Aethelgard: The Survival Game (Chloe) novel Chapter 22

Chapter 22 Full Inventory Count

Chloe repeated flatly: [Everything?]

FearlessReaper: [After the trade, I’ll leave you enough food and water each day so you can survive. That’s already pretty generous, isn’t it?

[You’ll still be in the novice period after those three days. Trade for a workbench and you’ll still have time to build your resources back up.

[Magical items are scarce enough as it is, and workbench upgrade tome blueprints are even harder to find. Getting an Arcane Workbench that fits your profession is tough.

[I’m being more than fair here. Who else would be willing to trade away an Arcane Workbench during the novice period? It’s obviously valuable. It’s magic. I could use it myself.]

He wanted to take everything she had and keep it all to himself, and he was still putting on the air of someone doing her a favor.

Chloe let out a short laugh and typed: [I’ve got a thousand units of high–grade Premium materials, more Epic materials than I can count, and Epic items. Want them?

[I’ve also got high–level magic blueprints.]

FearlessReaper: [Now that’s more like it.]

Chloe: [Sorry, just gave them away to someone else at a bargain price.

[I wouldn’t trade you for a hundred Premium materials, let alone a single cubic yard of soil, you idiot.]

She didn’t wait for a reply. She blocked him with a flick of her finger, thinking that spending one more word on a moron like that would be a waste of time she could spend building up her supplies.

An Arcane Workbench without blueprints was mostly useless anyway.

It was true that the Arcane Workbench was hard to find. Chloe was already considering a backup plan: she’d search for a different workbench upgrade tome on her own and pivot to other building facility blueprints.

If no Arcane Workbench surfaced by the fourteenth day, when the novice period ended, she’d simply prioritize upgrading her territory.

Her territory was still Level 0. She only needed a few more basic materials and one more building facility to meet the Level 1 upgrade requirements.

Chloe was levelheaded about it. She mapped out an alternative path she could accept, then shoved that player clean out of her mind. She turned to sorting through her supplies.

‘Or maybe, she mused, a cold glint passing through her eyes, ‘I could push that player into a corner until he’s forced to sell the Arcane Workbench at a fraction of its worth!‘

She pressed the thought down just as quickly. During the novice period, she wasn’t about to waste precious leveling time on trash.

FearlessReaper had been utterly certain that the player with the Slime Slayer title would have no choice but to

trade with him.

His talent, Eyes of Greed, let him gauge a player’s current wealth and determine how desperately they needed a particular item.

The more valuable the items a player carried, the brighter their golden aura of wealth shone. The stronger their craving for an object, the deeper the crimson glow of desire burned.

FearlessReaper had indeed spotted Chloe’s messages on both the Trading Post and in the Elite Trading Syndicate. His talent alerted him whenever a high–value trade opportunity appeared.

By chance, he’d opened an Arcane Workbench the day before. He had a Magic stat of 1, but the workbench didn’t suit him well. Then today, a big fish had swum right into view.

Successfully unlocked!

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Chapter 22 Full Inventory Count

When he’d activated Eyes of Greed, the radiance he saw was unlike anything he’d witnessed before. It rivaled the gleam of the trade group’s big spender, NobleScalper, and even the group Admin who possessed the Fairness talent.

‘This player is definitely carrying incredible items, he thought. ‘Truly incredible items.

Even the price Chloe had casually tossed out was enough to make Fearless Reaper’s eyes burn with greed. She had 300 units of Premium materials, five Cubic Yard Soil Plots, and Epic materials on top of that. He’d never even laid eyes on an Epic material before. Those resources alone already dwarfed everything he currently owned.

After all his time in the game, he’d only managed to scrape together eighty units of Premium materials. He wanted more. He wanted everything Chloe had so badly it clawed at him.

His talent had shown him her desire for the Arcane Workbench blazing a deep, unmistakable crimson. Still, her reply had sent a spike of fury through his chest. He tried firing off a couple more messages, only to find he’d been blocked.

FearlessReaper refused to believe she’d actually turn down his deal. He was convinced this was nothing but a stubborn last stand.

He stared at his game interface and let out a cold snort, forcing the anger Chloe had sparked back down into his gut.

*****

Chloe finished organizing her current resources. When she checked, she saw her magical Talent Points had quietly climbed to four.

Three had come from learning Pyro Sphere, and one more from achieving combat proficiency during the fight. It seemed Talent Points didn’t just increase daily. Doing anything related to magic also had a chance to grant them. The discovery caught her off guard.

Tomorrow, she’d have five Talent Points. She could give some serious thought to what she wanted to bless next.

She looked over her inventory: [High–Grade Materials: Premium Wooden Logs: 535. Premium Iron Ingots: 200. Cubic Yard Soil Plots: 28.

[Magical Materials: 10 Ignis Crystals (Special Magical Ore / Premium), 3 Eyes of the Crimson Wyrm ( Elemental Medium / Rare), 12 Treant Essence (Resin/ Trace Magic / Common).

[Binding Liquids: 30 Slime Ooze (Biological Ooze / Mana Enrichment / Premium), 50 Fungal Ooze (Special Ooze / Extensibility / Adaptive / Inferior Premium), 10 Clay (Common Building Material / Active Soil/ Common).

[Precious Magical Materials: 1 Slime Essence (Rare), 1 Pristine Slime Core (Inferior Legendary), 1 Vitality Ooze (Epic).

[Basic Wooden Logs: 303. Iron Scraps: 78. Stone: 54. Water: 1.8 gallons of fresh water, 400mL Premium Arcane Dew.

[Food: 5 units of raw rabbit meat, 3 units of raw lamb, 2 units of Cured Monster Jerky, 3 units of raw chicken, 2 units of Protein Jerky, 3 loaves of bread, 3 dinner rolls.

[Seeds: 1 carrot seed, 3 spinach seeds, 3 lily seeds, 1 morning glory seed, 1 orange tree seed, Slime Essence Sapling Seed (Grade Unknown).

[Basic Items: Rabbit Fur Earmuffs, wooden buckler, wooden Fence, wooden bucket, 3 hound’s fangs, 1 compost bin.

[Special Items: Flora Whisperer’s Cap, Arcane Soil Purifier, Unstable Arcane Wish Rod, Arcane Botany Compendium.]

This was everything Chloe now owned. It was the third day of the novice period.

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Chapter 22 Full Inventory Count

Once the inventory was sorted, a bone–deep exhaustion crashed over her.

Between the life–or–death fight with the Adult Slime and the relentless wave of monsters that followed, she’d had no time to rest. She’d been running on empty the entire time.

Only now, with everything done, did the pain truly register. Everywhere. Even breathing pulled at the wounds across her torso.

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