What I was thinking about was improving the dungeon's dining situation.
And setting up safe zones on each floor.
And one more thing—that sense of peace I felt while eating.
That's when it struck me. Maybe I could pull off that familiar thing from games.
"S-s-save points...?"
"What kind of thing is that?"
"He's about to start doing something weird again."
The first-floor living room of Skia Coffin Ele.
I consulted with Mirese, Ambrosius, and Isibara.
The witch was busy with work, so I decided to report to her later.
"Save points are—well, to put it simply, imagine there's a crystal, and when you touch it, your progress gets recorded. Then if you leave the dungeon and challenge it again, you start from wherever you saved. Something like that."
Now that I actually had to explain it, it was harder than I thought.
Ambrosius nodded with a pensive look.
"I see. There are teleportation circles on each floor, but they're fundamentally just for getting back."
"S-s-shortcut-wise, t-t-teleportation circles, even if they exist, they're still, s-s-shortcuts..."
"So I want to place save crystals before bosses and such, let people save, and then be able to go straight from the first floor."
That way, I could make the bosses as tough as I wanted, with balance in mind.
"Somehow, the dungeon Wof is envisioning... it feels like a completely different world."
Isibara's sharp observation made my heart skip a beat.
"That's very interesting. The question is what to do about those save crystals."
Ambrosius seemed quite enthusiastic about it.
"Th-there's actually something called a Memory Stone. Ah, yes. If we applied that, I think we could make saves work."
"Memory Stones?"
"Heheh, he, heheh, if you t-touch it, y-you can, umm, imprint memories onto it... It's a legendary... How-however, the capacity is very small, and it only stores a fragment of a memory... It's basically a useless item..."
That did sound like it could work.
"Oh, those? We definitely have a huge surplus of those."
"Is that so?"
"They're items we find about as commonly as Almathea's Horns in the dungeon, but as Mineha says, there's hardly any practical use for them. Apparently they used to buy them for research back in the day, but they don't purchase them at all anymore."
Hmm? Memory Stones. I'd never seen one.
If they were that common, how come I didn't know about them?
"But how would the mechanism actually work? That's outside my area of expertise."
"Th-th-that, I'd like to leave to an expert... To the witch... I'd like to leave it to her..."
As expected.
I'd talk to the witch about it later.
"Oh, right. After discussing it with the Subjugators' Guild, we've decided to hand this dungeon over to the Delvers' Guild. Well, it was mostly expected."
"So that's how it ended up."
No surprises there.
Yep, just as expected. That was my only thought.
"Now, about that mixed-meat soup."
"Yes. I want to make mixed-meat soup the dungeon's specialty dish."
"I do know that the food situation in dungeons isn't exactly great. Various portable rations have come out, but they haven't gotten great reviews."
From my past life, I knew firsthand that military rations were a struggle.
And speaking of rations, that meant canned food. This world had bottles, but no cans.
"Th-the-the-the mixed-meat… soup… what kind of thing is it, exactly… I've never eaten it… so I can't really… give it a proper evaluation…"
"I'm embarrassed to say I haven't eaten it either."
"So I had Hoss actually make some for us."
I took a pot out of my pouch.
After we'd finished the stamina karaage set meal.
I'd told Hoss and Luma that I wanted to make mixed-meat soup the dungeon's specialty dish.
At first, the two of them didn't quite get it.
But once I explained the dungeon's food situation, Hoss reacted strongly.
Mixed-meat soup had originally been a quick meal I came up with with my late friend.
The idea was for use in the Haizen Great Forest or dungeons.
Hoss had actually tried to get it adopted in dungeons before.
That time, he said, it was a total flop — partly because nobody knew who he was.
But he was happy to cooperate if this was a chance to finally get mixed-meat soup out there.
"So this is the mixed-meat soup?"
"…It… it… it… looks… not bad, actually…"
The mixed-meat soup the two of them were served had plenty of chunks of miscellaneous meat sunk into an amber-colored broth.
It was the product of thoroughly removing the scum from boiled mixed-meat broth and adding it to a separately prepared soup.
That soup was quite elaborate too—they had taken the time and effort to bring it to an amber color.
"There are vegetables in it as well, I see."
"Yes. We've been mindful of the balance."
This mixed-mess soup. It was well thought out.
The reason being, it had been created with nutrition in mind.
Dungeon dining was part of it too, but there was a condition known as the delver's curse.
To put it bluntly, scurvy. Vitamin C deficiency.
From memories of his past life, it was the dread of the Age of Exploration.
Dungeon meals, by the nature of the environment, were inevitably lopsided.
Hoss and the others had been making this mixed-mess soup with nutrition in mind, based on experience.
"O-oh... oh, oh, it's... it's delicious!"
"This is nothing to underestimate... I see. So you're planning to make this your signature dish."
Their reactions were positive too.
"We've been thinking about how to spread it. Free distribution of the recipe. And also takeout."
"Mmm, mmm, mmm... free distribution... th-that sounds really great."
"Hmm. This takeout... what exactly is that?"
"I've... n-never heard of it, actually."
"Huh? Oh, um, like you can buy it from a stall in the dungeon or something?"
"I see."
Panicked. Takeout.
Turned out it was a word that simply didn't exist in this world.
The next day.
Dungeon, first floor.
"All right, Megadia. Let's go give it our all!"
"Yes, yes. Well then, I'm heading in."
"Be careful. Especially you, Narses. You really worry me."
Today, as planned, two first-class delvers were doing a test run of the lower levels.
Mineha had come to see them off.
"I'll be fine! I'm mama's girl, after all!"
"You're not my daughter."
"Daughter-ish!"
Narses. She's so full of energy.
Still, someone had gotten weirdly attached to Mineha again.
Because of her personality, Mineha couldn't leave Narses alone.
She fussed over her, scolding and correcting her left and right.
At first they fought, and Narses found her annoying—even developed a grudge against her.
But before she knew it, Narses had started calling her "mama."
At that point, I thought, "Hey, isn't that supposed to be Megadia?"
But then again, Mineha being the mother type... yeah, I guess I get it.
She's ten, but she just looks like a little kid.
And the way she latches onto people like that — does Narses not have a mother?
Mineha's noticed it too, so while she denies it, she doesn't exactly push Narses away either.
"Narses. Listen carefully and do what Megadia says. Alright?"
"I know."
"Also, here. Eat this when you two get hungry."
Mineha handed over two lunch boxes.
Megadia expressed her thanks, and Narses was all smiles.
And so the two of them teleported from the transfer circle down to the lower levels.
Mineha shifted into her fairial form and settled on my shoulder.
She had that "oh well" air about her, but her expression seemed quite content.
"Hey, Mineha. About earlier—"
"What?"
"You looked just like Ruriha."
"Oh, stop it already. I'm not that old."
She glared at me.
She had a point.