Of course, Aster and Kali didn't have any problems with hunting slimes. It was the most efficient target, thinking about the difficulty, earnings, and efficiency in concert.
They went with the same pattern as before, with Kali hunting down the slimes, Cassy picking the dead slimes up and bringing them to Aster, and him extracting the cores carefully. His extraction success rate was already approaching 100%, so it shouldn't take too long.
Kali's speed was unchallenged. The slimes lasted less than a second against her, dying before they even realized her presence. It was almost an assassination rather than a hunt!
"Here, Star! I'll go grab some more!"
Cassy was making use of her jumping powers to reach the slimes quickly and deliver them to Aster. As soon as he got some slimes to dry, Aster would begin using his Carved Seal to extract the slime cores. It was a simple but nerve-wracking process, even when he's gotten used to it already.
In just ten minutes, they had already filled one bag with loot. That's roughly 50 cores, or 250 thousand Tels! "As expected, it's faster to earn with slimes than with goblins." He muttered with a thin smile.
Time passed, and soon enough, even Cassy's bag was filled with cores. That's half a million worth of cores lying beside Aster's feet!
"We still have time, but let's not return early," Kali exclaimed. "Who knows when those bastards will try and tail us again?"
"I agree! Let's hunt to level up while ignoring the loot for now!"
Aster looked around and could tell that there was nobody else hunting in the slime area. It was as if they had the place reserved for themselves.
"Alright. Let's split up right here." Aster suggested. "We all could hunt slimes alone without any risks, after all."
"You..."
Kali looked at him with narrowed eyes, as if trying to remind him of her words earlier. Aster merely smiled, waving his hand around as if to say, "There's no way kidnappers are present here with the plains being this wide and open."
They could see each other even while hidden among the grass, even from more than a hundred meters away!
Taking that into consideration, even Kali had to nod her head. Right, it was nigh impossible that someone would just disappear while hunting in the plains area.
Just like that, the three began their hunt.
Although it was wasteful, they had to leave the slimes' bodies alone, ignoring that each one of them could fetch 5,000 Tels.
Each of them was hunting at different speeds, with Kali being the fastest, followed by Cassy, then Aster. Aster's pace was slow only due to his weaker scouting ability, making him unable to find slimes reliably. It was practically a hit-and-miss for him.
*THUMP!*
"Oops! Sorry, little guy."
But just as they got out, Aster ended up bumping into someone about to enter. He was a large man, the same as the men in black before, with bright red scales and two branch-like horns on his head.
His body was ripped, with arms as big as Aster's thighs. His gold eyes had a piercing gaze, looking at Aster in surprise. "Oh, a human. That's rare."
"...!"
Aster noticed that his hood fell after bumping. In a rush, he pulled his windbreaker's hood over and pulled his scarf over his face, covering his features once more. Kali stepped before Aster, waving her hand across as if to block the man's line of sight while glaring right at him.
"Back off!" That was the only thing she said in a low growl.
The lizard-like man raised his hands as if showing that he had no intentions of starting a fight while explaining. "Oh, sorry. It's just been a while since I saw a human, so my mouth just ran by itself. Don't worry, our party doesn't intend to spread it."
He then nudged his head, as if commanding one of his allies to give them something. Cassy was the one who took it—a small card with a party name and contact details written on it.
"Dragon's... Roar?!"
Cassy gasped upon reading the card. "You're THE Dragon's Roar?! The best adventurer's clan in Orinfeld City?!"
"Ahaha! That's embarrassing, saying that we're the best."
The man smiled casually, scratching his head of red hair, matching colors with his scales as if he were embarrassed.
"We're the biggest clan in the city, yes, and we have bases across several floors. You're newbies, right? If you have any problems or questions, just visit one of our branches and show that card."
He extended a hand toward Aster, showing a toothy grin. "I'm Ragnaros, the leader of Dragon's Roar. I'm looking forward to seeing you all on the deepest floor."
Aster, albeit having some misgivings, took his extended arm forward and greeted.
"Aster Mistral. It's a pleasure meeting you too."
After exchanging a firm handshake, both parties then started on their respective ways.
Ragnaros led the Dragon's Roar party back to the 1,166th floor, which is currently the record-deepest floor reached in the entire world.