Chapter 116 - 112 : Ink Snow’s Goal

"So where are we heading now?"

The trio had originally spent an hour(in-game) moving around the 4th floor before they found Xue Yan. Now that they had a map that had the location of the exit point, Fudo wanted to know whether they should keep exploring or head to the next point.

Sato opened up his system interface and stared at his level progress. He was a bit close to the 50% mark for level 8 despite all the monsters they had encountered in the past 6 in-game hours. This was because the experience points had been shared between the 3 of them and even though it was sizeable, for a level 8 player it was only just okay.

"We need to have at least two level 9s to take on that boss. Let's level up a bit. Once we both reach level 9, we would raid the boss.

"With that said, we will head to the 5th floor."

From their experience so far, level 7 and 8 monsters could indeed be found within the 4th floor but their population wasn't much. It was so little that apart from the first level 8 Kobold they had fought, Sato's group didn't find any other one throughout their 1 hour long exploration. If not for the level 7 Kobolds they had killed while saving Xue Yan, they would have thought that Kobolds didn't exist here. But still, Sato doubted they would find another and since their group had just increased in size again, they would need to battle higher leveled monsters rather than low levelled ones, for more Experience points. And higher levelled monsters here didn't mean just level 8 monsters.

Sato continued "We are still some distance away though so let's move. We won't be sleeping in this map so we need to get at least two [Teleportation Runes] per person."

"Two each? Why?" Lu Zhen asked curiously.

Sato answered him, "It's a guess though but since [Teleportation Runes] are meant to save time by teleporting one to their saved location, it might be able to do the reverse. After all, it is quite stressful to head back to the main entrance and the programmers or even the System must have thought if it. In other words, it's quite possible that the [Teleportation Runes] could bring us back to the main entrance."

"?!"

Fudo and Lu Zhen were surprised at Sato's thinking but he still made some sense though.

"What are [Teleportation Runes]?" Xue Yan picked up on the conversation topic. As Lu Zhen and Fudo had picked up the runes from the last batch of Kobolds while she was talking with Sato, she didn't notice anything and she also didn't bother to ask about the loot after all, they were her saviors and so, she felt that they deserved it.

Lu Zhen quickly replied her, "They're handy objects for getting in here. You should have experienced the stress and effort spent to reach here right? It would be even worse for us to experience that each time we want to reach the Middle Region's 4th floor again. So the [Teleportation Runes] are useful consumables that save time by bringing us to the location we record in them. The disadvantage is that they only work in Black Grill's Cave and can only be used by one person. Also, they're one use items so we still need to grind for them each time we come here. Even so, they are still pretty neat and handy." (AN: Neat here doesn't refer to the synonym of clean but the slang.)

"Oh, okay." Xue Yan nodded once she got a good idea of the function of [Teleportation Runes].

"Let's go." Sato called out.

. . . . .

Lavissen Town, Reiss Kingdom, Brahman Empire.

Unlike how Riverdale and Black Mountain Town had their Town Halls at the centre, the centre of this town was a boisterous area with recreation facilities, entertainment buildings and the likes all scattered around here and there with no sign of any administrative facility. One of the exotic buildings here was a fancy-looking restaurant which was only 3 stories tall. This was a very famous restaurant that catered to both rich scions, family patriarchs and matriarchs, merchants and government officials.

The Shamrock Ville was a very famous chain restaurant in Reiss Kingdom and they only built there branches in high level places eg Cities. The branches located in primary towns were the lowest and they weren't in all of the primary towns; only in the top 5 of primary towns.

The exterior of the building looked plain and simple but when one appraises the value of the materials used, there would only be three words spilling from their mouths: "So much gold!". The Shamrock Ville always goes all out to design and decorate their buildings with each branch valued at the very least, 100,000 gold coins. This amount was something current players couldn't comprehend after all, an average player would make less than 2 silver coin after a whole day's worth of grinding.

The restaurant here had 3 floors with each floor having it's own uniqueness and criteria.

The 1st floor was a regular zone for all kinds of people to mix in and interact with one another freely. But of course, as a famous restaurant, even these "all kinds of people" were actually wealthy merchants and the likes but their wealth could only be said to be at the Middle or Upper Middle class. The reason was because compared to the real backers and strongmen in town, their wealth was nothing. To get in here was quite simple as one would only have to pay a certain amount of money to be registered and then they can freely dine here. But of course, the meals weren't free; the "freely" only referred to entry.

