Chapter 8: New Dungeon Info

“Not done yet?”

“No.”

All three of my familiars were posted right next to where I was grilling the yakitori, waiting with bated breath. Elrand was also waiting behind me.

Once we had gotten back to the inn, I had immediately started to prepare dinner. Of course, today’s dinner was cockatrice yakitori. I used Earth magic to make a stone grill in the room’s exclusive backyard. I made it to fit the skewer’s length while planning to grill a whole lot at once, so I also made sure it was at a perfect height so I could do it while sitting.

While sitting on a chair I also made out of Earth magic, I was currently slowly grilling the poultry over charcoal. There were lots of skewers with thighs or meat and spring onions.

“Right, it should be about done.”

“Finally, we can eat.”

“No. I’m going to coat it with sauce and keep grilling.”

Half would be with sauce, and the other half would just be seasoned. For the salted ones, I seasoned them before I started grilling. I also paid attention to what salt and pepper I used — natural salt from Okinawa, and organic black pepper that came in its own grinder. I tried the salt and pepper by themselves, and the salt was actually pretty mild in saltiness with a hint of umami, while the pepper had perfect fragrance since it was freshly ground.

Knowing that definitely heightens my expectations for the final product.

“Gnnrrrrr, I am hungry......”

Just wait a little.

Take this well browned meat that’s had all the excess fat cooked off of it, and slather it in this sauce I made by copying the recipe of the yakitori place I worked at using soy sauce, mirin, brown sugar, and water......

*Sizzle*

...Then start grilling it again until it gets small black spots from the charcoal fire. It’ll pack in a lot more smell and flavor.

The smell of yakitori is so irresistible!

“Yep, this should be it.”

I took the salted ones off first and plated them. For the ones with sauce I cooked them a little longer before doing the same.

《Finally. I cannot stand smelling this anymore. Give it here.》

《Yeah, yeah! Make it snappy!》

《Sui is so hungry! Sui wants to eat now!》

All three of them hurried me along.

“Just wait a second. I need to take them off the skewers, you know?”

I de-skewered the meat so that it’d be easier for Fel and the others to eat. “Here. This one’s with salt and this one’s with sauce.”

I gave all three of them their own set of plates for each flavor, each one piled high like a mountain. They all jumped at the food.

《Hm, this is delicious. Truly. Both the salt and the sauce are great. I like this,》 Fel said telepathically, his mouth full of food.

《This is cooked perfectly! The good smell is making me even more hungry. They’re both delicious, but I like the salt one more.》

《So good! Sui loves this!》

Everyone was eating while sending me praise like that through telepathy. Both flavors of the yakitori went over well. It was worth making them.

I’ll need to feed this one that’s been waiting for a while now, too. “Here you go, Elrand.”

“I’ve been waiting! This one with the sauce on it looks so appetizing. I’m digging in!” Elrand bit into the skewer filled with meat.

“Oohhh, this was definitely worth the wait! The sweet and salty sauce with the perfectly cooked meat tastes divine~!”

Yeah, right? Right? Even though it’s probably not as good as what the boss of the yakitori place I used to work at could make, I recreated the sauce to an extent, and I think for an amateur, the meat was cooked really well too. Once I finish this next set of meat, I’ll eat too.

But first... I poured some ice cold beer I’d bought with my skill into the self-cooling cup I’d bought in Nijhoff. With this, I won’t have to worry about it getting warm even if I leave it somewhat close to the grill.

*Glug-glug*

“Kkhhh! So good!!”

It was probably because I was so close to the heat of the grill, but the cold beer tasted a whole level better than usual.

Right, the first is the meat-and-onion skewers, with the sauce of course. It’s gotta be sauce for that nostalgic flavor...

Yeah, this is the epitome of yakitori. This salty-sweet sauce is so irresistible combined with cockatrice meat that’s been cooked so perfectly over charcoal. The spring onions interspersed on the skewer give off some sweetness since they’ve been grilled too, and the cockatrice’s fats are soaked into the onions as well, so they’re to die for.

After finishing one skewer, I took another swig of beer.

*Glug-glug*

“Khhaaahh! Yeah, beer and yakitori’s the golden combo, isn’t it?” I said from the bottom of my heart, grabbing a salted thigh-meat skewer next.

