My Room Has Become a Dungeon's Rest Area (LN) - Book 2: Chapter 5: (6)

「Whew. They might be weak, but there sure are a lot of them.」

Just when I was about to drop with exhaustion, Ria lunged at the skeleton in front of me.

「Let’s switch!」

In an instant, her mithril sword cut the skeleton clean in half.

Until now, I had simply watched her, dazed, but now that I had experienced combat myself, I understood just how fierce Ria was in battle.

What’s more, she was still carrying that heavy rucksack.

To tell the truth, I was completely captivated by her.

「It won’t be long before you reach this level, too, Thor.」

「So you were showing me clearly how it’s done? There’s quite a difference, isn’t there?」

「Yes. But I think your talent really is incredible.」

「If you ask me, I think magic would’ve been better.」

Deet laughed.

「Hey! I’m the one who’ll be drilling you in magic. Leave the physics to Ria.」

「Huh? Really?」

「Didn’t I say that you could learn both physics and magic, because you’re unemployed?」

「Seriously? Being unemployed is pretty great.」

「Well, unemployed people tend to be slow learners by nature. But that doesn’t seem to be the case for you.」

According to Ria and Deet, I was on course to become unbeatable.

I was grateful for that, but…… Their way of teaching seemed pretty harsh.

「Well, I’ll just have to use Shizuku, after all.」

「Huh? What did you say, Master?」

「Oh, nothing.」

Ha ha ha. Before long, using Shizuku’s ability to trace people’s movements…

I bet Ria and Deet will be shocked at my progress.

♦︎ ♦︎ ♦︎

There were several adventuring parties gathered in the third-level prison that we were calling a campsite.

Of course, with Shizuku being a white slime, she couldn’t stay as she was, so I had her turn green. There are a few adventurers who are sorcerers, and it’s not uncommon for them to be accompanied by green slimes.

Ria went into the prison and put down the rucksack.

Someone must have set the prison up for adventurers; the door could be bolted from the inside.

「We’re going to camp here and then set out for the surface again tomorrow, right?」

「Yes, that’s the plan」Ria told me.

Surely, we’ll be safe in this prison even if monsters come.

「Well, shall we make dinner?」

「There are a lot of other adventuring parties around here, so we might be better off with something that doesn’t smell too strong.」

Of course, she’s right. The Miso Ichiban had smelt too strongly of miso.

This time, we don’t have enough to share with everyone.

「There isn’t much of it, but how about instant rice gruel?」

「Huh? But I’m so hungry!」Deet complained.

「That can’t be helped. I brought ready-made curry, too, but that has a really strong smell.」

「Whaaat? You have curry? Vegetable curry?」

「Yeah. But it smells too strong.」

「I want curry! I want curry! I want curry!」

「Don’t act like such a selfish kid!」

Is Deet really 221 years old?

「Deet, we’ll have curry tomorrow, okay?」

「Gotcha.」

She was persuaded by 18-year-old Ria.

I wonder which is her real face – the one she’s making now, or the face of the worldly-wise adventurer?

「The rice gruel…… is tasty…… but there isn’t much of it.」

「If you’d like, Miss Deet, you can have mine.」

Jiggling, Shizuku offered her the instant rice gruel that I’d poured into a cup.

「Thanks, Shizuku!」

「Hey, Deet, you can’t do that!」

「It’s all right, Master. I can go a day without eating just fine.」

Deet was really taking advantage of Shizuku’s kindness. I wonder if this is her reacting to living alone for so long?

I didn’t know why, but Deet always went adventuring alone, even in dungeons where the Adventurer’s Guild recommended forming a party.

Perhaps it had been a very long time since she’d had fun with a party like this.

「Thanks for the food! There really wasn’t much, was there?」

「You had a portion and a half!」

Whatever. Maybe, if it’s us, Deet will stay in the party forever.

After the meal, I boiled some water.

Obviously, we couldn’t bathe, so instead we wiped our bodies down using a towel soaked in hot water.