The 2nd floor was a 'VIP membership only' floor and those who had access to this floor would have to be VIPs at the least or a VVIP. To become such an individual, one would have to either have high credibility and reputation in the city together with possessing large amounts of wealth both in cash and assets. Of course, they would still have to buy a VIP membership form. For players though, they could get here so far as they had enough money to buy a VIP membership form and also at least 20 Relationship Points[1] with either the manager or another high level personnel. In the scenario where that can't be so friendly with those staffs, they would have to get recommended by a VIP or higher and still pay the required fees.

Of course, the spending would be worth it as not only were the food and drinks served here a lot better than that of the 1st floor, customers could also receive special services like exotic massages or a live concert of a professional musician or instrumentalist with a musical instrument like the zither or the violin. The 2nd floor was made with luxurious wood mostly of 1 star rating with the furniture made of low quality 2 star material. The walls were made with exquisite paints produced from certain beast blood and tree sap. The interior designer obviously didn't consider wabi-sabi, unlike the exterior designer, but went all out for an exaggeratedly fancy restaurant. You wouldn't need to know the real value of the materials used to know that it was expensive. Just like gold screams expensive, the entire furniture yelled the exact same words. As if that wasn't enough, the glasses used for drinking and the plates for that were used for serving guests eating, were made from low quality 3 star materials! Just by being here, one could feel that air of extravagance in every breath they breathe. One could indeed say that the expenditure was worth it.

For some players still, spending lots of coins just to get access to this hall of spectacular opulence for just a short while of indulgence and leisure, was dumb. But of course, that would be on the minds of those who can't afford it. For the rich players who managed to pay that off, they felt it was worth it after all, the drinks and food here weren't ordinary like the rest. They had a special type of Mana in them that not only made the meal taste great but also give a few special buffs. The most common buff of all was the 2% increase in experience points gained. This was one of the key secrets of players in Lavissen Town and this was their key to success. This of course was only for those who could afford it.

The 3rd floor was a far more exotic and luxurious and only VVIPs could get access to it. It comprised of a few private rooms each the size of a small lounge with one main hall. So far, only a few notable people have been seen going up here. They were either the Town's Head or the Patriarch of a major family in the Lavissen.

At a table close to the window on the 2nd floor, sat a young lady in a light dress, who looked to be in her early twenties or thereabout. On the table before her was a champagne bottle with a touch of vicissitude to it. The bottle cap was loosely placed atop the opening of bottle as if to show that the lady had just uncorked it a while ago. There was a glass with red wine from the bottle. When twirled, the wine would give off a yellow sparkle with tiny yellow particles in the drink. This was as a result of the special mana contained within the drink which granted boosts to not only players but so NPCs.

"Captain."

With the voice slowly fading out, Ink Snow, who had her attention elsewhere with her eyes gazing through the window, recalled herself and adjusted her composure before glancing at the owner of the voice that called out to her.

It was the assassin of their party, Gotze, who had called her.

"Any thing to report?" Ink Snow asked him.

Gotze nodded. "We have confirmed the exact location of the ruin. Herald, Panda and Purple Winter are already there, waiting for us."

"Hmm. They didn't send any messages regarding supplies did they?"

"No. Purple Winter already mentioned that the rations and supplies she has should be enough." Gotze replied.

"I see. Alright then, still go ahead and still purchase a few more consumables and supplies. A little bit extra isn't bad plus we don't know much about there. When you're done, call me and head over to the Main entrance alright?" Ink Snow asked.

"Okay." Saying so, Gotze departed from the building. Ink Snow, on the other hand, stared into the distance. What was on her mind, no one would know.

A couple of minutes later, she received a notification from Gotze saying that he had finished and was heading for the Town's entrance. Ink Snow quickly stood up and left the place. On her way out of the 2nd floor, she used a black cloak to hide her identity and optioned to use the second exit in the building so as to not be spotted by other players. This was one of the special perks associated with being a VIP member.

After a few minutes of walking, Ink Snow had finally reached the gate. She easily spotted Gotze and from there, the two took a carriage directly to their destination since it was quite far to walk to.

Their destination, level 5 map Sahara Desert.