Chapter 113: Securing the Secret Silver

The enemy was right beneath his blade; with a single push, Macbeth would lose his head. Yet, his upbringing and education in his past life had shaped him into a person of integrity, humility, and honesty. He knew how to yield and respect others, refusing to bow his noble head under societal pressure, even at the cost of personal loss. Combined with Donald’s innate innocence and kindness from this life, Donald came to value these virtues even more over time, truly unwilling to discard these beautiful aspects of humanity.

Thus, after regaining his strength, Donald had always avoided using such despicable tactics—his power wasn’t strong enough at the time. But with Macbeth pushing him to this point, it seemed he had no choice but to make an exception.

“Macbeth, today is your doom. It’s an honor for you to die under my moonblade!”

A chill swept through his heart as he raised his blade and severed Macbeth’s head.

With his long-held grudge resolved, Donald felt a profound sense of relief, as if his soul itself had become lighter and clearer. He guessed this was because the lingering attachments from his former self as a young man had dissipated and fully merged with his current self.

It was only then that the barrier between him and this world truly vanished, which would be highly beneficial for his future cultivation and advancement.

After dealing with Macbeth, Donald asked Adde, “Do you know where the Macbeth family’s treasury is?”

Adde glanced at Macbeth’s lifeless body and replied seriously, “The treasury in Giantstone City is behind the lord’s mansion. There’s also a private vault belonging to the Macbeth family in Far Mountain Town, but those are public ones. As for their secret collections, I have no idea.”

Donald thought for a moment and said, “Macbeth is very cautious. His secret study must be the safest place in the mansion. He might have hidden things there. Search carefully!”

With that, he ordered his men to search the entire courtyard, while he himself examined the papers on the desk. Frowning, he went through them one by one. After reading them, he was relieved to have arrived early.

The documents detailed the Macbeth family’s plans and actions for the near future. Not to mention other matters, most of them focused on how to eliminate him while simultaneously dealing a devastating blow to Dalaran and reaping benefits from it—thoughts that filled Donald with dread.

“Fortunately, I arrived early; otherwise, even if I managed to fend off the assassins sent by Macbeth, my territory would still have suffered significant damage. With your intent to destroy me, I can’t blame myself for taking action first. Pity the once-great Lord of Castle Black and Governor of the North, who even in death finds no peace for his soul.”
There are no detailed records about the attempt on his life here, only a vague mention that assassins hired a few days later would arrive. Donald wasn’t too disappointed—being able to know this in advance and prepare accordingly was already quite good.
As for the identity and strength of the assassins, unless they were Gold Rank warriors, he was confident he could ensure they never returned.
“Master, we’ve found it!”
As he was thinking, Uther came to report that after searching the entire courtyard, they had indeed found a secret underground chamber behind the study, likely containing the Macbeth family’s most precious treasures.
Upon reaching the entrance to the basement, Adé excitedly claimed credit, saying, “My lord, Macbeth’s traps are truly ingenious. If it weren’t for my training as a thief, which made me familiar with such traps, I wouldn’t have discovered the hidden door!”
Donald nodded with a smile.
“You’ve earned great merit. Upon returning, I’ll reward you with some stealth equipment!”
“Thank you, my lord! Thank you so much!”
“Alright, since you’re familiar with these traps, open the door.”
Adé immediately took out several small tools and went to disactivate the trap on the hidden door.
Soon, with a click, the door hidden behind the wall was opened.
It seems everyone needs certain skills. He used to think thieves and assassins operated in secrecy, but as long as they could complete their tasks without extreme methods, he was willing to accept them.
“My lord, the door is open. But be careful once inside—there might be other traps in the secret chamber!”
Donald nodded at Adé, then looked at Uther. Uther immediately understood his master’s intent and created a pale golden light barrier around himself before stepping into the hidden door first.
Perhaps because Macbeth believed this was the safest place and wanted easy access, he hadn’t set any traps in the secret chamber. Thus, the four of them entered the underground chamber, hidden about twenty feet beneath the ground, without any accidents.
When they lit the magic crystal lamps, they saw a row of wooden shelves in the chamber, filled with the Macbeth family’s treasures.

