"Let’s keep holding back for now. This is only the first floor." Phield’s instincts told him never to celebrate too early. He swept his gaze across the room. Everyone else was celebrating. "Something about this doesn’t feel right. Maybe I’m just being overly cautious."

"Then trust your judgment and do what you believe is right. You still have me." Tisiana smiled warmly as she took Phield’s hand.

"Damn it. She actually touched my foot slave. Unforgivable."

Rosalia watched everything from inside the greatsword. She was so furious that she nearly burst out of it, sounding as though she wanted to chop Tisiana down on the spot.

Phield silently gave a thumbs up. "Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing. When it’s time to move, I’ll move."

After everyone finished off the last dying Flayed Banshee, an exquisite gray treasure chest slowly materialized atop the stone platform in the center of the ruins. At the same moment, information about the chest appeared in everyone’s mind.

Divine Artifact: Plutus’s Secret Treasury

Tier: Zero, Racial Heritage Grade, Single Use

Origin: Goddess of Wealth and Collection

Spend soul power to open it, and you will obtain the thing you desire most. Since it is a Zero Tier artifact, it can only grant an item with no grade.

"A Zero Tier consumable Divine Artifact." Phield frowned, immediately catching onto an important detail.

"I’ll do it!"

The nearest bandit lunged forward and slapped his hand onto the treasure chest.

A flash of golden light burst forth.

One gold bar after another shot out of the chest before crashing onto the ground, piling into a gleaming mountain worth at least two million gold coins. Once the last gold bar had been expelled, the chest vanished, and a massive gate leading to the next chamber appeared in the distance.

"Gold bars!"

The sailors, adventurers, and bandits around them stared with bulging eyes. The gold coins they had scrambled over earlier suddenly seemed worthless.

Even the normally composed Transcendents found it difficult to remain calm in the face of such unimaginable wealth.

"We’re rich! This is exactly what I’ve been dreaming of!" a pirate shouted ecstatically as he pulled out a burlap sack and stuffed it full of gold bars. "From now on, I’ll drink one cup and pour out ten. And when I go looking for women, I’ll hire ten at once!"

The next instant...

"Splurt!"

The pirate’s grin froze.

His eyes widened in horror as a sapphire blue spear pierced straight through his body, pinning him to the ground.

"Who gave you permission to touch what’s ours?" Marianne casually flung the pirate’s corpse aside as though it were garbage. "Lord Riemann, leader of this alliance, hasn’t even spoken yet. You’re hardly qualified to claim these gold bars."

"Riemann, what the hell is this supposed to mean?" the pirate captain roared as he watched his subordinate die. "You dare kill one of my men? Do you still expect merchant ships to sail peacefully in the future? Don’t forget, our pirate crew contributed the fragment of the Golden Key."

"That’s true," one of the black robed mages sneered as he strode forward. "But pirates are nothing more than freeloading trash. What right do you have to share the treasure?"

He let out a sinister chuckle.

"Frankly, there was never any need to bring pirates into this expedition. They waste supplies and weaken our formation. We’d get more use out of turning them into undead soldiers."

Riemann smiled pleasantly, though there was something unsettling beneath it.

"Everyone, let’s not fight. We’ve all fought and bled together."

"Exactly. We contributed too." The pirate captain laughed loudly before turning toward the approaching Farlo. "Isn’t that right? Noble Twilight Knights. I say first come, first served. These treasures..."

"Enough!"

The righteous looking Farlo’s face darkened with terrifying intensity.

She bellowed, and the force of her voice alone sent such a powerful gust through the chamber that it blew the pirate captain’s eyepatch clean off.

"What did I ever do to you? Fine, we’ll leave right now!" The pirate captain felt as though an invisible hand had clenched around his heart. The crushing pressure made it difficult even to breathe.

"Do you not understand that every treasure here was prepared for humanity’s fate and for the war against evil?" Farlo shouted. "Yet you, blinded by demons, care only about meaningless wealth. You wasted an invaluable chance to open the chest. Go repent!"

Without giving him any chance to explain, Farlo raised her slab like greatsword and brought it crashing down.

"Ahhh!"

The sickening sounds of shattering bones and exploding flesh echoed through the chamber.

The pirate captain was smashed from head to toe into a grotesque two dimensional smear, reduced to a mangled heap of red and yellow pulp.

"So ruthless. I knew there was more to the Twilight Knights than met the eye." Phield’s heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively took a step backward. At that very moment, he felt several murderous gazes lock onto him. "Tisiana, stay alert."

"I feel them too." Tisiana immediately became vigilant.

"Kill every last pirate! They are the demons’ lackeys!"

With a thunderous roar, Farlo swept her enormous sword across the battlefield, slaughtering pirate after pirate in a single stroke.

"Please... spare us."

"You can have the gold. I don’t want it anymore."

"I want to go home. I just want to go home."

Their earlier declaration of unity had become nothing more than a cruel joke.

One by one, the pirates were captured and butchered by the Twilight Knights.

After wiping the blood from her blade, Farlo turned toward everyone else with a face full of righteous conviction.

"Lord Riemann, the merfolk have always been loyal allies of the Stormsea Mercantile Nation." Contily quietly swallowed before continuing. "Our warriors, along with our two Divine Chosen, can help you open more treasure chests. All we ask for is a single sacred treasure belonging to the merfolk."

"You’re more than welcome," Riemann replied warmly.

"The Adventurers’ Guild will join as well." A representative stepped forward timidly. "We have a Second Tier Divine Chosen. Just give us a small share of the money at the end."

"Heh heh heh. We of the Necromancers’ Association despise those self righteous hypocrites. We’ll join Lord Riemann’s alliance too."

"Oh yeah! We barbarians are in as well."

Everyone immediately chose a side.

"Lord Phield, we need your strength."

Both factions turned their eyes toward Phield simultaneously.

"I have no intention of competing with either side." Phield smiled with harmless innocence. "Actually, I have another nickname. The Philanthropist of House Ross."

Tilting his head forty five degrees toward the invisible sky, he struck an unnecessarily dramatic pose.

"I simply wish to experience the scenery of life."

"Lord Phield is so handsome!"

Tisiana and Firomina instantly transformed into starry eyed admirers, clapping enthusiastically with sparkling eyes.

"Impossible!" Marianne snapped. "You’re definitely hiding a Third Tier combat Divine Chosen. You’re just waiting for both sides to wear each other down."

"Exactly!" Shelley nodded repeatedly. "The power you used against us before was Divine Power!"

"That’s right, Lord Phield." Farlo’s tone grew noticeably colder. "Please stop pretending."

"Fine. I’m done pretending." Phield snorted and returned to his usual serious demeanor. "Have none of you even looked at the next floor before trying to kill each other?"

"How foolish."