Volume 10 Chapter 2 Part 5
「A Boss Taurus, huh?」
I bet that if you go to the sixty-second floor of the Labyrinths, this guy is going to be a regular enemy there, even when he has the word 「Boss」in its name.
「Understood. Let’s have a closer look at it and make sure to dodge its attacks.」
After receiving a briefing from Sherry, Roxanne nodded at her. She was doing that as confidently as always, as if it was already decided.
Well, it’s Roxanne after all. Even if it’s a Floor Boss we’ve never seen before, she won’t have to worry about being hit by it at all.
「Are there any food items that are rarely left behind by Boss Taurus?」
「Yes. Usually, Boss Taurus leaves three types of ingredients: most common one is the sirloin, then there’s fermented milk, and very rarely a zabuton.」
「I see.」
So it can leave rare ingredients when it dies, and multiple ones at that. Sirloin has to be its normal drop, and in that case fermented milk and zabuton would have to be the rare drops I guess.
If we want to have all these rare ingredients, then I should add Cook to my Jobs and aim for the Triangular Boneless ribs from Monotaurus.
I equipped the Cook Job and entered the Boss Room. This time, Boss Taurus, Monotaurus and Cyclops came out one by one. Just like Monotaurus, Boss Taurus was a bipedal cattleman monster with its body about one size larger than that of the Monotaurus. It is about the same size as Vesta, or perhaps a little bit smaller than her.
Boss Taurus looks incredibly stiff-shouldered. It’s a pity it doesn’t have any black and white patches, but it’s a Floor Boss after all, so it has to look differently.
「Did it, desu!」
Miria neutralized the Cyclops, who had a different weak point than the Boss Taurus and Monotaurus and was therefore troublesome. I’ll get rid of Monotaurus first. After that, everyone surrounded the Floor Boss and proceeded to attack it.
Boss Taurus lifts its arms ferociously, but Roxanne dodged all of its attacks. They are so ineffective that I feel sorry for the Boss. Even at the end, it was stabbed by me with a single blow from behind. That is what happens when you surround the Boss from every side.
Boss Taurus turns into smoke and disappears, leaving a chunk of meat behind. Is it Sirloin?
So this one’s a miss, huh? Well, not a miss, since Sirloin is also good, it’s just that it wasn’t a rare ingredient.
As for the Monotaurus, it left the Boneless Ribs behind when it died. Its entire body was covered with brown hair. Since I have not gotten my hands on any Triangular Boneless Ribs just yet, then it has to mean that they are really its rare drop ingredient.
Equipping the Cook Job is supposed to increase the drop rate of rare items from the enemies, but so far it did nothing like that, so is it really working? And if it does work, then should I at least try to get my hands on Fermented Milk? After all, you cannot measure the effectiveness of a Skill after only a single failed attempt, so for the time being I pick up the Sirloin and place it in my Item Box.
「Hmm. So the Floor Boss battle on the twenty-ninth floor is like that as well, huh? As expected, things are gradually getting harder and harder.」
「Yes. As expected of you, Master. Even if it’s like that, there are still no problems for you.」
「It’s getting harder little by little.」
「Let’s do it, desu!」
「I think we’re going to be alright.」
Is Sherry the only one who seems to be reliable after all?
After that, we repeat the Boss battle on the twenty-ninth floor. The battle time has increased, but it’s still not to the extent that we cannot handle it at all. Are we just getting used to it? It’s fine if we just get used to it, but it’d be a problem if we completely lose our sense of danger. I wonder if that is going to happen to us at some point?
On the other hand, even though the time of the battles increased, so did Miria’s odds of inflicting petrification upon enemies, and Roxanne is just as invulnerable as always, so I don’t really feel that it’s dangerous because the battle time has become slightly longer.
Thinking about our battle with the Floor Boss of the twenty-third floor from a few days ago, then the time of battle has essentially doubled.
It’s even more when you think about it from the perspective of the Boss fight on the twenty-second floor, even though these two should be completely different things.
In the first place, both Sherry and Roxanne keep on saying that our Party’s battle time is always short. Is this considered normal? Does it not mean anything? As expected, if you go to a higher floor, things are going to be different.
