133-Chapter 8-9 Attackers

You're losing visibility up here.

I started looking for the bottom of the lake from where I was to continue yesterday, but I was struggling with the poor visibility. It was a dimly lit dungeon to begin with, and furthermore, with the bottom of the lake nearly twenty meters from the water's surface, it was almost as bad as being in the dark. Moreover, it's not uncommon to not be able to see beyond the warding at all because of the mud that has accumulated on the bottom of the lake. It's dark enough that you can somehow see inside the ward, so as long as your feet are illuminated with a weak light, there is no problem in searching for mithril, but there are demons that are lured by that weak light to approach you, so you had to increase your vigilance.....................A few demons, in a group, in a quicksilver, were I was chilled to the bone when we hit the wards.

'There aren't many shrimp around here though there are a few new faces here and there instead.

The deeper we went, the fewer shrimp there were, and instead there were more and more shells clinging to the rocks like oysters, and creatures that resembled horseshoe shrimp and sea monkeys. I opened one of the shells to try it out, but the flesh was so black and smelled so bad that any thoughts of using it for food immediately disappeared. It may be possible to eat it and find out...surprisingly, but I decided that it would be a bad idea to check it out in the dungeon.

The horseshoe shrimp and sea monkeys are roughly around 10cm in size and have soft bodies (shells) so they might be eaten, but they didn't look particularly tasty, so I didn't catch them. If there hadn't been a long shrimp or a swamp shrimp, I might have tried it at least once, though.

'There's not a lot of stuff falling out of the ground though the quality isn't too bad instead.

There were fewer weapons and armor that had fallen, even though it was only a few meters deeper than where they had been looking for yesterday. But the occasional object found had less rust and scratches than the ones in the shallow areas, probably because the mud clung to them like it was protecting them from impact.

'Let's go back once.'

I floated on the surface of the water with my wards in place to check where I was, and then flew straight back to Slarin and the others in the air. Even though I had been diving for quite a long time, the area I examined was smaller than usual, and I wasn't too far from where I had started looking. As I thought, the poor visibility was probably the only reason he was moving so slowly.

As I was thinking like that, I noticed that Slarin and the others were defeating a different kind of demon than usual.

Hobgoblins are a higher-ranking species of goblin, but they're a bit more formidable than ordinary goblins. They look like larger goblins, about 150cm in size, compared to about 120cm for goblins, making them more human-like. Well, from Slarin and the others' point of view, there's not much difference between goblins and hobgoblins.

'I heard that hobgoblins can be bought by the guild just like normal goblins, so I guess it's not a waste of time to have all this. But why are they here?

When I asked Slarin about it, he told me that first the goblins came down from the upper floors and started drinking water. After that, they found Slarin and his friends and attacked them, and as they were returning fire, the orcs came too. Of course, the orcs were also killed in return, so the goblins and the orcs were separated into a pile for easy disposal later. Incidentally, I heard that the Orcs are also in the process of draining blood.

'I see. Indeed, if there is a lake on the nearby floor, it's not surprising that they come to drink water. Is it because of the problem of food and shelter that they don't use this place as their home?

There is no safe place on this floor where there is a lake, as there is no shield on the land where the schools can hide, so adventurers can see them, and they are attacked by crocodile fish and other animals from the lake, so there is no safe place on the land or the lake. What's more, the only things likely to feed on this floor are shrimp and small fish for the aquatic demons. Since they would risk their lives to catch them, even the least intelligent goblins and orcs would understand that it would be impossible for them to establish a home here. However, it's unclear how much they sacrificed before they understood that....

Well, I'm gonna get some food, but first.

As I put the goblins and orcs in my bag, I felt them creeping up behind me, so I waited until they were on the verge of pouncing on me before I jumped away from them.

''Mwah!''

Where I was just before I was, a familiar adventurer in tiger-printed gear froze in a posture with his arms outstretched.

'I know you're hiding in there too, except for Amur,'

While saying this, I pointed at the entrance of this floor and a group of acquaintances appeared in a group, creeping in and out. There were six of them. They were Grandpa and Blanca and the members of the Sword of Dawn. If you add Amur to the list, it means that seven of them were sneaking around.

I knew it was unreasonable to sneak around behind Tenma's back.

"You've got a better nose than a beastman, don't you?

