"Hey, it looks like something is floating up."
The werewolf girl, Neze, lay by the edge of the ice island and looked at the lake's surface, where she saw something rapidly rising upward.
'Hm?'
After a brief moment of surprise, the other girls seemed to think of something, and all showed delighted expressions.
"Could it be… a drop item?"
A drop item.
That referred to a specific part of a monster's body left behind after it died in the Dungeon.
Because when monsters died, they would immediately turn to ash and be absorbed by the Dungeon, so usually the only thing left behind was a Magic Stone.
But in rare cases, the most developed part of the monster's body would drop.
For example, a Minotaur's horn, a Goblin's claw, or the shell of a Metal Blue Crab.
And the item dropped by Amphisbaena was a dragon liver.
With the combined efforts of Neze and several of the girls, the floating object was pulled up.
As the only intellectual in the Familia who wore glasses, the little Elf Celty said with certainty,
"There is no mistake. This is Amphisbaena's dragon liver!"
"That's great!"
"If we negotiate with the Dian Cecht Familia, we should be able to sell it for a pretty good price, right?"
"Uuu… this month's loan finally has hope…"
Alise was so moved that she nearly burst into tears.
To be honest, she really had considered whether she would have to use her body to repay the debts afterward!
"Yahoo!"
The red-haired girl raised the huge dragon liver high and cheered.
Lyra rubbed the exposed skin on her arms, shivered, and said,
"How about we get out of here first? The ice Rayleigh made is seriously too cold."
Once she said that, the other girls also started to feel the chill.
"Hmph hmph, honestly, you girls. Can you not be more like passionate me? This much cold, I can handle it with—achoo!"
"Kyahhh, that's so gross Alise!"
...
Having won both victory and spoils, the Astraea Familia returned fully loaded.
The group first went back to the 18th Floor to rest.
Although the 28th Floor was also a safe floor, and at first glance seemed closer, that was not actually the case.
First of all, the monsters grew stronger the farther down one went.
And according to the structure of the Dungeon, each Floor below was larger in area than the one above.
So compared to going down to the 28th Floor, returning to the 18th Floor was clearly easier, and the risks were much more controllable.
Returning to the 18th Floor—the Adventurers' paradise in the Dungeon—the group found a small lake and set up camp beside it.
By the time they had finished all that, it was already evening.
"Did you catch any fish?"
"Not at all."
"Eh? Then we can only eat rations?"
Seeing the girls grumbling in disappointment, Rayleigh smiled slightly and said, "Not necessarily."
'Hm?'
The girls all pricked up their ears.
Rayleigh said, "There is a ranch to the west of Rivira. Not only do they have livestock, they also have wine and milk."
"Really?"
"But this is inside the Dungeon."
"It must be insanely expensive!"
"The price really is much higher. Depending on the market, sometimes it can be five thousand times the surface price," Rayleigh said with the air of someone who knew the details well.
"Fi-five thousand times?!"
The girls were stunned.
They had guessed it would be expensive, but they had not imagined it would be this expensive.
"Then forget it. Ugh, let us just endure it with rations."
Seeing their disappointed looks, Rayleigh also sighed at these absurd prices.
You had to know, the Astraea Familia was absolutely a core-class Familia.
In Orario, their overall strength might not rank at the very top, but in terms of combat power they were definitely among the outstanding ones, and they even jointly handled the city's security work together with the Ganesha Familia.
And yet even a Familia like this could only show longing when faced with a luxurious meal.
Having seen a world where a single abalone dish could be fried up to over six hundred thousand, Rayleigh only felt that the spending habits between the two worlds were completely different.
"After going through a battle like that, not eating some meat just will not do. I will treat y'all, so no need to be polite."
"Hah?"
"Really?!"
Rayleigh had more than one billion valis.
Not to mention one meal—even renting out the entire Floor and turning it into a restaurant would not make much difference to him.
Even the first few digits of his balance would not change at all.
In the end, he bought an entire cow, an entire pig, and a massive salmon weighing over seventy-five kilograms.
At the same time, he also hired a retired Adventurer auntie from Rivira to cook.
For a group of twelve, this meal standard was already frighteningly extravagant.
"Mmm, this is so good. I really wish Lady Astraea could taste it too."
"Even though we all love Lady Astraea, Alise really is the Captain after all. Her bond with Lady Astraea is the deepest..."
"Hehehe, I am the same as everyone else, you know."
"Ah."
"Rayleigh-san, what are you drinking?"
Rayleigh put down the wine glass and said to the curious Celty, "It's still too early for you, Celty."
'???' Celty thought.
At that moment, Kaguya suddenly snatched the wine glass from Rayleigh's hand and drank it down in one go.
After drinking it, she even licked her lips and the corners of her mouth with her tongue.
With a satisfied expression, she praised it.
"It really is delicious."
When Rayleigh saw her finish licking her lips and then press her finger lightly against them, while her cheeks immediately turned crimson, he could not help staring.
Kaguya like this gave off an extremely suggestive feeling, radiating a unique kind of allure.
"How unfair, drinking something like this all by yourself! I like it too, you know."
"Uwah…"
'Kaguya is so bold!'
Celty looked at Kaguya, then at Rayleigh, her eyes full of shock.
'An indirect kiss—those two just indirectly kissed!'
Celty was deeply shaken.
After the celebration feast, Alise said,
"Although we defeated the Floor Boss, and our mission has already been completed, the commission still is not over. Over the next two days, we still have to gather all the materials required by the request, so I have decided to divide the party into two groups."
After the subjugation battle, Alise had realized something.
That was—they were strong.
Although she had always been confident in everyone, her earlier evaluation had still been too conservative.
They had four Zanpakutō users.
They were probably also the group with the largest number of them in all of Orario.
The Ganesha Familia only had Ardee alone. Even the Freya Familia only had Ottar.
As for the Loki Familia—she guessed they would not have more than three.
With Rayleigh joining them, the group now had exactly twelve people, so if they split into two parties, the members could be evenly distributed.
Two six-person parties, with proper composition and a Zanpakutō user accompanying each one—in the Floors before the 30th, they could practically steamroll everything.
So—Rayleigh, Ryuu, Neze, Ryana, Asta, and Iska formed one group.
Alise, Kaguya, Lyra, Maryuu, Noin, and Celty formed the other.
Originally, Maryuu, as the healer, should have been placed in Asta's group.
But Rayleigh could also use healing Kaidō, so having Maryuu join the other side was more reasonable.
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