Chapter 189

Chapter 189: Gigantify

Translated by Zzonkedd

Edited by Gumihou

Guilds were especially busy in the early mornings, so we came a little later to avoid the mad scramble for missions. There was practically no one at the reception hall when I came in.

The receptionist went off to fetch Yoran-san for us right after I showed her my guild card.

Are you here to report on the Cyclops mission?

Yes, weve managed to complete the mission without any issue.

Ooh, is that so, is that so. Very well, lets move this conversation to the warehouse. Follow me please.

We trooped in after Yoran-san to the warehouse.

The dismantler was in the middle of his work when we arrived. He looked like he was in his 40s, huge and full of muscles. He paused to say, Ah, its the Guild Master, do you need anything?

Youre almost done with that, right? We can talk once youve finished with your work, Horace.

Alright, please wait for a little while, said Horace. He went back to his work, his long sword flashing as he skilfully dismantled the monster.

Apologies for the wait, Mukouda-san.

Its fine, I dont mind. Well, I said I dont mind, but the stench of blood ugh, it was like my nose was being assaulted by sickly sweet rusty iron I really cant get used to these kinds of places.

Luckily, Horace was quick with his work. It was all over within 5 minutes, and he came forward while wiping down his long sword. Apologies for the wait. Well? How may I help you?

Umu. Mukouda-san, have you brought the Cyclops? Is it fairly undamaged?

Ah, yes. Hes in my [Item Box]. Should I bring the Cyclops out here?

H-h-h-hold on, a Cyclops? A whole Cyclops? If you bring out such a huge creature here it will be a problem for me. Well need more space oh, you can put the monster here. Horace quickly rushed around to clear up some space for me.

Alright, Ill put him here, I said, placing the body of the Cyclops onto the space cleared by Horace.

Woah, this is amazing. There are barely any wounds on this creature. Horace exclaimed, Its so rare to see one with so few wounds. I should be able to harvest some very good skin from this.

Right? Right? My familiars all did a very good job, right? They defeated it with minimal wound just as I asked.

What about the eyeball?

Horace-san pulled the eyelid up to check said body part and made a little tsking sound, U-n, its a little damaged. It will lower the price, but the overall condition is pretty good.

Eh? Just how did the eye got wounded oh, right. Fers Lightning Attack hit the Cyclops head, didnt it? Well, thats where the eye is, I guess it cant be helped.

Fer had been listening all this while, and did not seem happy to hear this, Humph, you told me not to injure the skin, nobody said anything about the eye.

No, no, I think its fine. Its just a little damaged, but still salvageable, right? I looked at both Horace and Yoran-san, who nodded.

Didnt they say the price will be lowered?

Well, thats true, but its not like were hard up for money, arent we? So, no problem, no problem.

Humph. Fer seemed to take the lowering of the price of his prey personally. Maa, its not like I care though. Also, since Fer is our biggest earner, Im not going to quibble over this with him.

I see, so Fenrir could speak human languages Horace-san looked surprised by this.

Ahh, I keep forgetting that aside from being powerful, my companions were unique in other ways.

Oh, sorry for listening in on your conversation. I had heard of this, but until I heard it myself, I really couldnt believe it

Hahaha, I understand what you mean. I was really surprised when I first met Fer too.

Creatures that could speak and understand human languages are legendary monsters indeed. The only ones to exist are probably that Fenrir over there, and Ancient Dragons.

Umu. Thats because those old geezers have too much time on their hands. Most of them learn human languages out of boredom. So its normal for them to be able to speak to you.

To call Ancient Dragons old geezers Fer is probably the only living creature in this world who would dare to do so

Huoh, huoh, huoh Yoran-san appeared very amused by this.

Horace said, Hohoho, you sure are amazingly daring.

Erm, let me apologise to the Ancient Dragons in my heart. Sorry, sorry

Anyway, lets try to change the subject. Uhm, can you also dismantle these too? I took out a Black Serpent, a Giant Dodo and two Cockatrices from the [Item Box] that we had hunted before leaving the City of Doran.

There was also a Dim Grey Rhino and a Sabre-Tooth Tiger in my [Item Box], but since they werent edible, I decided not to take them out.

Oh, Black Serpent, Giant Dodo and a couple of Cockatrices? Of course, Id be happy to.

Please take the meat off for me, we can negotiate for everything else later.

Aah, very well. So, Ill be dismantling the Cyclops as well as these, right? Please come back and collect them tomorrow.

I understand.

If thats the case, shall I hand over the subjugation money tomorrow?

Yes, thats fine with me.

Once the business was settled, we left the Adventurers guild. Before our next trip here, we shall go sightseeing!

Its a pottery town, after all, lets have a look at tableware. Plates, bowls, cups and things!

