After returning to the port, [1] we made our way towards the Adventurers Guild.
As soon as I showed the receptionist my guild card at the reception, they immediately sent for Marks-san, the Guild Master.
“Oh, there you are. Well, how did today go?”
“We took down the Kraken.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, Marks-san’s mouth dropped open. He looked dumbfounded.
[6] He was silent for so long that I was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable, “Uhm…”
“You’re saying you’ve subjugated the Kraken? But it’s only been a day?! What about a boat? How did you manage to get one? You didn’t borrow one from the guild, did you?”
Oh? So the guild has boat rental services? Well, I guess it made sense since this was a sea town. It’s only natural that they would have missions that requires them to go out to sea. [1] It would have been nice to know about this right from the start.
“Well, about the boat… we’re fine since we have our own means of transportation.”
“I- I see. I-I did hear that you guys aren’t normal Adventurers, but I really didn’t expect you guys to be this abnormal…”
Marks-san, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that last part. [1] After all, it’s not me who’s abnormal, my familiars are the abnormal ones…
“At any rate, I take it you have the Kraken with you?”
“Yes, it’s in my [Item Box]. We also happened to pick up a Sea Serpent and an Aspidochelone.”
[4] “… …” Marks-san’s fierce pirate face fell slack with shock.
“Marks-san?” [6] I prompted when it looked like he was not going to answer me any time soon.
“Hah, e- excuse me, I was just… too surprised. Haha. Anyway, I cannot check the goods here, so let’s head over to the warehouse.”
So, to the warehouse we go.
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“Alright, boys. We have work to do!” Marks-san called out the moment he stepped into the warehouse.
Immediately, 10 men stepped up.
“S’up, Guild Master?”
“Heheh, don’t be too surprised now, boys. We’ve just got ourselves a Kraken.”
[4] “Woah!!!” the dismantlers were clearly excited.
[6] While the dismantlers whispered excitedly among themselves. Marks-san dramatically added, “That’s not all, we also have a Sea Serpent and an Aspidochelone”
“Wait, seriously?”
“I-incredible!”
Once again, the group of butchers broke into excited twitters like a bunch of fans at an idol meet and greet.
“Alright, men! Freshness is the life of sea monsters. So, chop, chop, and get on with it!”
“Ossu!” came the enthusiastic chant.
There was a kind of group sports oriented feel to this Guild.
“You seem to have a lot more dismantlers here,” I commented.
“Aa, that’s because this is a port city. As I’ve said before, freshness is the life of sea monsters. Not only for the edible meat, but the valuable materials as well. The dismantling job must be done as fast as possible or everything would be useless. This is why we have so many people on the job.” [5] [4] “I see, so that’s why…”
“Now then, let’s have a look at the Kraken,” [7] Marks-san indicated the space where I should place the creature.
“Alright.” [5]
“I’d like to have a look at the others as well, but I don’t think we have the space for it. Furthermore, freshness is the life of sea monsters so I believe it would be best for us to dismantle the Kraken first. It should all be done by this evening, will you accompany me until then?”
As expected of a port city. [1] They certainly knew the value of fresh produce.
“Yes, that’s fine with me, but… could you make sure that I get the meat back? The same goes for the other two monsters as well, please.”
“Understood. It’s a pity we can’t purchase the Sea Serpent or Aspidochelone meat since it is quite the delicacy. Nevertheless, we are grateful for the opportunity to purchase everything else.”
The last time a Kraken appeared was 8 years ago. The Sea Serpent was even rarer at 13 years. As for the Aspidochelone, it was the least rare as it is something that can be seen once every couple of years. Nevertheless, it was still an S Rank creature.
“Well then, let’s get to work, boys!”
“OU!!!”
With deadly coordination, dismantlers swarmed the Kraken. Under Marks-san supervision, the 10 men began working on taking the huge squid apart.
Since it’s been a long time since the last time they got to dismantle a large prey, Marks-san appeared to be going all out.
“Oi!” Fer suddenly contacted me via telepathy, startling me out of my reverie.
“What is it?”
“I’m hungry.”
“Me too.”
“Sui too~”
Aah, that’s right.
We arrived at the Guild a little past noon, so everyone must be hungry now after having fought all three monsters in the sea.
“Please wait a bit,” I answered them telepathically before turning to Marks-san. “Excuse me, it’s about time I feed my familiars.”
[6] Marks-san was too busy to answer, so he just waved me away.
[6] Right, what should I do about lunch?
I lead my familiars to a corner of the warehouse that was a little way away from the busy dismantlers. Well, since we’re indoors, it won’t do to start cooking. We’ve eaten all of the readymade food yesterday so I guess I would have to depend on the [Net Super] for snacks and sweet breads.
