Chapter 119: 105

After a two-day break, we challenged the 30th floor.

The floors from that point up until the 34th floor are called the "great skeleton floors", and we'll become intermediate adventurers once we've cleared them.

If all goes well, we'll be the "fastest" to become intermediate adventurers.

But to be honest, I have no intention of comparing my party to others'.

They have their circumstances, and we have ours.

We each explore the dungeon at our own pace.

All I want is to reach the 56th level and solve the mystery in the remaining 233 days. Because having more time allows us to regroup and make adjustments, I'm prioritizing speed.

I basically ignore all requests from the Guild. We're faster than other adventurers because we only do the bare minimum when it comes to exploring or harvesting materials. It's as simple as that.

Of course, the compensation for my other party members is important to me. I'm not stingy when it comes to that.

Though I do cheat a little in how I earn the money for their living expenses and the cost of our adventures.

Knowledge is money.

Innovations are money.

A while ago, I made mayonnaise and sold it. I followed that up with pasta.

They were very well-received and I made a modest amount of money.

The reason why I only made a modest sum is because the belief that "food is for the masses" is ingrained deep inside me. Though I can't remember who it was that taught me that.

However……

『Listen, Souya. When it comes to food, it's important that it is healthy. Balance is also important. Seasonality is important, color, heat, moisture, earthiness, and flavor are all important. If I were to try and list everything that is important, there would be no end to it.

But if you ask me to name the one thing that's truly important, to me, the most important thing is the people who eat the food.

Listen, Souya. When it comes to whether a meal is delicious or not, it doesn't matter if it's expensive or cheap. The feeling that humans get from eating something and thinking "Delicious!" is universal. How expensive the food is matters little. That's why chefs like me who want as many people as possible to eat their food exist. ………………That’s why it’s okay for chefs like me to exist[1]」

……I can remember these words.

As well as a withered hand that I had in my hands beside a hospital bed.

My memory is fuzzy, but the pulsating warmth[2] in those thoughts remains vivid inside me.

That's why I consider food to be something for the masses.

Delicious food is very expensive in this country. Moreover, it’s monopolized by a small group of people. The advanced adventurers and the wealthier merchants are a possessive bunch. They don't want to share and prefer to enjoy things for themselves.

"Cheap, delicious food for as many people as possible"

It's difficult, but not impossible.

The next thing I made is ketchup.

Of course, I also spread the cooking methods for it widely. This approach is frowned upon by those who profit from monopolizing cooking techniques, but it is very popular with the consumers.

In fact, the two merchant companies that I have ties with are growing rapidly due to the positive response.

"That merchant company cares about more than making profits"

If consumers get that kind of impression, they will naturally gravitate to such stores even if the products are sold at the same price. This is a country where businesses have always prioritized their self-interests. I believe that this approach will continue to pull in customers for a while.

Now, to return to the main subject.

The amount of money I had made was modest, but it was enough to fund the party's activities, the party members' living expenses, and pay them their compensation.

This is one of the biggest advantages our party has.

It's also the reason why the other parties are envious of us.

Now, this has been an awfully long preamble, but let me tell you what the major problem we ran into is.

It’s『the layout of the dungeon』.

Materials that look like the bones of creatures can be found all over the great skeleton floors.

And there are no rooms, no separation of the floors.

The 30th floor to the 34th floor has a layout that's similar to an atrium.

It's like a jungle gym made out of gigantic bones.

In other words, it's a three-dimensional dungeon.

And that's not the only thing that's out of the ordinary. There are countless portals everywhere. I threw exploration drones into them to check them out, but no matter which portal they went through, they always got sent to the entrance of the 30th floor.

The portals make going back more convenient, but they do nothing to help us advance any deeper.

Furthermore, there is no ecosystem here.

The floors have nothing but bones in them. There is nothing for the monsters to eat. While there are monsters that eat Shogaku stones, there aren't very many of them here. The walls emit very little light, with the portals serving as light sources instead.

Nevertheless, there are still monsters.

Moving bones that were once people.

Gigantic skeletons like the one we had fought on a higher floor are also common.

Fighting them on precarious footing is extremely difficult. They're powerful enemies. Taking some damage would be unavoidable………………was what I thought, but once we actually tried fighting them, they were easily led to fall to their deaths with just a stone or two.

I felt something of the ephemerality of the monsters.

