Chapter 54 - Takoyaki
“Hey! Step right up, step right up! You want green onions, mayo, and bonito flakes on yours?”
Right now, I was grilling takoyaki in a yukata, manning a food stall complete with a proper takoyaki griddle.
It all started when Peta-chan popped into my mind, saying—
“Let’s make this slow and steady. I’m going to rack up points from the Weapon Dungeon over time!”
—and began preparing some time-consuming dish at her own pace. But then came the swift rebuttal:
“Why do we have to start from scratch with cooking? Just pull something out already, Sen.”
So, I switched gears.
“These things are all about the vibe, too, you know. Here—have a cotton candy machine.”
To keep Bugu-kun from getting bored, I whipped out something fun to make, fast, and tasty.
“Flip the switch here, toss in the rock sugar, and then watch as the fluffy candy comes spinning out from the sides. Wrap it around the chopstick like this...”
There we go. The young boy, a total shota, looked absolutely delighted as he spun the cotton candy around his chopstick and took a bite.
Even Peta-chan, intrigued, started making her own cotton candy.
Good, good. Everyone seemed to be having a great time.
Next came grilled chicken skewers, grilled squid, and yakisoba—easy-to-make, crowd-pleasing stall food.
As I moved from one menu item to another, the place slowly transformed into a full-blown festival scene. Before I knew it, I had become a bona fide festival vendor, grilling takoyaki with gusto.
“Whoa, this is amazing. Might be my favorite thing so far.”
“Wanna try making some? You just use these two skewers and spin ‘em like this...”
As our little takoyaki party continued, it was about time for a new dungeon floor to finish forming.
Since I didn’t want Bugu-kun knowing I was observing things via monitor, I pulled out a manga-style book that depicted the explorers' progress and began checking the situation through that instead.
Well, even if a new floor had been completed, it probably wouldn’t be discovered until the next scheduled dungeon survey.
“Hmm?”
Displayed in the book was an unfamiliar female knight. Who was that?
She and several other unknown female knights—also in unfamiliar armor—were shown suffering in the athletic zone of the 11th floor, looking like they were on the brink of death.
If they were already on the 11th floor, they must’ve passed through the intel-gathering hot springs on the 5th.
Thinking that, I mentally commanded the book to show the name of the knight who looked like their leader.
Just like a character introduction box in a manga, a square frame floated into view, revealing her name.
Shield Barsch (25)
“Huh? Never heard of her. But now that I think about it, weren’t they talking about accepting knights from other kingdoms?”
She was pretty attractive. I wouldn’t mind watching her bathe... but I didn’t want to bring out the monitor while Bugu-kun was still here. Damn it, hurry up and eat so you’ll leave already.
“Hey, Sen—is one of our knights from the Kingdom of Marponwear in your place right now?”
Looks like Bugu-kun already knew that a female knight from Marponwear had entered the Hot Spring Dungeon.
“You mean this Shield person?”
I showed him the book I’d just taken out. He nodded enthusiastically as he stuffed his cheeks with takoyaki, sauce and aonori smeared all over his mouth.
...Yeah, he must’ve eaten at least a hundred takoyaki by now. As for Peta-chan, she seemed more into making the balls perfectly round than actually eating them.
“Yeah, that’s her. So what the hell is with this dungeon? Has it always been this weird sports field or whatever?”
“It’s just this one floor. Your side’s Weapon Dungeon had Captain Touji in it, right? How’s she doing?”
“The Ultra Red Blade... I mean, they call it the Red Sword or whatever. Looks like they’re collecting those and prepping for a dive into the deeper levels.
But more importantly—didn’t Captain Touji say the Hot Spring Dungeon has power-up effects?
You think that Shield and her squad will be able to make it to the deeper levels too?”
“No clue—I don’t really know what their capabilities are. How far do they usually go?”
“Honestly, female knights don’t usually dive into dungeons at all.
Even when they do, floor 19 is probably the limit. Maybe Shield and a few of her officers can go deeper, but their subordinates can’t keep up.
Your Captain Touji’s unit is just insane, plain and simple.
So, how far can the power-up go?”
“Hmm... I don’t think they’ll change that dramatically just from diving in once or twice.
Remember, the second unit from Sepans had to live full-time in the Hot Spring Dungeon under Captain Touji’s brutal training for half a year.
Only after all that did people start saying, ‘Hey, maybe now you guys can handle up to the 20th floor.’”
“I see... So it doesn’t power you up instantly. That’s a shame.”
“Well, beauty gets a serious boost just by soaking in the bath on the 11th floor, though. Look.”
As we talked, it seemed that Shield and her squad had reached the bath on the 11th floor. The book now showed them entering the hot spring.
The 11th floor bath was notorious—before and after soaking, one’s beauty could shift drastically.
I opened the book to the transformation scene and showed it to Bugu-kun.
“See? Her appearance’s changed a bit from how you remember her, hasn’t it?”
...Hmm?
Bugu-kun had stopped mid-bite, takoyaki halfway to his mouth, and was now staring intently at the image of the bath scene with a dead-serious expression.
It was the look of a boy who had been innocently catching bugs by the river, only to suddenly find an erotic magazine with a busty onee-san posing nude—he didn’t fully grasp what he was looking at, but some primal instinct told him he couldn’t look away.
I knew that look well—I’d had a similar experience myself about twenty years ago.
“I told you, I like ‘em rugged and cool. Don’t go giving them this beauty-up effect!”
He resumed munching on takoyaki as he grumbled about the hot springs’ transformation power.
