"Hic~ You know, back then in the Dungeon, we ran into a Giant Dragon bigger than a mountain! It was a legendary Ancient Species, completely extinct on the continent now."

"Back then, Brother Shi Tou was holding the Bridge of Ashes while I was single-handedly fighting two Giant Dragons. I got hit by a cataclysmic bolt of lightning and was turned straight to ash."

"Luckily, Kumironi was there to resurrect me, hahaha! The moment I got back up, I had to fight two dragons at once again. Do you have any idea how thrilling that was?"

"You ask about Iz?"

"How could Iz fight a Giant Dragon? That was a Mirror Dragon; it reflects his Magic. He was looking all pathetic, stuck trading beams with the endless Lord of Holy Spirits chasing us from behind!"

SLAM!

The wine cup slammed on the table. Iz said, displeased, "Huh? Wasn’t it a certain someone who got his ass kicked by the Holy Spirit Monarch and provoked the Giant Dragons while running for his life?"

Iz had been drinking too.

Hearing Chi Cheng’s bullshit bragging, Iz wasn’t having it.

’Oh... a red-faced Iz.’

’Even someone as gentle and refined as Iz gets worked up like this.’

"Duh, how is a Warrior supposed to fight that kind of thing?"

"Besides, I wasn’t running for my life! I just felt it wasn’t worthy of my attention!"

"Turned to ash and resurrected three times, and you still say it wasn’t worthy of your attention?"

"If Brother Shi Tou hadn’t been holding the Bridge of Ashes, could they have even hurt me?"

’Oh, they’re starting to argue.’ Lu Cang secretly switched his alcohol for a non-alcoholic drink on the side.

"Haha, you’re asking what happened next!"

"Later, in the heat of the moment, Kumironi set up a promotion Ritual, and we had a perfect breakthrough in the middle of battle! We completely turned that Dungeon upside down!"

"You guys must have seen the strange phenomenon back then, right? Too bad we couldn’t see it from inside the Dungeon."

...

’They actually advanced to Level 6? In other words, Iz is a Magic Saint now.’

’Listening to their adventures is really interesting.’

Ancient Giant Dragons, a King of the Holy Spirits who serves the Holy Light, a sealed evil, forbidden ancient tomes, distant and mystical realms, inescapable labyrinths...

’So this is a Tier Seven Dungeon.’

’Compared to their adventures, my life in Raine Town is as quiet as a falling autumn leaf.’

Speaking of which, it seems the main character has been ignored.

Kumironi, also sipping a small cup of wine, said, "But, compared to all that, Lu Cang is even more amazing."

"With the power of a Level 2 Mage, he killed the Tier Five King of Exotic Insects."

"And he protected everyone in Raine Town."

"Not even Iz has accomplished such a feat."

’Kumironi’s words are always so pleasant, and not just because of the sound of her voice.’

’It made Lu Cang’s ears feel warm, though of course, that might have also been because of the alcohol.’

Iz said seriously, "Well... that’s true. Even I, at Level 2, only managed to kill a Tier Four King Level Demon."

"And I can’t say I was protecting anyone either."

’Hey—’

’Isn’t that already monstrously strong?’

Lu Cang recalled how he’d only thought of running when he faced a Tier Four King Level Demon, and he suddenly felt a little ashamed.

’Oh well... what’s in the past is in the past.’

’That Demon, the King of Exotic Insects, was clearly way more badass than a Tier Four King Level.’

"Haha! Iz, and you said you were going to train him to be a Mage second only to you. Now he’s already surpassed you!" Chi Cheng threw an arm around Iz’s shoulders, laughing mockingly.

Iz sneered, "Hah. That’s only because I never ran into a Tier Five Demon when I was Level 2. Otherwise, I would’ve slaughtered it too."

Chi Cheng: "Bullshit."

...

’Dammit...’

’How did I still get drunk after taking a Hangover Prevention Potion?’

’What kind of alcohol was that?’

’It was so strong.’

’In the end, there was no escaping...’

’This group of people.’

’When it comes to getting me to drink, they never treat me like a kid.’

Lu Cang looked at the dimly lit morning sky. When was the last time he’d gotten blackout drunk?

’It was for a victory celebration, I think.’

He paid the 5 Gold Coins liquor bill.

’Heh...’

Lu Cang finally understood why the Adventurer’s Guild was run like a tavern.

’It makes an insane amount of money.’

"You’re awake?" Kumironi always appeared at the most opportune moments.

"I’m awake."

She stroked Lu Cang’s back, and the waves of dizziness gradually faded.

"Little Lu Cang."

Celia was calling him.

Lu Cang looked over.

She gestured for him to come over.

Kumironi nodded at Lu Cang. He got the hint and walked over to Celia.

"The Kingdom’s reward will be issued in a while."

"But the Gatherers are already collecting the loot. This is the itemized list."

Lu Cang took the list.

Most of the Demons yesterday were burned to death by Fire.

Even so, thanks to the Gatherers, they could still collect plenty of good materials. Especially with Level 4 Gatherers, who could perform mass restorations on the dead Demon corpses and even turn some of the waste into treasure, greatly increasing the value of the haul.

Especially since it was now Harvest Moon.

The dazzlingly long list was impossible to read through completely.

Lu Cang flipped through it. It was over a hundred pages long. The final total was listed as 265,230 Gold Coins, 52 silver, and 11 copper.

Total Demons killed: 322,501.

’Oh, the Observers helped count.’

’It’s pretty accurate.’

Lu Cang remembered that when he had just changed his class to Death Priest, he had a total of 322,355 souls.

The souls consumed to upgrade Skills were negligible; the main expenditure was the roughly 70,000 used for the Sacrifice.

Now he had a little over 250,000 souls left.

’The count is more or less correct.’

After all, they were killed by a Sea of Fire, and the battlefield was so chaotic, so a few errors in the count were understandable.

’If anything, Lu Cang was surprised it could be counted so accurately.’

"Looks fine to me."

The vast majority of the Demons killed were Low Tier Demons, with only a small number of Monarch Level ones.

The bulk of the Gold Coins from this came from the Monarch Level Demons.

Each Monarch Level Demon basically provided a profit of nearly 10,000 Gold Coins.

Just the dozen or so Monarchs combined were worth more than the three hundred thousand-plus small fry Demons.

Even if an average small fry Demon was worth 3 Silver Coins, 300,000 of them would only add up to a little over 9,000 Gold Coins.

That really was less than a single Tier Three Monarch Level.

A grand total of 260,000 Gold Coins.

’It felt a little unreal.’

This fortune, if he had to put it into perspective, was enough to buy the entire town of Raine Town, with plenty of money to spare.

"This is just the payment for the gathered materials."

Lu Cang nodded. "Mm."

"Also, my apologies, but Raine Town doesn’t have that many Gold Coins in reserve. It might take some time to pay out this sum after converting some assets. At the earliest..."

"...it should take at least three days."

"Right now, we can only pay out a maximum of 50,000 Gold Coins to you."

As she spoke, Celia handed him a Ring.

Lu Cang sent a bit of his Magic Power probing into it.

It was indeed 50,000 Gold Coins.