After the plateau of the second basement had been cleared, the natives had more than enough time left to spend however they wanted to.

Liam was busy collecting one corpse at a time and depositing it in his Small Shop where they would be sold for a cheap price. The reputation of his Small Shop had skyrocketed in the last 24 hours. He was clearly getting more visitors taking a look at the available items in his shop before they would leave.

Most visitors took only a short glance at his shop before wandering to the Arcane Shop but that was exactly what Liam wanted.

Thus, he continued doing what he had to do; selling most of his gains for a cheap price.

He had spent more than three hours replenishing his Arcane Power and collecting every single Shedim corpse from the plateau. In the meantime, the others rested a little before they adventured into the maze.

With an ordinary iron pickaxe in their possession, they didn't have to fear the shifting walls of the maze. They could create their own ways, which was exactly what they did in order to search for more monsters and treasures.

Once Liam was done, he found a large mountain of armaments, consisting of various types of accessories, armor, and all kinds of weapons, or tools. There were also a bunch of books next to the stash of armaments, and it looked like the Natives had gotten hold of new equipment which they were wearing already.

"You guys are quite lucky," Liam pointed out, but everyone turned over to look at Jennie and Ludwig.

"Jennie is probably the only one with great luck. She found more than half of these things. As for Ludwig…he seems to be finding things by playing around with his Arcane Power," Olivia clarified while trying to hide the bitter undertone and slight jealousy in her voice. The others might not notice the bitterness in her voice, but Liam could hear it clearly.

'Jealousy is poisonous as well.' Liam thought before he shrugged, 'But it can also be used as fuel to strive for more and push yourself.'

"I doubt that you guys want to carry around all these things as we venture down to the third basement," He pointed out while observing Ludwig and Jennie who were holding the goods and standing next to each other.

"Can you sell all these armaments for a decent price, not your weird low-range prices?" Ludwig asked while intentionally adding, "Of course, 70% of the profit will belong to you, while the rest is mine!"

Ludwig's voice had a tinge of arrogance in it. He was already arrogant before, but that had been mostly related to his academic and financial achievements. It had never revolved around his physical feats because there had never been anything for him to boast about in that regard, in the first place.

"Just tell me what's yours and I will sell them, but don't expect too much. Most of those armaments seem to require special conditions to be met in order to be worn. They might be functional and even good Circleless B Rank armaments, but their value won't be as high as you may expect," Liam clarified while turning over to Jennie once again.

She was the one he was the most surprised about. He didn't expect Jennie to be a golden mouse, who could find treasures everywhere.

That made up for her miserable combat prowess, a little at least.

"I...I want to sell my stuff as well…but I want to share my portion of the profit with everyone…" Jennie mumbled, trying to build up eye contact with Liam just to flinch whenever she managed to look into the terrifyingly cold eyes of the Halfling.

Liam nodded his head, waited for the loot to be divided by Ludwig and he then placed those items in his shop for a price that was fair but also attractive for many. He had only five slots to sell items, and three of them were already occupied by the corpses of the Ordinary Shedim, the Elite Shedim and the Mutant Elite Shedim.

It would take a while until those exhibition slots would be freed, which meant that they had to spend a little bit more than one hour sitting on the ground of the second basement's plateau.

There was actually not much for them to do right now either way. Liam had to focus on his small shop, which meant that he couldn't start scrolling through the other shops and the Arcane Shop to search for the best goods to purchase.

Rather than rushing things, he chose to rest a little and analyze the individual strengths, power and progress of the natives who chose to follow him.

He didn't really have anything against their presence, but he believed that he would get too soft if he were to open up to them. That was not what he wanted since he had to be strong and undefeatable, without a single weakness, if he wanted to become as strong as possible in the shortest timeframe.

His mother's side of the family wouldn't allow him to grow stronger, and they would do everything it took to drag him down. This included killing those important to him. He had already witnessed something like this in the past, unfortunately. It was better for him to be all by himself and not let anyone get close to him. That way, he could let go of the shackles of his responsibility towards them and seek vengeance all by himself without pulling anyone into his mess!

"Why are you so stubborn?!" Felicia asked, her voice climbing an octave as she stood up from the ground, staring down at Ludwig. Her expression was like that of a hissing cat, but Ludwig didn't seem to be too bothered.

He didn't even bother to look up at Felicia, whose cheeks started to turn red in embarrassment. It was fine if Ludwig were to start fighting with her, verbally of course, but being ignored was simply too humiliating.

Was she not even worthy of a glance now that he was stronger than the others?

She stomped her foot on the ground and stared at Ludwig as a sudden thought emerged in her mind.

'Should I just kill him?'