episode_0022

A dungeon like usual!

The upper levels of a dungeon like usual!

Huh? You’re saying something feels different? You’re quick on the uptake, aren’t you?

That’s right. Today, it’s not the core, but the upper levels.

A place where there are no fire-breathing monsters or poison-spitting insectivores.

An area where even ordinary adventurers like me can stroll around leisurely as if taking a walk.

But you know, why did I specifically come back to such a peaceful place?

That’s because, this morning, there was a sad tragedy.

“Oh? You already ate all of this?”

An empty glass bottle.

Inside it should have been the Slime Fruit Jelly I cherished and cherished again.

It’s gone. It disappeared. It’s completely empty like a vacuum.

It’s like my stock balance back on Earth. What the heck was that customs duty…

*Cough cough*. Anyway, this jelly was my pride and treasure.

I told you before joining the Gourmet Guild that I had a ‘hobby of cooking monsters’, didn’t I?

And among them, one of the most notable creations was~

Slime Fruit Jelly!

If you carefully cut out the gelatinous tissue around the slime’s core, mix it with fruit juice or edible magic pigment, cool it, and let it solidify—

Unbelievably bouncy! Squishy!

A dream snack that dances in your mouth when you pop it in.

More than the konjac jelly I ate on Earth…

It might be even even even even even more delicious?!

So two weeks ago, in grape, peach, and mango flavors.

I had made a whole bunch of each kind…

If I thought about it for a moment, I could figure it out.

The Demon Lord, the Knight, the Automata who kept coming to visit my house one after another.

The three of them and me, the four of us, little by little, one by one.

Isn’t that how they were completely wiped out?

You’re asking what’s in the fridge if I open the door now?

Air. Vacuum. Silence.

Only freezing magic that lowers the temperature of food was lingering.

“Well, nothing can be done~ But making it is simple anyway.”

Nodding as if giving up, I cheerfully pulled out the knife from my waist.

And I imagined today’s target.

“I wonder if the squishy slimes are doing well~?”

That’s how I ended up coming to the dungeon like this.

From now on, a quiet hunt begins.

Not a greatsword, but a cooking knife,

Not fearsome combat, but exploration and gathering.

Even though it’s the leisurely upper levels, today is a special gastronomic journey for me.

“Well then~ Shall we go solo for the first time in a while~?”

Humming, I moved my steps into the dungeon, looking for slimes.

“Clearly, today was planned to be a slippery date where I’d enjoy a cozy time with the slimes alone.”

The air in the upper levels of the dungeon, flowing leisurely.

Slimes casually slithering around here and there.

A peaceful day just for gathering bouncy and chewy jelly.

Yeah. That’s how it was supposed to be.

But reality?

“Why did you guys follow too?”

In front of my eyes were the three lined up.

The Knight, Lilien.

The Demon Lord, Alice.

The Automata, Arte.

And the triple combo that burst out simultaneously.

“Because we’re bored~”

“In case you eat something delicious alone~”

“A response has been detected on the tracker.”

Women who attached themselves to me very naturally.

No, but wait a minute.

“Arte, what did you say? You put a tracker on me?”

“Beep—Error. Signal unstable. Error code #000 – Please find it cute.”

Our tin can, skillfully playing sound effects and turning her gaze away.

“Because Yuan is a fragile organic entity. My mind becomes unstable if you go into the dungeon alone.”

“So you’re just going to gloss over it like that, huh? Haa… But today it’s really safe. Because it’s the upper levels of the dungeon. It’s an area where only slimes appear.”

At those words, Lilien lightly stepped forward, gathered her hands behind her back, and smiled brightly.

“Hehe~ We know. That’s why we’ve specially prepared something for today too?”

“Prepared? Prepared for a beginner hunting ground?”

Tilting my head, I subtly scanned the three from top to bottom.

“…Huh?”

Lilien.

Alice.

Arte.

All three were wearing beginner sets today.

The ‘Super Coward Adventurer Equipment Set’ sold at that Alraune General Store.

A thin tunic made of cloth.

A cheap leather belt around the waist.

And a club and staff made of wood.

Especially Arte, oddly enough, had no weapon, only a leather gauntlet on her hand.

“What is this… atmosphere. ‘Let’s go back to the beginner’s mindset!’ Is that it?”

Lilien playfully raised a finger and said.

“Correct~! Today, we’re going back to being beginners, and spending the day with the feeling of ‘adventuring in a dungeon for the first time’~!”

Anyway, we decided to catch slimes.

Actually, slimes aren’t hard monsters to catch.

Depending on the genre, they might boast the grandeur of a final boss—

But here, they’re just transparent, slippery blobs of mucus.

As for patterns, it’s just headbutting with their plump bodies or slowly approaching and swallowing.

In other words, it’s a level too awkward to even call a pattern.

Even if you get swallowed, you just stretch out your arm and lightly poke the core inside, and it just pops—and bursts.

To that extent, they’re tutorial monsters for super cowards.

That’s why they’re monsters that beginners usually graduate from quickly…

“Hmm~ Using a wooden stick to unleash Fate Breaker, it doesn’t feel right?”

You were just holding a beginner’s wooden club.

And you didn’t even use Trace!

But why?

The beginner’s wooden stick from which a trajectory of brilliant light flowed out.

The slime hit by that caused a sacred explosion and burst with a ‘Whoosh!’.

The +99 wooden stick I was looking for was here!

“Cocytus (Eternal Frost)! Huh? Only 50 monsters froze? The output is weaker than when I use it normally?”

Alice grumbled with a pout, but contrary to her words…

The magic power spewing from the wooden staff she swung turned the entire dungeon into a snowfield.

