The sun was half of the way to the top of the sky by the time we reached 'the extraction'. This was some abandoned private property out in the hills toward the north of the territory where the forestry thinned out into rockier terrain. The property itself was not much to look at.
What was once a fairly secured private scrap or junk yard was now a broken down and gutted five-acre property with ruined metal warehouse structures and a small brick office building. The two layers of chain fences that had originally protected the property were ripped open or just plain down in most places. There still, though, remained large quantities of MP rich scrap metals and general junk.
While I was staring down at the hood of some old Ford truck that would probably be worth money as a restoration piece, Lucinda and Bernard were plotting out the area and picking their nest for the main event. In about two days, the target would come to 'rescue' me from where I was holed up in this scrap yard awaiting death. Theoretically.
For now, I was more interested in collecting things like steel bumpers, hoods, and doors from vehicles. Not only is car steel a good quality steel, this stuff was at least D grade from the amount of time it had been exposed to MP in the territory. There were also a variety of other metals and things to be found in this scrap yard.
Poniard and Si-Pon spent most of their time evaluating the warehouse buildings full of all kinds of junk. Back at the truck stop and along the way they had found things like old parts of portal beasts and a few non-precious metallic bugs native to the portals. Here, though, I could only wait to see what they actually find.
After collecting a couple hundred pounds in car scrap I felt pretty satisfied with myself and set off outside of the property. Finding a good pine tree less than a hundred yards out from the property, I use my throwing knives for climbing pitons once again and start scaling the tree. From up here in the late morning light I should be able to get a clear view of the surroundings.
From a branch roughly a hundred feet above the ground I could see for many miles in every direction with my MP and surgically enhanced vision. Just a mile or two from the property was a bombed out area of blackened pits around a hollowed hill. In this hollowed hill rose a thick plum of smoke from several small fires. Around these couple of fires sat some vaguely distinguishable subhuman race with figures between five and seven feet tall like people.
Except that three of them were actually large and furry seven-foot bodies.
Unlike goblins which evolved into larger creatures, this was a subhuman that grew more naturally like people. From pups to adults, these bipedal canine creatures were basically a full-time werewolf that sometimes wore clothes or used weapons depending on their intelligence. To match the dog faced mobs in many games, these were named kobolds.
Kobolds were not the only things that would be attracted to our vicinity if we were to light fires or make too much noise. To the south was what looked like another property like this one with a long and winding driveway. The fences were simple but tall and mostly still intact because they were only designed to keep simple cattle in and simple animals out. Even an F grade goblin can jump most cow fences.
The main house was somehow ruined because of tractors driven in the sides of it but the barn itself was still standing and in good repair. The barn itself was the focus of another settlement several miles out of the way of both my junkyard hideout and the hollowed hill. However, instead of a semi-intelligent subhuman species, this was a group of large lizards not unlike the komodo dragon creatures in my recent portal.
Contrary to the previous lizards that were close to a person in length and weight with 'short' body designs, this was probably a social group of their evolved form. All of the ones I could see wandering the rotted piles of prey remains outside the barns had serpentine neck with broad triangular heads. Komodo heads were longer and slimmer to match their short necks, but these were stretched out and thinner like a hammerhead shark's face.
As well, the tails of these creatures were extra long and often ended in thick keratin quills or few and stouter spikes. The reason they were a second stage evolution from a first stage komodo was that the bodies did not change much. they were still the same five-foot bodies from hips to shoulders with longer legs and other proportions.
In their next evolutions, the bodies would enlarge and the appendages would grow slightly to compensate for the development of excess gliding skin.
Simple E or lower D komodo lizards could grow into C or higher lesser dragons. They rarely developed magical affinities and abilities from general experience, but they were still very tough creatures to fight. At their current sizes, their scales were strong enough to block one C grade AP 10mm apiece and probably just small enough to spread the shots that far.
To the north three miles and some change away was the immense concrete and scrap reinforced wall surrounding the territory. Ten miles further was a small airbase dedicated to the occasional appearances of flying enemies or social order numbers exceeding one hundred. Despite the constant talks of reclaiming land, territories were obviously profitable.
Besides these two populated spots there were a few wandering groups further out in the distance. There were a few large beast type portal creatures coming in our general direction but five miles out from us between our groups was a large crater watering hole. They were not likely to come all the way out here.
Spending ten minutes climbing back down the tree after fifteen minutes surveying the area, I find where the others were setting up my camp for me and discussing what kind of role I would be filling. For them, it was a game of making a believable setting that would lure the enemy team into dropping their guard. The only details in the targets' mission report would be a wounded young and under-graded Protector was stuck between a rock and a hard a few miles out from the north wall.
