are staying in their area. Elrand still just leaves everything up to Ugohl, but I’ve changed my opinion of him a little.
“Ugohl was lecturing me about it looking all sour, you see. He was all, like, ‘you need to know this stuff in case something happens!’”
Ahhh, so it was because of Ugohl. I guess that’s like Elrand, though.
“So, what’s Dolan’s guildmaster doing here?” asked the man who seemed to be their leader. He was a short-haired blonde in his early 30’s with a macho build and a scar on his cheek. Rather than an adventurer, he looked far more like a mercenary.
“Well, just going with the flow of things, I guess?”
No, that’s totally not true.
“Elrand......”
Seeing my exasperated face, Elrand made a sound and started panicking.
“Uh, you know, like, I had something to do at the capital, and on the way back I heard that an adventurer that I was friends with was going to challenge Aveling’s dungeon. So when I came here to see, the rumors were true... So, you know... together......”
The truth was that he was just after Dora-chan, so I felt like that explanation was a little off too. But I figured it was better than his first one.
“So this would be the adventurer in question?”
“That’s right. This is the S-ranked adventurer, Mukohda.”
“I’m Mukohda. Pleased to meet you.”
After some light greetings, the mercenary-like leader started staring at me.
W-What?
“Mukohda the tamer? Could you be the one that defeated Dolan’s dungeon?”
“*Sigh* Well, kinda......”
It was basically all my familiars, though.
“Thought so. I had heard that you had a Fenrir as a familiar, so it’s true,” said the leader, while watching Fel freely let out a yawn.
So A-ranks really can tell that Fel’s a Fenrir just at a glance.
“So it really was a rumor among adventurers. I’m glad it’s advertising Dolan.”
According to Elrand, after I left Dolan after conquering its dungeon, the number of adventurers visiting Dolan rose. It seemed that they all thought, “Me too!” when they heard of the dungeon being conquered.
“Oh, sorry, I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m the leader of Ark. Call me Gaudino.”
It looked like Gaudino was a swordsman, as he was equipped with a bastard sword. His mercenary look fit him well.
“And, this one is......” Gaudino proceeded to introduce his party members.
There was Gideon, a spearman slightly younger than Gaudino, in his mid-20’s. He was a Hollywood-level hot guy with a slim-yet-macho build, short brown hair, and finely chiseled features.
Next was the dwarf, a warhammer-wielder named Sigvard. He was an older guy sporting the dwarven specialty: a bearded face and a short and stocky muscular build.
Lastly was the elf with a bow, named Feodora. Her golden threads of hair reached down to her shoulders, and she had green eyes set in a sharp face. She was an incredible beauty who looked like the very picture of an elf. She had a bow, but I heard that elves have a lot of magic, so she might also be a mage.
“I want to ask, how was it getting down to this floor?”
My only answer to that would be ‘it’s as usual?’ I mean, with everyone here it was nothing but easy.
“It seems like special individuals appear in this dungeon, but even so it seems like there’s a lot of them,” Elrand replied.
“As I thought......”
This was the second time attacking this dungeon for Gaudino and the other members of Ark, and it seemed that they felt like there were more special individuals this time.
“I heard that it was something that happened from time to time, so it seems like we just managed to hit that wave.”
According to Gaudino, this dungeon would get a wave of special individuals every five to ten years.
“Oh yes, I remember that as well. I totally forgot about it since it was so easy coming here.”
Apparently Elrand knew about it as well.
“Easy, huh? I guess that’s to be expected. S-ranks are different,” Gaudino said, giving a self-deprecating laugh.
That’s so manly, Gaudino.
“No, no, even when I was active, it’d be impossible for me to get down here so quickly. It’s all thanks to Mukohda,” Elrand said, prompting Gaudino and the others to look my way.
They were probably gauging my strength, as I definitely did not look strong enough to be S-ranked. Yeah, I’m not the one that’s strong; it’s Fel and the others.
“Uhhhh, no it’s my familiars that are strong,” I said, and everyone looked over at Fel and understood.
Fel’s not the only one who’s strong, though. “Of course Fel the Fenrir is strong, but so is Dora-chan the pixie dragon, and Sui the slime is also strong as a special individual.”
“I get the dragon, but even the slime?” Gaudino said in disbelief.
The other members seemed to feel the same.
“I thought that way about the slime too, but this one really is special. If you don’t see it fight, it’s pretty unbelievable though. In the end, all of Mukohda’s familiars are strong. Thanks to them, we made it this far our first day in the dungeon,” Elrand said, surprising all the members of Ark.
“Hey, I really am getting hungry. Make food.” I heard Fel from behind me. It seemed he was finally fed up, as he actually spoke instead of using telepathy. The members of Ark were all in shock with their mouths open after hearing Fel speak. Even though fairy tales have Fenrirs speaking human language, pretty much everyone still reacted that way after hearing Fel speak. Seeing all the hot guys and girl (not including the dwarf) looking so dumbstruck with their mouths all open was a funny sight.
《Yeah. Get the food out first before you talk.》
《Master, Sui is so hungry—.》
It seemed that Dora-chan and Sui were both the same way.
“Sorry, sorry. I’ll get food ready now...... Ah, would you all like to eat with us?”
This must be some kind of fate, so it should be fine to eat with everyone here. There aren’t any other adventurers around, either. And I’ll probably be able to learn a lot from the members of Ark, since it seems like they’ve been adventurers a long while.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
The dinner menu was fried seafood. I put out a pile of fried mackero, fried vermillion shrimp, fried yellow scallop, fried big hard clams, and fried aspidochelone. My familiars got a veritable mountain of the stuff, along with plenty of tartar sauce. It seemed a little unpopular with them, but I also served up some clam chowder just in case. We were eating the same variety of fried food, along with clam chowder and black bread. Of course, the fried stuff came with tartar sauce.
As soon as I served the food, Fel and the others dug in, but Elrand and the members of Ark seemed hesitant.
“Uhhh, should we just eat this as is?”
Ahhh, right. This was probably their first time with this, so they have no idea what to do with the tartar sauce.
“This is seafood that I bought in Berléand, covered in breadcrumbs and fried in oil. Please eat with this white sauce that I served with it, like this.” I stabbed through one with a fork, covered it in tartar sauce, and put it in my mouth.
Yeah, the fried vermillion shrimp is delicious. Ah, I just put out fried seafood without thinking. They might not be good with seafood.
I remembered Alonzo of Shadow Warrior, an adventurer who hated seafood who I had met at Nijhoff. Didn’t they say they were going to Aveling too? We might just run into them when we get out of the dungeon.
...Yeah, as if. This place is pretty big, so that probably won’t happen.
“If this doesn’t suit your tastes, I have other food too, so don’t hold back,” I said, but it seemed I didn’t need to worry.
Starting with Elrand and Gaudino, they all started to chow down silently. Thank goodness, it looks like they like it.
Now then, I should eat too.
Ahhh, fried mackero is so good. I put it in my Item Box right after it was fried so it was still crispy. I just love it with some tartar sauce.
“It’s really gotta be tartar sauce to go with fried mackerel.”
Worcestershire sauce is nice sometimes, but this has gotta be top choice. And if I were to tie this all up with some cold beer...... Oh no, no, we’re inside a dungeon. Still, I wonder why you just really want some beer when you eat fried seafood like this.
“This is my first time eating this “fry” or whatever you call it, but it’s quite good. Seems like it’d be perfect with some ale,” said the dwarf, Sigvard, while eating.
Just what I’d expect from a dwarf.
“You’re right. Not just this stuff, all fried foods are perfect with bee-... I mean, ale.”
“Hohh, I see. Now that you mention it, what was that thing that recently became popular in Dolan? Fried potatoes? Those were perfect as snacks with ale, too.”
So he tried fried potatoes, huh?
“Mukohda here was the one that spread those fried potatoes in Dolan.”
“What? Really? Amazing, so you’re a first-class cook as well as a first-class adventurer.”
Nawww, you’re making me blush. It’s just really easy bachelor food, though. And it’s all thanks to my Online Supermarket, too. If this wasn’t a dungeon, I’d have brought out some whiskey right now.
“Hey, I want more. Put some Worcestershire sauce on this fish and this shellfish. And the usual white sauce for the rest.”
It was Fel who ordered more.
So Worcestershire sauce on that fried mackero and big hard clams, and tartar sauce on the fried vermillion shrimp, yellow scallops, and aspidochelone? Oh yeah, he did say that the Worcestershire sauce went well with the mackero and the big hard clams, didn’t he?
《Me too. I want the brown sauce on this fish and this shellfish.》
Dora-chan wanted the Worcestershire sauce on the fried mackero, yellow scallops, and big hard clams.
