Chapter 1371: Kingdom Changes

Translator:

Exodus Tales

Editor:

Exodus Tales

Chapter 1371 – Kingdom Changes

Purple Thorns Kingdom, Rock Sand City:

Before Shi Feng could react, the system had teleported him here.

Hm? Why did it teleport me to this city?

Shi Feng was little confused as he looked at his current location the system displayed.

In the past, he had always been transported to Star-Moon Kingdom’s Dark Lake Town after leaving the Orc Palace’s treasury, yet he had been sent to the Purple Thorns Kingdom this time.

The Teleportation Hall bustled with activity. Shi Feng could even hear many independent teams recruiting members in the hall.

“Recruiting a team to grind Orc Bosses in Lakefront Town for Honor Points! Level 40-plus experts only! We already have a healer!”

“Recruiting for an escort quest, delivering resources to the frontline! Need two more players! Level 38 and above! Must have in Level 35 Secret-Silver Equipment or above! We already have MTs and healers!”

...

Practically every independent team wanted elite players or better. Shi Feng found such a scene hard to imagine in a border city like Rock Sand City.

However, how fast these independent teams filled their slots was even more shocking.

What is up with this city?

After glancing at the players in the Teleportation Hall, he discovered that practically every player was at the elite standard or above. There were even quite a few Level 40-plus independent experts. The activity in this city’s Teleportation Hall could even rival White River City’s.

Although Rock Sand City was a major NPC city in the Purple Thorns Kingdom, it was close to the kingdom’s border. The region didn’t have particularly abundant resources, either. Hence, finding so many players developing in Rock Sand City was unusual. Expert players should be an even rarer sight.

Yet, not only was Rock Sand City’s player population surprisingly high, but the quality of its players was also stunning.

Before Shi Feng could get a grasp of the situation, one of the larger-sized Teleportation Magic Arrays lit up. A team of Level 40-plus players then emerged. Every one of these players wore a Guild Emblem belonging to none other than the first-rate Guild, Star Alliance. Upon arriving, the Star Alliance members quickly left the Teleportation Hall. They summoned their Mounts and made their way towards Rock Sand City’s main entrance.

By the looks of it, they seemed to be in a rush.

Shortly after the Star Alliance’s team arrived, teams from other large Guilds began to teleport in. Like the Star Alliance’s teams, these teams also hurried towards the city’s entrance.

After watching this, Shi Feng connected to the official forums to get a better idea of what was happening. The fact that so many large Guilds had dispatched their expert and elite teams suggested that something big was going down.

So, this is the case.

Realization quickly dawned on Shi Feng after he read through the Purple Thorns Kingdom’s official forums.

Due to the “Empire’s Rise” expansion pack, Orcs had begun to occupy areas near the Mourning Battlefield. Although they had yet to occupy a large area, they were expanding. Meanwhile, the Mourning Battlefield was now beyond recognition. The Orcs had already claimed several neutral maps nearby. Thus far, four kingdoms had been affected by the Mourning Battlefield’s expansion.

Orcs all over God’s Domain were becoming more active. Some had even captured NPC towns.

To deal with these Orcs, the continent’s various countries had issued high-ranking quests. Although these quests were quite difficult, the remuneration was considerably abundant. Because of this, the areas these Orcs had claimed became excellent locations to grind money and items.

This was also a good opportunity for the game’s various Guilds to increase their Popularity. These Guilds had begun to receive team quests in their respective Residences, each quest requiring them to hunt Orcs.

However, this was only the tip of the iceberg. The best part about this expansion pack was that players who reclaimed captured towns would obtain a Town Building Order and Town Reputation Order.

These two rewards were precisely the reason that the large Guilds were going crazy.

The Town Building Order allowed a Guild to construct a town wherever they desired. Of course, the town could only be built in the country they had obtained the Building Order from. However, this wasn’t a problem for the various large Guilds, particularly for the first-rate Guilds and above. Large Guilds generally developed in multiple kingdoms and empires simultaneously, and they generally had a considerable amount of power in each location. So, supporting the development of one Guild town wouldn’t be a problem.

The Town Reputation Order had an even greater purpose. It could increase a town’s Popularity, which would hasten a town’s promotion speed. The further a Guild town developed, the more Popularity it required to reach its next promotion. This was the main limit to Guild town promotions. Meanwhile, the Town Reputation Order could help solve this problem. Why wouldn’t the various Guilds go mad over this?

Hence, many Guilds had organized crusades against the Orcs. Some had even organized armies of hundreds of thousands to raid captured towns.

Unfortunately, the Orcs defending these captured towns were extraordinarily powerful. These Orcs were generally Level 60 and above, making the towns very difficult to reclaim. Moreover, the more players that were dispatched to reclaim a town, the more monsters a town would contain.

After watching others’ failed attempts, the various large Guilds had grown docile.

Now, they only dispatched 100-man expert teams to complete the issued Guild team quests instead of trying to reclaim towns.

After reading through the discussions of players on the forums, Shi Feng was greatly shocked.

He had to admit that this expansion had a massive impact on God’s Domain’s various major powers. If dealt with properly, it would not even be surprising to see a Guild instantly rise to become a country’s overlord. It was no wonder why the system update had taken so long to complete.

As Shi Feng considered investigating these Orc town incidents, he received a call from Melancholic Smile.

“Guild Leader, how is your quest coming along?” Melancholic Smile asked, slightly anxious.

“I’ve just finished it. I just have to turn it in,” Shi Feng said, chuckling. “Why? Has something happened?”

“Nothing has changed. Only, the Evil Demons around Stone Forest Town and White River City are becoming increasingly active. Moreover, Great Lord ranked Evil Demons have begun to appear. The Evil Demons are growing so bold that they have even begun to ambush the teams we’ve dispatched to patrol the trade routes. We’ve already incurred significant losses. Meanwhile, the player traffic visiting Stone Forest Town has decreased by more than half. At this rate, Red Iron Town’s player population will surpass Stone Forest Town’s very quickly,” Melancholic Smile reported helplessly.

“Beast Emperor really is bold.” Hearing that Great Lord ranked Evil Demons had begun to show up, Shi Feng could not help but chuckle as he said, “Isn’t he afraid that his Great Lords won’t make it back home?”

Even Abandoned Wave had only employed a few Great Lord ranked Evil Demons due to the difficulty of nurturing them.

Yet, Beast Emperor had dispatched a large number of Great Lords to attack players.

“Although we thought about killing those Great Lords as well, sending the Guild’s main force to lead a 1,000-man team to hunt them down, they’ve evaded us constantly as if the Evil Demon knew about our team’s locations. As a result, our members have just wasted a lot of their time,” Melancholic Smile said, shaking her head.

“In that case, have everyone return to Stone Forest Town. Split up the Guild’s Assassins to monitor the trade routes. Notify me the moment they spot a Great Lord ranked Evil Demon,” Shi Feng said, smiling.

“Order a retreat?” Melancholic Smile was stunned. “Guild Leader, if we do that, those Evil Demons will become even more daring!”

If they allowed those Evil Demons to slaughter the players visiting Stone Forest Town, even fewer players would make the trip.

“It’ll be fine,” Shi Feng said, chuckling. “However, tell our Assassins to be careful. They mustn’t be discovered.”

“Understood.” Melancholic Smile could only nod helplessly. She didn’t understand the benefit of such a thing. She then started to recall the teams patrolling the various trade routes.

As for Shi Feng, he retrieved a Return Scroll from his bag and teleported to White River City. First, he needed to turn in his commission quest.