Side Story 2: Undersea Dungeon 15 (End)

「The tenderness of the beef combines with the crunchy pickles to create a mysterious, yet wonderful harmony!」

「Indeed! The contrast between the sweetness of the vegetables in the roux forms a superb contrast to the sourness of the pickles! As expected of a dish made by my god! This truly the food of the divine!」

While the not-at-all-silent Silent Sea and the ever-noisy Avenger gave their lengthy reviews, I was busy preparing the freshly obtained seafood.

In other words, the fish-type, mollusk-type, and crustacean-type monsters we defeated. Some of them were pretty rare, but that didn’t matter because of how large they were. Even a single scallop was the size of a cushion.

I chopped up the meat while snacking their magic stones. This gave me new skills like ‘Shell Hardening’ and ‘Scale Regeneration’, which seemed pretty useless to me.

Of course, I also absorbed the magic stone from the Boss Jellyfish. The dungeon absorbed what was left of its corpse as mana, but I kept its magic stone as a reward.

The guy only had a total of six skills: Regeneration, Magic Absorption, Water Magic, and so on, all of which I already possessed. It was probably a monster that relied on stats rather than skills, like the Midgardsormr.

By the way, I won’t be able to evolve no matter how many magic stones I absorb. After all, I’m already at the highest tier possible: a divine sword. However, I did retain the ability to accumulate points from magic stones and use them to level up my skills.

In other words, my path to becoming stronger was by expanding and improving my skill set. Well, becoming a divine sword did give a huge boost to my processing capacity. I won’t run into the issue of breaking down due to too many skills again.

In short, I’ll just keep devouring magic stones like always!

『Alright, the seafood curry’s done!』

At my call, Fran and the others, who had been lounging nearby, instantly appeared behind me. I couldn’t even hear the whoosh of air. D-Did they somehow break the laws of physics? They never did that in combat!

『H-Here.』

「Nn!」

「Woof woof!」

I handed them plates piled high with seafood curry, and Fran accepted hers with a stern expression. She carefully took her seat, making sure not to spill a single drop.

「Thank you for the meal. Munch munch… Yum! This is a good curry!」

「Garf garf!」

「Delicious! To think the fish I always eat could be made to taste like this! The potential of curry is boundless!」

「This seafood is quite exquisite as well! Why, I hardly ever ate shellfish even when I was alive! A true luxury! Long live curry!」

「Nn!」

「Woof!」

I’m glad to see they like it.

While Silent Sea scarfed down her second serving of curry, she told us her future plans for the dungeon. Apparently, one of her friends was going to be managing it from now on.

Depending on what the dungeon produces, some of it might even be traded with people on the surface.

『Huh? Leviathan does trade?』

「Our master rarely gets involved, but some of our kin have shown interest in goods from the surface.」

『You mean like food?』

「Indeed. That would be the main reason.」

After seeing Silent Sea’s gluttonous tendencies, I can imagine the rest of Leviathan’s kin being similar. They seek delicacies and other goods, and trade is the best way to obtain them.

「Besides, there are many valuable ores, herbs, ingredients, monster parts, and so on that can only be found underwater. The desires of the surface folk know no bounds, and we cannot simply give them away. Excessive charity breeds corruption.」

『Ah, yeah, that makes sense.』

They seem to care more about human corruption than profit. I should have expected as much from a servant of the divine.

I guess trading undersea materials in exchange for surface goods was a bit of a pretext to avoid giving them away for free. Still, both sides got access to rare goods, so it’s a win-win deal.

Apparently, some of Leviathan’s kin had even transformed into humanoid forms and registered with the merchant’s guild.

Wait, could their influence over the economy be on par with the major trading companies? Or maybe they even run one of them?

「Your assistance with the dungeon was truly invaluable. If something comes up, I hope I can count on you once more.」

「Nn! Leave it to us.」

『Sure, as long as it’s a job we can handle.』

「Woof!」

Once our short break was over, Silent Sea-san carried us to the vicinity of Bulbora, and we said our goodbyes.

「Urushi. I expect you to train hard and improve yourself before the next time we meet. Understood?」

「Woof!」

「I-It’s not like I care how impressive you are or anything! I simply abhor the idea of a fellow divine beast kin disgracing themselves!」

「Kyan!」

「Hmph. Well, I plan to check up on you soon, so you had better not get complacent.」

「Woof!」

「Now then, I suppose it is time to say goodbye. Make sure to prepare a new curry for the next time we meet! Farewell!」

「Bye-bye.」

「Woof woof!」

『See you again!』

Silent Sea returned to her original size and swam away into the setting sun. Honestly, the scene reminded me of a God*illa finale.

I’m pretty sure Silent Sea’s so-called “check up” was just an excuse to mooch on our curry. Not that I mind if Urushi’s happy about it.

Also, we received a letter of introduction to a major trading company run by Leviathan’s kin. Well, I can’t really call it a letter because it’s a shiny metal plate stamped with Silent Sea’s paw.

I tried using Appraisal and it came up as “Proof of Friendship with Silent Sea”. Apparently, Leviathan’s kin would recognize it right away.

『Maybe this will make it easier to buy seafood?』

「Seafood!」

「Woof!」

They stared at the paw-print plate with sparkling eyes. I guess both of them have gotten hooked on seafood.

『Anyway, let’s find an inn. It’s already evening.』

「Nn. Time for dinner.」

『Huh? But you just ate curry…』

「That was a snack.」

『Oh, uh, I see… a snack…』

「Nn. Curry for dinner too. This time, chicken curry.」

Author Note

With this, Side Story 2 comes to an end.

I had originally planned to publish it at the beginning of the year, but my schedule fell apart when I injured my arm.

While Reincarnated as a Sword is completed for now, I plan to continue posting additional side stories.

I hope to publish at least two side stories next year. That said, I have a lot on my plate at the moment. I can’t say exactly when, but I’ll do my best to have something ready within the first half of the year.

Please wait just a little longer, the second season of the anime will be coming up too.

View the latest chapters at seeker142.github.io