Livelihood Dungeon! (English Version)

"Clean up the blood, Iyashi," Peter suddenly said while calmly continuing his butchering.

"Growl... Kyū!" the slime replied as it transformed.

The slime quickly crawled toward the blood-soaked area around them.

As fast as it approached, the Regeneration Slime cleaned even faster—absorbing the scattered blood at an incredible rate.

For the first time, the two spirit beasts and the dungeon guide were amazed by Iyashi's cleaning ability.

Even the smallest gaps between blades of grass were thoroughly purified.

The splattered blood on Peter's body and clothes was also cleaned, leaving them looking brand new.

"Kyū!" Iyashi chirped, as if seeking approval from its master.

"Good job, Iyashi," Peter said with a brief smile.

"Kyū!" the slime responded happily.

"Kyū... burp!"

The group suddenly burst into laughter, while Iyashi turned bright red from embarrassment.

Peter could only smile awkwardly.

"Sorry. Because of me, you won't be able to enjoy the meal properly later," he said gently.

"Kyū! Kyū!" the slime panicked in protest.

Peter then shifted his attention to the firewood after finishing the butchering.

First, he gathered stones of moderate size.

Using them, he formed a tightly closed circular base. He added more layers until he was satisfied that it was stable and would not collapse easily.

Once satisfied, he moved on.

He stacked the firewood in a crisscross pattern, just like those seen in primitive cooking setups.

After arranging everything properly, he picked up two specially selected pieces of wood.

They were the driest among all of them.

He began rubbing the two pieces together.

Rub.

Rub.

Twist.

Twist.

Rub.

Rub.

Twist.

Twist.

As time passed, Peter exhaled upward sharply, pushing away strands of hair that kept falling over his eyes.

He couldn't use his hands to fix them—doing so would ruin the friction he had built up. If that happened, he would have to start all over again.

The longer he worked, the more sweat began to drip from him.

"One day, I hope I can convince a spirit beast with fire abilities to join my growing family," Peter muttered hopefully.

"At last!" Peter exclaimed as a spark finally ignited.

He quickly intensified the friction to prevent his effort from being wasted.

Once the flame grew strong enough, he carefully used it to light the stacked firewood resting on the stone base.

Soon, the dry wood began to blaze.

With one hand, Peter lifted the massive cauldron and placed it over the fire.

He then poured the entire bottle of cooking oil into the pot.

Silently, he watched the cauldron as he waited for the oil to heat properly.

When Peter felt that the oil had reached the right temperature, he picked up a ladle from among the various cooking utensils he had taken out earlier.

With it, he scooped raw meat from the butchered spirit beast boar.

Carefully, he lowered the meat into the boiling oil, making sure it wouldn't splatter.

He repeated the process several times until the massive space inside his gigantic cauldron was filled.

After that, Peter covered the large cauldron with its equally enormous lid.

Peter sat down on the grass with a satisfied smile before turning to look at his companions.

He nodded at each of them one by one before beginning to speak.

Inside the Livelihood Dungeon, aside from working, storytelling was the best way to pass the time.

Of course, he started by introducing his origin.

He explained that he was not originally from the Skylark Realm. He was a human from a small planet called Earth, located in the Solar System within the Milky Way Galaxy—a world also ruled by his fellow humans.

Even though Ichiro, Iyashi, and Peach had heard this story many times before, their amazement never faded.

Peter couldn't help but grin.

He always felt pleased seeing their reactions.

It made him feel strangely intelligent whenever he talked about his former world.

He then shifted his gaze toward Moriko, hoping to see another amusing reaction.

And the female Man-Ki did not disappoint him.

She looked completely lost in the flood of unfamiliar terms Peter kept throwing at her.

It wasn't surprising at all. In fact, Peter would have been more shocked if Moriko had remained calm after hearing everything about his technologically advanced former world.

He wasn't worried about his secret being exposed. It was already an open secret within the dungeon.

His companions and Peach all knew about his past because he had told them many times before.

