C89: EVALUATION MEETING

Thus closed the curtains for Veil’s mountain dungeon exploration.

I then asked the opinions of everyone who were with me.

“I’m pooped.” were the first words that came out of Platy’s mouth.

“Besides, the purpose of remodeling the dungeon was to check whether or not new and useful monsters would appear after increasing its difficulty, right?”

Right.

“And yet, it was ridiculously wide and high that it tired me out just walking around. It was no place to look for useful monsters!”

“Even some of its areas were either too hot or too cold that it drains your stamina,” said Lampeye, in agreement with Platy’s opinion.

True, going all the way to the summit just to hunt for urgently needed monster meat or fur is too inefficient. But if I told them that, they might think I’m looking down on them.

The question of whether dungeons are natural or not is still a matter of mystery.

“In order to generate an abundance of monsters in the dungeon, you’d need a wider space than normal. Besides, the surrounding environment has a huge impact on what kind of monsters are created from the concentrated mana!” said Veil.

That’s why you prepared a variety of environments in anticipation of various monsters?

“The reason why I divided the dungeon into five different areas each with their own different environments is exactly because of that! Even the spring and autumn areas vary in the level of their humidity!” she further explained.

“What’s the status of the monsters we caught?”

“We will be providing you the report regarding that,” said Orkubo on behalf of the monster team.

“First, the dozen square boars we caught can be prepared the same way as we see fit after draining its blood and chopping up its parts for cooking a delicious meal.”

Mhm, they’re pretty much indispensable to us now.

“Next we have the lotuses that we encountered at the second checkpoint.”

“Oh, those spinning tortoises.”

“However, its meat is tremendously stenchy, making it unfit for consumption. On the bright side, its shell is hard and has a fine shape to it, so we’re trying to see if we can use it for something else, maybe as a plate or a shield.”

I see.

The shell does look durable enough to be used as a shield.

I’ll join them in their experimenting later.

“As for the hyelycaon we met at the third checkpoint… We’re still figuring out whether they can be of use or not.”

They just followed us as they pleased.

These wolf-type monsters have instincts similar to that of Canidae and look up to me as their master. They were with us through the rest of our dungeon exploration until we returned to our farm.

“How many of them followed us again?”

“About eight wolves. Currently, they seem to be going around the farm, asserting their territory.”

Oh well, that’s fine with me.

Our farm has also expanded recently, and they can hunt down any pests that try to feed on our crops, so they would be helpful. Although, I do need to make sure they don’t hunt the domestic animals I’ve been keeping, especially the yoschamos.

“Let’s welcome the hyelycaons as new friends to our farm. What about those monster mushrooms from the autumn area?”

“Oh yeah, the ones that make people go wild with their spores. As expected, even their bodies are composed of the same elements, so we can’t really use them for cooking.” Platy explained in exchange.

I can tell. The mushrooms themselves looked eerie enough that it’s not even a matter of whether or not they’re edible.

Though I still want to have some mushrooms, I miss their munchy texture. Maybe we can try growing them with Garra Rufa’s help. If I touch a tree that can be used as its seedbed with “The Hand of Supremacy,” we should be able to grow shiitake or enoki mushrooms from it.

“Lastly, we found no other trace left by Bearmon.”

“…”

“He must have departed for the outside world in pursuit of his training, hoping one day he’d be strong enough to see my Lord!”

…It’s all right. I’m sure we’ll meet Bearmon again.

Well then, a word from me as the owner of this farm.

“It really felt more like an attraction than an actual gathering spot. I’d say it’s inefficient for gathering new ingredients.”

“But Master!” said Veil, almost teary-eyed.

She must have had too much fun while she was remodeling it and imagining the looks on our faces the moment we enter her dungeon. I sympathize with the fun of making such things, but the problem is that getting carried away takes us away from the original purpose of making an efficient hunting ground, so some changes need to be made.

“However.”

“?”

“It was interesting that you divided the dungeon into different areas with their own environments. Thanks to that, I was able to come up with an idea.”

The first checkpoint looking the same as usual aside, from the second checkpoint onwards we had spring, summer, autumn, and winter environments accordingly.

For the time being, their only significant difference is their varying temperatures, but such is an environment’s most basic aspect. The same thing goes for the crops that we can harvest throughout the year.

“It never crossed my mind before…”

“Hm?”

“Farming in dungeons seems like a plausible idea.”

I’m sure some crops would suit the high temperatures of the Summer Area and the low temperatures of the Winter Area.

I’ll need to think long and hard about we will be growing.

“I’d say you did well, Veil.”

As I said that, I patted Veil on the head.

“Yeah!”

And she smiled wholeheartedly.