“Don’t worry, I’m a good person, kind-hearted, I can’t bear to see you suffer,” Winnie said, before decisively cutting down the goblin that had been cornered.
After the last goblin was dealt with, the cave fell silent, but the thick smell of blood lingered in the air.
“Clink.” The saber in his hand fell to the ground as Winnie looked behind him at the blood-soaked goblin lair, unable to fathom that all this destruction was his doing.
Suddenly, he felt completely drained, his body collapsing as he sat down weakly.
The adrenaline was gone, and a heavy wave of exhaustion hit him, pulling at his consciousness.
He felt like his body was falling apart, every part of him crying out in pain. Such intense physical exertion was too much for his fragile body to handle. The weight of the armor, which had been bearable before, now felt like a mountain pressing down on his shoulders, making it almost impossible to move.
However, despite this, he didn’t immediately remove his armor.
Instead, he half-lay there, waiting for a while to ensure that no goblins would spring from hiding to strike while he was vulnerable, before deactivating his Soul Art.
“Whew...” The young man lay there, breathing heavily, his exhausted body lying sprawled out on the ground. The previous battle had drained all of his stamina, and now he felt like a fish stranded on land, struggling to breathe.
Winnie lay on his back, feeling that any slight movement would make his already overworked body fall apart.
After some time, once he had caught his breath, he stood up and walked over to where the goblins had hoarded their spoils. He took down the odd-looking tusked mask hanging from a chest.
This was the symbol of the goblin settlement. For some reason, after every goblin lair was established, the goblins would create such a bizarre mask from the materials they looted, and it became a symbol of clearing out a goblin nest.
This was now his. Apart from that, everything else the goblins had looted from this lair was his as well.
Turning his attention to the wooden chest beneath the mask, this chest was likely the most valuable item the goblins had obtained. Besides the reward, this uncertain extra bonus was the most motivating part.
There was nothing more exciting than looting the spoils of war. It was the reward for hard work and the excitement of unexpected surprises, like treasure chests in an adventure game—you never knew what you would find inside.
Using the key he had scavenged from the goblin leader, Winnie opened the wooden chest, which was filled to the brim with the goblins’ plundered goods, as well as some accessories and weapons.
He picked up all the most portable accessories, one by one, and examined them.
Winnie remembered a bit about how to check if an accessory had been enchanted.
In the firelight, the accessories looked dull, with no signs of magical flow, indicating they weren’t enchanted.
Winnie wasn’t surprised. Enchanted items were quite valuable and not something an ordinary adventurer could own, not even the lowest-level enchanted tools.
Shaking his head, he sighed. He had hoped to find something useful, but it was all trash.
He put everything away, thinking he could maybe sell a few of them.
As he set down a glass pendant, something suddenly caught his eye. He picked it up again and held it up to the firelight for a closer inspection.
In the light of the fire, aside from the reflected gleam, there was no other color emanating from it.
Had he seen it wrong?
Winnie leaned closer to the fire and stared for a while. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a faint gleam of light spilling from the pendant.
What was this??
Winnie was astonished. He couldn’t tell whether this pendant was enchanted, but an idea popped into his head.
What was he thinking? He had forgotten about the system’s help!
He immediately opened the Virtue panel and checked the pendant.
Low-level Fire Resistance Enchanted Glass Pendant
Enchantment Effect: Provides 2 points of Fire Resistance.
Description: A very ordinary glass pendant enchanted with fire resistance, but since the enchanter was a beginner, the quality is very poor, and the effect is minimal.
So, it really was an enchanted pendant? And it even provided elemental resistance?
Winnie didn’t care about the low quality. Finding an enchanted item in a goblin lair was like finding gold in a pile of dirt! Why would he care about the quality?
He would sell the other non-enchanted accessories, but this one couldn’t be sold.
Fire, out of all the elements, was the most popular. Fire magic was common, and although the fire resistance this pendant provided wasn’t much, it was still better than nothing.
Maybe it would come in handy later?
Winnie had to admit that these goblins, despite their ugly appearance, were thoughtful. They knew adventurers had trouble taking loot out, so they kindly prepared a pocket.
He placed the coins and accessories he had looted into the pocket. The wooden chest was left with just a pile of weapons and equipment.
More precisely, it was a pile of broken-down junk. Searching through it, the quality was only slightly better than the worn-out weapons the goblins had been using, but not by much.
The valuable stuff was all saved up and never used.
Weapons weren’t like accessories—they were too heavy, and carrying them would be exhausting. So, Winnie wasn’t planning to take them as loot. He couldn’t carry them, and they’d probably only be worth selling as scrap.
He rummaged through all the weapons in the chest, and as the sounds of metal clashing echoed, his eyes suddenly lit up.
The heavy silver page hammer that fell to the ground caught his attention.
This hammer, shining under the firelight, gave off a different aura compared to the other junk.
He opened the panel.
Mithril Page Hammer: Doubles damage to Vampires, Werewolves, and Undead.
Refined Level Weapon
Enchantment: None
Mithril, huh??
Well, well, he had struck gold!
Mithril was definitely a high-end forging material! Not to mention the amount of mithril needed to forge this hammer, even just a small piece of unrefined mithril would cost more than he could afford.
He had no idea who had dropped it, but he’d make sure to avenge them, and in the process, take their weapon for himself—how sweet.
Greedy, Winnie was about to pick up the page hammer when he overlooked a major issue.
“Huh?” He grabbed the page hammer with one hand, but after a long pause, he had to use both hands, and even then, it took all his strength to lift the mithril page hammer slightly.
“Argh!” As he relaxed his grip, the hammer dropped heavily back to the ground, kicking up dust.
“Wow, it’s so heavy!” Winnie rubbed his hands.
It seemed to be genuine mithril.
But with that weight, he couldn’t possibly carry it, could he?
Looking at the silver page hammer lying on the ground, Winnie hesitated.
...No, he had to take it! What if someone else picked it up later? Was he going to let this go to waste? That would be a huge loss!
Was there anything useful?
Winnie looked around and spotted a backpack that had been emptied out from the wooden chest.