An Adventurer Mom, Who Awakened [Housewife] Skill Through a Login Bonus, Is Making the Most of Her Adventurer Life With the Weekly Flyers She Gets! - Chapter 16

Kachua and her party continued their dungeon exploration and finally reached the tenth floor.

In terms of progress speed, they weren’t particularly fast; in fact, they were on the slower side. Beginner parties often rush ahead, but the best approach is to proceed steadily without pushing too hard, which often proves to be the fastest route in the long run. Especially for Kachua’s small party, it was best to avoid battles with monsters that were above their level.

The first goal for adventurers tackling the Loa Dungeon is to reach this point—the tenth floor.

As soon as they stepped onto the tenth floor, Rick shouted in excitement, “We finally made it to the tenth floor!”

In that instant, monsters appeared.

The battle began!

After defeating the monsters, Org looked at the drop items and tilted his head in confusion. “Prime Marbled Mo-Mo Meat… That’s from a rare monster.”

It was typical for meat-dropping monsters to appear more frequently on Fridays, which were known as “Meat Day.” However, the Marbled Mo-Mo, a rare breed of the Mo-Mo cow monsters, was an exceptionally rare encounter.

In addition to this, they had also found ‘Super Muscle Grass’ at the harvesting point earlier, which is a rare herb with ten times the effect of the normal Muscle Grass, known for its muscle-enhancing properties.

Kachua recalled the information. “Oh, I just remembered. Today’s flyer said, ‘This week is special! It’s Rare Week! Rare drop rates are increased. Look forward to seeing what you’ll find!'”

“You could’ve told us that earlier!” Ann said, exasperated.

“Sorry, I was in a rush this morning…”

The flyer had appeared during her busy morning, so Kachua had quickly skimmed it before stuffing it into her purse.

“Rare Week, huh? We got lucky.”

“Yeah.”

“We were fortunate. The Marbled Mo-Mo is powerful, and if it had attacked first, we would’ve been in trouble. Luckily, we struck first.”

The Prime Marbled Mo-Mo, while bulky and full of fat, was slow due to its massive size.

“Thank goodness for Rare Week.”

“Rick, keep your voice down,” Laura reprimanded him, and Rick scratched his head apologetically.

“Got it. Sorry.”

After moving cautiously forward and continuing their exploration of the tenth floor for the second time, the party came to a fork in the path.

Maps of previously explored floors are created and shared through the Adventurers’ Guild. In higher floors, maps are not publicly available and are sold at a high price, but maps of lower floors, like the tenth, can be accessed freely at the guild.

According to the map, they were now halfway through the tenth floor.

“If we go right, we’ll head to the eleventh floor. If we go left, there’s a statue of the goddess…”

The tenth floor also houses a goddess statue, which, like on the first floor, had the ability to restore health and mana. It used to be a vital stop for adventurers, but ever since the Healing Stone was stolen, hardly anyone visited it anymore.

The left path also led to a nest of Moe-Moe Iron Ants, monsters resistant to regular attacks and with the annoying ability to call for reinforcements. They were not only tough to defeat but also offered little in terms of experience points or valuable drops, making them “unprofitable” monsters.

Adventurers usually chose the right path to avoid wasting their resources on such monsters.

But Kachua’s party intended to visit the goddess statue.

Kachua’s goal was to see if the statue could be restored, or if there might be a clue about the missing Healing Stone. Though she didn’t expect to find much, she thought it was worth checking just in case.

“As my husband says, ‘You have to visit the scene a hundred times.'”

“Is Kachua’s husband an adventurer?”

“My husband’s a knight. He’s currently stationed away from home.”

Moe-Moe Iron Ants tend to swarm and call for reinforcements, making them dangerous. The key to defeating them was to finish the battle quickly.

Org and Rick equipped weapons prepared for this moment: Org with ice claws and Rick with an ice dagger—both effective against the fire-attributed Moe-Moe Iron Ants.

Kachua and Laura each took out scrolls with ice-elemental attack magic, ready to use them at any moment.

The Moe-Moe Iron Ants swarmed toward them, but thanks to their preparations, the party had no trouble taking them down.

They swiftly made their way forward until they finally reached a large hall. Ahead of them was the shrine housing the goddess statue.

“Let’s go.”

Even though the Healing Stone was gone, the shrine remained a sacred space, and monsters couldn’t enter.

“We can take a breather here.”

Everyone thought so. That’s when a monster appeared.

Kachua held her breath.

It wasn’t the Moe-Moe Iron Ants they had fought so far.

“It’s the Queen Hie-Hie Iron Ant…”

It was the queen of the Moe-Moe Iron Ants—the Queen Hie-Hie Iron Ant.

***

“…We messed up,” Ann muttered under her breath. “The rare variant of the Moe-Moe Iron Ant is the Queen Hie-Hie Iron Ant.”

Moe-Moe Iron Ants are the size of cats, but the Queen Hie-Hie Iron Ant is larger than an elephant. Ants are ten times faster than humans, and the queen’s jaws are strong enough to slice a person in half with one bite.

Worse, the Queen Hie-Hie Iron Ant could summon a swarm of Moe-Moe Iron Ants to assist her. And unlike the Moe-Moe Iron Ants, the queen had ice attributes. Her weakness was fire, making the ice weapons the party carried nearly useless.

“Org, Rick, switch your gear! Kachua, protect Laura! When there’s an opening, escape to the goddess shrine,” Ann commanded with a level of authority unlike her usual self.

“I can’t heal you if we’re separated,” Laura protested, but Ann didn’t even glance at her as she replied coldly.

“We can’t fight properly while protecting you. Honestly, you’ll just slow us down. Use your ice magic scrolls and protect yourself.”

“Laura, do as Ann says.”

“Rick…”

Rick gripped his thief’s dagger tightly, as though steeling himself for the worst. “If things go bad, we’ll retreat to the shrine too. Kachua, please take care of Laura.”

“…”

“Alright.” Kachua bit her lip. We never expected this.

The rare appearance of the Queen Hie-Hie Iron Ant was likely due to Rare Week. The party had drawn a rare monster at the worst possible time.