The Era of Gods

Chapter 504: Chapter 504: Star Domain Consortium and Secret News

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Upon their arrival, they saw a group of magic creatures known as Scythe Monsters attacking Biggs’s Fortress. The party stood at a distance to watch the battle.

Biggs’s men had a set of experiences in dealing with these monsters and easily fended them off.

As the battle ended, a group of players cheered and rushed out to collect the loot. Lin Xiao instructed his subordinates to stay outside, while he and his girlfriend, accompanied by Sven and the Star Mage, entered Biggs’s Fortress.

Glancing at the two subordinates behind him, Biggs suddenly stopped, his face filled with shock as he asked:

“Both of your subordinates are Lord Templates?”

Only noticing now? A bit slow on the uptake, aren’t you?

Lin Xiao smiled and nodded:

“Yes, I was lucky to complete a special unique quest that granted me two permissions to exchange for Lord Templates.”

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Biggs’s face was full of disbelief.

Lin Xiao didn’t care whether he believed it or not, emphasizing the fact it was a unique quest, to preempt any further questioning.

It was evident that Biggs’s attitude had improved somewhat after discovering that Lin Xiao had two Lord Template subordinates. He made a special effort to give Lin Xiao a tour of his fortress.

Yes, there was also an intent to show off.

Biggs’s Fortress, named Alcoron Arena, was a First Level Fortress, but he said it wasn’t far from leveling up to Level 2.

According to the default rules, there needs to be a certain distance between player fortresses, and each has a default sphere of influence.

The Broken Floating Land they were in was called Bunal, spanning millions of square kilometers. However, the entirety of Alcoron Ruins occupied only about one-fifth of the entire floating land, located on the eastern side. Alcoron Arena was situated in the center of the ruins, with the default sphere of influence being the entire Alcoron Ruins. If other players wanted to establish a fortress on Bunal Floating Land, they were not allowed to do so within the ruins; otherwise, it would be seen as a provocation, an act of hostility, and he would have a good reason to attack them directly.

Just like in the game, you don’t see two Novice Villages right next to each other.

Perhaps wishing to foster good relations with Lin Xiao, Biggs even shared a surprising piece of news:

“Someone has discovered the Children of Nightmare’s Fortress and traces of solo players within this Void Storm, and based on the traces found, we deduce that the Children of Nightmare have also entered this Outland en masse, though in a different area.”

“We surmise that this vast region of Broken Floating Land in the Void Storm is likely a buffer zone between two large areas. We need to face not only the various dangers from Different Domain but also the challenge from the Children of Nightmare.”

This information was quite timely, and Lin Xiao expressed his sincere gratitude.

Within Biggs’s Fortress, there was a row of four portals, two of which had glowing gates. According to Biggs, these two gates were his most valuable resources: one was the Alcoron Dungeon five-man instance, consisting of both Level 65 and Level 70 versions.

The other gate led to an independent space with a Level 75 Enhanced Elite BOSS that had a minuscule chance of dropping a large flying mount when killed.

Flying mounts are not rare; the Expeditionary Army Fortress sells them, and as long as you reach Level 70 and acquire revered reputation, you can buy one.

However, the normal flying mount can only carry one person, while the flying mount produced here by Biggs can carry five. This immediately skyrocketed its value, making it one of his most valuable resources.

As long as this fortress develops, once players gradually arrive here, these hoarded large flying mounts will become quite valuable.

Two days later, Lin Xiao bid farewell to Biggs and left Alcoron Arena, heading northward as marked on the map.

According to the markings on the map, Bunal Floating Land and several other nearby floating lands of various sizes had already been divided among other legionnaire players. To find unclaimed land, he had to venture to other Broken Floating Lands deep within the Void, which required crossing the Twisted Void between floating lands.

After thousands of years, the remaining indigenous people had already established a comprehensive way to travel between floating lands, and there were several methods.

One was Spell teleportation, using fixed nodes to transport to other floating lands’ fixed nodes.

Another was by traveling on a large magic ship across the Void.

The former had the advantage of stability, with nodes established by the neutral force of the Star Domain Consortium in the Void, guaranteeing absolute safety. However, it required a specific currency exclusive to the Star Domain Consortium, which could be earned through completing tasks or by direct exchange of resources.

The latter carried certain risks; after all, traversing the Twisted Void can lead to encounters with magic creatures, void robbers, and the like, such as the Star Domain Raiders.

Indeed, the Star Domain Raiders and the Star Domain Consortium are from the same Race, the former engaged in business, and the latter in robbery. They are mortal enemies.

Biggs mentioned that both forces offered reputation systems but only one could be opened. By opening one, your reputation with the other force automatically turns negative, and you can’t have both.

The Star Domain Consortium starts with a neutral reputation, which can be slowly earned through trade or by completing their tasks.

The Void looters are a bit harder; starting with a cool reputation, you would be attacked before opening the reputation, and even after opening it, you might still be attacked in certain areas unless you reach a friendly reputation.

Lin Xiao had yet to decide which way to go and planned to observe the situation first.

