Chapter 108

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Why is everyone looking at me like they expect something?

Do I look like I have candy in my pockets?

Wait, what’s this? Is this what you guys are after?\nClamshell.

The Clamshell is a bivalve demon. TN: bivalve is the term for something with two shells… I think.\n

It’s about one meter in size.\n

It’s small for a demon, but quite large for a bivalve.\n

If Roxanne stood on one naked, it would be a true Birth of Venus. TN: Birth of Venus is a painting by Sandro Botticelli from the 1480’s.

Even though it’s large, it doesn’t wave.\n

It’s quite plain.\n

I was expecting a large tongue.

It’s not on it’s side, but standing upright.\n

Despite being a bivalve.\n

It’s a mystery how it stands upright without any feet.\n

How it moves is also a mystery.

It moves towards us while standing.\n

It’s speed is about average.\n

Since earth magic is it’s weakness, I use [Sand ball].\n

The Clamshell approaches, and Roxanne takes the front.

There is only one demon, and Sherry is to the side using her spear to pierce it.\n

Miria is to the other side.\n

I have a position between Miria and Roxanne.

The Clamshell makes a charge, and is deflected by Roxanne’s shield.\n

Next, it’s mouth opens up and it spits out water.\n

Roxanne tilts her upper body and avoids it.

There’s also an attack like that?\n

It would hit me.\n

It’s good I’m to the side a bit.

The shell moves again, and the mouth opens wide.\n

It jumps towards Roxanne like that.\n

It tries to sandwich her in it’s two shells.

Roxanne pierces it with her Estoc, and then dodges it calmly.\n

After avoiding the shellfish, she pierces it again.\n

She has plenty of room.

I was scared and stayed back a little.\n

I was at a diagonal position in the back.

“It bites?”

Being sandwiched by a one meter bivalve.\n

It might be considerably powerful.

“It seems so.”

Roxanne answers like it’s nothing to worry about.

“Even though the library book said there was a good chance of being paralyzed if you are bitten, I think being paralyzed might be a certainty after witnessing it.”\n

“If the movement is large, it won’t be able to hit easily.”

There it is.\n

Sherry & I share a glance.\n

Roxanne is ahead of everyone at being able to do these things in the heat of battle.

I use a fifth [Sand ball].\n

Isn’t it defeated with five?\n

I used a sixth shot… but the Clamshell was defeated before it.

“Oh, it’s defeated.”\n

“I did it.”

The bivalve falls to the floor of the cave.\n

Sherry’s spear seems to have been the last nail in it’s coffin.\n

It became smoke and disappeared.

“You did it, Sherry.”\n

“It’s amazing, desu.”\n

“Thank you. I think it was largely because Roxanne pierced the inside of it when it’s mouth was open, and because it’s an aquatic demon Miria’s power might have been strong as well.”

Sherry is pleased.\n

It’s the first time Sherry defeated a demon I tried to use magic on.\n

Roxanne’s weapon has changed to the estoc and our offensive ability has increased.

“Is there extra damage from attacking the inside?”

I confirmed it with Sherry.

“The hard shell didn’t show much damage after our attacks, so I think so.”\n

“Ah, I see.”

It seems like a good thought.\n

It’s not a demon I understand well.

There are various differences when Sherry defeats a demon.\n

If I don’t deliver the final blow, [64x crystallization] does not work.\n

[Increase acquired experience] is also a skill I have.\n

If I don’t deliver the final blow, there might be no bonus to experience.

Sometimes there’s just no helping it however.\n

Even if I don’t finish it, we might get the experience because my magic did most of the work.

Sherry attacked about 4-5 times.\n

With three people it would be about 12 times.\n

Sometimes it’s going to happen.\n

It would be crazy to demand that they don’t attack.

We take on a group next.\n

There are three Clamshell’s, and one Bitch Butterfly.

“It’s coming.”

Roxanne calls out.\n

Roxanne moves her body slightly.\n

Water goes past in the position her upper body was in.

It doesn’t seem to be magic, but cannot be blocked by the shield.\n

Getting wet is also unpleasant, so evading it is better than trying to deal with it.

It’s good that I’m not right behind Roxanne.\n

I’ve been seeing battles for a while.\n

I can foresee the danger of being behind Roxanne.\n

Even I am learning every day.

The Clamshells and Bitch Butterfly approach.\n

The Clamshells come forward after shooting water without delay.\n

It is neither magic or a skill that they use to shoot water.\n

There is no delay because they don’t need to use a magic formation?