In fact, it had almost become a ritual—him retelling his origin every time a new member joined his household.

It just so happened that today was Moriko's turn.

Peter asked her if she still had any questions about what he had shared.

Moriko only nodded absentmindedly, staring blankly at her master.

She truly could not understand most of what Peter was saying.

The concepts he was throwing at her were too deep and foreign.

Even with the sheer size of the Eternal Forest and her limited knowledge of the outside world, she was already struggling to process everything.

Peter's explanations only made her confusion worse.

A grin spread across Peter's face when he saw her clearly struggling.

He tried hard not to burst out laughing as he watched the Man-Ki.

It felt like the roles had reversed.

Now he was the mischievous monkey about to prank an innocent victim, while Moriko had become the clueless target.

Peter almost laughed out loud as he continued explaining Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

He simplified it as much as he could—saying that humanity supposedly evolved from monkeys.

Peter burst into laughter when he saw Moriko's eyes completely spiral into confusion.

He even imagined her head steaming like a short-circuiting machine.

But his amusement stopped when he noticed something unusual.

A series of sniffing sounds echoed in the air.

When he looked for the source, he saw Ichiro's nostrils flaring wildly, drool forming at the corners of his mouth.

That was when Peter remembered something.

He immediately noticed that the food no longer smelled raw.

Without hesitation, he lifted the lid of the cauldron.

A rich, mouthwatering aroma instantly assaulted his senses.

He quickly grabbed the ladle when he saw that the portions submerged in oil had turned a golden brown.

Carefully, he flipped them over.

Suddenly, the boiling oil popped violently, splattering outward from the cauldron.

Part of Peter's face was hit by the hot oil.

Even so, he did not flinch or make a sound of pain.

The dungeon master remained calm.

If it had been the old Peter before arriving in the Skylark Realm, he would have already complained and made a fuss.

But the current Peter had survived countless life-and-death situations.

He had once narrowly survived a treacherous attack from another human.

He had also lost his arms in battle against a ferocious Rank C bear-type spirit beast.

To Peter, a burn from hot oil—even one close to his eye—was now a trivial matter.

His confidence came from his trust in his own body's durability, his legendary-grade potion, and the abundant miraculous waters he possessed.

After flipping the meat and covering the cauldron again, they resumed their storytelling.

He forcibly "volunteered" the drooling giant wolf.

Ichiro was already used to sharing his story, so the Terrestrial Wolf confidently began his tale.

In a playful tone, he recounted their first meeting with his master, whom he affectionately called "boss."

Everyone laughed as the wolf made fun of Peter's pathetic state back when he was overwhelmed with fear before being rescued.

But when the story reached the time before he met Peter—back when he was still with his family and pack inside the dangerous Eternal Forest—the atmosphere grew noticeably heavier.

They hadn't expected the goofy Terrestrial Wolf to have such a sorrowful backstory.

Next, the focus shifted to Iyashi.

The others either stood there slack-jawed or tried to hold back their laughter as the Regeneration Slime narrated its first meeting with Peter.

Soon after, the conversation turned to Peach.

Everyone—especially the still-recovering Moriko—looked at Peach expectantly.

The dungeon guide awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

"Uhm... I don't really have much of a story to tell... except for this. My life started when the Goddess of Goodwill granted Master Peter the Livelihood Dungeon. I'm also restricted from going outside since I'm part of the dungeon," Peach said, as if it didn't weigh heavily on him at all.

A sudden wave of sympathy washed over the group.

They all gave Peach gentle looks and offered quiet words of comfort.

The atmosphere around them gradually calmed as Moriko continued speaking, though there was still a hint of hesitation in her voice.

"There were only two of us left back then," she continued, looking at the banana leaves laid out on the ground. "Me and my partner. We were the only remaining guardians of those trees."

She paused briefly, as if weighing whether she should continue in detail.

"Then came a time when everything changed..."

Peter looked up from the cauldron, his brows slightly furrowed, but he remained silent and listened. Ichiro and Iyashi had also stopped their usual antics—Peach too had paused her preparations, sensing the heaviness of the story.

