Just as Ye Kong was busy running through the numbers in his head...
"L... Lord lacu?"
"Hm? What's up?"
Samuraisoul pointed at the ground and said, "Lord lacu, you have yet to pick up your spoils of battle."
"Oh, you're right!"
Ye Kong lightly slapped himself in the head. He was so focused on future developments that he'd forgotten to pick up the items on the ground.
Thus, Ye Kong went to collect the items, and found that there were three. They were the "contributions" from floralteapot and his two teammates.
There was a White Grade lance, a scroll for the Litheness Spell, and a set of Black Iron Grade gauntlets.
The two pieces of equipment weren't of much use to Ye Kong. The lance couldn't be equipped by a Swordsman, so Ye Kong had no use for it. As for the gauntlets, Ye Kong already had a better option in the City Guard's Armguards (Bronze Grade), so he didn't need to switch his equipment.
More importantly, Ye Kong's bag was almost full—
"Crap, my bag can't fit much more."
Ye Kong opened his backpack to take a look. In his bag, he had the Forest Crystal Core, Devotee's Staff (Bronze Grade), Stellar Iron, Pants of the Sea Serpent production drawing scroll, Thors' Proof of Honor, and the Fog Ball ("Clement's Request" - Quest Item).
These six items filled up more than half the space in his backpack.
It should be pointed out that a player's starting backpack only had 10 slots, and once it was full, players couldn't put in any other items.
If Ye Kong picked up another three items, there would only be one slot left in his backpack. After this, he still needed to complete a story event quest and get an even more precious story event reward. If his backpack was full, then he would have to throw some things away.
"I know!"
Ye Kong had a flash of inspiration. He decided to just keep the Litheness spell scroll and hand the remaining two pieces of equipment to samuraisoul, who was standing next to him. "I can't use these two pieces of equipment, so I might as well give them to you."
"What?"
Samuraisoul was stunned. Giving him the lance was within reason, as it was just a piece of White Gear, but those gauntlets were Black Iron Equipment. They would sell for at least 10 Silver on the market, and would be in especially high demand now that supply was so limited!
Moreover, he just happened to lack a good set of equipment for his hands.
"Please forgive your humble servant, for I cannot accept these two pieces of equipment!"
Samuraisoul shook his head and said determinedly, "Lord lacu has saved my unworthy life. If I am to accept this equipment, my good conscience could not bear it. Nay! I must not accept this gift!"
Saying this, samuraisoul took a firm stance and determinedly pushed aside the equipment.
When Ye Kong saw this, his opinion of him went up a notch.
In the current stage of the game, 10 Silver wasn't a small sum. Even Ye Kong only had 10 Copper on him now, and it was the money he was given at the start of the game. Converting that amount to Silver, it would only be equal to 0.1 Silver...
Story event quests gave generous rewards, but they came mainly in the form of rare and valuable items and equipment, as well as experience points—not in the form of in-game currency. If players wanted to be paid in money, they would have to do "regular quests"—The in-game currency of Demon Realm was primarily generated through regular quests, and mobs in the wilderness or instance dungeons would also sometimes drop a small sum.
The Qingmu Town Regular Quest - Vanessa's Pet Dog took about half an hour to complete, and the reward for it was only 30 pieces of Copper. To earn 10 Silver, one would have to complete the quest 33 times...
Thus, one can imagine the value of 10 Silver.
Furthermore, no player was willing to sell Black Iron Equipment now, instead preferring to equip it first and use it to rush to greater heights. Even if one had 10 Silver to spare, they still might not be able to buy a set of Black Iron gauntlets.
Samuraisoul's actions proved that he was a man of principles, and also confirmed the rumors Ye Kong heard in his past life—
As the story goes, there was once a member of the Hengpai Swords Guild who was killed, and in retaliation, samuraisoul camped outside the exit to the Stygian Labyrinth, lying in wait for over two nights, before he finally found the group of culprits. Then, he went to attack them all by himself, taking on seven players at once, and killed all of them right there on the spot.
