Musou Knight: Crow of Cinders-Chapter 28: Loot Goblin

Chapter 28 - Loot Goblin

I didn’t remember every detail of the game maps, but I did recall the general locations of permanent upgrade items. They usually spawned on the map’s periphery or in remote zones, tucked away from main battles.

Here was the golden rule: they were never inside boss arenas or the zones that main characters had to pass through. Since I had just crawled out of the boss room, where Lia was meant to duel Zoli, the items had to be somewhere in this maze section.

After regaining some stamina, I stashed the talisman and dragon seal in my clothes and continued searching. Turning a corner, I stumbled into another large area filled with crates.

Of course, I smashed everything. No pun intended, excuse you.

A small jar of wine, another speed buff talisman, and a new set of clothes spilled out. Finally, I had something to moisten my throat. However, if this kept up, I would die of alcohol poisoning.

Please, could I have NORMAL water?

Anyway, since this place was akin to a gold mine, I pressed on.

Mine!

.

An hour later, I pushed a rusty minecart overflowing with loot out of the mine. I couldn’t stop grinning. Cow-Cow also sat on top of the pile with his bloated belly. He had reverted to being a crow-chicken form. You glutton.

Unlike the game, where players were forced to use drops immediately, I could hoard everything and haul it home.

My new spoils:

Five speed-boost talismans

Five strength-boost talismans

Three sets of common clothes

Two common-grade swords

Five quivers of arrows

One common-grade halberd

One blue elixir

One red elixir

One horse badge

And that wasn’t all. Being a loot goblin, I had snagged six iron pickaxes, five hammers, a sack of caerulex ore, two wine jars, and a makeshift cloth bag stuffed with three dumplings and a turkey. I doubted I could carry it all to my next destination, but my gamer instinct told me to hoard everything. Who knew? Maybe I would run into a wandering peddler and sell it for pocket money.

First things first: I drank the blue and red elixirs. Light shimmered across my skin in twin hues.

I felt stronger, a lot stronger.

If there had been an indicator, it would’ve said my max HP and Musou increased by ten. If each started at 100, my health and musou bars would have grown by 10%.

Unfortunately, the maximum parameter was capped at 999. That meant I only needed to find 89 more of these to max out my HP and MP. Meanwhile, there were over a hundred battle stages in the game. It was possible to become OP as long as I could travel around this world and loot everything.

Anyway, that aspiration had to be postponed because my priority was to survive this place.

I glanced around. The exit was west of the mass grave battle site, where Lenitia and I had passed days ago. In the game, this was where Lia distracted Zoli. Somehow, I had stolen her role and entered the mine from the wrong side. Then I got schooled.

Kek. Serves me right. I was a mob character. Why had I even fought Zoli in her stead? I would ask her for compensation later. What should I ask for? Her body? Should I cuck the Constantia protagonist? That option was tempting, but I doubted Lia could be tamed that easily. She was a pessimistic wench. By the time we reunited, she might have thought of me as a spy or something and tried to assassinate me at night.

Anyway, forget the impossible scenario. How was I supposed to push this heavy minecart out of here?

If I had stuck to conventional thinking, it would have seemed impossible to remove the heavy minecart from the rails without tools.

I looked at the talismans in the minecart.

"Heheheh."

"CA-CA-CA-CA!!"

Cow-Cow and I laughed for no reason. I fetched a strength and speed talisman from the cart and smirked.

"BOOSTO!"

I ripped both talismans in half and imitated a Japanese accent. Energy surged through me while my skin grew red and green.

I FELT THE POWER.

Excuse me for the caps, but...

I FELT THE POWER.

Unsure how long the buff would last, I put my plan into action. I lifted the four-hundred - kilogram minecart and balanced it on my head. Then I kicked off the ground.

Maybe I kicked too hard.

I was flying.

Looking down, the scenery resembled drone footage. I was twenty to thirty meters above the ground.

"CAAA!! FOOD, DANGER!"

"I know! Shieeeet!"

The jump became a fall. With the 400-kilo minecart still overhead, I prayed the talismans wouldn’t expire midair.

I landed hard. The shock rattled through my legs, spine, and skull. I nearly vomited.

But I was intact. Knees remained unbroken. My skin seemed unscathed.

The buff still surged.

If the game rules applied in this world, I had 60 seconds. Although I didn’t time it precisely, I suspected it was about to expire.

This time, I avoided overexertion. I set the cart down and brute-forced it forward. Dust flew as the wheels scraped soil and stone. The minecart moved as I wished, except it became a plowing tractor.

I heaved, dashed, and forgot to look ahead. When I looked up, I cursed out loud.

"SHIIIIIEEEEEEET!!"

Dead forest ahead.

"CAAA! STOP!"

"Too late!"

The cart rammed the first tree.

It exploded. Splinters flew. Tree bark smacked my face.

What just happened? Why hadn’t my speed dropped?

Momentum carried me forward. I plowed through seven more trees, bushes, vines, and rocks.

"Wow."

I felt like a tank. Nothing could stop me.

Until the buff ended.

The cart’s weight shifted downward. It crashed down with a thud. Like I sprinted into a wall, my chest hit the edge of the cart, stopping short. My knee slammed into steel.

"!!!"

I gritted my teeth, clutching my knee and my chest.

"CA-CA-CA-CA! STOOPID!"

"FUUUUUUUUUU!!"

I squirmed. My ribs and my knees weren’t broken, but the pain was toe-stubbing intense. After resting for 10 minutes, I stood again.

I looked back.

Whew. What a carnage.

The forest was shredded, as if an elephant had bulldozed through. I had covered at least five hundred meters or more. The mine was gone from sight.

That was an effective travel method, though. I licked my lips, reaching for another talisman.

"Raven?"

The voice froze me. I turned right.

Guess who showed up.

That suspicious silicone woman. And her bodyguard, Lia.