“You know, I kind of wish Jaegan was awake to tell me if this is a lot or not.” I sat back on a camp chair as I surveyed our haul.

Half a dozen leather bags of gold coins sat next to a much larger pile of bags of silver and copper coins while I tossed a smaller pouch full of platinum coins from hand to hand. For some reason, just holding them made me feel as happy as a dragon on top of its hoard. Besides the coinage, there were only a couple of noteworthy items among the lot of them and I looked over them with wide eyes as I considered what we might end up doing with them. There was a ring made entirely of dark red ruby, a pair of white leather gloves stitched with emeralds flush against the knuckles, and a small vial of scintillating rainbow liquid.

[Ruby Heart - Rare

Durability - 244/244

Description - Born in the depths of the earth, wearing the Ruby Heart feels like sitting in warm sunlight regardless of their environment. Wearers of the Ruby Heart can channel the force of light shining upon it to send out rays of crimson light with a pair of effects. Those rays can heal allies and hurt enemies alike. By expending a point of durability, the user can also summon a shield of crystalline ruby to deflect an incoming attack before shattering and sending the shards toward whoever attacked them in a storm of razor sharp ruby pieces.]

[Gloves of the Emerald Breeze - Uncommon

Charges per Day - 7/7

Description - Upon striking something with the Gloves of the Emerald Breeze, the wearer can expend a charge to unleash a blast of hurricane force wind in the direction of the initial blow. They can also expend a charge to allow them to deliver strikes of wind like punches and kicks ten feet away for a minute.]

[Rainbow Elixir - Legendary

Description - No one knows how these scintillating potions are created, but all agree that they are precious. The drinker of the Rainbow Elixir has the almost unheard of opportunity to change their Class. Drinking the liquid within puts the user into a coma for one week, during which they will have the opportunity to have their Class changed based on their Skills and personal inclinations.]

The obvious winner is the [Rainbow Elixir], I’ve never even heard of something like it and it’s Legendary for Dominus’ sake. Maybe Jaegan will want to wear the [Ruby Heart]? I can’t see any rings on his fingers and it’d be good to give him the ability to heal if I’m out of it. It almost feels like the gloves were made for Ylsa, with her Class and her [Storm Knuckles] working together, I’m willing to bet she’ll love them.

A couple hours later, Ylsa, Jaegan, and I sat around the table full of loot and I learned how out of touch I really was when it came to the cost of living out in the world.

“By my ancestors.” Ylsa’s eyes went wide as I told them what I’d counted of the coins.

“You’re sure that count is accurate?” Jaegan narrowed his eyes at me. “Did you count it twice?”

“I am part dwarf, you know.” I snorted. “I take my coin very seriously so I counted it thrice. There are seventy-five platinum, twelve hundred gold, twenty-four thousand silver,” I paused and nodded over to my remaining summoned elementals, “and, according to my [Arcweaver] friends, there are three hundred thousand copper.”

The old spellcaster clutched his chest and started hyperventilating. “By all the g– By Dominus, this place is a gold mine.”

“Inside one, actually.” I stuck out my tongue when he glared at me. “So, from the way you’re reacting, this is a lot of coin? I mean, I know it’s a lot of coins, but I don’t really have any idea how much wealth it represents.”

“Give me a baseline.” Jaegan took on the same tone my math tutor had when asking me an obvious question when I was a child. “How many coins of one type does it take to make up one of a higher denomination?”

“One hundred.” I deadpanned. “I grew up rich, I know that. My education was quite thorough, I’m just lacking context for what a gold versus a silver might be able to purchase.”

“Ylsa, please tell Arthur how much you made last year as a level thirty adventurer.”

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She straightened up on the couch and tore her gaze from the pile of loot to look at me. “I took four days off in the entire year and made one hundred and forty-eight gold last year working Iron and Steel ranked quests.”

“Is that above or below average?” I had to clarify.

“Well above average, as those quests were nearly all monster exterminations. A normal adventurer of my level normally makes around sixty or seventy gold per year.”

I guess that explains why Khor was so dismissive of my recommendation to replace his [Skills] with [Skill Scrolls]. He’s not even Steel ranked, so he has to make less than that, even if his brother is the one making payroll.

“Okay.” I nodded before frowning. “I know adventurers make more money than normal people. How much does your average farmer or shopkeeper make in a year?”

Jaegan took over when Ylsa looked at him with wide eyes and a shake of her head. He sighed. “It really depends on the area, but somewhere backwater like Grenwall? Maybe a dozen silvers?” He shrugged. “Somewhere richer, like the better parts of Sunhome, people like that might make a gold a year, at the very most. Semi-skilled tradespeople might make a multiple of that, but it wouldn’t be more than five or ten times, based entirely on how good they actually are.”

