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「I’ve always wanted to try this, a steak burger!」
Mira’s eyes twinkled as she looked at her steak burger, her lifelong dream accomplished. After taking a large bite, she shouted 「Delishous!!」 She continued eating her substantial dinner, cleaned up after it, and read the Encyclopedia of Skills until she fell asleep.
It was her second morning in the Ancient Underground City’s sixth floor.
「Hmm… being young truly is a blessing.」
Either the massages had been effective, or her youthful body was full of energy, but she woke up earlier than 8am, not feeling any of the exhaustion from the previous day as she stretched. But when she stood up and walked around the room to feel things, she felt a faint pain down from her thighs to her calves.
「Sore muscles the next day… that’s also part of youth.」
Mira had once heard that as one aged, muscle pain would appear after a longer delay. She did not know whether that was actually true or not, but she chose to believe the pain in her legs was a sign of youth.
There was pain, but it was not strong enough that it impeded her from moving. She ate breakfast which mainly contained fruits, then sent the mansion away as she headed out to find the second glyph before the end of that day. First she looked around a little bit, with a bit of anticipation, but then just muttered 「Well, that makes sense.」
The shrine was located in a safe zone, so no monsters had gotten close and there was not a single Magic Stone on the ground.
The monsters that spawned on the sixth floor were ranked B, and if she gathered a hundred or two Magic Stones from them like in the previous floors, she could make quite a fortune. Thinking of that made her feel slightly disappointed, but she quickly pulled herself together and went to complete her goal for the day.
Due to her muscle pain, Mira was a bit more reserved with practicing her kicks, descending from the upper levels to the middle ones. A few hours later, slightly past noon, Mira took a detour right before she arrived at the middle level.
「Ohh, it’s still here. And it’s produced a lot!」
Leaving the route, Mira jumped off a passageway and used Sky Stride to cross over to a separate detached corridor, curious to see how things looked now. Walking along it she reached a room filled with green, one of the facilities that was still active.
The room was the size of a small theater, and served as a plant nursery. There was a large tree in the center, its broad branches dotted with round red fruits. It had no official name, but those red orbs were known as the primordial form of Queen of Hearts, one of the Four Great Fruits which were almost as valuable as gemstones.
That was all a theory one of Mira’s lore-enthusiast friends proposed. He claimed that an adventurer once discovered that nameless fruit and brought it home. It was grown and continuously bred on the surface, until they became Queen of Hearts. He had said all that as he bit into the nameless fruit, which could not produce any flavor back then.
Eating the fruit had a cleansing effect on status ailments, and gave a momentary boost to mana regeneration. Mira recalled how back then she had obtained multiple of them as a gift, and how she and her friend had wished to know what it actually tasted like.
「I wonder if he already tried it.」
Mira opened her menu and checked her friends list, and saw that lore-enthusiast friend’s name was white. That meant he was living somewhere in that world too. She plucked a fruit and looked at it with nostalgia, muttering to herself. At the time she had paid little attention to his stories, so she was surprised she could remember that much.
「Mmm..! It’s too sour!」
The moment she tasted the nameless fruit her face constricted and wrinkles formed on her forehead.
The fruit fit comfortably on her palm, had a similar texture to peaches, and the taste was similar to honey lemon. Except that the balance of sweetness and acidity was completely off, making it hard to call it tasty. It was like a lot of honey had been mixed with highly concentrated lemon juice, making it similar to ingredients that needed to be diluted before consumption.
「I can see why it’s a primordial species. It has a rather wild and untamed taste.」
Her eyes were starting to tear up, but she went for another bite, quickly going 「Phew!」 with a strained smile. She was basically acting like an old man having a very powerful drink.
It was a really striking flavor, but Mira felt like she could get used to it. She plucked a few more fruits, believing they would make fun presents for Solomon and Luminaria.
Mira then returned to the main path, resuming her quest for the second glyph. She kicked skeletons whenever she felt like it, and went to pick up rare fruits from the active facilities if she remembered them. Around four hours after her arrival at the central level, she finally obtained the glyph that would give her access to the crystal. By the time she arrived at the second spherical shrine and obtained the second glyph, it was already 9pm.
「All according to plan, pretty much.」
She had once again obtained one glyph in one day. The spirit mansion was summoned behind the shrine, and Mira prepared for her next day. Her goal was to obtain the last glyph from the lower levels in her third day on that floor. And if possible, reach the cathedral leading to the next floor before sleeping.
「I wonder who planned such a disgusting area.」
The initial glyph and the spherical shrines were always placed on opposite sides, one being on the north and other on the south, or one on the east and the other on the west. On top of that the initial glyphs would overwrite each other, so it was impossible to gather those first, and then run through all the spherical shrines. All of that made the path to the seventh floor a long convoluted mess.
After a hearty meal in preparation for her third day on that floor, Mira laid down and read the Encyclopedia of Skills until she fell asleep.
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