Free Web NovelChapter 236: Chapter 234: Too Brutal
Elina did not agree with Hilia’s words.
The next morning, she even chose not to continue with the healing, handing over her clients to them.
"Compared to exploring the ruins, it’s not much money anyway, so let’s not lower our prices, let them do it. We’ll continue delving deeper into the ruins, striving to complete the exploration soon." frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
Hilia noticed Elina’s interest in treating the wounded greatly diminished with the arrival of others.
Or rather, she wasn’t a priest by nature; it was just because no one in the temporary camp could dispel the curses from the ruins that she had to step up.
Now that someone can dispel them, even if only temporarily suppressing them, there’s no need to continue.
"Next, I want to seriously tackle the ruins and see what’s at the top of the central tower!"
"Alright."
That day, Hilia and Elina did not continue to take on the castle maze but chose to leave and head to the nearest town to appraise and sell the materials they had obtained.
By the end of the day, they managed to convert most of the materials into gold coins, keeping only a few materials.
These were metal materials with fewer runes, which Hilia planned to keep in case they needed to replace the parts of their magic puppet at Tier Three.
Afterward, while shopping around in town, Hilia replenished her supply of blank scrolls, preparing to craft some scrolls for use.
As they continued to ascend, the traps and attacks they encountered grew increasingly terrifying, and the ice wall could barely block the assaults of the trap machines.
Fortunately, over the past two days, she and Elina tried integrating the ice wall with Forest Silk, directly embedding the Forest Silk into the ice wall, forming a 1+1=3 super-strong form (i.e., Tier One plus Tier One synthesizes Tier Three).
But despite this, it still couldn’t completely block them, forcing Hilia to use scrolls.
"There are still too few protective skills..."
Another day was spent transforming most of the blank scrolls into various Tier Two defense magic.
In the past two days, they only occasionally provided emergency treatment to heavily injured mercenaries; the rest of the time, they focused on their preparations.
Now it was the third day.
Waking up early, Hilia packed all the scrolls into her bag, stretched, and prepared to call Elina to explore the ruins.
This time, she planned to go all out and climb three layers.
"The tower has a total of 12 layers; it won’t be long before we reach the top... This ancient ruin really integrates the number twelve everywhere."
The maiden muttered to herself, as she opened her tent and walked outside, stopping suddenly.
She saw that after two days, there was a long line outside again.
Seeing her come out, a mercenary immediately shouted, "Priestess, please save us."
Hilia curiously said, "For dispelling, go to the other side; we are no longer priests."
Another voice shouted, "They can’t heal us, and they’ve raised their prices!"
Others quickly echoed this.
"Raised prices?" Hilia was baffled, "Why would they raise prices?"
"Who knows, they were hired by the Royal Mercenary Corps, and we don’t know what conflicts arose, but last night they announced that starting today it’s 10 silver coins; we’d rather come to you!"
Hilia frowned slightly and said discontentedly, "What do you mean by saying that, what do you mean by rather coming to us? I don’t like hearing that, except for particularly serious cases, I’m not treating anyone."
The mercenary who spoke was immediately kicked away by others.
Others hurried to say, "That was a spy from the Royal Mercenary Corps, it’s got nothing to do with us. Priestess, please help us, we’re really struggling."
Hilia, eager to quickly conquer the ancient ruins and return home for her peaceful cultivation, was not inclined to work part-time anymore. She said, "Dispelling curses can be done by any elf; don’t you know any elf friends? Call your elf friends over to do a part-time job."
Hilia disliked this behavior of flocking to others when they offered lower prices, then coming back when the prices increased.
Though it’s human nature, she also could choose not to cater to it.
Change your mind? Too late, we’ve already been put out of business by price competition; it was your choice!
Hilia carefully examined the mercenaries waiting in line.
Although they were all quite injured, none were immediately going to die; there were no mercenaries in need of immediate ICU admission.
Great.
Hilia directly ignored everyone’s cries, went to call Elina, and prepared to enter the ruins.
But Elina, knowing the elves across the way had raised prices, was taken aback, "Why would they suddenly raise prices? That’s not right."
"What’s not right about it, it’s quite normal. The Gods gave me the revelation saying it’s normal business behavior, using low prices to squeeze out competitors, then starting to raise prices for profit..."
"What you’re saying is human business behavior, but as elves, they wouldn’t do such a thing. They are neither night elves nor elven merchants, so it’s impossible for them to do this."
"They may not, but the Royal Mercenary Corps will."
Elina looked at the dwindling line at the treatment point opposite, "I’ll go ask them what happened. If possible, we’ll treat everyone first before embarking on our adventure; no harm in making this money."
Hilia: "..."
This elf maiden... whatever, let her do as she pleases.
The curse of this ruin is too troublesome, and I don’t know why everyone is still so passionate.
Treating once costs 10 to 20 silver coins, which is many ordinary people’s half-month salary; can they break even?
On further thought, as long as one uses an intermediate magic crystal, it seems they indeed can break even...
Watching Elina go over to chat with her kin, Hilia reluctantly opened the camp gates to let the people outside queue up.
"Alright, the last time; next, find your own solutions."
The maiden huffed, extremely displeased, as she sat behind the examination table.
Rose’s voice came, "Let me handle this; watch carefully how Purification Skill removes this curse. When you reach the sixth layer, this skill will be very useful."
Hilia paused, then allowed Rose to take over her body.
A mercenary, with an arrow sticking out of his head and two arrows lodged in his chest, first sat down, "Please, Elf Priestess."
In the camp, Hilia always appeared as an elf to outsiders, a guise already familiar to everyone.
Before leaving this ruin, she did not intend to revert to her true form to avoid being accidentally recognized.
That would complicate things.
Rose did not undo Hilia’s Disguise Skill, keeping everything as it was.
Once the mercenary sat down, the arrow on his head gleamed brightly, nearly poking Hilia’s eye. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
Seeing this, Rose reached out and held the arrow protruding from his head.
The mercenary’s face changed, "Don’t, don’t, don’t, I’ll die!"
Rose calmly said, "If you die by my hand, I can pull you back from Hel."
Then she simply pulled the arrow out.
Poof!
Blood spurted!
All the mercenaries in line turned their heads, some unwilling to watch this scene.
Hilia was the same.
And the mercenary whose arrow was removed screamed as expected.
"Ah—!!!"
