Pillar of Yita

”Hahaha—”

Fang Hong watched Tianlan pounding the table and gasping for air, laughing like a fool. He was genuinely worried that this little girl might laugh herself breathless, even though she had been in this state for the past fifteen minutes.

Tianlan was laughing while taking a deep breath through her nose, then started coughing violently, tears streaming down her face. Her face turned crimson as if she was on the brink of death, yet she still managed to say intermittently: ”Hahaha, Brother Ade, did you see that guy’s expression? It really looked like a pot bottom!”

Fang Hong quickly patted her back to prevent her from suffocating—though the nearby Resurrection Temple wasn’t too far.

At that time, he, Bakins, and Luo Yu came up from the lower deck, the farce in the conference room had long ended, and the young man had sat back down without saying a word, so they happened to miss the most exciting performance of the farce.

Afterward, the other party realized he had lost face, remained silent, and when the adventure group reached the vicinity of the Masongke Creek outpost, Lan Wuxin and his party bid them farewell and disembarked along with the other person.

So Fang Hong didn’t have a deep impression of that person.

Hilveld smiled slightly on the side, her eyes curving: ”It was indeed quite amusing.”

Atira frowned and sighed: ”Miss Hilveld, don’t spoil Fuli too much.”

At this moment, Tianlan came back to life, crying out: ”How could it be? Clearly, it was that guy who wanted to make trouble; I saw right through it in one glance. He must have improper thoughts about Miss Hilveld, and I was only thinking about Brother Ade, sob sob—”

Fang Hong tugged at this little girl’s face until it was long, making her unable to say another word.

He turned back, only to see Miss Ship’s Officer giving him a slight smile, and a vigilant look immediately fell on him, which he could assume without looking, belonged to Xiesta standing by the side.

However, everyone didn’t really take this matter to heart. Rescuing someone along the way was merely a coincidence, just like how the Masongke Creek outpost wasn’t their ultimate destination.

Mr. Greyrock had been trudging through the wind and snow for two hours, and the lights of the Masongke Creek outpost were already ahead. The small town was located on the other side of a frozen creek, and the stars’ light was not obscured by the wind and snow.

Lan Wuxin and his men disembarked at an earlier inn in the wilderness, intending to head in another direction from the outpost to Eimeya Temple to meet with their resurrected companions. So, they bid farewell there, expressing their sincere thanks once again.

Fang Hong and his group, however, needed to continue toward Masongke Town, find a resting place for Mr. Greyrock, and also visit the Adventurers’ Guild to inquire if there were any woodworking teams available for hire nearby.

Besides that, they also earned some points, which needed to be recorded at the guild. The Adventurers’ Guild stipulated that if adventurers helped other teams during their travels, the other party should pay them points as remuneration. Lan Wuxin gave them 200 points, about half of what they earned for this mission.

These points were actually the same points that Luo Yu and Gita needed as trainees before, but their purpose was not solely meaningful to trainees. The point system was instituted under the initiative of the Super Competitive League. It also dictates the ranking of adventure groups and the guilds backing them, being the core competitiveness between guilds.

Of course, it holds less significance for the Free Adventure Group, but points have their practical uses, as they can be exchanged for resources or even money, making them a hard currency.

Completing tasks, discoveries, and records can all earn points. While 200 points is a lot for a trainee, it’s not much for an adventure group, so Fang Hong didn’t plan to exchange them. The points they got from Lan Wuxin’s team, although confirmed via a goddess’s contract, still needed to be registered with the adventurer guild, which wasn’t aware yet.

Relevant records would be aggregated from various adventurer guilds into the central guild in Golande, where they would be analyzed and logged by a difference engine. The total points for guilds and adventure groups are compared every six months among the central guilds of various countries in Eteliria to confirm the new rankings.

This system has been in place and matured over the past thirty years.

Before entering the town, most of the others were busy cleaning their rooms, clearing snow off the deck and airbags, and checking the various pipes on the platform. They also retracted the extra ropes used for reinforcement, and though Mr. Greyrock couldn’t enter the town, finding a place to stay outside the town wasn’t difficult.

It would be ideal if there were beast pens available for rent; even if not, it wouldn’t be a big problem. After the platform modifications, they wouldn’t need to find additional lodging in the town, as they could stay on the platform itself, whose conditions weren’t much worse than the town’s inns.

In fact, it might even be better.

And those remaining on the platform could guard it, while the others only needed to go into town to take care of business, saving a lot of trouble back and forth.

Although Mr. Greyrock wasn’t afraid of wind and snow, after trudging for several days in the wild, he still needed a period of rest and recovery to maintain the beast of burden’s optimal condition. Having an Elf Miss who was a Druid in their group gave them an advantage in calming and taming beasts that other adventure groups didn’t have.