Madness of the Blue Blood Labyrinth - Chapter 17

“I’m so hungry…”

Using her now-normal scythe as a makeshift cane, Rize slumped to the ground and muttered in a faint, raspy voice.

Her face looked pale. She’s clearly hit a wall—classic hunger knock.

—

…Out of curiosity, I looked up the “Cursed Womb” skill on my terminal. Turns out, every time she uses it, she loses a whole kilogram of body weight.

Even a big guy would collapse from that level of strain. For someone as slender as her, the toll must be even heavier than the numbers suggest.

—

“If that’s how your skill works, you’ve got to have some food on you, right? Where is it?”
“Right leg… compression bag…”

—

A compression bag: one of the marvels brought about by the Revolution of Matter. It’s a highly advanced item that compresses internal space, allowing for exponentially increased storage capacity.

The materials are so rare that even the cheapest ones cost at least 500,000 yen. No way I’m getting my hands on something like that. Sheesh, rich people.

—

I reached into the leg pouch she indicated, which looked like it could barely fit a few soda cans. My hand sank in up to my mid-forearm. Ugh, that feels weird.

—

“Chocolate bars, potato chips, chocolate bars, energy gel, chocolate bars, chocolate bars… This is all junk food!”
“Give me calories…”

—

For now, I handed her an energy gel since it’d absorb quickly.

After gulping it down, she wolfed down three chocolate bars in quick succession. The color started to return to her face, and she let out a long, calming breath.

—

“Skipping breakfast and lunch really hit me hard today.”
“Eat something. You’ll die otherwise.”
“I overslept, my makeup took longer than usual, and by lunchtime, I was in the forest zone. I wasn’t about to eat or drink there.”

—

Fair enough. The atmosphere there is grim enough to kill anyone’s appetite.

—

With time to kill while Rize recovered, I decided to collect the magic stones and other loot left behind by the unfortunate creatures that had been within the range of “Cursed Womb.”

—

I pushed aside the withered, cursed grass, now shriveled and rotten. Even if you dumped undiluted herbicide straight onto plants, it wouldn’t look this bad.

—

“Ten, twenty, thirty… That’s a lot. Did the monsters flock here because of the fight?”

—

Magic stones from the creatures in this plains area average around 800 yen each. Add in the other drops, and we’re looking at about 40,000 yen total.

I’ve heard that the real money in the Kofu Labyrinth is on the 20th floor and beyond, but this isn’t a bad haul either.

—

“Hm?”

As I finished gathering everything, something caught my eye—a treasure.

I picked it up and inspected it closely.

The appearance matched the image from my terminal. This is the real deal—it’s my first time seeing one.

—

“Rize! A *Gift Box* dropped!”