They are dead people after all, and are only bones, so maybe they're not very intelligent?

We used my sister's ability to detect enemies as well as the A.I.'s many sensors. Once we knew their locations, defeating them was easy.

The only thing we had to watch out for was falling to our death in the same way the monsters did.

While staying alert, we cautiously descended deeper into the dungeon.

It's said that descending a mountain is more strenuous, but we're adventurers. Walking is what we do. We kept the fighting with monsters to a minimum. In addition, we had a clear view, which made this adventure easier than the ones on the higher floors.

After twelve hours, we caught sight of the bottom of the floors.

If I had to describe my impression of it, the bottom was like a pit of hell.

The skeletons that had fallen from above were writhing about. I got the feeling that if I were to lower a spider's thread, they would swarm to it and climb up. [3]

The route had been secured, so we returned for the day. Being able to just dive into a nearby portal and return home immediately made for a very easy adventure.

After one day of rest, we challenged it for the second time.

We reached the area near the bottom in four hours.

The number of enemies at the bottom had reduced dramatically.

The reason for that was immediately clear. The skeletons were being swallowed up by the pillars of the floors and becoming one with them.

I see, they'll re-appear at the top and then fall back down again. This cycle is the ecosystem of these floors, I suppose.

We spent three hours scanning the bottom, looking for the stairs leading down.

We were unable to find it.

I got bored of the unchanging view.

「If we defeat the guardian, maybe the stairs will appear?」

In response to Shuna's opinion,

「Everyone, which one do you think is the guardian?」

『No idea』

Everyone was of the same mind.

There was absolutely no difference between the various enemies. There were giant skeletons, but there were about 45 of them, all looking exactly the same.

「Yukikaze」

『It's unclear, indeed』

Could it have hid itself by becoming one with a pillar? Or is it somewhere in this huge three-dimensional space? This is bad, isn't it?

Simply descending is easy, but when we have to look for something, it becomes a hassle. Even if I bring more drones, searching for something in a jungle of bones is the very definition of back-breaking.[4]

「Alright………………let's eat」

I need a change of pace. Besides, I'm hungry.

The menu for the day was hot dogs.

The sausages were made by a beastkin from the eastern forest. My sister had come across him looking for work in the city, and I had hired him to work in our merchant company.

The intestines of dungeon pigs are used to line equipment to waterproof them, but there is always quite a bit left over, so they are often thrown away. To go with that, we added some unsellable scraps of meat, garlic, red peppers, a little bit of white wine, and cheese. The clincher was the beastkin's special spice mix and stuffing.

Thus, the cheap, tasty, and easy-to-carry-around sausage was born.

I was mystified as to why it hadn't caught on before now.

These sausages.

As a matter of fact, they have a long history and have existed in the alternate world for over five hundred years. However, they were seen as a lowly beastkin dish in cities with a lot of Hemu, and had been banned and gone into obscurity.

I had been very lucky to find something that could be paired and sold together with the ketchup.

I wonder.

What's with my luck when it comes to things unrelated to my adventures?

Is it a revelation from god telling me that it's fine even if I don't explore the dungeon?

It's possible.

With that god of mine, it's definitely possible.

「It’s almost done~」

I boiled the sausages in a small amount of water, then served them in bread. The bread was also specially made by Makina and had a fluffier texture than the bread sold in the city.

On top of the sausage, I arranged some diced pickled onions, and then drizzled ketchup over them.

It was a simple dish, but the individual components were delicious, so there was no need to add anything else.

The thick, long, and large hot dogs were wrapped in parchment paper before I handed them to my party members.

「Here, Shuna」

「Ooh」

He's always the first to attack, so he also gets to be the first to eat. When it comes to rest, he's also the first to get it. Since he’s in his growth period, I want him to gain as much experience as possible. That’s my way of showing parental love.

He immediately took a bite.

The sausage burst open and its juices spurted out.

「Hot, hot……………… Oh, it's delicious」

It was well-received.

I got started on making the next one immediately.

「Here, Ea」

「I've been waiting for this! Onii-chan, more ketchup for me」

「Alright」

I added more ketchup, then handed it to my very excited sister.

「Ea, please wait a moment」

「Huh?」

Rana stopped Ea just as she was about to take a bite.

