After that, we stayed busy defeating odd monsters and securing all sorts of ingredients.
The Land Kraken was essentially just an octopus that lived on land. They were slow-moving, meaning even a rookie adventurer could take one down with a ranged approach. That said, they were significantly stronger than a Goblin. If you approached one carelessly, it would spit ink at you, and if it managed to entangle you, breaking free was a nightmare. I felt that anyone challenging them in close-quarters combat would need a fair amount of skill.
They might be a bit too much for farmer adventurers to handle, though. If they could hunt them, the supply of octopus would shoot up, and I could start popularizing takoyaki. Actually, if I made takoyaki a trend first, adventurers might start hunting Land Krakens more actively. Maybe I should even set up a takoyaki stall in front of the dungeon sometime.
Of course, you can't have takoyaki without wheat flour. In this dungeon, you can actually harvest it right off a monster's back. There’s a turtle monster called a Grassturtle that grows greenery on its shell, and a subspecies of it lives on this floor. This particular type specialized in grains, meaning we could harvest both wheat and rice. They were docile creatures as long as you didn't attack them directly, so even farmers could gather from them without trouble. We grabbed a bit ourselves while the turtle just snoozed away.
The cow-type monsters were a bit more of a challenge. Specifically, the Wild Holstein. When defeated, they dropped milk—pre-bottled in small glass jars, for some reason. It was an ingredient I definitely wanted to stock up on if I was going to be making sweets.
They were an unusual Rank D threat for this floor, making them dangerous for rookies. Since you only got a tiny bottle of milk for all that risk, they weren't exactly a popular target. Unless you were in a dairy-farming region, there wasn't much of a culture for drinking milk or using it as an ingredient anyway. Without the demand, it made sense that no one wanted to hunt them.
That said, since it would eventually become a key ingredient for ice cream and various other sweets, I expected them to become popular eventually. Beere seemed to have his eye on them already, too.
With our fighting strength, defeating them was easy, but gathering those little bottles one by one was a massive pain. Instead, I decided to just milk them directly to get a bulk supply. However, Wild Holsteins are incredibly aggressive, so there was no way to do it leisurely. I had several golems pin them down while I used a Golem Milking Machine to get the job done quickly. I would’ve liked to automate the process, but they struggled so much that a standard golem would’ve been smashed to pieces. Still, I managed to get about fifty liters from each one, so I called it a day after finishing off the fifth cow.
We spent the rest of the time gathering spices, vegetables, fruits, and anything else within reach. By the time I looked up, the surroundings had grown dim. This floor’s lighting was synced with the world outside, so it was already evening.
"Maybe I got a little too carried away...?"
"I'm starving over here..."
I had been so focused on securing ingredients that I had completely forgotten about lunch. Shiroru, who had been frolicking along with me until just a moment ago, looked drained now that she had realized how hungry she was. Halfa and Spira seemed to be at their limit as well, constantly rubbing their stomachs.
"Master, we want a feast today!"
"We worked really hard!"
"Requesting reward. Specifically, dinner."
"Please!"
It seemed the Petit Golems were no exception. You guys shouldn't actually need food as long as you have a supply of magic power, though. You all just eat as if it's the most natural thing in the world now. Well, I didn't really mind.
We beat a hasty retreat from the dungeon and met back up with Rowell and Garna to start on dinner.
"I've got it! Since we have octopus, let's do takoyaki! Russian Takoyaki!"
"Wait, what? Is normal takoyaki not good enough?"
"Hehehe... Since we're making them anyway, I'm going to force the Mohicans to eat some too!"
While I was thinking about what to make, Shiroru suggested Russian Takoyaki. I had expected her to ask for takoyaki, but I didn't think she'd go for the roulette style.
"Nice, nice! I'm in!"
On top of that, even Pino jumped on board. These two really loved this kind of thing. Even though the last time we did this in Aingurna, they had ended up being the ones stuck eating the extremely spicy takoyaki...
No, wait, maybe that was exactly why? Maybe they wanted to increase the number of victims besides themselves.
I didn't particularly mind. While some might think it's not good to play with food, I felt that as long as the ingredients didn't go to waste, eating while having a noisy, fun time was perfectly fine.
Besides, with my Luck stat, there was no way I’d end up with the "loser" takoyaki... right?
I asked for everyone else's opinions, but there were no particular objections. Rowell did give a wry smile, though.
"Extremely spicy takoyaki is fine, but how about trying out various other fillings too?"
"Muscle-yaki, right, Halfa?"
"That's it!"
Halfa and Spira seemed to have remembered the Muscle-yaki that the muscular adventurers were making back in Aingurna. Well, names aside, it wouldn't be bad to experiment with different ingredients. Since we were going all out, why not have a full-blown Takoyaki Party?