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“I’m done, Master! Eh-heh-heh, it’s been several years since I cooked this, so I can’t guarantee the taste…”

Rir had seared meat from the dragons that seemed to be evolved versions of Child Dragons, and made a sauce from fruits and vegetables. The food, which had been placed onto wooden plates, looked awfully tasty.

“I’ll have a bite, then. Thanks for the food.”

I brought a morsel to my mouth.

…The flavor is out of this world. Yummy… way too delicious. Just what is this? Ain’t that like some steak you’d get in an ultra-high-class restaurant? One that has at least three stars¹. Not that I ever ate at such a place, but that’s how it feels.

Rir’s own talent in cooking… plus the maxed out True cooking skill, that’s insane. Maybe I can also make something on that level?

“How does it taste, Master?”
“Super good…! The meat seems to be seared to perfection. It’s like it’s meltin’ the moment it meets the tongue… though it’s still sufficiently fillin’. The sauce, with its sweetness and slight acidity and bitterness, brings out the meat’s flavor even better…!”
“I… I-I-I see! I’m happy to receive such high praise! Eh-heh-heh-heh.”

While she acted a bit bashful, Rir seemed overjoyed. Her tail was going so wild under her skirt, it might tear it to shreds.
I’ve been thinkin’ that for a while, but if I were to peek at her from behind… No, it’s nothin’. You probably can’t see a thing, so it’s fine.

“Well, then… I’ll have a bite, too…”

She stuffed her cheeks with the steak she had cooked. That instant, her already big eyes suddenly became even bigger.

“T-this, t-t-this, this, this is what I cooked?” In her shock, she started fumbling her words.

Well, only natural to be shocked when you’re cookin’ suddenly ends up this good.

“Calm down… Yep, it’s what you made.”
“That… that can’t be… it’s that skill. The skill is amazing, not me.”
“It was delicious, Rir. Thank you for the meal.”
“You’ve already finished? Thank you for putting up with my food, Master.”
“Will you cook that again some other time?”
“Yeah! Of course I will! If it’s for you, I can make it as often as you want, Master!”

Rir seemed truly happy.
To think that she likes cookin’ that much, I had no idea²… Though recently, I’ve also started to cook more, so I think I’ll make tonight’s dinner.

Let’s put that aside for now. I’ve fortified myself with a meal, so it’s time to test out those new powers.

“Rir, sorry ’bout that, but could you move to a corner of the room? I’d like to use the center area to try out the new magic I learned. It’ll probably be super dangerous.”
“Woof, that’s true. I’ll stay quiet and leave you some space.”
“Sorry again.”

Once I checked that Rir had gone to a corner of the room, I went to the middle area. Whenever my spells, which were fairly powerful, hit the dungeon’s walls and floor, they never caused any damage, so the place was likely protected by some strange power.

That means I can try out stuff without holdin’ anythin’ back, don’t it?

Alright… First is that S-Rank skill.

I summoned the Crismon Magic Sword of the Fire God.
I’m sure Kanata woulda love that name.

It had an incredible appearance, incomparable to the Blaze Sword. While that one had been pretty much a lightsaber³… this one looked like a proper sword. It had extravagant decorations, so you could see it was high-quality at first glance, and everything from its hilt to the tip of its blade was the same color… It was a splendid, bright-red sword.

Oh~, not sure why, but it’s excitin’… or rather, it looks super-cool! Let’s try swingin’ it around. Yep, that’s great! This thing’s amazin’, clearly on a different level than the one before, y’know.

“Great Swordsmanship… First Stage,” I tried using the newly learned Great Swordsmanship skill.

That’s insane, if there’d been some target, I’m sure that horizontal slash woulda left a terrible wound. Alright, let’s try that on the floor. Too much of a bother to walk all the way to the wall.

To see how much resistance it would offer, I aimed at the floor and used the same attack again.
After all, the dungeon is protected by somethin’, so it won’t leave any… wha-? There’s a huge gapin’ hole… the hell?

Somehow… I had slashed through the falcon picture at my feet and destroyed it. Said destruction also included my foothold. The sharpness and destructive power of the sword had been too great… is what I’d like to say, but that wasn’t the case. For some reason, there was an empty space below the floor, which looked like some steep cliff, in which I had almost fallen.

Well, I avoided takin’ a dive by holdin’ up my own body with Psychic Magic, so that’s one less issue.

Still, a large hole had opened up in the floor. Wondering how deep it might be, I tried peering down and found stairs.

Stairs…!? Stairs… under the floor… below some picture… which appear after it get’s destroyed… Oh, so in other words, it’s a hidden room! Did I end up discoverin’ some secret by complete coincidence?

Are you serious?

For now, I gotta call Rir. She might know somethin’, and even if she don’t, we can search that place together.

“Hey~! Rir, this is huge, could you come here?”
“What’s wrong, Master!? Are you alright? Did something happen?”

While asking that, she rushed towards me. Indeed, she rushed here.

“Huh… the floor is…”

Arriving at my side with too much speed, Rir was about to fall into the hole.
Managed to catch her just in time with Psychic Magic…

“Woof~!? What is this!?”
“Dunno, but looks like some hidden room.”
“To… to think that something like that was here… Master, what should we do? Should we try going in?”
“Yup… there might be treasure or somethin’ down there.”
“Treasure…! You’re right!”

I slowly lowered Rir and myself towards the bottom of the hole. The room down there was paved with bright-red bricks, and in front of us we could see a large, floating, orange orb. That said, the room seemed strangely wide.

It’s probably some magic room, ain’t it?

“Woah… The hell is this?”
“Well…”

The moment Rir and I looked at each other’s faces, a message appeared in our minds.

TL notes:
Lucky for Shuu to find that entrance by accident, though with his attacks growing more and more powerful, he’d have found it at some point during a fight. The mission seems suspiciously tailor-made for Shuu, who specializes in high attack power, though it remains to be seen if the rewards are as good as the stuff from the one Alim and Mika found.

1. I thought the really good stuff is five stars? Does Japan have a different system for these where it tops out at three stars?
2. The usual dense-protagonist issues.
3. The original is ビームソード (“beam sword”). I assume that’s something like a lightsaber.