Chapter 3: Dia and Streaming and Sharkdiles

“—Welcome to my kitchen!
This is Deer’s Kitchen!
Today is a material-gathering stream!”

A girl dressed in a way that balanced cuteness with dungeon explorer gear.

She placed her fingers on top of her head like antlers, struck a deer-inspired pose, and winked.

The wink was directed at the camera held by a glasses-wearing woman.

“Today’s dungeon is the Riverbed Abyss.
There are plenty of things that look edible on the first layer too, but today I want to be bold and head to the second layer!”

The girl speaking to the camera was named Otsuno Dia.

She was a dungeon streamer affiliated with an agency called Rubellite Studio.

Her main content consisted of gathering edible-looking materials in dungeons and cooking them.

In terms of popularity, she was solidly mid-tier.

Dungeon streams that focused on flashy dungeon clears or monster battles tended to be more popular.

It was said that Dia’s popularity remained mid-tier because she did not stream many flashy combat scenes.

As she herself stated, Dia’s goal today was ingredient gathering.

“Alright, then I’d like to move through the first layer quickly!”

After declaring that, Dia began moving through the dungeon while having the camera operated by her manager-cum-assistant.

“Thanks everyone for the compliments!”

Dia progressed through the dungeon while replying to viewer comments calling her strong and amazing.

Against first-layer monsters, she fought smoothly using a one-handed sword and sword-based combat arts.

For monsters resistant to physical attacks, she gracefully used beginner-level offensive magic breath skills.

The viewers were thrilled by her performance.

In terms of pure combat power alone, she was clearly a cut above her peers.

Even so, many people felt it was a waste that she focused on cooking streams rather than frontline dungeon clearing or monster battles.

However, Dia herself believed ingredient procurement and cooking suited her better than fighting, and prioritized those instead.

While Dia was cheerfully waving to her fans, her expression suddenly tightened.

“…!
Shirona Wanihama, behind you—Scissor Man!”

She sharply called out the name of her manager and exploration assistant, Wanihama Shirona, who was filming.

Reacting to the voice, Shirona leapt straight forward without looking back.

As Shirona flew past her, Dia stepped forward in exchange.

The Scissor Man was a monster whose upper body was a crab—or more accurately, a crab’s underside with human legs growing out of it.

It was unclear if it had any purpose, but it also had normal crab legs, though they did not touch the ground.

Its claws were large, while the parts other than the claws resembled long human arms.

The Scissor Men that appeared in this dungeon were called Scissor Man Saward and were said to be based on river crabs, but to Dia they only seemed different in color from other Scissor Men.

The claws were dangerous, but aside from that, the monster posed little threat.

Because of that, Dia stepped in boldly.

As long as she did not get caught by the claws, she would be fine.

“Eeeeei!”

She slashed the Scissor Man Saward in passing.

It did not go down from that alone, but—

“I’m going!
Magic Breath: Flare Bullet!”

Following up, Shirona fired a flaming projectile from her fingertips.

The fire bullet exploded upon hitting the Scissor Man Saward, making it stagger.

“This finishes it!
Combat Art: High Slash!”

From behind, Dia swung her two-handed sword down with full force and delivered the finishing blow.

“Shirona, are you okay?”

So the camera would not pick up her voice, Shirona simply nodded.

“That’s a relief.”

The camera captured Dia smiling at Shirona.

Since Shirona was the one holding the camera, Dia was naturally framed head-on.

[So cute]
[As expected of Dia]
[I want to protect that smile]
[Glad Shirona is okay]
[The stream wouldn’t work without Shirona]

As the camera operator during exploration and occasional magic breath support during combat, Shirona was known by name among fans.

Even so, Shirona rarely spoke, as she intended to remain purely an assistant during Dia’s streams.

The fans sensed a kind of professionalism in that and usually limited their comments to light expressions of appreciation that would not interfere with the stream.

“Let’s keep moving without letting our guard down.
I don’t think we’ll struggle against second-layer monsters, but still.”

