The first floor was nothing but a wet memory now. Thirty barrels of top-grade slime sludge, a chest of acids, and a boss that perished in a flash faster than it could even hiss dramatically — all now tidily filed away in Sharath's inventory.
But Sharath was not satisfied.
The second floor beckoned.
And since Sharath's thinking style could be encapsulated in the phrase "What's the worst that could happen?", he replied to that summons.
Descent into the Goo-and-Ice Inferno
The stairway curved downward, torches casting quivering shadows on the wet walls. The instant Sharath's boots touched the second-floor stones, a dim sizzling sound permeated the darkness.
Out of the shadows crept Red Slimes — but these weren't your standard gelatinous blobs. No. These critters belch fire.
And behind them? Packs of Ice Boars with tusks like frozen sabers, snorting plumes of frosty air that could probably freeze your eyebrows clean off.
Sharath's grin widened.
🐧Neuro Boop: "Of course you're smiling. They're basically loot delivery services with legs."Thermo: "You're going to kill everything in here, aren't you?"Sharath: "Was that a question?"
Sharath's Second-Floor Shooting Spree
The moment the fire-spitting slime hissed, Sharath whipped out the M416.
BRATATATATATA — the bullets tore through goo and molten droplets splattered in all directions. A droplet fell onto a soldier's helmet. The soldier did not bat an eye. He simply wiped it away with a rag and continued to scoop like a man wearied by his employer's madness.
Ice Boars charged again. Sharath changed to the Uzi of Doom™.BRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPP — boar after boar fell in icy heaps, tusks clanking against the stone ground.
Thermo: "You've invented a new ecosystem: constant corpses and zero living creatures."🐧Neuro Boop: "In unrelated news, the dungeon's economy just crashed."
The 15-Hour Grind
This wasn't a quick massacre. No. The second floor was huge.
For 15 straight hours Sharath mowed down enemies.
Fire slimes melted into puddles.
Ice boars dropped in perfectly preserved, ready-for-storage poses.
Red slime goo was scooped into barrels.
Warriors pedaled tricycles between piles of carcasses like grim delivery boys.
At the end of it, each and every 100+ barrels was packed to the hilt. Sharath's warehouse was overflowing with ice boar cadavers.
And the kicker is this — ice boar corpses didn't decay. Their magical core kept them fresh forever. You could pretty much cook one a hundred years later and it would taste like it had just been hunted.
The Wasted Loot Problem
After their 15-hour massacre, they then decided to take a break before going up against the second-floor boss.They were probably three hours into their recess when it occurred.
Slimes respawned.
Lots of them. Goo all over.Sharath's trigger finger quivered.He checked his inventory — full to the brim.He checked the warriors — already exhausted and partly goo-covered.He looked at the new, shiny slime sludge accumulating on the ground.
And then he lost it.
BRATATATATATATABRRRRRRAPPPPPPPP
Slimes exploded, fire slimes popped like flaming marshmallows, and goo coated the walls. The warriors stood there, staring at him like he'd gone feral.
Thermo: "You're aware that you're literally killing for no reason right now?"🐧Neuro Boop: "Correction — killing because it's fun for you."
When the carnage was over, the floor was carpeted in goo. Barrels? All full. Inventory? Packed tighter than a nobleman's ego.The entire loot went to waste.
Sharath sighed. "What an anticlimax. Good slime sludge, all wasted."
One of the soldiers grumbled under his breath, "Sir, we could've just… not shot them."Sharath ignored him.
Back to the Darsha Estate
Beaten by logistics, not by foes, they trundled the long way back up to the surface on their tricycles.
Lord Darsha waited for them. Lord Bassana did as well.And when Sharath came rolling in with a battalion of tricycles loaded with 100 drums of slime sludge and an order packed with frozen pig monsters, even they gazed… faintly awed.
Lord Bassana did not lose any time. He swept his hand in a gesture and unzipped his space pocket bag — a mystical pocket item with an almost boundless interior.
Barrel after barrel vanished within. The warriors counted out loud simply to determine whether the bag would ever be full.It didn't.Until the final barrel. Then — click — absolutely full.
🐧Neuro Boop: "That's suspiciously convenient."Thermo: "Yeah, it's like someone wrote it that way."
Lord Darsha inspected the frozen boar bodies and nodded. "These may go into the estate warehouse. Their ice essence will preserve them forever."
Sharath attempted not to look smug, but failed miserably.
Dinner Table Storytime
That night, Lord Darsha invited Sharath and Lord Bassana to dinner.
The table groaned beneath the weight of roasted meats, fresh bread, and enough wine to drown an ogre. Sharath, naturally, saw this as his opportunity to recount the whole tale of his second-floor escapade.
"…and then I grabbed the Uzi and just BRRRRRRRRRAPPPPPPPP, and the boar didn't even squeal, it just immobilized itself! Perfect pose! I could put a saddle on it as a statue—"
Lady Ishvari slammed down her fork. "Sharath!" she snapped.Lord Darsha winced.Even Bassana raised an eyebrow.
"You were supposed to take precautions!" Ishvari scolded. "Instead, you charge into the second floor and begin. firing everything like some crazed mercenary!"
Sharath attempted to explain that the only risk was using up barrels, but Ishvari was not convinced.
After a ten-minute lecture, he finally reached his point:"I couldn't carry it all. We had to throw away perfectly good loot because my barrels and inventory were full!"
Bassana leaned back, stroking his chin like a man considering the world's greatest mysteries. "That is indeed… a tragedy."
The Logistics Solution
It was then that Sharath's grandfather — a man of both business sense and serene amusement at his grandson's mayhem — leaned forward.
"Next time," Bassana said, "you will not make this mistake. Here's the plan."
He tapped the table for emphasis:
One team will go in with Sharath into the dungeon for his… slaughter.
Two teams will do transport, taking full barrels out of the dungeon to the surface.
One group will stay outside the dungeon with a storage caravan, where they can collect the loot and send in empty barrels.
Sharath would be able to kill nonstop without having to worry about wasted goo.
Sharath's eyes flashed. "That's… brilliant."
🐧Neuro Boop: "Translation: you just explained how to do maximum loot genocide without restraint."Thermo: "I'm beginning to think you're as deadly as he is."
Bassana smiled. "Investment in efficiency."
End of the Day
After dinner, everyone retired to their respective quarters.Sharath strolled back to his quarters, brain whirling with schemes.More barrels. Larger barrels. Possibly enchanted barrels.A team system that would have loot pouring in perpetuity.And perhaps… perhaps…. a gun update for second-floor boss battles.
🐧Neuro Boop: "He's already thinking about planning another slaughter, isn't he?"Thermo: "Oh, certainly."