I was an apprentice in Ferren

Chapter 124 Soul Coin
Faced with this somewhat dangerous question, DuPont remained calm, not even raising his head as he continued to strip the large goblin of his equipment: "First of all, I didn't lie to you. Your lie detector ring didn't light up. I just didn't tell you everything."

"Secondly, I am a mage apprentice. I have to attend classes to learn spells the next day. If you keep me occupied and I have to cooperate with your investigation, it will take several days. Not only will you waste my time, but it may also affect my life at the academy and cause me unnecessary trouble."

DuPont said, using magic to clean the bloodstains off his body: "Secondly, you should know that it costs me about 30 gold coins a day to stay in the academy. Where would I have the energy and time to mess around with you? If I can't hand in the scrolls, the academy will expel me. If you only had a few hundred gold coins in your pocket and might be expelled, would you do this?"

"I see," Deva said, her mood finally improving a bit, though she still pouted. "But you shouldn't lie to people like that."

"Deception is a strategy. You should know that sometimes there is also a white lie. For example, you might tell a dying person that their illness might be cured, so at least they still have hope and won't be directly crushed by the immense pressure. As for the poor, not killing or arson is already a virtue. As long as there is no profit involved, the law doesn't care whether you lie or not, right?"

As they spoke, they arrived at the goblin's dwelling. DuPont found the cleanest-looking room with a door and went over: "Of course, I won't lie to you if you don't like it."

Upon hearing this, the paladin's lips curled up slightly, but after thinking about it, it seemed a bit unreliable.

People with criminal records are not very trustworthy. Could this statement be just me lying to myself?

The paladin felt a little itchy, but using the lie detector ring would be impolite, so he simply asked, "Really?"

"More genuine than the pearls in the Naga Treasury."

He didn't understand everything, but that didn't stop the paladin from asking a small question: "Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Huh? Why are you asking this?" DuPont, who was prying open the door, glanced back, his gaze playful: "What, do you like me?"

The paladin felt her face burning upon hearing this. She realized that DuPont's statement about lying being a strategy actually made some sense. She stammered, "What nonsense are you talking about? I was just asking out of curiosity."

"Oh, I'm pretty popular with women, after all, I'm not unattractive." DuPont said, pointing to the room, "I'm not strong enough, you cut it open?"

"A hammer would be better for this, or your axe will do too." A paladin interrupted, pulling out a warhammer. "Just smash it down and the lock will open, but what about here?"

“You see, this place is quite tidy. It’s most likely the mage’s residence. After all, he couldn’t possibly be sleeping with goblins here. There might even be some loot in there.” DuPont then remembered something: “These things are our spoils of war. We shouldn’t have to hand them over to the council, right?”

“There’s no such rule. After all, we’re not the military. I’m here in my private capacity to enforce the contract.” Deva shook her head, but then remembered something: “But that adventure team was four people, right? Let’s see if we can find their information. If we can, let’s mail their weapons back. That way, their families will at least have some hope and some money to live on. It’s better than them suddenly disappearing without a trace.”

DuPont was really annoyed that they were about to throw out hundreds of gold coins with just one word. However, this adventure had taken a lot of effort from both of them. Without Deva attracting their attention, it would be a pipe dream to think that they could easily solo this place. Given how cunning these guys were, they might even capsize themselves. Obviously, the spoils should be split in half.

Thinking back on her own misdeeds, she realized she had indeed done quite a few things wrong, and if she didn't accumulate good karma, she might fall into the evil camp, so she let it go: "Investigating here should be quite difficult. I checked the space bag and there was no clutter, so it must have been thrown away or burned by them. However, the guild or tavern might have it, since you need to leave some personal information when you sign a contract."

"That's settled then." The paladin was a little happy to hear DuPont agree to his request, after all, according to the other party, he was quite short of money: "Wow, there are even ventilation shafts and skylights here, and this bear skin is also quite good, it's high-quality stuff. It seems that this guy is living quite comfortably here."

“Although the mage is short of money, the amount needed to simply improve the quality of life is not too much, and it’s normal for the environment to be a little better.” DuPont put away the fur on the bed.

These personal items are awkward to use, but they'd fetch a good price if sold: "Let's take a look around; maybe this guy has a treasure trove here."

Deva was somewhat surprised after hearing this: "The probability of that is not high, right? Valuable things are usually kept in spatial bags."

