Chapter 516 Enthusiastic Green-Skinned Neighbors

"This shield—"

Auriel stared at the painfully familiar heavy tower shield in the chest, struggling to keep his expression neutral.

He had excellent sources of information. Long before Xia Nan returned to Barracuda Bay, Auriel had already gathered a rough idea of what had happened on Wild Berry Cliff.

He knew the entire Shield of Iron Rock Squad had been wiped out in their battle against the leader of the Ebb Tide Gang.

But knowing it was one thing—actually seeing the main combat gear of Habik, the captain of the Shield of Iron Rock, sitting right there in Xia Nan's loot chest still made his expression inevitably subtle.

"Habik. It's from that dwarf; you've probably seen him before."

Xia Nan felt no need to hide anything, offering the explanation with complete candor.

A fallen teammate's gear was just another part of the loot. For adventurers, this was perfectly normal.

Let alone a temporary party like the Shield of Iron Rock, whom he had just met for the first time with absolutely no prior interaction.

By the same logic, if Xia Nan had died on the field and Habik's squad had survived, he wouldn't have minded them stripping his gear to sell for coin.

Of course, if things had actually reached that point, minding it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Taking the shield out of the chest with both hands and smelling the metallic scent that wafted into the air, Auriel gently placed it on the table.

Familiar with the unspoken rules of the adventurer trade, Auriel knew Xia Nan had done nothing wrong. The half-elf collector was only momentarily dazed by the sight of the familiar equipment; he didn't hold any negative views of the young man.

In Auriel's mind, Xia Nan was now an outstanding adventurer from the inland—exceptionally young, highly capable, and so decisive he bordered on ruthless.

Withdrawing his gaze from the dwarven tower shield, he turned his attention back to the loot chest.

He took out the pirate scimitar and the octopus horn one by one.

Vaguely sensing the half-elf's interest, Xia Nan took the initiative to explain the origins and general effects of these items.

"The scimitar is from Gerry, the leader of the Ebb Tide Gang, the 'Carrion Vulture.' He used this weapon in our fight. Combined with his venom attacks, it was quite troublesome."

"The horn is a spellcasting focus from a fishman priest. Judging by its effects, it's far superior to the tools used by the few Sahuagin Priests I've encountered before. I reckon it's of pretty good quality."

Auriel didn't respond immediately, but his silver-gray eyes, a hallmark of his elven bloodline, swept over the items again and again.

Coming from an auction house family and being a renowned collector and appraiser in Barracuda Bay himself, he could make a fairly accurate judgment of an item's quality with just his naked eye and Perception, even without using an Identify spell scroll.

Without a doubt, these spoils Xia Nan had brought back were enchanted gear, and their base quality was outstanding.

Though he had yet to inspect them closely enough to figure out their specific effects.

But if they were put on the market, he estimated each would fetch around a thousand gold—the horn-shaped item, being a spellcasting tool, would be slightly more expensive, likely selling for one thousand five hundred to two thousand gold.

Added together, the total value of these three pieces of equipment hovered right around 5,000 gold.

Auriel pondered, his eyes flickering in thought.

After a moment of silence, he suddenly asked, "How do you plan to deal with these spoils?"

Hearing this, Xia Nan's heart stirred as he replied, "I'll put them up for consignment at the Association and see if any local adventurers are interested. It'd be best to get them off my hands as soon as possible."

"Why?" Auriel examined the horn in his hand, speaking with pointed meaning. "You should know that gear of this grade can fetch dozens, even hundreds more gold coins if you just leave them displayed at the Association for a little longer."

Xia Nan simply shook his head and frankly pointed at the bracelet on the table in front of him.

"For that."

"Your asking price for a collector's item like this definitely won't be low, and I might not be able to produce such a large sum right away, so of course I have to prepare in advance."

Auriel looked slightly surprised by Xia Nan's response, as if the black-haired adventurer's blunt honesty had exceeded his expectations.

Even the probing questions he had prepared were suddenly derailed, trapped in his throat and unable to be spoken.