Proceeding cautiously while maintaining a safety margin was nothing new.

At Dia’s words, Shirona nodded, and the two resumed their exploration.

“Now that we’re on the second layer, all we’re running into are Scissor Men and Yagoradon.”

[Scissor Men might be edible if they didn’t have human legs]
[The legs look too human to want to eat]
[Yagoradon are just too yago]
[Dia-chan, could you handle eating insects?]

“Insect eating… insect eating, huh…
Honestly, the mental hurdle is pretty high.”

[Doesn’t that dungeon have even bigger Yagoradon on Floor 6?]

“Yeah, yeah.
They’re called Oniyagoradon.
They look kind of scary, don’t they?
Yagoradon in general.”

[The monsters are questionable, but Layer 2 is pretty]

“It really is.
I like the third layer here even more—it’s really beautiful.”

She looked around while picking up viewer comments.

“If we go to Floor 5, there are Bite Salmon, so maybe I’ll go down one more floor.”

[Bite Salmon?]
[A name that combines deliciousness and danger]
[What kind of monster is it?]

“A big salmon with a huge mouth and sharp teeth that could easily bite a person in half?”

[Piranha?]
[That’s clearly a kaiju]
[Is ‘bite’ really a cute enough name?]

“Hyup!
Yeah, it’s way more dangerous than the name sounds.”

She replied while slicing apart a lunging Yagoradon.

Then she thought for a moment and nodded once.

“Alright.
Considering the stream length—I’ll head straight to the next stairs!
It might get a bit hard to see again, sorry about that!”

After declaring that, she glanced at Shirona.

The two exchanged nods and began moving quickly.

“Alright, we’re on Floor 5 now.”

[Is the salmon here?]
[Even if you meet it, can you defeat and dismantle it?]
[Defeating it in an edible state seems hard]
[Aren’t you going to Floor 6?]

“Floor 6, huh…
There’s something called a Sharkdile that shows up sometimes.
It’s like a crocodile and shark hybrid, and it’s strong enough that it feels like it’s appearing on the wrong floor.”

[What kind of chimera is that]
[Both sharks and crocodiles are edible]
[Eat it?]
[Sounds vicious enough to make Bite Salmon seem cute]

“I want to eat it, but it’d be hard to defeat it while keeping it in an edible state.”

Honestly, that was just bravado for the fans.

If she tried to fight it head-on, struggling would be unavoidable.

In the worst case, things could go very badly.

“And today I’m here with gathering gear, so if I run into a Sharkdile, I’ll run away.
I’ve never heard of them being on Floor 5, though.”

[OK]
[Can’t be helped]
[Staying safe matters most]
[Safety first]
[Dia-chan fans don’t want defeat splatter anyway]

“Still… there seem to be fewer monsters than on Floor 4…
Not just monsters, but even the non-hostile small fish seem fewer too…”

[Now that you mention it]
[Some kind of omen?]
[Dia-chan, be careful]

Smiling at the worried comments, Dia proceeded cautiously.

“If I remember right, turning right at this intersection should lead to an area with lots of Bite Salmon…”

She muttered that to herself as she turned the corner.

“Eh?”

A huge, unfamiliar monster stood right in front of her.

The monster also looked surprised.

“…Eh?”
“Dia!”

The first to snap back to her senses was Shirona.

She reached out, grabbed Dia by the collar, and yanked her back.

Immediately after, the monster lunged and bit down on the spot where Dia had just been standing.

[What happened?]
[That thing’s huge]
[Bite Salmon?]
[That’s clearly a shark]
[No, it’s a crocodile]
[Wait, isn’t that—]
[Shark and crocodile]
[That Sharkdile thing?]
[Isn’t that bad?]

“…A Sharkdile?
Why is it here…?”

“Dia, we have to run!”

“Ah, right!
Okay!!
We’re running!!”

And with that, the two hurriedly turned on their heels and fled.