「As your elder sister, I cannot allow you to open your mouth wide and eat something like that in front of people」

「Oh………」

Ea blushed uncharacteristically and then faced away from the men.

By the way, the way beastkin eat sausages is to chop them up and put them in soup or fry them. They don't eat the whole thing in one piece.

Well, as vulgar as it sounds, it looks like that. And it's magnificent.

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A girl of a tender age putting that into her mouth………………no good, what the heck am I imagining?

「Souya, I want more onions on mine. Half the sauce is fine」

「Understood」

I made it according to what Otou-san requested and handed it over to him.

「Hmm, this sauce, it's the one you used before to season pasta, isn't it? I don't dislike it, but too much of it is………but hmm, mmm? When combined with the meat juices, this is………」

Otou-san started munching it down.

For some reason, the way he scarfs down his food makes everything he eats look delicious.

「What about you, Lys? Is a normal one okay?」

「I don't want any onions」

「It's not good to be a picky eater」

I sneakily hid some onions in-between the bread and the sausage.

When I handed it to her, Lys sat down next to Ea, turned her back to us, and then started chomping away.

「What about you, Rana?」

「I’ll leave it to you, dear」

I made a normal one, then handed it to Rana.

All three women sitting in a row with their backs to us, eating hot dogs. It's kind of comical.

「Souya, give me another one」

「Alright. Is a normal one okay?」

「More ketchup」

「Got it」

I handed Shuna his second hot dog.

After that, I made one for myself and ate it.

The bread in the alternate world is typically very hard, so Makina's bread has a very nostalgic texture to it.

Sausages are delicious. Really delicious. When I bite down on its elastic skin, the juices burst out. The onions and the sourness of the ketchup combine with the juices to create a delicious taste. As for the sausage, the more I bite into it, the more the spices come out and the more the flavor changes. No matter which part of the bread I eat, I get the luxurious feeling of biting into meat.

Personally, I would add more vegetables, but I also can't get enough of this meaty texture.

「Hey, Otou-san」

What the heck is this guy doing?

「Hmm?」

「Don't you "Hmm?" me. That's alcohol, isn't it?!」

Instead of a waterskin, Otou-san was sipping from what looked like a liquor bottle.

「Well, it goes well with this meat stuffing, you see?」

「Please refrain from drinking alcohol while inside the dungeon」

「I won't drink so much that I'd lose my footing」

「That's a given!」

Otou-san put away the liquor bottle reluctantly.

「Hey~, Onii-chan」

「Yes, my sister?」

Ea turned around and raised her hand.

Next to her, Rana jumped.

「The waterskin that my elder sister is drinking from smells like wine~」

「Okay, dear wife, please explain and state your defense」

「………I'm only moistening my lips a little. Red wine goes really well with meat――」

「Ea, confiscate it」

「Understood」

「Hawaa」

The elder sister had her waterskin snatched away by the younger sister.

「Rana, I hate to ask this, but is this the reason why you're always falling over or losing your way?」

「No! I don't drink that much alcohol all the time!」

「Well, drinking is forbidden inside the dungeon. If you don't follow that rule, you'll be punished」

「………Wh, what kind of punishment will I get?」

She asked in what sounded to me like a somewhat excited voice.

Hey. We're in front of everyone in the party and my sister, you know?

「Onee-chan, we're still in the middle of an adventure」

「Yes, I'm sorry」

It was a scene of an elder sister being scolded by her younger sister.

After finishing her meal unusually quickly, Lys turned around.

「Souya, I want another one of these. ………I don't want onions. I don't want them, got it?」

「Understood」

I made Lys a second helping. As a party, we finished our meal by each eating three or four of them. We were more stuffed than expected, so we took a two-hour break.

After that, we searched for another four hours, but couldn't find any leads.

I halted the search and asked my party members for their opinions.

As the saying went, "Two heads are better than one."

First, Otou-san's opinion.

「These floors are a separation of the dungeon. They exist to keep the monsters on the higher floors from descending and the monsters from the lower floors from ascending. It's a separation of ecosystems」

Next, Rana.

「I can feel the fluctuations of magic. I'm certain that there's a trick to the portals. However, the flow is too erratic for me to decipher what effects they have」

After that, Ea, Lys, and Shuna.

『No idea at all』

As the saying went, "Two heads are better than one." ………But if that's the case, why do people waste so much time in meetings that are often unproductive, I wonder?

