Chapter 85 Blazing Serpent

“Wait, we have to make the bath first.” Aldred combusted more than a dozen holes, turning the matters into flame. Because they did not have barrel, Aldred thought that filling the hole with water, then heating them up would do.

“Mira, can you add water to these hole?”

Mira spun her staff and a stream of water filled the holes immediately. Aldred combusted the water into flames, literally burning it to prevent it from being frozen. He then stabbed some fire javelins at the center to make the water warm. Steam came out of the water, and it washed them with a mist of heat.

“And I am done.”

Mareona rushed to him, picked him up, and then hopped onto the hot bath. The water splashed out, wetting the ground. Some of it freeze into ice immediately.

“Mareona, you’re wasting the water.”

Mareona giggled. “Sorry about that. Mira, can you please add more water to this bath?”

Mira walked to the bath, submerging her body, before adding in more water. Sophia and Mary entered the warm bath as well.

“Oh my, it feels so nice.” Mary

After they felt that the water was comfortable, they took of their clothes and put it to the side. Mary’s breast was now in full view. Aldred swam up to her and hugged her.

Sophia looking at this was a little jealous, so she took off her bra as well. She grabbed Aldred and pressed his face against her boobs.

“Do you like it?” Sophia asked.

Aldred nodded. Her boobs were plump, soft, and smooth. Mary approached and hugged him from behind, making it warmer.

“I want to join as well,” Mareona said before hugging him from the side.

Mira seeing this smiled and hugged Aldred from the side. She was fully naked, and now all four beautiful women hugged Aldred in every direction.

“Ahh, it feels so nice,” Mary said.

Aldred was rubbing his head on her breast. “Yep, very nice indeed.”

“What do you plan to do after obtaining the treasure, Aldred?” Mareona asked as she grabbed her.

Aldred pinched her nipples, making her blush.

“You naughty boy.”

He giggled and played with it. “I will become stronger, and try to defeat the emperor. After that, I will reform the whole empire. I will stop slavery, and local lords must never abuse their power.”

“That’s a noble goal, child,” Mira said with a smile. She grabbed Aldred and looked him in the eye. “I will help you in fulfilling that goal.”

“Thank you.”

They hugged him tighter.

“We all will help you in achieving that.”

Bartrem and the others were enjoying the warm bath as well. Because Aldred made so many warm baths, there was room for everyone. Some even took the chance to date privately. There were 73 soldiers in their group, and 50 of them were females, so the male soldiers actually had a lot of chance to get some girls, and some of them did, while the others were still holding themselves.

“This gender imbalance is not good,” Bartrem said. “I should have recruited more men before starting the journey.” He leaned on the wall and closed his eyes, enjoying the warm bath.

Suddenly, they heard a groaning sound, and a hand was holding on to the edge of the cliff. It climbed up and revealed a person with parts of his skin frozen. More people came. All of them trembled in the cold, gnawing wind. Some were unfortunate, having their fingers turned black. Those fingers were now dead and had to be cut off. Pitiful.

If Aldred did not give his friends warmth and heat, they’d be suffering the same fate.

On the other hand, the people that just climbed here were shocked to see a hot bath in this place. They would like to enter and enjoy the bath, but they were all filled with Aldred’s group.

This scared them. Aldred could turn into a Gargant Eagle. A powerful eagle that ruled the lower part of the mountain. Because of this, they didn’t know what to do.

But one group couldn’t take it and approached them.

“Hey, we would like to take this spot. The hot bath is large, so get out and go where your friend is.”

Bartrem leaned back and looked at them. “This hot bath is created by my comrades. If you want one, then make it yourself.”

“Bullshit. How can you constantly heat the water? A magician will run out of mana in seconds trying to heat water in this freezing temperature.”

“I said what I said. If you don’t believe it, then it’s not my fault.”

“Don’t be such an arrogant. If it’s true that your comrades can do it, then prove it.”

“My friend doesn’t need to prove you anything.” Bartrem stared at the man.

“It’s okay, Bartrem. Let me give him proof.” Aldred combusted another ground into flame, creating a hole. Then he asked Mira to fill it with water. Just like before, Aldred fired a bunch of javelins in the center, making the water steam up.

“Humph. You think you can fool me? That boy will run out of mana soon.”

He waited for half an hour, but the water was still steaming. “How is this possible?”

“You have your proof. Now go away.”

The man clicked his tongue. “How dare you a bunch of peasants. Do you know who I am? I am the son of—”

A sword came out of his mouth from the back of his head. When the sword was pulled, the man fell.

Everyone gasped in shock. The man’s friends were shocked as well, as they couldn’t even see who did it at first. Only after their master died did they see the man. He was a handsome man with tall stature. They were about to fight him, but the man exuded a powerful aura that made them scurry away.

The man smiled at Aldred. “A person like that deserved to die. I am not like him. Instead of pushing my status to your face, I can give you something valuable for a bathing spot.

“What can you give me?”

The man smiled after seeing Aldred taking the bait. He took out a small green bottle and showed it to Aldred. “This is a portable traveling tent. Watch.” The man threw the bottle on the ground, and then a green tent appeared.

It was larger than Aldred’s usual tent, and the cover seemed thicker as well.

“This tent can protect you from heat, cold, and even natural disasters. So even if you don’t agree to this trade, I can use my own tent. Oh but, don’t worry. I have more than a dozen of these.”

“What do you think, Bartrem?” Aldred asked.

“I think it’s a good trade.”

Aldred smiled. The warm bath cost him nothing to make, so getting these tents was actually a steal.

