Chapter 277: Shopping spree during a fight

Shane was still showing four fingers when the elemental attacks crashed into him.

Yet, instead of the appearance of a fountain of blood, Shane had levitated three meters above the position he had been standing before.

Cosmo had used his spatial affinity to create a spatial portal for a quarter of a second which had quickly transported both him and Shane to a different location.

This allowed them to evade the elemental attacks, and another one of Shane's fingers folded.

Only three fingers remained open as the first elemental Champion crab appeared in front of Shane, who landed on the ground.

He released his whole bloodlust-killing-intent to enveloped and strengthen himself.

At the same time, he used his entire mana pool as the Crimson Yaeli longsword appeared in his free hand.

Slashing out at the pincer that was about to cut him into two halves, Shane folded another finger.

There were only two fingers left open and everyone knew that it was a signal for them to start circulating mana through their body.

Meanwhile, the Archers had already nocked the arrows on the bowstrings. Their wind affinity enveloped the arrows and they were ready to attack the cave hall's center.

While deflecting the first Elemental Champion crabs' pincers, Shane was informed by Umbra and Cosmo that the Elemental Champion crabs' reinforcement was already there.

As such, he folded the second last finger as Cosmo used his [Space Jump] ability in order to take both himself and Shane back to the Starlight Guild members as Shane shouted.

"ATTACK!!" 

The moment he shouted, everyone except Shane and Milan initiated their attack.

While the close combat units charged forward, the Mages and Archers began to attack over a long distance.

Fireballs smashed into the most crowded areas and everyone began to utilize their skills and affinities to increase their combat prowess.

Within a few seconds, the Starlight guild members' strength reached the peak, and Milan, who was witnessing everything from the sidelines, noticed for the first time that every member had a mana purity above 70%!

Shane was the only one who was considered 'weak' with a cultivation stage at the peak-Expert stage with a mana purity of 60%.

Milan was also able to perceive that Shane's physique was weaker than the others which was probably the reason for him to not participate in the skirmish.

He observed the fight intently and began to mumble a few things before he started to take notes.

This interested Milan and he tried to get a glimpse of Shane's notes.

[Kylia is still too hasty and focuses too much on the area of effect skills]

[Lias' combat prowess is too weak compared to his high mana purity! He doesn't utilize his platinum scout occupation efficiently]

[Jack has a great combat prowess, high-grade occupation, yet no suitable weapon choice. Unable to utilize all the movements of a Swordsman!]

[Jennifer has great movements, but she attracts too much attention, which is not suitable for an assassin.]

[Grey is good at deflecting attacks and utilizes versatile skills to defend against all kinds of attacks.

The only downside, weak armor]

While observing the Starlight guild members fighting against the Elemental Champion crabs, Shane noticed that he had missed something essential!

"F*ck, I forgot to upgrade their gear….For what else did I lay aside 80,000 gold coins??"

He had unintentionally spoken out loud and Milan, who had heard everything couldn't help but ask,

"80,000 gold coins for a group of 40 members that already has [Tier-2] Uncommon and Rare quality equipment? What do you want them to buy? A whole set of [Tier-2] rare equipment for everyone with additional accessories or maybe [Tier-2 (Extraordinary)] weapons and equipment??"

Milan was not sure how Shane could just casually throw away 80,000 gold coins, but from the way he talked about it, this sum of funds didn't seem like a vast fortune!

Shane thought about what he should do, and instead of wasting anymore time observing the fight that should have an obvious ending, he decided to purchase weapons, better armors, shields, and so on.

The 80,000 coins he had in hand were quickly used up, because he had already found and messaged a weapon shop earlier, only to forget its existence when he had departed with the others!

As such, he looked over the goods he had already found earlier once again before purchasing them. 

There was only one item for each member of the Starlight guild, but it was perfectly adjusted to everyone's combat style. 

Furthermore, the effects on the [Tier-2 (Extraordinary)] weapons, shield and armors were extremely powerful, justifying their price! 

In the end, he had even purchased something for himself, which he hadn't intended to do in the beginning!

It was something he would have acquired either way. 

By the time he had purchased everything, Shane noticed that the Elemental Champion crabs had been defeated. 

Jack, who was the first to be done, had supported the others before he returned to Shane in order to hand over the corpses he had collected.

"Don't you feel like I'm exploiting you guys after all of you signed the Astral Artisans employment contract?"

Shane was curious about Jack, who was one of the most hot-tempered and straightforward among the members of the group.

As such, he thought that Jack would complain to him as Shane would receive everything they would acquire! 

Only 10%-15% of all profits would be given to the Starlight guild members that were present.

Yet, instead of complaining, Jack just smiled as he answered,

"I think a profit share is worth much more than those few corpses!"

After Jack had spoken his mind, Shane couldn't help but smile as he summoned an azure-blue longsword which he threw towards Jack.

"It's yours! I forgot to give all of you a welcome present. It might be a little bit late, but welcome to the Astral Starlight faction, or more like your new family!"

Jack was not sure what had happened, but when he looked at the characteristics of the azure-colored longsword, he couldn't help but exclaim in shock.

"[Tier-2 (Extraordinary)] with the [Condensed Upsurge] ability?? This longsword is worth a fortune!!"

Everyone who had returned heard Jack, and astonishment could be seen in the Starlight guild members' eyes.

Even Milan couldn't help but think that Shane was extremely generous.

Yet, only moments later, Shane had summoned one [Tier-2 (Extraordinary)] item with an effect after another.

Throwing them towards every member of his guild as if they were nothing, he smiled and was eyed weirdly.

Only when everyone had a new weapon, shield or piece of armor in their hand did Shane stop retrieving items from his spatial ring.

Meanwhile, Shane stored away from the several dozen corpses of the Elemental Champion crabs before he turned towards Milan.

"I think we can continue now. I guess we can expect a few stronger beasts, but they wouldn't be a problem anymore. 

Furthermore, I shouldn't be forced to act as bait, right?"

Shane smiled lightly as if he hadn't gone on a shopping spree amidst a fight and casually purchased goods worth 80,000 gold coins before he added

"We should hurry up! There are less than four weeks left until we can acquire as many funds as possible!" 

This was news to them and everyone was distracted by Shane's words as Kylia asked curiously,

"What will happen in four weeks?" 

Only now did Shane remember that he had forgotten to tell the others why he was in need of funds in the first place. His face broke into a grin as he answered her,

"In four weeks, Igra will undergo its mana heart awakening and the government will start promoting non-combat occupations while building their own Artisan organisation! The Astral Artisans have to speed up their pace and I need funds, the more the better!"

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