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"Visibility really does get rough once you come this far, huh."
I'd resumed my search from where I'd left off yesterday, working along the bottom of the lake, but the poor visibility was giving me serious trouble. It was already a dim dungeon to begin with, and being nearly twenty meters below the water's surface made it practically indistinguishable from total darkness. On top of that, the mud settled on the lake floor would kick up and cloud the water, so it wasn't unusual for me to lose sight of everything beyond my barrier entirely. Thanks to the barrier, I could at least make things out to a certain degree of dimness, so as long as I kept a weak light trained on my feet, the Mithril search itself wasn't a problem—but there were Monsters attracted by that faint glow, so I had to stay on high alert...and sure enough, when a few of them rushed the barrier in a group, my heart nearly stopped.
"Not many shrimp around here...but on the flip side, I'm spotting some new faces here and there."
As the depth increased, the shrimp grew scarcer. In their place, I found more and more creatures—shellfish clinging to oyster-like rocks, and critters resembling Kabutoebi and sea monkeys. I cracked open one of the shells out of curiosity, but the meat inside was jet-black and reeked horribly, so the idea of eating it vanished immediately. There was always the chance it might taste surprisingly good, but testing that theory inside a dungeon felt like a recipe for disaster.
The Kabutoebi and sea monkeys were roughly ten centimeters long, with soft bodies (or shells, rather), so they might have been edible—but they didn't look particularly appetizing, so I didn't bother catching any. If the long-armed shrimp and marsh shrimp hadn't been around, I might have given them a try at least once.
"Not much lying around here...but on the bright side, what there is looks pretty decent quality."
Even though I'd only gone a few meters deeper than yesterday's search area, the weapons and armor scattered around had dropped off considerably. What I did find, though, was in noticeably better shape—less rust and fewer dents than the stuff from shallower areas, probably because the mud clung to them and cushioned the impact.
"Maybe I should head back for now."
To get my bearings, I rose to the surface with my barrier still active, then flew through the air and returned to where Slarin and the others were waiting. Despite having spent quite a long time down there, the area I'd covered was narrower than usual, and I hadn't strayed far from where I'd started. As I'd suspected, the poor visibility had slowed my movement considerably.
While I was thinking about that, I noticed Slarin and the others were fighting different kinds of Monsters than usual.
"Goblins and Orcs, huh...and some Hobgoblins mixed in too."
Hobgoblins were an advanced species of Goblin—essentially a slightly tougher version of the regular kind. They looked like what you'd get if you scaled a Goblin up: where a Goblin stood about a hundred and twenty centimeters, a Hobgoblin came in around a hundred fifty, and they had a more humanoid build. That said, from Slarin's perspective, there probably wasn't much difference between a Goblin and a Hobgoblin.
"I hear the Guild buys Hobgoblins just like regular Goblins, so this haul won't go to waste. But what are they doing here?"
When I asked Slarin, it turned out the Goblins had come down from the floors above and started drinking from the lake. After that, they'd spotted Slarin and the others and attacked, so they'd fought back—and the Orcs had shown up during all that. Of course, the Orcs got dealt with too, and Slarin had sorted the Goblins and Orcs into separate piles for easier processing later. Apparently, the Orcs were currently in the middle of being bled out.
"Makes sense. If there's a lake on one of the upper floors, it wouldn't be weird for them to come down here for water. As for why they don't set up camp here...probably a food issue and a housing issue, huh?"
This floor with the lake had no cover on land for a group to hide behind, leaving them completely exposed to adventurers, while the lake itself was patrolled by crocodile-like creatures and other aquatic monsters—meaning there was no safe spot on either land or water. Moreover, the only things on this floor that could serve as food were shrimp and small fish alongside the aquatic monsters. Even obtaining those was life-threatening, so even the low-intelligence Goblins and Orcs could presumably understand that establishing a home here was impossible. Still, one couldn't help but wonder how many lives were lost before they arrived at that understanding……
"Well then, time to eat—oh, wait. Before that."
While I was putting the Goblins and Orcs into my bag, I sensed something creeping up behind me, so I waited until just before it pounced and then leapt out of the way.
"Wha—?!"
Right where I'd been standing moments before, a familiar adventurer clad in tiger-striped gear stood frozen with both arms spread wide.
"I know you're not the only one hiding there, Amur."
Saying that, I pointed sharply toward this floor's entrance, and one by one, a group of acquaintances emerged from their hiding spots. Six in total. The old man and Branca, plus the members of the Dawn Sword. Adding Amur, that made seven people who'd been skulking around.
"I knew it was a long shot, trying to sneak around and hide from Tenma."
