Chapter 2298 – Heavenly Fortress

After momentarily falling into a daze, Dragon Riders’ members promptly revealed ecstatic expressions on their faces. “It’s true! That pressure really has disappeared!”

“Boss, if we can rest here long-term, we can keep grinding in the Gravity Mountain Range without returning to Dragonheart City! If that’s the case, we won’t need more than half a month to surpass those top eight adventurer teams subordinate to Heaven’s Blade!”

Previously, they had not expected much of the Northern Fortress. After all, they had visited Thirteen Thrones’ fortress before, so they knew what purpose the Gravity Mountain Range’s fortresses served. These fortresses were merely temporary rest areas. Aside from allowing players to recover Stamina and Concentration, they only provided materials replenishment and weapons and equipment repair.

However, the Northern Fortress completely overthrew their understanding of the Gravity Mountain Range’s fortresses.

Setting aside accumulating the Double EXP buff inside the Northern Fortress, just the fact that the fortress could remove the ever-present pressure they felt while grinding in the Gravity Mountain Range was already plenty amazing. Since the Northern Fortress had this kind of ability, they would not need to head back to Dragonheart City to relieve themselves of this pressure.

Although the pressure the Gravity Mountain Range exerted on them had only a minuscule effect, long-term exposure would still build up mental fatigue, which would rise especially quickly when they were fighting against powerful monsters.

Hence, even with the opportunity to rest in Thirteen Thrones’ fortress, they would still return to Dragonheart City once every four or five days to relax and refresh their minds.

At this point, it was already their third day in the Gravity Mountain Range, so the mental fatigue they had accumulated was quite significant. However, the moment they entered the Northern Fortress, said mental fatigue had disappeared completely. Normally, this pleasant sensation was something they would feel only after returning to Dragonheart City.

If they could rid themselves of the Gravity Mountain Range’s pressure just by entering the Northern Fortress, then they could forgo returning to Dragonheart City and remain in the Gravity Mountain Range. With this, they could save plenty on the travel time between the World Tower and Dragonheart City, thereby increasing their leveling speed and resource acquisition rate.

In this situation, Swimming Dragon could not help being overjoyed.

The Northern Fortress’s benefits might not seem like much, but with persistence, a drop of water could wear out even a stone. With the help of the Northern Fortress’s ability, the Dragon Riders adventurer team could slowly pull ahead of Dragonheart City’s adventurer teams. Surpassing the top eight adventurer teams subordinate to Heaven’s Blade would also be a piece of cake.

During the time Dragon Riders’ members were strolling about, enjoying the Northern Fortress’s pressure-free environment, a gasp suddenly appeared in the team chat.

“Boss, come over here, quickly! I discovered something good!” a Level 87 Tigerkin Shield Warrior yelled excitedly.

“What is it? What’s so important that you need to make such a huge fuss?” Swimming Dragon asked, exasperated.

Dragon Riders was a well-known adventurer team on Dragonheart Island. Having one of its members act like a country bumpkin in front of the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion’s and Zero Wing’s members after entering the Northern Fortress was a huge embarrassment to the adventurer team.

“Boss, it’s the teleportation scroll for this fortress! Return Scrolls for the Northern Fortress are available at the Defensive Magic Towers!” the Tigerkin Shield Warrior replied.

“What? Return Scrolls?” Swimming Dragon’s breathing momentarily grew heavier.

Return Scrolls for locations in the outside world were unusable inside the World Tower. Meanwhile, the Gravity Mountain Range was an extremely dangerous place, and players could enter a death zone unawares at any time. Players might be able to escape momentarily using Instantaneous Transfer Scrolls, but without the help of a Return Scroll, they would still encounter countless perils on their way back to safety.

If players could utilize Return Scrolls inside the Gravity Mountain Range, they would no longer have to be afraid of exploring unknown and dangerous regions.

Moreover, with Return Scrolls, players would no longer have to conserve their Stamina and Concentration to walk back to the nearest rest area, increasing their range of operations drastically.

“Buy them! Buy them all, quickly! It doesn’t matter even if they cost 1 Ancient Gold each!” Swimming Dragon ordered, his eyes glowing with excitement.

