Chapter 542
Fast Learning
“So we’ve already cleared down to the twenty-fourth floor in no time at all…”
“Normally, it’s impossible to push through that many floors of the lower levels of a mid-tier dungeon in just half a day.”
““Is amazing?””
“Yeah. Ridiculously so.”
“”Ehehe~””
Rudolph-san and Natally-san looked impressed, or maybe stunned(?), while Allen and Elena blushed happily.
The kids probably think they’re being praised, but to me it feels like Rudolph-san and Natally-san are more exasperated than anything~.
“This is a good stopping point, so let’s have lunch here.”
I was planning to prepare the requested hamburg steaks… but those are hard to eat inside a dungeon. Ah~ if I make hamburgers, they’ll be easier to eat. We’ve got bun-like bread, lettuce, mayonnaise, and tomato sauce, so it should work. And if we’re talking hamburgers, teriyaki would be good too~
“… Let’s do both.”
“”Both?””
“Hm? I was wondering which of the two flavors to go with~”
““Both!””
“Yeah, that’s why I was thinking we’d do both.”
The kids had overheard my muttering and seemed to be thinking the same thing.
So I decided to make both regular hamburgers and teriyaki hamburgers.
“”Is this a sandwich?””
“Something like that. I call it a hamburger.”
“Hamburger?”
““Not hamburg?””
“If you put a hamburg steak between bread, remember it’s called a hamburger. Next time you want it, say that.”
““Wanna eat hamburgers!””
“Alright, they’re ready now~”
Since it’s just a matter of putting the ingredients together, they’re finished in no time.
“So this is what a hamburg steak is.”
“Yes, that’s what’s inside the bread. It’s made by kneading minced meat with finely chopped and sautéed Tashi onions, bread crumbs, eggs, salt, and pepper, then grilling it. Natally-san, haven’t you made something similar before? It’s probably just that the name is different from what it’s called in my hometown, otherwise, it should be familiar.”
Natally-san has made meat buns before, so he’s definitely cooked minced-meat mixtures and eaten them.
“I do make similar dishes, but… this is good. Is this sauce shoyu? Nice seasoning.”
“That one’s teriyaki sauce. Shoyu, sugar, Rei liquor, and garlic. You can swap the garlic for ginger if you prefer~”
“And this one, did you reduce turi to make the sauce? That’s good too. And the white sauce you’re using on both is excellent! It goes perfectly with the lettuce.”
“That’s mayonnaise. You make it by mixing egg yolks with a little vinegar and salt, then slowly adding oil while stirring so it doesn’t separate.”
“I see.”
Being praised so highly by Natally-san makes me really happy.
By the way, Rudolph-san was silently eating along with the kids.
“I’ve realized my use of shoyu still has a long way to go!”
“Shoyu has only just started circulating recently, after all~ In my case, I used it back in my hometown even before it became available here, so…”
Shoyu has been around since I was born, and I’m used to its taste. I’ve got a pretty big advantage there.
“But I can’t let that stop me! Once we leave the dungeon, I’ll seriously try recreating this!”
“I’ll handle the taste-testing!”
Looks like Natally-san’s culinary research has caught fire, once we’re back, it might turn into nonstop cooking.
And Rudolph-san will be the taste tester, huh~
“Allen wants to eat it too!”
“Elena too!”
“I can’t do it right away. But when I manage to make something I’m satisfied with, if the timing works out, I’ll let you have some.”
““That’s a promise!””
I want to eat Natally-san’s new dishes too! So seeing the kids secure that promise, I couldn’t help but praise them in my heart: Well done, Allen and Elena!
“Shall we move on soon?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m good to go too.”
After taking a proper rest after the meal, we proceeded to the twenty-fifth floor.
““We’re going!””
Right from the start, they sprinted at full speed.
“Huh!?”
“What’s going on!?”
(Hehe, there’s a monster just past that corner~)
“”Hah!?””
Allen and Elena dashed about fifty meters ahead, kicked off the wall at the dead end to pivot, then turned left and vanished from sight. The moment they disappeared, a loud boom echoed.
Since the monsters weren’t visible yet, both Rudolph-san and Natally-san were startled by the kids’ actions, then even more surprised after hearing the situation from Feat, and then startled again by the sound of whatever the kids had kicked away.
(Judging by the sound, there was a pretty big one there~)
“There really was something there!?”
“I didn’t sense anything!?”
(It seems it was a monster that’s very good at hiding its presence. I could tell something was there from the smell, though.)
It’s surprising that a monster even the A-rank duo of Rudolph-san and Natally-san didn’t notice.
Well, maybe if they’d gone a bit closer, they would have?
“”We’re back~””
“Welcome back. What was it?”
“A black wolf~”
“A Shadow Wolf~”
“Ah, I see.”
It’s not a particularly strong monster, but it excels at ambushes. Even so, if it had attacked, Rudolph-san and Natally-san would have taken it down easily.
“By the way, don’t you want Natally-san to see your mana strike?”
“”Oh! That’s right!””
Mana Strike is a technique that releases mana directly, a skill Allen and Elena acquired. And Natally-san is the one who taught it to them. I’d wondered why they hadn’t reported being able to use it, but it seems they simply forgot.
“Hm? What’s this mana strike?”
“Huh!? It’s the technique where you release the mana you were using and blow the enemy away, the one Natally-san used!”
“Oh, that thing… Wait, you can already use it!? And that technique is called Mana Strike!?”
“It showed up in their status under skills right after they learned it, you know?”
“What!?”
Natally-san pulled out his guild card from his bag and started frantically operating it. It seems he changed the display settings to check the skills.
“Oh! It really is there! A skill called Mana Strike!”
“You didn’t know!?”
“I usually only show my guild card when it’s needed at the guild or the gate, I hardly ever look at it~”
“Seriously…?”
Do other people really not check their status that much?
Well… I do use Appraisal, but I don’t think I’ve ever checked my status via my guild card either.
And it’s probably just that skill acquisition around me is abnormal, normally, people spend years working to obtain skills, so they wouldn’t check that often~
(Allen, Elena, two monsters that seem perfect just showed up~)
““Thanks!””
When Joule cheerfully informs them of incoming monsters, Allen and Elena face the two orcs charging toward them.
“”Take that!””
When Allen and Elena activate Mana Strike, the orcs went flying beautifully.
“”Well? Well?””
“Oh! I didn’t think it was something you could master so easily, but you really can use it! As expected~”
“”Did we pass?””
“Yeah, you pass with flying colors!”
““Yay!””
Looks like they passed. Not that it was really a test, though~
“Hey, hey, hey~ explain this to me too!”
“Huh? Rudolph-san, have you never seen Natally-san use that technique?”
“Nope!”
“Since teaming up with Rudolph, I’ve been able to defeat monsters before needing to use it. I never had the chance.”
“Even if you didn’t need to use it, you should’ve told me you had such a powerful move!”
“My bad, my bad.”
Rudolph-san’s point is completely reasonable. Whether you know your partner’s cards or not can change how you act in an emergency.
“Well, it was a trial period, so isn’t that to be expected?”
“… Yeah, that’s true.”
When I pointed out that they weren’t a formal party yet, so it made sense not to reveal everything, Rudolph-san made a bitter face.