Ken had to take some time to process the words and compose himself.
Sometimes certain words resonate with you, and you have no choice but to absorb them.
But Ken had also done it in a form of respect for the deceased.
Only after 30 minutes did he bother to check the boons.
First he wondered if the ring had any dangers. There was a chance it had them.
[Just throw away the ring and the token inside after.] His hints already had these words plastered before he could care about the ring.
Thus, not wasting any more time, he brought out the items category by category, and what a smart move that was.
Had he brought them all out, they would have fallen off the edge of the cloud in seconds.
The first thing he brought out was the spirit stones. The low-quality ones, and he had done so slowly, just slow enough to not cause a mess, as foundation establishment experts were known to have mountains of them.
And mountains there were. He took out enough to cause the cloud to start shaking before he transferred them to his own ring, and this process went on for 15 minutes before he was done with the low-quality spirit stones.
There were well over 150 thousand low-quality spirit stones on the expert’s body... That was a fortune beyond any doubt.
Ken wouldn’t worry about money ever in his life from this day on.
Not because that fortune was enough, but because he wasn’t the dumb type to keep money gathering dust in his ring.
The second he got out of the secret realm, things would get serious in the business world.
The mid-quality spirit stones were very plentiful too, almost reaching 12,000.
For some reason the man also had 100 high-quality spirit stones; those weren’t supposed to be in the hands of a foundation establishment expert, Ken knew this very well.
He started to think that things were deeper than they seemed and wondered if he would get caught in the karma of it all.
If he were to be noticed by whoever was controlling the man from the background, then he might need to be careful.
He was reminded every day how mysterious the way things worked beyond the realm of qi refining was. Within that world, everything that seemed impossible could very well be possible.
His action today could have very well stirred some mechanisms of the world that only monsters within or beyond the foundation establishment could notice.
But those people worked the long game, and Ken loved long games.
For now, there wasn’t much danger, and if there was, he would be notified, so he threw the thoughts to the back of his mind and focused on what was at hand.
Next, there were pills. More pills than he had ever seen. Thousands upon thousands, and some he couldn’t even name.
It was obvious; the man was an alchemist, and not just any alchemist at that.
Beyond the pills were formulas, cultivation and alchemy notes, a furnace artifact, a flying pot artifact, and cultivation as well as alchemy techniques, the latter of which Ken had just buried in his ring for now; maybe once he got the alchemy profession, he would take a look at them.
But he had no such plans for the first year.
Lastly, there were clothes, some other artifacts, weapons, ornaments, formation disks, some very questionable things that shouldn’t belong to a man that Ken threw out the cloud, and lastly a token.
A token with ’The Great Alchemy Alliance’ written boldly in gold.
Beneath it were 5 stars, and the token itself was deep green.
[Throw it Out!] The hint once again showed up, but this time with a sense of urgency.
Ken put it back into the ring and summoned his chains.
With strength no one had seen to this day, he spun the chains with the ring hooked to it in a show of meticulous skill, and with power far surpassing any mortal’s, Ken launched the ring back to where it came from.
A small wind burst exploded from the sheer power, but it wasn’t grand.
Ken then sat back down with complete composure.
He had gotten rid of the danger, but he was still at risk, a risk that could come at him from an unexpected place but far off in the future.
By then, the enemy would be in the palms of his hands, he’d make sure of that.
Another 2 hours passed, and Ken appeared next to Darek, who was on guard duty.
The past 2 hours Ken had spent resting, and by now, he was in full energy and ready to take on a day of constant analysis.
"Ken, you’re here." Darek acknowledged upon making sure it was Ken who had arrived.
On one tree, Marwa was covering herself with a fur blanket, and on another, Alex seemed displeased with something as his eyes struggled to keep closed.
Darek, on the other hand, was sitting in the middle, his senses sharp and ready to take on any beast that dared approach.
"Any dangers around?" Ken asked, his head looking left and right for any signs of a beast corpse.
"No, it seems the beasts are too scared of the red fog and dare not approach it." Darek shook his head.
The duo could see pretty well in the night. Darek because he was trained, and Ken because his body was different.
"It seems we’re still close to it." Ken stated. If the beasts with their predatory instinct and sharp senses didn’t come close, then they weren’t that far away.
"You’re right. But it’s too late now." Darek said.
Dawn should be in barely a few hours; by then, the fog will disappear, and they’ll have to enter the village immediately.
"Go rest a little and restore your energy." Ken instructed, and Darek, after looking at him for a while, nodded and went to rest.
Ken looked at his departing figure and smiled. He liked this young man, not asking too many questions. But he knew that he was probably thinking a thousand questions in his mind.