"Aren't your noses sharper than a beastkin's?"
Led by the old man and Branca, the six emerged from behind the rocks without showing any remorse. I was puzzled that Shiromaru and the others hadn't reacted, but when I looked more closely at Shiromaru and Solomon, I noticed their muzzles were dirty—so they'd been bribed. Well, the old man was probably the one who'd done the bribing, so that wasn't really a problem, but... I'd need to keep their portions in check.
Perhaps sensing the ominous shift in mood, the two shivered. Leaving them be for now, I asked why the old man and the others were here, and got back the terse answer: "We were bored." Apparently, they'd asked Jin and the others—who knew where I was—to guide them.
"Well, I say 'guide them,' but all I really did was use the warp zone on the floor above to bring them here."
That's what Jin said, but the old man and the others had never been to this floor before, so in this case, someone who had used the warp zone to the target floor
had to go
through the entrance warp zone while maintaining physical contact with them.
"So you held hands with the old man and the others to get here... didn't that attract attention?"
Most people who ventured into this dungeon used the entrance warp zone, so naturally, the area near it was crowded with onlookers.
"Sure, it was conspicuous, but it's not exactly unusual... the only reason people stared was because the person we were holding hands with happened to be famous..."
The women didn't seem to mind, but the men were apparently a little embarrassed by the attention. For the record, the hand-holding pairs were Jin with the old man, Garat with Branca, Lina with Amur, and Menace was off on his own. Admittedly, two grown men holding hands was bound to be embarrassing. Their appearance didn't help matters, either... but if it were two women—especially if one was a young girl—it might have looked endearing rather than suspicious.
"It's not fair if only Tenma gets to have fun."
Amur probably thinks I'm just playing around. Well, he's not entirely wrong, and maybe hanging out with the old man and Branca really is boring for him.
"He also said Amy was lonely."
I hadn't brought Amy along this time, but it might be worth taking her along to the safe, shallow floors. If I took her to the place where the caterpillars that feed our kids live, getting food in the future would be a lot easier. Of course, I'd need someone to escort her, but the members of the Tamer's Guild would probably be happy to go along if I asked. After all, Amy had become something of an idol at the Tamer's Guild.
"I'll make it up to Amy next time. Anyway, I was planning to eat soon—does everyone want some?"
I asked more out of politeness than anything, because it seemed like a foolish question. Everyone gathered in a circle and sat down in front of me. Shiromaru and Solomon had slipped into the circle as well, naturally.
For the meal, I laid out a selection of the aquatic Monsters we'd hunted here. I wanted to hear everyone's opinions, too. In particular, the Dawn Sword had a lot of experience operating in this dungeon, so maybe they'd know of an even better use for the meat.
"This one's grilled, and this one's deep-fried. I only seasoned them with salt, but if anyone wants more flavor, feel free to add some fish sauce."
When I'd tried it myself, I'd only used salt, but this time I put out the fish sauce as well. There were also spices for cutting the fishy smell, but I wanted everyone to try the simple version first. The result...
"Does nobody mind this much of a fishy taste?"
"Well, at this level it's not a big deal. It's not like it smells rotten or anything."
"Agreed. When you eat things in a dungeon, there are far more pungent options out there."
"This is actually on the mild side. Compared to what Jin made before, which smelled way worse... this is nothing."
"Don't use me as the punchline! ...Well, even I have to admit that one was pretty bad, but still..."
Jin really was as terrible a cook as I'd imagined... It wasn't exactly flattering to be compared to him, but at least there was nothing wrong with the taste. The old man didn't seem to mind the smell either, and he was eating happily while Shiromaru and the others pestered him for bites. As for Branca and Amur...
"What are you two sprinkling on that?"
They were shaking some kind of powder from small bottles onto their fried alligator-like fish and eating it.
"Oh, this? It's a seasoning from back home."
"Here, try it."
I took the small bottle Amur offered and tipped a little onto my palm, then licked it. To my surprise, it was curry powder.
"Curry powder? Nice!"
"Back where we come from, we'd also call it curry or karee."
"It's the taste of home. Every household makes it differently. This is the kind my mother made."
In Amur's village, they apparently often made dishes using curry powder, but they didn't have anything like what I'd call "curry rice" from my previous life. The closest thing was something like soup curry, where curry powder was used to add flavor and taste to the broth. While they'd sometimes eat it with bread, they rarely poured it over rice, apparently.
The curry powder was tastier than the kind I'd made before, and it seemed like they used a wider variety of spices, though the heat wasn't that intense.
"Amur, mind if I use a little?"
