“Elf missssusss bad! Led missster into trap! Bad trapssssnifff!”

“She is right, though." Mini interjected while eyeing the duellist "Your little Elf meant trouble in the long run. Or even in the short term. You do realize, that she hated your guts? As soon as the Blood Debt was paid, she would have killed you and would have made a jacket out of your skin. Not necessarily in this order. With Foxy dead, no one would keep her in check."

“What has Foxy to do with this? What was all this about anyways?” Prof was perplexed

“Oh, she didn’t tell you, I forgot. Well, she was working for the Bureau of Extra-Arkadian Affairs, or whatever the Elves call it. Her job was to keep an eye on you, test and observe you, and if you were deemed a threat to the Domain or Arkadia – for the Elves it’s the same – make sure, you get a shallow grave. She kept Shinead quiet since you met.”

“As for this farce, Guillermo and his little friends were hired by someone in the Domain to recreate a ritual that made the Valley. They wanted to surround the Domain with it, no matter how many Humans, Greenskins, or Foresteans died in the attempt. Which would be many, if I heard right. As soon as it was about the Greater Elven Good, Foxy was on board, she was a proper Elf, despite everything. So, be a good boy, and start looting, corpses don't rob themselves, only others. Shoo. I will have dessert now, she looks quite sweet."

They needed to talk further after calming down. Oh, and the exclamation mark started blinking too – time for the next Level Up! It was time. But first, it was time for the most basic activity in any fantasy setting: plundering your vanquished foes!

Prof decided to start the looting with the Elves, leaving the mercenaries for later, when the female was conscious again. Foxy and Shinead he wanted to leave out of robbing, despite feeling betrayed, he considered them friends. Kind of. Sharpclaw obviously didn’t feel that attachment, and happily started to rummage through their things.

What was adventuring all about? Killing things, robbing graves, and plundering every fallen foe or friend. In that regard, Prof could be considered a true Adventurer at this point. However, it was the first time he had to liberate stuff from friends and allies.

It was disgusting.

Of course, when you were in the middle of nowhere, without any reliable means to resupply, the stuff your enemies, allies, and friends provided, could mean the difference between life and death. He could rationalize, that neither Foxy nor Shinead needed their stuff anymore, and would be happy to provide them to the rest of the party to give them a chance to survive. Probably. Maybe. Possibly.

Anyways…

He started with the archer. The bow he valued at around twenty silver, more than his two axes combined! It was a very nice piece of gear indeed, a composite reflex bow, covered in buckskin (it was probably buckskin), with the nocks spotting intricate carvings of some birds. He tried it a few times, and it was surprisingly easy to draw. He did try archery a few times back on Earth, and he could tell from that experience alone, that this one was indeed a very high-end one. Even if it was a bit short for him. Unfortunately, no one could use it, with how low everyone's Skill in [Bows] was.

The surviving arrows were of good make too, with barbed tips made of high-quality steel and good-quality wood. The quiver for holding them was made of high-quality leather, with complex hunting and battle scenes etched into it. That piece of gear cost around two silver in itself, not counting the arrows.

Besides a few low-grade HP potions, a bit of cash, and the usual knick-knacks one hauled around the only interesting thing on her was a silver medal. A magical medal. Which they had no chance to identify now, with Foxy passing away…

The dark-colored Elf had a large collection of weapons, unfortunately, most of them of middling quality, with even a few bad ones mixed in. Discounting those, the whole armory was valued at less than twenty silver, probably as low as fifteen. The boots, however, were good ones, and luckily the same size Prof had. Since his own boots started to show signs of use and were on the brink of starting to fall apart, he decided to keep the new ones. After using a disinfectant on them.

The Elf did not have anything other valuable on him. Her. Whatever. The corpse was indeed a hermaphrodite.

The shifty-looking one was badly chewed on, with most of his torso already gone. Including everything he kept there. Binky was however a well-trained chewing machine and left the hands intact. Or hadn't had time to eat those too.

Of the four rings, two were normal ones, one gold, the other some other shiny metal, with a combined value of around two silver, and the other two were magical. As was an intricately decorated dagger he found near the corpse. Again, no one around to identify them…

Prof didn't really want to shift through the detritus that not so long ago was an Elf, so he just poked around a bit. His Scavenger Perk luckily activated, and he found a purse beneath a bush next to Shifty Elf. It contained a mix of different currencies, the Bergian and Elven ones he could recognize, but there were at least four or five other kinds too. The known pieces added up to almost ten silver, for the rest he would need professional help – to tell him which country they belonged to, and what the current exchange rates were.

