The donkey convoy raced to the dock, quickly defeated the defending troops, and immediately took over the ships at the dock, loading the goods onto the ships in no time. Although Linley signed many IOUs this time, he also paid 30-40% in cash.
The ship owners looked as sour as lemons, but under the threat of swords, they had no choice but to accept the cash and IOUs and hand over the ships. The so-called cash was actually some assets that couldn't be easily converted to cash, such as paintings and statues.
As they watched the fleet sail away, the ship owners began to talk among themselves: "That's the Dionysus, so overbearing and unreasonable."
"I've got the worst luck this time. I was already low on funds, and now the Dionysus took my ship and cargo."
"At least he gave us 30% of the money, which is better than losing everything in a shipwreck."
"I don't really mind. Anyway, the cost was only about 30%, so I broke even. And there are the IOUs; maybe we can cash them in later for pure profit."
"Where are you going to find him to get the money back? He clearly has a lot of money now but isn't giving it to us, so he must be planning to default."
"You don't get it. Aren't the Romans after the Dionysus? If they find out we have the Dionysus's IOUs, they'll arrest us immediately."
"Yeah, we should get rid of them quickly."
"But what if the Dionysus is willing to pay up? That's thousands of gold coins. Can you bear to just burn them?"
"I get it now. The Dionysus wants us to take the initiative to find him, making us take the risk to do business with him. Clever calculation..."
"Too dangerous, I won't do it. The Romans are after the Dionysus, and they will confiscate all property if they find any followers of the Dionysus."
"In that case, you don't want your IOUs, right? Sell them to me, I'll give you one gold coin."
"My IOU is worth six hundred gold coins!"
"You're not going to collect it anyway, so it's worthless. I'm giving you one gold coin, that's pure profit."
"I'll offer two gold coins."
"Hey, hey, hey!"
"I'll offer three."
"Think about it, these things are worthless. Where can we find the Dionysus to get the money back? Even if we find him, he may not repay us. He might rob us again."
"I don't see it that way. If the Dionysus really didn't want to pay, he could have just given the 30% of assets. Why sign IOUs? He must be planning to repay."
"Four gold coins!"
"Ten gold coins!"
"Are you crazy?"
"Anyway, I lost both my cargo and ship, and I have nothing to do. I might as well take a gamble. Even if the Dionysus only wants to give half, that's three hundred gold coins. If he pays in full, it might be six hundred gold coins!"
"Then I'll offer twenty gold coins... forget it, fifteen, I'll offer fifteen gold coins!"
At sea, Linley led the fleet to join the other ships that had left earlier, heading towards Dionysus Island. When the fleet was far from the coastline and Crete was no longer visible, Linley finally heard a prompt, "You have achieved victory in battle, please go to the Divine Kingdom to claim your reward."
This was not a glorious victory, perhaps because the enemy was not strong enough, even though Linley had seized a lot of money. But why was the settlement only now? Previously, after annihilating the enemy at the farm, the system said he had gained freedom of action. However, after raiding the governor's mansion and the church, he had to go out to sea. Could it be that a force capable of threatening Linley had already gathered on the island?
Linley entered the divine realm, opened the wooden box, and got some experience points and other rewards. But this time, he only got fifty experience points, which wasn't enough to level up. There weren't any new skills, just a crystal dagger exactly like the one he already had.
He checked his gear and realized the original crystal dagger was gone.
"Is this the dagger I got before?" Linley asked suspiciously.
"That's right," the system confirmed his guess.
"You seriously gave me my own stuff as a reward?" Linley felt like he was being messed with.
"Not just the weapons and gear, even the experience points and skills are yours. I told you before, these are all powers sealed inside you by the divine realm," the system explained.
Even though the system had mentioned it before, Linley was still not happy: "So what exactly did you do?"
"I modified these powers to fit your body better," the system replied. "Do you think Dionysus's powers would work for you? Look at this crystal dagger."
Linley picked up the dagger and saw an extra note: "Dragon-slaying dagger, extra damage to dragons."
"Dragons?" Linley asked, confused.
"Yes," the system said. "Without me, would you have known what this dagger was for?"
Linley really didn't know, he just felt a strange power from the dagger and didn't expect it to be for slaying dragons. But dragons are huge, what good would such a short dagger be?
"Wait a minute," Linley said. "The weapons you gave me before, did I get those myself too?"
"The grapevine slingshot wasn't, that was originally from the divine realm," the system explained.
"And the angel's sword?" Linley continued to ask.
"That was the sword of the first angel you killed. It should have been burned with the angel's body, but I intercepted it in time," the system said.
"What about the fallen angel feather?" Linley asked.
"That was a feather from the archangel you killed. When he realized he'd been deceived, he angrily questioned God and turned into a fallen angel. I only managed to grab two feathers," the system said.
"What did Holiness deceive him about? What did he question?" Linley was very curious.
"How would I know," the system said helplessly.
"And my skills? Were they also modified by you?" Linley asked.
"Of course, otherwise do you think Dionysus could lead a cavalry charge? I'm helping shape the divine kingdom's powers into forms suitable for you," the system explained.
It seemed the system was quite useful after all, and Linley felt a bit more balanced, but then realized something was off, "Can't you just let me choose the skill tree I want?"
Linley wanted to become a mage and increase his intelligence. If he could freely allocate skill points, it would be much easier.
"Of course not, your abilities must suit your body. Your body grows through combat, and I can only shape the necessary abilities for you. It's like riding an electric-assisted bicycle; you pedal and I act as the motor, helping you go faster, but I can't change direction, otherwise, you'll crash badly," the system explained.
Linley had no choice but to accept this fact and think of ways to increase his intelligence later. He looked at his stats and asked, "What level am I now?"