Chapter 179 - 179 Land Of Plenty

They cycle out for the next hour, everyone getting a break when they can until finally the Ancient Gold Elemental crumbles with a shriek of tearing metal. 

Cain gathers it all, plus the bodies of the Epic Elementals into the Guild Bank, seeing them collected as several piles of gold in various alloyed colors. A total of 302 tons of it. 

"Well, since we're ridiculously wealthy now, I think we've earned a day off tomorrow. Who wants to sleep all day?" Carlos suggests and every hand goes up.

The only thing they're expecting in the next day or two is the circle to link the new house to the Montauk Guild House, and possibly the Gnome bringing children by to level up in the Beginner Valley instead of sheltering them and letting them grind experience on training dummies. 

It's a valid way to level, but it doesn't lead to experienced fighters, only basic skills with no combat instincts. 

[Quest Complete] exit now available. 

[Experience Modified Beyond Limit by a Skill] 

[Title Gained: Struck Gold]

When the notifications come in the whole hill collapses, revealing a huge amount of Gold Ore in every known alloy variation. White Gold, Rose Gold, Black Gold, even Golden Mythril, a light blue colored Legendary Crafting Material according to its description. 

"I take that back. NOW we're ridiculously wealthy. In theory anyhow, because I don't know anyone who could afford to buy all this. We'd just collapse the price of gold trying to sell a continent's worth of Gold Reserves." Carlos corrects his assessment. 

"We will just keep it in storage and use it as needed to buy stuff for the Guild and craft Legendary items." Cain shrugs, unsure what to actually do with a small mountain of Gold.

"The puppets finished mining out the place as well. Lots of Mythril this side of the first boss, lots of copper and silver on the other." Symbia points towards the Exit where the puppets are returning, their task finished while everyone else dealt with the boss. 

"Total value of the pure gold is fifty million gold coins. The other alloys come up as 'unfit for coinage' when I inspect them to value my hoard." Laura adds, looking at the piles of metal.

Alright, that's crazy, but manageable. Fifty million Gold Coins would buy them a dozen castles, but the pure gold only makes up a tiny fraction of the total, most of it being alloys. A crazy thought comes to Cain's mind at this calculation. 

"What if we built a castle for ourselves. Maybe in the desert near the ocean. We could staff it with Puppets, and build a labyrinth underneath to hide treasures. A home fortress for the Guild." Cain suggests. 

"If the system recognizes it as a castle, you'll get a Guild level increase that lets you bring in more members and hire staff through the system. But why? You'd need an army there to defend it." Symbia frowns.

"Is there somewhere like that? Somewhere we could build our own castle without being under another jurisdiction or kingdom? Pretty much everywhere must be claimed, right?" Misha asks. 

"The desert is a free for all. The cities only claim the areas within sight of their walls, everything else is just the desert. There's more than a few permanent camps hidden in there, though I don't think anyone has tried to build a castle yet. 

"What about at Muzz? We could build one by the gate." The Oath Breaker suggests, looking happy. He really enjoyed rebuilding that gazebo over the entry to the lost city. 

[You're all insane. You know that, right? I'm in.] Char immediately answers when they suggest it in Guild chat. 

[Will there be enough water to even support life? It was abandoned for a reason, right?] Mythryll asks. 

[Never Fear. I have a solution. With the rapid increase in levels, I should have some extra skill points. And with them, I should be able to create a Guardian for the Castle that can take care of the essentials.] What Cain is thinking is to use clones of Symbia to set Curses of Drowning, which create large amounts of water to fill a space, in an underground cistern. That would give them all the water they need perpetually, as long as mana is supplied to the curse regularly. It's either that or Summon water Elementals and leave one there to take care of the place. 

With water they'll be able to plant trees for shade, grow fruits and crops, a Land of Plenty hidden in the desert to match the one they found in a dungeon.

[Normal thought just doesn't compute to you lot does it?] Belle, the werewolf Ranger asks. 

[Nope, but it sounds awesome doesn't it? Put in some everbloom and I can get pixies to keep your enchantments fed with mana.] Elmira chimes in. 

Cain is starting to feel like a normal Guild Master lately, aloof and off doing his own thing. But maybe with a central base for everyone to visit they'll be able to hold full Guild meetings, so he can at least talk to all the new members, and not just be some semi mythical being that provides insane Guild Skills. 

