Chương 45: Superior Efficiency
"Wind Cannon!" A big melon-sized ball of compressed air hit a group of silverbacks, instantly obliterating them.
Cassian and Leo were both slicing up Hard Armoreds and Orcs respectively. Cassian was using his glamoured sword for now, as there was no need to reveal the rune-covered one for now.
The three supporters could only watch gobsmacked before Arren's professionalism kicked in and he quickly commanded to start processing the monsters.
Their presence was a huge help. Now, the party barely needed to stop after every fight and extract the magic stones. The trio was doing that while they were still in the middle of a battle, and by the time they finished, most of the monster carcasses had already been dealt with, only needing to delay by a couple of minutes or so, before they were back in action.
All three were grateful to not have to dig through monster guts anymore and their hunting pace skyrocketed. Even though 15% would have to be given away, their net profit would much higher than before.
"Remind me how long have you been doing this?" Arren asked after cleaning up and starting to move deeper.
"A little over a month since me and my brother got a Falna. Leo a week or two." Cassian replied. That was public information after all.
"What?! That's ridiculous! You're stronger than most veteran level 1s I've seen in action!" Robin exclaimed, expressing the thoughts all three of them shared.
They were veterans in their own rights. All three of them have been at this for around a decade by now. They've seen their share of adventurers, including second-class adventurers. Cassian's physical prowess was closer to a level 2 than a level 1. He was capable of ripping apart the middle-floor monsters with his bare hands. Leo started off weak, but slowly grew to a rate, that she was comparable to veteran level 1s by now. Nico was the most ludicrous one though…
Magic was relatively rare among adventurers. Few adventurers awakened magic in their journey. Among them, only the elves had an innate magical affinity and thus often awakened magic at some point. As such, Nico having magic, even at level 1 was not surprising.
No, what was surprising was that they were all chantless magic spells! Chantless magic was not unheard of. A spell that only needed its name to be called out to activate. An extremely useful feature, considering one of the greatest weaknesses of a mage was long chants. But it came at a price of being weaker than spells with chants. Usually, it was an accepted norm that the longer the chant of a Falna magic, the higher the potency.
But what was this? Nico's spells defied that logic. Despite being chantless, they still held the potency of a spell with a couple of verses! That, they could accept, but Robin nearly had a stroke when he pulled out a fourth spell, and then a fifth! Three magic slots were the normal limit for adventurers. It was supposed to be impossible to get more. Riveria the Nine Hells found some type of loophole that allowed her to separate chants and technically have nine spells, but this went beyond that. It wasn't a simple chant connection.
No, this was closer to Lefiya Viridis', the Thousand Elf's, ability to smash through that limit and blatantly possess more than three spells.
The three supporters could now understand the reason for the confidentiality agreement. The gods and the mortals would go crazy over this if it was revealed. The elves in particular would lose their marbles at Nico's magic.
"I was wondering what could possibly warrant a confidentiality agreement." Arren spoke slowly. "I thought you were simply braggarts at first, but then Rose confirmed that it was necessary. Now I can see it clearly. If this was revealed to the public, in addition, achieving this in only a month…"
"All the gods would start drooling over us and do everything in their power to obtain us. We would be constantly pressured by bigger familias and have war games thrown at us like kids scrambling for the last piece of candy." Cassian finished for him. He was pleased that they were not idiots and properly understood the gravity of the situation.
"True. I understand and you don't have to worry about us. I already signed the contract, but I give my word in addition that we won't tell anybody about any of these. Though our goddess is a curious one, so she may want to know about it too."
"I won't ask you to lie to your goddess. Like I said, as long as she signs the confidentiality contract and does not blab about it with other gods, you can inform her." To which he received a nod. "Anyway, let's move on. We're going down to the 14th floor today. I want us to adjust to one another for a couple of days before moving further, into floors 15 to 16."
"Ugh, reaching Rivira in under two months. Gods really do have favorites." Durlin lamented. Sadly, he was born with no talent for being an adventurer, so he had to settle for being a supporter. He could have gone into blacksmithing or mining, as is pretty common among dwarves, but he yearned for the adrenaline going into the dungeon gave him, so he could not stop.
--- An Hour Later ---
Swinging his sword at a Crystal Mantis, its pincers were cleanly severed, and as the beast let out a wail of pain, Cassian cleanly decapitated it. It was the last of this group and the supporters moved to harvest the corpses. The group of monsters they got attacked by was larger than the usual ones, so it would take a longer time to go through them.
Cassian reached for his belt and opened one of the metal containers. He got this idea after talking with Naaza. Potions had to be in these glass vials, which made them fragile, but that did not mean the vial itself could not be placed into a more secure container.
So he shaped three sets of aligned, vial-shaped, metal containers and put them on belts, which he then distributed to Nico and Leo, and wore himself. The inside of the container was lined with soft padding, protecting the vials from shattering due to impacts. Each belt could hold 7 potions.
