"A pile of bones."
"Collecting them only yields bone meal, no meat at all. The absolute worst, such a thankless task to kill these things, what are they even?!"
"Whoa, this bronze statue looks quite valuable."
The grumbling youth spotted the bronze statue in the palace and dashed towards it, tapping it twice with his sword hilt.
"If melted down, it should yield a good amount of bronze ingots. What a find."
The necromancer sitting on the throne was stunned.
Where did this person come from?
How did a foreigner appear here?
Where were the skeleton soldiers outside?
Were they all slain?
Those skeleton soldiers possessed at least black iron to bronze level strength. How could this foreigner, who had not been in the cave for long, defeat the skeleton soldiers outside?
Just as the necromancer was in shock, a camp was abruptly pushed out from the palace.
Fortunately, the palace was large enough.
Otherwise, the camp wouldn't fit.
Immediately after, he watched the foreigner who had entered the palace begin to embrace the bronze statues on either side of the red carpet.
"Hei Dou, give me a hand!"
"What are you doing?" the necromancer roared with uncontrollable rage.
Only then did the foreigner turn his head.
With a look of surprise.
"Oh dear, someone's here." The foreigner appeared surprised but still managed to lift the bronze statue into the courtyard of the main camp, wiping sweat from his brow. "What am I doing..."
The foreigner stopped and spread his hands.
"Can't you see? Amassing wealth. These bronze statues, when melted, are surely good material, they'll fetch a hefty sum. Are you going to keep them as decorations?"
Familiar voices reached the ears of Lion and Black Donkey.
They slowly turned their heads.
What they saw was their boss, Chen Yu. As they looked over, Chen Yu was also smiling at them.
"I'm late, no trouble, right?" Chen Yu's eyes were filled with a smile and a hint of helplessness. "Getting lost in a cave, truly... if you're directionally challenged, you should have said so earlier. I had to come myself."
Jack and Black Donkey involuntarily lowered their heads upon hearing this.
But in an instant—
Chen Yu's gentle whisper reached their ears again.
"Boss is here to pick you up and take you home."
The kind smile on his face made Jack and Black Donkey's eyes instantly well up.
"Jack!"
Rou Si, ignoring her injuries, wanted to rush over.
Chen Yu raised his hand and stopped him.
Hearing Chen Yu's words, and seeing Lion and Rou Si, the necromancer also understood Chen Yu's identity.
"You are all in this together."
"Hey, don't put it so crudely, makes us sound like some kind of riffraff gang." Chen Yu's eyes held a smile. "We are a legitimate enterprise, these two are my employees, and I'm here to ransom them. Name your price!"
"Name a price?"
"Yes, the employees are in your hands, so the initiative is naturally yours. I'm not an unreasonable person. Since you've captured them, I'll redeem them. You state the number, I'll pay!"
"You want to ransom these beasts with gold coins!"
In an instant, Chen Yu's face turned somewhat unpleasant.
"Buddy, don't talk so rudely. They are my employees. You call them beasts, what do you take me for, a zookeeper?"
Sensing the change in Chen Yu's expression, the necromancer's eyes gleamed with amusement.
"To think you'd treat livestock... no, your employees." Sensing Chen Yu's face growing even more displeased, the necromancer smiled slightly. "Redemption, certainly. How do you want to redeem them?"
"Resources equivalent in value to currency, or gold coins, I can accept either."
"How much can you give?"
"You just say how much you want."
Chen Yu looked up at the necromancer. The confidence and slightly imposing aura emanating from him made the necromancer frown involuntarily.
He sized Chen Yu up and extended a finger.
"1 gold coin."
"Agreed."
Chen Yu's answer was without half a second's pause.
This decisive reply made the necromancer frown even deeper. He thought 1 gold coin was an astronomical sum for foreigners.
"Heh, I've changed my mind."
The necromancer pushed a finger forward again.
"10 gold coins."
"No problem." Chen Yu gave a positive reply without any hesitation. The necromancer stared at Chen Yu for a long time with a frown. "No, I want 100 gold coins."
"Ha!"
Suddenly, Chen Yu burst into laughter.
Clang!
Five chests of gold were thrown into the palace.
The chests opened.
Inside lay gleaming gold coins.
"Forget about 100 gold coins. This contains 500 gold coins," Chen Yu said, pointing to the chests of gold on the ground.
These gold coins were all obtained by him from opening chests while exploring the cave.
500 gold coins.
This was a considerable fortune for any cave dweller.
These gold coins would be enough to establish a family.
"If you think this isn't enough, I can also give you a Flame Fruit," Chen Yu declared, throwing out a fruit emitting flames.
The necromancer was greatly surprised.
A Flame Fruit!
A fruit that had once fetched an exorbitant price of 500 gold coins in the Caroa Empire.
Calculating this way—
A total of 1000 gold coins were placed on the ground.
"Is this enough?" Chen Yu raised an eyebrow, looking at the necromancer. "Exchanging these for the lives of my two employees, you shouldn't be at a disadvantage, right?"
The necromancer remained silent, his eyes fixed.
The wealth Chen Yu possessed was beyond his expectations. When he saw Chen Yu produce such a generous fortune, his first thought was:
Rob!
He was certain that Chen Yu possessed even more astonishing wealth.
However,
As soon as this thought arose, the necromancer dismissed it.
He couldn't do that!
There were skeleton soldiers outside the palace.
Chen Yu's ability to fight his way in meant he had strength, at least bronze level or higher. Or perhaps, he had explored some secret realm.
Acquired treasures from there, and obtained a powerful weapon.
This foreigner before him was too mysterious.
Mysterious.
That was the most daunting aspect.
After a long period of contemplation, the necromancer suddenly broke into a smile.
"I accept."
He raised his hand, and the skeleton warriors holding Jack and Black Donkey released them. Chen Yu stood before the camp without moving, looking up at them.
"Can you move?"
"Yes!" Lion Jack and Black Donkey hobbled back. They stopped before Chen Yu and bowed their heads.
"No need to blame yourselves. Let's head back to camp."
He smiled faintly at them. The Bee Woman in the camp had already prepared healing ointment to apply to their wounds.
"Hei Dou, you go in too."
Chen Yu lowered his gaze.
Hei Dou, looking up blankly, hadn't even had time to speak before Chen Yu kicked him into the camp.
The camp was instantly retracted.
"I didn't expect you to be willing to pay such a hefty price for two employees," the necromancer said with a smile, signaling the skeleton warriors to pick up the chests in front of Chen Yu. "A pleasure doing business with you. You may leave this necromancer's dungeon."
Bang!
Just as the skeleton warrior reached for the chests, Chen Yu stepped on a chest, a smile on his face.
"You are pleased, but I... am not!"