Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Three: Dinner Potion
“It’s only been one day… and we’ve already reached the third floor!?”
Around sunset, when Karen was informed they had reached the third floor before she realized it, she was shocked. Having been absorbed in reading the thesis in a corner of the rattling wagon, she hadn’t even noticed they’d already passed through dungeon gates twice.
Right outside the gate, a dense forest covered in white snow spread before them. Looking at the cold landscape, Karen buried her neck tightly in her coat’s fluffy collar.
“One day per dungeon floor is just an average, or rather, a guideline.”
“I’ve heard that, but I didn’t think it would be this fast.”
“It just shows how strong the knights are. Especially having Master Zenkel come along was a pleasant miscalculation.”
At Sepl’s words, Karen nodded repeatedly with interest.
Thanks to Licht, they were apparently advancing at quite a speed.
But if they were going this fast while carrying baggage like Karen—
“Does that mean Mr. Julius is advancing even faster?”
“Most likely. Honestly, it wouldn’t be surprising if he’d already arrived at the tenth floor and started challenging the boss.”
“Amazing!”
Karen gasped at Urte’s words, but Urte shrugged her shoulders.
“But since the dungeon’s state hasn’t changed, it seems he hasn’t defeated the boss yet.”
“How does it change when a dungeon is cleared?”
“The air changes so obviously that even you would notice immediately, Karen.”
“Wow…”
Would the change in air when a boss on the tenth floor of a dungeon was cleared affect medicinal herbs and other magical plants? Not just magical plants—it might also affect non-magical plants inside the dungeon. If she could witness it, she’d collect samples to take back, Karen resolved strongly.
“So, you’re making dinner for us, right, Karen?”
“What are you making?”
“What I make depends on what you two collected for me.”
The standard style of dungeon exploration was to keep moving while eating travel rations like herb hardtack during breakfast and lunch, then stop at night for dinner and rest.
Since Karen couldn’t wander around the monster-infested dungeon collecting things, she basically left collection along the way to Sepl and Urte.
“I caught a snow rabbit. You need meat during dungeon clearing after all.”
“Meat is important.”
“I got mostly roots. Would’ve been nice to find better stuff, though.”
Saying this, Sepl spread open the mantle he’d been wrapping things in, revealing various root vegetables tumbling out.
“Root vegetables! Given the dungeon’s climate, they’re exactly in season! They’ll definitely be delicious!”
“So when you kept saying you wanted these gathered whenever winter came, it was because of that ‘season’ thing, Little Karen?”
“Exactly!”
“You found quite a haul of vegetables.”
Gottfried suddenly appeared and peered at Sepl’s hands.
“It’s difficult to gather edible plants in Ehlertt’s dungeons.”
“Really? In that case, local dungeons sound difficult to conquer.”
Karen answered in place of Sepl, who had frozen in surprise at Gottfried’s appearance.
At Karen’s words, Gottfried tilted his head.
“As long as you have herb hardtack, food isn’t an issue. Besides, monsters in the Ehlertt territory’s dungeons are relatively easy to hunt, and especially below the tenth floor of the territorial capital dungeon, there are many mineral deposits. With a certain level of skill, it’s easy to earn money, making it popular with adventurers.”
“Little Karen, adventurers exploring the royal capital’s dungeon generally don’t make proper meals either.”
“Come to think of it, that’s right…”
The people who truly needed the crops gathered inside dungeons were those living outside them. The people actually clearing dungeons normally didn’t collect or cook different things to eat every day, but instead ate the herb hardtack they brought in.
“Well then, I’ll get started on cooking—no, compounding.”
“I’ll take care of butchering the snow rabbit for you.”
“Thanks, Urte.”
In addition to the snow rabbit meat, there were carrots, daikon radishes, burdock root, and other things Sepl had gathered… Since they were ingredients in season during winter, perhaps they could be found in this dungeon with its midwinter climate too.
Karen looked down at the ingredients with a small knife in place of a kitchen knife.
“But seriously, this becomes a potion? To my eyes, it just looks like you’re randomly cutting up all the ingredients and boiling them… and I just randomly collected the ingredients too!?”
“It will, Uncle Sepl.”
Karen smiled brightly while taking out a secret tool from her bag.
