"125: Exceptional Resources, The Loki Familia"

Holding the Philosopher's Stone in his palm, Su Mo glanced around at the scattered monster corpses. Since their lives had been extinguished, their bodies quickly began to dissipate—a common occurrence in the dungeon. Yet, something was different this time.

"Just as I thought." Su Mo's expression was calm, as though he had already predicted this outcome. "The magic cores are all gone."

Normally, when adventurers defeated monsters, magic stones would drop, sometimes along with sturdy monster materials that could be used for weapons or armor. This was the standard reward system of the dungeon. However, after Su Mo used alchemy to refine the Philosopher's Stone, the monsters' magic cores vanished alongside their bodies.

"The composition of the Philosopher's Stone must be closely related to the magic cores." Su Mo had already suspected as much. The magic core served as the energy nucleus for dungeon monsters, much like the Philosopher's Stone served as the core for homunculi in the Fullmetal world. As long as the Philosopher's Stone wasn't destroyed or depleted, homunculi were nearly impossible to kill—a trait they shared with dungeon monsters. Though the exact compositions differed, it was now evident that the magic cores were one of the primary materials for refining Philosopher's Stones. That would explain why the cores disappeared during the transmutation.

Now the question was whether a standalone magic core, without the rest of the monster's body, could also be used to create a Philosopher's Stone. It was certainly worth trying. Having made up his mind, Su Mo ventured deeper into the dungeon. He wanted to test whether stronger monsters would yield even larger Philosopher's Stones. To widen the level gap, he headed toward Level 4 monsters.

Descending nearly ten more floors, Su Mo soon reached the fortieth floor. Strangely enough, he hadn't encountered many monsters along the way. The reason became clear once he reached the forty-second floor: a Familia was currently conducting an expedition, clearing out the monsters ahead of him.

Focused on his experiment, Su Mo had no interest in the Familia and simply flew overhead, passing unnoticed. Only a blonde girl who was maintaining her longsword sensed a slight change in the wind, but she paid no further attention, never seeing Su Mo's figure.

Upon reaching the depths of the forty-third floor, Su Mo finally stopped. With no adventurers in the vicinity, the monster population here was dense. After a bit of maneuvering, he quickly attracted the attention of over a hundred Level 4 monsters. Using the same method as before, he confirmed that their numbers matched his previous experiment and then ceased luring in more monsters. Activating his ability once more, he completely paralyzed the horde and left them severely injured. Then—

Clap!

Bringing his hands together, Su Mo activated his alchemy. Once again, crimson light flared. This time, upon closer examination, he noticed that the Philosopher's Stone in his hand was clearly larger than the ones refined from Level 3 monsters. "So, the stronger the monster, the larger the Philosopher's Stone that can be refined," Su Mo finally confirmed.

The next hypothesis he needed to test was simple: could a Philosopher's Stone be refined using only the magic cores? Testing this wasn't difficult. To control the variables, he once again lured over a hundred monsters, matching the previous count. But instead of using his gravitational ability to suppress them, he switched tactics, unleashing a wide-range magic attack.

"Fairy Law!"

Using an ultimate move on minor monsters was effortlessly effective. In just the blink of an eye, the merciless light obliterated the surrounding monsters, leaving only the magic cores scattered across the ground. After collecting these magic cores, Su Mo activated the transmutation circle once more. Watching the process, he was surprised. "They're exactly the same?"

He carefully compared the Philosopher's Stone created purely from magic cores to the one refined from the entire monsters. Both stones, produced from Level 4 monsters, were identical in size and quality. In other words, the monster bodies weren't even necessary; the magic cores alone were sufficient to produce Philosopher's Stones.

Realizing this, Su Mo stood at the intersection, lost in thought. "If the magic core is all that's required to make Philosopher's Stones, then all I need to do is gather enough magic cores." In Orario, magic cores could freely be exchanged for currency through the Guild—essentially, magic cores were money, and money was magic cores.

If Su Mo wanted to mass-produce Philosopher's Stones, he simply needed a vast quantity of magic cores. That meant, in theory, he could buy them directly with enough money. Unfortunately, while he wasn't exactly poor, he didn't have anywhere near the fortune required for that kind of large-scale purchase. Earning that much money would also be extremely difficult.

"So, the fastest method is still to collect them myself." After thinking it through, Su Mo realized that personally gathering the materials was the most efficient approach. With his current strength, even dealing with Level 7, Level 8, or Level 9 monsters wouldn't pose much of a challenge. And the magic cores inside higher-level monsters were vastly larger than those from lower-level ones—a single high-level monster's core might be worth a hundred, or even a thousand, low-level ones.

For Su Mo, numbers didn't matter. With [Fairy Law], he could wipe out large groups of monsters effortlessly. As long as he ventured deep into the dungeon every day for monster hunting, it wouldn't take long to amass a huge stockpile of Philosopher's Stones. Considering both the quality and quantity of high-level monsters, plus the dungeon's natural respawn cycle, Su Mo estimated that in less than a month, he could collect enough Philosopher's Stones to match the amount that took the homunculus in the Fullmetal world the sacrifice of millions to create.

If that world's homunculus ever saw the abundant resources in this world, he'd likely be green with envy. With such an abundant resource at hand, Su Mo naturally had no intention of following in the footsteps of the homunculus—using Philosopher's Stones to forcibly pry open the Truth Gate and gain stolen power.

Until his own strength was sufficient to bear that knowledge, such shortcuts were nothing but dangerous heresy. The homunculus was so consumed by greed that he couldn't control the power he stole, relying entirely on Philosopher's Stones to forcibly maintain stability. Once the stones were depleted, he spiraled into destruction. That kind of power was not true evolution.

Su Mo preferred a steady path—gradually exchanging and mastering knowledge fully under his control. His ambitions were far grander than the homunculus's, and as such, he proceeded with far greater caution.

After some rough calculations, Su Mo confirmed that both the number of monsters he needed to hunt and the time required were all within manageable limits. The profit was well worth the effort. With that settled, he cheerfully prepared to continue his monster hunts deeper into the dungeon.

But just as he was about to move, a sudden noise caught his attention. "Monsters?" he wondered aloud.

Sensing a rapidly approaching presence, Su Mo was a little surprised. He had already cleared out the monsters in this area. But then he remembered—he had passed by a Familia expedition earlier.

As expected, a few seconds later, an unfamiliar figure landed in front of him. "The Loki Familia?" Su Mo paused in mild surprise, instantly recognizing which group the man belonged to upon seeing the white-haired werewolf before him. Casually, he greeted, "Hello."

"Hello..." The white-haired werewolf answered reflexively, momentarily stunned. As the vanguard of his team, this was the first time he had encountered another adventurer deep in the dungeon's lower levels so unexpectedly. Glancing behind Su Mo at the empty clearing, he sniffed the air but detected no other scents.

Suddenly realizing the situation, the werewolf exclaimed in shock, "You're… a solo adventurer?!"

Bete's eyes filled with disbelief. This wasn't some shallow floor where the monsters were weak and sparse—where even rookie adventurers might survive alone. This was over forty floors deep. Even the regular monsters here were at Level 4 strength. Worse, they often appeared in groups and came in a wide variety of types. Even a Level 5 adventurer would be taking serious risks to explore alone here.

Different monsters required different strategies—some had to be dealt with using blunt weapons, others with sharp blades, some only with heavy magical firepower. Poor matchups meant that even facing weaker monsters could end in disaster for an adventurer.

In places like this, team expeditions were practically mandatory. Only adventurers at Level 5 or higher could even attempt solo exploration, and even then, most had well-known reputations. But this man… Bete had never seen or heard of him before.