With everything on that end settled, Leon headed over to Rose, who was still holding her position at the exit.
Unlike Jeanne, who'd had to split her attention between fighting and commanding, Rose's energy expenditure was far less severe.
At the moment, aside from Leon himself, who was obscenely energized thanks to the Demon Lord's Crest, only Rose and Persephone were still in decent shape.
As for the rest: of the two elf girls, Aura had used her magic so many times that the side effects had left her wrung out in body and mind, even though her stamina and spirit were technically still topped off. Laurier, a Level 1 Supporter who'd maintained continuous magical cover fire for the entire fight, was running on fumes and barely better off than Aura. And then there was Kureha, completely spent, and an exhausted Jeanne.
"Persephone, I'm leaving the perimeter watch to you."
As a veteran Level 3 Adventurer, Persephone might not have been in the Dungeon much these past two years, but her raw strength and deep experience spoke for themselves. With the party at its most vulnerable, putting her on guard duty was the obvious call.
As captain of Demeter Familia, Persephone understood that perfectly well.
She said nothing, just nodded and moved to the cavern's edge to take up watch.
"Rose, let's get started."
"Right!"
Leon grabbed the Supporter packs that Aura and Laurier had set aside, dropped them at his feet, then crouched down and got to work harvesting Magic Stones with practiced ease.
"These Blue Crabs aren't built that different from regular crabs. Pry along the shell seams and the Magic Stone pops right out."
He held up a Blue Crab's Magic Stone and compared it side by side with the ones from Middle Floors monsters.
"Damn. Level 3 potential Magic Stones really are something else. The size and purity are a clear step above. No wonder those big Familias make a killing just from cashing in stones at the Exchange, let alone the rarer materials and Drop Items."
He tossed the stone into his Magic Stone Pouch with deep satisfaction, then looked out across the chamber floor, piled several layers deep with monster corpses. His whole body buzzed with excitement.
"Mining stones, one and two and three and four, string 'em in a line... Pop a treasure chest, quietly make a wish..."
"..."
"..."
"Shaped just like you, drifting with the breeze, eating up my worries bite by bite..."
He hummed a tune with mangled lyrics as he cheerfully harvested Magic Stones. Anyone could see he was in the best mood of his life.
Rose watched him and smiled.
"'Pop a treasure chest, quietly make a wish'? I don't know what the original song is, but I'm guessing you changed the words."
Leon's humming cut off. Something else had caught his eye: a piercing golden light cutting through the gloom in the pile of corpses by the waterway.
"Holy shit!"
"Jackpot!"
After a second of stunned silence, Leon let out a yelp that made everyone jump.
But the moment they heard "jackpot," a phrase Leon used constantly, they all understood instantly. He'd hit the motherlode!
"A Drop Treasure Chest?"
Jeanne's expression sharpened, and she looked over.
Kureha had never seen one in person, but she'd heard the others talk about the legend of the Drop Treasure Chest.
"So this is a Drop Treasure Chest? Meaning the Familia Invitation that brought me here came from something like this?"
Jeanne considered for a moment, then explained.
"Yes. Besides Familia Invitations, Drop Treasure Chests can contain all sorts of items. Grimoires are relatively common, along with recipe scrolls, or special magic items. The Gale-Force Reading Glasses we use for studying and reading every day? Leon got those from a Drop Treasure Chest."
At the mention of the Gale-Force Reading Glasses, it clicked for Kureha.
The person who used them most wasn't actually Leon. He already had Scholar's Heart to accelerate his learning, and after several years as an Adventurer, he'd long since covered all the basics and common knowledge.
The heaviest users were Kureha herself, who'd joined the Familia recently and still had catching up to do, followed by Laurier and Jeanne, neither of whom were natural students.
That also explained why Tsubaki had noticed such a marked change in Jeanne's negotiation skills when they'd met again after several months.
After all, thirty-two times reading speed was no joke.
"Hahahaha! Finally! It's been so long!"
Leon's grin had stretched so wide it might have left his face entirely. He was laughing nonstop, slapping the treasure chest in excitement, completely lost in euphoria.
Rose cut in with a timely reminder.
"Leon, put it away for now. There's still a mountain of loot to collect. Don't waste time."
Leon snapped to attention instantly.
...
...
Two hours of intense combat, followed by over an hour of cleanup.
If he hadn't been able to feel his wealth growing with every passing second as he worked, Leon would've lost patience long ago.
But there was nothing for it. The Dungeon had thrown the kitchen sink at them. There were just too many monsters.
"Phew... now I finally get why Loki Familia always brings that many Supporters on Expeditions. If you're shorthanded for loot collection alone, who knows how long it'd take."
Leon, Rose, and the others had finished the recovery work and found a clean, open spot to rest. They sipped water and recovered their strength while chatting, loosening nerves that had been wound tight through hours of combat.
Persephone, the only person in the party with actual Lower Floors experience, offered a brief explanation in response to Leon's griping.
"It's not always this extreme. Normal exploration would never produce a Monster Party on that scale. The Dungeon just decided to roll out the red carpet for us."
"Yeah, fair point."
Thinking back to that endless tide of monsters, wave after wave that seemed to multiply no matter how many they killed, Leon turned his attention to his status panel.
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