After the lightning and Sword Light vanished, the entire 17th Floor fell into an eerie silence. The white ground was now covered with purple Magic Stones and drops. Bathed in the light, the purple stones and blood-red walls gave the floor an unusual beauty.
"Did you enjoy the dance?"
Lu Qiming stood on the ground strewn with purple Magic Stones. The last traces of lightning faded from Divine Judgment in his hand, and the weapon vanished.
"Is this the power of a top adventurer?"
At the passage to the 17th Floor, the young werewolf stared blankly at the scene below. So many monsters, and they'd all been wiped out with a single move!
"I don't know if this is the power of a top adventurer, but I do know this gentleman is definitely no weaker than the famous top adventurers of Orario. He may even be stronger!"
The captain with the greatsword gave a wry smile and headed down. There, Lu Qiming was waving at them with the Stainless Steel Basin held above his head.
"Captain, wait for us!"
The others snapped out of their amazement at Lu Qiming's strength and hurried after him.
Before long, they reached Lu Qiming. Along the way, they'd stared in shock at the devastation his attack had caused. Only when they got close did they notice the sword marks carved into the ground. On either side, the raging lightning had scorched the earth into glass.
"My lord, did you call us over for something?"
"I just wanted to ask you for a small favor."
As he spoke, Lu Qiming pointed to the Magic Stones and drops on the ground.
"There are too many Magic Stones and drops here for me to carry alone. Could you help me take them away? Don't worry, I won't have you do it for nothing. I'll give you one percent as a service fee."
Following the direction Lu Qiming pointed, they finally noticed the real question: how were they supposed to carry away so many Magic Stones and drops? At least a hundred thousand monsters had died here, their Magic Stones left behind across the entire stretch from the 14th to the 17th Floor.
Each Magic Stone was fairly small, but with so many of them, plus all the drops, they weren't sure they could carry everything out of the Dungeon.
"My lord, there are too many Magic Stones and drops. We may not have enough room in our backpacks."
The captain looked at Lu Qiming with an anxious expression, afraid he might be displeased and cut him down on the spot. The man looked calm now, but judging by how he'd fought moments earlier, he'd seemed like an entirely different person.
That bloodthirsty, frenzied appearance had been branded into the captain's mind.
"It's fine. I expected that, so I prepared these earlier."
Lu Qiming smiled warmly and turned to drag over dozens of backpacks from nearby. They'd been left behind by adventurers who had either died or fled during the monster stampede. He'd collected them while holding back the monsters, thinking they might come in handy.
The captain looked over the backpacks and made a quick estimate.
"My lord, with these backpacks, we can definitely carry away all the Magic Stones and drops."
"Good. I'll leave it to you, then."
Lu Qiming nodded and took Stainless Steel Basin Brother off his head. He tipped all the Magic Stones and drops inside into one of the backpacks, then headed toward the spot where Goliath had died.
There, among the smaller Magic Stones, one the size of a millstone stood out like a sore thumb.
"Heh heh, little treasure, you're mine now."
Grinning, Lu Qiming picked up the Magic Stone and tried a few different ways to fit it into the Stainless Steel Basin. It was too big to go inside. So he turned the basin upside down and placed Goliath's Magic Stone on its bottom.
"Not bad."
Lu Qiming stood up and rolled his neck. It felt great to have Valis on his head! (In this world, Magic Stones were the equivalent of Valis.)
Nearby, Aili and Ailin were collecting Magic Stones. They watched Lu Qiming twisting and turning with admiration, feeling like they'd learned a whole new thing!
Orario, Adventurer Guild.
The adventurers who had first met Lu Qiming sat drinking in a corner. After leaving the Dungeon and returning to Orario, they'd gone straight to the Adventurer Guild. Following Lu Qiming's instructions, they'd exchanged all the Magic Stones for a total of four million Valis and handed the money over to Eina.
As for why they hadn't left yet, they wanted to thank Lu Qiming in person. They'd handed over everything they'd earned on this trip, but they weren't foolish enough to think that the few Magic Stones they'd collected could buy their lives.
Most of the four million Valis they'd earned from the Magic Stones and drops they brought back had come from the Magic Stones Lu Qiming had given them to carry out when they left.
"Captain, when do you think that gentleman will be back?"
The young demi-human who wanted to marry Qiaobiluo looked toward his captain.
"I don't know, but he should be back soon."
The muscular captain hadn't finished speaking when a commotion broke out outside the Adventurer Guild, mixed with screams. A strong stench of blood drifted into the Guild from far away.
The moment he smelled the blood, the muscular captain jumped to his feet and looked outside. The other adventurers in the Guild also stood and peered out. They were familiar with the smell of blood, but this wasn't the Dungeon. And if the stench was strong enough to reach them from so far away, something serious must have happened!
At the entrance, nearly two hundred adventurers were making their way toward the Guild, their faces full of terror. Most were covered in blood, and their weapons and armor were in tatters. Half of them had lost a hand or a foot and were being helped along by their companions. The pain from their wounds made them scream every so often.
"What happened to them? Did they run into a Dungeon monster stampede?"
The adventurers stared at the pitiful group approaching and couldn't help wondering. As seasoned adventurers, they could tell at a glance that these people didn't all belong to the same Kin. So how had they all suffered such severe injuries at the same time?
It was enough to leave them utterly baffled.
Before long, all the badly injured adventurers had entered the Adventurer Guild. Those who still had the strength hurried off to fetch the Guild's doctors and pharmacists.
"Made, what happened to you?"
Someone from the Adventurer Guild walked over to the middle-aged adventurer who had first seen Lu Qiming challenge the Floor Boss and asked.
"There was a monster stampede. Someone challenged the Floor Boss on the 17th Floor, triggering a stampede of every monster from the 14th to the 17th Floors. While we were watching, the monsters surrounded us and attacked."
As he spoke, fear flickered in the middle-aged adventurer's eyes. If Lu Qiming hadn't arrived in time, they would all have been wiped out.
Before you continue