《Sui wants more too. And, Sui likes the white dip!》
And Sui wants it all with tartar sauce I see — with a heaping portion of all the food, of course.
When I fulfilled all their orders, they started chowing down with gusto once again.
“What’s that brown sauce?” Elrand asked, seemingly full of interest.
“This? This is Worcestershire sauce. Would you like to try some?” I asked, seeing that Elrand’s plate was empty.
“Of course.”
I guess he wouldn’t have enough room to try it with all of them? Then I guess the mackero would fit Worcestershire best?
For the moment, I gave him some fried mackero along with the Worcestershire sauce. “I think the Worcestershire sauce goes best with this one. Here you go.”
“Ohh, thanks.” Elrand immediately bit into the food. “Ohh! It’s not just salty, the sauce has a complicated taste and compliments this light-tasting fish well. The other sauce with its acidity and mellow taste was extremely delicious, but this one is quite good as well,” Elrand evaluated, while continuing to chomp down on the food.
““““Gulp......””””
The members of Ark were all staring at Elrand. I figured none of the guys would be satisfied with just that, given their builds. Even the slender Feodora still looked hungry.
“Ahh, would you like some more?”
“Sorry, can we?”
“Please.”
“I’d like some more too.”
“......” *Nod nod nod*
Looks like they can all take a full helping of all the fried foods.
And it seemed like Elrand was still hungry too. “Do you want more too, Elrand?” I asked.
He happily said yes and handed me his empty plate. I served up a complete serving of all the fried stuff to Elrand and the members of Ark with some Worcestershire sauce.
“This brown sauce is good, too.”
“Om, nom, mmm...... good.”
“This is delicious. Tonight’d be perfect if I had some ale.”
“......” *Nomnomnomnom*
“It’s like a dream though, to be able to eat good food like this in a dungeon: if you ask anyone what the worst part of going into a dungeon is, it’d be the terrible rations. Since even Item Boxes have a limit, with all the other stuff there is to carry, there’s only ever room for preserved rations, you know? At least normally.”
The members of Ark all nodded in agreement to Elrand’s statement.
“I see. Thank goodness I have a large Item Box, then,” I said, hoping to deceive them; rather than large, my box was closer to infinite.
“This soup is superb, too. All the food you make is so good, Mukohda. It’s even better than a first-class restaurant in the capital.” Elrand enthused about my cooking while slurping on some clam chowder.
Getting praised this much is making me feel kind of itchy.
“I thought it was delicious too, but if an elf like you is saying it, there’s no doubt. Even Feodora, who’s really picky, has her head in the clouds.”
Elrand replied, saying, “This taste is more than enough to drive even elves to ecstasy,” and Feodora silently nodded in agreement.
Hm? This taste? What does that have to do with elves? I questioned in my mind, and Elrand kindly explained.
“We elves are long-lived, right? Thanks to that, we eat a lot of different things, and those who end up really enjoying food are common. That’s why a lot of elves become picky about taste. It’s well known enough for there to be a saying, ‘If you want to eat something good, just ask an elf.’ And among those, elves who are adventurers travel around the world tasting what’s best of each region, so they’d be the most knowledgeable.”
Ohh, is that how it is? That’s pretty unexpected, so this world’s elves are all gourmands. The main impression of elves I had were as vegetarians who don’t eat much, but this world’s elves are perfectly fine with meat, and both Elrand and Feodora are chowing down on seafood like this, so they aren’t much different from me.
“Give me more.”
《Sui wants more too.》
While I was talking with Elrand and the members of Ark, Fel and Sui asked for more, so I served them another mountain of fried food. Dora-chan must have been stuffed, as he was laid out on the floor stroking his belly.
I asked Elrand and everyone else if they wanted more, but it seemed that they really couldn’t fit in another bite... except for one.
Feodora was looking down sadly at her wooden bowl that had been emptied of clam chowder.
Even though, at first glance, she seemed to be an aloof beauty...
While fighting down my urge to laugh, I asked her, “Would you like more of the clam chowder? I mean, the soup?” And Feodora pushed her bowl at me while nodding.
I served her up some more clam chowder; she was all smiles as she ate.
“Thank you for treating us to such good food. And......... sorry. Feodora doesn’t talk, but she’s a skilled adventurer. Even we can’t really match up to her, but when it comes to food......” Gaudino shot Feodora another look before bowing his head to me.
“No, no, I’m happy that she’s enjoying it so much.”
Also, it was pretty interesting, seeing Feodora, who looked like a beautiful woman who was aloof to the world, turn into a huge glutton.
After another helping of clam chowder, Feodora looked satisfied.
Fel and Sui had another two helpings after that before finally calming down, thus finishing that night’s dinner.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Of course, the next morning, we also had breakfast with the members of Ark. And once again, naturally, I was the one cooking.
I mean, they were looking at me so expectantly. Especially Feodora; her eyes were something to behold. Nobody could refuse when they’re being looked at like that by such a beautiful person.
The menu was meat soboro rice bowls. It’s probably perfect, since it’s light yet still hearty enough to prepare everyone for a day’s adventuring in the dungeon.
I filled everyone’s bowls with freshly steamed rice from my Item Box, covered the rice with shredded cabbage, and poured lots of meat soboro on top. It’d be good just like that, but I figured it’d be better with some sort of topping, so I rummaged around in my Item Box and found some eggs that I still had and dropped a yolk in the center of each bowl.
I broke the yolks for Fel and the others, and they happily dug in with gusto. I also served the food to Elrand and the members of Ark.
“Here, you see, break the yolk like this and mix so it coats the meat, then, eat it with the rice.” I figured they hadn’t seen this food before, so I showed them how to eat it.
Elrand and Feodora, the picky elves, sniffed at the food a bit before imitating me and taking a bite of the food. Then......
For an instant both their eyes almost exploded out of their heads, and they started shoveling the food down their throats.
The other three, seeing that, started eating hesitantly.
“I doubted your senses since you used a raw egg, but this is good......” Guadino said.
Gideon, mouth full of food, nodded deeply in agreement.
“I thought stuff like raw eggs would just make you sick, but I never considered something as delicious as this to be possible. That’s amazing, kid,” Sigvard said, stuffing his cheeks with food.
“Ah, that’s because these are fresh eggs. I wouldn’t recommend it for those eggs you see being sold just anywhere, when you don’t know when they were laid. Please properly cook those.”
This was something only I could do with these Japanese quality eggs. I’ve seen eggs being sold in this world, but there was no way to tell quality with those. Eating that stuff raw would definitely make you sick.
“Give me more.”
《Me too.》
《Sui too.》
Everyone eats so fast...
I served up another helping for each of them. I should start eating too.
Yeah, this stuff’s as good as always. The combination of the crunchy cabbage, the salty-sweet meat, and the mellow taste of the egg, along with the rice, is so good I feel like I could go on eating forever.
“This is my first time eating an egg raw. It’s really good~. Combined with this well marinated meat, the mellow taste spreads and really whets the appetite,” Elrand said, holding his now empty bowl.
Feodora, ever silent, was also nodding along with what Elrand said. Then, she looked to me, as if she was trying to beg me for something.
Right, right — seconds, I presume? You don’t have to look at me like that; I’ll give you more if you want it.
“Do you two want more?”
“Please.”
“...!!” She nodded emphatically.
I took their empty bowls and refilled them. “Here you go.”
Elrand and Feodora happily took their portions and started eating.
“How about all of you? Want more?” I asked Gaudino, Gideon, and Sigvard, since they’d just finished their bowls; and so they did.
Everyone eats so much right from the start of the day. They really are adventurers.
...Wait, I’m an adventurer, too.
And especially Feodora. She’s had three bowls — where is she putting all that food in her slender body?
Well, Fel and Sui still had about five times that. Even Dora-chan, who, compared to Fel and Sui, didn’t eat much, had more than we did. And the dishes the three of them used were already quite a bit bigger than the ones we humans used.
After breakfast, everyone took a small break.
“Oh, it pains me to ask when you’ve been so good to us already, but may I ask you something?” Gaudino asked, as though the subject was very difficult. I wonder what it could be...
It turned out that Gaudino and the other members of Ark knew about the insect zone and its poisonous monsters, so they had prepared several people’s worth of antidotes ahead of time. However, this time there were more special individuals than usual, so they’d already used three bottles of it. And the last bottle they had was most likely not enough now with all the special individuals floating about. After talking it over with the other members, they agreed to call it a day here and go back.
“So if possible, we’d appreciate it if you let us come with you until the boss room...”
Even though they were A-ranked, given their lack of potions, they probably wanted to have as much combat power as they could for safety.
Without hesitation, I answered yes. “Are you okay with that too, Elrand?”
