Chapter 216: What Objections Could They Have
The loot was good, and Faye Yardley was in high spirits. As for what Logan Langdon had gotten, who cared?
Everyone has their own lucky breaks, so there was no need to overthink it.
Fixating on what other people had was an easy way to become unhappy.
Faye felt that time was better spent organizing her own supplies. Watching her stash grow was what brought a true sense of satisfaction.
’It’s already the 27th. I wonder how much longer my brother will need to get everything set up. If he isn’t finished, does that mean I can’t enter their guild headquarters?’
After tidying up her things, Faye Yardley went downstairs to the living room. Good heavens, the two lying there hadn’t even changed position.
Faye walked over to the swing chair on the balcony, sat down, and began to sway gently.
She took some rice cakes from her backpack for lunch.
With nothing else to do, she started browsing the trading market.
As expected, food and Pure Water still dominated the top three best-seller spots, followed surprisingly by wood and various basic materials.
Speaking of which, the items she had casually listed had all been traded.
Transaction complete: Received Dungeon 4 Fragment x1, Dungeon 3 Fragment x2, Dungeon 5 Fragment x1.
The fragments she received were all different. In addition to various Dungeon Fragments and Treasure Map Fragments, there was a type of item fragment Faye Yardley had never seen before.
[Item Fragment: Find five Item Fragments to randomly synthesize one item.]
"Oh, so they’re doing loot boxes now. But isn’t having to craft a loot box before you can open it going a little too far?"
Though she grumbled, Faye didn’t find it all that strange. After all, she had encountered far too many bizarre things since arriving here.
It took five fragments to craft a single loot box. After a moment’s thought, Faye listed four two-day rations of food and water on the trading market, specifically requesting Item Fragments in exchange.
Admittedly, her food trades were quite generous.
As a result, three of the trades went through the moment she listed them.
Faye looked at her fragments, just one shy of a full set, and felt a pang of frustration. ’Seriously? Can’t just one more pop up?’
’With so many people in the whole country, is it really impossible to find the last one?’
’Of course, anyone with two or more fragments would probably hold onto them, thinking they could craft one themselves, so they wouldn’t be quick to trade.’ She had the same thought herself.
’Then there are those who aren’t hurting for food and drink; they wouldn’t be in a hurry to trade either, even if they only had one.’
"I guess the timing isn’t right."
After consoling herself with that thought, Faye continued to browse the trading market.
She then discovered a section of the market filled with handmade goods: paintings, statues, wickerwork, and more. She even saw a novel listed—a three-Chapter preview, with the rest of the story available for purchase with supplies.
’Seriously, do people actually buy this stuff?’
Faye was baffled. After all, even when she was bored, she would rather practice her Basic Martial Arts than look for a novel to read.
Especially reading a serialized story here. What if the author accidentally kicked the bucket? You’d never get the ending, and wouldn’t that just be maddening?
As for spending supplies to watch people preen, pose, sing, and dance... Faye felt that was even worse than reading novels.
Still, in this handmade section, Faye did spend some supplies on a framed piece of calligraphy: "Peace and Tranquility." She couldn’t put her finger on why, but it was just very soothing to look at.
She thought she could hang it in the living room for Willow and Blackwood to appreciate. If they looked at it enough, perhaps they’d become more peaceful too.
She didn’t buy anything else. After eating two rice cakes, Faye got off the swing chair and went for a stroll in the small garden.
She reached out, plucked a leaf, and held it for a moment before gently flicking it away. ’When you can wound someone with a plucked flower or a flicked leaf, your skill with throwing weapons must have reached its apex.’
Faye figured she could start by buying some throwing knives to practice with. She needed to work on her finger dexterity and strength, after all.
Weapons were also best-sellers on the trading market, but small throwing knives and other such projectiles were slow to sell. Once you threw one out here over the vast ocean, it was basically a single-use item.
That made them quite easy to acquire.
A single Basic Iron Axe could be traded for a good number of them.
With her newly purchased throwing knives in hand, she headed straight for the training room. Practice was more focused in there.
By the time she emerged from the training room, Willow Yardley and Blackwood were both awake.
Looking at the two of them... how to put it? There was no visible change in their outward appearance.
She couldn’t tell just by looking what had changed on the inside.
Blackwood leaped lightly onto her shoulder and affectionately nuzzled its head against hers, letting out a contented meow.
"Sister, thank you," Willow said. "I seem to have gained some new abilities, but I’m not sure what they are yet. I’ll tell you once I’ve had a couple of days to figure out the changes to my body."
"Okay. Take your time; there’s no rush. The important thing is that you’re both alright."
As Faye said this, she used the system to inspect the connection between herself and Willow Yardley, only to find it had grown even stronger. ’What’s going on?’ she wondered.
’The more independent their thoughts, the more tightly the system binds them?’
She didn’t understand the principle behind it, but since there were no signs of cracks or fissures in the connection, Faye immediately felt much more relieved.
’As expected. I never had any intention of setting Willow Yardley free.’
Faye inwardly scorned herself for a moment, but quickly made peace with the thought.
"You both woke up today, and you’re changing for the better. Let’s call it a level-up. This is a day worth celebrating. Willow, get some glutinous rice wine ready and prepare a lavish dinner. We’ll eat in the pavilion to celebrate the two of you."
"Okay, thank you, Sister."
Two more days passed in a flash. Faye received an invitation from her brother, who said the main construction of their guild headquarters was complete and she could come for a tour.
What else was there to say? Naturally, Faye accepted with pleasure.
mu of land. Not massive, but certainly not small.
Their buildings were constructed at the foot of a rolling hill.
There were three eight-story buildings standing side-by-side. Each floor had two units, meaning the three buildings could house a total of forty-eight households.
Faye entered one of the units. They were all 150 square meters, and residents could alter the interior layout to suit their own needs.
Considering her brother’s guild didn’t even have twenty members yet, the housing was more than ample.
They had also built a perimeter wall, paved the roads with bluestone, and had running water and electricity.
Solar-powered lamps had been placed outside to serve as streetlights.
Not far from the buildings, the relatively flat ground on either side of the bluestone paths had been turned into farmland, and rice seeds had already been sown.
A small river meandered down from the hill.
"Once their families move in, we plan to have them plant fruit trees on the hill and raise some poultry," Ethan Yardley explained as he led his sister on the tour. They rounded the hill, and she saw three villas standing on the other side.
"Those are the residences for me, Donovan, and Tiberius."
"You’re getting special treatment like this. Don’t the others have a problem with it?"
"What’s there to complain about? I’m the one who started this guild—with a lot of support from you, of course. So, it’s something we built, you and I."