For today, we are repeating the Boss battle with the Floor Boss of the twenty-ninth floor.
There are three monsters that appear in the Boss battles now, so when Sherry takes care of the two of them, and I will go take care of the other one with my Durandal, then that way we won’t be at risk of getting hit with the area of effect magic.
This is probably the reason why even if the battle time is extended, it won’t be too difficult. The impression that I have might’ve been different if I was only taken to the place with five Monotauruses, but thankfully I didn’t give any such instructions.
If we continue to climb up the floors while following the policy of maintaining maximum possible safety, then should we focus on fighting only groups of five monsters of the same type?
Well, so far we didn’t need to go that far.
Normally, the Floor Boss battles should be much more difficult and take much longer to complete. But with Roxanne shutting down all of the Floor Bosses we fight against, all the battles are a breeze.
I only fear that Roxanne might become too obsessed on fighting against the Floor Bosses and that she won’t be satisfied with the battles with ordinary enemies anymore.
For Roxanne, the Floor Boss battles are her own way of relieving stress. In other words, she’s probably going to want to repeat the Floor Boss battles over and over again. However, no matter how many times we challenged the Floor Boss of the twenty-ninth floor, it didn’t drop either Triangular Boneless Ribs or Zabuton so far.
Oh!
Ah, it’s not a lump of meat.
After the current Boss battle was over, Boss Taurus left a drop that was not a Zabuton, since Zabuton is the type of meat. So that can only mean that this Drop Item is…
「Here, desu.」
It must be Fermented Milk.
I received it from Miria, and once I used 「Identify」 on it, it really turned out to be Fermented Milk. It was wrapped in a thin layer of plastic-looking material, similar to how the Drop Item from the Naïve Olive, Olive Oil, was stored. This means that the Fermented Milk itself must be stored inside of it.
A mysterious liquid left behind by the cowman…
「This is milk, right?」
「This is definitely Fermented Milk. When you drink it, it is much richer than ordinary milk and it’s definitely delicious. However, even though it is definitely a valuable item, not many people choose to drink it as it is. Instead, it is said that it can make any soup dish it is added into much tastier.」
Sherry told me as such. I thought that since it is a Drop Item left by the cowmen that also leaves Sirloin and Boneless Ribs then it is going to be a regular drinkable milk, but as it turns out, this one is actually more of a seasoning rather than anything else.
Maybe I can make white stew with this?
I carefully place it in my Item Box, making sure that the thin layer of film won’t break. And with that, the Fermented Milk has also been collected.
After that, we repeated the Boss Battle once more and got our hands on some more Fermented Milk, but still had no luck when it comes to the Triangular Boneless Ribs or Zabuton.
Judging by the fact that we managed to get our hands on the Fermented Milk, then Cook’s effect must be working properly after all, so I wonder if maybe the Triangular Boneless Ribs and Zabuton are not some kind of premium items that are immune to the Cook’s effects, making them useless.
「Does the Triangular Boneless Ribs really exist? Because some say that it doesn’t, right?」
So Monotauruses come in different breeds? Or was the “brown hair” misplaced there and meant for the Boss Taurus?
Also, you should change “zabuton”. Seemingly, most free dictionaries lack the word as used, only keeping the meaning “flat square cushion”, but it seems to be an alternate name for “haneshita” or “chuck flap”.
Source: https://bokuniku.com/%E7%89%9B/%E3%82%B6%E3%83%96%E3%83%88%E3%83%B3.html
I didn’t think that was actually the name for a cut of steak, but I did figure they must be talking about the chuck flap because the cut does kinda resemble a cushion. Otherwise the drop is out of place, nothing else drops a completed/refined product except maybe the kobolds and their knives (can’t remember if that made it into the LN here, and too lazy to go back and check) but there’s no connection between monotaurs and cushions other than maybe using their leather for the outside, so Occam’s Razor says it must be the cushion-resembling cut of meat.
I don’t know if anyone else would put that much thought into it though, I think it’d be funny to leave it as-is just for the confused readers that’ll be wondering why Michio is cooking and eating a cushion.