Alina approached Ilya. Her dark blue armor was unscratched, even though she got attacked much more relentlessly than Alina. However, she now understood why the payment for eliminating stalkers was as much as 10,000 Leas. Killing them was the easy task, the hard task was to avoid their attacks.
"Grandma, you look shit."
With the burn marks and her destroyed clothing, She understood what Ilya meant by that. She barely survived the onslaught or mindlessly entered the combat underestimating her enemies greatly. Looking at her watch, it showed. She didn't even use Hostia Reconstructio on her body at all, only regeneration, but she indeed abused Blitz a lot.
[BP: 9,588/18,600]
"Still, I'm amazed at how you can keep going with this many injuries," Ilya praised, looking at the blood flowing from every single wound on Alina's body.
Pausa Doloris was the answer, had Ilya known about that ability, but well, what mattered the most for Ilya was that she survived the onslaught. She really shouldn't underestimate the enemies in this kind of world.
Still clad in her heavy armor, Ilya approached Alina. She opened her palm and a giant stream of water flowed from it, washing Alina from the acid that covered her entire body and prevented her healing process. The water removed the green sticky substance covering her entire body and cleaned it.
Alina then cleared the wound on her body using both Hostia Reconstructio and Regeneration, draining both her Aether and Blood Point at the same time. The darkened and charred wound turned into the soft pale skin that it used to be.
Then, something strange happened, each strand of her armor mended against each other, forming a connection, and eventually, a solid fabric that began to cover her body again. She looked at her watch, in which her Aether energy drained slowly.
"Talking about magical things I've seen, this is new," Alina looked at her clothing which slowly fixed itself.
"Damn, talking about expensive items," Ilya commented as the holes and tears on Alina's clothing were fixed by sheer magical spell alone.
As they surveyed the aftermath of their battle, the forest around them bore the scars of the intense fight. The ground was littered with the remnants of the stalkers, and the trees showed signs of magical and ballistic damage. The air was thick with the scent of charred wood and decay.
Alina, now fully recovered from her injuries thanks to her vampiric abilities and Ilya's timely intervention, took a moment to reflect on the encounter. Alina felt that the stalkers were something that she didn't expect, especially how the combination of mage and assault rifles somehow made sense in this world.
Ilya, meanwhile, inspected her armor and weapons, ensuring everything was in order for the next encounter. "You know, Alina, your healing abilities are impressive, still, you need a better armor and weapon."
Alina then added, "If I had the Leas to buy a new one."
"Right, that issue..." Ilya then looked at the battlefield that they had just fought in.
An opportunity to make some money then appeared in her mind. Despite being a magical creature that always appeared in their armed form, their weapons were pretty much lootable, making them a prime candidate.
After all, in Ilya's eyes, she saw many different types of rifles, machine guns, spell tomes, magical items, potions, magical weapons, and the list went on. Bottom line, anything that Alina could gather would give her some kind of cash.
"Let's see what you can gather, and then, we can sell it to the ACT, sounds good to you?" Ilya suggested, "Besides, we have only exterminated twenty of them."
"Twenty? It feels like fifty of them, at least," Alina commented.
"Well, Nexawork said we only have killed twenty of them, so... loot what you can, they'll respawn later anyway, maybe in a month or two," Ilya added. "Not that there are not many stalkers in this area, but with your performance being relatively 'close-to-dying,' I'll say we better get something to reinforce you first, maybe a new weapon or a new armor," Ilya added.
Alina could only shrug her shoulder, agreeing with what Ilya said. Had she wasn't stuck with her saber, maybe she could have had more weapons to use. Ideally, something that could hit much farther than her bloody slash. Preferably, something heavy.
She then began to stroll back to where the battle was. She walked toward the soldiers, picking up the rifles, the spell tomes, the glowing melee weapons, and other things she found lying around on the battlefield, just like a true RPG player. She then put those items in the Blood Inventory.