“Of course I am. After all, there’s basically no need for battle at all if you leave it to Mukohda here.”
It’s more Fel and the others than me though.
Hearing Elrand say, “basically no need for battle at all,” the members of Ark all seemed confused.
Well, just look forward to it, I guess. More importantly......
“So you want to go back to the surface, but are you sure it’s okay to keep going onward instead of heading back a floor?”
Don’t you have to go back the same way you came......?
“That’s how it normally is, but once you pass the 11th floor, there’s a way to get back to the surface immediately. We all talked it over and decided to use that method this time,” Gaudino said.
I guess that means there’s an alternate exit ahead other than retracing your steps.
“Ah, this place has that, doesn’t it? It’s such a waste that I don’t use it that much, though.”
It looks like Elrand knows about it.
“What is it? What’s the method?”
According to Gaudino and Elrand, past the 11th floor, every boss room has a magic circle set up in the back on the landing before the stairs. Using that circle will apparently teleport you back to the surface.
“However, using that magic circle uses a lot of magic power. Depending on the size, you could end up having to use four B-rank magic stones, or two A-rank stones to start it.”
Ahh, so that’s what it is. But, if it requires magic stones, I can see that it’d be unusable if you didn’t have any on hand.
“We prepared magic stones just for this, so we want to use them.”
I see; preparation really is important.
“It really was a good idea to make Gaudino our leader. I can’t count how many times his caution’s saved our lives.”
“Yeah, this time’s the same. If we were to go back the way we came, honestly, we’d be cutting it really close with the antidote we have left.”
Sigvard and Gideon chimed in respectively. Feodora silently gave a big nod. Gaudino, slightly embarrassed by the praise, said, “I wonder if I’m not being too cautious. But if it saves us, it makes all that careful preparation worth it.”
Gaudino was right. One’s life was the most important treasure of all.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
After fitting in a break to let breakfast settle, we left the safe area.
When I brought my mithril spear out from my Item Box, Gideon the spearman was fixated. “It’s all mithril......”
Yeah, since my spear’s specially made by Sui, even the haft is mithril. But I think Gideon’s spear is mithril, too?
“Isn’t your spear mithril too, Gideon?”
“It is, but only the spear’s tip. One day I want a spear made entirely of mithril like yours.”
Well I cheated in a lot of ways for mine...... Sorry about that.
“You really are S-ranked. That’s amazing,” Sigvard said, also impressed.
“Why do you sound so jealous? Isn’t your warhammer made out of magic iron? I hear it’s very hard to refine that. To make a chunk of magic iron the size of a warhammer, it must be quite the masterpiece,” Elrand countered.
Ohhh, magic iron? So that exists, too.
“Hehahahaha! So you can tell just by looking? My brother made this for me with all his effort to celebrate my promotion to A-rank. It might not be as much as a human or an elf, but I have more magic than the average dwarf, you see. He made it for me out of magic iron since I can use Fire magic. And there’s weight to think of too. The power of wreathing this thing in fire and slamming it into someone at full force is something else, you know?” Sigvard said, holding up his warhammer proudly.
Wreathing that hard and heavy-looking warhammer in magic and slamming it into something...... That sounds real dangerous.
“Hey hey, leave the lecture on magic iron there. We have customers,” Gaudino said. I followed his line of sight and...... Ohhh.
There were even more venom tarantulas and poison spiders coming our way than yesterday.
“Hey, aren’t there more here than yesterday?”
“Looks like it.” Elrand said. The former-S-ranked adventurer’s face was twisted into a frown.
Yeah, this number of them together is just creepy.
《Oh, there’re more of them today, aren’t there? That just makes them worth killing. Right on, I’m going!》
《Aww, no fair! Sui wants to fight too!》
Both Dora-chan and Sui made for the huge crowd of venom tarantulas and poison spiders.
“H-Hey! Is that okay?!” Gaudino asked, panicked after seeing Dora-chan and Sui take off like that. He was probably worried since they were both so small.
“It’s totally fine. They’re both strong.”
I’m pretty sure it’ll be fine to just leave this entire floor to Dora-chan and Sui.
“That’s right. They’re much stronger than us. Especially Dora-chan, with his gallant figure...... It’s mesmerizing how he bravely flies in and attacks.”
I think you’re about the only one who’d be mesmerized by that, Elrand.
*BOOOOOOOOMMM*
*Pew-pew-pew*
Dora-chan’s Fire magic and Sui’s Acid Bullets ended the venom tarantulas and poison spiders.
Ah, I had them leave just one for me so I could level up. The one I killed didn’t drop anything, but there were lots of drops from Dora-chan and Sui’s prey.
“Now then, let’s get to picking them up,” I called out to Elrand, and found the members of Ark standing stock still in shock.
“They’re all surprised to see Dora-chan and Sui fight. Anybody’d get like this after seeing that for the first time.”
That’s true, isn’t it? It’s just the usual for me, though.
Once we were done picking up the dropped items, the people of Ark finally recovered.
“W-What the hell? That strength......” Their faces were scrunched in disbelief.
“Even if you ask me why they’re so strong, I don’t know, but it’s not like I made them my familiars because I wanted to......”
“W-Well, with familiars this strong, you probably have more than a few secrets,” Gaudino said, and the members of Ark behind him all made their own connections.
It’s not really a secret, though. Ah, well it is a secret that we can converse with telepathy, I guess.
“Dora-chan is a dragon that’s got both strength and cuteness in spades, so it’ll be alright if you just leave everything to him.”
Why the hell are you acting so proud of that?
“I’m not Elrand, but I do agree that it’ll be all right if you just leave it to them, so let’s move on,” I said to the adventurers of Ark, and we all made for the boss room.
Mid-way through, the members of Ark started helping me pick up drops, so I handed them around ten percent of what we got. They refused at first, but I pushed and pushed until they gave in. We had too many of them in the first place, after all.
Just like that, while completely cleaning out all the rooms we came across, we eventually made it to the boss room.
“To think we’d get there this quick......”
“We basically did nothing.”
“All we did was pick up drops...”
“......” More silent nodding.
I understood what they wanted to say, but it was always like this for us.
“I was also surprised when I came with Mukohda. But now I understand how he managed to clear Dolan’s dungeon. Most likely he’ll do that here, too.”
“Tamers really are strong. It wouldn’t be too far to say they’re the strongest, as long as they have strong familiars like you, Mukohda. It’s only been a short time, but just by traveling with you, I can totally understand how you got to S-rank so quickly.”
I was just lucky... Really, it was all thanks to my skill.
“Alright then, let’s hurry up and clean out the inside.”
“Let me see. I shall do it,” Fel said out loud.
“What? You’re going, Fel?”
《Whaaaat? You’re gonna swoop in and steal the spotlight at the very end?》
《That’s so not fair, Uncle Fel!》
“Hmph, you have been free to rampage about as much as you wanted to until now. Times like this are when you defer to your elders.”
《Tch!》
《Bawww...》
Pulling age only in cases like this is unfair, you know? Well, it’s all the same to me as long as they die.
“So we’ll be able to see a Fenrir fight.”
“This’ll be a rare sight. I’ll be watching from a front row seat.”
The members of Ark were totally interested in seeing Fel fight.
Fel leisurely entered the boss room. And then......
*BOOM!*
A bright light flashed, and all the venom tarantulas and poison spiders that had threatened to spill out of the room were killed by the Lightning magic coursing through them.
“It is done,” Fel turned around and said, looking smug.
Ahh, that’s how it is. He wanted to show off how powerful he was, just like Dora-chan and Sui have been doing.
“Yeah. There’s gonna be a ton of drops here too, huh......? Sorry, but can you all help me pick this stuff up, too?”
Ah, no good. Everyone’s stiff as a board with their mouths wide open. Fel’s plan was too big a success.
“Elrand, can you help?”
“Sure sure. It doesn’t look like they’ll be of any help right now, after all.” Elrand and I silently picked up the enormous amount of dropped items.
The members of Ark still hadn’t recovered even after we’d finished collecting the drops, so I tried calling their names out and waving my arms in front of them, finally getting them to come to.
I guess seeing one spell killing that many was far too strong a shock.
“What the hell was that......” It looked like they couldn’t believe it, but I could only reply by saying, “It’s Fel, so...”
It seemed like they finally worked through it by justifying their experience with the fact that it was a Fenrir.
We all moved to the back of the boss room.
“So, where’s the magic circle that’ll take you back to the surface?”
I’d heard it was on the landing in front of the stairs down, but I didn’t see anything like that.
“Yeah, it’s only rarely used, after all. Counting on you, Feodora,” Gaudino said, and Feodora nodded before whispering out an incantation.
