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This chapter has been replaced with a new translation on [2024-06-29]. Comments may refer to the old translation.

I’m awfully exhausted, you know…

I left what was beyond the gate for later, and went back the path I’d come, while picking up the fangs, blue meat, and wing-like things, probably the small dragons’ drops, which were lying there in place of the corpses.

…It’s still not even evening.

After washing and drying the big dogs’ skins, I grilled the meat of a small dragon¹ like earlier and ate it. I noticed that there was a message, informing me that I had obtained a skill called “Cooking★”.

I wonder, I’ve healed my wounds already, so should I go to sleep for today? Wait, let’s ponder a few things first. I’m still not tired, and doing so might make me drowsy… right?

Hm~… Come to think of it, me struggling with the long-hair dog means that I won’t be able to defeat the boss beyond that gate, you know… I still need to level-up a lot more.

Let’s postpone the allocation of STP and SKP and check the status screen for now.

…Huh? Isn’t my HP rather high? Since I’m level 33, shouldn’t the HP with 330 + 30 STP be 390? That’s the amount of 3 more levels, you know. Though it might not be impossible, since my MP was increased thanks to some skills.

Hm? Could it be…?

I took a look at the details of the “Level” on the status screen.

Oh!? Seriously? These level-ups are a lot better².

“…Hah~~,” I unintentionally gave a big yawn. I was properly sleepy now.
Good night.

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I woke up. Good morning.

Today, I’ll also be leveling up. Which reminds me, I obtained “Cooking★”, didn’t I?
I spent 10 SKP to raise it to the second stage.

Gah, I get it, you know, I get it³! Yep, those trees with heart-shaped leaves have fruits that look like white mandarins. Huh, you can eat those, can you?

Since it would have been problematic if they turned out to be poisonous, I’ve ignored them so far, but an instinct tells me, that I can eat them. Also, if you squeeze that fruit over meat, it’ll spread a moderate sweet and sour taste… that’s the impression I get.

Same as last time, and the one before that, I seared the steak on a hot rock. However, it was somewhat different from the usual small dragon⁴ steak.

First, the color, I now knew the perfect timing to sear it. Then the smell. Why would it be so different, merely by raising the cooking skill? Finally… the flavor. It made me swallow my saliva.

“…Thanks for the food!”

The taste from squeezing that white fruit and sprinkling its juice over it…

“It’s so tasty~~~~!” I shouted unintentionally. It was that delicious.
It’s good, so good~~!

…Phew. I ate and ate.

Now, shall we go leveling up? For this round, I have 460 MP.

I know that there are 14 magic beasts that drop light-green magic cores and one that drops a blue one in the dungeon. From this round on, I’ll probably only need a Lv1 Thunder emission for the ones that drop light-green cores.

Finally, I’ll defeat the long-hair dog by drenching it and then showering it with electricity, as I did before. Last time, it took 3.5 Water Emissions and two Lv2 Thunder Emissions to deal enough damage. This time, two Water Emissions and then two Lv2 Thunder Emissions should be sufficient.

So, the MP consumption for one round will be 220. I can go for two rounds, then…!
In that case, I’m off~!

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I’m back! As for this time’s results:

I obtained 22900 exp, which brought my total to 40690. My level reached 41. I didn’t spend any STP or SKP⁵. I now had 400 STP and 406 SKP available, and my MP rose to 700.

So, I can go for three rounds tomorrow, right?

Incidentally, I hit upon a good method to carry the materials this time, so I was able to harvest everything I wanted from the magic beasts. Well, I simply found out that the parts that were dismantled and separated from the corpses didn’t disappear, so I merely dismantled them, left them there, and then picked them up on my way back.

I’ll take a nap soon, but it’s still before noon. For that reason, I’ll craft some bags using the big dogs’ skins in the remaining time. I was graded eight out of ten⁶ in home economics, wasn’t I? Heh-heh. If it’s only a bag, I can make it.

It took some time, but I crafted two bags out of the skin from three big dogs.
I’ll use one of them for magic cores, and the other for materials that I find in the dungeon.

It’s already getting dark. That took more time than I thought, didn’t it?
Let’s go to sleep for today. Good night!

Author’s note:
The current status screen:

TL notes:
I thought so the first time I read this, but I can’t imagine the place wherever Alim stores all those materials from the dungeon smelling very nice. Especially those untreated skins would likely develop a rather… noticeable smell, after a few days.

Also, the stats in the second status sheet seem wrong, at least with the information we are given. The base stats should only be 520 and 260 at level 41 before any STP and other bonuses.

1. He only calls it ドラ (dora) in the original instead of the full ドラゴン (doragon = “dragon”). If you ever wondered, why pet dragons are called “Dora” so often in light novels, that’s the reason.
2. The original is closer to “these level ups are making good progress”, but I assume he means the increased stats here.
3. I guess that’s him complaining about all that new knowledge from the skill flowing into his head.
4. He calls it 子ドラ肉 (“child dra(gon) meat”) here. As we later find out, these things are, in fact, called “child dragons”, but Alim cannot know that at this point.
5. The original is “STP and STP didn’t decrease”, which kinda means the same but sounds really weird in English.
6. Is this how grades work in Japanese schools?