This chapter contains gross-out scenes. If you're squeamish, you may want to refrain from eating while reading.
Today's plan is a dungeon expedition. I didn't bring Ami along, of course.
I had something specific I was after today, so I didn't bother pushing deeper — instead, I dealt with bug-type Monsters on the floors below the eleventh.
Even among bug-types, the variety was staggering. I saw creatures ranging from worm-like things to tiny versions of the caterpillars you'd find in the Valley of Wind, along with spiders, mantises, grasshoppers, and more.
Some of them were actually delicious when prepared right. I even spotted a few species I'd eaten before back in Kukuri Village.
My personal recommendations are the worms, the caterpillars, and the spiders. They might look gross, but depending on how you prepare them, they can be treated as delicacies — not uncommon in this world at all (though naturally, personal taste comes into play).
And surprisingly, some of the spiders even had a taste and texture similar to shellfish. My dad used to catch those all the time, and they'd make a great drinking snack alongside the caterpillars.
While mulling over these thoughts, I made my way deeper, and the sixteenth floor had a noticeably different feel from the ones above.
The floors I'd been through so far were nothing but bare rock, but this one was covered in root-like growths with patches of lush green foliage scattered about. The ceiling was nearly twice as high as before, and the passageways were wider too.
As I advanced cautiously, small Monsters that had been camouflaged among the shadows of the roots and leaves launched themselves at me. That said, even the biggest ones were only about fifty centimeters long, so a single punch was enough to deal with them easily.
Some of them were edible spiders and caterpillars, so I stuffed them into my bag to take home.
After making some headway, I started to come across rotting trees.
When I broke through those decaying trunks, the caterpillars I'd been looking for appeared.
They were caterpillars roughly ten centimeters long, known as white caterpillars.
These caterpillars had pale white bodies and were highly nutritious — but above all, they were delicious.
Mom couldn't stand the way they looked, but Dad and I used to eat them once in a while.
I'd heard at the guild that these caterpillars could be found here, and I figured they'd make perfect food for the chicks, so I came to catch some.
I took empty barrels out of my Magic Bag and began filling them with the caterpillars I caught. They were everywhere — before long, I'd collected over fifty.
Once I had enough, I stuffed some wood chips I'd made by crushing bits of wood into the barrels, sealed the lids, and tied them shut with rope.
While I was collecting caterpillars, I also caught several dozen earthworms, so I put them in a separate barrel along with some moistened wood chips.
That wrapped up today's objective. However, I still had plenty of time left, so I headed to a warp zone nearby and returned to the entrance, went back to the surface for a bit, and then warped to where I'd found the eggs.
The first thing I did after warping was fill in the vertical shaft I'd descended through, to turn this place into my own private room.
Filling the entire thing would be too much trouble, so I sealed off about ten meters from the bottom and partially filled in areas below where the space had already narrowed into tight passages.
That way, even if someone managed to find the vertical shaft, they'd almost certainly never notice the hidden space beyond it.
I intended to make this place into a sort of secret base, so I set about crafting a forge furnace, an anvil, and a hearth for blacksmithing. I made them all removable so they could be stowed away in the Magic Bag on my wrist when not in use.
Being an amateur's handiwork, a professional might find the quality lacking, but I planned to make up for that with magic, just like I had when crafting Kogarumaru.
Making all of that took quite some time, so I decided to head back to my room.
Even though it was nearly sunset, Amy was waiting in front of my room.
"Sensei! You're late!"
We hadn't made any particular promise, but it seemed Amy had fully intended to get a lesson.
"I can't teach you every day, you know... But as it happens, this works out. I had something to give you, Amy."
With that, I handed her the barrel of earthworms and the barrel of caterpillars.
"These are food for the chicks. They'll keep for about a week, so feed them alongside their other food."
The chicks were currently in Amy's care — I had her looking after them as part of the imprinting process — but I'd told her that if she formed a contract with any of them without permission, I would never teach her magic again.
