Chapter 166: Astral Sea Inn
【Target Death, gained 2750 combat experience】
An experience prompt flashed through Anse’s mind, but he remained unmoved, lying on the bed quietly meditating, with a row of six bottles of holy water placed at the bedside.
Several hours passed, and daylight grew bright.
People at the Federation headquarters gradually increased, including not only staff but also many adventurers who participated in yesterday’s battle, holding vouchers in their hands, with curiosity and anticipation on their faces.
Kalenno brought Quentin and Graham to the Colored Mushroom House, and the two were amazed, circling the small house twice without finding the door, so they could only try tapping on the walls.
Anse sensed the warning from Leomund’s Tiny Hut, woke from meditation, rolled over and stood up, feeling his status was pretty good, mentally refreshed, and mana abundant.
He casually picked up the dragonhide pouch in the corner, opened it, and immediately raised his eyebrows.
Inside was an additional blue gemstone with a white star-shaped center.
The dice spun slightly, immediately identifying it: Astral Sapphire, extremely valuable, worth at least a thousand gold coins.
‘This is a good omen.’
He put away the thing, waved his hand, and dispelled Leomund’s Tiny Hut.
The mushroom house bloomed with a burst of faint light, then quietly shattered, turning into faint spiritual light that dissipated into the air.
“Spellcasters are the best.” Graham saw Anse and smiled teasingly.
“Depends on the person.” Quentin was noncommittal; the situation for most spellcasters wasn’t good right now.
He raised his hand and handed Anse a stack of documents: “Yesterday’s battle report, adventurers’ bounty distribution, casualty pensions and compensation plans.”
Anse took the documents, waved his hand and said: “Talk upstairs, have those adventurers wait in the living room for a bit.”
“Okay…”
The group went upstairs together to the Guild Leader’s Office.
Anse carefully reviewed the battle report: yesterday they killed 112 werewolves, 92 deaths, over a hundred injured, with more than thirty confirmed bitten.
Among the dead, more than half were commoners, guards had 27 deaths, Knights 4, Filu Mercenary Group 3, Verdant Courtyard 1.
The good news was that no core professionals died; their survival abilities were stronger.
“Sigh—” Anse sighed.
It was clearly a meticulously designed ambush and encirclement, yet there were still such heavy casualties.
The Federation had an absolute numerical advantage, with basically no one facing a werewolf alone, which showed that ordinary soldiers couldn’t even withstand a single pounce from a werewolf.
This was also thanks to him saving many lightly and heavily wounded yesterday; otherwise, the death toll might have doubled.
Additionally, dozens of adventurers participated in the battle, but due to the chaotic situation, there was much dispute over combat contributions, with many revisions, and they barely reached a consensus in the end.
Bounty expenditure wasn’t much, around a thousand gold coins, since most adventurers were fighting with the wind at their backs, mostly picking up bargains.
Death pensions over a thousand gold coins, commoner property losses and death compensation over a thousand gold coins; a life was only worth 10-50 gold coins, pitifully little, but much better than before.
Werewolves were a disaster; casualties from such events usually had no compensation, so providing any was already quite good.
The rulers of this world were all Teflon; they never took responsibility for these things onto themselves.
“Double the pensions for warriors’ casualties, cover all participants, don’t leave out the disabled and injured; when distributing, let families choose lump sum or installments, strictly prohibit fraudulent claims…” Anse said gravely.
This money couldn’t be saved; otherwise, who would be willing to fight for him. But he didn’t propose lifetime pensions or other alternative benefits either; they couldn’t be implemented, and there wasn’t the funds.
“Okay, you sign, and I’ll get the money from Little Harold.” Quentin saw that Anse was very measured, so he didn’t advise otherwise.
He wasn’t worried the tax official would reject it; not to mention there was still money in the accounts, even if not, Little Harold would find a way to get the funds.
Anse flipped to the last page, which sparsely listed a few loot items, no armor, no weapons, extremely meager.
Werewolves relied on shapeshifting ability to kill enemies, rarely wore armor, and occasionally used bow and arrow.
‘The Werewolf Leader is this poor too? They can’t have been holed up in the deep forest all along, right?’ He was somewhat puzzled.
However, werewolf corpses were also a scarce resource, after all monstrosities, worth far more than wild wolves.
“Hunter’s Guild and Adventurer’s Guild want to buy these werewolf corpses; sell or not?” Quentin smiled.
“Sell!” Anse didn’t hesitate, “You and Graham go negotiate, process them quickly.”
“Okay…” The two responded together.
