Pale Emblem

Chapter 184: Windfall and Accident

Tal is the currency unit of the Disa Alliance. 85 grams of gold with a purity of more than 40% is equal to 1 gold tal. Silver tal and copper tal are measured in the same way. As for the currency exchange between gold, silver and copper, there is no unified alliance standard, but the local market price is used.

This is because after the Earth Goddess Cult lost power, the Alliance Center lost the right to mint coins. Each city-state began to mint its own coins, and gradually evolved into famous families and wealthy families minting their own coins, and finally private coins were rampant. For example, manor owners, wealthy families, adventurer guilds, thieves guilds, and super-large adventure groups could mint internal currency and use Tal's measurement method to connect with the external market.

Three gold coins minted by the famous Yinpanjiao family in Luoye City are approximately equal to two gold tals.

The treasury on the sixth floor of the hotel contained 16 boxes of gold coins, 6000 in each box, as well as even larger numbers of silver and copper coins.

Victor couldn't take so much gold and silver with him, so he ordered his followers to throw the money and treasures outside the hotel to create chaos and help them escape. On the other hand, Commander Walker, his deputy, and the strongest dragoons were all dead, and now even the military funds were robbed. The entire stronghold had neither a commander nor military funds. Even if the commander of the Wildfire Adventure Group stepped forward, they were unable to maintain the normal operation of the stronghold.

Unless they are willing to pay out of their own pockets to solve the military expenditure problem.

This is again absolutely impossible.

The collapse of the Braun Town stronghold happened in these two days.

While the adventurers, recruits, and garrison soldiers were looking for money, Victor and his companions had already left the inn with their antelope mounts. They pushed aside a dozen dazed half-elves and slowly came to the exit of the stronghold.

At this moment, it was still dark and all the guards in charge of gatekeeping had left their posts, probably running to the hotel to pick up money.

Harvey, Kent and Mowgli took matters into their own hands, moving the heavy barricades away to create a passage.

"Stop! Stop everyone!"

The commander of the Wildfire Adventure Group, Luoda, followed closely behind with a group of fully armed adventurers.

"Oh, Mr. Roda, what do you want to talk to us about?" The alchemist demon Hermann took the initiative to step forward and calmly faced the adventurers who half-surrounded him.

"Hermann, you were the ones who did the hotel thing! Right?"

Roda, the experienced old adventurer, seemed furious and questioned Hermann in public without leaving any room for maneuver.

Herman frowned and tried to defend himself: "You have no evidence, don't try to slander us..."

"Don't waste your time with him." Victor, riding on a great antelope, interrupted Herman and asked coldly, "Do you really think that Vice President Berg would hand over such an important letter to a group of unsuspecting adventurers and then bring it to you?"

Luo Da was startled, but he regained his composure in an instant. After looking at Victor again, he asked in a deep voice, "Do you know the contents of the secret letter?"

"Of course. Vice President Berg told you in the letter that the Bolan Town stronghold will be attacked by the orcs, and General Clark will not send his troops to support the stronghold. The vice president asked you to retreat on your own to avoid being wiped out by the orcs and barbarian coalition."

Victor spoke out the key contents of the secret letter without hesitation. The adventurers surrounding them were suddenly at a loss when they heard the news.

The old adventurer Luoda frowned his thick gray eyebrows, his eyes as sharp as a hawk, "Sir, who are you?"

"The enemies of Silver Plate Cape." Victor added, "Just like your Wildfire Adventure Group chose to support Silver Plate Cape this time, there are also people in Fallen Leaf City who don't want to see Silver Plate Cape go any further... We don't need to discuss the details. You only need to question other inn guests and you will know that the Orc butchers and shamans have infiltrated the stronghold. They killed Commander Walker and his dragoons. And the adventurers under your command have robbed all of Silver Plate Cape's military funds."

"It's obvious that the orcs and barbarians could attack us at any time. Right now, the situation is critical and we have decided to leave now. You should also make a decision early and give the new recruits and garrison soldiers in the stronghold a chance to escape and save their lives."

When Victor said this, the adventurers around him finally lost their patience and began to talk among themselves, with some even asking old Roda for confirmation directly.

"Shut up!" Luoda has always been prestigious. He shouted angrily, and all the adventurers fell silent.

Luoda held a torch and walked around Victor's mount. The light of the torch revealed two heavy bags hanging behind the saddle of the antelope. Without opening them, he knew that they were filled with coins. Then, the torch illuminated the golden sunflower emblem of the noble family on the saddle. Luoda confirmed that the emblem was real and not forged.

So the old adventurer softened his attitude and said with a chuckle, "It seems like you took a lot."

