Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)
Volume 3 - Ch 4.16

Yeah. Besides, I already know how they taste anyway. Here is your share, Roxanne.

Thats right. I couldnt tell by the smell alone, but now that I see the finished product I am one hundred percent sure what this candy is.

It is honeycomb toffee. I will probably sound like a piece of useless trivia at the current moment, but I once tried making it as a science experiment when I was still in junior high school, only to somehow end up with soap instead. Even if it was not all that long ago I cannot say that I clearly remember the taste of the one that I have made, but I am pretty sure that I can say with all confidence that it would not be the same as, because all I can remember is thinking that I thought that it did not turn out all that well. And the one I just bought? I only managed to scoop a little bit of it for myself, but it was enough to make the bitter feeling in the back of my throat and nose to go away. That is how I expected a real honeycomb toffee to taste. And as I look at Roxanne whos happily wolfing down her own piece of it, I get all but assured that buying it was the right decision.

Is it good?

Yes! So sweet and tasty, it practically melts in my mouth!

Roxanne nodded vigorously. Good. That is all I needed to hear. Also, I have to admit that while this honeycomb toffee does not have a start to its equivalent from my world, it definitely has its own kind of unique taste and charm to it. However

Making Roxanne happy with this small gift was definitely worth spending the money on it, but if I am correct in thinking what I am thinking right now, then it might be possible for this little stroll to yield a rather unexpected result. Now, lets see whether I am right or wrong here

While we waited for Roxanne to finish eating her candy, I turned to the side and glanced towards the stall of the candy-maker while pretending to be looking in an entirely separate direction. What am I trying to do? Well, trying to see what that guy used to make the honeycomb toffee mixture of course.

In modern-day Japan, honeycomb toffee is usually made when you melt baking soda in liquid sardine and then heat the whole thing up, causing the carbonic acid to be emitted and then swell up. Even though the methods might differ due to the obvious disparity in technological advancement, I think the candy made on that stall also uses that very same principle, because the liquid mixture rapidly swelled the moment the heat was applied to the pot it was poured into.

As I continued to observe the stall owner, he turned his back to me at one point and opened the box he was keeping at the back of the stall, most likely the one where he was keeping the ingredients needed to make the candy: water and two kinds of powders he kept in separate pouches. He then poured the water into a bowl and added a solid bits from both pouches of powders, most likely in order to make the base liquid that would serve as the base of the honeycomb toffee.

This might be the opportunity that I was waiting for, so I am not going to miss that chance!

I looked at the box and concentrated my sight on the contents of what was inside it, and then used Identify. What I saw there were essentially two ingredients: Kobold Sucrose and Shell Powder. Unfortunately, I was not able to properly identify what that Shell Powder was made of, but my guess is that is a mixture that uses sugar as its main ingredient. Sucrose is a type of sugar as well, but mixing two types of sugar with one another would not be nearly enough to make honeycomb toffee. The main ingredient needed here would be something that would make the entire mixture rapidly heat up and expand. When that shell powder was heated, it definitely must have released carbon dioxide, so I think it is fairly safe to assume that the Shell Powder is most probably baking soda, or to put it into more technical terms, sodium hydrogen carbonate (TL Note: Or to simplify it, sodium bicarbonate).

That being said, these are all my assumptions not based on any concrete evidence, so I might as well be completely off the mark with everything I have said just now. The only thing that I know for sure is that the guy has three main ingredients that he uses: water, Kobold Sucrose and Shell Powder, but that is about it when it comes to the things that I can be absolutely sure of. I could always try asking the stall owner about it directly, but since the method of making it might be his trade secret I highly doubt that he would be willing to share anything other than the names of the raw ingredients with me, and even that I am not so sure about. But thankfully, that is exactly what I have Identify for. With it around, I do not have to worry about silly little things like people trying to keep the names of ingredients from me. Oh, but please, do not misunderstand, okay? Its not like I need to know all those things because I want to start making my own honeycomb toffee (which is fairly easy: you just have to mix sugar and baking soda with flour, and all of those ingredients or their substitutes should be available here). No, what I want to make is something else entirely, but lets leave the talk about it for a bit later, okay?

Im done eating, master.

I see. And? Was the candy to your liking?

Yes, it was absolutely delicious! Thank you for the treat

Thats great to hear. Come now, lets go.

After a short distance, I asked Roxanne in a whisper:

Say, Roxanne how can we obtain Kobold Sucrose? Is it another drop from Kobolds?

Yes. I actually heard that this item can be obtained form the advanced form of Kobolds that can be found on the higher floors in the Labyrinth.

Advanced form of Kobolds? Does she mean Kobold Kampfer, or perhaps there will be some other variation of it once we will reach even higher floors of in the Labyrinths in Veil and Quratar? I do not know, but that would make sense since regular Kobolds and Kobold Kampfers we have been fighting up until now were leaving only Kobold Salt behind them, and no matter how much of them we hunted, they never dropped anything else, even when the Cook Job equipped, which made me think that its Rare Ingredients Drop Rate Up Skill might actually be useless.

Do you know what a Shell Powder is?

Its a fire extinguishing agent. Everybody knows that.

Fire extinguishing agent?

You you didnt know about that, master?

Back in my homeland we were using very different things as fire extinguishers, so this is my first time hearing that Shell Powder can be used for that purpose as well. To tell you the truth, this is my very first time happening Upon Shell Powder at all.

More like I didnt know about it at all and just pulled out that excuse straight out of my ass just now, but it seems to have worked well enough, because Roxanne did not look like she wanted to question my words at all. So now would be a good time to get some more information about Shell Powder and its properties, so

Can you tell me more about Shell Powder and how exactly it can be used?

Of course. Shell Powder itself is actually an item dropped by the enemies called Clam Shells. In and out of itself it is not strong enough to negate or counteract the effects of Fire Magic, but when you apply it to a fire that already exist, it will quickly extinguish it.

And what about totally nullifying the effects of Fire Magic? Is there an item that can do that?

Yes, I was just about to get to that. If you want to completely negate the effects of Fire Magic, then you would have to use Scallop Extract, Scallop Shells Drop Item, but one dose of Scallop Extract can only negate one Fire Magic spell at a time, so if you wanted to negate Fire Magic continuously, you would have to carry multiple Scallop Extracts with you.

(Hmm, in that case it looks like Shell Powder is something different from the baking soda that I know about.)