Chapter 1288 - 632: War Merit Exchange and Mysterious Warmth (2)

But...

No wonder Xia Nan is overthinking it. After all, having encountered so many unusual things, connections will inevitably be made.

He somewhat suspects that the disappearance of Black Cliff Baron might be related to the recent inexplicable increase in aggressive supernatural creatures near Bloodcast Fortress, or even to the strange goblin army he encountered on the way, which his group had already wiped out?

And as for Barbarian Fugang, being an extraordinary existence close to Legendary in professional level, what role does he play in all this?

The chaotic thoughts entangle in his mind like a ball of yarn, hard to unravel.

While pondering, Ranger Tal’s voice, continuing to lead the way after telling Xia Nan all he knew, brought Xia Nan’s attention back to reality.

"We’ve arrived, Lord Xia Nan!"

"This is the war merit exchange center of Bloodcast Fortress!"

Standing by the street, what appeared before him was an unremarkable two-story building.

The structure itself was built with solid stone similar to the main material of Bloodcast Fortress, but obviously had not gone through those legendary battles against the foreign barbarians, making these bricks lack the blood-red sheen, and rather show the most common dark brown color.

The frontage is wide, where various adventurers can be seen coming and going, and a sign at the entrance depicts an image of a "straight sword piercing through a scroll," with a few characters written below in standard and clear Universal Language:

— "Bloodcast Fortress War Merit Exchange Center."

It is certainly a newly established institution in recent months.

In order to make the adventurers attracted here a true support, Bloodcast Fortress has put in a lot of effort.

The "Outer Camp" area established specifically for adventurers, where all kinds of rules and order are significantly loosened, is just one aspect.

Understanding clearly that "profits" are the only driving force for adventurers.

To maximize the power of these sources of chaos, the top echelon of Bloodcast Fortress, while being both lazy and exceptionally wise, temporarily adopted the complete system from the adventurer association.

Turning the dangerous demons, which originally required countless soldiers to barely deal with at the cost of their lives, into bounties on the task board.

As long as one can complete these task targets and bring back proof, they can exchange it for war merit at the war merit exchange center.

And war merit can be exchanged for Gold Coins or equipment tools.

It’s almost like changing the name of the adventurer association’s system.

Of course, it is not a complete imitation; Bloodcast Fortress has made many flexible adjustments according to the actual situation.

After all, from the perspective of core essence, the two are completely different.

In most cases, the adventurer association mainly acts as a platform for posting and taking tasks, earning some commission fees to maintain industry order, without such a strong sense of purpose.

It has more commercial attributes and is more free.

Bloodcast Fortress, however, is completely different.

It is an important fortress on the kingdom’s border and belongs to the official Sevia Kingdom.

Soldiers and officers are stationed here to protect the border’s safety.

And the tasks posted by Bloodcast Fortress are done for this purpose.

Moreover, due to the military needs, there is a degree of coercion in the actual task posting and taking process, albeit most adventurers can tolerate it.

Additionally, regarding points... or the level of war merit exchange, Bloodcast Fortress has also made extensive modifications according to the local actual situation.

It is very realistic that, compared to a giant like the adventurer association, Bloodcast Fortress can’t even win support from the Sevia official, and is itself just a military institution. Even though it has garnered a lot of Gold Coins through skyrocketing taxes due to the recent adventurer gatherings, it’s still like trying to extinguish a cart fire with a cup of water to support this number of adventurers with such funds.

Therefore, although there are no apparent restrictions on exchanging Gold Coins, Bloodcast Fortress actually encourages adventurers to spend their war merit on exchanges such as battle skills, equipment, and tools through proactive price reduction, promotional marketing, and other methods.

The results have been quite satisfactory.

After all, over the years, the border here has accumulated through numerous battles and has the official background of Sevia, not only stocking up on various high-level equipment to nearly fill the warehouse, but even providing official stock battle skills that are not otherwise available.

