We were working up a sweat hunting orcs again today.
It was all to build up a stockpile of orc materials, just as Hiiragi-san had requested. Over our last few dives, we had been roaming the 10th, 11th, and 12th floors, hunting with such intensity that it felt like we were going to wipe out every orc in the area. With my Spatial Storage, I could keep the orc meat and other materials from rotting for as long as I needed. I felt like a walking, industrial-grade freezer.
Even now, my Spatial Storage held nearly a ton of orc materials, yet the hoard continued to grow. This was largely because Hiiragi-san was currently decapitating an orc right before my eyes.
"Hiiragi-san, I think we’ve gathered a pretty decent amount of orc materials by now..."
"You’re right. With this much in stock, we should be fine for a while," Hiiragi-san replied, plunging her skinning knife into the fallen orc with practiced ease.
However, I caught a whiff of something unsettling in her tone.
"You say it’ll last for a while... but exactly how long is that?"
"Let's see. A single batch of soup requires nearly five kilograms of orc material... so I'd say this is about a six-month supply?"
"...All this effort for only six months?"
Yuji gasped, looking at her in genuine shock.
I felt the same way. I never imagined that even securing this much wouldn't last us half a year.
"Oh? Didn't you two know? Even for a standard soup, we use ten to twenty kilograms of pork bones or chicken carcasses at a time. That adds up to nearly a ton a month. Since the orc materials are technically just a secret ingredient, the consumption rate is actually on the lower side."
"Ugh..."
"Are you serious?"
"That’s why I’m diving into the dungeon," Hiiragi-san said with a sigh, revealing a reality that stunned us. I had no idea that making ramen required such a massive amount of ingredients.
"In terms of material costs, it’s easily ten times more expensive than making normal soup. And yet, he provides it to customers without even a proper price hike... Oh, Father... Honestly."
Remembering her father’s stubbornness, Hiiragi-san muttered a low complaint. Yuji and I didn't know what to say. We simply kept watch over our surroundings and waited for her to calm down.
After about a minute, Hiiragi-san regained her composure. Realizing she had let her frustrations show, she cleared her throat to cover her embarrassment, her cheeks tinged a light pink.
"Once more explorers can reach these floors and orc materials start circulating in bulk, the unit price will likely drop. But looking at the current state of things, it’ll be a long time before that happens. Until then, I have to work hard and gather them myself. So please... until the market price stabilizes, would you two mind helping me out?"
"Yeah, of course. I'll do whatever I can."
"Me too."
Hearing the specifics of Hiiragi-san’s situation, Yuji and I couldn't possibly say no.
If they were consuming that much material on a daily basis, it was obvious the shop’s finances would collapse without direct procurement. To prevent that, Hiiragi-san absolutely had to be an explorer.
"Thank you, both of you. I’ll be sure to repay the favor."
Hiiragi-san bowed to us, looking genuinely happy. Well, as for the repayment, I figured I’d just wait patiently without holding my breath.
Having finished our orc hunting for the time being, we descended to the 13th floor.
There must have been very few explorers capable of reaching this depth, as we hadn't passed a single party yet. As we navigated the passages, disarming and avoiding traps, we encountered a specific monster.
It was a frog-like creature the size of a dog, its green skin coated in a viscous mucus: a Giant Frog. It let out a low, gurgling croak, intimidating us.
"Air Ball!"
Hiiragi-san struck first, firing an Air Ball at the monster, but the Giant Frog made a massive leap and dodged. The bullet of wind missed its mark, slamming into the floor where the creature had been and dissipating into a harmless burst of compressed air.
I tracked the Giant Frog as it leaped. It was now clinging to the ceiling upside down, looking ready to lunge at us at any second. As I watched to see who it would target, my eyes momentarily met its own. I lowered my center of gravity. A split second later, the Giant Frog kicked off the ceiling and rocketed toward me.
"Daiki!"
"I've got it!"
Yuji shouted a warning, but I was already in motion.
I sidestepped the incoming projectile, and the moment the Giant Frog hit the ground, I delivered a full-powered kick into its defenseless flank. I felt the sensation of crushing several internal organs through the tip of my boot. The Giant Frog was sent flying toward the wall, spitting up blood-slicked saliva, before it struck the stone and exploded in a shower of gore.
...Gross. That was way too graphic.
"Whoa, Daiki. Don't you think that was a bit much?"
"Yes... that's quite a sight..."
The two of them covered their mouths as they protested. We had grown used to blood through our recent explorations, but the sight of meat fragments plastered against the wall like a blooming flower of crimson made my stomach turn.
We had created a similar sea of blood once before during a battle with a goblin horde, but at least those corpses had retained their shapes. This was the first time I had seen a body reduced to mincemeat.
"Yeah, sorry. I might have misjudged my strength."
This was the first time I had landed a full-force kick on a monster. My attack power was simply too high for creatures on these relatively shallow floors. In a game, it would just be a "critical hit" that depleted the HP bar, but in reality, it looked like this.
Unless the monsters were from much deeper floors, they would probably all just burst like that Giant Frog. In other words, every time I used my full physical strength on a lower-level monster, I was going to trigger a splatter movie.
We looked away from the wall until the remains vanished. Naturally, there was no drop item.
"I thought I’d grown used to blood, but seeing a body end up like that is a bit much."
"Indeed. And if the monster is blown to bits, I can't even use my knife on it."
