“Master, are we to begin combat, I ask?”
“We are. Let’s avenge the adventurers.”
“Our opponent is a Taurus, level twenty-five! Aside from his ability with an ax, he also has a skill that allows him to strengthen his muscles instantaneously, so be careful.”
As I confirmed we would be fighting the enemy, Arisa used her Status Check ability and informed the group of her findings. The Taurus was a little taller than Liza, but it was bending forward slightly, so its actual height was more likely to be around two and a half yards. It had enough body weight to match its height, too.
“It’s our first time fighting such a creature. Let’s not defeat it immediately and instead study its movements in battle.”
“Roger, roger, cap’n!”
“Roger, sir! Pochi is a pro at measuring up her opponents, sir!”
The vanguard of our group entered combat. The rear guard and I stood back, waiting for our opportunity.
“Isn’t that a minotaur?”
“It’s not walking on all fours, but it is leaning so far forward that its hands are almost touching the floor, plus its upper half isn’t human, so it can’t be a minotaur, right?”
“Inverted triangle.”
“You’re right, its top half is a bit bigger than its lower half.”
We watched on as the front guard memorized the Taurus’s movements. Liza sent the Taurus’s ax flying, inviting it to change up its movements.
“Body hit.”
“When it has no weapon, it goes on all fours and uses its horns.”
“Isn’t that a stronger method?”
The Taurus used a lot of charge attacks and threw up its horns. It left a lot of openings for attacks. However, it was clear it was powerful.
“…Ah, they beat it.”
“Pochi, by accident.”
The Taurus had been beheaded by a single sword flash. Its body hit the ground with a thud.
“For a level-twenty-five monster, it was pretty strong.”
“It looks deliciouuus.”
“It’s a cow, so it’s definitely, absolutely going to taste delicious, sir! Pochi knows this for sure, sir!”
“It doesn’t look poisonous, so let’s try it at lunch.”
Since it’s beef, I guess it would be delicious if we sliced it thinly and fried it.
We carefully took the carcass apart and sliced a few pieces off for later. There was poison in its organs. However, back at Hero’s Rest there was a note about Taurus’s insides being useful in alchemy. I made sure to store the organs for later.
“Master, what shall we do about the adventurers’ corpses, I inquire?”
Nana, who had been gathering up the corpses, asked me.
“We’ll take their adventurer passes with us.”
“Yes, Master. I will also retrieve any items that appear to be keepsakes.”
“Are we going to bury them?”
“We are. I’ll get the graves ready.”
We lined up the bodies in graves I made with the Earth Magic skill “Pit,” then covered them in soil and erected a tombstone for them. We carved the names that were on their adventurer passes onto the tombstones.
“Mew!”
Tama’s ears perked up as a small group of six adventurers appeared.
“A smooth-skin, huh? That’s not something you see every day.”
A mouse man, who seemed to be their leader, spoke as he looked around at us.
“Although we’re a while away from the ‘Castle’ here, for some reason there’s been a lot of Tauruses endin’ up here lost. Since you’re not used to the area, you should fight closer to Arcatia. You don’t want gettin’ caught in a fight with three, four, or even more Tauruses. You’ll die.”
I thought they’d join us, but instead, they just passed on some advice and left. I thanked them, but they didn’t respond.
“I wonder what they meant by ‘Castle’?”
“Is it not the area we’re heading to? It’s probably full of super-strong monsters.”
There were no other places that could be like that. We were attempting to go to an area on the map that was a blank area where monsters ranging from late level 20 up to level 40 roamed. I figured it was the best place for everyone to level up, but it seemed it was a popular destination for adventurers, too.
We carried on cutting our way through the jungle, taking down any monsters that jumped out of the shrubbery on our way. The venomous bugs were more annoying than the monsters. If I didn’t have the daily life spell Bug Wiper, I might have made a swift exit already.
“Sniff, sniff. Something smells nice, sir!”
“Can we eat iiiit?”
Pochi brought over a nut she found.
“Looks like it’s from a tree known as a ‘bread palm tree.’”
“Baked, delicious.”
Mia told us how to eat it. They no doubt have similar trees in the Bolenan Forest.
“What does it taste like?”
“Bread.”
“Is the tree made of bread?”
“Unbelievableee!”
It looked very different from the breadfruit I knew, but it seemed to be a similar thing.
“Mia, do they also have these in elfin villages, I inquire?”