The six of them, led by Grandpa and Blanca, came out from behind the rocks without taking offense. I wondered why Shiroumaru and the others didn't react, but if you look closely at Shiroumaru and Solomon, they must have been bribed because they have dirt around their mouths. Well, it was probably Grandpa who bribed them, so no problem.................but I'll have to cut back on my food.

The two animals were shivering as they sensed a disturbing feeling. Putting those two animals aside, I asked them why my grandpa and his friends were here, and they gave me a simple answer: "Because I was bored". So he asked the djinn who knew where I was to show me the way.

'Well, when I say directions, I just used the warp zone to bring them to the floor above this one.

Jin said, but since Grandpa and the others had never been to the floor above this one, in this case they would have to pass through the warp zone at the entrance, in direct contact (................) with someone who had used the warp zone on the desired level.

''So you came hand in hand with grandpa and the others.....wasn't it obvious?''

Most of the people who dive into this dungeon use the warp zone at the entrance, so naturally there are many eyes near the entrance warp zone.

''It's conspicuous, but it's not that unusual... it's just that the person I held hands with was a celebrity...''

The women don't seem to be so sure, but the men seemed a little embarrassed by the attention. Incidentally, the hand holding pairs were Jin and Grandpa, Garratt and Blanca, Leena and Amur, and Menace was alone. It's true that it would be embarrassing for two old men to hold hands. There's something suspicious about the way they look... If these were two women, and one of them was old enough to be a girl, they would probably look smiling, contrary to the way men look at each other.

'You can't just have fun with Temma,'

Amur must seem like I'm playing with him. Well, he's never wrong, and maybe Amour is bored with Grandpa and Blanca, too.

Besides, Amie missed him too.

I didn't bring Aimee with me this time, but if it's a safe, shallow level, I might be able to bring her with me. If we take them to a place where there are caterpillars for Eeechan and the others to feed on, we'll be able to get food more easily in the future. Most likely, they would need someone to be their escort, but they would be happy to ask the members of the Tamer's Guild to follow them there. After all, Amy has become an idol of the Tamer's Guild.

I'll make it up to you. And we're going to have dinner now, do you guys want some?

I asked them, but it was a silly question, and they all sat down in front of me in a circle. Shiroumaru and Solomon also joined the circle.

For the meal menu, I put out a selection of the aquatic monsters we hunted here. It was because I wanted to hear everyone's opinions too. Especially the opinion of the Sword of Dawn, who has a long history of working in this dungeon, I thought that maybe we could find a better use for it.

'This is the one I baked and this is the one I fried. It's only seasoned with salt, but if that's not enough, you can try fish sauce.

When I tried it, it was just salt, but this time I served fish sauce too. I had some spices to remove the smell, but I wanted to give them a simple dish to start with. The result......

Doesn't everyone care about this much smell?

'Well, I don't mind this much. It's not like it smells rotten or anything.

'Yes. Some of the food we eat in the dungeons is more quirky than others.

''This is one of the better ones, and the one Jin made before smelled a lot worse... so this one is nothing compared to that.

Don't use me as a pussycat! ........Well, I didn't think that was a good idea for me.......

Grandpa doesn't seem to mind the smell either, and is enjoying eating it while being begged by Shiroumaru and the others. As for Blanca and Amur, they are.....

What are you two playing at?

He was eating some powder in a small bottle, pouring it over the fried crocodilefish.

'Oh, this?' It's our home seasoning.

Here you go.

I took the contents of the vial Amur handed to me and licked it out of my hand for a bit, and to my surprise, it was curry powder.

''Curry powder, huh!''

It's also known as Kali or Cary in our part of the world.

Taste of home. Different families have different tastes. That's what my mom made.

In Amur's village, they often make dishes using curry powder, but there is no such thing as what they call "curry rice" in his previous life. The closest thing they have to a soup curry is a soup with curry powder, which is flavored with curry powder, and it's sometimes eaten with bread, but rarely over rice.

The curry powder is better than the one I used to make, and the variety of spices used seems to be greater, but the spiciness wasn't as strong as it could be.

'Amour, can I use some of that?'

"Hm.

When I saw Amur shake his head, I decided to try the new menu I just came up with. Well, when I say new menu, it's just an addition to the dish I just made.

''Well! I got it! It's crocodilefish with tempura curry.