Victor said reservedly, "Not a lot, actually."

The load-bearing capacity of the antelope is destined to be unable to carry too much gold, not to mention that the gold coins cast by the silver plate horn are not pure enough, have a larger volume and higher weight. Calculated by hanging two bags of gold coins on each antelope, the total value does not exceed 900 gold tars. Compared with the huge military expenditure that the silver plate horn entrusted to Walker for custody, this is only a tiny part.

Luoda nodded, waved his hand to signal the adventurers to make way for Victor and his companions, and said to Victor: "Just pretend that we have never met... I hope we won't meet again in the future."

"That's best."

The reason why the Wildfire Adventure Group supported the Silver Plate Horn family this time was mainly because of the gold, and there was also lobbying from the Earth Temple in Fallen Leaf City, but they did not want to be involved in the internal struggles of the Highland families at all.

Due to Victor's clever misleading, the old adventurer Luoda began to believe that it was the famous Golden Sunflower who was dealing with the newly rising Silver Plate. In order to avoid getting into trouble, he decisively expressed his compromise attitude to Victor and asked them to leave quickly.

Things here were over. Victor led his followers and rushed out of the camp gate without hesitation, urging their antelope mounts to gallop across the wilderness. In a moment, they left the lighted Brown Town outpost far behind.

The next morning, Victor and his party arrived at the west gate of Echo Town. After checking the documents issued by the Adventurer's Guild, the guards at the gate found that the antelope mount had the emblem of the Golden Sunflower family, so they immediately opened the gate and let them in without making any trouble.

After entering the town, Victor and his companions went straight to the large rental house where Vice President Berg was staying, which could also be considered the lair of the vampire Christine.

The dumb slaves raised by Berg had low intelligence and could not recognize Victor and his followers after just a few days of not seeing them. They had to call out a half-elf slave before allowing them to enter the house.

The half-elf servant led Victor and his party through the layers of sentries inside the large rental house, climbed up to the fifth floor, and went straight to the vampire's room.

The two alchemists who stayed behind in the rental house were Dancing Dili and Howling Vincent. When they heard the noise, they immediately came out to greet Master Victor and other companions. The half-elf servant took the initiative to leave and hurriedly left the fifth floor.

Christine's energy is limited, and she cannot control everyone. Insignificant characters like half-elf servants can only be strictly managed by Vice President Berg. To prevent them from leaking information, they must be kept away from confidential matters.

The servants were told not to leave the big rented house, nor were they allowed to approach Christine's room without reason.

Victor and the others can talk here without worrying about being overheard. "What's wrong with Christine?" Victor asked with a frown.

Dilly, who was dancing wildly, immediately replied, "Sir, Christine is so outrageous. She is still sleeping in at this hour and she didn't even go out to greet you when you came back. You must punish her severely."

Christine looks like a beautiful half-elf, but in essence she is a demon with the blood of a succubus, known as a vampire in the folk. Her physical and psychological characteristics are obviously different from those of a pure half-elf. She doesn't need to sleep, but is used to pretending to sleep to disguise her identity as a half-elf.

With her ability, she should have been the first to notice that Victor had returned and should have gone out to greet him immediately. However, Victor's extraordinary perception did not catch Christine's breathing and heartbeat, and he only smelled her scent after approaching the room.

Then, there is only one explanation left, the vampire Christine is currently in a dormant state.

Half-elf demons, or vampires in folk legends, will enter a state of dormancy and suspended animation when injured, weak, or overdrawn in order to speed up recovery or delay death from aging.

Dili's gloating attitude was enough to show that Christine was fine.

Victor immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Christine's spell-like ability was very useful and had become his indispensable right-hand man.

"Sir, do you need us to wake up Christine?" Howling Vincent said respectfully with his head lowered.

Like Dili, he did not directly state that Christine was dormant. In fact, alchemists also have the ability to dormant, but they know how to avoid being exposed in front of others and not to reveal the difference between themselves and half-elves in details, so as not to be discovered. Even if they are surrounded by their own people, they will not change their cautious behavior habits.

Victor thought for a moment and asked, "Has she been very tired these days?"

As he spoke, he walked towards the room. Vincent followed his steps and said truthfully, "Christine's mission to carry out the adults' mission did not go smoothly."

They walked through the living room and into the bedroom, where they saw Christine lying flat on the big bed, covered with a soft and comfortable rabbit fur blanket. At this moment, her face was peaceful and she looked like a sleeping beauty carefully carved from fine glazed rock.

Victor blinked, then reached his left hand into Christine's nightgown and carefully caressed a pair of plump and upright breasts. His fingers felt warm, smooth, tender, smooth and extremely elastic, but he could not feel the pulsation of his heart.

