Chapter 73: Harvest Time, Equipment Worth Two Hundred and Fifty Million

This was already the third time Song Qi had looted corpses.

Except for the shield warrior, the bodies of the other four still remained.

With hands growing increasingly deft, he stripped the equipment from the four of them. Unfortunately, aside from the shield, which was a legendary item, the highest quality among the rest was only heroic grade.

Among them, the ranger’s bow and the priestess’s staff were of the highest quality—each likely worth around ten million credits.

The paladin’s weapon was the worst, not even heroic grade, merely an extraordinary-grade book. Its effects were damage reduction and lengthening the duration of buff-type skills.

“Thank goodness I didn’t listen to my teacher and become a paladin,” Song Qi muttered. “Otherwise, I’d probably be like him, still a punching bag at level seventy.”

He continued sorting through the gear. Overall, the five’s equipment was of decent quality. A rough estimate put their value at sixty to eighty million credits. With the addition of the legendary great shield, the total approached two hundred million!

Not only did this cover the cost of the items he’d lost, but it also netted him a tidy profit.

Once he’d finished looting, Song Qi buried all five in the pit where the priestess had originally lain.

As the saying goes, one should not forget propriety after receiving benefits. Having taken their equipment, he couldn’t just leave their bodies exposed to the elements.

“I’m a man of principle, after all,” he said, patting down the earth with the shield.

...

Having secured the five high-level professionals’ gear and storage rings, his next targets were the twelve intermediates. Their levels were lower, but even a mosquito’s leg is still meat; together, they might fetch a million credits.

That was his initial thought.

But to his surprise, these twelve offered him an unexpected windfall.

Each of them carried an Emergency Escape Device.

More astonishingly, one of them had a legendary weapon!

[Weapon: Staff of a Thousand Mechanisms]
[Quality: Legendary]
[Usable By: Mage, Summoner, Priest, Spellblade]
[Required Level: 35]
[Required Attributes: None]
[Strength: +10]
[Agility: +10]
[Constitution: +50]
[Spirit: +350]
[Effect 1: When summoning mechanical creatures, summoned entities gain +30% to all attributes.]
[Effect 2: Consumes all spirit to randomly summon one to six mechanical golems, each between levels 20 and 70, lasting one hour.]
[Evaluation: An epic weapon for the lucky, a tool of joyful ruin for the unlucky.]

Song Qi stroked his chin.

“The stats are decent, but the effects... are hard to judge.”

“Special legendary items like this are difficult to value.”

Effect Two was entirely luck-based. With good fortune, one could summon six level seventy mechanical golems—enough to crush any dungeon at the intermediate level. But with bad luck, not only would your spirit be exhausted, you might only summon a single level twenty golem. In a tough situation, that was practically suicide.

The gap between best and worst outcomes was absurd.

If he took it to auction, and there happened to be a wealthy buyer in need, it might fetch seventy or eighty million. If not, it would only go for twenty or thirty million.

“Let’s say forty million, then. With the twelve escape devices, that’s another six million, and miscellaneous items...”

“A total of about fifty million credits.”

“Not bad at all.”

To have scraped together fifty million credits from twelve intermediate professionals was already beyond his expectations.

“And seeing these items, I think I can more or less guess the plans of the Cult of Demon Worship.”

Song Qi thought back to the dungeon where he had acquired the Seven Deadly Sins artifact.

If the Seven Deadly Sins was the key to opening the Abyss, then these dungeons must all be of similar difficulty.

In the low-level dungeon he had cleared, the monsters had all been around level forty.

So, in this intermediate dungeon, the wild beasts would likely be level sixty.

For average intermediate professionals, even groups would struggle to clear such a dungeon—let alone solo it.

Thus, sheer numbers were useless.

He had wondered why the cult sought twelve intermediates for this task, but now he understood.

The cult had prepared the legendary weapon for these twelve, and given each an escape device, so they could take turns entering the dungeon, relying on luck to summon mechanical golems.

If luck failed, they’d use the escape device and let the next person try.

As long as one of them managed to summon a level seventy golem, they could clear the dungeon and retrieve the Seven Deadly Sins artifact.

“But now, all these goodies have fallen into my lap,” Song Qi grinned, unable to contain his delight.

“Two hundred and fifty million credits’ worth of goods—I can really treat myself when I get back!”

Though Elder Liu’s inheritance was substantial, Song Qi still had uses for it. Unless he was truly strapped for cash, he was reluctant to sell.

But selling off these items—he felt no hesitation at all.

After sorting his spoils, Song Qi found a rope and tied up the twelve intermediates together.

They posed little threat to him, so there was no rush to kill them. He could bring them back for interrogation and see what information he could extract.

“Let’s see... I don’t think I’ve missed anything here,” Song Qi mused, thinking for a moment. Once he was sure, he took out the parchment.

“Next up...”

“It’s time to enter the dungeon.”

With that, he gripped the parchment and strode toward the sealed entrance.