Chapter 26
“Gegoh!”
The Moneybags Larna, sent flying by Ruche’s blow, slammed its back hard against the floor.
The cracks across its body deepened, and its emerald eyes spilled onto the floor.
【You acquired 503 Experience Points.】
【Your Level increased from 24 to 30.】
【You acquired 6 Skill Points.】
A tremendous amount of Experience Points poured in.
That much Experience was almost too good to be true.
As expected of Golden Toad-sama.
“I-I can’t believe we really did it… We did it! I’m 【Lv: 27】 now!”
Ruche had also gone up six Levels, from 【Lv: 21】.
With this one Moneybags Larna, she’d shot past the Levels of both her former party members at once.
The Moneybags Larna could no longer hold its shape. It turned into a mist of mana, and its corpse rapidly shriveled up.
I held my breath and watched.
Moneybags Larna weren’t as strong as their Level suggested, which made the Experience Points worthwhile… but their real appeal was the high-value items they dropped.
Since Moneybags Larna appeared so rarely, their item drop rate was quite high.
Even without a Luck bonus, it was still 50%.
But it wasn’t 100%.
“Please… Moneybags Larna…!”
The Moneybags Larna’s corpse grew hollow and crumpled… and then a large Earth-element magic stone and a golden dagger were left behind.
An emblem of a Larna’s face was set in the center of its hilt.
“It dropped! The 〈Shining Larna Ornamental Sword〉!”
I couldn’t help pumping my fist.
――――――――――――――――――――
〈Shining Larna Ornamental Sword〉Recommended Equipment Lv: 15
【Attack: +12】
【Market Value: 17,000,000 Gold】
A shining Larna dagger. A lump of high-purity 〈Larna Gold〉.
Its performance is quite high for its recommended equipment level, but it’s probably useless to anyone who’s already defeated a golden Larna.
Many Adventurers want to keep one as proof that they defeated a golden Larna, thanks to its striking appearance, but most are dazzled by its value and end up selling it.
――――――――――――――――――――
More than a weapon, it was a lump of metal worth 17 million Gold.
“I-It’s amazing! We got an item worth 1.7 million Gold so easily…! The only other time I’ve gotten an item this valuable was the 〈Bloodstained Sword〉 that caused the argument with Klein-san and the others!”
Ruche checked the item details and said so excitedly.
“Hold on, hold on. You’ve got the number of zeroes wrong.”
“Huh…?”
“You’re missing a zero. It’s seventeen million Gold.”
After I told her that, Ruche slowly looked back at the 〈Shining Larna Ornamental Sword〉 and checked the item details again.
She seemed dizzy; her legs wobbled, and she toppled over right there.
“S-Sev… seventeen million… I ended up leaving the party because we fought over how to split an item worth two million…”
“H-Hey, are you okay?”
“I lost consciousness for a moment, but I’m fine… No, but my legs still feel a little weak…”
Since Ruche couldn’t move, I took the opportunity to rest for a while right there.
The area had good visibility, so we could keep watch for monsters.
Ruche sat with her back against a colorful wall and took a drink from her water flask.
“Feeling a little calmer?”
“Yes, more or less… B-But I still can’t believe it. It doesn’t feel real… Getting an item worth nearly twenty million Gold so easily… Ah, no, this only worked because you planned out every step, Elymas-san, so maybe it’s strange for me to put it that way.”
She still seemed shaken.
After patting her cheeks a few times, she pulled at them and stretched them out.
“…What are you doing?”
“Well, I was wondering if this might all be a dream I’m having because I was so upset about Klein-san kicking me out of the party… B-But, with seventeen million Gold, you could buy anything! You could eat all you wanted at a nice restaurant!”
Ruche’s idea of being able to buy anything was far too ordinary.
“Even if I spent ten years risking my life in a 〈Dungeon〉, I’d never earn that much!”
“…I admit that Moneybags Larna are exceptionally profitable, but you must have been treated pretty badly by Klein.”
Adventurers risked their lives, but even the magic stones they obtained from monsters were worth a decent amount.
Ruche in particular was supposed to have good luck with drops, so even after accounting for the cost of equipment and supplies for monster hunting, her party should have been quite well-off…
Well, judging from how their previous discussion had gone, Klein must have been taking a lot for himself all along.
“W-What should we do…? If we carry an item this valuable, someone’s sure to come after us. O-Oh, that’s it, Elymas-san! Let’s run away together to an even more remote village! We can live there quietly! With this much money, if we live modestly, the two of us should be able to get by for the rest of our lives! Let’s do that! Yes!”
…I’d thought she’d have calmed down a little after some time, but it seemed she was still in a panic.
I wanted to explore a little more today. Would she be all right?
“Shall we get going soon, Ruche?”
“Huh? Ah, r-right! We can’t stay and take it easy in the 〈Dungeon〉 forever… We’re heading out of here, right?”
“Before the sun sets, let’s hunt one more Moneybags Larna. Our goal of two should still be within reach at this rate. Our stats have gone up, too, so we should be able to hunt the next one more reliably. Even if other monsters attack us, we should be able to handle the enemies around here easily.”
Especially while our levels were in the low thirties, the Experience Points from a 【Lv: 40】 Moneybags Larna were phenomenal.
Level-wise, I wanted to hunt at least one more.
“Huh…? O-One more…?”
――About three hours later.
“〈Dice Thrust〉!”
On Ruche’s seventh 〈Dice Thrust〉, the number six finally appeared in the air.
We’d been a little unlucky this time.
Well, I could think of it as saving our luck for later.
It was best to use up bad luck on things that didn’t matter.
Probability always evened out eventually.
Players of 〈Magic World〉 tended to be superstitious, and when strange good luck kept happening in unimportant situations, they were more likely to fear it as some kind of bad omen.
I was one of those players, too.
【You acquired 461 Experience Points.】
【Your Level increased from 30 to 33.】
【You acquired 3 Skill Points.】
Good, good. At this Level range, being able to hunt a monster ten Levels higher without any risk was almost too good to be true.
That was even more true in this world, where the death penalty went beyond losing a few Levels.
Then another golden sword bearing a Larna’s face peeked out from the corpse.
That’s right, a lump of 〈Larna Gold〉… the second 〈Shining Larna Ornamental Sword〉.
“All right, Ruche! That makes thirty-four million Gold! If we sell them at a shop, they’ll take a few tenths of that in fees, but…”
Things were off to a great start.
The elusive 〈Smoldering Fangs〉 was finally within reach.
Moneybags Larna were truly a godsend.
This money-making method was only possible because Ruche was with me and 〈Angel’s Toy Box〉 had appeared.
If either one had been missing, our efficiency would have dropped considerably.
There were other 〈Dungeons〉 where Moneybags Larna appeared.
But unless the dungeon had a straight passage with few branches like 〈Angel’s Toy Box〉, it was impossible to corner a Moneybags Larna with its overwhelming speed and successfully use 〈Shadowstep〉.
We needed a passage wide enough for us to get behind it without startling it, but narrow enough that it couldn’t slip past us.
Only 〈Angel’s Toy Box〉 fit the bill.
“…Hmm? Ruche?”
Ruche didn’t respond.
She was frozen in place, still holding her 〈Iron-Piercer〉 at the ready.
When I walked over, Ruche wobbled and collapsed again.
I hurriedly caught her.
“T-Thirty-four million…”
Her head drooped, and her eyes closed.
“H-Hey, hang in there! Come on!”
Ruche didn’t respond to my words.
It seemed the shock had been too much for her.