I think... That in having a skill that made me a bit of a rogue-like character. Those monsters would be attracted to me like those games. As our party didn't go more than a couple of minutes without a monster party numbering at least five strong finding us.
Which sure led to us getting a good amount of monster stones, even if the monster stones of this floor in the third floor weren't worth much. But still.
"A couple hundred goblins, a hundred kobolds and around thirty dungeon lizards." I muttered before shaking my head as I could feel a bit of a hollow ache within myself as I had used too much Soma when I felt my mana stores falling to low.
So I was more then ready to get back home and get to sucking on Tiamat's milkers to fill back up the tank as it were. "A good hunt even if the monsters are weak, but their numbers are seemingly unending." Xianyun agreed with me as we were walking up the stairs leading out of the dungeon.
Filia at the back of the line, giggled out loud, saying happily as she had gotten over the more brutal slayings earlier. Though it helped that the Ganesha- amazons had cleaned up the dead by the time we left.
"At least these monster stone's don't weigh much. Carrying a couple of hundred finger nail weighing stones isn't much. But trying to carry fist-sized monster stones will be a major pain haha."
That was very true. Though it wasn't like we were having Filia be the mule of the party. Xianyun and Ganyu helped the more petite blond human in carrying some stuff as they were mostly stationary in combat.
Though on that topic... "Hmm, getting a tamed monster just to be a pack mule isn't a bad idea though. It doesn't need to be strong in combat or anything, just can keep up in our movements and carry some stuff."
The ladies gave me raised eyebrows before Shenhe spoke up blandly. "Like what? A Hellhound is only found past floor thirteen right? You want to tame a Hard Armored or something?"
I shrugged and said honestly. "No, I was thinking of taming a coupl ofe Imps actually. They are small enough to literally be stuffed into a larger bag so we can take them out of the dungeon, and they can still carry small bags on their own."
Then adding on with a slightly evil smile. "Plus, just imagine how great it would be to have dungeon monsters pulling out the monster stones of other slain monsters for you!?"
There was a pause as the ladies considered it, and then Shenhe asked in confusion. "Imps do have blade-like fingers that would be very good for that task... I wonder why no one else has used them for such a chore?"
Internally, I muttered to myself. 'Probably because this world runs off harem logic with a slight splash of the worst kind of ecchi logic where the MC get's a nose bleed at seeing some tits.'
I just shook my head and instead said. "No idea, Shenhe, though I will need to look into the rules for having tamed monsters roaming around Orario outside of cages and whatnot."
Though I was very much aware that I wouldn't be able to do any such taming until we got our own property and then secure said property so said monsters couldn't get loose... Or more likely, to prevent some other asshole adventurer comes to kill them just to be a dick.
We left the dungeon, and then my party got to meet Shera L Greenwood, the ditsy, almost bimbo like elf at the Guild. Where we turned in ninety percent of our monster stones for a lovely payout.
Then we left to go meet Tiamat back at the inn after being in the dungeon for the last four hours, and as I saw her I realized that she was extremely excited. "I have wonderful news! I spoke with Ouranos and he gave me a loan to buy up an exiled Familia's manor so we could fix it up and make an orphanage!"
I paused at hearing that. And I took a breath and said with an inhale. "That's... Wonderful news, Tiamat. How big is the manor, and how much do we owe?" I asked the much more pressing question.
Tiamat just blinked before she smiled and said with a weak smile.
"Well, the Rangda Familia had a habit of taking in street urchins and making them fight to the death to enhance their growth between one another. So it has a lot of rooms even if they aren't great... And the uhmm... The torture and breeding chamber needs to be removed from the basement."
There was a moment of silence filling the inn's room as my party just stared at Tiamat before I brushed my hand across my face. "Alright. It's a working manor, we just need to pay some people to clean it out of any... Unpleasant things, we can easily make this work."