Amy had taken that very seriously, so I trusted she understood.
Since it would be problematic if she was caught off guard, I'd already told her what was in the barrels. For storage, I'd instructed her to sprinkle water on them daily to keep them from drying out, and to keep them with the lids on in a cool place.
By the way, I'd set aside a separate supply of caterpillars for myself, apart from the ones I gave Amy.
"Um, Sensei? I understand the earthworms, but how exactly am I supposed to feed them the caterpillars?"
She asked that question, so I briefly explained —
"Squish them up and make them drink it!"
That's what I told her. The image would be like a parent penguin feeding its chick — first eating the food itself and delivering it in a half-digested state. To put it simply, it's like giving them regurgitated food. However, I figured it was too much to ask her to eat the caterpillars raw and spit them back out (even I wouldn't want to do that), so instead, I decided to have her crush them up and feed them that way.
Amy made a very obvious face of disgust, but when I enthusiastically explained just how nutritious and delicious caterpillars are (I have no idea how nutritious they actually are) and asked if she wanted to try eating one,
"I'll pass! I can't even touch them!"
She refused. I figured caterpillars were just too much for a girl, so I said,
"I see... It's a shame, but these little ones are going to have to eat meat then—"
"I'll do it!"
...It seemed she had made up her mind before I could finish the sentence.
Setting all that aside, I taught her how to prepare the food — how to crush the caterpillars. The steps are:
One, cut off the head.
Two, put them in a mortar and grind them.
Three, open the chick's beak with your hand and feed it with a spoon (pour it into its mouth).
That's all. When I asked if that sounded simple enough,
"That is correct,"
came the halting reply. When I actually had Amy give it a try, she managed to do it — though she kept averting her eyes the whole time.
The chicks in question seemed to really enjoy it. After just one time having their beaks opened for them, they started opening their mouths on their own and waiting for the next feeding.
"I'm feeling kind of... complicated about this..."
Amy watched the chicks eagerly eating the crushed caterpillars and gave that impression.
"Well then, you need to keep feeding them properly starting tomorrow."
At those words, Amy let out a dry laugh.
After watching Amy return home, I decided to make dinner for ourselves in the room.
Today's menu was steamed-spider, butter-fried caterpillars, caterpillar soup, and deep-fried earthworms.
You might think, "What kind of grotesque cuisine is that just from hearing the menu?" but everything was properly prepped beforehand.
For example, the spiders had their heads removed and innards taken out, then were rubbed with salt to clean them and remove any off-putting smell. The butter-fried caterpillars only had their surfaces washed, but for the soup they were carefully grated and passed through a sieve. The seasoning was salt, pepper, a bit of butter and milk, mixed together with boiled vegetables that had been mashed and sieved as well.
The earthworms were slit lengthwise to remove the mud, cleaned in salt water, then deep-fried at high temperature to eliminate any earthy taste.
The ingredients were unusual, but the flavors turned out perfectly proper.
Incidentally, my father and grandfather both loved these dishes, but my mother was not fond of them (of the ingredients themselves, that is).
I gave Shiromaru the raw meat I had saved for him, and Slarin ate the leftover scraps like spider heads and innards.
I felt bad about that for Slarin, but Slarin didn't seem to mind at all and even climbed into the trash bin on its own... Of course, after that I also fed it the same food I was eating.
It had been a while since I'd had these flavors, so I ate while reminiscing about the past.
While Tenma was drinking caterpillar soup and reminiscing about the past, a letter arrived at a certain man's place.
Upon reading it once through, the man's face drained of color and he broke into a run.
The mansion he headed for was nearby. It was the kind of lavish estate that no half-baked noble could ever hope to own, but because the current master of the household had problems of his own, the once-spacious grounds had fallen into disrepair and cracks ran through the mansion walls.
Still, the saving grace was that people occasionally came from outside on commissions to clean up, so it hadn't become a full-on haunted house.
The man slipped through the gate with practiced ease and entered the mansion.
