27. The Front is Good

“Too much! Too much! It’s a crime! An illegal act!”

“I said I’m sorry.”

“The shock was so great that ‘sorry’ can’t fix it! Literally shock! Heart attack!”

“Yeah…”

In the middle of the street, Ravi was holding two pairs of goat skewers in both hands. A total of four, shouting “Wawawack.” I bought goat skewers to make peace, but after eating well and being full, Ravi seemed to have more energy to be angry.

“I understand. I gave Ravi an indelible scar.”

“That’s right!”

“I suppose you don’t want to see my face, so I’ll go to another emotion center to finish identifying the unknown skill.”

“Huh?! What?! Wait a minute!?”

“Thank you for your hard work. Goodbye.”

As I turned swiftly from where I stood, Ravi, who was holding goat skewers in both hands, shifted them to his left hand and grabbed me with his now free right hand.

“N-no! It’s not that bad!”

“Then?”

“Well, I was a bit angry! But now I’m fine!”

“Really?”

“Yes! I’m not angry anymore!”

“Hmm. Even so, I’ll go to another emotion center.”

At those words, Ravi’s mouth dropped open as if struck by lightning, and he spoke tearfully.

“N-no! Why?! I’m not angry anymore!”

“Even if you’ve calmed down now, you must be greatly disappointed in me. You wouldn’t want to identify the skill of someone like that.”

“That’s not true! I’m not disappointed! It doesn’t matter at all..!”

“Really?”

“Yes! Really! I want to identify the skill! I want to research it!”

“If you say so. But you wouldn’t want to face a criminal, so let’s communicate in writing.”

“No, no, no!!”

* * * * *

“Th-thank you for letting me research the skill….”

“Yes. Please take care of it.”

Anyway, it means I have to eat the bones. Whether I crush them, grind them in a blender, or cut them with a knife, it seems I have to eat them in small pieces. Of course, I don’t have a blender.

“And there shouldn’t be any missing parts.”

Muscles, after all, can be seen as a collection of small organs. Muscle fibers are clustered together.

But bones, you have to eat the marrow and other organs inside them that have different roles. Moreover, when cutting or breaking the bones, there might be empty spaces due to lost bone powder or tiny bone fragments.

Of course, considering the flexibility of my skill, it might be okay if other bones fill the empty spaces. If there are parts with different strengths in one bone, the weaker parts will inevitably receive greater impact, accumulate fatigue quickly, and break easily.

“So, is this the method you chose?”

“Yes!”

It’s a butcher’s knife. Bones are hard, but this knife is used to cut such hard things. It’s a very sturdy one used in butcher shops to cut meat or bones. It should have much less loss than roughly smashing them.

“This is the first time I’m cutting only bones like this. So, you’re going to eat this?”

“Yes.”

“Are you making soup or something?”

“No. I’m just going to eat the bones as they are.”

The butcher lady looked at me with a face that said, “What nonsense is this?” It is a funny request, even to me. But since I paid, she sliced the bones thinly as requested.

The thickness is about 0.5 cm. It feels a bit like pickled radish, but it’s a hard pickled radish filled with yellow and red marrow inside. The width is about the size of my palm, and Ursus’s femur wasn’t that thin.

The ones that seemed too wide to go down my throat were cut in half again to make them all swallowable.

“There’s almost no bone powder, it’s perfect.”

“Yeah. If you want to make a living with this, you have to do at least this much.”

Ravi, who was watching from the side, looked at the bone pieces on the table and said.

“Wow… Are you really going to eat this…?”

“Ravi told me to eat it.”

“Th-that was for research…”

Ravi picked up a thinly sliced piece of bone and brought it to his nose, grimacing with an “ugh.” I had to eat this, and he was reacting like that next to me.

“Ravi, you should have one too.”

“Wait?! M-me!?”

“Yes. It wouldn’t be fair if only I ate.”

“B-but that’s because of the skill..!”

“I didn’t see it that way.”

“T-tha…”

“I’m kidding. Let’s go to the appraisal room.”

“Really!!”

I put the sliced bone into a metal bowl and brought it to the appraisal room. There were no missing parts, and it was perfect.

“The size is small, but the cut part is a bit sharp. We need to make sure it doesn’t hurt the esophagus…”

“Do you have a good method?”

“Hmm! Wait a moment?”

Does Ravi have a good idea? He asked me to wait for a moment and then ran inside the curtain to bring something.

“What is this?”

“It’s a petal from the silver thorn bush with analgesic effects!”

“What are you going to do with the analgesic effect?”

“With this… even if the esophagus gets a little hurt, it should be okay, right?”

