Danmachi: Scavenger

Today, Rex decided he would have nothing to do with the Dungeon and give himself a day off—a day he intended to enjoy. After leaving Zanis to deal with the kitchen, he quickly returned to his room to change into a simple long-sleeve gray shirt, black pants with his belt, which held two pouches filled with valis, and black shoes. Once dressed, he left Cupidinem behind, stepping out into the bustling streets of Orario.

But he hadn't thought this through. Now, walking through the market, he found himself extremely confused about what to do. 'Hmm...' He looked around, taking in the sights and sounds of the lively marketplace. 'Do I just... walk around?'

He was genuinely at a loss. 'I guess I could go shopping for Dungeon equipment?' He quickly dismissed the idea. 

Today, he didn't want anything to do with the dungeon. Besides, he'd be changing his gear again once he hit level three, so there was no point in wasting time shopping for equipment now. 

'Or I could go to the library...' But he wasn't in the mood to read. 'I guess I can go on a food tour—hmm?'

His train of thought was interrupted when a flash of red hair caught his attention. 'Is that Rose?' It was indeed her. She was not too far away and was talking to a woman he didn't know, but a quick look at her stats showed she was a level 2 adventure. 'Probably one of the Rose' advisees.'

Usually, Rose was in a perfectly pressed Guild uniform, but today she wore a dark linen blouse, fitted to her frame, with a slight V-neck and a few buttons running down the front. They were tucked into her dark trousers that were cinched to her waist by a leather belt adorned with small pouches, and the trousers were tucked into a calf-high leather boots. She looked... nice.

'I guess it's her day off,' Rex thought. 

She normally worked from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., so seeing her out and about now could only mean one of two things: either it was her day off, or she had an evening or night shift. 

'If I were brave, I'd just go up to her and start a conversation,' But instead, he started walking the other way. He knew how to set boundaries. 

Their work relationship didn't translate to an out-of-work friendship—a lesson he'd learned the hard way back on Earth. He'd tried talking to a girl he was good friends with at work outside of work, and she'd looked at him like he was some kind of creep. 

'Well, I guess that's because she was around her female friend,' he reasoned, nodding to himself. 'The mob mentality, or whatever you call it, probably got to her—'

"Rex!" Rose called from behind him. He turned around to see her approaching with a stoic face. 

'Hmm?' He gave her a small nod. "Morning, Rose," he greeted as the shorter woman fell into step beside him.

"Morning." She returned the greeting as she fell into step beside Rex, and she didn't waste time with pleasantries. "I see you didn't heed my recommendation," she said, her tone flat.

"Recommendation?" He asked, trying to remember when she gave him a recommendation.

"About staying in the Cave Labyrinth for at least two years," Rose clarified, her voice steady. "Instead, I hear you went down to the 18th floor. Care to explain?"

"Ah, that." Rex shook his head. "I saved a group on the 16th floor. They were in bad shape, and I was too lazy to carry them all the way back up. So, I took them down to the 18th floor instead."

Rose nodded slightly, and he continued. "The Goliath spawned when I went down, trapping me on the floor until the Loki Familia killed it. Wasn't really planning on going down at any point."

"That's good," Rose said. "Rushing things would only lead to death. Even with your new magic, it isn't wise to rush past the 18th floor without higher base stats for that."

"Ah." Rex glanced at her. "You've heard about what happened on the 18th floor."

"Admittedly, yes." Rose nodded. "One of my advisors reported the events of the 18th floor, and I learned about you—Red Dragon Rex." The corner of her lips twitched as if she was trying to suppress a smirk.

"Right, Red Dragon." Rex chuckled. "As you must have heard, my magic is really powerful."

"But you should know," Rose continued, her tone shifting, "your fire-based magic will make it even harder for you down there." She paused, glancing at him. "You should have taken some time to read about the Large Tree Labyrinth, right?"

"I have," Rex nodded. "Nearly 70% of the plants in the Large Tree Labyrinth, when burned, release highly toxic smoke."

He read that it's the Dungeon's way of protecting the floor from being completely burned down. Even adventurers with the Abnormal Resistance development ability could be extensively poisoned by the fumes. 

Though his Blue Papilio Powder can heal him, Scavenger confirmed that his healing per second would be most likely slower than the fumes' poison per second. So he really needs to be careful down there, or he could just skip that floor entirely and start at the Water City when he becomes level 3.

