Peromus raised both his arms to block, but the demon's punch sent him flying back.
"Hm? Hum!!"
Hearing Peromus' grunt, Bek jumped back and effortlessly smashed the demon's head.
The more noise they made, the more demons came to stop them.
But Bek easily overpowered any attackers.
He effortlessly defeated them.
Peromus realized that the stories Shea told about the beastman who resembled Garm the closest were all true.
"Thank you, Lord Bek."
"Don't mention it. I'm counting on you for healing."
"Yes, leave that to me."
While the demons were reduced to mincemeat with just a few punches, Bek would sometimes take a hit too.
Bek did all the fighting, while Peromus stood back and used the healing items Allen gave him.
Peromus also had an adamantite dagger, but he focused more on healing.
His Endurance was also around 15000, so unless he took many successive hits, he could handle it.
He also told Bek to use Skills as much as he wanted, outputting constant high damage.
But Peromus did not know how long the fight would take, so he was trying to use the recovery items sparingly.
They interrogated a few demons that seemed to be non-combatants, and found that this place was secluded from the outside world, and the only way out was through the teleporter room.
Peromus had been brought from that room, so he knew roughly where to go.
There were three floors there, and the third one had the teleporter room.
They were a detour before heading there now.
After smashing the door on the first floor, they found a research room.
Bek insisted on going there, saying he had to pick up something.
Each room was dedicated to a different type of research, filled with strange experiments.
But there were no specimens caught and left alive like Peromus.
The rooms were filled with dissected bodies, and even dead demons.
"Hm? Ohh, so that's the Beast King's Emblem!"
Bek had been looking for the Beast King's Emblem, which he had stolen from Albahar.
It was a set of orichalcum armor, orichalcum knuckle guards, and the Sacred Bird Kuwatoro's Bracelet.
It was all thrown aside to a corner, like it was worthless trash.
"Nice! Quick, put it on! And ohh, so that's the Sacred Bird Kuwatoro's Bracelet!!"
Peromus exclaimed with joy, seeing the set with a yellow shine.
Getting Bek to be stronger was important to escape from this place crawling with enemies.
With that equipment, Bek would be even stronger.
"You're telling me to wear the Beast King's Emblem? Hmm…"
"Why even doubt that? We need all the help we can get to escape from here."
Bek hesitated, which made Peromus even more impatient.
"You don't want to wear it?"
Then Peromus realized that while life was important, some things could be even more important.
Maybe Bek had something like that too.
"There's a girl I want to spend my future with. I can't afford to remain trapped here!"
Peromus wanted to escape and meet with her.
That was also the reason why he had come to Prostia.
"For a girl…nevermind…"
Bek seemed surprised someone would have something like that as motivation.
That was something he had never heard for more than half his life, yet it was a younger man who said it now.
Hearing his determination made Bek even more pensive.
"Let's hurry now. More demons are going to come."
"Right."
Even though they were in a hurry, Peromus did not forget to appraise everything.
"This armor is designed to not obstruct movement, I see. Wait, what's this?"
It was different to the plate armor Dogora wore.
It was meant for fighters, so the armor left various places exposed.
Peromus felt like the armor with a yellow shine fit a lion beastman like Bek well.
Bek examined the knuckle guards with an unsure look.
It seemed like he had never tried wearing them before.
He was also wearing another bracelet.
It had no Sacred Bead, and it was a translucent light blue.
"That's Aqua's blessing. One of Ignomas' servants gave it to me so I could come here."
"Ohh!! The thing that lets you breathe underwater."
"Yes. I got it, but didn't get to use it in the end."
Bek had obtained it from one of Ignomas' servants, but because Sinorom deceived him, he never got to use it in the end.
-Bracelet 2: Underwater Breathing, Strength +2000, Mana +2000
-Ring 1: Attack + 5000
-Ring 2: Attack + 5000
-Necklace: Attack + 3000
-Earring 1: Physical Attack Damage +7%
-Earring 2: Physical Attack Damage +7%
[Bek's main armament]:
-Orichalcum knuckle guards: Attack 12000
-Orichalcum armor: Endurance 10000
Bek took the lead, his incredible strength opening a path for them.
After wearing the Beast King's Emblem, Bek became even more stronger.
The Sacred Bird Kuwatoro's Bracelet granted him even more Agility, making him faster than any of the demons.
After a while, they reached the stairs leading to the second floor.
The stairs leading to the second floor were wide, seemingly designed to transport something.
There was a large room before the stairs, with one man standing in it.
'I was wondering what all the ruckus was about, and it turns out it's just two little bugs scurrying around. I'm the guardian of these stairs, the Demon Great General Ledragoch. And you, you look like the sacrifice…'
Sinorom's research location had many rooms, as well as many corridors, but it was not built like a very complex maze.
The news of the incident had quickly reached the top floor.
"So you're going to be in our way? Hum!!"
'Y-you can't-! Ghah!!'
Bek's skill filled his orichalcum-covered fists with immense power, literally pulverizing the Demon Great General.
Peromus and Bek went up the stairs and reached the second floor.
"The Sacred Beast Stone is supposed to be on this floor."
"That's what they said."
There were also researchers and non-combatant demons.
Demons that fought were comparable to A Rank monsters, but the others were relatively weak.
According to the researchers, the Sacred Beast Stone was on the second floor.
[Mimic]'s effect on Peromus was quickly reaching its end.
Bek who was with him now kept wondering why Peromus was rushing so much.
At least he understood they had to do something about the Sacred Beast Stone.
Bek and Peromus headed to the place they were told about on the first floor.
Smashing the door, Peromus entered together with Bek, finding a blue object moving inside a water tank.
"Hieee?!"
Someone wearing a white coat was instantly grabbed by Bek.
Bek was terribly feared by demons who could not fight.
"What is that?"
"Huhh? Y-you really think we'll tell- ghahh?!"
The moment he tried to resist, Bek applied more force into his neck, lifting him into the air.
They had seen water tanks like that so far, but this one was tens of times larger.
And in the center there was something bobbing up and down, the size of a soccer ball.
"Could it be the Sacred Beast Stone Kyubel mentioned? It looks similar to crystal seeds."
The object in the tank resembled the two crystal seeds Peromus had bought in the Magic Shop.
Everything seemed to line up, leading to this conclusion.
The 3000 crystal seeds had been used for some sort of experiment here.
Kyubel wanted to transport it somewhere now.
He wanted to change the spot from the warehouse to some other location.
The 3000 crystal had been carried here and used for some sort of experiment.
"Wha-?! H-how do you..!!"
The demon reacted when crystal seeds were mentioned.
Their suspicions were correct, that was the Sacred Beast Stone.
He tried appraising it to have an idea what it was or what it was used for, but nothing came out.
Either his Skill Level was still too low, or this was an item he could not check like that.
That left Peromus no other choice, and his body became enveloped in something like a heat haze.
He had activated his Extra Skill [Valuate] to gain at least a bit of information.
'It's worth 999999999999 gold coins.'
"Huh?! That's an incredible price. Or is it just that it can't be measured?"
Trying to compare it to its worth in gold coins outputted an unthinkable sum.
It could also compare against a country, to see if their budget would be enough to buy something.
But if compared to nothing but gold coins, it could display the highest price.
This was the first time something was outside its measuring range.
"What is it?"
Bek noticed Peromus had encountered something strange.
"It appears to have incredible value. Could you tell us what you're going to do with it?"