CH 200.2

Chapter 200.2: Result of Exploration

『Minogorilla Encassed in Ice』： Minogorilla sealed into ice block. Since it is only sealed, there’s a chance that it might be still alive. It is a fresh ingredient. Mouth-watering, isn’t it?

『Huge Kokko Encasssed in Ice』： A huge kokko encassed in ice. There are a lot of scars left on its body, was encased in ice right after it died.

『Mandragora』：Long time no see, all-purpose curse ingredient.

Though their result seemed to be lackluster compared to the first team, the fact that they found mandragora was enough to satisfy me.

But then, it seemed Class Rep’s team had quite a lot of trouble when they picked up this mandragora. I mean, it was just as their legend says— the scream they raise when you pull them out is enough to knock you out.

「Uhm, it did nothing like that to both Mei-chan and me though.」

Was that simply because of the individual difference? Or, unorthodox vocations such as shaman and berserker had a natural resistance to those kinds of things?

Well, they might use Sakura’s defensive spell and have Asuna pull out the mandragora with sheer grit. Ueda and Nakajima seemed to be useless in this case.

「Mandragora should be growing en masse in one place, I think it’ll be much better for me to pick it up in person.」

It seems I would have to join the exploration team sooner or later.

Lastly, the hunting team. Since their main job was finding ingredients, it was Mei-chan’s turn this time but—

「*Lick*――THI-THIS IS! *Lick*, *LickLick*…」

「Wait a minute, Mei-chan, how much are you planning on licking those drugs?」

It was something retrieved from govu, the goma’s white powder which I was already familiar with. And Mei-chan had actually kept licking on that with a shocked look on her face.

「Cou-Could it be, she has actually become a drug addict?」

「Kotaro-kun, this is sugar!」

「Eh, seriously? Let me see――*Lick*」

Thi-This sweetness is definitely that of sugar!

I thought it was goma’s white powder since they had the same colour, but upon a closer look, the colour and luster along with the shape of the grain were clearly different.

「Amazing, isn’t this almost similar to normal sugar?」

「Yeah, this is definitely granulated sugar.」

I had no idea about the difference between sugars such as refined, castor, and granulated, but it could be a world of difference to a chef like Mei-chan.

「But then, why was the goma holding onto something like this?」

「Isn’t it because it’s delicious?」

Well, finding such refined sugar in this dungeon survival life was akin to a miracle but… Even if that wasn’t the case, the most important fact was the mystery about how the gomas got their hands on this obviously, manufactured sugar.

「Since the govu carried it during the hunting, it means this sugar is a luxury good only available to the elite.」

Since the goma, the small fry was holding on to the drug, the sugar was undoubtedly a precious ingredient. There’s a possibility that only the one living on the desolate island has access to sugar.

They got it from the direction of the ruined city, huh. From what we’ve seen, there weren’t that many food ingredients over there.

Since that’s the case, they could be cultivating sugarcane somewhere.

「No, the most important step is the extraction of sugar from the raw material… They might have surprisingly advanced civilization.」

And yet, the gomas who got defeated by the hunting team was no different from the ones we had defeated so far. Rather, they’re obviously poorer than the gomas residing around the gomas’ pyramid back in the jungle tower.

Since that was the case, it meant that the gomas in this place weren’t the ones with excellent civilization, they could have gotten a hold of this sugar from elsewhere.

「The question is, where did they get this sugar from…」

I might have to investigate this matter.

「Sugar, want… More… Sugar…」

Mei-chan who couldn’t hide her greed seemingly wanted to charge in and hunt those gomas as soon as possible.

But well, it’s not like we’re going to let her do that. The production of the new equipment was about to begin.

「Well then, with these monster materials, we should be able to make something new based on the prototype.」

「….」

「Where’s your reply, Takanashi-san?」

「Ye~s.」

Her motivation was abysmal. Should I turn this part into a black company for real?

Bless the dungeon, Takanashi-san, we don’t have to worry about missing the last train in this place. Let’s add a bed and quilt for a nap in the entrance too. In that way, you can keep doing alchemy outside of break time.

「Let’s start with weapons first. After I clean and get rid of the rust with simple alchemy, you’ll see the item and decide whether we can turn it into an enchanted weapon or not.」

「Eh, so that means Kotori can enjoy the hot bath when Momokawa-kun is doing your job, right?」

「During that time, feel free to dismantle the werewolf and huge kokko over there.」

Since I had experience fighting against the huge kokko before, I knew that their material was suitable for defensive gear. And though this was my first time seeing the werewolf, I reckoned their hide would be tough. I knew that it wouldn’t be as reliable as metal armour, but we might be able to use their hide as clothes or underwear.

By the way, I would like to dismantle everything so that I won’t miss any useful materials.

「Eh? Ko-Kotori… do I have to… Dismantle them?」

「Yeah.」

「N-No… Impossible…」

Takanashi-san looked like she was about to cry as she looked at the corpses of the huge kokko and the blood-stained werewolf.

「Don’t worry Takanashi-san. Oh right, I’ve prepared the perfect working clothes for you too so that you can go wild during the dismantling process.」

The working clothes I made with spider webs would be soiled very easily thanks to their pure white colour, but still, the quality was superb, and I could prepare as many as I wanted. That’s why one could go wild and dismantle all those wonderful materials.

「NOOO~! KOTORI CAN’T DO THA~~~T!」

「Ah, she ran again.」

Can’t be helped. Maybe I should add some sort of shackle on working clothes to prevent her from escaping.

「Mei-chan!」

「What’s the matter, Kotaro-kun? Shall I bring Takanashi-san back?」

「Let her be. We’ve to go back to our station after taking a bath.」

I had to do this, even if I had to to work by myself.

I’ll tell Souma-kun and Class Rep later about Takanashi-san’s bad working attitude and ask them to do something about it.