“Hmm, yes.”
It made sense they would be in such a wide area as the Bolenan Forest. We continued along the treacherous jungle-like paths, taking down strange monsters as we went on our way, eventually coming across an open space. It looked like a lakeside area, and there were several adventurer parties battling monsters.
“Oceaaan?”
“It’s not the ocean, sir. I can’t smell the salt in the water!”
“That’s a lake.”
As far as I could tell from the map, it was a lake that rivaled Lake Biwako in size.
“Hey, you, over there! Give us a hand with some of these! One of our newbies brought over a whole pack of them!”
They were a lot of ancient land beasts—they resembled triceratops more than they resembled rhinoceros. There were also giant dragonflies and gillfolk coming out of the lake. There were a lot of demi-sahagins that looked like mutilated merfolk; they seemingly had all gathered together, drawn in by the fighting with the ancient land beasts.
“Mia, send the small sylphs out to bring the dragonflies into the air. I want you to shoot them once they’re airborne, Lulu and Arisa. Liza and the others, lure out the ancient land beats and finish them off.”
“Hmm, okay.”
Swish.
Mia’s small sylph’s wings swooshed through the air as they swarmed the dragonflies.
“Master, how many pieces of meat—I mean, ancient land beasts—should we take out?”
“There’s a lot of people, so at least take out about five of them.”
“Understood.”
Liza and the others energetically ran over to where the ancient land beasts were. It looked like they were having fun. Since they mentioned meat, and lunchtime was approaching, I left the rest to help the adventurers and set about making lunch.
“Dammit! Run for it! The Golden Alligator—it’s immune to hits from swords or spears!”
A large alligator resembling a Deinosuchus emerged from the water, so I unsheathed the fairy sword I had on my waist and swiftly got to work.
“…or so it should be…”
I gave my thanks to the adventurer who alerted us before storing the Golden Alligator’s remains in my Magic Bag. I was worried my clothes would get dirty, so I used the magical psychokinesis, Magic Hand, to store away the corpse without getting dirty.
“I guess we’re having stew and fried Taurus meat for lunch?”
I continued with my lunch prep with the cheerful chattering of the girls as BGM. I ignored the angry and sorrowful wails of the adventurers. I poured water from the lake into a giant pot. Then, after using the Everyday Magic spell Pure Water to make sure the ingredients were suitable to eat, I took a huge broccoli—from the Evil Broccoli Monster—and cut it up into pieces before putting it in the pot to boil. I was outside, so I wanted to use an open fire as a heat source, but there was a lot of vegetation around us, so I decided against it. Instead, I opted for a Magic Stove.
While that was cooking, I prepared the vegetables that would be going into the stew and put them in a separate pan to boil. I then cut up the vegetables we had stocked, such as spring onion, garlic, and a type of mushroom that resembled mushrooms back on Earth.
I guess we can just have bacon.
I then coated a large Chinese-style wok in oil and stir-fried the vegetables until they were soft and let a good deal of oil drip off the bacon. Once the broccoli was finished steaming, I put it into a sieve and used the Magic Air Conditioner to cool it down with a cool wind. In an empty pan, I then put the stir-fried ingredients in, along with clean water, and brought it to a boil. While that was simmering, I quickly put together a white sauce in another pan.
Now and then, a monster would try to approach me, but fighting was too much of a hassle, so I intimidated them a little and chased them off.
“Masterrr.”
Tama waved at me from the busy battlefield as she singled a few monsters out and eliminated them, before heading back to where the rest of the group was. Thanks to the group thinning the numbers out, the battlefield was becoming a little less hectic.
I poured the white sauce into the large pan and let it simmer for a while before then moving it from the Magic Stove. It was quite humid where we were, so I didn’t want to make it too hot. When I saw we had broccoli, the first thing to come to mind was making a stew with white sauce, but when I thought back on it, a cold soup or a salad may have been more appropriate.
Oh, well. We plan on having it with the breadfruit—the bread palm tree nut with fried meat.
I separated the Taurus meat into different parts and sliced it to the appropriate thickness based on what my “Cooking” skill taught me, then began cutting it into bite-size pieces. I lightly fried them and tasted them before putting around half of it in a dipping sauce.
I might as well make a lot.
If I kept it in Storage, it wouldn’t deteriorate, and I might have ended up giving some to other adventurers, too.
