Elemental Cats

Wulf led everyone to the backside of the greenhouse. The ground was smooth, and there weren't even any weeds around, much less something that looked like storage where Toz could empty his pockets and show off all the treasure they grabbed from the Blue Lounge League of Pirates.

However, that changed when Wulf brought out a wooden token with the engraving of a bunglehopper on it. As Wulf held the token in the air in front of them, a thin layer on the ground shifted and revealed a downward-spiraling stair in the ground.

"Cap'n, 'this your liquor storage?"

Frank asked Wulf with a blank stare.

"Nonsens. It's our treasury."

"And why didn't anyone know about it?"

"Well, have any of you brought back treasure worthy of being put into storage?"

Before Frank could answer, Wulf did it for him.

"No. You only bring back baubles and junk from every raid you do."

Frank looked a little embarrassed since Wulf exposed him as a useless pirate to outsiders. At least he had comfort in not being alone. Or so he thought until he noticed how no one else was shocked by the existence of a hidden storage room beneath the greenhouse.

Frank looked at Vaner and was about to ask him if he knew, but Vaner avoided his gaze and followed Wulf and the others down the stairs. Frank was stunned at the unexpected revelation and betrayal and was left behind at the top of the stairs. He was about to go down but was stopped by the plate sliding back into place.

Frank pounded on the ground where the stairway was and shouted for Wulf and the other Bunglehoppers to let him in. However, the only response he got was Wulf's voice telling him to be on the lookout for enemies.

The others, who entered the stairway with Wulf at the lead, ignored Frank's shouts and pleas as they descended. Torches lining the wall lit up every few steps Wulf took, slowly bathing the rest of the stairs in light.

It didn't take long for the line of torches to end as the stairway reached its end and the treasury began.

The light from the torches was only enough to brighten the stairs and did nothing to illuminate the treasury itself. But when Wulf reached the bottom of the stairs, he took out the wooden bunglehopper token again. Beams of light rained down from the ceiling of the treasury in response to the bunglehopper carving shining.

The beams of light stopped turning off after a certain point. But Toz could tell that the treasury expanded further into the darkness. He could also sense how it was possible for such a large treasury to exist so close to the surface of the city. Extreme skill had gone into making the enchantments, so Toz and Asilean only noticed when they stepped foot into the actual treasury.

The room within the treasury was expanded by quite a lot using space attribute enchantments, high level ones at that. It was incredible handiwork, and it most likely didn't end with only spatial expansion. Toz and Asilean could sense those enchantments because of their sensitivity to the space element. But they wouldn't be able to detect enchantments made to protect and safekeep the contents of the treasury by deterring the would-be thief or intruder.

Wulf turned around and stood with his arms at his hips in pride, which was understandable considering the grandness of his treasury. But it would have been even better if there actually was something within the treasury other than empty or not-yet-assembled shelves.

Wulf noticed everyone's silence, and he opened half an eyelid, giving up his display of pride as he explained why a pirate didn't have any treasure.

"A treasury like this doesn't come cheap, and I'm still paying it off. But think of the future, when every shelf is filled to the brim with valuables, treasures, weapons, grimoires, martial manuals, and everything else someone might desire!"

Wulf ended his monologue, slightly panting due to his feverish excitement.

Toz had been worried about what drove Wulf to piracy since the chilly great-axe fighter didn't seem like one. He was more like an experienced general than a pirate. Even Hods was a better pirate than Wulf.

However, Wulf had just made it abundantly clear that his greed was something beyond what a normal person possessed and made him the perfect fit for piracy.

Toz didn't know about the other Bunglehoppers, but Stitches and Hods had become pirates mostly because of circumstances. And if he had to guess, Wulf became a pirate because it was the greatest way to satisfy his greed. But he wasn't blinded by his greed, either.

Without amazing foresight and ambition, Wulf wouldn't have been able to give up all his previously accumulated wealth to invest in a treasury as large as the one they were standing within. The treasury itself also served as proof of how adept Wulf was at satisfying his greed.

Even if he paid it off in installments, it would be impossible to order such a grand treasury without sufficient capital. Toz didn't know how much it would cost to build a treasury using high level enchantments at the level he saw used in the Bunglehopper treasury. But it probably wasn't an amount people not directly involved could imagine.

A person blinded by greed wouldn't dump all their hard-earned wealth into a lump of empty storage room.

Toz looked at Wulf with slight admiration as he realized the depth of the Bunglehoppers' captain's greed. However, he didn't stall any longer, and he began emptying his pockets.

Ring after ring and bag after bag left Toz's pockets, all of them storage items containing even more storage items within.

The light in Wulf's eyes grew brighter with each spatial storage item Toz pulled out since it meant at least one more item added to his treasury. Wulf had a passing thought that since it was Toz and the cats who raided the Blue Lounge's treasury and all that, the bounty was theirs. But Wulf's thought was quickly shoved out of his head as the sight of his treasury and its shelves filled with shiny treasures once again took over his mind.