"Yesss! Let's eat! Let's drink!"
"Grill it, grill it—keep on grilling!"
Jin and Garat shouted at the top of their lungs as they piled wyvern meat onto the grill. Not to be outdone, Lion and the rest of the Tamer's Guild members began laying out their own cuts as well.
"Those guys have no concept of restraint whatsoever…"
"Well, I suppose they figured this is a situation where it's allowed."
As I watched them gobble down the grilled meat like they were fighting over it, Agri came walking over from where she'd been eating, looking exasperated… but she, too, had made sure to secure a generous mound of grilled wyvern meat on her own plate.
As for how this barbecue came about—after arriving in Seigen, I'd headed to Karina's place to pay my respects to some acquaintances first. While I was chatting with her there, Jin and the others from Dawn Sword showed up. I thought the timing was awfully convenient, and it turned out they'd heard we were on our way to the Guild and had come looking for us. Apparently, they had something they wanted to discuss.
So we decided to move somewhere more private to talk. I went to rent a private room at the Guild, but the Tamer's Guild members were already camped out there. Before getting to Dawn Sword's business, I exchanged greetings with the Tamer's Guild crowd, and the topic of the wyvern hunt came up. They said if we had a ton of meat, we should let them have some. Then Jin's group, who'd come with something to discuss, said the meat came first—and that's how a barbecue broke out outside Seigen.
"Wyvern meat is technically a luxury item, you know…"
"Yeah, I'm truly grateful for it."
"Yes, I'm eating with full appreciation."
Following Agri's lead, Menace and Lina were the next to respond to my muttering. Both of them, just like Agri, had built mountains of grilled meat on their plates.
"Look, I really am grateful, and this isn't exactly payment or anything—but I'm telling you the latest dungeon info, so cut me some slack, would you?"
"This is the latest info, stuff even the Guild doesn't know about."
"Come to think of it, you did reach the lowest level, didn't you? But is it really okay to share information you haven't reported to the Guild?"
"Information an adventurer obtains on their own is that adventurer's property. If it were something with high urgency, it might be an issue, but the Guild not knowing dungeon details isn't really a big deal."
"If the Guild had asked us to sell it, that'd be one thing—but since they haven't said anything, there's no need for us to go out of our way to be cautious."
It would probably fetch a pretty hefty sum if we sold it, but doing so might let another party clear the dungeon before Dawn Sword got the chance. That said, the next party to attempt it after Dawn Sword had already retired, and the one after that was said to be on the verge of retirement as well—so they didn't seem too worried…
"I've been going pretty deep into the dungeon myself, though… Is it still fine if I share too?"
Now, I've been pushing down to around the 60th floor, so depending on the intel, we could catch up to Jin and the others in one go. As it happened, Jin's party was apparently on the 98th floor — which had actually become a hot topic at the Guild, because despite being near the deepest level, their clear speed was absurdly fast.
"Well, I won't lie about that, but I'm not going to tell you everything either, so it should be fine. Besides, even if we did catch up, they're not the kind of people who would skip ahead while watching us struggle… right?"
"That's right… isn't it?"
"What was the market price for wyvern meat again, I wonder?"
The moment I said that, the two of them immediately started bowing and saying things like "We got carried away!"… But no matter how prized wyvern meat might be, a party at Dawn Sword's level should be able to afford it easily. In other words, they weren't actually sorry at all. Well, I was just messing around too, so I guess we were even.
"Alright, that's enough joking around… I do have no intention of doing something like that, but even if I did, I don't think you'd be in a position to complain."
"We only do that after sizing up the other person, so don't worry!"
"With someone you can't trust, it could very well be a matter of life and death, after all."
And so, I decided to accept their information freely. Basically, I only asked about what kinds of Monsters were on each floor, what minerals were available, what the atmosphere was like — nothing about the paths to lower floors. So if we did catch up to them, it would make for a pretty funny story.
"Now then, this is where the real topic starts… Actually, before that — Jin! Garat! Get over here already! Did you forget what we were searching for Tenma for?!"
Jin and Garat, scolded by Menace, broke off their eating contest with Amur and came over to us.
"Sorry… the wyvern meat was just too good, and we got a bit carried away."
Jin and Garat apologized to Menace and Lina, then turned toward me.
"Actually… the reason we were looking for Tenma is because we wanted to consult with you about something."
Jin said this with a serious expression on his face, but —
"Yeah, I know… When we ran into each other in front of the apartment, wasn't that the first thing you brought up, Jin?"
"…That's right."
Jin's deadpan joke had Garat and the others desperately holding back their laughter, but the moment I called out to Grandpa, they quickly snapped back to seriousness.
"So, what's this consultation of ours about?"
"The consultation is about the boss on the lowest floor."
According to Jin, the boss monster on the lowest floor appeared to be a Hydra. They'd challenged it several times but couldn't find a breakthrough, so they kept making early withdrawals. To make matters worse, the Hydra's regeneration was so high that it would fully recover before their damage even stuck.
