Chapter 160: From Confirmation to House Search (2/2)

Lapis chided at displeased Gula and clapped her hand to gather everyone’s attention. When everyone had turned to her, she smiled like a blooming flower and said:

“Alright, it’s time for a long-awaited house search.”

Tizona and Gula had destroyed the depot quite splendidly, but they had been careful to not damage what shouldn’t be damaged: the warehouses.

Valuable loot would be separated and transported to HQ, but they should be stored in the warehouses before sorting, along with less-valuable goods.

Cash should be at the main building where the bandits lived, but Loren didn’t have much expectation for it. When it came to ‘collecting valuable goods’, the first things that came to mind would be jewelries and cash. Not to mention that they weren’t bulky, so they should have been transported to HQ already. Even so, with about a hundred bandits living at this depot, there should still be something left. They had gone through the trouble of destroying the depot, so might as well take as much as they can.

“In the worst case, we can recruit some people from the town to help us with transporting.”

Loren knew from the beginning that they wouldn’t be able to carry everything out by themselves. He was considering following the bandits’ method: carrying only the valuable goods, and asked the townsfolk to help with the rest in exchange for some cash.

“Lapis and I will check the warehouses. Gula and Tizona, you two search the main building.”

“Aighty, leav’it to me.”

“Understood. Let’s do that.”

Under Loren’s command, Gula and Tizona jogged towards the half-destroyed main building. Loren watched them go, then walked towards the warehouses with Lapis.

Lapis promptly ran around the heap of goods in the warehouse as soon as she entered. She returned to Loren after a while and said:

“I’ve guessed as much, but there’s really not many good things here.”

Loren hadn’t looked very carefully himself, but it seemed like all that remained in this warehouse was food and the bandits’ equipment. All were bulky, and not very valuable.

Loren was beginning to think that this was a letdown when Lapis came back bringing a longsword and some daggers, together with a pair of gauntlets and a helmet.

“These are the most valuable.”

“What on Earth are these?”

From the first glance, they looked just like ordinary stuff sold at the stores around here. Loren picked them up, believing that they must be special if Lapis had brought them back, but he couldn’t see anything outstanding in particular. They also didn’t look very well-maintained. Loren looked closely at the conspicuous dirt marks.

Lapis answered with both hands on her waist:

“These are infused with magic.”

“All of them?”

Lapis hadn’t found many, but these arms still made a decent number. A longsword cost 10 silver coins, and the price would be higher if it was infused with magic. The gauntlets and helmet were only parts of an armor, but they could still be sold for a reasonable amount. If they could find the complete set, they could earn gold coins selling them.

“What are these doing in a bandits’ warehouse?”

“Well, maybe they found them in Tizona’s ruin, and decided to use them.”

Many treasures slept in a ruin. There were ancient currencies, jewels, objects made from rare materials, and magic-infused arms like the ones Lapis had found. If the bandits had entered one part of Tizona’s ruin, then they were likely to scavenge it. The items Lapis had found might have come from that.

“Or maybe they got them from attacking some caravans? We can’t know for sure.”

“How much will these cost?”

Even magic-infused items were varied in performance, so it wouldn’t be strange if their values could be as different as heaven and earth. A dingy sword might be worth dozens of gold coins, while a dazzlingly decorated armor could be as valuable as an ordinary item. The ones found in this warehouse were plain and dingy, and they didn’t look to be that valuable. Loren asked just in case, and Lapis folded her arms and looked at the items with a pondering expression:

“Probably not that much, I think. They’re just a bit sharper or tougher than ordinary items.”

Lapis said while picking up two daggers from the pile. They were sheathed in plain leather scabbard, and looked just like ordinary daggers. Lapis gave the two seemingly-average daggers to Loren:

“Only these two are a bit special. This is , and this is .”

Loren took the two daggers, thinking how amazing Lapis was to be able to appraise items by her own eyes without having to visit an appraiser in some big city.

Both daggers looked very average, but Dragon Slayer had its pommel inset with a blue gem, while a red gem adorned Painful Addition at the same spot.

“What did the person who made Dragon Slayer think when giving a dagger such a specification? I don’t think there’s anyone who can come close enough to use it.”

“The person probably did it as a hobby? These look interesting, so maybe you should keep them.”

Dragons were the highest-ranked amongst the monsters in this world. The highest-ranked amongst the Dragon, the Ancient Dragons, which were said to have power rivaled to the Gods. No one knew whether the story was true or not though. Facing the Ancient Dragon generally meant death, and even a much lower ranked dragon would require several parties of silver-ranked adventurers working together to subjugate, but not before claiming multiple victims.

Using a dagger to fight such creatures was really a bad joke, but the name “Dragon Slayer” did have a nice ring to it. Loren planned to add the two daggers to his equipment if Tizona allowed it.