Chapter 18: Take Them.
Ethan looked at Sara’s back once; a smile appeared on his face as he muttered under his breath. "Yeah..." and the moment he completed his words, he finally let exhaustion embrace him into a cozy slumber.
Sara’s sword was resting over her shoulder; she noticed that the wolf had taken a few steps backward. But it didn’t stop her from coating her sword with bright ocean-blue mana. She slowly stepped forward, eyes remaining glued to the wolf.
She noticed that the blood of it had poured down on the ground, which had left huge splashes across the land. Even its fur was now coated with wet crimson blood.
Low howls left through its mouth as it licked the spine once, trying to stop the bleeding, but eventually it failed to do so.
But Sara didn’t feel any form of sympathy towards the wolf; she simply kept walking forward, and then her steps came to a halt.
She knew that this state of its might was a trap because it’s the nature of wolves not to show weakness to their enemies.
A couple of minutes passed before the wolf finally stopped licking its wounds. It slowly rose to its feet and began stepping toward Sara. Its steps were calm, but its eyes told an entirely different story.
It was still considering Ethan and Sara as potential prey even after suffering from a life-threatening wound.
Sara let a sigh pass through her mouth before scratching her temple lightly. "You’re weak, and now you’ve gotten even weaker after suffering from that wound."
"Spending more than a minute on you would be considered a waste of time, and currently I’m not going to waste my time when one of my comrades is unconscious."
In just a blink of an eye, she had moved towards the wolf’s behind. Her speed was fast enough to leave an afterimage behind.
Although the wolf had already caught up to her speed, its body didn’t allow it to take any action, which resulted in making it easier for Sara.
Sara extended her long sword to the left and grabbed the hilt with both her hands as she swung it in a clean, wide arc. The blade passed through its body, traveling from the neck to the tail in a precise crisscross motion.
She swung her sword once more, which resulted in splashing all the blood off the blade, cleaning it completely. The wolf’s body got cut into multiple pieces as it fell on the ground with a loud THUD.
Her attention shifted toward Ethan, who was still unconscious, and then she looked at the other members and gave a faint nod.
Micah made his way toward Ethan and slowly extended his hand forward. A golden light emerged from his palm, its warm rays seeping into Ethan’s body.
He maintained the same posture, steadily channeling his mana into Ethan until Ethan finally regained consciousness.
Ethan slowly opened his eyes and looked around. His gaze wandered through the chamber before he noticed that the boss had already been defeated.
Micah was still beside him, his hand glowing with golden light as he continued healing Ethan with his holy magic.
A few minutes passed, and now Ethan didn’t feel the exhaustion from before anymore. Even his mana had started to refill inside the core.
He took one closer look at his own body before a thought appeared inside his mind. ’This is fabulous!! First this man buffed me, and now this holy magic is helping me recover entirely.’
A smile appeared on his face; he gave a tiny nod to Micah. "Thank you for helping me; your holy magic surely is interesting." His tone carried gratitude.
Without wasting any time, Ethan pushed himself back up. Took one close look at the boss before looking at Sara. "So it is all over now?"
"Yes, the dungeon is cleared, but we still have to collect all the dungeon scraps and loot." While she said that, Max and Sylv had already begun extracting the mana cores of these monsters.
Ethan looked at a leather pouch that was kept beside them both; they were extracting the cores and placing them inside the pouch. They were also extracting the important parts of their body, like eyes and heart, because all these ingredients are sold at a hefty price in the market.
After collecting materials from each and every dire wolf from there, their attention shifted towards the boss.
But before anyone could go and collect its eyes, core, and heart, Sara’s voice echoed through the surroundings.
"Didn’t we agree that we would give all the loot to Ethan?" She said while looking at Max and Sylv.
Both of them froze; they suddenly realized that they were moving on from their habit of collecting stuff right after completing the dungeon.
Max scratched the back of his head before replying. "Yeah, I totally forgot about that."
On the other hand, Sylv was just standing there as her gaze remained fixed on the ground.
A sigh left Sara’s mouth; she stepped forward and said. "Let’s give all the mana cores to Ethan and the loot of the boss too."
"We can keep the remaining items. They may not be worth much, but they’re still better than nothing," she said.
No one disagreed with her words, and the only reply they gave was nods.
Ethan, who was still sitting on the ground, looked at this strange confrontation, and a thought curled inside his mind. ’They all helped me clear this dungeon... I definitely don’t want to take all of this stuff because if I do, I’ll suffer through guilt.’
"Sara, why not? We divide everything equally?"
She turned her attention to him, scanned him once, and then a smile crept on her lips. "These materials aren’t of any use to us. We will just sell them, and that’s why it would be better if you take these cores and extract all the mana from them."
Ethan understood her reasoning. He knew they were high-level adventurers who usually tackled A-tier dungeons, so the mana contained within these cores was almost negligible to them.
He let a sigh escape through him before he replied. "Sure, I’m fine with it."