Chapter 216 Trading hub?

Dilan knew that he had been quite fast when rushing through the Pagoda of Time. Despite that, the majority of his day had been eaten up, just like that.

If others were to enter the Pagoda of time, or he would enter it with more Ascenders, they were bound to take much longer.

In the end, it was not unlikely for one or two days to pass outside the Pagoda of Time before they would have conquered the Instance dungeon.

During that period lots of unexpected incidents could happen, which was what Dilan kept worrying about as he shared the information which he had procured with the others. He wanted to leave no detail and gave an elaborate recounting of his experience.

He had returned not too long ago, and only a few higher-ups of his group were still awake.

But when reporting everything, Dilan made sure to highlight the fact that the Pagoda of Time was likely to be a great opportunity for Ascenders as well.

Their level would rise quickly, and so would their combat prowess, status points, the number of treasures they would get their hands on, and much more, such as ability crystals.

Paying a price in exchange for all of this was only normal, which was why Dilan thought highly about the Pagoda of Time.

‘Who cares if they store information on my combat skills and style, or take some of my time? If the benefits outweigh the disadvantages I will accept it, period!’

Oliver, whom he had found first when he returned to their base, was quite excited after he heard Dilan’s report.

He wanted to enter the Instance Dungeon right off the bat. However, Oliver’s level was higher than Dilan’s, meaning that he would have to face even stronger opponents than the strongest Ascender in their group.

“What do you think? Will I be able to clear more than five floors if I were to decide to try clearing the floors all by myself?”.

Ordinary Tier-1 monsters at his level usually didn’t have any abilities. Their average stats were also on the lower side, and so was their combat experience.

That was how it was usually the case. Thus, Oliver didn’t think that it would be impossible for him to clear the first four floors of the Pagoda of Time.

But Dilan didn’t seem to think the same as Oliver.

“I’m actually not sure how many floors you will be able to clear all by yourself. Your stats might be higher but all the monsters in the Pagoda of Time tend to work together to make up for that disadvantage. I simply overwhelmed them but you don’t have any means to attack numerous monsters simultaneously.

But your Agility and abilities are quite helpful, so that shouldn’t be a problem. The only issue is that the monsters in the Pagoda of Time have a quite high combat awareness, which is why the occupational abilities of your Assassin occupation might be countered by them.”

Dilan was well versed with the abilities of his people. While he had been searching for ways to upgrade his abilities, he had asked the others if they could share information about upgrading their abilities with him.

It was always better to work together while doing research because there might be cases, when someone’s ability upgraded in a unique way, or when they had to meet extraordinary conditions to upgrade their ability.

Dilan and many others wanted to find out a rough idea of how to upgrade their abilities in the easiest possible way.

Unfortunately, this was easier said than done because they had yet to figure out the rough template on how to upgrade abilities.

That was also why Dilan knew what abilities Oliver had. Even his occupational abilities were known to him, though it was not possible to upgrade them.

Oliver was not satisfied with the answer Dilan gave. However, he knew that Dilan wouldn’t exaggerate or water down something to turn it into a softer blow.

There was no need to hold back from revealing the bitter truth either because his people’s life was on the line when he was speaking about dangerous things.

“Just test the first floor of the Pagoda of Time, if you really want to. I believe that you can easily pass the first floor. As for the other floors, you will probably need some time to clear them. Just enter it without feeling rushed and you’ll be fine.”

Dilan wanted his people to grow, so he shouldn’t discourage them. Life was not supposed to be safe anymore and Oliver would have to face dangerous situations in order to grow stronger and tougher.

And it was not only Oliver. Every single Ascender and even Survivor would have to face the cruel reality every now and then to understand that being alive had become a privilege and that everyone had to work hard to stay alive.

With that in mind, he continued to speak with Oliver a little before the young Ascender left, and Dilan retired to bed to sleep for a few hours.

It was still early in the morning when he woke up again. It was noisy in the factory and everyone was busy working.

