54 Episode 53 Banquets and Airstrikes

The meat is good, but it's uncomfortable to eat alone.

Do you want some?　I have plenty of food.

I've got plenty of food. ...... Eating a wyvern is suicide for most people, except you, right?

Oh, no, sir. 　We have the usual stuff, like the giant spider club.

Oh, I'd love to try that. How much?

If you charge money, it's like a hard sell. 　I'll do it for free.

I just wanted to have dinner with you for some reason.

I've been a bit of a loner since I came to this world, after all.

It's fun to be alone, and I don't feel the need to make a lot of friends.

You don't mind that the food is expensive?

"Yes, we have a lot of it anyway. 　So it would be nice if there was a place with better cooking utensils than this stone, do you have one?

So far, I had only the ingredients and relied on what my companion had for cooking utensils.

If it was just me, this stone would be fine, but for three people, it's a little cramped.

What do you say we pay you to do the cooking for us?　We'll pay for it.

"Oh, there is such a place. 　What's it like?

It's like a bar, but without the booze. 　This way.

A bar.

It's a standard place to gather information in games.

There was one in Aen, but I didn't know there was one here.

What kind of alcohol do you have?

I'm not sure what kind of liquor you're talking about," he said. "We've got some kind of harsh liquor that's been brought in and watered down, and it's not very good but it's expensive.

The problem of transportation: ....... Do you really want to drink that much sake?

I'm not sure I want to drink that much.　I don't think there are a lot of decent ingredients in Desi Battleye.

The other day, I saw some food that was probably brought in by Kaede, but that's basically it. 　Well, it's old, but it's well-equipped and skilled, and I'm sure they'll do it for you if you ask.

We followed him as he talked, and soon we arrived at a place that looked like a bar.

It certainly has the feel of an old tavern, but it's spoiled by the large number of doors that seem to have been retrofitted.

The adventurer - I didn't get his name, by the way - goes in through the best door of the bunch.

There were no customers inside, and the place was deserted.

"Master, can I have some food?

What are the ingredients?

You call the owner "Master"?

The owner is called "Master." It's more like a bar.

I thought so, and looked at the master who appeared out of nowhere.

...... Yes, this is a decibatore, after all.

The master was a muscular old man who looked like a master (physically).

Well, he seems to be skilled.

Not in cooking, but in fighting.

The reason he's cooking and not adventuring is that he probably got an arrow in his knee.

"Giant Spider Club, your maple has it. 　I'll pay for it.

How do you cook it?

Uh, ...... maple, what do you want?

What kind do you have?

You can bake it, boil it, it's good. 　The other dish is ...... I don't have the ingredients.

I don't think I had any other ingredients on hand, except for meat.

The rest is zunana grass, which is treated like a weed around here.

What do you recommend?

"Boil it, it's more expensive but probably tastes better. 　What should I do?

That's a difficult answer to choose from. ......

I'm not sure if I'd choose the expensive one for the money, or if I'd just ignore the recommendation.

I don't know.

I don't care either way. 　I've got a lot of material, so I can do both if you want.

Then take out two legs of giant spider crab.

I don't know how many pounds each, but it's probably double digits.

There's no way I can eat that much. 　Are you going to have a party?

A banquet.

Might not be a bad idea.

"A banquet might be a good idea. 　We could raise money to pay for the food.

That's a good idea!　If we can use a lot of meat, I'll gather the people.

The adventurers are in favor of this idea.

It'll be a good opportunity to get to know the people of the city.

"No problem. 　Is this enough?

Yes!　Let's get started.

And so the master begins to cook.

He peels the shells off and chops them up, as wild as it looks.

I'll go get some people who are free!

This is how the feast began, but an unexpectedly large number of people showed up.

A total of thirty adventurers gathered in the tavern, waiting for the food.

Perhaps they were hungry for some decent food, but they thanked me profusely.

A few moments later, the food is ready and the feast begins.

"Cheers!

Apparently there is a culture of toasting here too.

Instead of raising the glass to the top, they lower it to the bottom.

"Oh!　That's good!

"The freshness is different. It's an item box.

It seemed to be generally well received.

Or rather, the meat was extremely well received.