"Sure."
Seeing Amur nod, I decided to try out the new menu idea that had just come to mind. Well, calling it a "new menu" was a stretch—it was really just adding one extra step to the dish I'd just made.
"Ta-da! Done! It's crocodile tempura with a curry flair."
I called it curry-flavored tempura, but honestly, something like curry chicken nanban would've been a closer description. Well, calling it tempura was probably easier to understand than chicken nanban anyway. I could always make the real thing another time.
"H-hot... huff... so good."
"I've had crocodile coated in curry powder and grilled before, but deep-fried is even better."
I gave some to Amur and Branca first, and the reviews were excellent. I served the freshly fried crocodile pieces to everyone else one after another, and sure enough, the ratings were higher than for the plain fried version.
"With this, the gamey smell of the crocodile isn't even an issue."
Jin, who had been the first to dig into the tempura, voiced his thoughts, and everyone agreed. I tried it myself, and thanks to the spices used in the curry, the crocodile's strong smell had disappeared and it turned out really nice. Shiromaru, however, seemed bothered by the aroma of the spices and preferred the plain fried version. Solomon appeared to be fine with either.
"Well then... now that we've finished eating, I'm going to dive into the lake again. What's everyone else going to do?"
The first to react to my words was Amur, who said she wanted to dive in with me. Hearing that, Branca tried to stop her, apparently thinking she meant free-diving without any barrier, but once I demonstrated the underwater barrier, Branca was satisfied. However...
"I'm going to a place with really poor visibility, so I can't exactly have you come along."
When I said that, Amur got upset and started pulling on Shiromaru's cheeks as if taking her frustration out on him. Shiromaru, however, was used to having his cheeks pulled, so he didn't put up much resistance.
"Hmm, with that kind of barrier, I think even I could manage it. Perhaps I should try a little practice."
With that, the old man immediately set about practicing.
Branca and Jin had said they'd kill time with some rest while I was diving, so I asked them to sort through the weapons and armor I'd obtained from the lake bottom. When I told them their reward would be any items they wanted from those not made with mithril or rare metals, they agreed readily enough. Well, most of the non-mithril stuff was rusty or broken, but since many of them just needed a little work to be usable, it was a pretty decent deal for killing time, so I figured they'd take the offer.
"Well then, I'm heading out."
I pulled the items to be sorted out of my bag and headed for the lake. Jin and the others seemed to freeze for a moment when they saw the pile I'd assembled, but they quickly got to work. Amur had come down to the water's edge and was watching the old man practice. It looked like she was testing whether she could erect a barrier herself.
"It was somewhere around here... Alright."
I flew to near where I'd stopped earlier, set up my barrier, and then entered the water. When I landed, water came in up to just above my ankles, but as usual it didn't rise any further, and I made it safely to the lake bottom.
Once I reached the lake floor, I threw myself into the usual routine. The deeper parts of this lake had increasingly complex terrain, and occasionally boulders several meters across blocked my path. But the areas around those rocks were where weapons and armor tended to turn up, so in a way, they served as markers for the good stuff.
"I've gathered a decent amount... Hm? What's this?"
After diving for what felt like several hours, I was thinking about heading back to the surface when I picked up some armor lying at my feet and noticed something was off. Looking closer, I realized the piece had been significantly deformed.
What I'd picked up was originally a great helm—a piece designed to protect the head—likely sized for a large adventurer. The side had been crushed inward as if something had squeezed it, making it much smaller. It was so flattened that I'd initially taken it for a breastplate or part of a suit of armor.
"What could have done this... If it were a croco-lizard, there should have been bite marks, and those things shouldn't have enough force to dent something this badly."
I looked around for a while, but I couldn't find any other armor with similar damage, so I decided to head back to the surface and get everyone's opinion.
Just as I was putting the great helm in my bag and preparing to move to the surface, the creature that had crushed it suddenly attacked. The attack was a complete surprise, but I managed to notice it immediately and dodge—thanks to a string of coincidences.
The first was that the barrier I was currently using had the elasticity of a balloon. This meant there was a brief window between when the enemy touched the barrier and when it broke.
The second was that even when the wind barrier was pierced, it didn't let water leak through. This barrier could change its shape to conform to whatever intruded upon it, so I was able to avoid a situation where water flooding in would leave me unable to move.
The third was that the enemy itself was slow. Whether its movements were naturally sluggish or it simply moved poorly on land, I couldn't tell, but the
leg
that intruded wasn't all that fast for a surprise attack.
However, the fact that I'd sliced off the tip of its extended leg when I dodged must have really set it off, because the remaining legs
all at once
turned toward me.