"Are you sure she is not really dead?" Victor pulled his hand back and turned to ask Vincent beside him.

Howling Vincent nodded and said with certainty: "It's just dormancy. I can wake her up."

The hibernation of the demons means that they have no breathing and no heartbeat. To ordinary people, they are already dead. In fact, when the demons are in hibernation, their inner activities almost stop and they cannot perceive the outside world. It seems no different from real death. This is their most vulnerable period. Even if ordinary people chop off their heads and burn them to ashes, they cannot wake up.

Therefore, before a half-elf chooses to hibernate, he must make all necessary preparations, build a hidden shelter, arrange reliable guards, and set the conditions for awakening in advance.

The so-called awakening conditions may be a song, a secret word, a beam of sunlight, some poison, the blood of a pure girl, etc.

"Wake her up!" Victor ordered excitedly. He would be happy to witness the process of awakening a dormant demon with his own eyes to satisfy his strong curiosity.

Dilly, who was dancing wildly, nodded, put a finger into the water glass beside her, and then put a drop of water on the center of Christine's eyebrows.

Christine didn't plan to sleep for a long time, so the wake-up condition she set was very simple: just a drop of water.

When the awakening conditions were triggered, the sleeping vampire immediately resumed her heartbeat. She suddenly sat up from the bed, gasping for breath, as if she had escaped from a nightmare of death and gained new life.

"Ah, my dear master, you are back?" Christine blinked her eyes, lifted the cashmere blanket with joy on her face, and knelt in front of Victor.

As a lustful slave who suffered the backlash of charm, she had some kind of mental connection with her master. The first thing she noticed after waking up was Victor. She didn't care at all that she was only wearing a thin nightgown, exposing a large area of ​​moist and charming white skin, and showing off her proud body curves in front of her companions.

Of course, she could have done it on purpose.

The ranger sisters, Ruth and Jessica, considerately put the cashmere blanket back on Christine, fearing that the silver-level demon half-elf would be frozen.

The little tricks between the private female slaves did not attract Victor's attention. He curiously asked Christine: "What does it feel like to hibernate?"

"Dreamless sleep, stagnant time... I don't know how to describe it specifically. Maybe the master can help me understand the mystery of hibernation more deeply." Christine took the opportunity to get rid of the rabbit fur blanket that wrapped her, knelt on the bed, stretched out her hands to hold Victor's arm, and said half-coquettishly and half-sincerely.

Seeing this, Ruth smiled and asked Victor: "Master, Christine hasn't seen you for several days. She must have a lot of things to report to you. Do we need to avoid it?"

Victor, with his ice-blue eyes, was full of thoughts. After being reminded by Ruth, he knew that he should curb his curiosity, so he nodded and said, "Let's talk business first and exchange information with each other."

Christine asked tactfully, "Did your outing go smoothly this time, Master?"

“All goals were achieved, and it went surprisingly smoothly.”

Victor took out a moth silk bag from his satchel and poured all the top-quality gems of various colors inside onto the soft bed, making it impossible for them to roll away. Each gem flashed with brilliant light.

This time they not only reached a preliminary consensus with the Orc invaders, but also undermined the resistance of the Braun Town stronghold, giving the half-elves in the stronghold a chance to escape, and the Orc invaders lost a target, thus attacking Echo Town first. But the most practical benefit was the huge military funds provided by the Silver Plate Horn family to the adventurers.

Originally, it was easy for Victor to rob the military funds. They couldn't take many gold and silver coins with them, so they could only throw them out of the hotel for the half-elves to pick up. Fortunately, there were a batch of gems among the military funds, and although they were hidden secretly, Victor still found them.

They initially estimated that the gems were worth 4 gold towers, which increased Victor's wealth to about 9 gold towers.

However, these gems were stolen goods, and Victor did not have a safe channel to sell them. Even if he could eventually sell them successfully, their actual value would probably be greatly reduced.

Although gems are very sensitive, the Dragon King Palace collects various gems to worship the Dragon King Firumat. Therefore, gems are hard currency and can be exchanged for many precious items in the Dragon King Palace, including but not limited to secret medicines, iron materials, dragon beast blood, and other materials. However, Victor and his team currently do not have a trading channel with the Dragon King Palace, and through middlemen, they are inevitably exploited.

The issue of the trading channel will be left for later. Victor is currently more concerned about Christine's progress these days: "What about you? Can you fully control a city gate now? This is the key to the rescue plan."

Christine pursed her lips slightly, nodded and shook her head, and said timidly: "Master, I have worked very hard and made some progress, but I am not completely sure that I can completely control a city gate."