Pillar of Yita

Fang Hong and Hilveld reached the Adventurers’ Guild only to find that the others had already been there for quite some time. Tianlan, who had been looking around for a while, spotted them from a distance and waved, standing on tiptoe, ”Brother Ade, you guys are too slow!”

Behind Tianlan were Atira and Elisa, the latter of whom was conversing with the former and only turned around upon hearing Tianlan’s voice. She glanced over from afar and nodded at him. Although the elder sister among the twins had become acquainted with everyone back in Fenris, it was still difficult for her to blend into a new environment all at once. Fortunately, she had a good temperament and was compliant with everyone’s suggestions.

Especially for Atira, at this moment, she finally had a reliable assistant.

Xiesta also stood to the side and only came over when she saw her own mistress appear.

The Miss Maid had been instructed by Hilveld to buy some personal items halfway through, which was why she had to leave temporarily, but she clearly did not trust this unreliable guy with her mistress. She inspected her owner from head to toe until she smiled to indicate she was unharmed, and then the maid glared at Fang Hong.

But Fang Hong looked innocent.

What happened to him?

He had clearly kept the Miss Ship’s Officer perfectly safe, not even a hair misplaced—

The grand hall of Golande’s Adventurers’ Guild was located on Saint Lorraine Street. The tall front and back doors were interconnected, with a glass dome laid across the ceiling along the central aisle. As the sky darkened, the suspended crystal chandeliers above began to light up one by one, shining beneath the lights. The green vines hanging from the railings on both sides were vibrant and glistening.

In the middle aisle, there were also flower beds and benches for resting. If it weren’t for the counters and personnel of the offices on both sides, this place would look more like a bustling Commercial Street.

Fang Hong spotted the legendary giant difference machine, located in the center of this ’street,’ which seemed like a golden skyscraper rising from the ground, but in reality, it was a series of closely set golden gears with frames to reinforce them.

The gears turned, each at a different rate, producing a tremendous roaring noise. Despite being blocked by thick glass, the sound was still piercingly loud—the place was so noisy that even voices could hardly be heard up close.

And this was just the above-ground portion of the difference machine; its power system underneath was even more massive, powered by four sets of Magic Guided Engines, two of which were for backup, occupying nearly the entire street’s width.

Below the golden edifice were rows of input and output devices, continuously spitting out punched tape. These tapes could only be understood by the engineers maintaining the machine, and they recorded thousands of team and group establishment information from Adventurers’ Guilds across Colin Ishurian.

Fang Hong saw that staff would come from time to time to collect the tapes, winding them around a rust-resistant copper rod into thick spools; these rods were then fixed onto a flatbed trolley, and the staff used this method to transport and store the information.

Though it looked cumbersome, it was highly efficient for the time, after all, not everyone had access to the Summoners System—

Stargate Port had actually been collaborating with the various Artisan Associations on researching logic circuits based on Magic Power, but Ether Flow differed from the electric current, more like an unpredictable joke.

It could be meshed or zonal, even evenly distributed or flowing eternally in one direction. Different cognitions lead to different manifestations of Ether Flow—even the effects it demonstrated varied from person to person.

The emergence of so many Ether Schools in Eteliria was not by chance.

This difference machine had always been the pride of the Colin Ishurian Artisans’ Guild since its construction and was also the eternal testament to the collaboration between the Colin Ishurian Adventurers’ Guild and the former. As the foremost Adventurers’ Guild of Eteliria, half of its success came from this.

At the moment, Tianlan, Atira, and Elisa were located along one side of this golden skyscraper. Not far away, Xiangzi and Parker were sitting on a bench near a flower bed, the two were playing a silly board game.

On closer inspection by Fang Hong, Parker was acting as both referee and participant but was still being crushingly defeated by Xiangzi, resorting to cheating again and again—

He was momentarily speechless, unable to determine who was the bigger fool.

”Miss Atira...”

Fang Hong approached, the roaring noise of the giant gears overwhelming him, making him raise his voice to describe to the others what he had purchased.

However, Tianlan never cared about the team’s finances, and Miss Atira wasn’t concerned about what he actually bought. Furthermore, since Princess Briana had acquired a batch of Tirio Dragon Crossbows, coupled with the earnings from Dolifen, the team actually had some extra money.

At least they could afford to replace some personal equipment—as long as it wasn’t those exceptionally expensive kinds—and even upgrade the platform with plenty to spare. The remaining funds could even serve as the start-up capital for shipbuilding.

Elisa then mentioned to him their afternoon purchase of Floating Airbags. Since Mr. Greyrock’s platform could not even succeed as the smallest dinghy, they only needed the smallest model of Floating Airbags.

There were two sets, each with four airbags, one set for regular use and one as a backup. Atira was unfamiliar with the local Magic Guided Workshops and chose the works from ’Emerald Bird Workshop’ based on Elisa’s recommendation. Although this workshop wasn’t familiar with them, they were longstanding clients of the Emerald Bird Workshop.