He followed the path marked on the map, which Biggs’s patrols surveyed daily, so there were few monsters along the way.

After several days, he arrived at Bunal’s node, a neutral town established by the Star Domain Consortium. From afar, he saw a group of tall humanoid creatures, shrouded in silver light and indiscernible features, gliding past in flashes.

Indeed, they were gliding, their feet not touching the ground. They would appear two to three meters ahead with every flash, leaving behind a lasting afterimage for one or two seconds; it was rather fascinating.

The names above their heads clearly informed Lin Xiao that these were Star Domain Consortium Guards, all Level 70, with Elite Templates.

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A massive team appeared near the node town, and the Star Domain Guards passing by didn’t pay attention to them. The town allowed them entry as well.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Upon entering the town, they immediately saw an enormous metal building at the center, filled with an exotic style, resembling a sports stadium. A thick pillar of light shot up thousands of meters into the sky from the hollow center of the top, and occasionally, blood-colored lightning exploded around the pillar, the thunderous roars incessant.

In the town, there were many Ethereals from the Star Domain Consortium, with many of them having golden exclamation marks above their heads, indicating that quests could be accepted from them.

Lin Xiao asked his girlfriend and subordinates to wait for him in the open space while he, accompanied by two guards, walked towards the gigantic metal building, ready to inquire about the cost of teleportation in the currency of the Star Domain Consortium and to initiate the reputation with this power.

As one of the strongest neutral powers in the void, future dealings with them were inevitable, so reputation had to be established.

Right when he arrived at the massive building’s gates, which covered tens of thousands of square meters, the doors suddenly opened. A giant beast with a height of three meters walked out with heavy steps. Lin Xiao intuitively looked up and saw a humanoid man sitting on the back of the beast, who had fine scales on his body and atop his head, with meaty barbels swinging back and forth on his cheeks and chin, looking down at him from above.

“Children of Nightmare!”

The sworn enemies of civilization were recognized at first glance, an involuntary urge to kill rising within them.

This was a Level 71 Child of Nightmare, also a player following a legion style, with several hundred subordinates following him out, nearly double the count of Lin Xiao’s team.

Lin Xiao had three to four hundred subordinates before setting off, but they had suffered losses along the way, leaving just over three hundred.

The subordinates of the Child of Nightmare also came from different races, with most bearing some resemblance to the Child of Nightmare’s race.

In the territory of the Star Domain Consortium where battling was not allowed, both he and the Child of Nightmare were aware of this. Therefore, after looking at each other for a while, the Child of Nightmare left, and he entered the building, finding the Star Domain Consortium’s person in charge here, an Ethereal merchant named Kazare.

The Star Domain Consortium was their external designation, but in fact, the main members of the Star Domain Consortium came from a race called the Ethereals, said to originate from some distant world.

Just like other Ethereals, at least on the surface, there was no visible difference in appearance. One could only distinguish them by their names and appearances. The Ethereal merchant named Kazare was trading with another Dwarf NPC.

After completing the trade, Kazare lifted his head to see Lin Xiao and visibly paused, and even though his face was obscured by a silver robe shining with silver light, Lin Xiao could clearly sense that something about Kazare’s mood was strange.

Kazare surveyed Lin Xiao several times before asking,

“Please forgive my boldness, but you don’t seem to be from the Human Race?”

Lin Xiao nodded,

“I come from a special race, not the Human Race.”

Kazare, very interested, said,

“If you don’t mind, perhaps you could come inside and sit awhile. How many members are there in your race?”

This…

Lin Xiao hesitated, unsure of the purpose of the question. After a moment of thought, he asked,

“Before answering, may I know if my race possesses any particular significance?”

“Certainly.”

Kazare entered the room and snapped his fingers, a teapot on the table automatically pouring him a cup of water. He spoke up,

“My people have once seen a higher being similar to you, a noble race serving a great existence.”

At this point, one could sense that Kazare was somewhat nervous, and even his voice seemed cautious as he asked,

“May I know if your race… is that race?”

A noble race serving a great existence?

Lin Xiao’s first thought was about the servant race created by the Human Overlord of the Star Soul Crystal Wall System.

This was a difficult question to answer.

Strictly speaking, he could answer both yes and no.

Usually, it would be no, but given that they had come to assist the Human Overlord in defeating the Nightmare Sovereign, there was a connection to be made, allowing him to say yes.

But this was all theoretical. Currently, unaware of the exact situation, he dared not make careless remarks that might drag him into troublesome affairs. Thus, his reply was,

“You may be mistaken, my lord. My race does not serve any great existence.”

“Is that so?”

Kazare seemed slightly disappointed, but from the tone of his voice, he appeared not too convinced.

PS: Sacrificing a new book “Ocean Overlord: The Shrimp Avatar.”

Ye Hai acquires a super shrimp avatar, sweeping the treasures of the ocean! Shrimp + slacker student + genetic recombination=??. It’s said to be a tribute to the legendary Super Electric Eel Avatar!

Below is the transfer portal.

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