11. Loot

11. Loot

Flint snorted. "It doesn't work like that. Those are special spider legs."

"Special spider legs," Morgana repeated. "Really."

"The ones dropped as loot can be used in crafting recipes. You can't just peel apart monsters and lug them back into town. The real legs won't have the same magical properties." Flint frowned. "Or something like that."

That sounded ridiculous to her, but at the same time, was no stranger than anything else about this 'System'.

"How do we get them, though?" Morgana asked. "From the loot?" She had tried mentally withdrawing the items out of curiosity, but nothing had happened—one of the first times her intuition had failed her.

Flint answered through action. He approached the corpse, cautiously looking around for other threats, and held his hand out into the curling wisps of white light. Slowly, the light gathered into a ball, as if responding to his presence. After finishing manifesting, Flint held a small white orb between his fingers. The light disappeared.

"It's stored in here," Flint said, waggling the item toward her. "The monster core."

"The...monster core?"

"We'll need to take it into town to have the items withdrawn," he said, peering at the ball with obvious interest. "But yeah. They're stored in here somehow. Makes looting easier, 'cuz our backpacks would get clogged up real fast if we had to carry everything."

"Condensed spatial storage?" Morgana asked. "On something so small? How? Where are the spell designs?"

Flint shrugged. He tucked the orb into a pouch. "Who cares? It just works."

Morgana couldn't help the indignant look that appeared on her face, which Flint laughed at. She calmed herself. She couldn't blame the laymen for not caring about such a fascinating artifact. He didn't understand how incredible it was.

But really. Each lootable monster came with its own spatial storage artifact?

Could Morgana study it? Maybe reverse-engineer something? Even by her world's standard, spatial artifacts were bleeding-edge technology. And in fact, the very field she was most involved in.

She would have to find the spell designs first. Which the orb clearly lacked. Where were they? Where were all of the designs governing the System's functions? That question was driving her more and more insane.

She shook her head clear, not letting herself get distracted.

"Four copper coins," Morgana said. "You know, I don't actually have a great sense of what that means."

"Twenty copper to a silver, ten silver to a gold," Flint said. "But this isn't four copper, anyway."

"It isn't?"

"Dungeon coins are smaller than Liren ones. Plus they take a cut to convert them."

She assumed 'they' meant the bank or some similar organization. "A cut? How much?"

"Dunno. But it's a decent chunk. Like a third."

"A third?" Of their entire earnings, at least when it came to raw coinage? "What a scam!"

"What isn't, when it comes to government?" Flint muttered.

Morgana paused, then laughed. Some realities transcended cultures even through worlds, it seemed. Distaste of bureaucratic agencies persisted everywhere.

"Alright. Let's keep moving?" Flint asked.

"Hm," Morgana said. "Not really. The original was horrendously inefficient. It feels...twenty percent empty?" It was hard to quantify the 'mana pool' vibrating within her chest. She could get a general sense for how much mana she had left, but there wasn't some specific number associated with it.

Vesper shook her head in incredulity. "All that, and you only used twenty percent of your mana. You're really something."

Morgana wasn't entirely sure why, but she blushed. "It's just a [Magic Missile]. And not even my own design. I took it from the Institute." She'd always hated being praised when she didn't feel it was deserved. Especially when she had her own designs that were groundbreaking—and in more complicated fields than warmagic.

"You think we could even try and find a boss?" Vesper asked Flint. "If we're blowing through regular monsters like this? Besides the loot we'd get, we could maybe head down to the next floor after."

"Definitely not," Flint said immediately. "Not worth the risk. We're taking it slow and steady. Don't get a big head just because we have a firepower advantage."

"I mean...yeah," Vesper said, "but you know how much better loot gets the further down we go. So you sure?"

"Slow and steady," Flint repeated firmly.

Vesper made a dissatisfied noise, looking at Morgana to get her opinion.

"What's a boss?" Morgana asked instead.

"Oh," Vesper said. "Uh, it's like, a big fight against a much stronger monster than usual. When you kill one, the dungeon starts spawning passages into deeper floors."

"And floors are what? I mean, practically speaking." She understood the basics.

"Just groupings of difficulty. It varies from dungeon to dungeon, but each floor usually has a range of levels inside them."

"Deeper floors change in terrain, too," Flint added. "This one looks like a mine shaft, since it originally spawned in a quarry, but all of them won't, as we get deeper. Might be info on what the other floors are like, but people are greedy with that kind of stuff. So it might be hard to get our hands on."

"Information is power," Morgana said thoughtfully. "I'm not surprised." That was another downside to having joined Rune's guild. She obviously would have no great amount of knowledge when it came to Quarrygate's dungeon.

"Not something we need to worry about, for now," Flint said. "I don't care how hard those [Magic Missiles] hit. We're not risking deeper floors until we're familiar with delving. I don't even have a class yet. Imagine another of those bat encounters, except this time, they're strong. Not level ones. We wouldn't be leaving with some scratches and bites, I'll tell you that."

Morgana shivered. It was, of course, a salient point.

"Besides," Flint murmured, holding up the newest monster core. "We're doing just fine for ourselves with our current pace." His eyes took on a greedy glint. "A few copper every couple of minutes? Ridiculous. We'll be rich within the week."

"For a generous definition of rich, I guess," Vesper said dryly. "And don't forget how much more expensive things are in adventuring towns. Copper won't go nearly as far."

"I'll be needing certain supplies, too," Morgana commented off-handedly. "I expect they'll be...difficult to obtain. What we're earning now certainly won't cut it."

"Supplies?" Flint asked. "For what?"

"I do intend to harvest mana myself," she reminded him. "I won't allow myself to be restrained by this 'System' of yours." She pursed her lips. "If, admittedly, a renewable source of internal mana is extremely useful." So she wouldn't neglect it either.

"What does that take?" Flint asked.

"Collection plates. Made of special alloys. And a custom spell design, which I'll handle—but I don't know how to engrave metal, so I'll need to hire someone." She waved her hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter. I was just bringing it up. I don't want to rush and put ourselves at risk, but as soon as we're able, I do want to advance to further floors."

"Didn't come here to scrounge around on the first floor forever," Vesper said. "Besides, I don't think any of us will turn down faster money." She raised a hand toward Flint to cut off his reply. "Once we're a little accustomed to things. Maybe next delve."

Flint frowned, obviously not agreeing with the timeline of next delve, but, after hesitating, he faced back forward, not disagreeing outright.

"We'll see," he said noncommittally.