Advent of the Archmage

In the game, whenever players wanted to search for loot after battles, they would either search the Boss’ body or scan for collectible items on the map. Generally, loot was raided from the corpses of fallen enemies. This might seem dishonorable, but it was, in fact, commonly regarded as chivalrous, resourceful and prudent as well.

But in reality, the Flamingo Band of Mercenaries exposed Link to the other side of pillaging—the wild side. They were so eager that Link stood dumbfounded as the mercenaries descended upon the Brotherhood’s treasures and belongings like a swarm of locusts.

Every single object in the Silent Mine that could be sold for a little bit of money was seized. Even the Dark Brotherhood members’ underpants weren’t spared!

And so half an hour after Viktor was dead, Jacker, Lucy and Gildern stood on the plain of the Cove of Echoes, their faces flushed, and beside them were spoils piled up as high as a hillock.

All the Dark Brotherhood members were stripped clean of their leather armors—not even the normal members in the cave were spared. All their weapons were grabbed and collected in a pile.

In total, they collected 75 ordinary leather armors, 28 elite leather armors, 50 bows, 100 swords of various qualities, 30 shields, and 25 daggers.

Apart from that, there were 4 sets of magical equipment too!

These were Grinth’s Fire Warrior Armor and Blazing Sword, and Viktor’s Dagger of Corruption and Detecting Crystal Ball.

The Shadow Dagger hadn’t been of much use in the hands of Viktor, but it was, in fact, a sterling quality weapon, and could be worth more than 200 gold coins.

Lucy’s face had turned crimson and her almond-shaped eyes were gleaming. She was dashing back and forth gathering the spoils, and that red hair of hers glinted like a kindled flame. She was acting as the bookkeeper, calculating the total cost of their loot on a goatskin paper with a pen in hand.

"A normal leather armor costs one gold coin, a fine quality leather armor costs 2 gold coins...a bow 1.5 gold coins...a standard steel sword is worth 2 gold coins...all of this gear is worth at least 800 gold coins!"

Even before she finished the sentence, both Jacker and Gildern couldn’t help but gasp in astonishment.

"Wow, that’s a fortune!"

"I must be dreaming!"

Previously, they would earn about 5 gold coins for each mission they undertook, and that was if they were lucky. Their usual income had always been in silver coins, for example, in an investigative mission, the reward would be about 20 silver coins (about 2 gold coins), so everyone would get about seven or eight silver coins each.

In the past year, they undertook about ten missions and earned 50 gold coins. They were able to survive comfortably on that income, but they were living by the sword, fearing for their life every day. So whenever they didn’t have any missions, they would spend their money lavishly as if there were no tomorrow. Had Lucy not been cautioning them, they would probably be penniless by now.

But this time, with just one mission, they were able to make 700 gold coins from the equipment alone! That was an amount of money that they couldn’t earn even if they worked for 10 years as mercenaries!

"But there’s more!" cried Lucy.

Lucy’s heart pounded, with this much money, she could get better gear. There were so many things that she had wanted to buy but couldn’t afford, yet now, she could buy them all!

The equipment needed to be sold first before they could get any money. There were still some gold coins around because every bandit had money pouches on them. Of course, they snatched all of it up. Viktor also had his own private chest that Jacker smashed open using his hammer. He found about 80 gold coins inside!

In total, they had around 200 gold coins ready to be spent. The mercenaries’ eyes were dazzled by the sheer amount of gold and silver coins.

What’s more, every bandit had their own private treasure, gemstones, jewelry, pocket watches and various other types of valuable trinkets. All of this could be sold for some money, and naturally, not a single piece of it was left behind.

"One silver pocket watch could sell for 3 gold coins, and this red gemstone ring could get us 5 gold coins...and look at this one, this silver horse trinket—it’s Master Dormick’s work, I’m sure it’s worth a decent amount of money too. But the most valuable must be this pouch of gemstones, look at how exquisite these rare gemstones are!" said Lucy.

These gemstones were, of course, the recompensation Viktor received from the black-robed man.

Lucy quickly made a calculation and concluded, "They must be worth at least 700 gold coins."

Jacker and Gildern both gulped.

Gildern counted on his fingers, "700, plus 200, plus 700...holy God of Light, that’s 1600 gold coins!"

He should at least get 100 gold coins. He wouldn’t be at peace keeping this much money. No, when he got his share, he must find himself a beautiful wife and have a child with her. That way, even if one day he died in battle, he’d die peacefully knowing he was not the end of his lineage.

