Chapter 42 (1/2)

Seeing those dazzling gold coins and crystals, Rebecca, Amber, and Knight Byron were unsurprisingly, stunned.

Back then, when Byron was a mercenary, he also saw his share of treasures in mountains, but compared to those dull antiques, these military supplies protected by runes before them were on another level. As a noble from a declining clan, the treasures that Rebecca saw in her castle did not even amount to what was held in this store. And of course for Amber, the industrious bandit, this was her first time feeling how difficult it would be for her to clear everything away…

Of course, apart from the shock, they were also roused with curiosity because many of the things before them were standard equipment from the Gondor period. These things were mostly reliant on the Gondor Empire’s advanced magic capabilities. Therefore, after the founding of Anzu, these equipment that the pioneers brought with them could not be repaired once spoiled, and their power would be depleted after some use. Today, there were no clear records of these ancient weapons of Gondor in the history books. Thus these dazzling equipment in the storehouse would definitely seem very unfamiliar.

But for Amber, it was not important how these things actually worked. They just seemed like they would be worth a lot!

“Gondor’s long coins… silver coin with the emblems… and the real three-leaf golden flower coins! My God!” Amber rushed to the box full of coins, her head almost buried in the pile of gold coins. “Money! It’s all money! We’re rich! Boss, we’re rich!”

When there was no money, he was the old-fogey, but now that there was money, he was the boss. Such a quick change of tune really lived up to her reputation as the disgrace of the elves.

Gawain reached out and pulled out Amber from the pile of money and grabbed her collar from behind. “Calm down, calm down! This is my money, not yours!”

Amber gave a look of righteous reverence. “As your most loyal follower, your money is my money!”

“These gold and silver coins are the lowest in value. These crystals are the real treasure.” Gawain curled his lips, and he gave an introduction to these things that were completely unfamiliar to people of the current age. “The crystals outside the chests are not infused with magic. Rebecca, as a mage, you should get acquainted with them. Though they need to be processed before they could be used, they would definitely come in handy. The chest contains the standard issue crystals used for the army back in Gondor. They are easy to use and can increase the combat ability of the soldiers. But these swords and armors are problematic… I checked it just now. They don’t seem to be in good condition. Their magic mechanisms are pretty much useless. It’s unclear how much combat power could be drawn from them.”

Although there were sealing runes set up in this storehouse which could slow down the oxidative corrosion of metals, the breakdown of the magic mechanisms and dissipation of energy were not processes that could be slowed. Although they all had long “shelf lives”, their shelf lives were still finite. Not only for the weapons and armor, even the military crystals kept in several chests experienced energy dissipation at different rates. Now the energy contained in them was probably less than one-third of what was contained in them when they were just “manufactured”. And the failure rate of these old antiques also presented another problem.

But to the poor Cecil Clan, this was still a shocking level of riches.

Thus even though Gawain emphasized upon the poor condition of these items, Rebecca and Amber were still dazed staring at them.

“What a load of assets…” Knight Byron felt his mouth was a little dry. “Yet it has just been quietly lying on the border of the kingdom… no one even knows…”

“Actually, I have to thank the Fog Month’s internal conflict a hundred years ago.” Gawain shook his head. “When the Moen clan still remembered these assets, the Dark Wave became an obstruction to exploration efforts to this area. But when the Dark Wave subsided, the Moen clan’s lineage ended. Well, its fate…”

Though he verbally lamented fate, what Gawain truly lamented was the unreceptive, backward feudal system where all wealth belonged to the King and the lords. The kingdom’s lifeline would be held in the hands of a few clans as their private property. Once a clan’s lineage was broken, these things would then be left to no one and returned to the wild. How absurd?

If the Moen family had clearly recorded these treasures on paper and stored them in the archives, and the members of the royal family were only responsible for keeping the keys, perhaps he would not then have the chance to retrieve the treasure. After the Fog Month’s internal conflict, the weakened royal family would definitely want to get their hands on these treasures.

But was not this kind of story, where the family’s inheritance was abandoned somewhere deep in the mountains for whatever reasons, how middle ages typically unfolded?

Rebecca’s gaze swept past the ancient equipment and crystals, and finally fell upon the chest of gold and silver coins. She gave a long sigh. “With these, we can pay off the debt to Viscount Andrew, and we can buy food and materials…”

Gawain looked at her and shook his head. “No. We can’t spend the money immediately.”

“Ah?” Rebecca froze for a moment. But at least she was not stunned stupid as she realized it quickly. “Because these are antiques?”

“Right. If you take these 700-year-old Gondor gold and silver coins to buy things from people, even the most stupid would be able to guess that the Cecil Clan found treasure in this dark range.” Gawain nodded. “At least before we establish some stability, we cannot allow this to leak out.”

“What should we do then?” Rebecca frowned. “We’re short of money now…”