The Receptionist's face grew pale… about thirty minutes ago, a group of heavily injured adventurers came in and said that they were attacked by Armored Spiders from the upper floors that had come down to the third floors and not only those creatures but Minotaurs too.
The only way people had escaped was by using a Dungeon escape crystal which was to be crushed and sent directly to the outside of the portal.
A lot of Adventurers had died from the sudden attacks but she had to admit, she was really worried about the set that had come today, especially that young man named Klaus.
'If he escaped… then he should be here by now.' She kept looking at the door and then at the Magical Databases of people that had been registered today.
A tab of names appeared in front of her eyes from a green orb known as the reading orb however a lot of names were faded.
These were people that had died and she gulped, most of the people she registered today hadn't died but three that came early this morning had already died as their names were faded… and as for Klaus.
'He's still alive…' She thought, his name was glowing there so he was still alive. 'What if he's being held in hostage or something over there?'
The Guild Leader had summoned several A-ranks that were out of the city to storm the dungeon and thin out their numbers; however it would take several days for all of them to arrive however her worries were misplaced as a whistling man entered the somber Guild, he looked like hell with blood splashed over him and bits of ichor along his body but it was a bit usual around here.
Adventurers came back in monster blood all the time… They all turned to Klaus who had a skip in his step as he reached the Receptionist's table without looking at anyone else.
"Hey, I'm here to submit monster corpses." Klaus said and the receptionist looked at him.
She was grateful that he was alive.
'Can't he look at his surroundings?' She thought, people were mourning the death of their comrades and being attended to by the little healers that were around. Wasn't he being a bit too joyous about this?
"Sure, though I must ask… did you see one of the Armored Spiders everyone's talking about?" She asked and Klaus nodded.
"Yes." He said and then leaned close before whispering. "I actually killed one of them… that means I rank-up right?"
She blinked and then chuckled.
"Uh-huh… let's go to the measuring room." She said and left behind the counter, she was about to take his hand but then flinched when she saw the monster blood staining it and led him to a door on the side.
What came into view after opening the door was a room where there was a giant runic circle on the ground and several women in maid costumes manning the several machines that were in the room.
The space was far larger than Klaus expected… maybe forty feet across with a vaulted ceiling inscribed with glowing preservation runes.
Along the left wall stood massive refrigeration units with ice-attribute magic and each one containing hanging monster carcasses while a maid in a crisp uniform stood cataloging cuts of meat.
Near the center, another maid operated an industrial butchering machine… a contraption of rotating blades and conveyor belts.
She was feeding a Dire Wolf pelt through, which separated the hide from meat immediately. The materials dropped into different storage chests below and scattered throughout were more runic circles next to each workstation… These were transportation circles that moved processed materials to different parts of the room.
The whole operation had an assembly-line efficiency that honestly impressed Klaus. This was a full-scale monster processing facility.
"This is where all dungeon materials get processed and distributed," Iris explained, gesturing around the room with obvious pride. "The meat gets cleaned, graded, and sent to restaurants throughout the city. Monster hides go to leatherworkers and armorers while bones to alchemists and enchanters, even the blood has uses."
"Blood?" Klaus raised an eyebrow.
"Oh yes." Iris nodded seriously. "You know about Crimson Fire Wine? The most expensive alcohol in the entire city? It's made by fermenting and processing the blood of a rare B-Rank monster called a Volcanic Salamander. It takes three years to age properly and costs about fifty gold per bottle."
'Well thank goodness I don't drink.' Klaus thought, trying not to grimace at the mental image.
He didn't know how to feel about drinking monster blood… whether it was processed or not.
His body still hurt quite a bit from the spider fight but his mental energy had been restored completely during his rest, so he was holding on and after this he'd purchase the herbs then find an inn to move to before sleeping off the exhaustion.
A few of the maids noticed their arrival and offered polite bows before returning to their work. Iris led Klaus to the big rune circle in the center of the room.
"Since you're bringing a bulk of monsters, you can drop their cores and bodies there." She pointed at the circle's center. "You did get enough to rank up, right?"
That was unimaginable but she assumed so given how he looked like he had just come out of battle with several beasts.
"Well not exactly." Klaus said and then went onto one knee. "Here are the cores…"
He chose to summon the cores before the bodies.
The Slime core landed on the ground first and the instant it did, a blue wisp of magic covered it as it vanished with a soft pop.
"Huh? Where did it go?"
"We have a storage unit specifically prepared for low ranking cores." She said. "Aren't you going to bring out more? A Slime core is just 0.3 bronze."
"Yeah yeah." He muttered and summoned the rest.
