Even if I eventually made some kind of deal with the demons, no way I wasn't going to check out the assassin's vault. I wouldn't consider selling it whole back to the faction the way I might for the elves.

Maybe I was being swayed by all the Earth fiction that always classified demons as evil and elves as wondrous magical beings. I didn't think so, though. Velexis had proven herself a murdering, well, demon. The little I knew about her was enough to know I would hate her, regardless of her race.

Did that mean the elves were good? No, but I'd reserve judgment until I met with their representative. If they turned out to be an arrogant prick, I'd go sell off everything from Sixel's vault too. No doubt Sythrak would happily help them buy some of it back at sharply raised prices.

With my team clustered close behind me, I extracted the key ring with the vault keys. A pair of big, iron keys hung from the ring. One had a symbol of a pair of crossed swords, the symbol of the Elaris elf clan. The other had the Shardael demon faction scythe symbol.

"Keys of the Treasurer. The only way to access the pocket dimensions containing Velexis's secret vaults. One holds the wealth of the Elaris clan, the other contains treasures accumulated from a life of murder and thievery."

"Note: Each key has the soul-keyed status. Like soulbound items, they cannot be stolen or lost, but you may designate a treasurer to manage your vault for you."

"This is so exciting!" Ruby breathed as I selected the key for Velexis's treasure vault and fit it into the key hole. With a loud click, the entire huge steel door glowed, then shimmered and vanished.

Subtle accent lighting lit up the huge room beyond, and for a moment, we all stood on the threshold and stared. I'd imagined many things as I turned that key, from piles of glittering gold to stacks of mana crystals to divine-level weapons and armor for all of us. It took a moment to register what I was actually seeing.

"Um, guys, was Velexis like an evil assassin hoarder?" Steve asked with a frown.

"Kind of looks like it," I said as I scanned the haphazard piles of random stuff cluttering the huge vault, with only narrow pathways meandering between them toward shimmering golden barrier walls that ringed the outer edges of the vault.

Tomas laughed. "Maybe she was planning to get onto the multiverse equivalent of that hoarder show."

"Not funny. Come on." I led the way inside, trying to force down a rising anger. Velexis had nearly killed me. She was an evil murdering soul-stealing assassin, and she even lacked the decency to keep a well-organized hoard for her loot.

The air smelled kind of musty, but at least it didn't stink like rat poop. The very thought of intergalactic rats infesting my precious vault made me want to growl. The closest piles were mostly clothing and armor, all sized for the 40-foot-tall gigantor demoness.

"Can these clothes size down to fit humans?" I asked as I studied a shining silver breastplate.

Cyrus chuckled. "Unfortunately not. Clothing auto-sizes to fit most members of the target species, but don't jump from giant-sized to human-sized."

"So this is all useless to us?" Tomas asked.

"It's just the first row," Jane teased.

I asked loudly, "Jeeves, can you dump all of these over-sized clothes into my inventory and sell them to Sythrak?"

My butler appeared beside me with a bow. "It is wise to divest yourself of such unprofitable garments immediately."

With that, the piles of clothing filling the first dozen feet of the giant vault vanished. The vault extended at least 100 feet long and 50 wide before reaching glowing barrier walls.

We drifted apart, studying the disorganized horde. I wandered past suits of full armor built for aliens with more limbs than humans, piles of random weapons and crates of what looked like kitchen supplies. The weapons were surprisingly basic. None appealed to me, so I had Jeeves take those away too.

I found a box with really random odds and ends, most of which I couldn't figure out their purpose, even with the help of Identify. One caught my attention and made me laugh. It looked like a common, everyday rubber ducky kids used in their baths.

"Conquest duck. Epic. 1 of 50. Recline in the bath in comfort and confidence. Unlike common bath ducks, the conquest duck will never flip over in the bath and mock you with views of its useless under-side."

Moving on, one entire rack was full of coffee mugs, or mugs for whatever served as the multiverse equivalent. Some of them were basic, others really epic steins, or matte black, sinister things. Two entire rows sported dumb images and sayings on them, just like Earth mugs.

