Research Development"Robin, isn"t this Fangworm meat?"
"Hmm? Yeah. It"s crunchy and delicious, and it goes well with ale."
He said that so casually. His food didn"t look any different from what everyone else was normally cooking and eating.
Perhaps this food culture was normal to him, but even I was cautious about such things every once in awhile. In a way, I was similar to a guy who hated Shako. Fangworms were monsters that looked like giant worms with fangs. Frankly speaking, they didn"t look very appetizing, and it was a bit of a bottleneck for me that I didn"t understand their cla.s.sification well.
Whether or not he was telling the truth, it tasted like sh.e.l.lfish. Truthfully, I wondered grouping them into the same category as land-dwelling sh.e.l.lfish would make me less repulsed towards Fangworms.
(TLC note: Shako is a species of Mantis shrimp)
"Theo-kun, do you dislike worms?"
"Well, I hate them, though I"ve never tried one yet."
It was possible to cook Monsters in BFO as well, but most refrained from eating worms.
…In this case, however, I wanted to try it as a challenge to myself. Determined, I put a piece of boiled Worm meat into my mouth… It was certainly delicious and it even had a good texture.
The Worm"s name made me think of it as a monster belonging to a cla.s.s of insects but, as I had thought, it tasted like sh.e.l.lfish.
"Hmm, surprisingly, it"s not bad."
"Right? It"s especially delicious at this shop."
It was already noon when Forest Bird brought us to a shop, which was rather lively with customers that had already entered. The shop appeared to be thriving.
"By the way, I heard you took down a guardian."
"Actually, it wasn"t me, but Grace who did that."
Interest peaked among the Forest Bird members and they shifted their attention onto Grace, who blushed in embarra.s.sment.
"I knew that Grace-san was amazing."
"Doesn"t Ashley-sama also dive into the Labyrinth with you? It seems that Ashley-sama will develop into someone amazing as well."
"Yeah, you can really see that she has grown after going down there."
"N-no, I still have a long way to go."
"Are you comparing yourself to Theo-kun and Grace-san?"
The Forest Bird members exchanged wry smiles with one another.
"What happened to the Guardian?"
"I have plans to turn him into equipment…as well as bacon and jerky."
I explained my plans for the Sword Boar to them while Sheila was cleanly picking out the bones from her fish. Since Boar meat was nutritious, I intended to preserve it and bring it as emergency rations for our trips into the Labyrinth.
"Should I set some aside for you?"
"Although I am curious about the taste, I can"t accept something so valuable."
.
Fitz smiled wryly and waved him off.
"Eh, Irmhild-san is a Lamia?"
"Yeah, that’s correct."
Not only was she found out, she answered truthfully and didn"t even try to hide that fact, now that she had support behind her. Monica smiled after Irmhild"s answer, but the tension among the Forest Bird members rose a little.
"Even though this is my first time meeting one, I wouldn"t have realized it if you hadn"t told me."
"I am able to eat regular meals, and although it"s not entirely pointless, I can’t really eat too much."
Irmhild said as she cut the bird meat into little pieces.
Based on what she had said, she would gradually get weaker if she only drank blood occasionally and didn"t any meals. Perhaps because she was a Lamia, her consumption and absorption of regular meals was bad.
"In the past, my human transformation technique was dispelled if I were to endure it for too long, which very problematic."
"TheDirector and I discovered that."
Sheila supplemented Irmhild"s words with her own.
So the Orphanage Director already knew about Irmhild"s ident.i.ty?
It seems that the way she was now was due to the protection of the Director and Sheila.
"Fufu, I"ve known Sheila-chan for a long time now."
"Yeah."
Sheila nodded deeply. Although we hadn"t had lunch with Forest Bird for a while, the atmosphere was quite peaceful, from beginning to end.
Now then, since I did have plans to make an appearance at the workshop later on, perhaps should I tell Alfred about Forest Bird while I was there? Of course, that was if Forest Bird was fine with it.
I was close with the Forest Bird members and they would eventually learn about the Brightwelt Workshop anyway, but I thought that their impressions would differ depending on whether or not they were told from the start.
"Heeh, such an interesting bunch of adventurers is out there, huh?"
After receiving Forest Bird"s genial consent, I told Alfred about them, without revealing any names, while brewing potions. Just as I expected, he showed signs of interest.
"Well, how should I say this…to put it kindly, they"re your typical Adventurers, and because of that, I thought that perhaps it"d be interesting to hear their opinions as well."
