"Damn it!"
"There's a goblin warlock!"
"Everyone, let's go, quickly take him down!"
The Adventurers were not affected by their fallen comrades and swarmed forward to attack the village chief, but they were blocked by a defensive line formed by young adult goblins. Two more Adventurers were ignited and killed in succession.
"Screw you!"
Violent Little Chicken threw a stick, hitting the old goblin.
It didn't cause a fatal injury, but it interrupted his fireball spell-casting.
"Good job, Little Chicken!" As the Adventurers held back the young adult goblins, "Brother Wind, Uncle Sword, hurry up!"
Wind in Sleep and Lonely Swordsman seized the opportunity to rush before the goblin village chief. The latter had no close-combat ability and was eventually successfully killed by the two working together.
The other goblins were not a concern.
However, there were simply too many goblins. Although the Riot-Gear Zombies had high defense, they were not truly invulnerable. So, three more Adventurers fell during the battle.
Finally, Miracle City achieved a great victory!
All thirty-odd Goblins were wiped out and Miracle City lost a total of seven zombies.
Not bad!
Quinn observed the battlefield from behind the scenes. It was normal to have some losses during battle. This battle successfully eliminated thirty-odd Dark Kind, which was enough to bring considerable benefits to the territory!
"Hahaha!"
"What a thrilling and satisfying battle!"
"We won, Dark Kind are nothing more than this. This kind of battle is also very enjoyable!"
"Ordinary zombies are still too weak. If we could control Hunters and Smokers, we could definitely take down this Dark Kind camp without any losses!"
Amidst their joy and excitement, the Adventurers did not forget to search the Goblin camp. They found some supplies, including berries, herbs, and dried meat, in over a dozen straw huts.
In addition, they discovered an inconspicuous altar in the middle of the village.
This altar was only about one meter tall, shaped like an ancient shrine, and a glowing stone floated within it. This stone was not simple!
"It's a Sanctuary Divine Stone!"
Quinn's spirits lifted at the sight.
[Ding, you have discovered the Red Claw Village Divine Stone. Do you want to convert it immediately?]
Half of the time each day in the Chaos World is enveloped by Chaos Energy.
During this period, all living beings cannot move freely. Otherwise, once caught in the Chaos Tide, their minds and souls will be eroded by the Chaos Tide, and even more unpredictable and disastrous consequences may occur.
Therefore, all Underground races need a sanctuary to settle down.
From large Underground Cities to small villages and tribes, all require a Sanctuary Divine Stone to form a protective domain.
Generally, the larger the scale and the more populous the stronghold, the more frequently the Sanctuary Divine Stone is sacrificed to, and the larger the sanctuary radius produced. The more rewards the Lord will receive when occupying it.
Quinn could transform the Sanctuary Divine Stone into different specifications of Territory Divine Stones by expending mental power, and for each Sanctuary Divine Stone converted, he would receive a corresponding reward.
Furthermore, the Territory Divine Stone can be connected to the Territory Core.
Thereby establishing a personnel and material transfer channel.
[You are activating the Red Claw Village Divine Stone. This activation requires 150 mental power. Do you wish to continue?]
"Yes!"
Refining the Divine Stone required a considerable amount of mental power.
Although it seemed like a lot, this investment was completely worth it!
[Divine Stone activated successfully!]
[You have successfully occupied Red Claw Village and received Chaos Treasure Chest (Gray) x 1!]
[You can view the construction details, income, and population information of Red Claw Village through the Lord panel.]
It worked!
Red Claw Village became Miracle City's territory.
Quinn knew the importance of seizing territory for the domain. Not to mention its significance in economic and military fields, just being able to establish a teleportation point could bring many conveniences to the territory.
If the territory wished to continue exploring in that direction, there was no need to depart from Miracle City. By consuming a small amount of soul crystal, one could directly teleport to Red Claw Village, saving approximately three hours of travel time!
Converting the Divine Stone, he also obtained a God-given treasure chest.
[You opened the Chaos Treasure Chest (Gray). You received Soul Crystal + 200, Blueprint: Trading Hall + 1!]
"A blueprint appeared!"
Quinn was overjoyed again and immediately checked the information.
[Blueprint: Trading Hall]: A Tier 1 construction blueprint, requires 100 soul crystal, 50 mental power, and 30 portions of Tier 1 material essence.
Although the Trading Hall was a relatively common Tier 1 special building, it held extremely important value for the development of the territory.