We even had to add more meat because we ran out halfway through.

There is only one problem.

"This would be even better if we were drinking alcohol.

"Well, it's no use, we're supposed to start drinking at noon.

As has been said, the toast is not to alcohol, but to water.

We're about to go into battle, so it's not a good idea to drink.

The reason why there were so many people left in the city just by calling out to them was because they were waiting for the bombing to start at noon, not because they were here for sightseeing.

It was a job.

I guess it's best to have a party at night, I might have made a mistake.

I may have made a mistake, but it's okay because it was well received.

The party continued until just before noon, when it was time to break up the forest.

I'm heading for the blast site from the air.

I've been informed that the bombing will be on a larger scale starting today.

As soon as I see that there are adventurers guarding the area behind me, I can start at my own time.

The dense forest near Desibatore has already been cleared and the view has been improved.

This will probably be able to handle a slight influx of demons.

A good vantage point means that it will be easy to concentrate the firepower of a large number of people if you want to.

It doesn't increase the overall firepower, but it does increase our ability to respond.

Well, this time my job is just to blow things up.

Unlike in the past, I'm going to use 20 square kilometers of magic power to roast the forest.

It's only about three kilometers wide, so I'll quickly fly about seven kilometers away and cast the first blast spell.

Swoop down and deploy the warding spell.

Oh, swooping is getting easier.

Perhaps because I have more magic power to use, it's easier to change the trajectory of my flight abruptly.

I wonder if there will be any more sub dragons.

With this in mind, I took off a little more smoothly than usual, and looked at the explosion site.

As I expected, the roar of the explosion was accompanied by trees blowing away and clouds of dust rising.

This is not the usual scene .......

The distance of the trees has clearly increased.

I was so distracted by the battle that I didn't notice it, but it seems that my level has increased.

Even with the same level of magic power consumption, the firepower of magic is clearly different.

This seems to be enough firepower even if you are a bit stingy.

As a result of the verification by blowing up a nearby tree, it was found that the same level of firepower could be obtained with about 80% of the previous magic power.

The explosion range is increased by 20.5%.

Since the magic power is 20 times that of the previous version, the simple calculation is 25 times.

25 square kilometers: ......

The area we've cut so far will be no less than 5 square kilometers.

The area we need to cut down before Brokens is 30 square kilometers.

Oh, we're past Brokens.

I'm gonna go ahead and check it out.

The coastline narrows from where I was, and after a kilometer or so, it becomes a kilometer wide.

This narrowing is where Brocken was located.

From there, it continued to be about that thick for about two kilometers, and then widened slightly again to a strip of land about ten kilometers long, maintaining a width of about four kilometers.

At the end of the strip of land, the width of the strip becomes indistinguishable, and it looks like a continent.

It seems that the places where Desibatore and Brokens are located were like peninsulas connected to each other.

It's possible that it's a very large connected island, but I heard something about a demon continent, so it must be a continent.

I don't know why the terrain is like this, but it doesn't make much sense to think about it in a world where the tide doesn't seem to be rising and falling.

I haven't had a chance to look at the night sky, but there may be no moon.

I'll have a look at it this evening.

Well, let's just blast our way to Brokens.

I don't know if I should blow up Brokens itself, so I'll leave it alone for now.

From in front of Brokens, we'll blast towards Desibatore with explosive magic and warding magic with the same level of firepower as before.

To be able to carpet bomb an area of 20 square kilometers with this much power is still amazing.

In addition, it can take off and land vertically, and it can blow up easily, making a strategic bomber that can be launched from a certain aircraft carrier look like a real bomber.

From the watchtower of the Decibatore, you can see the trees sinking into the dust and smoke with a roar from a short distance away.

It would be a shame if the bodies could not be recovered because the explosions were too fast, but if necessary, we could just punch into the demon's territory.

It is not enough to conserve resources.

Even if we conserve it, it's still harmful to humans.

While I was thinking about this, the planned area of the bombing was finished.

As far as the eye could see, it was a mess of smoke and fallen trees.

The view of the forest, which used to be overgrown, has improved a lot.

It's not surprising, though, since we finished in one day what was supposed to take six months or so to cut down.

Now, let's start collecting.