With all of the insects killed, the only thing that kept us on the 11th floor was the temptation for more loot. If you were going to beat a dungeon, I wasn’t sure if loot mattered. After all, loot automatically got shuffled down to the bottom treasure room. That meant all of the treasure would end up in my pocket anyway. At least, that’s what I had originally thought. However, a dungeon book I was reading suggested otherwise.
A Dungeon’s Lore, Treasure, Creatures, and Traps were all a manifestation of the miasma, which was essentially cursed mana. In short, Dungeons consumed mana, outputted miasma, and that went on to create everything that from creating monsters to luring trespassers with treasures. Therefore, as you got farther down, the dungeon manifests more dangerous monsters to stop you, using up more mana. If there is a shortage of mana, it will consume its own creations to create monsters to continue to obstruct you.
In fact, when it comes to protection, they would rather consume treasures first, as high-level monsters can still act as protection from future invaders. Thus, as an adventurer gets closer to defeating the boss, more treasure is consumed. The only way to prevent this is to snatch up all the treasure along the way. Then, the dungeon has no option but to consume mobs you missed or traps. In extreme cases, they can even shrink the size of the floor, just like we had seen in Terra’s dungeon. Therefore, it’s most advantageous to take as much treasure as we can acquire before reaching the bottom.
“Interesting, Master, but why the sudden lesson on dungeon treasure?” Shao asked.
“Isn’t it obvious?” I pointed to the treasure chest at the end of the hallway. “I want that!”
We had reached the end of the 11th floor, but the dungeon couldn’t just leave things be. At the end of the hallways was a treasure chest waiting to be opened up. It was actually the first genuine chest I had actually seen. Most of the dungeons I had been to in the past hid treasure like a ferret, placing a coin here or a piece of armor there. The only treasure chest I encountered was upon reaching the final treasure room. How could I not be interested in what was inside that box?
“Isn’t that box a mimic?” Lydia asked.
“Mm… that’s why I feel a spiritual energy from it, definitely a mimic.” Miki nodded.
Lydia’s Scout ability was now strong enough that she could detect life. In fact, even Sense Life wasn’t good enough, so her ability to detect life has exceeded my Sense Life. Whether it was just because she was an animalkin, or because of the level of Scout, I wasn’t sure. As for Miki, it was her Spiritualist job. She didn’t necessarily see things as alive or dead, but she could detect spiritual energy, and even a mimic wasn’t able to hide all of it from a nine-tailed fox.
“Yeah, but even so… I detect a big treasure from it! People always avoid mimics, but in my experience, don’t mimics have the biggest prizes of all?”
“Master… Mimics are very dangerous.”
“Master really is bad with temptation, isn’t he…?” The girls looked at each other helplessly while I stroked my sword.