Hours later, an entire night had passed, and a new day had dawned.
On his third day in The Rocky Gorge, Vicente was only a few minutes away from reaching the second location in the area marked by the goblins.
After resting, eating, and even meditating in the more than 24 hours since his confrontation with the 3rd stage basilisk, Vicente was ready to face it again if necessary.
However, he had no intention of facing the creature head-on if he didn't have to!
After cooling his head from the confrontation hours ago, he wanted the goblin map to lead him to the basilisk's nest, where he would loot the items such a beast had accumulated.
He wanted to leave The Rocky Gorge without facing the creature again, if possible.
Vicente knew the soldiers of the kingdom's army would probably take care of the basilisk, even if he didn't worry about the creature.
The creature's body might have been valuable to him, but getting resources and returning to Millfall in one piece was the most important thing for Vicente now.
As he approached his goal, he used the sneaky skills he had developed as a thief who stole properties when he was only a subordinate of the Mazzanti family on Earth.
Camouflaging his mana and using ambient sounds to disguise his movements, he soon came to an area with little vegetation and a great waterfall of The Rocky Gorge.
There, on one of the borders of this area, an extremely secluded and quiet area, he tried to move through the gorge's rocks, climbing its almost completely vertical walls.
The place he was heading for was a few meters above the level of the river that formed behind the waterfall, a very well-hidden place for those less attentive.
But for Vicente, who already knew where to look, the place was easy to spot, and in less than 10 minutes of climbing, he came to a large entrance.
As he tried to peer inside, Vicente narrowed his eyes and saw that the goblins had indeed discovered the location of the basilisk's nest!
'Fucking goblins! You really are great bandits! Maybe I'll add some of you to my family in the future!' Vicente laughed when he saw the goblins had helped him a lot with his mission in this area of The Rocky Gorge.
The basilisk wasn't around at the moment, so Vicente hurried into the cave, which had about 30 cubic meters of space, not that big, but enough for a beast to store its belongings and have a resting place.
Beasts didn't meditate like magicians. They simply slept after eating mana-rich food, and when they awoke, they would be stronger from both the energy of the food and the free mana around them.
That's why every beast had to have a resting place like a nest.
Therefore, Shelby knew the 3rd-stage basilisk must have a place like the one Vicente was looking at now, where various belongings of the beast's victims were kept.
Some human resources were useful to the beasts, but many others were not. However, it was not uncommon for beasts to keep the belongings of their victims.
These were like medals, symbols of their victories and conquests.
Vicente soon noticed the many 'medals' the basilisk he had faced hours ago had.
Many weapons were among the items in the basilisk's nest: 1st, 2nd, and even a 3rd-grade shield were there!
'It looks like that beast has killed some rich people.' Vicente pondered as he stored the partially damaged shield in his spatial ring.
With a little work from a blacksmith like Benson, that shield would be as good as new!
But he wasn't too surprised that something of such high quality was in this nest.
Normally, magicians carried artifacts of a grade equal to or lower than their magic stage. In other words, an Acolyte would have 2nd or 1st-grade items, while a Mage would have 3rd, 2nd, or 1st-grade items.
Higher-level items were costly, and some even had requirements that demanded magicians of equal or higher stages to use them.
But the biggest limiting factor was the price of these items, which usually made it impossible for stage "x" magicians to have items of a grade higher than "x."
However, wealthy people often had higher-level items, especially defensive items.
Collecting the items in that nest, which had several skeletons of humans and beasts around, Vicente would soon find a 3rd-grade spatial ring, probably something from the same owner as the damaged shield.
'Oh? That's interesting.' He smiled as he got past the spatial ring's defenses and gained access to the items stored within it.
Spatial rings were easy to access when they were new or when their owners were incapacitated or even dead.
Simply put, spatial storage items were ordinary metals enchanted by enchanters. With the enchantment, the wearer could leave a mark on it, which worked like a padlock. Only the person with the key could open it when all was well with the ring's owner.
But if the ring were weakened for any reason, breaking the lock would be as easy as taking candy from a child!
Vicente gained access to that 3rd-grade item after only 5 seconds of trying and soon found interesting riches for a person like him.
'Magic stones... 10 magic stones!' Vicente's eyes widened considerably.
With these magic stones, he could allow some of his men or himself to raise their level quickly if he was willing to lose these essences forever. If he wasn't willing, he could use them as 'batteries' for himself and his men.
'If I use these 10 magic stones simultaneously, I'll temporarily have a similar amount of mana as a 3rd stage magician!' Vicente's eyes lit up at the possibilities these 'batteries' could give him.
With all of them, he wouldn't have the power of a 3rd stage magician, but he would have the mana of someone like that for a while, something fantastic for dealing with opponents of the same strength as his!
At least he wouldn't lose to exhaustion with something like that on his side!
Vicente smiled when he saw how rich he would be if he had these magic stones on his side. Even if half of them belonged to Shelby by right, he would use them as he wished while in this forest area.
Putting them on a makeshift necklace, Vicente quickly collected the coins, pills, potions, and unenchanted magic items, leaving the enchanted ones behind.
Why did he do this? The basilisk's victims had died and were probably missing. So as not to be implicated in any kind of investigation that might use markings on enchanted items such as rings, Vicente decided to leave such items behind and quickly collect everything else.
