The first room they entered greeted them with monsters.

Three snakes formed of crystal, looking like blue ice sculptures and as large as Giel’s entire arm, lunged at them as soon as they all stepped through the door.

“Kenn look out!”

The warrior being in front was forced to sidestep the first of the creatures, but the other two weren’t idle as they lunged at Sandra and Giel behind her.

The thief jumped back. Raised her leg and brought her boot down on the creature. There was a sound like breaking glass as Sandra kicked the serpent away. At the same time, Giel’s serpent closed. Deciding this foe want with wasting ammo on he kicked it away in a similar manner as his party member.

The snakes slid across the ground, clacking against the wall, Their crystalline skin fractured but far from dead.

Kenn was having a harder time with his opponent, the snake that darted at him was faster than the others and avoided his kicks and slashes of his sword with relative ease.

The warrior brought his weapon down at an awkward angle against such a small opponent. The blade carving divots into the ground as it missed its mark.

Hissing the crystal snake jumped, snapping at Kenn, and was batted away as the human swung wildly

“EEP!”

The snake smashed against the floor shattering on impact while the other two slithered their way back into the fight. One of which received a lightning bolt to the head. Stunning the creature and giving Sandra a chance to drive her dagger through its simmering skull. The single remaining snake bolted forward, lunging at Ali.

With a wave from the caster, it was engulfed in a fireball.

“Eat that.” The gnome snarked, too soon though as the snake shot forward unharmed by the flames “Oh no.”

She dodged to the side as the snake came flying at her face, The crystal jaws clicking together on empty air and smashed to the ground.

With a hiss like the crunch of gravel, it shot back at the caster, an ice bolt firing from Ali’s palm. The icicle pierced the serpent's stomach, pinning it to the spot. With a stomp of her boot, It was dead. Its head was broken into shards of blue glass.

Sandra laughed “See, wasn’t that fun! This isn’t so bad right?”

Ali smiled “Okay I have to admit That was kind of- OH!”

“What the fuck!” Giel Groaned as his body shuddered, his every nerve tingling with bliss as streams of light flowed out of the snake's body and into him “What’s going on?”

The Demon King just shrugged “you’re adventures. Haven’t you killed a monster before? That’s what exper- erm, purified mana feels like”

“W-wh-what!?” Hailey complained obviously trying very hard to not make any embarrassing sounds “Feels so much more...intense t-than before”

“So is a circus. Benefit of having an active core my friend, more capacity to absorb mana means more… this.”

"Oh my GOD! Fucking hell! It's like the best high ever!"

"My whole body is on fire....in a really good way"

"I-I think I just came a little..." Kenn half spoke, half moaned.

"H-how can you fight monsters if you feel like this in the middle of a battle every time you kill one?" Ali attempted to rage, but she obviously couldn't stoke it among the euphoria.

The Demon King chuckled,

"Don't worry, the mana usually waits until after a fight is finished to enter your core, Or more so your system waits to absorb it. Plus, you'll build up a tolerance quick as you progress, forcing you to fight either way stronger or many more enemies to get the same... boost. It's addictive, why do you think so many mages are also adventurers?"

“Yeah I can see how you’d hooked on this” Giel shivered as the sensation began to fade

“Oh, and that isn’t even the best part” The demon went on, pointing to one of the snake monster’s corpses which as if on cue exploded into mist that dissipated in the air around them, leaving only three silver coins to show it had ever been in the first place.

“Oooh! Loot!!!” Sandy squealed running over and picking up the money

“Three silver! That’s a whole day’s work!” Kenn said with awe

“Nine total...and this is just the first room” The thief cheered “Was I right or was I right?!”

“You were right” Hailey agreed "But… I'll just… hold on to that…" she said gently taking the coins from Sandra's hands, her eyes glowing.

"Is she, like, the party bookkeeper? Or something?" The Demon King asked confused.

"I mean she does the job sometimes but half the time I'm pretty sure she's just stealing from us…"

The Demon King looked into Hailey's delight-filled eyes. She didn't even notice the attention enough to be embarrassed so enraptured was she in their Newfound wealth.

‘O..kay…, well if you guys’d like to see more coin…” he waved to the door deeper into the dungeon.