Acid Trap

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The Dagger chipped under the repeated Parries. After all, it was only an ordinary weapon, and normal wear was severe. Before Soren had raised his strength to Tier 2, he had always carried at least three weapons on him, so he would have backups after they were damaged in battle. Ordinary equipment could basically be bought at a Blacksmith, but enchanted Supernatural Equipment was very rare. Soren had only obtained a weapon that suited him after exploring an Ancient Ruin.

One thing had to be mentioned: Soren's most skilled weapon was rather unusual!

Not a Dagger, but a Scimitar.

A decent Scimitar was difficult to buy in southern cities, even an ordinary white-tier weapon. A slightly better white-tier weapon, one made of steel with sufficient hardness and acceptable forging, cost around five Gold Dalers. Thus, for a long time, Players who had just entered the War of Gods had struggled to obtain a fine white-tier weapon. As for the Dagger Soren currently held, it was actually gray-tier equipment in terms of quality. A true white-tier Dagger should have been folded and forged from Steel. "I really should get a Scimitar first!"

Soren sidestepped in place, twisting his waist one hundred and eighty degrees. His Dagger slashed into the Skeleton's neck bone, instantly shattering the last trace of death energy within it. The entire body collapsed into a pile of broken bones. He glanced at the 45 points of Slaughter Experience he had gained, tossed aside the nearly ruined Dagger, and muttered, "There aren't many Scimitars in southern cities. To buy a suitable one, I'll at least need to go somewhere near the grasslands."

Naturally, Soren did not use ordinary Scimitars.

Even by his most exacting standards, he could not buy the Scimitar he needed on the northern grasslands. Only the finest master smiths of the Underdark could forge the Scimitar he required. The Crescent Scimitars of the Desert of Sages were too light, while the Bone-Cleaving Scimitars of the Northern Steppe were too brittle. The only Scimitar that truly felt right in Soren's hand was a heavy Scimitar with some of a Tang Dao's characteristics, combined with the advantages of Damascus blades. This type of Scimitar was extremely heavy. Its spine alone could smash an Ogre to death, while its slashing power could be brought to its fullest. Back then, Soren had once split apart Marble three chi thick with a single strike.

One chi was roughly thirty centimeters, so three chi was close to a meter thick!

Even an adult Dragon could not withstand the power of his slash. Otherwise, there would not have been a legend in the Underdark about a violent dual-wielding Rogue. Some even said that if he had not advanced as a Stalker, but had instead multiclassed as a Berserker, Swordmaster, or Weapon Master, he might have been able to duel an Ancient Red Dragon head-on. Wielding a heavy Scimitar required at least 14 Strength Value!

The pair of Scimitars Soren had once used were Legendary weapons specially forged in the Underdark. One weighed eighteen kilograms, while the other weighed sixteen. He needed at least 18 Strength Value to wield them properly.

His figure gradually melted into the shadows.

Soren did not expect to obtain a Supernatural Weapon right away. He would already have been satisfied if he could get a high-quality standard military weapon.

Generally speaking!

Around fifteen Gold Dalers would buy one.

At this stage, the Southern Duchy still used a silver standard. Silver Dalers were the recognized currency, while gold could only be regarded as a precious metal. Even Gold Dalers minted by followers of the Goddess of Wealth circulated only among the upper ranks of the nobility. One Gold Daler was worth ten Silver Dalers, and twenty Gold Dalers or Silver Dalers weighed exactly one pound. As for Copper Dalers, many were privately minted by the lower classes, and quite a few were crudely made. Their exchange rate with Silver Dalers fluctuated, and plenty of people had suffered losses because of that!

The Players had cursed about it for a long time.

That was because the War of Gods had been made far too realistic. There was not even a unified currency.

If not for the Goddess of Wealth serving as a measure for currency exchange, converting the currencies of different races and regions would have driven countless people insane!

Yet these incredibly realistic world rules were still sought after by many.

The old Soren had been one of them!

To him, the War of Gods had been an entirely different world, an indispensable part of his life. It could even be called an extension of life itself.

That was why he had accepted everything so easily.

As he ventured deeper into the cave, the sinister atmosphere grew stronger.

The first fork in the path appeared before Soren, along with three corpses that had completely decayed into white bones.

"It's a trap."

Soren lifted one skeleton with a hand and examined it, muttering, "Looks like this guy was killed by crossbow bolts. There should have been a powerful crossbow trap here."

Three of its ribs had been shot through. With one glance, Soren could tell that this fellow had been struck by at least ten arrows.

It would have been difficult for a single trap to launch so many attacks.

Soren shrugged and searched the corpse, finding some Silver Dalers, some rotten and unidentifiable paper, and a copper badge. He put away the Silver Dalers, then looked at the paper. The writing on it had completely blurred. As for the copper badge, he recognized it well. It bore the symbol of the Adventurers' Guild—an official E-rank Adventurer.