“No unexpected situations last night?” Anse signed the documents and handed them to Quentin.
“None so far, maybe Verdant Courtyard’s soup worked.”
“Best that way, don’t relax.”
“Understood.”
Quentin and the other two hurriedly left; today would be busy, postwar handling was extremely tedious, far from just making a few lists.
Anse relaxed, righteously acting as the hands-off boss.
This wasn’t entirely slacking; many things the boss couldn’t handle personally, needed “white gloves”; even if something went wrong, there was room to maneuver, without losing prestige and reputation.
He went to the roof, took out the telescope to observe the Amn people’s movements.
The Amn were stopped in the wilderness dozens of kilometers from Dulag; it was past eight, yet no sign of breaking camp, unclear what they were doing.
‘They probably didn’t expect the werewolves to be wiped out so quickly; likely still devising countermeasures.’
He wasn’t a dumb combat professional; without restraint, one person could dismantle half a small-scale force.
‘Maybe they’ll retreat soon.’
As far as he knew, Beregost was already surrounded by dragonborn and kobolds; they shouldn’t stir up side issues at this time.
Fighting on two fronts was too outrageous.
Back in the office, Filu Mercenary Group hadn’t arrived yet, so he simply teleported to Black Tower Prison to check the dead shadow thief’s corpse.
On the black stone door, the Black Tower mark flashed and faded, the heavy door slowly opened, revealing a fully enclosed black stone room, inside quietly lay a headless corpse, posture changed, skin and items on the body all restored to normal status.
Opening the adjacent prison, there was a head on the floor, face ferocious, eyes full of terror.
‘The expression changed too.’
When the shadow thief reverted to flesh and blood, he was still alive, perception returned, yet he could only watch himself die helplessly.
Thinking of the scene at the time, it must have been utterly despairing.
The shadow thief provided him 2750 combat experience, less than two thousand short of level up.
‘Hands itching, want to fight!’ He swung his scepter, wanting to go out and check if those werewolves at the forest edge were still there.
Today the four gates were under strict checks; werewolves couldn’t sneak in as easily as yesterday.
‘First see what good stuff there is.’
He stripped everything from the shadow thief, used prestidigitation to clean them spotless, laid them out in a row, and appraised each one.
The shadow thief had no space bag, but had a blue-and-white magical belt with two potions inserted: one flight potion, one greater healing potion.
Greater healing potion restores 8d4+8 life, that is 16-40 points, rare quality, very uncommon, but advanced professionals always found ways to stock one.
Flight potion was even more precious, uncommon quality, value far less than same-quality magical equipment, but equally scarce and hard to buy.
After drinking this potion, for 1 hour, the user gains flight speed equal to walking speed and can levitate.
‘Not made by a spellcaster to harvest wealth, is it?’
Flight wasn’t hard for spellcasters, but very difficult for common professionals; this seemed useless but actually had a good market.
Compared to these two potions, Anse preferred the belt.
【Magical Item: Alchemist’s Belt Pouch】
「Type」: Curio
「Rarity」: Rare
The magical belt is fitted with two corks; it can automatically transmute size to fit any potion.
While wearing this belt, the potions it carries can uncork themselves and leap into your hand, allowing you to drink them quickly.
Note: If attacked and you don’t dodge in time, the potions on the belt may be destroyed.
‘Lucky I petrified him, or I’d have lost a potion.’ He inwardly rejoiced.
This thing was very practical, could save a life at key moments, and required no attunement.
He set the belt aside, picked up a maple leaf-shaped badge engraved with a porcelain cup.
The dice spun slightly, soon detecting the badge’s information:
【Magical Item: Traveler’s Badge】
「Type」: Curio
「Rarity」: Rare
While wearing this badge, you can spend 1 minute reciting its command word to use the badge to cast plane shift, spell destination limited to Traveler’s Respite in the Astral Plane: a legendary inn and bar floating in the starry sea.
The inn has no doors to the outside, can only be entered via the badge; Traveler’s Respite interior is spacious, comfortable, luxurious.
The inn is often busy, though exclusive, it always has enough rooms and beds for wandering adventurer teams. Prices are high, living expenses lavish, but items, information, and commissions can be traded or exchanged for treasure.
Any creature teleported to the inn will be returned with their items to the original location after 24 hours. You can also use the badge to cast plane shift again to return early.
After returning from Traveler’s Respite, the badge cannot be used again until 7 days later.
The badge’s command word and functions are strictly confidential. Appraisal only reveals it is magical; only Legendary can reveal the command word and properties.
