Mercenary Wars

Chapter 217 Ancient Gold Coins
"If you dare to kill me, you will be punished by the god of the desert, Set!" The voice of the Desert Bishop came from the Sand Scorpion's body, filled with fear and anger.

But clearly, his fate was no longer in his own hands.

Gaucano gripped the sand scorpion firmly with his rock-like hands and said with a sneer, "If the God of the Desert really favored you so much, you probably wouldn't have ended up like this."

As he spoke, he took out a bottle of Lesser Divine Oil and held it in his hand along with the Sand Scorpion.

Then he exerted force suddenly.

"Crack!"

The glass bottle and the sand scorpion were crushed at the same time, and the golden liquid mixed with the insect corpses was rubbed in Gaugano's palm.

"Ahhh-"

Thick smoke rose from the crushed insect corpses, billowing and rising upwards, accompanied by the heart-wrenching screams of the Desert Bishop.

A message then appeared.

[Slaying an 8th-level soul grants +200 experience]

With this, Gaucano finally killed the Desert Bishop, bringing the battle to a close.

After washing his hands clean with water, the cool water washed away the remaining bloodstains and debris. He stood up again, his steps slightly heavy, and walked to Xiao Hei's side, reaching out to touch him.

[Status: Dead]

The black bear's massive body had completely lost its temperature. Although not unexpected, seeing this result still made Gao Jiano sigh, and he also felt a bit of a headache.

How am I supposed to explain this to Old Scar now?
Of course, now is not the time to consider this issue; there are more pressing matters to attend to.

The battle outside was not over yet; shouts of killing continued to rise and fall.

The undead who worship Set and the undead who worship Sindragosa are still trading blows, fighting fiercely back and forth. Although it looks like a big battle, neither side has any real means of killing, so it doesn't actually cause any substantial damage.

Gao Jiano immediately picked up the Desert Bishop's body, walked out of the church and shouted, "The Desert Bishop is dead!"

"Your Majesty the Bishop..."

"Seth, why! Our plan is about to succeed!"

Upon seeing the corpse of the Desert Bishop, the group of Seth's undead lost all fighting spirit and immediately scattered like birds and beasts, each fleeing in their own way.

Of course, Gao Jiano couldn't let them escape, so he immediately activated Blood Rush and gave chase. With Little Gu's aerial assistance, he quickly wiped out all the Set undead.

After eliminating the undead of Set, the next step is naturally to collect the spoils of war.

The most eye-catching loot was undoubtedly the Desert Bishop's outfit—his robes and staff were both level 10 magical items.

Gaucano really wanted to use it himself, but he didn't use much magic, and both items were water-based, so Daris was obviously more suitable.

So he eventually "lent" Dariss both his robes and staff.

For the petite Daris, the robes were clearly too big, like a child wearing adult clothes. But that wasn't a problem; the robes came with an enchantment called "Effective Scaling," which made it easy to adjust the size.

Besides the robes and staff, the bottle the Desert Bishop used to release the yellow sand is also noteworthy.

[Item: Desert Bottle]

[Level: Level 8]

[Effect: Capable of holding 400,000 pounds of yellow sand]

Four hundred thousand pounds of yellow sand!

That's close to two hundred tons!

It has to be said that this is a number that shocked Gaucano.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be of much use, at least not to him.

The desert bishop can use the sand to cast spells, but he doesn't have that ability.

To him, the Desert Bottle was merely a spatial magic item; although it had a large capacity, it could only be used to hold sand, and nothing else could be put inside.

What use are two hundred tons of sand?

After pondering for a while without success, Gao Gano shook his head and then tried to take back the sand that the Desert Bishop had released, both to clean up the area and to see if the bottle was actually any good.

This thing is incredibly easy to use; simply open the stopper, inject some magic, and it will automatically draw in the surrounding sand. The room contained at least 100,000 pounds of sand, piled up everywhere, but in no time at all, it was all collected into the bottle—an astonishingly efficient process.

