Chapter 42: Camp

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Seeing those dazzling gold coins and crystals, Rebecca, Amber, and Knight Byron were unsurprisingly, stunned.

Back then, when Byron was a mercenary, he also saw his share of treasures in mountains, but compared to those dull antiques, these military supplies protected by runes before them were on another level. As a noble from a declining clan, the treasures that Rebecca saw in her castle did not even amount to what was held in this store. And of course for Amber, the industrious bandit, this was her first time feeling how difficult it would be for her to clear everything away…

Of course, apart from the shock, they were also roused with curiosity because many of the things before them were standard equipment from the Gondor period. These things were mostly reliant on the Gondor Empire’s advanced magic capabilities. Therefore, after the founding of Anzu, these equipment that the pioneers brought with them could not be repaired once spoiled, and their power would be depleted after some use. Today, there were no clear records of these ancient weapons of Gondor in the history books. Thus these dazzling equipment in the storehouse would definitely seem very unfamiliar.

But for Amber, it was not important how these things actually worked. They just seemed like they would be worth a lot!

“Gondor’s long coins… silver coin with the emblems… and the real three-leaf golden flower coins! My God!” Amber rushed to the box full of coins, her head almost buried in the pile of gold coins. “Money! It’s all money! We’re rich! Boss, we’re rich!”

When there was no money, he was the old-fogey, but now that there was money, he was the boss. Such a quick change of tune really lived up to her reputation as the disgrace of the elves.

Gawain reached out and pulled out Amber from the pile of money and grabbed her collar from behind. “Calm down, calm down! This is my money, not yours!”

Amber gave a look of righteous reverence. “As your most loyal follower, your money is my money!”

“These gold and silver coins are the lowest in value. These crystals are the real treasure.” Gawain curled his lips, and he gave an introduction to these things that were completely unfamiliar to people of the current age. “The crystals outside the chests are not infused with magic. Rebecca, as a mage, you should get acquainted with them. Though they need to be processed before they could be used, they would definitely come in handy. The chest contains the standard issue crystals used for the army back in Gondor. They are easy to use and can increase the combat ability of the soldiers. But these swords and armors are problematic… I checked it just now. They don’t seem to be in good condition. Their magic mechanisms are pretty much useless. It’s unclear how much combat power could be drawn from them.”

Although there were sealing runes set up in this storehouse which could slow down the oxidative corrosion of metals, the breakdown of the magic mechanisms and dissipation of energy were not processes that could be slowed. Although they all had long “shelf lives”, their shelf lives were still finite. Not only for the weapons and armor, even the military crystals kept in several chests experienced energy dissipation at different rates. Now the energy contained in them was probably less than one-third of what was contained in them when they were just “manufactured”. And the failure rate of these old antiques also presented another problem.

But to the poor Cecil Clan, this was still a shocking level of riches.

Thus even though Gawain emphasized upon the poor condition of these items, Rebecca and Amber were still dazed staring at them.

“What a load of assets…” Knight Byron felt his mouth was a little dry. “Yet it has just been quietly lying on the border of the kingdom… no one even knows…”

“Actually, I have to thank the Fog Month’s internal conflict a hundred years ago.” Gawain shook his head. “When the Moen clan still remembered these assets, the Dark Wave became an obstruction to exploration efforts to this area. But when the Dark Wave subsided, the Moen clan’s lineage ended. Well, its fate…”

Though he verbally lamented fate, what Gawain truly lamented was the unreceptive, backward feudal system where all wealth belonged to the King and the lords. The kingdom’s lifeline would be held in the hands of a few clans as their private property. Once a clan’s lineage was broken, these things would then be left to no one and returned to the wild. How absurd?

If the Moen family had clearly recorded these treasures on paper and stored them in the archives, and the members of the royal family were only responsible for keeping the keys, perhaps he would not then have the chance to retrieve the treasure. After the Fog Month’s internal conflict, the weakened royal family would definitely want to get their hands on these treasures.

But was not this kind of story, where the family’s inheritance was abandoned somewhere deep in the mountains for whatever reasons, how middle ages typically unfolded?

Rebecca’s gaze swept past the ancient equipment and crystals, and finally fell upon the chest of gold and silver coins. She gave a long sigh. “With these, we can pay off the debt to Viscount Andrew, and we can buy food and materials…”

Gawain looked at her and shook his head. “No. We can’t spend the money immediately.”

