Caldwell turned toward the horizon, eyes narrowed as the thick mist swirled beyond the shattered treeline.
"But this is just the first floor..." he muttered, voice tight with tension. His knuckles whitened as he tightened his grip on the hilt of his blade. "If it's already this bad... then something far worse is waiting at the top"
"...You're right," Reza replied, his tone sober. "But the good news is... our level increased. And because you just killed that many enemies..."
He trailed off, glancing at the frozen corpses of the decayed dryads.
One by one, the withered husks shimmered and dissolved into shimmering particles of greenish light, like fragments of data dispersing into the air.
The motes slowly coalesced into a floating object before it fell to the ground... a dark green, pulsating magic core.
"Huh?" Asahi blinked, eyes narrowing at something just beyond the core. "Wait... that one doesn't look like a Magic Core at all"
