– Hikari –
[Physique : 815]
[Mana : 850]
[Defense: 760]
[Mind: 785]
[Height: 5.0 meters]
[Weight: 2900 kg]
[Heart of wyvern (new): 30]
Hikari wakes up from her deep meditation.
A dim blue light fills her blurred vision.
The mana vein.
Its glow has grown weaker as she absorbs its power.
How long did she spend down here?
She tries to move.
Her body was cold but not freezing.
Her heart picks up the pace after being dormant.
She pushes off the blanket of snow covering her and stands up.
Shoulder movements.
Arm movements.
She shakes off the snow gathered on her legs.
Warmth returns to her body, which had grown cold from meditating in the mana vein's chill.
Her bare feet touch the cold stone ground.
"Where are my boots?"
She checks herself.
Her armor is a complete mess.
Jagged pieces of wyvern skin drape over her body.
Her socks were torn inside her boots.
Her king salamander armor thinned out to adapt to her new body shape.
Her toes brushed against the snow.
Her boots had become too small.
Wearing smaller-sized soles causes more discomfort than none at all.
For now, her bare soles had to endure the cold and rough terrain.
Her soles were buried in snow.
Yet they didn't feel numb.
She wriggled her toes.
"It's not cold?"
She hadn't endured the biting cold of living in the RazenHeir estate.
It had been a long while since she fought the orcs in the snow.
Hungry.
She had eaten everything she bought.
The aether fire explosion had destroyed the garden, so there was nothing to scavenge.
Badum!
Her heart pounds.
A surge of mana coursed through her body.
Badum! Badum!
She feels like vomiting.
Control. Control.
She breathes deeply, suppressing the mana.
The freezing air fills her lungs.
Her body calms, returning to normal.
"I might have absorbed too much."
She looks for her harvest sack.
It was buried in snow.
She dusts off the snow and checks the contents.
It was not a happy haul.
"Ria might be mad."
The sword of the previous RazenHeir was shattered into pieces.
Its handle is completely gone.
So was the layer of black still on the blade.
Only the Runium core survived the implosion.
At least the sword's most important part survived, though it now lay in pieces.
Even the hardest materials from the spire city couldn't fully survive the explosion.
She looks around for more loot.
The aether fire had ruined the garden, so there was no exotic fruit for her.
Mana crystal formations grew out of the snow.
She remembers Rey's words.
Remember! This time, do NOT bring anything back from the mana vein. The inspectors are coming for real this time.
She couldn't loot the dead adventurers' weapons and armor.
The best she could do was stash it above the ridgeline.
She gathers the dead adventurers and strips them of their armor.
Most of the bodies had been badly dismembered.
She holds out her palm.
Incinerate.
The pile of bodies flared with RazenHeir flame.
That was all she could do for them.
She feels rather disappointed with the lack of loot.
Her damaged armor meant she would have to spend silver fixing it instead of buying herself a good meal.
But at least she has the power from the mana vein.
Wyvern parts frozen in the snow.
Chopped into pieces by the monster she had just slain.
The wings and bones were still intact.
Wyvern meat decays quickly even in the snow and becomes inedible.
The last attempt cost her a stomach upset.
But wyvern bones and wings are decent prizes.
Bringing back wyvern parts from a wyvern raid wouldn't raise suspicion.
She reaches into the dead wyvern's body and pulls out its core.
The dormant pitch-black crystal shows no signs of wyvern fire.
But when she grabs it, it feels biting cold.
"Ow!"
She puts it into her harvest sack.
Even a damaged core will fetch decently.
There's a bigger consolation prize.
The creature's massive claymore.
She burns off the hardened vines that coat it.
It was much smaller without the thick outer layer, but it was still about the length of her arm.
Heavy. Really Heavy.
It was heavier than any sword she had wielded.
She tries to swing it.
It almost threw her off balance.
She holds it in a stance.
As her muscles warmed up, she got more used to its weight.
"Nice."
A sword that could maximize her strength.
She had been longing for one for a while.
She tries to channel her flames.
The sword stubbornly refuses.
Hikari shrugs.
She can't channel her flames through it, but at least she has a weapon to draw if a wyvern shows up.
Its sheer weight would crush a wyvern's jaws if its blunt edges wouldn't cut through its skin.
It's hers to keep.
No one would buy a sword this big.
Nor could her Lady Ria easily replace her main weapon.
"How do I explain this?"
A giant hunk of metal doesn't seem valuable enough to raise suspicion that she got it from the mana veins.
She shrugs.
"How do I bring this back?"
Ropes hanging from pickets stuck into the cavern walls.