Lastly, Yukikaze.

『Yukikaze suggests lowering this unit to the bottom for a solo search operation』

「No, that's too dangerous」

But it’s a good idea.

Ultimately, a group won't budge without a leader to lead it. That's what I'm here for.

「Alright」

「Yukikaze, for how many hours more can Ea use Lola's cloak?」

『Based on the changes in Ea-sama's magic power today, she should have a little less than three hours』

「Ea, can I count on you?」

「Of course」

I handed Yukikaze to Ea. I also took the rest of her gear. I thought her backpack was strangely heavy, but it turned out to be packed full of food. There were cans of spam, and the recently made bottled drinks. I also found some dried bread, dried meat, and several chunks of cheese. She had packed way too much stuff in there.

I could have just followed Yukikaze's suggestion, but if the mini-pod were to be destroyed here, Yukikaze would die without being able to transmit any data to Makina, the main body.

Although there is a backup, it would simply be a different entity that had inherited Yukikaze's knowledge. Now that I’ve learned of the story behind the A.I.s, I can’t use them as if they’re expendable.

If it was made invisible through Ea's cloak, it would have a better chance of surviving than a pod rolling around by itself.

While that would put two people in danger, taking risks when determining what to do is sometimes necessary.

「Alright, you two, I'm counting on you」

「Understood, understood」

『Understood, indeed』

With Yukikaze hanging from her hip, Ea pulled up the hood of her cloak and disappeared like mist.

Faintly, I could sense her sliding down the pillar.

The skeletons whose heads got used as stepping stones looked around questioningly. Like a gust of wind, she slipped in among the monsters.

Unseen, unheard, and unperceived. The invisible hunter made her way through the mass of enemies.

「Activate the pulse scan at the center」

（Understood, indeed）

She replied via email.

After a while, I spotted Yukikaze, who was only a dot at this distance, in the center of the bottom.

An audible "kiin" echoed through the air.

The monsters all turned to Yukikaze and the invisible Ea in unison.

「Rana」

「Okay」

From some distance away, Rana blasted the enemies with her magic to distract them.

Once the flames cleared, countless skeletons began to climb up the pillars towards us.

「Yukikaze, did you collect the data?」

『Yes, it has been collected successfully』

「Ea, go straight for the nearest portal. We'll meet up with you back on the 30th floor」

『Understood!』

「We're leaving too!」

As we mowed down the swarming skeletons, we dove into the portals.

It was a bit of a risky call, but we escaped with no casualties that day.

After giving myself a small pat on the back, I looked over the data Yukikaze had collected.

According to the results of the scan.

There were no "stairs leading down" on these floors.

Floors with no way down. That's the major problem.

[1] This part isn’t as clear because of how Japanese grammar works, but he’s implying to Souya that he is allowed to exist, that it’s okay for him to live. He has trained Souya to be a chef like him, and by saying that it’s okay for chefs like that to exist, the implication is that Souya can make being that kind of chef his reason for living. Because, if you remember, Souya was incredibly suicidal at that time and his grandpa was trying desperately to give him reasons to live, as mentioned in vol 3.

[2] Double meaning here. The “pulsating warmth” can also be translated as the “pulsating blood flowing through”. That’s why the pulsating is there, since it’s also implying he can feel his pulse.

[3] This is a reference to “The Spider's Thread", a 1918 short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. The story is about a sinner called Kandata, who was a cold-hearted criminal, but he had one good deed to his name. He had spared a spider that he was about to crush with his foot. Moved by this single act of compassion, Buddha lowered a spider’s thread into Hell. Seeing that thread, Kandata realized that he had a chance to escape Hell and climbed up it. However, the climb was long and when he took a break, he realized that others had also started climbing the thread. Fearing that their weight would cause the thread to break, he yelled that the thread was for him alone. It was at that moment that the thread broke and all of them fell back into Hell, Kandata’s selfishness condemning all of them.

[4] The Japanese term for “back-breaking” is literally “bone-breaking”. Therein lies the joke, which of course, doesn’t translate in English.

It’s heartwarming that although he has forgotten his grandfather, his grandfather had succeeded in ingraining within him an ideal that cannot be taken away even by magic...however, the reason behind it is just so sad…

Do note that Souya is able to somehow sense Ea even though she’s invisible. This will come up later. >

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