While Ria and Deet were wiping themselves down in a corner of the prison, I wiped Shizuku.

I don’t know if this means anything, but…

「Does that feel good, Shizuku?」

「It feels really good. Thank you, Master.」

Shizuku jiggled happily.

She also wiped my back for me.

「Well, now that we’re feeling refreshed, shall we call it a day? That rucksack…… It was heavy, with these in it.」

There were three sleeping bags. These new ones were extremely light and good at keeping the heat in, and could also be used as mats, but the three of them together weighed a kilo.

「Japanese bedding is really comfortable! No wise sage has made an artifact as useful as this. It looks like we’ll be able to get a great night’s sleep.」

「Yeah. The cold of a dungeon floor can get right into your bones, but I’m not cold at all…… Can I have this one……. Thor?」

Ria and Deet’s voices quickly became sleepy.

It was worth the gloomy thoughts I’d had while carrying them.

「Come here, Shizuku.」

I opened the sleeping bag a little, and Shizuku hopped inside.

「I’m nice and warm, Master.」

「Mm, me too.」

It looked like I’d be able to get a good night’s sleep here in the dungeon just as if I was back in my apartment.

♦︎ ♦︎ ♦︎

After a breakfast of energy bars, we carried on walking towards the surface.

I was shocked to find out that the second floor of the dungeon was a forest.

Not only that, but it was light. We didn’t need the headlamp, or the lantern, or Deet’s pendant.

「There’s a forest underground? Is this sunlight?」

「No」Ria explained. 「Here in the forest, there’s a type of moss called ‘sun moss’, which emits light.」

「Oh, really? It looks just like sunlight.」

Sometimes Deet talked like a selfish kid, and sometimes she talked like an intellectual. 「In fact, there are some scholars who say that it has the same qualities. That the trees in this forest make their nutrients from this light, and so on.」

In other words, they photosynthesise.

「What kind of monsters are there?」

「Nothing worse than blue slimes and mushroom monsters.」

This should be a walkover. There’s no danger, and we can have curry for lunch.

「I see. Well, I’ll make curry for lunch, then.」

「Really?」

For some time after that, we marched on to the sound of Deet chanting, 「Curry! Curry! Curry!」

After walking for about three hours, we came to a clearing.

「It’s nearly time for lunch」Ria said. 「This place is quite open, so it’s probably all right to eat here.」

There were no other adventurers around.

「Well, shall I make that curry?」

「Hurray!」

While cooking the rice, I put the packet of ready-made curry in hot water.

「Where’s the curry?」

「Inside this silver packet.」

「Huh? No way……」

Deet looked dissatisfied.

「What do you mean ‘no way’?」

「When you said you were going to make curry, I thought you meant you’d cut up carrots and onions and potatoes and put them in, too.」

Deet was mostly an expert when it came to eating. Curry was the only thing she’d watched me cook.

「I can’t cook that sort of curry when we’re in the middle of adventuring. I’ve got curry that’s ready-made.」

「Does it taste as good?」she said in a discouraged voice.

「You’ll enjoy it once you’ve started eating it.」

I piled the cooked rice onto a plate and added the boil-in-the-bag curry.

「Well, it looks tasty. And it smells good. Thanks for the food!」

Deet put some of the curry in her mouth.

「Mmm, it’s so tasty! It’s just as delicious as if you’d chopped up the vegetables and made the curry yourself, Thor.」

「That’s the sad thing about it. This line of boil-in-the-bag curries is really tasty.」

Well, I guess ready-made curry has a deliciousness all of its own.

Incidentally, the one I’d given Deet was a vegetable curry. Ria, Shizuku and I all had beef curry.

They were happy that they’d been able to choose according to their tastes.

Perhaps the curry tasted even more delicious than usual because we were eating it all together, in the middle of a green forest with gentle light pouring down.

While eating our curry, we animatedly discussed various things. The conversation turned to the first floor of the dungeon.

Both Ria and Deet looked suddenly stern. Deet said gravely, 「Thor, Shizuku, be particularly careful on the first floor.」