Chapter 498 Hustle Forth for Karaage

Gumihou: Added details on mangroves and swamps, because that’s basically Gumi’s backyard, hehe. I guess Eguchi-san never had the opportunity to properly explore an actual mangrove/swamp?

Right now, we’re exploring the wetlands on the 1st floor (I guess?) of the dungeon on the [Mizumaru].

[1] Even though the place was swampy and covered in murky water, it was technically possible to walk through the knee-deep, murky water. Except Fer refused to get his feet wet.

[2] 

A brief discussion followed that abject refusal and several ideas were thrown about.

“How about riding on Grandpa Gon?”

“Well, I don’t mind…”

“Rejected, he had to be of a great size to ride comfortably. So, no.”

“I could-”

“We’d be too far away from the ground to catch any monsters properly, we’d end up jumping into the swamp anyway.”

“How about Sui?”

“Hmm…”

We all looked at Sui, who was scooting along the waters, going ‘wai~! wai~!’

Naturally, only my party could hear her, but even the [Ark] members could see that she was having fun.

“Excuse me,” said Gaudino-san. [3] “Perchance you are talking about your, ah, Slime?”

“Hm? Oh yes,” my smile firmed up and I beamed my best ‘this-is-all-normal’ smile at them. “Sui is the best at her thing.” Before he could ask any more awkward questions, I loudly said, “Sui, could you be our boat again?” [3]

“”Okay~!””

In a flash, Sui became a Gigantic Slime and I quickly hopped onto her flexible, transparent body along with Fer.

““I’m gonna fly forward to check out the prey!”” said Dora-chan.

“I believe I shall do so as well,” said Grandpa Gon.

“Okay!” I said and waved at the two disappearing dragons. Then, I turned and smiled determinedly at the dumbfounded [Ark]. “Well? Aren’t you coming?”

“Um,”

“Hurry up!” Fer snapped.

That hurried them up. Feodora hopped in first, followed by Gaudino and Gideon, Siegwald reluctantly jumped onto [Mizumaru].

Thus, our dungeon challenge officially begins.

One of the first monsters we saw were waterfowl-like things which flew away as soon as we approached. Grandpa Gon and Dora-chan did not say anything about them, so I guess these bird things are too much of a small fry.

As we move along slowly on [Mizumaru] through the swamp area, I saw a few capybara-like creatures (which were twice the size of the ones on Earth). No one commented on them, so I ignored them too.

[1] By the way, Sui conveniently dissolves and eats away tree roots, stumps and whatever things in our way, so we hardly had to change directions.

“”Oi~ I see something decent just ahead,”” came a telepathic report from Dora-chan.

“”Many small crocodiles ahead,”” Grandpa Gon added helpfully.

“Right,” I said out loud for the benefit of the [Ark] members, “They spotted some crocodile-like monsters ahead.”

“I see,” Gaudino-san said. “We can expect fang, hide and meat Drops from it.”

“Grandpa Gon reported that there are quite a few of them just ahead, should we work together or separately?”

“Working together might be easier, but working separately makes splitting the loot more straightforward.”

As expected of an experienced Adventurer, “Alright, we’ll do it that way.”

The others nodded, their expression serious as they readied their weapons.

Woah, the atmosphere is so grim, it’s completely different from my party…

We met up with Grandpa Gon and Dora-chan at the river mouth.

“…That’s a lot of crocodiles…”

Indeed, several 5-metre-long reptile creatures with rough b.u.mpy bodies floated like logs at the river mouth. [1] If not for the eyes and the occasional wide-open mouth, I’d have thought there was a logging company nearby.

Grandpa Gon, this is your idea of ‘small’ crocodiles?

“Hahaha…”

“Hou, these are Redtail Caiman [4]” muttered Siegwald-san.

As their name suggested, these reptile creatures have reddish tails.

“Caiman, are caimans smaller than alligators and crocodiles?” I mused out loud. I guess, if we were to compare these 5-metre-long reptiles to the Black Tyrant Alligator, they could certainly be described as ‘small’.

[5] 

“The meat and skin are worth quite a bit,”

“I’d like to take three down.”

“No, we should take down more since a skin Drop is not guaranteed.”

“For armour…”

“Of course…”

“Take the lead, Feodora. Aim for the ones near the sh.o.r.e.”

“Yes.”

[5]

It was quite interesting to hear the [Ark] talk strategy with each other. My familiars only quarrelled about who gets to take down the more interesting prey, or who gets the most prey…

“Take care, Mukouda-san.”

“Huh? Oh, uh, take care you guys,” I said and waved as the [Ark] made their way to the other side of the river.

I turned to look at my party. They looked rather lethargic. Well, aside from Sui who was happily twirling small whirlpools in the water.

“So, are you guys going to get any Redtail Caimans?”

