BXBX NOVEL Chapter 348
Edited by Gumihou and Onionpi
Please read this at dot com
“Well, this is... a really busy place,”
Busy was an excellent word to describe the City of Rosendal.
Food stalls lined the streets of the City of Rosendal. [5] [6] Each of them exuded its own unique smells and sounds as stallkeepers did their best to entice people to come and try their food.
That’s right, we have just arrived at Rosendal, [1] after taking a detour on the way. The detour was ‘Stress Relief Hunting’ where Fer, Sui and Dora-chan [6] rushed into a densely forested wood to track down something interesting that had caught Fer’s nose.
Normally, it would take about a month to get to Rosendal from Carelina by carriage. However, it took Fer Express less than half the time to get here. Even with the ‘Stress Relief Hunting’ detour, it took us only 12 days to reach Rosendal.
[8] Willem-san had told me to ‘Report to Rosendal’s Adventurer’s Guild when you get there, please’ and that he had already informed the Guild Master of Rosendal Adventurer’s Guild that I will be coming.
Anyway, the Adventurer’s Guild Master of Rosendal turned out to be a nice chubby old man called Giannino-san. Quite fitting for a guild master of a city famous for this peculiar ‘meat dungeon’.
[9]
Giannino-san was quite excited to see me.
“It’s been a few years since an S Ranker dropped by here,” he said happily. “We have a few high-level missions that could use your attention...”
“Oh, er, is that so?” I said. “I’ve just arrived in town and I haven’t decided where to stay yet. How about I visit the guild again once I settled down?”
The nice Guild Master agreed and so, I visited the Merchant’s Guild next to rent a house for our accommodation. [5] This time, I rented an 8LDK property that once belonged to a retired high-ranking Adventurer.
The property was pretty close to the city centre, the Adventurer’s Guild as well as the entrance to the meat dungeon.
The property being so close to town meant that we were also close to the many stalls emitting the smell of grilled meat and the voices of stallkeepers calling out for customers. This attracted Fer and Dora-chan’s attention and they clamoured to go out. Even Sui, who was usually tucked away in my leather bag rode on Fer’s back as she kept glancing around.
“Ah, you there! Try out our meat! Delicious grilled meat seasoned with a secret sauce!” an old man called out at us. [5]
““Oi,”” Fer’s voice came to me through telepathy.
“You want this?”
““Umu,”” Fer’s glaring eyes were stuck on the old man’s skewered meat.
Ah, he’s drooling too. [2] Wait, so was Dora-chan. Sui was vibrating non-stop on Fer’s back.
[6] Wow, that old man’s secret sauce must be something.
““How about 10 each?”” I asked through telepathy.
““Mu, I can eat more than that,””
““Don’t you want to try food from other stalls?””
““Of course, but 10 will only make me more hungry.””
“... ...” I’m not exactly sure what logic Fer’s stomach was based on but in the end, I ordered 20 for Fer, 20 for Sui, and 10 for Dora-chan.
“Boss, 50 skewers, please,” I said.
“Oh? 50 in one go?! Thank you very much, that will be 3 silver coins. I have 30 on the grill now, the next 20 will be ready shortly. Please wait for a while.”
I handed the 3 silver coins to the old man and received 30 skewers in one go. [6] Suddenly, I felt the eyes of three top predators at me. Wait, no, their attention was on the skewers.
“Ahem, excuse me, may I use the space behind your stall?”
“Oh, please go ahead!”
I moved to the vacant space just behind the old man’s stall and worked to transfer the grilled meat from the skewers onto plates. Everyone gets 10 each, Sui and Fer will get their seconds later.
“Oh my, you feed your familiars well, eh? That’s really good stuff!”
“They work very hard, so they deserve the best,” I said. [6] It’s true, all my wealth and power came from this trio of gluttons.
“Hahaha, what a great master you are, brother!”
“I’m glad you think so. Oh, please add one more skewer to the grill. I’d like to try one too.”