There were already guests inside, but since he had met them here on a few occasions before, he simply exchanged a nod and hurried toward the master's quarters.
As soon as the man opened the door to the master's room, he—
"It's—it's terrible! He's alive! Tenma is alive!"
he shouted. At those words, the two men inside—
Two men
of whom the one wearing lavish clothes said,
"Is that true?"
He grabbed the man by both shoulders and shook him.
"Y-Your Majesty! Please forgive my rudeness!"
That man was Alex, the king of this country. The man who had been about to kneel... he let Mark stand, then turned to face Merlin, the lord of this manor.
Merlin had been left half-dazed lately, brought low by the grief of losing his family and a long period of recuperation.
He barely reacted to Mark's words even now, but when Alex shook his body and called out again and again,
"Lord Merlin! They say Tenma is alive!"
then,
"Ten...ma... Tenma, Tenma, Tenma... Tenma, you say! Tenma is alive!"
he suddenly let out a loud shout, sprang up from his chair with force, and rushed up to Mark,
"Where is Tenma! Where is he!"
grabbing him by the collar with both hands and trying to lift him off the ground.
At that point, Kurif and Jean, who had come along with the king, hurriedly pulled Merlin away from Mark.
"Please calm down, Lord Merlin! At this rate, Mark won't be able to tell you anything!"
"That's right, Lord Merlin. Man, what kind of strength is that! Is that really the strength of an old man?!"
It took both of them to finally pull Merlin free.
Only then did Merlin seem to return to his senses,
"Hm? Why are you lot here? I could have sworn I heard something about Tenma..."
he muttered, looking around and scratching his head.
Mark had been coughing for a while after Merlin let go of him, but he caught his breath and held out a letter to Merlin.
"This was sent by an old friend of mine. He wrote that a boy with a silver wolf called Tenma is staying at his inn. The location is Gunjou City."
The letter was
dated about a month
prior, and it was a reply Mark had written as though it had just occurred to him, after relocating from Kukuri Village to the Royal Capital.
"Gunjou City, huh? I'm heading there right now!"
Merlin stripped off his nightgown as if changing clothes was too much trouble, threw a robe over nothing but his underwear, and made to leap out the window.
"Lord Merlin, please wait!"
Alex and the others hurriedly restrained him all at once—physically—but Merlin still put up fierce resistance.
"That's right, Master Merlin! If you meet Lord Tenma looking like that, he'll despise you!"
Merlin finally calmed down thanks to Kurif's desperate counsel, and Alex seized the opening:
"I understand how you feel, Lord Merlin. I want to see Tenma as soon as possible too. But if we leave now, night will fall immediately and the danger will only increase. So I'll have the castle staff make preparations today, and we'll depart tomorrow morning. Please have your own preparations ready by then. And above all, when you meet Tenma, please make sure you're dressed in a way that won't embarrass him!"
He rattled those words off at a rapid pace, then invoked Tenma's name once more to try to make Merlin reconsider.
Merlin was reluctant, but he conceded that if it was for Tenma's sake—though just to be safe, Mark, who was planning to accompany them, packed his bags first and was assigned to keep watch over Merlin.
Kurif was heading back to the castle to make arrangements. Alex had also gotten excited by the news that Tenma was alive and had apparently tried to get ready to come along, but he was firmly opposed by everyone around him and had no choice but to give up.
"Just wait—! Tenma—! Grandpa's coming to get you soon—!"
Merlin's howl echoed through the night over the Royal Capital.
The next morning, those who had gathered in front of Merlin's mansion to go meet Tenma were Merlin, Mark, Chris, Edgar, and about six knights for guards. There had been more knights, but—
"Don't need that many! If anything happens, my magic will blast everything to bits!"
Merlin's words, which practically declared he would destroy anyone who got in the way, resulted in only the minimum guard being selected—ten people in all.
Also present were Alex, Kurif, Jan, those who had moved from Kukuri Village, and Martha, Mark's wife.
