"Slarin, Shilomar, when the enemy comes, take care of them. Solomon, you will help me.

"Wow.
"Cue.

　We're currently hiding in the dungeon's thirty-two levels. By the way, there's no one else in the dungeon except me and my family. Grandpa has an appointment with Aguri, and Blanca has gone to see Master Ganz. Amur was about to follow me, but Blanca pulled him away. The stock of weapons used in the tournament had run out, he said, and he had promised to have his master make them for him. It seems that today was the day of that promise. So it's been a long time since we've been here alone to gather.
　Me and Solomon are in charge of gathering, and Slarin and Shiroumaru are guarding us while we gather. Solomon doesn't have much room to fight in dungeons, so he's paired with me. Slarin can also do the collection itself, but that would take away from Solomon's work, so that's why we're paired up like this. His job is to collect the rocks that I crushed.
　I've been doing this since morning, diving the dungeon, but I haven't found the mithril I'm looking for. It's only a kilogram or so in weight. Normally this amount would be a huge amount, but it's a small amount for my purposes.



　During the mining process and during the breaks, no demons appeared that were afraid of Shiroumaru or attacked him from the front. The only exceptions were insect-type demons or demons that encountered us without noticing us, neither of which were enemies of Slarin and Shiroumar. However, the demon nuclei were gathered in their own way, so it looks like we'll be able to make a good profit there.

''Alright! Let's go downstairs to get to a place where people don't seem to be coming!

　After that, we continued on to the lower floors, but we didn't find much mithril. It's a good thing that they've already roughly dug out this area.

"It's not so easy to find mithril.............although we did find quite a few magic bars.

　We didn't find two kilograms of mithril, but we found nearly fifty kilograms of magical iron. After more than half a day's diving, fifty kilograms of magical iron is a large amount. The market price is much lower than mithril, but the demand for it is higher than mithril. Because Mithril's products are expensive, often costing an unaffordable amount of money even for seasoned adventurers, but most of the armor made of magic iron is priced at a price that even a beginner can reach if they are forced to.

''However, since the magic iron can be used in many ways, I'm not going to sell it, I'll just store it in my bag.

　I'm not in need of money at the moment, so I can keep the ones I don't need to sell separately. There's still plenty of room for the magic bag, including the one the gods gave me, and I can make another one if I need it.

''I guess it's time to go back... hmm?

　As we started to prepare to leave now, we noticed that there were people coming towards us. However, Shiroumaru wasn't very alert, so I wondered and used my 'search' to investigate and found that they were all acquaintances of ours.

''Shiroumaru, please welcome me.''
"Wow.

　When he instructed Shiroumaru to play a little prank on him, Shiroumaru gave a small reply and walked in the direction of the signs to avoid making any footsteps.
　After a few minutes of Shiroumaru's disappearance...

Nuh-uh!
Geez!
"Yikes!
Wow!

　A familiar scream could be heard. The screams were followed by a voice blaming Shiroumaru.

'Temma! This is not a good time to play a prank! You were so surprised, I thought your heart would stop beating!

　The ones who came running with a flurry of footsteps were Jin and the others from the 'Sword of Dawn'. Jin, Garratt and Menace were complaining and walking on their own feet, but Leena was being carried like a piece of luggage on Shiroumaru's back.

'What's wrong with Leena? Shiroumaru looks unusually apologetic, but...
""Don't listen to it."
Don't ask...

　Looking at Leena, who was about to start crying, I didn't pursue it any further... Let's just say I didn't see Leena casually trying to hide her wet ass.
　I took my gaze off of Leena and asked Jin and Garratt why they were here (Menace had taken Leena to hide in a nearby bend in this gap), and apparently they were reviewing the coordination on the level they had already attacked before proceeding with the dungeon attack. That review had been completed, and they were on their way to the nearest warp zone when they apparently ran into Shiroumaru.

'So, what was Tenma doing here? You must have been working on something, since you could stand guard over Shiroumaru, right?

　Jin seems pretty sure that he's talking about it, and since it's not something to hide, I decided to tell him my purpose.

''Hmmm, that's a tough one.

Well, don't worry, I'll be patient. Worst-case scenario, I'm thinking of making the outside out of mithril and the inside out of magic iron and rebuilding it later.