"A Hydra, huh... brings back memories. So, how many heads does this one have?"
"Nine."
Grandpa was visibly surprised by the answer. After all, the most heads any Hydra he'd ever defeated had was eight, and that specimen was considered the highest number ever confirmed.
"Nine, huh... and I struggled plenty against the eight-headed one I beat back in the day."
"That's exactly why I was hoping that Merlin-sama, who has defeated an eight-headed Hydra, and Tenma, who's known for his unorthodox fighting style, might have some useful insight."
There was something in Jin's story that didn't sit right with me, so I voiced my objection—but not only did Jin and the others look puzzled, even Grandpa gave me a strange look.
"Well, setting that aside... In my case, I won by brute-forcing it with magic and relying on magic items. But the biggest reason I won was simply good luck. My spells hit their marks, the magic items performed better than expected—looking back on it now, I'm honestly amazed I managed to win at all..."
"That magic item you used back then..."
"You hardly ever see them anymore. Besides, that item was basically an enhanced version of those 'exploding knives' that guy from before used in the tournament—forgot his name—who ended up blowing his own arm off. Even those were rare magic items, so anything with even more power packed into a knife is even rarer. On top of that, mine was a modified version, which is prohibited these days."
At Grandpa's words, Jin and the others visibly slumped. The 'exploding knives' he mentioned must be the ones Chaos used that blew his own arm apart. They could be quite useful depending on the situation and how you used them, but even if you threw ten or twenty of them, it'd be hard to say they'd be effective against a nine-headed Hydra.
Something in Grandpa's story caught my attention—the part about them being "prohibited nowadays"—so I asked about it. Apparently there were two reasons: their disproportionate power relative to their size made them dangerously useful for assassinating VIPs, and if modified to forcefully boost their power, they could detonate from even the slightest impact. In Grandpa's case, he'd been lucky and had mostly kept his stored inside his Magic Bag, so he'd been safe—but he said the thought of what could have happened gave him cold sweats just thinking about it now.
"So in other words, if you just leave it inside a Magic Bag, the risk of explosion becomes extremely low?"
"That doesn't mean you should go making one!"
The moment I murmured that thought, Grandpa shot me a stern warning.
"Got it. So if magic items are out, what about a brute-force approach with Golems?"
"It'll cost you, but I can have as many as you need prepared"... I suggested, but they turned it down, saying that way they wouldn't be able to claim they'd conquered the dungeon with their own strength.
"Well, yeah, that's true..."
"It'd be a generous offer, but if we did that, people around us would... well, more importantly, I don't think we'd be able to accept it ourselves."
Jin's words were met with nods from Garat and the others. If they couldn't even convince themselves, there'd be no point in being adventurers at all. As I mentally kicked myself for running my mouth, I started thinking of other approaches, when—
"You mentioned it has high regeneration, but just how much are we talking?"
"Imagine getting a good slash in that takes about an hour to inflict, and the wound closes up in about an hour. Something like that."
"That's certainly a problem."
Even after working hard for an hour, the wound healing in roughly the same amount of time would indeed make it incredibly difficult to bring down. The Hydra likely had upper limits on its stamina and regeneration too, but if its regeneration was on par with or even exceeded the offensive power of Jin and the others, it was virtually the same as having limitless stamina and healing. However—
"Then couldn't we deal continuous damage? If we could keep hurting the Hydra even while Jin and the others are resting, even a nine-headed Hydra would eventually die."
"If that were easy to do, we wouldn't be struggling!"
Jin probably thought I was joking, because he snapped back in irritation—
"Jin, hold on! The fact that Tenma is saying something like this means he might have actually thought of something! After all, Tenma is famous for being unconventional!"
"That's right! Tenma isn't heartless enough to joke around at a time like this!"
"Exactly! Tenma isn't that far gone!"
"You guys are the ones who need to wait!"
When I shouted something that clearly couldn't be ignored, the three of them realized their slip of the tongue and immediately panicked.
"Tenma! You can do whatever you want to these guys after this is over, but if you've thought of something, tell us!"
Jin grabbed both of my shoulders and shook me hard, without bothering to back up the other two.
"I get it, just calm down… What I came up with is driving multiple harpoon-like weapons into the Hydra's body. As long as the embedded harpoons stay lodged in, wouldn't that allow us to deal continuous damage to the Hydra?"
Even with humans, a small thorn lodged in a fingertip that digs into the flesh can cause persistent, ongoing pain. I figured that if we deliberately used thick, high-lethality harpoon-like weapons to achieve something similar, we might be able to deal continuous damage to the Hydra.
"Following that logic, continuous damage is certainly possible."
"During the regeneration process, the harpoons might get pushed out, but depending on how we engineer them, we could probably keep them embedded. It's certainly better than doing nothing."
"That's true. We're at a dead end already. If it doesn't work, we can think of another approach then."
We'd fought and managed to escape multiple times up to this point. There was no harm in trying out my idea at least once.
"So that means we need to devise a way so it either doesn't come out after piercing, or only the head remains stuck in."
