Chapter 20: Preparation

Six days had elapsed since Princess Shina’s disappearance. One-fourth from the total forces of the imperial army had been sent marching due east to search for the princess despite Dhein advising them not to do so. In any case, he was confident they were going to find nothing.

According to the letter Silver Cloud was supposed to give these mysterious higher-ups, Shina was looking to stop in the Selense Kingdom. That was the place her traces had been leading up to, so she was probably there right now.

Before he could go there, he had to be fully prepared especially now that Zarria wasn’t going to be with him.

“Are you sure I can take this for free?” Dhein asked quietly. The passersby in the streets of the capital were obviously trying to listen in, and he must do his best to keep this trade confidential.

But since the merchant insisted on giving the artifact to him for free, it wouldn’t be much of a trade.

“My lord, I cannot imagine charging you anything for this artifact. I’m selling it for three hundred vhals, you probably don’t carry such low bills. Besides, I only found this thing in a common treasure chest in the mountains. Please, just treat it as my gift for you.”

Dhein pulled his wallet from inside his brown coat. He opened it and pulled three pieces of circle papers about the size of his palm.

“I just happened to have exactly that much on me here…” he said, chuckling embarrassedly.

The circle paper bills represented a hundred vhals. The rectangle did five hundred, the hexagon a thousand, the square fifty and the triangle thirty. Some metal coins had varying values of one, five, ten and twenty vhals.

The paper bills were water-resistant. They cannot be torn or burnt either. Written on them were unique codes confirming that they were valid and not counterfeit.

And on the center, a symbolic image of six men was shown.

They were the progenitors of this empire. The first priest, the first warrior, the first mage, the first witch and the first craftsman of the land now known as Olcour. The symbol of their identities were arranged like the five corner points of a star and at their center was the man who united them and led them to greatness — the first ruler of Olcour.

“Your hard work in keeping us safe is more than enough for you to deserve everything in my inventory for free, my lord! Please, just take anything you like.”

’I don’t deserve crap!’

Dhein took the merchant’s hand and then put the money there. He then took the artifact he wanted.

“It’s for sale, so I have to buy it. You’re an honest worker and I appreciate your generosity. But you don’t have to put people like me on a pedestal. In the end, we’re all just doing our jobs.”

The merchant’s eyes shimmered with admiration.

“As… as you’ve said, my lord.”

After that, Dhein went back to his chamber inside the palace and then observed the artifacts he had just bought. These often looked-down-upon items had saved his life many times.

They lay on Dhein’s bed as he inspected them. Varying in shapes and forms, they also served different purposes.

Crafted by divine angels that once roamed the earth, artifacts were magical items that could be used by anyone who knew how to awaken them. Each type of artifact had unique triggers. Upon activation, that particular artifact would serve its purpose.

Some artifacts could be used a maximum of three times, most could only be used once. The power of an artifact also dictated its value in the market. The cheaper ones Dhein had bought naturally had less flashy abilities compared to the ones in the emperor’s treasury.

He had enough wealth to buy the strongest artifact in the world, and there were times when he did. He did it twice, to be exact. And he never wanted to remember for what purpose because it always gave him nightmares.

This time, he bought the cheaper ones he found in the streets. No one sold the military level artifacts in the capital for they were all already being used by the imperial army. The middle-priced ones only consisted of entertainment-purposed artifacts that could not be used for survival, and it would be suspicious for someone like him to go to another city just to buy strong artifacts.

If only he knew this would happen, he would have brought his bad boys with him.

Sadly though, he had to settle with what he had. Pretending to collect cheap artifacts for fun, he went and bought every single artifact that he thought might save his life one day.

From left to right, Dhein had managed to collect the following:

A bamboo cane that, upon activation, could become indestructible for two seconds — one usage.

A cup that, upon activation, could boil water in an instant — one usage.

A ring that, upon activation, would float above the water for three seconds no matter how much the wearer weighed — one usage. This one was something he wore before leaving the manor. An artifact of this caliber would easily sell for a fortune in the city.

And finally, the one he bought from that merchant: a purse that, upon activation, could teleport one random content to a random location. If there was only one piece of content, that was sure to be teleported — one usage.

These items might seem useless, but they were the best Dhein could find in this place.

Buying a weapon also wasn’t a good idea. Not only were they illegal to buy for a civilian like him, no member of the Divinity Clan had ever used a weapon in history because they never had to. Being known as the strongest Theocheirós in the clan, he was the last person who would ever need a weapon.

Whether he liked it or not, he was stuck with using these weird artifacts. But hey, at least he could throw boiling water at his enemies or hit them with an indestructible cane. Maybe he could distract them by performing a magic trick with the teleportation purse.

Dhein couldn’t help but laugh at himself.

“I’m so pathetic,” he mumbled, shaking his head while chuckling.

Dhein turned his back on the artifacts and then went to prepare for his trip to the next kingdom.

That was why he didn’t see how the leather purse artifact opened by itself and a crimson eye looked at him from inside it.

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