CH 103

“Fierce battle…is fine, but I don't want it to be too fierce out of the blue.”

Translated by Dawn

“Fierce battle…is fine, but I don’t want it to be too fierce out of the blue.”

“Fuu…”

“Guhaa.”

I defended myself against the fierce attack of the Demon by crossing my arms as quickly as I could. However, I could not kill the attack’s impact and was blown away.

The air in my lungs was expelled by the impact, though it finally lost its momentum when it hit a rock at the end of the blow.

“Guhahahaha, lowly human. I won’t kill you right away. I’ll beat you to a pulp first.”

“Guu.”

I managed to raise my body to regain my posture, but the attack of the Demon came at me immediately. I managed to avoid the attack by throwing myself out of the way, but the momentum of the attack never stopped.

As he had said, he was going to torture me to death, and he was going to attack me, not with a fatal wound, but with an attack that would surely damage me.

“Gahh, guhaa, uugh, uaghh.”

“Gahahahahaha, good, suffer, suffer some more.”

He attacked me as if toying with me, with a mixture of scorn and contempt in his voice. Sometimes I dodged, and sometimes I guarded to minimize the damage.

“W-what is your purpose!?”

“Guhahahaha, fine. I’ll let you hear it as a souvenir of the underworld.”

He was going to give me a souvenir of the underworld.  …Oops, my thoughts went off in a weird direction. I must concentrate on the person in front of me.

“I have come to this dungeon because someone has given me a secret mission.”

“And what is that mission?”

You, who are dying, do not need to know. …I’ve had enough of you. I’m going to put an end to this. Die!!”

He said that approaching me with blinding speed, he plunged his fist with all his might into my face. …Well, you could have given me more, you know, a souvenir of the underworld.

“Wha-what!?”

“Good grief, it was a nice little defensive practice, don’t get carried away. Now, you’ve got to grit your teeth!”

“Gofuu”

I caught the outstretched fist with one hand as if I was finished with my defensive practice. The Demon’s face was upset at having his full power of attack caught, and in return, I slammed my fist into his face as if to repay him for everything he had done.

The Demon’s body was thrown into the air after being hit in the face by a sudden and unexpected blow. Knocking down trees and rocks along the way, and being slammed into the ground over and over again, the momentum of the fist finally weakened and it stopped.

However, the damage he had received was considerable, the face he had hit was swollen and his body was covered with scars. However, it seemed that the wound was still far from fatal, and the Demon immediately got up and shouted with an angry expression on his face.

“Youuuuuuuu!”

“What? You didn’t like getting punched in the face for being a man?”

“Dieeeee, [Hell’s Flame]!!”

“But I refuse! [Shaked Icicle]!!”

An overwhelming torrent of fire and another overwhelming torrent of ice collided with each other. The difference in the magic power of the caster was clearly shown in this situation, although the flame seemed to have the advantage in terms of the relationship between the flame and the ice. The ice, which was supposed to be swallowed by the flames, conversely swallowed the flames and attacked the magician’s adversary.

“Tch.”

With an annoyed click of my tongue, I sprouted jet-black wings from my back and fled into the air. …I feel like I want to click my tongue again.

The Demon, who had escaped the crisis, spoke to me with an impatient, reproachful cry.

“Y-youu! Did you just go easy on me in that fight earlier!?”

“Yeah.  I’ve got a good sandbag in front of me. Why not give it a try?”

“I don’t really understand, but you’ve got a lot of guts to taunt me!”

Apparently, he didn’t know what a sandbag was. Well, was there no such sport as boxing in this world? Still, he seemed to get the idea that I was making fun of him.

“Fine. I’m a little ahead of schedule, but I’ll show you something for your eyes. [Shadowgate]”

The Demon who said so chanted magic, and a dark vortex like a black hole appeared. Perhaps it was transfer-type magic, but was he trying to escape with his tail between his legs?

“Wait there! I’ll bring that thing back to life right now and give you hell. Guhahahaha!”

“What are you saying?”

The Demon disappeared into the whirlpool while uttering such a discarded line. I spread my search skill as widely as possible to see if he had escaped, but it seemed that he had fled to the dungeon on the lower level.

Did he think he could escape from me like that? Well, anyway, I would like to explain to those who thought the story would go differently.

Remember how I said earlier about the strength of the Demon I was fighting, that they were “difficult to defeat unscathed”? Yes, it was hard to beat him unscathed…… with the caveat that the comparison was to low-ranked monsters such as goblins and slimes.

And let me show you my current status. Here it is……one-two-three.

