Chapter 1731: Taking Shape

Translator:

Exodus Tales

Editor:

Exodus Tales

Chapter 1731 – Taking Shape

After leaving the Guild Residence and entering the street outside, Shi Feng noticed that Silverwing Town looked much more like a proper town than before. Many new buildings decorated the town now. Even the five-story-tall Shop meant for the Candlelight Trading Firm had already been constructed. Now, all that Shop needed was a link-up with the other Shops owned by Candlelight and products to be put up for sale. Once that was done, Candlelight would be able to start doing business officially in Silverwing Town.

Due to Silverwing Town having already reached a certain scale, the number of NPCs wandering about its streets had also increased. Now, the patrolling NPC adventurers and Zero Wing’s members weren’t the only ones filling the streets.

Moreover, Shi Feng even noticed a few mercenary NPCs, wearing tattered armor, walking towards Zero Wing’s Residence, possibly drawn by the Magic King.

Although these NPCs looked destitute, when Shi Feng used Omniscient Eyes to inspect them, he discovered that even the weakest among them was a Level 70, Tier 2 NPC.

Normally, a recently established town would be fortunate to attract Tier 1 NPCs to become soldiers. Majority of the NPCs applying to garrison the town would only be at the Elite standard. As for Tier 2 NPCs, those were basically impossible to find.

Yet, now, three Tier 2 NPCs were showing interest in becoming soldiers in Silverwing Town. For comparison, Zero Wing City had only a few hundred Tier 2 soldiers guarding it even until now. Although the three NPCs Shi Feng spotted were not particularly high-leveled, they were more than enough to deal with current players. Besides, NPC soldiers leveled up much more quickly than players.

It’s no wonder people were saying that a powerful Hero could give rise to a city.

When Shi Feng looked at the three Tier 2 NPCs, he could not help but recall the first-rate Guilds that owned powerful Heroes in the past.

Although the funds and resources of those first-rate Guilds were far from comparable to what super-first-rate Guilds and Super Guilds had, due to them obtaining powerful Heroes, the defensive capability of their cities was not one bit lower than that of cities operated by superpowers.

Back then, even Super Guilds had trouble taking action against cities defended by powerful Heroes. Only after acquiring Tier 6 players were Super Guilds able to deal with those cities easily.

The reason for this was the strength of a Hero not being limited to just themself. Powerful Heroes were also capable of recruiting powerful and talented NPCs to become soldiers of the cities they protected. In the past, the cities protected by such powerful Heroes had plenty of its soldiers promoted to Tier 3, with some even reaching Tier 4. Buffed by the city’s defensive magic array, these NPCs were capable of exhibiting extremely frightening combat power.

Without an absolute advantage, trying to capture such a city was practically impossible.

After walking a short while, Shi Feng arrived at the edge of Silverwing Town.

Currently, a large number of architects could be seen demolishing the old walls of the town and building new ones in their place. Although the town’s original walls had some defensive properties, they were useless against attacks at the Tier 2 standard and above. The new walls being built, however, could stop even Tier 3 attacks. Moreover, they possessed much higher durability as well as resistance to siege weapons. They also had an added effect that prevented players from crossing over them from above. For a neutral town, such walls were a must-have defensive measure.

However, the cost of constructing these new walls was not cheap—a minimum of 10,000 Gold for the entire perimeter of Silverwing Town. If not for Zero Wing having a money-printing machine like Zero Wing City generating large amounts of Coins every minute, the Guild couldn’t have afforded to construct these new walls, in addition to the various hotels, bars, smithies, and restaurants.

If a first-rate Guild were tasked with managing Silverwing Town, the Guild would be fortunate to get the basic facilities up and running. After all, the total cost of constructing Silverwing Town and the basic facilities in it was already close to 120,000 Gold. This was a huge sum of money even for current super-first-rate Guilds, not to mention first-rate Guilds.

However, this was only a small part of the necessary investments into Silverwing Town. Zero Wing still needed to construct a Battle Arena as well as multiple defensive structures. Those things cost a lot more money to build than hotels and smithies.

Meanwhile, standing at the four corners of Silverwing Town were four Magic Towers as well as one more Magic Tower located close to the town’s main entrance.