It seemed he still didn’t fully understand the emotional impact of nudity yet—his childlike sensibilities were still stronger than his budding curiosity.
Still, if he kept mentally linking up with me... wasn’t he going to turn into a bit of a perv over time? Was that really okay?
“This effect is exactly why everyone flocks to our hot springs. You think I can just cancel it?”
I could sympathize with disliking a spring that messes with your aesthetic preferences.
I mean, I’d never create a hot spring that turned flat chests into massive ones.
Not because I’m strictly into flat chests—honestly, I love big ones too—but because I couldn’t stand the idea of altering a flat-chested character into some overblown busty version.
Let’s just say I stand firmly on the “don’t do that” side of that argument.
“Well, I guess I’ll head home now.”
“Hmm? I haven’t even brought out all the other food yet—you sure?”
“It’s fine. I don’t want to blow through everything at once. I’ll come back when I get tired of takoyaki again.”
With that, Bugu-kun vanished.
Hmm... Well, better he come back frequently than try to stretch out one visit too long. Works out better for me in the long run, too.
“Okay, now that Bugu-kun’s gone... time to check on the female knights through the monitor.”
Peta-chan, meanwhile, was still at the griddle, steadily cranking out takoyaki.
She seemed to be making more than she was eating—there was a growing pile of finished balls beside her.
Some of them were flat and crispy, probably from a lack of batter, but they still looked pretty tasty.
“I’ll eat this one.”
“Go ahead. Ugh... it’s still not forming into a nice round shape. Is the trick dumping in a bunch of batter all at once, maybe?”
Exactly. You don’t try to make perfect little balls from the start—you overflow the mold with batter first and then shape them into balls as they cook.
It was fun watching her arrive at that conclusion on her own without anyone teaching her.
After all, watching female knights melt with bliss in a bubble-filled hot spring probably didn’t do much for her.
But me? I enjoyed both.
About half a day later, the female knights from Marponwear reached the Mirror Floor.
However, it seemed the knights from Sepans had taken the mirror with them during the night, so it was gone.
It would probably take several days for the mirror to regenerate.
“Looks like they’re complaining about the missing mirror.
Oh—now they’re searching the side path on the 13th floor, looking for another mirror. Could they end up finding the stairs to the 14th floor instead?”
“Master, the new floor’s just been discovered in the No-Hunger Dungeon.
Looks like the knights are from the same kingdom—their armor’s pretty similar.”
“Oh? Then maybe they’ll discover the liquor stash too. Looks like we might get a new floor discovered on my side as well.”
“Isn’t that the scalding-hot spring that no humans can bathe in? Think they’ll actually use it for cooking?”
“Hard to say. If they’re sharp, they’ll figure it out right away. If not, well...”
The female knights from Marponwear had, in the end, dug a hole just big enough for a single person next to the scalding hot spring they discovered. They mixed some of the boiling water with cold bathwater to temper it, then finally started bathing.
After all that effort, though, they didn’t feel any noticeable effect and were now voicing their complaints.
“Hey, Master, you sure this is okay? Are they actually gonna figure it out?”
Y-Yeah… it’s fine. It’s not time to panic just yet.
If it’s Auf... if it’s Auf, she’ll definitely figure something out!
If they report this situation to the surface, surely someone up there will figure out the proper way to use the spring...!
♨♨♨♨♨
In the core room of the Weapon Dungeon, Bugu was grilling takoyaki and munching away while reading a manga-style log about Captain Touji’s activities.
“Ahh, I hope they reach the deeper floors soon. I can’t wait to see how strong they’ve gotten.”
At the same time, he also brought up a scene of Commander Shield, checking in on what was going on inside the Hot Spring Dungeon.
Since the master of the Hot Spring Dungeon—whom he had dubbed Sen—was only lightly soul-linked to him, that connection wasn’t strong enough for Bugu to freely observe everything happening inside.
However, there was a loophole: if someone inside the Hot Spring Dungeon was using weapons or armor from Bugu’s dungeon, then observing them was technically just “monitoring his own gear.” That allowed him to watch Shield’s group under that pretense.
Not even Peta-chan knew about this method of workaround.
“The more I look, the less sense this dungeon makes… But if I don’t understand it, I can’t grow either.”
The Weapon Dungeon hadn’t given up on expansion—not by a long shot.
Instead, he pretended to be a core that had moved on from expansion, calmly approaching other dungeons that had promising information, acting like a generous core that handed out points freely. In doing so, it earned goodwill while gathering intel.
And now this master of the Hot Spring Dungeon—he was on a whole different level.
His ideas, his behavior, even the things he brought out—they were so wildly innovative that Bugu honestly couldn’t make sense of them.
Still, he was certain: if he wanted to grow his own dungeon even further, understanding this bizarre master’s thought process was absolutely necessary.
“But that Food Core girl... she’s more suspicious and sharper than she looks. If only she were as simpleminded as Kenma’s Gem Core, this would be so much easier...”
Bugu also knew that the soul link to the Hot Spring Master could be severed instantly if he upset Peta-chan’s mood even slightly.
So he had no intention of trying anything underhanded. The only path forward was mutual fun and harmony—he’d have to learn about human desires from that strange master’s behavior alone.
At least for now, he’d play nice.
“...Hmm, why can’t I get these takoyaki to come out nice and round? The Food Core wasn’t doing too well either. How was Sen making his again...?”
The world’s largest dungeon understood something all too well: that beyond the satisfaction of completion and achievement lay only stagnation and emptiness.
So for now, he chose to savor this frustrating imperfection—the not-quite-rightness of it all.
Comments
Post a Comment