Chapter 30
Just as I expected and knew beforehand. The food and just everything in general down here in Rivira was ruinously expensive which made me, and Bell dumbfounded at the prices until Riveria patiently explained how the pseudo guild that was run by the strongest adventures down here in Rivira would only pay forty percent of the value of any monster stones sold to them. Which inflated the prices down here as people tried to make up for the losses in a vicious cycle.
With the fake guild down here taking the monster stones to the surface, well to say the least it allowed them to make a killing by selling all those monster stones to the Guild at full price.
Now as for why adventures didn't just take the stones up to the surface. Well, any number of reasons but most boil down to caravans taking almost a day or two to get down to Rivira safely and plenty can happen by then so people will need to stock up on new potion weapons or get their weapons repaired otherwise they would be stuck down here without such supplies and tools to make it back up to the surface.
"Gods a simple dinner of just potatoes and some chicken costs more than a full platter from the Hostess of Fertility..." Bell muttered as she held her head and shook in place making me remember how she and the Hestia Familia didn't really have a strong income yet as she hadn't gotten with Lili and exploited her cheats at their best speed.
I consoled the glum rabbit by patting her white-haired head making her make an 'umu' noise as she looked at me in surprise as I rolled my eyes. "Bell we literally dealt with hordes of aberrant monsters, so we have picked up weeks of income due to the others not thinking to bring a bag to pick up the monster stones," I said dryly as I pointedly looked at the scantily clad amazon ladies who shrugged.
Well, I planned on selling some of the monster stones at least for a bit of cash. But for the rest, I needed to make mana crystals so I could make Bell a better spell caster as well as making more magical weapons and artifacts.
"So now that the tunnel is built, now what do we do?" Tiona asked before she continued. "Wait Jake, can I and my sister actually get to fight one of those bosses down here? I bet that will be so much fun!" She asked excitedly and Ais perked up at the mention of fighting a boss which had my head tilt to the side as I hummed in thought as I looked around the massive floor of the Eighteenth floor and knew we would have plenty of space basically.
"Riveria, you ok with that?" I asked the mother of the Loki Familia and the elvish woman sighed before nodding with a wry smile.
"Very well, I myself am getting a bit tired but we can deal with those bosses you mentioned without too much issue." She said confidently and it was most definitely true as my Terraria bosses were real living monsters with anatomically correct bodies so when a level 6 or even 5 nukes them with powerful magic they just die instantly.
Well, these low-level bosses do. When something like the Wall of Flesh or other hard-mode bosses come to the fore the whole level advantage, they have will get shot out the window.
"Just remember to let me and Bell stab the monsters before you blow them up, Riveria... Otherwise, we get no goodie bags and you don't want to make Bell cry do you?" I asked holding Bell in front of me and as Bell's soft red eyes looked up at Riveria through her white hair I saw Riveria clutch her chest in sympathetic pain at the pure adorableness that was Bell pouting.
Riveria silently nodded but I heard her mutter as she walked away from the group to get a good position for any magic she was going to cast. "That girl reminds me of Ais when she was younger and acting cute on purpose... She is dangerous."
Ais just tilted her head to the side as she could obviously hear Riveria she asked Tione and Tiona. "Did I use to act cute on purpose?" As she said that her head tilted to the side a bit with her blond hair catching in the wind making the amazons face palm before shrugging.
"Alright! Let's get this going before we end up comparing who is cuter in Bell or Ais." I joked making Bell squeak and look at Ais in mortification, but Ais didn't really care as people had been comparing and harping about her looks for years.
I then took the king slime crown out of my inventory as I most certainly wasn't going to leave such an item outside of my inventory even if I was the only person who could actually use it and summon the monsters. Who knows if some god or goddess was capable of walking the line of using their arcanum and forcing a way to summon the boss attached to it?
Using the King Slime went just fine as the massive slime grew up in a nice clearing, we found in the woods which allowed Bell to get a good few stabs and jabs with the tungsten shortsword I made her before she dashed out of the way as the slime attempted to squish her and me at the same time as the Loki adventure's gleefully tore through the monster with little issues.
"Stand aside," Riveria called and I grabbed Bell as I zipped away with the help of my grappling hook latching onto a tree on the other side of the field as Riveria began chanting loudly.
"The flame will soon be released. Creeping war, unavoidable destruction. The horn of battle sounds aloud, and the cruelty of conflict envelops all. Come, crimson flames, the ruthless inferno. You are the avatar of hellfire. Sweep completely, bring a close to the great war. Burn them through, Sword of Surtr - my name is Alf!" Her voice rose at the end as a large magical glyph formed in the air above the slime that froze it looked up and stopped chasing me as the bit of intelligence within it felt the powerful mana inside the magical glyph, but its frozen state didn't matter as from the magical glyph came a deluge of white-hot flames that burnt away the King Slime into nothingness.
As we all received goodie bags from the king slime, we all came together to open them.
"Haha, you Loki girls must be fated with that item haha!" I couldn't help but burst into laughter seeing how Tione and Riveria both got the slime launcher gun that would melt normal clothes and to say nothing of how Riveria's face twisted in disgust at the sight of it even Tione looked angry at the drop she got.
But both Tiona and Ais got slime hooks whereas surprisingly Bell got the slime summon staff that would actually help her fight somehow.
Was that a new addition in the latest version of Terraria or is it just because of how the item so closely fit the slime theme? I couldn't help but ponder.
The best part about seeing Riveria with the slime gun... Was how even with her level 6 strength even if she wasn't focused on that stat. She had no way of shattering or otherwise breaking it within her hands despite how her hands flexed and attempted to subtly break it.
"Uhm I can get rid of it?" I offered holding a handout to her and Tione. And thus, the elvish princess quickly pushed it into my hands, but Tione hesitated oddly.
"Tione... Give Jake the slime gun." Riveria all but growled as she had a light blush at the memory of her clothes being melted off her.
"Ahem, I need to borrow it for an experiment Haha... I am going to go see the captain good luck guys!" Tione yelled running off with the slime gun as I slowly lowered my hand.
"I am not responsible for whatever someone does with my weapons or magical tools," I said quickly as I covered my face shaking my head at the thought of the ornery amazon running back to the surface and literally melting off Finn's clothes.
"It's ok Jake, I don't believe you are a pervert or anything," Ais said as though to console me but her deadpan delivery made me think she was being sarcastic...
I just threw up my hands as I called this dungeon excursion a success even if the Loki Familia was still filled with weirdos. "Screw it. Bell let's go home." I said taking her into one of my arms as the Loki executives looked at me in surprise at my action of grabbing Bell to me. "Bye guys, see ya later," I said to Riveria, Ais, and Tiona as I pulled out my magic mirror I wish I could have seen their faces as me, and Bell literally just teleported out of the dungeon in front of their faces.
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