The crystals were surprisingly light for their size to the point I was afraid they would break at the softest touch.
But Jack showed me that he could toss it at the wall and it would still remain intact relaxed me somewhat.
Then again, the fact that they were swinging their pickaxes at the crystals with their full strength should have clued me in on that.
Harper stored the crystals into the backpack he was carrying along and we proceeded onwards deeper into the Dungeon.
At this point, I couldn’t help but ask, “Judging by the number of people we saw at the entrance… Isn’t it weird haven’t we seen any other Dungeoneers?”
Melissa was the one who answered my question, “Umm… For this Dungeon, it’s actually incredibly huge even for a single floor. What’s more, the entrance of the Dungeon changes every time a party comes through so every party would appear in different parts of the Dungeon. You could have one party appearing on one side and the party who entered after them appearing on the other side of the Dungeon. The Dungeon’s layout also changes every other day so it’s impossible to map it out as well.”
I blinked at her, “Eh? Doesn’t that mean that there’s a really high risk of people getting lost inside this Dungeon and never finding a way out?”
“That is indeed one of the risks you would face when diving in this Dungeon I’m afraid. Which is why this quest actually pays quite well since they not only pay us for the amount of Monster Gold we bring back, there’s also risk pay on top of that that is proportional to how much Monster Gold you bring back too.”
“So how much would a person actually receive if they were to bring back ten thousand Monster Gold crystals?”
Melissa seemed to do a little calculation inside her head before turning back to me, “Around a thousand two hundred and fifty Creas, with the risk pay being two hundred and fifty Creas.”
“Oh, so the risk pay is twenty five percent huh?”
Melissa nodded, “Yes, and that’s per person. So even if you took along a party of fifty people to mine that much Monster Gold, you would at least be assured of that much pay after splitting the value of the Monster Gold.”
Ah… The pay from the Monster Gold value is split amongst the party but the risk pay is paid out to each person involved.
So that’s why Harper said that most Mercenaries and Dungeoneers would have known about this since you could tag along in any party and not do anything but still get paid. I guess that’s also why we were asked the number of people we had in our party at the gate so we can’t just add people on the way back.
The thing they recorded those numbers on must have something that protects it from being changed I suppose. Otherwise it’ll be stupid if you could just edit the numbers with an eraser and pencil.
“Wouldn’t people abuse this?” I asked.
Harper chuckled from behind, “Hahaha, even if the risk is relatively low, it is still a Dungeon, missus. If you are content with just leeching off other parties, your skills would never improve and a wrong step here would also lead to your death anyway. It is still a D rank Dungeon after all.”
Hmm… I guess that’s true, but I can still imagine some people content with doing just that.
From slaying that tortoise, we received fifteen Monster Gold. And since ten thousand Monster Gold would get you a payout of a thousand Creas minus the risk pay, that would mean fifteen Monster Gold crystals was worth one Crea and fifty Decreas.
Assuming you don’t get a cut from the payout of the Monster Gold and only from the risk pay, you’ll still get three Creas and seventy five Decreas in just a single day.
That’s still quite a lot of money considering a normal labourer only earns ten Creas a month.
But then again, if you’re not capable enough, a single attack shot from the tortoise that your party was not able to deflect away would be enough to kill you. So you’re really risking your life for this money.
What’s more, I believe that the Gold Tortoise isn’t even the strongest monster in this Dungeon and it’s not like you can pick and choose what monster you would come across here.𝑂𝑽𝔩xt.𝕔𝓞𝑀
Unless you have someone like Katsuki to sniff them out of course.
I wonder what other monsters are in this Dungeon? They mentioned that there are monsters here that are resistant to physical attacks and while that tortoise was certainly durable, its limbs and head was not resistant to physical damage so they should not have been referring to that.
And as though triggered by my thoughts…
“Fuck! We got a troublesome one coming right at us!” Loyd shouted.
Almost immediately, our formation changed as everyone who had been in front of Melissa and I immediately relocated themselves behind us.
Eh? Why are we the vanguard now? Is the monster that is resistant against physical attacks coming?
Alright, that means it’s my turn to shine then! I’m going to guess it’s some kind of stone golem or an even bigger tortoise! Maybe it’s a monster made out of Monster Gold too?
“It’s here!”
I looked up and there it was!!
A black slime rolled into view of my light ball.
…
It wasn’t a giant black slime either, just a small one that was probably a little bigger than a soccer ball.
Ok… I’m not looking down on the slime because I am fully aware that this type of monster can be considered a strong monster or a really weak one depending on the type of story it is.
In some stories, this would be some really basic monster that every beginner would grind their levels on as a starter monster. In other stories, slimes might be a really formidable enemy that could wipe out even veteran parties too.
Judging by the reactions from everyone else, I’m going to assume that this slime has a body that makes physical attacks bounce off its body and only magic would damage it.
Since its body was completely black, I could not tell if there’s a core inside its body or not.
I turned to Melissa since she’s the more experienced one here, “What do we do with it?”
“Just strike at it with magic. Be careful, this monster is really nimble.”
In that case… I lifted my hand in preparation to cast [Spark Strike] when the slime shot itself towards us.
Its form shifted and it seemed to form itself into an arrow while still in midair.
I reacted by instinctively trying to dodge it, only to realise that if I did, the others standing behind me would be hit by the slime.
My next instinct was to try and smash it with my fist to redirect its flight path towards the ground, my fist hitting against the jelly body of the slime with a loud ‘squish’.
The impact caused the slime to slam onto the ground, its body squishing itself like a rubber ball before it rebounded to bounce up into the air above.
I quickly recovered and raised my hand to point my palm at the airborne slime.
My [Spark Strike] spell shot out from my palm and exploded against the slime in a shower of sparks, causing it to be blasted back to smash into the ceiling of the cave.
It was still not dead yet since it immediately bounced towards me again, once again adopting the shape of an arrow.
I sidestepped it and let the slime impale itself on the ground behind me, using this chance to lift up my foot before punting the monster back down the cave to where it had first came from.
There was a loud thud as it hit the wall on the other side of the tunnel and I took that opportunity to charge up my [Laser], making sure to do at least two chants of the incantation as a pretence of me charging it up.
When the slime appeared once again, I fired my spell, the [Laser] slicing the slime cleanly in half as the light beam shot out from my hand.
The two halves of the slime splattered on the ground and slowly melted into a black gooey puddle.
I still had my hand raised in case that only made it split into two slimes but it still remained motionless despite an entire minute passing.
“Is it dead?” I asked, still feeling a little unsure.
Melissa nodded, “I… I believe so, Miss Aster. That was brilliant spell casting.”
“Brilliant? That was beyond brilliant!” Jack called out from behind. “Ahahaha! Aster has the reflexes to avoid its attacks, the strength to intercept and throw it plus the magic to kill it! Are you sure you’re not a Goddess, Aster? You can tell us, you know? I can be your first worshipper!”
Aaaannnd he’s back to the old Jack.
Sabrina smacked him on the head, “Stop it. Have you forgotten we are still in a Dungeon? Get your act together.”
“Hey! Can you blame me?! That was nothing short of perfect!! You three might have seen her fight before but we haven’t! This is so unfair!”
“Quiet, she’s still not interested in you.”
“It doesn’t matter! I’ll just admire her from afar!!”
“Don’t make me smack you again!”
“You won’t stop meeee!”
Calm down… It’s just a slime… No need to get worked up over it guys…