Draco patted Sheera's mane gently, indicating that she should go down. He had already taken an aerial view of the inner section, so it should not be a problem to land.
Besides, Qiong Qi did not possess the ability to fly, so they would need to rendezvous with him down below.
Draco, Sheera, and Clarent reached the ground as they shared looks of curiosity. From the way those villages were spread out and designed, it was clear that some form of sentient species were living in this Treasury.
But who could it be? Was it people who were indigenes of this world? That was impossible, as it was an artificial small world. Worlds like this couldn't develop organisms on their own.
The only option would be vassals of the Refinement God or descendants of the Refinement God. Alternatively, it could be a mixture of both.
Well, the only way to find out would be to explore, wouldn't it? Thinking like this, Draco recalled Sheera, then walked with Clarent and Qiong Qi towards the nearest village.
The Worldly Energy concentration in the inner section was much higher than the outer section. With his Divine Eyes, Draco could also see far more Aetheric Energy and Divine Energy particles flowing around.
Even the Origin Energy concentration had all but doubled. Any person who lived here would gain far more benefits over time than living in Vita City-State. Heck, even the Outer Section was far better.
Draco reached the outskirts of one of the villages and observed it. The design was pretty standard, with no exoticness to be found. If a village like this had been in the outside world, Draco wouldn't have even bothered to look at it twice.
However, being present in here meant a vastly different thing. As such, Draco didn't dare to look down on the village before he assessed the details of it.
Unsurprisingly, there were no guards at the entrance of the village. After all, there was nothing here that was hostile to the natives of this small world, so they could afford to be lax.
Draco unhurriedly entered the village and was surprised to see that it was quite bustling. There were many different species walking about, visiting the tavern, chatting idly, or buying things from their marketplace.
There were children running about, playing while giggling happily. All-in-all, it looked like the picturesque happy little town that existed in most fantasy media.
However, when Draco and his bunch entered, it was as if someone had pressed the pause button. Everyone froze as they noticed the presence of one man, one lion, and one Dragon.
Draco and co also stood still while silently observing the reaction of the villagers. It was like they were thrust into the depths of shock, unable to process the scenario occurring before them.
Draco found this puzzling, as their presence here should be startling, but not heaven-shaking. So how could these people behave like they had seen a ghost?
"Is there a problem?" Draco asked impatiently.
He was truly quite irritated. They just stood ramrod straight while gazing at them like that, how could anyone feel good? Draco knew he was the incarnation of male perfection, but to take advantage of him freely like this, wasn't it too much?
At least if they were going to take an eyeful, they should throw some Divine items his way as compensation!
His words were no different from a thunderbolt to these people. They woke up from their stupor and started screaming as they all fled the area.
Draco, Qiong Qi, and Clarent were left dumbstruck by their reaction. After staring at the three of them in shock, these people suddenly started screaming and fleeing like the apocalypse had arrived.
The three fellows shared an uncertain look, before clenching their teeth.
"Brothers… could it be that we are truly… ugly?" Clarent asked with a hint of agony.
Draco and Qiong Qi became gloomy because they also thought this. Could it be that all this time, they had misunderstood? Could it be that they were so ugly that most of their friends just pretended they were handsome not to hurt their feelings?
Draco looked around slowly, noticing that the people had entered their homes and were watching them carefully through their blinds. When Draco cast his gaze over them, they would quickly hide from his sight.
Draco sighed with defeat and began walking into the village unscrupulously. Since they refused to come out, he would act as he pleased until they mustered the courage to stop him.
Thinking like this, Draco felt better. He first went to check out the marketplace where people had been trading just a minute or so ago, noticing that most of the stuff sold were raw materials of various grades.
Interestingly, the lowest Rank here was Rare, and even that was scarce. More than 60% of the materials were Epic Rank, while 30% were Legendary.
There were a small number of Divine materials here too, but they were mostly consumable types like fruits. The rest were Rare materials, and they seemed to even have traces of dust on them.
It was almost as if they had been sitting there for a long time, no one bothering to even purchase them…
Draco's expression became pensive and his eyes flashed with suspicion. He suddenly had a bold conjecture about the nature of this Unique Quest as a whole, but he would have to interact more with the natives to verify.
Draco looked left and right. Seeing that the natives themselves were still watching him without making the attempt to approach him, he smiled meanly.
He then started shoveling the materials into an empty Bag of Holding perfidiously. He didn't care about the quality of the items, only the quantity.
Seeing Draco looting the rightful items of others, Qiong Qi and Clarent became excited. They immediately jumped into the fray and started seizing items while shoving them into a Bag of Holding as well.
They didn't even care about the items truthfully. Most of this stuff had no use to them since they didn't practice any Tradeskills and couldn't turn them into finished products.
