Sure, I’ve seen flying sharks in both the Submerged City and in a movie before, but...I dunno. Am I in the wrong here?
“I’ve seen swimming ones in the Submerged City too,” I said.
“A swimming shark?” asked Miguel.
“Yeah, it was really big.”
“Are you talking about a whale? They do kind of look alike, but their features are way different.”
“Huh?”
How should I put this...? I felt as if I could no longer tell Oda Nobunaga’s real gender because I’d played too many mobile games, or I’d become an alchemist who could no longer tell the difference between chestnuts and sea urchins. My common sense was getting all jumbled up.
I was still confused when we sneaked through the floor, then I spotted a familiar silhouette deep in the forest.
“Over there,” I pointed out. “That’s the superstrong monster I mentioned earlier.”
“Huh. Looks like fighting it up close would be tough,” said Miguel.
“It curls up into a ball and rolls at you really fast,” I explained.
“That’s...an interesting attack method.”
“No kidding.”
According to Sensei, it might have been my fault that it’d turned out this way. I still remembered her warning and had been careful about it ever since.
“Anything else I should know?” asked Miguel.
“I only ran into that once the last time I was here, so I don’t really know.”
“I see. Judging by what I’ve seen so far, maybe there aren’t many monsters on this floor.”
“You think so?” I asked.
“I haven’t seen traces of them around, though there could be more of them further in,” said Miguel.
He’d been analyzing our situation the entire time. No wonder he was a high-rank Diver.
“So, are you gonna report this place?” he asked.
“I was thinking I should get permission from Sensei first since she’s the one who found it,” I said.
“What? Does she own you or something?”
“I can’t disobey her. Not if I value my life.”
And so, we’d left the Paradise Hot Springs and returned to the Great Forest Ruins. We stopped by a nearby safe point to take a small break. There, I laid down a mat to sit on and opened my Dimension Bag.
“Okay, time for a meal,” I said.
“Can’t wait to see what we’re having today,” said Miguel.
“You’re already assuming you’re gonna mooch off me, huh.”
“Of course. You always have the best food,” said Miguel, waiting for me to give him something. I considered holding out because I felt like I’d be admitting defeat if I just did what he wanted, but I decided that would be pointless.
I thought about what to eat, though I only had limited options on hand.
“All right, I’ll make some instant noodles,” I said.
“‘Instant noodles’?” asked Miguel.
“Yep.”
I took out a cassette stove, an aluminum pot, three bags of old-fashioned soy-sauce-flavored instant ramen, a plastic bottle of tap water, some toppings, and some seasoning.
Miguel picked up a bag of noodles curiously and asked, “Are you gonna cook something? This is a lot of stuff.”
“If you consider this cooking, it’d be an insult to chefs and housewives everywhere,” I said.
“You think so? I think any food-making process that involves work can be called cooking.”
I supposed he wasn’t wrong.
I boiled the prescribed amount of water in the aluminum pot, took the noodles out of the bag, and threw them in. Then I ripped open the soup stock package and poured the powder into the pot. I added green onions and chashu pork that I had in a storage container, and the dish was complete. I readied two bowls and a ladle for the soup, then handed Miguel a fork.
“Smells good,” he said.
“Right?” I said. “Oh, and here’s some black pepper, ramen pepper, grated garlic, chili oil, and sesame oil. You can adjust the taste as you like.”
“Huh, there are so many options.”
I portioned out the ramen into the bowls as steam and an appetizing aroma rose from the piping hot soup. Ramen from restaurants were great, but instant noodles were also good in their own way.
“Oh, this is good,” said Miguel.
“You like it?”
“Yeah, this soup is delicious. Will these toppings go well with it too?”
“Everything here will go well with it. Just be careful not to add too much.”
I dug into the ramen too. I probably should’ve used four bags of noodles. At this rate, we were gonna finish it in no time.
Meanwhile, Miguel was experimenting with the various condiments. He put another small portion of ramen with one of the condiments into his bowl and gave it a try, then he repeated the process with each of them one by one. Everyone loved changing up the soup flavor to suit their own tastes.
“I like the black pepper. It’s fragrant, and it has a nice accent that gives the noodles a slight kick,” he noted.
“Uh-huh.”
“The garlic is amazing too. I want to dump the whole bottle in my bowl.”
“Yeah, everyone loves garlic. Adding heaps of garlic is a guilty pleasure of mine,” I agreed.
“These oils add a nice fragrance too. ‘Chili oil,’ right? This one’s spicy.”
“Yep. Can’t go wrong with chili oil in ramen.”
“I can’t decide which one I like the most...” he said.
I couldn’t either, so the best solution was to just eat however one felt like at the time.
“This is nice,” said Miguel.
“Yeah, it’s pretty fun just hanging out and taking it easy like this.”
“Agreed. It’s important to take some time to relax. Gives us a chance to think back on things.”
I wonder what he has to reflect on.
“How are things, anyway? You guys aren’t burning yourselves out, are you?” I asked.
“Nah, no need to worry about that. To be honest, we wouldn’t even care if our ranks went down, unlike other teams.”
“Weren’t you saying you guys can’t get complacent because there have been more up-and-coming teams lately?”
“Well, that’s true, but I’d be a failure as a leader if I let that blind me and put my team in danger. I haven’t been here all that long, but I’ve already seen that happen to way too many people.”
He was right. I’d personally seen a good number of teams make that very mistake. Miguel had been a Diver longer than I had, and he was observant of his surroundings. I was sure he’d seen his fair share of teams bite off more than they could chew.
“Our two jobs as Divers are to get home safely and make a steady income. That’s the mindset you develop as long as you keep working hard. Aren’t you the same?” he asked.
“Yeah. You shouldn’t be going into the dungeon to get injured or go on grand adventures,” I agreed.
“Exactly. Anyway, I guess we do care about our rank, but the question is ‘Where do our priorities lie?’” said Miguel, then he raised his bowl and sipped his soup.
“What do you wanna do with the money you make?” I asked.
“Me? For now, I wanna get a home for me and my friends to live in.”
“I remember you mentioned that once.”
“I want a place where we can all gather and get rowdy. Doesn’t that sound fun?” he asked.
“Yeah, it does.”
Miguel’s goal was surprisingly ordinary. I imagined most adults dreamed of buying a house and throwing a home party with their friends. It gave me a strange sense of familiarity toward him.
“What about you?” he asked. “You said you wanted to level up, but I’m sure there’s a reason why.”
“Hmm? No, not really. I just wanna get stronger,” I said.
“You always do that,” said Miguel, pointing at me with his fork. “You always brush it off when I ask you that question. There has to be a reason why you wanna get stronger. Why?”
I fell silent.
“Come on, don’t you think it’s about time you told me?” he said, his expression serious for once.
“I really do wanna get stronger for the sake of getting stronger. That has always been true,” I said.
“I see... But you’re not trying to become the strongest or anything, right?”
“Nope. But I wanna be strong enough that I won’t lose to bad guys,” I said.
“Bad guys, huh.”
The world was full of bad guys—in plain view and lurking behind the scenes. Getting strong so I could beat those guys was just being well-prepared.
I stayed quiet for a while, and Miguel put his fork down.
“Anyway, that’s enough questions for today,” he said.
“Oh? I thought you wanted to know more.”
“Can’t say I’m not curious, but there’s no need to rush. You can talk about it more when you feel like it.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
He must’ve figured it was a difficult topic for me and was being considerate. Miguel was perceptive like that.
And so, my conversation with Miguel had ended there. We finished the rest of our ramen and headed back to the main hall. No particular incidents or troubles occurred, but I liked this kind of adventure the best.