They didn't make sense, though. Like the close-up of a big, orange alien eye with the caption, "Nice plasma." Or one that looked like a hover car smashing into the rear end of a giant blob monster with the caption, "You can't plan for glory, so keep a fork in your pocket."

My translate ability probably had to stretch pretty far to come up with that one. I perused the stack for a few minutes, chuckling at the nonsensical sayings. I did dump a few of the cooler mugs and steins into my inventory to show off to Sam. My tavern keeper partner could make his own metal steins, but he'd probably love to feature a few of my collection for special events.

Behind a tall, wobbly stack of what looked like hat boxes, but contained jars of pickled alien bugs and plants, I found the first interesting items. A fancy wooden cabinet that looked a lot like a filing cabinet, with 3 large drawers was filled with papers. I lifted one to inspect.

"Patent for Verdant Agritech's Plum line harvester golems. Ideal for collecting difficult-to-preserve hanging fruits from the dangerous Boiling Swamps, the Plum line golems revolutionized the steam pearls industry. As the rightful owner of this patent, you are entitled to 3% of all proceeds from the sale of every Plum line golem and 1% of the proceeds from all derivative models."

"Whoa! What is this?"

Ruby came over and I explained the document since she lacked the Linguasight utility spell and its Identify option.

"Huh. This sounds like some kind of multiverse intellectual property ownership contract."

"Close. Good job," Cyrus interjected. "Protecting your rights to your invention is as old as the multiverse. With system contracts, the ownership is always known and no one can shaft you out of your rightful share."

"So how did Velexis end up with this?"

"She took the soul of the previous owner and, while possessing his body and using his own abilities drawn from his lingering soul essence, legally transferred the patent to herself."

"Okay, she was totally evil," Ruby scowled.

"Now that she's dead, does the patent revert to the previous owner's heirs or partners?"

"Not at all. Velexis's main expertise lay in corporate sabotage. She wouldn't leave an obvious loophole like direct reversion of ownership unresolved or the companies she targeted would have hunted her even harder. Instead, she amended the contracts so that when she died, whoever ended up as owner of her vault would receive everything."

"How does that save her?" Ruby asked.

"If Velexis had still been on a tier-3 or tier-4 world, upon her death, her vaults would have automatically reverted to her next of kin. Instead, the rules of the game prevent loot from being transferred off planet. Everything ends up in the hands of whatever player defeats a boss and gets their loot. She never imagined she might actually die on Arasha, so didn't bother leaving her loot behind. When she returned home, she planned to resume dangling the potential for selling back the patents as a way to ensure her safety."

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"Except she never planned to sell them back," Ruby guessed.

"Indeed not. While her thievery and sabotage distracted her victims, her employers could swoop in and initiate hostile takeovers."

"So that means I own this contract?"

"And all of the other contracts stored in that case. Velexis was a very successful corporate thief, but got bored with the low-risk assignments. One of the reasons she risked competing in illegal tournaments as Sixel was for a bit of adventure."

"So how do I access all the money that's been accumulating from these patents and stuff?" If those businesses were on tier-4 worlds, the base mana crystal would be tier-4. The loot could grow to a huge number pretty fast.

"You can't access it until after you leave Arasha. If you ever end up on a fully-integrated world, you can begin the process of establishing an account to route all those income streams into."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"Cheer up, Lucas! If you do ever end up traveling the multiverse, you won't be a pauper, but a man of means. That makes all the difference."

"Not here."

"Good thing you have most of the vault still to explore."

Good point. I still scanned a few more of the many contracts in the cabinet. Most were patents to other intellectual property spanning many worlds across tier-3 and tier-4 planets. That seemed to be the limit of Velexis's travels.

Other contracts contained rights to lucrative mining ventures or natural resources. Just that one cabinet confirmed Velexis had been very successful and amassed a huge fortune. If she hadn't pushed the limits with Sixel and gotten herself into a bind that forced her to take on the boss job, she'd probably be living like a hoarder queen somewhere.

I left the fascinating but ultimately useless contract cabinet behind and continued exploring. I had Jeeves take a bunch more of the other junk, as well as piles of items clearly designed for non-human use away to sell. Within half an hour, about a third of the vault was basically cleaned out.