Thighs are delicious... This simple flavoring brings out the cockatrice’s nutritious umami even more. Oh, crap, I can’t just sit and enjoy this stuff anymore. So as not to let it burn, I turned the yakitori on the grill.

Take the half that’s going to be flavored with sauce and coat it before putting it back to cook again......

“Right. The next ones are up.” I added the meat to my familiar’s plates, and they started eating again. I handed Elrand a portion too, and he happily dug in.

“Oh yeah, do you drink, Elrand? You didn’t drink last time.”

If I remembered right, he hadn’t drunk at all during the party.

“That’s right. Elves don’t really like alcohol. On the other hand, we’re really weak to good food like this, though. Haha!” he said, as he bit into one of the skewers that alternated between meat and spring onions.

I couldn’t help myself and bit into a thigh skewer too. Then, I took a long draw of beer. “Ahh~, so good.”

Alright, next I’ll grill up the skins and innards and stuff. Meat-and-onions, thighs, skin, warbles, hearts, livers, gizzards, kidneys, unlaid eggs, tails.

I prepared the meat-and-onion and the thigh-meat skewers the same as always, doing half with sauce and the rest with seasoning. Then the skins were all seasoned. And as for the innards, I used sauce for the egg-and-liver skewers, and seasoning for everything else.

*Sizzle-sizzle*

Among the fragrant smells, fat drips off the meat. This is yakitori. Agh, I love it.

“Right. This is good.” I took the finished meat-and-onion skewers and thigh skewers, and served them out to my familiars. And, finally......

“These are innards, right?”

“That’s right.” For the innards, each monster produced two skewers, so Elrand and I had one of each kind of skewer.

“Which part is this?”

“That’s the heart. It’s tender but chewy — and delicious.”

Elrand seemed a little hesitant after hearing it was the heart, so I started eating first.

Yep. It’s good. As expected, it’s tender, but still chewy, and it’s free of any gamey taste even though it’s an inner organ, so it’s really good. I’d tried hearts before at the yakitori place I worked part time at, but this cockatrice heart has stronger umami, so it’s clearly more delicious. Seeing me enjoy it so much, Elrand also dug into his heart.

“Ohh, you’re right. It’s tender. But it has no gaminess to it, so it’s easier to eat than I expected.”

It seemed that Elrand was expecting something much gamier-tasting that would be difficult for beginners; they were innards, after all.

“Right? It’s even more delicious than usual because it’s fresh. I know you might be hesitant, but try eating this liver, too — it’s highly nutritious, and the viscous texture and deep taste are just fantastic,” I said, digging into my own liver.

Yep yep, it’s awesome. It’s fresh, so there’s no gaminess to it. Like this, even people who normally hate innards can eat it.

“Just like you said, Mukohda, it’s got a deep taste and umami. It’s truly delicious,” Elrand said while eating his own liver. Even Elrand, who had been reluctant to eat innards, found it delicious when he actually tried, and he started shoveling his food faster and faster.

While cooking the next set of yakitori, I was enjoying the gizzards when I thought I could hear a faint knocking sound.

“Hm? Is someone there? Elrand, did you hear a knock?”

“Well now, I didn’t hear anything.”

......*Knock* ............ *Knock-knock*

“Ah, there is knocking.”

......*Knock-knock-knock*

The knocking got louder. Whoever it was must have gotten impatient.

“I can’t just leave this grill alone, so can you go see who it is, Elrand?”

“Okay.”

*Bang-bang-bang-bang*

“Yes, yes, I’m coming, just wait a second~,” Elrand groused in annoyance as he headed for the door...

“Mukohda, you have a guest, or, how should I put it......” I looked over since Elrand was being weirdly hesitant, and......

“Huh? Feodora??” For some reason, Feodora was there, eyes shining like a predator.

“Food, please,” Feodora said, eyes still sparkling while looking at me.

Urgh............ What is that... the power in that look... Even though she’s a little disappointing, she’s still seriously pretty, so being looked at like that, I was a little... No, my heart is seriously racing.

“Food, please.” Feodora once again turned her shining, watery eyes to me......

“Yes, with pleasure!”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

It looked like Feodora really liked the sauce I used. She alternated between taking bites out of the meat-and-spring-onion skewer in her right hand and the thigh-meat skewer in her left. The way she ate was actually fun to watch.