Donald casually picked up an item from the shelf beside him and found it to be a golden candelabrum. Judging by its style, it wasn’t recent; likely not only was the material valuable, but it was also an antique with collection worth. There were at least dozens of such gold artifacts on the shelf alone, along with many other antique paintings and calligraphy, all carefully preserved in boxes. Suddenly, Ad cried out, “Oh my god! These are high-grade magic cores—so many!” Donald walked over and saw Ad opening a black box. The contents inside appeared dazzling under the light of the crystal lamp—nothing but crystal-clear magic beast cores. From their size and quality, Donald knew they were all level four or five magic cores, with nearly a hundred in total, worth at least tens of thousands of gold sols. Upon examining them, Donald noticed a small magic array at the bottom of the box—likely designed to prevent the loss of magic power from such precious magical items. There were three more boxes on the same shelf, and Donald opened each one, finding even more treasures. The second box also contained magic cores, but only three—each one as large as a baby’s fist and belonging to high-grade cores. After checking, Donald found that two of them were from level seven fire-type magic beasts, and the third was a level eight core of unknown attribute. High-grade magic cores were extremely rare; even the highest-grade core Donald owned was only level six, and he had paid a hefty price for it. Magic cores above level seven were not even guaranteed to be possessed by silver-ranked powerhouses, as magic beasts generally had greater combat strength than humans. A typical level six magic beast already possessed the strength of a silver-ranked warrior, and even three or five silver-ranked warriors might not be able to defeat it. Thus, the value of these three high-grade cores was immeasurable. Excitedly, Donald opened the third box, which contained three sealed spell scrolls. According to the names on them, they were level four Flight Spell, level four Glorious Shield Spell, and level five Flaming Arrow Spell. With spells for flight, defense, and attack all included, it was unclear how Macbeth had obtained these scrolls. Even his teacher could only copy level six spells, thanks to alchemy enhancements. Ordinary silver-ranked beginners had a success rate of no more than 30% when copying level six spells. Besides the three scrolls, Macbeth’s self-made Moon Elf Wine from the last auction was also there, likely still unused. Donald put the magic cores and scrolls back into the boxes for safekeeping, then opened the final wooden box.

This box was considerably larger than the other three, almost like a chest. Inside were about a hundred silver metal keys, each the size of a finger, emitting a dazzling silver glow. Donald picked up one and scraped it with his fingernail—there was no trace on its surface. Intrigued, he infused magic into it. Unlike ordinary metals that repelled magic, the silver metal seemed to come to life after being infused with magic; not only was there no loss, but it even gained strength. Seeing this, Donald immediately knew what kind of metal it was—entire chestfuls of mithril! Not long ago, he had been wondering how to obtain such precious magical metal, yet robbing his enemies had yielded such a find! “Where did Macbeth get all this mithril?” Donald was very puzzled. In the North, aside from a small vein of mithril discovered in the royal silver mines, no other mithril mines had been known to exist. Moreover, that mithril vein had low yields and was almost depleted a few years ago. Most of the mithril produced was seized by the old-timers in the Kingdom Mage Association. Even a master alchemist like his teacher, Messel, had to pay at least triple the price to get a small share that slipped through the Association’s fingers. What he didn’t know was that Macbeth’s acquisition of this mithril was also accidental. This chest of mithril was stolen from a small caravan by the Black Knight Brotherhood while they were plundering under Macbeth’s orders to amass wealth. At the time, they didn’t expect such a small caravan to hold such precious treasures, so the robbers simply killed everyone without caring, leaving no survivors to inquire about the origin of the mithril. Given that mithril was denser than gold, Donald estimated the chest weighed at least several hundred kilograms. Combined with the blue-veined magic gold mined there, one piece of mithril could be used to create at least two hundred magic coins. Now, the plan to mint Dalarn’s magic coins could be implemented sooner! These four boxes must be the most valuable treasures in the entire collection. Although the other items were also valuable, they were mostly gold, silver, and antiques, which Donald didn’t consider important. He put them all in his storage space, planning to take them back and have his subordinates sort them out. After confirming there were no other valuable items in the courtyard, Donald took the magic statue that contained the warning node core and left the study with Uther and the others.

Ard pointed at the unconscious steward and asked, “My lord, what should we do with this man?”
“The main culprit has been punished; this man is just a steward, unimportant. There’s no need to sacrifice him along with Macbeth!”
Donald ordered Ard to place the unconscious steward outside the courtyard, then waved his hand to absorb the two undead creatures into energy before nodding at Kelthas.
Upon receiving the order, Kelthas immediately cast his heroic spell, Flare Strike.
A crimson flame matrix erupted in the small courtyard of the lord’s mansion, and the power of the flames instantly engulfed the already modest-sized building.
By then, Donald had activated the return scroll in his hand. A teleportation matrix appeared out of thin air, enveloping Donald and his three subordinates. With a flash of light, the four of them vanished from sight.
All traces of their infiltration—the conspiracy plans in the study, as well as Macbeth’s corpse, which had begun to turn into a corpse demon after his death—were completely destroyed in the blaze. The fire caused by magic was far more powerful than ordinary flames. By the time the guards and servants of the lord’s mansion arrived to put out the fire, nothing but ashes remained.