It's Rather Salty
At first, I took him for just another stray dog you might run into on the street.
"My, how adorable. Whose little dog are you, hmm?"
And so I went on petting him for quite some time, until—
"Woof! Luca not dog! Luca proud beastman!"
The fluffball sprang upright.
And spoke.
This is a bit of a problem.
It was like the puppy you'd been raising had just politely announced, This is rather awkward, Master.
"A beastman, you say…"
"Mm. Stop petting. Luca uncomfortable."
I stopped stroking him as requested, but the face that emerged—mud-smudged though it was—was still undeniably cute.
He had a human face, yet the ears poking out were pure dog.
Would it be all right if I just… took him home?
"Ooh! Food!"
While I was still mulling it over, Luca suddenly started wagging his tail. Following his gaze, I found the skewer of grilled meat in my hand.
"Ah, this?"
I wasn't going to eat any more of it anyway, so I handed it over.
"Wow! Human good person!"
Chomp, chomp.
Making the most peculiar little noises as he tore into the skewer, Luca declared,
"My name Luca. Luca repay. Help human work."
The bright smile he flashed was charming, but… well.
Good enough.
Far better to take this little guy along than some terrifying mercenary!
"My name is Carmilla de Valin. As it happens, I have been seeking an extra pair of hands."
Before anything else, though, I needed to know whether he met the bare minimum requirements. I looked Luca over carefully, and… well.
He was a bit on the small side.
"…However, the work I have in mind involves breaking stone. I can only hire someone with a certain degree of strength, you understand."
At those words, something enormous came tumbling out from somewhere on the ground. Looking closer, it was a greatsword—filthy from rolling around in the dirt for who knows how long.
Even at a glance it must have weighed a considerable amount, yet Luca hoisted it up with a flourish, as if to show off.
"Luca strong! Can help!"
Seeing him standing there with a meat skewer in one hand and a greatsword in the other, I found I had no reason left to refuse.
"Well then, very well. Should you successfully complete my commission, I shall see that you are properly compensated."
"Mm-mm, yeah."
I couldn't quite make out what he was saying, but it seemed like agreement.
"In that case, let us be off without further delay. Let's go!"
"Mmph-mmph!!"
With a vigorous sound that barely qualified as language, we set out.
"Carmilla… this place scary…"
As we ventured into the dim cave, a faint glow cut through the gloom.
"Of course it is. This place is managed by the Academy, after all."
"Uuu… that make it even scarier."
With every step down the stairs, the thickening dark sent a little chill through me—but the lights scattered here and there, keeping the shadows at bay, confirmed that this was a well-maintained dungeon.
This was Practice Dungeon 3, under the Academy's administration. Exercise a little caution, and you might pick up a few scrapes—but nothing life-threatening.
"Scary man coming? Luca get hurt?"
"Do not worry. No one comes here."
He seemed anxious about being mistaken for a thief—that is, he believed that tampering with Academy property without permission would land him in serious trouble.
But that was merely the fear of the unknown.
"You may not know this, but a dungeon is an ecosystem. Grasp how it works, and it can become an opportunity to earn points instead."
Think of the dungeon as a flowerbed and the monsters as cultivated plants, and the analogy fits perfectly. Pulling the weeds that have sprung up in the bed—that was the sort of work I had in mind.
"Woof! Something coming!"
Just then—
Thud— thud—
A heavy, rock-on-stone sound, accompanied by a faint tremor underfoot.
"Luca, it is time for you to earn your keep."
After wandering the dungeon for a while, we had found it: a living lump of stone.
A golem.
Kuuoooh—!!
"Luca, what do?"
"You need only neutralize that golem with the greatsword you carry."
"Break it? How?"
"Thrash it thoroughly with that greatsword of yours, and even a rock pile like that will shatter. Its attack patterns are exceedingly simple, so pay me no mind and take your time."
"Oh. Perfectly understand."
As the golem suddenly charged, Luca raised his greatsword.
"Heh heh… Defeat that golem, and I shall treat you to a most delicious meal."
"Food, how tasty?"
"Ten times more delicious than the skewer you just ate."
"Ooooh! Power rising!"
Bolstered by my words, Luca's eyes lit up and he shot forward like an arrow.
Clang, crash, thud-crash—
What followed was a racket fit for a construction site. Stone colliding with a slab of iron was hardly an elegant sound, and my ears suffered for it somewhat…
But after roughly twenty minutes of hard fighting, Luca brought the golem down.