I took the bread out of their individual plastic bags and arranged them on plates along with bowls of cider and cola on the side. [2] “I’m sorry, but please put up with this for now. Once we have the Kraken meat, I’ll make something good for you guys later.”
“Nu, I guess there’s no choice…”
“Make sure dinner is something super delicious!!”
“Okay~ Sui understands~”
Thank you for your understanding everyone. “What drinks would you like? I have both cider and cola here,” since everyone worked hard, let’s reward them a little.
“I want the black one.”
“Me too.”
“Sui wants the transparent bubbly one~” [5]
“Alright, here you go~” I served my faithful familiars their desired drink. “After lunch, please wait here until the dismantling is done, alright?” I said, before leaving them and made my way to Marks-san side to watch the dismantling.
[6] There’s something fascinating about watching seafood being butchered. The huge tentacles had been taken off and guts too. The dismantlers were quickly and efficiently taking the suckers off the tentacles.
[4] Marks-san smiled, “Those suckers would make good shields. Strong, durable and very lightweight, we’ll make good money off those.”
[4] “What about those?” I pointed at the large eye and beak a couple of workers were carefully storing away.
[4] “Alchemistic stuff, don’t know what they use it for, but alchemists are willing to pay high prices for those.”
[6] I watched as the dismantlers carefully took out the ink sac as well as the liver and other various organs. “More magic related stuff?” I guessed.
“Fertilizers,” said Marks-san. He smiled, noticing my slightly disappointed look. How unromantic. “Very expensive fertilizer for high-grade fruits. You’d be surprised to know how much money aristocrats are willing to throw away for fruits grown with Kraken gut fertilizer. The same fruit grown with these fertilizers could cost several times more than regular ones.”
Ah.
The denuded tentacles were set aside. “Normally, we just throw those away once we’ve taken off the suckers. They’re rather hard. Not very good eating those. Now the bone though,” he looked very pleased as the dismantlers worked a flat, transparent piece of plastic like material out from under the Kraken’s mantle. “Fishing rods made from Kraken bone is something else. It’s what made big game fishing possible.”
Aside from the bone, they were easing something else out too.
It was something that looked a lot like a rugby ball and deep indigo in colour. It took me a moment to recognize this strange looking ball as a magic stone. That’s right, the Kraken was an S Rank monster so they would have magic stones too! Only… this has to be the largest magic stone I’ve ever seen.
Marks-san smiled and nodded approvingly. [7] “What’s left once the guts, stone, eye, beak and suckers were taken off was often just disposed of. Are you sure you want to eat it?” [5]
“Well, Fer did say that it’s good for eating. So I shall do my best.”
My answer may have sounded lukewarm, but inside, I’m actually quite excited. After all, the Kraken is basically a huge squid, right? [1] I really love squid, you know?
Moreover, though the Kraken looked huge, the meat on the tentacles looked quite soft and flexible. Ah, but the skin looked a little tough. [6] I understand that in some society, they prefer to take the skin off before eating the squid, but in Japanese cooking, I like leaving the skin on for baked or simmered squid dishes because it looks better that way.
However, since this was the Kraken and since we’re already here, I might as well get the expert to skin my giant squid.
“Excuse me, would it be alright if your men help me skin the Kraken?”
“Sure, it’s thanks to you that we even have the Kraken here.” [5]
While they skin the Kraken, [6] I reviewed all the squid recipes I have in my mind. Simmering, grilling, boiling, and of course, frying. Which is everyone’s favourite. [2] I’d like to try eating it as sashimi, but since it’s a creature from another world and a monster at that, I had better just give up that idea.
“Alright, everyone, heave ho!”
Marks-san was currently trying to pull the squid fin off the body with another dismantler, while the rest of his men worked on skinning the tentacles. I decided to go over and help. The skin peeled off readily at the top part, but when it reached the base, it refused to budge.
[6] “We’ll need a sword for this,” said Marks-san reluctantly as he looked around for a spare sword.
[4] “Oh, I got this,” I said as I fetched my trusty Mithril knife from my [Item Box]. With a couple of quick slashes, the skin was off.
“A Mithril knife? Woah, as expected from an A Rank adventurer,” said Marks-san, who was quite impressed.
“I mean, even though it’s Mithril, it’s just a knife in the end,” [3] I said vaguely with a little laugh at the end.
There was no way I was going to tell anyone that this knife was made by Sui with some Mithril ore I just picked up off the floor of some monster cave.
The skinned and butchered Kraken was cut to manageable pieces and stored into my trusty [Item Box].
[Gumihou: Whew! That was a lot of hardwork!]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag