Chapter 1829 –

Secret Stone Fortress

“Advanced Manager?” s.h.i.+ Feng was ecstatic upon hearing Claude’s words.

In G.o.d’s Domain, becoming a fortress town’s manager was akin to becoming a n.o.ble of an NPC town or city. Players would gain the authority to manage a portion of the Shops in the fortress town and would be able to determine its development direction. However, an NPC fortress town wouldn’t have only one manager. Just like Thunder Island, there could be multiple managers overseeing a single fortress town.

An Advanced Manager possessed more authority than a Basic Manager. An Advanced Manager was close to being the deputy mayor of a fortress town. They would be able to manage important establishments such as the Auction House, Teleportation Hall, and Adventurer’s a.s.sociation, not just a bunch of Shops.

Although becoming an Advanced Manager was inferior to fully occupying a fortress town, since an NPC fortress town would be partially operated and guarded by NPCs, barring special situations, it was much safer than a Guild Fortress Town.

For example, currently, so long as the Secret Stone Fortress was being garrisoned by Level 100 NPCs, even if Beast Emperor sent his entire Evil Beast army over, he wouldn’t be able to take down the fortress. Unless Beast Emperor had some way to reduce the garrisoned NPCs’ levels, capturing the fortress would be impossible.

“Lord Claude, must the 60,000 Gold be paid right now?” s.h.i.+ Feng asked.

Sixty thousand Gold was no small sum. This was especially true for s.h.i.+ Feng right now, as he had already spent most of his funds on this expedition.

“Sixty thousand Gold is indeed a lot of money. Moreover, it’ll take some time to get the necessary materials to repair the Secret Stone Fortress,” Claude said, nodding. “It’ll take four days at the quickest for the kingdom’s army to arrive. It is fine so long as you gather the 60,000 Gold within these four days.”

…

System: You have triggered the Quest “Secret Stone Fortress.” Collect 60,000 Gold within four days. Failure to do so will result in the loss of the opportunity to become Secret Stone Fortress’s Advanced Manager.

…

“Wonderful!” s.h.i.+ Feng breathed out a sigh of relief upon seeing the system notification.

While it might be difficult for ordinary first-rate Guilds to collect 60,000 Gold in four days_some might even have to sell some of their Lands to do so—this was not a problem for s.h.i.+ Feng.

After all, he had a business deal with the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion and Unyielding Soul. Both these super-first-rate Guilds had shown great interest in the Dark Corrosion Set They had also placed an order for a large number of All-rounded Devices and Elven Silver. If he offered to let the two Guilds pay for a portion of the All-rounded Devices and Elven Silver using Coins, instead of Magic Crystals, the two Guilds would definitely be more than happy to do so.

After s.h.i.+ Feng was done speaking with Claude, he immediately left for Silverwing Town.

While collecting 60,000 Gold in four days posed no problem, the money he needed amounted to far more than just 60,000 Gold.

After completing the Ore King’s Ambitions quest, he had acquired the extremely precious Star-Moon Kingdom Airport Building Order as well as a Transportation Firm Design. Both these items were priceless treasures.

The Star-Moon Kingdom Airport Building Order was akin to a permit to open up an air route. However, he would need a lot of funds to build an airport. Fortunately, the construction of the airport did not require a design, only money.

Even so, building a Small Airport still cost 50,000 Gold.

However, once he set up an air route from Star-Moon Kingdom to Silverwing Town, not only would it expedite the transport of NPC merchants’ goods, but players from Star-Moon Kingdom would also have an easier time getting to Silverwing Town. Although air travel wasn’t as fast as teleportation, it was still many times faster than traveling on land on a Mount. Moreover, the transportation fee one had to pay was also much cheaper than that for a teleportation array.

In the past, a large part of the reason why many superpowers were able to develop their neutral towns into an Advanced City was their possession of an airport. Although many first-rate Guilds possessed great financial strength, the neutral towns they developed only managed to reach the Basic City standard; they simply couldn’t become an Advanced City no matter what. Only the first-rate Guilds that succeeded in building an airport were able to develop their neutral towns to the Advanced City standard.

This was because an airport was capable of bringing a town or city immense Popularity and prosperity.

Not only could an airport help NPC merchants enter a town or city much more easily, but it also provided the ability to transport cargo safely and swiftly. A delivery trip that normally took one or two days by land could be completed in just a few hours by airs.h.i.+p. Moreover, in G.o.d’s Domain, some NPC trading firms restricted their development to towns and cities with airports.

In addition, there was the recruitment of NPC soldiers. As neutral maps were located very far away from human civilization, many NPCs were unwilling to travel to neutral towns and cities. However, if a neutral town had an airport, the number and quality of NPCs willing to work as a soldier for that town would also increase. With this, the improvement of the neutral town’s security level would accelerate.

Due to this reason, the development speed of a neutral town with an airport far surpa.s.sed that of a neutral town without an airport.

This was also the reason why s.h.i.+ Feng had decided to undertake the Ore King’s Ambitions quest no matter what

As for the Transportation Firm, its construction cost 20,000 Gold. The Transportation Firm was something that would be of great help to the players developing in the town where the firm was based. Once he constructed it in Silverwing Town, players would be able to pick up Transportation Quests in Silverwing Town. When players completed these quests, they could not only obtain a large sum of Coins but also acc.u.mulate Transportation Firm Contribution Points. Players could then spend the CPs and Coins they earned to purchase items that were exclusively traded between NPCs.

To players that were incapable of raiding high-difficulty Team Dungeons, this was a good opportunity to acquire top-tier weapons, equipment, and tools. In the past, the Transportation Firm was actually much more popular than even the Auction House.

Normally, NPC Auction Houses hosted auctions only once a week. However, the Transportation Firm would stock up on new items every day. Moreover, the more prosperous the town or city a Transportation Firm was based in, the better the quality of the items sold. Hence, in the past, any Guild Town or City that housed a Transportation Firm had become a holy land for independent players.

Meanwhile, the airport and Transportation Firm would complement each other. If he could build both in Silverwing Town now, he might not even need a month to upgrade Silverwing Town into an Advanced Town.

However, building these two constructions would cost an astronomical number of Coins. Hence, he needed to take action as soon as possible.

The moment s.h.i.+ Feng exited the Secret Stone Fortress, the members of the various dark adventurer teams and Dark Guilds immediately s.h.i.+fted their gaze to him.

“Commander, should we move out now?” a Level 54 a.s.sa.s.sin asked, licking his lips as he turned to look at the Level 54, Tier 2 Ranger standing beside him. “The other adventurer teams and Guilds seem to be getting ready to take action as well.”

After the battle with the Ores ended, the NPCs following s.h.i.+ Feng had also disappeared. The various Dark Players hiding in the forest grew restless at this development.

Although they had seen Black Flame’s strength, the remuneration offered by Dark Soul was simply too tempting, so much so that they were willing to risk attacking Black Flame.

After all, so long as they succeeded, what awaited them was a life of glory and financial security.