In Orario, the market price of orichalcum, the hardest metal, was generally set at 1 million valis per kilogram, provided there were not many impurities mixed in.
Under such circumstances, a palm-sized piece of orichalcum could already sell for several million valis. If it was very high-quality orichalcum with extremely few impurities—or even none at all—its selling price could easily break 10 million valis.
Now, there stood before them a gigantic metal door several meters tall, and its entire structure was actually made of orichalcum, and judging from its luster, there appeared to be virtually no impurities at all.
What did this mean?
It meant that the material value of this door alone was worth at least several hundred million, or even billions, of valis.
How could such an absurdly expensive door fail to shock people into silence?
When Ais and Lefiya saw this door made of the hardest metal, they were stunned, and the others likewise lost their ability to speak after confirming that the door's material was orichalcum, and that was exactly why.
"Phew~"
Mixed in among the group, Loki let out a whistle.
"Looks like the guy on the other side of the door's been low-key doin' a bunch of good stuff behind the scenes. No joke, kinda makes me wanna rip this door off and just take it with us."
Loki's flippant words did not draw any dissatisfaction from the others at this moment.
Although she spoke lightly, everyone understood what she was trying to say.
"To be able to use this much of the hardest metal just to make a door, the enemy is far richer than we imagined. They clearly don't lack supplies and have a stable source of funds."
Riveria calmly pointed this out, prompting everyone present to nod in agreement.
"Is it the leftovers of Evilus? Or that Enyo was pullin' strings again?" Gareth muttered, his voice low and heavy. "No way it's those Creatures controlled by the Corrupted Spirit out here tryin' to make a quick buck, right?"
"Of course not," Finn chimed in while shaking his head. "Riezel said that those Creatures have a very weak grasp of surface-level information and clearly treat the Dungeon as their base, barely ever operating on the surface at all, so this door and the structure behind it could only have been built by the remnants of Evilus or people affiliated with Enyo."
Whether it was Revis or Olivas, when they encountered Riezel and Ais at the Pantry on the 24th Floor, both had shown clear unfamiliarity toward them.
Olivas recognized Ais but did not know Riezel, and his understanding of Ais was stuck at several years ago, with even his impression of the Loki Familia frozen in the past, as if he had been disconnected from the world for years on end.
Revis was even worse than Olivas, as she did not recognize not just Riezel, but Ais as well.
Even though Riezel and Ais were famous figures by every measure, unquestionable big names in Orario and even renowned worldwide, known by virtually everyone, those two Creatures had treated them as complete strangers, which showed that they practically never operated on the surface and severely lacked any knowledge of it.
Given that, this hardest-metal door and the enemy hideout behind it could not possibly be their doing, and could only be the work of the remnants of Evilus or servants of the city destroyer, Enyo.
Of course...
"Tch, that kinda thing doesn't matter to me at all," Bete said with extreme impatience. "What I wanna know right now is whether we can actually get inside."
Unfortunately, the answer to that question was not an easy one to give.
"It'll probably be really hard to break, right?"
"I mean, it's literally a door made out of the hardest metal."
Raul and Anakitty offered their opinions from the side.
Items made from the hardest metal, orichalcum, could even possess the Durandal attribute, though that required special craftsmanship and could only be accomplished by high-level blacksmiths.
Still, even with ordinary processing alone, breaking the hardest metal was not something an average person could accomplish.
Not just average people—even First-Class Adventurers could not do it.
"Gareth, you think you can handle it?"
"Quit talkin' to me like you're tryin' push my buttons... but if I really went all in, yeah, the me right now might just pull it off. No clue how nasty the price's gonna be, though."
Loki moved closer to Gareth, whose STR was unquestionably at the absolute top among all adventurers in the world, and asked in a teasing tone, only to receive an extremely displeased response from the dwarf warrior.
Gareth, who had already reached Level 7, told everyone that even for him, destroying a door made of the hardest metal would likely not be easy.
"Can't we just dig a passage from the side?" Tiona raised her hand and asked in wonder. "We don't have to go in through this door, right?"
Regarding that idea, Tione, as Tiona's elder sister, was not optimistic at all.
"If they can afford to use the hardest metal just to make a door, what makes you think they'd let people casually dig a hole right next to it?"
To prove Tione's point, Ais stepped forward first, drew Desperate, and slashed her sword against the wall beside the hardest-metal door.
*Clang!*
Accompanied by a sharp clang, Ais's slash only split open the outer layer of the wall before being repelled.
From within the peeled-away surface of the wall, steel-colored metal was revealed.
*Clang!*
Riezel also silently drew Fool and sliced away the surface layer of the wall on the other side, exposing the metal hidden inside.
"Y-You've gotta be kidding me! Orichalcum again?!"
