Defiance of the Fall

There was a small mountain of healing pills, all of them better than the standard-grade items that the General Stores sold.

There were also quite a few one-time items in the vein of the Thunder Punishment Array that he used during the beast hordes.
Most of the ones he had found were useless for himself, but they might save the lives of the soldiers.

Zac decided to make two such items a part of the standard kit for the Valkyries and demons, which would hopefully improve the survival rate in the upcoming battles.
They were things such as fireball-talismans or shield beads that soaked up some damage for the user for a short duration.

There were a few stronger items as well, and Zac ended up saving two of them for himself.
One was a pitch-black glass ball that the old Sky Gnome called a [Void Ball] with some fear in his eyes.
It was a truly dangerous item that actually caused a temporary tear in space.

It was only an E-Grade ball, but it would destabilize over a hundred meters around it.
If Zac himself wasn’t far enough he would kill himself since he couldn’t withstand spatial rifts even with his recent upgrades to his Endurance.
In fact, almost nothing in the F-grade could withstand the spatial storms from the [Void Ball], meaning that it could be used for anything from widespread carnage to destroying arrays.

’

The second item he kept for himself was a defensive item.
It looked like a golden walnut, and it was simply called [Bramble Wall].
If he infused it with cosmic energy it would turn into an enormous dome of thick brambles that could protect against almost any attacks.

Better yet, Zac had a feeling he would be able to strengthen the item even further with the help of his Dao of Trees.
It wasn’t very useful for him personally, but it would make great last-ditch protection if his whole army was in danger for some wide-spread attack.
The [Bramble Wall] could spread a lot further compared to even his Souped-Up [Nature’s Barrier], which wasn’t designed for large area protection.

Unexpectedly the simple-looking prayer-mat he found in the first temple also ended up in his own treasure-pile.
It was a very valuable item made from D-Grade materials.
It was mainly used by cultivators, but it could even help a mortal to absorb Cosmic Energy faster.
Sitting on the mat after a battle would allow Zac to get back to a fighting condition almost twice as fast.

Zac felt that his force would gain a huge all-around boost by the large pile he had just gone through.
Some items were even upgrades for himself who already possessed some of the best gear on Earth.
They would be enormous upgrades for the Valkyries and the Demon Warriors.
And all this was just the smallest of the three categories of loot.

The second smallest pile of treasures was the one that Calrin would sell through the Thayer Consortia since most would be placed into the Merit Exchange.
Port Atwood was simply lacking just about everything at the moment, so most items would be kept.
Still, Calrin estimated the sell-off would bring Zac another 250 to 300 million nexus coins.

A large portion of the items in the sell-off pile was things like gear from the thousands of fallen that had accumulated in his pouch.
Each item was only worth a couple of thousand Nexus Coins, but Calrin believed he could sell the items in bulk to some low-grade planets.
It was the same with the various pills of average efficacy.

There were also a few dozen low-grade Cultivation manuals that Calrin didn’t recommend keeping in the Merit Store.
It would almost be a disservice to allow his own citizens to cultivate using such shitty manuals since it could cause trouble for them down the line.

Instead, the Sky Gnome would pawn them off to hapless rogue cultivators in the multi-verse for a few million a pop.
Zac felt a bit bad about it, but he needed money and the cultivators could only blame themselves if they bought such an important item without understanding it properly.

The final pile would be used to stimulate every sector of Port Atwood, and it ranged from everything from Nexus Crystals to weapons and armor to knowledge.
The information crystals that Zac got from Anzonil was the best collection he got, but not the only one.
There were multiple other crystals that Zac got, mainly form killing the Emperor.

’

Those crystals covered everything from Blacksmithing to Alchemy, though Zac knew that those were just minor paths in the Eastern Trigram Sect.
Still, they would bring a great boost to the productivity and skill of the artisans of the island, especially when combined with The Celestial Artisan heritage.

The sky gnomes estimated the final pile to be valued at roughly 700 million Nexus Coins, excluding the Information Crystals.
That meant that the two piles of average treasures were worth around a billion Nexus Coins, and that was only a small part of the total wealth he brought back.
It was an enormous number and much more than what he possessed before.

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Zac couldn’t even imagine the total wealth he’d bring back if the System hadn’t adjusted the trial ground and removed the real valuable items.
What if the odd Mystic Realm in his possession possessed equivalent wealth as the original Eastern Trigram Sect? Ogras seemed to believe that the realm had roughly the same power levels as the sect after all.

It all depended on what the rest of the odd structure Ogras described contained, but even if they turned into salvagers and stripped the metals from the walls they would likely make billions.
That meant that there might be some really valuable things further in.

Zac had thought that hunting beasts was the most efficient way for him to get richer since he was able to gain tens of millions of Nexus Coins in a Day if he pushed himself.
But exploring ruins in Mystic Realms or looting enemy forces was clearly more lucrative, and Zac understood why there was so much conflict in the multiverse.
War was an extremely profitable business, as long as you won.

Zac couldn ’t help but feel a bit morose as he thought about life in the multi-verse.
He would likely never be able to just sit back and relax since there would always be other people improving while eyeing his wealth.
But Zac was soon brought out of his slightly morbid musings by some movement outside his courtyard.
He looked up and slightly smiled when he saw who it was.

Emily had changed quite a bit in the past month.