Chapter 1718: Building a Neutral Town

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Chapter 1718 – Building a Neutral Town

Inside the luxurious VIP Room, the NPC senior adopted a more respectful attitude towards Shi Feng upon watching the Swordsman pull a tattered piece of parchment from his bag and place it on the table. Following which, the NPC inspected the parchment carefully.

Although the Town Building Order was nowhere near as valuable as a Star-Moon Kingdom City Building Order on its own, it could rival, even surpass, the value of the kingdom’s City Building Order depending on how it was used.

This was because the Town Building Order didn’t have location restrictions. One could even construct a town in a neutral map if they wished to. Neutral maps were not under any kingdom or empire’s jurisdiction, so building a town in one of these maps was akin to securing rule over the map.

On the other hand, while the Star-Moon Kingdom City Building Order was indeed very valuable, the city built had to be constructed within Star-Moon Kingdom’s borders. In other words, the city would still be under the kingdom’s jurisdiction and would be largely influenced by the kingdom.

The simplest example of such influence was the monthly management fee towns and cities had to pay the kingdom. For a Basic City like Zero Wing City, players had to pay a monthly management fee of 30,000 Gold. If the city were promoted to an Intermediate or Advanced City, the fee would increase by several times.

However, if a town or city were constructed in a neutral map, players wouldn’t be required to hand over an exorbitant management fee to any kingdom or empire. Instead, players only had to pay a small management fee to the system.

Of course, such a benefit had a huge drawback: the lack of safety. Towns and cities within a kingdom or empire were under that kingdom or empire’s protection. Monster attacks were the greatest threat these towns and cities would have to face. However, monsters weren’t the only threat in a neutral map. Raids from other races would be commonplace, as well.

If a Guild weren’t strong enough, building a town in a neutral map would simply be a waste of manpower and resources. In fact, Guilds had often overestimated their strength during Shi Feng’s previous life, constructing towns in neutral maps, which were subsequently destroyed.

However, this drawback included another benefit, which was the greatest benefit of building a town in a neutral map. Since neutral maps were not under a kingdom or empire’s jurisdiction, Guild Towns and Guild Cities in neutral maps could trade with other races.

God’s Domain had many different races. Aside from creatures with low intellect, which only knew how to slaughter other beings for survival, there were intelligent races that could communicate with players, such as Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, Half-elves, and Half-orcs. Only, these races were prohibited from entering Guild Towns and Cities within kingdoms and empires’ borders. At most, players might encounter these races in NPC towns and cities, but even then, these races would only conduct basic trade with players.

However, these foreign races produced many products that were better than those made by human hands. Moreover, each race had their own specialty products that would be of great help to players’ survival when fighting in the fields.

Take Dwarven-made weapons and equipment, for example. As the Dwarves had better techniques and special forging methods, their weapons and equipment performed far better than human-made products.

Meanwhile, Guild Towns in neutral maps weren’t prohibited from trading with foreign races. As long as a town were attractive enough, it could inspire members of the foreign races to visit.

Aside from trade, players could also employ foreign races to serve as the town’s soldiers. Unlike human warriors, these races’ warriors generally specialized in a particular aspect. Hence, Guilds that had towns in neutral maps in the past had hired foreign races’ warriors to protect their towns.

Because of these aspects, although neutral towns didn’t seem any different than ordinary Guild Towns, they could actually function like miniature kingdoms in neutral maps. Although the neutral town couldn’t compare to kingdoms and empires in every aspect, it had the qualities to become one.

“Lord Protector, I have ascertained that there are no problems with your Town Building Order. May I know where you wish to build your town?” the NPC administrator respectfully asked as he stored the Town Building Order. He then took out a crystal ball and placed it on the table. In the next moment, a map of God’s Domain appeared in the crystal ball.

“Here,” Shi Feng said as he pointed at the Orc Empire’s Primordial Divine Ruin.

Constructing a town in a neutral map wasn’t like building one in a kingdom or empire. Kingdoms and empires would never intervene in matters outside of their borders. Hence, when building a town in a neutral map, the Adventurer’s Association was fully responsible for handling the town’s construction.

“Lord Protector, this location is currently quite chaotic. The lowest-level monsters nearby are above Level 50. Orcs also wreak havoc in the area. If you wish to build a town there, it will be costly. The basic construction fees alone come to 40,000 Gold. If you wish to employ guards, each Level 100, Tier 1 adventurer will cost 3 Gold per day, 10 Gold per day for a Tier 2 adventurer, and 100 Gold per day for a Tier 3 adventurer. You will also only be allowed to employ them for a maximum of three days.

“Do you wish to hire any guards?”

