Danmachi: Scavenger

The 13th Floor of the Dungeon, known as the threshold of the 'Cave Labyrinth,' is a great shift from the upper levels. Ash-colored bedrock formed every surface—walls, floor, and ceiling—carved into solid stone, creating the illusion of a cavern buried deep within a mountain. 

Dank, musty air clung to the dimly lit passages, the faint glow of dungeon moss barely piercing the darkness. Long hallways stretched between chambers, far wider than those above, their walls pocked with gaping pit traps—vertical holes plunging into the deeper floors. 

Unlike the upper floors' flat, circular mazes, the 13th and lower Floor's layout twisted into a complex web of intertwining upper and lower tunnels, sub-floors within a floor. Monsters on the 13th and 14th were not much stronger than those on the 12th Floor so Level 2 adventurers with basic abilities ranked I or H could survive—but soloing was near-suicide. 

Spawn rates exploded in these floors, and the labyrinthine terrain demanded parties of at least three: two fighters and a support for navigation. Rex had Scavenger to guide him if he got lost, but after hearing rumors of the middle floors' chaos, even he had a bit of doubt that he would be able to solo it.

'Damn, these tunnels are endless.' Rex's boots crunched against gravel as he trudged forward, his halberd resting on one shoulder, his adventuring bag on his back. He had stashed his cloak after the 11th Floor—too restrictive for combat—and now walked in his dark-red light armor, its muted sheen blending with the shadows.

'How long have I been walking?' This was the 'First Line,' the tunnel linking the 12th Floor to the 13th's first chamber. Now he understood the name. The path stretched on endlessly, which was starting to get annoy—

*Tap… tup…*

His ears twitched as a faint scuffle echoed ahead, followed by a strong, acrid, unpleasant odor, similar to burning wood or smoke. 'Hellhound.' His nose wrinkled. 'Dogs always reek…'

Three hulking shadows materialized in the darkness, their crimson eyes slicing through the dim light. The hellhounds prowled closer, muscles rippling beneath jet-black hides as they stepped into the light. Each stood four feet at the shoulder, their eight-foot bodies dwarfing wolves, closer to tigers in scale. Talons screeched against stone as they advanced, drool dripping from jagged obsidian teeth as a guttural growl rumbled through the hallway, vibrating the air like a war drum.

'Holy—' Rex's eyes widened as he shifted into a combat stance with his halberd. 'Way bigger than I imagined!'

Before they charged, his eyes widened as he activated Predator on them. Like always, a red skull appeared above each of their heads, however they didn't freeze—they weren't weak enough for primal terror to immediately activate. 

*Oooowhoo* The three hellhounds howled then they charged at once, their monstrous bodies surging forward with explosive acceleration. The eighty-meter distance between them vanished in the blink of an eye, and the first lunged—jaws stretching wide, fangs glistening, aiming straight for Rex's throat.

Rex jerked his halberd horizontally, its dark-red shaft slamming into the hellhound's jaws just as they clamped down, the force driving him back a step, boots grinding against gravel. The creature's weight pressed against him, drool dripping onto the halberd's shaft in thick ropes, its crimson eyes locked onto his with feral hatred.

Then, with a brutal twist of his hips, he torqued the halberd sideways, leveraging the beast's momentum against it. The hellhound's jaws wrenched open with a crack of bone, its massive body hurled sideways like a ragdoll. It crashed into the wall with a deafening *BOOM,* stone fracturing under the impact, dust and debris raining down as the creature slumped, dazed. 

The second hellhound was already on him and it swiped a paw the size of a shield, claws glinting as they arced toward his ribs, but Rex pivoted, the talons passing inches away from his armored breastplate. 

Now beside the hound, before the beast could go for another attack, he whipped the halberd axe head downward, shearing through the hellhound's spine with a wet crunch, splitting the creature at its hip. Viscera erupted as the two halves collapsed, legs twitching, entrails spilling across the floor in a steaming heap.