Then...... a gust suddenly rose with a whoosh, cleaning up all the dust and dirt all at once. It revealed a large circular pattern drawn so that it covered the entire landing, looking fairly cramped.
“Ohh! So this is the magic circle.”
“Apparently it’s on every floor from the 11th onwards. It’s only rarely used, though.”
No, but, isn’t this really convenient if you think about it? You can just go straight to the surface as long as you have magic stones.
“Dolan’s dungeon didn’t have this, right?”
“That’s what’s so interesting about dungeons. Each one is so completely different......”
Although Aveling’s dungeon has a magic circle every floor starting from the 11th, there’s also a dungeon with one every 10 floors that takes only a little magic to activate. Apparently, there was even a dungeon that gave you a convenient item called a “teleportation stone” every set number of floors, which allowed everybody to teleport around.
Of course, each dungeon had its own set of monsters, and the traps were different as well. Dungeons differed in form as well, from dungeons with field-type floors like Dolan, dungeons that were only walled with stone like Aveling, and there were even apparently dungeons shaped like towers.
“Huh, so there’s a lot of different dungeons.”
“Since you’re an adventurer, it might be a good idea to travel the world and see each dungeon,” Elrand suggested.
Personally, though, I was already sick of dungeons. Even though I didn’t plan to go into any dungeons this trip, not only was I forced into Dolan’s, I had to go to Aveling’s right after that. I was totally done with dungeons for a while.
“Hmm, that is some good information. It seems like I will not be bored for a while.”
《Huh, so there’s a lot of dungeons where humans are. Sounds fun.》
《Whaaat? There’s more different dungeons to go to?》
*Creeeeaaaaakkk*
I slowly turned around, my bones creaking with a complex mixture of negative emotions as my gaze rested on my three familiars.
No, no, no... It looks like you’re already looking forward to the next dungeon once we’re done here, but I’m not going.
《You know, we’re going to Dolan next, right? We have to go and butcher the red dragon you all killed, and then we’re going back to Karelina,》 I telepathically messaged them, trying to get this nipped in the bud now.
I have to go get the mantle I ordered from Lambert, after all.
《Hey, ask that elf there about what kinds of dungeons humans have in their towns.》
No no, Fel, my friend, don’t tell me to ask him. I’m not going to some dungeon.
《Oh, that’s a great idea. Then we can decide where to go.》
《Yayyy! We can go to another dungeon~! Dungeons are fun, Sui loves them!》
Hey hey, stop saying whatever you like, Dora-chan, Sui. I’m not going to a dungeon. Actually, we’re already in a dungeon, so now’s not the time for that.
“We’re in a dungeon right now, so concentrate on what we’re doing instead.”
“Indeed. You are right. We can talk after we beat this.”
《Yeah, that’s right.》
《Sui will try hard.》
Great, I’ve managed to derail the subject for now. It would be nice if they just forget about it. Anyway, I have to deal with this dungeon right now.
While all that fuss was going on, Gaudino and the others finished their preparations. “Now all we need to do is put down this last magic stone and the circle will activate.”
There were three small magic stones placed in small circles scattered around the magic circle.
“You see, for this magic circle, the placement of your magic stones is different depending on how big they are.”
“What? Isn’t that really annoying?”
“Well, yeah. But, it’s easy to figure it out if you just do some research.”
You did that much research, Gaudino? I’ll have to learn from you, too.
“You’ve really taken good care of us. We’re planning to stay in town for a while, so once you come back up send us a message. I’ll treat you guys to some food.”
Everybody else nodded in agreement to Gaudino’s offer.
“I’ll treat you to some good booze.”
The ‘good booze’ part was a little scary when spoken by Sigvard the dwarf, though.
“No, it was my pleasure. I learned a lot. Let’s meet again on the surface.”
“......Hey, Feodora, where are you trying to go?”
For some reason, Feodora was moving along with us. “............Good food.”
“Hahh, I get that Mukohda’s food is really good, but don’t try to follow him just because of that.”
Huh? W-What? Are you trying to follow me because you’re after food, Feodora? That’s kinda the same thought process as Fel and the others......
Chided by Gaudino, a sad-looking Feodora muttered, “Food......”
You know, Gaudino heard that. Look, he’s hanging his head back and facing the heavens in exasperation. Gideon and Sigvard are busting a gut, too. This is no time to laugh, but it’s really hard to resist the urge. It’s taking all I have to stay silent here.
Feodora’s pretty disappointing as an elf isn’t she? Even though she’s so beautiful. I’m happy she likes my cooking, though.
Considering Elrand and Feodora, do all elves in this world have personalities that are full of holes?
“I’ll treat you again once we meet back up on the surface, Feodora,” I said, and her face lit up again all at once.
“Well then, let’s meet again on the surface.”
“Yes, let’s meet again.”
Gaudino placed the last magic stone, causing the magic circle to light up, enveloping them. Once the light died down, all the members of Ark who had been standing on top of the circle were gone.
“Looks like they got back safely.”
“Yes. Let’s keep going.”
After seeing the members of Ark off, we moved down to the 15th floor.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
After reaching the 15th floor and moving onward a little, Fel called out. “Stop. Enemies are coming.”
As soon as he said that, something brown jumped out from the end of the hall. It was bouncing around.
“What the hell is that......? A huge toilet cricket?”
Toilet cricket... I believe the actual name of it was cave cricket?
They were huge toilet- that is, cave crickets. It seemed like they might be over a meter tall. They were jumping towards us in a group.
“Those are...... right! Those monsters do appear on this floor! This is bad — attack them immediately!!” Elrand screamed, having panicked after seeing the monsters approaching us.
Huh? Fel was talking like it wasn’t that bad... Are those cave crickets actually dangerous?
《Attack, right? Right on, I got it!》
《Sui will do it too!》
Dora-chan and Sui, reacting to Elrand’s scream, attacked the cave crickets.
*Thud-thud-thud-thud*
*Pew-pew-pew-pew*
However, the cave crickets must have been particularly tough, as it seemed to take more Ice Pillars and Acid Bullets than usual.
“Looks like they’re all dead......”
“Yes.” I looked over at Elrand, and saw him looking relieved.
“What are those monsters?”
“Those are......”
“They will eat anything. They are scavenger monsters.”
“Looks like Fel knows about them. Those monsters are named, ‘killer camel crickets,’ and they eat anything they can get their jaws on. They say that if you meet your end because of a killer camel cricket, there’ll be nothing left of you,” Elrand explained.
It seems that they live in dark forests or deep in caves, so they’re rarely seen, but if you do see them they’ll eat you down to your bones, and even eat your possessions. Apparently they’ll even eat iron weapons and armor.
“What’s even worse about them is, killer camel crickets implant their eggs in living things.”
Urk! ......Wait, could that mean............
“So that means, adventurers they catch will get eggs implanted in them?”
“Yes. If that happens, you’re basically dead.”
Thought so. I don’t think anything’d survive getting eggs put in them. Why are there so many really awful bug monsters?
“The iron rule is to kill them before they get anywhere near you.”
Of course. Hard pass on getting eaten or being used as a nest for their eggs.
“It’s as you heard, you three. Exterminate them before they get close.”
“Indeed. I will attack on this floor as well.”
《Of course, I’ll keep killing them as I have been!》
《Sui will beat looooots too!》
Just as they declared, after that conversation all three of them continued to exterminate the killer camel crickets over and over as soon as they were spotted. And thus, we reached the boss room in no time at all.
Taking a peek inside the boss room, I saw it was filled to overflowing with the higher form of killer camel crickets, giant killer camel crickets. And there was an even bigger one in the middle — bigger by far than even the giant killer camel crickets. Not only that, it was eating the killer camel crickets around it.
“Ghh, cannibalism?”
When I tried using Appraisal on it......
【King Killer Camel Cricket】
A-ranked monster. Will eat anything using its steel-like jaws.
A-rank, huh? Seeing it eat its own kind like that is just offensive.
“Dora, Sui, we are going.”
《Yeah.》
《Yeah!》
“Ah, I’ll be shooting magic from the back, too.”
I need to attack to level up, even if it’s only a little. As long as I don’t get too close, I should be fine... maybe......
“Heh, make sure not to hit us.”
“I-I know already.”
My three familiars entered the boss room.
*Zzsshhh-zzsshhh-zzsshhh*
*Thud-thud-thud-thud*
*Pew-pew-pew-pew*
Everyone started attacking. It was a one-sided massacre. It didn’t even take ten minutes to make it so that the only things remaining in the boss room other than us were dropped items. Even the A-ranked boss could do nothing before their triple attack.
