DanMachi: Annihilation Maker in DanMachi World! Chapter 49 49: Tartarus's Blue Scale

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"Wooo! That's amazing!!"

The Empress cheered wildly. She lunged forward, wrapping Lucian in a crushing bear hug before planting a loud, fierce kiss squarely on his cheek. She genuinely believed the loot was lost to the abyss, completely forgetting that Lucian still had tricks up his sleeve. While he could have easily cast invisibility, dove into the water, and pocketed the loot for himself, he chose to secure it for the team instead.

"Please have so dignity," Lucian grumbled, firmly planting a hand against her face and trying to push her back.

"Oh, don't be so shy! Let's celebrate our grand victory together!"

Instead of letting go, the Empress laughed brightly and squeezed him even tighter. Her generous curves pressed flush against him, showing absolutely zero regard for personal boundaries. The Hera Familia was composed entirely of won, and Hera herself was the Goddess of Marriage and Childbirth. Though the Empress was an Amazon, she didn't share the notoriously chaotic and promiscuous lifestyle of her kin. In fact, this was the very first ti she had ever initiated such intimate physical contact with a man. That alone spoke volus about how thrilling this victory was for her.

More importantly, it proved that the Empress had fully and unconditionally 'acknowledged' Lucian. Amazons worshipped raw strength above all else, but Lucian's outrageously broken utility had forced her to completely reevaluate her worldview. Watching his absurd growth rate firsthand over the past few days, she was certain he would officially reach Level 2 by the ti they returned to the surface.

Hitting Level 2 in roughly two weeks was a horrifyingly unprecedented level of potential. Factor in his min-maxed stat distribution—giving him the raw physical power of a peak Level 1 even without using his magic—and he was a literal monster in the making.

"Tch."

Lucian clicked his tongue, imdiately casting a short-range teleport to slip out of her crushing grip.

"You really are getting more and more irresistible," the Empress purred, licking her lips as her eyes practically sparkled while staring at him.

Lucian, however, felt a cold chill run down his spine. Compared to his own fra, the Empress's physical constitution was terrifyingly overwhelming. On a purely biological level, that sheer difference in raw power instantly killed any romantic interest he might have harbored.

"Heave it up!"

Working together, the vanguard successfully hauled Tartarus's massive corpse onto the ice. Strangely, the body showed no signs of turning to ash. The adventurers eagerly ran their hands over the beast's scales, clicking their tongues in awe.

While this wasn't their first ti killing Tartarus, they had never actually managed to secure its body before. Getting to touch the intact corpse of a Level 8 Monster Rex was an exhilarating novelty. Especially compared to the Behemoth. They had killed that monstrosity too, but since its corpse was highly toxic, no one dared to even poke it with a stick.

The adventurers quickly set to work, carefully cutting open the carcass to extract the Magic Stone. Floor Bosses of this caliber had incredibly dense hides and actively protected their cores during combat, so their Magic Stones were almost always preserved flawlessly. Once the massive core was removed, the corpse finally began to slowly dissolve into ash, mirroring the lingering decay of the Behemoth.

"I wonder if any drop items will survive the dissolution," Alfia murmured as she walked over.

"It will," Lucian replied confidently.

"Hmm?" Alfia shot him a questioning look.

"My Luck attribute is extrely high. Haven't you noticed? Your overall yield on this expedition is vastly higher than your usual runs," Lucian casually explained. "My magic didn't just help you map out the resource nodes; the actual drop rate for monster loot has significantly spiked, hasn't it?"

Aside from directly investing attribute points into his Luck stat, Lucian had engineered several passive skills specifically designed to heavily amplify his base fortune. Furthermore, he possessed a 'Luck Storage' chanic, allowing him to stockpile good fortune during mundane days and manually trigger it during critical monts.

"Is that really what's happening...?" Alfia fell into deep thought.

Looking back, it was undeniably true. They hadn't noticed the inflated drop rates simply because they had been too distracted by the sheer volu of resources the map hack allowed them to harvest. They just chalked it up to having a good week. To think it was actually another one of Lucian's passive buffs.

With the battle concluded, a few mbers jogged back to the 58th floor to escort the support teams forward. Passing through the boss arena, they finally arrived at the breathtaking, crystalline sanctuary of the 60th-floor safe zone.

The biting chill vanished completely. The air was perfectly still, utterly devoid of the piercing, bone-deep frost of the 59th floor. The group imdiately established camp and began preparing a hot al. Because they were well aware of the Glacier Territory's brutal environnt, they had brought specialized fire-attribute equipnt.

Originally rare drops from Lava Giants, the Ignis Stones had been refined by their blacksmiths into magical tools capable of sustaining a blazing fire even in sub-zero conditions. In the original tiline, during the Seven Days of Darkness, Adi Varma was tragically killed by a detonated Ignis Stone. The older adventurers of that era had strapped Ignis Stones to their chests, using them as suicide bombs to take down the horrific monsters the Evils unleashed from Knossos. In Lucian's eyes, the Ignis Stone was an incredibly fascinating and versatile material.

After dinner, the Empress practically glued herself to Lucian's side, endlessly chattering into his ear. Lucian couldn't even be bothered to pretend to listen. He simply cast a localized silencing spell to mute her entirely. Despite his blatant dismissal, her attitude had grown significantly more affectionate, completely dropping any pretense of personal space. Being an Amazon, she was naturally aggressive, but this level of clinginess was a privilege strictly reserved for him.

Several hours later, Tartarus's massive, coreless corpse finally dissolved completely. It left behind two distinct drop items: Tartarus's Blue Scale and a brilliant azure orb. The orb functioned similarly to an Ignis Stone, but pulsed with pure, concentrated ice-attribute energy. However, compared to the Ice Bead, the massive Blue Scale was infinitely more alluring.

"If a blacksmith could actually forge this Level 8 material into a breastplate or a full suit of armor, the defensive specs would be absolutely legendary," the Empress sighed wistfully. "What a sha..."

There wasn't a single mortal blacksmith in the Lower World capable of processing a Level 8 material. Even the God of Forging was helpless, as divine rules strictly sealed their physical stats. While their divine authority granted them absolute conceptual mastery over forging, their mortal vessels lacked the sheer kinetic force required to dent materials of this caliber.

"Can you process it?" Alfia looked at Lucian, her eyes glinting thoughtfully. "You said your main profession is a blacksmith, didn't you?"

Hearing this, the surrounding adventurers stared at Lucian with bated breath. It sounded completely absurd, but given the sheer volu of miracles he had pulled off over the last few days, they couldn't help but hope.

"I can," Lucian nodded. "A basic refinent will only take a few hours. What kind of armor do you want?"

"Are you serious!?" Several adventurers gasped, their eyes going wide.

He could actually process a Level 8 material!?

In truth, there were three different ways Lucian could pull this off. The first was to construct a massive ritual array, using the arcane matrix to forcefully bypass the physical requirents of processing the material. This was the exact sa thod he had used to birth Balor and purge Zald's poison. The second was to utilize his ntal domain. Compared to his physical and magical stats, his ntal processing power was his true, unrivaled trump card. The third was to simply hand it to Hephaestus inside the Divine Court, where she was fully capable of unsealing her divine power.

Regardless of the thod, turning Tartarus's Blue Scale into an elite piece of armor was completely within his ans. However, Lucian had absolutely zero interest in high-performance physical armor for himself. Compared to the Blue Scale, the Ice Bead fascinated him far more.

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