After teasing Jeanne until her face was practically glowing, Lucas finally let her go. He surveyed the wrecked battlefield and waved her off.
"You've burned through a lot of stamina. Rest for a bit and drink a Potion—don't hoard them. The cheap ones aren't worth saving. I'll handle the loot."
[Item]: Potion
[Origin]: Blue Pharmacy
[Type]: Elixir
[Effect]: Gradually restores stamina and reduces fatigue
[Description]: A sea-blue liquid packaged in a test-tube with an oak cork. Standard adventuring essential sold at 500 Valis.
From newbie sprouts just starting out to veteran Lv.5 or Lv.6 adventurers, everyone carried these. They weren't miracle-grade healing potions, but they restored energy and cleared fatigue—essential when you spent every waking moment in a death maze full of monsters.
And for 500 Valis? Absolute bargain. A staple of every adventurer's kit.
Jeanne nodded without argument, pulled one from her potion pouch, and downed it in one go.
But instead of sitting down to recover, she moved toward the tunnel entrance and kept watch.
"That fight dragged on way too long," she said quietly. "With all those Killer Ants swarming, we probably caused a commotion. Other adventurers might've heard the noise. Best stay sharp."
Lucas's grin faded. Her words snapped him back to reality. The battle high drained from his head, replaced with cold awareness.
"Right. Good point."
He picked up his pace, cleaning up the battlefield as fast as he could.
"Magic Stones, Magic Stones, more damn Magic Stones…"
Lucas muttered under his breath as he worked through the charred remains, slicing open corpses and prying out their crystal cores. His leather Magic Stone pouch bulged heavier by the minute.
They'd fought wave after wave—easily a hundred, maybe two hundred Killer Ants.
His Status Panel confirmed it:
Experience Pool: 8800 → 9000.
A solid haul.
And yet—not a single Drop Item.
Not one.
Forget Drop Treasure Chests—those might as well be mythical.
At this point, he fully understood why monster drops and Dungeon Materials sold for such ridiculous prices. The drop rate was pure pain.
Lucas crouched in the soot, face dark with frustration. He kicked a half-burned carcass across the floor.
"Piece of trash."
He dug into another corpse out of habit—and froze.
"…Wait. Jackpot?"
He lifted something gleaming out of the ashes—a Killer Ant Carapace.
"Hell yes."
He examined it, eyes lighting up. "Good quality too. That'll fetch around sixty thousand."
Finally. A real profit.
If they'd only sold the Magic Stones, this run would've brought in maybe fifty thousand Valis. That was solid for a duo—roughly the same as a five-person Lv.1 team on a good day.
But this was no normal day. The Dungeon had thrown an Irregular at them—a miniature Monster Rex event. The monsters came in waves, and surviving it meant fat rewards.
Still, that kind of luck didn't last.
After deducting expenses—Potions, food, gear maintenance—they'd probably net around thirty thousand. Respectable, but nothing crazy.
Honestly, only two freaks like him and Jeanne could handle the upper floors this easily. Anyone else would've been paste.
Satisfied, Lucas tucked away the Carapace and got back to work. Before long, he'd cleaned up his section and headed toward Jeanne's side of the tunnel.
Her battlefield was even worse.
Green blood everywhere. Severed limbs, shattered shells, and crushed heads piled up like some kind of grotesque sculpture garden.
Jeanne herself stood watch in the middle of it all, perfectly calm, like a knight in a cathedral instead of a slaughterhouse.
"…"
Lucas crouched to check the nearest corpse—and blinked.
"Another Killer Ant Carapace. Damn, lucky again."
He grinned, pried it loose—and then stopped smiling.
Because as he kept working, more and more rare items turned up. Drop Items kept coming, one after another.
And then, shimmering faintly amid the pile of corpses, he saw it—something only he could see.
A golden Drop Treasure Chest.
His entire face went blank.
"…You've gotta be kidding me."
"What's wrong?" Jeanne turned, curious. "Isn't a treasure chest a good thing?"
Lucas didn't answer. He just stood there, staring down at it, jaw tight, eye twitching.
This was so unfair.
He knelt, exhaled slowly—and lost it.
"Seriously? This is discrimination! How is this fair!?"
His shout echoed off the tunnel walls. "The gap between people is worse than the gap between species! This world's rigged!"
Jeanne, who had apparently triggered the drop without even trying, blinked in confusion.
First time in the Dungeon, first run, first swarm—and she'd gotten multiple Drop Items and a Drop Treasure Chest.
Meanwhile, Lucas?
He'd been busting his ass in the Dungeon for months, grinding every day like a man possessed, and this was the first chest he'd ever seen.
"Jeanne," he said finally, voice shaking. "I could kiss you right now."
Before she could react, he did exactly that—well, almost. He yanked her into a bear hug, burying his face in her shoulder like a man embracing salvation.
"Lucas! What are you—hey! Let go! Someone might see!" Jeanne's face flushed scarlet as she tried to push him off.
He sighed, reluctantly letting go. "Tch. Mood ruined."
Still, he scooped up the Drop Treasure Chest and loot bag, stuffing them away into his pack. Even if no one else could see the chest, better safe than sorry.
"Let's move. You're right—if someone catches us standing over this mess, my whole 'low-profile' thing goes out the window."
"Already on it." Jeanne's Revelation was still active, her senses sweeping the tunnels. "I can feel multiple adventurers heading this way."
"Then we're out."
He flipped his hood up, pulled his mask tight, and gestured for her to follow. They slipped into a narrow side tunnel—one of the Dungeon's unmarked passages that bypassed the main route.
As they vanished into the shadows, Lucas cast one last look back at the battlefield—a carpet of corpses stretching into the dark.
He tugged the mask higher. The black swallowed him whole.
--
Dungeon, 7th Floor—Main Route
Not long after, other adventurers began pouring in. By now, the morning rush had hit full swing.
Lucas and Jeanne had started early, meaning it had been well over an hour since they entered.
Down the main corridor, a group of adventurers made their way through—chatting, relaxed, completely unworried.
Their posture and pace screamed veteran confidence. They weren't tense like newbies, but casual, even playful—as if they were out for a picnic instead of trudging through the Dungeon.
That kind of ease only came from two types of people: blissfully ignorant newbies… or true pros.
These girls were the latter. Strong. Experienced. Unshakably confident.
"Hey," one of them said, ears twitching. "You guys hear that?"
"Hear what?" another asked.
The leader waved a hand dismissively. "Relax. It's the seventh floor—probably just some Killer Ants or Needle Rabbits giving newbies a hard time again. Worst case, they run away and learn a lesson."
"Yeah," another added with a smirk. "What are the odds it's an Irregular? You'd have to be really unlucky for that!"
"…"
The elf girl with the sharp ears frowned. The further they walked, the deeper that uneasy noise crept into her hearing—metal clashing, explosions, and a faint, rhythmic rumble.
She slowed, and the others did too.
"…That's not normal," the elf said.
They exchanged glances. The joking stopped.
Sparks flashed in the distance—followed by another explosion.
"That's a fight," the red-haired swordswoman muttered, gripping her hilt. "And a big one. Those footsteps—there's an entire swarm! Killer Ants?"
The leader's face paled. "Shit—Irregular! A Monster Rex event! Someone's surrounded—move!"
Her voice cut through the hall like lightning. Cloak flaring, she bolted forward, wind magic kicking up around her boots.
"You jinxed us!" shouted a girl in a crimson kimono, sprinting after her.
"Wait, seriously?! No way someone's that unlucky!" the swordswoman yelped, eyes wide as she raced to catch up.
"Let's just hope whoever's in there is still alive,"