"At least you've done your research." Rose gave a small, approving nod. "Most adventurers don't bother until it's too late."

"Well, I'd rather not die because I was too lazy to read a book," Rex said with a shrug. Being the socially smart man he was, Rex noticed that the path the conversation was heading would lead to a dead end, so he decided to switch topics. "So, what do you usually do on your days off?"

"Not much," Rose said, shaking her head slightly. "Read. Walk around Orario. Buy things I need. Go home. Read."

'She mentioned reading two times.' Rex noticed, asking. "So, you don't hang out with anyone? No friends to kill time with?"

"Not really." Rose answered without hesitation or embarrassment.

"Huh." It wasn't the answer he expected. 

Rose was beautiful, and she looked like the kind of person who would have a lot of people to talk to, especially other Guild workers. And as a man who had have thousands of friends in his past life, he decided to give a good life advice;

"You should get friends and enjoy the time you have, or else when you get older you will regret wasting your time." Rex said with the wisdom of age. "You are twenty-eight now. Soon you will be thirty. Then forty. And you will miss out on a lot of things you—"

He noticed she had stopped walking and glanced back at her.

"I don't think I've ever told you—or anyone else—my age," Rose said, her golden eyes meeting his amber eyes.

A few days ago, Rex had guessed it using scavenger out of curiosity but he wasn't going to tell her that. Instead, he gave her an ugly smile, his eyes turning into an upside down crescent. "I'm your stalker~."

The genuine shock on her face made him realize what he'd just said. 

'Right, we aren't close enough for that joke,' he thought, almost feeling like punching himself. He could have just said he guessed or something.

"Welp," he said, waving as he turned around. "I have an errand to run." Then he quickly walked away.

He turned a corner and disappeared into an ally, and then sighed. 'I guess that relationship is burned to the ground.' Being a beautiful girl, she might've had a stalker in the past, especially in a world like this, so she might have really believed what he said. "Good job to me." he mumbled.

Since he had nothing else to do, Rex decided to go on the food tour he'd been planning earlier. He bought street food from random stalls, some of which were things he knew—like Grilled Skewers, Stuffed Pastries, Takoyaki, and Babel Tower Cones, all Earth foods with a twist—while others were entirely new. 

One vendor offered a 'Guild-approved 'safe' herbal tea that guaranteed not to contain toxins.' He tried it and immediately regretted spending 60 valis on the bland, tasteless drink. Another stall sold Mystery Meat Pies, which the vendor introduced with a cheeky, 'What's inside? Who knows!'

The first pie tasted like heaven, so Rex spent another 150 valis to try a second one. This time, he had to hold back from punching the vendor. Inside the pie was a white, slimy substance that looked suspiciously like something released from a male body. 

The vendor claimed it was snail slime or something, but Rex wasn't convinced. He tossed the pie to some stray raccoons and spent a small fortune on water trying to wash the taste out of his mouth.

"That's what I get for trying food from random street vendors," he mumbled, squatting in an alley with a look of absolute despair. He could still feel the slime on his tongue and the inside of his mouth. It was absolutely disgusting. "Yeah, I'm done with this."

After that experience, he wasn't in the mood to continue his food tour, so he headed to the library to continue his reading. After walking around on the second floor for a few minutes, he picked up a book named; 'On Children of the Gods: Spirits.' 

'Huh.' Rex thought as he read about their abilities. 'Would scavenger be able to take their power?' He thought that since they were called 'child of gods' scavenger would be unable to, but scavenger confirmed that it could absorb their abilities. 

'I forgot my skill is needlessly overpowered.' But that brought up another train of thought. 'Should I try to absorb one of their abilities?' 

Spirit were rare because most lived secluded from society, with a few living in Orario, like the Undines and Salamanders living under the protection of the Rhapso Familia to make Undine Cloth and Salamander Wool. 

'But I could ask Zanis to get me a spirit from the black market and then try to use Scavenger's pity on them...' If he adsorbed enough abilities of the four most common elemental spirit—gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders—he could become the Avatar, Master of all Four Elements.

"Should I…?" The thought didn't sit right with him. Spirits were intelligent creatures, like humans. Buying them would be akin to buying slaves, and then killing them in cold blood. That was a bad, horrendous thing. Fuck slavery! Boooo… 

'Buuuuut—'

He noticed someone in his peripheral vision and glanced over to see Rose staring at him with a few books in her hands. She had been walking past the bookshelf aisle he was standing in when she noticed him. 

