"Oh? You are here?"

Just when the Iron Guard was about to give up and the bandit leader was about to kill, a sudden voice startled both of them.

This was because the voice was clearly coming from the sky right above them.

"Who is there?"

The bandit leader, who was clearly playing around before, suddenly turned serious as he looked above while defending himself.

After all, he didn't realize there was someone above until he heard the voice. That meant the person above was clearly stronger than him.

"Did the reinforcement arrive? Am I saved?"

While the bandit leader became cautious, the middle-aged man was on the other hand, was ecstatic. He thought someone from the Goldveil Exchange had come for the rescue.

He did send the signal before. Although it was too early for them to arrive, what if?

In this hopeless situation, even a glimmer of hope was a godsend.

Not only him, but even the bandit leader thought so, as evidenced by his nervousness.

"Hmm, Early Stage of the Invoker Realm. Not bad."

The voice once again, and this time quite close right above them.

Only now did both them could they see that the person who was talking with them was floating right above them.

He was covered in a dark robe from head to toe, making it impossible to distinguish his appearance, but from the voice alone, both of them knew that he must be someone young.

"Who are you? Why are you trying to stop me?"

As soon as the leader of the bandits saw the figure floating in a dark robe, he hurriedly distanced himself and asked. The Iron Guard in his hand was still operating in full force, with only the blade attack stopping for now.

"Sir, are you from the Goldveil Exchange?"

The middle-aged man was also surprised to see the floating figure hurriedly asked with a nervous look what he wanted to know the most.

"Goldveil Exchange? Yeah, you can think so."

Lucien replied lightly as he was indeed from the Goldveil Exchange. Only, he was the bona fide owner.

"Really? Are you the reinforcement sent by the headquarters? That's great, haha."

As soon as the middle-aged man heard a positive answer from Lucien, he became ecstatic.

He was still doubtful whether the guy in front was on his side. After all, he didn't know anyone this mysterious.

But now that Lucien himself approved, the middle-aged man visibly relaxed.

He laughed loudly, relaxing completely, and even stopped supplying mana into the Iron Guard artifact, disintegrating the solid barrier covering him.

After all, the reinforcement had already arrived, and the person seemed clearly stronger than the bandit leader.

Now, why should he fear anyone?

"Reinforcement?"

Lucien heard what he said and immediately understood the situation. Apparently, this guy seemed to think of him as someone who came here to help him.

'Well, he will be quite disappointed.'

Lucien smiled faintly, his gaze settling on the two bright red dots glowing clearly within the mind map in his head.

'System, initiate debt extraction on both targets… collect in full.'

Clearly, he was here to collect a debt from those who had stolen his wealth with no intention of paying it back.

And surprisingly, not only was the bandit leader on the list, but so was this middle-aged man, someone who seemed to be from his own Goldveil Exchange.

Yet Lucien wasn't surprised. To him, it was perfectly normal. After all, they were a business family, and loyalty in business was always hard to come by.

Instead, he was pleased since for his very first debt collection here, he had not one, but two targets.

Ding!

[Initiating the Debt extraction from the targets, Garron and Marcus.]

[The realm gap between you and them isn't that wide. You are eligible for full debt extractions.]

[Analyzing transactions…initiating collections…]

[Extracting compensation of the equivalent value…please wait...]

As soon as Lucien gave the order, the system immediately began to do its work to his delight. He was really curious about what he could gain from them, as both of them already had 100 points of Debt Value.

"Sir, thank god you are here. Had you been a little late, it would have turned out badly."

While Lucien was still waiting for the system's prompt, the middle-aged man hurried to his side, bowing respectfully.

"Sir, this time we were truly unlucky. The moment we left the city with the caravan, we ran straight into these bandits. Since we were caught off guard, we ended up losing quite a few men."

His tone carried a trace of pain at the loss they had suffered.

"But don't worry, sir. Fortunately, with the trump card you entrusted to me, I managed to hold off this bandit, who was a whole realm higher than me, until reinforcements arrived."

He continued quickly, clearly trying to emphasize his own contribution. As for the guards he had just betrayed, he neither mentioned them nor made any effort to plead for their lives. Perhaps he had already forgotten them altogether.

"Also, this bandit leader clearly must have raided another one of our caravans. Otherwise, how could he possibly have the same artifact as mine? He even said so… before…"

He pointed at the burly man, who had looked cautious from the very beginning, venting all his grievances in one breath.

He had nearly died here, of course, he wouldn't let this man go easily.

But what puzzled him, however, was why Lucien was still floating calmly above, making no move to attack directly.