Moreover, the rumor was that the member of the Hengpai Swords Guild wasn't even particularly close to samuraisoul. Hence, one could see that samuraisoul was indeed quite a dependable character.
Unfortunately, the people samuraisoul believed in ended up betraying him. They banished him from the Hengpai Swords Guild, and from then on, samuraisoul disappeared into obscurity.
When he thought about this, Ye Kong felt more strongly that samuraisoul was a player worth roping in for his cause—
"No, I really don't need this equipment."
Without further ado, Ye Kong stretched out his hand and set the armguards he had equipped to the "Display" mode.
"See here, I'm wearing an even better set of armguards. Those Black Iron gauntlets are of no use to me."
"This... This is?!"
Samuraisoul's eyes went wide. In truth, his eyes were actually quite attractive. They were a pale, yellow color, and when he put in the effort to open them wider, they looked like beautiful opals.
One unique aspect of Demon Realm could be seen in the appearances of players' characters. Even though the players' facial appearance in the game would be different from their real-world appearance (the system made a 20% adjustment), the color of their hair and their eyes, as well as their real-world body shape, would be exactly replicated!
Hence, in real life, samuraisoul would also surely have pale yellow eyes.
This eye color was truly a thing of beauty.
The year was 2107 in the Earth Federation, and humanity had undergone large-scale "genetic optimization" engineering, so it wasn't uncommon to see unusual eye colors. Even hair colors came in a wide variety.
The humans of this new century didn't need to dye their hair, and the trend was to show off one's natural hair color.
Still, if he had to compare, Ye Kong thought that Ye Bai's eyes were still the prettiest.
"The City Guard's Armguards... This is a piece of Bronze Equipment?!"
Samuraisoul's voice grew even raspier, and his tone was filled with disbelief. After all, Black Iron Equipment was only dropped by Enhanced Grade mobs, and Bronze Equipment only dropped from the even stronger Sub-Elite Grade mobs.
However, a Sub-Elite Grade mob couldn't be killed without the help of a small team.
The "Lord lacu" he saw in front of him seemed to be a lonesome player, which had to mean... He earned the Bronze Equipment from a "story event"!
Most players wouldn't dare to show the information on the equipment they had, especially when it was a piece of Bronze Equipment!
Ye Kong's actions displayed a certain level of trust!
Immediately, samuraisoul straightened himself and said seriously, "Lord lacu, you have trusted your humble servant with this information today, and your humble servant swears to keep it a secret forever. However, even if Lord lacu cannot use the equipment, I am not worthy to accept it."
Ye Kong was momentarily dazed, as he hadn't expected samuraisoul to be so adamant. In truth, if he kept the equipment, he would probably end up having to throw it away (when his bag was full, to store the story event reward), so it was no loss for him to do samuraisoul a small kindness.
He didn't imagine that in the end, he wouldn't even be able to do him this favor...
"No, I really have no use for this. Just take it."
"I cannot!"
Samuraisoul shook his head, saying decisively, "I have a proposal. Let me buy this from you. Though I do not have much on me now, give me some time, and in the future I will repay you what you are owed!"
Ye Kong was unable to change his mind, and could only accept his terms.
Stashing away the items, samuraisoul bowed low again. "Since Lord lacu has other matters to attend to, I shall not impose on you any further. If you have need of me in the future, please do not hesitate to ask, Lord lacu!"
From the way samuraisoul's eyes shone with gratitude, he must have believed that Ye Kong deliberately ceded the Black Iron Equipment to him as a gesture of goodwill...
"I will henceforth take my leave. Fare thee well, Lord lacu!"
Samuraisoul packed his things and sped off, leaving behind a cloud of dust. Ye Kong felt like there was something strange about his running form, but couldn't put his finger on it.
"He's such a nutcase..."
Ye Kong shook his head.
"But, he's definitely a good person."
Saying this, Ye Kong turned to head into the forest, and was gradually swallowed up by the dense mist—
"Unfortunately, I'm not a good person."