Chapter 276
The Genesis Guild had returned.
Haster, Red, Galahad, Echo, Gold, Spark, Current, and the other members walked into the courtyard. They didn't look like confident top-tier rankers. They looked pale and exhausted.
Dying in Satisfy cost them thirty percent of their experience bar with some even losing a level. For high-level players, this was weeks of non-stop, grueling grinding completely erased. Worse, they hadn't even lost in a proper fight. They had just thrown their bodies in the way of a deflected shockwave and instantly turned to ash.
Echo walked over to a pile of debris. The assassin, entirely mute, knelt down and quietly picked up her dropped dark scarf. She aggressively brushed the dust off the fabric, glaring at a small tear in the hem. She looked far more furious about the item's durability loss than her own death.
Red walked over to his dropped twin rapiers. He picked them up, aggressively blowing the dust off the hilts. He looked up at Rudra, crossing his arms with a highly offended, petulant scowl.
"Boss, I am officially filing a complaint with the S.A group," Red announced loudly, sliding the blades into his belt. "What is with this sudden power scaling? I was out there peacefully farming and suddenly I am yeeted by an real life black-haired Kento Nanami! I literally died in a cutscene!"
Gold, the timid berserker, pressed her face into her heavy steel gauntlets. Her face burned bright red as she glanced nervously at the bleeding NPCs. "Red, please," she whispered, absolutely mortified. "People are literally missing limbs right now. Stop complaining."
Galahad adjusted his heavy steel plate armor. The tank didn't even bother putting on his forced medieval accent. "I didn't even see the damage numbers. I just saw the respawn screen."
Red shot back. "I didn't even get to swing my swords! I just stood there and turned to ash! Zero sportsmanship! Next time I see him, I'm summoning Mahito to blow-up half of that guy as well, I swear."
Before Rudra could even smack him, a loud, pathetic sobbing echoed from the transport hub.
Silas came running into the courtyard. The young Viscount was clutching his golden abacus tight against his chest. Tears streamed down his face as he looked at the collapsed barracks, the shattered fountain, and the pulverized stone walls.
"The costs," Silas wailed, falling to his knees in the dirt. "The labor! The materials! The city treasury is going to bleed out! We're ruined!"
Red stared at the crying merchant. The duelist let out a loud, dramatic sigh and walked over, standing directly in front of the weeping NPC while the city was literally in ruins around them.
"Bro, just don't pay the builders," Red advised completely seriously "Just leave their invoices on read. What are they gonna do, un-build the walls? Just put a nice rug over the crater. Problem solved."
Silas sobbed even harder, clutching his abacus like it was his only friend.
Red rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed that his genius financial advice wasn't being appreciated. "Fine, whatever, put me down for two hundred thousand gold. But I am officially demanding a giant bronze statue of me doing a backflip in the new barracks. And a snack bar. If I don't get my snack bar, I'm taking my gold back and joining the Empire."
Gold immediately stepped around Red, violently shoving him backward by the shoulders. She offered Silas a deep, incredibly apologetic bow.
"Put me down for one eighty thousand," Gold said softly, offering the crying merchant a genuinely sympathetic look while her boyfriend crossed his arms and pouted behind her. "And please, please ignore him. He acts like an overgrown toddler whenever he loses a fight. His brain is completely smooth."
Spark rolled her eyes at Red but stepped up next to them. "Put me down for one hundred and fifty. And all my dungeon drops for the next month."
Echo tapped Galahad on the shoulder. She held up eight fingers, then pointed at the ground.
"One hundred and Eighty for Echo," Galahad translated smoothly. "And another one hundred and seventy from me."
One by one, the respawned rankers stepped up. They pledged massive sums of liquid gold, rare materials, and future raid earnings. Their pride had taken a massive hit today, but standing in the rubble, they realized this was their city now. They were going to rely on these walls to catch up to the monsters that lived above them.
Silas stopped crying.
The tears dried up with unnatural, terrifying speed. The merchant immediately shoved his golden abacus into his coat and pulled out a thick leather ledger and a quill.
"I have verbal confirmation from all of you," Silas said, his voice completely clear and professional. He started scribbling furiously. "These are binding pledges. No take-backs."
Rudra actually laughed. The sound hurt his exhausted head, but it felt good anyway.
He walked over to Mumud.
The Magic Saint was sitting up, watching the Witches clean the courtyard.
"Mumud," Rudra called out.
The magician looked up.
"I need you to look at something," Rudra said. He raised his hand and placed his palm gently against the side of Mumud's head.
Rudra activated [Impart Knowledge].
He pulled the architectural blueprint he had scanned from the Blind Leviathan’s dungeon during 13th Champion’s Rite trial and transferred the magic directly into the Saint's mind.
[Spatial Expansion Foundation]
[Rating: Legendary]
[Allows the user to build a structure that has a larger space inside than on the outside by using Ancient Magic and Architecture skills.
Learning Conditions: Advanced Architect Mastery Level 9 or more, Advanced Magic Mastery Level 9 or more.
Weight: 0.1]
Because it was fundamentally rooted in magic, Mumud’s legendary class allowed him to easily bypass the missing architectural prerequisites. The Saint's eyes widened as the data flooded his mind.
The drained, pale look vanished from Mumud's face, replaced by the sharp, intense focus of an academic looking at a puzzle.
"This is..." Mumud muttered, tracing a complex diagram in the air with his finger. "Spatial Expansion? But the principles are entirely contradictory to standard spatial magic. The mana flow is inverted."
"I want the barracks to look small on the outside and hold ten thousand troops on the inside," Rudra said. "I want the storehouses to hold a year's worth of grain without taking up extra street space. Think you can handle it?"
"I'll need to run tests," Mumud said, standing up quickly. The trauma of his recent death was completely forgotten in the face of new research. "The structural integrity of the anchor points will need physical reinforcement. I need to speak with the builders immediately. Ursa's bone-crafting mixed with Witch stabilization wards might hold the tension..."
Mumud walked off, already yelling for the Bear Chieftain and Elysia.
Rudra watched him go. He let out a long breath and sat down heavily on a relatively intact crate.
The fighting was over. His people were alive, and the city was already beginning to piece itself back together.