Special buildings had higher construction costs, requiring not only blueprints and soul crystals but also mental power and material essence.
Before this operation began, Quinn possessed 340 mental power and 732 remaining soul crystals.
After spending 90 soul crystals and mental power to craft mercenaries, and 150 mental power to refine the Red Claw Village Divine Stone, he had 100 mental power and 572 soul crystals left.
Plus the 200 soul crystals opened from the treasure chest.
The current total soul crystals were 772.
Other resources were not a problem.
Currently, only material essence was lacking.
Quinn activated the teleportation and descended from Miracle City to Red Claw Village.
The Adventurers had already cleaned up the battlefield. Thirty-odd gray goblin corpses were piled together, and there were also fifteen captured gnomes.
"Lord Quinn!"
"How did we do?"
"Didn't disappoint you, did we!"
The Adventurers were very proud and triumphant.
After all, their first reconnaissance mission had wiped out a Dark Kind stronghold.
Of course, they didn't know that this seemingly accidental encounter was actually Quinn's plan, and everything was within his expectations!
However, the Adventurers' performance was indeed quite good.
Quinn then doubled the contribution points for the surviving Adventurers.
The common supplies without grade, such as wild fruits and dried meat, found in the goblin camp were not of much use to the territory. Only a small portion was kept, and the rest were awarded to the Adventurers.
Resources were scarce in the surface world, so this was a considerable income.
Every Adventurer was beaming with joy.
[You have recovered Zombie Soul Essence x 11!]
After Quinn recovered the zombie soul essence, the Adventurers' mercenary status was removed.
They could not stay overnight in the Underground City temporarily, so they would be automatically teleported to the surface. They also needed to rest and recover their energy as soon as possible, so they could return to Miracle City and challenge the secret realm when the city opened tomorrow.
This battle also yielded fifteen gnome captives.
Among them were males and females, looking sallow and emaciated, kneeling before him with anxious faces, chattering a great deal of incomprehensible words.
"#%*...%!"
The language barrier. Completely incomprehensible.
But it was not a big problem.
[Ding, 15 gnome people beg for sanctuary and pledge allegiance to you. Do you accept? Yes/No!]
Gnomes were a bit weak, but they were inherently kind and gentle.
Miracle City was in need of people to do odd jobs, and Red Claw Village also needed labor, so Quinn accepted their allegiance without hesitation.
[Mental Power -5!]
A Lord converting territory citizens would consume some mental power.
However, because the number was small and they were relatively weak, the loss was not significant.
The moment the conversion was completed, the gnomes all showed surprised joy. After becoming citizens protected by the Underground City, they all gained the ability to speak human language.
"Thank you, great Lord of the Underground City!"
"It is you who rescued us from the slavery of the brutal Dark Kind. We are willing to become the most loyal citizens of Lord!"
[Quinn's citizens + 15!]
There was no upper limit to the number of territory citizens.
As long as one could support them, any number could be accepted.
Humans only existed on the surface and underground.
However, the various continents of the Chaos World were filled with countless strange and varied alien races. As long as they were not Dark Kind, they could be converted into citizens.
These Underground City citizens had a very positive effect on the development of the territory.
Firstly, different races had different abilities, and the roles they could play varied.
Alien races could be used to build the territory's standing army. Particularly excellent ones could be promoted to Adventurers, and these alien race Adventurers were exclusive Adventurers who could not leave the Underground City.
Of course, alien race Adventurers had a higher threshold.
Only a few alien race could be successfully converted.
Quinn's gaze swept over the fifteen gnome citizens before him. He noticed a gnome maiden with freckles on her face, an unremarkable appearance, and clear, lively eyes.
It's her! She was indeed hiding here!
Quinn remained calm on the surface but was quite excited inwardly.
The freckled maiden was not simple, as she was not a gnome but merely disguised as one.
Nancilia, the last descendant of the Wood Elf King on this Chaos Continent, was originally a resident of Holy Tree City in the Eternal Night Great Forest. Since Holy Tree City was destroyed during the Black Dragon King's invasion and the Dark Elf rebellion, she was forced to flee and hide.
His memories of the game before showed that she would randomly appear in different Tier 1 areas at different times.
Though this was a real world now, the history seemed to line up.
At this moment, transforming herself into a gnome and blending among the inconspicuous gnomes was also to conceal her identity.
A large part of the reason Quinn organized mercenaries to begin exploration so quickly was because of her. After all, she was the only hidden character with top-tier aptitude who had a chance to be recruited early in the game!