Chapter 636: Settlement
After Duke dealt with these three people, he quickly left the area.
Although the action was quick, it caused quite a stir, which inevitably would draw other people’s attention.
The next half month flew by in a continuous cycle of hunting, shifting, and rest.
During this time, Duke couldn’t remember how many people he hunted down; he also encountered other teams trying to hunt him, but they ultimately became part of his resources.
As the scheduled end time of the competition approached, Duke quietly moved away from any hot spots likely to erupt in a final clash, and chose an absolutely secluded, easily defensible natural stone cave as the final waiting place.
At the moment the competition ended, his body was enveloped in gentle blue light, and the scene around the stone cave quickly blurred and faded, eventually replaced by a pure, flowing stream of blue energy.
The familiar slight weightlessness and sensation of spatial displacement emerged, but were much smoother than when entering the resource quadrant.
After the blue light dissipated, he stood firmly on solid ground.
In the central settlement hall of the Anvil Castle’s combat assessment and training center, the towering dome is made of a massive magic crystal with embedded luminous runes, casting a gentle and bright light like natural sunlight.
The hall is circular, with a giant pale gold three-dimensional projection in the center continuously refreshing with data streams like a waterfall, displaying basic statistics of the competition and rolling announcements of outstanding achievements.
Around the circular hall, hundreds of independent settlement compartments are evenly distributed, separated by translucent energy barriers.
At this moment, blue lights are flashing continuously, and participants are being transported back one after another, appearing in their respective compartments.
Most of them have exhausted, excited, regretful, or vigilant expressions on their faces, sizing each other up and exchanging quietly about their gains or complaining about encounters.
Duke’s compartment was relatively secluded; he had already taken off the Thousand Illusion Mask, returning to his original appearance.
Numerous people had been robbed by him during the competition, though they had long left the competition site.
To be safe, it was best not to appear around here with that face.
Someone might specifically wait for the day the competition ends to come and seek revenge.
"Participant number: L-7342, identity verification passed, welcome back," a clear, pleasant but emotionless synthetic female voice sounded in the compartment.
Meanwhile, in front of him rose a light blue crystal operation screen similar to, but larger and more sophisticated than, those in hotel rooms.
"Calculating your final rewards from the Void Echo · Quadrant Contest, please wait..."
Data started to scroll on the screen madly like a waterfall, at a speed too fast for the naked eye to catch.
Duke could feel the competition rune on his wrist engaging in a high-speed information exchange with the screen.
About ten seconds later, the scrolling stopped.
An extremely detailed and categorized total resource acquisition list was displayed before Duke in a clear, intuitive three-dimensional chart and text format.
Despite having been mentally prepared, Duke couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the list’s length.
"Moonlight Moss (Superior) x3, Dragon Blood Vine Seedling (Active) x1, Sleeping Crystal Orchid (Complete) x2, Starlight Mushroom (Five-Year) x5, Ironwood Pollen (Essence) x1 pinch..."
"Settlement completed, your final resource count has been recorded in your participant record," continued the synthetic voice, "The resources in your list will be delivered to the safe address you specify within five days, defaulting to the Heart of Gear Hotel room you registered at enrollment, but can be changed."
"Please note that for the sake of safety and privacy, your detailed gain list has undergone advanced encryption; only you, the highest committee of the event, and relevant Empire regulatory agencies can inquire. It is recommended you properly safeguard the settlement voucher."
A concise settlement confirmation and transport address confirmation option appeared on the screen, which Duke quickly reviewed and confirmed there were no errors, leaving an imprint with Spiritual Power at the designated location, finalizing the confirmation.
"Thank you for your participation, congratulations on achieving excellent results, the door to Void Echo is always open to the brave and wise, looking forward to seeing you next time," concluded the synthetic voice.
The screen in front of him slowly lowered, and the energy barrier of the compartment quietly opened, indicating he could leave.
Duke walked out of the compartment, feeling some fleeting glances falling on him from the surroundings.
Some carried curiosity, some inquiry, and some hidden scrutiny.
He ignored these gazes, heading straight for the exit.
This place couldn’t be stayed in for long; too many disputes occurred during the competition.
Duke already saw several groups arguing, with much friction happening evidently due to grudges from the competition.
Luckily, not many noticed him, and no one came to trouble him, allowing him to return to the hotel safely.
The competition was truly fruitful, with his rough estimation of the resource haul valued at over fifty million Level 1 Magic Stones.
The bulk came from the frantic plundering over the last half month, gaining a substantial amount of resources.
In five days, there will be someone to deliver these resources, and Duke is considering how to handle this batch.
The batch contains a wide variety of resources, most currently unused.
Duke considered selling a portion of them to exchange for Magic Stones.
His subsequent promotion to Level 2 Mage requires preparation of the Energy Well, which is costly and will consume a lot of Magic Stones.
Those resources currently unused are idle otherwise and need converting into resources usable now.
Upon returning to the hotel, Duke activated all security defenses in the room and also took out several sets of small witch arrays from the Space Ring and arranged them.
Then, he entered the Light God Court.
The Light God Court now encompasses more than 8,000 square kilometers; the land is vast and fertile, stretching in all directions until it blends into faint light mist at the horizon.
In this space, the terrain has initially begun to diversify, with the central region being the most flat and fertile plain, surrounded by the ever-growing, expanding contour of pale green mountains.
Countless streams formed from the overflow of the Spring of Life and naturally condensed water vapor wind like veins across the land, nurturing everything along the way.
The spring has now transformed into an emerald lake over a hundred meters in diameter, with crystal-clear water, where the jade-like World Tree Seed quietly floats, its vast life map slowly rotating, emitting a gentle yet steadfast growth rhythm to the entire plane.
The surface of the lake is shrouded in mist full of life spirit, and the land by the lakeside thrives with lush spirit flowers and exotic herbs, autonomously absorbing the dispersed life energy and radiating purer spiritual feedback to the environment.