No, the reason they joined was because the very act of seizing the possessions of others gave them an indescribable ecstasy... especially since the ones they were robbing didn't even dare to stop them.
Qiong Qi even roared with delight. "F.u.c.k, this feels good! I haven't felt so refreshed since I was a cub!"
Clarent nodded vehemently, agreeing wholeheartedly. "After stressfully fighting for more than a week, it is relaxing activities like this that soothes the soul!"
Draco just ignored them. He had enough self-awareness to admit that what he was doing was evil and underhanded, but these fellows made it sound like it was a normal and acceptable occurrence.
Naturally, the villagers were not deaf and the two idiots were not quiet. Everyone heard their words, and they couldn't help but feel dumbfounded by the depth of their shamelessness.
How hadn't the heavens sent down lightning to strike them out of the world yet? Could the old saying of 'Good men live 100 years, but evil scourges live 10,000' be true?
However, they couldn't stand to see their items being looted, so one villager opened his window and shouted out: "Vile thieves, drop our property this instant!"
The three fellows suddenly stopped, turning their heads to face the one who spoke with a cold expression. The fellow himself felt his heart clench in fear, as he regretted being so impulsive.
He quickly closed his window before the three fellows could threaten him, making their faces go blue. They had been preparing to tag-team him to death by insults, yet he was so cowardly that even an unfriendly look made him run.
Ignoring this episode, the three fellows continued their looting spree. What surprised Draco was that no one came out to stop them even when the materials had almost all been cleared away.
Were they so fearful of outsiders? Draco could understand if it was some basic level of fear or wariness. After all, looking at it from the perspective of the natives, it was like aliens casually strutting about in the real world.
However, it should never reach this level. It was as if Draco and co carried a deathly disease that would kill them on touch.
Draco cast out his Void of Perfection to scan the entirety of the village. It was about the size of a small town really, and there were about 1,500 people living within from what he could tell.
There also seemed to be a sort of town hall in the center, so Draco led Qiong Qi and Clarent over here after the ransacked the marketplace clean.
The town hall was no different from the one in Stagnant Moss Town, and Draco easily intruded upon it since there was no one to block him.
He slowly traversed the various halls slowly, heading to the office of the mayor, or whatever equivalent this village had. He wanted to acquire information about their situation as well as the entire Treasury as a whole.
He also wanted to verify his speculations. As long as his guess was right, he felt that this Unique Quest's difficulty would rise by many levels.
Also, its time limit would become even more horrific, constraining him to the point where he suffocated. He naturally hoped he was wrong, but his guess made too much sense to ignore.
Eventually, he entered the office of the mayor, and in there was the person Draco sought out. It was a well-built Lizardman with yellowish-green scales.
He had dark spots on some of his scales and his eyes were a serpentine blue. He had a short mane of black hair on his head, and he wore a suave leather outfit meant for noblemen.
He was currently inspecting Draco and his group calmly, tapping one of his claws on his desk lightly. It felt more like he was an angry principal who was wondering what punishment to dole out to some unruly students rather than a lord inspecting intruders.
For that matter, Draco and his group also inspected the fellow. There was a tense silence in the room, the only sound the rhythmic tapping of the Lizardman's claw on his desk.
Soon, his tapping came to a stop and he sighed, brushing a hand over his hair and then refocusing on Draco and co.
"Who are you people?"
His question was simple and quite prudent. His voice was strange though, bearing a sort of deep tone like there was some slime in his throat, or like he was some late-night radio host for jazz music.
"I am Draco Morningstar. These are my buddies Qiong Qi and Clarent Kaen-ou." Draco answered simply.
The Lizardman nodded. "My name is Vishad. I am the Lord of Evergreen Village, which is where you are currently located."
Draco nodded. He naturally knew the fellow's name since he had already inspected him. The reason Draco had been silent all this while was because of what he saw when he performed that action.
｢Name: Vishad – Rank 5 Politician
Level: 218
HP: 134,000,000/134,000,000｣
Naturally, Draco didn't dare to move about with his previous bl.u.s.ter in the face of a Rank 5 entity. Divine Class or not, one sneeze from the fellow could clear out all three of his invincibilities at once.
Well… not really, but something like that.
Though, if he was Rank 5, what goes to say that there weren't residents here who were Rank 4 or Rank 3? Such people could certainly give him a tough time at Rank 1, so he decided to play it cool.
Vishad gestured to a seat across his table. "Please take a seat so we may discuss some matters."
Draco nodded then took a seat, while Clarent landed on his shoulder and Qiong Qi sat on his paunch behind him. The three of them gazed at Vishad with a mixture of wariness and solemnity.
Vishad observed them quietly for a few more seconds before nodding and dropping a bombshell.
"So, I take it you're here to fight for the Supreme Ancestor's Inheritance as well?"