The More Rabbits You Catch, the Better (7)
Every time Ligret swung her sword, the battle puppets' limbs were severed. Whenever Akasha's greatsword pressed forward, cracks formed in the walls. Chase's arrows pierced through multiple puppets with a single shot, while Chrome, realizing his crossbow wasn't dealing enough damage, switched to a sturdy, blunt wooden sword and battered the enemies instead.
Finally reaching the entrance where the puppets kept crawling out, Chase shouted, "Can't we just block this damn entrance!?"
Ligret glanced up the stairs and replied, "Doubt it. Feels like more guests will keep coming even if we try."
True to her words, the guardians from the upper floor were charging down fiercely, as if determined to greet the guests who had no intention of staying in their domain. A pack of wolves with fur so sharp it looked like needles. A swarm of fist-sized bees buzzing ominously through the air. A pair of curved blades floating in midair, gleaming with razor edges as if held by invisible hands. Even a formless black slime crawling across the ground.
Akasha let out an impressed whistle. "Whoa, all kinds of monsters you don't usually see anywhere else are popping out."
Chase snapped irritably, "Is this really the time to be impressed!? We're about to get surrounded from both sides and wiped out!"
Chrome pulled an arrow from Thoth's Bag and handed it to Chase. "Can you hit that one up there? Right in the middle of the passage—the flying sword?"
"What?" Chase examined the arrow for a moment before his eyes lit up with recognition. "Is there only one?"
"Three. I couldn't get more than that after trading for ice-attribute ones."
"Smart move. Causing an explosion in a place like this would just get us buried alive."
For the first time, a faint smile appeared on Chase's lips. Ever since he'd seen this arrow during the survival test, he'd wanted to try using one himself.
He nocked the arrow, drew the bowstring, aimed, and released. The living weapon—the flying sword—casually sliced the arrow in half, but the moment it did, the "ice crystal" embedded in the arrowhead was released. The cold spread in a spherical wave, striking the bee swarm and sending them plummeting to the ground while freezing the slime solid. The wolf pack tried to leap forward to escape the chill, but the party's attacks were faster.
"Everyone, charge! We're breaking through to the entrance!"
With a heavy rumble, the dungeon gate slammed shut just as it had when they first entered. The party members collapsed onto the ground without a word. Akasha, not caring that her long hair touched the floor, laughed heartily like a young boy. "Hahaha! Man, that was actually fun. Fiore was right when she said hanging around with her brother is never boring."
Chase muttered with an openly exhausted expression, "If it gets 'fun' two more times, I'll have to donate my limbs as admission fees."
He'd been stung by one of the giant bees earlier and was still checking the wound he'd received emergency treatment for with potions and Akasha's healing spells.
Chrome clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. "Alright, good work, everyone. Let's divide up the rewards. We got seven types of items, but we agreed to exclude the cubes from the start. Gold and jewels are easy to split, so we'll divide those four ways. Out of the remaining five, what does everyone want?"
Akasha raised her hand first. "Ah, then I'll take the book. The temple would probably be pretty happy if I brought it back."
"Okay. Chase, what about you?"
"...The medicine would be good. But are you sure? If you're giving away items on top of splitting the gold, you won't have much left."
If Akasha took the book and Chase took the medicine, then after dividing the gold and jewels by headcount, Chrome would be left with only the weapon set, an unidentified glass bottle, and the diary.
"Now that you mention it, yeah. If it's really bothering you, I can just take the book."
"Hmm, I can't go that far, but maybe we could adjust the ratio a bit..."
Chrome waved his hand at their words. "It's fine, it's fine. Honestly, without you two, we wouldn't have cleared the dungeon in the first place, so just take it. If it really bothers you, you can give me priority on similar requests later."
"Whoa, that's generous."
"...Understood. I'll remember that."
'He might be a better guy than I thought.'
'As a merchant, he keeps his word once he gives it. The type you can trust as a business partner.'
In that moment, both of their evaluations of Chrome rose significantly.