"Strange presences began moving inside the forest," Moriko added, her tone now more serious. "They weren't like ordinary hunters or travelers. It felt like... they had intentions beyond simple intrusion."

Her hands tightened slightly.

"And one day... my partner suddenly disappeared."

A brief silence followed.

No one spoke.

Even the boiling cauldron nearby seemed quieter compared to the weight of her words.

Peter slowly lowered his ladle. He didn't speak immediately, as if trying to fully understand the depth of what he had just heard.

"You don't know what happened to him?" he asked carefully.

Moriko shook her head.

"I didn't find any body. No signs of battle either. It was as if... the forest itself swallowed his presence."

The air grew heavier.

Peter looked into the distance for a moment before returning his gaze to the cauldron.

"If that's the case," he said calmly, "then we need to be even more careful as we go deeper."

Moriko quietly nodded.

Despite the cooking food and the warm fire, it was deeply felt that the direction of their journey had shifted once again—from a simple feast into something far more profound that they did not yet fully understand.

The four listeners quietly paid attention, showing respect to the noticeably sorrowful way the Man-Ki woman told her story.

The conversation also circled back to Peter. He shared with them the agreement they had made and how a goddess had granted him the power of the Livelihood Dungeon.

The female Man-Ki was stunned upon hearing that her master had the ability to communicate with a goddess. Her eyes brightened with awe, and she developed a newfound respect for him.

After Peter had cooked a sufficient amount of meat and placed it in front of them, they all began to feast heartily on the still-warm food.

"Grā!" The Terrestrial Wolf eagerly devoured the meat in front of him. So much saliva sprayed out as he ate with obvious delight.

"Kyū! Kyu... growl!" The slime continuously slurped the meat, but halfway through, it transformed into a Moon Bear after no longer being satisfied with the bland sense of taste of its slime form.

"Growl!" Iyashi let out a joyful roar in its morphed form after tasting the delicious flavor of the wild boar meat.

Instinctively, Iyashi knew that this form was far more suitable for eating. It had a better sense of taste and allowed it to enjoy the food more fully.

Though Peach ate in a refined manner with small, delicate bites, she was actually quite fast when it came to finishing her portion.

As for Moriko, her eyes widened in pure shock the moment she tasted the cooked meat for the first time. The Man-Ki were an omnivorous race. Unlike what most assumed—that monkeys only ate fruits like bananas and other plants—they also consumed insects when necessary. They adapted to their environment.

The Man-Ki were the same. They ate both fruits and insects. However, the environment they grew up in was far more brutal, making their nature wilder and their diet more diverse. They even consumed the flesh of other spirit beasts when needed.

Still, this was the first time Moriko had ever tasted cooked meat, and she found the flavor overwhelmingly delicious.

Meanwhile, Peter silently observed his companions as they enjoyed their meal. He was also eating, but not with the same enthusiasm.

Peter couldn't help but smile as he recalled a familiar scene from one of his five favorite isekai anime—in no particular order—aside from the one he had already mentioned earlier about a Japanese salaryman who was stabbed, turned into a slime, and built a kingdom of magical beasts.

In the second anime he remembered, another Japanese salaryman was accidentally caught up in the summoning of heroes by a kingdom in that fantasy world.

That salaryman ended up with familiars that were similar to Ichiro and Iyashi—a wolf and a slime. Meanwhile, the main protagonist had a Fenrir and a variant slime as companions.

As an adventurer, that former Japanese salaryman often camped and cooked in various places while traveling with his companions.

From Peter's perspective, the meat of a spirit beast wild boar was far more flavorful than ordinary pork. However, something was still missing. As someone who once came from Earth, the lack of seasonings made the food taste rather bland.

Compared to that anime protagonist—who conveniently had an overpowered ability perfectly suited for someone from the modern world—their current meals were still quite plain. Because of that, he found himself hoping he could soon discover or acquire spices and seasonings as soon as possible.