Doris finished her evening shopping and returned to the temporary dormitory.

As soon as she entered, she heard a clinking sound. Looking carefully, she saw Hilia and Phil sitting at the table, counting... Silver Coins?

Oh, Phil was counting Copper Coins.

A pile of coins lay in front of them as they were tallying.

"Where did you two get so many Silver and Copper Coins?"

Hilia ignored her, but Phil looked up with a smile, "I earned these by dispelling pollution for the mercenaries today."

"What about Hilia?" Doris gazed at the heap of Silver Coins in front of Hilia.

There must have been roughly four to five hundred of them. She was stacking them up and binding them with a special coin-wrapping coil, one stack of 100 coins each.

Faced with Doris’s inquiry, Hilia didn’t respond. Phil answered for her, "Hilia is amazing; she helped upgrade the linkage devices of the Heart of the Magic Puppet and earned ten times as much as I did!"

Most of the coin pile in front of Phil consisted of Copper Coins, with a few Silver Coins mixed in. Although the stack was much thicker than Hilia’s, the overall value was much lower.

"You two took advantage of this time to earn money?" Doris was taken aback.

Hilia looked up, "With such a bustling market, why wouldn’t we make money rather than spend it?"

As she spoke, Hilia finished counting all the Silver Coins and was clenching her teeth.

"Damn, only 410 Silver Coins. Someone shorted me 10 Silver Coins. When I find them, they’ll regret it!"

She upgraded eight linkage devices in total tonight, with the first two at half price and the rest at 60 Silver Coins each, which should’ve totaled 420 Silver Coins. But upon counting, she found 10 missing.

Silver Coins equal 1,200 Copper Coins, or 240 loaves of bread—a fortune!

The girl was heartbroken.

Doris pouted and said, "What’s there to be upset about with 10 Silver Coins? Follow me, and I’ll give you 10 gold coins a day."

Hilia rolled her eyes at her, stored the Silver Coins safely, and was about to go to bed when Benovia, who was reading a book, suddenly spoke: "Hilia, do you plan to keep doing this kind of work for extra money during the trial period?"

Hilia looked at her and nodded, "Yes, why?"

Benovia said, "Carrying so many Silver Coins can be inconvenient. If you want, I can exchange them for Gold Coins at a 110 ratio."

Hilia’s eyes lit up, "Really?"

Benovia nodded, "Of course, I want to make some money, too—1 gold coin for 10 Silver Coins from you."

"No problem, even at 20 Silver Coins!" Hilia agreed happily and immediately exchanged 3 gold coins with her.

Exchanging at 10 Silver Coins was based on the official exchange rate, but as everyone knows, official exchange channels are practically nonexistent. No matter how early you go, you’d hear, "All exchanged," as a response.

The unofficial ratio was usually over 120. Maybe Benovia had access to an official exchange channel, but at 110, it was like offering money to herself, leaving Hilia with no reason to refuse.

Of course, if Benovia had said it was at a 100 ratio, Hilia would definitely have refused.

Even 110... is a bit high. If Benovia asks for help in the future, it’ll be hard to decline.

But Hilia had already asked her for help many times, so one more time wouldn’t hurt...

Having secured the 3 Gold Coins from Benovia, Hilia climbed into her bed and closed her eyes, dreaming of tomorrow.

If she earned this much every day, upon returning, her savings would not only bounce back to 100 Gold Coins, but might also grow by another 50!

Early the next morning, a loud broadcast echoed through the school camp, piercing into the dormitories and waking all the students.

At this time, Hilia and the others were already prepared.

Doris, the captain, had already woken up before the broadcast and, in her authority, had roused everyone.

Fortunately, the Holy Daughter candidates present were early risers; in fact, they were already awake before she called them—meaning Doris was actually the last one to wake.

Amidst the chaotic preparations of countless students, the five of them left the camp and headed outside the ruins.

There, Doris stopped, turned back, and said sternly, "Due to the unique nature of this ancient ruin, our mentor cannot accompany us inside. We have to rely on ourselves. Once we’re inside, I hope nobody does anything against the team’s interests, because we are a team!"

Facing the ruins, she seemed like a different person, becoming very serious and cautious.

No one refuted her because she was right.

Even though Hilia was still annoyed by her previous smug attitude, she had no plans to argue now.

"Unless Doris deliberately targets me inside, I’ll still follow her commands."

After emphasizing this, Doris arranged everyone’s positions—she stood at the front, followed by Hilia, Phil, Encore, and Benovia. If necessary, their formation would shift to a cross, with Hilia on the left, Encore on the right, and Phil, the Priest, protected in the center.

By now, the sun was rising above the horizon, and quite a few mercenaries had appeared.

The five entered the ruins, which seemed to bring about some kind of change; the dense fog covered the rear, making it impossible to see through.

Hilia only glanced back before continuing to follow Doris.

This was the outer area, surrounded by jungle that hid many dangerous demons, but none posed a threat to them.

Quickly, they passed through the jungle area and reached a fence, then crossed it, officially entering the exploration range of the Lost Lighthouse.

The terrain here wasn’t flat—the fence didn’t lead directly to the coastline but was behind a small hill instead.

"In front of us is a small hill; it’s very easy to be spotted on the hill, so we need to pass through a gap at its base to reach the coastline area."

"From here on, the path will become increasingly dangerous. The unique pollution of the ancient ruins can condense into demons that will attack passersby."

Roar!

Just as Doris finished speaking, a roar came from the side.

A tiger-like demon, with eyes shimmering with black aura, dashed out from the nearby bushes, aiming its bloodthirsty fangs at Hilia in the middle.

Just as Hilia was about to act, a fiery figure appeared beside her, a large flaming sword already slicing into the tiger’s sturdy skull.

Thump!

With a loud crash, the tiger erupted into raging flames, and Doris’s magic puppet was knocked back several steps by the force.

As the flaming tiger burned, several pairs of black eyes slowly appeared around them.

"Wind!"

Doris shouted softly, bestowing a wind-based swiftness blessing upon everyone and the magic puppet.

"Run directly towards the coastline! Don’t stop; once we reach it, we’ll gather the chasing demons and take them down!"

With that, she dashed toward the gap, with Hilia and the others following closely behind.

The eyes emerged, revealing their forms, and charged at the five as they fled.