Chapter 71 - Buff Food Training
When the vice-captain began to return and tried to carry the chickens up to the surface, something unexpected happened.
As the chickens neared the surface, they suddenly convulsed in pain—and died.
“What? Why?!”
“Maybe because they were creatures made in the dungeon’s lower levels, and there’s not enough miasma up top for them to survive?”
Seriously? That was a problem. I had hoped they'd bring the chickens over to the Hot Spring Dungeon so they could enjoy some meat.
But maybe... maybe eggs would be fine? If grain seeds worked, then eggs might make it too.
In that sense, I suppose it was actually lucky that I hadn’t managed to make cows or pigs yet.
“If you could send dungeon creatures to the surface, the lower-level monsters would've been swarming the world long ago. Every dungeon out there would be dragging humans in like it’s the apocalypse,” Peta said offhandedly—like it was nothing.
Now that she mentioned it, she had a point.
It was possible to control dungeon monsters to a certain extent using points.
But I’d avoided doing that because spending points to help adventurers would put the dungeon in the red.
And besides, the monsters on the 28th floor weren’t something humans could handle.
If even one of those monsters made it to the surface, the whole world would probably descend into chaos.
If the dungeon system actually allowed for monsters to be released to the surface, then Bugu-kun would already be some kind of demon lord capable of ending the world.
That... that would make him a Demon King, huh?
I pictured that little demon boy in his pretend-hero outfit leading a horde of dragons, setting the world ablaze.
Well, I suppose the concept of a childlike Demon King was a tired old trope you saw all the time in light novels.
While I was off in my own little world thinking about nonsense like that, Captain Touji suddenly showed up in the Hot Spring Dungeon.
“Huh? Why is Captain Touji here?”
I had assumed she would chase after the vice-captain to the new No-Hunger floor and then come right back. But she didn’t.
On the contrary, she came to the Hot Spring Dungeon without even waiting for the vice-captain’s return.
“Whaat? Why’s she heading to Master’s dungeon? I thought if we served meat, she’d settle in the No-Hunger Dungeon!”
“Hmm... I figured if we just provided enough meat, the First Unit would stay in the No-Hunger Dungeon indefinitely...
But I wonder why she came here instead?”
If I had to guess, maybe it was because, from a training perspective, the Hot Spring Dungeon was far superior?
The monsters in the No-Hunger Dungeon probably weren’t enough to meet their training needs.
And that hunch turned out to be right.
Captain Touji ignored every hot spring on the way in and headed straight for the tenth floor, where the water enhanced training effects.
Then, instead of starting training right away, she went to the fourteenth floor—the culinary floor.
There, using the recipe papers, she began cooking dishes: one that hardened the body, one that boosted speed, one that increased strength, and another that temporarily prevented stamina loss.
Afterward, Touji and one of her subordinates ate the hardening dish. The subordinate also ate the speed-boosting dish. Then, without delay, they began sparring with iron rods.
The subordinate, her speed now doubled, launched a flurry of slashes so fast that even Captain Touji couldn’t block all of them, and she took several direct hits.
However, thanks to the hardening effect, Captain Touji’s body had become so tough that even sharp blows with an iron rod didn’t cause any serious injuries.
“Captain! Are you alright?!”
“Heh heh heh, it hurts a bit, sure—but nothing serious. More than anything, I’m amazed! It’s incredible how easily I can now create sparring partners stronger than myself!”
Ah, so that was it. She’d used buffed meals to create a training partner with some real bite.
Someone at Captain Touji’s level probably had a hard time finding anyone stronger than her to train with.
It wasn’t like such people didn’t exist—but those kinds of elites weren’t the type you could drag into daily training just because you wanted to.
But with buff food? You could create stronger opponents on demand, effortlessly.
Battered by sheer speed, struck countless times, and bleeding from multiple wounds, Captain Touji laughed out loud, her eyes gleaming as she desperately searched for an opening against the powerful foe before her.
About four minutes into their heated clash, the subordinate who had been timing them with an hourglass signaled the end of the match, and their sparring came to a halt.
The hardening and speed buffs both wore off after just under five minutes.
To prevent serious injury, they had apparently agreed in advance to stop the match at the four-minute mark.
“Awwww man!! That’s it?! I didn’t land a single hit!!”
Captain Touji had hoped to at least land one blow, and now stomped the ground in frustration, clearly disheartened by her complete inability to do anything.
“Whew... I’m exhausted. How are you still making me break into a cold sweat with that much of a speed gap between us? That was more than enough, really.”
Her subordinate, who had been sparring with her, wasn’t acting like it had been an easy win either—just barely managing to walk away without a scratch.
She was panting heavily, drenched in sweat.
“Let’s go again! One more match!”
Bruised all over and bloodied from head to toe, Captain Touji pleaded for another round, practically begging.
“Captain, did you forget? The same buff won’t take effect again unless you wait a while between meals. It said so right in the instructions.”
“Grnngghh...”
Touji groaned, looking genuinely pained—not from the injuries, but from the frustration of not getting enough. She clearly hated losing, hated being left unsatisfied, and just wanted to keep going.
She looked like a kid who kept losing at a fighting game in the arcade and was told to stop feeding in coins.
Her subordinates watched her with mixed expressions—on one hand, her image as their mighty captain was definitely crumbling... but on the other, they now truly understood something:
This woman had always been starved for a worthy challenge.
Later, they tested how many one-finger push-ups she could do.
After eating the stamina-preserving dish, she proceeded to do finger push-ups for the entire duration of the buff.
Then, after consuming the strength-enhancing meal, she even had several comrades climb onto her back while she continued the one-finger push-ups.
“Master, what the heck is this?”
“I think she’s trying to test whether this kind of buff-enhanced strength training is actually effective or not.
If she can do a significantly higher number of reps, that’d be pretty solid proof the food really works, right?”
To be honest, I had no idea if this sort of training would actually build muscle for the knights.
More than that, the idea of using buff food like this was completely outside anything I had planned.
Originally, I’d designed this place to create useful items for conquering the dungeon’s lower levels someday.
And yet, here we were—using buff meals for strength training, timing sparring matches to maximize safety, testing effectiveness through measured repetitions...
For something so new, there was a shocking lack of trial and error. The entire methodology seemed too well thought out, too refined, as if it had all been carefully laid out beforehand.
Most likely, this had that girl's fingerprints all over it.
The one whose face I’d never seen.
She didn’t enter the dungeon herself, but that girl Auf was undoubtedly one of the top players when it came to dungeon strategy.
She wasn’t the type to clear the game with her own hands, but rather the kind who guided others by feeding them information.
Back in college, I had a friend who was a top RTA (real-time attack) runner in RPGs. He was constantly doing insane challenge runs like clearing games at starting level or with the fewest battles possible.
Auf reminded me of him. Her way of thinking was oddly similar.
She wasn’t just looking for straightforward strategies—she was constantly searching for loopholes in the dungeon’s mechanics, ways to exploit the system.
Even after that, the members of the First Unit continued to push themselves through increasingly intense training regimens—things they could never have managed without buffs.
And then, maybe after a few days had passed...
It became undeniable. The buff-enhanced training had a powerful effect on their physical conditioning.
“...I think I want to live here.”
Captain Touji, looking like a noble lady who had just spent the night at a luxurious resort, muttered dreamily.
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