CH 172

Episode 172 – A Captivating Strife

TL Note: Sponsored chapter (1/1) 

All by himself, Roger fought against the Lesser Dragon until the very end, ragged and beaten as he swung his sword, until he received a direct hit from the Dragon’s tail. He disappeared into ashes just like any other monster would, and the image turned dark.

The majority of the audience left when they saw that Warwick had been taken out and that the [Silver Wind Chime] had been put into a bad spot. But those who continued to watch until the end, like me, held their heads and let out deep sighs.

I didn’t know of the [Silver Wind Chime] before today, so I wasn’t attached to them at all… But as someone who also challenged the Dungeon, watching them die one by one as their party fell into ruin was heartbreaking to watch. Just like the audience around me, I couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh before leaving the monitor.

Recently, I had also confronted a powerful enemy, the Venom Troll, so I found that the circumstances of the [Silver Wind Chime] overlapped with my own somewhat. I just happened to end up as the winner of the fight against the Venom Troll, but if the situation had been any different, it could have been me to be the one annihilated in the end, just like the [Silver Wind Chime].

I vividly recalled the slightly fading memory of the fierce battle against the Venom Troll, and I realized that I had to get my act together. It was a good opportunity to refocus myself, as I had unknowingly become too lax after experiencing the new city and the festive hubbub of the area around the Dungeon.

As far as I could tell from the projection, that Lesser Dragon was definitely more powerful than the Venom Troll. In order to conquer the Dungeon, I needed to improve myself more and more. In order to go all out in boosting my [Plant Master] to the next level, I decided to go to the apothecary and general store tomorrow to see what kind of plants were being sold in this town.

While realizing that I was back to square one and trying to decide on what I could do for myself, I suddenly found myself back at Ponpokotei. I had so many things on my mind that I had been walking without thinking, and it seemed that I had unconsciously made my way here.

I had completely forgotten to check on what the [Azure Alliance] was up to, but… it should be fine to just check tomorrow. It wasn’t like they were going to be out of the Dungeon anytime soon.

“Welcome home. You’re back quite late today, aren’t you?” (Ruth’s Mother)

“Sorry, did I keep you waiting by any chance?” (Lewin)

When I entered Ponpokotei, I was greeted with a smile by the owner, Ruth’s mother. My late return might have prevented them from closing up for the night and locking the doors. She was greeting me smilingly, but I still felt a bit sorry.

“No, that’s not what it is at all. I was just doing some bookkeeping at the reception desk. So… Lewin-san, what would you like to do about your meal? It’s not exactly hot anymore, but I did have something prepared for you.” (Ruth’s Mother)

“Ahh… Since you went through the trouble of making it for me, may I have it?” (Lewin)

I had gotten used to being very loose with the time that I returned home, so I couldn’t help but feel that I lost the freedom that I had back at the rundown inn to come back whenever I wanted. One method to fix this problem would be to decline the two included meals, but the food at Ponpokotei was delicious. I could ask them to keep preparing the meals for me for this one week, and if I happened to add additional time to my stay, it might be good to turn down the included meals. This place wasn’t just an inn; it was a restaurant as well, with a dining area on the first floor. So if I wanted to eat, I could just pay separately.

I made my way back to my room with those thoughts in mind. I then rested for a bit to alleviate some of the fatigue from the Dungeon, before a knock sounded at the door, which signified that the owner had brought me the meal.

After thanking her kindly, I dug into the meal, filling up my starving stomach. As she had said earlier, the meal wasn’t freshly made and it had already gotten cold, but it hadn’t lost its flavor. It was still so good that I finished it in the blink of an eye.

Now that my stomach was filled, I was assailed by an intense drowsiness, which had accumulated after everything that had happened today, but I couldn’t sleep just yet. I went through and re-read “The Dungeon of Landaust in One Book”, ingraining into my head the information. After that, I recorded my feelings on the Dungeon from today and the battle I had seen in the projection today.

After finishing my review, I moved on to the last task for the day: plant synthesis.

Today, aside from the Dumbbell Weed which I was definitely going to synthesize, I focused on synthesizing plants that could inflict abnormal status effects, such as Angel Grass, Linrin Weed, and Curare Leaves.

I felt that the most important potion to have in the case of an emergency was a potion that could inflict abnormal status effects — especially, the strong poisons that I had used against the Venom Troll.

I couldn’t make any potions without a brewing stand, but I could still make some powerful medicines with Slime liquid, so I filled the vials of Slime liquid with the plants I had synthesized. I considered buying a brewing stand like the one at Elf’s Tears so I could brew potions, but they were expensive and took up a lot of space. Plus, the odors that brewing gave off were quite strong, so it was impossible to purchase one while I was still staying in an inn.

I stuffed the plants into the Slime liquid vials one by one as I held back the sleepiness. Once I finished, I finally laid down on the bed and knocked out.