A handful of members from the Mining Guild are waiting by the city gates when they make it back, filthy and tired from their day. 

"Clearing out the Ore deposits really takes it out of you doesn't it?" Their self appointed leader laughs and Carlos smiles back. 

"It's that good burn though. We found a Gold Vein in the dungeon this time, so we dug deep to get the very last of it." He taunts them, knowing how rare decent sized Gold veins are.

"Beginners luck. We'll see what you pull out next time." He huffs and leads the group away. 

"I take it the Stone Giant dungeon is their turf?" Cain asks. 

"Yeah, they get cranky if someone else gets good stuff, and they like to taunt the groups coming back tired and broke with only a few kilos of Silver for all their hard work." Carlos nods. 

"Just don't cause yourself any troubles on our account. We'll need you to move a lot of product for us in the future, so burning too many bridges would be a real hassle."

"They'll get over it. A single gold vein isn't enough to upset the higher level members, and the Dragons keep them from causing too many problems without declaring war." Symbia responds with a smile.

"You make it sound like the Dragons and not the Earl are the ones in charge." Laura asks and the Elf laughs. 

"Aren't they though? Pair of busy bodies are everywhere if they sense something entertaining might happen." Just as she says it, Red and Arial come into view, proving her point perfectly. 

"We heard you found a Gold Vein. Good job, glad your first dungeon in the city was worth it." Arial congratulates them with a round of hugs. 

"Yes, it was very enlightening. Though the big level gap did give us a few problems at the start." Misha laughs. 

"Not so many I see, you gained forty levels in one run didn't you?" Red asks, impressed. 

"We did the raid, up to the Diamond Elemental boss. With the under level and the experience scaling between levels we advanced extremely quickly. I am just waiting until I get home to clear all these notifications and set up my skill points." Cain agrees. 

"Next run should go better, but not so heavy on the levels. You know how it is." Carlos says. 

"Yeah, 140 to 150 takes as much or more experience than 100 to 140, plus you won't be getting under level bonus added in the regular dungeon, so it really slows down." Red agrees

"The Puppet Master didn't disappoint us. He really does have power over level 200 to take a group like this through the raid to the second boss successfully. Without epic and Legendary Gear, even level 200 groups struggle with the durability of the Giants. Lizardmen are individually much easier to kill." Arial adds with a smirk. 

That's a relief, the dungeon is just evil, his summons wouldn't normally struggle so much, even with the damage scaling.

The house still isn't renovated enough to sleep in, so the Darklight Host heads back to their hotel room, with Symbia in tow, finding the Inscriptionist Niki waiting for them. 

"I've got your travel circle, as promised. But you guys look beat, so I'll leave it and the book materials with you and come visit in the morning." She waves her goodbye and is gone before the exhausted group can even form a full sentence. 

"You need dinner first, or just to bed?" The innkeeper asks, wiping his hands dry on a towel from behind the reception desk. 

"Dinner for sure, we'll take anything that's hot and ready. And coffee, lots of coffee." Symbia sighs. 

"Coming right up."

"Congratulations on level 100, miss. Did you get a good class option?" The waitress greets Symbia, setting plates of stew and a pot of coffee on the table. 

"Doll Witch. An interesting class, and still strong enough in the artistic skills that the Sculptors Guild won't kick me out." She smiles back, pouring herself a straight black cup of caffeine. 

"Oh, I saw one of those before. With the traveling fair. Runs the best haunted house I've seen in my life. Worth every cent of the entry fee." The waitress nods. 

"Anything else for you all before I go?" They shake their heads and the waitress heads back into the kitchen. 

"Well, this has been a great day, and I thank you all, but I need sleep." Symbia sighs when her plate is empty. 

"We've got extra space in the room, if you'd both like to crash here." Kone suggests, giving Su headpats, the short, Spider Plant like hair on the Dragon's dryad looking humanoid form swaying from side to side. 

"Deal. Anything more than twenty steps and I might fall asleep." Carlos laughs, picking up Symbia, who is already nodding in and out of consciousness with a coffee cup still in hand.. The effects from rapid leveling really take it out of you, even if you've been physically carried all day.