Creating A Succubus Army In A Fantasy World!-Chapter 55: Filthy Rich!

The hospital room was surprisingly cozy for a place meant to treat near-death experiences.

Soft, white walls, dim but warm lighting, and most importantly, four hospital beds lined up side by side, all occupied by a bunch of battered but very alive adventurers.

Creed, Rai, Mia, and Rin all sat in their respective beds, dressed in identical, ridiculously oversized hospital gowns that made them look like a group of escaped asylum patients rather than dangerous rift explorers.

At that moment, the room was filled with laughter; deep, uncontrollable, stomach-hurting laughter.

Mia, in particular, was the loudest, but not because she wanted to be.

No, it was because Creed had just told the worst joke imaginable, and it just so happened to be at her expense.

"I swear, Mia, I thought those vines of yours were trying to help us escape, but honestly? I think they just wanted to hug the monkey instead!"

Creed wheezed, barely able to get the words out through his own laughter.

Mia, her face an interesting shade of murderous, grabbed the pillow behind her and chucked it at Creed’s head with enough force to dent steel.

"You—! I WAS LITERALLY SAVING YOUR LIFE, YOU UNGRATEFUL MORON!"

Creed dodged, barely. The pillow hit the wall with a loud thump, and Rai and Rin burst into even more laughter.

"But seriously," Rai managed between snickers, "that thing did look like it was enjoying the attention a little too much. Pretty sure it was about two seconds away from sending you a bouquet of flowers, Mia."

"Or proposing," Rin added helpfully.

Mia’s eyes blazed. "I hope all of you step on a Lego."

More laughter erupted, and even Mia, despite herself, couldn’t help but smile.

It was rare, so rare, to sit together like this after a mission without someone being too injured to talk, or worse, missing entirely.

Their bodies had been wrecked after the rift-clearing operation, but thanks to the capable hands of the Adventurer’s Union Healing Branch, every drop of blood they had lost, every bone they had fractured, every muscle they had torn had all been fixed within hours.

It was an incredible service, completely free of charge, as long as the injuries were sustained during mandatory rift explorations.

If an adventurer got injured outside of one, well... then they’d have to pay a small fortune for healing. It was one of the few benefits of being part of the Union.

And speaking of benefits...

"Ivy’s probably still reporting everything," Rin muttered, stretching her arms above her head. "She’ll be getting the final mission payment soon."

Creed nodded, but he was way more interested in the other reward they had secured.

The Life Intent Fruits. Those things were worth a fortune, and after scanning them with his bracelet, he had finally confirmed what type they were: Stage 3 Life Intent Fruits!

Stage. Freaking. Three!

That was insane. The higher the stage of an Intent Fruit, the rarer and more valuable it became.

Stage 1 and 2 were common enough to be bought if you had deep pockets.

Stage 4 and 5 were considered once-in-a-lifetime finds. But Stage 3? That was the sweet spot.

Rare enough to be insanely expensive but not so rare that people would try to kill you over them.

In other words?

They were about to be stupidly rich!

And just as that thought crossed his mind, the door swung open.

Ivy stepped in, looking as cool and composed as ever, her short white hair still somehow managing to look perfect despite all the chaos she had been through.

Her piercing gaze swept over all of them, her expression unreadable as she silently appraised them from head to toe.

Creed knew that look. She was making sure they were really fine, not just pretending to be.

After a few long seconds, she sighed, deeply.

"You’re all in one piece," she muttered, crossing her arms. "Barely."

Creed grinned. "You sound like a worried mom."

The moment the words left his mouth, the room exploded with laughter again, with Rin and Rai nearly falling off their beds.

Even Mia, despite still being slightly annoyed with him, had to press a hand to her mouth to keep from laughing too loudly.

Ivy, however, simply raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?" she mused, her lips twitching. "If I’m the mom, does that make you the rebellious son who never listens?"

Creed’s grin faltered.

Rai cackled. "OHHHHH! SHE GOT YOU!"

Mia nearly choked on her own laughter. "SOMEONE GET HIM SOME ICE!"

Creed groaned. "I walked right into that one..."

"You ran into it," Rin corrected.

Ivy smirked. "Glad you understand." Then, without missing a beat, she pulled out her tablet and tapped a few buttons.

"Anyway, jokes aside, I’ve transferred the 20,000 credits to each of you. That’s our official payment for the mission."

Creed immediately checked his account and sure enough, 20k credits were sitting there, fresh and untouched.

A wide grin spread across his face, and his thoughts instantly derailed into bliss.

If he was this happy over the mission payment, then the Intent Fruits were going to make his brain explode!

And then Ivy delivered the final bombshell.

"Oh," she added casually. "I also managed to sell the twelve Life Intent Fruits."

