Show Me the Money

Chapter 306 - Leveling; Building the City

Just like that, the curtains drew to a close on a God-level battle.

Lin Xi didn't kill the Undying Soul, but instead imprisoned him. After all, the number of God-tier experts were few; this guy might just come in handy in the future.

"Only when looking at those experts fight do we understand that we're only pitiful frogs in the well," sighed HeadofGod as the group exited the city lord manor.

"Legendary realm, ahh… And we're still such a loooong way from the f*cking 9th class enhancement," lamented TheFugitive with a glum face.

The trip and its events had been quite a sucker punch. The power of God-tier experts indeed could not be looked down upon. Remembering how they had once provoked all six of them together, everyone felt a wave of diffidence in their hearts.

"Alright, alright, let's go train, I want to become a God as soon as possible."

After watching his friends leave one by one, Fatty stepped into the Teleportation Portal. Destination: Sky City.

Currently, Sky City had been left to develop itself. Except for the residences constructed by Reck and the other old-timers, the rest of the city was desolate.

"You've come back. What for?" Reck was mixing herbal ingredients in his estate. As an alchemy grandmaster who had quite a status even in the Imperial Palace, he simply had the imperial servicemen transferred here to build his mansion, hence the luxury and grandeur of this place.

"Oh goodness, I was nearly killed!" Fatty began to narrate his trip to the Sun Dynasty.

"You guys are really something!" Reck gave a thumbs-up and clicked his tongue. "Several little fellows who have just gotten their 5th class enhancement actually ran to a shrine guarded by Divine experts to create trouble. If that's not seeking death then I don't know what is."

However, Reck instantly added, "But if you had really burned down their shrine, it would surely be a satisfying spleen-venting worth being killed to level 0 for."

Fatty rolled his eyes and decided not to fuss about this with the old man. With a trembling hand, he took out the package given to him by the Black Dragon King and handed it to Reck.

"This is from the Black Dragon King of the Sea Territory of Evil to help us rebuild Sky City. You decide how to make use of them."

"I'm an alchemist, not an architect," Reck muttered, but he stopped what he was doing to open the package.

There weren't too many things inside, but all of them were very practical. Aside from some rare materials, the majority were valuable gear that could be sold for gold coins.

However, these things could only be exchanged with the system as they were far too unreachable for the current level of players.

"Take these things to the Black Tortoise City Lord. Since you're on good terms with him, he wouldn't give you the short end of the stick." Reck quickly scanned and set aside a part of the items for Fatty.

"Hmm, these are all defensive items. Take them to Lucas, he'll know how to arrange them." Reck quickly piled out another portion.

The package was small, but the quantity of the items inside was nothing but. Reck picked out here and there for over an hour before he finally finished sorting them out.

"Mmm, with these things we can take the first step to rebuild Sky City." Reck clapped his hands and got back on his feet.

As the vice city lord appointed by Fatty, Reck was put in charge of everything when Fatty was absent, which saved Fatty a lot of trouble.

"That, all of that goes to me." Fatty pointed at a pile of items. Round and varied in size, they were indeed inner cores.

The Black Dragon King had been very generous with giving out his stuff, and this naturally applied for the inner cores. There were over 2000 of them in all attributes and ranks. Fatty was ecstatic.

"Oh? Oh right, you need them to upgrade your equipment." Reck handed the cores to Fatty, who, without further ado, left like a gust of wind for Karl's smithy.

After moving into Sky City, Karl had been very complacent with his achievements. At the moment, he was researching for a way to get his hands on the Source Origin.

"Huh? Fatty, you're back," Karl had only said some words upon seeing Fatty appear at the door when the guy already rushed into his house.

"I'm borrowing your forging room for a while. Don't disturb me." Only after Fatty disappeared did a wind that carried his voice drifted to Karl's ears.

Half an hour later, Fatty came out from the room with obvious joy on his face.

The Elemental Equipment set and the Elemental Sword had been upgraded to Violet rank, each gaining a new skill.

Absolute Guard: Upgraded version of Elemental Guard (Conjure a protective barrier outside the user's body, can decrease up to 80% of elemental damage taken. Duration: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 60 seconds.)

Allow the protective barrier to absorb elemental energy to fortify its own defensive ability. Energy can be absorbed indefinitely to finally achieve invincible defense.

Elemental Sword Formation: The Elemental Sword splits into five that arrange themselves around the player into a small formation that can actively attack and defend.

The Elemental Sword Formation skill was decent as expected, but this Absolute Guard was seriously BUG level. If there was an endless supply of elemental energy, wouldn't that mean Fatty could be invincible even if all of the Divine and Legendary experts came at him all at once?

Of course, this was but a fleeting wishful thought. Putting aside whether the opponent would give him enough time to fortify the barrier's defense, even if he had enough time, he still needed enough elemental energy for consumption.

