Multiverse Gourmet Hunter

Marcille hurried over and stopped beside the Red Dragon’s lifeless body, which lay sprawled among the rubble.

Her expression was complicated.

She had spent all that time carefully preparing the magic circle for Laios’s plan, only for every bit of that work to become unnecessary.

Marcille glanced at Haruto, who stood nearby examining the dragon from every angle.

She was certain he had played a major role in killing it.

Whatever had happened, the Red Dragon was dead now.

The more important task was finding Falin’s body and resurrecting her.

Laios understood that as well.

He returned Haruto’s longsword, picked up his own, and walked straight toward the dragon’s abdomen.

Drawing a deep breath, Laios poured strength into both arms and brought his blade down with a sharp rush of air.

A metallic clang rang out.

Sparks flew as the sword bounced away hard enough to leave his hands numb.

The strike had left only a shallow white mark across the Red Dragon’s scales, without so much as a crack.

Seeing that Laios could not cut through them, Marcille stepped forward.

"Let me do it."

"Give me enough time to finish the incantation, and I can blast open its abdomen no matter how resistant it is to magic."

As she spoke, Marcille raised her staff, clearly ready to begin casting.

"No!"

Laios hurriedly stopped her, his expression unusually serious.

"The Red Dragon stores a huge amount of flammable fuel inside its body. If your spell ignites it, the entire thing could explode."

His gaze unconsciously wandered over the dragon, and a trace of anticipation appeared in his eyes.

"The explosion could ruin the dragon meat. This is an incredibly rare ingredient."

Everyone turned to stare at him.

Realizing what he had just said, Laios awkwardly added, "Falin’s body is still inside too. The explosion might destroy her remains."

Marcille reluctantly abandoned the idea of using magic.

That still left them with the problem of opening the dragon’s body.

Senshi suddenly reached into the pack on his back and pulled out his kitchen knife.

"Use this," he said, holding it out to Laios.

Chilchuck narrowed his eyes at him.

"So it really isn’t an ordinary kitchen knife, is it?"

He had suspected as much for some time.

Senshi’s cooking pot was made from adamant, a metal treasured even among dwarves.

There was no chance the knife he used alongside it was anything ordinary, though Senshi had never explained its origins.

Senshi looked at Chilchuck with a hint of pride.

"This knife can cut through the bones and hides of any monster."

"I maintain it carefully every day. It may be the only mithril kitchen knife in the world."

He handed the blade to Laios.

After accepting it and inspecting it closely, Laios murmured, "I’d love to show this to Namari."

When it came to weapons, Namari was the true expert.

"If Namari found out about it, she might kill Senshi on the spot," Chilchuck remarked.

"That does sound possible," Marcille agreed.

Namari took weapons extremely seriously. She would lecture someone for ages over poor maintenance alone.

If she discovered that someone had forged mithril into a kitchen knife, Marcille could easily imagine her attacking Senshi in sheer outrage.

Senshi calmly nodded.

"I had the same feeling. That is why I never mentioned it."

"I have no interest in smithing, so for me, turning mithril into a kitchen knife was the best possible use for it."

Laios was not particularly concerned about that discussion.

He cared more about whether the knife could cut through the Red Dragon’s scales.

He returned to the dragon’s abdomen and placed the tip against the spot he had struck earlier.

With only a small amount of pressure, the blade slid smoothly into the dragon’s body.

"It’s incredibly sharp!"

Astonishment flashed through Laios’s eyes.

He gripped the handle and slowly drew the blade downward.

Before long, he had removed a piece of dragon hide taller than a man and more than ten centimeters thick, revealing dense, dark-red meat beneath it.

Haruto had already known about Senshi’s mithril kitchen knife.

Even so, seeing it perform so effortlessly gave him an idea.

He should gather some adamant and mithril for himself.

The kitchen knives he currently used were well made, but ultimately still ordinary tools.

They were perfectly suitable for common ingredients, yet when faced with the flesh and hide of a high-level monster like the Red Dragon, they were nowhere near enough.

Perhaps it was time to forge a personal kitchen knife of his own.

Considering the powerful ingredients he might encounter in the future, Haruto believed he had two options.

He could forge it from the finest possible materials and create something that would last permanently.

Alternatively, he could make a knife capable of growing stronger over time.

Obtaining truly supreme materials would depend heavily on luck.

A weapon that could evolve alongside him seemed far more realistic.

Adamant and mithril were both excellent materials and could perhaps be incorporated into such a knife.

While Haruto considered the possibilities, Laios and the others began carving through the Red Dragon’s abdomen.

Coming back to his senses, Haruto drew his longsword and used Shu, one of Nen’s advanced applications, to wrap the blade in aura.

Its sharpness increased several times over.

Haruto then joined Laios in cutting through the dragon meat.

With his assistance, their progress accelerated considerably.

Even while he worked, however, Haruto’s thoughts remained focused on Falin.

He could provide ordinary meat from Gourmet Restaurant and use it in place of the Red Dragon’s flesh as material for her resurrection.

The problem was that he knew nothing about the current condition of Falin’s soul.

Replacing the material recklessly might cause the resurrection to fail.

In the end, Haruto decided not to interfere with the process.

Once Falin had been revived, he would explain the hidden danger within her body to Laios and the others and urge them to leave the dungeon as quickly as possible.

As long as Falin never encountered Thistle, they should be able to avoid the events that would otherwise follow.

Haruto did not particularly care about any changes this might cause to the original course of events.

If Laios’s party never came into conflict with Thistle, the Mad Mage would probably have no reason to make large-scale alterations to the dungeon’s structure.

That meant the labyrinth was unlikely to descend into chaos.

Without Laios and the others interfering, the seal on the demon known as the Winged Lion would also remain intact.

The dungeon could continue existing in its current state for a very long time.

That outcome would benefit Haruto as well.

As long as the dungeon remained stable, he could return to this world once his strength had grown sufficiently.

When that day came, he might even seize control of the entire labyrinth for himself.

Turning the Winged Lion into a dish was not entirely impossible either.

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