"We're rich! We're actually rich!"
Macron the rogue clutched a heap of materials still slick with monster slime, grinning from ear to ear. "Twenty-seven Energy Cores! How long did that take? Ten minutes? Fifteen?"
"Fifteen minutes and thirty-four seconds." Kevin pushed up his glasses. "At this rate, we only need six hours! No, five! We can collect a thousand Energy Cores in five hours!"
Everyone present drew a sharp breath.
Five hours to complete the first stage of an Epic Quest that had seemed impossible!
"What are you standing around for?"
Roderick's voice snapped them out of it. He had already opened the miniature three-dimensional city map again.
"Next target: the sewage treatment plant on the west side of the city. Estimated five Sin Karma Concentration Points."
"You heard him! Move!" Scott had become Roderick's mouthpiece. He bellowed, "Warriors up front, mages and priests in the middle, rogues and scouts spread out on the flanks! Hold formation! Let's tear that sewage plant apart!"
"Yeah!"
A thunderous cheer erupted from the party.
For the next few hours, the hunt felt like a dream to the players.
With the Sin Detector guiding them precisely, they might as well have had a cheat revealing the entire map.
The Elite Lords hidden throughout Rust City, which other parties went out of their way to avoid, became walking treasure chests to them.
In a huge greenhouse beneath the central park, they found a nest of more than a dozen Elite Tier Plague-Corrupted Vines. Every one dropped a [Pure Energy Core].
Deep in an abandoned bank vault, they surrounded and killed a Dark Gold-rank Abomination Lord formed from obsessive greed. It yielded five cores, along with a floor full of Gold Coins and equipment.
At the subway hub in the eastern district, they slaughtered packs