The third hellhound growled, retreating to reassess the situation as the first beast shook off its daze, rising unsteadily. They circled Rex as he removed and tossed his bag to the side, one positioning itself to his side and the other one in front, and then they both growled and lowered their heads. Sparks danced around their maws, then embers glowed between their jagged teeth, and with a roar, they each expelled a torrent of fire. 

Flames surged forth like twin rivers of living light—one from his front, the other from his left—casting long, distorted shadows along the walls, before slamming into him and merging into a searing pillar that engulfed him completely. For three seconds, the inferno roared from the hellhounds' jaws, spiraling around him in a blazing vortex—then it slowly sputtered out.

As the flames faded, embers drifted lazily to the ground, revealing Rex standing untouched. Smoke curled from his armor and clothes, but not a single burn marred his body. The hellhounds' eyes widened, a flicker of confusion breaking through their fury.

Rex seized their moment of confusion and dashed forward, closing the gap between himself and the nearest hellhound in three explosive strides. The beast immediately lunged at him, but Rex drove the halberd's lance-tip upward in a vicious thrust, timing it to meet the creature's snarling lunge. 

The force of the impact was immense, with the hellhound's jagged obsidian teeth shattering upon contact with the lance tip, fragments flying outward in a spray. The halberd's spearhead forced its way down the creature's throat, rupturing muscle and bone as it buried itself deep inside its body. A strangled, wet gurgle escaped the hellhound as its crimson eyes bulged wide in shock and agony.

Keeping his grip firm, he twisted his halberd and pivoted on his heel, spinning the weapon in a wide arc. The skewered hellhound was yanked off its feet, its limp body dragging violently through the air. The last remaining hellhound had leaped at him from behind, its claws extended mid-air, jaws spread wide for a fatal strike—only to be met with the airborne corpse of its own packmate.

The hellhound was knocked out of the air with bone-crushing force, the sheer impact sending it rolling across the dungeon floor before. Before it could scramble to its feet, he yanked the halberd free from the dead beast's maw in a spray of viscera, then reversed his grip mid-spin, bringing the axehead down in a brutal overhead arc, decapitating the last hound. 

With the hound twitching beside its packmate, Rex exhaled, looking down at the dogs. 'They're heavier than they look.'

Each beast likely weighed over 317 kilograms—700 in freedom units—surpassing even the Silverbacks of the upper floors. No wonder their attacks had a lot of weight behind them.

'Damn.' He rolled his shoulders. 'And these are considered the weaker monsters here.' He also couldn't cheese this floor with primal terror like he could on the upper floors. Not that it bothered him, though.

Kneeling, he pressed his gauntleted palm against one wolf's skull. 'Scavenge.' The body disintegrated into dust.

[+1 Strength, +4 Endurance, +3 Dexterity, +2 Agility, +2 Magic]

"Huh..." He nodded. 'That's some good fucking shit.' A flicker of satisfaction crossed his face at the magic stat's jump. 'At least these dogs are good for farming magic. Much better than that damn dragon.'

He had expected killing an infant dragon would give him a huge stat boost—but the nerf was brutal. What should have been triple-digit gains had been slashed to double digits, none even crossing 20.

At first, it seemed like Scavenge should still give him the same amount of stats, since it absorbed up to 10% of a monster's total stat points. But after thinking about it, he had a theory: Scavenger's absorption rate was influenced by his own level compared to the monster's. When scavenging from a higher-level monster, he wasn't just pulling from its current stats—he was also absorbing the hidden stats it had accumulated from previous levels.

For example, when he was level 1, scavenging from a level 2 monster let him take from both its level 1 hidden stats and its level 2 stats, giving him a much larger overall gain. By that same logic, now that he was level 2, scavenging from a level 4 monster wouldn't just give him its level 4 stats—it would also let him pull from its level 2 and 3 hidden stats. So, the bigger the level gap, the more he could extract.

However, scavenging from a monster of the same level meant he could only absorb from its current stats, not the accumulated ones from before—hence the drop in gains from the infant dragon. Scavenge proved his theory correct, and he understood it was a way to 'balance' out the skill, but—come on! It annoyed him.