"…" The duo stared at each other for a moment before Rose walked away. Rex then closed the book he was holding and returned it to the shelf, then immediately left the library.

"GG for me," he mumbled with a sigh. "I've officially been branded as a stalker."

But that thought was quickly suppressed by the idea of buying spirit slaves from the black market and brutally murdering them for power. It felt like a pay-to-win method—spirits would undoubtedly be expensive, maybe costing in the high tens of millions of valis. But he was a rich motherfucker, so why not use his money? 

"Then again, slavery…" He walked around the city for a while, thinking about it, but he couldn't come to a conclusion. 

Say fuck you to morality and hello to power, or leave the spirits alone? 

"I need to clear my mind," he muttered, massaging his temples. As he tried to think of something fun to do, his eyes landed on a casino not too far away. He stared at it for a moment before grinning. 

"Scavenger," he cracked his knuckles. "Let's go gambling." 

He entered the casino with fifty-four thousand valis and in the first few hours in the casino, he lost forty-three thousand valis, but this didn't make his heart falter. After all, 99% of gamblers quit before they make it big.

 Besides, he didn't know the rules of most of the games and had to figure out how to use Scavenger to cheat and which games would work best with his ability. There were a few options, but the best he discovered were Poker—especially Texas Hold'em—as he could simply think, 'They're bluffing,' or 'I should fold now,' or 'I should bet big on this hand,' and Scavenger would judge whether these thoughts were high or low quality.

This allowed him to play confidently, relying entirely on his best friend, Scavenger. The same strategy worked in games like Blackjack and Roulette, as Scavenger was basically his sugar daddy, holding his hand and telling him what to do.

He started being watched when the casino noticed he was winning consistently. They couldn't prove he was cheating, but he was eventually kicked out after winning another game of Blackjack that brought his total winnings up to 12,552,360 valis. 

"Fufufu~," Rex laughed internally, a big smile on his face as he walked out of the casino. He looked up at the sky, which was transitioning into night. "I will never be short of money."

If someday he took an arrow to the knee and had to retire as an adventurer, he wouldn't go to a village and start farming. No, he'd become a frequent visitor to casinos to earn big. 

"Ahhh~," he moaned, looking down at the casino check he could take to the guild to check out for his money. 'Today was a good day.'

Almost thirteen million valis from forty thousand. This was one of the most excited he had ever been since arriving in this world. No wonder people got addicted to gambling. It was a good feeling to win big. As he took the busy road towards the guild to check out his earnings, he noticed;

'I am being followed?' He could feel the people watching him from behind, and the scavenger confirmed this. 

Using scavenger, he noticed they were 6 level 2s, which he was confident in winning if a fight broke out. He turned a corner and entered an ally, and soon the level 2s followed him in. There was a muffled sound and Rex soon walked out with their pouches of money in his hand. 

'This world should really send more thugs my way.' He was even surprised that these were only the second group to attack him. Normally, in a fantasy world, he should be constantly being attacked by cannon fodders. 'I guess it's because I am kinda low key.'

Then he continued his way back home, deciding to exchange the money tomorrow in the guild and then maybe start his hunting to max stats.

[Author's Note: No chapter yesterday because I was busy so I posted it today. Also I noticed the flaw in my calculations for Heptathlos thanks to my lovely reader's comments, and this is the correct skill description.

[Heptathlos (Skill/Active): When activated, the user's next seven attacks within seven seconds each deal 70% more damage than the original attack (stacking additively, starting with the first attack). After use, the skill has a 12-hour cooldown.]

So the multiplier becomes like this.

Attack 1: 100% + 70% = 170%

Attack 2: 100% + (70% × 2) = 240%

Attack 3: 100% + (70% × 3) = 310%

...up to Attack 7: 100% + (70% × 7) = 590% or 5.9 times multiplier instead of 4.9. Before the damage would have increased by 4103.4% (41.034× base damage) because it had stacked multiplicative instead of additive, which is my bad. Thanks for pointing out my mistake~

Also, with this chapter, we have officially broken the 100k word barrier! YAY! Thank you all for reading and the support~. Enjoy your weekend. ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧]