Chapter 41: Opening the Treasure Chest

The remaining items were bronze equipment. Currently, bronze gear still had little market value, but the two pieces of bronze gear dropped by the Silver Wolf King had similar attributes to the black iron gear dropped by level 20 bandits. Wu Shaochen thought for a moment and listed the two pieces for a price of 60,000 each, and they were immediately snapped up. It seemed that the buyers didn’t bother looking at the stats and just saw “bronze” and quickly purchased them.

Wu Shaochen glanced at the last two pieces of equipment, the Black Bear King Boots and the Graphite Helmet. One was dropped by the level 17 Black Bear King, and the other by the level 20 bandit chief. Their attributes were similar. He wondered whether to list them at auction or stick with his usual fixed price.

What Wu Shaochen didn’t know was that most of the players in Jinling City were eagerly watching the auction house. It was the first time they had seen a large batch of black iron and bronze equipment being sold.

At this moment, his private message window popped up.

Xue’er: “Are the items on the auction house yours?”

Chen Feng: “Yeah, why?”

Xue’er: “…”

Xue’er: “Do you have more?”

Chen Feng: “You want more?”

Xue’er: “Yes.”

Realizing there might be a misunderstanding, Xue’er quickly added, “I only want bronze gear, do you have any?”

Wu Shaochen thought for a moment, then took screenshots of the two remaining items’ stats and sent them. Both pieces were for all classes.

Xue’er: “How much are they?”

Chen Feng: “Same as before, 160,000 each.”

Xue’er: “Okay.”

Wu Shaochen was a bit puzzled and asked, “Beautiful lady, do you have a mine at home? How can you afford so much?”

Xue’er: “I do, so we can have a long-term partnership.”

…

Chen Feng: “Can’t we keep it low-key?”

Having exchanged all the unwanted gear for nearly 900,000 gold, Wu Shaochen felt pleased. He glanced at the bandit chief’s house, wondering what had happened to the man, whose subordinates had all been wiped out but hadn’t shown himself yet.

Upon entering the house, Wu Shaochen noticed it was spacious but sparsely decorated, with only a few rooms besides the main hall. He could faintly hear sounds of crying from one of the rooms.

He walked toward the source of the noise and opened the door. Two women were inside, their clothes disheveled, their faces stained with tears, and they looked terrified as they stared at the door.

Wu Shaochen quickly took in the situation and understood why the bandit chief hadn’t let anyone come upstairs—he had been enjoying himself. Was he having a little fun? He must have been disturbed by Wu Shaochen. No wonder it felt like a scene of deep hatred.

Looking at the two women’s disheveled clothes, they were probably village girls the bandit chief had kidnapped from some village. They weren’t unattractive either—this guy’s taste wasn’t bad.

“Alright, you two can go home now. The Black Wind Bandit Leader has already been killed by me,” Wu Shaochen said.

“…”

The two women didn’t react, still looking at him in fear.

“Uh, don’t you believe me?”

Wu Shaochen raised his voice, trying again.

This time, one of the women weakly asked, “Is it really… true?”

“I wouldn’t lie to you. You can go out and check. If you don’t hurry, you might miss your chance,” Wu Shaochen warned. He wasn’t sure if the bandits would respawn here.

The two women quickly tidied themselves up and cautiously made their way outside.

A few minutes later, they returned, kneeling before Wu Shaochen.

“Thank you, young hero, for saving us… thank you…” They kowtowed and cried, thinking they would never escape and would remain the bandit leader’s playthings forever. But now they finally had a chance to escape.

Wu Shaochen was flustered, quickly helping them up. “Alright, alright, no need to thank me. Just go home quickly.”

After calming them down, one of the women suddenly spoke.

“Young hero, I know where the demon’s treasure is hidden.”

“Really?” Wu Shaochen’s eyes lit up. He didn’t expect there would be hidden benefits.

“Quick, show me,” he urged.

“Please follow me,” the woman said, leading him to one of the rooms.

The room was a storage area, filled with all sorts of random items. Honestly, if he had been searching by himself, Wu Shaochen would have given up after a glance.

The woman knocked around a little, and after a while, a section of the stone wall slid open, revealing a small door just big enough for one person to enter.

“Quite fancy!” Wu Shaochen was surprised. The mechanism was very well hidden; he hadn’t noticed it before.

“This is where the demon kept the treasures he plundered over the years,” the woman explained. “If you go in, you’ll see it, but only he had the key.”

“Oh?” Wu Shaochen suddenly remembered the key he had just looted. He had initially thought it was for the treasure chest in the map, but now it seemed it was for this one.

Wu Shaochen entered the room, which was small and contained only a large chest. Nothing else.

Excited, Wu Shaochen rushed over. The chest was locked, so he took out the key from his bag and tried it. It opened with ease.

As soon as the chest opened, Wu Shaochen’s eyes nearly blinded from the dazzling light. The room had been dark, but the moment the chest was opened, it was filled with a golden glow that made it hard for him to keep his eyes open.

After a while, his vision returned, and he saw that the chest was filled with gold coins. Wu Shaochen’s mouth watered.

“Looks like I’m in for a windfall…” Wu Shaochen didn’t hesitate to start stuffing the gold into his bag.

After a while, he had emptied the chest. His bag now showed 673 gold coins. Before, he had only 161 gold coins, which meant this one chest had over 500 gold coins, a fortune. Wu Shaochen was overjoyed. If he hadn’t come here, he would have missed out on this.

Although the value of the game currency had decreased with the rise in player strength, it was still worth a lot. 1 gold coin could be exchanged for 1000 copper, so over 500 gold coins was equivalent to over 500,000 copper.

“Ah, gold coins devalued so quickly… maybe I should sell some?” After thinking for a moment, he decided against it. He felt gold coins would have more uses later, so he didn’t need the 500,000 right now.

After collecting the gold coins, Wu Shaochen found a bead at the bottom of the chest. He quickly picked it up and examined it.

[Mana Jewel]: Restores 2% of magic points per second.

“…”

Wow, this effect was comparable to a godly item. Though the recovery wasn’t very high, it was continuous, which meant it would work even during combat. He no longer needed to worry about running out of mana.

However, it was a bit of a waste for him, a rogue, to use it. If he sold it to a mage, it would be worth a fortune. What should he do? Keep it or sell it?

For now, he decided to keep it. The price was uncertain, and maybe later on when he had more skills, he’d need the mana recovery.

Seeing that there was nothing else in the room, Wu Shaochen left in satisfaction. He noticed the two women were still standing outside. Wu Shaochen asked, “Why aren’t you leaving yet?”

The two women looked embarrassed. One of them spoke up. “Young hero, could you please escort us back? We are from Liu Family Village, which is about 10 miles away, but to get there, we need to pass through the Tiger Howl Forest. There are many ferocious tigers there, and we are not strong enough to handle them.”

Since he had already saved them, Wu Shaochen decided to help them out. “Alright, let’s go. It’s no problem.”

He agreed to escort them back, figuring that since he was already benefiting from the gold coins, helping them was the least he could do.