Divine Milking System-Chapter 69 | Dungeon Economics 101

Cross wore her usual modified instructor uniform, the blazer tied below her chest like she’d given up on buttons entirely, paired with a tight pencil skirt that ended mid-thigh and fishnet stockings that should have been illegal in an educational setting.

Her long purple hair fell loose around her shoulders, and her violet eyes scanned the room with the kind of knowing amusement that said she was fully aware of the effect she had on people.

She set her tablet on the desk and turned to face us, one hip cocked, lips painted deep red and curved in a smile that promised she knew exactly what we were all thinking.

"Good morning class," she said warmly. "Ready to learn how not to die horribly in your first gate?"

Jordan’s head came up off the desk so fast I heard his neck crack.

Cross laughed, the sound rich and genuinely delighted. "That got your attention. Good. Today we’re covering the economics of dungeon diving, which sounds boring but is actually how ninety percent of you will make your living assuming you survive first year."

She tapped her tablet and the holographic display flickered to life behind her, showing a three-dimensional rendering of what looked like a crystal the size of a golf ball.

"Monster cores," Cross announced. "The bread and butter of hunter income. Who can tell me what these are worth?"

A Sapphire girl raised her hand. "Depends on the monster rank and core quality."

"Correct but vague. Be specific."

"An E-rank core from a common monster sells for about fifty credits. D-rank cores go for two hundred. C-rank cores start at eight hundred."

Cross nodded. "And why the exponential increase?"

The Sapphire girl hesitated. Cross’s eyes swept the room, landing on me with laser focus.

"You. Lottery kid in the back. Why does a C-rank core cost sixteen times more than an E-rank core?"

I blinked.

"Mana density," I said, pulling the answer from memories of the novel I’d read in my previous life. "Higher rank monsters have exponentially more concentrated mana in their cores. A C-rank core has about sixteen times the usable mana of an E-rank core, so the market price reflects that."

"Excellent." Cross’s smile widened. "See? Even lottery admissions can think when properly motivated. What’s your name?"

"Jace Monroe."

"Well, Jace Monroe, you just earned your squad five points for correct analysis." She turned back to the display. "Mana density is everything in the core market. Hunters sell cores to refineries, refineries extract the crystallized mana, manufacturers use that mana for everything from medical equipment to weapons to the phones you’re all pretending not to check under your desks."

She tapped the tablet again and the display shifted to show a chart of core prices by rank and monster type.

"E-rank cores: fifty to one hundred credits depending on purity. You need to kill about a hundred E-rank monsters to make what a normal job pays in a month. Not great, but acceptable for first-years getting experience."

"D-rank cores: two hundred to five hundred credits. Now we’re talking real money. A good gate run can net you five to ten thousand credits if the spawns are dense and your squad is efficient."

"C-rank cores: eight hundred to two thousand credits each. This is where professional hunters live. Clear a C-rank gate with your squad and you’re looking at twenty to forty thousand credits split four or five ways."

Javier was scribbling notes furiously, his colored pens flying across the page. Jordan had somehow managed to stay awake, which probably said something about Cross’s teaching style or possibly just her outfit.

Cross leaned back against her desk, the movement doing genuinely interesting things to her already-strained top, and I watched half the room lose track of the lesson for about three seconds. She let the moment land before continuing.

"Now, here’s the part your admission brochures didn’t mention. The academy takes a forty percent cut of everything you bring back from supervised gate runs in your first year."

The room went loud fast. Javier stopped mid-scribble. Even Jordan straightened up slightly, which was practically a standing ovation coming from him. Belle made a noise that was somewhere between a gasp and a profanity, which tracked.

Cross didn’t move. She just waited, perfectly comfortable, the way someone waits when they know exactly how the conversation ends. The protests burned themselves out after maybe thirty seconds.

"You’re using academy equipment, academy medical support, academy extraction teams on standby, and most importantly, academy insurance that pays out to your surviving family members when you die horribly inside a gate. Which statistically speaking, some of you will. That forty percent covers all of it, plus the liability the IHC absorbs every time they let a first-year near a live monster."

She set the tablet down on the desk beside her. "Compare that to the standard guild cut for new recruits, which runs between fifty and sixty percent with far fewer protections, and suddenly forty starts sounding reasonable."

She had a point. Genuinely exploitative framing wrapped around something that was, when you actually did the math, not the worst deal on the table.

"However," Cross continued, her smile turning sharp, "once you hit second year and pass your licensing exams, you can run independent gates and keep one hundred percent of your earnings minus the standard IHC gate access fee. That’s when the real money starts."

The holographic display shifted again, this time showing a cutaway diagram of a monster core with layers of crystallized mana visible inside.

"Core quality matters almost as much as rank," Cross explained. "A pristine D-rank core sells for five hundred credits. A damaged D-rank core sells for one-fifty. Learn to kill clean or you’re leaving money on the floor."

Javier raised his hand. Cross nodded at him.

"How do you kill clean? Most combat abilities cause massive damage."

"Excellent question. The answer is weapon skills and precision strikes. Abilities are for crowd control and emergencies. Your actual money comes from good old-fashioned violence with sharp objects aimed at vital points that don’t include the chest cavity where the core forms."

She pulled up another diagram, this one showing monster anatomy with core locations highlighted in red.

"Most humanoid monsters store cores in the upper chest, roughly where a human heart would be. Most beast-type monsters store cores in their heads or spinal columns. Learn the anatomy, aim accordingly, profit."

I watched Cross move through her lecture with the easy confidence of someone who’d done this a thousand times. She made dungeon economics sound like she was discussing weekend plans instead of the violent extraction of crystallized monster organs for cash.

"Now," Cross said, her violet eyes scanning the room with predatory interest, "let’s talk about the fun part. Loot."