“I’ll hire 1,000 Tier 1 adventurers, 500 Tier 2 adventurers, and 20 Tier 3 adventurers for three days.”

This wasn’t the first time Shi Feng had built a neutral town, so the cost didn’t particularly surprise him.

While neutral maps were extremely dangerous, the profit one could obtain from them was immense. Hence, towns in neutral maps were only given 3-day protection periods. Not only were these NPC guards expensive, but their levels wouldn’t scale along with players, remaining only slightly higher than the local monsters. These NPC guards were mainly there to repel monster and foreign race assaults, not players.

Zero Wing had recently earned a fortune from selling the equipment it had obtained after killing Heaven’s Burial and Blackwater’s members. It also had the profit from Stone Forest Town and Zero Wing City. However, since a large part of the money had to be invested in the Guild’s development, Zero Wing only had a little over 80,000 Gold in the bank right now.

The construction alone cost 40,000 Gold, which was many times higher than building a town within Star-Moon Kingdom. With how expensive the adventurers were, Shi Feng didn’t dare to hire too many at once.

Furthermore, if a town wished to survive in a neutral map long-term, relying on temporary guards definitely wasn’t a viable solution. Hence, the Guild had to set some money aside to build static defenses in the town, as well.

“Alright! Your total bill comes to 70,000 Gold. No discounts are available at this time,” the NPC administrator said, nodding. “Once you complete the payment, the Adventurer’s Association will send our people to the chosen location within one minute. It will take them roughly 20 minutes to complete the town’s construction.”

Twenty minutes? The senior administrator’s explanation surprised Shi Feng a little.

He had never thought that the town’s construction would take so long. When the Adventurer’s Association constructed a town in a nearby neutral map, it normally completed the construction within ten minutes. Unlike cities, town’s had fewer facilities and structures, after all. But his town required twice as long to construct. One could just imagine how dangerous the area around the Primordial Divine Ruin was right now.

However, Shi Feng did not give the matter much thought. He handed 70,000 Gold to the NPC and departed from the Adventurer’s Association. He then headed to the War God’s Temple to earn himself some Merit Points.

While Shi Feng was on his way to the War God’s Temple, he received a call from Aqua Rose.

“Guild Leader, another problem has cropped up at the Primordial Divine Ruin. As soon as we left the ruin, Beast Emperor sent his Evil Beasts and Evil Demons to surround the ruin again. We still can’t send our elite members to garrison in the ruin,” Aqua Rose reported with a somber expression. She hadn’t expected Beast Emperor to be so shameless, making such a move. “One of Beast Emperor’s subordinates has also contacted us, informing us that he won’t stop harassing us at the Primordial Divine Ruin unless we release Flame Blood.”

Although Beast Emperor’s actions were shameless, Zero Wing couldn’t do anything about it.

Zero Wing only had two magic arrays that could summon Divine Magic Dragons, and both had been used during the previous battle. Now that Zero Wing had nothing to counter the Evil Beast and Demon armies, sending in a player army would be suicidal.

“He’s prepared to fight to the bitter end?” Shi Feng could not help but chuckle. “Since that is the case, let him have his fun. We’ll see how long he can continue his struggle.”

“But what about Primordial City?” Aqua Rose could tell that Shi Feng was determined to destroy Beast Emperor thoroughly. However, Primordial City played a key role in helping Zero Wing’s members reach Tier 2.

“Just ignore him,” Shi Feng said. “For now, gather every architect in the Candlelight Trading Firm and have them gather in the Guild Residence. Then, contact Melancholic and tell her to prepare these materials for me. I’ll need them in a moment.”

After saying so, Shi Feng disconnected the call and quietly waited for his horse carriage to reach the War God’s Temple. Meanwhile, Aqua Rose stared at the darkened screen before her with a confused look.

“Is it really fine to leave him alone?” Aqua Rose muttered to herself worriedly. However, the expression Shi Feng has worn during their conversation indicated that he had a well-thought-out plan in mind. Immediately, she shook her worries out of her mind and sent Beast Emperor’s subordinate a reply. Once that was done, she started to gather the necessary manpower and notified Melancholic Smile to collect the necessary materials.

…

Ancient Rock City:

“Good! Very good!” When Beast Emperor received Aqua Rose’s reply via his subordinate, his complexion turned frighteningly ashen, and killing intent radiated from his entire body. He had never thought that Shi Feng would be mad enough to fight him to the bitter end.

Just as Beast Emperor was about to declare a war of annihilation on Zero Wing, the sound of a system notification reached his ears.

…

System Announcement: Congratulations to Zero Wing for being the first Guild to construct a town in a neutral map! Rewarding 30,000 Guild Popularity and 10,000 Popularity to the new town.

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