Everyone was joyfully talking over one another about Tenma's survival, calling out to Merlin so they could meet him soon, and handing over food supplies they had each brought.
Since the scheduled departure time was approaching, Merlin climbed into the carriage.
The carriage was a box-style wagon pulled by two horses, with seating in the front half and a cargo bed in the rear.
In addition, four more horses had been prepared. These were primarily for the knights to ride in rotation, serving as perimeter sentries and deterrents, or as spares for the carriage horses.
Mark and the others were to take turns as the carriage driver.
Edgar had been appointed as the captain of the knights for this journey, with Chris serving as vice-captain.
"Lord Merlin. I was thinking we could make a stop in Seigen along the way to resupply. What would you prefer?"
Edgar had suggested taking a rest in the town of Seigen, roughly two hundred kilometers ahead, but—
"That route is longer. This road is closer, wouldn't you say?"
Merlin traced with his finger a nearly straight line on the map to Gunjou City.
"This road is somewhat treacherous, and I think the danger will increase, but…"
"It doesn't matter! I'll help out with my magic, so there shouldn't be any problem!"
Edgar's words were cut off as Merlin declared as much.
"Understood. If Lord Merlin will be lending his aid, the danger is practically nonexistent."
Edgar readily changed his plan and followed Merlin's instructions. In truth, the only threats on that road were bandits or, at most, B-rank Monsters, so with Merlin along, the danger was considerably reduced.
"Well then, shall we be off?"
With those words, the party set out for Gunjou City… unaware that Tenma was no longer there…
About two weeks later, a letter arrived addressed to Mark from the owner of Dozuru… the Manpukutei restaurant in Gunjou City.
Meanwhile, one week later in Seigen, Tenma had been watching Ami practice her magic since the morning.
Ami's Magic Power continued to rise day by day. Tenma could feel that, at this rate, she would soon be able to handle two Rock Birds without issue.
However, Tenma deliberately withheld this information from Ami. The reason was that he didn't want to make the overconfident Ami, whose fundamentals were still lacking, get carried away.
Well, there was also the fact that Tenma's standards were simply very high. After all, he himself had his abilities greatly enhanced by the gods, and many of the people he had met until now—including Merlin—were powerhouses, so he had lost a sense of what the average strength of someone Ami's age really was.
Of course, in Tenma's view, being strong wasn't a bad thing.
If Ami continued Tenma's training daily until she was fifteen, the rate of growth she was showing indicated she would undoubtedly become a first-rate adventurer.
"Teacher! I'd like to move on to the next step soon!"
Ami was starting to get a little bored with her current training.
The current training was the second stage... creating a water pillar in a bucket.
Ami could now create a water pillar about 50 centimeters high inside the bucket.
Since she could now create one quite stably, she probably wanted to move on.
After thinking for a moment, Tenma figured it was about time and began preparing the next exercise.
The method was to place two buckets side by side, fill one of them about halfway, and then transfer the water from the pillar form into the adjacent bucket.
Tenma demonstrated by moving the water from one bucket to the other. After doing it a few times, he got carried away and showed off by making the water leap in the shape of a dolphin into the other bucket several times.
At first, Ami was delighted, but her expression gradually darkened.
"Teacher... is it no good if I can't do the same thing?"
she asked, looking worried. Realizing he had overdone it, Tenma reverted to forming an arch to transfer the water from the pillar state to the other bucket.
"Sorry, sorry. You just need to be able to do this," he apologized.
Ami seemed greatly relieved and eagerly began practicing.
Of course, the difficulty had suddenly skyrocketed. Even though Ami could create the water pillar, she couldn't move it from there.
In fact, by trying to move it, she often lost focus and her created water pillar would collapse.
"Don't try moving it straight into the next bucket — focus on moving the water pillar first!"
"Yes, sir!"