“You mean this,” my jaw hung open as I pointed at the pile of money, “is worth more than…”

“Grenwall’s entire yearly spending, yes.” Jaegan finished for me.

“Got it,” I nodded as I slumped back in my chair beside Raiju. I spun my spatial ring around on my finger as I stared at it. “Mom, Dad, Grandpa, what were you guys thinking, giving me this much money?”

“I figured that might be the case, though I don’t want to know how much they gave you, so please don’t tell me.” Jaegan shook his head. “So, besides the coin, what did we get? We can discuss coin after figuring out who gets what.”

I hopped to my feet and walked over to the table, I half-lidded my eyes and did my best impression of a stage show I saw once in Sunhome. I picked up the ring and held it out on my palm. “You see here we have a fantastic ruby ring. Better known as the [Ruby Heart], this lovely little gem can produce lances of damaging or healing light, as well as produce a life saving shield.” I did a little turn and swayed my tiny hips. “Who would like to wear this treasure?”

Ylsa suppressed a snicker, but Jaegan didn’t find it nearly as funny. He groaned. “Please, spare us the pageantry while we’re in the Dungeon. What else did we find?”

“You’re no fun.” I threw out my hip with my free hand propped on it. “Fine, next is the [Gloves of the Emerald Breeze], they let the wearer punch or kick at range as well as push their targets back with blasts of wind. It only has seven charges, but they recharge each day.” I paused when I saw Ylsa’s eyes light up. “However, those don’t hold a candle to the last thing we got.”

I reached over, grabbed the vial of color shifting liquid, and held it out gingerly. “This is–”

“[Rainbow Elixir], as I live and breathe. I thought it was a myth made up by fools who hated their Class.” Jaegan stared at the vial in my hands like it was the only thing that mattered. He snapped at me. “Put it in your ring, right now. No one else can know we have it, or we’ll have more than a council of asshole merchants and politicians to deal with.”

I did as he asked, before staring hard at him. “How did it spawn here? Shouldn’t the cap for Dungeons of this level be Rare items?” I reached over and tossed the gloves to Ylsa as I waited for a response.

“Two words, Dungeon Break.” Jaegan tapped his staff on the ground. “The closer to breaking it is, the better the loot inside a Dungeon will be. For it to have spawned that? This Dungeon was probably going to break in the next few hours, not days or weeks. We’re very lucky to have gotten here when we did. The boss chamber will likely have similar, if not better, loot.” He laughed to himself. “If that can be believed with the haul we’ve already pulled in.”

I tossed him the ring. “Put this on and let’s get going. I can already heal, so it makes more sense for you to have it. Do your best to keep the three of us healed up, alright?”

He slipped on the ring with a sigh and a grumble. “Not a damn healer, DPS is king.”

I sucked all the bags of coins into my ring. “I guess we can divvy up the coins when we finish this Dungeon, we’re bound to get more.” I turned to Raiju. “Pick a tunnel and I’ll lead the way.”

She hopped off the furniture and padded around the room at speed, only pausing briefly to sniff and listen at the three exits before running back to me. She pointed at each tunnel in turn. “No monster smells down that one, but I heard the sound of metal on metal repeating every few seconds. The next one had some monster smells, but not a lot. The last one had tons of sounds, but it almost sounded like they were working on something with all the banging they were doing.”

“The third one it is. Monsters working on something can’t be good for us.” I ruffled the fur around her ears. “Good job, keep an ear and nose out for anything I might miss, but don’t get ahead of me as we go, OK?” She barked happily and her tail started to wag as she brushed up against my side.

“Marching order has me in front to scout and look for traps, Raiju beside me to take advantage of her senses, Jaegan in the middle because he’s squishy, though I’ll have the [Arcweavers] flank you as long as they choose to stay around, and Ylsa in the back to stop us from getting jumped.”

I looked at my companions as they all stood, ready to go. “Any questions?” I sucked the furniture back into my ring.

“None here.” Ylsa flexed her fingers in her new gloves.

“We hunt!” Raiju beat the hell out of my leg with her wagging tail. “I miss hunting, we should start soon.”

“We really have to discuss how your [Unique Skill] works, but I’m ready.” Jaegan turned to the lightning elementals who didn’t even look at him with their eyes locked on me. “Nevermind. Let’s go.”

“Whatever the Pactlord commands.” The more feminine [Arcweaver] said as they bowed.

“Keep us alive, but focus on Jaegan, you hear?” I poked a finger at them and him at the same time. “Raiju has my back, I want you to have his.” They merely nodded once more before the more masculine one turned to watch Jaegan while the more feminine didn’t move.

“It’ll have to do.” I started toward the tunnel where the most noise was coming from. “Let’s do this thing.”