Meanwhile, Tabitha regained her composure and ordered.
"Take out the next item."
"Y-Yes, My Lady." Lily nodded her head and took out the next item.
Within seconds, the carriage was filled with blood and rotten smells.
Simultaneously, a half-decayed lizard-like demon's head appeared in her hand. The creature's head was around the size of a watermelon and had two strange horns on its head. Although it was a dead demon's head, Abium still felt a mysterious power appear around it.
'I smell a chaotic core's presence inside. Hmm, this demon was a Tier-3 being before it died.' Azolla's words made his heart beat faster.
"UGhh!" Lily almost vomited due to the rotten smell and hurriedly tossed the demon's head towards Abium.
On the other hand, Abium caught the head with both hands and slowly turned his gaze towards Tabitha.
Before he could even say a word, she grabbed the demon's head from Abium's hand and spoke in a hurry.
"I want this demon's head."
Abium didn't say anything and quietly nodded his head.
Although he didn't know the true worth of a Tier-3 being's chaos core, he didn't think too much about it. After all, he had no use for that material.
In the meantime, Lady Tabitha stored the demon's head inside her spatial ring and returned her gaze to Lily.
"Next item." She added.
Nodding, Lily took out a large head-sized red color orichalcum ore, then a root of an unknown herb, and one fist-sized blue crystal.
When Abium and Tabitha saw the spatial elemental crystal and the orichalcum ore among those three items, their eyes widened.
But unlike before, Tabitha didn't act like a hungry wolf and waited for Lily to take out the other items.
Likewise, Lily did not wait for them to argue before taking out another document.
It was a small green leaf.
'It's a nature leaf!' This time, Azolla spoke out in exhilaration.
Although Abium didn't know about this leaf, he was damn sure that it had something to do with Druids. Like him, Tabitha also knew of its value but didn't show much interest in it.
"Next is the final item, My Lady," Lily said as she touched her space ring and took out the last material.
It was a small stone with some graffiti and symbols inscribed and looked more like an ordinary stone.
"Is it the same stone the demon was after?" Tabitha asked with a frown but soon shook her head.
"I don't even feel the slightest amount of any elemental energy from it. If so, why did it risk its life to get into the Royal Treasury?"
'I also don't feel any magical energy or even divine power around this stone tablet, lad. It's just a stone.' Azolla said in Abium's head.
'Seriously?' He couldn't help but sigh in disappointment.
Noticing everyone's reaction, Helena thought of something and asked.
"Maybe the demon was after something else?"
Both Tabitha and Abium glanced at each other and agreed.
"Certainly, it's possible. After all, even we use such a method to protect our real treasure from being discovered by our enemies." Tabitha nodded and turned her gaze to the other objects around her.
"It's time to split the materials now," She said with a smile.
Abium picked up the green leaf first and began to speak.
"I'll take these items, My Lady."
Afterward, he took the stone tablet and stored it inside his spatial ring.
Upon seeing his shameless action, Tabitha rolled her eyes and laughed.
"You remind me much of Zivior during his childhood days."
Without waiting for him to take out the next item, she returned her gaze to other materials and pondered.
After two seconds, Tabitha moved her hand and took the Arctic Soil bottle and the bronze dragon's scale.
Then, she stored the items in her space ring, turned her gaze towards Abium, and asked.
"Do you know what that bronze crystal is, Mage Abium? Though this item emits unique invisible power, I have no idea what it does. If not for your earlier facial expression, I wouldn't have known that it is the most valuable of all the materials."
Meanwhile, Abium nodded his head and explained.
"It is a Bronze Dragon's scale, My Lady. When I skimmed through my master's books in the past, I saw the pictures of how the dragons' scales looked like." He lied without any hesitation.
On the other hand, Tabitha's face stiffened.
In truth, she knew very little about the mythical dragons and never even saw them in her life.
"A-Are you sure about that, mage Abium?" Tabitha asked, showing a slightly anxious expression.
Simultaneously, she took a deep breath and spoke.
"If the news got out, it would cause a huge uproar even among the Mages." She paused, looked at Abium and others for a second, and added.
"Please don't tell anyone that this dragon scale is in my possession."
"We won't!" Abium and Lily said in unison. On the other hand, Helena shrugged her shoulders and showed a carefree expression.
"Even if said to others, no one would believe us, My Lady. You are being too cautious." She added.