“You’re right, but if he robbed a lot of things and hid them all, wouldn’t those goblins notice something was wrong? You can’t just eat it all yourself. Letting your underlings see that you have money is a strategy to show your strength. Not to mention you have to consider having multiple burrows and the possibility of not dividing the spoils equally.”

DuPont took out the half-elf ranger's spatial bag and said, "This mage is obviously much richer than this guy. This guy only has boots that increase jump spell, the rest are just ordinary +1 basic magic equipment. Do you want anything?"

“Take these things.” Deva looked disgusted; wearing equipment from the dead made her feel uneasy. “Those troll heads are enough. I don’t need anything else anyway. I see this cabinet is locked, but it seems to have some space. I’ll pry it open.”

The magical aura detection wasn't a trap, so DuPont let it go. However, to DuPont's surprise, after forcibly prying it open, there were no gold coins inside, but rather an evil magic circle maintained by a gem. The circle was activated, turning crimson, and several gleaming gold coins emitted an eerie glow on the altar.

Just as DuPont was wondering what this thing was, the paladin, who was a specialist in the field, noticed something: "Lady, is this a soul sacrifice array? That mage is probably connected with the devil or a demon."

"Hmm?" DuPont picked up the coin and found that this seemingly newly minted, dazzling gold coin was almost five times heavier than a regular gold coin, weighing about 2 ounces. There were no signs of any kind or church on either side of the coin, but rather a distorted human figure. If you looked closely, you could even see that the figure inside seemed to be alive, staring back at you as if cursing you.

Soul Coins (Gold)
Quality: Cherish

Note: The most popular currency in the lower planes, gold soul coins are inevitably forged by the powerful souls of adventurers. If you can bring them to Hell or the Abyss, one coin can easily be worth a fortune. The higher the level of the deceased's soul, the higher its grade and the more expensive it is.

You can also absorb them; each one is worth over 1000 experience points, the exact amount varies per Soul Coin.

Soul Coins (Silver)
Quality: Rare

Note: Silver soul coins are usually forged from the souls of powerful monsters and are worth over a hundred gold in lower planes.

You can also absorb them; each one is worth over 100 experience points.

"Such a twisted creation. It seems this guy is a hidden cultist. No wonder he did such heinous things." DuPont shook his head and accepted the gold coins. "I'll give them to the church when I get back."

"Hmm, let them come here to investigate later." The paladin didn't suspect anything. She told DuPont to step back, and then she uttered a series of complex symbols. The warhammer in her hand suddenly unleashed a magnificent divine power and smashed down hard on the altar.

"Holy Slash!"

The powerful force instantly shattered the altar that was no longer protected by its master. In an instant, the yin energy in the cave surged, and hundreds of transparent souls emerged from the magic circle as if they had been freed. DuPont subconsciously grabbed one of them, only to find it was a goblin that looked like it had just died.

You can no longer gain experience from this type of creature.

Somewhat disgusted, he threw it away, but to his surprise, the paladin looked at him with astonishment: "What are you doing?!"

"Huh? What's wrong?" DuPont thought to himself, then pretended to be clueless: "It was so cold and gloomy just now, it was really uncomfortable."

"..." The paladin reached out to grab the escaping souls, but her gauntlets couldn't touch them at all. She looked at DuPont with a serious expression: "How did you do that just now?"

"What? How did I do that? Capture those souls? Maybe I have Soul Coins?" DuPont said, slowly taking out Soul Coins and handing them to the Paladin. But all the souls in the room had already escaped. He looked bewildered: "That was a really rare scene. I never thought I could see the souls of people and monsters leaving."

"Souls are not uncommon. Some ghosts are essentially calamity creations formed when souls refuse to go to the divine realm or outer planes. Immersed in negative energy, they become twisted and perverted, gradually losing human emotions, and eventually turning into monsters that want to harm any living person they see."

As she spoke, Deva couldn't help but grab DuPont's hand, holding it in front of her to examine it closely: "Although these souls aren't ghosts, the fact that you can touch them is truly strange. Are you cursed? I'll check for you when we get back."

DuPont looked down at the girl's hand with some confusion: "Deva, are you taking advantage of me? I don't think I'm an adult yet. Be careful you don't get arrested by the guards and have stones thrown at you if you do this."

The girl froze for a moment after hearing this, then yelled angrily, "Get lost!"

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(End of this chapter)