CH 80

「I got a buff for poison resistance.」

Poison resistance?

When I thought about it, I recalled that on earth, there were a lot of researches being done on the effects of wasabi.

There were claims that wasabi helped decrease the chances of getting stomach cancer. There were also mentions of it having detoxifying effects as well. Was that why the winning version ended up being an antidote herb? Or was that just a coincidence? The losing version ended up being wasabi, so what did the winning ones taste like? 

「Ohh, you’re right. My poison resistance value has doubled.」

「Huh? Poison resistance? What are you talking about?」

Saga-san glanced at the table where there was nothing there.

He was probably looking at his own status menu that other people couldn’t see. His eyes looked all over.

「What’s going on? It’s not just poison resistance. My agility, defense, attack, and HP all went up.」

That was probably due to the vinegar, soy sauce, cooking sake, and mirin.

The only things I didn’t use this time were HP potions and MP potions.

「Nii-san, what’s going on?」

「Gee, I wonder. Maybe because you ate the kraken?」

Rofas-san said, acting dumb.

「Either that, or maybe the effect’s from the losing antidote herb I got as a drop from the dungeon?」

Eh?

The wasabi was a drop item from the dungeon?

So they weren’t just growing around the area? Wait, wasabi usually only grew in a specialized cultivation area, so they wouldn’t be growing in the area to begin with. Wait, that’s not the problem. Doesn’t that mean you can only get wasabi by defeating monsters, I wondered.

Saga-san stood up while slamming the table.

「This is a major discovery! I have to report it straight away.」

「Nope, it’s a secret. A se-cr-et. Everything you ate here, as well as the effects of the food, are all a secret.」

Rofas-san replied to Saga-san in a rather casual tone.

「A secret? Nii-san, how can you keep such a big discovery like this a secret? 」

Bryce-kun sighed and pressed his hand against his forehead.

「Saga-san, what would you do if you found out that eating the kraken gave you all sorts of effects? You can’t get them if you defeat them inside the dungeon. In that case, you have to lure the kraken out of the dungeon and defeat it there. If you do that…」

Saga-san looked a bit conflicted.

「I see what you mean. We can’t guarantee a supply of them. If the kraken end up breaking loose, the town could be in danger. If people find out that the kraken itself can give many effects, they’d be sold for a high price. Then, some incompetent people might be blinded by the potential earnings and do something reckless…」

Bryce-kun nodded.

「The worst part is that the kraken absorbs other monsters to grow bigger and stronger. It’s possible that a monster even stronger than the kraken that appeared this time could appear and attack the town.」

「I understand now. So that’s why information on the kraken and the effects it gives when eaten are a secret. Would it be okay to release the information on the effects of the losing antidote herb then?」

Rofas-san stayed quiet. No, technically his mouth stayed open the entire time. He ate some sushi, ate some takowasa, drank some alcohol, and ate some more sushi. He seemed quite busy actually.

「How about this? Rofas-san mentioned that the losing antidote herbs are drop items, but there’s no proof that all of them have a poison resistance effect. If the losing versions had effects, it would’ve been a well-known fact already. Since nobody discovered it until now, it’s possible that Rofas-san found a rare version of the losing antidote herb.」

Bryce-kun answered Saga-san’s request instead.

「I see. Rather than get everybody’s hopes up about the losing antidote herbs, we should first do some research on them behind the scenes.」

Yes, it seemed like Bryce-kun managed to convince Saga-san.

「Well, we can talk about that later. Come on, drink, eat! The food’s going to get cold.」

Well, the sushi was cold to begin with. Same with the takowasa.

Ah, speaking of getting cold!

I forgot to take out the boiled daikon!

The tako daikon.

That’s right. In the end, I put some kraken in together with the daikon, spring onions, and smoked meat. I mean, there was just so much of it… Way too much of it…

I left the tako daikon in the pot and brought the entire thing out.

Then, I served the daikon garnish.

A garnish that went well with sashimi would be shredded daikon. Although we only had sushi and no sashimi, I felt like it was a good chance to make them.

There were people who didn’t eat the garnish, but I quite like daikon dishes like daikon salad. They taste great together with wasabi and soy sauce.

…Okay.

I couldn’t thinly slice the dakon into a long strip that well, so the garnish ended up being a bit thick like the slices you find in a daikon salad. It might as well be a daikon salad now.

「Is this daikon? It’s soft and soaks up the flavors well. What did you season this with? It doesn’t seem like salt.」

It was soy sauce, HP potion, and cooking sake. But I couldn’t say that, yes.

I boiled the kraken together with the daikon, so, um… How should I answer…?

「It seems the kraken had given it a nice flavor.」

It was all because of the kraken!

How convenient!