Chapter 38

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On the weekend, the three of us were at the dungeon we always visit.

Today, we plan to challenge the floor where, from the fourth level onward, monsters gather in groups and attack in packs. We all checked our equipment with somewhat tense expressions. This will be our first group battle, so it won't go as smoothly as before, but we prepared ourselves.

"Alright, inspection complete. Yūji, Shizuka, how about you?"

"I'm good."

"I'm fine too."

"Then, let's go."

We psyched ourselves up and entered the dungeon.

Using the shortest route we discovered during previous explorations, we quickly passed through the first, second, and third floors in about an hour and arrived at the stairs leading to the fourth floor. We encountered and fought a few monsters on the way, so we were already warmed up for battle.

We exchanged glances and nodded, then Yūji, Shizuka, and I descended the stairs in that order. At the bottom of the stairs, there was a semicircular plaza with passageways radiating outwards.

"Shizuka, any signs of monsters?"

"Not yet. Kusakabe, what about traps?"

"No signs of traps here either. It seems they haven't been set."

"I see."

Yūji confirmed that Shizuka and I had finished our checks and finally stepped onto the fourth floor plaza. Falling into a pit trap right after descending the stairs is a common one, so it's better to be cautious.

"Alright, which passageway should we take?"

Yūji pointed to the eight passageway entrances in front of us and asked Shizuka and me. Well, what can I say when asked which one?

"There's no sound of battle, so I think any passageway is fine. How about we do what we usually do and let the sword fall to decide which passageway to take?"

"Sure. Hasegawa, please."

"...Alright."

Yūji drew a small sword from its sheath in the middle of the plaza and stood it vertically before letting go. The sword remained still for a moment, then wobbled and fell with a sound. After rolling a bit, the hilt of the fallen sword pointed to the third passageway from the right. Yūji picked up the sword from the floor, sheathed it, and started walking cautiously. Shizuka and I followed behind him.

After walking down the passageway for about ten minutes, Shizuka spoke up.

"Be careful, there's something ahead."

"Monsters?"

"Probably."

Hearing Shizuka's warning, I shone a handheld zoom light down the passageway. About 100 meters ahead, I saw two shadows that looked like monsters.

"Those are probably the monsters Shizuka mentioned."

"Right."

"They're coming this way."

Reacting to the light, the two monsters started running towards us. As they got closer, their forms became clearer.

They were boars with red fur.

"Red Boars."

"From the looks of it, they're going to charge straight at us."

"Being hit at that speed would be troublesome. ...Daiki, any ideas?"

"Let me see..."

I rummaged through my backpack, searching for what Yūji needed.

"Got it, got it. Let's go. Here we go!"

I took out a ceramic bottle with a lid and threw it at the feet of the Red Boars. The bottle shattered a few meters in front of the Red Boars, scattering its contents.

The Red Boars, ignoring the broken bottle, continued running towards us, but they suddenly stopped and started writhing in pain after passing the spot where the bottle broke.

"Daiki, what did you throw?"

"Hmm? What... pepper."

"Pepper? So, the reason those Red Boars stopped is..."

"Maybe they're sneezing?"

The Red Boars stopped, their noses running as they writhed in pain. They looked pitiful, lacking the intimidating presence they had a moment ago.

I explained what I threw to the two of them while waiting for the pepper in the air to settle. If we got too close to the Red Boars now, we would be affected by the pepper too.

A few minutes later, we approached the writhing Red Boars and each stabbed their necks to finish them off.

"Seems like nothing new."

"Well, we're stabbing them after neutralizing them."

"Once we get used to encountering multiple monsters, it's better to fight them head-on."

"Right. Since future dungeon battles will mainly be group battles, it's better to practice teamwork by fighting them head-on."

The pepper bomb was unexpectedly unpopular. I understand the reasons, though.

"Daiki, because of that, you're not allowed to use the pepper bomb for a while after a few more uses."

"Alright, got it."

As I accepted Yūji and Shizuka's suggestions, the Red Boars turned into particles of light and disappeared. In their place, a knife that looked like a chef's knife and a reddish mineral remained.

"A knife and a copper ore..."

"At least it's better than nothing, right?"

"True. By the way, Kusakabe, does this knife have any special effects?"

"Effects?"

"Yes. When we defeated the slimes, a few swords and knives appeared, some of which had special effects or skills. Maybe this knife has an effect too?"

"Right. Daiki, check it out."

"Sure thing..."

I used an identification analysis on the dropped knife. The result was quite a find.

The knife was called a Bronze Knife, classified as a magic item with the effect "Disassemble." It allowed us to disassemble defeated monsters and obtain drop items.

In other words, this was similar to a skinning knife in games. I had been wondering how we obtained monster meat, but this was the reason. The fact that it didn't appear in the slime dungeon might be because the slimes didn't drop it, or it was just a matter of luck.

I sighed inwardly and relayed the identification results to the two of them, and Shizuka was particularly pleased.

"Hey, can I have this?"

"I'm fine with it. Yūji?"

"Of course, it's fine."

"Thank you, both of you."

For Shizuka, who came to the dungeon to obtain monster meat, this skinning knife was a valuable item. We didn't know how effective it would be until we tried it, though.

