Cowens's Stomach Pouch

Vilan's invitation cast a shadow over Roger's heart.

The joy he had felt after killing the Corpse Demon was instantly swept away.

All that remained in his heart was a trace of anxiety and a bit of doubt.

The anxiety stemmed from Vilan's formidable strength.

In Roger's memories,

Vilan was a level-89 Archmage.

Not only did he wield tremendous influence in Lubei County, his own territory, but he was also a favorite of the Moranti royal family. His apprentices and connections were spread throughout the entire duchy.

Vilan possessed true dragon blood, which was why he had rare vertical pupils.

His metamagic abilities were outrageously numerous.

His fighting style was bizarre and unpredictable, and his combat skills were incredibly polished—in short, he was an extremely troublesome opponent.

In his previous life, Roger had been ground into the dirt by him ninety-nine times.

Back then, Roger had been using a warrior character above level 90 with dual-class abilities, yet he still hadn't been Vilan's match.

If he ran into Vilan now, he probably wouldn't even get the chance to be ground into the dirt.

He'd be killed instantly!

The doubt, on the other hand, came from the fact that in the ten years since his transmigration, he had never heard of places such as "Lubei County" or the "Moranti Duchy."

That put Roger somewhat at ease.

After all, it meant that even if he had transmigrated into the game, he and Vilan should still be quite far apart.

"If only I'd read more background material when I played the game."

Roger couldn't help but smile bitterly inwardly.

When he played games, he never looked at the background story. He simply stacked attributes, activated invincibility, and slaughtered monsters.

"What serious person reads the background story anyway!"

That had been Roger's favorite saying back then.

Now, all that remained was endless regret!

If he'd read more of the background story, it might have been a great help in his current predicament.

He had now killed Vilan's apprentice and a suspected friend.

Who knew whether Vilan would come knocking?

That made Roger even more eager to increase his strength.

On the other hand,

he also had a vague suspicion in his heart.

Wasn't all of this too coincidental?

He had just decided to leave the starter village and kill a boss when he indirectly provoked his archenemy from his previous life.

No matter how he looked at it, there seemed to be a conspiracy involved.

But this was only speculation.

Without actual evidence, Roger wouldn't waste too many brain cells on it.

He just had to keep it in mind.

He absolutely couldn't keep this invitation on him.

He had to get rid of it!

Just not now.

Roger casually put the invitation back into the inner layer, then turned around and continued participating in the division of the Corpse Demon's spoils.

Next came the equipment.

As the greatest contributor to the Corpse Demon's death, he still had priority in choosing—three items in total.

Roger looked around, then ultimately picked out a piece of high-quality Dragon Lizard Leather Armor, a thick piece of waterproof cloth, and a small, completely black imp statue covered in mysterious patterns.

He hadn't actually examined them carefully. His reason for choosing these things was simple—

The omen from Qi Divination Technique was purple energy.

In Roger's experience, purple energy was basically equivalent to good stuff.

At the very least, they couldn't be worse than the Suicide Ring! The remaining items were all ordinary goods. At most, they could be sold for a few Copper Coins, so Roger lost interest in them.

He patiently waited for a while. Taking advantage of the lively atmosphere, he finally found a chance to slip away.

Roger quickly left the camp.

He followed the night for several kilometers.

He found a river with a suitable width and depth.

There were fish and shrimp in the river.

There were also several monsters that had come out to forage in the middle of the night.

When they saw someone approaching, the monsters immediately surrounded him menacingly.

Roger held the Green Cicada and went Full Firepower. In the blink of an eye, he had stabbed all the monsters into sieves.

"You killed a Blue Fish Monster"

"You gained 1 XP"

"Your hair growth rate increased slightly"

"You killed a Red Fish Monster"

"You gained 1 XP"

"Your fingernail growth rate increased slightly"

"There's too little experience (XP)."

"The attributes it gives are as shoddy as ever."

"When will I find monsters as cute as Magic Explosion Frogs!"

After glancing at the data panel, Roger felt somewhat melancholy.