"What the hell is this
giant
octopus?!"
I dodged the octopus as it tried to wrap its arms around me and quickly surfaced. The octopus pursued me, extending its long arms as it came.
"Damn it! It's relentless!"
The octopus lunged out of the water in an attempt to catch me as I burst from the surface, but I sliced off that leg too. The legs had quite a bit of elasticity, but my beloved Kogarumaru cut through them without issue.
Then I tried to finish it off with lightning magic, but I spotted Grandpa and Amour in the shallow part of the lake less than a hundred meters from my position. Worse, they were both in the water, so if I used magic powerful enough to take down this octopus, there was a real risk of electrocuting them too.
Grandpa had noticed the octopus and me, and he was grabbing Amour by the scruff of the neck, trying to use his levitation magic to fly up out of the water. But before they could evacuate into the air, another of the octopus's legs coiled around mine.
"Ugh—did it break?!"
The moment the octopus's leg wrapped around me, a sharp crack rang out and searing pain shot through my body. The octopus was trying to drag me underwater.
"Not a chance—hyah!"
I severed the octopus's leg with Kogarumaru in my right hand, then pulled a halberd from my bag with my left and drove it straight between the creature's eyes. The halberd sank in to the hilt, but the octopus still wasn't dead.
"This thing just won't give up!"
Its movements had slowed considerably, but the octopus was still alive, so I moved the halberd up and down to widen the wound in order to finish it off. Only after doing that did the octopus's body color finally shift from black to a pale white — it seemed to have perished at last.
"If I'd fought it head-on, I really might have died..."
If my barrier had been shattered and I'd been caught and dragged underwater before I could escape into the air, putting up a serious fight would have been nearly impossible. As a last resort, I could have either used a self-destructive lightning magic attack or unleashed 'Tempest' — the most powerful spell at my disposal — though the latter risked collapsing the dungeon.
As I pondered all this, I stowed the sinking octopus into my Magic Bag and headed toward everyone, who were standing around in a daze.
"Tenma, are you alright?!"
Apparently, after carrying Amour back to Jin and the others, Grandpa had been about to fly over to me — but before he could, I had already defeated the octopus, so he'd waited with Jin's group and was the first to call out to me when I returned.
"Well, I think I broke a bone in my foot, but other than that, I'm fine."
When he heard my words, Grandpa wordlessly lifted me up and sat me on a nearby rock. He then pulled up the cuff of my pant leg on the injured side and stared at the wound in disbelief.
"What do you mean you're fine? It's not just broken—you've got severe internal bleeding as well..."
When Grandpa pointed it out, I looked and saw that the skin around the break had turned a dark reddish-black. The moment I looked at the injury, the pain I hadn't really noticed before hit me with full force. Grandpa immediately healed me with magic, but I also cast recovery magic on myself one more time and decided to take it easy for the rest of the day.
"Well, I had no idea something like this was down here."
"We're definitely considered veterans of this dungeon, but I'd never even heard a whisper about this thing."
Jin and Garat stared at the octopus I'd taken out for inspection, tilting their heads in puzzlement. If even those two didn't know about it, asking other Seigen adventurers would probably be futile. The only ones who might know were Grandpa and Agri.
As if he'd picked up on my thoughts, Grandpa walked over to the octopus and examined it, then—
"I've never seen this creature before, either. I'd classify it as a Monster, but I've never laid eyes on one or even heard of one. To be precise, something that looks"
like this
does exist in my knowledge, but it shouldn't grow anywhere near this large."
Since he said that, it seemed likely this was a new species. When I looked into it later, the similar creature Grandpa had mentioned turned out to be the octopus I was familiar with—same as in my previous life—which only grew to roughly two or three meters at most.
I secretly used Appraisal on it, and sure enough, it was classified as a Monster—though for some reason, the name field was blank.
"Now then, the remaining question is whether this thing"
is edible
or not."
At this, everyone except Grandpa stared at me with stunned expressions. When I asked why, it turned out Jin and the others had no idea octopus was edible. Well, Grandpa had traveled to various places across the country, so he was one thing—but Jin and the rest had all grown up inland, so they had no familiarity with sea creatures.
"Octopus is delicious! You can grill it, fry it, stew it—any way you like."
After all,
eating it raw
would have been going too far, so I didn't mention it—but if it was just lightly blanched, there'd be hardly any difference from eating it raw, and it wouldn't be much of a hurdle at all.