Perhaps infected by my excitement, Sui peeked out from the bag.

Ah, yes. I did say I would check that out first

How about here? Its not a very busy spot so we should probably be fine here.

Yes, I do believe this is a good place for it.

After leaving the Adventurers Guild, we made our way outside the city to test our Suis newly acquired [Gigantify] skill.

I had Fer find us an unpopulated area with few people or monsters around.

Sui, can you come out?

Sui popped out of my bag with a little pyon and looked up inquiringly from the grassy floor. Yes, Aruji ~?

Ahhh~, ahem, Sui, do you remember your new skill?

Yes, the one that makes Sui bigger than big.

Yes, that one. Were here to see just how big you can get. Why dont you try it now?

Un, okay ~ Everyone please go a little bit further away from Sui, ne ~

Oi, oi, what do you mean go a bit further away? How big are you going to get?

Thats what were here to find out, Dora-chan. Lets just move away, okay?

I shuffled away, along with Fer and Dora-chan. Were still within calling distance, Im sure this is good enough.

Yahoo, here I go~ Sui activated the skill and began to grow and grow

and grow and grow.

The word gigantic was certainly appropriate for the size that Sui ended up becoming.

At 5 meters tall and 10 meters wide Sui looked down at them, Arrujiii~ Sui can become thi~is big~ having grown so large, even Suis telepathic voice had a low echoing quality to it. It was a little scary.

H-huge, na Dora-chan, who was already tiny in comparison to other monsters, was especially startled by Suis size.

Is this the form of a Huge Slime? Its definitely bigger than any Huge Slimes Ive ever met before, said Fer, clearly even he was surprised.

If even Fer is surprised, then I can definitely say that Sui is a very special Slime, na.

Suuii is speeciaal? Yaaaaay! Sui began bouncing up and down in excitement.

Doom, doom, doom, doom.

In her Gigantified form, Suis bouncing was more unnerving than cute. Aaah, Sui! Calm down! Please go back to your regular size! I shouted desperately.

Oka~y,

I really have no idea how these things worked, but Sui thankfully began to shrink down to her regular form again. Its so unscientific but awesome at the same time.

How is it? How is it? Sui became really, really big, you know~?

Aah, its really incredible how huge you become.

Ufufu, Sui could become both bigger or smaller between this size and the biggest size, you know ~

Eh? So, in other words, you can control your size at will?

That really is incredible.

Ah, but Sui still likes this size best because Sui can sit in here~ said Sui as she reached out with a slime tentacle to touch her favourite bag.

I prefer Sui in this size too. Its the size when I first met Sui-chan, this feels like you most~

Ehehe, if Aruji prefers this too, then Sui will stay this size too ~

Im very glad to hear that, but, if I ask Sui to grow bigger, please do so, alright?

Alright~

Ah Now that I was paying attention, the area where Sui had used her Skill was completely squashed, making a very nice, flattened area. It looked like a good picnic area.

Hey, since its almost lunchtime, shall we have our meal here?

Oh, thats a good idea, na. The weathers nice and the foods bound to taste good too. Dora-chan fluttered around the circle of squashed grass in high spirits, zipping here and there excitedly.

Umu, a good suggestion.

Lunch, lunch, lunch~

Alright, since were all in agreement, I shall prepare the food now. I really had not considered what to make, but since the weather was so nice, whatever we eat would bound to taste good.

I took out my special dwarf-made barbecue stove. Were outdoors, the weathers good and theres a nice breeze going on, whats better than a barbecue?

Lets see, what should we put on the grill?

Oho, I still have those fresh sausages I made before, hmm, we can also grill up some Bloody Horn Bull and Wyvern. Lets get some vegetables too, I dont know about the others, but Im getting really tired eating meat, meat, meat all the time I want something more refreshing, na

I should marinate the meat, but it would take time to make the pickling solution oh, maybe I can just buy some marinade sauces off the market and use those instead.

With that, I opened up my trusty [Net Super] and bought all the necessary groceries: First, the charcoal, then for vegetables, oh the shiitake mushrooms looks good, oh, and the asparagus too. Lets get some of these plump looking corn as well. Oho, grilled corn with butter, thats right lets get some butter too, and these expensive flaky salt to sprinkle on top.

Next, lets look at the list of sauces, oho, this one looks good, this one looks alright I guess oh, oh, this one!

Compared to the other sauces, this one stands out via packaging. Instead of a little plastic bottle, the sauce came in a tall carton box, perfect for pouring over large quantities of meat.

Ive tried this sauce before, and I must say that its thick and strong flavours should do nicely as a marinade for raw meat. Oh, it even says that on the packaging, perfect.

Lets see, barbecue is all about timing. Ideally, everything should be done at the same time so that food is not left loafing around too long, or a side dish completely eaten up before the star dish even make its debut.

