An Old Man Restaurant Owner Is Unparalleled by Relying on His Old Tricks. It Turns Out, He’s the Legendary Dungeon Conqueror. - 12

Chapter 12: Chicken Meat Walking Around

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“Kuueeeeeee!”

“Oh. Found some chicken meat.”

While exploring the lower levels of the dungeon, I encountered a monster that let out a high-pitched screech. It was a cockatrice, a creature that looked like a chicken with a snake-like tail. By the way, cockatrice was about the size of an ostrich. 

〈Chicken meat he said, LOLOLOL〉

〈That cockatrice is nothing but food to him LOL〉

〈Even A-rank explorers are having a hard time with a cockatrice.〉

〈I heard its venomous breath can melt your skin on contact.〉

〈Ken-chan, are you going to be okay?〉

The cockatrice rushed toward me at high speed while spewing purple breath from its mouth.

“As everyone knows, cockatrice’s poison is extremely dangerous. It’s best to equip a gear that can nullify poison, but if you don’t, the common strategy to defeat it is to take it down before it gets close. Like this.”

With a swift swing of my knife, the cockatrice’s head flew through the air. It continued to run for a moment despite being headless, but eventually, it toppled over onto the ground.

〈What just happened?〉

〈The same thing that he did with the Minotaur.〉

〈Is that some sort of flying slash skill?〉

〈So it’s possible to do that in real life…〉

〈Nishida just nonchalantly ignores the laws of physics.〉

“The meat of cockatrice is poisonous if eaten as it is, so we need to detoxify it. First, cut off the snake tail. This is the organ that produces the poison.”

“Shaaaaaah!!”

Slash!

〈Whoa, the tail was still alive!〉

〈The tail was lying in wait until he got close.〉

〈And he just casually killed it in an instant. lol〉

〈Any other regular explorer would’ve been bitten by the snake tail.〉

〈He’s so confident with his skill that he doesn’t even need to be cautious.〉

“And then, we will use detoxifying magic to remove the poison from the chicken’s body… Alright. That should do it. You can check if it’s still poisonous or not by touching the inside of the beak. If you don’t feel any tingling sensation then that means the poison is all gone…. Yep. Seems fine.”

Then I stored the cockatrice away. 

〈It disappeared!〉

〈Where did he put it?〉

〈Is it an item box?〉

〈I can’t see anything. It’s probably a skill or magic.〉

The viewers were curious about where I had stored the cockatrice, but that wasn’t something I wanted to reveal in front of such a large audience. So I just ignored their questions. 

“There is more chicken meat walking around over there. It looks like there are quite a few of them in this area. I think I will grab a few more pieces of chicken meat.”

〈”Chicken meat walking” is such a powerful phrase.〉

〈All the Cockatrices are in tears〉

〈Run, Chicken Meat-san, run!〉

〈He’s so chill about it like he’s picking out groceries at the supermarket.〉

Cockatrive was an aggressive monster by nature. This made things easier since they would come right to me. Thanks to that, I was able to secure 10 pieces of chicken. 

〈I want some karaage now.〉

〈Fried chicken also sounds good.〉

〈How about chicken nanban?〉

〈Everyone’s starting to see Cockatrices as nothing but chicken meat, lol〉

I had secured the basic ingredients for my cooking. I could’ve ended the stream here, but since I was able to find the teleportation trap leading to the lower levels faster than I expected, I decided to continue the stream since I still had plenty of time anyway. 

“I think I’m going to search for more ingredients.”

I found a staircase leading down, so I descended down from the 12th floor to the 13th floor. 

“There are trees growing all around. As you go deeper, you will find more floors with unique environments like this. For example, some floors are covered in ice and snow, have flowing lava, or are completely submerged in water.”

〈He’s really knowledgeable about the lower floors〉

〈Doesn’t sound like he’s just talking based on what he found online.〉

〈Is he really F-rank?〉

〈There’s no way he is, right?〉

〈He’s definitely a top-tier explorer. He must be an A-rank at least.〉

The comment caught my attention, so I decided to respond to it truthfully.

“Yes. I’m still an F-rank.”

〈For real?〉

〈Wait, what? What do you mean?〉

〈There’s no way an F-rank explorer can step into the lower levels alive.〉

〈One of the seven mysteries of Nishida〉

“Umm… I just registered as an explorer recently, but I used to explore the dungeons a bit during the early days of dungeon exploration. I managed to pick up some old tricks (きねづか=kinezuka) here and there.”

〈What does he mean by ‘kinezuka’ (きねづか)?〉

〈杵柄 (kinezuka).  ‘Kine’ is like a hammer used for pounding mochi〉

〈It means skills you learned a long time ago that haven’t faded over time〉

〈Thanks for explaining!〉

〈So, it’s like Takahashi Meijin, huh?〉

〈That guy’s button-mashing skills are still insane even now.〉

〈That explanation still doesn’t explain why Nishida can do things he does though LOL〉

〈Totally agree.〉

“I was really into dungeon diving back then. I was a university student, so I had plenty of free time. I would go dungeon diving whenever I had the chance.”

It was a pretty chill university, for better or worse. I almost had to repeat a year because I skipped too many lectures though. 

〈So, it’s been 20 years since you last went into a dungeon?〉

〈How strong were you back then…?〉

〈You’ve become a legend by now had you kept doing dungeon exploration.〉

〈The value of materials from dungeons weren’t as valuable as now. There were still too many things people didn’t know back then. You couldn’t make much just from exploring.〉

〈That means there were probably other strong people like Ken-chan who quit because of money. What a waste.〉

〈Which university did you go to?〉

“I went to a university in Kyoto.”

〈So, you’re from Kyoto. What a surprise.〉

〈Could it be that university?〉

〈Is it the national one?〉

〈Ken-chan is super smart?〉

〈He’s from Kansai?〉

〈He doesn’t have any dialect though.〉

“Oh, no,no. I went to Kyoto for university, but I used to live in Hiroshima until high school. I was only in Kyoto for university… Hm? What’s that? Oh. I think I might have found another interesting ingredient.”

Something caught my eye, so I stopped talking with my viewers for a while. It was a giant tree growing in the middle of a wide open space. A spherical lump was hanging from the trunk around the midsection. That lump was surrounded by a swarm of buzzing bees.

“That’s definitely a mad bee’s nest. Let’s pick up some delicious honey.”

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