Mice dominate the dungeon

In front of the main camp of the mouse park.

More than a dozen rusted monsters were gradually carried back to the park by cows, horses, and rats.

Wearing a crown, Twitch looked at the rusted monster corpse in front of the base camp, stroking his chin and muttering to himself.

He had previously discovered through the perspective of the scout rat that adventurers who killed the Rust Monster generally did not take away the Rust Monster's corpse.

It seems that the Rust Monster is of little use to adventurers.

Just like the withering monster is to oneself, the returns are low...

But Twitch found the rust monster's corpse quite useful.

The shell covering the entire body of the Rust Monster can be broken down into gold coins, and the poison glands inside its body that secrete corrosive saliva can be broken down into holy water.

Even meat can satisfy a craving, but I wonder if it tastes good...

Twitch first brought up his own control panel and took a look.

Current Gold Coins: 6862/9000

For the past few days, Twitch has been eating voraciously, decomposing all the monster corpses stored in the park.

The number of gold coins has broken all previous records!

But we're still a bit far from reaching "9000"...

Thinking of this, Twitch immediately picked up one of the Rust Monsters, unleashed the Abyss Maw, and performed a feat of taking down one Rust Monster in three bites!

"Mmm! Crunchy! No wonder it's an insect! Its protein content must be 60 times that of beef!"

One bite after another...

[Bingeing Triggered]

[Start Decomposition]

[Holy Water +5 +10...]

[Gold Coins +15 +20...]

Current Gold Coins: 6862 → 9000/9000

When more than a dozen rust monsters disappeared into Twitch's belly, the gold coins reached the maximum capacity he could currently hold.

Now we can finally upgrade our [Headquarters]... Twitch rubbed his paws together expectantly.

Without the slightest hesitation, Tucci waved his hand.

Countless gold coins fell into the base camp behind them!

-------

"Ding-dong!!"

As the sound of metal hitting the ground rang out, the rusty monster in front of Raymond was instantly split in two!

Without any skill, relying solely on brute force, Raymond, wielding his greatsword, withstood the rust monster's chitinous shell and cleaved it in two with a single blow.

Upon seeing this, the rust monsters not far away began to flee.

Raymond flicked his wrist; clearly, the borrowed greatsword wasn't very comfortable to hold...

Seeing that the captain did not give chase, the barbarian Karen slightly bent over, lowered his center of gravity, gripped the axe with both hands, and swung it backward, spinning rapidly around himself.

Its body also burst forth at that moment, the axe blade glowing red, and it charged fiercely towards the Rust Monster!

Whirlwind Slash LV5

Wherever it went, it was like a sickle reaping wheat, wantonly harvesting the lives of the Rust Monsters!

When Karen's charge ended, the rust monsters that had been fleeing were all reduced to pieces of flesh, lying on the ground.

Seeing this, Raymond murmured, "The rust monsters on the seventh floor are basically dealt with..."

Raymond then glanced at the time on his pocket watch. Seeing that it was still early, he looked at George, whom he was protecting behind him, and said:

"Old George, which floors still have the Rust Monster lurking around?"

"There are only nine layers left in the shallow zone with the Rust Monsters," George replied truthfully.

"Alright! Since we're already here, we might as well clear out the ninth floor too!"

Raymond hasn't taken on any missions these past few days, instead spending his time with his Gray Rat squad 'pest-hunting' in the dungeon!

By this time, the barbarian Karen had already cut off all the rusty monster tentacles from the ground.

The reason for cutting off the antennae was to present them as evidence of "insect eradication" to the blacksmith Uftar.

With Raymond's order, the Gray Rat Squad headed toward the entrance to the next level.

George, who was walking at the very back, looked somewhat dazed. He hadn't expected that the Gray Rat Squad would mobilize as a whole in the past few days just to eliminate the Rust Monster.

To his surprise, Raymond invited him to temporarily join the Gray Rat Squad.

The reason is that Captain Raymond knows he often mines in the dungeon and has good information about the distribution and movements of the Rust Monsters.

So we hired him as the team's guide for a few days!

When Raymond invited him, George didn't know whether to be excited or embarrassed.

He never imagined that one day he would temporarily join the Gray Rat Squad because of his reputation for mining.

His dream when he was young was to join a mid-to-high-level adventurer party, and he would be happy to do so even if it was only temporarily.

Although my dream has come true now, the process was very different from what I had imagined!

While George was daydreaming, the Gray Rat Squad successfully entered the ninth underground level.

Without lingering, Raymond led his team straight to the western mining area.

Upon arriving at the mining area, Raymond pulled a rather heavy iron ingot from his pocket.

This was given to him by Uftal, who said it was made of several black metals fused together, which had a fatal attraction for the rust monsters.

They had previously used this black iron ingot to lure the rust monster out of the mine.

After placing the iron ingots, the Gray Rat Squad hid in the shadows and waited quietly.

A quarter of an hour...

Half an hour...

One hour...

The impatient Karen couldn't help but ask, "What's so strange?!"

Yeah! That's strange!

George, standing next to him, was equally bewildered. Logically, the Rust Monster should have been lured out long ago.

Have all the rust monsters gone deep into the mines?

George then said to Raymond, "Let's go a little deeper; perhaps the Rust Monster has gone deeper to hunt."

Raymond nodded slightly, then picked up the iron ingot and hurried deeper into the area.

They ventured deeper into the mine for a quarter of an hour.

Raymond, who was walking at the front, suddenly stopped in his tracks, and the elf Elana behind him almost bumped into him while carrying the ball.

"What's wrong?"

A puzzled Elana tilted her head, peering past Raymond's tall figure, and looked ahead.

A fork appeared ahead, with two tunnels leading to different places.

This situation is very common in mines.

But strangely, there was a wooden sign standing in front of the left-hand passage.

The text above reads in standard English:

"Construction is underway ahead! Please do not disturb!"

A huge question mark appeared in the minds of everyone in the Gray Rat Squad.

What kind of construction is going on?! Who's doing the construction?!

"Bang bang bang bang!!"

Just as the Gray Rat Squad was wondering what was going on, a sudden and violent explosion came from the left entrance of the cave.

Almost instantly.

Startled by the explosion, the Gray Rat team members instinctively raised their weapons to shield themselves.

But in the end, only the dust kicked up by the explosion blew towards them...

A moment later, the Gray Rat team members looked at each other in bewilderment.

"What's going on?" Elana stood on tiptoe and peered into the mine to the left. "Why are there still explosions? Is the Adventurers' Guild sending people to mine en masse?"

Captain Raymond responded somewhat uncertainly, "But I haven't seen any related announcements in the guild, nor have I heard any rumors about it..."

"Could it be some kind of secret operation?"

In a short time.

The Gray Rat Squad was stuck, unsure whether to advance or retreat, so they simply stood there in front of the sign, waiting.

George, who was at the back of the group, couldn't help but have an extremely absurd guess come to mind after hearing Raymond and Elana's conversation.

"Could it be them...?"