Chapter 119: The Devil’s Currency (First Update)
2015-03-25
Author: Floating Tower (诸生浮屠)
The cliff of Dragon Cliff is a bit difficult to climb.
In desperation, Soren had no choice but to go up first and then throw a rope down. Soon, the elite pirates climbed up the icy cliff, each looking eagerly towards the location of the dragon’s nest. Soren counted the numbers and then led them into the dragon’s nest, where a pile of shimmering treasures appeared before their eyes. Although it wasn’t exaggerated to the point of filling the entire nest, it was still visually stunning, especially the scattered gold dust and gold bars.
“So much gold!”
A cyclops pirate with an eye patch looked over and couldn’t help but swallow his saliva, saying, “So much gold, so many gems, this is probably enough for us to make dozens of scores, right?”
The expressions of other pirates were similar.
However, some small leaders remained calmer, though still a bit dazzled, except for a young man who seemed composed. He took out a pair of single-frame glasses from his jacket pocket, glanced around and murmured as if calculating, “Gold and silver are probably around 100,000 Gind, while jewels and diamonds may be around 50,000 Gind. Other items are still unclear, but this score should earn us big, many of our brothers didn’t d*e in vain.”
A white dragon takes over two hundred years to reach adulthood.
Therefore, the wealth before them was the treasure it had accumulated over two hundred years. Since it had not attacked city kingdoms, the number of treasures didn’t seem too frightening. If it had attacked cities or extorted kingdoms, its treasure would likely resemble the dragon in The Hobbit, the real mountain of gold and silver. Perhaps having experienced so much, Soren remained quite calm upon seeing such a mountain of gold before him.
He scanned the treasure and said solemnly, “Get everything on the ship. You all should remember my rules.”
“Rewards will naturally be given according to merit.”
“If anyone dares to keep anything private, you should know what the consequences will be! Come here. You three carry the gold out first. Cyclops, you five split the silver into a pile, then wrap it in cloth and carry it down. When someone brings boxes over later, carry everything back in boxes. This trip, everyone will receive great rewards!”
Soren quickly assigned tasks.
Then he had the young pirate with the glasses come over, and the two of them separately classified the jewels and diamonds.
These were high-value spoils. Even though Soren strictly forbade keeping things privately, some might still secretly stuff a few pieces, so it was better for him to handle it. There were a lot of ordinary gemstones, such as rubies, sapphires, agates, and emeralds, totaling over a hundred pieces. These gemstones had relatively lower value, possibly due to the rich mineral resources in this world. Most of these gemstones were valued between 100 to 500 Gind.
Finally, there were the diamonds that the white dragon liked to collect, with over fifty pieces.
These diamonds were all high in value. Soren glanced around and noted that most were above several hundred Gind, among them was a diamond close to the size of a fingernail, a crystal-clear blue diamond that seemed to have been polished. Soren took the beautifully exquisite blue diamond in his hand and estimated its weight to be around fifty grams; this weight would be considered a rare treasure in his past life. Even in this world, it was a very rare item, mostly only top royal nobles could possess.
“It looks very valuable.”
Soren played with the blue diamond in his hand, admiring its exquisite craftsmanship. He didn’t know where the white dragon had obtained it. Soren’s estimation skills were inadequate to determine its precise value. However, it was certain that its worth surpassed that of the other diamonds combined. Such an item, due to its high value, is hard to sell. Even royal nobles would need to consider their financial capability before acquiring it. Conservatively estimated, its worth should be over 30,000 Gind!
Soren took a glance and put away the blue diamond.
Next, he packed the other jewels and diamonds separately, then looked for any extraordinary level equipment as spoils. Unfortunately, Soren found nothing remarkable because this was an overseas area where the dragon race rarely encountered adventurers, making it difficult to collect high-value extraordinary equipment. At this time, dragons that were frequently challenged possessed richer spoils; as for dragons like the white dragon, which Soren defeated easily, they hadn’t collected many extraordinary items.
Among the five-colored dragons, the red dragon was the most powerful, with the most treasure, and basically all nests contained legendary-level equipment.
This was hard for other dragon types to compare with.
………………
About half an hour later.
Soren cleared the dragon’s nest, and the pirates left on the ship had already come over. Next to move was the corpse of the white dragon. Just when he was about to go out, the young pirate next to him seemed to have discovered something, approaching with two somewhat grayish stones in hand, respectfully saying, “Your Excellency! I found this in the corner and don’t know what it is. But it seems to be something useful!”
