Although Daphne wasn't fully loyal to David, she knew that if she provided information while Teresa remained silent, her dear friend would surely be doomed.
At this moment, the Great Elder's expression changed. How dare these two second-class members act so boldly? One dared to question him, and the other dared to ignore him.
"Well! Well! Well!" His face turned cold, and a dazzling silver light gathered in his eyes.
The Great Elder was aware of Teresa and Daphne's exceptional talents, but to the family, loyalty was far more important than talent.
Killing these two might be regrettable, but if he let them off, wouldn't it unsettle the other family members?
"Wait! Spare me!"
"Spare me!"
Daphne's face was filled with terror.
Teresa, on the other hand, struggled to stand up, gathering lightning in her hands.
Not far away, the Fourth Prince was stunned by the scene. What's going on? Why are they fighting? Should he intervene?
He hadn't yet reacted.
In the next second, a brilliant blue starry light flashed.
Then, everything fell silent once more.
The silver gleam in the Great Elder's eyes vanished without a trace.
A second passed...
Three seconds passed...
Ten seconds passed...
Daphne's initially terrified expression turned into one of puzzlement.
What was this elder doing, posing like that for so long? And why had the energy aura around him dissipated entirely? What happened?
Teresa was equally stunned. The once aggressive Great Elder suddenly stood there motionless. What was going on?
Surely the elder hadn't had a change of heart.
The lightning in her hands remained, but she dared not make the first move, knowing she couldn't win. A stalemate was preferable.
The two observed for a while longer, still unable to discern anything, when the distant Fourth Prince excitedly ran over.
He knew what had happened!
With prior experience, the Fourth Prince looked toward the Great Elder's chest and abdomen, where a faintly glowing small hole had appeared.
Wasn't this the same move David had used to instantly kill Constantine earlier?
The Fourth Prince was ecstatic. Taking a few steps forward, he saw a familiar figure emerging from a room.
Without hesitation, the Fourth Prince called out, "Mr. David! I've finally found you!"
His face was filled with excitement, but then he realized something and quickly explained, "The situation escalated suddenly, and I didn't have time to intervene."
The Fourth Prince mentally berated himself, wishing he could slap himself.
These two women were clearly connected to David! But his reaction had been far too slow! He should have ordered his soldiers to intervene immediately.
The villa was once again left with just the three of them.
Daphne was about to say something when Teresa shot her a stern look, "Don't ask what you shouldn't ask."
Then, Teresa stood respectfully to the side, awaiting Sterl's orders.
"Good, you always know how to please me." Sterl praised, though he wasn't planning to explain much.
To keep his true self hidden, Sterl never disclosed his real situation to anyone. The more lies he wove, the more chances there were for things to unravel. Maintaining an air of mystery was the best approach.
The reason he stayed behind at this moment was to open the loot chests.
This included the drops from the Great Elder he just killed, as well as those from Constantine and a bunch of Atlantic Empire NPCs. Sterl planned to open everything in one go and sort it out before heading to The Netherworld.
With a clap of his hands, Sterl opened all the light orbs at once, causing a barrage of notifications to flood his vision.
[You have opened a loot orb: Acquired 154 gold coins.]
[You have opened a loot orb: Acquired equipment [Golden Belt]]
[You have opened...]
...
[You have opened a loot orb: Acquired skill book [Divine Flame Drive]]
...
Sterl couldn't even catch everything with his hands as the villa's floor quickly became covered with a thick layer of loot.
Teresa and Daphne were left dumbfounded.
"Lord David, just how many instances have you cleared?" Teresa asked in a daze.
She didn't realize that Sterl hadn't been clearing instances. When he killed the Atlantic Empire soldiers, generals, and Constantine, he was merely around level 40.
Sterl received an extremely high cross-level combat bonus, ensuring that all opponents dropped loot orbs, and the items they dropped were exceptionally good.
For instance, Sterl noticed that one of the final items from the loot orbs was the skill book [Divine Flame Drive], a skill of golden quality!
Thanks to his general education, Sterl knew that the drop rate for purple-quality skills was less than 1%, and golden skills were even rarer. Yet, the first time he encountered a unit with a golden skill, it dropped immediately!
Even with the cross-level challenge bonus, Sterl felt that his luck this time was extraordinarily good.
Looking at the loot covering the floor, he called out to the still-stunned Teresa and Daphne, "What are you staring at? Help me sort this out."
The two beauties, at this moment, couldn't care less about maintaining any semblance of composure.
As players, they felt like the dazzling loot before them was about to blind them!
It was overwhelming—just the items shining with purple light, indicating purple-quality, amounted to four pieces!
There were also two items glowing with a watery blue light, symbolizing diamond-grade equipment in their imagination!
The rest included emerald green items representing platinum-grade equipment and numerous blue-glowing items symbolizing valuable blue-quality skills.
Sterl's estimation was correct. It took roughly two to three hours for the three of them to completely sort out the loot.
First, Sterl had acquired a total of 48 purple gold coins and 5,841 gold coins. Thanks to the cross-level challenge, the money dropped was many times more than what the hidden quests had given!
Adding this to the resources Sterl already had, his total wealth now equated to 110.56 purple gold coins.