He placed the spell book beside him; he would get to that later. He pulled out the coins inside the pouch; there were more than the first—two hundred silver coins and one gold coin.
His lips curled into a smile when he saw the amount; he was literally rich now. He pulled out what remained, and it was two healing potions and a short sword as well.
He laid that aside and immediately went to the third pouch. There was nothing special about the pouch aside from the coins that poured out.
He dipped his hand in and felt the huge amount inside the pouch. He turned the pouch and started pouring coins out. It was a mix of silver coins and gold coins, and it just kept pouring out.
His eyes shined more as he watched it pour out. When it was finally done, there was nothing better—a thousand silver coins and a hundred gold coins on the bed.
"Damn, this is crazy," Riven said. He ran his fingers through the coins, happy at how rich he was now.
He packed up all the coins into one pouch and also all his things into one pouch. After all, that was all he would need from now.
Now that he had packed everything he had into one pouch, he decided to finally merge some skills together.
He remembered from the story that when the hero wanted to merge skills, he would normally use spells and skills that were very, very close in similarities.
Riven already had a bunch of those, so he immediately opened his stats to get started.
[Riven Von Grave – Status Screen]
[Affinities: Blood, Fire]
[Blood Manipulation – lv1]
[Fire Manipulation – lv1]
[Next Trial: 27 Days]
He looked through his skills and decided to test on all the sword skills.
"System, merge Sword Slash, Sword Block, Sword Parry, Sword Dodge," he said.
[Do you wish to merge those skills?]
"Yes, merge," he responded.
[Merging complete. New skill unlocked: Sword Mastery lv1]
[Sword Mastery lv1: Increases all sword-related fighting proficiency by 20 percent.]
[New title unlocked: Sword Master]
[Sword Disciple: Gives user higher battle sense when in contact with a sword.]
His eyes brightened up with joy as he looked at everything he had gotten from just merging his sword skills.
Sword Mastery was not just any skill—it was a skill that would allow him to become a great swordsman. And then his first title—that title was also another plus when he was using the sword.
’I’ll go train a bit to see how good I am now, but I should take a bath and get something to eat first. I am famished,’ he thought to himself. He got up and walked into the bathroom to wash up.
Riven sat at the dining table alone, digging his fork and knife into a fine piece of barbecued steak, enjoying and savoring every bite.
"Can I have some?" He suddenly heard a conversation over his head. Amber had snuck up behind him. He looked at her with a perplexed expression. He was eating, but that didn’t mean his guard was down, yet he didn’t notice her coming.
"How did you do that?" he asked.
"Do what?" she asked, looking confused.
"Never mind. You want some?" he asked, pushing the plate a bit to the side. She nodded and took the fork and knife. She casually sat down on his lap. Though unexpected, he allowed her.
"You seem oddly close to be able to sit on my lap," he said.
"Compared to the others, you were always the closest for me to be with, until you started your crazy period.
Noel is always busy training, wanting to become the prodigy for the family. Andrew is too uncontrolled—I can’t seem to ever find him, and when I do, he is always doing something extreme.
Rudy isn’t worth talking about; after all, he is trying to become the next baron," she said before taking a bite out of her steak.
"I see. And now that I’m no longer running around doing crazy, you can stay with me," he said.
"Exactly," she said, raising her fork for emphasis and then going back to eating. After she finished his steak, she got up and walked to another chair across the table from him.
The both of them ended up talking for a while. She complained about all the things he did. It ended up turning into a lecture that went on longer than expected.
The sun had slowly started to go down, and Riven was still at the table with Amber, and then suddenly, Andrew walked into the dining room. He looked around as if searching for something, and then turned to them at the table.
"Where the hell is Noel?" he asked.
Immediately he asked the question, Riven remembered that Noel was not yet home. "Shit," he said. He looked at Andrew. "He is in the dungeon. He is yet to be back," he said and got up. He rushed out of the dining room. He turned at the entrance, "I’m going to find him," he said before running out. He dashed out of the house, running through the evening.
"Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead," Riven kept muttering as he ran. He made his way out of the town, pushing his stamina as much as he could.
He wasn’t wearing armor and only had his pouch on his waist and his sword in his side pouch, but he didn’t care. He made it to the dungeon and made his way in immediately, searching for the dark path that they had entered before. It took a while, but he finally got to it.