After dividing the rewards, the members used a carriage waiting nearby to return to the academy area. They agreed to spend the remaining two days freely. Akasha headed straight for the temple, while Chase went to find an old acquaintance from his hunter days to examine the medicines he'd obtained. Meanwhile, at a high-class inn near the academy, Chrome and Ligret—
"Heh, hehehe, hehehehehe."
"Your mouth is about to split open. Don't you feel any guilt about tricking those innocent kids?"
"There are two errors in that statement. First, those guys are older than us, and second, I kept the original contract exactly as agreed, so I didn't trick anyone."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say."
Knowing that nothing she said would get through to Chrome, who had already completed his self-justification, Ligret gestured with her chin toward the pile of cubes stacked in the corner of the room. Thirty white, ten gray, and three black.
"So, was this round that much of a jackpot? You look more excited than usual."
"It's huge. Dangerously so."
Chrome had known the general structure and background of this dungeon, but not the exact contents of the rewards. That was because in Planetarium, the rewards changed with every playthrough. More precisely, fixed rewards like the diary or books were the same, but the cube contents were different.
'Compared to the ones the Midas Merchant Group sorted, almost every single one of these cubes is a winner.'
Most of the cubes in Chrome's vision were surrounded by a faint golden mist, and two of the black cubes were so bright they were almost blinding. According to his memory, he'd only seen this level of reaction once before—when he obtained Dantalion's Monocle, which he was currently wearing.
'In other words, there are two items on the same level as that one.'
This was exactly why playing The Greedy Prodigal Son was so thrilling. Just as Chrome was struggling to contain his excitement, a knock sounded at the door, followed by a man's voice from outside.
"Young Master Chrome, it's me."
"Ah, come in."
The door opened, revealing Dorf Brams.
"It's been a while. About two months?"
"A bit less than that, but close enough. I'm glad to see Miss Ligret is in good health as well."
"I told you to stop with that 'miss' nonsense."
"It was the young master's request."
Avoiding Ligret's sharp glare, Chrome asked Dorf, "What I asked for?"
"Right here."
With those words, Dorf held out three bundles. After checking the contents, Chrome let out an impressed whistle. "Never mind the rest—ten high-grade magic stones? You really managed to get them."
"Lord Theo Midas was a great help. He also asked me to tell you to take good care of his younger sister."
"That guy acts like he doesn't care, but he's secretly a siscon."
"There are so many unsettling rumors going around about the academy. Things like students being made to fight each other with real swords, or professors nearly smashing a student's head in under the pretext of discipline. Well, most of them are probably just baseless gossip..."
No, those are actually true, Chrome and Ligret thought to themselves.
"Anyway, I'm going to open them right now, so help me with transport and liquidation. I can't take all of them myself."
"The building lease has ended, and I've got some tight-lipped workers waiting downstairs. You can rest assured."
"Good, good. Alright then, let's get started."
Every time Chrome brought a magic stone to a cube, the stone was absorbed and the contents were released. Gold and jewels piled up in the room. No matter how many times he saw it, Dorf thought it was an absurd sight.
'After seeing the young master's process, the merchant group's workers all bought their own cubes and magic stones with their personal funds and tried the same thing—only to lose everything.'
They say the Chicheon Star God grants immense luck to those under its blessing. Perhaps Chrome really was its incarnation.
Good, good, good—absolutely perfect. Every time a cube opened and spilled out golden light, Chrome found himself wanting to hum a tune. Necklaces adorned with gold and jewels, a silver tiara, seals crafted from various types of jade woven together with clever craftsmanship. The results exceeded his expectations. He hadn't even touched the others and had only opened about half of the white cubes, yet it was more than enough to cover the cost of the equipment and supplies he'd used in the fight against the princess.
While the white cubes mainly contained material goods like jewels and precious metals, the gray cubes yielded spell scrolls and books containing crafting methods. "Whoa, there's even a scroll with a high-tier spell."
"Is that a good thing? The princess was throwing those around like they were nothing."
Normally, just one of these could turn the tide of a battle involving dozens of people in an instant. The fact that she used them like regular attacks was the strange part—there was nothing weak about these scrolls.
That left the three black cubes. Suppressing his pounding heart, Chrome reached out, wondering what they would contain.