"Luca, mission complete!"
"Well done."
It had taken longer than expected, but the results were solid. Gazing at the golem broken into fragments of various sizes, I smiled with satisfaction.
"Um… Carmilla, eat rocks?"
"If you are curious, allow me to show you."
I approached the golem and picked up a shard to examine it. It was rather translucent for ordinary stone, giving off a yellowish crystal-like sheen.
"Have a lick."
"Whoa, really eat rock? Amazing."
"It is this fragment you are to lick."
"Mm?"
Scratching his head, Luca took the piece and obediently stuck out his tongue.
"Ugh, salty! Rock has taste? Weird!"
"This is what one calls rock salt."
People commonly say that salt comes from the sea. Given that the ocean is essentially a vast body of saltwater, and that most of the salt produced in certain countries is sea salt, that claim is fair enough.
But the moment you widen the lens even a little, it collapses into something less than half true. Salt harvested from the sea accounts for only about forty percent of global production; the remaining sixty percent is rock salt—a fact surprisingly few people know.
"Luca never see rock like this."
Practice Dungeon 3 happened to sit right up against a rock salt vein. And when the mana drifting through a dungeon's air exceeds a certain threshold, it settles somewhere and forms a golem.
Put those two facts together, and it was not hard to conclude that—with the entrance ceremony still ahead and no practical exercises having been held yet—a golem had gestated in the rock salt vein.
"Ohoho. With my information network, this much is child's play."
Now then—my turn.
Inhale… exhale…
I had never actually cast magic before, but I had spent a long time poring over the text that described it in the game. And with Carmilla's natural talent, it ought to be worth a try.
One deep breath flipped the switch of concentration, and I pictured drawing the mana from the air. The image of clean water gathering drop by drop grew vivid—and then I whispered softly:
"O blue breath scattered upon the air,"
"Gather at my fingertips and form a pure ripple."
⟨ Water Droplet Creation ⟩
The spell I cast was a low-tier water magic—Water Droplet Creation. A fist-sized bead of water coalesced at my fingertips, fell, and washed over the rock salt.
Ah—it worked…!
From the status window I had checked earlier, I knew Carmilla possessed a decent innate talent for magic. Watching even a first-time casting succeed so smoothly brought me firmly into the realm of certainty.
"Luca, would you fetch those flasks rolling about over there? I shall need about two."
After that, I recast the spell to rinse the flasks as well, then filled them with clean water. Selecting the more evenly grained pieces of broken rock salt, I dropped them into a flask and gave it a gentle shake to mix—then cast a different sort of magic entirely.
"O sleeping ember, drink of the breath,"
"Awaken and bloom as a small red flower."
⟨ Ignition ⟩
As the low-tier fire magic—Ignition—took hold, a small flame blossomed at my fingertips. I gathered a few suitable stone fragments to brace the flask and applied a steady heat.
"Carmilla, wizard?"
"Well, this much is the most elementary of basics."
After a while, the water began to boil. I kept swirling it until I judged the salt within the rock salt had fully dissolved, then drew a handkerchief from my breast with one hand.
Using the handkerchief as a filter, I strained out the stone grit mixed into the water. What remained in the fresh flask was a clear liquid.
Almost there.
From that point, I kept applying heat until the liquid evaporated thoroughly, leaving behind white crystals. The prolonged, continuous expenditure of mana left me a little lightheaded—but the result was deeply moving.
"Done…!"
This was the beginning and the end of all cooking.
Salt.
"Heeh… salt expensive. Luca know. Tried steal, got scolded bad."
"How impressive, Luca. Still, thievery is wrong, so you must not do it."
"That so? But if hungry, must do. Living come first."
"Just how wild a life have you led…"
Listening to an anecdote every bit as salty as the product itself, I continued my work. I carefully scraped up the salt I had made with such care and gathered it into the handkerchief.
Given enough time and a proper place, I could produce as much as I liked—but for now, this amount would do.
"Now then, Luca. I told you before, did I not? Successfully complete the commission, and I would make you something far more delicious."
"Ooooh."
Watching Luca's eyes begin to shine, I smiled with benevolent warmth.
"Heh heh… Allow me to show you, in no uncertain terms, that seasoning is the very foundation of cooking!"