35 Chapter 35

There was a reason why the dry monster stone cores were actually tossed into one area. And that was simply human laziness. Grinding down a monster stone for a civilian wasn't at all an easy task especially when it came to larger more potent monster stones that came from monsters like minotaurs and the floors past Rivira. 

Although the guild repeatedly asked everyone not to just throw away used monster stone, they were just like back in my old world ignored for the most part when it came to asking or even demanding the exact proper methods of recycling and trash disposal.

But there was just one major issue that divided the discarding of a used up empty electric battery, and a dead empty monster stone

Monsters if they ate other monster stones, even empty ones could mutate and become an aberration that would become much stronger, and gain special abilities according to their monster type. And worse, become more intelligent and cruel.

And thus it was... Common for low-ranked weak monsters to sneak in and eat the dead monster stones. And likewise, some adventurers are both looking to hunt an aberrant for High Quality Excellia, and people like the Artemis Familia just want to cull the native surface monsters.

The ground around the monster stone dump wasn't marshy so Tina was able to walk without her sinking into the mud though the ground did still have a good softness to it in the area's that hadn't been worn to oblivion to the large carts pulling trash and whatnot.

"The corpse pile is just over there as well." Tina said quietly and as we passed through a path I couldn't help but swallow as Tina's words were no lie. Down a long road was a massive pit that looked to be a quarry and Tina confirmed my thoughts as she said that quarry was where the stone for the walls of Orario was mined up with the gods directions. "Then once the city was enclosed they used the quarry as a mass grave and occasionally some mages and workers throw pitch and burn the piles of bodies down a more manageable stack." Tina said quietly.

'Is this insanity what made Evilus pop up?' I thought as I swallowed down my bile at the distant sight of a pile of humanoid corpses more than thirty meters tall and the pile spreading out further and further as it reached the bottom. 

"Disgusting." I said frankly shaking my head and looking around and I frowned saying. "Where are the pallums and other rejects you said was going to be an issue?" 

Tina scoffed and looked at me with a teasing smile. "Jake, we have been walking past them all day in the marsh. They have reed snorkels and when monsters or unaware people walk by. Who aren't adventurers they will stab them and drag them into the marsh to drown in the mud." Tina said and I looked back to seeing all those singular reed patches with cat tails growing up like typical pond edge growth and I swallowed at the thought of laying in the muck for hours.

"I... You aren't that crazy are you?" I asked with some dark humor and her smile died and her green eyes turned the glowing crimson of the Blood Fury Spear.

"Jake, I choke down your above average human-sized dick every morning that goes past my collarbone... All in repayment for you giving my life worth living, is my determination any less than theirs when I gladly slaughter monster and man beside you?" She asked rhetorically.

I had. Literally nothing to say about that.

So I kept walking, and although I had the thought of fusing the corpses pile. 

That sounded fucked up even for me... And what would I even get by fusing thousands of corpses together? Its not like even if I got a 'super' corpse I could do anything like reanimate it as I certainly didn't know any necromancy.

Eventually though we reached the Monster Stone depository and as we came closer, I realized it was built inside another quarry and the massive hole in the ground was covered in endless monster stones of all sizes. Which was awesome and all... But the quarry was massive, easily a couple dozen miles wide in all directions and like a lake it sloped downwards towards the center being deeper and deeper with large monster stones towards the center.

As I took in the quarry properly I could then pick out the monsters that had called the dump home. There were the oversized armadillo-like monsters in the Hard-Armored that I could clearly see but coming out of one of the limestone caves was trio of bipedal lizard humanoids with a wooden shield and a stone like weapon.

"Lizardmen..." I grunted with a frown as I took in the monster that was only found past Rivira in the 19-24 floors of the dungeon.

Tina and I could handle Hard-Armored's with little issue now. But Lizardmen had the physical abilities of a decent level two, along with monster ferocity and loved to work in groups which made them dangerous.

And that was just the normal Lizardmen... As Tina added on. "The leader is an aberrant." She said and I looked at the Lizardman who had prominent blue scales which contrasted with the other Lizardmen who had red scales and then my lips twitched as Tina added shamelessly as she channeled her Blood Fury Spear to increase the potency of her vision. "The leader is a female as well... Do you wanna fuse her to your Infant Dragon?" She questioned with a bit of teasing.

This little troll knew I was steady person. And thus wouldn't want to tangle with a monster clearly out of the level one zone.

But as I looked at the lizardmen[woman] I realized that killing and smashing a lizardmen to death even if I used magic would give us a massive upshoot of Excellia which would be enough to pad out my stats for my first level up to Level 2.

Not to mention the Lizardmen weren't far from us, and if we started raking in the monster stones... It was inevitable for us to get their attention, so it was best if we could make an alpha strike on them!