“Mew.”
Tama appeared from behind my legs. I warned her not to tell anyone else as I slipped a bit of meat into her mouth, letting her have a taste.
“Deliciouuuus!”
Tama disappeared back into my shadow with a huge smile on her face, before reappearing in the shadow of a monster out on the battlefield. It seemed to be pure luck when she pulled it off in our fight against the sages. However, it seemed she had already mastered moving in the shadows. It seemed to use a lot of MP, so she couldn’t use it a lot.
I broke down the bread palm tree nuts and roasted them, but eventually, my culinary skills helped me work out the best way to prepare them. It smelled like bread. However, it had a springy texture, reminiscent of a roasted sweet potato. The fighting was still going on, so I went on to prepare some shrimp, mushrooms, and vegetables that could go on skewers and be cooked over a grill. They came out more like grilled kebabs than like yakiniku, but they looked delicious, so I didn’t mind. Around the time I had set the table and laid out the cutlery, the fighting on the lakeside had stopped.
“Master! Pochi knows, sir! You let Tama have a taste, sir! The truth always hurts, sir!”
It seemed that not even ninja Tama could evade Pochi’s sense of smell. I popped a similar slice of meat into Pochi’s mouth. Her eyes were watery as she held back tears.
“Sorry! Sorry—! Here you go, Pochi.”
“Chew, you can’t fool Poch—!”
As soon as the fried meat hit her tongue, Pochi’s expression brightened up.
“Chom chomp. The delicious meat has done nothing wrong, sir. I detest crime, but I cannot detest this meat, sir.”
Pochi was trying her hardest to wear a serious expression, but she eventually gave in to relaxing her expression.
“Let’s eat after you’ve all washed your hands.”
Everyone responded enthusiastically and headed off to the bucket we had prepared for washing our hands.
“Just as I thought, grilled beef is so delicious, sir.”
“Shrimp is tasty, tooooo!”
“This part, the tongue, has such a wonderful bite to it. It’s very delicious.”
“The stew is delicious, too, I declare.”
“Broccoli, delicious.”
“Right? The broccoli here is so good! The bread is amazing, too!”
“It has a light, potato-like texture. It could pair well with other dishes.”
Everyone was in good spirits at lunch.
“Lulu’s cooking is delicious, too, but Master’s cooking is just on a different level.”
“I don’t think so. I think it’s on the same level as Lulu’s cooking.”
Though with Lulu’s recent passion for research, I thought she was better than I was at cooking.
“Not at all! I think Arisa is right!”
Lulu surprised us all with an unexpected statement.
“The better I get at cooking, the more I realize just how much attention to detail Master pays when he cooks, and just how close to a miracle it is.”
“I get that, Lulu.”
Liza looked Lulu in the eye as she agreed.
“Liza!”
Both Liza and Lulu gave each other a firm handshake.
“W-what is going on?”
“Huh?”
Both Mia and Arisa struggled to understand Liza’s and Lulu’s reactions, cocking their heads in confusion.
“Master.”
Nana had been eating her meal in silence. She came up and warned me about something.
“Behind.”
I turned to look behind me. I was met with the faces of the adventurers, all drooling.
“Would you like to eat with us?”
Something about how they acted reminded me of Pochi, so I ended up inviting them to join us. We had a lot of food with the grilled meat and barbecue skewers, so it was fine for them to join us. We had enough stew, too. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough breadfruit to go around, but I wondered if the adventurers would be able to bring some themselves.
“A-are you sure? …Wait. We didn’t come here to scrounge off you guys. We came to say thanks for helping us earlier.”
“Oh, thanks. I’ll gladly join you guys.”
“Same here. I never thought we’d actually get to enjoy a proper meal here in the labyrinth.”
“W-wait!”
A dog man, who seemed to be their representative, had tried to refuse our offer, but the fox man and raccoon man with them had already sat around the grill.
“Pochi will serve, sir! Pochi is a pro at serving, sir!”
“Tama, too!”
Tama and Pochi clacked the tongs together as they spoke, then put huge portions on the wooden plates. The other kids helped out, too, meaning the adventurers didn’t have to wait for long. We almost ran out of food.
“I’ll help, too.”
“I’ll give ya a hand.”
“Awesome. Give us a hand over here.”
The micefolk, who seemed to be porters, also offered to help. They started grilling the meat and vegetables. Thanks to everyone working together, we were able to feed the hungry adventurers without having them wait for too long.
