As Adama cut down a particularly fierce looking kobold, he reflected that he might have lingered on the 7th floor a bit too long.
He had stayed there because he could still be pressured by the hordes of Killer Ants that he summoned through his fishing tactics, as he was now calling them. Throw some chum in the water and wait for a school of fish to come waltzing by. Throw a net in the water and profit. Just for him, that net was filled with swords and death.
That worked just fine when the primary foot soldiers on a floor were Killer Ants, and when he didn’t have a supporter behind him. But the 8th and 9th floors contained a bit more variety, with strengthened versions of the monsters from the 1st through 7th prowling the hallways. And, simply speaking, he totally outclassed them. When it was mostly just two or three on one combat, he could cut through them in his sleep.
The fact that they weren’t primarily Killer Ants didn’t prohibit him from using his fishing tactics, though. He could always buy lures to supplement his half-dead Killer Ants. What really stopped him was his partner.
Lilli proved herself to be a very adroit supporter, he couldn’t deny that. Skilled hands stripped monster corpses of magic stones in no time whatsoever. Since he didn’t need to carry magic stones, he could move faster. Since he didn’t need to take the time to do the harvesting, he could fight without ceasing. With her help, they practically waltzed through the 8th and 9th floors, dispatching anything in their way. Even without fishing, he still killed a truly shocking number of enemies, thanks to her help and the increased density of monsters on this floor.
The only wrinkle in all of this is that it was no challenge.
It certainly would have been, had he been able to whip up a frenzy of these creatures and fight them all at once. But he had only done that on the 7th floor because he was confident that he could make a fighting retreat if he were pressured too much. But could he do that with Lilli in tow?
Probably not. The slightest slip would see her trampled by a stampede of monsters. He didn’t want to see that happen, both for the sake of his own conscience and because Hestia would be deeply distraught if that happened. She quickly got attached to the strays that she brought in, apparently.
The only obvious solution was to go to the 10th, or even the 11th floor, then, so he could get more serious exercise. But he wasn’t sure if Lilli was prepared for that, so he resigned himself to a slow day, today. Once they got to know each other a bit more, they could push the boundaries of what they were both capable of. If there was one thing he was happy about, though, it was the money that they were making.
Since he wasn’t fighting large numbers of monsters at once, it was even easier to kill them faster, since they didn’t have brethren to back them up or keep him defensive. And since he wasn’t as seriously pressured, he didn’t need to take as many breaks or use stamina recovery potions. He probably could have spent days wandering around the 9th floor, mechanically chopping through any unfortunates who got in his way, Lilli following him along and handling the dirty work. That meant that the total number of monsters he killed was extremely high, even more so than it would have been if he were fishing. That was over a much more drawn-out period, however, so he was still confident that his growth would suffer, because Predator was time sensitive. His wallet, on the other hand, would be sitting pretty.
He grumbled a bit at these thoughts internally, allowing his mind to wander a bit as he and Lilli tore up the 9th floor, fast walking from room to room in their endless campaign against its denizens. The debt from the Hearthblade and the need to buy a house had gotten him in an overly materialistic mindset. He would have to look for more opportunities to further hone his skills, separate from making money, to counterbalance that. For today, he would have to be content with showing Lilli the ropes and making a few extra vals.
Just as he was thinking that, he caught a glimpse of his intrepid supporter out of the corner of his eye. She hadn’t been keeping up with him as well in the last hour or so, and she was currently harvesting the corpse of a monster that he had killed 5 minutes ago. He had already moved on and killed several others, but the reason for her slowing down was clear to see. Her face and hair were matted with sweat and her breaths were coming in ragged pants. Her hands were shaking with exhaustion as she processed a goblin corpse, making her take even longer than she would have usually. When she saw that he had stopped moving, the relief on her face was like the sun on a cloudy day, and she finished her work on the remaining corpses before catching her breath.
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He waited, slightly impatiently, for her to finish her break, but when she finally spoke her words surprised him:
“Are we finishing up for the day?”
