“Hiya!”

Amelie shouted out as she cut down a minotaur-looking monster. There was a smile plastered on her face that looked almost terrifying on her blood-splattered face.

The monster screeched in pain before falling to the ground and dissolving into light

[She’s really into this…] Kotori thought.

Currently, their group was taking on a monster material request for Minotaur horns which was a well sought-after ingredient. Minotaur horns were strong and made good handles for weapons and other tools, apparently, other people also used them as an aphrodisiac.

When Kotori heard that last bit of information she almost laughed. In her past world, such a notion had almost led a species to extinction, but here it wasn’t an issue since the minotaurs were an infinite resource.

The look on the receptionist’s face when Kotori had taken down the listing and brought it to the desk was also funny

“You want to take this quest?” She asked with a troubled expression

“Yes,” Kotori said.

It was understandable, there really was no reason for a queen’s candidate like Kotori to do quests in the first place. It was not like she needed money. Regardless, the professionalism of the receptionist won out over her concerns and she approved the quest for Kotori. It was a “Silver” rated quest so Kotori normally couldn’t do it but since they had Amelie with them who had a “Silver” plate it was fine.

Going back to now.

This was their first visit to the Labyrinthos and Kotori was standing back as usual. She was more of the type to enjoy “exploring” a dungeon rather than fighting the denizens. She watched her group happily cut down the monsters and she would occasionally use [Gourmet] on the defeated monster corpses and capture their mana before they were defeat.

With the MonMochi she made she fed her spirits and herself. She expected the Minotaurs to taste like steak on account of them looking like cows but rather they had a slightly metallic bloody taste, a bit like blood sausage.

Kotori didn’t bother using [Gourmet] to make a mana buff it wasn’t needed.

They were in one of the side hallways that was connected to the main corridor. If it was quiet enough, they were close enough to other adventurers to hear them fighting as well. This meant the quest was relatively safe and there was little danger that they would lose their way back.

The reason the quest was “B” Rated was for a simple reason. The Minotaurs were tough opponents. This was relatively speaking of course, for Kotori’s party they were simple to deal with but it would take a group of seasoned adventurers to take the quest themselves. A group with probably around 3-5 years of experience.

Kotori’s group simply defied the logic of most human bounds. Of course, even if she understood that fact there were still humans in this world that terrified her.

Amah was one of them. The mana attacks that he was doing to damage the physically strong Hatake still baffled her. Even though, she could make the same attack she had no clue how to defend against it.

She wanted to consult Amah on this, but he was often busy guarding the other queen’s candidate. Apparently, it was a rotating system to prevent the Queen’s guard from getting too attached to one candidate and preventing them from developing loyalties before the queen is selected.

Currently, the one guarding her right now was a woman by the name of Tyrella. She was skilled a fighter and used a rapier that would shoot ice bolts. She wore a light leather bodice, and her blond hair was cut short to prevent it from getting in her face. She was a very typical warrior type. Her stats were on par with Hatake although Kotori would say that Hatake was slightly stronger than her.

Though she was mostly useless since Kotori and her party could defend themselves. So she mostly stood on the side and watched them. At first, Kotori was quite self-conscious of being watched by someone all the time, but she soon learned to ignore it.

Kotori watched as a minotaur was crushed between two earthen walls. She had entered the dungeon with fervor and was busy rampaging around and killing minotaurs left and right. Kotori had told him to take it easy, but Shu only said that he needed to get “stronger” to protect Kotori from even gods.

In response, Kotori could only shrug her shoulders and let him do as he wished.

The reason she was here in the dungeon was not to take guild requests but rather because she wanted to do scouting. According to Fawks, a dungeon-related quest would typically be included in the Queen’s trials so Kotori thought it was important to scout the dungeon herself.

The mana in the dungeon was dense. So incredibly dense Kotori was surprised to feel that she couldn’t even eat it with [Gourmet] it was akin to trying to eat hardened concrete with a metal spoon. She could scrape and some flecks would come off but overall, it was difficult to do.

Though the dungeon didn’t taste that good anyway. The few flecks she ate tasted minerally, like rocks.

Kitsura

I had a dream where I was back in high school again. It was very odd especially since I am finishing my bachelor's in less than 4 months.

 

I hated high school.