So first, pour the yakiniku marinade over fairly thick slices of Bloody Horn Bull and Wyvern meat. Massage them a little, and set them aside to sit.

[1] I always like to start the fire first and let the charcoal burn down to a bright red ember before cooking. I used to have a lot of trouble starting fires, but no more! Just pile up the charcoal here and with a quick (and tiny) Fireball lit it up.

While the fire was burning merrily away, I turned my attention to the vegetables.

Shiitake mushrooms were roughly sliced up and set aside. Next, I used a peeler to peel off the tough stems of the asparagus. Thats the secret to good grilled asparagus, you know? To avoid overcooking or undercooking the asparagus, the best thing to do was to peel off the tough bits before putting them on the grill.

The tomatoes and bell peppers could be grilled whole, same goes for the corn. Ah, I do like the smoky charcoal taste these vegetables picked up from the fire. All they need was a little drizzle of olive oil and they were good to go on the grill.

[2] Time to check on the fire. I had piled the charcoal into a little mountain right in the middle of the special charcoal shelf. With a long spatula, I spread out the burning embers evenly. Reaching for more charcoal, I placed them on half of the burning embers. With the unburnt charcoal on top, I now have a less hot vs hotter sections.

Because we cant control the flame through gas management or magic, its a good idea to have a weak fire and strong fire section. I closed the net and piled up meat over the entire barbecue real estate. The key is constant flipping on the hot side, and less flipping on the cooler side to cook the meat and prevent burning. Since there was no issue of food poisoning for my familiars and also-

Oii-, the meat on this side is done already!

-theres that.

I lifted the well grilled, but probably still a little bloody in the middle, meat into a large plate and let them sit there to cook in their own heat for a little longer. There was no stopping my familiars, however, even as I portioned out their share into individual bowls, meat was being snatched up from the deep bowl.

Oi, have some patience, you guys. Alright, alright, here you go. I handed out three bowls of meat, amused by their hafu, hafu as they tried to swallow the piping hot meat. Not that it seemed to bother Sui, looks like spicy peppers were the only kind of heat she disliked. Fer cheated by using his wind magic to cool his meat, whereas Dora-chan, well Dora-chan is a dragon, but he seemed to be more sensitive to heat than I expected [3].

Now that I have space, I moved the meat from the low-heat to high heat section and began placing vegetables onto the freed up space. Vegetables could be served with nothing but salt, yum. As expected, the vegetables were quickly done, alongside the second helping of meat in time for the-

Seconds, please!!

Yes, yes.

I placed freshly grilled meat and vegetables into their bowls. Fufufu, looks like everyone was enjoying their very first proper barbecue~

Nn, someones coming. Fer was the first to notice.

I squinted my eyes in the direction he was looking and saw figures of people walking towards our direction.

Dont worry, they are merely children.

Oh? Fer is good enough to alert me even though they are children? How vigilant, as expected of my most trusted and reliable partner.

Still, would little children really appear in this kind of place?

Finally, they were close enough for me to see them too.

It was a group of five boys and girls in their early teens. All were dressed in armour, robes and carrying weaponry like Adventurers.

If this was Japan, Id say cosplay. If this was a kids anime, Id say the most powerful team of wreckers has arrived. [4]

Should I be worried?

[Gumihou: Ahhh, I love a good barbecue. Its almost like the Japanese osechi here. On the 31st of December, you will see smoke coming up from peoples backyards as we all prepare to grill our favourite meats and vegetables while waiting for the clock to strike 12]

[1] Adjusted some details: He only started the fire after all the prep work is done. Bad move, bbq fire should always be started first so that the charcoal fire is more stable. Some editing work from my side. Oh, and I bought the butter too, and salt.

[2] Added more details: Author did not seem to know the right way to do a barbecue. Our family do competitive barbecue every year, so please allow me to add details. If we do what Mukouda did in the original text, the tomatoes would have melted through the net, the asparagus turned into a limp noodle and the corn both dried and blackened. Definitely not sweet and delicious. Oh, the meat would have been warmed on the outside and bloody on the inside, which Im not sure whether the familiars would care, but I certainly would protest.

One does not put the veggies before the meats, unless the goal is to stuff your guests with vegetables due to lack of bbq protein. You should cover the net with meat first, serve up whatevers done, then place the vegetables on, keeping a third of the bbq real estate for veggies and the rest for main proteins.

[3] Adjusted some details: Instead of the usual, kyaa, kyaa, yummy, yummy, seconds! routine, I decided to go with this instead.

[4] Added more details: Okay, so I took an opportunity to poke fun on anime logic, where the group with the youngest and prettiest people are the strongest. Lol, I cant resist.