As usual, the three entered the dungeon after paying the entrance fee through the Oni Uncle. Aster was slowly getting used to scary-looking races and was now able to talk to the man and pay for himself!
As soon as they entered, their first task was to fill up the two bags with slime cores. Thankfully, although the number of adventurers on the first floor increased, there was no competition in the slime area.
"Haap!"
"Haiyaaa!"
"Humph!"
"Teii!"
As such, Kali and Cassy were able to hunt efficiently, letting Aster collect about ten slime cores per batch.
Although they each got a split of roughly 600,000 Tels from the second frozen boss, a little higher than its price before, having more money would never hurt. After all, decent gear costs tons of money!
"Just upgrading our gears to the next level of gear would cost us 2 million each." Aster sighed, thinking about how much money they were saving. "It'll take a week at least to reach that amount at our pace."
Of course, that's if they continued to hunt slimes only.
If they moved to higher floors, they would encounter stronger monsters and have access to more profitable hunting areas! Aster was already eyeing the next floor's Green Slimes, which were a little stronger compared to the weakest Blue Slime they were currently hunting.
He already found that its cores fetch twice the price of a Blue Slime, making it possible to earn twice as much as they do currently!
Half an hour later, they were already done filling up both bags with roughly a hundred cores. As such, they decided to focus on letting Aster level up next. Their plan was simple: the two girls would scout the slimes and let Aster strike them, hunting them in one go!
Since he already hunted quite a significant amount of slimes the previous day, it only took one hour before he reached Level 3. Without waiting, he quickly added his extra stat point to his Constitution, increasing his health and stamina by a large margin... increasing it from 3 to 4, a 33% increase!
[
Name: Aster Mistral
Age: 2518
Race: Human
Purity: 100%
Level: 3
"..."
Aster began to think. He hadn't seen the portal leading to the next floor yet, so that meant it was in a deeper region than what they had already explored. And previously, they were one step into the grave when they got surrounded by a goblin camp. Thinking that the next area would be wolves, it would be a lot easier to get themselves surrounded!
"As such, we'd be needing monster repellants." Kali declared while pointing toward one shelf at the side. "You go get about a box of that. I'll be going to restock my revolver's bullets and some other things. Stupid Rabbit, come with me."
"Huh? Alright..." Cassy replied, slightly confused.
"Oh, ok... And I also need to get more magazines for my pistol." Aster remembered how he had run out of bullets already.
He was planning to buy more before entering the dungeon yesterday, but since Kali ran without warning, he didn't have time to visit the shop. As such, today was the best time he could get more bullets.
Aster walked to the shelf first, picking up a box of what was labeled "RepelEX: Fast Acting Monster Repellant" and bringing it to the counter.
*TING!*
He tapped the bell, calling for the shopkeeper.
Soon enough, a familiar face arrived from the back of the shop: the dwarf shopkeeper! "Oh, it's ye again. Wuzzis? Ya'll headin' ta the second floor already?"
"Oh, you guessed right." Aster nodded. "We're planning on heading to the next floor by today."
"Then ye'd be cutting it close ta midnight with how far the portal is. Are ya plannin' on stayin' overnite there?"
"Huh? It's that far?"
It was just noon right now, and the shopkeeper was telling him that they'd take until midnight just to reach the portal leading to the next floor!
With that as the preface, Aster ended up buying two tents, a portable cooking set, and a portable campfire. Other than the last one, a magical item, Aster was familiar with the other two, so he made sure to get what was worth the money he was paying.
After that, he also got five magazines of 9mm hollow points for his pistol, with one mag of "Special" bullets just in case everything turned south again. Aster used up almost all his money on his purchase!
"It's money well spent... It's money well spent..." He convinced himself as he sat down, waiting for the two girls to return. "But it's fucking daylight robbery!"
"Hah! Ya still haven't seen shit, kid! Those are cheap goods!" The shopkeeper countered with a grin, but Aster doubted that.
It was later that he learned that the price at the Guild Affiliated Shop was already 10% lower than the regular market price. He couldn't help but wonder why everything was so expensive then.
After the girls came back from checking the neighboring shop, handling a slightly different repertoire than the dwarf's shop, the three were finally ready to go on their way. Their next stop, the Second Floor!