Danmachi: Scavenger

With 26,137 valis now in his possession, Rex made his way to the Miach Familia, following the directions Hestia had given him. The shop was located off the West Main, but reaching it required navigating a few narrow backstreets. After a few minutes of walking, he stopped in front of a modest house tucked into a dark, damp corner and above the front door hung a sign bearing the Miach Familia's emblem.

'This is the place?' Rex glanced around, taking in the unassuming surroundings, then turned his attention back to the wooden double doors. The right door had a sign flipped to 'open.' 'Does this poor Familia really have the capability?' he wondered, skepticism creeping into his thoughts.

Wanting to see for himself, he knocked once before pushing the door open, the hinges creaking softly. "Anyone here?" he called out, his eyes scanning the dimly lit shop. Rows of shelves lined the walls, but most of them were empty, with only about five on display.

His gaze landed on a female Chienthrope who appeared to be in her late teens, carefully placing a flask on one of the shelves. She stood about 159 cm (5'2") and wore a tunic that fell to her thighs, with the left sleeve ending at her elbow while the right sleeve extended to her wrist. A single glove covered her right hand, and she wore a long, ankle-length skirt with her tail coming out from the back of the skirt.

She paused mid-task and glanced at him, her eyes lingering for a few seconds, as if she wasn't sure he was talking to her. "Afternoon…?" she said slowly, her tone almost questioning.

'I guess they don't get a lot of customers,' Rex thought, before speaking up. "I was recommended by a woman who sells Potato Puffs. She said your potions are cheaper, and the quality isn't worse than the Dian Cecht Familia's, so I came to check it out."

"Hestia?" she asked, her ears perking up slightly.

"Yes, that's her name," Rex nodded. 'What kind of dog is she? Golden Retriever…? No, more like a Labrador Retriever.' He wasn't a dog person, but he could recognize a few of their species. 

She stopped what she was doing and walked to the back of the shop, stepping behind the counter. "What can I get for you?" she asked, her voice calm and measured.

"A Magic Potion," Rex replied, stepping fully into the store and closing the door behind him. "Do you sell that here?" He glanced at the few potions on display on shelves again. He wasn't sure what a Magic Potion looked like, so he couldn't identify it among the assortment.

"Yes, we do," she nodded, reaching under the counter and pulling out a closed case. She set it on the counter between them and opened it, revealing rows of tubes filled with colorful liquids neatly arranged in rows and columns. "These are all the potions we sell."

"Right," Rex said, scanning the contents. "How much is the Magic Potion?"

"That would be eleven thousand and six hundred valis," she replied.

'Dian would have sold it for fifteen thousand,' Rex thought, glancing up at her. "Are you certain it's on par with the Dian Cecht Familia's—"

"It is better than the one they sell," she interrupted, her tone firm and confident.

Rex met her eyes, then asked, "Which one is it?" She pointed to a citrus-colored potion, and he picked it up. 'Was expecting the blue one to be the magic potion like it is in games, but okay.' He used his Scavenger's Inspect skill on it.

[Magic Potion: A high-quality magic potion. Drink to restore your mind. Market Value: 13,650 Valis.]

'So it won't tell me if it's better than Dian's?' Instead of just inspecting it, he decided to use Scavenger to judge its quality compared to the average Dian Cecht Magic Potion. This was done by simple thinking; 'This potion is better than the average one sold in Dian Cecht Familia story,' and Scavenger rated this thoughts to be 'high quality' so she wasn't lying. 'And they're selling it fifteen percent below the market value. This is a steal!'

The girl noticed the subtle movement of Rex's ears and quickly added, "You could buy a new kind of potion I just created." She gestured to another flask, this one filled with a greenish liquid. "A dual potion that heals you and also restores your mind."

"Right, I've heard of this," Rex said, examining the potion. "Isn't this the potion the Dian Cecht Familia's captain discovered? It's amazing how there's already a copy of it." 

The dog ears on top of her head twitched, and she looked away, clicking her tongue. Rex noticed this but chose not to comment, and asked. "How much would this cost?"

