The group approached the house and circled it. Not long after, they reached the window that Medric and company found was broken and was always open.
"Okay, from now on, Alex, you will be on your own, look for coins, small stuff that looks expensive, and any book related to mana." Medric told Alex.
"Marc, you'll stay here, and if you hear us say "Pigs." you hop inside and call out to Alex. After that, leave, and we will be waiting for you both behind the mansion." Medric continued, then turning to the pair of brothers, he said:
"Alonso, Oscar, take the East, and South, I'll take the West." he concluded.
Again, for the last time, he turned to Alex and told him something again.
"Don't stick too long for something, pick up the easiest stuff, if you see something locked and the key is not close by, simply pass, we rather have you pick 10 other things than staying stuck in one potential jackpot, also if you see any book with the word mana or skill stash it as well." Medric advised wisely.
"Okay, so this is a rather bird in hand than a 100 flying"
Alex comprehended Medric's intentions.
And with that, everyone went their way except Marc, who stayed still.
Alex jumped in through the window, and sure enough, the place looked empty.
The cooler was on, but there was dust all over the kitchen, meaning there was no cleaning staff taking care of the place.
This gave Alex an ominous feeling. Why would guards be guarding an abandoned place?
Either way, he moved quickly. There were 2 floors that could be seen from the outside, and he landed on the first, so his idea was to scan floor by floor.
Starting in the kitchen, he opened every drawer to see if there were any expensive utensils, but there was nothing. He then opened the cooler and only saw alcohol, not knowing if any of those bottles were expensive, he passed.
Running to the living room, he thought he was entering another place completely. There the stuff was indeed clean, but it seemed the work of the guards squatting through the night.
But scanning the place, he started finding coins.
Stacks of coins were lying everywhere on the table, stacked neatly at the same height. Seeing this, Alex was getting a feeling of what this was about.
'The guards are corrupt and are using this place to count the extorted money.' He thought keenly.
"Hmm, I think I'm gonna confiscate this." Alex murmured.
"That's justice." He finished speaking, and like a vulture to dead meat, he jumped to the coins, throwing them into the bag as quickly as he could since he didn't know how much time he had left.
It took him 5 minutes to pick up all the coins, and even though he didn't count them, there were a lot of coins.
After that, he made another sweep on the floor and picked up anything that looked fancy: Pens, utensils, everything he could think of except stuff that was fragile.
After another one and a half hours, he had cleared the room and proceeded to head upwards.
Having reached the second floor, there were only 4 rooms total.
2 double doors that could lead to either the office or the master bedroom, and 2 simple doors that could lead to either other rooms or storage rooms.
'First, the double doors, if there's an office inside, there was bound to be expensive stuff, right?' Thought Alex.
Opening one of the double doors, he luckily ended up in an office.
It was a fairly simple one, with a couple of shelves with books on them, a desk in the center with a window behind that had a view of the woods.
On the left was a big painting of a family. A man, a woman, one girl, and one boy. It looked old, and on the down, left-most side was a writing that said "the De Gelgris family".
'Shit, isn't that the family that rules Braywick?' Alex thought.
Braywick was 14 days away to the north of Rilven, where they were.
'So they moved on to a bigger pond.' Alex finished.
Lastly, in the left corner of the room, behind the desk, there was a safe.
"Bingo." Alex said, and approaching it, he saw that the safebox was dented everywhere.
'Seems the guards decided to use might instead of brain, classic musclehead.' Alex smiled to himself and started eagerly searching for a key.
'I'll skip the obvious places because if the key were in them, the guard would have found it already.' Thinking that Alex began to search in every place someone might have hidden a key.
On the plants' dirt, under the rug, behind the painting, everywhere he could think of.
After 30 minutes and while he was checking under a pot at floor level, he saw something shine faintly under the moonlight coming from the window.
Alex rushed to the shine that was under the desk and retrieved the key stuck on the upper part.
"Yes! finally!" He said, overjoyed.
Then he quickly went to the safebox and opened it with the key, expecting a vast amount of coins.
Instead, the view of 4 books greeted his eyes.
'What the fuck…' his joy quickly turned to disappointment. He took one of the books and read: "Wind gathering (Beginner)" he opened quickly to take a look at what it was.
'It's related to mana.' Thought Alex, reminiscing about what Medric told him before entering.
'Then it must be expensive.' He put the book in the bag and looked at the other books.
"Fire gathering (beginner)"
"Wind skill: Windslicer (beginner)"
"Fire skill: Fire fist (beginner)"
"Shit! They are all magic books, we struck rich!" Alex said with joy and excitement returning to him.
Having looted the most expensive stuff, he decided to leave and reach for the other double door not far from the one he came out of.
While approaching the doors, he heard what seemed to be the sound of chains moving.
Alex froze. He wasn't alone in this house.
He stealthily approached the door and opened it slowly.
Then he peeked inside and immediately said:
"Shit…"