He paused for a moment before speaking again. "Well—since we had an agreement, and you've completed the commission, I naturally won't go back on my word."

"I can sell this bracelet to you."

"But as for the price—it is exactly as you said. It won't be cheap."

The collector placed the horn back on the table and sat back on the sofa.

"Since you are so straightforward, I don't mind giving you my bottom line."

"My expected price for this bracelet is around 6,000 gold."

That was roughly equivalent to the price of a blue Rare grade piece of equipment with above-average effect attributes.

This was certainly not a small sum; even a veteran adventurer with years of experience might not carry that much wealth on their entire person.

Yet when Xia Nan heard this number, he inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

6,000 gold was still a lot to him, and he absolutely couldn't pull out that much cash right now.

But compared to the five or even six figures he had initially anticipated, it was off by nearly two orders of magnitude.

Given the two effect attributes on [Proof of Diligence] that significantly boosted training speed, 6,000 gold was an absolute steal.

And though Xia Nan didn't have that much gold on him right now, once he finished processing all the assorted loot he had gathered from this mission over the next few days, he would be able to scrape together most of it.

As he was thinking this, Auriel, sitting opposite him, suddenly changed the subject.

"The Lunar Tide Banquet is coming up soon. You should be attending the banquet out on the open sea with the Blade of Vengeance, right?"

Not knowing why the half-elf was asking this, Xia Nan nodded anyway and replied, "If nothing unexpected happens."

Hearing this, Auriel didn't offer any further explanation, as if it had just crossed his mind and he was asking in passing.

Then he abruptly returned to their original topic.

"The quality of your three pieces of equipment isn't bad. If put up for auction, they could fetch a higher price."

"If we're lucky enough to run into a generous buyer, they could sell for around 6,000 gold combined."

"Tell you what. Since you put in so much effort to help me, let's save you the time and energy of scraping together the difference."

"We'll treat today as a barter."

"One bracelet, for these three pieces of equipment."

"How does that sound?"

"Deal." Xia Nan replied decisively.

Hesitating for even a single second would be a disrespect to [Proof of Diligence], a piece of equipment capable of drastically improving training efficiency.

His sharp Perception allowed him to notice certain details the collector revealed during their conversation, making him realize the half-elf might have ulterior motives.

But whether Auriel was hoping to invest in him or needed his help with something else didn't matter.

As long as he could get his hands on [Proof of Diligence], everything else was negotiable.

For equipment with a potential cap at the pink Epic grade, he truly feared that delays might bring complications. If there was a chance, even getting it half a month or just a few days earlier was obviously for the best.

Meanwhile, thoughts were quietly churning in the mind of Auriel Silverheart across the table.

He was a collector; though he frequently purchased various antiques, he only bought things that interested him.

He didn't run a business recycling and reselling adventuring gear.

Enchanted equipment held tremendous value, but if he wasn't interested in a piece, he wouldn't force a purchase just for a few hundred gold in profit.

Of the three items Xia Nan had brought over, the only one Auriel had even the slightest interest in was the horn-shaped spellcasting tool.

Yet he had just proactively offered to trade his bracelet for them.

Naturally, he had his reasons.

Placing a bet to invest in a young adventurer who had already shown immense potential was one reason, but the other was the upcoming Lunar Tide Banquet.

Auriel was full of patience. He naturally wouldn't expose his intentions at a juncture where they were only just building mutual goodwill.

Seeing Xia Nan nod in agreement to the trade, the half-elf wore a rather amiable smile.

With his palm facing up and fingers together, he gestured lightly toward the bracelet on the table.

Xia Nan took the cue and stood up, walking over to the table.

He reached out and picked up [Proof of Diligence] from its resting place on the silk cloth.

Feeling the cool touch of metal against his fingertips, he held up the now-relinquished dark gray bracelet, examining it against the morning light streaming through the window.

Its main body was woven from strands of gray iron wire into a sleek, minimalist design. Hanging from an open ring was the [Dust of Swaying Shadows] charm, swaying gently with his movements like a frozen drop of water.

The more he looked at it, the more it suited his aesthetic.