'That might be the most practical thing to do... wait? Temma, how far down in this dungeon are you now?

　Garratt seemed to have an idea and asked me what my highest floor was.

'Well I'm pretty sure I can get to the thirty-eightth floor in the warp zone.

Then why don't you go up to the forty-twoth floor? Most of the floor is like a lake and there's not much land there, but I think the ceiling and walls without footholds are almost untouched because of that. Tenma can float in the air, so why not aim for it?

　Certainly, if Garratt was right, we'd have a better chance of gathering them than if we were to forage around here. Besides, I was also thinking of aiming downstairs soon, so there's no harm in going there.

That's certainly true. Thanks, Garratt.　

　When I thanked him, Garratt looked a little surprised. When I asked him why, he said he felt a little strange because he hadn't been thanked by me very often.
　It was quite rude, but since Garratt gave me quite useful information this time, it was going to be a little stressful that I couldn't punish him like I usually did.

''But it's tough to go now, I guess. I wouldn't have minded it before, but now that my grandpa is here, I'll have to leave once I get home... it'll be a few days before I go to the lake.

'Normally, we take on this area in a month... and then a few days...'
'Don't say that too much elsewhere. Either you'll get a self-doubter or a misunderstood bastard.

　Jin and Garratt are looking at me with a dumbfounded look on their faces. Well, if I used the 'search' well, I'm sure it would be shorter if we just walked through, but I decided to keep it quiet any longer for the sake of their mental stability.

'Are you done talking?'
Here you go.

　As the conversation came to a close, Menace and Leena returned. Leena doesn't seem to have changed at first glance, but on closer inspection, her pants are a different color. However, Leena and Menas acted as if nothing had happened, so we pretended not to notice.
　On the way back, as the djinn had said, we returned to the ground at the Warp Zone, which was only a few dozen meters from where I was, and we left the djinn at the guild. On the way to the guild, I asked the djinn for more information about the lake, but I didn't get much. The reason for this is because that level of the hierarchy has little umami for ordinary adventurers.
　According to the story, the floor where the lake is located is the largest that Djinn know of, but it's basically like a straight road to the exit, with little land to fight on. The only saving grace is the absence of strong aquatic monsters, but even so, it is said that people lose their lives and get seriously injured every year if they're not careful.
　The depth of the lake is said to be about 20 meters at most, and there are several types of demons that appear, mainly C-ranked ones. Although there are not many of them, they have a tendency to sniff out the scent of blood and flock to you, so if you fall into the lake during a battle, it is said to be fatal.
　The demons are roughly one to two meters in length, and even if they are on land, they jump at you from the water, and can stay on land for an hour or so, and if you're not careful and think it's the breath of an insect, you'll get a painful counterattack.
　Still, when you are on land you don't have much trouble, but when you are in the water it is much harder to defeat, and the materials you can get from them aren't worth much, and their flesh is hard and smelly, so there aren't many adventurers who stay on that floor.

　After I left the djinn and the others, I did a little research in the guild, but there wasn't much new to learn. When I left the guild to go home, it was already dark and the tavern was quite crowded.

''Oh no!''　

　I had completely forgotten about my grandpa and the others, and by the time I realized I was rushing back to my apartment, it was already late, and my grandpa was already pissed at me... next time I was going to be late, he was pissed at me for telling him in advance to go to the dungeon. Blanca was laughing hysterically.
　The grandfathers hadn't eaten their dinner yet because they were waiting for me. So I had to cook dinner after the sermon. By the way, it was hamburgers for dinner. It was a good thing that I had to do to keep Grandpa in a good mood.

　Two days later, I'm standing in the lake hierarchy I was taught. In one day yesterday, I rushed through the 39 to 41 floors to get here, but since I didn't forage for anything along the way, I'm going to start over again after I finish checking this floor.

''It's really big... how many soccer courts does it take?''
Kyu?

　Solomon is the only one out beside me right now. Slarin is in the bag, waiting to sort out the mithril he's collected, and Shiroumaru is waiting in the bag for sorting as well as Slarin, since getting wet is a pain in the ass afterwards. Therefore, Solomon, the only one who can fly, is out instead. Well, it's also meant to be a distraction since there has been no place to fly around.

'Let's just take a look around, for now.