"Hmm…That"s fine. Thanks for telling me about those Adventurers."
Aside from the customers who ordered tools from the workshop and the prototype Monitor, it would be appreciated if outsiders, besides myself, were able to see the items here.
Although Alfred cheerfully smiled, his expression quickly became clouded, and he said,
"I"m sorry, but even though you"ve brought me such a fine story, I was just notified of something terrible."
"What was it? How sudden."
"Well, It"s about Greg."
Alfred didn"t articulate himself very well.
"Has he done something again?"
"Yeah, Miss Mercedia and His Highness Prince Albert gave me the news. It seems that Greg"s matter was reported to the higher ups. It also appears that he complained about it. It should be beneficial for the Adventurers, too."
Alfred smiled sarcastically as I blinked at him.
"According to Greg, the Adventurers were dissatisfied about the meager profits, you know?"
"In short, they"re saying that the problem can be settled with money?"
"That"s right. The Kingdom, which makes a profit from the Labyrinth, is keeping silent, since it doesn"t want to make its relationship with the Guild and the Adventurers that come with the Labyrinth worse. There"s no doubt that it"s trying to preserve its friendly relations with them. Didn"t you know that even the n.o.bles used to be Adventurers? That"s why they were supporting the Adventurers, too. Surprisingly, there was a lot of unexpected opinions on whether it was better to compile a strict budget, including extra money to pay for their silence, or to hire Adventurers and make them local guides."
"Hmm. At the very least, the matter about the Sealed Doors is still a secret, correct?"
"It is for now. It"s not like the Labyrinth will close down, but it appears that His Majesty considered taking the secret of the doors" existence to his grave."
In short, unless the details regarding what was beyond those doors and the matter involving the Moonlight Shrine and the Demons were reported as information, then there shouldn"t be any problems, even if the Adventurers went near those places.
Rather, Adventurers could earn money in those places in the form of requests, or in other words, it could "create jobs" for them. Adventurers could even aim to be employed by the Palace.
"Ah, so the proposal of hiring Adventurers was pa.s.sed quite easily."
"If only it hadn"t been Greg who proposed that."
Meaning, he had tried to rip people off for free at first.
With a "Sheesh", Alfred shrugged at my words.
"On the other hand, Adventurers have pride as well. Fernand, that was his name, correct? I think the group that was with him will keep their distance from Greg."
"I think so, as well, but Greg wants to make Fernand earn many great achievements for him, so he might dig into his own funds to do so."
…Has he really become careless about his reputation?
If there were Adventurers who had taken the proposal, then those guys might need to prepare themselves for any censure from other Adventurers.
I thought that it would be quite difficult for him to continue his attempts to search for things or take people in.
"Well…talking about those guys disgusts me, so let"s put that aside. I"m still making preparations for the Workshop. If there"s something you desire, please don"t hold back and tell me."
"…Umm."
After Alfred asked, I thought for a while and answered with this,
"How about an item that can cast a spell to reinforce the Lunar Worm dress?"
"When it comes to dresses… one would think that it was just something pretty meant for women. The material used for your coat is Lunar Worm thread, isn"t it?"
"Yeah, I can enchant it with my own power, so it"s fine."
In Grace"s case, it was necessary for a third party to cast the reinforcement spell. I thought that if there was a way for the Enchantments to activate on their own, it would put me at ease.
"Understood. Let"s try to create a brooch, then? Even though I"ve thought about various ways to…not only have I considered challenging myself to create such conventional items, I"ve also considered doing extensive research to make new things. It would really help me out if you tell me about the inconveniences you face whenever you go into the Labyrinth."
Hmm…as the saying goes, "Necessity is the mother of invention?"
Inconveniences are inconvenient.
"It would also be helpful if I could communicate with someone who was far away from me, like if ever we got lost or separated in the Labyrinth."
Although there were personal chat and email functions in the Menu Screen of BFO…they materialized through the System Support, which meant that there weren"t any spells present that could do the same within the game.
"…Yeah. That"ll certainly be handy. I"ll think about it for a bit."
The better the Magic Stones, the more techniques could be engraved into them. In short, it was something akin to programming. The important factor to take note of was the amount of reduction in the effect of the technique upon being engraved into the stones. Since good quality Magic Stones were valuable, it would be quite expensive if those were made into luxury items, which was impractical for retail.
"Oh yeah, umm…I have thought of several methods to reduce the scale of the techniques."
Alfred blinked at me after I said that.