Show Me the Money

Chapter 58 – The Shameless Mine Owner

Ding.

System Notification: Congratulations. You have slain the silver ranked boss Demonized Bat King. +200 Reputation.

No experience? I guess it’s because I’m transformed.

A pile of items appeared in front of Fatty as the Demonized Bat King died.

Fatty panted heavily. He ran to the other side of the mining pit and called all the Wandering Miners and Grudgeful Zombies away with Wail, before returning to pick up the drops.

Since the Demonized Bat King was a silver ranked boss, it did drop plenty of things, tallying up to somewhere between twenty and thirty, covering over nearly a dozen squared meters on the ground.

The first thing Fatty did was pick up all the money as he has always felt like being wasteful was a sin. Hmmm 300 something gold coins, and a good pile of silver and bronze coins. That’s pretty good.

Then Fatty turned to the pile of equipment. Most of them were just normal bronze weapons, but there was a very eye-catching black dagger. It was shaped like a crescent moon, the blade itself was a dull black, while it felt rather cool to the touch.

Fatty used Appraisal on it a few times before the dagger’s attributes were finally displayed in front of his eyes.

Fang

Gold Dagger

Level Requirement: 30

Attack: 45 – 60

Dexterity: +7

Endurance: +3

Strength: +5

Passive Skill:

Lifesteal – Absorb 10% of the damage dealt as health with every attack.

Class Requirement: Rogue

As expected of a gold weapon. This dagger is truly splendid.

Finally, there was also a black fist-sized rock. The rock felt cold to the touch and was an actual transparent crystal cube like a top graded black gemstone. One could see a faint spiral of black smoke within the gemstone.

The moment Fatty touched it, the details of the stone appeared in front of him.

Demon Calling Stone

A strange stone from the Demon Realm. It seals a tremendous power. It had ended up in the Human Realm for some reason and was found by the Vampiric Bat King. While it was absorbing the sealed energy from within the stone, it was demonized and became one of the demonkindc. Ever since then, then Demonized Bat King had begun its carnage. Furthermore, in order to gain more power from the Demon Realm, it then led its tribe to attack the largest mine near Black Tortoise City and took over a mining pit with a crack leading to the Demon Realm.

Good, now my mission of finding out why the bats attacked is completed too.

“Fatty, how is it?” Liu Lan called once again while Fatty was checking the Demon Calling Stone out.

“It’s kay now. Prepare yourselves, when I light up the torches, I’ll go over to Black Tortoise City to lead the NPC army over. Make sure you come with me then,” Fatty put the Demon Calling Stone away and started to climb up the stone pillar.

The bats in the air had already ran away when the Demonized Bat King died. Fatty’s transformation also ended, so he quickly regained his health using potions. If not for his transformation having ended, everything might be very difficult if he had to use the Wandering Miner Leader’s huge body to climb the pillar.

The surface of the stone pillar was not smooth, but that made it very suitable for climbing. Fatty easily climbed up to the top, and like he expected, there was an extinguished torch up there.

That torch was far larger than all the other ones. It was around 1 meter tall and as thick as a barrel. Fatty took out his own handy torch, and leaned it over.

Ding.

System Notification: This torch can only be lit after the other 999 torches are lit.

“Damn,” Fatty angrily put his torch away and climb back down, and instead went over to the various mining pits to lit up the torches. This was already the third time he had to do all that.

As the torches were lit, the Bat Cave begun to light up. After Fatty lit all 999 torches, he returned to the largest mining pit, climbed up the pillar once more and took out his own torch with a solemn expression.

Vroom.

As the final torch was lit, the entire Bat Cave trembled, then lit up completely. Countless bats screeched, then flew away into the darkness where the light couldn’t reach.

Okay, done. Fatty nodded. He didn’t climb back down and simply used a Recall Scroll while still on top of the pillar.

When Fatty returned to town, he immediately ran towards the City Lord’s manor. It was at the utmost center of Black Tortoise City, and seemed like a city within city.

“Stop. Trespassing is strictly forbidden,” a guard immediately stopped Fatty the moment he was about to step onto the grounds.

“I have important matters to talk to the City Lord with. Please notify him,” Fatty replied.

“Ridiculous. Just who do you think the City Lord is? Do you think you can see him whenever you want? If you don’t leave, then I will immediately arrest you for breaking and entering the city lord manor, and throw you in jail,” the guard said justly.

“Uhm, bro, do me a favor please? It’s really important,” Fatty walked close to the guard and handed 100 gold coins over.

“Hmm? I guess you really have something important to talk to the City Lord with. Ah, alright then. You can enter,” the guard trembled slightly, then discreetly put the gold coins away without a second look, and said solemnly.

“Thanks bro,” Fatty cupped his hands. F*cking hell, do you think that it is easy for Lord Fatty to earn money? I had to pay 100 gold coins just for all this!

After going through the first guard, the rest did not stop Fatty, so he was able to quickly move through the manor and arrive at the main hall.

“What business do you have with me?” The City Lord asked with a smile. He was a NPC who looked like he was in his forties. The name above his head displayed his name to be Lin Xi.

“My Lord, this one has discovered the reason for behind the bats in the mine. Furthermore, I already lit up all 1000 torches. I would like to request for my lord to mobilize the army to eliminate all the monsters and reclaim the mine,” Fatty handed in the Demon Calling Stone with both hands, then took a step back.

