When Stella defeated the Twin Gargoyles on her own, she earned nearly one thousand souls.
In a party, the Gargoyles dropped the same amount, but the total was divided evenly among all members. The more people there were, the fewer souls each person received.
Was the system encouraging solo grinding? If so, it was absurdly risky—just a faster way to die.
The first time Stella acted as an Assistant, she had been summoned by a bronze-ranked team of two. They were out of supplies, on the verge of giving up. By sheer luck, they'd used a Furlcalling Finger Remedy and stumbled upon her summoning mark.
The moment they saw her, relief flooded their faces. Saved from despair, they nearly wept with gratitude.
Stella helped them slay the Gargoyles. Normally, split three ways, she should have received only about three hundred souls.
But that day, she got over nine hundred—three times the expected amount, almost as if she'd soloed the boss herself.
She had wanted to ask how many souls the other two earned, but they were complete novices—barely able to reach the Swamp bonfire, let alone Blighttown.
Through repeated experiments, she confirmed the truth:
As an Assistant, helping a summoner defeat monsters granted her one to five times the usual soul reward, chosen at random.
If she triggered multipliers several times in one run, her leveling efficiency far outstripped solo grinding.
From then on, she came to love helping others.
Of course, Wade would never design a system that wasn't profitable for the dungeon. The cooperation mechanic had its own hidden balance.
Few possessed Furlcalling Finger Remedy, so Stella sold the location where they spawned. With her team's approval, she also sold information about bonfires.
That was when she realized—a very small number of adventurers already knew about bonfires. Still, she was the first to openly sell this intel through the Adventurers' Guild.
Clearly, some had already cleared Blighttown but kept quiet, blending into the crowds.
As expected, the bonfire revelation caused a stir, even outshining the Gourmet Zone for a time. A place where one could grow stronger? Everyone was curious, and adventurers' passion was reignited.
But tragedy soon followed. Most never survived long enough to reach the bonfires. The dungeon itself seemed to react to the frenzy, deploying monsters and traps in deadlier, more devious ways, slaughtering countless adventurers.
In response, people began banding together, believing safety lay in numbers.
That was when Furlcalling Finger Remedy truly shone.
In desperate times, imagination knew no limits. Every possible shortcut was seized upon.
And Stella realized—she was the only Warrior of Sunlight in Sein Dungeon.
Without visiting the Sun Altar in the mid-layers to form a covenant, one couldn't obtain a Furlcalling Finger, nor draw summoning marks.
Even after she shared everything about the altar, the number of Warriors of Sunlight didn't increase. No one else could locate it, and Stella herself had forgotten the way.
As the lone Warrior of Sunlight and the first to make her knowledge public, she became the subject of rumors and admiration everywhere.
Meanwhile, both her Morning Wind Squad and the Falling Hammer Squad enjoyed a surge in fame, thanks to their earlier discovery of the Gourmet Zone.
Now, adventurers who couldn't overcome the Twin Gargoyles prayed to find Stella's mark. Since once a summoning sigil was used, it vanished, she was in constant demand.
"Someone's summoning me again."
Stella felt the distant pull. Moments later, her body dissolved into golden light, reforming as a radiant spirit-form in the summoners' world.
Two adventurers crouched in terror within the Swamp, hiding beneath a mound of monster corpses. The stench was overwhelming, but they didn't dare move or even breathe too loudly. A single sound could mean death.
Plop… plop…
Webbed feet splashed in the swamp. At the fortress gates, grotesque creatures prowled—monsters warped beyond recognition.
One had a body sheathed in steel-feathered wings, but its head was a black serpent.
Another was a hulking mass of flesh with four heads and eight arms.
A third resembled a tiger beastman, yet purple tentacles writhed from its back.
Their true identity—demons.
But why here? Why had the adventurers encountered demons?
The two hiding in the corpses were Baron and Ceri, members of the Falling Hammer Squad—the very team that, alongside Stella's, had discovered the Gourmet Zone.
Once, they'd been known only by mocking nicknames—"Timid Priest" Ceri and "Reserved Glasses Magic Swordsman" Baron. Nobodies.
But after the Gourmet Zone discovery, their team had scattered. Their captain, Zilaj, had turned into a fishing fanatic, diving into the dungeon daily like an addict, while the others lacked the strength to keep up.
So Baron and Ceri had joined a temporary ten-man team to investigate the rumored bonfires. Everyone dreamed of growing stronger.
That dream shattered the moment they defeated the Twin Gargoyles.
Four teammates suddenly transformed into demons.
The creatures tore through the group, slaughtering them mercilessly. Only Baron and Ceri survived. The others died in gruesome ways—and worse, their bodies weren't carried away by teleport crystals.
Whether the crystals failed or the demons interfered, one thing was certain: if discovered, Baron and Ceri were doomed.
Just before hiding in the corpse pile, they had spotted a summoning mark. Desperation drove them to use it, clinging to the faintest chance.
Please… save us, whoever you are…
Their hearts sank further into despair as the demons' footsteps drew closer, guttural roars echoing through the swamp.
I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die…
Then, a strange melody rang out.
The demons turned toward the fortress gates, where a golden figure slowly took shape.
"You… huh?"
Stella, ready to greet them as usual, froze at the sight before her.
She blinked, taken aback, and blurted out instinctively:
"So ugly!"