Gold Coins can be earned anywhere.

But these rare battle skills and low-priced equipment, once missed, are really gone.

No matter how greedy, most adventurers can still understand this point.

Following behind Winter Wolf Fenney, Xia Nan walked into the war merit exchange center with Tal.

The space was not large, roughly only about a third of the size compared to the two adventurer association branches he had been to before.

The floor was covered with solid oak planks, and the walls on both sides were bare, neither painted with bright colors nor adorned with additional decorations, just as swift and concise as Bloodcast Fortress’s identity as a military fortress.

The most conspicuous thing in the hall was a long wooden horizontal table.

Adventurers lined up noisily in a queue, while receptionists dressed in official military uniforms sat behind the table, busy handling affairs.

It seemed like there were not enough staff, Xia Nan noticed two receptionists might have been temporarily drafted from the barracks; under the adventurers’ urging voices, they were sweating profusely and were so nervous that their faces were slightly pale.

Unlike the adventurer association, which posts numerous tasks on the task board for adventurers to select from,

most tasks on Bloodcast Fortress’s side dealt with dangerous creatures near the border, lacking greatly in both quantity and diversity.

As a result, only a few announcements and long-term tasks were posted on the task board.

If adventurers wish to take on a commission, they must personally communicate with the receptionists and choose one from the three to four tasks provided by them, showing evident restrictions.

"By the way, that Layered Armor Elephant I killed earlier should technically count as a dangerous creature near the border, right?"

"Can it be used for exchanging war merit?"

As if something suddenly came to mind, Xia Nan asked Tal beside him.

"Of course!"

Upon hearing this, Tal nodded vigorously, and even patted his bulging backpack behind him.

Inside was a small piece he had cut off from the corpse, the pointed end of a Layered Armor Elephant Tusk.

This could be used as proof to exchange for corresponding war merit.

Unlike the adventurer association’s usual procedure where one needs to take on a commission first, then complete the task, and receive payment,

Bloodcast Fortress encourages adventurers to hunt creatures to the greatest extent possible, just like River Valley Town’s "Hunting Day," having a basic bounty mechanism for all creatures appearing near Sevia Kingdom’s northeast border.

Kill it, bring back the proof, and it can be directly exchanged for war merit.

Letting Tal queue at the end, Xia Nan intended to walk around the war merit exchange center to familiarize himself with the environment.

Then he saw a commotion erupt abruptly at the already crowded entrance.

"Make way, everyone make way!"

A young officer dressed in official Bloodcast Fortress standard armor called out for the adventurers at the entrance to move aside.

Soon, a team of soldiers carried a large amount of goods in single file.

These should be stocks brought out from the Inner Castle’s warehouse for exchange purposes.

Perhaps they also want to improve adventurers’ enthusiasm.

The majority of goods among these weren’t covered up in any way, and the soldiers were just holding them in their arms, exposed plainly to everyone.

Xia Nan stood among the crowd, with his attention highly focused.

His facial expression unchanged, yet secretly he had already pulled out the attribute panel.

From the entrance to the warehouse door of the war merit exchange center was just a small stretch of road, so he couldn’t possibly tag along closely to inspect them, making the whole process appear a bit rushed, only managing to peruse these equipment panels casually, focusing mainly on the "Quality Level" section.

Most were White Equipment with several attributes, but there was also a fair amount of Green Good gear.

He didn’t see any Purple Rare items, but there were indeed a few Blue Rare ones, though they were all weapons, and none were suitable for him.

With a full set of custom Enchanted Equipment, his thresholds were already raised high; these ordinary Enchanted Equipment in front of him naturally could not pique his interest.

And just at that moment,

suddenly, from his right wrist, the Proof of Diligence bracelet emanated a faint heat flow undetectable to others.

Realizing something, Xia Nan’s heart instantly tightened.

With Perception turned to the fullest, he doubled his diligence in scrutinizing each piece of equipment and tool being carried by the soldiers.