“Why don’t we just make more baths for them all?” Mira said. “It’s better if we help as many people as possible.”

“I don’t agree with that,” Mareona said. “They’re competitors. I am not sure if there is only one astrolabe or not, but I am sure all of them will fight tooth and nail to obtain it.”

“I get it you want us to help as many people as possible. But I would never help someone who would like to kill me later,” Mareona continued.

Mira sighed. Her argument was correct. Though she despise killing and harming people, she tolerated it if they had justified cause such as protecting oneself from being harmed or preventing oneself from being taken advantage of.

She wasn’t a naive nun that hadn’t seen the pain and dark side of this world. She simply wanted the golden light of hope to spread in every corner.

“What about you, Sophia?”

Sophia blushed when Aldred asked her opinion. Though he said she was now part of the family, she wasn’t used to having her opinion be considered. “Uhh… I think you should take it. Those tents are very useful.”

“That decides it then. We will take the tents.”

The man smiled and threw a bunch of green bottles at him.

“Alright, you can go to the bathing spot I just make.”

The man glanced at the small circular bath spot. “But that’s too small for me and my men.”

“I never specify how big the bathing spot is, have I?”

They were shocked. Everyone was shocked as well. How could this boy say that without the slightest bit of shame?

Mira flicked his forehead. She frowned at him. “Aldred, don’t be like that. Give them proper bath size.”

“I am sorry.” Aldred rubbed his forehead, and combusted the bathing spot, making it larger. Mira then fill it up with more water as Aldred stabbed more fire javelins inside.

Mira pulled him and stared into his eyes. “Aldred, don’t you dare cheat someone when they honestly do a transaction with you. It’s evil. Only the devil and the demons fooled their clients.”

Aldred blinked. ‘Mira, I think you’ll be surprised how merchants make their money,’ he thought, but he did not say it.

When the others saw the transaction, they approached Aldred.

“I would like to buy one spot as well. For fifteen men, I can give you 3 million gold coins.”

Mary and Bartrem gasped and choked on their own saliva.

“3 million gold coins? If you do have that much money, then why didn’t you bid on the auction?”

“The items auctioned are useless for me. And I am a bit skeptical about the enslaved Velobra. It seems like my suspicion was true. Lord Henry never appears again after that auction.”

Aldred raised an eyebrow. He told Nicky not to kill anyone. Did he kill Henry out of accident?

“Mary, Bartrem. You guys know more about money. What do you think?”

Bartrem was in thought for a moment. “I don’t think it’s a good deal. Three million gold coins is a lot, but we don’t need money right now.”

The man nodded. “I understand. What about Low Epic magic staff?”

“Low Epic magic staff?!” Bartrem and Mary almost jolted out of the hot bath.

“What? Is that good?” Aldred asked.

“Generally, only upper Diamond Rank can have such staff. Even an Adamantite Rank can only have middle or upper Epic weapon for themselves.”

“What about Eternal rarity?”

“Those are the stuff of fairy tales. A lot of stories depicting war generals, gods, beast, and heroes usually involves Eternal rarity equipment. But most of the stories are about the legendary figure using the eternal crystal to rise to the top. So everybody knows how it looks. Even peasants and slaves.”

Aldred nodded. That explained how that old man knew that the crystal his father gave was Eternal grade.

“Are you sure you want to give me such an item for a hot bath?”

The man smiled. “I am not merely buying a hot bath from you. I would like to buy your friendship and protection as well. There is more than one astrolabe at the peak. If you only take me with you, you don’t have to worry about competitors.”

Everyone was shocked at how smart this man was. Securing Aldred as allies was as good as winning this treasure hunt race.

“So that’s why. Alright, tell me your name.”

“My name is Maverick Chanterre. I am a vampire.”

People gasped in shock.

“Maverick Chanterre? Isn’t that one of the Vampire Count family?”

“He’s not the usual Count, but one of the largest that has a large county on the west side. People say it’s only a matter of time before they become marquis.”

Sophia whispered to his ear: “Aldred, you should befriend him. He’s a noble of Thignia.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“A noble has to have at least four lower Diamond Rank serving him. For comparison, each of these Diamond Rank is as strong as Pharder.”

“Four Diamond Rank?” Aldred couldn’t believe it. “But, the empress was only guarded by four as well.”

“Those are upper Diamond Rank. Each of them could take four to ten lower Diamond Rank at once. And the empress has a lot more guards. They hid, but they never let her out of their sight.”

“Oh… really?” Didn’t that mean they saw him doing ‘that’ with her? Damn! He’s lucky they didn’t behead him after the empress left. He sighed in relief. “So a Baron at minimum has four lower Diamond Rank. That is so crazy.”

‘And didn’t I just kill the only heir of a count? Crap. Nicky is going to get me killed. It wasn’t him who killed the man right? If it was him, and they found out, there would be at least four Diamond Rank hunting him down.’

Fuck! He would discipline his undead later. They should follow his order to the minute of detail.

“So, what do you say?” Maverick asked.

“You got yourself a deal, my friend.”

Maverick smiled and carefully handed him a marvelous staff. Its pitch-black handle was taller than him.

A small line glowing in red ran to the top, ending at what seemed to be a serpent’s head opening its mouth. And within that mouth was a red crystal, shining an eery crimson color.

[Blazing Serpent]

-Increase fire elemental damage by 300%

-Increase mastery over the fire element by 300%

-Trap Flare: Creating an invisible flare that will activate at will or when the target is nearby, engulfing everything around it in flame.