Hiiragi-san pulled out her skinning knife, looking annoyed that we had lost the loot. Well, you can't skin something that's been turned into a paste. It was one thing for a Giant Frog, but if I did that to an orc, Hiiragi-san would lose the meat—a nightmare scenario for her.
"Kokonoe-kun."
"Yes?"
Hiiragi-san looked at me with a sharp, warning gaze.
"When we fight orcs, could you please use Shiranui? If they keep exploding like this..."
"Yes, ma'am. Understood."
I’d been put on notice. From her perspective, it was a perfectly reasonable request.
Watching our exchange, Yuji seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before muttering to himself.
"Still, putting Daiki's crazy kick aside... we probably need to get used to sights like this, don't we?"
"...Probably."
"...Yes."
Yuji was right, but it was a depressing thought. Having to desensitize ourselves to the sight of living things being blown apart was traumatic, to say the least. But the fact that it was an undeniable necessity made it even more hopeless.
Was this just another side effect of being over-leveled for the early stages? If we had grown stronger at a normal pace like other explorers, we likely wouldn't be encountering situations where our enemies explode in a single hit.
I let out a sigh and made a reluctant proposal.
"Then, for the sake of getting used to it, should I kick a few more?"
I swung my raised right leg back and forth, waiting for their opinion. Deep down, I was hoping they’d say no.
Unfortunately, that wish went ungranted.
"...I guess we should."
"...Yes."
"...Alright."
It was a reluctant consensus, but since we were all in agreement, there was no choice but to proceed.
Sigh. Now, where are the frogs?
After turning several more Giant Frogs and other monsters into mincemeat, we called it a day.
For the first time in a while, my stomach felt knotted. I didn't actually throw up, but I definitely wasn't going to have much of an appetite tonight. I never thought I’d realize that killing something cleanly with a sword or spear was actually the "polite" way to do it.
As expected, no monster could withstand my kick. The only exceptions were the larger ones, like the orcs. Because of their sheer mass, they didn't go flying and explode against the walls. Instead, their abdomens simply burst upon impact, severing their upper and lower halves. Their entrails spilled out, creating a different but equally horrific splatter scene. To make matters worse, the orcs didn't die instantly. Seeing them crawl toward us with their insides trailing behind them was straight out of a horror movie. The fear and revulsion I felt in that moment was something I won't soon forget.
Honestly, I would have preferred they just hit the wall and vanished.
"Today turned into a much more intense dive than I expected."
"Yeah. That was the toughest one in a while."
"I agree. To be honest, I don't want to look at meat for a few days."
"Me neither."
None of us were going to be visiting the butcher shop anytime soon. Looking at raw meat would definitely trigger flashbacks of today’s scenes.
"Still, it was good to learn early on that using a skinning knife on meat fragments from an exploded monster doesn't work. From now on, we’ll have to be more tactical about how we kill them."
The hypothesis I’d developed while talking to Saori-chan seemed to be spot-on. Not a single item dropped from the monsters that exploded. Since even the skinning knife failed to produce results, it confirmed that the damage rate inflicted on a monster directly affects its drop rate. An explosion is 100% damage, which likely sets the drop rate to 0%. If the base rate is zero, no amount of probability modifier from the knife will help. Zero times anything is still zero.
This was something I’d need to verify more formally later.
"True. It’s not worth the effort if we kill a monster and get nothing for it. I have no interest in working for free."
"Dungeon exploration is expensive, after all. I’d really like to avoid taking a loss on a dive."
"Same here."
As Yuji said, exploring isn't cheap. Between transportation, food, and equipment maintenance, the costs add up quickly. Luckily, since we were only doing day trips, we didn't have to worry about lodging fees yet. Still, we needed to make at least ten thousand yen per dive to make it worth the trouble.
We continued chatting as we made our way back up to the 1st floor. Once I confirmed no other explorers were near the stairs, I turned to Hiiragi-san.
"Alright, before we head out... Hiiragi-san, could you give us a Cleansing?"
"Of course. You two, line up."
Yuji and I followed her instructions, standing about two meters apart in front of her.
"Here we go. 'Cleansing'!"
A shower of glowing powder rained down on us. After about five seconds, the light faded, leaving our bodies and clothes as clean as if we had just showered and done laundry. This was the result of Hiiragi-san’s dedicated efforts to raise her proficiency.
While Yuji and I checked ourselves over, Hiiragi-san cast the spell on herself as well.
"Thanks, Hiiragi-san. Alright Yuji, the usual."
"Got it."
I pulled three cooler bags out of Spatial Storage, handed one to Yuji, and slung the other two over my shoulders. We needed Hiiragi-san to remain unburdened so she could focus on keeping watch. Even though the 1st floor only had weak monsters, we couldn't afford to be careless. Getting ambushed right before the exit would be the worst.
"Alright, let's move."
"Yeah."
"Yes, let's go."
We moved quickly through the 1st floor, and in less than five minutes, we had cleared the dungeon.
Once outside, we quickly changed, exchanged our loot for cash, and distributed the rewards. Our current arrangement was that Hiiragi-san took all the orc materials, while Yuji and I split the cash from everything else. The split usually favored us by a few tens of thousands of yen, but whenever I tried to give Hiiragi-san the difference, she refused, calling it a service fee for the storage. For now, we were pooling that extra cash into a party fund.
With the distribution finished, we boarded the shuttle bus to the station and started the journey home.
It had been a long, exhausting day in more ways than one.
(If they weren't sturdy enough, they'd burst just like a water balloon slammed against a wall, wouldn't they?)