Show Me the Money

Chapter 151 - Summon Scroll

"It's finally dead," Fatty breathed and jumped off the Queen Ant's back. While the fight hadn't been long, it had been extremely fierce. Luckily, the terrain had prevented the boss from displaying its true ability; otherwise, Fatty's party might have ended up the losing side.

With the Queen Ant dead, its six guards instantly lost all sense of purpose. Not knowing what to do, they couldn't escape either since they persistently got in one another's way, and Fatty blocked them at the fore. Thus, Fatty and Wheat slayed them as well.

Once all the big guys had been taken care of, the rogue went over to assist Liu Lan. The latter had been unseated from her panther and presently resisted the monsters due to her excessive health alone. The mobs that had arrived earlier were swarms of Golden-Toothed Ants. More than a dozen of their corpses were scattered along the ground while just as many were still in the air.

Upon seeing Fatty, Liu Lan softly smiled. She retreated to give Fatty room to fight, then exhaustedly leaned on the wall to rest. When the pair had first entered the cave, just two Golden-Toothed Ants had been enough to fluster Liu Lan. She had now held back more than twenty of them and even killed half in the process, so one can imagine the toll it took on her body.

Fully taking advantage of his rogue class, Fatty drew the remaining ants to himself and cooperated with Wheat to split them up and kill them. Liu Lan rested for a while. She then summoned the Fire Cloud Panther once more and assisted Fatty. Several minutes passed, and they finally cleared out the tunnel.

"Aaahh, I'm so worn out!" Liu Lan pocketed her weapon and slouched against a wall a moment to regain her strength.

"You rest first. Lemme go check the goodies," stated Fatty. The system refreshed every half hour, so the items dropped by the Queen Ant might soon be gone if they didn't pick them up. Earlier, the Queen Ant had only managed to free two legs from the ground while the rest of its limbs had still been stuck. So, underneath its body, a pile of items laid quietly, emitting a golden glow.

Fatty initially picked up the gold coins, then the normal equipment, and lastly the superb items. First among the rarer loot was an unappraised Violet dagger, the Stone Eater Dagger. As usual, Fatty cast several Appraisals, revealing its information amidst a hazy cloud.

Stone Eater Dagger

Violet dagger

Level requirement: 50

Attack: 75 - 80

STR +18

DEX +20

Passive: Unspecified chance to paralyze the opponent.

Class requirement: Rogue, Archer

Finally, this was a violet weapon Fatty could use! But, it was a pity his level was too low for it. Fatty tossed the dagger to Liu Lan so she could check it out, and he turned to appraise two gold items.

Flowing Cloud Boots

Gold armor

Level requirement: 50

Defense: 35

END +15

Passive: Increases Fire Resistance by 10%.

Class requirement: Knight, Warrior

Giant Ant's Armor

Gold armor

Defense: 60

STR +18

END +15

Passive: Increases Fire Resistance by 10%.

Class requirement: Knight, Warrior

Perhaps because the Queen Ant was so bitter about dying in lava, both of the gold equipment increased fire-damage resistance.

"I'll take this dagger." Fatty retrieved the Stone Eater Dagger from Liu Lan and added, "These two items go to you."

"I don't need them," refused Liu Lan outright.

"Why not?" Fatty was surprised. She always takes the good stuff for herself; why so generous now?

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Liu Lan blushed a little from Fatty's stare and stroked her hair to hide it. "You fought the boss by yourself and even used up three intermediate scrolls. Since I wasn't of much help, how could I take the loot?"

"This isn't like you." Fatty scanned Liu Lan. "Since when did you start being reasonable?"

She grinned at the rogue. "Haven't I always been reasonable?"

"Y-yes, Great Beauty Liu has always been a reasonable person," Fatty hurriedly said.

"Heh," Liu Lan chuckled. "In the past, I took your stuff because we're on good terms. But, now that you're a professional player, I can't keep doing that anymore. Moreover, I only followed you to relieve my boredom. It's already nice you haven't called me a burden."

"How could you be a burden? If you hadn't held back the mobs, I couldn't have slain the Queen Ant." Fatty shook his head vigorously. "If you don't need them, I'll keep them for now. When you reach level 50, I'll find you a full set of Violet gear."

"Alright then, I'll wait. Don't you forget it!"

Fatty was a bit embarrassed. He coughed and said, "We're pretty lucky today. It it wasn't for this tunnel obstructing the Queen Ant's ability, we might not have been able to kill it."

"Mhm, we were lucky indeed. If we'd been in an open area with our guild members, we might not have been able to kill it even if we lost dozens of lives." Liu Lan nodded. "Hurry and pick up the items before the system clears them."

After the three items were claimed, there was still a scroll under the boss's body:

Summon Scroll - Ant Clan army: Summons 100 ants of various types 10 levels below the user's level to attack opponents.

"Only 100?" Liu Lan was a bit disappointed.