Once they had finished serving everyone, the micefolk were supplied with a huge helping themselves.
“You guys eat, too.”
“All right. We allowed to eat the Taurus meat, too?”
“Oui, oooui.”
“It looks so delicious. It’s my first time having Taurus meat!”
“It’s super-duper delicious, sir!”
The micefolks’ eyes sparkled with delight, similar to Pochi’s and Tama’s as they started eating. It seemed they enjoyed it.
“Let’s eat some, too. It’s cooled down a little, so let’s reheat it.”
“It’s hot here already, so the temperature is fine as it is.”
“Hmm, agree.”
Just as I thought that grilled meat is best when fresh off the grill, I turned around to meet empty plates. Everyone had already eaten their portions. It looked like they had already eaten their portions around the time the micefolk had offered to help. I grilled more meat and handed it out to those who wanted it.
“I honestly never thought I’d get to eat such delicious food here in the labyrinth.”
“Though it’s not very adventurer-like, this is nice, too.”
“Yeah, you girls are all so lucky.”
The adventurers complimented the food as they spoke to the girls with smiles on their faces.
Hmm?
Liza was unusually silent.
“Everything okay? Did you eat too much?”
“…Master. No, that’s not the case.”
Liza was mumbling. I wondered if she was worried about something.
“If there’s anything you would like me to do, just let me know.”
“No, you’ve done enough. I just…wondered if this is all right. Continuing to have you spoil me like this. I was just doubting myself a little.”
“…Spoil you?”
So that was what Liza was thinking about.
“Yeah, I think I get what you mean.”
Arisa spoke up, agreeing.
“Master supports us all so well, I feel like I’m getting a little soft, due to how helpful it is.”
“Support? All I did was make it so you guys could hunt more easily.”
“Hmm, I don’t know how to put it. It’s always…comfortable? No, not that.”
“You mean we’re in an environment where we can just focus on battle?”
Liza tried to help Arisa articulate her thoughts.
“Yes, exactly that! Usually, we’d have to think about where to rest, what kind of enemies are in an area, and a bunch of other things outside of just hunting efficiently. But Master does all of that for us, so I feel like he spoils us. Right, Liza?”
“…Yeah,” Liza replied, nodding apologetically.
Okay. Now I get what they’re both trying to say.
They did not need to go out of their way and struggle, but they felt as if that sort of struggle may have played a part in their growth.
“I get it. Next time, when it comes to setting up a camp, I’ll just watch over you guys without getting involved.”
“Sorry, Master.”
“I’m terribly sorry, Master.”
“No need to apologize. But don’t suffer in silence, okay? Make sure to let me know if you need help.”
“Hmm, okay.”
“I shall do my best to meet your expectations.”
I made sure to remind Liza to not overdo it. I felt a little upset, but I understood I had to also work to make sure the girls could be independent.
“Meat!”
“Heave-ho! Heave-ho, sir!”
Tama and Pochi were carrying a large cut of meat over. It must have weighed around one ton.
“Master, those adventurers over there finished cutting down the carcass and shared some of the meat with us,” Liza spoke, pointing to a group of adventurers who were carving up a monster’s carcass. Now that lunch had finished, it was time to carve up all the monsters’ carcasses along the lakeside.
“A token of appreciation for earlier!”
“It doesn’t hold a candle to Taurus meat, but you can always sell it for a good price!”
The adventurers waved at us. After having lunch with us, they became a lot more friendly.
“Mew! Mewmewmewmew!”
“What’s wrong?”
Tama’s hair was raised all over. She was restless as she scanned the area. I swiftly opened up the map and locked in on what Tama had sensed.
“Look! On the other side of the mountain!” one of the squirrelfolk porters alerted us. A thick fog had formed suddenly on the other side of the jungle. There was a large silhouette shrouded in the mist. The silhouette itself towered over the trees in the jungle; it was around the same height as a small mountain.
“…A wolf?” mumbled Lulu.
In the mist, I could make out a pure white wolf.
“It’s huge,” Arisa spoke, shocked by what she was seeing.
Pochi hid her White Dragon Egg behind her, tucking her tail between her legs. Tama and Mia hid behind me and clung to my legs. Liza and Nana stepped in front of us as if to protect us, but I could see their hands and legs shaking ever so slightly.
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