"She is right, My Lady." Abium agreed with Helena's words and looked at the other three materials.
Then, Abium picked up the root of the unknown plant from Lily's hand and looked at it.
'Azolla, do you know what this material is?' He asked in his mind.
Just as he asked, a blue notification popped in front of his eyes.
[Abysscal Locust Tree root: Only found in the 564th layer of the Abyss and is highly toxic. It is also a precious material for concocting chaotic-type potions.]
'Hmm, it seems like a rare potion material.' Nodding, he stored it in his space ring and continued.
"You can keep the Water-elemental Crystal and Orchaelum ore for yourself. But keep in mind that those two materials are worth more than 100,000 white gold coins, Lily. Don't get scammed."
Upon hearing those words, Lily looked dumbfounded before staring at Abium in disbelief.
After all, she was more like a prisoner to Abium. So, his current action completely caught her off guard.
But what shocked her more was the price of those two materials.
"D-Don't joke around, Mister. There is no way these two materials-"
Before she could finish speaking, Tabitha cleared her throat and interrupted her.
"What he said is true, young miss. Those two items' worth should be even higher than one hundred thousand white gold coins."
"Oh, Mother Nature! More than 100,000 white gold coins?!" She exclaimed in shock and covered her mouth hurriedly.
At that moment, the carriage also slowed down and soon stopped moving.
A second later, Richard shouted from the driver's seat.
"We arrived at the Orchid Auction House, My Lord."
"Oh, that was fast!"
Muttering, Tabitha raised her eyebrows and hurriedly stood up from her seat.
"I'll be leaving then, Mage Abium. Don't forget to visit the orchid auction house if you guys are planning to sell those materials."
Once she said those words, she moved the curtain, opened the carriage door, and hurriedly stepped down from the carriage.
Soon, she walked toward the compound's entrance and entered the Orchid Auction House's main building with an excited face.
'Why is she so excited?'
Everyone inside the carriage was puzzled by Tabitha's excitement, including Abium.
Soon, Azolla answered in his mind.
'She gained something precious from this negotiation, kid.'
'Hm? Do you mean the Bronze Dragon's scale? Is the scale that valuable?' Abium asked while tilting his head.
He also had some interest in that dragon scale but didn't feel it was necessary to fight for it.
'That outer scale won't be much use except for ornament or magic weapon creation. But there is still some precious substance inside that scale.' Azolla deliberately paused, causing Abium's pointy ears to perk up.
'What do you mean? Are there some secrets hidden in that dragon scale? Why didn't you mention that earlier?' If he had known that, he would have picked up that dragon scale instead of the stone tablet.
'It's bronze dragon blood essence, kid. She must be planning to extract the bronze dragon's blood essence from the scale and might try to transfuse it into her circulatory system.' Azolla replied solemnly.
Isn't that dragon's blood essence harmful to her body? She is already walking on the path of Mages, right?' Abium got startled inside.
'Is she planning to transfuse another race's blood into her human body and become a Warlock?' He had never heard of anything like that before and became confused.
'Now that I thought about it, Runeth also told me something about shackles. Is it also related to this?' He wondered.
At that time, Abium didn't have time to ask about these shackles to Azolla and completely forgot about it. As he was about to ask about that in detail, Azolla answered.
'The strength of the humans and elves on our Easica plane is completely shackled up by some mysterious power, lad. I don't know if this strangeness is happening all over the universe, but there was no such thing around 10,000 years ago.'
'Now that I think about it, Ancient Mage Runeth also said something similar.' Abium interjected.
'Hmm, it seems many things happened while I was isolated from the rest of the world for the past few millenniums. Anyway, the current generation of mages is truly unlucky. For example, normal mages would find it very difficult to break through into a higher tier even with potions and the blessings of the Gods.'
'Oh? It seems there is a big villain scheming something behind the scenes in Easica World. Do you have any guesses about the culprit?' Abium asked.
'I don't know, kid. I don't know who made these shackles, but I'm sure the one who did must be a powerful god.' She said with a serious tone. Abium only understood a part of what she had said and didn't interrupt her.
'But humans are always unpredictable. After discovering the shackles, some mages must have found a way to change their pathway forcefully midway and began to use this bloodline transfusion method to alter their bloodline. I think Tabitha is also planning to walk on the path of warlocks using this method.' Azolla said.