Chapter 505 The Scent of the Sea
Eguchi-san: This chapter is a little short.
Once the Assassin Jaguars were defeated, we venture forward towards the hole between the rocks.
Inside, we found a set of stairs going down, down, down…
“Hey, don’t you think there are too many stairs?”
Generally, the stairs between dungeon floors were only about a couple of flights. However, this one seemed endless.
I think I counted over 50 steps already.
This certainly did not help my general nervousness.
[1]
Then, I heard it.
An oddly familiar rumbling sound.
It ebbed and flowed in a way that was too familiar to me, yet, at the same time so improbable that I could not bring myself to believe it.
Then, the salty smell rose like a cloud and…
Indeed, although I could not bear to bring myself to trust what my senses were telling me even as my feet sank into the sandy floors and a gust of warm wind bombarded my face, I already knew what the second level would turned out to be.
“Th-th-the sea??!!!”
A quick look around showed that we were standing on a sandy island with several palm trees growing out of it like some kind of beach paradise catalogue. That’s right.
An island.
An island in the middle of an emerald green sea!!!!!!
“Th-this is a dungeon, right? Right? A dungeon? What’s- what’s…” I pointed at the endless sea, the endless skies…
Whaaaaaaatttt???
[1]
“Fuhahahaha. A sea! Isn’t this interesting!”
“Certainly, it has been a long time since I had been to the sea. It’s quite exciting.”
“”The sea!! Delicious fish!!”
“”Fishy~~!””
“… …” well, at least my familiars are excited about this place.
On the other hand, team [Ark] was sitting/huddling in a circle of doom, away from the water’s edge.
“I-it may have been a mistake to rush here…”
“I-I have failed as a leader…”
“No, we made the decision together…”
“…sea… dungeon…”
“Oi, what are they doing over there?”
“Perhaps they are discussing strategy…?”
“Mu, they feel like Master at his worse,”
Oi, what’s with that unnecessary remark?
However, I have no way of refuting Fer. Perhaps it’s because someone else, a team of professional Adventurers no less, were looking into the horizon with hopeless eyes that made me feel like I had to be cool-headed one.
……
Noooo!!!!
What am I talking about?
This is the sea!!!
An island in the middle of the sea!!!
Aren’t dungeons about battling creatures and reaching the end of the journey and battling a boss??!!
Th-there’s nothing to see for miles but the sea!!!
“Is there even an end to the sea?!!!”
“Oi, what are you doing?”
“Eh?”
While I was having my crisis, Dora-chan and Sui were playing by the water’s edge with Grandpa Gon watching over them indulgently.
“As for travel, we have Sui and Grandpa Gon, so that’s not a problem.”
“T-travel through that featureless sea??!!!” I screamed. “Not even Sui or Grandpa Gon could travel endlessly through endless nothingness!!”
“What endless nothingness? There are lots of islands there,” Fer pointed his nose in one direction. “In fact, they are like stepping stones going one way.”
“Islands?” I squinted my eyes in the direction indicated by Fer. Uhhh, there, I finally spotted what Fer was talking about. At one point, the featureless horizon was dotted by tiny, black sesame-seed-like things.
“Indeed, there are many islands similar to this one. There is no need for Master to worry.”
“Ah, if Grandpa Gon says so,”
[2] “Oi! Didn’t I already say so?!”
“Yeah, sure, good job, Fer.”
“Hmph, anyway, you had better get ready. Looks like some ingredients are coming towards us.”
“Ingredients?”
Fer was looking at the directions where Sui and Dora-chan were playing. No, he was looking at the area just a little beyond them. The water was churning unnaturally…
“L-look out!” I shouted.
“”Ei~~!!””
Pew pew!
“”Take that! And that!!””
I could barely see what was happening. The previously calm sea suddenly began to foam and burst with activity. Sui and Dora-chan were clearly attacking something, no it was a bunch of things.
One finally exploded past their attacks and I could finally take a good look at what had attacked us. It was… a clam. A gigantic clam.
A really, really huge and gigantic clam.
It was kind of surreal to see 1 meter long gigantic clams throwing themselves onto the shore to attack you…
Pew pew!
Holes appear in the flying gigantic clam and it disappeared before it could hit me.
“”Aruji~! Is Aruji okay!?””
“Ah, yes. I’m fine,” I said faintly.
“”Hey, can we eat these?””
Dora-chan was hovering over a bunch of shellfish meat tucked nicely on half a shell that had collected at the beach. I decided that it was not worth having a breakdown here and went over to take a look.
[Gigantic Clam Meat]
Edible. Fairly delicious.
Wh-what’s with this information?
Aren’t my [Appraisal] too food oriented? Aside from whether it’s delicious or not, it now tells me how delicious it is?
Also, what is ‘fairly delicious’?
Is this the effect of the Solitary Chef title?
Well, I guess knowing whether something is edible is useful…
“I guess it’s good for grilling…”
“”Yay~!!””
“”Ou! Grilled seafood! It’s been a while~””
As Sui and Dora-chan helped me collect the Gigantic Clam Meat when Grandpa Gon said, “Hmm, looks like the second wave has arrived.”
“Second wave?”
I stared in the direction Grandpa Gon was looking. The featureless horizon line looked kind of white… no, wait. It’s getting bigger, like a rushing wave. An actual wave? No.
Clams!
More clams incoming!
The Gigantic Clams had thrown themselves out of the water like cannons, but the ones coming in now were more like scallops. Fan-shaped scallops skating and hopping on the surface of the sea and aiming towards us.
““Oi, can we eat those?”” asked Dora-chan.
“”Uh, [Appraisal] says they are edible,”” I quickly answered through telepathy.
“”Hear that Sui? Let’s gooo!!!””
“”Yay~~!!””
There they go….
….….
….
There was a pile of scallops the size of my face in front of me.
“”Big catch~~! Big catch~!””
“”Huhuhu, we caught a lo~ot~!””
The last time we had scallops was in Verlean. However, those Yellow Scallops were nothing like these huge 50cm Giant Scallops. Wait, the 50 cm part is the actual scallop meat, how big are the fan-like shells…
Let’s not think about it anymore.
Instead, let’s think about how to cook these scallop meat. Hehehe.
Grilling would be the best, of course, with a simple garlic butter sauce…
Gah, I’m drooling already~
“”Cook it now~ Cook it now~!!””
“”Aruji~~ Sui wants to eat it~~””
“Hue hue hue, shall we?”
Right.
Let’s break out my special dwarf-made BBQ grill!
[Gumihou: I made myself drool…]
[1] Dramatically ease in the intro of the sea
[2] Insert recurring ‘if Grandpa Gon says so’ joke
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