Chapter 57: Financial Revenue

West Hamlet.

A filthy transaction of life unfolded.

Maria handed over the money, and together with the other four, brought the life of the Radiant Marsh Wolf-Dragon to an end.

Melina watched as Maria handed a bag of gold leyis to G, feeling a slight pang of heartache.

Then G pulled her and Lyon aside, and the three of them split the gold leyis evenly.

Receiving 200 gold leyis instantly brought smiles back to Melina’s face. This unexpected windfall heavily replenished her already depleted small treasury. More importantly, the money Maria gave was merely the entry fee to kill the marsh wolf-dragon; the materials obtained after the kill required an additional purchase.

Sonia watched with burning envy, but since Soso had no need for marsh dragon armor sets, she did not participate.

...

The four of them worked together to pierce the head of this Radiant Marsh Dragon with their swords, ending the life of the beast that had been terrorizing Brightfall Town, Raccoon Town, and Hamlet Town.

"Good job!" Sonia applauded from the side. At the same time, she muttered under her breath, loud enough only for Melina to hear: "Is killing this mutated radiant species a good thing right now? Is it the right thing to do..."

Taking advantage of the others busy processing the materials, Melina leaned in close.

"Hm? Little Mei?"

She stared at Sonia, puffing out her cheeks. "Didn't you come here precisely to change the future? This dragon fused with the werewolf statue—surely an event like this never happened in the future, right?"

"That's true..." Sonia thought for a moment and smiled self-deprecatingly. She whispered, "I occasionally get startled by the changes in the future."

"What matters is not the past future, but our present."

Seeing that she had figured it out, Melina let out a cheerful "hmph," and trotted in short steps toward Maria and the others, who were busy dismembering the dragon corpse.

Since there were too many people present, Old Ma found it inconvenient to use her own abilities. Sporting a dazzling, sun-bright smile and holding a bone saw, she proceeded to perform a bloody and terrifying task.

Seeing Melina walk over, Maria reflexively narrowed her eyes.

She worried that little Mei was getting restless again.

Ah-Mei's habit was to flaunt her martial prowess constantly after a hunt. Both she and Sonia had witnessed this far too often. Once Melina completed a kill, she would act as though she were "satisfied," start wandering around aimlessly with a wandering attention span, and during safe hunts, she might even pull off some fancy tricks...

Maria took the initiative to greet her: "Melina, do you want to keep any materials for gear?"

"..." Melina twitched her waist instinctively, as if she had a cat's tail behind her, and glanced left and right at the Radiant Marsh Dragon. She asked: "How is the Radiant Marsh Dragon Spear?"

Speaking of equipment, Louisa had something to say.

Louisa said with keen interest: "A spear made from marsh dragon materials, even if it's from a radiant species, only boosts healing output."

"Armor is decent, though. If you upgrade the ore set to radiant dragon, there's a high probability of rolling [Ammo Blast], a critical-hit skill exclusive to marksmen. Upgrading the brass set only gives healing enhancement and movement enhancement. Upgrading the silver set has a certain chance to yield the most popular skill: Full Party Healing."

As soon as Louisa finished speaking, Melina ran off to the side with an expression of utter disgust, stood on tiptoes to wave at Sonia, and shouted: "Just exchange all of it for money for me!"

A healing spear? Although nice, Melina didn't want it.

It simply didn't fit her personality!

During the hunt, her combat style had already become quite clear. Defense wasn't suitable for her... Melina recalled her brief stint as a defender trying to take the brunt of the Radiant Marsh Wolf-Dragon's charge.

It wasn't that she couldn't take the hit, but taking it was genuinely painful.

Sometimes, she would instinctively dodge half a body-width away when the marsh wolf-dragon charged, but then she would think, *Ah, I'm the defender now,* and hurriedly step back into position, pretending she hadn't lost her footing, bracing against the marsh wolf-dragon's impact with a second burst of effort.

That was clearly not her style! And it was also exhausting... Melina possessed the trait of not minding dirty or hard work, yet simultaneously loathing dirty and hard work. To put it simply, if something needed doing, she could step up, but if everything was fine, she would rather let the years be peaceful and let others bear the heavy burdens.

The loot was quickly dismantled.

Huge though the dragon was, there were only a few parts useful to explorers. Incidentally, this dragon was male, and Mr. Lyon managed to harvest the proof of masculinity despite the others' reluctance. Such items could fetch a good price in the royal capital, easily reaching over a hundred gold leyis.

There were no dragon horns; that pair of wolf ears wasn't even worth 1 gold leyi.

The massive dragon tail was valued at 15 gold leyis. Due to its enormous size, it required an alchemist proficient in alchemy to process it—shrinking it down to the normal size of a weapon. Dragon tails were generally processed this way, but the required skill of the alchemist varied depending on the size. And as for this one...

Powerful alchemists looked down on this dragon tail. Less powerful alchemists couldn't process this dragon tail. That was why its valuation wasn't high.

Two dragon canine teeth were valued at 115 gold leyis. This pair of teeth could be used to make dual swords or dual daggers. If one wanted to be extravagant, they could save them until an alchemist could shrink them in the future and turn them into kunai. It was a great entry-level choice for Tier 6 kunai armament, carrying a slight lifesteal effect, so there was no need to worry about recovery issues (or so they said...).

Four Radiant Marsh Dragon claws were valued at 600 gold leyis. These were mutated products, unusually carrying a massive amount of evolutionary factors and wolf blood factors. This stuff was immensely precious because it wasn't a good choice for making armaments; instead, it was used to concoct various potions. As the saying went, armaments and equipment had freshness requirements, but potion materials didn't care about freshness—they were the ultimate trade goods.