“No.”

While I was thinking about how to eat without getting hurt, Ravi just said to eat and endure the pain a little.

“But, isn’t it okay if the esophagus gets hurt..?”

“Why? Let’s hear the reason.”

If there is a wound inside the throat, it would hurt every time you eat. Ravi, despite appearances, surprisingly doesn’t care about others’ pain. Very despicable.

“Well.. doesn’t it heal?”

“It doesn’t. Thanks to Ursus’s magic, the healing speed is fast. But I haven’t yet…”

Wait a minute.

“Then it’s fine, Ravi.”

“Yes? What is?”

“If the esophagus is going to get hurt, we just need to eat the esophagus of a creature with a tough esophagus.”

“Yes.. huh?”

This is a very genius idea. Those direwolf b*stards chew through bones, so their esophagus must be tough too.

Where exactly is the range of the esophagus? I need to think about this a bit more.. but it’s worth a try.

“Ravi. Let’s go into the labyrinth together.”

“What!? The labyrinth!?”

At my words, Ravi jumped up in surprise and shook his head vigorously.

“No, I can’t go!”

“I’m not telling you to go alone. Let’s go together.”

“That’s not the problem! What if we get some weird skill in the labyrinth..?!”

“Haha, Ravi. Are you really an appraiser? Do you think you can get a skill just by taking a walk in the labyrinth?”

Skills are originally something you can only obtain after spending at least a month inside the labyrinth. I’m a really special case, but you can’t just go in and out of the labyrinth for the first time and get a skill right away.

On average, people say they get their first skill on their 12th trip to the labyrinth, so getting a skill on the 2nd trip is a miracle.

“I know that, but… there are almost no appraisers who go into the labyrinth..!”

Is it like the top 10 foods doctors never eat? Appraisers might know how terrible some of the skills you can get in the labyrinth are, so that might be why.

“You’re getting ahead of yourself, Ravi. You won’t get a skill.”

“But….”

“Let’s just go and bring back a direwolf quickly.”

* * * * *

“Oh my, welcome.”

“It’s been a while since I last saw you. You weren’t here a few hours ago.”

“I was out on an external assignment. I just got back.”

When I returned to the guild, Dalia was there. I couldn’t see her earlier, so I guess even guild receptionists go out on assignments. That must be tough.

“I see. One iron rank, one bronze rank. Is it okay to aim for the 3rd floor?”

“Bronze rank… this person is…?”

Dalia turned her head towards Ravi, who was standing next to her.

“I-I’m an appraiser!”

“An appraiser… I see, understood.”

People who have obtained an appraiser’s license from an academy located in the northeast of Kalax, or from an academy in another city, and are working as appraisers in the labyrinth city, can enter the labyrinth without a special explorer’s pass.

The reason for issuing an explorer’s pass in the first place is not because of their combat skills, but to distinguish whether they are a verified person or not. It’s natural that beginners in the labyrinth can’t fight because they don’t have any skills.

“Have you already acquired another skill?”

“Not exactly. I’m still looking into the skill I got last time.”

“Ah, I see.”

Dahlia handed me a piece of paper with information about the labyrinth entry, and I signed it briefly before heading to the portal.

“Y-you’re not really going to get a skill, are you..?!”

“Ravi. If you say that in the guild, you’ll get stoned. What kind of skill would you get at the entrance of the labyrinth?”

* * * * *

“Wow…”

“It’s your first time in the labyrinth, right?”

“Yes..! It’s a lot different from what I imagined.”

Ravi looked around with wide eyes, spinning around like a child at an amusement park. Of course, since it was the first floor, there wasn’t anything particularly notable, just a vast meadow.

“What were you imagining?”

“I wasn’t imagining anything specific… I just thought it would be scarier.”

“It’s the first floor. It’s not time for anything scary to come out yet.”

Since the dire wolves appear from the second floor, should we go down?

“Ravi. Do you prefer the front or the back?”

“W-w-w-what are you talking about?!”

Suddenly, she started jumping up and down, squealing. Her face turned so red that it was hard to distinguish her hair from her cheeks. It’s fun to tease her.

“No, Ravi, at your walking speed, we won’t reach the second floor until early next year. I’m asking if you’d prefer to be carried on my back or in my arms.”

“N-no.. really! Please speak properly!”

“Yes. But what were you thinking?”

“That, uh…”

Ravi mumbled, bowing his head deeply and grabbing a handful of hair to cover his face.

“Ah, please do it forward…”

“Forward is good.”

Thus, they broke through the first floor. Holding Ravi in a princess carry, they swiftly headed to the second floor.