"Twenty-five thousand," she replied.

"Can I see it?" he asked, and she nodded. He picked up the potion and used Scavenger's Inspect again.

[Dual Potion: A high-quality dual potion. Drink to restore health and mind. Market Value: 50,000 Valis.]

'Damn!' Rex stared at the price. 'This potion should NOT be as expensive as a high health potion, but I guess the high market value is because of supply and demand. I mean, this potion is a new kind. However…' He placed it back on the counter. "I won't be able to buy it right now."

Twenty-five thousand was way too much. It would leave him with barely one thousand valis on hand and about eight thousand in savings. He wanted to keep his savings above ten thousand, just in case something came up.

"I could sell it to you for fifteen thousand," she said quickly, trying to coax him to buy it. "You can pay off the remaining ten thousand the next time you visit."

'What makes you think I'll be coming back here?' Rex wanted to aske, but instead, he replied, "Alright." It was a good deal, honestly, and this would give him enough time to gather the remaining ten thousand. "I'll buy it."

From his higher vantage point due to his towering height compared to the girl, he noticed her fluffy dog tail swishing happily back and forth, which was honestly… 'Cute,' he thought. Then he froze. 'I hope my tail doesn't do that…!' He didn't want his tail to start moving like some kind of dog.

'...I AM A DOG!'

"Is something wrong?" the girl asked, her lazy eyes focusing on him.

"Nah," Rex casually replied, picking up the dual potion and returning the Magic Potion to the case. "Fifteen thousand, right?" he asked, reaching into his pouch and arranging the coins on the counter between them.

"Thank you," she said, hurriedly taking the money. She had been counting it as he placed it down, so she knew it was exactly fifteen thousand.

"When would I need to pay back the ten thousand?" he asked as he took the dual potion from the counter.

"In two to three days, if possible," she replied, moving the coins into a pouch she retrieved from beneath the counter.

"Alright. And your name?" he asked.

"Naaza of Miach," she replied, introducing herself in the way most adventurers did—name and the Familia they belonged to.

"Rex of Soma," Rex introduced himself as he turned to leave. "I'll see you in about three days, then, Naaza." She nodded, and he left the store with the potion in hand. 'They really need to clean up that dusty place,' he thought, wrinkling his nose before breathing in the fresh air outside.

'Now, back to the dungeon I go.' As he put the potion into his pouch, he noticed the flask with his blue dust. 'I forgot to ask if I can sell this.' he decided to do it the next time he came here. Besides, he hasn't tested if it still has its healing properties. 'Will do that when I get hurt.'

He entered the dungeon, making his way down to the tenth floor. "As long as I don't let my guard down get ambushed like last time, I should be good down here." He mumbled while removing his cloak to put it inside his bag. It gets in the way when fighting, and only good for drip. 

"But, shit man." He sighed, "When would I get my magic to S!?" He shouted as he called up his status.

— — — — — — — — — —

[Strength] SS1020 | [Endurance] SS1019 | [Dexterity] SS1018 | [Agility] SS1019 | [Magic] G209

— — — — — — — — — —

"What is this!?" He wanted to cry. Even with the nerfed growth rate on his other stats, he was still getting more points on them compared to magic when absorbing magic stones. Yeah, he still gains excelia normally but that can't even be compared to absorbing magic stone. Not one bit. "Will I get all my stats to two-thousand before magic gets to S!?" 

That would be a waste of time. If it keeps going like this, it would take him at least a week to get S. "Wait..." He tilted his head. "One week isn't that long, right?" Only one week to get magic to S-rank? That's insane if he thought about it from the point of view of the average hunter. 

"Yeah, I'm good." He nodded, turning his attention to the imps that had heard his shout. "Now, let's get to hunting." He dropped his bag, drawing his sword.

And like that, four hours passed. During this time, he continued his hunt, only stopping to rest and eat. While hunting, he tried keeping track of the number of magic stones he'd absorbed, but like any normal human, he eventually lost count and started estimating: 'around fifty,' 'around one hundred,' and so on.