I called it curry-flavored tempura, but I think it's actually closer to calling it chicken nanban with curry flavor. Well, I think it's easier to understand than calling it chicken nanban, so tempura would be fine too. We can make the real thing another time.

Atsumatsu, hagu........umami

'I've eaten the baked ones with curry powder on them, but the fried ones are better.

I fed it to Amur and Blanca first, and they appreciated it. We served the crocodile pounding to the others, who all liked it better than the ones we had just fried.

The smell of alligator plants doesn't bother me as much now.

Jin, who was the first to get his hands on the tempura, voiced his opinion and we all agreed with him. I tried it too, and thanks to the spices used in the curry, the smell of the crocodile morsels was gone, which was a nice touch. However, Shiroumaru seems to be bothered by the spice flavor, and prefers the normal fried version. Solomon is good at both.

Now that we've finished eating, I'm going to dive back into the lake.

The first to react to my words was Amur, who started to say he was going to dive with me. Blanka, who misunderstood that he was going to go straight for a bare-bottom dive, tried to get him to quit, but he was convinced that I was going to demonstrate the wards for underwater use, but.......

I can't take you anywhere near as far as the visibility is concerned.

When I said that, Amur sulked and started pulling at Shiroumar's cheek as if he was taking it out on her. But since Shiroumar is used to having his cheek pulled, he didn't resist much.

I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to do that. I'll have a little practice.

And with that, Grandpa started practicing as soon as he could.

Blanca, Djinn, and the others said they would take a break or something to pass the time appropriately while I was diving, so I decided to ask him to sort out the weapons and armor I got at the bottom of the lake. The reward was easy to accept when I told him that I would give him whatever he wanted to give me, other than mithril or anything with rare metals in it. Well, other than mithril, they're all rusty or broken, but many of them can be used with a little work, so I knew he'd accept it because it's a good part-time job to pass the time.

I'll be off then.

I took the things out of my bag to be sorted and headed for the lake. The djinn seemed to freeze for a little while when they saw the pile, but they were moving quickly. Amur came to the water's edge and watched his grandfather practice. Apparently, he was going to try to see if he could set up a ward himself.

'That was roughly around here....okay.

We flew close to the spot we had just interrupted and landed in the lake after setting up our wards. As we landed, the water came in a little over our ankles, but as usual, the water did not rise from there and we reached the bottom of the lake safely.

Once we reached the bottom of the lake, we immersed ourselves in the familiar task we have always done. The deeper the lake is, the more complex the terrain becomes, and occasionally there are rocks a few meters deep that block my path. However, the deeper the rocks, the more weapons and armor can be found around them, so in a sense, this is a good indicator of how hot they are.

'I guess I've gathered a fair amount of people... hmm? What's this?

When I picked up the armor that was lying at my feet, I felt something strange. Then I took a closer look at it and realized that the armor I had picked up was badly deformed.

It was originally a Great Helm-like armor to protect the head, probably the size of a large adventurer's armor, but it was dented and diminished, as if something had tightened on its sides. It was so flattened that I thought it was a breastplate or a piece of armor, until I picked it up and looked at it.

It's a good thing that the crocodile monster has teeth marks on it, because if it was a crocodile monster, it wouldn't have the strength to dent it to this extent in the first place.

I explored the area for a while, but I couldn't find any other armor with similar changes, so I decided to go back to land and ask everyone's opinion.

Just as he was about to put the Great Helm in his bag and move to land, the criminal who had transformed the Great Helm suddenly attacked him. The attack was a complete surprise, but it was only thanks to a combination of coincidences that I noticed it immediately and was able to avoid it.

The first is that the ward I'm using now is one that has the elasticity of a balloon. That gave the enemy only a few moments to break the wards after they touched them.

Secondly, the wind ward was one that would not leak even if it was broken. This warding could change its shape according to the shape of the invading object, thus avoiding the situation where the enemy would be stuck in the warding due to the water that entered it.

Thirdly, the enemy's movement itself was slow. I don't know if their movements were slow to begin with or if they move slower on land, but the speed of the legs(...) that invaded was not much for a surprise attack.

However, it must have been very pissed off that I cut off the tip of the foot that was extended when I evaded it, or maybe the rest of the foot came towards (...) me all at once.