　This level has a path along one wall, but you have to go through a ford in the lake on the way to the path on the opposite wall. The ford is only about knee-deep, but you have to be careful because it's the easiest place to get attacked by demons. Well, in my case, as long as we move in the air, there's no problem.

I'm going to start working now, Solomon, but I want you to be on the lookout for the surroundings. If you can go alone, you can go, but if they look tough, or if there are too many of them, let me know even if you're working.

Cui!

　Solomon raised one hand as if to salute, and then began to alert his surroundings. He started digging around the entrance area where he was curious about it first, but after exploring a few places, he didn't find any mithril.

'I don't think Garratt's readings aren't too bad... obviously, Solomon's earned more money than I did.

Cui?

　Solomon continued to hunt the aquatic demons that came after me, and in the first hour, he killed more than 20 of them. The demons I killed were ten thunderfish, a larger version of the thunderfish, three angler cats, which look like a combination of catfish and anglerfish, and eight alligator fish. Alligator bugs are shaped and sized like alligator gators and are said to be the largest fish in the lake (about three meters), but all Solomon killed were between one and two meters in length.
　I had heard that the fish in this lake are not tasty, so I was thinking of just taking the demon nucleus and throwing away the rest, but Solomon didn't like it, so I decided to put it in my bag and take it home. Well, I've heard that thunderfish and alligator gar are fish that can be eaten in a previous life, so Thunderfish and alligator gar might be able to be cooked as well. And if angler cat is a good combination of catfish and anglerfish, it might be a surprisingly tasty fish. If it's the other way around, you just have to give up and not eat it.
　I wanted to pull the mud out just in case, but I had to give up since Solomon had strangled it at the same time he was hunting.

'Let's move on to the next place... hmm? This is.....　

　I didn't see any mithril, so when I was about to move out of place, I saw something shiny in the shallows, so I picked it up and found that it was a ring. Moreover, upon examination, I found that it was made of mithril.

'Oops! Profits!

　I didn't find too many mithril, so I moved around looking into the water for a change, but I found a variety of things. The most common were weapons like throwing knives and swords, but some of them were shields and pieces of armor.

''Even if it's in a place where you can see the stones, it means no one dives when there are demons swimming around... this is more efficient.

　The fallen weapons were difficult to retrieve, even if they were at a depth of one meter. The reason is because the thunder fish and crocodile moles that heard the sound of people walking are watching from afar, so the moment they enter the water even a little bit, they will pounce on you.
　In my case, I had let the golems collect them, so I wasn't in any danger, but if this was a flesh and blood human, unless I covered my entire body with armor, I would be bitten to death in less than ten minutes. Most likely, even if he covered his entire body with armor, he would only be dragged into the deep end this time and drowned to death...

Let's explore the shallows at this rate. Solomon, let me know if you find anything up there. And keep an eye out for it.

Cui!

　The lake wasn't very clear, so from the height where Solomon was, I might not be able to see the bottom of it, but he was flying around so tautly that I didn't need to say anything else.
　After that, I sent out three golems to help me and retrieve the lost items in the shallow water. While Solomon and the golems worked together to fight off and retrieve the demons, I dug into the walls and ceiling to look for Mithril.
　As usual, no mithril was found, but for that, Solomon and his team continued to recover it steadily, and by the time the scheduled time arrived, they had harvested a total of over fifty kilograms of mithril. Of these, five kilograms were made of mithril, twenty kilograms were made of magic iron, and the rest were made of copper, iron, and steel. One-tenth of it is mithril, which sounds good, but in reality, there is a mixture, and the handles and other metals are made from other metals, so it would be good to have half of that. By the way, the amount of demons Solomon and the others hunted was almost three times as much as what they recovered.

''Is that good for a start? The problem is with the fish but let's just try it for now.

　The first preparation was simply two types of grilled fish to get a taste of the fish. The first one was just grilled without doing anything. The second was salted, lightly drained and then grilled.
　Without salt, the order was Thunderfish, Angler cat, and Alligator pike; with salt, Angler cat, Thunderfish, and Alligator pike, in that order.
　The reason for the difference between the two without and with salt is probably due to the water content in the angler cat's body. The taste of the fish without salt would have been blurred, but by fastening the fish with salt, the water was removed and the taste became easier to distinguish. All three species tasted better with salt, but the alligatorfish had a bad smell and hardness, so it was the lowest of the three without salt and with salt.　

