New addiction

Throughout the entire night it was always one mole-rabbit, and Viria always killed it shortly after it showed up at the gate, so the young man was convinced that the ratio at which the creatures spawned wasn't that great and was supposed to build up through the night, but apparently, that assumption was wrong.

*click*

*WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM*

Still, Viria got the body and shut the gate before the beasts managed to charge into it, and blocked the small hatch right in their snouts.

"..."

Already cautious about someone walking in on him, the young man hurriedly cut open the creature's stomach and put his hand in to rip open its guts and check for the monster's core.

The average ratio was supposed to be one in ten, but if that was correct, then Viria was already missing five monster cores with only two in his possession.

"Oh...?!"

With the [mole-rabit intestines (material)] sprawled in front of him, Viria gasped in excitement seeing a murky-dark red crystal shard sticking out from its fleshy protective layer.

It was like gambling, the kick one got from hitting the jackpot was all that was needed to drive a person to try their luck again and again.

"What a beauty~"

Viria dug out the monster core with his left hand and raised it up to check how it shines in the light of the lantern...

"Eh...?"

"Huh.. wh-who is that...?"

"Umm..."

"...?!"

All of a sudden, the young man heard voices behind his back and immediately clenched his hand on the monster core to hide it, while rapidly turning around and facing the potential threat with his prison shiv in a backward grip, ready to strike at the opponent at any time.

"HIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

"KYAAAAAH!"

"WE'RE SORRY!"

"...?"

But once he was facing whatever surprised him, it turned out to be a trio of kids that barely qualified as teenagers that got so terrified at the sight of him, that they turned right around and ran away in tears.

"...what are children like that doing in the prison...? Ah... right... Some unjustly sentenced villagers ask the warden to bring in their families... that must be it..."

Viria mumbled to himself before realizing and answering his own question with a nod.

"Really timid kids, though... I know I had my soul artifact out, but the first floor is supposed to ha-aaa-ave only innocent people."

The tired young man tilted his head, yawning while carefully hiding the third monster crystal within his clothes.

"I feel like I am close to striking it big, but maybe I should end for the time being... It gets harder and harder to fo-ooo-cus..."

He thought out loud, yawning again.

"That said... Materials from monsters can be sold, right... but... how am I supposed to transport all of this...?"

Viria furrowed his brows and glanced at the pile of mole-rabbit meat next to the pile of mole-rabbit skin with fur, and the pile of whole mole-rabbit bodies with their guts ripped out.

The guts themselves were taking quite a sizable amount of space on another pile, right next to a much smaller stack of mole-rabbit bones (trash) ready to be used to restore the durability of Viria's soul artifact.

Everything was separated in such a way mostly because, at the time of having a stack of bones reaching almost to his waist, Viria lost the drive to dismantle the corpses and just settled on gutting them out and checking for monster cores.

*crack*

"...!"

This time the young man was more cautious and actually heard the sound of approaching footsteps and recalled his soul artifact before the person showed up, as Viria thought if a guard would show up, it would be better to look as non-threatening as possible.

The person that showed up turned out to be Bossac – and he actually had the same kids that ran away a moment earlier tagging on behind him, all three looking pitifully scared.

"Whoa...!"

Once they approached and Bossac saw all the piles and Viria himself, the helpful man let out a shocked voice and shook his head with a surprised expression.

"You certainly didn't like your shack, did you, kid?"

Bossac gulped down his saliva and waved his hand in the direction of the piles.

"What can I say...? I am not so in touch with nature."

"Hiii....!"

Viria grinned, satisfied with his own joke about the single blanket separating him from the ground – but it somehow managed to get one of the children to let out a terrified cry and cling to Bossac's back.

"...did I say something wrong...?"

The young man furrowed his brows and looked at Bossac after glancing at the scaredy-cat kid.

"No. Not at all, but considering your... current looks... well... it's not odd that the children were shouting about a killer from the third floor showing up here."

Bossac shook his head and raised his hand before hesitating and shrugging his shoulders with an apologetic expression.

"A killer from the third.. ooohhh... I think I see what it is about..."

Viria blinked a few times, taken aback by the statement, but once he lowered his head and had a proper look at himself, he realized what was wrong.

From head to toe, the young man was almost completely doused in the blood of the mole-rabbits to the point of looking like some murderous vengeful spirit.

Looking like that, no matter how friendly a person's smile could be, any sort of expression would instantly become terrifying to look at.

"Umm... I promise that this is all from the monsters... well.. some of it is my own, but not much."

Viria breathed out and awkwardly rubbed the back of his head in the most non-threatening pose that he could think of.

The three children all look at each other and stopped hiding behind the guard, still huddling together and looking at Viria cautiously, but without crying in fear, at least.

"You're saying you are wounded?"

Bossac straightened his back and approached him without hesitation.

"Well... I was hunting those with my trash grade artifact... You expected another outcome...?"

"...oh... right..."

Viria smirked and shrugged his shoulders, making Bossac gasp softly at something that should be obvious.

Without saying another word, the guard reached out his hand and had a vine appear out of thin air and climb up his arm.