Clyde made a secret agreement with Princess Tereni, the behind-the-scenes magician supporting mercenaries. The latter would no longer support Mercenary King Gruz and withdraw her substitute magic puppet at the critical moment. Like that, the magic isolation barrier around Saka Fortress would automatically shatter.
Before, when he had transported gold from the horse carriages to the treasury, he hadn’t had time to carefully inspect this treasury. This time, he would determine whether he could get some benefits. Outside the treasury seemed normal. The guards lay knocked out on the ground as if by some drug. The thieves were not assassins, so they avoiding killing guards. Bringing an opponent down without killing them was their goal.
“You few, guard the door! I will go inspect the inventory!”
“No problem, Lord Sparke! Remember to leave us one or two!”
“Rest assured. I’ll not treat you all unfairly. Am I the kind of person who neglects friends?”
A wicked smile appeared on Sparke’s handsome face. After leaving behind a few guards to keep watch, he took his remaining subordinates into the treasury. Clyde followed behind. When those few guard mercenaries stepped forward to interrogate him, they shivered as they sensed something incomparably cold behind them. A sturdy black tentacle rose from the ground behind them as their own shadows bound them. Before they could scream, these mercenaries were strangled to death on the spot. Clyde casually passed them and entered the treasury with no one blocking his path.
Last time, when carrying a box of gold, he had been unable to see inside clearly. This time, he discovered that this treasury had a secret. When Mercenary King Gruz had designed this treasury, he had used a double-layered design, dividing it into an inner and outer section. The outer treasury was designed to confuse invaders with just a few open boxes containing gold coins. As for the remaining, closed wooden chests, they all contained copper coins. Clyde casually cut open a few wooden boxes and discovered this secret.
The real riches were in the inner treasury. The female thieves had stolen the key to the inner treasury’s door from Sparke. Moving forward, Clyde found a half-closed hidden door in one of the outer treasury’s walls. He gently pushed it open and entered the inner treasury. Instantly, dazzling golden light nearly blinded him. he was nearly blinded by the dazzling golden light. The entire room glittered with gold coins, and he had to step on them to walk about. Many large wooden boxes couldn’t even be closed because there were too full of gold coins.
In the depths of this inner treasury, those female thieves disguised as maids had been trapped. Their equipment had melted, and their white, bare bodies were covered in a mysterious, transparent, sticky and thick fluid. All of them lay paralyzed on the ground with fearful expressions like trapped prey. Not far away was a strange golden chest. That treasure box was half-open, and a pair of blood-red eyes stared at these white lambs from inside it.
“Surprise! This monster was specifically brought here to deal with thieves like you!”
“You… you actually reared a monster!”
Sparke had a sinister smile; his scheme had succeeded. That strange box was actually a demon treasure box, one of the lost ancient demon species. It disguised itself as a treasure box and hunted treasure hunters who were charmed by its allure. That sticky fluid had been sprayed by this treasure box monster. This treasure box monster was not a purebred, but rather a mixed-blood monster since a pure-bred treasure box monster would disdain cooperating with the Human Race. In the eyes of purebred monsters, humans were just food, so cooperating with the Human Race was beneath their dignity.
Sparke’s subordinates walked over with bad smiles on their faces. They then took out iron chains and skillfully restricted those female thieve, tying their hands together behind their backs. Black metal collars were put around their white necks. In addition, before these war trophies could speak, black iron rods gagged them.
“Good figures! They can be sold for a good price. It’s a pity that there is no Nightingale or Night Rose. Otherwise…”
Sparke had a boorish smile as he lifted up the smooth chin of the trembling white lamb nearest to him. Then, he carefully examined this white lamb’s body as if he were sizing up merchandise. At this moment, Clyde entered the inner treasury, and black tentacles sprang out of the ground. Instantly, screams filled the inner treasury as Sparke’s trusted subordinates were pierced by black tentacles and killed. Red blood sprayed everywhere, dyeing the entire inner treasury red.
“Who! Sika, get rid of this fellow!”
