Bloodstained Inventory

Leon and Liana were like two meteors streaking across the sky, arriving in an instant and departing just as suddenly, leaving behind only air currents swept aside by invisible force and a grassland littered with wreckage, thick with the stench of blood.

Xia Lin stood where he was, watching the spot where those two absurdly powerful people had vanished, then stretched his muscles and bones, still somewhat stiff from the potion's side effects.

The smell of blood mingled with the peculiar stench of corpses, spreading beneath the steadily slanting sunlight.

"Professional corpse collector, part-time Relic Organizer." He murmured to himself as he headed toward the nearest body.

Before starting work, he habitually checked his own status.

[Name: Xia Lin · Tolemo]

[Race: Human]

[Class: None]

[Status: In perfect condition, full of energy]

[Attributes: Strength: 9, Agility: 10, Constitution: 8, Intelligence: 14, perception: 11, Charisma: 16]

[Skills:]

[Item Appraisal]

[Basic Swordsmanship lv.1 (275/1000)]

[-Pommel Strike lv.1 (0/150)] Additional Effect: Increases strike speed by 5%

[-Block Counterattack lv.1 (0/300)] Additional Effect: Increases block stability by 5%

[-Pierce lv.0 (72/100)]

[-Furious Slash lv.0 (50/100)]

[Arcane Pool 0/1] (Depleted, slowly recovering)

[Equipment:]

[Weapon: Stone Fist Fine Work Longsword (Durability: 45/100, severely bent)]

[Evaluation: It has bent at the waist like a pitiable blacksmith forced to work overtime. The fact that it has not snapped is already the highest praise for Dwarf craftsmanship.]

[Armor: God-Chosen Scale Reinforced Hard Leather Armor (Durability: 18/75)]

[Evaluation: Those few golden scales are like diamonds set onto a beggar's clothes. Sadly, no matter how hard diamonds are, they cannot save a garment that is already in tatters.]

[Accessory: Ring of Swift Wind]

[Items: Light Hand Crossbow (Durability: 38/40), Crossbow Bolts x9, Lockpicking Tools, Hemp Rope, Simple Space Bag (Contains: Silver Coins x4, Several Copper Coins, Crude Beast Fang Amulet x1, Unknown Scroll x1, Locked Tin Box x1, Mysterious Small Candle x1]

Both Block Counterattack and Pommel Strike had leveled up, and even gained minor effects. It seemed that life-and-death combat truly was the best catalyst.

He walked over to the most conspicuous corpse—the massive, headless body of Gorgash Bonecrusher.

[Deceased Orc Warrior (Lv.1)]

[Name: Gorgash · Bonecrusher]

[Status: Deceased]

[Attributes (Estimated Peak While Alive):]

[Strength: 18]

[Agility: 12]

[Constitution: 18]

[Intelligence: 9]

[Perception: 10]

[Charisma: 7]

[Evaluation: Well-developed muscles, but his brain... well, at least it was not quite enough at the final moment. He proved with his life that anger is the devil, and sneak attacks are king. His epitaph could read: Xia Lin bears full responsibility.]

"Strength 18..." Xia Lin stared at that terrifying figure, secretly grateful that he had not been split in two by a single axe blow.

With considerable effort, he pulled Gorgash's enormous battle axe from the soil. It was heavy in his hand, its Axe Blade broad and thick.

[Item: Masterwork Great Axe]

[Durability: 110/150]

[Enemies Killed: 383]

[Evaluation: A reliable big fellow, equally good for chopping firewood and chopping friends—provided your skinny little arms can swing it. Friendly reminder: using this thing to haggle might work better than using your mouth.]

"Not bad." He stored the great axe in the space bag.

He searched Gorgash again and found only a crude money pouch containing several low-quality gemstones and bone ornaments.

Next, he headed toward the scattered corpses of his "colleagues."

Kyle, the silent greatswordsman, had died horribly.

Around his neck, Xia Lin found a brass necklace. Opening its locket, he found a hand-painted portrait of a young woman within, her smile gentle.

Xia Lin looked at the painting, fell silent for a moment, then closed the lid and gently placed the box atop the shattered leather armor on Kyle's chest.

"At least... you can travel together," he murmured before picking up Kyle's Worn Two-Handed Greatsword.

[Item: Worn Two-Handed Greatsword]

[Durability: 55/120]

[Enemies Killed: 73]

[Evaluation: It did its best. Really. Sadly, its owner failed to bring it home.]

Putting away the greatsword, he found Kyle's coin pouch—twelve silver coins and forty-three scattered copper coins.

Next was Pip.

The tiny Halfling was curled up with her eyes wide open, blood still staining the corner of her mouth.

Most of her clothing had been torn apart. Xia Lin frowned, doing his best not to imagine what she had suffered before she died.

He quickly removed two Daggers, a delicate set of Lockpicking Tools, and a coin pouch sewn into the inner side of her belt. It felt satisfyingly heavy in his hand—eight silver coins and seventy-eight copper coins.

It seemed she had profited quite a bit from other people's pockets before this.

The gnome Fitzwick had died to a Sneak Attack.

Xia Lin found a bulging coin pouch on him, containing one hundred and twenty-six copper coins and five silver coins.

All he could say was that cheating truly was the foremost productive force.

There was also a small bottle made of thick clay, its mouth sealed with wax.