''What is this stupid big octopus(...)!

I dodged the octopus that tried to hug me and hurriedly surfaced to the surface. The octopus was chasing me, its long arms outstretched.

'd*mn it! I'm persistent!

The octopus stretched its legs out of the water with its momentum to catch me as I jumped out of the water, but I cut off its legs as well. The leg was quite resilient, but I was able to cut it with my beloved korasuma with no problem.

Then I tried to use my lightning magic to stop it, but less than a hundred meters away from where I was, I saw Grandpa and Amur in the shallows of the lake. And since they were in the water, if I used my magic just to defeat this octopus, I was in danger of electrocuting them both together.

Grandpa, who noticed me and the octopus, grabbed Amour by the neck and was about to jump up from the water with his flying magic, but before Grandpa and the others could take refuge in the air, the octopus' other legs got tangled in my legs.　

'Gosh, you broke it!

The moment the octopus's legs became entangled, I felt a severe pain with a gurgling sound. The octopus is trying to pull me under the water as it is.

"Not going to happen, yo!

I sliced off the octopus' leg with my right hand's small crowbar, and with my left hand I took the large body spear out of my bag and thrust it between the octopus' eyes. The big body spear pierced to the base, but the octopus hadn't stopped moving yet.

''It's really persistent!''

The movement was quite slow, but the octopus was still alive, so I moved the large spear up and down to open up the wound to put a stop to it. The color of the octopus finally changed from black to white, and this time it seemed to be doomed.

"If we had a proper fight, we would have been seriously dead........

If the wards were broken and I was entangled and pulled into the water before I could escape into the air, it would have been difficult to resist properly. The countermeasure would be to use lightning magic that is prepared to self-destruct, or to use 'Tempest', which is the biggest magic I can use, although there is a risk of dungeon collapse.

While thinking about this, I put the octopus that had begun to sink into the magic bag and headed to everyone who was stunned.

''Temma, you're safe!

Grandpa was about to fly over to me after he took Amur to Jin and the others, but he was waiting with Jin and the others as I killed the octopus before he did, and he was the first to call out to me when I came back.

'Well, it looks like my leg is broken, but other than that I'm fine.

Hearing my words, Grandpa wordlessly carried me up and sat me down on a nearby rock. He lifted the hem of his broken trousers and looked at the injured part of his body in amazement.

He lifted the hem of his broken pants and looked at the injured part. It's not only broken, it's bleeding internally.

Grandpa told me to take a look at it, and I saw that the skin around the broken bone was discolored red and black. As soon as I looked at the affected area, I began to feel a pain that I hadn't felt much before, but I could feel it clearly. Grandpa immediately used his magic to heal me, but I decided to apply my own recovery magic again and spend the day resting.

''Shucks, I've never heard of this guy here before.

''We can definitely split the veterans in this dungeon, too, but I'd never even heard of this guy.

Jin and Garratt nodded their heads curiously as they looked at the octopus I had taken out for inspection. If the two of them didn't know, they wouldn't know if I asked any of the other Seigen adventurers. If there was any chance of knowing, it would be only Grandpa or Aguri.

I wonder if they noticed my thoughts on this, after Grandpa approached the octopus and examined it.

I've never seen this creature before either. I guess it could be classified as a demon, but I've never seen or heard of it before. I know of a creature that looks exactly like this one, but it can't be this big.

So it was likely to be a new species. Later on, I confirmed that the creature my grandpa mentioned was the octopus I knew (the same one as in my previous life), and it seemed to be about two to three meters in size at the most.

I surreptitiously looked it up in my 'appraisal' and found that this octopus is classified as a demon, but for some reason it was left blank in the name.

Now, the remaining question is whether or not this guy can eat (.......................)

All but my grandfather looked at me in surprise at this statement. When I asked him why he looked like that, he said that the djinn didn't know that they could eat octopus. Aside from Grandpa, who had traveled to many places in this country, all the Jinns had grown up inland and were unfamiliar with sea creatures.

Octopus is delicious. You can grill it, fry it, or boil it.

I didn't say if it was raw (...) because I thought it would be too hard, but if it was lightly scraped in hot water, it wouldn't have as much resistance as raw.

