In DanMachi, Freya Had Her Eyes on Me from the Start!

"It's all right. I'm here."

"All right~"

Seeing that Cao Ye still insisted, what else could Tsubaki do?

Back when she was in the Ishtar Familia, she had entered the Dungeon with her seniors, but she had merely accompanied them at most and seen a bit of the world.

Real combat had never been her turn, nor could she have helped much.

The Dungeon's nineteenth floor lay beneath the safe zone on the eighteenth floor, marking the entrance to the Great Tree Labyrinth.

The area was filled with all kinds of jungles and trees, as well as a huge number of insect-type monsters.

Without antidotes, it was easy to run into trouble here. There were simply too many bushes and thickets; you never knew where dangerous monsters might be hiding, and many of the monsters here were highly venomous.

Though it was only the nineteenth floor, many high-level adventurers hated this place.

Rustle, rustle, rustle—

The noisy sound rose up, and Cao Ye immediately smiled. He had only just arrived, yet such a "warm" welcome had already come for him.

"Lord Cao Ye~"

As a beastperson, Tsubaki's five senses were quite sharp. Coupled with the Falna she possessed, she naturally noticed something was off.

Whoosh—

An "insect" sprang out from the bushes. If it had existed before Cao Ye's transmigration, its size could have earned it a world record.

"Mad Beetle!"

Cao Ye recognized the monster at once. Before coming here, he had done his homework.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Yet that Mad Beetle was merely the beginning. Soon, even more Mad Beetles crawled out from the surrounding area.

"B-Bugs~"

Every hair on Tsubaki's body stood on end, especially her originally fluffy golden tail, which had puffed up completely.

As a girl, Tsubaki was naturally afraid of insects, not to mention insects this huge.

"Jewel Magecraft: Flame—"

Boom—

Cao Ye took out a gemstone, and in the next second, surging flames erupted.

The entire area before them was instantly cleared. All the Mad Beetles were burned to death. The whole process was incredibly quick, and even Cao Ye had not expected the effect to be so good.

Crack—

However, before Cao Ye could celebrate, the gemstone shattered with a snap.

Damn, it really was magecraft that burned money. That gemstone had stored quite a bit of his mana, yet it was gone in one go.

Rustle, rustle—

But in the Great Tree Labyrinth, monsters were the one thing never in short supply. After those Mad Beetles were killed, even more monsters gathered around them.

Cao Ye was not worried. He was preparing to test another of his abilities—or more accurately, a technique.

Hummm—

A rift slowly tore open beside Cao Ye, opening a passage connected to Imaginary Space.

The next second, wolves emerged from the rift one after another. They had snowy-white bodies, ice-blue eyes, sharp claws, and razor fangs.

Snow Wolves—Cursed Corpses created by Cao Ye. Rather than making powerful Cursed Corpses right from the start, he had chosen to use animals as templates.

Over the past few days, Cao Ye had not only been making space rings. He had also made a total of twelve Snow Wolf Cursed Corpses.

"Now then, begin the hunt—"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

The next second, every Snow Wolf charged out.

Their bodies had been crafted from drops from mid-level monsters, so their physical strength was nothing to worry about on the middle floors.

On the nineteenth floor, a battle between insects and wolves began.

Rip—

Under the Snow Wolves' bites, even the beetle monsters of the nineteenth floor were swiftly slaughtered.

Cursed Corpse Manipulation was absolutely a technique capable of fighting above one's level. As long as the Cursed Corpses were powerful enough and numerous enough, defeating enemies stronger than oneself was no dream.

Of course, creating and controlling so many Cursed Corpses placed no small burden on both mana and the mind.

Only Cao Ye, a little monster who could not be measured by common sense, could act so recklessly.

And so, Cao Ye led a lewd fox as the two advanced through the Dungeon's middle floors, while Tsubaki took on the role of a supporter and collected all the drops.

Although Cao Ye had said there was no need, she still wanted to do what she could, so Cao Ye did not say anything further.

Slash—

With one stroke, he finished off the last monster, bringing this battle to an end.

Monster corpses littered the ground around them. Moreover, of the twelve Snow Wolf Cursed Corpses, only eight remained. Four had been damaged too severely to be used for the time being.

"Lord Cao Ye, water~"

After shaking the blood from his black sword, Cao Ye saw Tsubaki approach with a waterskin.

"Thanks, Tsubaki."

"It's what I should do~"

Along the way, Tsubaki had practically had no presence at all. She was not skilled at combat, and only at times like this did she feel somewhat useful.

After what had happened yesterday, Cao Ye had also realized that Tsubaki was emotionally fragile.

His usual teasing and taking little advantages were fine, but if he took a joke too far, she would truly be hurt. The tears that had nearly fallen yesterday had made Cao Ye understand that.

"Lord Cao Ye, what floor are we reaching today?"

"The twenty-second floor~"

"What floor are we on now?"

