Leo overcharged his Void Spear until he could feel a force trying to resist him. However, he continued to overcharge it for a few more seconds until the force was becoming too strong for him to bear.
After taking a moment to take aim, he lunged the Void Spear at the Fiery Butterfly that was still unaware of their presence.
The Void Spear looked very ordinary when it was still in Leo’s grasp, but the moment it left his hand, it expanded in size until it was as large as a missile.
This Void Spear flew a couple of meters before disappearing from their space, appearing only when it was right in front of the Fiery Butterfly, leaving no room for it to react.
The Void Spear struck the Fiery Butterfly and exploded with an immense amount of magic power, creating a small ripple that swept the room.
After being struck by the Void Spear, the Fiery Butterfly fell to the ground with more than half of its body gone.
However, despite that, it was still not dead.
Leo was surprised by the Void Spear’s prowess, but he was even more surprised by how much his magic powers have grown since the purchase.
Miss Camille stared at Leo with wide eyes.
‘That Void Spear just now had around 7,000, perhaps even 8,000 magic power! That’s already more than what most C-Rank Adventurers are capable of with Tier 4 magic spells! Not to mention that he was using a Tier 2 magic spell!’
Just a day ago, Leo’s Void Spear would only reach around 5,000 magic power even when it’s fully overcharged. For it to increase by over 2,000 in a single day was unprecedented until today.
“I’m going to finish off the boss!” Leo said as he quickly rushed over to the collapsed boss using Void Steps, teleporting every few steps.
When he arrived in front of the boss, he released another Void Spear into its face, killing it this time.
<Your Mastery Rank for Void Spear has increased to ‘B’>
Once the Fiery Butterfly stopped moving and the flame on its wings died down, Leo went to harvest its mana core.
A few moments later, he retrieved a fist-sized mana core from the Fiery Butterfly’s corpse that required both of his hands to hold.
“Whoa! This mana core is huge!” He exclaimed as he showed Miss Camille the harvest.
“That is pretty normal from boss monsters with the gargantuan modifier,” she calmly said.
“How much do you think I will be able to acquire from selling a mana core of this size?” He then asked.
“A few hundred thousand, give or take.”
“A few hundred thousand dollars?!” Leo was excited to hear such information, as he was only expecting to get a couple thousand dollars out of it.
Sometime later, Leo asked, “So, where do we go now? I defeated the boss, so where is the artifact?”
She looked around and said, “It’s somewhere in this place. We just need to look for it. Just like monsters, artifacts should cause some disturbance. However, we cannot stay here for too long because the labyrinth will collapse in a few hours.”
“Then what are we waiting for?!” Leo immediately started running around the place.
He would immediately stop whenever he senses a slight mana disturbance in the air, but due the Fiery Butterfly’s random fireballs that attacked the whole map, there were pretty much mana disturbances everywhere, making it much more difficult to find the artifact.
Two hours later and still empty-handed, Leo decided to take a break from searching for the artifact and just casually walked around.
“Damn it… Why is it harder to find the artifact than it is to defeat the boss?” He sighed out loud.
‘I wonder if Miss Camille found it yet.’ He wondered, as they had separated to make searching a lot easier.
They also agreed to meet up at the staircase in three hours, so he had less than an hour to find the artifact.
After walking for another ten minutes, Leo stopped his movements when he noticed something shimmering on the ground about 50 meters in front of him.
“Is that it?!” He immediately rushed forward, his blood pumping with adrenaline.
Once he reached the spot with the shiny object, he picked up the object and began inspecting it.
“What is this?” He mumbled to himself as he looked at the red metallic ball between his fingers.
This ball felt like it was made out of metal, and it was quite small, around the size of a baby’s fist, and it was bright red.
Leo wasn’t even sure that he’d picked up an artifact when he saw this object. However, he kept it with him just in case.
Sometime later, he met up with Miss Camille at the staircase that would lead them back up to the 3rd floor.
“Did you find anything?” She asked him.
“I found this red metal ball, but I’m not sure what it does.” He showed her the red ball.
“Oh, that’s a pretty good find,” she said after glancing at it.
“Really? What kind of artifact is it?”
“It’s not really an artifact. It’s an Affinity Orb. You use it to create artifacts. Judging by the looks, this is probably a Fire Affinity Orb. If you use it to create an artifact, the artifact will have a fire effect that will benefit those with a fire magic affinity. They’re actually quite rare and expensive. This one will cost more than the Fiery Butterfly’s mana core.”
“I see…”
Although it wasn’t an artifact, Leo was still quite excited about it, as he could just sell it for money, and then he could use that money to buy artifacts. Since this Affinity Orb costs more than the Fiery Butterfly’s mana core, he could buy many artifacts with it.
He then asked, “By the way, what happens if we miss an artifact in this place? Does it disappear once the labyrinth collapses?”
She nodded and said, “Once a labyrinth collapses, it disappears completely, so you cannot dig it out of the ground even if you want to.”
“I don’t even want to think about potentially missing out on an artifact because the labyrinth collapsed before I could find it. That would break my poor heart.” He sighed.
“That just means that you’re not fated to acquire the artifact, and there’s nothing you can do about that. Anyways, let’s leave this place. The labyrinth is beginning to collapse.”
Leo nodded, “Alright, let’s leave.”
The two of them proceeded to walk up the staircase, returning to the third floor. Then they made their way straight to the second floor, not stopping their legs until they reached the end of the first floor.
“I cannot imagine doing this in a labyrinth with over 10 floors. Hell, do people even have the time to look for artifacts at that point?” He asked as they approached the entrance.
“The bigger the labyrinth, the longer it will take for them to collapse. Some labyrinths have managed to remain for months even after the boss was defeated.”
“I see… That’s quite relieving to hear.”
A few more minutes later, the two of them exited the labyrinth and returned to the Wilderness.