With a click of the clasp, it was fastened onto his right wrist.

It seemed to have been specially designed during forging. Once worn, [Proof of Diligence] didn't have the loose feel of other bracelets that felt like they would slip off at the slightest vigorous movement.

The spiraling, intertwined silver-gray iron wires fit snugly against his skin; even when he swung his arm forcefully, it showed no sign of loosening.

Only the [Dust of Swaying Shadows] charm dangling beneath his wrist swung back and forth with a faint metallic rasp.

Xia Nan was deeply satisfied.

Ten days later.

In a forest area outside Barracuda Bay.

Inside a spacious subterranean cave.

"Drip."

It was the sluggish sound of thick, viscous blood dripping onto the ground.

This should have been the most common type of Goblin Lair on the Aifala Continent.

But at this moment, the air inside the cave—which should have been filled with the noisy shrieks of goblins—was dead silent, utterly still.

—

As for the reason—

The goblin corpses scattered motionless across the ground could perhaps offer an explanation.

Up to this point, if one thought about it, there was actually nothing particularly special about the scene.

After all, across the entire Aifala Continent, there were countless Goblin Lairs that had been purged by adventurers and various monsters.

But the bizarre part was this:

The goblin corpses, despite having died in various ways, all displayed one abnormal commonality.

—Their heads had uniformly vanished from their shoulders.

Taking their place in the center of the cave was a miniature structure about five feet tall.

Head after head had been neatly stacked on top of one another.

The muscles on the goblins' faces had frozen, preserving their expressions from their final moments. Some had their mouths wide open in panicked screams; others had their eyes rolled back in agony, exposing a deathly white—

As if meticulously designed, every face pointed neatly outward. Slowly cooling, viscous blood mixed with mud filled the gaps between the heads, and pale bones could be seen threaded between skulls and jaws to secure the structure.

Xia Nan carefully held the head he had just severed—that of the lair's leader, a Bugbear whose size was clearly a magnitude larger than the other goblins.

Raising it with both hands like placing the final block in a tower, he gently set it at the very top of the structure.

With a twist of his wrists, he drove the severed spine firmly into the blood-soaked mud, making a slight adjustment to balance its angle so it wouldn't tilt.

Only then did he let go and step back a fair distance.

Admiring his masterpiece built from stacked goblin heads from afar, a distinct sense of accomplishment appeared on his face.

Thanks to the enthusiastic help of a massive number of goblins, his mastery of architectural art had rapidly improved lately.

Though he was still far from mastering the large-scale intimidation rituals required for his class advancement, he had gradually grown Proficient with small structures like the one before him.

Recycling waste by using goblin bones as internal supports, bound with the cave's soil and their blood—much like mortar spread between bricks in his past life—could drastically enhance the structure's stability and "aesthetics."

It also allowed the heads to stand more securely, preventing the tower from collapsing under its own weight halfway through.

Even though he hadn't majored in architecture in his past life and lacked related knowledge, after so many attempts, Xia Nan had gradually figured out the tricky parts.

Take the goblins themselves, for example.

Never mind how decent this small structure looked right now; if he expanded the scale even slightly, the overall difficulty would multiply.

A goblin's physical Strength was extremely limited.

Their frail, twig-like bones made poor support structures for larger buildings. If they bore even a slightly heavy load, they would snap and splinter.

And the filler material mixed from mud and blood completely lacked the compressive strength and shrinkage resistance of real cement.

This made the overall structure exceptionally fragile and easy to ruin.

This was exactly the problem Xia Nan had been focusing on solving recently.

Fortunately, given how rampant goblins were in this world, he had never run into a shortage of experimental materials.

Whenever a thought struck him, he could simply go out into the wilderness to test it.

His recent over-immersion in architectural art had also resulted in a noticeable drop in goblin-related quests at the Adventurers' Association, drawing widespread complaints from the lower-tier adventurers.

On the other hand, thanks to his friendly green-skinned neighbors, Xia Nan, having just acquired [Proof of Diligence], had managed to train quite rigorously with their help, massively boosting the proficiency of his combat techniques.