Chapter 34: guardian beast and barry

I climbed down quickly, my feet hitting stone floor a few seconds later. Suzy followed right behind me, her movements quick and agile. The moment her step touched the ground, she reached up and swung the lid shut above us, locking us inside the dark space so the sleeping guards outside wouldn’t notice a thing.

The room was totally dark for a second until I tapped my core energy, letting a faint yellow glow come off the scale markings on my wrists. The dim light illuminated the space, and our jaws dropped at the exact same time.

The vault was massive.Rows of open wooden crates filled the entire room, stacked high with thousands of glittering gold coins that caught the yellow light from my arms. On the far wall, a velvet-lined shelf held dozens of large, glowing red and blue monster crystals—all of them high-tier Tier 4 cores that were worth a complete fortune. It was the ultimate jackpot.

"Holy margins," I muttered, a massive smile spreading across my face. "The Prince has been skimming the entire province’s budget for years."

Suzy walked over to the first crate, she was total shock as she looked at the mountain of wealth.

"This... this is enough to buy ten whole merchant guilds, Barry. If we take this, the royal family will turn the whole country upside down to find us."

’Let them look. They have to find us first. ’

Before we could start loading the boxes into my pocket-dimension stomach, a low voice come from the very back .

The air in the room suddenly changing , Out from the shadows behind the crystal shelves, a creature stepped into the light of my wrists. It looked like a massive panther, but its body was made entirely of solid, jagged green glass that pulsed with a dangerous magical light. Its eyes were two burning points of pale blue fire, and its long tail whipped through the air, making a sharp, whistling sound.

[Target Identified: Emerald Guardian Cat (Tier 4 - Elite Beast)]

[Danger Level: Medium (Highly agile, claws can bypass basic physical suits)]

[System Advice: It’s the Prince’s private security guard, Barry. It doesn’t take bribes, and it looks highly aggressive. Time to show off your new human combat skills.]

The glass beast bared its transparent teeth, its muscles tensing as it prepared to lunge straight at Suzy’s chest.

Suzy instantly reached for her waist, but her daggers were still completely shattered from the penthouse fight yesterday. She was entirely open, her face turning pale as she realized she had no way to parry a Tier 4 strike.

I stepped right in front of her, my body blocking her completely as my [Non-Compete Clause] passive skill kicked in, sending a sudden rush of defensive energy into both of our bodies.

"The vault is under new management, kitty," I said, a smirk forming on my face as I raised my bare fist.

The glass panther didn’t give us a chance to plan an attack. It opened its transparent jaws, letting out another deep growl that shook the shelves behind us, and lunged forward. It moved incredibly fast, its body turning into a green streak of light as it leapt straight through the air toward Suzy’s head.

Suzy tried to step back, but her heel hit the edge of a gold coin crate, trapping her in place. She raised her bare arms to shield her face, her eyes closing as the beast’s sharp crystal claws came down.

I didn’t try to tackle the monster. I didn’t try to punch it. Instead, I used my new human legs to step directly between them, thrusting my bare right hand straight out into the path of the falling claws. The green glass paws slammed right into my open palm with a ringing impact.

My wrist scales flared with a warm, steady energy, stopping the force of the hit completely.

"Let’s see what your scrap value looks like," I muttered, my eyes locking onto the beast’s pale blue fire eyes.

I closed my fingers tightly around the panther’s front leg, activating the [Liquidate Assets] skill through my bare palm. The effect was instant and completely devastating. The moment my core magic surged into the glass structure, it let out a strange, wet melting sound. The bright green color faded out, replaced by a brilliant, flashing gold that spread across its entire torso in a split second.

The panther’s body completely lost its shape mid-air. In the blink of an eye, the massive elite monster dissolved entirely, turning into a massive shower of thousands of shiny gold coins that rained down all over the floor.

The gold pieces bounced off my black suit trousers and splashed into the surrounding crates, leaving the space perfectly quiet once again.

[Skill Activated: ’Liquidate Assets’ (Tier 4 - Upgraded)]

- Target Destroyed: Emerald Guardian Cat.

- Conversion Yield: 15,000 Gold Coins (Added directly to local floor layout).

Suzy slowly lowered her arms, her breathing incredibly fast as she stared at the giant pile of new money sitting right in front of her. She looked at the coins, then looked up at my hand, and finally look at my face. The absolute shock on her face was total.

"You... you just turned a Tier 4 guardian beast into pocket change," Suzy whispered, her voice trembling slightly as she stood up straight, trying to pull her messy hair back. "I knew your power was strange, Barry, but this is completely terrifying. You didn’t even use a weapon."

I turned around, wiping a speck of dust off my black suit jacket, and gave her a calm smile. "A good manager never wastes raw material, Suzy. Fighting a monster just breaks the furniture. Turning it into currency is just efficient warehouse cleanup."

Suzy let out a soft, helpless laugh, her shoulders finally relaxing as the tension left her body. "You really are a piece of work. A total gremlin."

[System: Target eliminated! 15,000 gold added to the local ledger! Plus, look at the back shelf, Barry. The main asset is sitting right there!]

I looked past the piles of gold coins toward the very back wall of the vault. Resting on a small stone pedestal was a velvet-lined box. Inside the box sat a large, beautiful crystal container filled with a glowing royal red fluid—the pure, concentrated lineage blood catalyst of Prince Raymond’s family line. It was the final ten percent I needed to unlock my true human form permanently and fix my system.

"There it is," I said, my yellow slitted eyes gleaming in the dark. "The final piece ."