Vol. 13 - Ch. 749 - Overflowing Excitement, and Fantastic Curry!

"Time for another round! This is the best place to grind for equipment if we want to challenge advanced dungeons! There's no time to waste!"

"Alright, we get it, so calm down, will you—Kyaa!"

My excitement was at an all-time high. 

After our first rare-boss fight, we continued the grind, and in the following tens of rounds, we also obtained «Flute (Rare Boss)» and an advanced-grade weapon «Frost Dagger: Hyurela» from the gold chest. The latter was now Karua’s weapon. It brought another surge of excitement, and inadvertently, I reached out for Sierra for the dance—she'd pulled this gold chest—but she blocked me with her shield.

I had my arms around her arm and shoulder, though before I could've begun, she pushed her Kite shield between us, frantically trying to push me away while her face gradually took the shade of red. 

Ah, maybe she was embarrassed to go for a twirl dance with me? Uh-huh, that wouldn't do, Sierra. These moments were precisely where we ought to give free reign to our excitement! How else would you enjoy it, eh?

"Come now, Sierra! Let's dance together! We now have a foot on a new road, and soon, we will step into a new world!"

"J-just calm down, Zephyr!"

"Aah?"

Eventually, it became a rather strange situation where Sierra and I tried to jostle the shield, I tried to pull it away while Sierra continued to hold it tightly. It continued until Lana jumped into the fray and delivered a hand chop onto my shoulder.

Of course, it didn't hurt. If anything, it felt quite soothing, though I kept that part to me. It was like a pat on shoulder, but it slightly pulled me out of my excitement. 

"Haa, haaa. You finally stop. Geez......"

Sierra placed her hand over her chest, sorting out her disordered breath. 

Her face was still red. Well, it didn't seem like she was upset or anything at me from her expression. Hmm, perhaps the day wasn't far when I finally broke her defense and pulled her to dance along with me. 

"Geez, Zephyr. There's time and place for everything. It's time to head back now."

"Wait, what? It's already that late? Damn it, and we just got our hands on another flute too."

"Yes, it's THAT late. It's already 7 PM. This dungeon only has constant low light, so this might've thrown your sense of time off."

"Mhm. It's always dusk here. But my stomach clock is never wrong."

Ester showed me the watch, and Karua nodded to that, her stomach rumbling at the same time. 

Whoever said time flies like a stream when you're having fun must've experienced the same. 

Maybe, I would've noticed it somewhat in another time, but today, the drops were so amazing that I had forgotten all that in excitement. It reminded me of the days when I had been so absorbed in games that I wouldn’t even notice when the sun was up. Man, those moments feel like you'd just broken out of some enchantment. 

Ah crap. I completely forgot. Putting myself aside, I had to make sure girls get to their places before it's too dark. And I also had promised Karua curry.

With great struggle, I pushed aside my urge to continue the grind, and decided to wrap up for today.

"Phew...... you're right. Let's have curry when we're back."

"I agree!"

With Karua's cheerful reply, we put the dungeon behind our backs. Her eyes were practically shooting light. She must've been waiting for that, I guess. 

"Alright then, everyone. Great work today! We're wrapping up."

"Great curry today!"

Huh, did my ear just ring, or Karua's pronunciation of 'great work today' was strange? ...I must've misheard. 

We made our back, and had our dinner at the guild house. Guild house also had showers, so girls didn't mind having dinner there.

"Phew, now I feel uplifted."

"Nothing beats a shower."

"It's really great to have a shower in the guild house. It can always come handy when we're running late at night, or there's a meeting. ...Well, aside from the eyes of boys."

"Curry's preparation is almost done~."

"Mhm, but fortunately there's no boys that would hurl that kind of gaze. Still, Zephyr could've at least shown some reaction."

"I agree."

I'd called out for the dinner, but for some reason, I found myself at the receiving end of stares from Sierra and Lana. 

Why? I wasn't even looking toward them though?! I was literally straining every fibre of my being to stop my eyes from glancing their way! 

Seriously, why the hell do girls have to look that attractive when they're just out of the shower? Sometimes, I even wondered if they'd some sort of passive charm skill naturally. Hell, they're in their academy uniforms—their equipment was put for laundry—that I almost see them for most part of the day, so there's no way I should be suddenly finding them that sexy. No, I need to get a grip on myself. Calm mind, me!

As for me, I hadn't taken any showers, that was for later. I just used «Refresher» to clean myself. So, while the girls were in the shower, I went through dinner preparation. 

To distract myself, I went back to dinner preparation, setting up «Its Curry-Rice», a supreme curry food item I'd ask Mirius-senpai to prepare for us. 

"T-This... Supreme Curry!"

