"Gyaaaahhhh!"
The Jewel Beast screamed its death cry as it was split clean in half, dissolving into nothingness.
Behind it lay a vivid blue gemstone roughly three meters in diameter.
A kind drop item, already mounted on a pedestal so it wouldn't roll away.
Taking a look with[Divine Eye], I found it to be a Huge Turquoise.
It wasn't just a mere gemstone—it contained a considerable amount of magical power as well.
Honestly, it was so big that handling it was going to be a pain.
I had no choice but to toss it into[Spatial Storage].
I had no idea what it was worth—a layman like me couldn't possibly know—but it probably couldn't be assigned a price tag.
With the source of it all, the Jewel Beast, now defeated, the blue smoke gradually thinned out.
Well then, I'd better head back to the adventurers and pretend to have passed out.
◇◇◇
"The blue smoke has stopped, you say! My knight order must have handled things just as planned. Good—all that's left is to wait for the gemstone to arrive."
Count Douglas had been on standby in the town at the foot of the mountain.
He received a quick report from the local mining workers he'd posted to watch the entrance, and then waited for the good news he knew was coming. But the knights showed no sign of returning.
Just as he was about to send the knights he'd kept around him to go check, he spotted a group of adventurers heading back.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?"
Count Douglas called out to the group of adventurers who looked ready to leave.
The adventurers all turned to look at the Count, but they were so utterly exhausted that they didn't particularly react.
The young adventurer stepped forward before the Count.
"With all due respect, Lord Count, after we adventurers fell so shamefully,
brave
knights
of
the order must have pushed deeper inside."
"Have you not seen any sign of my knights?"
"No. When we came to, not a single member of the knight order was to be found, so we returned huddled together to recover our strength."
In truth, the adventurers had long since recovered, but they had all silently agreed to put on a little act of looking exhausted.
"Useless adventurers, the lot of you! Fine, I shall go and retrieve them myself. Don't expect a single coin of reward!"
Count Douglas swayed his massive frame as he led his retainers toward the mine.
◇◇◇
"Hey—hey, wake up! Open your eyes!"
Count Douglas and his party discovered a knight collapsed a short distance past the mine's middle layer.
Unfortunately, the man had already died, drained of far too much of his life force.
A little further on, they found yet another knight's corpse.
"Damn it all—we're going all the way to the end!"
Every knight they passed along the path leading deeper had been left for dead. None of them had survived.
Could it be... a total annihilation?
But if that were the case, the smoke should have stopped by now.
It was because the Grandel Jewel Trading Company had desired a colossal gemstone and deliberately left the Jewel Beast in the deepest reaches of the mine.
Now that he knew the truth, Count Douglas pressed deeper with a growing sense of unease, determined to see for himself.
"Sir Commander! Impossible… he's dead…"
Past the corpses of countless knights, the last one he found was the commander himself—the strongest knight in the order—lying dead with the Beast Slayer still clutched in his hands.
He had hoped that with the commander's skill and the Beast Slayer, they might be able to slay the Jewel Beast, even if it had grown somewhat stronger.
To make sure they could reach that point, he had mustered a massive number of adventurers.
Yet there were no signs of any struggle.
"The Jewel Beast should be right here… but it's gone! What in the world is going on?!"
Douglas roared, but no one could give him an answer.
They had reached the deepest chamber, but all that lay about were scattered ore deposits.
There was no trace of the gemstone beast, which should have grown excessively powerful by now, nor any colossal gemstone of the kind the trading company had desired.
◇◇◇◇◇◇
Skills: [Reverse] [Divine Eye] [Sword God] [Fist God] [Spear God] [Scorching Magic] [Frost Magic] [Clear Gale Magic] [Earth-Iron Magic] [Sacred Magic] [Dark Magic] [Space-Time Magic] [Thunder God Sword] [Phantom Gentleman] [Ninja Master] [Truth Seeker] [Monstrous Strength] [Idaten] [Pain Mitigation] [Complete Status Ailment Resistance] [Dark Spirit's Protection] [Hyper Intuition] [Heaven's Gate] [Abyssal Contractor] [Magic Hand] [Treasure Search] [Seduction] [Incitement] [Eloquence] [Fortune] [Growth Speed ×10] [Growth Limit Breakthrough]
Rank: Orichalcum
Thank you for reading!