Witnessing the death of the elder did manage to give him some degree of satisfaction.

Of course, he didn't simply kill them for that reason alone. The man did insult him and hurt his man.

​​

Aside from that, Tristan also captured him from a winning battle fair and square. The elder was his prisoner, so he believes it was well in his rights to do whatever he wanted with him.

Even on earth, there was such a thing as a prisoner ransom. Therefore, he refused to just release them. And above all these reasons, Tristan's main deciding factor in killing the man was as simple as the desire for blood.

Once more, Tristan cast his skill.

[Blood extraction]

[A mix of 250 high-quality blood cells were found]

[Now extracting and filtering the blood cells...]

[1150 blood essence points gained]

It was just as he thought. The elder elf managed to give him such a high amount of blood essence points. As he checked the statistics, Tristan smirked triumphantly to himself. He was glad that he could gain so many points, considering the amount of trouble it took to beat the elf. He also made sure not to forget to collect blood essence points from the other one.

[Blood essence - 15320]

Seeing the number gave him much joy, and he grinned to himself, satisfied that he finally got that out of the way.

He then slipped out a ring from his pocket, turning it in his fingers as he studied it attentively. This was the storage ring that had belonged to the elder elf. Just like he had been told, once the owner of the ring dies, it becomes available and open to anyone who can claim it.

This must be how opening a christmas present feels like. He dropped a little blood onto the ring and commanded it to open.

[Storage ring - Tier 2]

So, this particular ring was currently in the same tier as the one Serene owned. Upon analyzing it further, Tristan found that it had a dimension of 2 cubic meters.

Peering into it, he found two more magical items had been stored inside. Particularly a sword and a shield, which were both Tier 3 items.

[Round Shield - Tier 3]

[Weight - 12 kilograms]

[Increased durability]

[Short sword - Tier 3]

[Weight - 9.8 kilograms]

[Increased strength]

There were also about a dozen potion vials resting at the bottom of the storage space, and upon examining them more intently, he realized that he had no knowledge of any of them. After rummaging some more, he then found about two dozen small crystal pebbles, which were yellow in color. As for these, Tristan had been told about them before. They were called spirit stones, and they served as a kind of currency which was used by the elves. Uriel told him a single one of these stones should be worth about ten gold coins.

Tristan counted the spirit stones one by one with a gleeful smile plastered on his face. "26...27.. 28… I am now 280 gold coins richer!"

Uriel can only look on at Tristan's newly acquired fortunes with envy. War and battle did give more profit than peace, that was for sure. Especially when taking into consideration Tristan's need for more blood essence.

Finally, when he was ransacking the elder's corpse, Gazef began to ask him more questions regarding their further course of action.

"Should we release this one, then?" He said as he pointed in the direction of the last terrified elf, who was shaking violently in his binds, eyes as wide as saucers.

"Why?" Tristan only gave a confused look in return and did not say anything else.

From the beginning, he had never planned to release any of the hostages. In fact, he had other plans for this last one.

Tristan can see the elf hopeless expression hearing his words

He then returned back to his study and discussed the plan even further with both Uriel and Gazef, who were trailing behind him.

With this new information that had arisen about the 3000 orc uruks, Tritan was confident that this time, he would get a better response from the capital.

Upon his orders, Uriel sent the new message to the capital immediately. Unfortunately, though, the reply that they got back from the stone was highly discouraging.

[Information received, do not act further, an investigation will be held, release the elven prisoners right away]

Tristan was dumbfounded to find that it merely stated the exact same response as the message before.

To be sure, he told Uriel to reconfirm and send another message which requested further clarification. But this time, they did not even bother with a reply.

Once more, Tristan exploded with rage, and he smashed the black wooden box to the floor.

Rubbing his temples, he took a deep breath to calm himself down. Once he had regained his composure, he began to speak to Uriel

"And this answer definitely came from the king himself?"

"Yes, most likely the king had been notified." Said Uriel, slightly nervous from Tristan's outburst.

With this, Tristan was now 100% sure that the bastard king Callan knew something about this matter. He was most probably trying to douse the issue by refusing to acknowledge it in the first place.

Seeing his irritation, Uriel then said, "Just let this go. These are matters between kingdoms. It's a matter a king should attend to, not mayors of small towns like us."

Tristan somehow knew that this matter was not supposed to be part of the king's test. But outside of his anger towards the elves and the worries regarding his wife, Tristan still decided to involve himself in this matter. He would never be free from that king just by sitting around in his mayor chair, for him after all conflict would always bring him benefit.

Tristan turned towards the two of them with a wicked grin spread across his face. Once more, the fat elf breathed out a long sigh. This mayor in front of him always made him feel uneasy.