We did find some promising items, though. Near the glowing wall at the back of the vault I found better weapons, including an entire rack of different daggers. Velexis had been an assassin, so daggers made sense, I guess. I scanned them briefly, and many had bleed or life drain effects, but nothing that I wanted to use. I wasn't much of a dagger fighter.

Then I remembered one dagger I hadn't even inspected yet. So I pulled out the creepy black dagger I'd taken from Noctarus. The 8-inch, slightly curved blade ended in a wicket point. Its aura still set my teeth on edge, and when I examined it, I wasn't surprised.

"Oblivion Thorn. Dagger. Epic. This undead-on-speed transformational tool is the ultimate finisher for any talented necromancer. When the victim's life force drops below 50%, it will instantly mummify the victim's heart and attempt to convert their mana to death-attuned mana. If successful, will begin the forcible conversion of the target into an undead ghoul minion."

"That's disgusting. Jeeves, sell this please."

I tossed it back into my inventory, adding it to the pile for Jeeves to sell. It was undeniably powerful, but horrible. No way I'd use it. After some thought, I tossed in the rare Dagger of the Heartache I'd taken from psycho Abbie that bound the souls of her victims to silk ribbons to serve as semi-sentient slaves to her will.

I'd review all of Velexis's gear in more detail later and toss all of the other nasty ones onto the sell pile too. That kind of power was not my thing.

Other nearby racks of weapons proved more interesting. Velexis was definitely a collector. The weapons actually placed in racks ranged from rare to epic tier. Most were more demonic-focused, like a bunch of sickles and scythes, but there were some possibilities.

Steve seriously considered adding another longsword to his arsenal. He had the rare Inferno Fang scimitar with its fire power, but one longsword on the rack could absorb purely spiritual beings. Few people had good options against ghosts, but that sword would work perfectly against another Essence Wight or Spectral Mauler.

One rack contained bows, crossbows, and several whips. Nope. None of those would work for me. I sucked at bows, and my history with whips was short and mostly painful. The fact that I'd used one successfully against Alpha the first time we clashed was nothing short of a miracle, but I wouldn't trust my life to them again.

I still had those 3 serrated blade whips with temporary paralysis I'd gotten from the Maze Fiend. I was tempted to add them to the rack of whips, but left them in my inventory for now. I doubted I'd use them, but the memory of wrapping one around Alpha's throat was too good to part with them yet.

"Check this out," Jane said with a laugh. "Crossbow of the Cursed Cleric. It's got an enchantment if you say 'minor healing' while using it, you get a chance of health points getting restored. If you don't sing to it, you always miss."

"Is that joke weapon?" Steve asked, looking very interested. He even hefted it and sighted down its length. He'd never seriously consider it, though, not with the epic bow he used.

While the others examined the racks of weapons and discussed some that tempted them, I wandered on. So far, I hadn't been very impressed by much, other than those contracts.

A set of shelves farther to the right caught my attention and I headed that way to take a closer look at the odd collection. That shelf proved much more interesting.

"Dimensional Shard Key. Legendary. This much-sought-after item once belonged to Kael Dreadspire, son and heir to Lazareth Dreadspire, the dread overlord of the Anarchy Dragon Rider mob syndicate. Upon Lazareth's untimely death, Kael has initiated a bloody war of retribution against the Shadrael clan. This Shard Key opens the door to a pocket dimension dungeon ideal for training, leveling, and gathering loot. Dungeon tier can be set between tier 2 and tier 4. 400-to-1 time dilation inside."

I whistled softly. The unassuming key was awesome. Endless possibilities flashed through my mind. Too bad I wasn't strong enough to handle even a tier-2 dungeon. Would I get to keep my powers and this vault when I returned to Earth? Would I be able to keep leveling? If I could eventually evolve to tier-2, I could use it to fast-level and gain tons of power.

Would it be wiser to have Sythrak reach out to Kael Dreadspire and negotiate the return of the key? It was no doubt immensely valuable. Plus, I could make an ally of what sounded like a very powerful man.