“Uhhh, sorry about my fellow elf.” It looked like even Elrand was kind of taken aback, as he apologized quite meekly.

“No no, it’s fine.”

Sure, she’s a little disappointing, but I just can’t hate anyone as beautiful as Feodora, especially if she looks at me with shining, sparkling eyes like she did. If I did, I’d be a failure as a man. Actually, my heart’s still really racing since she looked at me like that a bit ago. It’s true that she’s really weak to food, but Feodora, as an elf, is beautiful enough to make that weakness insignificant. If anyone asked if I’d go for her, I would. I definitely would. In the first place, I’ve never had a chance to interact with anyone as beautiful as her, even back in Japan.

I tried imagining Feodora as my girlfriend. Feodora would lean into me, and I’d hug her by the shoulders...... Mmheheh, oh that would be great. The fact that she came all the way to my room means she doesn’t hate me, at the very least right? Aw, man, has spring finally come for me~?

Such thoughts ran through my head as I continued to work the grill, when I heard another knock on the door.

*Knock-knock-knock* *Knock-knock-knock*

“Mukohdaaa, you theerree?”

This voice is... Gaudino?

“Elrand, sorry about this, but can you go see what’s up?”

“Ah, sure.”

The person that Elrand brought back really was Gaudino and the other members of Ark.

“So you really were here......”

“It smelled really good, so I was sure she’d be right here.”

“I know that elves are really weak to good food, but to think that she’d barge in here. What a problem......”

All three of them were looking with exasperated expressions at Feodora eating away at the skewers in both hands.

“Sorry about our Feodora......” Gaudino, the leader, apologized, seeming truly sorry.

“Yeah, really. Sorry about this, Mukohda.” Gideon did the same.

“She’s first rate as an adventurer, too... But other than that...... Sorry...” Sigvard also bowed his head.

You can’t just go around causing everyone trouble like this, Feodora. But well, Feodora’s a candidate for girlfriend status, so let’s settle this peacefully. I mean, if she does become my girlfriend, she’ll have to leave Ark, so that’s even more reason to try and keep things smooth.

“No, no, it’s fine. More importantly, how about it? I’m grilling cockatrice over charcoal. I’m pretty confident it’s good.” I offered some of the meat that was just finished to Gaudino and the others.

Gaudino and the others wouldn’t touch the food I offered them, saying, “No, you treated us before too, so...”

So I just put all the meat onto a plate and handed the whole thing over. “Now here, eat,” I said, and they finally, slowly, reached out for the skewers.

“I did think this smelled really appetizing, but it really is good.”

“So good!! This is really really good!”

“Wow, this is tasty!! This’d go great with alcohol!”

As I’d expect out of that dwarf. You totally get it, Sigvard.

“Wait a second,” I said, before turning to my familiars and giving them more food. I also served more to Elrand and Feodora before turning around and making sure that the three guys from Ark wouldn’t see me buying more of S-company’s black label bottled beer that I brought out during the party. I popped open the bottled beer and poured it into cups for the three of them.

“This food goes really well with this. Here.” I handed over the cups full of beer.

“Sorry man, you keep treating us.”

“No no, it’s all good. Now here, drink up.” For my future, I need to build up these relationships with some smooth communication.

“Ah-ha, just as I suspected! It goes perfectly with this booze!”

“Kkkhhh~! Delicious!”

Heheheh, I get you. Beer and yakitori are perfect together.

“Mukohda’s right. It pairs great with this stuff. Oh, right. I just talked about this with Gideon and Sigvard; we want you to take this,” Gaudino said, handing me a deep green teardrop-shaped stone about 5cm across.

“This is?” I asked him, and Gaudino replied that it was a teleportation stone from a certain dungeon in the Ermann kingdom.

Huh. I was taking a closer look at the stone when Elrand came over.

“That shape, it’s Brixt dungeon’s teleportation stone, isn’t it? And that color is...... Why, isn’t that one that you can use over and over again that you find on the 30th floor?!”

“You know it, Elrand?”

“Of course I do! You see, there’s a town called Brixt in the Ermann kingdom with a dungeon in it. Your teleportation stone is from there, and it’s one of the most valuable among those.”

