The remaining skeleton guards were quickly cleared out by the players.
As for the materials they left behind after death, they dissipated into the air very soon without any preservation.
Only the Light Pursuer Monster that had been frozen was taken away by Kafney.
The lamp oil in her lantern was made by mixing the fat of the Light Pursuer Monster with several balancing substances—only this kind of fat could maintain stable and bright light in any environment. It also ensured that the light wasn’t too blinding or that the lantern would overheat and catch fire.
It was material for cursed items in itself, so it could become a cursed item with only simple processing.
"We can extract about five barrels of ’White Liquid Fire’."
Kafney said this to Annan earnestly at the time, "I’ve brought the tools, so I can handle the refinement process. After I’m done, I’ll keep one barrel and give the rest to you... "
If you need it, just take it all—Annan had originally intended to say that.
But he learned from Kafney that a ’barrel’ of White Liquid Fire the size of a tea can could be sold for about forty to sixty pounds.
...Two hundred gold coins.
Hearing the price, Annan silently swallowed the words he had yet to speak.
He didn’t even own that much money yet.
But then, Annan thought.
Since this was a precious ingredient for cursed objects... then was it possible that Salvatore might need it?
After all, who you sell to doesn’t matter, why not just sell it to my senior? That’s called mutual benefit...
...By the way, how much did I owe him?
Salvatore had never mentioned repaying the debt to Annan, and Annan couldn’t quite remember for the moment.
Before bringing back the Ritualist known as "Daddy", Annan didn’t forget to distribute the rewards for the time-limited quest.
Each person received two hundred experience points and two hundred points of favorability—the amount sufficient to make those players who had come over temporarily to "play an event dungeon" leave with joy.
For both Four of Tiles and Xitan Pulan, their main quests were finally completed as well. The stacked experience rewards from both missions leveled them up directly to level 7.
Tonight, they could probably stay with their "parent".
As for their own housing issues, they would have to wait until daylight when Annan would go to the city hall to run some procedures to divide a house for them from Cishui Street—yes, currently, the housing for the players in Roth Fort was distributed by Annan for free, without even asking for favorability points.
And each person got a two hundred square meters residence with three bedrooms and two living rooms!
... Although it didn’t include a decoration package.
This was probably one of the few signs of conscience from the scrappy planner.
—Even though they were from a parallel world, they were still considered fellow countrymen, after all.
Annan was very clear about what these players longed for...
Anyway, there were many empty houses in Roth Fort.
After repelling the Rotting Husband a few days ago, Annan couldn’t ignore anymore the motionless military forces in Roth Fort, which were as inattentive as the deaf and blind.
He took the risk of revealing his identity and went to the Greenwater District in the southern part of the city to greet the local garrison commander.
The commander was polite and did not make things difficult for Annan—it was also clear that he did not recognize Tan Juan Geraint.
He explained clearly that they were not under the command of Earl Geraint but were directly subordinate to General Edwin.
As Earl Geraint was in charge of the national spy agency and controlled the flow of intelligence, he was not allowed to have any form of military power... Therefore, they even had explicit instructions from General Edwin not to follow Annan’s orders or be mobilized by him.
They only had two responsibilities—if the Winter Principality were to invade again, they had to defend Roth Fort and call for reinforcements from the Royal Capital at the earliest opportunity.
At the same time, they were in charge of intercepting spies from the direction of Frostwater Harbor, possibly agents of the Winter Principality, to prevent them from moving further south.
When Annan first heard this explanation, his expression was a bit strange.
...But I don’t think you’ve stopped anyone, have you?
I seem to be that spy, you know?
But after that, Annan at least learned one thing—the other side was not intending to be deliberately antagonistic, nor did they have any PY deals with the Viscount, nor were they plotting to trouble him.
They were just wary of the Geraint family... Or rather, to avoid suspicion, they didn’t want any unnecessary contact with Annan.
Then the matter was simple.
The recently rebuilt Roth Fort was like an asymmetrical four-petaled flower.
The eastern Xiushui District is an industrial area mixed with poor residential zones. The north side, with the largest area, Cishui Street, is a densely populated residential district. The smallest in area and with the best environment on the west, Clearwater Street, is the municipal district. On the south side, Greenwater Street is the business and entertainment district, with a huge city square in the center.
But Roth Fort was, after all, a frontier fortress in the past.
During wartime, Cishui Street in the northern part of the city was designated as an area for storing military supplies and accommodating troops under martial control. However, after the war ended, these places became vacant with the withdrawal of the troops. After all, Roth Fort, being a peripheral city near the border, would face significant logistical pressure if it had too many troops stationed there.