The rest he divided in three and handed them over to the supporters for safekeeping. Each time he or the other two consumed a potion, they would swap out the empty vial with a full one from the supporters.
As the supporters were collecting the last of the loot, a single Almiraj rounded the corner and immediately went for Leo. At the last moment, it seemed to stagger a bit, before it was cleanly split in half by her sword.
"Weird, why do lone Almiraj keep popping up from time to time and attack? Usually, they move in groups since that's their main strength." Robin expressed her doubts.
"And they all always go for Leo too." Arren chimed in. Ever since they descended into the middle floors, from time to time, usually when they haven't had an encounter with other monsters for some time, an Almiraj would pop out and practically throw itself at Leo.
The trio were weirded out by the uncharacteristic behavior, not knowing that it was Cassian causing it. Since they were now accompanied by outsiders, Cassian had to make the effort to keep his control over the monsters, he kept for sustaining Leo's Slayer Momentum secret.
He did not mind revealing the other spells much, though when he did reveal them by burning a group of Almiraj with Igni, he caused another shock to the supporters, but Axii was different. He would never reveal it publicly if he could help it. Not only would having a mind control ability cause him a great amount of trouble by making everyone in the city to distrust and fear him, but it would also weaken Axii.
Axii worked best when it was not expected and the mind is unguarded. If the individual he is trying to put under the spell knows about it and is cautious of it by bracing their mind, Axii loses much of its potency. So, it was crucial to keep it a secret.
"Well, I don't really care about some rabbits, but this has been a great day!" Durlin was cheerful and happy, his previous annoyance completely forgotten.
Supporters didn't earn much. That was the norm. Some had it worse than others. The three supporters from the Eos familia were in the middle. They were professionals at what they did. It took them very little time to extract magic stones from any monster and collect the drop items, as such the pace of the party's hunting has risen significantly. However, their familia situation put them in a tough spot.
Not having any support, meant that oftentimes they were oppressed by the adventurers they worked with. When things got tough, they even had to do supporter work at less than the market price, so money was tight.
Now though? They were earning more than they had in weeks in just a single day. From what Arren calculated, their current earnings had surpassed 1 million Valis. That was 50,000 Valis for each of them. For reference, an average party of 5 level 1 adventurers earned 25,000 Valis per day. They were earning twice the amount of an entire party!
It was hard for any of them to not be jubilant about it.
"Hey, Whitey!" Durlin called out.
"Whitey?" Cassian assumed he was referring to him, as no one else fit that description.
"Your hair and complexion are pale white, so Whitey."
"What's wrong with my name?"
"Nothing, looking at you just ticks me off, so Whitey."
"Ah, understandable, jealousy can be quite troublesome for some." Cassian nodded his head in understanding.
"What?! Who said I'm Jealous of you, you bastard!"
"You're not?"
"That's beside the point!" Durlin was fuming by this point. "Aghh Shit! Is this a one-time thing or not?"
"This?"
"The dive. Us working with you as supporters."
"Hmm, I was hoping it would be a long-term arrangement. Would you be available for that?"
"We would. Today has been more productive and rewarding than the entire last two weeks." Arren answered instead. He did not want the hotheaded Durlin to mess things up. Though that was unlikely. From what he noticed instead of being annoyed, Cassian seemed to enjoy Durlin's outbursts, as he seemed to be having fun by screwing with him.
"Same here too then. With your help, we've been much more productive, increasing our earnings. We can remain a team for now. Although note that, we will be moving past the 18th floor relatively soon. Whether you can accompany us deeper is dependent on you. Both your willingness and ability to keep up with us down there, without becoming a liability."
"Ahaha, you don't pull your punches, do you?"
"It's better to be upfront about subjects like these than let them bubble up and create future problems."
"Couldn't have said it better myself. The thing is, we've never gone past the 18th floor before, so I'm sure you can understand the problem."
"Meaning neither of us knows, how you would perform down there. Understandable. Are you willing to give it a try though? No need to feel pressured, we'll still be spending some time up here."
Arren glanced at the other two and saw that both of them were just as apprehensive as him. It was understandable. The difficulty spiked after the 18th floor, and so did the danger. The first 17 floors were pretty straightforward. Go down, fight monsters, go back up. No need for any more sophistication in most cases.
However, on floor 19 and deeper that changed. Monsters weren't the only thing one needed to worry about. The environment itself became dangerous. Natural hazards and traps became common. There's a reason Abnormal Resistance is the most common Development Ability among level 2s. It's because poisonous or venomous, monsters and flora became common on the 19-24 floors, known as the Large Tree Labyrinth.
So, it was natural for level 1 supporters to be apprehensive about it.
"We'll have to think about it."
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