For now the shelter I was staying in was a basic lean-to of some metal sheeting and poles and branches in the rubble of the office building. The rubble was also built up in some areas like walls, showing that I would have been in the area for a few days. As well, there was a partially filled hole that I was supposed to actually use as a bathroom while here just off the side of the office foundation.
Not much else could be done to the property, I was supposed to be injured hiding out and not building a stronghold. After reporting my findings to Lucinda and Bernard, though, they were soon left scratching their heads. They both agreed that they were a moderate issue.
The presence of these two monster groups was a problem, even if neither one interrupted the mission the sounds of gunshots and fighting would naturally draw them in at the end.
However, this was not exactly a problem, whether we took them out early or late they would still be loot in the end. I could raise the value on my next sets of goblin contracts with armor made from kobold and evolved komodo skins. Not to mention the areas they were living in were sure to have some gains of their own.
For now, I was simply given the task of having my leg splinted outside of my armor and getting used to moving around. I could break out of the crude binding and wood at any time, but this would help me look like an easier target to our targets. It just happened to be a very annoying part of the mission.
Later on in the early evening after setting up my camp with a few simply trip-wire alarms and having a light meal Lucinda and Bernard left to go set up their own camp on a neighboring hill a few hundred yards away. As if they had been waiting for the two outsiders to leave, Poniard and Si-Pon returned from their hours of scavenging. With a crude sled loaded with goods.
After helping them use some rubble and a tarp to make their own small pavilion shelter I simply watched as they divided up their loot. In the first few moments I quickly realized they had found everything that previous looters had not. Between the two of them, nothing with an abnormal amount of MP could escape their notice.
The top of the pile was random metals like copper piping or some brass piping that was used on old boats and a few odd objects like a plastic hub or a length of muffler but under it all were a few small containers. One was a crudely beaten and broken safe that explained some of the noises we heard earlier and contained a large amount of old cash. Into it was stuffed a bunch of random object likes old tableware and even some jewelry.
With Si-Pon and Poniard's previous experience, this was probably real gold and silverware the property owner was hoarding. On top of this, even the money was bound to have some level of mana saturation.
Alongside these earthly finds were more metallic insects of otherworldly design as well as more mana stones. Overall there might not have looked like much, maybe enough to halfway fill the main body of Poniard's ruck without the safe. However, the value in everything without even counting the money was pretty high.
Probably because I was the only human present, all of the physical money was given to me and I just took my time counting it. When I saw that it was all twenties, I just started making towers of ten alternating stacks of five bills. These towers were worth a thousand dollars.
Ten stacks later I had only dented the pile of bank-like bills. So that I did not have to get up and move around, I just started adding to the same piles. When every stack was worth ten thousand dollars, the money piles reached up almost to my waist if I sat on my knees.
I had no idea who the person or people who originally owned this place was but I suddenly felt very bad for them. They had either left and died and lost til now was one hundred thousand dollars. If one were to boil with resin and compress these bills together in certain sized stacks they could make a carbon-like plate that was very light in weight.
Since the territory was D grade and the money had been here for forever it was probably all D grade textile, the fact that it would make a long shirt or short dress of armor plates would only make the armor more valuable. Common printer paper made from D grade wood material could resist about two hundred pounds of force. Dollar bills were more of a proper fabric and thus much stronger than printer paper so these enriched bills were at least twice that resilient.
If one bill was about sixteen square inches it was probably four inches wide and eight inches long when properly facing the former president. Since im about seventy-seven inches tall, now, a fifty-inch gown would suitably cover my body. Just to make the front and most of the sides under the arms I would need a front that was five bills wide and thirteen bills tall. The back could be four bills wide and the sleeves could be simple dollar-wide straps.
As a gown, and one made of money at that, it was more suitable to wear it as an underarmor. Twenty bills could probably block one or two of my current bullets. It would take roughly twenty-three-hundred twenty dollar bills to make a gown just for me. With one hundred thousand dollars, I had five thousand stacks of twenty. Using twenty-five-hundred per gown, I could make two very nice underarmor units to price at much more than one hundred thousand dollars apiece.
Rather, I would sell one of them. The other would definitely be my get out of jail free card for the rest of my life with Lucinda. If I gave her something like that, she would probably wear it to work as an armor and show off everything I made for her- which would not be a bad thing.
However, this was honestly not my money. If it was just Poniard I could simply take the money and nothing else but with Si-Pon here he had at least half a claim to everything. As well, what were the odds that I would ever find another stash of magic money?
Forget selling it, I would have to turn the other twenty-five-hundred into a money suit and tie for Poniard!
However, after everything was finally sorted out between the two, both of them looked at the money I had stacked up and then at me before simply shrugging and putting their things away in different places. Then, Poniard slides the ruined D grade safe over to me and the two of them left the property entirely. Apparently, the money was mine.
*