Chapter 45.1

Let’s Harvest Sweet Monsters!

They headed to the 7th floor and activated the gate.

The 7th floor had Silver Wolves and Owners.

Well, that was Haruki’s prediction. But he turned out to be wrong.

“Cluck!”

“…Chickens, huh.”

“They are chickens.”

No matter how you looked at it, the monster was a chicken.

“I think they were called ‘Kick Cockos?”

“What a cute name.”

“Just the name.”

As the name implied, they were monsters with kicking attacks.

They were similar to the Kill Rabbits, only they were much stronger.

While they couldn’t fly, they could use their wings to accelerate.

And then they also used their wings to stop suddenly.

Then their body would float up and they would unleash a succession of kicks.

Haruki blocked the attacks with his two daggers.

“Heavy.”

The attacks were quite heavy.

He couldn’t understand where all of that energy was coming from, considering their size.

However, they weren’t that dangerous either.

He realized this after just a tenth of a second of battle.

It was actually weaker than the Silver Wolves on the 8th floor of Chikaho.

“Cluck!?”

It couldn’t keep up with Haruki’s speed.

While it hesitated, his dagger slashed through it.

And just like that, the Cocko’s head was cut off easily.

“Good. Good.”

Haruki started to carve up the corpse.

He had eaten all kinds of meat, but it had been a while since he had chicken.

He could boil it, deep-fry it, grill it…

Oh, and one must not forget the eggplants.

“Hehehe…”

What would he make for dinner?

Haruki thought about it excitedly as he carefully cut up the meat.

“Ugggh…”

Karen covered her mouth behind him.

In spite of all the hunting they did in Chikaho, she still wasn’t used to seeing this kind of gore.

“…Hmm?”

Haruki’s eyebrows narrowed while he was in the middle of butchering the thing.

Cluck cluck. Bok Bok.

He heard the sounds echo.

He looked in the direction that it was coming from.

And then two Kick Cockos appeared from the depths of the dungeon.

They had red crests and were clearly angry.

“Karen. Rhea!”

As soon as Haruki shouted, Karen and Rhea began their ranged attacks.

Potato stones and balls of white magic flew in the air.

In the blink of an eye, the two Cockos were blown into little pieces.

Ah. What a waste of food…

Haruki felt so bad.

And so he folded his hands together and prayed for their spirits.

The first thing you could get from a Cocko was the meat.

Then the crest.

The meat went for 100 yen per kilogram at a minimum.

That lowest price would happen if you didn’t drain its blood properly or it wasn’t in good condition.

If you processed the meat carefully, it could sell for as much as 300 to 500 yen per kilogram.

It also depended on the monster.

There were some that went up to 1,000 yen per kilogram.

It had something to do with the fat.

The crest could be dried and used for medicine.

While they were quite small, they sold for 1,000 yen each.

It was the same as a Kill Rabbit’s horn.

After butchering the first Cocko, Haruki moved the corpse of the one Rhea and Karen had killed, to the side.

—Sorry for not being able to eat you.

They continued to gather chicken meat and crests as they made their way through the dungeon.

The 7th floor’s boss was a Big Cocko.

It spread its wings menacingly as it waited for them to approach.

It was a courageous pose that made it look more threatening.

And it was this boss, that Karen and Rhea started to attack without any emotion.

The poor boss became victim to their ranged attacks before it could even do anything.

How sad…

Haruki couldn’t help but feel bad for the guy.

He had met the wrong people today.

As an air of melancholy hung in the air, the Big Cocko was absorbed into the dungeon.

As it was their first time, the dungeon started to flicker.

Then he picked up the materials that came out.

“It’s a large crest and feathers…what’s this?”

The Cocko’s feathers were connected in the shape of a circle.

He raised it in the air and inspected it. But he was still unable to figure out what it was.

Was it useless?

“Karen. Put this in the magic mag for me.”

“Yes. Uh, the crest and…AAAAH!?”

When he tried to hand her the feathers, Karen let out a scream and pulled away.

The circle of feathers fell lightly to the floor.

“Huh? What is it?”

“Karaboshi. The thing is really heavy!”

“Heavy?”

Haruki’s eyebrows narrowed as he picked it up again.

However, it did not feel heavy at all to him.

“Is it something you can equip?”

“It might be. Or maybe it’s a magic tool?”

“…That’s possible.”

Aside from weapons and armor, there were accessories with magic properties.

And like weapons and armor, there was a very great variety of them in terms of features.

As for strong ones, Bacon’s ring was especially famous. It enhanced your muscles to twice their original strength.

(It was rumored that the reason he liked to take off his clothes so much, was because he wanted to show off his chest and arm muscles now that they were bigger.)

As for the weaker accessories, they were things that ‘Slightly raise your arm strength?’ or ‘You might get a little more experience!’ Much like the store in Sapporo, it was possible you wouldn’t even notice the difference with some of them.

If you got something on the upper floors, it was more likely to be in the latter category.

Just to be sure, Haruki inspected the ring of feathers carefully and then put it around his head.

“Hmm…? Has anything changed?”

He tried moving his body.

He thought that it was possible that something had changed.

But it might have just been a placebo effect.

He would have to have Akane inspect it later.

“Alright, let’s move on…Hm?”

He noticed it as he looked up.

For just a split second, Karen had been looking at him with an off-put expression…

“What is it?”

“Nothing. …Mister Karaboshi, you really are ‘amazing.’”

Karen looked like she was trying to stop herself from frowning.

He was wearing a mask that looked like it was cursed and had probably been worn by some Shaman in an unknown land. And then he had a potato monster on his back.

And now this mysterious ring of feathers had been added.

This magic item matched Haruki’s current equipment so well, especially the mask. It was almost horrifying.

With just one addition, he had transformed into something else.

He often talked about wanting to stick out more, but didn’t he stick out enough already?

If he wanted to stick out any more than he did now, he should just wrap himself up in Christmas lights.

“That’s not true.”