From this perspective, the Desert Bottle seems to be usable for digging sand—it's extremely efficient and can be considered a sand-digging marvel.

The Desert Bishop had a storage ring, but it was empty. After putting away the Desert Bottle, Gaugano searched inside and outside the church and, with Oren's help, finally found the treasure room located beneath the church.

Inside the treasure chamber were several mindless undead, clearly its guardians. However, lacking intelligence, they posed no real threat to Gaucano, making the battle a foregone conclusion. After easily dispatching the undead, Gaucano found a chest at the far end of the treasure chamber. The chest appeared to be made of sand, its surface intricately carved, displaying a beauty unlike most of the artifacts in the ruins, suggesting the Desert Bishop's fondness for it.

"The box contains the wealth that the Desert Bishop plundered from the ruins," Oren said.

Pierce's eyes lit up: "Are the remains of thousands of corpses from the water cellar ruins all here?"

“No, that’s not it.” Oren shook his head. “It takes at least a few years for the undead to awaken spontaneously, and it’s not surprising if it takes hundreds of years. Before the first batch of undead awakened, the relics in the water cellar had already been looted by the living.”

Pierce's face immediately showed disappointment, like a deflated balloon: "I thought I could find my collection, those are precious items that I spent most of my life collecting."

Oren tried to comfort him: "Maybe. After all these years, the Desert Bishop has been having us dig, and the work has never stopped—many bodies are still buried under sand and rocks. I don't know if we dug you out, but if we did, your belongings might be in here. Perhaps we'll find something unexpected."

Upon hearing this, Pierce's face lit up with renewed hope.

At the same time, Gaucano prepared to open the box and reached out to touch its edge.

“Wait, could there be a curse on the box?” James asked, his voice tinged with worry. After all, these kinds of treasure chests often had traps, and considering that its owner was a mage who worshipped an evil god, a curse was undoubtedly the most likely form of curse.

"I'll dispel it!" Dariss said excitedly. She had just obtained the level 10 staff and was eager to try it out, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.

She then began chanting incantations.

The level ten staff was indeed extraordinary, as could be seen from the changes in her expression. In fact, under the blue light of the staff, Darius looked as if she were adventuring in the waves, her expression constantly shifting between surprise and caution, making her look particularly amusing.

Soon after, when the incantation was completed, the staff shone with light, and the box also flickered slightly, seemingly having indeed dispelled something.

"Alright!" Darius shook her staff with delight, as if showing off a toy.

Gaucano then opened the box.

Unfortunately, Darius did not completely dispel the curse; there was still a curse on the box, and it was a rather vicious one at that—the Five Rings Crispy Bone Curse.

The cursed person's bones become more brittle than glass, and even a slight impact can cause a fracture. In this state, a simple fall or bump can be fatal.

The same applies to the undead, who rely on their skeletons for support. Undead afflicted by the Bone Crumble curse can only lie still in place, otherwise they will soon turn into a pile of bone fragments.

Fortunately, Gaucano is not afraid of the curses triggered by such items, and the Curse of Fairness removes the curse immediately.

Ignoring the brittle bone curse, he opened the box, and various gold and silver jewels were immediately revealed before his eyes.

"So much money!" James exclaimed.

“There are also artifacts from the Troll Age!” Pierce immediately noticed a beautiful ornament in the pile of coins.

Gaucano picked up a box.

The box was opened, and inside were dozens of storage rings.

Pierce suddenly became excited, pointing to one of the rings and saying, "This is my storage ring! Look, it even has my name engraved on it!"

Gao Jiano picked up the storage ring he pointed to and looked at it.

His name was indeed engraved on it: Pierce Shackleton.

“It’s definitely yours.” Gao Jiano handed him the ring.

Pierce excitedly took the ring, his hands trembling slightly, but then he frowned, his expression turning disappointed: "There's nothing inside."

Oren reminded him, "I guess the Desert Bishop dumped all the contents of those dozens of storage rings into the box. Look inside; you should be able to find your things."