Then again, would he just kill me? Mob syndicates weren't renowned for their honor. I'd have to ask Cyrus more about them, but for now the key wasn't useful, so I kept scanning.

"Mask of Eternal Identity. Epic. This mask alters the user's facial features, voice, and entire body to perfectly mimic a target they have touched at least once. Perfect for infiltrating enemy factions for reconnaissance and sabotage."

Another incredible item. It was even better than the Face of My Brother cap, which only mimicked the face of someone I'd seen. Why the description singled out face, voice, and body as items to highlight didn't make sense, but it seemed amazing. In a flash, I swapped my cap for the mask.

Most of the other items were interesting, but not of immediate use. Some of the best included the epic Mirror of Infinite Reflections, a hand-held mirror that created illusory copies of the user, making it difficult for enemies to discern the real person from the fakes. Also the Silent Step Sandals, a set of enchanted footwear that absorbed the sound of the wearer's footsteps, allowing them to move in total silence.

That one was tempting, but I wanted to keep evolving my Treads of the Luscaan Explorers boots. They'd already developed some cool enhancements, including auto-diffusing traps I stepped on, adding 10% to my movement speed, and most recently, absorbing kinetic energy from my movement into a magical charge I could use in combat. I did take two other items, though.

"Core-stone of the Arcane Flux. Shield. Legendary. This crystal absorbs and stores energy from the environment, creating a charge the user can use to generate a variable-sized energy shield with excellent defense against magical attacks and very good defense against all types of physical attacks."

I'd ordered a shield from Sythrak to be built from one of those legendary ironwood planks I'd gotten from the Colossus, but who knew when it would be ready? Another shield to help deal with whatever we ran into as we pushed up to stage 3 sounded good. The second item I took was a scroll.

"Scroll of Veracity's Tongue. Enchantment scroll. Epic. Apply to any piece of equipped gear to see notifications if people are speaking truth or lies. Truth will outline the speaker in green for truth, lies in red, partial truths in brown. Will last for the duration of one conversation."

That could come in handy. Too bad it only worked for one conversation.

"This is both incredible and kind of sad," Ruby said from where she was studying a huge stack of what looked like holiday china that had been dumped onto a red woolen coat big enough for the fattest Santa of all time. It was tattered, with holes down the back and missing one sleeve. "No wonder she stole everything from the elves. She was a total klepto,"

"And really disturbed," Steve added from the opposite wall. He'd approached a tall set of shelves made out of black stone that stood next to a free-standing coat rack hung with bloodstained clothing. I crossed to take a look, and he was right. Those shelves did hold creepy things, including glowing holograms of many types of alien races, most of which I didn't recognize. Her victims?

Another was a fancy pocket watch. "The Final Mark. Legendary. This ancient time piece, made of an unknown metal, seems innocent enough. It is stuck on a particular time and no amount of effort has ever managed to successfully repair it. Legends suggest it was touched by the system to mark the moment of a terrible tragedy from long ago. No one knows if the tragedy was the destruction of a planet, the rise of a divine-level monster, or some other event of unrivaled chaos."

Okay, that was random and weird and creepy. Not as nasty as a couple other items, including a series of small boxes displaying teeth, from human-sized molars to fangs as long as Nigel's. Each was cursed with remnants of the murdered owners' souls, and Identify warned they could trigger violent nightmares, but might also offer glimpses to help find lost treasures of vast worth.

Not tempting enough. On the other hand, the Vial of Eternal Night was a lot more interesting. The small glass vial, filled with what appeared to be liquid darkness, might be a fragment of the abyss itself, believed to grant the ability to control shadows. Chugging that was probably a perfect way to die in gruesome agony.

I decided to toss that into the pile for Jeeves to sell, along with the set of soul-binding chains capable of trapping souls and preserving them for sacrificial rituals after the bodies had been burned to ashes.

The Shroud of Fading Echoes was tempting until I read the entire description. The tattered cloak absorbed sounds and whispers from its surroundings, allowing the wearer to move undetected by mortal ears, though it might occasionally echo back faint cries of lost souls.

"Onto the sell pile," I muttered, then turned to a map table that looked a lot more promising.

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