“Aren’t you going to confirm the exit?” “I think you wouldn’t lie to me.” “…” The two of them walked back along the path Mia had used for her walkthrough.
Naturally, they also passed the Hollow that Mia had tied up.
“A good approach.” Seeing his former companions, who were once trapped in the cave with him and now possessed nothing but instinct, Wilden commented.
In a grotto, Wilden pulled a locked chest from a pile of empty barrels and crates.
“You can have this,” Wilden said, pushing the chest toward Mia.
Mia gave the Soldier a suspicious look, drew her sword, and hacked open the lock, which had already rusted into powder.
As she opened the lid, she felt the chest’s significant weight.
“What is this?” A chest full of golden coins of various sizes.
The smallest were only the size of a fingernail, while the largest could fill half a palm.
It was truly marvelous.
Mia toyed with a coin; the golden coin was engraved with rune characters.
For some reason, Mia could understand the meaning of these runes.
“golden rune.
These beautiful golden coins are filled with the grace of the Erdtree.
They come in different sizes and values and serve as the currency circulating in The Lands Between.
With the help of a Finger Maiden, a Tarnished can use the grace within a golden rune to strengthen themselves.” It was truly marvelous.
The size and color of the golden rune seemed to represent its face value; the more brilliant the gold and the larger the size, the higher the value.
After transmigrating, she had been curious about what form the rune currency from the game would take.
She hadn’t expected it to look so simple and unadorned.
In the game, only a Tarnished could convert runes into their own power with the help of a Finger Maiden.
For ordinary people in The Lands Between, runes were merely currency that merchants used for trade.
In the game, Nomadic Merchants accepted runes, and even Tarnished merchants and Erdtree Folk merchants all accepted runes.
Although the way players obtained runes was through killing…
as long as you killed an enemy, you would obtain runes, much like absorbing souls.
If the people of The Lands Between also obtained runes this way…
Wouldn’t everything be in total chaos?
“Don’t you need them?” Mia asked.
“Me?
I haven’t seen anyone I could talk to in a long time,” Wilden said.
“As for the golden rune, I don’t care.” Seeing that he had no intention of going back on his word, Mia nodded and reached out, putting the golden rune from the chest into her storage space.
Wilden watched it all.
“You Tarnished who return from beyond The Lands Between really do have a lot of tricks.” “Hehe.” Having her secrets exposed, Mia gave a sheepish smile.
The moment she stored the golden rune, she knew the exact number of runes in the chest.
Twenty-nine thousand, eight hundred and forty-nine.
A precise amount.
“So many…” Mia was indeed startled.
“Perhaps.
It’s certainly a lot to you and me, but for a noble, this small amount of golden rune isn’t even enough to procure a set of knight’s equipment.” Mia thought Wilden probably wasn’t referring to the unadorned knight armor sold in the Roundtable Hold—which was small and shabby to the Erdtree Folk—but rather the ornate plate armor equipped by the knights of the Royal Army.
Although she had quite a bit of money now, because she hadn’t met Melina yet, Mia couldn’t convert the grace within the runes into her own power.
Wilden turned around.
“Let’s go now.” “Wait a minute!” This time, it was Mia who stopped him again.
Wilden’s previous action had actually inspired Mia.
Taking the initiative, Mia called out to Wilden and began a whirlwind sweep of the Cave of Learning.
She opened every chest she saw and rummaged through every bag.
Roaming Noble’s sword?
All into her bag.
She didn’t even spare the weapons and armor of the Godrick Soldiers.
Besides that, she found something else that surprised and delighted her.
“Phew—” The girl pulled a dusty set of black Noble’s Traveling Garb from a chest.
‘Traveling garb woven from black silk and gold thread.
A color specially commissioned by someone, worn by royalty wandering abroad.’ ‘A magnificent gift, intended to maintain royal dignity even if the recipient were to die in the gutter.’ Placed with it were a pair of leather boots and a deep black hood the same color as the traveling garb.
She could finally change her appearance; the Prophet’s yellow robes were truly uncomfortable to wear.
After Mia hid away and changed, she felt like a completely different Soldier.
She looked at herself in a small mirror she had also scavenged…
“Fire Keeper?” Yeah, that was Mia’s first impression of her current outfit.
Blonde hair, eyes covered, black clothes…
The only flaw was that the accessory covering her eyes wasn’t a magnificent silver crown, but a strip of cloth.
And…
Compared to the intellectual Fire Keeper sister, her body was truly a bit too slender.
But: “I really am beautiful.” Mia stroked her fair, smooth chin and muttered to herself happily.
“Alright, it’s time to leave the tutorial level.”