In total, she got ten guns of different types, seven melee weapons, and three magical weapons that she put into her Blood Inventory. After returning, she observed Ilya tinkering with what seemed to be an invisible screen.
"You've just leveled up?" Alina asked.
"Yeah, it's been a long time coming, I've been waiting for my leveling," Ilya answered. She then shifted her gaze away to Alina. "Alright, what do you get? Can you lay it on the ground for me?"
Alina carefully arranged the loot on the ground as Ilya meticulously examined each piece, estimating their collective worth. The assortment of rifles and assorted weaponry underscored the value of Alina's participation in the job.
"You could easily garner upwards of 12,000 Leas for these items," Ilya remarked confidently.
"12,000 Leas? That far exceeds the original job's payout," Alina responded, her tone a mix of astonishment and excitement about the potential windfall from the ACT.
"Indeed," Ilya continued, "the M5s and M250s present here can be modified into either magical or high-caliber variants. Additionally, several of these swords are imbued with magical properties, increasing their overall worth."
"Damn, talking about values..."
"Pack things up, we'll go back to Rivercircle," Ilya told her.
Putting back all of her items into her Blood Inventory, they walked back to Alina's pickup truck. Alina stored all of her equipment in the back of the truck and Alina sat down in her usual place, the passenger seat, before they drove back to Riverwatch.
***
Putting all of the items in the large storage bin on the ACT machine located near the central water fountain, Alina could only be seen smiling while looking at her bank account, which increased by 11,500 Leas. No one would gain 10,000$ in the real world as easy as this. Yet, she got it this easily.
She already thought of the things she could get with this money, but she shook the thought immediately, knowing that better weapons would serve her better, besides, more combat tools would also help, and those things would be expensive, in her mind, at least.
"Open the online trading interface on the terminal, let's see what it has."
Opening the menu, she was greeted by an interface similar to that of online shopping apps such as Amazon, E-Bay, you name it. However, the items sold were very dissimilar, for example, dragon tears, siren's bathwater, wyvern's silk, and so on. The shop also sold several weapons.
As Alina scrolled through the online trading interface, her eyes widened at the array of exotic and powerful items for sale. The weapons section was particularly impressive, featuring an eclectic mix of traditional and modern warfare tools.
She paused at the sight of an aerialist armor set, its silvery-blue sheen promising unmatched protection and agility. Next to it, dragonskin armor offered resilience against both physical and magical attacks, its scales shimmering with latent power, but goddamn, it was expensive at 198,000 Leas.
The firearms section was no less fascinating. The M5A2 rifle was listed alongside the more advanced M7A4 rifle, boasting enhanced precision and magical compatibility, chambered in .338 and .416 each.
The IMLR caught her attention since it was Ilya's rifle and it had served her well, but its lightweight would work to her disadvantage. However, one gun caught her attention, an LHMMGM-3, a lightweight heavy magical machine gun, that offered devastating firepower at the expense of its heavy weight, at thirty-five kilograms, which translated to a mere three kilograms for Alina.
The choice was obvious, wasn't it?
"The lightweight heavy magical machine gun model 3, or the Lahmum, was the third iteration of our product line-up in General Dynamics," Ilya commented. "Though, isn't that a bit too heavy for you?"
"Not, quite," Alina answered, ordering the Lahmum.
The MG was quite pricy, at 8,900 Leas, and it was the cheapest portable heavy weapon at the moment. With a few taps on the screen, the transactions were completed, and Alina's account balance decreased accordingly, yet the potential for increased firepower made it a worthwhile investment.
The bin then opened again, revealing a rectangular machine gun with a rainbow-colored barrel, not too different from what Ilya carried. Alina lifted Lahmum out of the bin, feeling the weight and the ergonomics of it.
Not bad, talking about magical weapons, this is one of the most modern I have ever seen.
It was a smart weapon, with the ability to be connected to Alina's phone, mainly to decide whether the weapon should be fired in pulse or beam based on the user's preference. It was only capable of being fired in full-auto, so there was that as a downside.