“That makes sense.” Pierce nodded, and was about to start searching.

However, his actions were interrupted when a spirit asked a practical question: "Are your other things also engraved with your name?"

Pierce paused.

Everyone realized what was happening.

With so many things in the box, its owner has no way of knowing what they are. If Pierce claims that everything in the box is his, does that mean all the treasure belongs to him?
Gao Jiano thought for a moment: "How about this, Pierce, try to recall what's in your storage ring first, and then look for it."

“There are many potions and scrolls, but after so much time, they should all be unusable.” Pierce slowly recalled, “What has survived to this day should include a bunch of badges with my name on them, three stone tablets with foreign scripts, a statue from the blood elf era… all of which I bought at a high price.”

“Oh, this troll trinket is mine too!” he suddenly remembered, pointing to the troll trinket he had just noticed. “But never mind, I didn’t recognize it earlier.”

“There are also many ancient coins that are over a thousand years old,” Pierce added. “I mean, those from my time.”

After Pierce finished speaking, he and Gaogano began searching through the box.

Before long, some of the items were found.

One of the ancient gold coins caught Daryls's attention: "Is the image on the coin that of King Roland of ancient Asur?"

Pierce: "That's right, the ancient Asur king who issued the 'Edict of Roland,' the greatest monarch of Asur. In fact, this gold coin is the evidence I told you about that proves Asur was the first country to convert to Mosa, and its historical value is immeasurable."

As he spoke, his tone became somewhat agitated.

He then flipped the gold coin over: "Look, what is this? The Mosa Triangle! This gold coin was minted by Roland's son. In other words, when Roland's son ascended the throne, the Mosa design was already worthy of being printed on gold coins! What does this mean? It means that the Mosa faith had already gained the kingdom's favor at that time!"

Although Gaucano didn't know much about history and archaeology, after hearing Pierce's explanation, he realized the historical and religious value of this ancient gold coin.

So after a moment's thought, he asked, "Can you sell me this gold coin?"

“How about a hundred gold coins?” he added.

Pierce smiled and said, “Although I have been isolated from the world for hundreds of years, I can guess its current value. In fact, even in my time, this ancient gold coin would have been worth more than a hundred gold coins.”

Gaucano: "So, how much do you think is appropriate?"

Pierce paused for a moment: "One hundred gold coins, but with one condition."

"What conditions?"

Pierce: "I hope you will tell me about the current situation of the Shackleton family."

Gaucano: "The Shackleton family is doing very well. I am from the South and don't know much about the North, but I have heard of the Shackleton family more than once and know that it is a prosperous and wealthy family."

“I mean the detailed current situation,” Pierce took a deep breath, “from the time I died until today.”

“Then you’ll just have to wait until I come here again next time,” Gao Jiano said.

He was actually a little reluctant, after all, the Asur Desert wasn't exactly a pleasant place.

However, this ancient gold coin is indeed quite valuable.

Putting everything else aside, he felt that selling it to Aidan for five hundred gold coins wouldn't be a problem.

Pierce: "Of course, I can wait for you. Time is the last thing I need right now."

“Alright, in the name of Mosa, I will come here again.” Gaucano nodded and handed over one hundred gold coins.

Apart from Pierce, none of the other undead left any belongings in the box.

So the remaining food was naturally divided among everyone.

Gaucano received the majority of it, including coins estimated to be worth thousands of gold coins, while the undead took a smaller portion.

In addition to the treasure, there were also some magical items.

The most eye-catching item was a mithril dagger.

Most of the items in the box are centuries old, looking very worn or dilapidated, full of the vicissitudes of history.

The mithril dagger, however, was gleaming and was placed in a separate box.

Gaucano reached out and touched the dagger.

[Item: Summoner's Blade]

[Level: Level 7]

[Enchantment - Assisted Summoning: Assists in the casting of all summoning spells]

[Enchantment: Spell Circle Memory: Preserves seven basic summoning spell circles; simply insert the Summoner's Blade into flat ground to form one.]

(End of this chapter)