I was reincarnated as bait for the summoned hero
“The great lizard meat was incredibly delicious…!”
As Shella sighed with a dreamy expression, I reluctantly nodded in agreement.
“Yeah. Once we get the teleportation magic tool on the tenth floor, let’s go hunting again.”
“Yes! I hope we can get some tail meat this time.”
“Yeah. Let’s look forward to it.”
Even just the foreleg—the wing portion—of the great lizard was that delicious.
The tail meat, which was especially popular and had a buying price an order of magnitude higher, must be incredible.
(It looks a bit off, but the magical beast meat in this world is really tasty…)
If it’s tail meat, it probably won’t look as unappealing as the foreleg meat.
I idly thought that it would make a great broth for a tail soup.
After finishing my after-meal tea, I turned my gaze toward the girl relaxing and the cat on her lap.
“Now that we’ve had lunch, shall we head to the seventh floor?”
“Yes! Let’s go!”
After packing up and storing everything in the [Item Box], we left the dumbfounded adventurer group behind and headed straight for the seventh floor.
Since those with storage skills are rare, it’s best to leave before anyone tries to talk to us.
We’re staying in the city of Anheim to make money from the dungeon, so this time, I don’t plan to hold back on using the [Item Box].
Rather, magic bags are more likely to attract thieves, so I had warned Shella to be careful.
After all, skills can’t be stolen.
The seventh floor was a forest field.
The monsters here were Wild Bears. As expected of a low-tier floor, it was filled with familiar beginner-level magical beasts.
Shella, who had grown quite reliable, took the lead and took them down with her bow.
The drop items were magic stones, meat, or fur. For us, meat was the jackpot. The fur would be sold.
We quickly passed through and reached the eighth floor. This was also a forest field, home to Wild Deer.
The drop items were magic stones, meat, fur, and occasionally large antlers.
Deer leather is cheap but versatile, making it a popular material. While it doesn’t sell for much, at least we could find buyers for it.
The large antlers were apparently used as alchemy materials or catalysts, but since Wild Deer antlers were common, their buying price was unfortunately low.
Not much to expect in terms of points either.
“But the meat is delicious. Boar is great for braised dishes, stews, and fried food. Deer meat is best as a steak.”
We’d probably have to go below the tenth floor to make real money, but for now, securing good meat was the priority.
With Shella and Ketsue enthusiastically hunting down monsters, my job was simply to collect and store the dropped items.
As we swiftly cleared the eighth floor and moved on, Shella let out a surprised shout when she saw the next field.
“The ninth floor! Eh? The sea!?”
“No, it’s a huge river. Looks like we’ll be following it.”
The ninth floor was a vast plain with a great river.
It wasn’t clear water but rather a muddy, sediment-filled river—not something I wanted to touch. However, the land around it seemed fertile.
At first glance, there weren’t any visible magical beasts on the plain, but my [Presence Detection] skill picked up something.
“…Yeah, it’s definitely in the river.”
I really didn’t want to go in. I figured we could just ignore it and move on, but of course, that wasn’t going to happen.
“Get away from the water!”
“Y-Yes!”
I shouted as I slid in front of Shella.
From the murky depths of the river emerged a massive black figure.
At first, I thought it was a giant snake, given its one-meter-thick body, but—
“…Wait, is that a catfish!?”
Looking closely, it had whiskers on its face.
Its body was stout and not as long as a snake’s.
Still, since it was a magical beast—or in this case, a magic fish—it was aggressively attacking us.
Once Shella and Ketsue had backed away, I pulled out a magic weapon from my [Item Box] and unleashed a lightning strike on the giant catfish’s head.
With a loud snap, something cracked, and the air filled with a burnt smell.
Floating belly-up, the massive catfish soon transformed into drop items.
“Alright, let’s see what we got.”
Using water magic, I pulled the floating items toward me.
First, there was a large, orange magic stone, inexplicably floating instead of sinking—it would probably fetch a high price.
Next, I noticed a roughly one-meter-long fillet-like item.
After using [Appraisal], I confirmed my guess.
It was labeled Giant Catfish Meat.
Edible. Delicious when fried.
(My [Appraisal] skill is even recommending cooking methods now, huh?)
Well, that’s useful.
Gratefully, I picked it up and stored it away.
“Tohma ! What should we do about the other fish?”
“Yeah… let’s just collect all the ones that are floating for now.”
Since I dropped lightning into the river, it seems the surrounding fish got caught up in it as well.
I wasn’t sure if they were edible, but as long as they were only stunned, it might be fine. Regardless, I decided to collect the ones that had already died.
“If they’re just floating like this, that means they’re normal fish…”
I had assumed that everything living in the dungeon was either a magical beast or a monster.
Among the small piranha-like fish, there were also crayfish-like river shrimp, normal-sized catfish, and loaches floating in the water.
“Hm? This is… no way…”
Among them, one fish in particular caught my eye.
Half in disbelief, I quickly pulled it out of the water and used my appraisal skill.
“! I knew it…”
This was an even greater find than the Giant Catfish—this was a real jackpot.
“Alright! We’re having a feast tonight, everyone!”
Sheila looked up at me curiously.
Holding up a long, black, eel-like creature with obvious excitement must have made me look suspicious.
“Is that… delicious?”
“Oh yeah! In my country, this was considered a high-class ingredient.”
“That snake-like fish is…?”
“This is called an eel. It doesn’t look great, but if you put in the effort, it turns into an amazing dish.”
Sheila’s face instantly lit up.
“Oh! There are more of those fish floating over there! Ketsue, please!”
“Nyah!”
Ketsue confidently retrieved the floating eels from the river, and Sheila quickly secured them.
In total, we got five eels. They were all plump and looked delicious.
“I’ve seen videos of people filleting eels before, so I should be able to manage… right?”
I used to enjoy watching videos of people grilling eel fillets.
I also liked videos of people grilling fish or chicken over a charcoal brazier.
There was even a time when I got hooked on camping videos where people made Baumkuchen over a bonfire—it looked fun, though it seemed pretty tricky.
“Anyway, tonight’s dinner is grilled eel rice bowls. Once they’re cleaned, all I need to do is marinate them in sauce and grill them.”
The preparation seemed tough, but I’d figure it out.
I had already confirmed that eel sauce was available at the convenience shop.
There was a time when I craved eel so much that I thought about making a substitute dish using saury or horse mackerel grilled in kabayaki style.
I gave up on the idea halfway through, but I had secretly bought the sauce just in case.
Convenience stores surprisingly sell a variety of sauces and seasonings—definitely not to be underestimated.
“Dinner tonight will be grilled eel bowls. It’ll take some time to prepare, so let’s hurry to the tenth floor.”
“Then let’s run along the riverbank to get there quickly.”
“Hmm… I actually want to sprint all the way. Sheila, can you turn into a long-tailed tit?”
If I matched my pace to Sheila’s, it would take too long to reach the tenth floor.
If I carried Ketsue on my shoulder and placed Sheila—transformed into a tiny bird—in my chest pocket, we could shorten the travel time significantly.
When I explained, Sheila reluctantly used her Beast Transformation skill, changing into an adorable, palm-sized little bird.
She was fluffy and incredibly cute.
Being careful not to squish her, I gently tucked her into my chest pocket.
Ketsue, already used to this routine, was calmly perched on my shoulder.
After a quick stretch, I fixed my gaze straight ahead.
“Alright, let’s go.”
As I took off at full speed, a distressed chirping sound came from my chest pocket—but I pretended not to hear it.