From what Elrand said, it seemed that Brixt’s dungeon was yet to be conquered, and was considered one of the hardest dungeons. It was said to have fifty floors or more, and at the moment the highest anyone had reached was the 37^th floor. And that was by a party of adventurers over 100 years ago.

“That’ll let you go anywhere freely up to the 30th floor, and as much as you like, too. You got something good, Mukohda. It’s really valuable. From the point of view of an adventurer going into Brixt’s dungeon, it’d be worth an arm and a leg.”

“What? It’s that valuable?!”

“It is! The dungeon in Brixt has stones that are consumable or reusable. The consumable ones can only be used once. The reusable ones don’t have a limit and can be used forever, but they’re really rare, so there’s almost none of them around. And for ones that go all the way to the 30th floor......”

According to Elrand, that dungeon’s teleportation stones rarely got dropped by floor bosses every five levels, and ones that you could keep using are even rarer. The consumable types could only be used once, but that could be for either going someplace or returning to the surface. For example, a teleportation stone gained from the 10th floor could be used to go back to the surface from a certain magic circle on that floor, or it could take you from the surface to that magic circle on any floor up to the 10th.

Of course, any way you used it, if it was consumable, it disappeared. On the other hand, there were reusable stones. That meant, for example, with this stone that I got that goes up to the 30th floor, I could go up to the 30th floor and back as many times as I liked. With this, I’d be able to teleport to the floor I wanted immediately, and I could use magic circles to go back in an instant.

By the way, the teardrop-shaped teleportation stones were unique to the dungeon in Brixt, and the color indicated what floor it could go to, as well as what floor it was dropped in, since it would only drop every five floors. Whether the stone was consumable or reusable could be discerned by how dark the color was. That was apparently how Elrand could tell that the teleportation stone I got was from Brixt, and that it could go to the 30th floor.

“So from what Elrand said, I know this is really valuable, but is it really fine for me to take it?”

Would this be really expensive if I were to try and buy it? Can I really just take something like this?

Gaudino, the source of my worries, said, “It’s fine. You’ve really taken care of us, Mukohda. And on top of that, you’ve given us so much good food, and good alcohol too. If we didn’t pay you back, we’d be a disgrace as A-ranked adventurers.”

“Yeah, yeah. The leader’s right. Also, we’re lucky. To tell you the truth, we have another one just like it. This one was something Sigvard had before we all teamed up.”

“Indeed. It’s as Gideon says. I got it several years ago when we went to challenge Brixt’s dungeon. And a single party doesn’t need more than one. Take it, as a sign of my thanks.”

If they’re going that far...... “All right then, I’ll take it.”

“You do that. Since you came and conquered this one after Dolan, that means you’ll be going to Brixt eventually, right? It’ll serve you well.”

No way, Gaudino. I have no plans to go to any dungeon.

“They probably do plan to go to Brixt, but in Mukohda’s case, wouldn’t the dungeon in Rosenthal be first?”

No Sigvard, I have absolutely no plans to go anywhere near a dungeon. Actually, where the heck is Rosenthal and its dungeon?

“The meat dungeon? Gahahah! That’s true!”

Meat dungeon? What? Gideon?

“Hahahah! Meat’s real necessary for them, isn’t it? Thinking about it, the meat dungeon would be perfect for them.”

Even Elrand’s saying this?

“Uhhh, what’s the meat dungeon?” I asked, and all of them told me.

The meat dungeon was apparently one of the dungeons in this country, located in the town of Rosenthal. It had twelve floors, and though it was a really easy dungeon, it was also really popular, they said. That was because......

“Basically all of the drops in Rosenthal’s dungeon are meat. That’s why it’s nicknamed the ‘meat dungeon.’”

“It’s something that’s consumed every day, so it’ll never go out of demand. You’ll always get at least a decent amount of money, and in the worst case you can just eat the meat, you see. For adventurers it’s a perfect dungeon.”

“Well, even though there’s not much profit to be had, it’s still a stable income. That’s why there’s a lot of adventurers with families there.”

“Also, thanks to the meat dungeon in that town it’s become a mecca for food. It’s just as lively as this town or Dolan.”