After everyone finished picking up the items, we moved on to the 16th floor.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
There were centipede monsters on the 16th floor: giant centipedes like those I saw in the Ishtam forest, and venom centipedes that were about half the size of the giant centipedes. It seemed that venom centipedes were extremely poisonous, but that posed no problem for my three familiars and their all-out attack policy. Thanks to that, the 16th floor went smoothly from start to finish, and I even got in some fighting in the middle.
In the boss room that came last, there were so many giant and venom centipedes crawling around and all over each other that it was honestly pretty gross, but the room was cleaned up in a flash.
Elrand was staring at Dora-chan the whole time in a trance. His expression was... not good.
With this and that happening, we safely cleared the 16th floor and earned a huge amount of dropped items, before entering the 17th floor, the final floor in the insect zone.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
“Huh? This floor’s kinda... spacious.”
Having stepped into the passages of the 17th floor, I noticed that the halls were about twice as big as before.
“Yes, they start getting bigger starting from this floor. Still, we only know about this floor though.”
Elrand had gotten down to the 17th floor when he was still active, right? He said that he didn’t go to the 18th because it was an undead floor if memory serves.
“The insect monsters here are the most dangerous of their kind. Please be careful,” Elrand said, seeming more serious than ever. “Dora-chan’s here though, so I suppose there’s no real need to be worried,” he added, but his eyes were still sharp as ever as they took in his surroundings.
“They are here,” Fel said. He must have sensed their presence.
*Ksk...*
*Ksksksksksksksksksk...*
A thick mass of monsters giving off a black luster carpeted the floor, walls, and even ceiling of the dungeon.
Hm? That’s... no way......
“NNWWWOOOAAAHHHHH!!!!”
“Wah?!! W-What is it all of a sudden? Why did you scream so loudly? I know giant cockroaches are dangerous, but Dora-chan is here. Please hold it together!”
Cockroaches...... they really are cockroaches. And they’re somehow even fucking bigger!
“WHY DID THERE HAVE TO BE ROACHES———?!! THERE’S NO WAY — ROACHES THAT BIG ARE UNREAL!! NO! NO WAY! I CAN’T DO THIS! CAN’TDOTHIS CAN’TDOTHIS CAN’TDOTHIIIIIIIIIIISSSS!!”
The super extra-large cockroaches that looked to be over a meter and a half in length scuttled our way with their unique, disgusting shuffle.
“NOOOO! ATTACK! KILL THEM ALL! DESTROY! EXTERMINATE!!!!!”
“You are being too loud. Even if you didn’t tell me to, I would crush these things under my foot.”
《Oh, for some reason he’s getting really into it. Of course I’ll go! Yahhooooo!!》
《Sui will do as master says! Sui will go pew-pew and kill lots!》
All three of them mercilessly attacked the cockroaches, taking only a couple minutes to clean them all up.
“Hey. It is done.”
“You don’t look too good, Mukohda. Are you okay?”
“Yes......” I said, nodding, but it was all a lie.
Why are they even here, in a whole other world...... Those goddamn roaches, I’ll exterminate them all! Roaches are no good; they can’t be allowed to live!
It had happened back when I was in college and had just started living on my own. Summer was too hot, but it was starting to cool down for the beginning of fall. At night, when I was sleeping, I felt an itchiness on my cheek. Thinking it was a mosquito or something, I reflexively just swatted at my cheek. And in response, I felt something squish underneath my palm with a disconcerting sound.
I had opened my eyes sleepily, wondering what it was, and turned on the light next to my bed. And, when I opened my hand under the light...... There was a half-crushed black cockroach in it.
Not only that, the crushed part was still twitching. Seeing that, it didn’t matter that it was the middle of the night, I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Ever since then, I’ve been traumatized......
So that I’d never see one again, I made sure to close anything that might be food for them in airtight containers, and always kept my room clean. And even then... they’d come anyway, seemingly out of nowhere.
Whenever that happened, I’d immediately don full protective gear: gloves, goggles, and a mask, and kill it as soon as possible with insecticide. I always had cockroach insecticide and black vinyl bags to get rid of their bodies on hand.
They’re so fecund, it’s said that if you see one, there’s actually one hundred. Although there was no way for them to breed in my room, where I was always on guard, there was more than enough space for them to breed and come in from the outside. All I could do was remain on permanent watch with my permanent stock of cockroach insecticide and black vinyl bags. Being well prepared gets rid of trouble down the line, after all.
............Hah!
“Could it be, Elrand, these monsters multiply very fast?”
“So you knew. Normally there’s not very many of them, but it seems they have a mating season, and during that time their numbers explode. Thanks to that, there was said to be an incident some hundred and thirty years ago known as ‘The Tragedy of Rackham.’”
“......What was ‘The Tragedy of Rackham’?”
“Ahh, it’s well known among us long-lived races, but I guess there would be people that don’t know about it. The tragedy of Rackham was......”
According to Elrand, 130 years ago, there was a modestly-sized town named Rackham in the kingdom of Klarsen that got destroyed in a single night by a swarm of giant cockroaches. The population of that town was of a decent size, but it was emptied in a single night. Not even a single person, nor any horses, nor any other living things were left.
After that, there was a huge influx of extermination requests for giant cockroaches to the Adventurer’s guild and the kingdom’s army, and they were finally killed after an enormous number of sacrifices.
“Giant cockroaches by themselves are on the higher end of B-ranked. They have powerful jaws and their legs end in talons. Not only that, but they can spray a paralyzing mist, so they can force you into a very hard fight. I’d only heard about it from someone I know, but it was a pretty harsh battle.”
Jaws, claws, and even paralyzing mist? The roaches in this world are way too evil......
“I read about this in a book before; it seems that the giant cockroaches in this dungeon definitely lay eggs, although the details of their mating season are unknown. The killer camel crickets on the 15th floor lay eggs, but don’t multiply from them. However, the giant cockroaches here sometimes come up from the dungeon, so it looks like they actually multiply on their own. Apparently the author of that book heard from an adventurer who had actually cleared this dungeon that he saw giant cockroaches hatching.”
W-What the hell...... They come up from the dungeon, and even hatch from eggs. So they just multiply and multiply? Just how many roaches are on this floor? *Shiver* Just thinking about it is scaring me.
“Let’s stop talking for now, we need to pick up the drops and move on.”
............Drops? From those roaches?
“U-Uhhh, we have more than enough drops, so I’m thinking we don’t need any from this floor, maybe......”
I know they’d be worth something, but I don’t want to touch anything that comes out of a roach.
“Why would you say that? Just like I said, giant cockroaches are rare in the first place. These materials will become good weapons and armor, and not only will they be worth a lot, but it’ll be good for other adventurers that need the equipment too. We have to take these with us. If you leave them here you’ll get an earful from Nadiya, you know?”
Khh...... he’s right. Nadiya’s really scary when she’s angry.
“Now now, don’t dawdle. Let’s just get this over with. It looks like they’re really getting impatient.”
After that, Elrand started diligently picking up the drops, which consisted of feelers, abdominal shells, claws, small bottles of paralyzing poison, and — though there were few of them — small magic stones.
“Okay. Hurry up. Go.”
《Yeah. This is taking too long, so I’ll help too.》
《Sui will help too.》
Everyone diligently picked up the items and brought them to me.
Fuck... I don’t want to have to touch this crap with my bare hands... but they’re helping me and everything... Oh god no! Aauugghh! FINE!
I took out the gloves I used back when we had a BBQ. But even though I had gloves, I still didn’t really want to touch the roach’s drops. I pinched them as lightly as I could with my index finger and thumb and dropped them into my Item Box.
“Whew~, it’s finally over.” I muttered reflexively once I managed to pack in all the drops.
This floor is extremely bad for me. Those huge roaches (who I will now refer to as bigroaches), shave off my sanity, in a lot of ways.
“Now then, let’s move on,” Elrand said, seeming just fine.
“......We’re really going...”
“Hm? What’s wrong?”
“No, I was just thinking... We have so many dropped items already, it’d probably be fine to just go back up......”
“Hmph! As if we would leave after coming this far. Stop spouting stupid things. We are going,” Fel spat, as if he was shocked at my stupidity. He started walking, and the rest of my familiars and Elrand followed him.
Yeah, that’s it, isn’t it... Hahhh~, there’s no way they’d go back now given how much they love dungeons.
Just thinking about how I’m going to have to face these bigroaches from now on makes me so depressed I can’t stand it, but there’s nothing I can do.
I followed after everyone else.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
While moving through the 17th floor, we met swarms of bigroaches, one after another. It was fine that everyone else was happily fighting them and quickly killing all of them, but I was completely freaked out just trying to pick up drops.