Shouldn't he directly kill the bandit leader with extreme force and save himself?

What was he waiting for?

"Sir...why don't you-"

The middle-aged man was clearly impatient and tried to urge Lucien when he was suddenly stopped by a cold voice.

"Okay, shut the fuck up. I know what I am doing. Do you need to teach me here?"

Lucien was waiting for the system prompt, not this constant nagging from the man.

So, feeling irritated, he directly scolded the guy, making him shut up instantly, his face turning black and blue from shame.

"And you… Don't try to run. Otherwise, I will kill you right here. Do you believe me?"

After scolding the middle-aged man, Lucien turned his gaze toward the bandit leader, who was slowly backing away, trying to take advantage of the situation.

Unfortunately for the bandit leader, before he could do so, a sudden flood of killing intent surged from Lucien standing before him, freezing him in place.

Just from the aura alone, he could feel it clearly; if he dared to move, he would truly die.

Lucien had even survived Sera, who was at the Arcanist realm. So, even though he was only at the peak of the Apprentice realm, he felt he could easily take care of this guy.

That's why he was so relaxed. Of course, having someone like Velmara watching his back also helped.

"Sir, why don't we talk?"

Feeling that there was no way out, the bandit leader was finally forced to halt, his bravado completely shattered.

Small beads of sweat couldn't help but drip from his brow as he felt the danger.

So, since he couldn't run, he decided to see if he could talk his way out. Although the hope was slim, from seeing how Lucien was just floating around and not attacking him directly, he still held on to a little.

Unfortunately, Lucien was clearly not paying attention to either him or the middle-aged man.

Instead of answering, he lifted his finger to his mouth and shushed,

"Shh… don't talk. Just stand where you are and don't move."

He said this, leaving both the bandit leader and the middle-aged man confused.

But Lucien didn't care, as he finally heard the system prompt in his mind that he had been waiting for so badly.

Ding!

[Extraction successful!]

[Congratulations! You gained: +20 Strength, +30 Mana, +10 Intelligence, Skills: Ambush (Active): E-rank, Evasion (Passive): E-rank, Fireball (Active): F rank]

[Full extraction completed. The debt values of Garron and Marcus have been reset to zero.]

[They are now declared insolvent. You can no longer collect any debt from them.]

---

—

[Name: Lucien Goldveil]

[Race: Human]

[House: Goldveil Viscount Lineage]

[Class: The Empty Throne (Unique)]

[Secondary Classes: Enchanter, Mage, Devourer, Assassine]

[Rank: Apprentice (Peak)]

[Title: None]

[Talent: Mediocre]

[Attributes]

Strength: 68

Agility: 88

Endurance: 21

Intelligence: 28

Perception: 15

Charisma/Charm: 28

Mana: 200/200

Lifespan: 10 (extra)

[Affinity: Earth (Poor), Fire (Rare)]

[Skills (Innate)]

Minor Mana Sensitivity (Passive)

↳ Allows faint perception of ambient mana.

↳ Alchemy - Mediocre Venom Insight (Passive) - Rare

[Skills (Classified)]: Open to see details.

---

[Wealth (Personal):

Funds: 10.8 million gold coins (across 4 secured vaults),

Mana Stones: Stored across 23 arcane warehouses (avg. 1 holds ~12,000 stones),

Raw Mana Crystals: Secured in 7 crystal vaults (avg. 10,000 crystals each, graded, sealed)

Estate Holdings: Goldveil Exchange Tower (Central Hub – Capital), Goldveil Manor, 7 Minor Estates (Trade Ports, Vault Lands, Safehouses), Southbay Storehouse, Northhill Rest Estate, Stillwater Vault (expand to see more)

Treasure: A fragment of Seed of Lust, Dimensional Vault × 1, Tenebrous Soul Codex, Ancient Sealing Rune (Epic-Rank Array Artifact), Shard of the Stoneheart Crystal × 1, Sevenfold Seal (Epic)]

Important Warehouses:- expand to see more

---

Debts Issued: Full Collection and Partial Collection (expand to see more)

[List Of Allegiance:

[Beast Companion: Little Guy (E-rank Glimmergnaw)

----

"That's it?"

Lucien couldn't help but shout out loud after seeing the prompt from his system, utterly surprised.

Unfortunately, the surprise wasn't because he got something awesome, but because his expectations were completely crushed.

From the reward he received, aside from the base stat points, he got almost nothing. Not to mention, both of them were directly declared insolvent in a single go.

He had never thought the system would play him like this.