Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 124 Shipwreck Treasure
The merchant ship in front of us is a large vessel, about fifty meters long, with six decks below the bow deck. The damaged part is on the fifth deck from the top, on the starboard side.

The sirens' lair was located on the fourth floor. It was fortunate that they had collected all those shiny and dazzling treasures in their lair when they had nothing else to do, which saved someone a lot of trouble.

In response, Zhang offered a lot of enthusiastic but free praise and compliments, which made the Siren Sisters roll their eyes and treat his words as utter nonsense.

Zhang Yuan was filled with anticipation. The prosperity of Waterdeep was no joke. If Neverwinter was the pearl of the North, then what was Waterdeep?
Northern Crown!

Its fame spread far and wide, resounding throughout almost the entire Sword Bay region. Apart from the Archmage Kelburn and the famous underground city beneath the mountain, the city's luxury and wealth were also widely acknowledged.

Mr. Zhang, who had excitedly followed the siren to visit his employees' homes, was not disappointed. He waded through the seawater to the top of the stairs, went up to the third-floor cabin, and walked a few steps.

In a room that may have previously served as a conference room or lobby, there were more than a dozen wooden crates piled up, gleaming under the light of the flash spell above Zhang Yuan's head.

Most of the boxes were filled with gold and silver coins, and some boxes were so full that they overflowed onto the floor, while the contents of the remaining boxes varied.

Some were exquisite jewelry, decorative ornaments, or artistic sculptures; in short, anything that was shiny and looked beautiful was taken by the sirens as their treasures.

"When did the ship sink? Do you know where the people on board went?" Zhang Yuan asked casually.

The siren sisters shook their heads repeatedly, and Syl spoke up:
“At the time, we were living in a cave on the nearby shore. That was more than a year ago. After hearing a loud noise, we came out out of curiosity to investigate and that’s how we discovered the shipwreck. When we arrived, there wasn’t a single living person in sight, except for the charred corpses.”

Under the contract, the other party could not deceive him, so it must be true that most of the people on the ship probably died before hitting the reef. It is unknown whether any of them escaped. Moreover, the bodies were charred black.
Zhang Yuan was also puzzled after hearing this, but the most important thing now was not to investigate the truth, but to properly inventory the treasure in front of him.

With their eyes gleaming with golden light, Zhang Yuankai and his companion sorted and categorized the treasures one by one under the heart-wrenching gazes of the sea monsters.

A total of 3369 gold coins and 798 silver coins were collected. The Siren didn't bother collecting the copper coins, and Zhang Yuan was too lazy to care about these trivial riches. After all, he had to leave something for the adventurers who came after him.

Zhang, the philanthropist, was, after all, generous and magnanimous.

The three boxes were filled with various handicrafts, artworks, statues, gold and silver lampstands, ornaments, and so on. According to the dwarf brother's estimate, they were probably worth at least a thousand gold pieces.

A box full of jewelry, various gemstones, necklaces, bracelets, a dazzling array of precious stones, including pearls salvaged by the sea monsters themselves, which of course benefited Zhang.

There were even a few magical items; though not many, they were still a pleasant surprise.

Zhang Yuan happily put all these precious items into his storage bag, placing them together with the treasures he had found in the goblin's lair last time. He felt his back straighten up instantly.

As for Kegan's share, since the dwarf brother didn't participate in the battle from beginning to end, he was given a symbolic 500 gold as a participation subsidy.

Kegan didn't have much to complain about. He earned a total of 800 gold coins from the two explorations. This speed of making money was unimaginable before. Last time, when he turned against his temporary teammates and fought them, he only got less than 300 gold coins in stolen money.

This time, aside from leading the way and killing a few terrified goblins, he barely lifted a finger, not even getting a scratch. This treatment was a far cry from the previous arduous task of dragging the group forward. The dwarf brother wasn't the simpleton he seemed; he knew perfectly well that many of his "companions," who thought him stupid and easy to bully, had ultimately received a good lesson from his axe.

Kegan has been running his own business for years. Is the reason he doesn't team up with others because he doesn't understand the power of numbers? It's simply because he looks down on them. A lion won't force itself to associate with hyenas; that's the gist of it.

In the dwarf's own words: "These stinking bastards, I'm always the one charging in first, and I only see these cowardly kobolds when the enemy is all dead and it's time to divide the spoils."

Having finished taking inventory and looting, Zhang the Philanthropist fully demonstrated his care and concern for his new subordinates, leaving only the box containing the jewels out of the arsenal. Pointing to the three siren sisters, he said:

"As a reward for your salvaging and collecting these treasures, each of you may choose three or two, no, one piece of jewelry. Consider it a blessing for you."

The siren women on the other side were speechless, their teeth practically grinding to dust.

"Oh, if you don't want it, then I won't force you." Seeing that the other party hadn't responded for a while, Zhang Yuan prepared to pack up the box and save this expense.

“Wait, let me choose for them,” Syl stepped forward.

As expected of the eldest sister, she had good taste. She chose a silver bracelet with three sapphires for each of her sisters, a precious gold necklace with a platinum and diamond pendant called the Tears of Larriel, and a black pearl for herself.

"They really know their stuff!" Someone felt a pang of regret, but then thought, "Well, I got it for free anyway, so I might as well give it to my employees as a perk."

After placing the last jewelry box into the storage bag, Zhang Yuan had the siren lead his group to search the other unsubmerged cabins of the sunken ship. One reason was curiosity, wanting to find any clues from back then, and the other was naturally to look for any lost treasures.

"Where did all those corpses you mentioned go?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Yuan realized he had asked a stupid question.

As expected, the siren leader replied irritably, "This is still my place. Do you think it looks good to have a bunch of corpses in your house?"

This guy has such a thick skin now. This little bit of mockery is like a gentle breeze to him. He doesn't even react. He's busy peeking into the cubicles. He doesn't miss any boxes, wardrobes, desks, or other places where things might be hidden. He'd be doing a disservice to his identity as a member of the Dungeon Kick-Down Squad if he didn't turn everything upside down.

Believe it or not, Zhang Yuan actually found some good stuff. After scavenging the entire fourth floor, his storage bag contained a pair of enchanted boots he'd pulled out of the wardrobe, an enchanted leather armor, and several oil paintings that hadn't been soaked by seawater.

These oil paintings were only mentioned by the dwarf brother; Zhang Yuan, being an art ignoramus, had no idea about them.

When Kegan told someone that these paintings would fetch at least fifty gold coins each at auction, and that nobles would fight tooth and nail for them, Zhang Yuan accepted them with great joy, while also casting a questioning glance at the dwarf.

The meaning behind his gaze is nothing more than: I didn't expect that a roughneck like you with thick eyebrows and big eyes would understand art.

(End of this chapter)