I had to quickly pick everything up, driving my mind into the depths of nothingness until I acted like a machine. But as we got closer and closer to the boss room, they came in bigger and bigger swarms, and there were now some that got past Fel and the other’s attacks and tried to get to Elrand and I. They still managed to defend us, but it was feeling like it’d just be a matter of time until they broke through.
If even one or two get through, it’ll be a very grave matter for me. I have to prepare some kind of countermeasure.
First: cockroach insecticide. The herbicides I used in Nijhoff on those evil plants worked well. And I think the roach spray I can buy using my skill works well, too. However, that would mean having to use my skill in front of Elrand.
Well, even if Elrand learns about the Online Supermarket, he probably wouldn’t tell it to just anyone. He’s a little, or rather, really strange, but I think he’s trustworthy.
There was something I was more worried about. And that was Elrand himself. For some reason, anything I bought with my skill was much stronger in this world. I thought the roach spray would definitely work. But then that brought up the question of whether or not it would be safe to use in a dungeon or any other enclosed space. It probably wasn’t a good idea to be stuck in a dungeon breathing in a lot of strong insecticide, even if it would kill the bigroaches. Elrand was from this world too, so I had no idea what kind of effect it would have on him, either. There was no way I’d be able to get over it if I started using the roach spray with no thought and something happened to Elrand.
With that in mind, although the spray will probably work, there’s no way I can use it. So if that’s the case, hmmmm...... If I remember right, a mixture of dish soap or some hard liquor like vodka can stop the roaches from breathing and kill them, right? If I’m gonna do it that way, maybe I should throw it bottle-and-all? It probably wouldn’t work with the plastic bottles soap comes in, but glass liquor bottles will break, so I can throw those without question.
Ah, that might work, too: freezing insect spray. It doesn’t use any dangerous pesticides, so it’s safe around food. That’s why I’ve tried it several times. But, it takes time to kill roaches, so I ended up throwing it into storage. That’ll be stronger in this world too, so even if it doesn’t kill them, it should still slow them down a lot. And in the meantime Elrand can kill them for me. Okay — I’ll buy alcohol and the spray while we’re in the next safe area.
After that, Fel and the others continued to fight full force, and we managed to reach the nearest safe area to stop and eat. Of course, after coming this far, no one else was in the safe area. According to Nadiya, there were other adventurers that had made it this far, but Elrand said, “There’s a lot of special individuals around right now, so, realizing that, they probably retreated.”
To be honest... I really want to go back, too.
Fel and the others requested meat for lunch, and Elrand said, “I’d like to eat that once again. You know, what you fed me once before,” so lunch was beef bowls.
I used the golden-backed bull meat. I served my three familiars an extra-large serving of rice with lots of beef on top. I’d learned that Elrand ate quite a bit, so I gave him a larger serving as well, with a proportionate amount of meat. All three of my familiars were chowing down, and Elrand also said, “Yes, yes! This flavor! It’s so good!” He was eating heartily as well.
As for me...... I really couldn’t work up an appetite.
But when I consider that I’m gonna have to face those bigroaches again, having at least a little bit of food in me is necessary. I think something light and refreshing would be best.
I was planning to explain things to Elrand when I bought the alcohol and freezing spray anyway, so using it a bit earlier would be fine, I think? I opened up my Online Supermarket.
《Hey, is it alright if this one finds out?》 Fel asked, having seen me use my skill.
“Yeah. I need to buy something to beat these monsters on this floor. Also, when we go lower, I probably won’t have enough food, so I’ll most likely have to use it anyway. It’s only a difference of when it happens. More importantly, I think we can trust Elrand.”
《I see. If you say so, then that is fine. If that is the case, give me something to drink. I want that black one.》
Fel said that he wanted cola. Seeing that, Dora-chan and Sui didn’t stay quiet either.
《Ah, what?! Then I want that black stuff too! Also pudding.》
《Sui wants the black fizzy stuff too. Also, Sui wants to eat ca—ke.》
Ahh, fine fine. Everyone’s been doing their best on this floor, so I guess I should reward them.
“M-Mukohda, what’s that?!” Elrand said, eyes wide in surprise, seeing me with a huge window in front of me.
“This? This is my unique skill. It lets me buy food or other useful items from another world.”
“......Another world?”
I guess he wouldn’t get it if I just said that. “Yeah, just think of it as a skill that lets me buy delicious and convenient things.”
“I, I see...... But it’s the first time I’ve ever heard of such a skill.”
I bet. I’m probably the only one with this unique skill. I mean, it’s a skill even this world’s gods have never heard of.
“I’m probably the only one with this skill.”
“Probably. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about skills, but I’ve never heard of it. Well, there are cases where the owners of skills hide them, so it’s not like all skills have been made public. It’s not unusual for a rare skill to not be known.”
“I want to keep it as secret as possible too, so please don’t tell anyone.”
“Yes, of course. The fact that you showed me your skill means that I’m being trusted. I’ll never do anything to betray that trust. If I ever did anything to betray you, Mukohda, I’d never be able to meet Dora-chan again, and I’d never get another dragon either, after all. That’s like asking me to die! Hahaha.”
That’s heavy. Really heavy. Just how much do you love dragons? It’s nice that he’ll probably keep my secret though.
For my lunch, I bought yogurt and a cafe au lait with lots of milk in it, and I also got cola for my three familiars. Also, I got fifty bottles of vodka and twenty bottles of freezing spray to use as anti-bigroach weapons. They say that preparation now gets rid of trouble in the future, so I bought more than I thought I needed. And, as a reward for Fel and the others, I bought the usual cakes and pudding from Fumiya.
I took the items out of the usual cardboard box they came in. Then, I served out the cola in wooden dishes to Fel and the others, who had eaten their fill of the beef bowls.
“What is that black stuff? They’re all drinking it so quickly... is it a beverage?” Elrand was frowning, seeing cola for the first time. It’s pitch black, after all.
“Never mind the color. It’s sweet, fizzy, and delicious. Want to try some?”
My recommendation must have sparked some interest, as Elrand replied with, “Just a little.” So I took his cup and filled it about halfway with cola.
“Well then......” Elrand said, slowly lifting the cup up to his mouth and taking a sip. After that first one, he immediately started chugging it down.
“Hwhhooo~, I was wondering what kind of taste black water could have, but this is delicious! It’s a flavor I’ve never tried, but it’s so much sweeter than any fruit juice that it can’t be compared, and the fizziness as it passes through your throat is to die for. ......Burp. Oh my, excuse me.”
“Haha! That’s thanks to the carbonation. Drinking it makes you belch.” I poured Elrand another cup, and did the same for Fel and the others as well. Then, I served out the cakes and puddings for dessert.
Fel had two of his favorite strawberry shortcakes. Dora-chan the pudding lover had a custard pudding and something new: a baked pudding shortcake. Sui had new products as well: a new fruit shortcake with seasonal fruits, including Kyoho grapes, and an improved chestnut mont blanc.
Of course, I put out a cake for Elrand’s dessert too. I gave him the standard strawberry shortcake with lots of fresh cream on top, something you couldn’t miss with.
Elrand was first moved by how beautiful it was. “Th-This is......”
“It’s something I got using the skill I just told you about. I can get something delicious like this that you’ll never see around here.”
“A-Amazing......hah! Then, your cooking...?!”
“I’ve actually been cooking all of that, but I do use spices and ingredients I get with my skill. I can get good spices, after all.”
“I see. So that means I’ll get to eat good food naturally just by staying near you.”
“That is correct. His food is delicious. And the cakes he gives us are good as well.”
Fel, that’s not something you should act proud of. Well, I’m happy he thinks it’s good though.
“Now, I think this cake is a sweet you can’t get around here, so please try it,” I said, prompting Elrand to put his fork into the white cream.
Elrand was greatly moved by the taste of the strawberry shortcake. In this world without any decent sweets, it seemed that the taste of the strawberry shortcake was pretty shocking. Elrand was literally crying while saying how delicious it was. As for me, I was having the yogurt that would replace my lunch next to everyone else and their cakes.
The first yogurt I’ve had in a long while refreshed my taste buds and was really good. Then, I relaxed with some sweet cafe au lait.
However, we were still in the dungeon. And my fight with the bigroaches on this floor was yet to be over. According to Fel, we were about 75% done with this floor. But even though we’ve gone quite far, the closer we get to the boss room, the more of those bigroaches would come at us, so we still couldn’t let down our guard.
I’ve fully prepared with my anti-bigroach weapons, the vodka and freezing spray. I’m done with preparations. I’m gonna do it. As if I’ll lose to some bigroaches! They’re the ones that’re gonna get destroyed! Goddammit, I’ll kill them all!
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
“Take that! Hah!”
*Clank! Clatter!*
“Okay! Take another one!”
*Cracckk!*
All three bottles hit home.
