Chapter 385

Children, the Guide

Second day of sightseeing. Today, we were going to places recommended by the children.

Unless there was an incident and a checkpoint was set up, it is not common to be asked for identification when going out of town. So Kaiser slipped through the gate together with us, and we got on Joule and friends at an out-of-the-way place.

“Where are we going?”

“”Secret~””

And so, we arrived at the… Dungeon of Large Animals”.

That’s so Allen and Elena, if you ask me!

“… Hm? This piled up magic power… ahh, so it’s a dungeon!”

“Are you knowledgeable about dungeons, Kaiser?”

“I’ve only seen it, because they were also underwater. But I’ve never entered. Or rather, I couldn’t get in. I see, I can go inside now!”

Kaiser looked thrilled.

Well, with Kaiser’s original size, he wouldn’t be able to go through the entrance of the dungeons, right? Then it’s no wonder he’s never been in one. So, it seems that the children’s guidance was not far off the mark.

“I think there are only very weak monsters from your point of view, but… would you still like to try?”

“Umu, I want to try. Let’s check it out.”

If the Kaiser was okay with it, there was no reason for me to object, so we decided to enter the dungeon right away.

“Hou, hou, I see. So this is what it looks like inside.”

Kaiser looked around with interest.

“This is the first floor’s hall. And that is the transfer device. In this dungeon, there are ten levels, and you can go back and forth between them. However, you can only use the device to get to the floors you have been at.”

“Fumu. Then, I can’t use it yet, can I?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, it’s my first time here, and I think I’ll enjoy it better if I go in order!”

The children urged us to go quickly, and we entered the first level.

“Mu? Something’s coming.”

“It’s Horn Rabbit.”

“Ohh! Horn Rabbit! If we defeat it, we can eat yesterday’s skewers!”

He was quick to say that. Kaiser launched a Water Ball in a very fast motion. Immediately after that—boom… and a huge explosion resounded through the dungeon. There was also a huge cloud of dust.

“Kaiser! That’s too powerful! Hold back a little more with your output!”

“”(((((Ohh~ amazing~)))))””

“It’s difficult to hold back. The meat I’ve just found is…”

This is my guess, but the Horn Rabbit must have burst into little pieces.

In contrast to my panic, the kids look impressed.

“Mu? Ohh!? Takumi, Takumi! What’s that?”

“Ah, that’s loot.”

“”Meat~””

When the area cleared, Kaiser saw a package of leaves in the place of the Horn Rabbit.

The Horn Rabbit was torn into pieces, but the drop item did not seem to be affected.

“That’s how you get loot in the dungeon.”

I picked up the package and unwrapped it.

“The loot you obtain is random, so it could be horn or pelt, but this dungeon has a nickname: ‘Dungeon of Meat’ because of the high probability of finding meat. So, I’m sure this one will also be…—”

I opened the package to show Kaiser that the contents were probably meat… Then, we found a generous amount of ground meat inside for some reason.

“… Well, that’s new.”

“”Ohh~””

“… The meat got broken into a lump of pieces.”

“So you can also get ground meat, huh~”

If the monster that the loot dropped from got shattered into pieces, will ground meat drop?

“Mumu… does a lump of meat drop normally? Does this count as a failure, then?”

“Nono, you got it all wrong.”

“Is that so? Weren’t you surprised that something you cannot use dropped?”

“This meat can be used. There are times when I mince the meat like this on my own, too.”

“Hamburg!”

“Fried minced cake!”

(And curry! It was in a bread!)

(Buns! Those were yummy, too!)

As I explain to Kaiser that ground meat is something that can be used, Allen and Elena, Joule and Vector named specific dishes.

Even if I had only cooked it a few times, they could remember it well.

“All of them are dishes I’ve never heard of! Do all of them use this shattered meat?”

“”((That’s right!))””

“Fumu, then we’ll have to get some more of this shattered meat!—Oh, here it comes.”

A Horn Rabbit appeared at just the right moment, so Kaiser immediately defeated it as he did before. In the end, there was no trace left of it.

“How is it, Takumi?”

“Err… oh, it’s ground meat again.”

“Ohh, so we got it!”

I wonder if different ways of defeating monsters affect the loot they drop?

“Kaiser, try taking it easy next time.”

“Got it.”

The next time, I asked Kaiser to beat it with less force, and what we got was a lump of meat.

So, the next time, I had him beat him without leaving a trace, and we got ground meat again.

By the way, Kaiser did all the fighting. Usually, the children who would run out the first chance they got… were quiet. Is it because Kaiser was leading them today? If it was always like this, I would have a little more to do~

“The loot you get depends on how you defeat monsters… what a mysterious place this dungeon is.”

“It certainly is a mysterious place… but I have never heard of the loot changing depending on how you beat the monsters.”

“”Never heard~””

“Is that so?”

“Yep, this is the first.”

It’s not impossible that not all adventurers know this information… but I have never heard of it before.

“Then, do you want to experiment some more?”

“Yeah. Let’s do that.”

After that, we proceeded through the dungeon, defeating the monsters in various ways.

As I had expected, when Kaiser defeated the monsters without any restraint, he always got ground meat. So, perhaps my hypothesis was correct. However, neither I nor the children were able to smash the monsters into tiny pieces without leaving a trace, so I could not verify it!

This time, I also learned that the act of… killing living beings without leaving a trace of them is difficult unless you are of a high level.

Well, at any rate, those who come to the dungeon would rather get lumps of meat than ground meat, so I guess it doesn’t matter if they can’t chop the monsters up into little pieces!

“Well then, I think it’s time for a meal. What would you like to eat?”

“I want something with this ground meat!”

“Allen too!”

“Elena as well!”

“Roger that. Let’s see~ Speaking in terms of ease of preparation, I would say curry, or… Saboro gohan (ground meat bowl)?”

“”Soboro gohan! What’s that!””

The children were quick to show interest in the dish I had never made before.

“It’s sweet and salty fried minced meat on top of rice. Oh, how about a three-colored rice bowl with stir-fried egg and Ena grass?”

“”((That sound sgood!))””

“”Three-colored bowl?””

“Are you okay with that too, Kaiser?”

“Umu. For me, any kind of dish is new. I’ll have whatever the kids want.”

So I made a quick three-color rice bowl.

It was a simple dish, but the kids loved it, as did Kaiser.