Ch 143 -- Manticore

　　We began our subjugation of level 27 with something to eat, naturally. I got out the rest of the cabbage rolls I had made back at the inn in Doran and served them up. Dora-can was satisfied with one serving but Fer and Sui, as usual wanted more. Giving in I quickly grilled some Orc General meat marinated in miso since the cabbage rolls were the last of the ready-to-eat food I had prepared and stored in my Item Box. All I had left was a lot of cooked rice, nothing else. Where had it gone? I counted on my fingers, it had only been, what, four days since we entered the dungeon and the mountain of food I had spent two days non-stop preparing had been polished off already? The true culprits were Fer and Sui-chan of course, Dora-chan's eating habits were nothing to speak of and me, well I didn't eat that much myself, did I? Did I? I poked my belly experimentally, there wasn't a lot of muscle admittedly and it did wobble a bit... it meant I'd be cooking the meals for all of us from now on rather than just dis.h.i.+ng them out. Ah well.

　　After finis.h.i.+ng eating and taking a short break we headed off through the woods before us. Fer said at the speed we were moving at we'd get to the level's boss some time this evening. I wondered what sort of monster we'd be facing this time -- the 26th level's boss had been an S-ranked Vasuki so I couldn't expect anything less than that on this level. The bosses were sure to get harder to defeat the further down into a dungeon you dived, after all.

　　I'd leave the subjugation of this level's boss to my three contracted monsters, I wouldn't take part in the battle to come. I couldn't even imagine me fighting an S-ranked monster. Sure I have state abnormality nullification and Perfect Defence, but facing up to monsters like that? I'd drop dead from the shock if I even tried. My sombre thoughts were interrupted by Fer.

　　"There's something up ahead. My turn, I think." Fer said.

　　Oh, it looks like monsters. I peered ahead, a cl.u.s.ter of Wild Apes in front of us and then-- Flas.h.!.+ Boom! A lot of dead Wild Apes behind us. The next monsters we encountered were dealt with by Dora-chan and then Sui-chan in turn. I did my best as the party's official drop item collection guy but we were in a hurry and we often left items of little interest behind just as we had in the first few levels of the dungeon.

　　The one thing that did stop us in our mad rush through the forest was, of course, our belly clocks. Time to eat.

　　"We've run out of things to eat so I'll have to cook something." I said as we stopped in a clearing and Fer put up his Barrier. "Hang on a minute." We had fought through the previous 26 levels on what I had made beforehand saving us time. From now on we'd be taking it slower while I cooked for all of us. Right now I needed to make something quick and easy... well, and it will have to be filling, to build up stamina for the coming boss battle.

　　Since we were on on the 27th level there were no other Adventurers around. That meant I could use Net Super freely. I ordered up garlic sprouts, yakiniku sauce (roasted garlic flavour) and and white sesame seeds. Garlic does wonders for stamina.

　　I took out the Black Magic Cooking Stove from my Item Box while trying to choose between Orc General and b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bull meat but I quickly decided on the beef since we had eaten Orc General meat earlier. Either kind of meat stir-fried this way was going to be delicious though.