I braced myself at the sound of Roxanne’s scolding.
Technically, she was lecturing Milia, not me. While Milia’s tendency to act on her own had subsided considerably, she still had her moments. I could understand why she was getting a bit lax, though. On this floor, it was almost inevitable; things just felt like they were dragging on. Even if a single enemy remained at the end of a fight, as long as Roxanne was the one facing it, she wouldn't take a single hit.
In the end, there was nothing to do but keep working steadily. As it turned out, our exploration of the Bode Labyrinth actually progressed faster than our attempt to break through the fourteenth floor of Halber.
"How far has the exploration gone?" I asked when we stopped by the entrance at noon.
"They’ve entered the twelfth floor," the explorer stationed there answered.
"And the monsters on the twelfth?"
"Marbrims."
"Marbrim... is," Milia repeated, echoing the explorer’s answer for some reason. She turned to look at me with a gaze that was beyond serious—her eyes were sparkling. She was clearly trying to appeal for something. What was it?
"Marbrims are fish-man monsters," Sherry explained, clarifying the situation. "They drop white fish meat."
Fish, huh? Milia continued to stare at me. On closer inspection, her eyes weren't just sparkling; they were gleaming with a greasy, visceral desire. It was a gaze clouded entirely by her appetite.
"I-I see. Then, could you guide us to the twelfth floor?"
I gave in. It couldn't be helped. I pulled the patch containing the Duke of Harz’s emblem from my rucksack, showed it to the explorer, and had him temporarily join our party.
"Understood. Please follow me."
We followed the explorer into the Bode Labyrinth. We arrived in a mundane small room at the entrance, no different from any other floor in any other labyrinth. Once the explorer had transported us, he immediately headed back.
"The Marbrim is a monster that specializes in long-range attacks using water magic," Sherry began her briefing. "It is resistant to water magic, but weak against earth."
"Earth magic, got it. Since it's our first time seeing them, find us a small group to start with, Roxanne."
"Understood."
Roxanne immediately led us to our first encounter. The Marbrim was a monster with two long, spindly legs growing out of the body of a fish. Calling it a "fish-man" felt like a stretch; if you looked only at the head, it was just a fish. I couldn't even tell if that part was supposed to be the head or the entire body. Two legs just... sprouted out of it. Quite normally, in fact.
To put it bluntly, it was bizarre. It felt wrong. It was grotesque. Those spindly legs were exceedingly disgusting. I suppose it qualified as a fish-man, but it looked more like a failed attempt at a Martian.
I blasted one with a Sand Ball, then fired off a few more to finish it. The Marbrim dissolved into smoke and vanished. As gross as it looked, its death was no different from any other monster's. I suppose a Marbrim was just another monster in the end—and since it was a monster, I guess it couldn't be helped that it was repulsive.
When the smoke cleared, a slab of white meat remained. I checked it with Appraisal; it was indeed "White Fish." So that was the drop. It really was just a fish. The Marbrim was a fish through and through.
"Yes! It is!" Milia pounced on the meat, looking delighted as she brought it over. Then, she peered intently into my eyes. Even I could translate what that look meant.
"This will be for tonight's dinner."
"Yes! It is!" Milia bowed her head. Joy radiated from her entire being. We already had the ingredient, and it would have been cruel to make her wait. Based on her reaction, she wouldn't have survived until tomorrow or the day after anyway.
"Alright, let's hunt around here for a bit longer. Roxanne, if you would."
"Yes, Master."
We stuck close to the entrance for a while. Exploration on Bode’s twelfth floor had only just begun, so it was better not to wander too deep. On floors that hadn't been fully mapped, you could stumble into traps like monster houses—rooms packed with an overwhelming number of enemies. There was no guarantee we’d make it out safe if we stepped into one of those.
Wait. I had my Bonus Spells, didn't I?
I decided to test Meteor Crush. Red-hot meteors rained down, pulverizing the monsters. The Marbrim collapsed instantly.
One hit, huh? I’d wondered if it might take two, but it seemed one Meteor Crush was enough for a Marbrim. It could one-shot a Love Shrub, but not a Pig Hogg. I’d assumed the Love Shrub died instantly because it was weak to fire and Meteor Crush was fire-attributed, but maybe that wasn't the whole story. The Marbrim wasn't weak to fire, after all.
I was starting to lose track of the logic. Well, it wasn't an urgent problem. As long as they died, it was fine.
"Amazing... it is!" Milia was wide-eyed, seeing the magic for the first time. I took that as a win, though while her eyes were full of admiration, her gaze was firmly fixed on the white fish meat she was holding. Whether she was impressed by the magic, excited by the "big catch," or already dreaming of dinner was anyone's guess.
"If Meteor Crush is this effective, it should be safe enough to go a bit deeper, right?"
"I believe so," Roxanne agreed.
"There should be no problem," Sherry added.
If both Roxanne and Sherry were on board, it had to be fine.
"Alright, let's explore the inner area then."