"Bingo. This is the best curry you can find among all the curry recipes, and it's so difficult to make that not even «Curry Pot» could match this. Apparently its taste is unmatchable, so I had always wanted to try some. Oh, and as a bonus, it also provides a 24 hour boost, unlike the day boosts which end as soon as day changes. And the stronger the effect, the better it tastes."

I explained the specifics while serving it to Karua. 

There were two types of buffs you could acquire from food items—Day based, and hours based. The former lasts for only the day the dish was eaten, regardless there were 23 hours left, or 1 minute, but no more than that. Hours based buff was self-explanatory, it began from the moment you'd eaten the dish to the mentioned time frame. 

That's why I'd prepared this dish even though it's already night, and there was no more dungeon plan for the rest of the day. Epic, wasn't it? Oh, and the buff from this food item was «ATK +12%». Quite serviceable if I say so.

As a fact, I'd already served that as an offering to «Sachineko-sama», and «Koneko-sama»...—hold on a minute. Would buff affect them too? 

"Come, take your seat, everyone. —It's dinner time."

"Karua sure is excited too."

Karua had already taken her seat, her expression sharp. She must've been hella impatient, but she kept herself until everyone had taken their seat. It was obvious from her tail flailing with intensity. 

Other girls slipped a smile at her reaction and took their seats. I also sat down, and brought my hands for prayer before starting.

"—Second!"

"Already?!"

"It's THE BEST!"

I had barely taken my second bite when Karua voiced for a second serving, her plate squeaky clean. 

Her cheeks were puffed like a balloon, so I could see how she ate but...... yeah, it was still bizarre and incomprehensible to me. 

"Alright, there you go."

"Hnnn!! Thank you, Zephyr!"

"Take it easy this time, alright? At least savour the taste."

The buff didn't change in any form even if you'd second serving, but I put that aside for today. We'd just gotten such banger drops, after all!

"Amazing, this is truly delicious! Call the chef!"

"Guild house doesn't have that service, Lana."

"But indeed, the balance between spice and sweet is just exquisite. The flavour is profound, and the taste is exceptional."

"I wonder just how many spices they must've used. We've had curry so many times, but this is just... incomparable. It's the best curry I've had."

Heh, it seemed the dinner was a grand success.

Well, to be frank, even I could barely hide my astonishment. 

We've had «Curry Pot», a drop item from a gold chest, which could make curry far better than random chefs, but after tasting this, I'd to say I underestimated the chef job. The instant spoon touched my mouth, I'd been thoroughly in its captivity. This was the sort of thing you'd want to shout "Holy Cow!!". Seriously, how in the world did she achieve this? 

I could notice the faint touchup from «100% Mellow Apple Juice», so maybe that's what brought all the difference? Or perhaps, she'd used different spices? I also couldn't rule out the effect from her skill. 

Hmm, it appeared Mirius-senpai was soon going to find herself busy. 

"Thank you for the food!" x5

After the curry dinner, it was time to disband. 

Karua had asked for another serving. I was worried she would've finished everything by herself, so I ad-lib there was only enough for a second serving, and served her regular curry. And would you know, she finished up tens of serving.

Her stomach had inflated to appear like a balloon. I knew it wasn't the first time, but man, sure it had me wide-eyed in astonishment. I was worried her uniform might rip apart.

I escorted her off to her dorm, while other girls left for noble dorms. Once everyone had departed, I made my way to certain guild/

"Sorry, Marie-senpai. I know it's late."

"Oh geez, stop with those pleasantries. I'd never mind a recipe as exquisite as this at any moment of the day!"

"Sounds like even your excitement meter is off the roof, Senpai!"

I could relate. There was no way you wouldn't be jumping like crazy at a recipe drop from the intermediate dungeon's strongest boss. 

Well, this one was only a silver chest recipe. It was the only one we'd gotten today that fit Marie-senpai's job, regardless it didn't diminish her excitement. 

Hehe, let's see how she would react to it now. 

"As a fact, Marie-senpai, I'd want you to take a look at this too."

"What is—OH MY GOODNESS?! T-this... is «Brave Mithril Equipment Series» recipe, and even a full set?!"

Next, I showed her the set recipe for my job. This was one of the advanced-grade equipment I'd really wanted. 

Albeit, in the equipment category, it was classified as Armor-type. This sort of equipment required metal or monster carapaces to be processed which was outside of Marie-senpai's expertise. Or to put it other way, this was a job for Aruru. 

But, there were some parts that'd definitely required her hands, a «Dress Maker» category job instead of «Blacksmith». 

Anyway, why I'd shown Senpai this was—

"Say Marie-senpai, what do you think of working together with Hannah, and Aruru to craft this set?"

This was going to bring us one step closer to the advanced dungeon.