The walk back down the mountain was absolutely miserable.
Kaizen dragged two massive bundles wrapped in dead monks' rags across the thick snow. They clanked loudly with every step. They scraped against the ice. They weighed what felt like an actual ton.
Inside were the spoils of war. Golden trinkets, intact paladin armor pieces, ceremonial swords, enchanted rings, and jewel-encrusted chalices he had frantically raked from the temple floor before the magical cutscene ended and everything disappeared.
As soon as he stepped through the broken archway and crossed the threshold, the ancient magic finally faded away.
Whirrrr.
The magnificent golden cathedral dissolved like smoke. The comforting warmth vanished instantly. The majestic white marble walls crumbled back into grey, moss-covered ruins that looked like they had been abandoned for centuries.
But the loot? The beautiful, valuable loot stayed completely real and solid.
Kaizen paused in the freezing cold, his breath misting heavily in the air. He looked back one last time at the empty, silent ruin.
"Five thousand years," he whispered to himself.
He tried desperately to wrap his head around that concept. Five entire millennia of standing in the exact same place, crying over a single mistake, completely unable to move forward. It was genuinely terrifying to think about.
"I cannot even focus on homework for five minutes without getting distracted. How do you hold onto sadness for that impossibly long?"
It made him think seriously about purpose. Sir Cassiel had a purpose, even if it was a terrible one: Atonement. It was an absolutely crappy purpose that made him miserable, but it kept him existing for thousands of years.
'What is my purpose?'
Kaizen looked down at his freezing hands. One held two heavy rags full of stolen gold. The other held a rusty pan that had somehow become his signature weapon.
'Survival? Is that really it? Just not dying?'
It felt incredibly hollow. He did not know who he was before day before yesterday morning. He did not know if he had a real family waiting for him somewhere in the real world, or if he really was just randomly generated code designed to fill an empty seat at the academy.
"I need to find out the truth," he decided while gripping the rags tighter. "I need to know if I am actually real or just a glitch."
He tugged the bundle forward. It refused to budge even an inch.
He tugged harder with both hands.
Rip.
A golden chalice fell out of a tear in the fabric and rolled away into the snow.
Kaizen stared at it blankly. Then he looked at the two massive bundles he had so greedily compiled.
"I am a complete idiot."
He grabbed his hair with both hands and pulled.
"I am a tactical moron! Why did I not ask Gino for that storage ring?! Why did I not prioritize inventory space over raw loot?!"
He could not drag this massive haul into civilization.
First problem: it was way too heavy. He had a Strength stat of three. He was currently hauling this treasure with nothing but sheer willpower and overwhelming greed.
Second problem: it was incredibly conspicuous. If he walked onto a public bus dragging a bloody sack full of gold and blood-stained holy armor, he would not make it to the city. He would be mugged, arrested, or possibly both at the same time.
"Arghhh!" Kaizen kicked the snow in frustration. "I have an actual fortune, but I cannot cash it out!"
He desperately needed a better plan.
He dug through the bundle frantically. He pushed aside a heavy breastplate. He shoved away the golden goblets.
He found it.
A small, nondescript knife. It was one of the basic side-arms that the Paladins used to carry.
[Item: Sun-Etched Dagger]
[Rank: E]
[Durability: Low]
It was not powerful. It was not flashy or impressive. But it was small enough to fit in his pocket.
"You will do perfectly," Kaizen whispered while pocketing the ancient knife.
He spent the next hour working like a desperate squirrel preparing for winter. He dragged the heavy bundles deep into the treeline where nobody would find them. He buried them under a thick layer of snow and ice, packing it down hard until it looked exactly like a natural drift. He marked the specific pine tree with a small scratch from the knife so he could find it again.
"Stay right there," he warned the snowbank seriously. "Do not go anywhere."
He stripped off his heavy thermal climbing suit because he could not walk into the city looking like a mountaineer without raising suspicious questions. He hid that in the snow too.
Then, shivering violently in just his tracksuit, he began the long descent down the mountain.
Two hours later.
Kaizen stepped off the public bus in the city center. He was cold, exhausted, and hungry again, but his eyes were burning with intense focus.
He walked past the Fire Demon Pan Seller's usual spot. The wooden crate was empty. The emaciated man was gone.
'Good,' Kaizen thought with genuine relief. 'I hope he got a hot meal with that coin.'
He pushed through the bead curtain of Gino's shop.
Clack-clack.
Gino was sitting behind the counter, carefully polishing a gem. He looked up casually, and his eyebrows immediately shot up into his hairline.
"Well, well," Gino chuckled while putting down the gem. "The prodigal son returns. And you are somehow still alive."
He pulled out a pocket watch and checked it.
"Your time isn't even up. I gave you two full days."
Gino leaned forward across the counter, his grin widening like a shark.
"Did you give up already? Did you come crawling back to beg for an extension? Or maybe you are here to admit that you failed and I can finally have your pretty black card?"
Kaizen did not say a single word.
He walked calmly to the counter. He reached into his pocket.
Clatter.
He threw the small, E-Rank dagger onto the wooden surface.
Gino stared at it. He picked it up delicately with two fingers, looking completely unimpressed.
"A knife?" Gino scoffed. "You want to pay off a one hundred thousand crown debt with a cheap paring knife?"
He pulled a jeweler's loupe from his vest and screwed it into his eye socket. He examined the blade closely.
"Steel is mediocre quality. Edge is dull. Enchantment is barely even active."
Gino threw the knife back onto the table dismissively.
"It is E-Rank garbage. Worth maybe twenty thousand crowns on a good day. And that is me being extremely generous."
Gino's friendly face hardened. The merchant mask slipped away, revealing the predatory shark beneath.
"We had a deal, kid. One hundred thousand crowns. You are eighty thousand short. The card stays with me permanently."
Kaizen did not even flinch. He just smiled.
"Look closer, Gino."
"I already looked!" Gino snapped. "It is junk!"
"Look at the date," Kaizen whispered. "Carbon date it with your mana. Look very carefully at the engravings on the hilt."
Gino frowned. He picked up the knife again with more care this time. He pushed mana into his loupe.
[Appraising Age...]
Gino's eye started twitching.
"Five..." he muttered in confusion. "Five hundred years?"
"Keep going," Kaizen said.
"Five... thousand years?"
Gino froze completely. He dropped the loupe. It swung on its chain.
He looked at the knife with completely new eyes. He looked at the faint, worn carvings on the handle. Sun motifs. Prayers written in a language that had been dead for multiple millennia.
"This is not just a weapon," Gino breathed, his hands trembling slightly. "This is an actual artifact."
"From the ruins of the Sun Temple," Kaizen confirmed while leaning casually on the counter. "Before it fell. That knife was carried by a Paladin of the Dawn during the Great Purification five thousand years ago."
Gino swallowed hard.
An E-Rank knife was worth maybe twenty thousand crowns. But a five-thousand-year-old artifact from a lost civilization?
"Collectors would literally kill for this," Gino whispered. "Museums would pay a fortune. Private buyers would start bidding wars."
He looked up at Kaizen. The greedy hunger in his eyes was replaced by something else entirely. Respect. And maybe a little bit of fear.
"One hundred thousand," Gino said hoarsely. "That is the value."
"That is exactly what we agreed on," Kaizen grinned. "Debt paid?"
Gino stared at the ancient knife, then at the insane boy in front of him.
"Debt paid," Gino nodded slowly. "You crazy bastard."
Kaizen smiled widely, showing teeth, and Gino immediately knew from that expression that this crazy bastard was about to say something even more insane.
Kaizen slowly said the most insane thing a broke man could say at the moment.
"You can have it for free."