Chapter 95
After collecting himself, Haruto swam toward Laios and the others.
The sound of splashing immediately caught Laios’s attention.
He tightened his grip on the sword at his waist and turned warily toward the noise.
Once he recognized Haruto, however, he relaxed and waved with a smile.
"Haruto? It’s you! You made it to the fourth floor too?"
"Yeah. There are far more kinds of monsters down here, so it’s a much better place to find good ingredients."
Haruto swam over to Laios and Chilchuck, speaking in a relaxed tone.
At the very least, yesterday’s harvest had been far better than anything he had found on the third floor.
Laios nodded enthusiastically.
"Exactly! There are so many more ingredients here than on the third floor. We just hunted a Kelpie, and Senshi is processing it now."
After chatting briefly, Haruto looked toward Kabru and his companions, who were floating motionlessly on the surface nearby.
"I didn’t expect to run into them again."
Come to think of it, this was also the second time Laios’s party had encountered Kabru’s group.
"You know them?" Chilchuck asked curiously.
"I met them once before and spoke with them for a little while." Haruto answered casually.
Laios then explained, "They were probably attacked by fish-men and ended up killing each other."
"We need to move them onto land. Leaving them in the water is too dangerous. The fish will start eating them sooner or later."
Haruto nodded and helped Laios and Chilchuck drag Kabru’s party one by one onto the platform of a nearby ruined building, safely away from the lake.
Once everyone had been moved, Laios and Chilchuck began gathering the wheat scattered across the water.
It had spilled from Kabru’s party’s supplies during the attack.
Laios thought leaving it there would be a terrible waste, so he wanted to collect as much as possible.
Haruto had no interest in helping with that.
Following the direction Laios had given him, he went to find Senshi and Marcille instead.
Senshi was standing nearby with a kitchen knife, processing the Kelpie carcass.
Marcille crouched beside him, cutting its fat into small pieces and grinding it in a bowl to make soap.
"Senshi, Marcille. Good to see you again."
Haruto approached with a smile.
Both turned at the sound of his voice and looked surprised to find him there.
Marcille nodded in greeting before returning to her work, while Senshi paused and asked, "I didn’t expect to meet you here, Haruto. Are you looking for ingredients?"
"That’s right."
Haruto nodded and turned his attention to the Kelpie.
"This is a large one. I doubt the four of you can carry all the meat."
"Would you be willing to trade me whatever you can’t take?"
"I happen to be short on ingredients like this. If there’s anything you need, I’m willing to negotiate as long as it’s within my means."
Senshi was briefly taken aback by the request.
After considering it for a moment, he agreed.
"Of course. We really can’t carry all this meat, so a trade would be better than letting it go to waste."
"As for what we need in return..."
Senshi thought for a moment before settling on something.
"We could use flour. A single sack would be enough, if you have one."
With flour, he would be able to prepare some proper staple foods.
However, they still needed to carry the Kelpie meat, so taking more than one sack would only burden them.
At the mention of flour, Marcille immediately stopped what she was doing and nodded repeatedly in wholehearted agreement.
With flour, perhaps she could finally eat something that resembled normal food again.
Not that she was quite as opposed to monster cuisine as she had been before.
Haruto accepted Senshi’s request without hesitation and retrieved a sack of refined flour from Gourmet Restaurant.
He had stocked plenty of basic ingredients like flour before setting out.
Senshi accepted the sack, checked its quality, and nodded in satisfaction.
He then handed over more than half of the prepared Kelpie meat.
What remained was already the maximum their party could carry.
Looking at the considerable amount of meat, Haruto knew perfectly well that one sack of flour was nowhere near equal in value.
Senshi and Marcille did not seem to care, but Haruto was unwilling to accept such an uneven trade.
After thinking for a moment, he took out the cloth bag that had fallen from above earlier.
He removed a gold coin and held it out to Senshi with a serious expression.
"One sack of flour isn’t worth this much Kelpie meat. Please accept this coin as well."
Senshi had little interest in money and immediately tried to refuse.
Haruto remained firm, however, and after several rounds of insistence, Senshi finally accepted the coin.
Marcille said nothing, though the cloth bag in Haruto’s hand looked strangely familiar.
She was certain she had seen it somewhere before, but no matter how she searched her memory, she could not recall where.
After thinking for a while without finding an answer, she dismissed it and returned to her work.
With the exchange complete, Haruto stored the Kelpie meat and prepared to leap back into the lake to continue searching for ingredients.
Then he suddenly stopped.
Remembering something, he turned toward Marcille.
"Marcille, could you cast Water-Walk on me?"
It would make traveling across the fourth floor much more convenient.
He had forgotten to ask Kabru’s party when he met them the previous night.
Then again, even if one of them had cast it for him, the spell probably would have worn off by morning.
Water-Walk was not permanent.
Marcille agreed immediately. It was a simple request for her.
"Of course."
She set down the bowl, stood, and picked up her staff.
Walking over to Haruto, she lightly touched its tip against his shoulder.
As the spell took effect, Haruto felt as though an invisible barrier had wrapped itself around his body.
He could sense it, yet there was nothing tangible to touch.
Haruto did not dwell on the strange feeling. He cautiously raised one foot and placed it on the lake’s surface.
To his surprise, it held him perfectly without sinking.
He placed his other foot down as well, then pressed against the water a few times to test it.
Soft ripples spread beneath his soles.
The surface felt strangely yielding, like walking across clouds or stepping on a thick layer of cotton.
The unfamiliar sensation delighted him, and undisguised excitement appeared in his eyes.
Haruto turned and thanked Marcille sincerely.
"Thank you, Marcille."
"It was nothing."
Marcille waved him off and returned to her work. The soap would still take some time to finish.
Haruto wasted no time either.
He turned and strode away across the surface of the lake.
With Water-Walk, his movements would be much faster from now on.
He should be able to find even more monsters.
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