"The twenty-first floor~"

That was what Cao Ye said, and the reason he was certain they had not yet reached the twenty-second floor was because the mission had not been completed. The quest panel displayed it very clearly.

[Daily Mission: Reach the twenty-second floor of the Dungeon!]

[Completion Progress: 21/22]

[Mission Reward: Diamonds ×20]

Over the past few days, the daily missions had sometimes rewarded ten Diamonds and sometimes twenty.

Cao Ye had now accumulated ninety Diamonds. He only needed ten more for another ten-pull. That was why he had come to the Dungeon early this morning.

Tsubaki had come along because she had volunteered. Thinking of her magic, Cao Ye had agreed.

Though his strength did not all come from the Falna, if he could raise his level, it would still be an enormous boost to his combat power.

Encounter with the Bloody Hive!

[Daily Mission: Reach the twenty-second floor of the Dungeon!]

[Completion Progress: 22/22]

[Mission Reward: Diamonds ×20]

The mission was complete, and twenty Diamonds had arrived. A bright smile appeared on Cao Ye's face.

For a gambler, pulling was absolutely addictive. Especially after getting a double pull from a ten-pull not long ago—if he had not run out of Diamonds, Cao Ye definitely would not have been able to resist.

Buzzz, buzzz, buzzz—

However, just as Cao Ye was feeling pleased, waves of buzzing came from around them.

Following the sound, Cao Ye saw a swarm of "wasps."

Yet his gaze passed over the wasps and ultimately settled on the thing hanging among the branches behind them.

[Bloody Hive]

It was one of the troublesome monsters within the Great Tree Labyrinth, because it was not an ordinary monster, but a special colony-type monster.

This monster itself was not a single individual. Rather, it was the hive itself.

As long as the hive was not destroyed, it would continuously hatch bee-type monsters known as Deadly Wasps. Their hatching speed was especially fast; after you killed one batch, another might already have hatched.

Though the Bloody Hive was troublesome, in a sense, it could also be considered a special event.

The main body of the Bloody Hive resembled a pinecone and hung high among tree branches.

Once someone approached, those "wasps" would rapidly spray an extremely sticky, viscous fluid around them, restricting their movements.

If someone was unfortunate enough to get hit, the "wasps" would immediately launch a swarm attack, rushing forward like ordinary wasps from the outside world and besieging their target.

As the saying went, enough ants could kill an elephant. Even Level 3 and Level 4 adventurers could stumble if they were careless.

In Orario, most adventurers chose to use magic to clear out these Deadly Wasps. All it took was a wide-area spell to wipe out these troublesome creatures.

Although Deadly Wasps were dangerous, individual ones were not particularly strong. Under magical attacks, they were even more fragile.

Buzzz, buzzz, buzzz—

At that moment, because Cao Ye had entered their territory, the Deadly Wasps charged at him as though they had received an order to attack.

"Jewel Magecraft: Flame—"

Boom—

As another gemstone was used up, flames erupted instantly and burned all the Deadly Wasps to death.

"Projection, begin—"

Whoosh—

A spear slowly took shape in Cao Ye's hand.

Then, rather than using it directly, Cao Ye made a throwing motion. The next second, he hurled it out.

With Cao Ye's strength, the spear shot forward with ease, and then...

"Broken Phantasm!"

BOOM—

A violent explosion rang out, and the Bloody Hive on the tree branch was caught within its blast radius.

A Bloody Hive that gave countless adventurers headaches was dealt with so easily. From start to finish, Cao Ye had only used one gemstone containing his mana and expended some mana to project a spear.

Tsubaki beside him was already used to it. She had been shocked several times before.

But after seeing it more and more, she had grown accustomed to it. Magic that used gemstones to cast spells, magic that could create weapons out of thin air—she had never even heard of any of them, but Cao Ye had them all.

"Done. Tsubaki, let's head back."

"Huh? We're going back already?"

Tsubaki said belatedly. They had only just arrived at the twenty-second floor. They had not done anything except clear out one group of monsters, and they were already leaving?

"Today's haul has been pretty good. Reaching this place was just achieving a new milestone."

"Oh~"

Tsubaki had not come to the Dungeon much to begin with. She only knew that following Cao Ye was the right thing to do, so she did not think too much about it.

As for Cao Ye, the reason he had gone through so much trouble to come here was to complete the mission. Now that the mission was done, there was naturally no reason for him to stay.

What mattered most now was making money. Once he had money, Cao Ye could begin the second stage of his plan.

In the name of "research," he would begin collecting magic stones in large quantities. The rate at which he gained magic stones through personal Dungeon exploration was simply too slow. If he had money, he could just throw money at the problem.

However, because magic stones had always been monopolized by the Guild, Cao Ye needed a proper pretext if he wanted to collect them in bulk.

Otherwise, who knew what kind of trouble it might cause.