Chapter 81 - Mentsuyu
“After all that intense training, they’re only evenly matched? Is the difference between male and female physique really that big? Or is the strength of the male First Unit just absurdly off the charts?”
As I munched on one of Peta-chan’s bizarre homemade sweets, I observed the male First Unit who had entered the No-Hunger Dungeon.
Just like Captain Touji and the others, I found myself a little dissatisfied with how evenly the match had played out.
After all that eccentric training, I had honestly expected the women to have already surpassed the men by now—so this result was a bit of a surprise.
Well, if they were already this close in power, then it was only a matter of time before they overtook them completely.
Besides, I still had plans to prepare more power-boosting hot springs.
Of course, stuff like the gender-swapping baths that Captain Touji had mentioned were out of the question—can’t go reducing our precious supply of women, after all.
But I wouldn’t mind creating a bath that simply eliminates the physical disparity between the sexes.
Even if it resulted in their bones and muscles bulking up to nearly double the size, the beauty-enhancing effects of the eleventh-floor hot spring would help preserve that sculpted, muscular beauty look. No real cause for concern there.
“So, these guys say they can make it to the 26th floor as long as they have enough supplies and weapons, huh?
Which basically meant that Captain Touji’s group also had the strength to reach the 26th floor now.”
...From what I’d gathered, it didn’t sound like the reason people struggled on the 25th and 26th floors was because they lacked raw strength.
Rather, it felt more like they were having trouble because their attacks weren’t dealing damage to monsters, or their weapons were breaking—problems of that nature.
It reminded me of the roguelike dungeon games I used to play in my past life.
In those, if you relied purely on leveling up and brute force, you’d usually get stuck near the end. The game was built that way.
Maybe this world’s dungeons were similar. Maybe just building up your physical strength wouldn’t cut it in the later levels. Maybe the whole system was balanced around that idea...
If we really wanted to let people explore the deeper layers, then rather than just enhancing their physical capabilities, perhaps what we really needed was to offer them more tactical options—ways to broaden their strategies.
“Hey hey, Master, what do you think?”
“Hmm, let’s see... Well, I think even now, Captain Touji’s team should be fine up to the 25th floor. The captain of the male First Unit said he could reach the 26th, so...
That means our dungeon, which only goes to the 17th floor right now, doesn’t need to worry too much about its difficulty.
However... While Captain Touji and the others might manage, the real question is how far nobles like Her Majesty Yuzha and the others can keep up. When you think about that...”
“Nooo! Not that! I meant the snack you’re eating! The snack!!
I mean, yeah, sure, the dungeon stuff’s important too, but still!”
“Huh? Oh, right, yeah—sorry, sorry.”
I quickly turned my attention back to the odd treat I’d been mindlessly nibbling on—one of Peta-chan’s original creations—and took a proper bite.
It looked like a red stick, had a fluffy, bread-like texture when bitten, and tasted like I was licking pure honey.
This wasn’t something that existed in modern Japan.
But that’s all it was—something that simply didn’t exist in this world. Nothing more, nothing less.
Basically, it was just a fluffy honey stick.
“Hmm... I mean, it is tasty in its own way, but I wouldn’t say it’s good enough to replace anything we already have...”
“Oh, come on! You always say that!”
“Well, existing products are popular for a reason. They’re just that good.”
“Boo...”
Peta-chan puffed out her cheeks in a sulky pout.
At the moment, the No-Hunger Dungeon was drawing more attention than the Hot Spring Dungeon.
Alcohol had become ridiculously trendy, and now that we were piping hot spring water into the deeper floors, male adventurers were finally getting to enjoy the benefits too.
For now, the No-Hunger Dungeon looked set to keep expanding smoothly, with no obstacles in sight.
The real challenge lay in what we were going to introduce in those deepening floors.
Of course, simply continuing to offer products from modern Japan—just like we had been—would probably still get a great response.
However, those products came with one undeniable flaw:
Eventually, people on the surface would learn to make things of comparable quality.
No one could say for sure how long it would take for surface-dwellers, whose civilization was still at a medieval level, to reach the point where they could create goods on par with those from modern society.
Would it take decades? A hundred years? Two hundred?
But once their level of civilization caught up—even just partially—the No-Hunger Dungeon would instantly lose its purpose.