“Mu,”

“”Bo—ring…””

“If Master wishes me to…”

“Hmm, Caimans are basically crocodiles, aren’t they? Let’s see, I think crocodile meat makes pretty good Karaage…”

Fer, Grandpa Gon, and Dora-chan suddenly paused. Even Sui had stopped stirring the water.

““Ka~ra~a~ge~~!!!!!”” Sui cheered and rushed at the Redtail Caiman herd, with me still on top.

“O-oi! Wait, Sui!!?”

“”For Karaage–!!!””

“Dora-chan, you too?!”

“Hey, if we kill those things in the water, won’t the Drops sink?” mused Fer.

“You are right, Dora, I shall fling the beasts onto the sh.o.r.e, you kill them there.”

“Ou!!!”

““Ei!!””

Pew!

A large hole appeared on a Redtail Caiman’s side.

Sui immediately zoomed towards it and stuck her tentacle into the murky water and, “”Mu, it’s not meat.””

“Sui! Language! Also, don’t you dare throw that skin away. Just… if you want meat, just kill more of them.”

““Okay~! Ei~! Ei~! Ei~!””

[6] As more and more drops appeared on Sui, I contemplated where I had gone wrong in raising my Baby Slime.

Sob, what happened to my cute Sui~?

Aahhhh!!!

Tears filled my eyes as I frantically put the stuff collected by Sui into my [Item Box].

Meanwhile, Fer was just sitting on what pa.s.ses as ‘sh.o.r.e’, which was basically a fairly wide sand bank and casually slashed at any Redtail Caiman that came his way.

Grandpa Gon and Dora-chan were doing a teamwork thing with Grandpa Gon throwing Caimans to a wide sandbank while Dora-chan stabbed them to death with Ice Spears…

It was a frighteningly efficient sight.

I… never thought that the word ‘Karaage’ would cause such a great reaction. It was total chaos…

In no time at all, every single Redtail Caiman was gone. There were only the Dropped items left on the sandbanks.

I had already put away the items collected by Sui, it was now time to collect the ones on the sandbank.

“Here, take this magic bag. You go collect the ones on this side while I collect from that other sandbank,” I told Dora-chan.

“”Sure thing!!””

“Be sure to collect all the meat,” said Grandpa Gon. “I shall see if I could track down any more Redtail Caimans.”

“”Ou!!””

“Don’t just collect the meat, make sure to collect everything!” I called after Dora-chan as [Mizumaru] moved towards where Fer was sitting in the middle of a pile of Drop items.

Meat, skin, fangs, meat, meat, fangs, skin…

“M-mukouda-san!?”

“Oh, hei,”

I waved at members of the [Ark] who were all staring at the piles of Drop items around me. Ahaha.

“Th-this…”

“So, um, everyone got really excited and overdid themselves…”

I tried to act normal as I collected the Drops, shooing Fer off with another magic bag so that he could help too.

Soon enough, all the Drops were collected, but the [Ark] was still standing in place, staring.

“… …” think, think, what should I say to make this normal?

“Mu? There is one left?” Fer suddenly looked towards the far side of the river where a log, no, a Redtail Caiman was floating away.

“Fumu, I shall retrieve it.”

With a flash of wings, Grandpa Gon flew over like a shooting star. Just as Grandpa Gon reached down to grab the Redtail Caiman-

Splas.h.!.+

Clap!

Something huge leapt out of the water and clamped its mouth around the Caiman.

“How dare you steal my prey,” Grandpa Gon suddenly jerked his forearm up and grabbed the giant fish by its head just as it realised that it had accidentally bitten into something he shouldn’t.

The fish flew across the air, tossed by Grandpa Gon, just like countless Redtail Caiman before it, towards the sh.o.r.e.

It was dead before it landed on the sandbank in front of us.

“I went to catch a caiman but got a fish instead,” said Grandpa Gon apologetically as he landed next to me with a m.u.f.fled thump.

I blinked at the giant fish, then at the members of the [Ark].

They were still in that same position…

[Gumihou: Haha, redid a few scenes for increased comedic and dramatic features~]

[1] Add details on mangroves and swamps

[2] Expand on the ‘how should we travel through this swamp discussion’, add dialogues. It would also be the first time members of the Ark witness her Gigantic form and her [Mizumaru] function. Eguchi-san, you actually have a lot of material to work with, don’t focus too much on repeating mundane stuff.

[3] Deleted some detail about not talking about Sui’s ability etc and Mukouda giving over some fangs and hide to ‘reconcile’ with Ark which seems kind of out of place? 

…anyway, deleted.

[4] Caiman – close to the alligator family

Develop the dialogue so that it’s more realistically ‘regular Adventurer’s dialogue’

[6] He ‘got off Sui’, but I had the impression they were in water? What? Anyway, just reworked the logistics.

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