Spoils

[YOU HAVE SLAIN DARK FOREST GUARDIAN, CHIMAERA!]

Leo saw the window pop up in front of Black Howler who was laying half-dead on the ground with one bloody fist raised in the air in triumph.

"I guess I've gotten a little stronger," Black Howler laughed a raspy and tired-sounding laugh.

The notification was then replaced by a second window.

[CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING THE D-RANK QUEST: SLAY THE BEAST OF MANY FACES!]

"The chimaera was only a D-rank, huh," Black Howler chuckled. "Damn, this game's imbalanced…"

Silently, Leo agreed with Black Howler, but he couldn't say so while Morgana sat beside him since he was the one who issued the quest. Only now did Leo realize that Morgana had ranked quests based on her own standards. It was unfair to the players as they were all far below Morgana in terms of specs.

"Remind me to adjust the quest ranking system when we get back to Adventour," Leo whispered.

"Why? It seems fine to me, silly," she contended.

"That's exactly the problem, kid," Leo countered. "You're a higher form of existence compared to the players… we'll need to match the ranks more to their level."

"Ah," Morgana's eyes lit up with understanding. "I see your point there, Leo."

She snapped her fingers, and after a puff of white smoke, her quill and note scroll appeared once more.

"System improvement number fifteen, reconfigure quest ranks to weakling standard," Morgana whispered happily.

Leo rolled his eyes at the word 'weakling' but kept his mouth shut. At least she didn't argue about it like she did with the resurrection system they just built.

He gazed turned his attentions back on Black Howler who hadn't moved an inch since he won his battle. That's when Leo noticed an odd thing.

"Hey, Morgana," he called, "The chimaera hasn't crystallized yet... the body''s still around."

No, he wasn't quite right, he realized. Only a part of the beast had remained.

"Ah, well, I guess this is the first time you've seen it, Leo," she laughed her tinkling laugh, "the spoils of victory after battling a powerful shadow beast."

It was true. Leo wasn't aware of this part of the battle system. He assumed all shadow beasts and lessers just turned into soul stones when they died. Apparently, that wasn't the case at all as what seemed like the chimaera's pelt was lying on the ground only a foot away from Black Howler.

"They're item drops," Leo realized.

Morgana nodded her head enthusiastically. "Spoils usually range from trophies to materials we denizens use to create our relics… Although very rarely, an actual relic might drop from a powerful lesser's corpse."

Leo had assumed all player gear — which in the Abyss was known as a relic — would have to be created in town from materials traded by the merchants there. Now, however, the revelation of spoils opened up entirely new quest options — a few that readily came to his mind were material farming, gathering quests, and even unique item creation.

"I'm an idiot," Leo scolded himself. "I should have realized that item drops existed. Where else could our merchants have gotten their merchandise?"

"You're being silly, Leo," Morgana said as she patted him on the back. "Of course, you're the idiot… I'm the smart one in this partnership, remember?"

"Yeah, you might be right about that," he chuckled.

The chiming sound of a window popping up caught Leo's attention, and he turned his attentions back to Black Howler who was currently being bombarded by several notification windows.

[RARE ITEM: CHIMAERA'S LION PELT RECEIVED]

[RARE ITEM: CHIMAERA'S GOAT HORNS RECEIVED]

[RARE ITEM: CHIMAERA'S SNAKE VENOM RECEIVED]

Leo watched as Black Howler tapped on the window of the lion's pelt, prompting a smaller window to appear in front of the first.

[[ITEM CLASS: C] [TYPE: MATERIAL] the pelt of the Chimaera has endured the assault of countless shadow beasts, making it as sturdy as Abyssal Steel. It can be used as material for creating rare relics. The pelt can also be used to stay warm in cold environments.]

Black Howler swiped the first window close before tapping on goat horns next.

[[ITEM CLASS: C] [TYPE: MATERIAL] countless battles have sharpened the chimaera's goat horns enough to penetrate dragon scales. It can be used as a weapon or material for creating rare relics.]

Lastly, Black Howler tapped on the last item he'd received so that he could see its description.

[[ITEM CLASS: B] [TYPE: ITEM] a vial that contains the venom of the chimaera's snake tail. Coating it on a relic during its creation process may give the relic a rare ability. Drinking it may awaken a rare ability in one's soul.]

Leo marveled at how detailed the item descriptions were. However, he was certain he and Morgana hadn't discussed this beforehand. So he found himself glancing over to his partner and asking, "Did you write all of that?"

"I simply used the information we've gathered from merchants regarding such items and asked McCloud to make it available to players through the SRS," she explained.

"And that's why notification windows are popping up," Leo realized. "McCloud must have configured the information into the SRS' Item plugin."

"Possibly," Morgana shrugged. "I'm not as interested in the little details as you are, Leo."

Black Howler managed to sit up. He glanced around his surroundings one more time, his eyes widening at the sight of the final object lying on the ground nearby. He reached out his hand to it, and a moment later, raised the soul stone to his eye-level.

"It's an even brighter shade of blue," Leo said after noticing that the soul stone's glow was a soft electric blue compared to the low-grade soul stone's turquoise hue.

"It's a mid-grade soul stone," Morgana explained. "As I've mentioned before, it's equivalent to ten low-grade soul stones."

The sight of the soul stone in Black Howler's palm caused Morgana to smack her lips with her tongue.

"Do you think he'll consume the chimaera's essence?" she asked, sounding almost hopeful.