The three Dire Wolf cores touched down with soft thunks, each one about the size of a large marble and were glowing as well. However, the most surprising one wasn't those but rather a huge core that landed on the ground with a heavy thud.
It was like a basketball in size and just as heavy while giving off an ominous red glow that glowed like a heartbeat.
The ambient temperature around it seemed to rise slightly and Iris's eyes trembled.
"Y… you killed one of those Armored Spiders?" She asked, her voice coming out higher than usual.
Some of the maids in the room all stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at the massive core with shocked expressions on their faces, the others were too focused to even notice.
"Of course, I told you so. It wasn't really easy and the monster was already on the verge of death so I got lucky." He said, as much as he would love to take credit for soloing a Tier 2 monster on his first day… he didn't want to attract too much attention to himself.
After all, Adventurers were very petty beings, and claiming to kill a Tier 2 solo would paint a target on his back.
"I see… I recognize those cores as Dire Wolf cores and they cost 3 bronze each and as for the Armored Spider, the core is about 30 silvers." She said, trying to mask her surprise and return to her professional demeanor. "If you have the body, you can earn a lot more."
"I do." He said as the cores vanished from the circle with another flash of blue light, transported to the storage vault. "But do you seriously remember the price of every single core type… talk about nerdy."
"Shut up." Iris grew a bit pink in the cheeks. "I was just… whatever, bring out the bodies then take a bath. You smell like monster shit."
Klaus chuckled.
This girl was very easy to tease… he released the bodies from his Storage ring and alongside the big corpse of the Armored Spider which had its armored carapace caved in multiple places from what Iris could see were well-placed sword strikes to vulnerable joints, there were also three Dire Wolf corpses stacked on top of it.
The massive Rune circle glowed bright blue and then the corpses vanished in a flash of light and reappeared instantly next to the slicing machine where one of the maids was working, neatly arranged for processing.
The maid operating the machine actually gasped when she saw the spider corpse materialize. "Is that an Armored Spider?! From the upper floors?!"
"Apparently…" Iris called back, then turned to Klaus with a complicated expression.
"Alright, you'll be receiving a profit of…" She pulled out a small ledger and began calculating with a featherpen. "Three Dire Wolf cores at 3 bronze each is 9 bronze. One Slime core at 0.3 bronze. Armored Spider core at 30 silver. Three Dire Wolf bodies in decent condition… 15 silver each, so 45 silver total. The Armored Spider body…"
She paused, doing more complex math.
"Carapace is damaged but usable which is 80 silver… the legs are intact which is 40 silver and the silk glands are undamaged which are 50 silver to alchemists, venom sacs go for 30 silver and the internal organs for potions is 20 silver."
Klaus whistled… The spider was worth more than he'd thought.
"Spider body total is 220 silver, or 2 gold and 20 silver," Iris concluded. "Add the core at 30 silver, and your Dire Wolf sales… your total gross is 3 gold, 4 silver, and 9 bronze."
She looked up apologetically.
"The Guild takes a 15% processing fee for E-Rank adventurers. That's 46 silver and 1 bronze."
Klaus winced but nodded.
"Final payment: 2 gold, 58 silver, and 8 bronze," Iris finished. "And yes, you're ranking up… Five monsters including a Tier 2 far exceeds the twenty required for D-Rank."
They went back to the counter after Klaus waved politely to the maids, who were already beginning to process his spider corpse with excited chatter.
"Bring out your ID." She said, and the rune on Klaus's forearm glowed as he summoned it.
The metallic disk materialized and she snagged it immediately. "It'll feel weird but this is required. After D-rank, you're a real adventurer… can take most missions without disrespect. Your Guild shares increase too, so you earn more from cores and the processing fee drops to 10%."
She closed her eyes and held the ID between her palms with her expression growing serious.
"By the authority granted to the Adventurer's Guild, I acknowledge this warrior's deeds," she intoned in a resonant voice. "Let the rank reflect the merit... Let the merit shape the path... Rise from E to D and walk forward."
The ID glowed brilliantly between her hands and Klaus felt strange warmth spread through his forearm where the rune was embedded. It didn't hurt, but it felt significant.
She handed him back the ID. The pie chart symbol had changed… one slice now glowed silver instead of dull color.
"Using that new ID, you can enter the Guild Archives for spells," Iris explained. "You can access Tier 1 scrolls now, though the good ones cost money. You should find some cheap support spells that can help you but here's your money."
She handed him a leather pouch that clinked heavily. Klaus collected it and stored it in his storage ring… he actually earned it.
"Thank you… I'll see you later." He said and started to walk away.
