The Stonehearted Knight-Chapter 465: Dividing the loot

Alliance of Cursed Ones // 19:00 SS (Since Start)

"Shouldn’t we resume climbing up?" Gronke asked without pausing his snacking.

"In a minute," Hex replied. "We are almost at the top. If we encounter Althea or Sven, we will have a tough time. We will need every help we can get."

Seeing Gronke puzzled, he pulled out two pouches, one his, the other to the Dryads. He dumped their contents before him. The dim light of the smouldering fire illuminated them just enough to inspect them.

"As agreed upon, these treasures belong to us. Maybe we should wait on Elron?" Hex glanced at Gronke who met his eye for a second, before both grinned.

If he wanted his pick, he should have stuck around. He would get his share, only his share would be things discarded by Hex and Gronke.

Hex sorted the treasures they gathered into two piles at first. The first pile contained consumables and everything else went onto the second one.

Dividing them as such was easy because of the little notes stuck on each treasure.

"Those eggs are mine!" Gronke growled as soon as Hex unwrapped a soft carton, revealing four pieces of eggs, the size of his fists.

Drool dripped from the wide-eyed warlord as if he had been starving since the beginning of his time.

"Sure," Hex nodded and handed them over, after taking the small piece of paper inside the carton. While Gronke attacked the eggs, emitting disturbing moans with each bite, Hex read the note.

Siren Eggs. Extremely rare. Improves vocal and mind abilities upon consumption. Sought for their ability to overstimulate the taste buds upon consumption. Caution: Extremely addictive. Consumers will find every other food bland for a period of time.

Market Value: W 1,500,000 per egg.

"Fuck." Hex stared at the zeros and commas and then at Gronke. With those he could have bought everything he needed for his following steps.

Still, he didn’t fancy eating them. Food, though not required as much to survive at his level of power, still remained one of the simple pleasures of life he enjoyed. He imagined the caution took in consideration their level of power and its effects might linger for some time.

"I know what they do," Gronke whispered, revelling in the pleasure of its taste, when Hex read the note out loud. "But this is something you get to taste once in a lifetime. Maybe not even once. I am sure my leader, despite having lived longer, never even saw one of these. Can’t pass the chance, bud." And he continued to munch on them.

Well, it was his choice. The division would be based on value, and since the eggs gave Gronke a six million deficit, Hex could take quite a few items from these two piles.

There were still twelve items to go. Eight he gathered and the remaining four of Touch of Life’s stash.

Consumables exceeded equipment and trinkets by far. Despite the time slipping by, Hex inspected every treasure with care. Some of the things he had never heard of before, opening his eyes to more wonders of the world.

Consumables

Moonbloom Bee honey. Rare. Honey harvested on the thirteenth full moon of the year. Improves affinity toward the water element. Side effect: Intoxicating breath.

Price: W 500,000 per 100 ml.

Hex looked at the vial with a metallic bluish liquid sloshing inside it. He estimated the content to be around a hundred milliliters.

"You lost your chance, bud," he said, seeing Gronke stare greedily at it. With a grunt the big guy looked away and took a bite of his egg. As soon as he sunk his teeth in the emerald layer, his eyes glazed over.

Hex shook his head and continued with the other consumables. The organizers hadn’t held back. Based on the numbers under each note, the consumables alone were worth around ten million Wrixian coins. And that was without counting the six million Gronke was shoving inside him.

Out of the many items, Hex took two.

Violet Phoenix Eggs. Extinct. Consumption ignites the spirit, pushing it to evolve. Caution: ten out of ten die when touching it with their mouth.

Price: W 750,000

The moment he read the note, he knew he needed it. The certainty of death would be reduced to a high risk in his case. Or so he believed. And silently prayed.

He placed the oval, violet egg, which was the size of an eye, at his side. The way his body hungered for it the moment he touched it, convinced Hex it was exactly what he needed to grow.

The other item was a bit less of a harbinger of death, though it was related to death.

Graveyard Grapes. Extremely Rare. Grows after absorbing death energy for at least a century. Caution: Can suck the life out of you.

Price: W 100,000

No abilities or effects were listed, which made sense. Rarely people trained Death and even rarer did those few survive.

For Hex, however, it might just be the treasure he needed for the upcoming ordeal.

Other

The brooch he gathered on the first branch stood on top of the other pile.

Leafsigil. Rare. Allows the user to float when falling down. The greater the height, the smoother the motion. Activates upon drop.

Price: W 250,000

An excellent item. He fastened it on the inside of his top. Who knows when it came in handy.

The other pile wasn’t as valuable as the consumables. Everything together held a combined value of four million Wrixian coins.

Aside from the brooch, he also picked a teleportation scroll that enabled him to travel over the entire length of Wrixia. He also took a few trinkets he hoped would work with the ’flipping the table’ task his mother assigned him.

He wasn’t sure whether he would do as she asked of him but he wasn’t against it. Part because he trusted her, which he also believed to be extremely foolish of himself, and another part, the larger part actually, because he had no other alternatives that even stood a chance against what was to come.

Having divided up the items, they decided to continue their journey.

"Where is that fucker?" He asked Gronke, suspicious about Elron’s absence. Nothing good could come from depending on the guy. Gronke shrugged, still munching on the eggs. Another unreliable partner. Great.

"Whatever. I hope he isn’t planning something else."

...

"So, this is why you guys came here?" Althea asked, seeing Orosol’s three servants stand before her.