“My lord, this subordinate is willing to lead our troops to reclaim the mine,” an armored person near Lin Xi cupped his hands right after Fatty finished speaking.

“Mm, good,” Lin Xi nodded. “General Drucker, I order you to lead 5000 soldiers to immediately reclaim the mine.”

“Yes, my lord,” General Drucker saluted, then left to rally his troops.

“Young man, you have done very well,” Lin Xi turned around. “That mine is the largest mine near Black Tortoise City. Ever since we lost the mine, we have been rather lacking in the metal ores needed to craft equipment. We used to have a renewal in equipment every three years, but that then became five, and now, our troops haven’t gotten any new equipment in the last couple of years. I was just getting troubled over what to do, and that was when you brought me such good news. Young man, I must thank you thoroughly once we reclaim the mine.”

“My lord, there is no need to be so courteous, it is my duty,” Fatty said righteously.

Lin Xi nodded in satisfaction, “Go out first. Come back with General Drucker once he reclaims the mine.”

“This one will take his leave now,” Fatty saluted like Drucker did, then walked out.

…

Soon, the players, who were still around the Bat Cave, were rather confused when they saw a NPC army arrive.

“Fatty, did you complete the mission?” Liu Lan immediately went over to grab Fatty’s arm when she saw he arrive with the NPCs.

“Nearly,” Fatty pointed at Drucker. “I’ll finish the mission when the troops enter and symbolically claim the Bat Cave.”

“General Drucker, General Drucker!” Just as Drucker had his troops ready themselves  and was about to enter the mine, a sixty something year old man ran over with a pant and a group of NPCs in tow.

“Viscount Linkin, why are you so in such a hurry?” Drucker’s expression changed for a moment, then asked the old man expressionlessly.

“General Drucker, I heard that the mine has been reclaimed?” Linkin calmed himself down and asked impatiently.

“Yes,” Drucker got on his horse and looked down at Linkin. “I am leading the troops in to reclaim the mine. Go and talk to the City Lord if you have any problems.”

“Hehe, hehe,” Linkin laughed coyly. “General Drucker, how can I allow you to fight alone as the true owner of the mine? I brought 200 of my family’s troops to combat the bat swarm with you.”

“Such shamelessness!” Drucker roared in anger. “When the bats took over the mine, the city lord ordered you to send out your troops to help us reclaim it, but you refused to send even a single person. You actually led your people right after hearing that you can reclaim it easily? Viscount Linkin, the city lord has sent me to reclaim the mine, and this mine will belong to Black Tortoise City in the future. It will not have anything to do with the Grande family anymore.”

“What did you say!?’ Linkin yelled. “Drucker, this mine has been passed down the Grande family for generations. Don’t even think about taking it for yourselves.”

“Heh, what’s wrong with that? Go and talk to the City Lord, like I said earlier,” Drucker ignored Linkin and ordered his troops in.

Linkin ignored everything else and led his two hundred people to follow the army shamelessly.

“Brother Grubber, from the sounds of it, the mine will belong to Black Tortoise City even if it is reclaimed. It won’t have anything to do with us!” Fierce Dragon TheTalent whispered to Fatty quietly.

Fatty thought about it for a split second, then quickly went up to grab hold of Drucker’s hand.

“General Drucker, these warriors are the brave heroes of the kingdom who helped me complete the mission. I would not have been able to do all this without them. Now that we are about to reclaim the mine, they wish to offer up their own power to do so.”

“Alright. The heroes of the kingdom is always trustworthy,” Drucker nodded.

Fatty gave the five major guild leaders a cue. They immediately led their own members into the cave behind the NPC army. After entering the cave, they immediately went over to the territories they decided upon earlier, leaving the guild masters following the NPC troops with several hundred people in total.

Other guilds tried to enter, but the NPC army stopped them outside. They could only wait outside anxiously. After all, the players were not yet able to fight the NPC army.

“Oh my God, look. Look at how the damn bats ruined the mine belonging to the Grande family!” Linkin yammered along the way. “I will not let those damn bats off.”

The bats had already scattered when Fatty killed the Demonized Bat King, so their whole journey was safe. When Fatty and co. arrived at the final mining pit behind Drucker…

Ding.

System Notification: Congratulations. You have helped Black Tortoise City reclaim the mine.

“Ah. General Drucker. Thank you. Thank you for helping the Grande family reclaim the mine. Our family is truly thankful for your aid,” Linkin immediately yelled loudly.

Fatty glared fiercely at Linkin, then just as he was about to speak to Drucker, a messenger suddenly ran in.

“General Drucker, the City Lord has asked you to hand the mine over to Viscount Linkin after reclaiming it.”

“What!?” Not only was Fatty dumbfounded, even Drucker was furious. However, it was the City Lord’s orders, so Drucker had to obey them. He could only glare at Linkin fiercely, then decided to lead his troops out of the Bat Cave.

“Thanks,” Linkin then danced around. “Oh yeah, brave warriors, the Grande family thanks you for your assistance, but it’s over now. Please get off the Grande family’s private land.”

Fatty was absolutely infuriated. Just as he thought about what to do, he looked up and instantly had an idea.