Tiamat coughed and then shifted slightly, making my face dull as she spoke quietly. "Well, the manor itself was priced at forty million Valis due to it being a hundred and fifty-room monster of a manor. But the real value is the large estate the manor is on as you guys know land in Orario's walls is at a premium."
Ganyu then quietly muttered aloud for everyone to hear. "I don't think we should allow our goddess any rights to the Familia funds."
Tiamat's face pinched and I exhaled before I spoke calmly. "How much do we owe, and how much is the interest?"
The primordial goddess blinked before she said bluntly. "One hundred and fifty million valis, and the interest is three percent every fifty years being added."
I just paused at that... As honestly, it wasn't that bad? Like a Level 5-6 weapon, it typically costs around that much if not more. And Level 5's and ups typically fucked up their weapons beyond repair rather sadly regularly according to the Loki Familia in canon.
'Thank fucking god that my Stygian Blade and other weapons won't have that issue.' I muttered to myself.
Still, I took a deep breath and spoke calmly but firmly. "Tiamat, I am very glad you got this deal. And it is a good deal for a functional manor and estate. But you seriously should have waited for me and the rest of us. As now we are going to be working on this debt for the next couple of years, probably."
Sure, with my growth rate, it may not take too long to start making a dent in that debt. But my major way of growth was literally burning money away to level up my Rogue-Lite system.
The primordial life goddess did look a bit ashamed at my words so I just took that for now. So with that, I clapped my hands together and spoke with amusement. "Alright, so now that we have a true game plan now. Wanna see me gamble with the monster stones we kept for my leveling?"
The ladies nodded with Tiamat brightening at my changing of the subject and I took the small pile of small finger nail-sized monster stones and absorbed them with the roguelite system with a hum as I felt my XP bar within myself filling up.
[Rolling... Rolling...]
I froze as the system rang out loud and bright as instead of getting a divine weapon like I did before, I got something just as valuable if not more as I rolled into the Warm Snow's Martial Path tree.
[Bitter River Bodhi- Wheels of Solar and Lunar- Thunderfury Arhat] Seeing the three possible martial art's paths available to me... I was stunned as this was just extremely major, as I knew that in taking them I would be able to learn more abilities and such tied to that martial path.
Those martial paths were literally a cheat in of themselves honestly.
So starting from the top, Bitter River Bodhi was a powerful ice-based martial arts system that would allow me to freeze my enemies, my surroundings, and at the peak of mastery. Allow me to freeze time around myself so I could attack while time was frozen.
Wheels of Solar and Lunar was one of the most aggressive and powerful martial paths as it was the path of yin and yang. But also in conjuring the might of sun and moon to strike my enemies with all that force implied, along with giving me ramping abilities that would make me stronger the longer I fought with my abilities getting more powerful the more devastation I created.
Lastly, Thunderfury Arhat was a precise and overwhelming power in the form of Buddha's fury in blindingly fast lightning-enhanced sword play. Besides being blindingly fast, and being able to turn into intangible lightning at the peak levels, it also had soul-attacking, and karma/fate-breaking attributes.
I had to consider this life-changing little cheat landing in my lap as I had a feeling... That I wouldn't be getting another such ability in the future or at least. Not for a long while.
After a moment of thought, I considered the most important fact of life here in Danmachi. I needed to be able to kill monsters on-masse and have the stamina to do so. So that left one option in reality.
I picked the Wheels of Solar and Lunar for my martial path, and my mind was filled with the knowledge of its martial form's it's abilities, how to grow and master it's many techniques.
And time seemingly resumed as I held my head at all the foreign information being dumped into my head with Xianyun asking me quickly. "Are you alright Captain? Your veins around your head are engorged a bit."
I grunted a bit tiredly and said. "Yeah... I just got a bunch of magical martial arts dumped into my head. Alright, let me do the next pull as well."
I rolled again, and the system did it's rolling thing, and I chuckled as I simply rolled a Mana Reserve mod out of the Magicraft system. "Well, adding an extra forty percent mana capacity to my Swiftblade Wand isn't a bad thing."