Side Story 2: Undersea Dungeon 09

「How!? How can it be so delicious!? So this is curry! Simply magnificent!」

「Curry is the strongest.」

「Woof!」

「Indeed! This truly is the strongest! Now I understand your fervor, Fran! Only a divine sword could create such a superb dish!」

「Hehe.」

Silent Sea’s compliments made Fran puff out her chest with a smug grin, though her mouth was still covered in curry sauce.

Uh, didn’t I make curry before becoming a divine sword? Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter. Fran seems happy.

I got a bit worried since Fran had been hyping it up so much, but it seems Silent Sea took a big liking to curry. He’s already devoured three bowls.

I’m glad that everyone’s mood recovered after taking a break in the boss room. Man, I really couldn’t help myself. That boss just looked so easy to solo. Anyone would’ve done the same thing, right?

「Fran, Urushi, do you eat such things every day?」

「Nn.」

「Woof!」

I have to admit, they do eat curry at least once a day in one way or another. If it’s not curry rice, it’s usually curry bread or other curry-flavored dishes.

T-That’s not a problem, right? Curry is pretty healthy! I remember that legendary baseball superstar who ate it every morning! A curry a day keeps the doctor away! Wait, didn’t Ich*ro deny eating it every day…?

「Hmm… S-Say… do you plan to take additional familiars? For example, would you perhaps be interested in one specialized for the sea?」

T-This guy! Is he seriously asking to join us just for the curry? How can he be so simple-minded?

In the first place, is it even okay for the kin of a divine beast to become someone’s familiar? Wouldn’t Leviathan be furious with him?

「Another familiar? Hmm…」

「What do you think?」

「How do you make someone a familiar?」

「Hmm? Now that you mention it, I’m not really sure. I’ve never been one after all.」

Fran and Silent Sea both tilted their heads in thought. Either way, I’m pretty sure there’s no way to take Silent Sea as a familiar.

『Be it taming or by contract, Silent Sea is too high-level of an existence to become our familiar. We simply don’t have the capacity.』

My familiar capacity was pretty maxed with Urushi, Jashin-chan, and the rest of the guys inside me. And Fran doesn’t even have taming skills. We have no way of making Silent Sea our familiar.

Fran was an evolved beastkin, so she could probably tame a decently high-tier magical beast with enough practice. But Silent Sea was the kin of a divine beast. That’s practically the highest tier possible in this world.

「I see…」

「Too bad.」

「Woof.」

It wasn’t just Silent Sea; Fran and Urushi seemed to share in his disappointment. They had been getting along surprisingly well.

「You can always come visit.」

「Woof!」

「True. I have memorized your aura, so I suppose I can pay a visit whenever I feel like eating curry!」

See! It’s about the curry after all.

The party’s spirits dipped for a moment, but they didn’t stay down for long.

The fifth floor turned out to be a seriously difficult one. First, the monsters and traps were stronger and more varied than anything we’ve seen so far.

The partially flooded areas were particularly annoying. Many of the corridors sloped down into sections filled with seawater.

Naturally, the water was filled with monsters specialized for underwater combat, as well as entirely new traps. We couldn’t disarm them as easily as land traps, as the water pressure and currents made delicate work more difficult.

This really drove home how lucky we were that the whole dungeon wasn’t underwater.

Well, I suppose Leviathan’s kin would have cleared the dungeon ages ago if it was entirely submerged.

After all, Silent Sea absolutely dominated in the flooded areas. He crushed all the enemies practically instantaneously, and most traps were powerless against his ability to transform into water.

All we had to do was follow behind and avoid the traps that could affect Fran. Thanks to Silent Sea, we reached the boss room probably ten times faster than expected.

「At last, this is the boss room of the fifth floor!」

「I wonder what kind of enemy it is.」

「Woof!」

「I can only hope it is another tasty one, but who knows!」

「Nn.」

「Woof woof!」

Man, they really got spoiled by the minotaur. Even Fran started hoping that the next boss was edible. That said, we could already sense the powerful mana from this side of the door. This was going to be a formidable foe.

We opened the door to find ourselves inside the largest boss chamber yet. It was a dome over 300 meters in diameter.

At the center stood a monster with blue scales. A dragon, huh. It seemed to be a smaller variant, just over ten meters in length.

Still, there’s no mistaking the aura it radiated. This was a high-ranked dragon despite its size.

『It’s an Ice Dragon! Threat Level B!』

The boss room might have some gimmicks that we don’t know about. We’ll need to stay on our toes.

In contrast to my expectations, Fran, Urushi, and Silent Sea could not hide their excitement.

「Excellent! A battle against a mighty foe always sets the heart ablaze!」

「Nn.」

「Woof!」

It seems the ice dragon lit a flame in the hearts of our battle junkies. Silent Sea-san, I’ll say it again, how are you “silent” in the slightest? Honestly, the name “Raging Sea” might suit you more than the other guy.

「And on top of that, it looks quite delicious. Wouldn’t you agree?」

「Dragons are tasty.」

「Slurp.」

You’ve been munching on magical beasts the entire way here, and it’s still not enough? Even with such a fearsome monster before them, our three gluttons only saw it as a tasty hunk of meat.

View the latest chapters at seeker142.github.io