Thunderfish is the least common among them. It doesn't have any characteristics, though. The angler cat was a little stinky, maybe an anglerfish. Crocodile mocking.........it's more meat than fish. It has a strong odor and is hard to use.

　When compared to alligatorfish, Thunderfish and Angler Cat are in the tasty category, but compared to snapper, aji, salmon and sweetfish, they seem to be a piece or two inferior. They are not my favorite fish to eat.

The odor of alligator patches seems to come from their skin and guts. If you eat only the center of the crocodile, it's similar to chicken breast. Angler cat is just fine when fried, as it loses its water content. Thunderfish, too, do better when fried in oil.

　After trying various cooking methods, I found that each one is edible to some extent. I wouldn't bother to eat them on the ground, but they are good enough to eat in a dungeon. I'll tell the djinn about it next time.

'As for the crocodile-modding, just because it has crocodile in its name, its skin looks like it could be used as an ingredient... even though it smells...'　

　As long as it doesn't smell, it's pretty sturdy and could be used for armor. It seems to be water-resistant, so it could be used to make bags and such. Maybe a bag made of crocodile skin could become popular.

Shiroumaru and Solomon seem to be the best alligator-mobile.
Wah!
Cui!

　Apparently, he liked the taste and crunch of the meat, which was more like chicken than fish. Slarin ate the other dishes as two of them concentrated on the crocodilefish. The smell didn't seem to bother all three of them much.
　I cooked quite a bit this time because it was meant to be an experiment, but I still had more than a quarter of the fish left. We may have overfished, but there are still a lot of fish in the lake. Maybe they are very fertile or have hidden channels somewhere.

I guess that's it for today. Let's make a bed.

　Normally I'd be getting the carriage out, but now I'm leaving it in the apartment so I'll have to build it from scratch. Most importantly, the bed is in a magic bag, so it won't take much time if we use the usual dead ends. However, there is no such thing as a dead end on this floor, so we had to go up one floor.

''Well, now that we have a place to sleep it's just a matter of how we're going to get to the bottom of the lake, right?

　As I sat on the bed out of my bag, I was making plans for tomorrow. I could explore the shallow areas the same way I did today, but there wasn't even half of a place left to explore. Even if we could pick up the same amount of mithril tomorrow as we did today, it wouldn't be much of a harvest. Then we would have to think about exploring the deeper areas, but I can't think of a way to do it.
　We thought about simply going under water, but it would be impossible and inefficient to probe the bottom of the river while passing the fish that were attacking us. Most importantly, I didn't want to dive where I didn't know what was out there.

'What to do ... oh, I left the kettle on the fire.

　I was so busy thinking that I didn't notice the water until it was completely boiling. I hurriedly went to unload the kettle from the hearth, and when I saw the boiling water, I unexpectedly came up with a method.

'That (...) might work... anyway, I'll try it tomorrow.

　I wanted to try the method I had just come up with as soon as possible, and I quickly laid down on the bed, but I was too excited to fall asleep. Nearby me, Shiroumaru and Solomon were sleeping comfortably, and I was a little annoyed by the snoring I could hear.

'Ugh.'

Hmm?

　The next thing I knew, Shiroumaru was looking into my face. Apparently, he was in an unusually deep sleep. Normally, I wouldn't sleep this deeply in the dungeon or outside, but maybe my senses were a bit off because I couldn't get to sleep easily.　
　I want to head to the lake as soon as possible, as I'm going to try a new method today, but Shiroumaru and Solomon's stomachs are starting to chorus, so I decide to have a quick meal. Just in time, I had some leftover from yesterday, so I made do with those and some ready-made food left in my bag, and with an after-dinner break in mind, we headed out to the lake.
　If my method worked, it would certainly expand the scope of our activities from now on.

If I tell Namitaro about this method, he'll tell me to do whatever it takes to make it work... Come to think of it, I'll have to make a version of my family crest with Namitaro on it as well... maybe next time I'll write to the king and ask him for a letter. Ka.

　I remembered a case I'd almost forgotten about and felt a bit of a hassle...