Chapter 4

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“They’re just some riff-raffs. What good items can they have?”

George pouted.

“Easy for you to say. It’s not like you’re in charge of our finances,”

Celia rolled her eyes at George. She then raised her hands in the air and channeled magic into the gloves to activate the runes on them.

These gloves had only one function: to enhance the efficacy of the spell, Hands of the Mage.

Countless invisible hands appeared in the air and dragged the adventurers’ corpses together under Selia’s control.

Celia stood at a safe distance, controlling the Hands of the Mage remotely. Bit by bit, she took the items that looked useful from the adventurers.

Dead adventurers weren’t necessarily safer to approach. Sometimes, a dead adventurer was more terrifying than a living one.

Many people suffered greatly at the hands of dead adventurers.

As such, another common rule of survival among adventurers was: do not casually touch dead bodies in the wild.

Sorting out their spoils of war, Celia started, “Money’s money no matter how little. Do you even think about how much your enormous appetite costs us? Thanks to you, I haven’t had these gloves maintained for three months!”

“But don’t you also—”

Celia cut him off before he could finish.

Garling, she asked, “Can I compete with a professional?”

Sensing that Selia was upset, George quickly put his arm around her shoulders and appeased,

“Yes yes, calm down. You’ve had it rough.”

Celia wasn’t really angry. A little placating from George and her expression quickly returned to normal.

Within moments, she returned her attention to their spoils of war.

“They were wealthier than I thought. Every single one of them had three magic scrolls, and they’re all the amplification kind…”

George regarded the plethora of items that Celia had neatly arranged on the ground with surprise.

His gaze lingered on a few of the magical items for a moment. And George, keen as he was, swiftly noticed the black dots on them.

Those black dots were remains of dried bloodstains.

Clearly, many of these items had less than scrupulous origins.

“So many items… They sure didn’t hold back on the robbing.”

George turned to Celia and asked,

“Take out the bingo book. A gang like this should have some kind of bounty on them, right?”

Upon hearing that, Celia stopped what she was doing, pulled out the bingo book and began comparing the faces of the seven men with it.

George didn’t idle either. He picked up the gloves and took over Celia’s job of collecting more spoils.

Halfway through stocktaking, George held out an exquisite amulet to Celia.

“This amulet’s the one you wanted from before, right?”

Hearing George’s words, Celia turned around and took the amulet from him.

“It is! It has the mark of Claire’s Alchemy Workshop!”

Celia looked at the amulet, pleasantly surprised. Channeling magic into the amulet, she drew a pattern in the air with her right index finger.

The effect was immediate. Projected proudly in the air were the authenticity marks for Claire’s Alchemy Workshop.

Celia was delighted to see the mark.

“It’s the real thing! How lucky.”

After further verifications, Celia broke out in a huge smile, clearly very satisfied with the find.

Seeing the bright smile on Celia’s face, George couldn’t help but smile too.

“From the looks of it, it’s a recent purchase. The latest barrier amulet from Claire’s Alchemy Workshop can automatically form a protective barrier…”

Recalling the information about the amulet, Celia quickly realized that something was wrong.

Coming to a sudden realization, she turned to look at George, who was smiling happily and said,

“Own up. Where did you get the money?”

George looked at Celia questioningly.

“What do you mean? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Celia looked at George, who was still trying to play dumb and snickered.

After living together for so long, there was no way Celia couldn’t tell when George was lying.

“This barrier amulet has an auto-defense function…”

George interrupted her before Celia could finish. “Yes, but it still takes time for the barrier to be up fully, granted it’s a very brief moment…”

As he spoke, George patted his chest proudly, implying that he was capable of killing the enemy in that brief moment.

“I am well-aware of your abilities, and have no intention of doubting you.That’s not what I’m trying to say.”

Celia looked on in amusement as George scrambled to explain himself. She held up the amulet and continued with a smile,

“But what you might not know is that the latest model of the amulet looks different before and after activation”

George froze. He did not know this.

Celia drew another rune and keyed it into the amulet.

Looking at Celia’s movements, George realized that the runes she drew this time were indeed different from just now.

The amulet made a “ding!” sound as it accepted the rune. Then, the emerald embedded in the barrier amulet turned pink.

Once that was done, Celia fastsened the amulet on her waist in satisfaction.

“And that was the activation and binding ceremony for the amulet. This amulet has never been activated before. What do you have to say for yourself?”

The adventurers they just took out weren’t the type to buy a life-saving item and not use it.

At this point, George figured there was no point hiding it anymore.

“So that’s how it’s activated. I thought it can only be activated with this stone she gave me.”

At that, George took out the binding stone he had just snuck into their pile of spoils.

“That’s for ordinary people. Mages have faster and more efficient ways for binding and activation.”

After taking the binding stone from George and confirming that it was authentic, Celia became even more confused.

“So back to the topic at hand. Just where did you get the money? The cost of the latest barrier amulet is enough for you to have a feast Volcano Giant.”

“I didn’t buy it with money. I previously accepted a request from Claire in private, and asked to change the usual reward money for this instead.”

George briefly explained, glossing over the details of the request.

“I wanted to give you a surprise, but… guess I got busted in the end.”

“You got acquainted with Claire behind my back?”

Celia’s reaction threw him for a loop.

George watched as Celia’s face grew tense, seemingly angry. He fell silent for a moment and said,

“Isn’t your focus a little strange?”

“Is it?” Celia tilted her head, her anger vanishing in an instant.

Clearly, she was just pretending to be mad.

She then lept towards George and threw her arms around his neck. Pecking him on the cheek, she said,

“Thank you, it made me very happy. Love you!”

Wrapping his arms around Celia’s waist, George let out a mental sigh of relief.

Just as he thought he was off the hook however, he heard Celia’s voice in his ear,

“But you still have to explain yourself about the whole Claire thing..”