“The sake is good, but the food is even better! This place is the best!”
“Thank you very much.”
“The Dragon King coming… and for a meal, no less. It makes no sense.”
“I agree with that.”
We recently acquired a large amount of seafood. Most of it was frozen or processed, but we wanted to eat some of it fresh.
Since I’m causing a seafood boom, the people who eat with me naturally end up eating seafood.
And Toragrus-sama visited at that time.
Being a Dragon, she can enjoy raw food, so she’s enjoying sashimi with me.
Also, there’s the meat of the giant whale that Houryuu and the others hunted in the Ocean Dungeon, a huge, unnamed Monster that’s so big that the Support Drones are still dismantling it. Some of it is served as sashimi, yukhoe, and grilled meat.
It’s quite a feast.
“Sake is good, but something warm is more comforting this time of year.”
I don’t drink alcohol, so tea is fine.
“Indeed! Hot wine isn’t bad, but the flavor fades!”
“You’re quite the gourmet.”
She knows her flavors. Well, she is a Dragon, not a person.
“There’s no point in drinking sake that doesn’t get you drunk, right?”
“Well, some people drink to get drunk, but some regions drink to warm up.”
Probably.
“Ah, I suppose there are places like that. Humans are complex.”
“Complex… I wonder about that?”
As a life form, the Spirit Dragon is probably more complex. But human social structures might be more complex.
“Well, it is complex. At least, preparing meals like this is a custom unique to humans.”
“Humans are weak. We die from poison and parasites, so cooking is essential.”
“Eh? You die from poison?”
“Yes, we do?”
Well, among the people here, only Gianna and Beatrice would probably die from poison.
“It adds a nice, spicy accent, though.”
“Humans can’t imitate that.”
There was a poison cuisine boom once. Well, it was on a cosmic scale, so I didn’t get involved.
“It’s delicious, though.”
“I don’t know about the taste, but it’s not worth dying for.”
The poison cuisine boom started with the search for ways to eat delicious poisons without dying. If you neutralize it, the taste also deteriorates, so how about building up a tolerance to eat it? Or changing the components of the poison, mixing it with other chemicals or poisons to make it harmless to humans? They tried all sorts of things.
As for the sacrifices that occurred in the process… well, I don’t know.
“We’ve excluded anything poisonous today, so there’s none of that.”
“Is that so? That’s a shame.”
“I don’t want to die, and even if I don’t die, I might get a stomachache.”
I’ve been given various poison resistances, but I’ve never encountered Sea Monsters before.
These are all Monsters I’m seeing for the first time, so naturally, I don’t have any resistance to their poison. The other members are the same, so I’m making the Support Drones that are dismantling them thorough. I plan to make sure the base members are careful when cooking in the future. I don’t intend to restrict them from fishing or going to the sea, but I’ve told them that if they don’t follow the rules, I’ll have to ban it.
“Besides, there are so many delicious parts to eat, there’s no point in eating poison that might not even be tasty.”
“Well, that’s true! This crunchy texture is irresistible!”
“It’s also delicious to dip it in this hot broth.”
This Dungeon yields so much delicious food. I want to cherish it. I’m seriously thinking about building a mountain cabin nearby.
Hmm? In this case, would it be a beach house?
“Hey, you know a lot for your age, don’t you?”
“Eh? I don’t think so… or do I?”
After the meal, while we were relaxing, Toragrus-sama started saying things like that.
“You knew about my birth, and you know about Dungeons. You seem to have a lot of knowledge stored up.”
“Well, yes. I think I know more than the average person.”
I’m a person from an era who spent hundreds, thousands of years analyzing the mysteries of the universe. Compared to the inhabitants of this planet, I’m definitely in the know.
Also, I have the technology to look up things I don’t know.
“I want to ask you something. What causes the loss of Magical Power?”
“The loss of Magical Power? Not like, movement or diffusion?”
“Yes, loss. Literally disappearing completely.”
“There are various factors, but the most likely is one of your companions, Toragrus-sama.”
Most beings called Spirit Race don’t eat living things, but Magical Power.
They need a biological vessel that can take in a large amount of spirits, which are basically large creatures. Moreover, once their bodies stabilize as Spirit Race, they tend to grow even larger.
If such a huge creature were to eat its fill, creatures would disappear from the continent.
Those who are supposed to protect the planet would never do such a thing. Therefore, they don’t hunt for food and maintain their bodies with Magical Power.
“That’s not happening in my territory… I shouldn’t think so. At least, I haven’t sensed anything like that.”
“I see. In that case, the next candidate is a Dungeon.”
Not all, but some Dungeons absorb Magical Power from the surroundings when they are born. This only happens when a Dungeon Core creates a Dungeon, but it supplements the Magical Power it lacks from the surroundings when creating the Dungeon.
