· A Thousand Thoughts, No Riding Sister

After the lightning and sword light vanished, the entire 17th floor fell into an eerie silence. The originally white ground was carpeted in purple magic stones and loot. Under the glow of the light, the radiance of the purple magic stones and the blood-stained walls gave the 17th floor a strange, haunting beauty.

"Did you enjoy this dance?"

Lu Qiming stood on the ground covered in purple magic stones, the Divine Judgment in his hand shedding its final trace of lightning before vanishing.

"Is this the power of a top-tier adventurer?"

At the 17th-floor passage, the werewolf youth stared blankly at the scene below. So many monsters, yet they were wiped out in a single strike!

"I don't know if this is the power of a top-tier adventurer, but I do know that this lord is certainly no weaker than those top-tier adventurers famous in Orario—perhaps even stronger!"

The captain, holding a greatsword, gave a wry smile and walked down. Below, Lu Qiming was waving at them while holding the Stainless Steel Basin Brother on his head.

"Captain, wait for us!"

The others, unable to stop marveling at Lu Qiming's power, hurriedly followed.

Before long, the group arrived at Lu Qiming's side. Along the way, they had stared in shock at the terrifying scene caused by Lu Qiming's strike. Only upon nearing the center did they realize the ground had been carved with deep sword marks, and on both sides of these marks, the earth had been scorched into glass by the violent lightning.

"My lord, is there something you need us for?"

"Just a small favor."

As he spoke, Lu Qiming pointed to the magic stones and loot on the ground.

"There are too many magic stones and loot here for me to carry alone. Could I trouble you to help me take them away? Don't worry, I won't have you work for free; I'll give you one percent of the haul as a reward."

The group looked in the direction Lu Qiming pointed, and only then did they realize the scale of the problem. This was the loot from at least a hundred thousand monsters—all the magic stones dropped by every monster from the 14th to the 17th floors gathered here.

Although each magic stone wasn't particularly large, given the sheer volume, plus the loot, they weren't even sure if they could carry it all out of the Dungeon.

"My lord, there are too many magic stones and loot here. Our backpacks might not be able to hold them all."

The captain looked at Lu Qiming with a troubled expression, terrified that if he didn't like the answer, he might just cut him down. Although the lord looked peaceful now, the way he had fought just moments ago felt like a completely different person.

That bloodthirsty, frenzied posture was deeply etched into his heart.

"It's fine, I anticipated this, which is why I prepared these."

A gentle smile appeared on Lu Qiming's face as he turned and dragged over dozens of backpacks. These had been left behind by adventurers who had died or fled during the monster stampede. Naturally, he had collected them while blocking the monsters from escaping, thinking they might be useful.

The captain looked at the dozens of backpacks and made a rough calculation.

"My lord, with these backpacks, we are absolutely certain we can carry all the magic stones and loot out."

"Mm, then I'll leave it to you."

Lu Qiming nodded, took the Stainless Steel Basin Brother off his head, dumped all the magic stones and loot from inside into one of the backpacks, and walked toward the spot where Goliath had died.

There, a magic stone the size of a millstone stood out, looking remarkably conspicuous among the smaller stones scattered around it.

"Hehe, little treasure, you're mine now."

Lu Qiming chuckled as he picked up the magic stone and measured it against the stainless steel basin. It was too big to fit inside. Seeing this, Lu Qiming had no choice but to flip the stainless steel basin upside down on his head and place Goliath's magic stone on the bottom of the basin.

"Not bad."

Lu Qiming stood up and shook his neck. The feeling of having Valis on his head was truly great! (In this world, magic stones are equivalent to Valis.)

Nearby, Aili and Ailin, who were busy collecting magic stones, looked at the twisting and turning Lu Qiming with admiration, feeling that they had learned something new again!

Orario, Adventurer Guild.

The few adventurers Lu Qiming had encountered earlier were sitting in a corner drinking. After leaving the Dungeon and returning to Orario, they had immediately come to the Adventurer Guild, followed Lu Qiming's instructions to exchange all the magic stones for a total of four million Valis, and handed them over to Eina.

As for why they hadn't left yet, it was because they wanted to thank Lu Qiming in person. Although they had already handed over all their own gains to him, they weren't stupid enough to think that their meager amount of magic stones could buy their lives.

The four million they had exchanged from the magic stones and loot they brought back was mostly from the stones Lu Qiming had given them to carry back when they left.

"Captain, when do you think that lord will return?"

The demi-human youth who wanted to marry Qiaobiluo looked at his captain.

"I don't know, but that lord should be back soon."

The muscular captain was only halfway through his sentence when noisy sounds erupted outside the Adventurer Guild, mixed with screams. A thick, pungent smell of blood drifted into the guild from afar.

The moment he smelled the blood, the muscular captain stood up and looked outside. The other adventurers in the guild also stood up one after another to look out. They were no strangers to the smell of blood, but this wasn't the Dungeon, and for the scent to be this strong from so far away, something major must have happened!

At the entrance, nearly two hundred adventurers were walking toward them in terror. Most of them were covered in blood, their weapons and armor tattered. Half of them had lost limbs and were being supported by their teammates, their screams of pain echoing as they walked.

"What happened to them? Did they encounter a Dungeon riot?"

The adventurers watched the miserable group approaching and couldn't help but feel puzzled. As veterans, they could tell at a glance that these people didn't belong to a single Familia, so how could they all have suffered such severe injuries at the same time?

It was truly baffling.

Before long, the severely injured adventurers all walked into the Adventurer Guild, and those who still had strength hurried to call for the guild's healers and pharmacists.

"Damn it, what did you run into?"

One of the people in the Adventurer Guild walked up to the middle-aged adventurer who had first discovered Lu Qiming subjugating the floor boss and asked.

"A monster riot. Someone was subjugating the 17th-floor boss, which triggered a riot of all the monsters from the 14th to the 17th floors. While we were watching, we were accidentally surrounded by the rampaging monsters."

As the middle-aged adventurer spoke, fear flashed in his eyes. If Lu Qiming hadn't arrived in time, they would certainly have been wiped out.