Chapter 59 (2/2)

“But still…”

“Yes, I didn’t know it would be this bad as well. They say it’s the exam for graduating, but there must be a wide range for quality among the graduates.”

A complaining look appeared on Loren’s face for a while, but he eventually clicked his tongue and patted Lapis, who was still hugging him, on the head.

He meant that it was okay for her to let go now, but Lapis didn’t let go of his waist.

“Hey, Lapis?”

“Loren, your waist is a lot thinner than I thought.”

“Don’t worry, it’s still thicker than yours. Anyways, so this dungeon is school property because of that too?”

When Loren asked, Lapis let go of his waist with a questioning look on her face.

“The dungeon sp.a.w.ned the goblins, right?”

“Yes, since there isn’t anything that would let monsters in from the outside.”

“So that means those weak looking goblins were sp.a.w.ned by the dungeon for the sake of the exam, right?”

At Loren’s words, Lapis turned towards Ain and the other students.

Ain, who still wasn’t going on the offensive, was still dealing with two goblins, and Cloud was still giving light cuts to the goblin he was against as well.

The goblin that Al and Feim were trying to kill was still struggling under Feim’s foot due to Al’s accuracy being so bad, and Feim was trying to stick another dart into its back.

“Loren, it’s true that the strength of the monsters change depending on the scale of the dungeon, but dungeons don’t sp.a.w.n weakened monsters on purpose, you know?”

“But…”

“Think about it. If you were to sp.a.w.n weakened monsters, why not just sp.a.w.n ordinary monsters that are just that weak. Why would you go through the trouble of sp.a.w.ning them in a weakened state?”

“Don’t ask me something I can’t answer.”

Loren gave up, knowing that there was no way he would know something Lapis didn’t.

Lapis folded her arms in front of her chest and frowned at Ain and the others, who were still fighting.

“Since you say that the monsters are weakened, they must be weakened. Then the problem is what is causing it.”

Just in case, Loren turned his focus to Shayna and asked her if it was her doing.

He thought maybe her energy drain weakened the goblins, but Shayna told him it wasn’t her.

“I don’t believe the dungeon would do something inefficient like sp.a.w.ning monsters in a weakened state. Then there would be two possibilities.”

“What’s the first one?”

“They were somehow weakened after they were sp.a.w.ned.”

“Second one?”

“The possibility that the sp.a.w.n system is malfunctioning.”

“So, you don’t know which one the cause is?”

“There’s not enough information.”

Loren sighed, because either way, it meant that there was something going on in the dungeon.

He’d rather have had another one of Shayna’s pranks as the cause, than have trouble come his way, but that wasn’t a possibility anymore since he had already asked her.

“I only smell trouble…”

“I would want to head back as well if it wasn’t for a part of my body being down here…but then that would mean that on top of failing the job, we would have to pay a penalty, so that’s a problem as well.”

“Just out of curiosity, how much would the penalty be?”

“Five times the reward. Can you pay that Loren?”

“You know what my wallet is like right now, right?”

Of course, there was no way Loren could pay the penalty with what he had in his wallet.

He didn’t know what disasters would await him if he failed to pay the penalty, but he knew that it wouldn’t be something to look forward to.

“I won’t blame you if you decide to leave on your own, you know?”

Loren guessed that Lapis would be able to pay the penalty without difficulty.

Lapis gave him a troubled laugh, as if that were true.

“Yeah, right. We accepted this job because I wanted to in the first place.”

“If you say so.”

After a countless number of attempts, Al’s mace finally hit the goblin’s head.

The goblin stopped moving, as the blow finally killed it.

Monsters sp.a.w.ned by the dungeon would be absorbed by it, leaving behind a part of its body as material, but nothing was left behind when the goblin disappeared.

“Huh? Why?”

“Interesting. I guess there are times when they don’t leave behind materials.”

Al looked around, while Feim seemed interested at the unexpected result.

Behind them, Cloud finally killed the goblin he was fighting and ran towards Ain, who was still holding off two of them.

The goblin that Cloud killed sank into the ground and disappeared, but nothing was left behind yet again.