Chapter 502 Mukouda the Bold

General adjustments were made to make the text smoother.

After the emotional reunion, we boarded the [Mizumaru] once more and left the wretched termite hill behind.

Speaking of which, the white oval rock thing turned out to be a white opal upon [Appraisal]. I’m thinking of keeping as a memento instead of selling it. Maybe Lambert-san could make it into something I could wear on my person.

A little further from the termite hill, we saw a gigantic 10-meter-tall anteater. Well, of course, if there are giant ants, there will be humongous anteaters. I was actually quite interested in the creature since I had seen it in a doc.u.mentary about Southeast Asian jungles back in my previous world.

A frowning Fer loudly declared, ‘The meat is no good’. Thus, allowing this curious creature to live another day.

To be honest, I was starting to get used to the way we treat monsters now. To my familiars, these monsters were all small fries. The only question was whether it was worth the effort to go up and take them down.

[1] The [Ark] did not seem keen to take on the anteater either. They had expanded a lot of energy taking down the otters earlier and thanks to Dora-chan, they have collected lots of Killer Termite jaws. So, overall, today was a good day for them.

As the day progresses, it eventually became dark.

Field dungeons were curious things. They tended to mimic the surface and separated ‘night’ from ‘day’ and would become dark when dusk sets.

It was really strange.

Anyway, since it was getting dark, it was time to set up camp.

We chose a relatively dry and gra.s.sy area as our campsite.

Since we had hotpot for lunch, tonight’s dinner was pre-made food.

My familiars all wailed and cried for ‘Fried Crocodile’, but I refused to entertain this request. There will be no living with them if I give in to every little demand.

For dinner, I served Gyudon, Beef Bowl with pre-made ingredients. All I had to do was a.s.semble the rice and meat. Hehe, such is the power of preparation.

They complained a lot, but they also ate a lot and asked for many seconds.

[2]

“These are really great, Mukouda-san.”

“Thank you, they are made with Dungeon Beef.”

“Dungeon Beef? You mean, from the famous Meat Dungeon?”

“Woah, I didn’t expect Dungeon Beef to be so delicious.”

“Shall we go there next?”

“That’s in Rosendal, right? Why don’t we…”

While the men of the party talked about making arrangements to check out the Meat Dungeon, Feodora-san was gulping down her Beef Bowl with sparkling eyes. Well, I guess she’s fine with anything so long as she gets to eat something delicious?

Anyway, once dinner was over we all took a little break. All that was left was preparing to sleep.

“Hm? You guys aren’t going to sleep?” I asked with a yawn.

“Oh, we’ll be taking turns,” said Gaudino-san. “I’m taking the first watch.”

“First watch? Oh, you’re going to stand guard?”

“Yes?”

“Ah, I see,” I scratched my head a little awkwardly. Had I ever stood guard before? [3] Back when I first arrived in this world… I travelled on a caravan which had its own security measures and then I hired a party for an escort mission… so, I was never put on night watch duty as I was always the ‘customer’. After that, with Fer and his barrier, I never had trouble sleeping at night, even those few times when Fer left me alone to go hunting.

“Well, Fer and Grandpa Gon will be putting up their barriers, so there’s really no need,” I said cheerfully.

“Well, this is just in case,” said Gaudino-san.

“Humph, so you look down on our barriers?” Fer suddenly loomed over us.

“Uh…”

A second shadow loomed over us. 

“Human, you have no faith in the barriers created by a Fenrir and an Ancient Dragon?”

“Hey, hey, stop that.!” I said. “It’s not that they don’t believe in your barriers, but these people have been keeping watch for pretty much their entire adventuring lives, you can’t expect them to suddenly  change just like that?”

“Nu, whatever, let’s just go to bed now.”

Ah, yes. Bed.

Well, the [Ark] already knows about my abnormally large [Item Box]. If I don’t do it now, I won’t be able to sleep in my lovely futon for the rest of the dungeon challenge. Ugh…

My familiars were all looking at me expectantly, especially Sui…

“Alright, fine. Let’s set up the bed,” I sighed and started taking out flattened cardboard boxes and laying out the futons for everyone from my party.