Fatty was satisfied after upgrading his gear. Casually chatting with Karl, who informed him that he hadn't found a way to deal with the Source Origin yet, Fatty wasn't disappointed. He teleported to Black Tortoise City and unhurriedly arrived at the city lord manor bearing a bunch of stuff.

"Why did you come again?"

Lin Xi was the shining example of 'giving you a smiling face when you are of benefit, otherwise bye-bye.' Upon seeing Fatty walk in, he only took a brief glance before casting down his eyelids again.

"To do business." Fatty dropped a pile before Lin Xi, whose eyes gradually lit up as he scanned them.

"To rebuild Sky City, isn't it? Then it makes our talk easy." With a wave of his sleeve, Lin Xi stowed away the equipment and like a serious businessman, he started bargaining with Fatty.

After over two hours, it was finally settled that Black Tortoise City would provide a portion of materials, as well as send artisans to help with the reconstruction of Sky City.

Holding the newly traded materials and a bunch of artisans of various trades behind him, Fatty hurriedly returned to Sky City.

Having enough materials didn't mean it was possible to reconstruct a city just yet. Even a normal house required a plan before it could be built, let alone a major city.

Amongst the artisans Lin Xi provided, there was a Grandmaster Architect. The first thing the architect did was to fly up into the sky to have a full view of Sky City. Then, he spent four to five hours getting to know most of the features of the City, before he finally went to see Fatty.

"City Lord, do you want to reconstruct Sky City into a defensive one like Black Tortoise City, or do you want a war fortress?"

This question implied more than what its simplicity suggested. Following the example of Black Tortoise City was a standard choice - safe, however, unable to exploit Sky City's advantages to the fullest. After all, Sky City's true value did not lie with its vast area that rivaled a main city, but its strategic significance.

"Let's make it a war fortress," Fatty decided after a brief consideration.

The architect nodded calmly as though he already expected that Fatty would make such a decision.

"If that's what you've decided, the cost will be three to five times as much as the other choice," the architect frankly informed Fatty.

"Three to five times as much?!" The fat on Fatty's face trembled. Gnashing his teeth, he said with resolve, "Fine, three to five times it is! How far can we go with our current resources?"

After all, the package space was limited, especially for large-scale construction materials. Lin Xi even sent a Black Tortoise transportation team to deliver them to Fatty.

"While they seem like a lot, when we truly get started, mmm, the current materials can only provide the simplest of an outer defense line," replied the architect bluntly.

"Only this bit?! It's a billion gold coins worth of materials we're talking about here!" Fatty sprang up from his seat.

"To a major fortress, a billion gold coins is but a drizzle." The architect looked at Fatty with a smile. "According to my estimates, it requires at least this much to successfully construct our city."

The architect held out five fingers.

"5, no, 50 billion gold coins?" Fatty's vision turned dark, his head dizzy.

"500 billion, and this is only for the first stage."

Bang! Fatty fainted.

Neither hurried nor anxious, the architect ambled back and forth and carefully observed Sky City's scenery, up until ten-something minutes later when Fatty slowly crawled up from the ground.

"City Lord, have you thought it through?" The architect still wore an amiable smile on his face. It was like a spring breeze sweeping at Fatty's face, blowing several deep wounds in his heart and soul.

"We build it, of course we'll build it!" Fatty trembled, his jaws clenched. "I want to construct Sky City into the first war fortress in the system. After it's built, I… I'll just f*cking go pillage other countries!"

"There you go!" The architect clapped. "That's exactly what they call 'fuel war with warfare.' In fact, you only need to invest around 200 billion gold coins. After we build a basic offensive and defensive system, we can bring the city to raid and plunder more materials for further construction. Places such as Storm City and Undead City are all decent targets for raiding."

The architect was smiling ever so brightly, but the words coming out of his mouth ran a chill down Fatty's spine. Looking dubiously at him, Fatty suddenly asked, "May I know your surname?"

"This humble one is surnamed Lin, haha, Lin as in Lin Xi."

Fatty said, "……"

Having determined the direction of the construction, Fatty washed his hands of it and let this architect Lin play by himself. In any case, there was no point in hurrying the construction, since the blueprint alone would take at least a month to design.

"In a month, I must accumulate as much gold coins as possible, otherwise I'll run out after a few defensive towers. What kind of fortress only has a few defensive towers?"

When he thought of the bottomless hole waiting for more money to be shoveled in, Fatty nearly fainted again. Several hundred billion gold coins! Just how many bosses do I have to kill, how much equipment do I have to sell to get that much money?

"Your Lordship, you shouldn't be so anxious. This is nothing. As long as we get the most basic facilities built, Sky City will be a true golden goose." This was what Architect Lin said with a consoling pat on the shoulder before he left.

"Isn't it just a pittance? Look how desperate it's making you." Reck came by to deliver Fatty a pile of things. "Here, some new alchemy recipes I've just developed. Take them. What is money? Money is but a son of a b*tch."

With that, Reck leisurely left with his hands crossed behind his back.