There is a three person vanguard against the four of them.\n

I defeated the Clamshell’s with six [Sand storm]’s.\n

This isn’t one of the times where I can defeat them all in the same number of shots.

I need to use another three [Breeze ball]’s to defeat the Bitch Butterfly.\n

Magic is the decisive blow this time.\n

Three people pick up the dropped items.\n

Miria passes me Shell Powder at the end.

“Here, desu”\n

“A clam is a bivalve, is this where the clam ingredient comes from?”\n

“Yes, it’s an item from the Clamshell. It’s a rare item, but doesn’t seem to be as rare as whole fish.”

Sherry tells me.\n

It’s like that afterall?\n

Miria seems to want to say something.

“The clam is dinner tonight, and tomorrow’s dinner will be deep fried whole fish.”\n

“Tomorrow’s dinner, desu.”

I’m not sure if she’s happy or upset.\n

She might be pleased.\n

She might be upset that it’s not til tomorrow.\n

The fish needs time to marinate in the fish sauce.

“Next, please lead us to a place with three kinds of demons.”\n

“I understand. I know the smell of a group with 3 Clamshells and 1 Bitch Butterfly, I’ll do my best to find a group like that with a third demon type as well.”\n

“Please do.”

As expected, Roxanne is reliable.\n

There can be a maximum group of 5 demons on the 16th floor.\n

There are three kinds of demons, and the maximum group size is 5. With all three demons, there would only be one of the other demon type.\n

That’s how things would turn out with this combination.

Some estimations can’t be made in a two to one combination.\n

Like if there were two sarracenia and one other kind of demon.

“Um, I think I’ve found a group with 3 Clamshells, a Bitch Butterfly, and a Pig Hog. How is that?”\n

“Clamshell and Pig Hog together? We should try that out.”\n

“I understand, this way.”

A group with three kinds of demons on Haruba’s 16th floor. Three Clammshells, a Bitch Butterfly, and  Pig Hog.\n

I use six earth spells on the Clamshells, after that the Bitch Butterfly falls from another three wind spells, and then the Pig Hog falls last from an additional three [Water ball]’s.\n

It’s a considerably long fight.\n

It’s quite serious.

“Three [Water ball]’s… We should avoid this combination as much as possible.”\n

“Is that so?”

No matter if I use it or not, the amount of spells needed doesn’t seem to change while using Monk.\n

I won’t stop using Cook, because I want clams.

Next is a group of 3 different kinds of demons made up by 3 Clamshells, a Bitch Butterfly, and a Sarracenia.\n

I use six earth spells on the Clamshells, after that the Bitch Butterfly falls from another three wind spells, and finally the Sarracenia falls from one fire spell.

“Is this combination alright?”\n

“Yes, there’s no problem with this one.”

For Roxanne, nothing seems like a problem.\n

However, prolonged combat is a serious problem.\n

Roxanne isn’t the only one fighting, so there are other things to consider.

I used [Meteor Crash].\n

If they have fire resistance, it might not defeat them. My expectations are off though, because the Clamshells are defeated with a single [Meteor Crash].\n

Why is that?\n

Does [Meteor Crash] have the earth attribute?

Earth magic is a weakness of the Ma Bream on the 12th floor.\n

I haven’t tested if [Meteor Crash] can defeat them in a single blow.\n

I’ll have to test out [Meteor Crash] a bit more.

Miria seems worried, so we finish up on Haruba’s 16th floor for now and head to Bode’s 12th floor.\n

We hunted until we got two whole fish.\n

I got them as our celebration of our passing of the 15th floor.

“Is two whole fish enough?”\n

“Yes, desu.”\n

“It’s good.”

Miria seems to think two is enough.\n

It might be too much.\n

There’s the possibility of getting tired of it quickly.\n

Though it might be too delicious for that.

We returned to Haruba’s 16th floor.\n

I’m using [Fifth job] so I can use both Cook and Monk at the same time.

Since there are up to five enemies, we should have Monk.\n

Even Roxanne might get hit if there are five.\n

It would be troublesome to switch to Monk after someone is hit, so it should be ready in case of an emergency.

I’ve had to sacrifice a lot of my experience gain because I still want to keep [64x crystallization].\n

There’s no other choice.\n

I have to keep doing it until I have a white crystal ready for the auction.\n

If I get clams in large quantities, I can make a profit selling them as well.

