Volume 8 Chapter 4 PaRT 8
While Roxanne was trying to regain her breath, it prepares for yet another charge.
Was… was that previous charge of it a feint? Nevertheless, Roxanne maneuvers the upper half of her body and dodges it.
During the exchange, Roxanne manages to connect her Estoc with the tuna’s body. Although it used a feint, it couldn’t see through everything that was coming towards it.
When the monster comes to a stop after its exchange with Roxanne, I hammer in a 「Rush」to its side. The Black Diamond Tuna then convulses and drops down. It’s lying on the ground, and now that it just lays there, it really look just like an overgrown fish that got thrown out of the water.
Before long, it turns into a puff of green smoke and dissipates. The Drop Item it that dropped is called Lean Tuna. So Mabream drops white fish while Black Diamond Tuna drops lean tuna?
Miria jumps at it and brings it over with slight disappointment about on face.
「Here, desu.」
「Huh? What’s wrong, Miria? Is Lean Tuna no good?」
「Like Mabream, Black Diamond Tuna drops a rare item. It’s called a Fatty Tuna.」
Sherry explains the reason behind Miria’s disappointment to me. So a tuna’s rare drop is a fatty tuna, huh?
「I see. How do you cook fatty tuna, exactly?」
「Stew, desu. Roast, desu.」
So it can either be boiled or roasted? It’s good to know that there’s more than one way of preparing it, but I am still pretty disappointed that there seems to be no sashimi in this world.
「Since we got Whole Fish today, tomorrow’s dinner will be the Whole Fish.」
「Yes , desu!」
Miria answers with a bright smile on her face.
It’s so easy to both cheer her up and lead her by the nose since she’s so shortsighted, just like a little monkey or a kid who just heard you telling them that you’re going to be reducing the quantity of their favorite snack and that they will only get three portions of it in the morning and four in the evening at which they are going to start complaining and throwing temper tantrums. However, when you later tell them that they will get four pieces in the morning and three in the evening, upon which they will start rejoicing as if something incredibly good happened to them.
That is how it essentially is with Miria whenever fish is involved.
「Because there seem to be less people in Haruba’s Labyrinth, we will keep fighting Black Diamond Tuna in Haruba’s Labyrinth until we get our hands on a fatty tuna. Once that happens, Miria will be responsible for cooking it.」
「Okay, desu!」
Miria says as her expression becomes even brighter. Miria, do you not realize that you were duped just now? Seriously, just how gulliable can you possibly be? Although I was intending to change the subject so easily, I seem to have gotten further into it without even realizing it myself. Was she just pretending to have been duped? Was I the one who was being duped the entire time?
At this moment, after fighting Black Diamond Tuna a number of times, the level of my Explorer Job has increased again. I am still using Durandal whenever we’re fighting Floor Bosses, but soon enough I should have enough Bonus Points to equip Cook as my 「Fifth Job」 again. After fighting Black Diamond Tuna in Haruba’s Labyrinth some more, I should be able to fulfill Miria’s demands. However, because of the 「Chant Shortening」, things are definitely going to get noisy with me shouting 「Rush! Rush!」all the time like an idiot.
「Sherry, what kind of monster is the one native to the eighteenth floor of Quratar’s Labyrinth?」
「The monster native to the eighteenth floor of Quratar’s Labyrinth is Pig Hog.」
While we were moving from the Boss Room to the eighteenth floor. Sherry briefs us on what we can expect there.
「Pig Hog is resistant to Earth Magic, right?」
「That’s right.」
The monster native to 17th floor, Mabream, was weak against Earth Magic but resistant to Water Magic, while Pig Hog is weak against Water Magic but resistant to Earth Magic, which makes them polar opposites in a sense. If both of them were to appear together, I would be in trouble.
「Roxanne, guide us to a place with both Mabreams and Pig Hogs. We should try to fight them both once, at least. After that, we will move back to Haruba’s Labyrinth.」
「Understood.」
Because Pig Hog is native to the eighteenth floor of Quratar’s Labyrinth, it will appear on the eighteenth floor the most. Since Mabream is native to the seventeenth floor, it will appear on eighteenth floor the second most.
Because of that, the eighteenth floor of Quratar’s Labyrinth might actually be quite difficult in terms of the weaknesses and resistances of both the monsters that are going to be appearing here the most.
Fortunately, I have already fought against Pig Hogs before, so after fighting here once, we will move back to Haruba’s Labyrinth, since we have to explore that floor, a thing that we do not have to do in case of the eighteenth floor of Quratar’s Labyrinth. We can simply go to the Boss Room of the eighteenth floor of Quratar’s Labyrinth and proceed to the nineteenth because we have a map.
That said, because Pig Hog drops pork when it is defeated, so I’ll be visiting this floor every now and then in order to farm that particular ingredient from it. Other than that though, it’s worthless to us right now.
We advance through the cave under Roxanne’s guidance. After taking out two Pig Hogs in seven Water Magic Spells, I finish off the lone Mabream with one more 「Sand Ball」.
「Un, I knew that things would be getting more difficult here.」
「They certainly did, but not by that much.」
Even though I said that it’s getting more difficult, all I do is cast spells from the safety of the backline, so even if the duration of the battles lengthens, it’s the vanguard, and most noticeably Roxanne, who’ll bear the brunt of that increase in difficulty instead of me. But since she said 「not by that much」, then does that mean that this level of difficulty is still something that Roxanne can handle?
「Well then, shall we move to Haruba’s Labyrinth next?」
「Yes, let’s do that.」
After the battles in Quratar’s Labyrinth were over, we move to the eighteenth floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth, where we continued its exploration, which carried on onto the next day. We made some good progress and moved forward quite a bit, but decided to finish the exploration ahead of time and call it a day, the reason behind it being cooking.
「Because I’m already making soup for Miria, then I’ll ask the two of you, Roxanne and Sherry, to make one more dish for us.」
「Understood, master.」
「Since you are cooking the whole fish again, I wonder if stir-fried vegetables would go nicely with it?」
Sherry always seems to be taking the nutritional balance of our meals into account whenever I ask her to cook something, it seems. As you would expect from someone as intellectual as her.
「Yeah, that would definitely be great.」
「Hopefully. Sherry and I will make stir-fried vegetables, then.」
「Alright. Then, Miria will be helping me with the preparation of the main dish for today.」
「Yes, desu.」
Miria doesn’t seem to have any unpleasant expression on her face, which means that the process of preparing today’s meal should go smoothly and without a hitch.
「Great, Miria. I’m proud of you always being so eager to help with the preparation of the food.」
Well, this time, it won’t be as laborious a task as blending mayonnaise. This time, Miria is just going to be a fire watchman, so that should be task that she should be able to handle without much difficulty.
After returning home, I add some salt to an egg, whip it and spread it on a pan. As for the salt, I’m using Kobold Salt, since we have an overabundance of it. Miria was the one who ground it without complaining, since It’s not a laborious task.
Next, I put the herb-dredged whole fish on the salt. After that, I coat the entire fish with the salt.