---

We resumed our exploration of the dungeon to test the skinning knife. After wandering for a while, Shizuka spoke up.

"They're coming. Two in front and one behind, they're planning to attack us from both sides."

"Daiki, take the one behind. Yūji and I will handle the ones in front. It's one-on-one, so let's fight without using any seasoning items."

"Got it. Leave the one behind to me."

I turned my back to the others and readied my sword, Shizuka.

With our backs to each other, the lantern light hanging from my back illuminated the dungeon widely. Combined with the headlamp, we had enough light for the battle.

As Yūji and Shizuka faced the Hound Dogs coming from the front, a Hound Dog appeared from the darkness of the passageway behind me. It seemed to have realized it was spotted and gave up on a surprise attack during the battle. The Hound Dogs in front also seemed to realize the surprise attack had failed and charged at Yūji and Shizuka with a roar. At the same time, the one behind me also roared and lunged at me.

"Huff!"

I dodged the charging Hound Dog by stepping to the side at the last moment and thrust Shizuka at its vulnerable neck. Shizuka easily pierced the Hound Dog's neck, and a small amount of blood spurted out. I quickly twisted the sword and finished it off. The Hound Dog fell to the ground, convulsing for a moment before becoming still.

After confirming the Hound Dog was dead, I pulled Shizuka out of its neck. If I pulled the sword out while the heart was still beating, it would cause a lot of bleeding. While bleeding out the body was one thing, unnecessary bleeding was just a hassle.

I had learned this after a few times of causing excessive bleeding while slaying monsters.

I wiped the blood off Shizuka and looked at Yūji and Shizuka. As expected, they had already finished their battle.

"Looks like you're done too."

"Yeah."

When I turned around, Yūji was wiping his small sword with a kitchen towel. I also took out a kitchen towel and wiped the blood off Shizuka. I had gotten used to this routine recently, even though I felt quite disgusted at first.

While Yūji and I were cleaning our weapons, Shizuka, holding the skinning knife, spoke up.

"Hey, can I test this knife's effect?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Alright. Here goes."

Shizuka stabbed the skinning knife into one of the Hound Dog corpses. The corpse turned into particles of light and disappeared, but a different drop item appeared where it had been. It was a block of red meat. ...It's pre-sliced?

"Dog meat?"

"Dog meat, it seems."

"Dog meat, huh."

What do we do with this? Is it even edible?

We looked at each other for a moment, then stabbed the remaining Hound Dog corpses with the skinning knife before they disappeared. We ended up with three pieces of dog meat.

We wrapped the dog meat in kitchen towels, put it in a zipper bag, and stored it in my spatial storage. Without a cooler bag, the meat would spoil in my backpack before we left the dungeon.

"Anyway, we've confirmed the skinning knife's effect."

"Yeah. This is how they were obtaining the meat."

"Right, I thought they were just butchering the monsters to get the meat."

"Really glad we have this magic item. I had looked up how to butcher game online, but I wasn't sure if I could actually do it."

I'm really glad we have this magic item.

While it was easy to find information on butchering game online, I doubt I could actually do it. Especially, butchering a humanoid orc... that would be too much for my mental health!

"Anyway, I was thinking of exploring this floor a bit more to gain more group battle experience..."

"Are we cutting it short?"

"Yeah. If we encounter monsters on the way back, we'll fight them, but let's call it a day here. We've had a lot happen, and I'm curious about how much this meat will be worth."

"Sure, I don't want to push it. What about Shizuka?"

"I'm fine too. Besides, I feel a bit giddy from getting the skinning knife. It's better to regroup for safety."

With both of their agreement, we decided to end our exploration and head back.

On the way back, we fought a group of Red Boars on the fourth floor but handled them without any issues, obtaining drop items and pork. We also fought a few more monsters on the third, second, and first floors, getting more drop items and meat.

---

After leaving the dungeon and changing, we submitted the drop items and meat to the reception.

"Can we exchange these for money?"

"It's monster meat, right? No problem."

"Great, thank you."

"Sure. Please wait a moment."

After a few minutes, the appraisal value of the drop items and meat was presented.

The core crystals and ores had the usual buyback prices, but the meat had surprisingly high buyback prices. The Hound Dog meat was 150 yen per 100 grams, the Hell Cat meat was 150 yen per 100 grams, the Horn Rabbit meat was 300 yen per 100 grams, and the Red Boar meat was 700 yen per 100 grams.

The total buyback value of the core crystals and ores was a few thousand yen, but the meat was worth a few tens of thousands of yen.

"Is this appraisal value really correct?"

"Yes, it's based on the current buyback market prices."

"Really?"

I couldn't believe it and asked the receptionist for confirmation, but they said the appraisal was correct. Although I knew the meat was considered a luxury item, I was surprised by the unexpectedly high buyback value. I signed the buyback documents and completed the transaction, still in shock.

By the way, the skinning knife Shizuka submitted was a magic item, so it had to be appraised at headquarters. She said she would pick it up when the appraisal notification arrived. Since her goal was to obtain orc meat, the skinning knife was essential, and she had no intention of selling it, even if the buyback value was high.

Phew. It seems dungeon exploration is becoming more like hunting.

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The skinning knife has made its appearance. The meat's buyback value is set at a premium, so it's a bit higher.