I gave the order to Roxanne and we switched to exploration mode. It would be nice to set off some massive fireworks for a change. Meteor Crush was an all-target spell. Since it could one-shot a Marbrim, it didn't matter how many appeared at once. If we hit a small room packed with monsters, I could just wipe them all out in one go.
I wanted to do something flashy. Something dramatic.
With Meteor Crush selected, we pushed further into the twelfth floor. We scattered the occasional stragglers we met along the way while looking for a proper swarm. In normal combat, I tried to conserve my magic and used Durandal frequently to keep my resources topped off. You never knew what might happen in a labyrinth; there might be monsters that a single Meteor Crush couldn't kill. For emergencies, I needed to keep my MP high.
Of course, as is the way of the world, the moment you start looking for something is the moment it becomes impossible to find. It wasn't going well. Dammit.
We searched high and low. Finally, we found it. We opened a door to a small room, and there they were: fish-men everywhere. It was a massive haul. A bumper crop. We were diving straight into a school of fish. I could practically hear the seagulls screaming in my head.
Naturally, I intended to take the whole lot in a single strike. I focused my will on Meteor Crush.
In an instant, I felt my MP being drained away. Something vital was yanked out of my body. The darkness of existence surged over me.
Regret. Oh, the bitter regret. How could I have been so foolish? How could I have been so shallow? Incompetent as I was, I hadn't even considered the possibility. I was dull, talentless, and utterly mindless for not realizing it sooner.
Apparently, all-target magic scales its MP consumption based on the number of targets. If that wasn't the case, then this was just spite. Was the world telling me not to use Bonus Spells? Was the universe itself hostile toward me?
I was depressed. Despondent. I felt like a man who couldn't even spell the word "depression." In Japan, the kanji for it is so complex that people use a mnemonic involving a forest, four, and a son to remember how to write it. Right now, my mind was nothing but that scrambled mess of a word.
"As expected of Master!"
"To take out that many monsters in a single hit..."
"Amazing... it is!"
The monsters had been defeated, but I barely heard the girls. I’d set out to be flashy, but I’d plunged myself into rock bottom instead. I’d tried to vent my frustrations, and ended up in a deep melancholy.
I opened my Item Box and gulped down several Tonic Pills. Once my MP recovered, I managed to pull myself together. To think all-target magic had a trap like that. I hadn't noticed because monster groups usually only consisted of four or five enemies; the incremental increase per head must have been small. But when they were packed in a room so tight they were practically overlapping...
The floor of the small room was littered with items. There had been monsters from the lower floors mixed in as well, as I saw a few Wood Boards on the ground. But above all, there was a mountain of white fish meat.
We’d fought so many that I expected Milia to go sprinting off to gather the meat, but she pounced on something else entirely and brought it back with a look of pure bliss. She had a truly magnificent smile.
"It's a Whole Fish!" she announced.
"A whole fish?"
"It's an extremely rare drop from Marbrims," Sherry explained.
A rare ingredient, apparently. Milia handed me a single fish that was completely intact—literally the whole thing from head to tail. I checked it with Appraisal, and sure enough, it was "Whole Fish." Even after handing it over, Milia continued to stare at me with eyes full of hope.
"W-Well, I guess this will also be part of tonight's dinner."
"Eat! It is!" I had completely surrendered to her demand. It couldn't be helped.
"This is a valuable ingredient that would sell for a high price. Are you sure, Master?" Roxanne asked.
"Whole fish are rare, so they are usually saved for special occasions," Sherry added.
Apparently, in this world too, people ate the whole fish on auspicious days. Despite the number of monsters we’d just killed and the massive pile of white meat, there was only one Whole Fish. It had to be an incredibly rare drop. It made sense that it was reserved for festive meals.
"It’s fine. It’s quite large, so it's not like we can have one each anyway."
The Whole Fish was far too big to fit in a hand—it was somewhere between thirty and forty centimeters long. It was more than enough for one person, though Milia looked like she could probably put the whole thing away herself.
"A little is fine. Milia says a little is fine, too."
"With a whole fish, the head of the household takes the first slice, and then everyone else shares the rest bit by bit," Sherry noted.
I guess the concept of "one fish per person" didn't exist here.
Despite only having one Whole Fish, we decided to call it a day for the twelfth floor of Bode. We spent the rest of the afternoon doing a standard crawl on the fourteenth floor of Halber. When evening came, we headed home.
"Master, there is a message from Mr. Luke," Roxanne said as we stepped inside. "It seems he was successful in bidding for a Bat Skill Crystal."
Our equipment was coming together nicely.
"If we attach that to armor, it increases evasion. If we combine it with a Kobold Skill Crystal, it becomes a 2x Evasion skill," Sherry informed me the moment I looked her way. She was clearly settling into her role as the party’s tactical advisor.
Picking up the crystal from the Merchant Guild could wait until tomorrow. For now, we had dinner to prepare.
Milia prepared the Whole Fish by lightly simmering it in wine and fish sauce. It wasn't a simple salt-grill; the final dish had the elegant look and aroma of a Mediterranean Acqua Pazza.