With his current strength,

Tongma Town and the surrounding areas were indeed no longer suitable for him.

He needed stronger opponents to farm experience, as well as a greater variety of monsters from which to pluck attributes.

"After this Subjugation is over, it's time to set out."

His first destination was Gem City, the place most desired by the Adventurers of Tongma Town.

He just didn't know whether there would be suitable monsters for him to farm like crazy.

Thinking as he went, Roger waded into the water to catch fish.

As the Yuntai Mountain Frog Hunter, catching fish with his bare hands was naturally child's play for Roger.

Before long, he successfully caught a suitably large fish.

He folded the invitation into a small roll, stuffed it through the fish's mouth and into its belly, then released it back into the river and turned toward shore.

Watching the shadow of the large fish vanish into the depths, Roger quietly exhaled.

This was the best method he could think of for dealing with it.

These Big Dragon Fish were often active in Mystra's rivers during summer.

Once winter arrived, they would follow the current downstream and return to the sea.

Even if Vilan really found this place later, tracking down that invitation completely would probably take considerable effort.

By then, Roger had no idea where he would have run off to.

"I'm safe for now."

Roger silently comforted himself.

It was already the latter half of the night when he returned to camp.

Roger was just about to return to his tent to sleep when he noticed a figure inside.

"Dorothy?"

Roger was somewhat surprised. "What are you doing in my tent?"

The gradually dying campfire illuminated the girl's slightly flushed, lovely face.

For some reason, Dorothy, who was usually so forthright, seemed a little shy.

"I-I came to give you the last portion of the spoils, the stuff classified as miscellaneous."

Dorothy pointed at the messy pile on the ground and pretended to complain:

"Who told you to sneak off halfway through?"

"As the newly appointed captain of the Subjugation Squad, I have to ensure that the spoils are distributed fairly and impartially, right?"

Roger smiled and thanked her.

He bent down to organize the pile and found that she had brought quite a lot.

Although they were all assorted trinkets, they could still fetch a decent amount of money when sold together.

"Why is there so much?"

Roger was somewhat surprised.

"Well, it's everyone's little gesture of goodwill."

Dorothy explained:

"You only took three pieces of equipment, so everyone thought we'd give you more of the miscellaneous items. Each of us picked one useful thing from what remained, and everything else is here."

"Don't refuse it. You weren't there when things were being distributed, after all."

Roger was at a loss for words.

His teammates really were excessively simple and honest.

Only in a small place like Tongma Town could such an atmosphere be maintained.

"Thank you all."

Roger sincerely thanked them again.

Dorothy bit her lower lip, looking conflicted.

"Other than thanking us, d-do you have nothing else to say to me?"

Roger shook his head. "No."

The girl stomped her foot and left with an annoyed huff.

Roger was somewhat confused, but he didn't want to figure it out.

He was leaving soon. It wasn't appropriate to get involved in all this fancy nonsense.

He rested for a while, then began organizing the spoils.

At that moment, something unexpected happened—while tidying up the thick waterproof cloth, he actually found a unique little object inside it.

It was a wrinkled, pouch-shaped item of unknown material.

From the outside, it looked like a small glove.

But if it was a glove, it was far too small. Only a child could wear it.

Roger noticed that the inside of the "glove" was covered in faint purple, mysterious patterns.

Roger had been wondering how a piece of waterproof cloth could emit purple energy.

Now that he thought about it, the truly valuable item must have been this little glove! With that thought, Roger didn't hesitate any longer and activated a deeper level of appraisal.

Before long,

rows of data appeared before his eyes.

"Cowens's Stomach Pouch"

"Rating: A+"

"Slots 4 Texture 7 Durability 4 Magic Runes 1"

"Special Effect: Double Capacity"

"Double Capacity: Temporarily increases the number of storage slots to 8, consuming 1 point of durability (when durability reaches 0, this item automatically becomes void)"

"Cowens... was that Flesh Golem?"

Roger's heart leaped.

Who would have thought that this was actually an extremely rare spatial item in Mystra!