Everyone fell silent. Creed’s grin froze.

She glanced at them, clearly enjoying the suspense, and then, without even trying to soften the blow, she said it.

"They sold for one million credits."

Rin choked. Mia let out a tiny squeak. Rai almost fell off her bed.

And Creed?

His soul left his body.

ONE. MILLION. CREDITS!

His brain short-circuited. His lungs forgot how to breathe.

His entire existence shattered into a million pieces before reforming into something far wealthier!

ONE. MILLION. CREDITS.

Creed’s brain felt like it had just been hit by a cosmic enlightenment beam, the kind that turned mortals into gods.

His thoughts instantly spiraled into chaos, bouncing off the walls of his skull like a pinball machine on turbo mode.

’A MILLION CREDITS?! This isn’t just money—this is LIFE-CHANGING money! This is the kind of money that could turn a broke, struggling adventurer into a walking, breathing success story.’

Creed could already see it now; fancy clothes, top-tier weapons, a penthouse apartment, a hover-bike that went so fast it violated traffic laws, and food.

Oh, the food! No more discount meals from shady street vendors selling "meat" that tasted suspiciously like rubber.

No more instant noodles that dissolved into pure sadness after one bite. With this much cash, he could eat real food: food that normal people ate!

But then his brain screeched to a stop. Hold on. Wait. There was a tiny, tiny problem.

This money... wasn’t all his.

The five of them had to split it. Which meant... Creed did some quick math in his head and instantly panicked.

He panicked because he might not even get a share at all!

Reality crashed down on him like a meteorite.

Creed had brought two major things back from the secret realm; the twelve Stage 3 Life Intent Fruits and the mysterious ring artifact that had forcefully bound itself to his soul.

The intent fruits had been appraised and sold for a clean million credits, which was fantastic, but... the ring was an entirely different story.

And a big problem.

That thing was easily worth at least 10 million credits. Maybe 20 million if they found the right buyer.

The problem? It was already soul bound to him. And that meant it couldn’t be sold.

Which also meant... the team had technically "lost" a massive amount of potential profit because of him.

Even though Creed had explained everything; that the ring had forcibly bound to him without his consent, the fact remained that it had reduced their earnings by a LOT.

And while the others had said they believed him, Creed knew that, realistically, he had already come out of the secret realm as the biggest winner.

Ivy, Mia, Rai, and Rin had risked their lives, just like him, but they were only walking away with money. Creed? He got an artifact worth millions... for free.

And sure, he did take the biggest risk by stepping into that realm alone.

But still... even he had to admit, getting an artifact this powerful for free was already more than enough as compensation.

Which meant... if the others decided not to give him a cut of the 1 million credits, he couldn’t even complain!

At that moment, Ivy turned to him, her cool eyes locking onto his with a calculating look. Creed tensed. He had a bad feeling about this.

Then, she spoke.

"Since you already have the ring artifact," Ivy said calmly, "after discussing with the others, we’ve decided to give you 100,000 credits from the 1 million."

Creed blinked. Then blinked again.

"...Huh?"

Ivy sighed. "Look, we all agreed that since you were the one who entered the secret realm in the first place and took the biggest risk, you should still get something.

"But the ring is already more than enough of a reward, so we decided on 100k."

Creed stared. "So... you guys aren’t leaving me with nothing?"

Rai snorted. "Don’t push it. We were this close to just taking the whole million for ourselves and calling it a ’thank you’ for not letting you die alone in there."

Mia smirked. "But since we’re such kind and generous friends, we figured we’d let you have a little something."

Rin giggled. "Besides, it’s not like you’re broke now, Creed. You literally have a multi-million credit artifact stuck to your soul. If anything, we should be asking you for money!"

Creed let out a long breath. 100,000 credits.

Honestly? He’d take it. Because the alternative had been zero!

And compared to the absolute broke existence he had been living before? Even just 100k credits was game changing!

A massive weight lifted off his shoulders as he grinned.

"You guys are the best. Seriously. I was already bracing myself for a ’good luck surviving without money’ speech."

Ivy smirked, busy on her tablet. "We considered it."

Creed laughed and shook his head before quickly pulling up his account to check his new balance.

The moment he saw those fresh 100,000 credits sitting there, an uncontrollable wave of pure joy surged through him.

His hands clenched into fists. His heart pounded with excitement. His entire body felt like it had been hit by a lightning bolt of happiness.

Because for the first time in his entire damn life...

He was RICH!

He could actually buy things now. Real things!

No more scraping by on pennies, no more stressful nights wondering if he could afford rent, no more eating cheap, tasteless garbage just to survive.

He could get better gear. He could upgrade his equipment. He could finally train without worrying about running out of resources!

This was just the beginning. His adventure was only getting started.