"This shield—"
Auriye stared at the extremely familiar Heavy Tower Shield in the chest, and for a moment, he nearly failed to keep his expression under control.
Well-informed as he was, he had already roughly learned what had happened at Wildberry Cliff before Xia Nan returned to Barracuda Bay.
He knew that the entire Iron Rock Shield Squad had been wiped out in their battle against the Tide Retreat Gang's leader.
Knowing was one thing—but when he actually saw Habik, captain of the Iron Rock Shield Squad's main equipment in Xia Nan's loot chest, his expression inevitably turned somewhat complicated.
"Habik, the Dwarf. You should have seen him before."
Xia Nan saw no reason to hide it and frankly introduced the item.
A fallen teammate's belongings were also part of the spoils. For adventurers, that was perfectly normal.
Especially for temporary teammates like Iron Rock Shield, whom he had met for the first time and had never had any dealings with before.
Likewise, if Xia Nan had died there and Habik's group had returned alive, he would not have minded them taking his equipment back to sell for money.
Of course, if it had truly come to that, even if he minded, it would have been useless.
Auriye lifted the shield from the chest with both hands. As the scent of metal spread through the air, he gently placed it on the table.
Knowing the unwritten rules of the adventuring trade, Auriye had no issue with Xia Nan's actions. The Half-Elf Collector was merely momentarily dazed by the appearance of that familiar equipment; he did not develop any negative impression of Xia Nan.
By now, Xia Nan's image in Auriye's mind was that of an outstanding adventurer from the inland—a remarkably young and powerful man whose methods were so clean-cut