“Ou! Of course, here you go, all freshly grilled. Yours is on me,”
“Wow, thank you!” I set my grilled meat skewer aside and prepared Fer and Sui’s seconds for them first. [6] I know enough about grilled meat that letting it rest a little first would improve the taste.
Finally, I bit into my single skewer, “Delicious!”
The sauce has a sweet and savoury quality to it that was similar to standard earth BBQ sauce. The meat itself has a moderately firm texture and was shot through with fat. The more I chew, the juicier it felt.
“It’s good, right? I’m very proud of my skewers!” [3] said the old man happily.
““Umu, this is really good,””
““Yeah, after all, meat grilled over charcoal is always good!””
““It’s delicious~!”” [5] [6] Too bad the old man couldn’t hear their gushing praises.
“Wow, you guys sure eat fast,” [7] I said, eyeing the empty plates.
““Humph, this is nothing, I want more,””
““Eh, I’m alright though,””
““Sui wants more too~!”
“Yes, yes, I understand,”
““Hmm, but what kind of meat is this? I think this is the first time I tasted something like it,”” commented Fer,
“Eh? Isn’t this some kind of Orc meat?”
““No, the fat is comparatively lighter than Orc meat, even the higher-level ones,””
[6] Wow, as expected of a pro. I took another bite out of my skewer and chewed contemplatively. I think I get what Fer is saying?
But, just what kind of meat could it be for a long-lived carnivore like Fer to have never eaten it before?
[5] Hmm, I might as well ask the expert, [3] “Excuse me, what kind of meat is this?”
“Oh, this? It’s the Dungeon Pig. It’s a special species of pig that could only be found in the meat dungeon. There are lots of them at the middle level so you can harvest a lot, gahahaha!”
Hoo~~ so it’s a creature that’s unique to this dungeon.
How interesting.
“Well, it’s not rare in this town but if it’s your first time here, you should try as many dishes made from our own homegrown Dungeon Pig! Freshness and quality guaranteed!”
Fer, who had been listening to the old man closely made an ‘I see’ sort of sound. There was an intense look in his eyes.
It was the look he gets when a prey appeared in front of him.
I have a feeling the Dungeon Pigs might be wiped out by Fer soon...
How will the other Adventurers feel about this?
How am I going to stop him?
Questions filled my mind but I have no answer to any of them.
[6] Anyway, let’s go and explore the other stalls first.
Just as the old man described it, most of the stalls sold food made with the Dungeon Pig. [5] [1] There were restaurants offering Dungeon Pig Steaks, stalls selling Dungeon Pig Sausage as well as the ever popular Dungeon Pork Skewers grilled with all kinds of sauce.
Rosendal certainly deserved its title for being a food mecca with every restaurant or stall coming up with their own unique way of serving up the local signature meat.
Take the skewered meat, for example. Some stalls use a secret sauce like the old man, while others grilled their skewers with just herbs, herbed salt or some kind of salt water-based marinade.
The variety of flavours set it apart from other cities which tended to serve one type of food only.
Perhaps with so many stalls and restaurants in one place, they had to work hard to stand out. One way was by developing a unique signature flavour.
By the way, there were also quite a few stalls using something called Dungeon Beef from a creature called the Dungeon Cow, another indigenous dungeon creature that could be found in the middle levels.
From what I could tell, it tasted a lot like beef from overseas. [1] So, it should be good in stewed dishes.
Fer, Sui and Dora-chan all said they like the Dungeon Pigs better but wanted to hunt some Dungeon Cows too.
For me, since the meat came as a Drop item, no dismantling is needed so let’s just get as much meat as possible.
After collecting this pertinent information on the ingredients, I mean, the dungeon here, we spent the rest of the day eating from all kinds of stalls and restaurants until everyone’s full.
[Gumihou: Hmm, since English has pig/pork, cow/beef in the vocabulary, I just adjust as logic dictates]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken – Added Details, because there’s not enough, Eguchi-san
[9] Pitifully little information was given re the ‘nice chubby guild master’ who was ‘excited about an S class visiting them’. His name was revealed in the next chapter but might as well use it here.