Iris looked at his back and sighed quietly. Although they were both commoners with Metal magic, they were very different people. Klaus had that reckless spark while she'd chosen the safe path.
She wasn't sure which choice was better.
Klaus immediately went to the Pawner's corner of the Guild, where the monocle-wearing man was examining some kind of gemstone through a magnifying lens.
"I have a quality deal for you." Klaus announced, and Pawner's eyes shone as he looked up at the young man. What quality deal could he possibly have this time?
Klaus fearlessly spawned all the loot he had gotten from the dead adventurers onto the Pawner's table… swords, daggers, armor pieces, pouches of coins, boots, and various equipment and grinned.
"Give me a good price for this." He said. "Oh right… and can I get a cleansing spell scroll too?"
…
About ten minutes later, Klaus walked out of the Guild completely clean… It looked like he had not gone to the Dungeon at all.
Alongside the spells that were restricted to specific magical attributes, there were also attributeless spells like Cleansing, Minor Repair, Light, and Detection… basic utility magic that anyone with mana could perform regardless of their elemental affinity.
He had also taken off his light armor and stored it in his ring, so he was wearing the same Commoner clothes as before, looking like any other civilian on the street.
The Pawner had given him another 85 silver for all the looted equipment after haggling, bringing Klaus's total liquid assets to approximately 13 gold and 43 silver.
He was, by commoner standards, temporarily wealthy.
"Damn…" Klaus stretched as he walked down the street, rolling his shoulders and feeling his joints pop. "That was an experience."
He had defeated a Tier 2 monster on his very first dungeon expedition. Sure, he had almost died and was functionally useless for ten minutes afterward from mental exhaustion, but now he had a whole lot of money to show for it.
'So many things to do.' He thought as he began walking in the direction his memory indicated, consulting the mental map from his game knowledge.
Since the roads were similar to how they looked in Artemis Online, he found the Herb shop really quickly. 'Aha! With this, I can increase my mana and actually have a chance at the entrance exam.'
There were three specific herbs that he needed to buy in bulk… fifteen doses of each.
They only worked fifteen times before the body became saturated and stopped responding, and he had casually spammed them in the game to increase the stats of his characters, so he was very familiar with the exact process.
The first was the Azure Lotus Root which increased mana reserves permanently by 10-20 points per dosage depending on the individual's constitution.
Next was the Crimson Starflower that increased magical power by small random increments… the spell potency could jump significantly or barely move, but at the end of the day, overall magical power increased.
The final one was Silverleaf Moss which allowed for better mana flow throughout the body and improved recovery rates.
In the game, these three herbs combined created what players called the "foundation trinity" for new characters but Klaus had a better idea.
'If I use the Merge function on all forty-five herbs…' he thought with growing excitement. 'I can bypass the fifteen-dose limitation entirely and create something way stronger in a single consumable.'
That was the plan… Buy bulk, merge into a super-herb, consume, and jumpstart his progression to Second-Class Apprentice in weeks instead of years.
'Alright, let's get to buying.' He thought as he opened the door of the shop only to flinch hard.
There was a certain disgusting smell coming from inside the shop… it was something like rotting vegetation mixed with sulfur and old gym socks but he entered regardless, breathing through his mouth.
When he reached the receptionist counter, he didn't see anybody manning it.
"Hello, anyone here?" Klaus called out, looking around the empty front room.
The shop itself was lined with shelves containing jars of dried herbs, bundles of plants hanging from the ceiling, and various mortars and pestles on display but there was no shopkeeper.
He decided to follow the smell, which was getting stronger.
It led him to a door on the right side of the shop, and he knocked on it politely. 'I remember this door was locked in the game. Maybe I'm early to some event?..'
"Ah, a cu-customer?" A nervous voice came from inside, muffled by the door. "Please don't—ah!"
Klaus opened the door.
An explosion of thick brown gas burst forth like a pressurized release, blasting him backward with surprising force.
His feet left the ground and he toppled over an empty wooden shelf that had been positioned near the door, sending both Klaus and the shelf tumbling to the ground in a crash of splintering wood.
'What is this pungent smell…?' Klaus thought desperately as more of the horrific gas flooded his nose and mouth.
He tried to hold his breath but he'd already inhaled a lungful during his surprised gasp, and now the world was spinning dangerously… His vision blurred and darkened around the edges.
The last thing Klaus heard before consciousness left him entirely was the sound of panicked shuffling from inside the room.
"No… no… no… Customer!" A young woman's voice cried out in absolute horror as Klaus's eyes rolled back and he fainted face-first on the floor.