Fatty waved the scroll at Liu Lan disapprovingly. "100 is pretty good. While it's not a large quantity and the level isn't high, it'll definitely be a great help in critical times. Still, it'd be great if it was a hundred Queen Ants," Fatty concluded with this bizarre opinion and a sigh. Chuckling, Liu Lan gave up the topic.

Fatty harvested a vial of venom from the Queen Ant and picked up all the items dropped from the other monsters. While these monsters had been dirt poor in the quality of their items, they had also been plenty in number; so, their loot could still add up to a great many coins. Fortunately, Lin Xi had awarded Fatty an 80-slot inventory prior, otherwise he couldn't have stored so many goodies.

After both players leveled up once, they gained 5% more experience from killing the Queen Ant and the mobs. "What do we do next?" Liu Lan asked. "Stay here to farm, or go collect the rest of the ingredients for the Royal Winged Ant Poison?"

"Let's gather ingredients first," Fatty replied without a second thought. If it wasn't that the Royal Winged Ant Poison was of some use to him, he'd prefer to go search for the skill books instead of spending time on the Royal Winged Ants.

Beep beep! Suddenly, Liu Lan's communicator rang. As she listened to the message, she furrowed her brows. "Something's happened with my guild. I have to go back," she told Fatty. "Take care!"

"Okay. I needed to go back for some red pots anyway," he replied.

The two traveled back together and separated when they reached the city. Liu Lan went to take care of her guild's business while Fatty entered the bank and stored all the equipment he couldn't use. "Heheh, when my inventory's full, Lord Fatty will hold a flash sale no one will be able to resist!" the rogue gloated, looking at the mountain of items in his storage.

Refining Royal Winged Ant Poison required three ingredients: Royal Winged Ant Venom, a Gold Essence Orb, and Flowing Moon Tung Oil. Originally, Fatty planned to go out and forage for the stuff himself, but changed his mind. The more urgent matter was the hidden class. In Fatty's opinion, while the Elementalist Class was difficult to get, he would definitely be OP after getting the enhancement; it would make everything much easier. As people say, "A sharpened blade makes quick work."

Fatty paid yet another visit to the Auction Hall, which was as bustling as ever. Already familiar with the place, he pulled up the auction item list and searched for "Gold Essence Orb" and "Flowing Moon Tung Oil." The information for Gold Essence Orb quickly appeared:

Gold Essence Orb: Intermediate medical ingredient. A supplementary ingredient used in refining various potions.

Quantity: 120 pieces.

Bidding price: 6000 gold coins starting. Buy now: 12000 gold coins.

Current highest bid: 7500 gold coins. Bidding ends in: 35 min.

So, the price was 50 gold coins per piece, which wasn't too high. If the matter was urgent, Fatty could always grit his teeth and grab up the item right away for 12000 gold coins—time is ultimately the most precious thing whether in a game or reality—however, Fatty wasn't willing to throw away his money just yet. He swiped over the auction panel and offered 8000 gold coins. Hoping to save every penny he could, Fatty decided to take things slow.

In the meantime, the rogue kept searching for the Flowing Moon Tung Oil; yet, there was no sign of this ingredient being offered for auction. He couldn't tell whether this was because the ingredient was too precious or simply because no one had yet been able to harvest it. As Fatty loitered, bidding on the Gold Essence Orbs, he aimlessly searched through the Auction House listings. Suddenly, the system dinged and announced:

System Notification: At noon today, the Black Tortoise City Auction Hall will offer the first Celestial Weapon of the game: the Demon Slayer Sword. Interested players are extremely encouraged to bid!

"The first Celestial Weapon in the game"?! Fatty wasn't the only one surprised; the entire auction hall lapsed into silence as well. Anyone who had witnessed the battle against Undead Marshal Lei Ting knew precisely what the Demon Slayer Sword was; it was Lei Ting's personal weapon. Everyone had thought it vanished with Lei Ting, but it had actually fallen into the hands of a player!

"Who's the lucky peep? They actually got the Demon Slayer Sword!"

"It was too chaotic back then. The number of players who died to monsters wasn't nearly as high as those who died fighting for loot. Who knows who got it in the end?!"

"Motherf*cker! That lucky son of a b*tch! Why can't I be so lucky?" For a while, the Auction Hall was filled with excited chatter. Fatty was also a little envious. Except for the Guild Establishment Token, I didn't pick up anything worthwhile that time. However, Fatty soon let it go. I already got the Guild Establishment Token; others got to get something as well. It's just a Celestial Weapon. I have a map leading to a Celestial Weapon myself. I can go look for it after I get the Elementalist class enhancement.

Time passed slowly. No one bid on the Gold Essence Orbs after Fatty raised the price. It made sense that no one was willing to pay a high price for it since the ingredient was likely abundant because it was necessary for a lot of medical potions. With a final ding, the system deducted 8000 gold coins from Fatty, and 120 Gold Essence Orbs entered his inventory. Looking at the fingernail-sized orbs and their brilliant golden glow, Fatty nodded in satisfaction. Now, he only lacked the Flowing Moon Tung Oil.