Sparke was frightened by Clyde, but before he could understand what was going on, all of his subordinates had been pierced to death by Clyde’s black energy tentacles. He directly called the name of the treasure box monster, ordering it to stop Clyde. However, this mixed-blooded treasure box monster was never Clyde’s opponent. Before it could open its mouth to spray its sticky fluid, Clyde’s tentacle whipped horizontally, directly cutting it into two.
“Wait… wait a moment, hero, brave hero! Spare my life, I… I can pay you! Whether you want money or women, I can…”
“You are truly incurable. If I want to take away something from you, do I need to bother about a dead person’s opinion?”
“No, you can’t do this! I am Si…”
A black tentacle pierced his head. His head was pulverized as his headless corpse fell to the ground. Clyde stepped forward and removed the wicked erotic tools restricting these female thieves’ mouths. The deathly pale female thieves trembled in fear, and their white legs were tightly clamped together to conceal that they had lost control upon seeing the terrifying massacre just now.
These female thieves had been saved and avoided Sparke’s vicious schemes. Thinking about Sparke’s wicked expression, these thieves were very clear about what would have happened if they had fallen into his hands. However, a devil had saved them, giving these female thieves mixed feelings. As a result, they didn’t know what to say, so Clyde took the initiative to break the awkward silence.
“Don’t stare blankly! That fellow is dead. If you all need my help, speak up. If you all don’t need me, I’ll leave you here, and you all will be dealt with by those mercenaries.”
“Don’t… Don’t leave us here! We beg you!”
Quickly weighing the advantages and disadvantages, these beautiful thieves sought his help. If they fell into Mercenary King Gruz’s hands, their fates might not be any better than falling into Sparke’s hands. Generally, mercenaries weren’t restricted by the human nations’ laws and could do whatever they pleased. In comparison, it was better to seek help from a devil. Although devils were evil, most high-level devils were honest and would would directly tell the price needed to receive their help. They followed the principles of equivalent exchange, unlike humans who used all kinds of mean and petty tricks.
After Clyde broke their iron chains, those beautiful thieves nervously stood in front of him with red faces. Since there was no clothing here, they were all in alluring bare states. Fortunately, Clyde had seen similar scenes many times, so his restraint was quite high, and he wouldn’t lose his self-control easily. Although these female thieves were all beautiful, they were still lacking compared to his other female companions.
“Lord… Lord Devil, what payment do you need? We want to leave this place.”
“Payment? You have nothing now, so let’s talk about it later. At this moment, I don’t need any sacrifices for a ritual. By the way, why did you all come to steal, actually daring to steal from even a Mercenary King’s treasury…”
Clyde was quite talkative, surprising these beautiful thieves. Furthermore, his humanoid form was quite attractive. Facing a handsome young man, these beautiful thieves weren’t very guarded and quickly explained their intentions: they had indeed come to steal gold from the treasury. In Ximengsi Continent, there were many thief groups. Because of the chaotic warfare throughout the year, frontier villages were often destroyed, and people without jobs could only choose relatively extreme professions. The entrance thresholds for becoming a thief were much lower than becoming an assassin, so many thief groups had formed.
It was comparatively safer to steal a mercenary groups’ wealth rather than a nation’s treasury. Each nation had a different attitude towards thieves. Most were strict only on the surface, but wouldn’t take the initiative to wipe them out. As long as the other party didn’t steal from them, they would turn a blind eye. There were also several especially famous thief groups, for instance, Nightingale and Night Rose that Spike had mentionned just a moment ago. Because their appearances were concealed, they gave people a feeling of mystery.
These beautiful thieves Clyde had rescued were a band of thieves that had just debuted without even an official name. Because their hometown had suffered from the chaos of war, they had been forced to steal money. In fact, their village had been destroyed by war mercenaries, so they had wanted to target the Mercenary Guild.
“Take all the gold coins in the treasury! They are useless to me! Do you all have a way to transport them?”
“Lord Devil, thank you! We… we have a way to take them away. Our companions are waiting outside Saka Fortress, and they brought a storage ring.”
“That’s good. After taking these gold coins away, just leave your thief group’s name.”