Tiona was frightened by what she saw.
"No, this isn't orichalcum. It's adamantite."
Gareth refuted Tiona's words, yet delivered an answer that still left everyone dumbfounded.
Adamantite, also known as super-hard metal, was a precious metal whose hardness ranked just below that of orichalcum, and its price was likewise astonishingly high.
Tiona's large double-bladed sword, Urga, was forged from adamantite, created by several high-level blacksmiths who used an enormous amount of the metal and hammered without rest for days and nights before finally succeeding in crafting that First-Class Equipment.
And the cost of that single piece of First-Class Equipment had reached 120 million valis.
Yet, this precious metal, second only to orichalcum in hardness, had now been used as filler inside rock, fashioned directly into walls.
"No way…"
Even Tione was stunned this time.
"A door made of the hardest metal... walls made of super-hard metal..."
Riveria found herself at a loss for words.
"W-Where are they even getting this much precious metal in the first place?"
"...If this whole wall is made out of some super-hard metal, then just the material cost for this one wall alone might actually rival the entire funds of a big familia, right?"
Raul nearly had his legs give out, while Anakitty muttered to herself in disbelief.
"Hey, old man, if you can't handle the hardest metal, you can at least deal with some super-hard metal, right?!"
Growing irritated, Bete shouted at Gareth.
"You really know how to make life hell for these old bones of mine, brat," Gareth snapped, his beard practically bristling. "Yeah, it's doable, but this wall ain't exactly thin. By the time I bust through it, everything might already be over—so what, we really got that kinda time?"
"H-How about using magic?" Lefiya hurriedly suggested. "If we use high attack-power magic, we should be able to destroy this wall, right?"
However, the one who refuted Lefiya was none other than Riezel, who had been leading the way.
"No, it's very difficult."
Riezel picked out a small stone fragment from the broken wall debris, turned around, and laid it out on his palm for everyone to see.
"Take a look at this."
Hearing this, everyone focused their gaze, and soon quite a few people's mouths began to twitch as they recognized the stone.
"Anti-Magic Stone..."
Ais spoke softly, revealing its identity to everyone.
Anti-Magic Stone.
It was an item dropped by Obsidian Soldiers that appeared on the Dungeon's 37th Floor.
As its name suggested, this item weakened the effects of magic and was an excellent material for crafting high-quality anti-magic armor, making it extremely valuable.
"Don't tell me… the walls and the door are mixed with Anti-Magic Stone too?"
Tiona's groaning words truly robbed everyone of speech this time.
Although it could not compare to orichalcum or adamantite, Anti-Magic Stone, as a drop item that only appeared in the Dungeon's Deep Floors, was itself exceedingly expensive.
And with Anti-Magic Stone acting as an obstacle, not only physical attacks, but even magic attacks could no longer do anything to the door and walls before them.
"Are you kidding me?! No way, they're actually that loaded?!" Loki shouted indignantly. "Why do a bunch of rats hiding in the gutter have more cash than our familia? Nah, I ain't letting that slide. I protest! I seriously protest!"
However, no one paid her any attention, and one by one, everyone frowned deeply.
"Tch, this is getting troublesome..." Finn sighed helplessly. "The problem now is that even if we've found the enemy's hideout, it's not as though we can just walk right in."
"If we really wanna get in, it's not impossible," Gareth said. "But it's gonna take way too much time."
"We don't know how many Jewel Fetuses the enemy has already transported to the surface, nor how long it will be before those Jewel Fetuses undergo metamorphosis," Riveria said with concern. "Our time is limited, and at the very least, we need to know when the enemy's city-destruction plan is set to officially begin before deciding whether it's worth spending time breaking into this hideout."
"The problem is that we don't know anything at all," Finn pointed out calmly. "We're severely lacking in intelligence. On the surface, it looks like we hold the initiative, but in reality, the ones who truly control it are the enemy."
"What do we even do now?" Tiona asked, clearly stressed. "We're not attacking?"
"Are you serious?" Bete shot back. "If we don't attack now, what? Are we just gonna sit here and wait for them to knock on our door?"
"Did you not hear what the captain and the others just said?!" Tione snapped. "We don't have time to sit around! No matter what, we gotta attack!"
Everyone began chiming in one after another, and the scene quickly grew noisy and unsettled.
Even Ais furrowed her brows tightly, clearly unsure of what to do in the face of the growing confusion.
Lefiya clutched her staff firmly, her face full of worry and visible anxiety.
Only Riezel, while everyone else continued arguing back and forth, calmly walked up to the door made of the hardest metal.
He reached out and slowly placed his hand against the massive door, and a clear, transparent light lit up within his eyes.
In the next moment, the scene beyond the door was reflected directly in his vision.
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