Finishing up? How long had they been down here? Truth be told, Adama had sort of zoned out for much of the time, but upon reflection he figured that they couldn’t have been down there for longer than five-and-a-half hours. It was probably only just turning 3:00 on the surface, and he said as much to his partner.
“3 is too early to turn in. I’ve barely just gotten warm. We can keep going for another 3 or 4 hours at least.”
She looked at him for a moment, shocked, before taking a deep breath and straightening up:
“Lilli will do her best to keep up with Mr. Tim!”
“That’s the spirit.”
They really only kept going for another two-and-a-half hours or so. By the end, Lilli was heaving like the bellows from the pace of their work, so Tim had pity on her and called the day a little earlier than he normally would have. He wanted her well rested for tomorrow, too.
Even with the slightly shorter day, he had earned a king’s ransom. Daily earnings from solo adventuring on the 7th floor typically gave him anywhere between 20-40K vals, depending on how successful he was and how many drop items he got. Today, he and Lilli had earned 55K in total. Most of it came from the fact that Lilli allowed him to be more productive and that the stones of the 9th floor monsters sold for more.
He still owed Lilli her share, though, and he doled out a cool 16,500 vals, or 30% of their total earnings, and plunked it down in front of her. She was sitting on one of the couches in the Guild lobby, and he put her sack of cash down on the coffee table in front of her. Her eyes were as large as dinner plates as she opened the sack and beheld the bounty within. Seemingly involuntarily, she let out a hoarse whisper:
“What’s this?”
“…Your share of the money.” He remarked, puzzled, “We earned 55,000, 30% of that is 16,500. That’s how much is in that sack. You can count it if you like.”
As she alternated between staring into the sack and staring at Tim in increasing fervor and disbelief, he remembered seeing her face when he had told her that he would exchange their earnings. She had seemed almost resigned and vaguely cynical when he went to do it himself. He had done so because he didn’t fully trust her, but it occurred to him now that she didn’t really trust him either. Had she thought that he would steal from her?
He really hadn’t. Even he had his standards and taking from the weak had never been something he looked kindly on. Even putting aside the morals of it, any warrior worth their salt ought to be able to earn what they needed with their own strength, so far as he was concerned. Not because they were good at picking out the fattest and slowest sheep.
Eventually, the prum girl got over her astonishment and managed to say something:
“If we really did get 55,000, that’s more than twice what a full party of Level 1 adventurers earn on a daily basis!”
“Hmmm, is that so?”
He wasn’t really paying attention to what she was saying, caught up as he was in his plans. He would need to improve Lilli’s stamina before they really started adventuring in earnest. He would have to do some moonlighting to get a real challenge. He would put going down to the tenth floor together off for now until she built up enough strength to keep up with him on the 9th. She wouldn’t be able to get a status update until she was released from Soma Familia, a financial burden that she had elected to shoulder independently. But-
“Hello? Mr. Tim?”
He noticed that Lilli had been waving at him and trying to get his attention. With a start, he nodded and listened to what she had to say:
“Mistress Hestia might be getting hungry soon. We can go buy dinner for her and surprise her if we move quickly enough.”
Normally Hestia took care of the meals, but she was right. They were early enough that they could take care of that instead and surprise her. She was used to Adama coming home much later, after all. He gave Lilli a thin smile as she beamed at him, her youth shining forth in her enthusiasm.
“Not a half bad idea. Let’s go quick.”
Hestia was pleasantly surprised when they interrupted her reading with a fun dinner of fried potatoes and fish. Their little basement room was warm that night, with Hestia and Lilli doing most of the talking and laughing and Tim watching calmly by, though always with a small smile.
The only fly in this little ointment was when Hestia updated his status. Tim had enjoyed a huge boost in growth after receiving his sword and pushing himself against the hordes, growing at an average rate of around 40 points per stat per day. This was supposedly rather impressive, but that seemed to be over now, as he only slotted in around 12 points per stat today. Hestia assured him that that was still impressive, especially considering that his stats were already quite high, but that did little to change his mood.
The moment the girls were off to dreamland, he slipped out.
The Sage was going hunting.