Reinforced ones that could hold the weight of a small raid party.
This is how the now-dead adventurers reached the mana vein.
"Perfect."
She bundles three ropes together.
The sturdy rope was more than enough to hold the massive blade's weight.
"Time to get back to Rey"
She looks up.
The flame marks she left on the way down.
She could still sense them.
Squats.
She warms up her legs.
Her mana courses through them.
She jumps.
…
The RazenHeir camp.
Blacksmiths are busy hammering their anvils.
The tanners hang up the sheets of wyvern skin.
The sentries grumble quietly about the long trip.
Rumble. Rumble.
The siege tank stopped in front of Rey and Ria.
Its steam core winds down.
The side door opens.
The troops unload the cargo.
Across from the two scions of the houses stood the inspectors of the Herdial adventurer's guild.
Two crests on their chest.
One was shaped like a voluptuous woman.
The other was a sword clasped in stone, with a stone pattern in the background.
Everyone watched quietly as the troops laid out the spoils of the raid.
"Ria RazenHeir, representative of the RazenHeir house, are you ready to hand in the loss claims?"
The inspector spoke.
"I am."
Ria's scribe stepped forward and handed the inspector a report.
The inspector glanced through it.
"Two hundred thousand gold for the loss of a Runium great sword."
He raised an eyebrow.
"Indeed. A legendary sword passed down through the generations from a predecessor of our house. Surely, the figure is a reasonable estimate."
Ria keeps a straight face.
The inspector glares at her.
He flips through the rest of the list quickly.
Only the Runium sword has a figure that is digits longer than the others.
"Rey Hearthstone, representative of the expeditionary force."
"Certainly."
Rey carries a large stack, walks to the inspector, and hands it to him.
Ria was bemused by the stack of paper, several times thicker than hers.
The inspector threw the general a look and flipped to the last page.
"A million gold?"
The general smiled quietly as he glanced through the entries.
"Ten thousand gold for the death of a-"
The inspector looks up and sees the soldiers standing around.
After a pause, he keeps the stack.
"Well played."
Ria whispers to Rey.
He briefly grins at her.
"We will now begin the reporting and an initial valuation of the spoils of the raid."
The inspectors approach the spread of monster parts.
A tooth of the sandworm titan about half the height of a man.
A steam tank's worth of smaller sandworm teeth and carapaces.
Mana stones extracted from the mine, weakly glowing from the sun.
The yield on the mine's top level is only this good after being closed off for this long.
Carapace of a spider queen, her organs preserved in glass jars.
A steam tank's worth of carapaces from her children.
Stacks of raw, unpolished wyvern skin.
A pile of wyvern bone.
The broken wyvern core.
The head inspector approaches Ria and Rey, who watch with anticipation.
"A summary of spoils. The tooth of the sand titan is estimated to be twenty thousand. The carapaces are about five thousand; the mana stones, perhaps another five thousand at the most. A queen spider- that's quite the find. I'd say fifty thousand. However, don't get your hopes up. You know about all the costs of processing it. The wyvern core might fetch three thousand. As per prior agreement, the RazenHeir house may keep the wyvern skin and bones."
The head inspector keeps the scroll.
He keeps a straight face, allowing the news to sink in.
Ria and Rey respond in kind.
"On the positive news."
He takes out a scroll.
"The RazenHeir house has completed their commitment to the wyvern raid. A full payment of fifty thousand gold will be released in due time."
Ria reads it carefully, then signs it at the bottom and seals it.
The inspector keeps the scroll.
Ria breathes a sigh of relief.
"When may we expect the payment?"
The inspector pauses.
"Since the Herdial royal house approves this payment, it will first have to pass through their review."
Ria stares at him quietly.
"Very well."
She lets it go.
The inspectors signal to the laborers.
They begin loading the spoils.
The sound of a train engine in the background.
In the background, a column of slayers marches towards the wyvern peaks.
"A Runium sword of a previous RazenHeir. Did you really bring such an expensive high-level weapon for the raid?"
"Of course. Look at you. Steam tanks. Steel wire meshes against the sandworms. Grape shot and custom-made armor for the infantry going into the mines. You certainly equipped your men well given the resources you have."
"It's not on the same level as bringing a legendary sword and getting it damaged as it did."
"What exactly happened in there that managed to break a Runium sword?"
Rey was stumped.
Ria looked at him, confused.
The general begins rolling his eyes.
"Rey…"
"Ah! That reminds me. I gotta get back to the front. I still have to hold the mine shaft until the raid is really over."
Rey runs off towards a steam tank, getting ready to move.