“Bwaaa… Meeeh…”

Slimes, all frozen solid and mumbling.

Slimes make sounds like that too.

I wonder if reporting this to the guild will get me a reward?

“Normal Punch Eight. Oh? A variable occurred. It exploded without a trace. If this happens, I can’t collect the jelly…”

Arte just quietly clenched her fist.

But the slime disappeared.

No, I’m serious.

Even I, who was watching, was dumbfounded.

Seeing that not even mucus was left in the air, did she really unleash some kind of vacuum punch?

Without mucus, core, or jumping sounds, only air remained in that spot.

These people came to play a beginner’s RPG, right?

Our party members are really disrupting the dungeon ecosystem.

A disaster without ill will is befalling the slimes.

And why are Lilien and Alice unleashing things like ultimate secret techniques with beginner equipment?

“Haa, I guess I’ll lose if I try to tackle them.”

I tilted my head back and sighed.

Yeah, I’ll just do my own thing…

I moved to a corner and carefully took out a dagger.

I lightly poked the core of a slime that was quietly shriveling—took out the jelly, and plopped it into the grape-flavored box.

Another one, plopped into the peach-flavored box.

Like that, layer by layer—

Bang! Crash! Roooar!

Behind me, area-of-effect magic was exploding, a holy domain was opening, and slimes were being deleted from reality, but.

“Just. I decided to accept it.”

Because I already knew, too well, that this was the daily life of a party called the Gourmet Guild.

When the slime jelly in the basket was somehow piling up—

From across, the three people ran over with excited expressions.

Hmm. Exactly that feeling.

That scene where a puppy greets a person with a bright smile after messing up the house.

“Yuuaaan~! Look at this! With Alice and Arte! We gathered a ton, didn’t we?!”

And then a pile of slime jelly was thrown in front of me.

“Whoa, wait a minute!”

Tumbling slime blobs.

It’s several times more than the amount in my basket, isn’t it?

At this rate, you could just open a store?

But…

“Disqualified.”

“”Huh?””

The three blinking their eyes simultaneously.

“Disqualified. Why are there traces of spatial distortion left on the slime pieces! I can see the universe, Lilien!”

The surface of the jelly was distorted with a blackish-red light, and an image of a nebula that seemed familiar was shimmering.

You could even see a black hole beyond it, so…

“Ah, that… if it’s hit by Fate Breaker, maybe that kind of trace remains permanently~”

Lilien genuinely smiled brightly and made excuses.

“This isn’t a food ingredient anymore, it’s at the level where you’d have to call it an alchemy item.”

“Yuan! What about mine?! Make mine into ice konjac jelly!”

What Alice proudly pulled out was… a rock-hard frozen slime block.

“It’s frozen solid so you can’t even melt it?! You’re disqualified too, Your Majesty the Demon Lord!”

Its appearance is jelly, but the moment you chew it, there’s an odd feeling that your teeth will shatter.

You’d probably have a better texture chewing a griffon’s claw instead.

Is there really not a single one who brought back usable ingredients?

I quietly turned my head towards Arte.

Thinking about that vacuum punch earlier, there shouldn’t have been any ingredients in the first place, but—

“Yuan, observe. This is Black Flash.”

The black energy shimmering on the hand that threw the punch.

An energy that seemed to warp reality itself flowed around it.

It feels like it’s 2.5 times stronger than a normal punch.

“Please don’t use that technique, Arte.”

“Why is that?”

“Just, don’t use it anyway. Anyway.”

In the end, I let out a deep sigh and took out the jelly from the basket I had collected myself.

“Everyone, sit down. There’ll be enough even with what I collected.”

Actually, the method for making Slime Konjac Jelly is super, super simple.

“First~ Ah, here it is.”

I took out purified water, poured it into a bowl, and washed the slime jellies one by one, plop plop.

The sight of the soft and chewy jelly lightly floating on the transparent water.

Next is the disposable injector!

I carefully injected the pre-mixed fruit liquid and edible coloring into the jelly.

“Good. It’s spread completely evenly.”

Grape flavor, peach flavor, mango flavor.

Konjac jellies shining in their respective colors were completed one by one.

And when the injection into the last jelly is finished~

How is it? Simple, right?

The soft konjac jelly is complete!

At the same time, three gazes leaning in over my shoulder.

“Wait a minute, wait a minute~ Hey, hands off, hands off!”

I need to set aside the amount to take home beforehand.

Good. With this much, it should last a few days even if those three secretly raid the fridge again.

Even after safely putting away the emergency food (?), the plate was still piled high with fine and glossy konjac jelly.

Dungeon light bouncing off the colorful hues and bouncy texture.

“Well, good work on the beginner experience, you munchkins.”

“Eat to your heart’s content!”

At that moment—

“Waaaaaaah!!”

The three charging forward with cheers.

One bite, and another bite.

They were enjoying all the jelly from grape flavor to mango flavor.

In the end, today too was a dungeon like usual.

Party members like usual!

[Eyecatch!]

Today’s Food – Slime Konjac Jelly

Konjac jelly full of fruit flavor, made using only the inner jelly of the slime!

The reason for specifically using the inside is because it’s less contaminated externally and more chewy.

Thanks to that bouncy inner jelly, it boasts a soft and chewy texture!

If you add your desired fruit flavor here~

A sturdy and nutritious snack that our precious munchkins also love is complete!

Here, Yuan processed it using fruit, but depending on the recipe, they say it can also achieve a texture like acorn jelly on Earth?

“Uh-huh! Next time, please make it watermelon flavor!”

ㅡA Valkyrie who ate a whole container of gifted jelly in 30 minutes while being held by the chef at the pub