“Ta-da. Universal panacea base!”
The moment she took it out of the bag, the aroma of curry roux wafted out, and Sepl and Urte looked shocked.
“Why are you making a panacea in a place like this!?”
“That’s right, Little Karen! If you use a panacea now, it won’t work later when you need one!”
“Don’t worry about the cooldown time.”
To the flustered Sepl and Urte, Karen smiled brightly.
“Because all I have to do is break it as a panacea!”
Taking the orichalcum alchemy cauldron off the fire, Karen tossed in the curry roux with a plop.
Sepl and Urte screamed.
“Eek! My monthly salary!? Or maybe my annual income!?”
“Wh-What are you doing! Such a precious thing, you…!”
“Just kidding.”
Karen grinned slyly.
“One of the reasons I came along was that I could serve potion meals to everyone, so I won’t break the potion.”
“Y-You…! Don’t scare us like that!”
“That’s bad for the heart.”
“I heard your conversation, but doesn’t that leave the fundamental problem unsolved? Karen. I’m grateful to be fed a panacea, but do we need it right now?”
To Licht, who had interjected, Karen smiled and returned her gaze to the alchemy cauldron.
She stirred the contents and said:
“As long as I use this curry roux to make curry, each time I make it, it becomes a different panacea, so it’s fine.”
“A different… panacea?”
“Originally, the reason I could heal the Bloodline Blessing of Master Sieg from the Ehlertt Earldom was that I could make potions with the effect of ‘lowering fever’ using various ingredients. If the ingredients are different, even potions with the same effect are judged as different potions, and no cooldown time occurs.”
Karen held the appraisal mirror over the alchemy cauldron where she’d dissolved the curry roux to check, then looked up at Licht.
“This block is a solidified panacea, and if diluted, becomes a small panacea potion. If someone other than me dissolves this curry roux in hot water, it becomes a panacea called ‘minced vegetable curry’—but since I treated the additional ingredients as panacea ingredients, it’s become a small panacea potion of ‘snow rabbit meat root vegetable curry.’”
Karen looked dissatisfied at the appraisal results.
“I thought it would at least become a medium panacea… monster materials are still the bottleneck, huh?”
“Eh, did the snow rabbit I collected cause problems!?”
“No, no, I’m just still inexperienced and can’t handle magical materials well enough.”
Monster materials could be appraised successfully. So she should have about the same level of “understanding” as other people, and with Karen’s current magical power, it should be sufficient, yet she couldn’t handle them as she wished.
And there seemed to be additional factors at play too. Karen had used a magical potion already completed as curry roux panacea to create another panacea. She’d never heard of combining two magic potions, so it wouldn’t be strange if there was a problem there.
She had simply wanted to quickly eat curry using curry roux, and it had become a different panacea. Since this wasn’t a situation she’d anticipated, there were many mysteries for Karen too. If she returned to the royal capital and asked Yuluyana, she’d probably receive some advice.
“In other words, if you wanted to, you could immediately make panaceas that don’t trigger cooldowns?”
“Yes, that’s right. Though we might get tired of curry every day.”
“…So this is what Julius meant when he told me not to stop you.”
“Did you say something?”
“Nothing.”
Looking puzzled at Licht’s response, Karen pulled herself together and stood up.
“Everyone! Today’s dinner potion is complete! A small panacea potion of ‘snow rabbit meat root vegetable curry’!”
“Ooh!”
Though they must have heard Karen and Licht’s conversation, the knights got excited.
“Those who want to eat, please line up with your plates!”
Since Gottfried took the initiative to line up with his plate, Alban and the other knights were acting as quiet as mice.
Having finished serving and eating her own portion of curry, Karen muttered as if savoring it:
“Field research is so fun…!”
“We’re not escorting you for field research though!?”
“Oh, of course, I also want to go meet Mr. Julius.”
While startling the serious Alban who had promptly come for seconds, Karen fired off questions in rapid succession:
“How’s the taste? How’s the effect as a potion?”
“The taste is… delicious. I shouldn’t need the panacea’s effects, but my body feels lighter. But more than that—”
“I’ll give you some extra meat.”
“…”
Karen whispered conspiratorially, then gave the dubious-looking Alban a generous helping of snow rabbit meat in his curry seconds.
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