Chapter 21 - Platinum Treasure

The trio walked towards the barn after Sandy really obviously hinted that the treasure MIGHT be in the barn. They entered the barn and, to literally no one's surprise, there were multiple floorboards suddenly missing in the middle of the barn, with a white with blue textured treasure chest sticking out.

Maya brought up a sarcastic tone. "Oh wow everyone! Look it is a platinum treasure chest. Who would have possibly expected to find something as amazing as that down here?!" Then she gave a chuckle and looked at Sandy, who in return quickly went back into her device form.

Collin was already sitting on the ground next to the hole in the ground and slid the lid on top open. Maya sat next to him and Samuel was standing a short distance away from the chest, still not really trusting this 'magic chest'.

Inside, he found four books! Beside that, also three more bags. He grabbed all the books because he expected they would likely be for him. But when he tried to open the first book, he got an error message.

"The host can't learn the skill book 'poison massacre' because the host doesn't have a thief-type class," he read. So he inspected all of the books instead, realizing they might not all be for him.

The first one had a light green cover with multiple crosses beside each other on the front of the cover. It had a silver border around it.

Poison Massacre: Skill Book, Silver, Requires a thief-type class. All of the poisoned enemies will lose 60% of their HP when this skill is used.

The second book was a black book with a huge dark green skull on it with a bronze border.

Poisoning: Knowledge Book, Bronze, Requires a thief-type class. Allows the person who learned it to poison their knives, which has a 40% chance to poison whoever it hits. On top of this, the percentage of the poison itself gets added to this number. With this knowledge book, the maximum poison one can apply is tier III.

The third book was purple with a rune drawn on it in a dark blue color. The borders were a thin line of gold.

Magical Weapon Enhancement: Knowledge Book, Gold, Requires a mage-type class. Allows the person who learned it to enhance their magical weapon with mage runes.

The fourth book had two wrenches and the head of a robot with an arrow pointing up on it. This one also had a thin gold line as the border.

Robotic Upgrades: Knowledge Book, Gold, Exclusive to the Robomechanic class. Allows the person who learned it to upgrade parts of their minions, which can either improve their stats or their skills.

Collin was overwhelmed with all of this information, so he just used the robotic upgrade book and learned it. He then handed over the magical weapon enhancement book to Maya, because she was the only mage around. So she gladly accepted it and thanked Collin and learned it.

"I wonder what those magic runes might do. It says here that it gives a new power to the weapon it is equipped to. But how do you equip them anyway?" Samuel went to Maya and asked if he could hold the staff for a moment. Maya struggled for a bit but decided to give it to him anyway. She kept an eye on him, after all, they met each other at the homeless shelter. Not everyone there is who they seem, even if you know them for a while.

Samuel inspected the staff and turned it around a bit, looking for something.

"Ah, as expected, there is an open slot here where something can be engraved into. Two slots, even. Might this be because it is of true gold rarity?" he said.

He then handed it back to Maya, who looked at the three slots and nodded.

"Yeah, most likely. I'll take a look at the description for a bit," she said.

Like that, she inspected her staff closely and, as she thought, it said it had 0/2 magical rune slots filled. Being a little disappointed that it only had two slots, even though it was of true gold rarity.

Collin then grabbed the poisoned and the poison massacre books, piled them up, and handed them over to Samuel. Samuel was surprised about this because so far, he never really got anything from them. So he went ahead and learned both of the books.

"Ah, thanks a lot, buddy. I thought you would just leave me to rot with just one skill," he laughed jokingly to Collin.

"I am fair, of course. I wouldn't do that. Besides, it is a stupid idea to have one weakened party member after all," he raised his arms up for a moment and then turned back to the treasure chest.

Afterwards, Collin looked at what else was in the chest and he found three more bags. So he grabbed all three of the bags. This time around, he actually inspected those three first before quickly learning them.

Lower Mage's Rune Bag: Contains 1-5 mage runes. Ranging from Copper to Silver rarity.

Robomechanic's Basic Parts Bag: Contains 1-5 part upgrades. Ranging from common to rare.

Thief's Poison Bag: Contains 1-3 poisons. Ranging from Tier I to III.

Turns out, it was like Collin expected. It was one bag for each of them, which contains some of the much looked after items for the trio when they're looting. So Collin handed everyone their respective bag.

Collin opened his own and got three parts from his bag.

Dexterity Leg: Rare. Only equippable to cows, bulls, boars, and horses. 3 DEX. Adds the dexterity stat to the minion where this hoof is equipped to. While the minion only gets the three Dex points of this item once equipped, it will get more Dex points on any future level ups.

Agile Tail: Uncommon. Only equippable to minions who have a tail. The minion can now use the attack "Agile Tail," which deals 30% of their ATK stat. Can be used from a short to medium range.

Sharp Claws: Common. Must be equipped onto either the front or lower legs. 2 ATK.

"Guys, I got a Silver rune! It is one that adds a small ATK buff when I am reaching 20% of my health," Maya yelled. Collin congratulated her. He was happy that there seemed to be more progression to his goal of making Maya the main DPS of their group.

Samuel looked confused at the bag he got.

"So, what is this? Is this like gambling? Randomly getting something without knowing for sure what?" he asked.

The two nodded, and Samuel just looked at the bag, sighed, and opened it.

"I got two Tier II poisons, which have about 5 uses. Besides that, it adds about a 20% chance to the weapons. So I got about a 60% chance to poison the enemy when they're hit with it," he explained. It seems like Samuel is also getting used to this new system by now.

Collin went ahead and opened the other bags he had collected.

Now he had beside the components pouch, a robotic crafting pouch, and a robotic upgrading pouch.

He received 20 part screws and 10 part components. The 20 basic components were transferred over to the crafting pouch from the components pouch.

He also received 10 crystals and 10 magic scraps, which were transferred to the upgrades pouch.

Components pouch [21/50]:

17 magic screws

2 ancient screws

1 common core

1 robo-cow head

Crafting Pouch [50/150]:

20 part screws

20 part components

20 basic components

Upgrade pouch [20/50]:

10 crystals

10 magic scraps

Looking at all of those pouches, Ollin's hands started itching. He couldn't wait to craft something great from all of those components. Ollin then decided to check his stats once more.

Host (Ollin) Level: 5 Exp to next level: 100 (83/100 collected) HP: 26 ATK: 11 DEF: 7

Passive Skills:

Basic Assembly

Robomechanic's gift

Regular Skills:

Quick-Repair

Wrench Attack (Smash & Toss)

Robotic Skills:

Basic crafting

Basic Upgrading

Available stat points: 0

The tribe had collected all the items they were able to get from the structure, so they decided to head back to their home and resume their quest. With some great upgrades, they followed the long mud road back to the village of Galley, with the sun shining brightly on their faces. It was already 2 pm.

Because of the heat, they decided to take a path through the forest to stay in the shade. The forest was also next to Galley Village, so the path would lead to their home village either way. As they followed the path which led to a lake in the middle of the forest, they came across a bridge over the lake that led to their village. However, once they stepped on the bridge, they were greeted by three thugs blocking the way to their village."