"What an unlucky fellow."

"Looks like after he died, his companions used his body to block the trap a few more times."

Adventure truly was the best way to get rich.

Soren had merely searched the corpses of the group that had been wiped out by the trap, yet he found over ten Silver Dalers and two gleaming Gold Dalers.

That was roughly equal to what he had earned from taking down the Slums gang!

"One, two, three."

Soren tossed the bones aside. Perhaps because he had experienced too much in the War of Gods, he now felt nothing when faced with skeletal corpses in reality. He merely muttered to himself, "Including the Skeleton from earlier, these four fellows all appear to have been Warriors wearing Studded Leather Armor. Mages probably wouldn't join such a low-level adventuring party."

"Then where is the Rogue?"

Wizards, Priests, Druids, and Sorcerers were all typical high-investment classes.

A single Magic Missile scroll cost thirty Gold Dalers. How could they possibly join such a low-level Adventurer party?

Because their combat power was absurdly strong, all Spellcasting Class characters in the Gods' Treasury were respectfully called mages. However, mage was also synonymous with misery. There were more than thirty common Tier 1 Arcane Magic spells, and learning them all by copying Arcane Magic scrolls cost around 1,500 Gold Dalers. Finding a native teacher would halve the cost, but it would still require nearly seven or eight hundred Gold Dalers.

And that was only the cost of Tier 1 Arcane Magic!

Although Priests and Druids could use Divine Magic, both the ritual of "Divine Blessing" and the ceremony of "Nature's Gift" required materials worth over five hundred Gold Dalers. If they chose a Deity to worship, part of the expense would be borne by the temple, but it would still cost around three hundred Gold Dalers. Sorcerers had the advantage of bloodline awakening and could automatically master Spell abilities, but the ritual for bloodline advancement and Ascension was even more expensive.

If Soren remembered correctly, the first ritual to raise one's bloodline required materials worth around one thousand Gold Dalers.

That was because a Sorcerer companion had borrowed most of his savings at the time.

By comparison!

Melee Class characters had it much easier. With a blade in hand, they could start killing.

Normally, mages were only around level five, while many Melee Class characters had already reached level eight, ten, or even higher.

One could tell how difficult it was to make money just by looking at Soren's current wealth.

To gather such an enormous sum, more than ninety percent of mages had gone through a thoroughly miserable period.

There had once been a saying passed around in taverns!

—"If an adventure doesn't promise a return of at least one hundred Gold Dalers, there's no chance of hiring those mages!"

Low-level Spellcasting Faction characters had weak combat power.

They needed at least five class levels to display sufficient strength, so the vast majority of low-level adventuring parties had no spellcasters.

Therefore!

Soren concluded that there had to be another Rogue.

Without a mage's "Detect Traps," which had a success rate above ninety percent, they could only rely on a Rogue's Class Experience to judge the traps.

One should not have overly high expectations for a low-level Rogue's chances of detecting traps!

At this stage, Rogues were decent at picking locks, but their mastery of trap skills was not high. There were plenty of cases where they discovered a trap, failed to disarm it, and died inside it themselves.

Since adventure brought high rewards, it naturally also brought high risks!

After a successful adventure in which the party suffered no casualties or losses, everyone would return to the tavern and buy the entire place a good drink.

In truth.

Soren had not often had the chance to buy everyone in a tavern a drink.

Very soon.

Soren found the Rogue's corpse at the cave entrance ahead.

He had no interest in deducing why the Rogue had died there from scattered clues. Instead, he directly lifted the corpse, looked at its half-melted head, and said grimly, "An Acid Trap?"

It should have been an Acid Trap.

One of the most troublesome and deadly traps for all Rogues in the early stages!

Otherwise, few other traps could melt away half of a corpse's head. The ground was also covered in small pits, left behind by splattered Acid.

"Looks like this will be troublesome."

Soren took out a small wooden mallet and lightly tapped the ground. To prevent traps from being triggered by rats, many were designed to activate according to an adult's body weight. That was why Halflings were always the most popular Rogues in adventuring parties. Acid Traps came in two types: magical and physical. The former used a magic array linked to a triggering mechanism, while the latter installed refined Acid within the trigger device, spraying it out when someone set off the trap.

Before reaching high-level bloodline awakening.

Even Warriors above level five could be instantly killed by an Acid Trap!

Even if they survived, they would be nearly crippled.

Later on, there were many bloodline advancement rituals for strengthening classes. Some Warriors possessed such terrifying Constitution that they could endure Acid, explosions, lava, and more, then continue fighting full of vigor!

But the current Soren was not confident he could withstand an Acid Trap.

If he triggered one.

He would certainly die.