The soup I made for dinner was clam chowder, which I hadn’t had in a long time.\n

It is still delicious.\n

Roxanne, Sherry and Miria also think it is delicious to eat.

“Yes, desu.”

Miria doesn’t seem to have remembered the brahim word for clam yet.\n

Even this morning, all she said was “here” when passing the clams she had picked up.

“It’s a clam. Clam.”\n

“Clam, desu.”

Even if she says it, she’ll probably forget it straight away.\n

Should I relate it to fish?\n

It’s a good combination to have the taste of fish and clam together.\n

TN: Scene change, gooo!

“I made macaroni for breakfast this morning, and I’d like some soup later.”\n

“Okay.”\n

“I’ll make the soup.”

We make our plans after leaving the labyrinth.\n

Sherry will make the soup.

White meat, clams, pig ribs, lots of vegetables, and macaroni\n

The macaroni has seafood sauce as a topping.\n

I bought bread as well, so there might be too many ingredients.

“It’s delicious. The clam is very delicious.”\n

“Yes. Master’s cooking is the best.”\n

“Very tasty, desu.”

Clam soup goes well with the white meat.\n

Miria won’t have any complaints about this.

“White meat is delicious, desu.”

Ok, I was wrong.\n

If there is fish involved, Miria won’t notice anything else.

“What is this?”

I try asking near the end of the day.

“Shell powder, desu.”

Since shell powder was used in the tempura, she seems to have memorized it.

“And this?”\n

“Clam, desu.”

Oh!\n

You remembered it?

“I ate it with white meat this morning.”\n

“That’s right.”

It seems it wasn’t useless.\n

Is this the best way for Miria to learn brahim?

We leave the labyrinth and head back home.\n

There’s a message from Luke waiting when we get back.

It’s the thing I was afraid of.\n

It’s quicker than I thought.\n

Some time has passed, and the call from the Duke has come.

“Master, he seems to have made a successful bid for a butterfly monster card.”

Roxanne reads the memo.\n

It seems I’m alright, even after several days.\n

The message is just here because of my successful bid?\n

Butterfly monster card.

“What skill does butterfly monster card give?”\n

“It adds a wind attribute to attacks if put on a weapon, and resistance to wind if put on protective equipment.”\n

“Something like the mermaid monster card?”\n

“Yes.”

I confirmed it with Sherry.\n

Mermaid monster card is the one we used to make the waterproof leather mittens.\n

Mermaid monster card adds the water attribute, and this adds the wind attribute.

Cassia had resistance to the four elements on her equipment.\n

I should make something like that.\n

I have 4 empty skill slots on my damascus steel forehead protector.\n

I could add resistance to all four elements on one piece of equipment.

“I’ll use it on my damascus steel forehead protector. Does it fuse with a kobold monster card?”\n

“It does. It will make the effect stronger, and make the equipment useful for a long time if it’s damascus steel.”

Sherry is positive.\n

She hasn’t failed in fusing anything so far.\n

She’s finally got confidence.\n

It’s a good trend.

“Are there only four attributes that can be added with monster cards.”\n

“Yes, as far as I know.”

The same as the wizards four attributes?

“Okay, we’ll add all four to my damascus steel forehead protector.”\n

“What?”

Sherry stops.\n

I thought we were going smoothly.

“There wasn’t much progress in the research for multiple skills? It should be fine, we won’t overlap any effects.”\n

“Um…”\n

“Don’t worry about it. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.”\n

“Ah…”

It’s hard to test if it has an effect.\n

I was able to test plating by applying it to a demon and watching the effect.\n

It would be difficult to make a demon equip my damascus steel forehead protector.\n

I’d have to capture it, immobilize it, and equip it.

The only thing I can do is test it on myself.\n

Become a human experiment.\n

Use [Fire wall] and put my hand in it.\n

I don’t want to do it.

“That’s right, it would be hard to test the effects. I can understand your anxiety.”\n

“That’s not it. Testing the effects would be difficult, but what if it fails from adding two or more skills?”\n

“I trust that you’ll be fine Sherry.”\n

“Ohhh…”

Sherry looks at me with cold eyes, like I’m some kind of mad scientist.\n

Things are different for a party that doesn’t mind human experimentation for scientific progress.\n

A slave or thief could be bought and shot with magic to count how many until they died.\n

But it would be inhuman to go that far.

If we could conjure a demon, we might be able to test it.\n

There isn’t any other way to test it.\n

There probably isn’t any helping it.\n

I’ll have to accept it as is.

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