The Heaven-Cursed Costs Life, But I Have Infinite Life-Chapter 18: Distributing Crystal Cores, Exiting the Dungeon
"Allen, what are you doing? Do you think you’re going to hoard all these crystal cores?" one student shouted angrily, pointing at Allen.
Others quickly surrounded them, furious but unwilling to attack.
Allen was a Heaven-Cursed. When he fought, he cast Forbidden Spells. Even with over five hundred students here, they were all newbies who had just awakened their classes. They stood no chance against him.
"Hmph!"
Allen sneered, his cold eyes scanning the crowd. "You can have the crystal cores if you pay for them."
"On what grounds? These cores dropped from goblins in the Academy’s new student dungeon. They should belong to everyone!"
"Exactly! Don’t you care if you anger the Old Dean?"
"Allen, even though you awakened an SSS-Rank class, you’re a short-lived Heaven-Cursed. No one will protect you."
The crowd shouted in anger, but still, no one dared to make a move.
Lilia knew it was time for her to step in.
"Everyone, please calm down," she said firmly.
The angry students immediately fell silent and turned to look at her.
"These crystal cores now belong to the City Lord’s Mansion," she continued. "If you want them, we can sell them to you at 60% of the market price."
"80%!" Allen muttered angrily.
Was this girl trying to do charity? Crystal cores were in high demand everywhere, especially the high-rank ones, which were always bought at a premium.
In Allen’s eyes, even at 90% of the market price, these students would fight to buy them.
If he had more influence and wasn’t worried about the others not paying up, he would have taken this deal himself.
"Oh, right, 80%,"
Lilia said quickly, feeling a bit awkward as she tucked a stray hair behind her ear.
The students glared at Allen, angry that he had ruined their chance at a cheaper deal.
They thought Lilia was trying to give them a 60% discount, and it was all this jerk’s fault. They muttered to themselves, "Just a kid from the slums, he doesn’t understand the world." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖
Though they cursed silently inside, an 80% price was still very tempting. They knew they could resell them immediately after leaving the dungeon for a huge profit.
"Lilia, we’d also like to buy some, but we don’t have any money on us," one student complained.
"Yeah," others nodded in agreement. "We came here for the Academy’s dungeon trial, so we didn’t bring any gold coins."
Allen and Lilia had planned this all along.
Lilia spoke up. "We can give you the crystal cores now. Just make sure to pay us before tonight at the City Lord’s Mansion."
With the City Lord’s Mansion involved, no one dared to skip payment. Unless they wanted to end their lives in Blackspire immediately.
"Lilia, I’ll take all the crystal cores here!" someone shouted, raising his hand first.
Allen recognized him. It was Daniel. His family ran a profitable business in potions and herbs and held a lot of influence.
"What gives you the right to take everything? The Macbeth family wants half!" another student argued.
"There are over 40,000 crystal cores here. Can the Macbeth family handle that? I’ll take 10,000!" spoke another rich student named Owen. His family made weapons and armor, and he was powerful too.
Others wanted to join the bidding war, but their families weren’t strong enough to compete. They stayed silent.
"Everyone, calm down," Lilia interrupted. "You might be able to buy all these cores, but you can’t carry them all out at once."
They suddenly realized they didn’t have any storage bags. They could only carry a few hundred at most.
"Lilia, what should we do?" Noah asked, looking troubled.
Lilia was ready. "Here’s the plan: The common students can take the Stage 1, Level 1 cores. You three wouldn’t care for such low-grade stuff anyway. For the rest, the three of you divide them equally. We’ll have students help carry them out. It’s no problem for each of you to take a hundred cores."
The three families’ eyes lit up. It was a great solution.
However, they didn’t want to give up the Stage 1, Level 1 cores either.
Even though normal prices weren’t worth their time, the 80% deal meant a huge profit.
Noah looked at the crowd and said, "Anyone willing to help me carry crystal cores? I’ll pay 20 gold coins per person."
"I’ll do it!"
"Noah, count me in!"
Many students’ faces brightened. They immediately agreed. For most of them, they couldn’t afford to buy many cores even at an 80% discount. It was better to help carry them and earn an extra 20 gold coins.