Sure, dragons gave more stats overall, but the time sink was ridiculous. Compared to trekking across entire floors just to find one infant dragon, staying on Floor 13 and grinding wolves was just more efficient—especially now that he knew they gave magic stats.

He repeated the process with the other two hounds, then grabbed his bag that he had tossed to the side. 'I should probably get a new one.' He thought as he wore it. 'Maybe those expensive ones lower floor adventurer supporters use.'

Continuing his walk, he entered the first room, a cavernous expanse with its ceiling vaulting over 15 meters high. Stalactites and stalagmites spiraled upward and downward—some thick as ancient trees, others slender as needles—their ash-gray surfaces streaked with bioluminescent moss that cast a green glow in their surroundings. The chamber stretched into endless shadow, pit traps gaping between formations, the air thick with damp stone and iron-tanged blood.

*OOOooOO!*

A roar that he recognized echoed, and Rex spun to see a Silverback charging, its fist a blur as it hurled a punch at his skull. He jerked his head sideways, the attack whistling past his ear with a violent whoosh, the displaced air tousling his hair.

In one fluid motion, he gripped his halberd and swung it horizontally. The axehead cleaved through the Silverback's waist with a wet *shunk,* bisecting it cleanly. The upper half toppled forward, guts spilling, but Rex sidestepped, letting it slam into the ground with a meaty thud, then the lower half crumpled backward, legs twitching.

'Not much stronger, even in the middle floors.' He hooked the halberd's blade under the Silverback's skull, splitting it like a melon. 

His gauntlet plunged into the pulpy brain, retrieving the magic stone. After shaking off gore, he tossed it into his pouch, deciding not to absorb the stone of any monsters that also spawned on the floors above. 

'If this floor turns out to be easy, I should just go down and start farming Crystal Mantis.' Rex's thoughts echoed as he strode deeper into the cavernous chamber.

Crystal Mantis—monsters with bodies forged from crystal—were his next target. Rose had warned him about their near-immunity to magic-based attacks, a trait that immediately piqued his interest. Magic immunity wasn't something he could afford to miss, but if it turned out to be a physical trait rather than a skill he could toggle, he'd have to abandon the idea.

He hadn't walked too far when six pairs of glowing red eyes flickered in the shadows ahead. 'Almiraj?'

Three rabbit-like humanoids burst from the darkness, each barely 110 cm tall, their stone tomahawks glinting in the dim light, and Rex dropped his bag and halberd before charging with only his gauntlet. The first Almiraj vaulted forward with startling speed, its lean body twisting mid-air as it launched a roundhouse kick at his head. Simultaneously, another hurled its tomahawk, the weapon spinning through the air with a low hum.

Rex jerked his head sideways, the kick passing his ear with a sharp whoosh, and in the same motion, his left hand shot out, snatching the tomahawk mid-flight. He then pivoted on his hill, slamming the weapon into the skull of the first attacker, shattering its bone with a sickening crunch with blood spraying in a crimson arc.

He then dropped low, ducking under a tomahawk swung at his temple by another Almiraj that lunged from his left. Mid-crouch, his right fist snapped upward, the gauntlet cracking into the creature's ribcage. The Almiraj wheezed, ribs splintering inward, before collapsing in a twitching heap.

Two more closed in from opposite sides—one leaped vertically, tomahawk raised for a downward chop, while the second spun low, aiming a scything strike at his ankles. Rex raised the tomahawk he held to block the overhead attack, while sidestepping the ankle attack. 

His free hand latched out as he grabbed the rabbit by its oversized ears, causing it to scream as he swung it down at the one that went for his ankle. Their bodies collided with a loud thud, bones cracking just as another tomahawk whizzed toward him. 

Rex jerked his head to the side, the weapon passing by his cheek, and lunged at the thrower. Closing the distance, he used the Almiraj he still held by its ears like a bat and slammed it down at the thrower, then immediately tossed his own tomahawk at the last one. The weapon spun through the air with a *swoosh,* and before the last one could react, the blade plunged into its skull, killing it.

