A rank 9 mana stone is equivalent to a piece of stone bread. In other words, each one is worth about 20 stones.
So what about a rank 8 mana stone? Unfortunately, a death demon was only worth five goblins.
"What?! You mean it's only one hundred stones?!"
"...Including the summoned creatures, we have 300 stones."
Of course, even considering that, it couldn't be denied that the number was low, especially considering that we had just risked our lives for it.
"Bjorn... How much did the bread we ate at the inn cost?"
"I remember there were about 300 stones."
"So... that means I'll be able to taste its sweetness every time I catch a death demon!"
Apparently, the cream cake we'd eaten earlier had become Ainar's new unit of measurement. Of course, if you divided the profits by 8:2, that would be 0.2 sweetness per death demon... But I decided I'd rather not tell him that.
"Bjorn! This is no time to stay here. Hunt! Let's hunt!"
The disappearance didn't last long. I smiled when I saw Ainar brimming with enthusiasm again. In that respect, working with a barbarian wasn't so bad.
I liked Erwen as a comrade, but the problem was that she was mostly passive. Motivation was much easier that way.
"Okay, let's go!"
After that, we continued hunting the area for Death Eaters. If it took us more than 20 minutes to hunt each one, it was practically a lost cause, even if we earned 300 stones, but... The first attempt should always be considered an exception.
"Kwoohhhh!!!"
"Behell-aaaah!"
Whenever we encountered a death demon, we would shout the name of our ancestral god and charge. Then, each of us would grab a leg, lift it up, and throw the monster to the ground.
We call this strategy "Double Barbaric Tackle".
Bam!
A fallen death demon was easy prey. As we structure each monster's head from a distance greater than an arm's length, the monsters soon vanished into thin air. The whole thing took us about three minutes.
The moment the monsters fell to the ground, they felt a sense of crisis and summed the ghouls, making it difficult for us to shorten that time any further.
"Woooohhhh!!!"
As the hunt continued, the rate at which we filled our mana stone pouch also increased. However, we were not satisfied and accelerated our pace even further.
This was because, by the third day, hunting the demon of death would be impossible.
If we hadn't reached the second floor faster than everyone else by using the bug in the first place, we wouldn't have even dared to fight these guys. These guys never usually travel alone.
Two was possible, although with difficulty, but groups of three or four would be tough with just the two of us.
[14: 27]
I checked the time and decided to take a break. Although the saying goes that you have to hit while the iron is hot, accidents always happen during times of precipitation.
«Bjorn, I'm thirsty.»
«Drink in moderation. The corpse flower only blooms tomorrow.»
«Corpse flower?»
It was the only way to replenish drinking water in the Land of the Dead. When the time came, flowers bloomed on the vines that covered the stone rubble and water could be found inside when they were cut open. When I told him this, Ainar hardened his face.
«Bjorn, isn't that a little unhygienic?»
Honestly, it was. I had heard that you could drink it, but I didn't feel like it that much either. However, it wasn't something someone sleeping in a five-person room with ten filthy people should complain about.
«So there is another way?»
«No! I'll drink it!»
After resting for about 20 minutes to regain strength, we continued hunting again. Finally, when we were about to fall exhausted, we had hunted a total of 70 death demons. That meant we had won over 20,000 stones in one day.
This is much better than hunting only rank 9 monsters.
However, the essence he expected had not appeared.
***
«Atrocious» was not enough to describe the rate of fall of an essence.
Therefore, the basic player of the game had to develop a leveling method based on the essence that fell to him at the beginning. But the player's skill determined how well it worked.
In that sense, I was looking forward to this. The death demon essence was among the best essences you could get in the early phases.
The problem is that there is no trace of her.
His active ability that summoned ghouls, «Call of the Dead», was quite disappointing, but the passive one, «Conservation of the Body», was good enough to make up for it.
Of course, absorbing the essence did not allow him to regenerate like those bastards...
But as my Immortal Imprint increased my regeneration rate, my compatibility with the essence was very high.
[02: 57]
I heard Ainar's snoring as I looked at the time. One day had already passed and the second began.
From now on, we would have to fight two death demons at once, but in a way, I was relieved.
At least it wouldn't seem strange if we met other explorers. Again, I'm the one who fears explorers the most.
«Ainar, get up.»
«... I didn't eat it!»
«It's time to change shifts.»
Three hours per person. After resting for a total of six hours, we returned to hunt the Death Eaters on the second day without fail.
«Kwoooohh!!!»
Both. There were twenty spawns summoned for their active abilities, but it was still worth a try. It was because we had learned the trick to dealing with them countless times on the first day.
Boom!
Before the creatures knew it, I ran forward and threw one to the ground. Then we also knocked down the other one. A single misstep could make things pretty ugly...
But when that happened, we ran without looking back.
«Ainar, run!»
«Oh!»
The death demons moved slowly and had a habit of not following you if you moved away from their territory, so it was not dangerous yet.
Shhhhh-!
Each battle lasted about ten minutes. In fact, three out of ten attempts were failures, but since we managed to catch two at once, the benefit ended up being similar to the first day.
The first day it had taken us a long time to find the monsters. However, at dusk on the second day, groups of three began to appear from time to time, and as time passed, the frequency of meetings also increased.
«We should leave this place soon».
«A wise warrior knows when to leave».
When the second day came to an end, we left the realm of death demons and all remorse with it. Then we returned to the sticky mud field and found a suitable camp.
Around then–
«.....!»
We meet a group of other explorers for the first time. They were a group of three humans and they were prowling in the darkness, leaning on a torch just like us. But...
Only when we were less than ten meters away could we see each other. Ainar spoke coldly.
«What are you looking at? If you have nothing to do here, leave».
«Ahem, excuse us».
The group passed by and disappeared into the darkness. It was quite interesting.
Walk, Walk.
They had only taken twenty steps forward, and the sound of their footsteps could still be heard faintly. But the light from the torch they were holding was no longer visible.
So that's what it means when people say that most floors in the maze can absorb all the light.
It seemed that the glow of a torch was almost impossible to see with the naked eye, even if it was only ten meters away. While I was thinking about this phenomenon...
«Bjorn, we must move».
Ainar spoke in a stubborn voice.
«They know where we are. Walls are convenient, but it would still be safer to find a new camp».
Indeed, he was right. I had thought about doing that too. However, I couldn't adapt to this.
What is this woman? Growling at other scouts to get them lost...
It was as if he had suddenly changed his personality.
«Bjorn, humans can't be trusted.»
«...Okay.»
Come to think of it, Ainar and I have something else in common, other than the fact that we are both barbarians...
A distrust of humans.
It seems that something happened to her during her last expedition too.
I'll have to ask him about that later.
«So let's go», he replied.
Shortly after, we packed our bags and set off. However, it was difficult to find a campground with as good a location as before.
Do we have to settle for a single wall to protect our backs?
While I was thinking this...
«Ugh.....»
A moan came from not far away.
»!!!! Mm!!
It wasn't a banshee. First of all, it wasn't a woman's voice, and ...
«... It-Wait!»
He spoke clearly.
«A-Help...»
Damn. We should have camped somewhere else.
«.....»
After an interrupted scream, there was silence.
Ainar whispered,
«It wasn't a monster attack».
I have ears too.
It was rare for a person to beg for his life when fighting a monster. The situation was clear. Someone had killed another person.
Damn, what the fuck situation is this? I'm not fucking Scooby Doo.
Not wanting to get involved, I grabbed Ainar's wrist and slowly backed away.
But the person seemed to perceive us.
«Who is it?»
The voice was cold and deep. It was rough, but it was certainly a woman's.
We held our breath and stood still at the same time.
But at that moment...
Pyuuuuuuuuu! Boom! Boom!
Something resembling a flare shot into the sky, gently illuminating a radius of about 50 meters. Thanks to this, I was also able to see the speaker's eyes. The distance between us was less than 15 meters.
...If Erwen had been here, she would have been able to detect his presence from afar and avoid this situation.
«Hmm, a beginner?»
The unidentified woman looked at us and drew a brief conclusion.
The feeling was mutual.
A dagger dripping blood.
Four corpses scattered.
«...A looter».
The woman asked calmly,
«Is this the first time you've seen one?»
«You could say yes».
It's the first time I've seen one as professional as you.
«I see.»
The woman wasn't even surprised that we had witnessed the crime scene and just nodded her head calmly.
Somehow, I think he knew why.
***
Looters.
Those who hunt professionally as explorers.
They generated large income by looting explorers' equipment instead of mana stones. Of course, if they were caught, they would be sentenced to death the moment they returned to the city.
But that rarely happened.
Although it was self-defense, I had also killed six scouts and had not received any investigation. There was no way to know from the outside what had happened inside the labyrinth.
Not unless someone talked about it.
«...You're not wearing a mask».
This was the most irritating thing about the current situation.
This psycho bitch is working as a looter and still revealing her face.
She was a little over 5'5′′ tall and thin. He had shoulder-length red hair, a tattoo under his eye, and was missing half of his right ear. It wouldn't be difficult to locate someone with these characteristics.
In modern times, the suspect could fight for the evidence... But this was a world where magic existed. This means that distinguishing truth from falsehood without physical evidence was possible.
"...Were they your teams?"
"Well..."
The woman looked at the bodies and shrugged.
"They may have thought so."
That's why I was walking around with my face uncovered. While asking questions with obvious answers, I quickly organized the information I could see before me.
Four bodies in total.
Based on the quality of the equipment they were carrying and the fact that there was a wizard present, I could deduce that they were active explorers, at least on the fifth floor and above.
Further, three of the bodies had not suffered injuries.
However, since there were traces of vomit and blood on her lips...
Were they poisoned? And was the man who died at the end resistant to it, which is why he held on a little longer?
I hoped this hypothesis was correct. The situation would be much grimmer if it turned out to be a talented assassin capable of single-handedly killing four mid-level explorers without leaving a single wound.
Rattle, rattle.
The woman quickly squatted down and skillfully removed the equipment from the corpses. She placed each item, one by one, into a bag. The bag seemed to be enchanted, as the bulky objects fit inside without any problem.
Fear preceded envy. The mere fact of possessing that object made the difference between her and us desperately clear.
"Barbarian".
The woman called us. I didn't answer.
Ainar asked me in a low voice,
"Are we going to fight?"
She was incredible. If I'd been Erwen, I would have been trembling with fear. Was it warrior pride to want to fight an enemy, no matter how powerful?
I answered briefly.
"I'm thinking."
To be honest, I wanted to avoid the option of fighting. Our skill level difference was obvious just by looking at our equipment.
If their combat skills were as impressive as that equipment... Even considering a two-on-one situation, our odds would be much lower.
Whoom-!
The flare's duration expired and the light in the sky went out, plunging us back into darkness.
I immediately made a decision.
"Run. At full speed."
Pride does not save lives.