Time to take a break

*thump*

"GHA-FUAGH...!"

Simply said, when it wanted to stop, its large head slammed into the ground and caused the creature to topple itself with a pitiful sound.

"Why are you running up and about and not laying in wait, idioooot."

Viria was not one to miss a chance like that and the next moment he was already by the creature struggling to move into a position that would at least allow for a chance of defending itself and...

*STAB* *SQUELCH*

"GHAGHAGHAGAHGAHGAHGAHGHA!"

...slammed the entire business end of his prison shiv into the mole-trap head through one of its bulbous eyes and opened up the wound even more blending the eyeball into mush and unleashing a torrent of blood spraying out everywhere as the monster's stared flailing around in pain.

*SHING*

As the chance presented itself to the bloody-black-haired man, he turned his shiv back into a proper gip and cut at the monster, opening it up and...!

*cling*

...having the blade slice through the meaty membrane and grind against a fully formed core crystal within!

"...!"

Viria's eyes shone with excitement, but he still backed off first just in case, to make sure that the monster was dead.

It was fairly easy to imagine the stone-like teeth of the mole-trap to chew through his meat and bones as if they were soft butter.

But the inside of the monster's jaws was now barely visible with the dead creature laying on its side with the few remaining drops of blood dripping into the massive puddle of its own creation.

"...I wonder..."

Viria grabbed the monster core, hiding it in his pocket instead of a hair bundle, straightened his back, squinted his eyes, and stared intently at the giant jaws.

"Boss...? A-am I allowed to approach you...?"

"No."

Lithsar stood up on trembling legs and asked looking awestruck at Viria's back, but her request was denied without a second thought.

After that, Viria loosened the bloody straps of mole-rabbit skin and grabbed one of the femurs sticking over his shoulder...

*WHAM* *crack*

"KYAAAH?!"

...and slammed it down onto the exposed teeth, causing the gold-haired woman to let out a cute-ish high pitch voice that was definitely done on purpose.

The mole-trap's jaws were supposed to be able to chomp through the bones of other mole-monsters, so the young man deduced that there is a high chance of them turning the femurs of the massive rare spawn into the trash.

Still...

[Mole-trap teeth (trash)] [Mole-trap jaw bone (trash)]

The thick femur was the clear winner of the encounter, with the jaws and teeth of the supposed predator turning into the trash while only getting slightly scratched at the point of contact.

"Huh... this is some good stuff, isn't it?"

Viria carefully examined the massive bone and nodded to himself considering whether it wouldn't be a good idea to leave that one as a secondary weapon in case he wanted the increased reach.

"Hey, you. If you cooled off, do you have some bag or sachel that I could store the materials I definitely want to take with me?"

"...eh...?"

The young man breathed out seeing that there is little to no way for him to comfortably carry every trash that he wanted without being extremely suspicious so he asked the gold-haired woman, who let out a quick gasp, shocked that he actually talked to her first.

"I'll trade you whatever's left of this guy, and I'm pretty sure there are some mole-foxes in those piles too if you're interested. Let's make a deal."

Viria added making his offer more tempting.

"N-no, it's not about that, boss! Here! Take this one! You don't have to give me anything in return!"

Lithsar gasped, hurriedly pulling out a large bag made out of fabric that has seen better days and had some stains of old blood.

"It's not much but..."

Lithsar fidgetted and looked down with her hand extended as if embarrassed over the quality of the offered good.

"Nah, it's perfect. Thanks."

Viria walked up to her and took the bag off her hand before returning to the monster corpses and carving out every single useful material that would be turned into the trash that he could use.

He did not find any more monster cores aside from the mole-trap one – of which he kept quiet unsure whether the gold-haired woman had seen or not.

"The new boss monster isn't showing up, let's go>"

Achieving the bare minimum of being satisfied with the haul, Viria motioned at Lithsar as he went towards the exit of the monster spawning ground.

"Yes, boss~!"

The young woman gasped with excitement and followed him, keeping a respectful distance of a few steps.

"SCWEEE!" "SCWEE!" "SCWEEEEE!"

"...!"

More common mole-rabbits showed up and let out angry screeches – although not all – some of the newly spawned creatures saw the plentiful food right in front of their noses and decided to get busy with them instead of pursuing the leaving humans.

The ones that did charge at Viria and Lithsar though...

"Boss, I will make sure to not kill them just in case, you just...!"

*WHOOOOOOSH*

Lithsar declared, turning around and taking a defensive stance with her spear – but the next moment Biria was right by her side, swinging the bag stained with fresh blood leaking off his materials.

*WHAM*

"Scweeegh...!" "Scwaaagh...!" Scwugh...!"

The improvised attack swooped the three charging beasts out of the air and slammed them against the ground where they released a pained voice, alive but unable to move, either concussed or incapacitated by their broken limbs.

"Did I tell you to bother with other monsters? I said we are leaving."

Viria rolled his eyes and scoffed at the stunned woman, before throwing the bag over his shoulder and continuing the walk.

"YES, BOSS~!"

...which definitely was right up her alley as she gasped and exclaimed with eyes full of adoration...

--------

After quite some time from Lithsar's departure, the group waiting at the first gate saw her return.

...following a bloodstained man with an annoyed expression like some sort of a love-struck puppy...

"Alright. So, apparently because of me trying to unwind a bit there is a risk of a floor boss spawner changing its location, or whatever. Unfortunately, that means that no one should hunt for a bit. Sorry for the inconvenience."

The young man stopped in the open gate and announced to the other prisoners after dropping the bag he was carrying, all while untying the bloody scraps of skin and fur from his left hand.