[Name]: Roland

[Age]: 12 years old

[Gender]: Male

[Race]: Human

[Occupation]: Adventurer (King Hunter, B-rank), Former son of a lord

Physical strength: 25000

Magic power: 40000

Strength: S+

Endurance: S+

Agility: S+

Dexterity: S+

Mental Strength: S+

Resistance: S+

Luck: S+

[Skills]: Analysis Lv6, Physical Enhancement and Reform Lv7, Scouting Lv6, Stealth Lv5, Magic Mastery Lv7, Four Elements Magic Lv6, Higher Elemental Magic Lv4, Mist Magic Lv8, Storm Magic Lv5, Wood Magic Lv4, Sand Magic Lv4, Light Magic LvMAX→Holy Light magic Lv2 (NEW), Dark Magic LvMAX→Jet Black magic Lv2 (NEW), Space-Time Magic Lv6, True Swordsmanship Lv5, True Hand-to-hand Combat Lv5, Focus LvMAX→Hyper Concentration Lv1 (NEW), Increased Skill Acquisition Rate Lv7, Increased Skill Proficiency Lv7, Increased Growth rate Lv5, Separate Dismantling Lv7, Intimidation Lv6 (NEW), Golem Creation Lv4 (NEW), Cleaning Lv5 (NEW), Sewing Lv4 (NEW), Cooking Lv3(NEW) Washing Lv4 (NEW), Alchemy Lv3 (NEW), Blacksmithing Lv2 (NEW), Jewelry Lv4 (NEW)

[Condition]: Hunger (Small)

Well…I wouldn’t lose the fight with this status, now would I?

First, let’s start with my status, but since the last time, my physical and magical strength had increased significantly. I hadn’t neglected my daily training, ……. However, all other stats had stopped at S+ overall. Were there some conditions that had to be fulfilled to get even higher status?

Secondly, as for skills, they had improved a lot since then, as time had passed since then. As for magic-related skills, Light and Darkness had reached their respective max levels and evolved into higher-level magic [Holy Light Magic] and  [Jet Black Magic]. Focus had also evolved into [Hyper Concentration], which should improve work efficiency in the future.

And, as for the new skills that had developed, I couldn’t say that most of them were housekeeping skills. Well, in my previous life, I was better at housework than the average man, but I was never very good at it. I wasn’t sure if that had anything to do with it, but if I had to name a specific factor that had not grown into a skill, I would say that it was in that area.

Perhaps the experience I gained from making accessories was showing in my new production skills, such as [Golem Creation], [Sewing], [Alchemy], [Blacksmithing], and [Jewelry].

And finally, my current state was apparently that of a small hunger. Well, after moving so intensely, I would expect to get at least a small hunger, but is this lack of endurance typical of me, or is it just me……?

“Let’s just get something to eat.”

You might think, “Shouldn’t I be chasing after the fleeing demons?” Non, non, non, wasn’t there a saying? You can’t fight on an empty stomach…….

“Besides, it sounds like he’s going to revive something, so I need to make sure I’m ready for that.”

Did you think that such an injustice, such as killing the opponent before he could play his trump card, would be tolerated? Think of the atrocity of a Tokusatsu hero suddenly stomping down a monster with a giant robot before it becomes a giant. Think of a light novel in which the author included comments in the middle of the story that had nothing to do with the story at all. …… Yeah? You don’t say? What are you talking about?

In some cases, there were things that must be prevented in advance, but in this case, I decided that this was the type of situation that should wait. Hence, I’m going to do some cooking now.

“So, it’s time for Rolando’s “Go Go Dungeon Food” corner!”

Now, let’s start cooking, even though the situation had suddenly shifted from serious to comedic. The theme was “easy dishes that can fill up a small stomach”.

“It’s the only kind of food that’s easy to make.”

For this easy meal, I was thinking of making sandwiches, although it was similar to a dish I had made previously. Currently, I was unable to fry food because I lacked access to vegetable oil. If I had that, I could make French fries or potato chips, since I had potatoes, but this time I’ll stick with sandwiches.

First, cut up the lettuce and cucumber and place them between appropriately sized pieces of bread. This completes the lettuce and cucumber sandwich, but it was not enough. This was where the meat came in.

“I want to keep it light this time, so I’ll use some Sappy meat.”

The meat of Sappy, a bird-shaped monster encountered in a previous dungeon attack, was used as the filling for the sandwiches. First, the Sappy meat was heated in a hot frying pan, and when it was nicely cooked, added sugar and a small amount of water to make a sweet sauce. When the sauce was well blended, add chopped ginger and garlic to the meat and let the sauce get mixed with the meat. Add the mixture to a sandwich with lettuce and cucumber, and it was ready to be served.

“It’s called a ‘Sappy sweet lettuce cucumber sandwich’… Then, itadakimasu. Nom.”

As for the taste, it was quite good, but one problem occurred. I realized that this was almost a staple food rather than a way to fill up my stomach.

I realized this after I had finished all the sandwiches I had made, but since I was satisfied for the moment, I did not worry about the details and turned my attention to finally chasing the fleeing Demon.