The dungeon has been parasitized

Chapter 106 Shocking the Mouse

"It feels great, give it a try!"

Yanami gestured for them to proceed, completely forgetting that they had come to pick up goods.

Daisy nodded happily, then reached out to touch the Shadow Wolf's black fur. The short black fur just covered her palm and then peeked out from between her fingers like water.

"Hmm, it feels so soft and resilient, whew... Is this the Shadow Wolf's fur...?"

Daisy stroked it excitedly, the corners of her mouth curving into a smile that wouldn't stop. She even hugged it whole because she felt that just using her hands wasn't enough.

"Daisies seem to transform when they encounter anything fuzzy."

"Hmm...this is her preference, Daisy. Is that enough? We're here to work, you know."

Just a little bit more...

Daisy, her head buried in the shadow wolf's fur, made muffled sounds, but it was clear she was thoroughly enjoying herself.

"Hello!"

"Alright, let her enjoy it. We're not in a hurry anyway."

"Okay, fine."

Hyacinth sighed, but she seemed more relaxed than before.

"Is it really that good...? It's making me feel less nervous. Seriously, is it really that nice to touch?"

"Why don't you give it a try?"

"Ah, no..."

Looking at Yanami blinking her eyes, and then at Daisy radiating happiness, Hyacinth swallowed her instinctive refusal due to a strange curiosity.

"Then I'll...give it a try."

Her expression was somewhat serious as she slowly reached out and approached the Shadow Wolf, looking a little nervous.

Only when her palm touched the shadow wolf's black fur did her expression change from stiff to surprised.

"It really is! It's much softer than I expected... It feels so good."

"That's great, isn't it?!"

The hyacinth, which had just been gently touched and relaxed, was startled by the daisy that suddenly made a sound next to it, and its shoulders jumped up.

"Whoa! Daisy, don't scare me like that!"

"Hehehe."

Seeing the daisy become lively with joy, Hyacinth reached out and began to pat her shoulder.

"Seriously!"

Yanami watched all this with a smile; she felt it had been a long time since she had had time to play with her friends like this.

"It feels like... so much time has passed..."

"Huh? Did Yanami say something?"

"Oh, it's nothing, I was just talking to myself."

"Is that so? Well, shouldn't we get down to business?"

They kept playing and almost forgot that their real purpose was to transport things.

"Let's take these things off first."

Yanami reached out and picked up a bag, then loosened the vines binding the Shadow Wolf.

"The vines hold it in place, what convenient magic."

Hyacinth looked at Yanami's actions with some emotion.

"Just like me, you just grabbed the bag and the vines loosened on their own."

"Okay, I understand."

"Okay, okay."

Hyacinth imitated Yanami by picking up a bag, which was the bag containing the Winged Serpent Dragon's magic core.

"Oh, that one is quite heavy, be careful."

"understood."

Hyacinth held up the bag, and the vines slowly loosened. When the vines were completely loosened, Hyacinth's hands, which were holding the bag, suddenly sank down. But thanks to Yanami's advance warning, the bag was still held up.

"It's so heavy! What's inside?"

"Hmph, you'll see when you open it."

"Although I shouldn't be looking at this now, your smug look has piqued my curiosity."

Hyacinth carefully placed the bag on the ground and then untied the thin vines that bound the bag's opening.

"Even the straps are made of vines, you really love to be lazy."

"Vines are amazing!"

While complaining about Yanami, Hyacinth opened the bag, but what was inside gave her a big shock.

"Whoa—!"

Inside were all the magic cores of the winged serpent dragon. These magic cores were gray and stone-like, shaped like a serpent coiled into a sphere with wings.

"W-What happened?!"

Daisy, who was about to take down the other bags, was also startled by Hyacinth's exclamation.

"Haha, startled, weren't you?"

Hyacinth looked at everything before her, swallowed hard, and then stared blankly at Yanami.

"Wow... I was really shocked. This is the first time in my life I've ever seen so many magic cores."

"Wow?!"

Daisy, seeing the stunned hyacinth, also looked curiously at the bag in front of the hyacinth and exclaimed in surprise.

"These...these...these are all magic cores?!"

Yes, that's right.

Clang, clang... A sound of armor clashing came from behind, and Yanami turned around.

"What's wrong?!"

The guards at the door ran over, swords at their waists, and cautiously looked ahead. They seemed to have been drawn by the cries of the hyacinths and daisies, probably thinking there had been some accident or danger.

"Oh, sorry, it's nothing, we were just too surprised."

"surprise?"

"You'll understand once you see this."

The hyacinths and daisies moved aside a little so the guard could see what was in the bag.

"ah?!"

Unsurprisingly, the guards also gasped in surprise.

Will everyone be this surprised every time they see this bag of magic cores?

"So many magic cores?! You brought them all by yourself?!"

Yes.

"Such valuable items should have been escorted by us!"

"Yeah, Yanami, this is too valuable... so many magic cores."

Yanami listened to their words and scratched her head somewhat awkwardly.

"Sorry, I didn't think that much about it."

"Thank goodness we arrived safely. It would have been such a huge loss if anything had happened to such valuable items."

"Haha, that's right."

Yanami first smiled in agreement, then looked puzzled.

"But is this a lot?"

Klein and Yanami actually only brought one hundred magic cores.

"Of course, even if it's just the magic cores of weaker monsters, this many are already extremely valuable. How many are there here?"

One hundred.

"One hundred?!"

Upon hearing this unexpected number, they were all speechless with astonishment, looking at Yanami in disbelief. Yanami could only nod obediently, indicating that it was indeed one hundred.

"These magic cores are this size... Normally, even if you slaughtered the entire cavern, you wouldn't get this many, right? And they're all the same size... This is the kind of quantity you'd only find in an entire large race..."

The winged serpent dragon's magic core is not comparable to that of small fish or shrimp; it is about half the size of a palm, clearly the magic core of a medium-sized monster.

Just like the wolf pack in the Wild Dog Forest, there are only a few dozen of them in the entire forest. In contrast, medium-sized monsters like the Winged Serpent Dragons have packs of up to several hundred, which is actually very, very rare among monsters.

"Well, there's been a demonic surge lately, so there are a lot of monsters around."

"Huh? Is the situation in the forest that serious?! This...this is a major situation!"

Upon hearing this news, the guard's voice immediately became flustered, and Yanami thought she was truly competent.

However, it might not be what they imagined...