Ancient Gold might be difficult to earn, but compared to their lives, let alone 1 Ancient Gold, even 10 Ancient Gold would not be comparable. After all, even a single death at their levels would deprive them of plenty of opportunities.

“Boss, relax. These Return Scrolls are sold by NPCs. You can have as many as you want. Moreover, each Return Scroll costs only 10 Ancient Silver. However, these Return Scrolls are bound to the buyer and cannot be transferred to other players,” the Tigerkin Shield Warrior said, grinning.

“What? Only 10 Ancient Silver?” For a moment, Swimming Dragon thought he had misheard.

Ordinary players might not be able to bear the price of 10 Ancient Silver, but this was easily affordable for experts like themselves. After all, just entering the Gravity Mountain Range cost 5 Ancient Silver while entering a fortress was 1 Ancient Silver and staying in a hotel, 2 to 3 Ancient Silver.

Following which, Swimming Dragon had everyone in his team immediately go and purchase some Return Scrolls at the Defensive Magic Towers. In fact, aside from some money for accommodation and repair fees, he told his teammates to spend all their Ancient Silver to purchase the Northern Fortress’s Return Scrolls, afraid that the Return Scrolls would become unavailable or increase in price in the future.

However, what Swimming Dragon did not know was that the system handled the price for the Northern Fortress’s Return Scrolls, which could be considered one of the special abilities of the Defensive Magic Towers. This ability was something similar to the Additional Skills found on weapons and equipment. Shi Feng had no say in the settings and could only collect a portion of the profits.

Meanwhile, even after having his teammates spend all their spare Ancient Silver on Return Scrolls, Swimming Dragon was still not satisfied. After all, he knew that so long as they exploited this opportunity to the fullest, the Dragon Riders adventurer team could see a qualitative leap in development.

“Notify everyone in the adventurer team and have them come to the Northern Fortress! From now onwards, the Northern Fortress will be Dragon Riders’ main headquarters!” Swimming Dragon said.

After saying so, he immediately visited four of the Northern Fortress’s Basic Hotels and rented all four long-term for 60 Ancient Gold per day. He intended to have these four hotels serve as Dragon Riders’ temporary headquarters and lodging for the adventurer team’s members. That way, members would not have to worry about accommodations and end up sleeping on the streets.

Shortly after Swimming Dragon gave his command, Dragon Riders’ members promptly sprang into action. All 2,000- plus members of the adventurer team suddenly headed to the World Tower.

The large-scale movement piqued the curiosity of many of the adventurer teams that had close relations with Dragon Riders. Some players that were friends with Dragon Riders’ members also asked their friends about this situation.

“What are you guys trying to do? Is Dragon Riders conducting some kind of large-scale operation?”

“It’s not a large-scale operation. Our adventurer team is just moving our main headquarters to the Northern Fortress.”

“Are you guys insane? Didn’t you hear the threat War Blood made?”

“War Blood might be powerful, but we can simply stick to the northern region. At worst, we’ll just avoid grinding in the Gravity Mountain Range’s other areas. Here, let me tell you a secret. Zero Wing’s Northern Fortress is freaking amazing. Not only can you accumulate the Double EXP buff there, but my team leader says that you can even rid yourself of the Gravity Mountain Range’s ever-present pressure by entering the Northern Fortress. What’s even more amazing is that there are Return Scrolls on sale at the Northern Fortress. With those, even ordinary experts like us can grind freely and efficiently in the Gravity Mountain Range.”

“You’re kidding me, right? I’ve been to Thirteen Thrones’ fortress before.”

“It’s fine if you don’t believe me, but once my level surpasses yours, don’t say that I never told you about this.”

After saying so, the members of Dragon Riders hurried toward the Northern Fortress. They all wished to start competing for the Gravity Mountain Range’s leveling resources as soon as possible.

While the Dragon Riders adventurer team was rushing to the Northern Fortress, information about the Northern Fortress started spreading among some of Dragonheart City’s adventurer teams. Shortly after, news of it also reached Dragonheart City’s major powers.