What is this?
Soren reached out and took the two grayish stones, glancing at them and instantly feeling a jolt throughout his body. He looked at the young pirate beside him and praised, “Well done! What’s your name?”
The young pirate looked a bit excited and bent down, saying, “My name is Nacos; they like to call me by my nickname—Treasure Mouse.”
Treasure specialty?
Soren paused upon hearing that and then looked him up and down and said, “Hmm. I’ll remember you. Someone will arrange for you when we return.”
In this world, there are some strange talent specialties, and many of these abilities are innate, as if some people are born with an unexpected intuition for treasure hunting. Some have extraordinary talents in searching, listening, and sensing. These people naturally have one or two talent specialties that are often not combat-related, but if utilized properly, they can be quite useful. Soren remembered that years ago, there was a goblin professionist who was exceptionally remarkable and naturally possessed legendary-level treasure hunting talent; it seemed that nothing valuable could be hidden from him.
Soren and his crew left Dragon Cliff.
On the way, he kept playing with the two grayish stones in his hand; he was somewhat familiar with this item but still needed to expend some killing experience to identify it.
As a faint spiritual light emerged:
“Item Type: Soul Stone [ +1]
Item Level: [First-tier Extraordinary Item]
Item Description: This is a special gemstone that stores soul energy, a byproduct of soul-binding spells or other soul-binding type spells. The soul energy stored in this type of soul stone is limited and can be used to replace many special materials or as an equivalent alchemy tool. In the Hell of Bartok and the Bottomless Abyss, soul stones are often used as trading currency because, for demons, gold and silver jewelry hold little significance, only souls are what they desire most.
Usage Requirements: None.
Usage Effect 1: Extract the energy of the soul stone to gain 3,000-5,000 points of killing experience.
Usage Effect 2: Serve as currency for transactions with demons or as a substitute for summoning contracts.”
………………
Two soul stones.
Both are first-tier extraordinary items.
It’s unknown where the white dragon obtained this item, as in Soren’s understanding, such items are rare in the material plane, only circulating as currency in the Hell of Bartok and the Bottomless Abyss. Gold and silver jewelry hold little significance for demons and devils alike, especially for devils; gold is just a boring collectible, and silver is something loathed. This is because silver is referred to as “Toxic Thorn” in the Hell of Bartok, and being in contact with it burns demons as if people touched sulfuric acid.
What demons desire most are souls!
Hence, souls in the Hell of Bartok are considered the only truly valuable currency, but this currency is quite rare because they still need to devise ways to steal such currency from the God of d*ath.
A complete soul is quite valuable!
Unfortunately, many of the demons in the Hell of Bartok are not strong enough, so the soul stone appears as a substitute.
This is an incomplete soul energy.
It was once jokingly referred to as “the devil’s currency,” which can be used to trade with devils or as a sacrifice for summoning devils. For someone like Soren, who can absorb soul energy to convert it into killing experience, he could also enhance his strength by directly absorbing the energy of the soul stones. As a result, for a period, many people liked collecting it because it allowed a person to make a rapid comeback!
There is energy within the soul stones.
However, low-level demons cannot absorb it; it is more often offered to intermediate and higher-level demons and then granted energy by their superior to elevate the subordinate demons’ power by one or two tiers. Thus, even in the Hell of Bartok, soul stones are rare items, generally only collected by middle-tier demons, roughly equivalent to legendary professionists in the material plane.
Although it is merely a first-tier extraordinary item.
The rarity and value of the soul stone are akin to legendary items, and its circulation is fundamentally limited to the Hell of Bartok.
—”Souls are currency!”
This is the most common universal saying in hell.
The most wasteful use of soul stones is to directly absorb their energy.
Although Soren isn’t very adept at using soul stones, he knows a way to maximize their value: using soul stones to summon demons and pre-arranging a group of happy little buddies to come over and “watch” him. As for whether he ultimately slays that demon or uses it for something else, it depends on his own intention.
The biggest flaw of this method is that it cannot be used too many times!
Therefore, if Soren had a summoning array for demons, he could directly use the soul stones to summon middle and low-tier demons to descend.
……………… (To Be Continued ~^~)