"We're about to find out," Leo answered.

Sadly for Morgana, Black Howler didn't bother to absorb the chimaera's essence. Instead, he stashed it inside his bag of holding along with the other soul stones he collected.

"Well that's unfortunate," Morgan frowned. "I was looking forward to absorbing such a rare treat."

The sound of rustling leaves sent both Leo's and Morgana's gazes into the shadows of the trees behind Black Howler.

Four pairs of red eyes glowed menacingly in the depths of the gloom beyond, and soon afterward, four [Sword Tail Dire Wolves] rolled into view, their mouths open and dripping with saliva.

Black Howler turned to face them, and after a heavy sigh, he managed to stand with shaking legs. Each of his hands clutched tightly onto one of the goat's horns he'd picked up from the ground like his life depended on them. Despite how beat up he looked, it seemed like he was ready to fight some more.

"Bring it!" he growled.

But the dire wolves didn't bring it. For at that moment, they felt a great presence emanating from the shadows of the trees on the other side of Black Howler. It was a great suffocating presence whose ire was now focused on them. Sensing this great danger, the wolves bolted away in the other direction in obvious terror.

Black Howler raised an eyebrow at their retreating forms wondering if he'd scared them off or if something else had done it. The latter thought caused him to shiver, and it would have been normal to do so.

Seeing his player exhausted and near death, Leo urged Morgana to frighten the shadow beasts away. She was resistant at first because she didn't like the idea of helping players out of a tight jam. But after Leo reminded her of the cost of resurrection, the reaper quickly changed her tune.

Morgana released her soul pulse and aimed it at the dire wolves. The fear generated by this invisible wave of power was so great that even Leo felt a chill rise up his spine.

"Yeah, I think I've tested myself enough for one outing..." Black Howler gazed down at his hands and noticed the hairs on the back of his forearms were standing on end. "It's time to get out of this forest."

Still watching from the shadows, Leo could only nod in agreement at his smart choice.

---

Back in Adventour, Black Howler went looking for Maestro and found the trainer of heroes standing outside one of the thatched-roof buildings on the main street.

He walked over to him, pulled out the lion's pelt from his Abyssalweave bag of holding, and then presented it to Maestro as proof of his success.

"Congratulations on completing a quest that most would have failed in," Maestro said.

He gave Black Howler three slow claps despite wanting to applaud him more. After all, Leo needed to present an air of condescension when he was playing this role.

"What do you intend to do with your spoils?" Maestro asked.

"About that," Black Howler scratched at his head with his still bloody hand, "I was hoping you could introduce me to a smith around here."

Maestro smiled although it was nowhere near as wide as the grin Leo felt inside for it was finally time to unveil item crafting. He pointed his thumb behind him.

"Why do you think I've been standing here this whole time?" he asked wryly.

The sound of metal banging on metal reached Black Howler's ears, encouraging him to turn his gaze on the shop behind Maestro. The sign above it read, MASAMUNE'S ARMAMENTS, and below that were the words, Smithing relics since the late 1200s.

Black Howler hopped over to the front door and pulled it open — and his face was blasted by hot air that blew back his hair.

"Slow down, Substitute Reaper," Maestro called.

But his message had fallen on deaf ears for Black Howler had already crossed through the open door. Sighing, he followed after him.

The interior of the shop was a wide space that was mostly stone but there was a set of wooden stairs on the right that led up to the other two wooden landings above. These upper landings were limited to the right side of the shop and didn't obstruct the high ceiling three floors up. A row of shelves and racks covered the left wall where gleaming armor and weapons hung. Barrels filled to bursting with sharp-edged swords or bundles of arrows could also be seen on that side of the room.

However, the really interesting stuff, Leo thought, where the two huge furnaces by the back wall and the large glowing anvil that stood in front of them.

Behind the anvil, a tall, thin man was hard at work slamming his black hammer against the metal ingot he'd placed over the anvil. Each time the hammer and ingot met, veins of bright crimson glowed across the anvil's surface.

"Interesting," Black Howler whispered.

It was barely a whisper but the smith looked up from his work as if he'd heard the player loud and clear — and Black Howler found himself gazing into softly glowing red eyes that were far more intimidating to look at than the chimaera's three heads combined. Still, he didn't back away from the NPC whose floating violet nametag read [Masamune, Vampyre Smith of Legend].

In the blink of an eye, the vampyre smith vanished from his spot behind the anvil and was suddenly a mere foot away from Black Howler.

As the smith leaned toward him, Black Howler found himself staring into a pale face with narrow eyes a short, pointed nose, and a wide smile that showed off two very sharp fangs.

But while other players might have cowered in fear at the vampyre's swiftness or the malevolent aura radiating off him, Black Howler only smiled. "Yo, you seem capable enough…"

"Customer, are you?" Masamune asked in a velvety voice that didn't work so well with his Asian accent.

"Yeah," Black Howler responded showing no hint of fear.

Watching from the side, Leo thought Black Howler's abundance of confidence was understandable considering what he'd just achieved, although Leo wished he'd show more caution with Masamune who Leo believed was the most troublesome of the seven.

"Masamune, the legendary smith, I am," he said proudly right before he inclined his head in a bow. "Assist you, might I, fearless one?"

For an answer, Black Howler reached into his bag of holding and pulled out the three items he'd received from the chimaera's corpse.

"What can you do with these?" Black Howler asked.

Masamune folded his hands. "Much I can do… if soul stones for trading you have?"