[Item: Blazing Fire Gel (Alchemical Item)]

[Effect: Shatters upon being thrown. The contents ignite violently upon contact with air...]

[Evaluation: Highly flammable and explosive—a fine companion for home and travel... no, for murder, silencing witnesses, and destroying corpses. Recommendation: throw it far away. Don't turn yourself into a roasted skewer.]

"Good stuff." He put away the Blazing Fire Gel, then picked up Fitzwick's broken hand crossbow and several tools.

Captain Marcus's head had been smashed open.

Xia Lin found a well-maintained standard longsword on him, along with a Kite Shield whose edges were damaged but whose main body remained intact.

From a thick leather pouch at Marcus's waist, he also pulled out two intact standard healing potions and a coin pouch containing eight silver coins and fifty-two copper coins.

"Old soldiers never die—they just fade away... and leave behind an inheritance while they're at it." Xia Lin whistled.

Lastly came the three caravan guards. Aside from their battered chainmail, scimitars, and fewer than thirty copper coins between them, they had nothing else.

Xia Lin only picked out a few usable arrows.

After taking stock, he had gained a total of thirty-three silver coins, three hundred and twenty-nine copper coins, plus a pile of weapons and equipment, alchemical items, and healing potions.

This round of "wages" and "death benefits" together meant he had not risked his life for nothing.

Xia Lin let out a breath of stale air and began dragging the non-Orc corpses together, preparing to dig a pit.

As for the Orcs... they could give the beasts of the forest an extra course.

He walked toward the last "corpse," ready to drag it over...

Warm... to the touch? It seemed to move slightly?

"Mmh..." A pained, irritated groan rang out.

Xia Lin froze, abruptly let go, and leaped back.

Sera was pushing herself up with her intact arm, her pupils burning with dark red flames as she stared coldly at him. And just now, he seemed to have accidentally grabbed the long purple tail hidden beneath her voluminous robe, its tip ending in a horny spike.

"Human." Her voice was hoarse, carrying a peculiar rhythm, like sandpaper rubbing over silk. "Do you find this body of mine more appetizing than that rotten green meat? Or is it simply your habit to check the... temperature before touching a 'corpse'?"

The mockery and implication in her words were entirely undisguised.

Xia Lin frowned. The faint embarrassment born of the misunderstanding was swiftly replaced by displeasure.

He gave Sera a once-over and curled his lip.

"You're thinking too much." His reply was flat, carrying deliberate disdain. "I don't have any particular fetish for purple skin or horns. My taste isn't that low."

"Is that so? Then I suppose it's the latter?" Her gaze swept over the bulging Space Bag at Xia Lin's waist. "In such a hurry to 'sort through the remains'—seeing whether us 'unfortunate victims' might still have anything worth you, the 'survivor,' risking your life to recover? After all, a dead man's coin pouch is the easiest one to open, isn't it?"

She had hit the mark.

Xia Lin rolled his eyes inwardly, but his face took on an expression that said, What are you talking about? I have no idea.

"Same to you." He shrugged, his tone somewhat unconcerned. "The situation was urgent just now. I only wanted to gather the corpses first... no, gather everyone together first, so I could prepare a burial. After all, those two Gold rank adventurers 'instructed' me to handle the aftermath before they left." He deliberately stressed the word "instructed."

Sera raised her slender eyebrows. The pair of curved black horns at her temples glimmered faintly beneath the setting sun. She did not reply at once, merely watching Xia Lin quietly with those inhuman eyes, as though weighing the truth of his words.

Xia Lin met her gaze and took the opportunity to study her as well.

Pale-purple skin, pointed ears, burning eyes... all these traits pointed unmistakably to one identity: a Tiefling, or, in a more common and more insulting term—a Demon-kin.

Fragments of information about Tieflings flashed through his mind—they bore the taint of fiends from the Lower Planes in their bloodlines, were born with traits unlike ordinary people, and were therefore often rejected and feared by mainstream society, seen as symbols of evil.

Long-standing prejudice often made them withdrawn, suspicious, sharp-tongued, and sometimes drove them into the very darkness the world "expected" of them.

The Sera before him seemed to be a typical example.

"Burial?" Sera finally spoke again, her tone carrying a barely perceptible self-mockery and a far more obvious sneer. "Oh, what deeply moving nobility. The mighty heroes save the world, conveniently carting off the valuable goods, while us little 'trash fish' lucky enough to survive get to dig the holes and bury the dirt for them, and conveniently... divide up the crumbs left behind by the dead."

She paused, her gaze sweeping over the cold corpses on the ground. Her voice turned somewhat distant, tinged with an almost self-destructive indifference. "Still, burying them is fine. At least... dust to dust, earth to earth. It's a little more dignified than leaving them exposed in the wilderness to be gnawed clean by wild dogs. Though for bloodlines despised like ours, dignity... might be a joke in itself."

Listening to her, Xia Lin felt an inexplicable tightness in his chest, but he could not be bothered to argue about any grand philosophies of life.

Right now, he only wanted to finish the job as quickly as possible and leave this bloodstained grassland.

"Enough brooding." He picked up the iron shovel he had tossed aside earlier, then dug a fairly sturdy spare shovel out of the wreckage of the cargo wagon. "It's getting dark. Get moving. That arm of yours... can it still work?"

"Digging holes?" Sera glanced at him, then flexed her newly healed arm. "I can." To his surprise, she picked up the other shovel as well. "But if I dig crooked, don't blame me."