Chapter 69

"Hic— You know what? Back then, inside the dungeon, we ran into a dragon bigger than a mountain! A real Ancient species—the kind from legends. Creatures like that have completely vanished from the continent nowadays."

"At the time, Big Stone was blocking the Bridge of Ashes, and I was fighting two dragons all by myself. Then a world-ending bolt of thunder struck me and blasted me straight into ashes."

"Good thing Kumironi was there—she resurrected me! Hahaha! The moment I climbed back up, I had to fight both dragons again at the same time. Do you know how thrilling that was?"

"You’re asking about Iz?"

"Iz? How could Iz fight a dragon? That was a Mirror Dragon—it reflects magic. His spells would’ve bounced right back at him! He was busy exchanging spells with the Endless Lord of Holy Spirits chasing us from behind!"

Bang!

A wine cup slammed onto the table.

Iz said with annoyance, "Hah? Wasn’t it someone who got beaten senseless by the Holy Spirit King, and while running away, ended up provoking those dragons?"

Iz had been drinking too.

Listening to Akasei brag like that, Iz clearly wasn’t having it.

Oh...

A red-faced Iz.

Even someone as refined and gentle as Iz had moments like this when he got carried away.

"Don’t talk nonsense. How’s a warrior supposed to fight something like that?"

"And I wasn’t beaten senseless—I just felt it wasn’t worthy of me making a move!"

"You got blasted into ashes three times and resurrected each time, and you’re still saying it wasn’t worthy of you?"

"If Big Stone hadn’t been blocking the Bridge of Ashes, do you think they could’ve even hurt me?"

Oh~

They’d started arguing.

Off to the side, Kanzaki Rei quietly swapped his wine for a drink.

"Hahaha! You’re asking what happened afterward?"

"Well, in that desperate moment, Kumironi directly set up an Ascension Ritual. We achieved a perfect breakthrough right in the middle of the battle! We turned that dungeon completely upside down!"

"You must’ve seen the phenomenon that appeared at the time, right? Too bad we couldn’t see it from inside the dungeon."

...

They actually advanced to Level 6?

Which meant Iz was now a Saint of Magic.

Listening to their adventures really was fascinating.

Ancient dragons.The Holy Spirit King who served the Sacred Light.Sealed evils.Forbidden grimoires.Distant labyrinthine realms.Labyrinths no one could escape...

So this was what a Tier-7 Dungeon was like.

Compared to their adventures, Rei’s life in Rhein Town had been as calm as a drifting autumn leaf.

Come to think of it...

The protagonist himself seemed to have been completely ignored.

Kumironi took a small sip of wine and said, "But compared to all that, Rei is even more impressive."

"With the strength of a Level 2 Mage, he killed the Tier-5 King of Aberrant Insects."

"And he protected everyone in Rhein Town."

"Even Iz hasn’t accomplished something like that."

Kumironi really knew how to speak.

Not just because her voice sounded pleasant.

Listening to her made Rei’s ears feel warm—though that might also have been the alcohol.

Iz said seriously, "Hmm... that’s true. Even I only killed a Tier-4 King-class monster when I was Level 2."

"And I can’t say I protected anyone."

Hey—

That’s already ridiculously outrageous, isn’t it?

Rei remembered that when he had faced a Tier-4 King-class monster, his only thought had been to run.

Thinking about it now made him feel a little ashamed.

Well... the past was the past.

Besides, that so-called King of Aberrant Insects was clearly far more terrifying than an ordinary Tier-4 King.

"Hahaha! Iz, didn’t you say you’d train him into a mage second only to yourself? Now he’s already surpassed you!" Akasei laughed loudly, throwing an arm around Iz’s shoulders.

Iz sneered.

"Hmph. That’s only because when I was Level 2, there weren’t any Tier-5 monsters around. Otherwise, I would’ve slaughtered it too."

Akasei snorted.

"Yeah right. Keep bragging."

...

Damn...

Why did he still end up drunk even after taking sobering medicine?

What kind of alcohol was that?

Why was it so strong?

In the end, he still couldn’t escape it...

This group.

Whenever they poured drinks for him, they never treated him like a kid.

Kanzaki Rei looked at the faint light of dawn.

When was the last time he had drunk so much that he passed out?

It seemed like...

It had also been after a celebration banquet.

He paid five gold coins for the alcohol.

Heh...

Rei finally understood why the Adventurers’ Guild operated in the form of a tavern.

The profits were truly outrageous.

"You’re awake?" Kumironi appeared—once again at the perfect moment.

"I’m awake."

She gently rubbed Rei’s back, and the lingering dizziness slowly faded.

"Little Rei."

Shirley called out to him.

Rei looked over.

She gestured for him to come over.

Kumironi nodded to Rei.

Understanding the signal, he walked toward Shirley.

"The kingdom’s reward will take some time to arrive."

"But the Collectors have already started gathering the spoils. This is the loot inventory list."

Rei accepted the list.

Most of yesterday’s monsters had been burned to death.

Even so, with the existence of Collectors, quite a few valuable materials could still be recovered.

Especially with a Level 4 Collector present—they could restore the corpses of slain monsters in bulk and even turn certain ruined materials back into usable resources, greatly increasing the total value.

Especially since it was currently Harvest Month.

The dazzling list was almost impossible to read through completely.

Rei flipped through it.

Roughly over a hundred pages.

At the very end, the total amount was written clearly:

265,230 Gold, 52 Silver, 11 Copper

Total monsters killed: 322,501.

Oh.

The Observer must have helped with the counting.

Pretty accurate.

Rei remembered that when he had just changed classes into a Death Priest, he had possessed 322,355 souls.

The souls spent on upgrading skills could be ignored.

The main consumption had been about 70,000 souls used for sacrifices.

Now he had a little over 250,000 souls remaining.

The numbers were roughly the same.

After all, many monsters had been killed inside a sea of flames, and the battlefield had been chaotic. Some counting errors were understandable.

Actually...

The fact that the tally was this precise was already beyond Rei’s expectations.

"No problems here."

Most of the monsters killed had been low-tier creatures, with only a small portion being King-class monsters.

The majority of the gold value came from those Kings.

Each King-class monster could provide nearly 10,000 gold coins in profit.

Just over a dozen Kings combined were worth more than the loot from over 300,000 fodder monsters.

Even if an average fodder monster was worth 3 silver coins, then 300,000 of them would only add up to around 9,000 gold.

Indeed, not even as valuable as a single Tier-3 King-class monster.

In total: 260,000 gold.

It felt unreal.

If one had to put it into perspective, this amount of wealth was enough to buy the entire town of Rhein—and still have plenty left over.

"These are only the earnings from the collected materials," Shirley said.

Rei nodded.

"Mm."

"And... sorry about this. Rhein Town doesn’t have that much gold in reserve."

"This payment may need some time to circulate through material exchanges before it can be fully issued."

"At the fastest... it will still take at least three days."

"For now, we can only provide 50,000 gold coins."

As she spoke, Shirley handed him a ring.

Rei sent a thread of mana into it.

Inside, there were indeed 50,000 gold coins.