"Hmm." Malvorrak rolled the little beast cores one by one into the bag in front of him before carefully tying it up with his mouth. This was not the first time he had done this, and with the care he took, it was quite evident that Malvorrak cared about these cores very much.
After successfully securing the bag between his teeth, he turned towards the cave and walked towards it with large strides. He passed Zysera, Cious, and the four goblins without batting an eye and disappeared into the cave.
In the blink of an eye, he was gone from sight.
"Hmmm, interesting," Cious smirked, his head panning around until it fell on the wagon filled with treasures. Gold! Cious's eyes brimmed with greed as he rushed towards the wagon at maximum speed and jumped into the heap of coins.
"This is heaven!" Cious screamed joyfully as he basked in the sea of gold beneath him. He was rich! With these treasures, he could only imagine all he could accomplish in this world: the food, the women, the status—and most of all, the food.
The thought of it gave him butterflies in his stomach.
"Cough, cough!" As Cious basked in the sea of gold, a cough rang out next to him, forcing him to open his eyes and look to his left.
Zysera was barely standing upright now, but she was looking right at him with a trace of plea in her eyes.
She wanted her son back.
"Oh? I forgot about you," Cious said sheepishly before standing up straight. "Have this, it will heal you," Cious threw out a blue pellet at Zysera.
Healing medicine—in his previous life, there was a lot Cious had gotten into, and one of them was conveniently medicine (pill) concoction. His pills could heal a person's body and soul.
"I could only find some mediocre materials, so that will probably do." Zysera held onto it with skepticism painted all over her face. Receiving medicine from your enemy was just plain stupid, but that was assuming he had made a pill that could kill her.
'Maybe he bought it somewhere,' she thought.
Pill concoction was a rare skill, but pills themselves were quite common. From the smell of this, she could already tell that it was a healing pill of low quality.
At least it would stop the bleeding.
"Hum," she swallowed the pill directly and closed her eyes.
However, she was absolutely shocked the next moment as her body began to heal at an astounding pace. In a few seconds, her body excreted the right enzymes and juices to heal up her wounds while simultaneously pushing out any impurities.
Everything happened right in front of her at a very noticeable pace. It was miraculous healing! Her eyes widened as she panned her head towards Cious.
"Did..." her eyes widen in absolute shock at Cious
"Your brat is right there; take him and leave. The big guy is really territorial. If you stay any longer, he might just lose his temper and swallow you whole…." Cious pointed to the side of the cave, where the three goblins could be seen holding up a lizardman's body.
He didn't have the time to entertain her yet; there was still a lot he needed to prepare before interacting with the outside world. Zysera needed to leave for the time being.
"I… thank you," Zysera nodded in gratitude, understanding that this little lizard right here was the only reason she was still alive.
She couldn't stay where she wasn't wanted, so she went over to Qarc, picked him up, and placed him on her shoulder. Then she walked all the way down the slope that led to Malvorrak's mountain.
That was all for this encounter. She needed to go back to the village to really digest what had happened here today.
She had fought with the previously wild Malvorrak, and now she saw him not just with intelligence, but also with abilities that seemed unnatural. She could swear that the big oaf had the scales of Urgar and the innate skill of a water-based beast.
That wasn't all. There was also this little lizard creature that not only had the mental capabilities to screw her over, but also had at his disposal meticulous healing pills… the background needed to have such pills...
This was just too much to process right now. One thing was sure, though: Malvorrak and his mountain had suddenly become a no-go zone in her head.
At least not until she was absolutely prepared to face both of these mysterious creatures.
…
"Sigh," Cious looked down at Zysera's figure and shook his head. Then, feeling the gold underneath his feet, he beamed with an evil smile.
"Take me and my babies inside." Cious fell on his back onto the heap of gold coins and gave them an order. Just then, they went to work on bringing the gold into Malvorrak's cave.