The sight of all Survivors and Ascenders working hard was great and it made Dilan hurry up to take a quick shower and wear a clean set of clothes.

Meeting with the others, he once again recounted his experience of the Pagoda of Time, astonishing Kathrine, Yvonne and the others as he took out the Whetstones, the ability crystals, and the pieces of equipment he got his hands on after clearing the dungeon just once.

“That’s great…we were quite worried because you didn’t return when you told us that you would be back,” Kathrine stated gloomily, but before she could continue, Sven jumped into their conversation and switched the topic.

“We found two permanent Gates in Shiron’s center and more than 10 permanent Gates close to Shiron’s outskirts. One of the Scouting groups also mentioned that they saw how two temporary Gates disappeared after they released more than a hundred Tier-1 monsters.

The information about the 12 permanent Gates, the monsters inside the city, their territory, and numbers have been mentioned in the report as well.

There is also another report about the monsters outside the city, their strength, and so on.”

Sven gave him three reports, of which two were the ones mentioned before.

“What about the third report?” Dilan asked, holding up the papers.

This time Sarah answered with a bright expression.

“We decided to create a trading hub in the factory. There are many Ascenders, who are in need of special Essence crystals to upgrade their abilities, and several more, who desire to get their hands on more ability crystals, equipment, and so on.

That is why we want you to make the final decision on the proposal I and a few others have come up with. Our society could grow much faster with what we created. At least, that is my opinion.”

Dilan noticed Sarah’s excitement and read through the files of the third report.

‘Oh? That doesn’t sound bad…’

“So instead of giving treats to the hard-working Ascenders, you want them to first work hard so that they’ll earn their treats afterward?

We supply resources and they can be exchanged by completing certain missions, selling Essence crystals, equipment, and ability crystals.

Instead of a trading hub, it’s more like an allrounder Shop, where you can also barter the items you want. The only issue here is that we don’t have a special currency.

I guess you want to turn neutral Essence crystals into the currency of the shop, by considering the quality and Tier of the Essence crystals’ value. That would probably fluctuate based on the given supply and demand at that time.”

Dilan liked the idea of creating such a trading hub. Calling it as such might not fit perfectly but that was not important. Sarah’s idea was good, and by making sure that there would be enough treasures, ability crystals, special items, and Essence crystals to simplify the process of purchasing and selling goods, it would work out quite well.

Nonetheless, Dilan had previously believed that it would be too early to do something like this. The moment they demanded one person to pay for something they had received before for free, it would be necessary to demand the same from everyone else.

The best example would be Old Jeff and the process of him manufacturing weapons for the Ascenders. If he had to purchase the ores to forge a weapon, he would have to sell the weapon forged from the same ores he previously purchased.

Ascenders, who required the forged weapon to protect themselves and others would have to buy weapons, which would be difficult if they wouldn’t earn anything as Guards of their group’s new home.

They would only be able to earn by killing monsters but if their task was to protect, they deserved to receive a daily base fee so that they would be able to purchase the weapons they needed or buy food.

Food was also an issue in that regard. Dilan had promised that nobody would have to work but that they wouldn’t receive much if they didn’t do anything, just a place to sleep and enough food to survive and to stay energized to some extent.

This included some food, meaning he would have to give it out for free.

‘If we provide the plainest and most simple food for free, I could ask Bianne to make better and more nutritious food for those who pay. But…are we already ready to recreate a proper exchange system based on money, right now?’

Dilan was not sure about that, so he could frown for now.

His initial thought was that it would be a great idea to make everyone work to earn something, just as it had been in the past.

However, reality made it quite difficult and after they had just found a new home, they had to make quite a few preparations for everything to work out perfectly fine.

Sven noticed the changes in Dilan’s expression, and he could understand what his boss was worried about.

“I think that her plan is good as well, however I believe that it’s too early to be implemented for now. But I can think of a way to solve all the issues. This may take some time but for now, we can announce that we will implement a monetary system soon and put out feelers.”

**

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