"Alright, calm down, Sam. Shouting at him right now won't help anything." Yuki is quick to come to his defense.
"She's right. Let's grab what we can and get out of here," Jim says as he walks back to the camp.
"Okay, that's probably for the best. I was really hoping to clear this thing today." Travis begrudgingly relents his ambition.
"Get over it." Sam shoots back over her shoulder as she walks back to the goblin camp. Our teacher's shoulders sag as he sighs. It's odd seeing the always smiling man so deflated.
While the purpose of our excursion was to clear the dungeon, collecting valuable materials is still quite profitable. We may not have succeeded in our objective, but at least we'll be able to walk away from this with more gold in our pockets. Even after we restock all our potions and provisions, we should still be well in the black.
Our party spreads out and searches the area for anything worthwhile. There's no rush to get ahead of anyone as we already agreed to split the money evenly. I look down at the ground and turn over a few goblin corpses in search of anything that catches my eye. Worst case scenario, we can just take back the armor, so I'd prefer to spend my time looking for more useful trinkets.
For the most part, the Goblins only have simple Talistones. While I can't say for sure that they aren't powerful, they seem shoddily made, so I can't imagine they're worth much. Out of the corner of my vision, I notice a peculiar-looking sword. I stop what I'm doing and walk closer to inspect the odd phenomena. The handle is surprisingly ornate but what really catches my eye is the dull red glow of the blade. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say this was a magic sword. I don't know too much about magic weapons, but if our last visit to the armor shop was any measure of value, this should at least be worth a few thousand Denarii. I pick up the expensive-looking sword and examine the Goblin holding it. The monster is noticeably larger than its fallen compatriots. Thick veins run along the bulging muscles in its arm. The armor it's wearing is also of a higher quality. Out of curiosity, I pull up the breastplate of the hulking Goblin to check for any more curios.
My heart stops. Laying across the monster's bloodied chest is a necklace with a golden skull. I gulp down the saliva pooling in my mouth. An indescribable aura radiates outward from the pendant.
[I need it.]
As if compelled by some outside force, I reach out and grab the necklace. It's a Talistone unlike any I've ever seen. Intricate runes are engraved over the entire surface of the skull. I run my thumb over the design and feel the texture of the cold metal in a trace. Power wells up in my body.
"Nick!" I jerk my head up and see Sakura looking at me quizzically. "Whatcha looking at?"
"Oh, I just found this really cool sword on this big Goblin." The lie smoothly falls from my lips. I'm still holding the breastplate up in the air with one hand, which blocks her view of what I'm holding in the other. Before she notices, I shove the necklace into my pocket and quickly divert her attention to the magic sword. "Look, it has a weird red glow on the blade. What do you think it does?"
By asking her this question, I can fully invest her focus on this, so she doesn't think about my odd behavior.
"Wow!" Sakura's eyes light up just as I expected. I can't help but grin slightly from how smoothly I pulled this off. "I bet it shoots out fire or makes it so you can cut through steel."
"Or maybe it can make you fly." I goad her imagination to jump around even more wildly.
"Yeah, or maybe it can- Hey, are you making fun of me?" She crosses her arms and makes a cute pouty face as she glares at me.
"Me? I would never."
"You're so mean, Nick." Sakura frowns and walks back over to the campsite. I chuckle to myself and continue looking over the corpses.
"Hey, Nick. Sakura said you found a magic sword?" Travis's head tilts out of curiosity.
"I think so," I say as I show him the ornate weapon.
"Why didn't you say anything? This is unbelievable."
"I don't know. I was just gonna bring it over once I finished looking around." My heart races as I do my best to act natural.
"This is really something you've got here." He beams. "This will be more than enough to pay for the expedition by itself."
"Okay, cool."
"You don't sound very excited."
"I guess I'm just a little disappointed that we won't be clearing the dungeon." I shrug.
"I get that, but it won't mean anything if you die in the process."
"I know. I get that." Not knowing where else to lead the conversation, I begin picking through the corpses again. Travis looks like he has more to say, but a voice from within the camp draws his attention.
"Hey! Look what I found!" Yuki waves a bottle in the air while smiling brightly. "It's an elixir!"
"What?!" The large man at my side dashes off to confirm the findings. I internally sigh in relief. My hands drift into my pocket to feel the cause of the recent friction.
[Why am I so attached to this thing? What the hell is wrong with me?]
I layer one bad decision on top of another and hide the trinket in one of the prepared meals I keep in my magic bag. My heart sinks from the guilt I'm feeling, but I try to ignore it and keep a straight face. The voices coming from the camp are steadily growing louder, so I decide to investigate.
"What are we going to get in return?" As I round the corner of a tent, I see Shinobu standing with her hands on her hips in front of the members of Ironhead. The confident, overbearing attitude I saw when I first met her has made a comeback. I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but it looks like the blond-haired girl is extorting our partner team.
"Having me back at one hundred percent means we have a much better chance of getting out of here." Yuki presses against Shinobu's haughty demeanor.
"That soft shit might work on Nick, but it's not gonna work on me. The deal was that we split everything evenly; if you want that elixir, then you need to give up something of equal value in return."
[She's not wrong; I would've let them have the potion without a second thought, so it's probably best that I don't get involved.]
"Oh yeah? Well, why don't we ask Nick and see what he thinks?" All eyes turn to me. Yuki smiles scornfully, knowing I heard what Shinobu said about me.