“Umu, excellent, let us rest now,” said Fer as he padded over and made himself comfortable.

“So, ah, goodnight!” I said to Gaudino-san.

“Goodnight…”

I waved at them one last time before settling myself against Fer’s warm, furry belly and closed my eyes.

I must have been more tired than I thought or was stressed out from the emotional upheavals of the day because I soon fell into a deep sleep.

Pat pat.

“”Aruji~~ hungry~~””

Pat pat pat. Pat pat pat.

“Nnn…”

I slowly opened my eyes.

Pat pat pat.

““Aruji~~””

Sui was sitting on my chest and tapping at my face with her tentacle.

“Oh, good morning, Sui~”

“”Good morning~ Sui hungry~~””

Ahh, my sweet Sui has a one-track mind, how cute. Hohoho.

I settled Sui to the side and stretched out my spine. “Hnnn— fuh! Can I have some water to wash my face first, Sui? I’ll make breakfast after that.”

“”Okay~~””

Sui produced a basketball size water ball and I stuck my face in it and rinsed off. After drying my face with a towel from my [Item Box], I sighed and said, “Thank you, Sui. That was refres.h.i.+ng. Right! Let’s go make breakfast!”

I hopped to my feet and was about to get started when…

“Woah! Monster–! Ah, it’s just you, Gideon-san? Wh-why do you look like that?”

“Oh, it’s Mukouda-san… morning…”

Gideon-san looked… really tired. There were dark circles under his eyes. He looked kind of like a racc.o.o.n dog. A tired racc.o.o.n dog.

“Don’t tell me… night watch is really that hard?”

“Ah, well…”

He seemed to stare off in a daze after that, so I decided not to ask.

…anyway, what I can do now is serve breakfast. I heard that pork is very good for recovering from fatigue. How about serving some pork soup for breakfast? I have some pre-made already.

In addition to soup, we should also have…

….…….

….…

….

The A Rank party [Ark], huddled together in a corner, looking very gloomy and exhausted.

In short, Gaudino was not the only one with dark circles around his eyes. Even Feodora, who was usually the most indifferent or at least cool looking, has dark circles under her eyes.

“I-is everyone alright?” I asked as I handed out bowls of soup chocked full of pork, white radish (grown by Alban) and topped with extra grated radish. For carbs, we have rice b.a.l.l.s made with wakame seaweed and sesame seeds. A light and refres.h.i.+ng breakfast, perfect for combating fatigue.

“S-somehow…”

“Not really…”

“… …”

“Did something happen last night?”

“Nothing, nothing happened. It was really incredible…”

“Haha…”

“Shockingly enough, nothing happened…”

“… …”

They ate their breakfast in silence.

For once, Feodora did not even glance over at Fer’s meat-laden breakfast bowl.

I wonder what happened?

“Ugh, that was one of the most nerve-wracking night.w.a.tch ever…” Gaudino muttered.

“I nearly screamed when I saw that h.e.l.l Spider right there…” Gideon said weakly.

[2] “I don’t blame you, those spiders are only a hand span wide, but they are incredibly aggressive and venomous,” Siegwald sighed. “I nearly screamed too when five of them charged at me at once. They were stopped by the barrier, but still too close for comfort…”

“…Vampire Bats…”

“Ah…”

The three men looked at a pale Feodora with sympathy in their eyes.

Vampire Bats are gigantic bats that span 2 meters tall from head to toe. It is said that their victims ended up looking like mummified corpses.

Speaking of which, Vampire Bats and h.e.l.l Spiders are both A Rank monsters. However, these two monsters only give out small magic stones (if you’re lucky) and are generally hated by Adventurers.

If you see one, the general advice is to run away. In fact, all Adventurers are to report if they saw either of these monsters so that others could avoid them.

“Haahhhhh…”

“Seeing Mukouda-san sound asleep surrounded by these h.e.l.l creatures is…”

“…isn’t he too bold?”

They all turned to stare at Mukouda.

Gumihou: Ah, so it was a misunderstanding

Mukouda: Eh? What is it? (。・ω・。)?

[1] Mention the [Ark] and what they were doing.

[2] Turn narrative text into dialogue.

[3] Add some details from the past, since I cut out some filler repeats.

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