Aster fell on his backside, panting hard as he stared at the Dire Wolf's frozen body. "We really did it..." He whispered, half in disbelief. "Oh, right! Cassy!"
Remembering his party member, Aster rushed to his feet and stood up, looking left and right in search of her.
Then, about ten meters away, the tall grass was flattened slightly, catching Aster's attention.
"Cassy!"
He rushed toward it and found the orange rabbit lying down there, with eyes open and staring at the blue sky. Her white robe was filled with holes and covered in blood, creating a bone-chilling scene.
"...!"
Aster gasped at the sight of her, imagining the worst. But a moment later, a soft voice reached his ears.
"... I'm alive."
"Cassy! So you're safe! Thank god!"
"I am... but my body hurts so much, I can't move a muscle."
She was literally caught in the Dire Wolf's mouth, after all. Basically, if not for her robe having a little resistance to piercing attacks, then she would be in halves right now.
"Did you defeat the boss?" Cassy asked.
Aster turned around, checking on the Dire Wolf one more time. It was frozen completely, stuck in a large block of ice, and without any signs of life anymore.
"I think it's dead." He shrugged. "But I didn't gain experience for some reason..."
While killing slimes before, Aster was starting to get the feel of "experience" flowing into his body. It was closer to a warm feeling flowing into the center of his chest and spreading.
However, when he "killed" the boss, he didn't feel anything at all. Not even a sliver of mana went to him!
"Could it still be alive, perhaps?" Aster mused, staring at the block of ice warily.
Seeing that the wolf wasn't moving, he shook his head lightly. "Nah, there's no way it's still alive. Anyway, let's return early for today."
The two were spent. Without Cassy's healing, both of them would be on the brink of death already. In short, they survived by the skin of their teeth!
"I agree," Cassy replied lethargically. "But first, let me rest here..."
"Same. I'm too exhausted to go on the way back..."
Aster sat down beside Cassy, staring at the ice sculpture of the Dire Wolf. As he did, a certain thought entered his mind. "Can't we sell the entire boss monster as loot?"
"... Ah!"
---
A little bit after noon at the Adventurer's Guild, everyone was watching a small electromagnetic (EM) levitation cart being pushed forward effortlessly.
When it reached the counter, the man pushing it from behind wiped his sweat before speaking confidently. "We would like to cash this in!"
"W-Wha..."
The receptionist, Ms. Zenearith, gaped as she realized what was on the cart. "The Field Boss?!" she exclaimed in surprise. "But you two are level ones, right?!"
Confusion struck her before she hurriedly brought up the information about the two. She saw that Aster was still level one, but Cassandra had already reached level two!
"Unbelievable," she whispered. "The Dire Wolf requires a full party of level 3 to defeat. How did you even survive its bite and claw attacks?"
Aster moved his scarf aside, revealing his clothes.
"We just braved through it," he commented with a wry smile.
Zena noticed the three pairs of slits on it, realizing he had indeed received a claw attack. Upon closer inspection, she also saw new holes punched through Cassy's clothes, shaped like a wolf's maw.
"You two... you're living too close to the edge; it's worrying." She sighed, shaking her head in exasperation. "I'll begin the appraisal; please wait."
After a while, she finished appraising the frozen remains of the field boss.
Thanks to it being preserved in ice, the materials didn't deteriorate at all, although it would be a little hard to thaw the entire thing.
"Overall, that's 1,055,200 Tels, including the slime cores and mana powders."
"Huh? Sorry?" Aster cleaned his ears as he asked Zena to repeat her words.
"One million. You both earned one million in half a day. Congrats."
"One..." Aster froze.
He didn't expect that their accidental hunt would fetch them such a grand amount!
Of course, there was a reason for this. Although a Dire Wolf's materials should fetch around half a million at most, the "quality" of them raised the price to double!
Due to the Dire Wolf's almost complete lack of injuries during the hunt, some eccentric but wealthy collectors may decide to buy the entire body as is and turn it into taxidermy. Or maybe some research organization will offer to buy it off as a sample for dissection.
*Ping!*
A notification sound echoed, notifying the two that the money had just entered their cards. With shaky hands, the two confirmed the amount and almost had a heart attack. "It's really worth a million!"
Aster felt giddy. In his senses, the eyes of those around them looked greedy, as if they wanted to "rob" their wealth as soon as they got out. Cassy was the same in that sense, where she couldn't stay still and relax with such a large amount of money in her account.
"What should we do...?" Cassy asked in a quiet voice, similarly watching the surroundings warily. "I wouldn't be able to sleep well with this much money in my hands!"
"Me too," Aster nodded. "Then, we only have one choice."
After saying goodbye to Zena, the two quickly exited the Adventurer's Guild before anyone could eye their small fortune and went toward its affiliated shop a block away. The same shop they bought their cheap gear from before.
"Old man! We need help!" Aster called with urgency. "Equip us completely. Our budget is 500 thousand each!"
Aster didn't want to waste time choosing for himself. Asking an expert's opinion was the fastest and most reliable way!
"New gear, eh?" The dwarf shopkeeper grinned while patting his beard. "Then I've got just the thing fer ya!"
Without further ado, the dwarf started to inspect the two's build before nodding. "Got it. Wait o'er ere."