I thought of several octopus dishes and checked if I could eat this octopus. The method is simple. The first thing you need to do is to check whether or not the octopus is poisonous and then put it in your mouth to see for yourself. It may seem like a simple test, but there are many ingredients that are not poisonous but are harmful to the body. For example, the oil in some fishes is safe in small quantities, but if eaten in large quantities it can cause diarrhea.

I've never eaten oil with such characteristics, but I have eaten octopus in my past life many times, and I have eaten dried octopus in this life as well. So if it tastes the same as I remember, it shouldn't be a problem... even in the worst case scenario, it won't kill me because of the detoxification and disinfection magic.

I cut off the octopus leg I just cut off about twenty centimeters long and froze it once with magic. Even if it's only 20cm, the octopus itself is large, so its diameter is nearly 15cm.

When the octopus was half-frozen, I peeled the skin off the leg, sliced it a few millimeters thin, and divided it in two. Since the skin was slippery, I salted it, washed it lightly, and scraped it with the sliced octopus half. The octopus was thin, so I pulled it up in a short time, cut it into bite-sized pieces, and served it on a plate and it was ready to go. It didn't look the size of the octopus I knew, but it smelled just like I remembered.

The raw ones are cut into appropriate sizes and then grilled on a griddle. It was seasoned only with salt, but Jin and his friends might be more comfortable eating it because it was like grilled meat. Incidentally, the skin was already cooked when the octopus was cooked, but we decided to throw it away because it was too elastic to chew even if we cut it into small pieces. Incidentally, Shiroumaru and the others didn't seem to like the elasticity of the octopus, so they spat it out after chewing it a few times.

'It's done........what are you so alarmed about?　

I pulled the table out of the bag and laid out the taco prototype dishes, but unlike usual, the djinn just took some distance from me and looked at me (the dishes I laid out). Amur and Blanca also seemed unusually hesitant. The only people near the table, besides me, were Slarin and his subordinates and Grandpa.

It's not........edible?

No, it doesn't look good.

Blanca and Amur don't seem to recognize octopus as a proper food in the first place and treat it as a complete ghetto.

'Here, Temma says it's okay, try the gin.

Our representative is a djinn, so I told you to go.

Jin-san, fight!

That's totally your job as a toxifier!

Garratt and the others, rudely, seem to have judged the octopus dish to be poisonous. I was a little pissed off, so I decided to have Jin, the leader of the 'Sword of Dawn', take the blame for it.

''Djinn.......eat it!''

What? Huh!

I sneaked up to Jin, who had his back to me, and shoved the small salted octopus he had been pinching in his fingers into his mouth. Jin didn't seem to know what happened and reflexively took a few bites of the octopus in his mouth before swallowing it.

'What the hell are you doing?

Yeah, that's it.

I pointed to the taco dish out of Jin's line of sight, then returned to the table.

'Don't complain if it's gone. If you don't eat it, I won't make you any more.

After saying that much, I took a bite of the octopus dish. Unlike the skin, the octopus meat was full of good elasticity and flavor. Frankly speaking, it was better than the octopus I had eaten in my previous life. Jin looked as if he wanted to say something, but he stopped with his mouth half-open as I started to eat the octopus in a delicious way before he could open his mouth.

When they saw me mouthing it, Grandpa and Shiroumaru and the others started mouthing it one by one. There was no evasion on their faces. Perhaps.........

Grandpa, you used me as your poisoner...

What are you talking about? I was just waiting for him to be the first to eat.

Grandpa said with a nonchalant look on his face as he popped the octopus into his mouth one by one. Shiroumaru and the others looked just as delicious as my grandfather.

Hmmm, delicious.

Before I knew it, Amour was at my side, stabbing a salted octopus into his fork and bringing it to his mouth. Beside him, Blanca was likewise eating the octopus in hot water.

I'm not sure if Amour trusted me or not, he put the octopus straight into his mouth, but Blanca seemed skeptical, at first she was afraid to take a bite of the octopus, but then she started to eat it normally.

With the two of them joining in, the octopus disappeared before you could even see it. The members of the Sword of Dawn, who were watching, seemed to be more curious than scared, and managed to get a piece of yubiki into their mouths one by one.

I was urged to add more octopus to the menu, so I had to make a heaping pile of yubiki and grilled salt. In addition, because there was a fear that I wouldn't be able to keep it for myself if I served it as is, I managed to keep it for myself while it was cooking.