"It doesn't have to be limited to harpoons—if it's for piercing, we could use bows and arrows instead. That'd let us attack from even farther away."
I also told them about the 'chest-piercing spear' used in breath-hold fishing. This type is designed so that the head separates upon impact and forms a large barb. The mechanism is meant to prevent the pierced prey from escaping by connecting the head and body with a cord. If I loosened the knot connecting the head and body, and attached a longer cord to the body, it would become easy to retrieve even after throwing. Then, by equipping a spare head, one could attack multiple times.
"Alright! First, we secure the weapons!"
"Ooh!"
Jin and Garat, somewhat excited, moved to go look for weapons, but after just two or three steps, the scent of yakiniku seized control of their bodies. They immediately did an about-face and ran back to where they'd been eating the grilled meat.
"Well then, shall we head back too?"
"Yes. It's not often we get to eat wyvern meat to our heart's content."
Menace and Lina also returned to their original spot in search of the wyvern meat.
"Tenma, we'd better hurry back too, or they'll finish all the meat!"
"Well, there's still plenty of wyvern left, so..."
Saying that, but seeing the feasting scene unfold before us—enough to make that possibility impossible to dismiss—once we finished what we had, we decided to bring out the orc meat next.
"Oh, right. When we get back to the Royal Capital, we need to have a meeting with the King and the others right away."
"That's correct."
Actually, it wasn't just Jin and the others who had come to consult with me. There was also Karina and Arrie, and their topic concerned Amy. Apparently, there was going to be a party at the school in the Royal Capital soon, which also served as an open-class observation day. The invitation had supposedly arrived for Karina and the others, but attending would mean being away for nearly half a month, including travel time, which would be quite difficult. Beyond that, they felt hesitant about going somewhere full of nobles and were wondering what they should do.
So, when I asked for advice from Chris and the three idiots, I was told that Amy's guardian in the Royal Capital was the Ootori family. It would be no problem—and in fact, it would be obligatory—for them to attend in her stead.
For a regular party, not attending wouldn't be an issue, but this one was for the entire middle school division, and apparently, the third-year students were the main focus. Among the third-years, there would be students who would leave the school without advancing to the upper division, or who would fail the entrance exam for the upper division. Thus, the event also had the character of a graduation party. Well, those leaving or failing were basically commoner students, so noble students didn't really have that sense of graduation. However, in exchange, some noble students saw this party as an opportunity to find a fiancé or fiancée.
"There was that aspect in my time too... It's been too long, so I'm sure it's not much help as a reference."
That grandfather, while earning a reputation as an excellent student during his school days, was the third son of a viscount with little chance of inheritance, and he already had a reputation for being an oddball back then, so apparently, he wasn't popular at all. Incidentally, the most popular person in their year was Ernest.
"That fellow was called an oddball too, but he was royalty to the bone and had money, after all."
Even now, when I recalled it, I couldn't help feeling irritable over the fact that Ernest had been so popular.
"Well, setting that aside... according to Chris and the Three Idiots' predictions, the biggest prize for the noble students this time would be Aimie. And when you think about our and the Three Idiots' connections, she's a target with plenty of appeal, even factoring in our commoner status."
If we could win Aimie over, the Otogi household would invariably be tied to the Three Idiots as well. Of course, even if we formed a connection, our relationship with the royal family — or rather, with Tida — would probably sour. But Tida wouldn't be able to lay a hand on Aimie's suitor just because he'd been rejected, and besides, doing something like that could cost him his current position.
"When things are like this, maybe it'd actually be easier for everyone if Aimie ended up with Tida..."
"If Tenma says something like that, he's going to get grilled from all directions, so I'd keep that to yourself and not say it anywhere else."
"Either way, there will be students trying to get close to Aimie by force if they have to, so I need to discuss that with Maria."
Continuing this conversation any longer was going to do damage to me, so even though it was a bit pushy, I decided to cut it short.
"That's true too, but... we need to speak with Aimie's family first. That's the proper way to do things, and we can't guarantee that some opportunist won't try to make contact with her family before we do."
Grandpa was right — I couldn't very well push ahead without consulting Karina and the others, so I decided to go talk to them right away. Before I left, though, Jin and the others demanded more meat, so I put out the orc meat just as originally planned... and a storm of boos erupted. Well, I threatened them by saying, "If you've got complaints, I'll charge you for both what I give you and what you've already eaten," and they obediently started grilling the orc meat. Once I'd confirmed that, I headed to the apartment.
At the apartment, Karina and the others were quite surprised by my story, but what surprised me even more was what Karina and Arielle said: "We knew Aimie was close with someone from the royal family, but we always assumed she'd end up marrying Tenma in the end."
Apparently, it wasn't unusual for a well-off adventurer to marry multiple women, and above all, they believed that from a social standing perspective, I actually had better prospects than the royal family.
When I told them I'd never once harbored such thoughts about Aimie, I was hit with, "Well, you do have plenty of beautiful people around you every day," and that was the moment a story that absolutely could not be known by anyone else had just come into existence.