Gildern had never desired a quiet and peaceful life—he loved the thrill of danger, and couldn’t stay in one place for long. This attitude towards life is something all three members of the Flamingo Band of Mercenaries had in common.

After the value of their loot had been determined, Jacker, as the most level-headed of the three, looked to Link and waited for him to divide everything among them. He knew that the reason they were able to earn this much gold coins was because of Link’s magic.

Lucy and Gildern looked to Link too, but they were a bit worried that Link might get too big a share.

Link, though, was slightly disappointed. For a commoner, this amount of money would be considered a fortune, but for a Magician, this was but a beggarly amount.

But he didn’t regret anything because he’d found the most valuable object of all among the pile—the Occultic Runes of Tarviss.

Link knew the Occultic Runes were ominous and sinister, it might even have demagogic powers, but nevertheless, it contained the most coveted magic knowledge that a Magician could hope to learn.

No one in the Legion of Light would openly admit to wanting such an object, but if it was sold to the Dark Elf Kingdom of Pralync, it would definitely fetch him more than ten thousand gold coins!

But Link would never sell it.

With the level of magic that he was at now, he had nowhere near enough knowledge to study and decipher the Occultic Runes. But in the future, if he kept it with him, it could come in handy one day.

The three mercenaries didn’t think much of the fact that Link took the magical runes. To them, all they wanted was to be as far away from such an evil object as possible; who would want to touch it again after all they went through?

Seeing that the Flamingo Band of Mercenaries members were all staring at him, Link thought and said, "Just give me the gold coins, you take all the gear and divide them among yourselves."

Dealing with the equipment would be too troublesome, and troublesome things were what Link hated the most. He’d already gotten the Occultic Runes, a rare Legendary object, so he was more than content. And after all, these mercenaries did risk their lives on this mission, he couldn’t let them do it for nothing, could he?

As for the tuition fees, Link suspected he would find enough money to cover it because he had seen from the loot pile something that said "Viktor’s Treasure Map".

The treasure map was a thrown about in the pile, so the three mercenaries hadn’t noticed it at all.

Digging for treasures in the game was interesting and fun, but in the real world, it was more of a dirty, exhausting, and dangerous undertaking. Link had no desire to do it alone. He knew that it would be best to have someone help him do the dirty work, and then divide the gold coins up among them. But to do this, he needed people he could trust.

These three mercenaries seemed reliable; they were agile and strong. They might lose a bit of composure in the face of such enormous wealth, but their judgments remained sound, and they didn’t lose their poise. This kind of mental strength was not bad at all, though Link still had doubts about their integrity because they had only known each other briefly. Link was also using this opportunity to test their honesty.

The moment they heard Link speak, the three mercenaries looked at each other.

"But Link, what’s left is worth at least 1400 gold coins!" Jacker exclaimed in disbelief.

"I know, but it’s too troublesome to deal with them; it would waste too much of my time. All of you have helped a lot, anyway," Link said.

"But how could we agree to this? You should at least get 1200 gold coins," Lucy stated without hesitation. There were only three of them in the Flamingo Band of Mercenaries, but it’s only fair that the one who did the most work should get the most money!

Even the seemingly stingy Gildern didn’t expect to get much. From the total of 1600 gold coins, he would be very happy just to get 100 gold coins.

The young Magician not only enabled them to plunder the Dark Brotherhood’s treasures and belongings, he had also saved their lives many times, particularly Lucy, whose life was snatched from the clutches of the God of Death himself. Naturally, she felt deeply grateful to Link.

Jacker nodded in agreement. Gildern had some reservations, but he did agree with what Lucy said, so he nodded too.

Link laughed. What just happened proved that the three mercenaries had integrity. Even if integrity did not account for everything, it was still a strong foundation for trust and cooperation.

Link would never dig for the treasures himself anyway, that would waste too much time and energy. He would have to find someone else to do it, and now that he knew he could rely on the Flamingo Band of Mercenaries, he would naturally ask them for their help.

He had no need to search for all of the hidden treasures. Once he’d found enough gold coins to pay for his tuition, he would stop.

He pointed at the tiny notebook in the loot pile, then said with a laugh, "Have you looked at that red leather notebook?"

Lucy glanced at the direction Link was pointing, then with slight disgust on her face, she said, "Of course, that’s Viktor’s filthy little notebook, it’s full of his lecherous adventures."

She had found the notebook when she was raiding Viktor’s room. It was right there on the study table, so she flipped it open and discovered that it was filled with lewd and obscene contents.

If it hadn’t been for the fact that the notebook might be worth a few silver coins due to its fine material, it would never have appeared in the pile in the first place.