That left Guillermo and the duellist – but with Mini contently sitting next to the corpse while examining the loot told Prof that he should continue with the leader.

That was where the jackpot was hidden.

The bow and corresponding gear weren't as good as the archer's but still added up to twelve silver, including the arrows. However, both of his melee weapons were magical! As was a pendant, two rings, and his belt. He had a messenger bag of holding too, which Prof could not access; there was some kind of magical lock on it. Prof suspected every interesting (and valuable) thing was kept in the bag since he did not find anything else on his person. Guillermo's armor was thoroughly ruined – it was a pity. It was high quality and most likely magical. Once upon a time, before something ripped off a leg and someone went stabby on the back. Not anymore, though.

Bad people! Don't they realize, how expensive good armor was?!?!

Being finished with redistributing wealth from the dead to living people, Prof regrouped with Mini and Sharpclaw next to the dead and thoroughly looted duellist.

“Look, what I found!” the vampire greeted them. Arrayed before were the possessions of the duellist. Prof dumped the other loot next to Mini and started to rummage through the stuff.

Neither the rapier nor the dagger was magical, but high quality and valuable. The dagger alone cost around fifteen silver, the parrying dagger five or six. There were magical and two mundane golden rings, a golden necklace with sapphires, and a silver hair clip too, the four combined cost ten silver or so total. The ornate belt Prof noticed earlier was, of course magical. A purse held around twelve silver worth of Bergian and Elven currency, plus an unknown amount of an unidentified kind.

“Those are Gerulian coins." Mini informed him "I see, you found some too. Let's see… If I remember the rates correctly, those could be exchanged for around eight or so Bergian silver in total. The Foresteans here would go for only two, but for the Imperial ones and the Lizards… I don't know."

“Lizzzzard coinssss enough to buy ten mealsssss.” Sharpclaw informed them. Ok, but what quality? Where? What meal? Depending on the exact meal and place, the coins could have a value of anything between ten to a hundred copper. Didn’t matter much, they were nowhere near Lizard territory.

Sharpclaw also presented her findings on Foxy and Shinead. Prof still had qualms about repossessing stuff from their previous companions, but Mini obviously didn't care that much. First, she handed Foxy's wrist claws over – much to Prof's surprise, they were magical. Hasn't she said, she had no magical weapons?

From the belly bag of holding, he was presented with the loot from the track through the Valley, but also half-a-dozen potions (again, haven't they used up all theirs previously?), an official-looking badge, and Foxy's identification papers. Prof read them, and indeed, Foxy was an internal security officer of some sort, with an open order for everyone to cooperate with her. There was also a palm-sized picture of a slightly pale-looking girl.

The money, a bit more than one gold worth of Elven currency he could recognize, as the collected logs from Guillermo’s expedition, but the around a dozen different magical thingies… He had absolutely no idea what they were for.

All in all, the bag was less, than half full – instead of being bursting full as Foxy claimed.

“Probably tracking, communication, surveillance, and verifying gear." Mini took a look too. "They are valuable, so we could sell them! However, we can't use them right now, and they could lead to questions, neither of us would want to answer. But again, think about the money!"

Yeah, totally going to happen. Walking around with… "found" government stuff and trying to sell it was never a good idea, no matter if on Earth, or obviously Arkadia. Governments tended to ask questions along the line of where exactly did you find the stuff and what happened to the previous owner. "Just found them lying around" was not an answer most agencies accepted at face value. The stuff was got to be left behind. Buried.

The earrings and rings Foxy got as part of her loot previously, were at least known items.

Prof turned to Shinead’s stuff. He was still unable to put a value to the family dagger, and her archery gear was nothing to write home about – less than eight silver for everything. The piercings and earrings weren’t magical, but normal metal, but Mini warned him, that those were Clan insignia, and he should be careful selling them. Prof decided to leave them with Shinead. The magical compass went into the left-behind pile too, it was more or less Clan property, so probably trackable. Without identifying it first, it was useless to them and it was too dangerous to carry around Clan or government property.

Of course, most of her gear – and Foxy’s too – was still packed up on their last beast of burden.

To be sure, Mini sent Sharpclaw to fetch it. Shouldn’t Guillermo’s band have some too, Prof thought?