The Troll's Treasure

Noticing the glimmer, Li Wei immediately stopped caring about the filth on the ground and hurried over.

He raised his torch.

On the ground lay a pile of silver coins, some old and some newer, along with scattered trinkets and tableware of various materials—knives, forks, plates, candlesticks, cups...

Some were silver, some were gold.

Li Wei couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from rising.

He had come to the right place.

With a rustle, Li Wei rifled through everything, packing up all the valuables and stuffing them into his backpack.

There were so many different types of items that his backpack was almost full at once. After some thought, Li Wei simply built an Anti-Smelter on the spot and reverse-smelted all the miscellaneous metal goods into raw materials.

In the end, he obtained five gold ingots, eleven silver ingots, and a bag of silver coins.

His backpack suddenly had plenty of room again.

In terms of volume alone, these things did not take up much space. After all, they were only forks, cups, and the like. It was just that there were too many different kinds, which had filled his backpack.

After processing this batch of treasure, a prompt suddenly appeared. Li Wei opened the Synthesis Table and saw that it now contained crafting recipes for metal tableware, chandeliers, and more.

He could directly synthesize these things in the future as well.

Once everything was packed up, Li Wei eagerly left the cave, opened his map, and continued deeper into the forest.

"Ogres really are treasure."

Having tasted the benefits, Li Wei was now full of anticipation for this forest teeming with ogres.

The next day, during daylight, mournful howls came from the other side of the mountain.

An ogre jolted awake from its sleep. The moment it opened its eyes, it saw a despicable human stabbing it in the kidney with a sword. Yet when it angrily rose to chase after him, it hesitated.

Because it was daytime outside.

Although the forest was thick with trees and held more shadow than sunlight, even catching a glimpse of sunlight from the corner of its eye made it feel unbearably awful.

"You despicable little bug!"

The enraged ogre dug up a rock from the ground and hurled it outside.

With a boom, it smashed into a tree. A visible crack appeared in the thick trunk, and it nearly snapped in half.

Cold sweat streamed down Li Wei's back. This ogre could use ranged attacks too?

If that hit him, wouldn't he lose four or five HP?

Without wasting words, Li Wei went with his usual routine.

Block the entrance, draw his bow, kite the ogre.

Before long, the furious ogre collapsed to the ground with resentment in its heart.

"Des... picable..."

After retrieving his arrows, Li Wei stepped over the ogre's massive corpse without even looking at it, holding up his torch as he walked into the deepest part of the cave.

As the saying went, practice made perfect. This time, Li Wei moved much more deftly. He quickly looted every spot that might be hiding something, tossing anything inconvenient to carry into the Anti-Smelter to be refined into raw materials.

The whole process was swift and clean. The moment he was done, he left the scene without any hesitation.

Looking at the steadily growing wealth in his backpack, Li Wei could not help but sigh. "This Ogre Forest really is a wonderful place. There's gold and silver everywhere."

Li Wei nodded and continued deeper into the forest.

A week later.

Night.

In the forest, an ogre crouched fearfully in the bushes as it caught a sheep. It brutally snapped the sheep's neck on the spot, hugged it to its chest, and ran toward home.

"Quick, quick..."

The ogre panted heavily, sweat beading across its large head.

"Don't come, please don't come. I need to get home quickly, run faster, or I'll run into that terrifying Treasure-Gobbler..."

"Phew—"

After running for a long time through the night, the ogre finally relaxed when it saw its own cave. It lit a fire, intending to make roast whole lamb as a reward for itself.

As the sheep's skin gradually turned golden brown and gave off the distinctive aroma of roasted meat, the ogre's mood improved as well.

It gnawed on the lamb with loud crunches. Feeling warmth spread through its stomach and its body slowly recover from hunger, the ogre could not help but let out a satisfied groan.

"Hah, what Treasure-Gobbler? Once I'm full, it won't even be able to take one punch from me."

"Is that so?"

"Of course!" the ogre answered without hesitation.

Hm?

It turned its large head and suddenly discovered that a human had appeared beside it at some point. A sinister grin immediately spread across its face.

"Looks like there'll be an extra course tonight, hahahaha..."

A moment later.

Thud.

The Troll, covered in wounds, clutched its neck and staggered to the ground.

Li Wei took a couple bites of beef jerky where he stood and waited for his health to recover.

After a full week of battling wits and strength in this forest, more than a dozen Trolls had died by Li Wei's hand.

But in truth, he had killed very few with his bow. Troll hide was simply too thick. By the time he killed the fourth one, those arrows had either chipped or snapped, and were useless even if he retrieved them.

After that, Li Wei had relied on a sword, a set of Iron Armor, and a shield to duel the Trolls one-on-one.

Even if he could not win, he could still run. At worst, he could dig three blocks and fill one in, or shamelessly build himself a tall tower like a Block Wizard. There was no need to fear getting turned around and beaten to death.

At first, Li Wei had been somewhat intimidated when facing Trolls with high attack and defense. Those huge palms could crack rocks with a full-force blow, so getting hit by one would hurt even more.

But as he took more and more beatings, Li Wei gradually learned to see through some of the Trolls' attack patterns and carved the proper responses into his instincts—these were hard-earned lessons bought with blood, gained by taking hit after hit and learning through trial and error.

Another person would not have survived taking so many hits. They would likely have lost most of their life from the very first blow, becoming crippled on the spot. How could they possibly continue trying?

Li Wei had stubbornly endured enough beatings to wear away half the durability of his Iron Armor Set, forging himself into an expert at dealing with Trolls.

The instant a Troll raised its hand, he knew what it would do next—slap, sweep, smash, or throw a rock.

Then he would make the appropriate response.

Before becoming a PvP master, he had become a PvE master first.

"Damn, it's poor."

A moment later, Li Wei emerged from the depths of the cave with a look of disgust.

Another dirt-poor Troll. There was nothing valuable in the cave, only a pile of bones and filth.

Yes, not every Troll hid astonishing wealth.

Based on Li Wei's experience during this time, there were not many Troll caves that actually contained treasure. Most Trolls possessed very little wealth.

Whether he found anything good whenever he entered a Troll cave depended entirely on luck.

It felt like opening a blind box.

Come to think of it, Li Wei had noticed that finding Trolls had become increasingly difficult lately.

Over the past entire day, he had only found this one Troll and its cave. That was because he had been lucky enough to encounter it while it was out hunting. If it had remained holed up inside, Li Wei might not have discovered it at all.

Thinking of how it had kept muttering something about a "Treasure-Gobbler" before it died—

Li Wei thought it over carefully, and the more he considered it, the more he felt that—"Could it have been talking about me?"

He immediately realized that he had probably killed too many recently, and his reputation might have already spread among the Trolls.

"This is going to be troublesome."

Li Wei sighed and sheepishly walked out of the cave, stepping around the fire pit and rack the Troll had used to roast whole sheep.

Huh? Wait.

Li Wei suddenly backed up and looked at the crude grill.

His gaze fixed on the grease-blackened stick in the middle used for skewering meat.

Hmm...?

Li Wei slowly approached, not blinking once.

If he was not mistaken, the inside of that stick seemed to be glowing?

It did not merely seem to be glowing—it really was glowing!

Li Wei grabbed the stick, whose original appearance could no longer be made out.

Filthy Elven Ancient Sword

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