“I’ll go!” Elrand said. He closed in quickly and beheaded the bigroach with his favorite sword.
Having come from the safe area and with the boss room in our sights, we kept moving forward as we dealt with the endless masses of bigroaches that came from everywhere and nowhere at once.
Just as I’d worried about, they started to be too numerous for Fel and the others to handle, reaching Elrand. I took the vodka I’d prepared from my Item Box and threw it at them.
At first I was panicked and missed several times, but after a while I’d gotten used to it and my accuracy got better. However, just one bottle of vodka did nothing to a bigroach. It took three or four bottles just to slow them down a little. They were just as annoyingly tenacious as Japanese roaches.
I threw a fireball at one of the bigroaches that had slowed down due to my vodka, and it lit up like a firework. This is bad...
Seeing the bigroach utterly immolated, I thought to myself, serves you right! But the fire was so intense it was actually dangerous for me, so I stopped using Fire magic after throwing the vodka.
In the end, we went with a strategy where I just backed up Elrand as he killed the roaches. I’d use the vodka and freezing spray I bought with my skill to slow them down, and Elrand would cut them in twain. Even though there were only a few bigroaches that could get past Fel and the others, I think our strategy worked well. Elrand and I had already exterminated ten of the things.
“Mukohda! Another one’s coming!”
“Okay!”
I’d gone through most of my vodka, so this time I used freezing spray.
*Psshhh* *Psshhhh* *Psshhhh* *Psshshhhh*
White mist clung to their black bodies. The fact that it was from another world must have come into play, as I could actually feel the cold from where I was. The bigroaches’ movements gradually got slower, probably because their body heat was being rapidly stolen away. With no hesitation, I pulled the trigger on the spray again.
*Psshhh* *Psshhhh* *Psshhhh* *Psshshhhh*
“Elrand!”
“Okay, I’m going!” Elrand swung his beloved sword, and halved their blackly shining bodies while they were slowed.
I picked up the abdominal shell left behind by the roach with gloved hands and threw it into my Item Box.
To think I’d get this used to it, when at first I couldn’t stand how much I hated the very idea of it.
I picked up the huge amount of drops left behind by Fel and the others as well, throwing them into my Item Box one after the other. I couldn’t hesitate, since I knew that if I did, we’d never move on.
At any rate, the most important thing is to get out of here as soon as possible.
We moved forward while exterminating the bigroaches. And......
“That is the last room.”
Finally. It hadn’t actually been that long since we’d left the safe area, but to me it was almost an eternity.
Once this is over, I’ll finally be able to say goodbye to these damned bigroaches. But the last boss room’s gonna have even more bigroaches than before, won’t it......
Already feeling fed up, I peeked into the boss room anyway.
I was at a loss for words. There was an enormous number of bigroaches, but there was an even larger super-sized bigroach in there too.
“Ahhh, so it really appeared. That’s a gigant cockroach. As you can see, it’s even bigger than a giant cockroach, and proportionately more ferocious. There should be only two or three at most when they appear, but it must be because it’s the season for special individuals......”
The gigant cockroaches, as Elrand explained, didn’t have the courtesy to come at us in such small numbers as two or three.
“There’s almost ten of them......”
“Yes. For some reason. I-Is that mountain there eggs?”
That’s right. Just as Elrand said, there were eggs — a huge number of them, too. The burnt-brown colored, roughly 50cm long, capsule-shaped eggs — if I remember right, they’re egg casings— piled up to form a mountain. That meant that the entire mountain consisted of about thirty eggs.
Urrghh, that’s so disgusting. Actually, why are there so many eggs? I’d heard that the bigroaches on this floor multiplied through eggs, but that’s way too many, right? If all of those hatch... Urgh my goosebumps......
“With that many eggs, we can definitely look forward to the drop items.”
“What? The eggs drop things too?”
“Apparently, giant cockroach eggs drop gold.”
Why would something unclean and disgusting like that drop gold? I don’t get dungeons. It’s not like I’m after the drops or anything, but I can’t leave those eggs alone. If they hatch, just how much will those bigroaches swell in number? We’ll have to destroy each and every last one of them.
“Eggs? If they all hatch, they might overflow out of the dungeon, huh?”
“Huh? Really?”
Overflow? Isn’t that really, incredibly bad?
“A stampede, huh? It hasn’t happened recently, but certainly, as things stand......”
According to Elrand, stampedes happened when monsters grew too large in number in dungeons and overflowed into the world. Right now, adventurers actively delved into dungeons, so it hadn’t happened in a hundred years.
Though, if a dungeon near a town happened to overflow............ the thought alone is so frightening, I don’t want to imagine it.
“However, although it’s just a coincidence, you’re here right now Mukohda. What luck! Fel, Dora-chan, and Sui will definitely be able to crush those eggs.”
“Indeed, you are correct to say so. We will carefully crush each and every one of those eggs in the end,” Fel declared, and he dragged Dora-chan and Sui into the boss room.
...Seeing the massacre that followed was actually refreshing in how one-sided it was.
Do it more! Exterminate all the roaches!
With Fel and the others on the job, the bigroaches and the super bigroaches combined didn’t even take ten minutes to exterminate. And lastly, Dora-chan set fire to the mountainous pile of eggs, before Sui melted what was left with acid just in case. Once the eggs disappeared, a bunch of flat circles of gold around 2cm in diameter dropped.
“Huh. Somehow we end up spending longer picking up drops than actually fighting,” Elrand said, looking around the boss room.
Even so, it wasn’t conceivable to not bring the items back, so Elrand and I diligently worked on picking up the spoils. Thanks to Fel and the others helping too, we finished faster than usual.
Next was the 18th floor — the second undead level.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
“Mukohda! There’s a ghoul behind you!”
“Yeah!” With the warning from Elrand, I turned around and readied my mithril spear. It looked exactly like one of the zombies from the 9th floor, and ran this way while throwing rotting pieces of itself everywhere.
That’s right, ghouls can run. The first time I saw it happen I got really scared.
Even though it ran, it wasn’t all that fast, but it was still like the difference between heaven and earth when compared to zombies, which could only walk slowly.
I had a light panic when I saw the ghouls, but I calmed down when Fel said, “I have a barrier around you; it is fine.” And, thinking more clearly, I also had the Perfect Defense skill.
When I calmed down and stabbed it with my mithril spear, it went down easily. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the holy seal effect though. That thing really worked wonders.
Wait, no. Right now I have to concentrate on the ghoul that’s coming at me.
“Hahh!” I stabbed my spear into its chest, and the ghoul collapsed as I pulled it back out. Meanwhile, Elrand took care of two of them himself.
“Oh, it dropped some black claws.”
Ghoul claws were sharp and poisonous, and they dropped those claws when they died.
“I hear that these claws can turn into some pretty bad poisons... Is this really all right? We’re getting a lot of them......”
According to Elrand, who heard it from another experienced adventurer, these poison claws turned into a really nasty special poison. If you were to get poisoned by it, supposedly, your whole chest would slough off and you’d die in three or four days.
Most likely, it’s a slow acting poison that causes heart attacks. Your cause of death would be treated as illness, so it seems like the poison is perfect for assassinations.
“Don’t worry about it — the Adventurer’s guild will be the one deciding who to sell it to, you know? It seems to be something certain parties would pay an arm and a leg for, but......”
You mean among the world of assassins, right? Or, say, nobles who’d want to use it to get rid of a competitor or something like that.
“It wouldn’t be good to have too many, so maybe we should just sell some of it, and burn the rest or something later.”
“Th-That’s probably a good idea.”
We were racking our brains over the problem of having too many poison claws from ghouls.
“Hey, hurry and pick them up.”
《Yeah! We want to move on.》
《Master, I picked them up for you—.》
There was a heap of drops from the ones Fel and the others dealt with, and seeing the huge amount of poison claws from ghouls, both Elrand and I laughed bitterly.
“Well, we can think about what to do with them later. Let’s just pick them up for now.”
“Yeah.”
Elrand and I continued to pick up the scattered drops from the undead.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
We moved through the 18th floor smoothly, and were currently in the 4th room of the floor. Thanks to Fel and the others rampaging through the undead, the room that had been swamped with them was thoroughly cleansed of their filth, although the floor was now littered with drops. This was the same every time, and it looked like it would take a while this time as well.
“Let’s pick up the drops, Mukohda.”
“Yeah. Ah, there’s quite a lot of dark balls, aren’t there?”
There were many small black marble-like objects around 2cm in diameter littered around the room. The black marbles, or, the dark balls, were drops from wraiths.
“There were quite a lot of wraiths, after all.” In fact, their numbers were increasing the closer we got to the boss room.
“With this many, it might be a good idea to try that on the next floor.”