I thought up several octopus dishes as I looked into whether this octopus was edible. The method was simple. First, I'd use Appraisal to check whether the octopus contained any toxins, then put some in my own mouth to confirm. Appraisal alone might have been enough, but among ingredients there are quite a few that aren't poisonous yet still carry harmful substances. For example, the oil found in a certain fish is fine in small amounts, but eating too much can cause symptoms like diarrhea.
I'd never eaten oil with those kinds of properties, but I'd eaten octopus many times in my previous life, and even in this life I'd had it once before—dried, but still. So as long as the taste matched my memories, there shouldn't be any problem… In the worst case, I had detoxification and purification magic, so I wouldn't die.
I cut off one of the octopus legs I'd set aside earlier to a length of about twenty centimeters and froze it with magic. Even twenty centimeters on its own was substantial—the octopus was big enough that the leg had a diameter of nearly fifteen centimeters.
Once the octopus was half-frozen, I peeled the skin off the leg, sliced it paper-thin at just a few millimeters, then divided the slices in two. The skin was slimy, so I rubbed it with salt, gave it a light rinse, then blanched one half of the sliced octopus along with it. The octopus slices were thin, so I pulled them out after a short time, cut them into bite-sized pieces, arranged them on a plate, and done. They didn't look like the octopus I was familiar with, but the smell was just as I remembered.
For the raw portion, I cut it into roughly appropriate sizes and grilled it on an iron plate. The only seasoning was salt, but since it was like yakiniku, Jin and the others might actually find this easier to eat. Incidentally, by the time the octopus had finished grilling, the blanched skin was done too, but even cut small it had too much elasticity to chew through, so I threw it out. Shiromaru and the others also seemed to find the octopus's toughness disagreeable—they gnawed on it a few times before spitting it out.
"Done— wait, why is everyone being so cautious?"
I'd taken a table out of my bag and was laying out the experimental octopus dishes, but unlike usual, Jin and the others had kept their distance and were just watching me (and the food I'd arranged). Even Amur and Branca seemed uncharacteristically hesitant. The only ones near the table besides me were Slarin and the other Familiars, and Grandpa.
"Um, is that… even edible?"
"No way. It doesn't look appetizing at all."
Branca and Amur didn't even recognize octopus as a proper food to begin with—they were treating it like a complete monstrosity.
"Come on, if Tenma says it's fine, then Jin, give it a try."
"You're our representative, Jin, so get over there."
"Go get 'em, Jin!"
"That's literally a poison taster's job, isn't it?!"
Garat and the others were rudely treating the octopus dish as though it were poison. That got under my skin a little, so I decided to have Jin, the leader of the Dawn Sword, take responsibility.
"Jin… eat this!"
"Huh? Mmph!"
I snuck up behind Jin, who had his back to me, and shoved the small piece of salt-grilled octopus I'd been holding between my fingers straight into his mouth. Jin looked confused about what had just happened, reflexively chewed the octopus a few times, then swallowed.
"What are you doing!… Hang on, what I just swallowed was—"
"that"
...that, right?"
"Oh,
that's
it."
I pointed at the octopus dish in Jin's line of sight, then returned to my seat.
"Don't complain when it's gone. If you won't eat, I'm not making any more."
With that, I popped a piece of octopus into my mouth. The meat was nothing like the skin — it had just the right springiness and was packed with flavor. Honestly, it was better than any octopus I'd eaten in my previous life. Jin looked like he wanted to say something, but before he could open his mouth, I'd already started eating with obvious relish, leaving him frozen with his mouth half open.
Seeing me take a bite, Grandpa and Shiromaru followed suit one after another. There was no look of revulsion on their faces. Probably...
"Grandpa, you used me as a poison taster, didn't you..."
"What are you talking about? I was simply waiting for the person who made it to eat first."
Grandpa said with an innocent look on his face as he popped piece after piece of octopus into his mouth. Shiromaru and the others ate with the same obvious enjoyment.
"Mm, delicious."
Amuuru, who had somehow ended up beside me, skewered a piece of salt-grilled octopus on a fork and brought it to their mouth. Beside them, Branca was eating the blanched octopus in the same manner.
Whether Amuuru had come to trust me or not, they popped the octopus straight into their mouth, but Branca seemed more skeptical — starting by nibbling cautiously, bit by bit, before eventually eating it normally.
With the two of them joining in, the octopus vanished before our eyes. The members of the Dawn Sword, watching this unfold, seemed to find that curiosity had won out over fear, as each of them managed to eat one piece of the blanched octopus.
This, naturally, led to them pressing me to make more, and I ended up having to prepare a heaping pile of blanched and salt-grilled octopus. Since putting it all out as-is would have risked there being none left for me, I made sure to set aside my own portion during the cooking.