From what they said, that was also the origin of sausages. I remember thinking it was weird when I saw salt-pickled intestines for use in sausages when in this world they didn’t even eat innards. Apparently the white sheep bowels I was using in my sausages were dropped from this dungeon too. Almost all the sausage meat sold in shops were from the meat dungeon, and Rosenthal’s sausages and dried meats were famous.

Hmm~, I see. A meat dungeon, huh? It might be fine to go someday to get meat. The dungeon seems alright enough.

“If you like, we can go to the meat dungeon after this?” Elrand said, grinning wide.

What the hell are you spouting? “Elrand, you really do need to be getting back to Dolan. Ugohl will get mad at you,” I said.

His face scrunched up somberly as he replied, “True, if I delay any more than this, even Ugohl...”

Hearing our conversation, the three of them all laughed, saying, “You need to do your job as guildmaster!”

That’s right. Do your damn job.

“Dolan......”

The female voice resounded like a bell. At some point, Feodora had gotten close to us.

“Hey, Feodora, you’re not saying we should go to Dolan, are you? I’m saying this now, we can’t. We’re going back into the dungeon here tomorrow.”

“Gaudino’s right. We were just at Dolan. On top of that, we were there almost a year.”

“Yeah yeah! The leader and Sigvard are right! In the first place, we only went to Dolan since you said you wanted to see your grandchildren, so we changed our plans for you. We can’t just be catering to your whims all the time, you know!”

...............Hm? Did... I just hear wrong? I swear I just heard him talking about grandchildren......

“Ohh, so your grandchildren are in Dolan, Feodora?”

“Yeah. Feodora’s got four kids, and the oldest girl lives in Dolan with her family.”

It really was grandchildren...... And four kids, on top of that......?

“Your daughter’s family, huh? Could it be, they’re adventurers?”

“No, both the daughter and her husband are doctors, so they might not have that much interaction with the Adventurer’s guild.”

“I thought I might know them if they’re adventurers, but I really wouldn’t know doctors.”

“Feodora got a letter from them for the first time in a long while, and it talked about her grandchild, so she said she wanted to see them. That’s why we went. At first, we planned to go to the dungeon while we were there, and we planned for three months, but Feodora......”

I stopped really hearing Elrand and Gideon’s conversation in the middle.

“Feodora has...... grandchildren............?”

I finally managed to mutter, and Elrand said, “Oh, yeah normally people would be surprised, wouldn’t they? We elves grow slowly, but even then we’re adults by thirty and we can marry. Then, for around 300 years we basically don’t age at all, and even once that passes, we only start to grow older, slowly. So even for someone who looks like Feodora, it’s pretty normal to have grandchildren. By the way, I’m 334 years old. I’m still totally spry! Hahaha!”

“That’s right. She may look like that, but Feodora’s the oldest one in our party.”

O-Oh...... Hahahaha, haha............ aaagghhhh! Just when I’d thought it was my Springtime...... Four kids, and even grandchildren? No matter how pretty she is, that’s just impossible for me. Sorry. Even in another world, Spring won’t come for me.

Goddammit.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

In the Divine Realm...

“So that’s the end of it? Well, I figured that’d be how it turned out. This guy... his overall luck isn’t that bad, but his luck in love couldn’t get any worse......”

“BWAHHAHAHAH! No kidding! This dude’s love luck is in the single digits!”

“Come on, Agni, don’t laugh when it’s so sad. Well, he does have that kind of face, though. People like that exist, don’t they? Ones who end up as nothing more than a nice guy.”

“They definitely do. They’re just too...normal, or how should I put it......”

“Even though those guys are the ones that need to show off and leave an impression the most...”

“But do you think this otherworlder boy can even try to show off his good points?”

“It’s impossible, isn’t it? This guys’ so indecisive, and he’s so stuck in the idea of needing to keep the peace at any cost that I don’t think it’s possible for him.”

“Ahahahahaha! Meaning, love isn’t all about luck, right?”

“Especially in this world, the types that go for it more aggressively are popular, I think.”

“Exactly. Basically, it’s almost impossible for there to be a situation where he’d be popular...”

“No faith in him at all, huh? Well, I’m the same though.”

“............Yakitori.”

“......Women sure are cruel huh, Blacksmithing God?”

“......You know it, War God.”