“Ah?” Rebecca froze for a moment. But at least she was not stunned stupid as she realized it quickly. “Because these are antiques?”

“Right. If you take these 700-year-old Gondor gold and silver coins to buy things from people, even the most stupid would be able to guess that the Cecil Clan found treasure in this dark range.” Gawain nodded. “At least before we establish some stability, we cannot allow this to leak out.”

“What should we do then?” Rebecca frowned. “We’re short of money now…”

“Very simple. Even if we change its form, gold remains as gold, and silver remains as silver, thanks to this era where precious metal is used as currency,” Gawain said gleefully. His words sent Amber’s heart twitching. “Melt these things!”

“What the!!” The half-elf almost jumped up. “Do you know what you are talking about! Melt them?! These are 700-year-old ancient gold and silver coins! You might as well sell them on the black market!”

“These 700-year-old ancient gold and silver coins are kept as good as new. More importantly, many of them of them are already extinct. You can only find their pictures in books.” Gawain gave Amber the gentle look that he usually gave Rebecca. “You can sell one or two of them. But try selling six boxes of them? If you can come back alive, I’ll give you one box!”

Amber gritted her teeth as she thought of carrying one of the chests and escaping, but upon seeing Gawain’s arm which was thicker than her thigh, she suppressed her bold, impudent idea.

But she still could not accept it. “But you can’t melt them all… it’s too wasteful…”

“Of course. We’re only melting some of them.” Gawain spread open his hand. “If I really had to melt all these antiques, I would feel the pain too, right? Let’s first melt some of the coins to solve the problem at hand. We’ll seal up the rest and see when they might come in handy.”

Amber’s expression relaxed, and Gawain smiled at Rebecca. “Now you know why I specifically asked that my title as Grand Duke Cecil be retained in the Silver Castle that day?”

Rebecca batted her eyes. “Huh?”

“Are you dumb! Dukes have the right to make coins!” Amber’s eyes widened, and she turned to Gawain. “So you were already thinking of melting these antiques back then, right?”

“You can say that.” Gawain admitted as though he was under no pressure at all. “I’m now a Grand Duke not bounded to any territory, unprecedented in history. For now, I don’t have a territory, and I have to open it up for myself. But even if I don’t have a territory, I still have the rights that come ‘naturally’ with being a Grand Duke according to the law. The right to make coins is just one of them.”

Amber’s eyes widened as she stared at Gawain. In the end, she could only lament, “You ancient nobles are still the pros. Those bumpkin aristocrats who only know how to extort travel tolls can’t compare to you.”

In this regard, Gawain answered simply, “Set your sights on the longer term. Even this entire treasure house is worth nothing compared to what you can get in the future.”

Then he instructed Byron and Rebecca to take some crystals and coins and prepared to leave the place.

Now that they had taken the treasure, they still could not put these things to use. First, they had to set up camp below. Then they had to get some trusted soldiers to transport the items, most importantly the equipment, to the camp in batches. At the same time, there must be people guarding the storehouse. Though there was a magic gate, they could not just leave the storehouse unattended in the mountains since they were already here.

And the warrior outside of the ruins would have to receive a new burial. A pile of rocks could not make for a proper tomb. Now that people from the civilized world had returned to this land, the warrior who died in battle should receive a proper burial.

Gawain and the party left the place after sealing the treasury with the platinum disk.

The camp near the river bank was still under construction, but it was nearing completion.

Byron and Philip bought a large number of tents back in Tanzan Town. They were actually just made of the canvas and wood needed to set up the tents. After arriving at the place, they still had to do some manual work in setting them up for the temporary camp. But the advance party were skilled workers. They were quick in setting up the tents. Herti also used some support spells to help out. The camp had already begun to take shape.

According to the plan left by Gawain earlier, all the tents were built on the south side of the White River, forming a fan shape. Important materials such as food and ironware were kept in the center of the camp. And the prefabricated wood was put along the river bank. The carts and caravans used for transport were kept at the edges of the camp after they were emptied, serving as temporary barriers before building walls in the future. Although the Dark Wave had subsided, they were in the wilderness, cut off from civilization. Who knows what beasts would appear?

Next to the tent in the middle of the camp, Gawain found Herti, who was looking exhausted.

Those ancient crystals could probably rejuvenate this exhausted lady.

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