"Shouldn't we be considering your injuries first?"
Lefiya did not understand, yet her heart was profoundly shaken.
Following Ron's instructions, the girl gathered all the dark-purple magic stones scattered across the ground. Just their heavy weight alone was already far from ordinary.
Compared to the magic stones dropped by ordinary monsters—usually no larger than a fingernail—these mutated goblins, kobolds, as well as the largest of them, the goblin guard, were already capable of bringing quite decent returns to ordinary adventurers.
The key point was that Ron did not look like someone who lacked money.
She could not identify what kind of potion the blue vial was, but the green panacea could only be purchased through the official channels of the Dian Cecht Familia.
Its price was five hundred thousand Valis.
The equipment the boy carried on him was also fine-quality weaponry produced by the Hephaestus Familia.
After confirming that there were no missing magic stones or dropped materials, Lefiya handed the pouch to Ron. She had no intention of taking a cut from it.
First, the salary provided by the Loki Familia was already very generous.
Second—if Ron had not pushed her away at the critical moment, she likely would not even be qualified to stand here and speak: "It's all here."
"We should head back to Orario first. Your injuries are very serious!"
"…"
Ron struggled to raise his arm. Enduring the pain, he took the magic stones out of the pouch—no different at all from those dropped by monsters he had slain in the past.
But this time, he did not see any prompt indicating an increase in Soul Shards.
Which step had gone wrong, exactly?
Ron's already pale complexion grew even worse. Recalling the just-concluded combat sequence, he had indeed focused primarily on drawing the hatred of the surrounding monsters.
Mutated kobolds, goblin guards, and similar monsters had all been dealt with by Lefiya!
Was the Dungeon's hatred limited to himself, merely spilling over to other adventurers—while only the monsters he personally killed could yield Soul Shards?
Thinking this far, the scant hope Ron held faded away completely, and his expression collapsed entirely.
He did not refuse Lefiya's suggestion to return. With his current physical condition, even though he could visibly sense the muscle-tearing injuries continuously being healed, remaining in the Dungeon any longer would absolutely be courting death!
—The moment he had just made contact with the passage leading to the second floor, the Dungeon had already pantingly summoned a Goblin Guard, and the disturbance caused had been extremely intense.
If the Dungeon were to realize how hard he was to kill, Ron did not dare imagine what kind of grotesque monster it would stitch together next!
"We're really heading back."
"Just help me up. I may also need to trouble you to strap all this equipment onto me. As for the dropped loot, we'll split it evenly."
He had no intention of monopolizing this harvest.
He raised his head and looked at the yamabuki-colored elven girl with a deathly pale face. "If it hadn't been for you, it would have been very difficult for me to deal with so many monsters on my own."
"No."
Lefiya hurriedly shook her head.
In fact, Ron could have completely ignored her and left directly. Just as she was about to explain—she saw the boy's extremely exhausted expression.
The girl swallowed many words back down.
In the final analysis, the only thing she could say was that the unfamiliar adventurer in front of her was truly very contradictory: he was clearly suffering very serious injuries, yet he was still worrying about the matter of drops.
And after getting them in hand, he was even willing to split them evenly with her.
"I'll take you back first."
"It's just that the cave passage has collapsed, so we may have to go back the original way."
With gentle movements, Lefiya helped Ron up from the ground—yet in the end she still did not manage that absurd operation of strapping heavy equipment onto an injured person.
As for the brass heavy shield that had blocked the goblin guard's full-force attack, when she saw the extremely obvious dent that had appeared on the shield's originally smooth defensive surface, she could not imagine just how powerful the impact Ron had taken at the time had been.
"Um…"
"I still haven't asked what your name is. You already know my name is Lefiya—if you don't tell me, isn't that a bit unfair?"
"Mm."
"From another angle, we can be considered comrades who fought side by side. By reason and by right, you have to tell me, don't you?"
Are elves all this noisy?
If it were according to the setting in the original DanMachi, most elves were rather arrogant, somewhat similar to the Celestial Dragons' theory of noble bloodlines.
So why was it different on Lefiya!
Ron turned his head expressionlessly, his gaze falling on the elven girl's flawless profile. Her cheeks, like fine mutton-fat jade, were exquisitely beautiful.
Her slender, pointed elven ears were all the more a symbol of her identity.
"Um…"
"Is there something on my face?"
That gaze was simply impossible to ignore.
The elven girl had actually long been accustomed to it—her race's special nature inevitably brought special looks. Yet Ron's gaze at this moment was extremely pure.
It made Lefiya's heartbeat quicken a little.
"Oi—no."
"I'm just confirming something."
Why are you blushing like that?!
Ron very calmly shifted his gaze away. Being called a "magic idiot" by Familia companions meant that this person's magical reserves were absolutely quite enormous.
The "idiot" attribute—that was purely a description of Lefiya's personality!
"Oh."
Not on the same wavelength as Ron, the girl walked ahead to lead the way, muttering in a voice only she could hear, "You still haven't told me your name."
In the end, he could not withstand the incessant muttering.
The boy shook his head and sighed. In a helpless tone, he said, "Ron."
"Mr. Ron."
"I'll call you that, then!"
The passage back to the surface had collapsed due to the appearance of the Goblin Guard, so for Ron and Lefiya to return, they could only look for other caves.
Fortunately, there were no accidents along the way.
But because of the Dungeon's disturbance, most adventurers exploring the shallow layers decided to return to Orario.
—And so, in the unfamiliar DanMachi world, Ron once again experienced the sensation of squeezing onto a subway with other corporate wage slaves during rush hour.
Following the main body of adventurers, he struggled his way out of Babel Tower. Looking toward the Central Plaza bathed in the blazing sun, seeing the light again gave him a rare sense of having been separated from the world.
The new-type potion provided by Airmid, in terms of effectiveness, perhaps could not reach the level of a panacea.
But after all, it was a simplified version.
When the potion's effects were fully absorbed, the muscle-tearing injuries in Ron's arms had already been completely repaired, and there were no other issues with his body.
"The potion works."
"The side effects are indeed significant. If the pricing were more reasonable, there would still be adventurers willing to choose it."
The side effects of the new potion had already left him with a deep impression.
Just as Ron was preparing to head alone to the Sanatorium, he finally noticed—that yamabuki-colored tail tightly following behind him.
Lefiya had not left. After briefly explaining the situation to members of the Ganesha Guard Corps, the girl stood timidly beside Ron, not forgetting the original vow she had made: "Mr. Ron, please go with me to the Sanatorium."
"It must be confirmed by Miss Airmid that you have no injuries left before—"
"I can truly feel at ease. As for the medical expenses, you don't need to consider them at all. Just take it as my… insignificant repayment of a favor!"
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