Isekai Elf King: Architect of a New Empire

 The room was a shambles, and had a few broken boxes strewn about. There were also remains of charred box pieces, surrounded by burn marks and smoke smears, on the marble ground visible beneath the ice in the dim light.

 And around those burn marks, there were piles of equipment lying on the ground—armor and weapons, most rotting or rusted. But a few intact items were visible in the dim light filtering into the room.

 "G-Get everything you can c-carry in f-five m-minutes," Leo said, his own teeth chattering nearly as badly as Lily's had been. "W-We c-can't stay h-here l-longer. G-grab the und-damaged gear."

 Leo rushed around. He searched through the remains all over the floor, finding an intact suit of leather armor. He gathered the pieces, added an intact-appearing long sword with intricate silver etchings on the blade and a half-inch topaz in the hilt, and picked up the pile.

 Just before he left, he saw a small ring with a ruby in it and awkwardly picked that up as well.

 "R-Retreat," Leo said, too cold to do more.

 The group headed out of the freezing basement and back into the keep that had been Chao's lair, up the stairs from the dark, freezing hell of the basement and into the welcome light and comparative warmth of the morning sun.

 Leo dumped his loot, except the ring, onto the floor about fifty feet from the entrance to the stairs.

 Lily came up beside him and gently placed a lantern on the ground, as well a cloak with a star pattern on the back that was in pristine condition.

 Hugh dropped off a massive great sword with five small, red crystals in the hilt and an intricate fire-themed etching all up and down the blade.

 Lily sat, then lay, in a patch of sunlight, shivering still.

 "How did we do?" Hugh asked, gently poking her with his head. 

 "If these really are magically infused," she said, her voice tired, "then we did extremely well. I think, based on the size of the magical crystals, that these are technically all least magical items, but one of them, that great sword, is at the advanced end of the spectrum, using multiple least magic crystals for a larger effect. I think we have a good twenty-two gold worth of magical items here."

 "Nice!" Hugh said. "That'll be a good start to my hoard!"

 Leo couldn't see Lily's face from the angle she lay at, but he would bet she was glaring at Hugh.

 "I have no reference for that," Leo said. "Is that good?"

 Lily spoke from her position on the marble floor. "A peasant farm family, doing basic farming with no magic or advanced tools, would make about half a gold each year. Not as profit, mind you. Gross. They would need forty silver from that—or about eighty percent—just for food and basic replacements for tools. The local baron would usually take ten silver. I want to be clear that most places, the average family makes more. This is just the basic, subsistence farmers that make up the poorest of the peasantry in most kingdoms."

 "So, what we have here is the entire output of a poor peasant family for almost fifty years, or the tax revenue for five peasant families for their whole life, basically?" Leo asked, his voice filled with respect. That would be about five million dollars at home, in proportional terms—just sitting in a ruin. I mean, certain shipwrecks recovered were worth way more than that, but that's still crazy.

 Lily lethargically nodded from where she lay, still facing away from Leo, on the marble ground.

 "Yes. Any place with a good magical aura, either from its node or powerful magic wielders—and many places have a better baseline from tools, irrigation, and other improvements to the land—would make more per family. But what I said is still the upshot."

 "It's small in dragon hoard terms," Hugh said, "but it would be a decent start."

 "So what do the items do?" Leo asked, picking up the long sword and staring at it. It was twenty-four inches long, and it glinted, as if sun were reflecting from the blade, despite being out of direct sunlight. The etchings were beautiful and stylized, with wavy and curvy lines down the length of the blade resembling a wolf. The sword felt right in Leo's hands.

 "That's the sword of an officer in the Ghost Rangers," Lily said, her voice livening slightly as she talked about the history and culture of Averia. "Elves with martial talent, a decently high magic score, and Wyld magic would frequently take Animal Companion as their first ability when they made Second Level."

Trust Lily to know the minutiae of this.

Lily continued. "That bond opened up a few new abilities, and the Ghost Wolves were deadly steeds and companions, especially once empowered by the bond. Officers, who had to be at least Level Four, were given those swords. The sword does additional damage from light energy gathered on the edge of the blade, making it sharper and hotter both. The weapon is a touch more dangerous than a normal sword."

 "You know a lot," Leo said, genuinely impressed. "What about the rest of the magical gear?"

 Lily coughed. "I'm really sorry, especially coming after your praise, to say that I don't recognize any of the other items offhand."

 Hugh chuckled, then burped so hard that a tiny piece of monster-chicken flew out of his mouth. He looked at everyone guiltily and then licked it back up.

 Lily shoulders tensed, and she must have glared at him, because Hugh continued. "Hey, c'mon. We all know you're way smarter than I am, but you still have to admit that was funny timing."

 "I was more concerned with your horribly uncouth eating habits," Lily said, but her shoulders relaxed again.

 "So, do whatever you need to do to figure out whatever the rest of this stuff does," Hugh said, giving the marble ground a thump with his tail for emphasis.

 "Without the analyze ability, or, more expensively, the identify ritual, I have no ability to determine that," Lily said. "You could risk trying them on and might learn their properties that way."

 Leo put the ring with the ruby in it on his finger. Immediately, he felt warm.

 "So, I have some amazing news about the ring," Leo said. "It seems to provide warmth."

 "What are you doing?!" Lily said, sitting and turning to Leo. "You don't put strange magic items on! They could be cursed! That's, like, the first lesson of almost all magic classes."

 "You just said I could risk putting—"

 "I was obviously being sarcastic," Lily said, flicking her hair back.

 "Magicless world, remember?" Leo asked.

 "Oh, right," Lily said in a small voice. "Sorry. That was my bad. Please don't use any more items until you know what they do."

 "Well, the ring that stops cold is useful at least," Hugh said. "I mean, for weak elves, it's useful. I'm not cold."

 Leo raised a single eyebrow at Hugh, a really, buddy? gesture.

 "Hey, don't blame," Hugh said. "I'm not the one who made dragons wonderful and you guys kinda… not wonderful."

 "How many magical items can a person use, by the way?" Leo asked. "I mean, if I got fifty rings, could I have all the magic abilities?"

 "No," Lily said, rolling back to lay on the ground. "One item per person, plus one for every magic they have access to."

 "So, if a person had five magics, they could have six items?"

 "Exactly." Lily gave a laugh. "And if you find that paragon, let me know. Five magics indeed. I doubt there's anyone on this continent with five magics."

 Hugh started to open his mouth, but Leo shook his head from behind Lily, and Hugh closed his mouth. I don't want to upset her at the moment, and playing 'I'm better than you' games cannot go over well. Best just to let it lie.

 "By the way, I'm only about fifty experience from the next level," Leo said. "How about we go kill some more of those birds and wolves? We can hopefully make a level. It should be easier than the frozen demon cellar. Once we have the level and some practice, we can brave the hellish undercity again and make another attempt to reach the vault."

 "We never even made it to the undercity," Lily said, her voice tired.

 Hugh said, "Don't be a downer, Lily. This sounds like an excellent plan. And I could go for some more chicken, frankly."