The mutated wing membranes and wolf claws were valued at 140 gold leyis. They had been completely shattered, possessing almost no value for crafting equipment, but since they were packed with evolutionary factors, they could be used for metallurgy. Metallurgical raw materials didn't care about freshness, so they still held a certain value.

Finally, the weather-controlling magic factor control organ was the best thing on the marsh dragon and the most valuable merchandise on the Radiant Marsh Wolf-Dragon. Because powerful magic factors had completely altered this organ, the evolutionary factors left behind by the werewolf statue granted it the true power to alter weather phenomena. It was valued at 2,000 gold leyis, an unadulterated high price.

After clearing the prices of the organ materials, the remaining magic factors didn't yield anything exceptionally good; only the fixed radiant species factors produced a decent selling price of one to two hundred gold leyis. By the way, the buyer was Katerina. She intended to mix the radiant species factors with various rubbers to see if she could whip up more durable wheel materials.

The proceeds from the entire dragon, including dragon blood, dragon scales, and magic factors, came out to around 3,500 gold leyis. One must remember that the Radiant Marsh Wolf-Dragon was only around Tier 7, and the total value of a dragon of this tier was usually only around 1,500-plus gold leyis. Mutation instantly drove the income expectations up by more than double—it couldn't get any higher than that. However, the danger was equally high; normal Tier 5 explorers hunting a radiant species ran the risk of getting killed themselves instead...

At the same time, having a wealthy backer made things much easier.

Dragon materials were best processed on the very day they were hunted. If they needed to be transported and sent to the royal capital for sale, the price would be discounted again. In the end, the market price for a Tier 7 dragon's materials was only around 1,000 gold leyis, sometimes even dropping below 1,000, because mishaps happened—like Melina and the others smashing wing membranes worth over 300 gold leyis down to a mere 140...

Right here, however, the banshees could directly claim the materials they wanted and pay cash.

Even though each of them claimed to be poorer than the last, when it came to savings, everyone had a stash.

The marsh dragon claws were completely bought out by Louisa, who happened to be capable of processing them.

The dragon blood and dragon scales were purchased in full by Maria, who also bought two dragon canine teeth, intending to grind them into powder to enhance the potency of the marsh dragon armor set.

The remaining marsh wolf-dragon factors and the most expensive magic factor control organ were bought by Sonia. Sonia claimed she was going to build a weather-control device that would ensure favorable winds and timely rain... Wish her luck; then again, she might have just bought them forcibly so that Melina and the others would turn a profit—hard to say.

Originally, she also wanted to buy the useless dragon tail, but unexpectedly, Cat Gnaroth decisively extended a paw.

Clockwork cats were major buyers of dragon materials. They would often suddenly reach out and purchase certain materials with the sole purpose of—eating them! The dragon tail of the Radiant Marsh Wolf-Dragon was rumored to be a delicacy. Cat Gnaroth, the Clockwork Tabby, and Katerina's duo of skinny and fat cats pooled their money together and bought it.

As for the pride of that radiant marsh dragon, it was silently purchased by Mayor Lyon with a reddened face.

"What, what's wrong? What's wrong with drinking too much?"

No matter what Mayor Lyon said, it sounded ridiculous.

Miss G wore a very good-humored smile and politely said to Lyon:

"There is a bag of mummy powder in my box..."

"I don't need it!" Lyon reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, flailing his arms and legs as he babbled explanations about curiosity or losing his edge a bit from drinking too much, provoking raucous laughter from the spectators—the four clockwork cats.

Since all the materials had been sold, Melina immediately split the money on the spot with G and Lyon, receiving 962 gold leyis... Don't ask why it was considerably less; there were local explorer guild taxes and small-town capital taxes.

One had to admit that Cat Gnaroth truly was a professional clockwork cat, instantly calculating the post-tax funds. Compared with the mental calculation Melina had made, the figures were identical!

Going out on a single trip and reaping close to a thousand gold leyis made Melina realize once again the exorbitant profits of being an explorer.

Even Mayor Lyon beamed with joy over this sum of money, while G had already begun probing around for local land prices.

Mostly because Sonia was exceptionally generous with her spending, paying entirely in cash, which was simply too alluring. No one could resist the temptation of these glittering little objects...

After receiving her money, Melina immediately puffed out her chest and raised her head, prompting all the banshees present to cast stealthy side-long glances.

Her confidence soared!

She decided to use this hard-earned money to fiercely upgrade two elemental firearms and raise her gear score!

Strictly speaking, the Radiant Marsh Wolf-Dragon was a Tier 5 transitioning to Tier 6. The reason it was considered Tier 7 was simply because the valuation of its weather-altering ability was inflated. Even so, Meme still had to rely on attrition for her damage output, expending nearly 4 to 5 gold leyis worth of ammunition just to take down this dragon. She urgently needed to upgrade at least two Flintlock Maidens into elemental firearms; her current damage output was starting to fall behind.

After that, her defensive gear also needed to be updated. During close-quarters scuffles, Melina had almost been taken out because of the brass set's reverse bunny-girl design. If not for her magic factors being overwhelmingly dominant and giving her a naturally terrifyingly high defense, Melina might have genuinely gotten into trouble.

Yet, after calculating her expenses, Melina's confidence vanished just as quickly.

Over 900 gold leyis—used to upgrade firearms, two of them would pretty much wipe it all out.