If that day came, who in their right mind would risk life and limb to plunge deep into a dungeon just to get chocolate or whiskey they could easily buy at a convenience store?
For a dungeon that could last over a thousand years, that was a serious problem.
Sure, there’d still be some use for bringing hot spring water from the Hot Spring Dungeon to create male bathing areas, but the demand would obviously plummet.
That was why I had to develop food that could only be made in the dungeon—things that couldn’t be replicated by humans, that relied on dungeon magic. Dungeon-exclusive delicacies.
“For now, this coffee is the best thing we’ve got... but, y’know, it does kill people.”
I said that while sipping a cup of superheated coffee that glowed faintly, like it was emitting light.
It had been one of Peta-chan’s impulsive inventions—coffee that evaporated explosively the moment it hit your mouth, igniting into flames and flooding your nose and mouth with an intensely rich aroma.
I needed to create something with that same level of flavor and originality.
Of course, with the condition that it had to be edible for humans.
This coffee, with its temperature in the hundreds of degrees, would literally incinerate a human throat and kill them.
“Even if you say that~ it’s not exactly easy, y’know.”
“Well, no rush. Even in the fastest-case scenario, it’ll still take a few decades for them to catch up.
More importantly, we can already start building the 14th and 15th floors, right?
We need to decide what we’ll introduce there... though for now, I guess it’s fine to just go with existing products.”
Apparently, the restorative hot spring that could regrow teeth in the Hot Spring Dungeon needed to be at least 15 floors deep to take full effect. That alone was enough reason to move forward quickly.
“How about we make the 14th floor known for producing gemstones? We’ve got some extra ones left from what Kenma’s Gem Master gave us.”
“Ohh... yeah, that kind of thing might be good around now.
Alright then, let’s make the 14th floor a gemstone-rich zone.”
I pulled out a piece of jewelry made by Kenma’s Gem Master, crafted from tourmaline—a gemstone said to be popular on the surface—and nodded in agreement.
I knew this particular gem was in high demand thanks to a letter from Lady Auf... or rather, the information had been written on a cloth, so I guess you’d call it a "hand-cloth" (This is a Japanese wordplay. The word for "letter" in Japanese is tegami, which literally means "hand-paper." Since the letter was written on cloth instead of paper, the MC joked that it should be called a "hand-cloth" instead.)?
I still didn’t understand why tourmaline was so popular on the surface, but with items like these, the perceived value played a huge role.
People believed things like, “Wearing this stone brings wealth,” or “It wards off evil,” or even “It helps you have children.”
Nonsensical stories like that often ended up shaping an item’s popularity and market price.
Trying to reason through why something was popular was a waste of time.
If something was inexplicably trendy, that was enough. A weird-colored tulip could end up being worth more than a diamond if it got the right kind of hype.
Right now, this particular gem was trending and sold for a high price. That was all that mattered.
As for tourmaline... my only experience with it was hearing something like, “Experience the detoxifying effects of far-infrared tourmaline bedrock baths!” in the background music of a hot spring resort.
Hmm, now that I think about it, maybe it does have some connection to the Hot Spring Dungeon?
Might not be a bad idea to set up a bedrock bath—imagine people lying naked on heated stones, sweating it out... watching that wouldn’t be half bad either.
“...Master?”
I had drifted off into a not-entirely-wholesome daydream when Peta-chan called out to me with a “What’s up with you?” look.
“O-Oh, right. So, what should we put on the 15th floor?”
“Hmm... mentsuyu!”
“...Mentsuyu?”
“Mentsuyu, yes! You can simmer things in it, stir-fry stuff with it—whatever you use it on, it turns out delicious.
Mentsuyu is the ultimate liquid! I believe in its power! I’m sure everyone will want it!”
...Peta-chan suddenly sounded like someone’s mom from a mentsuyu-worshipping household.
Well, mentsuyu was something I’d want, sure—but that was probably just my Japanese instincts talking. Would it really sell though? In the Kingdom of Sepans?
I honestly couldn’t say without trying.
“U-uh, well, sure. Let’s go with that... but.”
“But?”
“Let’s switch it around. We’ll put the mentsuyu on the 14th floor, and the tourmaline gemstones on the 15th.”
It just didn’t sit right with me to be handing out luxurious gemstone accessories made by Kenma’s master on a shallower floor than mentsuyu.
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