The rare gem.

The monster that struck Ronald arrogantly assumed that Alex and Laura were incapacitated. To its surprise, the duo swiftly regained consciousness, rising to their feet. Their eyes locked onto the other monster, pierced with numerous arrows implanted in its forearms, revealing Ronald's persistent assault. A renewed determination flashed in Alex and Laura as they prepared to face the seemingly overconfident monsters once again.

Their plan proceeded as they strategized before. Not missing this opportunity to pass by, Alex and Laura rushed in towards the injured monster in front of them that Roland previously slowed down. Laura went in first to strike, but the monster defended against her at the right moment and managed to land a powerful punch on her.

It was now Alex's turn to execute the plan.

Alex took advantage of the monster's lack of focus on him and swung his great sword from behind with all the strength that he could muster.

'Cleaving strike!!' yelled Alex as he used magic to reinforce his muscles.

With a huge curvy swing, he slashed the monster's belly by cutting through half of it.

The monster lost consciousness instantly and fell to the ground with a thud.

It was still alive but rendered immobile as the core of its balance was struck down.

'Precision Pierce!' chanted Laura, as she focused her strength on her rapier and aimed at the weak spot on the monster's head. She instantly lunged her sword into the scaly head of the monster. It pierced through the monster's defense and hit the critical spot on the brain. The monster died on the spot.

As soon as it died, the body of the monster started to disappear into glimmering dust particles. Then they gradually condensed together to form a spherical ball-shaped dust accumulation. A dark blue color emanated as a Sapphire elemental gem emerged. It was the same kind that Voilus had in his staff previously. But this gem was smaller in size.

Laura without thinking further, grabbed the gem and bolted out of the place to escape.

She signaled to Ronald that their plan succeeded. Ronald was acting as if he is unconscious in front of the monster to fool it. As soon as he saw Laura's signal he fired a quick arrow at the monster's feet and left the spot immediately. The three of them ran as if their life depended on it. It was because none of them had any more strength left to quarrel against the remaining monster. Within a moment, three of them executed the escape plan impeccably, leaving the lone monster hindered by the arrows.

Before Viru ordered Voilus to send two of his soldiers:

Viru asked Albus, what would happen if the evolved monsters under him died inside the dungeon.

Albus explained that the sentient soul of the monster will be preserved by the core. It would take weeks for the monster to be created again using the core's power. This process will involve combing a certain number of unevolved monster bodies depending on the rarity of the dead monster. A monster like the ones under Voilus will require five to six basic unevolved monsters to regenerate the body of the dead evolved monster.

'Woah, that's a huge price to pay. I don't care much about sacrificing unevolved monsters, but the time required for the process is simply too much.'

Said Viru.

He quickly asked Albus for a way to avoid this problem.

'This huge recreation time can be neglected if an item that is as equally rare as the monster was placed as the drop item. When such an item is placed as the 'drop item', at times when the monster dies, this rare item will drop instead of the monster's rare body. The body of the monster will be taken back and preserved. By doing this, the monster can be resurrected using the core within a couple of days. This was because the recreation of such rare monster bodies took enormous effort by combining basic monsters. With the actual origanl body at hand, this effort need not be required. The original body already has all the data stored in it and will take just a few days to reinstall the soul and heal the injuries.'

Explained Albus.

Now Viru had to come up with a rare item that would be worthy enough to replace the monster's body.

'Do you think the Sapphire elemental gem from our crystal abyss is enough?'

Questioned Virus.

'Yes'

Confirmed Albus.

Viru immediately contacted the Crystal Abyss Guardian - Aslan.

'Aslan, order your entire settlement to immediately start digging the mine for the elemental gem. Make it quick, I need one in half an hour's time.'

'As you wish Viru Sama.'

Alan received his order and directly ordered his entire settlement to drop whatever they were working on and ordered them to go inside the Abyss and find the elemental gem.

The rhino warriors took their stone pickaxes and marched into the Crystal Abyss.

20 minutes flew by as the battle between the evolved monsters and the adventurers began.

A rhino soldier finally showed up with a pea-sized sapphire gem in her hand. Viru doubted if this size was satisfactory enough to serve as a substitute.

Albus confirmed that the size of the gem was more than enough.

'Are my evolved monsters really that worthless or is it this gem, that's incredibly valuable?'

Questioned Viru aloud as he saw the pea-sized gem. The gem that Viru previously sacrificed was atleast thrice this size.

After some thought and discussion with Albus and his subordinates, Viru finally realized how valuable this gem actually is. He made the entire settlement of rhino warriors search the Abyss for 20 long minutes to just find one of this size.

Without further thought,

'Albus, add this gem as the drop item for the evolved kroken monster.'

Said Viru.

The gem disappeared the next second and was registered as the drop item for the monster.

Back at the forest domain:

The adventures finally managed to put a decent distance between them and the monster. They sat under a tree, breathing heavily due to the exhaustion caused by fleeing. All three of them were severely injured in the battle. It was already an astonishing feat for them to have killed an evolved monster while battling against two of them at the same time.

'Laura, what was the item dropped by that monster.' asked Alex as he didn't notice back then.

Laura took the gem out and placed it on her palm.

The gem glowed as Sapphire hues formed around it.

'Is it really an elemental gem?' asked Roland with shining eyes pointed at the gem.

'It is indeed an elemental gem.' confirmed Alex as he already had experience examining such rare gems.