She answered with enthusiasm, but it was clear this would take a while longer. As I was thinking that, I poured Magic Power into the egg on my back, and—
Crack, crack, crrack, snap—
The egg broke open with those sounds. I hurriedly took the bag off my back and peered inside, and—
"Kyui!"
There, letting out that cute little sound, was a small, white—
Dragon—
waiting for me.
"A dragon!"
Hearing my words, Ami peered into the bag as well.
"Wow~ So cute~"
When Ami reached out to touch it,
"Guuui!"
The dragon started growling a threat. It seemed this dragon was wary of Ami.
But when I tried to pet it instead, it happily rubbed its head against my hand.
So I decided to make this dragon my Familiar right away. I gave it Magic Power, and Magic Power came back from the dragon. I could feel something connecting between us.
"Alright, your name is Solomon."
"Kyuu~ii~"
Solomon seemed to like the name too, letting out a happy cry. When Shiromaru heard that sound, he came out from the back and brought his face close to Solomon—
"Kyuii!"
He made that sound as he climbed up Shiromaru's face and settled onto his back. Shiromaru walked along without showing any sign of displeasure, careful not to let Solomon fall off.
Solomon did have wings on his back, but being newly born, he didn't seem able to fly yet.
Name: Solomon
Age: 0
Species: Dragon
Title: Tenma's Familiar
HP: 1000
MP: 2000
Strength: E-
Defense: D-
Speed: D+
Magic Power: B
Spirit: D-
Growth: S
Luck: A
Skills: Abnormal Resistance 5, Light Magic 4, Magic Control 3, Destruction Boost 3, Fire Magic 2, Water Magic 2, Wind Magic 2, Lightning Magic 2, Magic Boost 2, Life Force Boost 2, Recovery Boost 2, Night Vision 2
Gift: God of Beasts' Blessing
Even though he was just born, he already had quite impressive abilities. You could say that was to be expected of a dragon.
Solomon seemed to have grown quite attached to Shiromaru, clinging to his back to keep his balance.
Also, Shiromaru seemed to be fond of Solomon too — whenever Solomon lost his balance, Shiromaru would carefully adjust his entire body to make it easier for Solomon to maintain his seat.
I'd brought Solomon close to Slarin to see how they'd get along. Slarin took to him without any trouble, but since Solomon couldn't ride on Slarin's back, he tried to head over to Shiromaru instead.
On his way there, he found the carrying pouch where I'd stored the egg, dragged it over toward me, climbed inside, and —
"Kyukyu~"
He cried in a spoiled, affectionate tone. It seemed he was telling me to carry him just like this.
I did as he asked, and he poked his head out of the pouch's opening, letting out a contented chirp.
"Sensei! Is it okay to touch him now?"
Amy still hadn't given up. So I told Solomon about Amy, then asked whether it was all right to let her touch him.
"Kyuu... kyuip."
It looked like permission had been granted. Sure enough, when Amy petted Solomon on the head, he didn't try to intimidate her this time.
Amy was practically bouncing with excitement, but I was more stunned by Solomon's intelligence.
I'd spoken to him on a whim, yet Solomon — who had just been born — actually understood my words. Even Shiromaru had taken about a year to grasp what I was saying to some degree.
Thinking about it that way, you could catch a glimpse of just how extraordinary dragons were. But that raised another question. One about Slarin.
From the moment I made Slarin my Familiar, Slarin already understood my words completely. A Slime — a creature belonging to the very bottom of the Monster hierarchy — and a mutant at that!
In a sense, I thought, Slarin might be the most unfathomable one of all.
Some of you may have already guessed, but the new Familiar was a dragon.
The name popped right into my head, so it was decided in no time.
After that, I realized that all my Familiars' names started with the letter S — though I'd forgotten about Tanikaze. Whether Tanikaze counted as a pure Familiar was hard to say.
With that, all the Familiars I'd planned for were assembled. Depending on how the story unfolds, there may be more down the road, but for now I don't intend to push things in that direction.
Thank you all for continuing to follow the adventures of this otherworld-reincarnated adventurer!