By the time five hours had passed, he had finished his four Cheesy Mashed Potato Puffs, made his way down to the 12th floor, and was 'around two hundred.' "When is the pity system going to happen?" he mumbled while placing his palm on a recently killed Silverbacks' head. "And why the fuck am I not getting any skills or magic without the pity system? Is the RNG that bad?!"

It almost reminded him of gacha games—most notably Genshin Impact. "I really want to play Genshin, bro," he sighed, absorbing the bat. "I wonder how my lovely Katheryne is doing—"

[Silver Back's Roar (Skill/Active): Roar to greatly increase your strength, endurance, and agility, while slightly reducing magic.]

"Eh?" He stared at the screen, "Ah, right." When silverbacks are gravely injured, they roar, their eyes glowing red with their fur standing up, and their strength and endurance get a boost. "And I got that skill? Nice. Nice!" 

A buff skill that increases his main physical stats is nothing to scoff at, especially with the 'greatly' in front of it. He doesn't know what exactly that entails, but if it's like dokkan, then greatly should be around 50% or even more. Though he loses stats from his magic, the 'slightly' implies that the reduction should be less than 15% or somethithe ng.

He sent the screen away as he stood. "But do I have to actually roar for the skill to activate? What does it even mean by roar? Screaming loudly?" He looked around to see if anyone was around before. "Ahem." He cleared his throat, 'Let's try it…'

While acting like he was ripping his clothes, he howled, "AWOOOOOO!"

With his howl, a hot energy suddenly rushed through body, his nape length black hair sticking as if charged with electricity, and a red ring appearing around his amber iris. He breathed, feeling the power rushing through his body, a notable physical buff compared to his last stats. 

'Ok, this is actually good.' He thought. He was about to call up his status to see the change when—

"oooOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

A ferocious roar echoed through the chamber, sending a shiver down Rex's spine. He snapped his head toward the source and felt his blood run cold.

Amber-colored scales appeared through the fog in the next room, revealing a massive creature, its powerful legs digging claws into the earth as the faint smell of sulfur drifted through the air. Standing about 150 centimeters at the shoulder, plus another 30 centimeters of neck, it rose to roughly 1.9 meters in height, and its body and tail each measured 3 meters in length, making the creature well over six meters from snout to tail—it was;

"An infant dragon…?!" His voice rang out.

This four-legged beast was part of the dragon species, said to be the most powerful type of monster in the Dungeon. Known as the Infant Dragon, it was a rare monster that only appeared on the lower eleventh and twelfth floors of the Dungeon and though it lacked wings, its muscular body was sheathed in thick amber scales. 

Considering that only four or five of these creatures roamed the Dungeon at once, it took considerable luck—or misfortune—to run into one. Infant dragons are known to annihilate entire parties of Level 1 adventurers, and since there was no 'Monster Rex' on these floors, it was safe to assume that an infant dragon was the true boss here.

Its red eyes locked onto him, and, like any sane person, he froze. As he stood there, unmoving, the dragon opened its wide maw, revealing a glowing ball of flame at the back of its throat that continued to grow. His eyes went wide, and then—

"!" He jumped to the side as it unleashed a fiery breath.

A river of flame blasted past him, incinerating the grass in its path. It slammed into the ground several meters away with a thunderous explosion, kicking up dirt and shaking the earth. Scrambling to his feet, he ran with all his might as the dragon swung its head to track him, the relentless beam of crimson fire chasing behind him, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. He dove behind a small hill, barely avoiding another blast that slammed into it, the intense flame breath vaporizing the surrounding mist.

"Ugh…" He gasped for air as he reeled to his feet. Drawing his twin swords, he peeked over the edge of the hill to see that the fire was quickly spreading through the grass in the room, with bare trees standing like charred skeletons against the blazing backdrop, their trunks crumbling as the flames consumed them. Sparks flew in all directions, and the misty air had been replaced by the acrid stench of burning vegetation.

"...!" He spotted an exit in the distance and bolted toward it without hesitation.

However escape wasn't going to be that easy.