This starts with Namari and the Tansus' party, along with an ominous reminder that resurrection spells don't always work. Also, there's a bit of fantasy politics: the elves say the dungeon belongs to them and they want it back. Mr. Tansu tells the local lord to stall. Meanwhile, Laios' party has finally caught up to the red dragon.

This was a fun volume, with lots of action (and, of course, more cooking). I really liked Kui's artwork - not only is this a delicious-looking food manga, the action scenes are clear and easy to follow.

I was really surprised that Laios and the others came across the red dragon so soon. I figured that particular storyline was going to be dragged out for at least another few volumes. It'll be interesting to see where the series goes from here. It bugged me a bit that not a single person from the party asked Marcille why the spell she performed

I loved the revelation that Senshi has cookware that doubles as high-quality shields and weaponry.

I'm looking forward to continuing this series. I want to see where the elf storyline goes, and I'm sure that the dragon's presence on the fifth floor, an area where it isn't usually found, is important in some way. And hey, the entire party still has to make it out of the dungeon somehow.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

This one took me a bit to get my bearings on since I hadn't realized that these guys would appear again and therefore hadn't really mentioned them in my past posts. I believe this volume starts with the same party that the series regulars came across back when they found the treasure insects. They're revived and continue on, only to be killed yet again by fish-men. The series regulars see them, are attacked by a kraken, and make a meal out of kraken parasite meat - kraken, as it turns out, isn't tasty like real squid. They also make a porridge using grain and waterweed collected from fish-men. Then Marcille

This is still a creative and fascinating series, even if Laios' and Senshi's insistence on figuring out how to eat literally everything they come across in the dungeon is a bit ick. The kraken parasite meal made my skin crawl. (And Laios deserved what he got for eating one of those things raw.)

In this volume, readers learn that Marcille and Falin met in school - Falin was skipping class to read in a real dungeon, which she'd observed enough to learn a lot about (back to the whole "dungeon ecosystem" thing). Marcille, meanwhile, wanted to learn how to create a safe dungeon, a place with all the benefits of a real dungeon (access to goods that can only be grown or found in a dungeon) but without the danger.

As usual, the story got a bit ridiculous, but in ways that made sense. I laughed at the

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

The adventurers continue on their quest to save Falin, Laios's sister, and eat all manner of dungeon monsters. Senshi shows them how he uses golems to grow vegetables, talks about the dungeon ecosystem, and more. He also

Uhh. This is still bizarre. The dungeon ecosystem stuff was kind of nice, and the mimic looked delicious (like crab, maybe?), but the bit with the kelpie just made me sad. It reminded me of the pig the main character in Silver Spoon was raising - after reading spoilers for later episodes, I quit that series and have never been able to bring myself to continue on. (Yes, I eat meat, and yes, I know this is hypocritical of me.)

The living painting stuff was strange, and I'm still wondering who that crazy elf was. I doubt the series will ever get back to that, though, since that would interfere with cooking and eating things.

I laughed at the revelation that Chilchuck is actually

, and at the other characters' reactions this.

All in all, this is strangely fascinating, and I'll probably continue on, but I think I'm going to avoid trying to plow through too many volumes at once, since I suspect binge-reading would ruin this series for me. This might be a good series to get via interlibrary loan requests, rather than in big chunks during my vacations.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Laios and his adventuring party are trying to defeat a dragon when his sister is grabbed and eaten. Before the dragon gets her, she uses magic to teleport the whole party to safety. Laios wants to save her before she's digested and unrevivably dead, but he's all out of money for provisions, and selling his weapons in order to buy food wouldn't put him in any better of a situation. Which is why he decides to try something he's been curious about for ages: cooking and eating the dungeon monsters he kills. His companions are horrified, but they go along with it out of necessity. It helps that they gain a new member, an experienced dungeon monster cook/nutritionist named Senshi.

This series is bizarro. No one seems to be very worried about dying, or even in that much of a rush to save Laios's sister, in large part because resurrection spells are a thing. So a lot of time is devoted to killing and cooking things. This is basically a foodie manga, just with fantasy food. Each meal even includes a list of ingredients.

This particular volume discusses the importance of a balanced diet, the fact that even experienced dungeon cooks can learn new things (for example, Senshi learns that mandrakes taste better if you let them scream first), and the use of dungeon traps as kitchen utensils and appliances (for chopping meat, frying it, etc.). Also, Laios acquires

Portable food? I worry that this guy's obsession with eating dungeon monsters is going to get him and his party killed. Thank goodness Senshi is there, although that guy has his own issues.

Marcille, the elf character, was borderline annoying. She was the character who seemed to have the most difficulty adjusting to eating dungeon monsters and finding her place in this slightly altered adventuring party - the polar opposite of Laios, who'd have happily eaten anything Senshi gave him (and some things even Senshi never considered cooking).

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Imagine an entire manga series based on this idea, and you get Delicious in Dungeon, one of the series I tried out during my vacation.

An adventurer's sister gets eaten by a dragon. He wants to rescue her but has no money to buy food, so he finally has an excuse to try something he's been intrigued about for a long time: cooking and eating the monsters he kills. It's a foodie manga featuring fictional foods. Hopefully I can write up review posts of the first couple volumes soon.