“I can’t find any Dungeons either.”
“Then maybe the Dungeon Core is just absorbing Magical Power? No, that’s unlikely…”
It’s not strange for a Dungeon to appear in a place filled with Magical Power, but if a Dungeon is the cause, a Dungeon should be born. There’s also the possibility that a bare Core, or minerals or Magic Stones before they become Cores, are just absorbing Magical Power.
“Does it happen repeatedly in the same place?”
“That’s right!”
Toragrus-sama, who had been resting her cheek on her hand and looking bored, pointed her finger at me sharply.
“Then the Core is different, and the Dungeon Master feels different too…”
If they absorb too much Magical Power, the Core will collapse and the Dungeon Master will go berserk. Toragrus-sama wouldn’t miss such a presence.
“Could it be the Desert of Loss?”
“Loss? Ah, it is a desert, but…”
“…We Elves are also aware of it. A vast desert without Magical Power.”
“That’s it. It’s not that there’s no Magical Power, but it disappears before you know it.”
“Yes, that’s why I’ve heard that soil where living things can grow can’t be formed.”
The Elves are aware of it too, huh.
“Gianna and the others know about it?”
“Yes, it’s famous.”
Long-lived Elves might travel all over the world. The story might have been passed down from those people.
“Something is buried underground. But we can’t touch it.”
“Huh? You know that much?”
So you’ve already investigated it.
“A hard, unscratchable, metal-like floor. Or maybe a ceiling? Anyway, something very big.”
“I see. I didn’t want to blow up the desert because I didn’t know if there were any living things there…”
“A floor? Is it artificial?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been puzzled for years.”
“Is something living underneath? Then it was right not to blow it up.”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, I guess. Anyway, a wall or floor that even Elves can’t scratch. Is it a Dungeon after all?”
“A Dungeon that absorbs Magical Power from the outside? Well, if there are no intruders from the outside, it’s possible that it’s absorbing from the surroundings instead…”
Assuming there’s a Dungeon Core and a Dungeon Master, and a Dungeon has been created, and no intruders are coming, so it’s absorbing Magical Power from the surroundings instead. That’s a very plausible possibility.
“I don’t think it’s a Dungeon, though.”
“Well, you wouldn’t be asking me if you could be sure… what else could it be? A Mana Thief?”
“A Mana Thief?”
“Stealing Magical Power?”
“Those groups exist, you know.”
The Unified Space Force, private spacefaring companies, and individually owned space warships. Of course, they need supplies.
And there aren’t many people who own space warships in illegal ways that don’t fall into those categories, but they do exist.
And the main fuel they use is Magical Power. The reason is simple: unlike underground resources, there’s no need to mine it.
And those illegal groups sometimes procure Magical Power on planets outside the Unified Space Force’s control. This planet, for example, has abundant Magical Power and stable gravity. The conditions are quite good for procuring large amounts of Magical Power.
“In that case, the underground facility might be a secretly developed landing and takeoff site…”
They usually hide in the desert and appear on the ground when necessary. It’s a plausible story, but… I’d build it in the ocean.
“What are you talking about?”
“…If there were Mana Thieves, they might be coming from the sky. That’s what I’m saying. If we’re dealing with a group like that, we can’t interfere.”
“What did you say?”
“The quality of our equipment is just too different.”
If we’re dealing with a spaceship, we’d need equivalent equipment to even stand a chance. The gear I personally carry is less than a peashooter against that.
“If we’re up against something like that, Toragrus-sama, please run. We can’t win.”
“There’s no way that’s true!”
“No, seriously, we can’t win, okay?”
“That’s impossible!”
“It’s impossible.”
“I’ll win!”
“…Well, shall we try it out? An attack with power far beyond what scorched those scales.”
“Hmm? Th-There’s no way something like that exists, right?”
“It does. I don’t want to use it because it’s dangerous, though.”
“…How much power are we talking about, by the way?”
“Enough to blow away that mountain over there. And of course, I know of even more powerful options.”
Since it’s something I keep in my Spatial Storage, the power isn’t that high.
If it were a spaceship, I could draw energy from the engine, so naturally, it could output even more power.
The Unified Space Force deploys combat ships, but other spaceships are also armed to some extent for debris countermeasures. And if the spaceship belongs to someone who’s stealing Magical Power, there’s a very high chance it’s armed to a considerable degree.
They probably don’t have weapons like a Graviton Flare that can blow up a star… but I don’t know what era this is, so I can’t be optimistic.
“Shall we test it?”
“…Let’s not. But I need to confirm something.”
“Are you talking about the power?”
“No! You should be able to tell if they’re thieves or not, right? Let’s go!”
“…Gianna, do you know where they are?”
“Another continent.”
“Wow.”
Isn’t that going to be a really tough journey?