novellhall Chapter 244: Peculiar figures
Chapter 244: Peculiar figures
After spending quite some time exchanging cuddles with Ophelia, Ethan finally pulled himself away from her warmth and stepped out of his mansion.
A weary expression crossed his face as he looked up at the sky.
It was around four in the afternoon. The sun already hung low on the horizon, bathing the rooftops in molten gold as the city eased into a more leisurely pace.
Of course, that didn’t mean the workers had stopped for a single moment.
On the contrary, after Ethan had unloaded hundreds of tons of lumber from his system warehouse, the work had only gained more momentum.
With dozens of teams erecting dozens of houses at the same time, Goldenveil was growing at a truly staggering pace, as if the city were sprouting from the ground of its own accord.
"Ah..."
He let out a long sigh, closing his eyes for a moment and letting the cool breeze caress his face, carrying with it the faint scent of fresh-cut wood.
He had barely shut them when he had to snap them open again, his head turning swiftly toward the sound of approaching footsteps.
In the distance, Doran and Aerick were drawing closer, walking side by side. But it wasn’t just them who caught his attention.
All three of them could sense about thirty third-stage auras converging on the city.
"My lord, should we intercept them?" Doran asked, his hand already flying to the hilt of the sword at his waist, his shoulders going tense.
"No." Ethan shook his head slowly, his eyes falling on the gates, where a group of peculiar figures was just entering the city.
"Ugh... shit, what the hell was that damn vampire? I couldn’t even see her attack! That thing must be at least in the fourth stage!" one of the strange figures complained aloud, gesturing indignantly as he walked.
"Good thing we had a respawn point nearby. I didn’t want to climb that damn mountain for another hundred and fifty kilometers to get there," another replied beside him, rubbing the back of his neck wearily.
"It doesn’t matter now. That must have been a secret boss we had the misfortune of running into... her name popped up as ’Blood Empress’ when I tried to open the status screen," one of the figures at the front of the group remarked, his voice pensive.
He wore paladin armor, with a silver shield strapped to his arm and a golden sword at his waist.
Clearly, he was the leader of that strange band of adventurers.
"Yeah, that must be it..." one of the four girls in the group replied, letting her gaze wander over the surroundings. "This place is really beautiful. Have you been here before? I’ve never seen a city like this in this region..."
"No." The leader shook his head. "I only discovered it because of my mapping skill. It’s my first time here."
Right after he finished speaking, the group finally reached Ethan, who was watching them in silence, curiosity glinting in his eyes.
The paladin paused for a moment, sized Ethan up from head to toe, and then offered a respectful bow.
It wasn’t necessary, but after interacting with so many noble NPCs in the region, he had learned that treating them this way often opened the door to rarer quests.
"My lord, we are merely adventurers in search of a place to rest. Might you have any work for us?" he asked, excitement bubbling up at the possibility of securing a unique quest from a noble NPC.
Ethan’s eyes sparkled, and the corners of his lips curved into a subtle smile, which only excited the paladin even more.
Apparently, it had worked!
What he didn’t know was that Ethan wasn’t even paying attention to him.
The handsome young man’s eyes were completely fixed on the string of system notifications popping up in his field of vision.
[Goldenveil has welcomed players for the first time.
Players are an unstable but extremely cheap labor force.
The mission creation menu for adventurers can also be used to create missions intended for players.
Rewards for player missions must be deposited at the time the mission is created.
A church or any religious center can be founded in Goldenveil to allow players to spawn and respawn directly in the city.]
Ethan had to use every ounce of willpower to hold back a hearty laugh.
Suppressing his excitement, he opened the quest creation menu and crafted a mission to hunt a third-stage beast, requiring that the animal’s carcass and blood be delivered to John, the manager of the Goldenveil brewery.
As a reward, he set a Rank C sword he’d been keeping in his inventory, plus a hundred gold coins. He spent another hundred coins to secure a two-hundred-percent XP reward, equivalent to two levels.
It seemed like a lot, but compared to the value of a third-stage beast, especially once its blood was turned into wine, it really wasn’t all that much.
The moment he clicked to confirm, a system notification reached the paladin as well, displaying all the mission details along with a prompt to accept or decline.
At first, the paladin maintained a calm expression, but it didn’t last long.
As his eyes scanned the rewards, his heart nearly leapt out of his throat.
Hands trembling, he shared the mission with his companions, whose eyes widened one after another in disbelief.
Even SnowBreath, who had been keeping her face flushed while trying, at all costs, to avert her gaze from Ethan, was caught completely off guard.
"A-are these rewards correct?" the paladin asked, looking up at Ethan.
He had already received countless quests from NPCs, but none with rewards this absurdly OP!
"And why wouldn’t they be?" Ethan furrowed his brow, and the paladin accepted the quest on the spot, without a moment’s hesitation.
"Nothing, my lord, I’m just surprised, hahaha." He laughed awkwardly, while simultaneously firing off a message in the party group chat.
[We need to gather ten thousand gold coins to buy the guild founding token. This guy might be our way in. What do you think about establishing Goldenveil as our base, if he keeps dropping quests of this level?]