Its body dropped back with a thud, then there was silence… 'Yeah, these guys are as weak as Rose said.' Rex glanced at the six mangled corpses.

Despite their appearance, they were surprisingly only slightly weaker than a silverback, and unless they ganged up in large numbers—especially with their throwing tomahawks—they posed little threat to a level 2. Even Rex knew he might struggle if more than ten swarmed him at once.

Holding up the mangled rabbit still held in his hand, he thought, 'Scavenge.'

[+0 Strength, +0 Endurance, +1 Dexterity, +1 Agility, +0 Magic]

'Eh?' He stared at the screens, brow furrowed. 'Damn, I knew they were weak, but this little?' He chalked it up to bad luck and absorbed another stone—he gained only +1 in dexterity.

'Wow, even Imps gave better stats when I was Level 1.' He picked up the drop from the second body—a bundle of white fur. 'Maybe I should just sell their stones instead of absorbing them.'

One Hellhound's stone had given him more stats than all five Almiraj combined. They were practically useless. Sure, absorbing them would speed up his growth, but selling the stones for extra cash seemed like the smarter move.

'...Nah, will keep absorbing them.' Who knows, he might get a good skill or physical property from them—whatever it may be. 'Speaking of that—'

A low growl rumbled through the chamber.

'…Already?' Hellhounds. Again.

He was starting to see why soloing these floors wasn't ideal for a Level 2.

The first wolf lunged, its massive maw gaping wide as it aimed to bite Rex's face clean off, but his hands shot forward, one gauntleted palm slamming into the top of its snout, the other gripping its lower jaw. The force of its charge shoved him back a few inches, his boots scraping against the stone floor before he dug in, halting the beast's momentum.

Just as its hind legs touched the ground, it swiped a massive paw at his head, but Rex ducked low without releasing its jaws, letting the claws whistle over his head. Returning upright, he wrenched his hands apart, forcing the beast's mouth open wider, its muscles straining against his grip.

Then, with a brutal tug, he ripped the hellhound's jaw apart. Bone and sinew snapped with a wet tear, blood spraying across his face as the creature let out a gurgling howl. He tossed the twitching body aside, its lifeless form slamming into a stalagmite with a dull thud just as the second hellhound unleashed a torrent of fire.

The blast roared toward him, engulfing him entirely while continuing on its path. 'Haah.' Rex sighed as he walked through the inferno, the fire blazing harmlessly around him. As he got in range of the hound, his hands broke through the blaze, gauntlet gleaming as it reached for the hound.

It quickly stopped its flame, eyes wide in panic as it tried to jump back, but Rex's hands clamped onto its jaw just like the first one. This time, instead of ripping it apart, he took a deep breath, forming a small fireball in his throat, then spat it down the hellhound's mouth.

He then slammed its jaws closed, trapping the flames inside. A muffled whump echoed as the fireball detonated, incinerating its inside as the creature's body convulsed violently. Smoke curled from its ears and nostrils, the stench of burnt flesh filling the air as it collapsed, its fur smoldering.

He activated Scavenger on the wolf he held. [+3 Strength, +2 Endurance, +1 Dexterity, +2 Agility, +3 Magic]

'Yep, a great way to farm magic.' He caught the Hellhound Fang that dropped from the dust, tossing it into his bag before picking up his halberd. 'Let's keep going…!'

Suddenly, the ground beneath him swelled and shifted, stone cracking as if something massive were tunneling underneath. Rex immediately leaped backward, soaring through the air just as a Dungeon Worm burst from the ground.

The beast had no head nor eyes—just a gaping maw lined with serrated teeth at the end of its wormlike body. Its width rivaled a python's, its length stretching down its hole as its upper body jerked mid-air, aiming for Rex. He twisted his body, narrowly avoiding its attack, and landed while sliding back.

Just then, his senses picked up something and he instantly ducked low, allowing a hard armor to fly over him, whistling past where his skull had been moments ago.

"Jesus Christ," he grumbled, adjusting his grip on the halberd. 'At least let me walk more than a hundred meters into the room.'

[Author's Note: Thank you for reading(*￣▽￣*)ブ.]