Eguchi Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill: Volume 15

1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-7183-4328-3
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band 15, 250 Seiten

Reihe: Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill

Everything seems to be going so well for Mukohda in the wake of the Church of Rubanov incident. Not only has he managed to buy the magic stove of his dreams, he's also stumbled into a surprise reunion with some old friends: the adventuring party Ark! The only thing that could possibly ruin the trip would be if, say, Fel revealed the location of a nearby, almost-untouched dungeon, and the members of Ark decided that they wanted to come along for the ride. But there's no way that could happen, right?

Oh. Oh no.

And just like that, Mukohda's off on another dungeon-crawling adventure that he'd really rather have no part in! Worse still, the thing about unexplored dungeons is that you never know what you'll find in them...and the discoveries awaiting the party in this one will blow any ideas they had about what a dungeon is supposed to be clear out of the water!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Eguchi, Ren

Weitere Mitwirkende

Masa

Hill, Tristan K.

Leseproben

Chapter 1: The Smell of the Sea?

My familiars had dragged me out to an untouched and unexplored dungeon, and Ark, an adventuring party we’d happened to reunite with shortly beforehand, had come along for the ride. We’d just defeated the first floor’s boss—a pair of assassin jaguars—and proceeded into a cave framed by boulders that they’d been guarding. Inside we found a staircase a few meters from the entrance and started making our way down it.

“These stairs just keep going and going, huh?” I commented.

They felt way longer than the staircases we’d encountered in previous dungeons. It felt like we’d gone down by the equivalent of fifty stories or so and I was beginning to get a little nervous, when I started hearing a faint splashing sound off in the distance. Then, at long last...

“Do I...smell the ?”

The staircase finally ended, and as I stepped out into the light, I found myself standing on a sandy beach. My jaw dropped as I took in the surroundings. We seemed to have arrived on an island. There were a few palm trees scattered here and there, and beyond the sand, an emerald-green sea stretched out in all directions, lit up by the summer sun above.

“Okay, seriously, how is this a thing? We’re in a , aren’t we?” I muttered out of sheer bafflement.

“Heh heh heh heh! An ocean, is it? Now is worthy of my attention!” Fel declared.

“Indeed it is!” Gon agreed. “It’s been many a year since I last visited the seaside. What a thrill!”

«The ocean? Nice! Bet we’ll find a buncha tasty fish on this floor!» Dora-chan commented.

«Ooooh, yay! Fishies!» Sui squealed.

The seascape had my gluttonous quartet in the highest of spirits, clearly. Not even the most bafflingly impossible sights could shake their positivity, and I had to admit, there was something rather reassuring about how consistent they were.

As for the half of our party...simply put, Gaudino, Gideon, Sigvard, and Feodora were all standing in a daze, jaws agape. Ark was petrified, one and all.

? ? ? ? ?

“When I heard they were going to an unexplored dungeon, I thought I’d used up a lifetime’s worth of adventurer’s luck. I let my wanderlust get the better of me...and I’m starting to think that was a mistake. I’m a failure of a leader...”

“Don’t be like that, Gaudino. If it was a mistake, then it’s one we all made together. I don’t think any of us could have seen coming...”

“Gideon’s got the right of it. I let my greed blind me too. No sense in blamin’ yourself when we’re all in the same boat.”

“An ocean in a dungeon...? This wasn’t part of the deal...”

The members of Ark were sitting in a circle on the beach, listlessly discussing the situation they’d landed themselves in.

“Tell me, why are the four of them in such poor spirits?” Fel asked.

“Because they saw , obviously,” I replied, gesturing toward the boundless sea. wouldn’t

The water stretched all the way out to the horizon, and I had idea how we were supposed to carry on farther into the dungeon. Did this even count as a dungeon at all anymore? Did it even an end? And even if it did, was there any hope of us actually reaching it? It was a sight that raised all sorts of concerns, and I had a distinct feeling that every single one of them was currently running through the minds of Ark’s members. I was only keeping my crap together because I had my familiars there for me. Most people wouldn’t stand a chance of staying calm, and I knew it.

Speaking of my familiars, Dora-chan and Sui were currently out by the water’s edge, splashing around in the surf and having a grand old time. Old Man Gon was watching over them like a doting grandparent, calling out an occasional “Careful, now! No swimming out too far!” It was a downright heartwarming sight that couldn’t possibly have cut a sharper contrast with the deathly pallor that had come across the faces of the members of Ark. I wasn’t entirely on my familiars’ side here, to be fair. I have my share of concerns as well.

“So, how’re we going to keep moving ahead?” I asked.

“Is that not obvious? We will simply ride upon Gon or Sui,” Fel replied.

“That sounds great and all, but it’s not like they can keep flying or swimming forever with zero rest, right?”

“And why would that be of consequence? There will be ample opportunities for them to rest.”

“ there, though? Like, where?”

“There are a multitude of islands that would be suitable for that purpose, are there not? We will simply make for one of them when the need arises.”

“Wait...islands?”

“Indeed. Look—one lies right over there.”

Fel gestured with his nose, and I peered out to see what he was pointing at. My eyesight had improved as my level rose, and after a fair bit of staring and squinting...

“Hmm? Oh, is that it?” I asked. I’d finally managed to sight a tiny black dot way out in the distance, no larger than a sesame seed from my perspective.

“It is,” Fel confirmed, “and it is not the only island. There is no cause for concern.”

“Oooh, okay! That’s a bit of a relief, yeah,” I admitted. “I can’t believe you got a grasp of the geography here that quickly, though.”

“It was the simplest of tasks,” Fel said with an obnoxious smirk.

“Right, right, of course it was. Praise be to the great Fenrir,” I replied with a rather more strained smile of my own.

“More importantly, it would seem we have already obtained ingredients.”

“We what?”

I looked over in the direction Fel was facing...

«Taaake that!»

«How do you like ?!»

...only to find a legion of shellfish-like creatures, their shells opened up like hungry, gaping maws, getting mowed down by a combination of Sui’s Acid Bullets and Dora-chan’s Ice magic.

“Wh-What are ?” I stammered. The monsters swarming up onto the coast were clearly sort of bivalve—a giant clam of one kind or another would’ve been my best guess.

“Monsters, obviously,” Fel replied.

I could already feel my smile starting to spasm, but fortunately, the battle looked like it had more or less ended before I’d even realized it had begun. Sui was now bouncing around, shouting, «Masteeer!» at me.

“You okay, Sui?” I called back.

«Sui’s okay! There were lots and lots of clammies, so Sui hunted them with Dora-chan!»

“O-Oh?”

«Ayup. And take a look at this! They dropped meat, so I figure we can eat ’em! That’s why Sui and I took ’em all out,» Dora-chan explained. He was hovering over a pile of shellfish meat stacked up on the shore—the monsters’ drops, I assumed.

I gave the drops a quick appraisal...

?Giant Clam Meat?

Edible, and reasonably tasty.

that’s way I couldn’t remember a single time it had failed to point out whether the monster parts I appraised were edible, and that’s not even starting on it telling me whether they tasted good or not. Was this a side effect of the Solitary Chef title I’d picked up? It was convenient, so I couldn’t exactly complain, but still.

“Apparently, this stuff tastes pretty good, so I’ll try cooking it up for you later,” I said.

«Yippeee!» Sui squealed.

«Hell yeah! It’s been way too long since we’ve had some real seafood!» Dora-chan cheered.

Just as I finished stowing the giant clam meat in my Item Box, I heard Gon speak up.

“A second force has arrived.”

“A second what now?” I followed Gon’s gaze and peered out into the ocean. “!”

A massive number of shellfish—these ones looking an awful lot like scallops—were bobbing in the surf, leaping their way toward us at a rapid pace.

“What of those? Are they edible?” Fel asked.

“My appraisal claims as much,” Gon said.

«Hear that, Sui?! Let’s get ’em!»

«Okaaay!»

With a joyful battle cry, Dora-chan and Sui set out once more to wreak havoc on the approaching bivalve battalion.

.........

......

...

I found myself staring down a huge pile of shelled scallops, each roughly the size of my head.

«Talk about a haul, eh?» Dora-chan said.

«We caught a whole bunch!» Sui added.

I’d found a type of shellfish called yellow scallops in the...