"Mithril Relics?" Alaric muttered curiously. "Excuse me, sir and madams. But what kind of Mithril Relics are you interested in?"
A female elf, middle aged, wearing a circlet made out of intertwined wood, stepped forward.
"Take a guess," she said.
Once Alaric took a closer look at the Elves, he realized that his question couldn’t be any more pointless. Every single Elf had a bow strapped behind them, all of them a Mithril Relic of varying quality.
So, it was very easy to guess what kind of Mithril Relic they were searching for.
One of the male Elves with tanned skin with a muscular stature walked up and bowed.
"You are within the presence of the Ethereal Farren," he said, gesturing towards the middle-aged woman next to him.
"She has traveled to the surface world in order to acquire a certain treasure that can only be found in this specific continent. If you are able to help us in our quest, then we will be willing to pay ten thousand Sand Dollars for your troubles, and more if we are able to achieve our goal."
As soon as he said that, everyone immediately perked up.
Ten thousand Sand Dollars and more?! That would put them well on their way to purchasing a drop of Soo, or purchasing a kilogram of GodForge!
In this day and age of tourists, nothing was more important than the purchasing power of Sand Dollars. Practically everyone was trying to think of a way to earn more Sand Dollars in order to buy the things that would normally be impossible to buy using gold coins.
So, everyone immediately offered their help.
"A Mithril Relic bow? I have one!" said one of the adventurers.
"I don’t have a bow, but I have a Mihril Relic spear that can be turned into an arrow!"
"I’m willing to sell my own Mithril Relic for fifty thousand Sand Dollars!"
It just so happened that some of the treasures found in the rooms before this stage contained Mithril Relics from the Ancient Era.
There were a lot of people who obtained new Mithril Relics that they probably didn’t even need anyway. So, if they could offload their new Mithril Relic and gain a few thousand Sand Dollars in return, then this would make the trip to the Red Ravine already worth it.
The Elves looked at the different Mithril Relics being offered in front of them.
The Elf called Farren stayed nonchalant, seemingly not interested in seeing any of the weapons being offered to her.
"It’s not what we seek," she said. "It seems that this expedition to the Red Ravine will have been in vain. It was a long shot anyway."
Many were quite confused as to what the Elves even wanted. After all, some of the Mithril Relics that they offered were of great quality, with minimal wear and minimal rust. Not only that, but there was one of them who offered an actual bow which was also in great quality.
Alaric watched the Elves with curiosity, and noticed something. He glanced at the bows on their back and noticed that its quality was extremely superb. The presence of rust was very minimal, with some not having any at all.
"They already have quality Mithril Relic bows," he muttered. "If so, then this means that they’re trying to find something else. Something besides a Mithril Relic."
With the Elves not finding anything satisfactory, they quickly turned to leave.
However, it was just then that one of the royalblood Vampires moved. She bent down to her shadow and picked up a weapon underneath.
"Is this what you’re trying to find?" the royalblood Vampire asked.
It was a bow, one whose frame structure was as basic as it could get, without any decorations or carvings inscribed on it. Not only that, but the Mithril quality on it was already quite degraded. It was almost fully rusted, having been unused for thousands upon thousands of years.
The only thing that seemed to be in good working condition was its string. It seemed to be made out of twisted brown vine that hasn’t frayed or unraveled despite the condition of the bow.
"Where did they get that?" some of the adventurers wondered. After all, Vampires had no need for Mithril Relics, as they relied entirely on their own blood to fight.
But then, they remembered. The royalblood Vampires had also gone through a room and defeated a guardian! They were able to defeat a guardian whose power was equivalent to the peak stages of the Body Formation realm!
This meant that the treasures hidden inside it must have been of an equivalent value.
However, the bow they acquired seemed to be quite low in quality. The Mithril Relics that some of the adventurers found were in much better shape despite the easy difficulty of the guardian they had to face compared with the Vampires.
But while everyone saw it as a piece of junk, the Elves seemed to have seen something else entirely.
"Royalblood Vampires. Would you be so kind as to let me inspect that weapon, please?" Farren respectfully asked.
As fellow Beastfolks, both Vampires and Elves were respectful and tolerant amongst each other.
"Certainly," the female royalblood Vampire answered. She quickly tossed the bow to the Elf.
Farren accepted the bow and held it with great care and respect. She ran her hand through the Mithril Relic and found it to be of genuine quality.
Then, she turned her attention towards the string.
She carefully moved her hand closer to the twisted vines.
As soon as she made contact, both Farren and the string seemed to glow with the same green light.
She relished in this moment before finally letting go of the string.
"This is what we’ve been looking for," she nodded. "This is real Darkwood. As expected, it has survived the test of time, even after being so far away from our homeland."
"Darkwood?" Alaric muttered to himself. He’d heard of that material before in books. As far as he knew, Darkwood was something native only to the Elven Kingdom, where the great Ygddrasil tree was planted.
And using both Mithril Artifacts and Darkwood to construct bows, Elves were said to have been able to shoot an arrow all the way across the world and hit a target as small as a grape!
Unfortunately, it seemed that the Elves were no longer able to produce Darkwood in their native lands, making them lost in time.
"So that’s why they’re here in the Royal Continent," Alaric realized. "They’re here to recover Darkwood left behind on Mithril Relics!"
Farren then walked over towards the female Vampire and personally handed her the bag of Sand Dollars as payment.
"I thank you for helping us recover our ancient treasure," Farren said, bowing her head. "I would like to return the favor someday. If I were to find any clues as to the lost religion of the Vampires, then I shall immediately discuss it with you as soon as possible."
The female royalblood Vampire nodded. "That is much appreciated. We will be staying in Metropolis for the foreseeable future."
Farren nodded. "I see. Well, we will also be heading there immediately. Shall we keep in contact?"