“Guild Leader, several superpowers have already contacted us. They say they’re willing to partner with us as long as we hand over 50% of Silverwing Town’s shares as well as allow them to build a Guild Residence in the town. In return, they’ll help us fend off Beast Emperor’s attacks in addition to investing 200,000 Gold for the fortification of Silverwing Town’s defenses,” Aqua Rose reported when she saw Shi Feng approaching her.

“Fifty percent? Every superpower is asking for this price?” Shi Feng asked curiously.

He was not particularly surprised by the fact that the various superpowers were offering to invest in Silverwing Town. After all, such situations frequently occurred during his previous life. In the past, many first-rate Guilds had, fortunately, come across a Town Building Order but lacked the strength to safeguard the town they built in a neutral map. In the end, these first-rate Guilds would choose to partner with a superpower.

The first reason for partnering with a superpower was to protect the town.

The second reason was to free up more funds for the development of their own Guilds. They would not have to sink everything they had into their neutral towns.

“Mhm. Although there are slight differences in their offers, they have all stated that the 50% shares are a must,” Aqua Rose replied, nodding. “I’ve already tried negotiating with them on this point, but they all are of the opinion that we won’t be able to hold Silverwing Town against Beast Emperor. After factoring in the latest system announcements, they are even more unwilling to budge on this point.

“We’ve also just received news that Beast Emperor has managed to add another large batch of Evil Demons, Evil Beasts, and independent players to his forces. Right now, these forces are already making their way towards Silverwing Town from Ancient Rock City. By the looks of it, Beast Emperor really plans on duking it out with us.”

“What a bunch of old foxes.” Shi Feng could not help but chuckle upon hearing Aqua Rose’s reply. “Do they really think that Zero Wing needs their help against Beast Emperor? Ignore those superpowers for now. All we need to do at the moment is have Zero Wing City’s elite and expert members come over to Silverwing Town to develop themselves. If Beast Emperor sends any Mythic monsters at us, have Cola and the others deal with them.”

“Understood. I’ll have them transfer over as soon as possible,” Aqua Rose said, nodding.

They might not have any way of dealing with the Evil Beasts and Evil Demons out in the fields, but none of those monsters should even think of approaching Silverwing Town with its five Magic Towers. Even if Beast Emperor sent a Mythic monster at Silverwing Town, their side had Cola and many other Tier 2 players who wielded Tier 3 Mana Weapons. Including the buff from the Magic Towers, Cola and the others should have no problem going up against Mythic monsters.

After Shi Feng was done speaking, he entered the closest Magic Tower and immediately began carving the magic circuits necessary for operating it.

The magic circuits were formed using Advanced Magic Arrays. For other players, this was a very difficult and time-consuming task. For Shi Feng, who had already become a Master Magician, however, he could easily complete the necessary Advanced Magic Arrays and connect them into a functioning magic circuit all by himself.

Within five minutes, Shi Feng was done engraving the magic circuit for one Magic Tower.

After spending about an hour running around, visiting the five Magic Towers, he was finally done engraving the core magic circuits of the Magic Towers.

“Good! Activate all Magic Towers simultaneously!” Shi Feng commanded as he stood inside the Magic Tower located behind the town’s main entrance.

Immediately, Aqua Rose and other members of the Guild’s upper echelon, who were stationed inside the other four Magic Towers, activated their respective Magic Towers.

Suddenly, the gigantic crystal atop each Magic Tower released a dark-blue glow. A pillar of light then shot up into the air from each crystal.

In the next moment, the towering light pillars split apart and formed light-blue barriers that enveloped the entire Silverwing Town. The instant the barriers formed by the five Magic Towers came into contact with each other, the barriers immediately took on a darker shade. By the time the barriers of the five Magic Towers fully merged with each other, a dark-blue translucent dome had formed around the entire Silverwing Town.

The spectacular scene was visible even to players over at the Primordial Divine Ruin.

“What’s going on?”

“What’s happening in Silverwing Town?”

Everyone present at the Primordial Divine Ruin was dumbfounded as they looked at the dark-blue dome covering Silverwing Town—because they could feel the density of the Mana around them actually increasing gradually.