But with Frostwater Harbor serving as an outpost and a buffer, they basically didn’t need too many garrisoned troops here. In fact, the number of troops that had been stationed in Roth Fort was only about two thousand elite soldiers.
After all, Roth Fort also had an underground passageway.
The specific location is at 1 Clearwater Street—where one can take a subway-like huge steam machine from the underground passage, traveling directly from the Royal Capital to Roth Fort.
The most elite Transcendent troops of the Noah Kingdom can arrive at any large city within the kingdom in half a day upon receiving orders. Trained Transcendents are much more effective than soldiers when facing small enemy troop infiltrations.
Transcendents could only sneak in through the underground passages. Those who could infiltrate were surely ordinary people, and Transcendents have a strong suppressing power over ordinary people. Moreover, their numbers are very small, and they enter the city through underground passages that ordinary people can’t use... This makes their arrival very quiet.
As a large number of troops gradually withdrew to the inland from Roth Fort, the city suddenly became much more spacious.
The then relatively young Viscount of Roth Fort made a very smart decision—he obtained permission from Earl Geraint and recruited construction teams from inland areas with high salaries, to convert the northern military bases into residential units. At the same time, he expedited the construction of commercial areas, selling high-priced but high-quality goods and services to these well-paid workers.
In doing so, they suffered almost no significant loss. Even some construction teams simply stayed in Roth Fort for good... After all, there were long-term urban reconstruction projects here.
This attracted quite a large number of residents.
And to make room for the soldiers, the Viscount of Roth Fort also offered them villas in the center of the business district at low prices. His purpose was simple: to have the troops become free security guards for their commercial district.
Although neither the Barber family nor the Geraint family could completely control this troop, soldiers are people after all. Living in that place, they naturally developed feelings for it.
The Viscount also very sensibly—or rather, had no choice but to—withdraw the original city guard force from the commercial district. This forced those troops to become their security guards... Later, Viscount Barber wanted to offer them an additional municipal salary to please them, but was seriously rejected. Viscount Barber even received a warning at that time— but it was just a warning.
After all, a person can be persuaded by favors... These luxurious houses were not offered for free.
And Roth Fort, with its good public order and dense commercial activities, became the most prosperous city in the Beihai region. Many small merchants from other places would come to the Greenwater District to buy a set of houses.
You must know, in this era, maintaining good public order is a very difficult condition.
Even though Roth Fort continuously had new residents coming from inland, the densely populated northern part was still being built faster than it was being inhabited.
Annan immediately used his authority to allocate an entire residential area directly under Viscount Barber to the players. This included land deeds and house deeds from a bankrupt construction team used to offset debts to their lord—even though Viscount Barber wasn’t the lord, he lived like one in Roth Fort hence these things ended up in his hands.
These amounted to a batch of "foreclosed houses."
This "community," with about forty-plus houses all close together for easy management, were all luxurious standards with over two hundred square meters and three stories each, clearly not meant for ordinary people to buy. Perhaps it was precisely because the target market for this construction team was off that these houses didn’t sell... After all, the wealthy lived in the southern Greenwater District.
So, Annan divided these standalone villas into three parts. In this way, he could give them to three players...
It was indeed enough to divide up for some time.
And the players were obviously very appreciative—
Even though Annan hadn’t paid them a salary last month, to the point where the players even forgot that they were entitled to a salary—when they found out that Annan had given them a house for free, they were still very happy about it.
Especially after experiencing the cramped living conditions at Frostwater Harbor, averaging thirty square meters per person, the sight of the new houses that Annan gave them was practically a dancing joy.
Annan also smiled contentedly.
The players’ goodwill was indeed very easy to increase...
And with their own homes, they would surely feel a stronger sense of belonging and identification with this world, and with themselves... perhaps a heightened sense of immersion as well.
After sending the players back to their respective homes, Annan went straight back to the Viscount’s mansion with a Ritualist nicknamed "Old Daddy."
From "Old Daddy," he received some unexpected information...
Annan didn’t know if Kafney was aware of this name, but the current players were certainly not ready to know these secrets.
Old Daddy had previously told Annan that he came to the Noah Kingdom under the orders of the Lady of the Storm, with the purpose of recording Michelangelo’s resurrection.
Annan had once heard of the nickname "Lady of the Storm" from old Bread.
It was not the name of a deity but a title like the "Eye of Lag."
It was a title only Gold-tier powerhouses could possess!
And the owner of the "Lady of the Storm" title...
—Annan Winter’s own elder sister.