“Yes. It seems like the dark ball doesn’t have much of an effect on the undead, but there is value in testing how it does against monsters that aren’t undead. We have so many, too... Let’s try it on the next floor like you suggested, Mukohda. If it works, then it’ll be quite useful.”
If you touch a wraith — which was like a white blurry mass — it’s said that you’ll get affected with a status condition that halves your stats, and it seems that the items wraiths drop have the same effect. From what Elrand said, hitting something with this dark ball will produce a hazy black mass, and anything exposed to the miasma would be afflicted with the same status condition.
Though that’s just what Elrand had heard from someone else, it seemed. “At any rate, it’s really rare, you know. I myself have only seen one once in the past,” he said.
Apparently there was no way anybody’d use such a rare thing lightly, so there were actually a lot of things that were unclear as to its effects. It seemed certain that it caused some sort of status abnormality, but whether it actually “halved all stats” was still up in the air.
I tried hitting a ghoul with one to test it, but it didn’t seem like it had any effect. It could just be that it didn’t have much of an effect on the undead. But that could just mean that it would work on other monsters, so I talked to Elrand about it.
“Hey, we are almost at the last room. Hurry up.”
It looked like Fel’s senses told him we were close to the boss room.
When we left the room, we were immediately accosted by undead. All of us made for the boss room while slowly-but-surely exterminating the undead.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
We’d made it to the front of the 18th floor boss room.
“So that’s a skeleton knight......”
“This is my first time seeing it, but that does seem correct.”
Peeking inside, I saw a skeleton that was clearly different from the others. The skeleton knight was an entire size bigger and looked much stronger as it wandered around. It was decked in scale mail and had a splendid-looking helmet, and it held in its hands a longsword and shield that looked extremely dangerous, seeing as how the sword had a black cloud emanating from it. The aura this knight exuded was much more sinister and evil than other skeletons as well.
Unlike all the other floors up until now, this boss room seemed to be trying to win with a few high quality monsters rather than with overwhelming numbers.
And although it’s only “a few”... “Aren’t there more skeleton knights here than people have been telling me......?”
Nadiya had said that there would be around five skeleton knights here, but the boss room had almost three times that number, at around thirteen of them.
“This is probably because we came during the season of special individuals.”
As I thought.
“Ahh, it has been a while since I have seen a skeleton knight,” Fel said while peeking into the boss room from behind me.
《So that’s a skeleton knight? Looks pretty strong, doesn’t it? Well, it’s still no match for me, though!》
It seemed to be Dora-chan’s first time, too, but that didn’t change his spirit.
《Sui won’t lose to that thing either!》
Sui wasn’t the least bit cowed by the skeleton knight’s aura, either.
“Dora, Sui, we are going.”
《Alright!》
《Okay—.》
All three of them entered the boss room, where the skeleton knights were waiting.
*BOOM*
Six pillars of light ran through the skeleton knight’s heads at the same time — it was Fel’s specialty: Lightning magic. The six knights that took lightning to their skulls fell over on the spot before they could do anything.
*Thud-thud-thud-thud*
Dora-chan, covered in flames, charged into skeleton knights one after another, and opened up holes in their scale mail with his attack. The knights, unable to keep up with his speed, found their weapons and shields to be useless, no matter how dangerous-looking they were.
*Plort-plort-plort*
The large Acid Bullets unleashed by Sui hit the ominous-looking shields of the remaining skeleton knights. However, the shields may as well have not been there, as Sui’s Acid Bullets dissolved right through them before continuing on through the knights’ armor, and then their bones.
In the end, the skeleton knights didn’t even manage to get an attack off before Fel and the others destroyed them. It didn’t even take five minutes. Having beaten them this badly, I was starting to feel sorry for those knights.
“Looks like it’s over.”
“As expected, Dora-chan......”
Elrand was watching Dora-chan with sparkling eyes. I quietly put some distance between us and started checking the drops.
One of those ominous-looking longswords dropped. Let’s try using Appraisal on it...
【Cursed Sword】
A sword with a curse imbued upon it. If one is cut by this sword, the wound will rot and fester.
The name alone is awful. What the hell? A cursed sword? A sword of curses? What does that even mean, a sword with a curse embedded in it? And anything cut by it will rot? Like, actually rot? Isn’t this just like, the worst? In the first place, is this even safe to handle?
“H-Hey, Fel, can you try using Appraisal on this?”
“You can do that too, no?”
“No, but, yours is more detailed, right Fel? Just the name sounded so dangerous, so I was wondering if it was safe to touch.”
“Let me see...... A cursed sword? Seems safe to touch. From what I see, grabbing the hilt is no problem.”
That means, if I make a mistake and cut myself with it............ “By that, do you mean, if I accidentally cut myself...?”
“If you are cut with this sword, the wound will begin to rot and fester, and eventually turn into dust, it seems.”
What the hell — that’s scary! I don’t need something scary like this. Let’s just go and sell it already...
I shut the cursed sword into my Item Box, and then heard Sui call out to me in my head.
《Master — there’s a box here.》
Oh, so Sui found a treasure chest. I went to where Sui was and found an old wooden casket.
“Good find, Sui. Nice work.”
The old chest blended in so well with the background, anyone could fail to notice it. It looked like it’d been left there for quite a long time.
【Cursed Treasure Chest】
Those who open it will become cursed, having calamity befall them.
Whaaaa-...... The one who opens it will get cursed and struck with calamity? They have no intention of letting anyone open this, huh?
《To think this treasure chest was cursed... But, you will be fine. You have god’s blessings and Perfect Defense. Why should you worry?》
W-Well, Fel’s right, but it’s still scary, you know?
I hesitated too long, causing Fel to glare at me. “Hurry up and open it.”
“G-Got it.” Slowly, hesitatingly, I opened the chest.
Yeah, I don’t really feel any different.
Peeking inside, I found a single knife. It was a beautiful knife: jet black, like a crow’s plumage. I took the knife out of the chest. When I appraised it......
【Vampire Knife】
A knife made from an alloy of magic iron and a vampire’s bone. It thirsts for blood, and will endlessly absorb it.
“Phhbbbhht!......” W-What a violent knife! It hungers for blood......
“Hmm, a knife that endlessly absorbs blood? Would it not be useful for draining blood from meat?”
Ah! Fel’s right, I can use this! I thought it was really dangerous and violent from its description, but I guess it’s just how you think of it. Just as Fel said, I can use it to drain the blood from prey. And if I do that, the butchering will go faster at the Adventurer’s guild, and most importantly, the taste will improve too. Even though my Item Box stops time for everything inside, it’s still better in the end to drain the blood on the spot. This is a pretty good item, all things considered. It’ll have to wait until we’re out of the dungeon, but let’s talk to Elrand and get him to let me have the knife. Oh, where is Elrand, actually?
I turned around, and found Elrand chasing Dora-chan around.
“What are you doing, Elrand......”
《Hey! This crazy nut’s trying to catch me! Do something!》
In any case, Dora-chan couldn’t very well attack him, so he was running away.
“Dora-chan, let me hug you! Just a little is fine!”
It seemed that Elrand’s passion for Dora-chan welled up from seeing him fight.
I’m feeling like he’s not gonna give up until he gets to hug Dora-chan right now...
《What if you just let him, Dora-chan?》 I told Dora-chan through telepathy.
《No way! It’s never happening! This dude’s eyes have gone all crazy — it’s creepy as hell!》
Complete rejection. I’m starting to feel sorry for Elrand, since he’s getting rejected so firmly.
《This is more important! Do something about this guy!》
Oh, fine.
“Elrand! If you keep that up, Dora-chan’ll really hate you!” I called out.
Elrand stopped on the spot. “I don’t want him to hate me~. But I want to hug him......”
“Hahh, it’s going to be impossible right now. You have to build up trust in your relationship first, bit by bit.”
“Ghh... Trust, huh?”
“That’s right. If you just keep chasing him around without that, he’s never going to let you come close. In fact, he’ll just hate you.”
“Gggnnrrrrrrr......”
It seemed that Elrand was already catching the hint that Dora-chan didn’t like him, so his expression was bitter.
“Slow and steady is the way to go. Never overreach. Once you build up trust, hugging him isn’t out of the realm of possibility,” I said, and Elrand nodded grandly.
“Okay. I’ll do my best to win Dora-chan’s trust bit by bit!”
Good, I somehow got him to calm down.
...Well, whether Dora-chan’ll ever trust you that much is an entirely different question, though.
《I’m saved! Hey, don’t let this thing near me again. I get the chills every time that happens.》
Man Elrand’s getting blasted. W-Well, do your best, man.
Having cleared the 18th floor, we moved on to the 19th.