The dungeon trial was quickly forgotten.
"The Macbeth family will offer the same payment!" they shouted.
"We’ll do it too!" Owen added quickly.
The three great families split the crystal cores equally. They even decided not to give up the low-level Stage 1, Level 1 cores.
Allen and Lilia didn’t stop them.
They had planned for the other students to buy the cores with these three families acting as guarantors, but since the three great families were buying them directly, that extra step wasn’t needed.
Besides, these families wouldn’t dare to default on their payment.
Soon, the distribution was complete. Out of the 400+ students, everyone walked out carrying about 100 crystal cores.
Allen spoke up. "The dungeon is empty of goblins. Let’s head back."
No one argued. They hadn’t leveled up, but they had earned 20 gold coins for free. As for the graduation exam, they would just have to take risks and hunt monsters in the wild to grow stronger.
They reactivated the teleportation array one by one and left the dungeon.
Before she left, Lilia paused and decided to take the demonic soldier’s body with her.
...
In the Academy courtyard, Headmaster Flynn and the other teachers were still waiting nearby.
Suddenly, the air shimmered with a wave of magical energy. Light flashed, and a group of students appeared out of thin air.
"Wait a minute," Flynn frowned, seeing them. "You just entered the dungeon. Why are you back so soon?"
He noticed everyone was carrying heavy packages and smiling broadly.
"Headmaster," Lilia stepped forward. She dropped the demonic soldier’s corpse at Flynn’s feet and said, "A demonic soldier invaded the dungeon. It killed all the goblins."
"What? A demonic soldier?" the teachers gasped. They recognized the battered body as a demonic soldier.
"Are you all safe?" a female teacher asked, looking at the students with worry.
Demonic soldiers are incredibly strong. Even the weakest ones are at Stage 5, Level 1. These new students shouldn’t have been able to fight them.
"Don’t worry, teacher. We are fine. Thanks to Lilia and Allen, they took down the demonic soldier," one student said gratefully.
Lilia and Allen killed a demonic soldier?
The teachers frowned, looking suspicious.
They looked over at Allen. He was a Forbidden Spellcaster. Did he burn his own life force to cast a forbidden spell to defeat the beast?
But Allen looked perfectly healthy, not aged or drained at all.
"As long as no one was hurt," Flynn sighed with relief, looking at the corpse. The appearance of a demonic soldier in a beginner’s dungeon was a nightmare he hadn’t expected. If the higher-ups found out, he would be in serious trouble. Fortunately, no students had died.
"By the way, what are you all carrying?" he asked, noticing that everyone was wrapped in a bundle of something.
"Crystal cores," a student replied. They couldn’t hide this.
"Crystal cores? All of them?" Flynn’s eyes went wide, and his breathing quickened.
Over 400 students, excluding Lilia and Allen, were all bulging with crystal cores. Each carried at least 100, totaling over 40,000 cores. This was a goldmine!
A wide grin spread across Flynn’s face. "You all did great. Put the cores down. Go back and get some rest. If you want to form a team and hunt monsters in the wild to level up, that is also fine."
No one moved. They just stared at the old Dean like he was insane.
"Headmaster," Noah spoke up first. "These are our earnings. How can we just give them to you?"
"Exactly! The rules are clear: everything found in the graduation dungeon belongs to the students."
"Headmaster,if you really want these crystal cores, you can just buy them from us. We won’t charge too much—just 10% above the market price."
"Yeah, that sounds fair," the rest agreed, hugging their bundles of crystals tightly.
The old Dean frowned, his face turning red with embarrassment. "But you didn’t kill the goblins yourselves. Even if the loot belongs to individuals, it should go to Lilia and Allen, not you."
He then turned a fake smile toward the two of them, silently hoping they would back him up.
Lilia stepped forward with a straight face. "That’s true. They do belong to us. However, Allen already gave his share to the City Lord’s Mansion, and I sold mine to the other students."
She paused, looking completely innocent, then hit him with a sharp line: "Headmaster, are you seriously planning to steal from the City Lord’s Mansion?"
