R. A. T. H

Twenty-Seven vol.2

Rose continued trying to forge a weapon of pure fire as Lilias mildly watched. Perhaps, an hour later, when the strum of the guitar had died down moments prior, Elsa walked into the living room, stretching her form as she sat on the wooden ground, legs folded.

"I've looked into Alos's Mage Academy," She said.

"Oh?"

Rose let her attention drift away from her flames. In a moment, the floating sword of fire crumbled and became a flicker before drifting away into nothing. She had initially picked up this idea when she saw Bianca turn ice to spears, but now, within the span of less than two days, she had reached a state enough that it would no longer shatter from a mishap. Its strength and reliability, however, left much to be tested.

"It costs 1 million lixels per student," Elsa spoke, a frown on her face as she glanced at the display of her pad, "And, if we wanna make it into the next group of accepted students, we've got 3 months. Plus, well, we've gotta also pass the entrance tests: mana manipulation and knowledge of basic stuff."

"Hmm," Rose hummed.

So, they needed 2 million lixels. As she was unsure if she would even be herself in 3 months, much less waiting another year if they weren't fast enough, they needed to make that much money within that time frame.

At one point, she would have shook her head but, at just the first day of entering Alos's dungeon, they had made 28.8k lixels. And that was just the first floor. At a generous rounded rate of 30k a day, she calculated. . .

"It would take about 69 days, if we make about the same amount of lixels everyday as we made today," She said, "Not accounting for splitting things up, that is."

As the length of a month was exactly 30 days for all 10 of them, making 90 days for 3 months, that was more than enough time.

Lilias, who sat besides Rose, shook her head. "There's a reason being a dungeoneer is a gateway to becoming rich. Especially within Alos. You two alone should be able to easily make 2 million lixels within 3 months. As you continue to climb the dungeon, you might even make more."

"Is that so?" Rose asked.

"Yes. With the different grades of cores and the different spirits you can acquire and sell, aided by the various 'quests' you can undertake for the association, you can become rich."

Elsa's perked up at that. "Quests? Really? Like in a game?"

"Indeed." Lilias nodded. "Though no one can remember the exactness of each of the dungeon's floors once they leave, they can remember the monsters within with the right circumstances. Stretch that over thousands of dungeoneers, and years of climbing, and there exists a pseudo-database for the type of creatures you may find on each floor. With marginal possibility of errors, of course. It's a basic for cities."

It wasn't enough to change the difficulty of the dungeon by much as it couldn't tell you how many beasts you could face, or what other difficulties laid within, but it was enough for the usefulness of people.

"And, so, there are various monsters with blood, or parts, that are useful for specific purposes like magecraft, that sell swimmingly," The dragonian continued, "Making it possible for the association to sift through requests from people like mages or organizations like companies that they post as quests—becoming the middle-man who takes a chunk of the profit. Essentially, you see what floor you're heading to and check if there exists any quests currently available that are linked to it. All the same, it might also give you information on what beasts could lurk within."

As Elsa whistled breathlessly, Rose thought human creativity and ingenuity was something. Even with limited memories retained after returning from a floor, they could still come up with such a system? She didn't even know if she herself could have thought of it. Rose further pondered on Lilias's words. If the association sifted through quests and earned a cut, and Alos owned and controlled the association, then. . .