Chapter 237: Entering Misty Mountain Villa
“That white gem looks pretty good to me. Are you willing to trade it?” Number 6 explained,
“I don’t have other hobbies, I just like collecting stones. I can offer 5 pieces of bread and 1 canned food.”
It’s something you can only look at with no other use, and this price is already very high.
Yu Jiang’s eyelashes fluttered slightly. Numbers 5 and 6 were both quite shrewd. After all, they’ve survived on the road for so long. It’s not strange that some people know NPCs will give gifts, and the items aren’t bad.
“What a coincidence, I also like this crystal clear gem.” Yu Jiang refused,
“If you can bring a scroll of purple quality or above to trade, then we can talk.”
There wasn’t even room for negotiation. No matter how dull the other party was, they knew this item was extremely precious. Yu Jiang quoted a price he couldn’t accept, leaving him unsure of the real situation.
Number 6’s eye corner twitched, and he didn’t continue the topic.
She really dared to quote a price. Even primary stones for upgrading weapons aren’t this expensive, let alone they’ve never heard of White Crystal Stone items. They only know about obsidian and Fire Stone.
The group passed through a desolate village and walked along the stone-paved mountain path for several tens of minutes, arriving at a magnificent and ancient building.
This wasn’t a manor at all, it was clearly a castle.
High walls built of stone, pointed tower roofs, marble statues. The exterior of the building had many mottled traces left by time, and the stones looked somewhat dirty.
Inside, the warm yellow light shining through made people feel safe at first glance.
It was strange too. Yu Jiang’s brow furrowed slightly. This amount of exercise along the way wasn’t a big deal for her now.
But upon reaching here, she felt exhausted all over, tired and hungry, just wanting to find a place to sit and rest.
She checked her status, and there were no abnormalities shown.
The iron gate opened, and a middle-aged man dressed very gentlemanly smiled at them,
“Respected guests, welcome to the mountain villa. Please show your invitation letters.”
It had been a long time since they saw someone dressed so properly, and the group outside was stunned for a second.
Wasn’t it the end times? What was going on?
Everyone took out the black gold-embossed invitation letters issued by the instance. The middle-aged man carefully verified them before nodding to everyone,
“I am the butler of the manor. Please follow me. The banquet time is tomorrow. Servants will take you to your rooms, and clean, comfortable clothing will be provided shortly.”
None of the 9 people dared to relax, looking around at the terrain while walking inside, observing the lay of the land. The back of the manor should be a cliff.
The terrain inside the manor was very complex. With just the buildings in front of them, it would be hard to find the way out for a while after entering.
Stone buildings with relatively small windows, giving a somewhat eerie feeling.
Next to the guest rooms was a neatly trimmed garden. Upon truly entering, everything in sight was so luxurious it left them speechless.
A marble-lined swimming pool, exquisite Roman pillars and stone sculptures, perfectly blending with the pitch-black mountain rocks, giving the group a strong sense of unreality.
Their rooms were right next to the swimming pool, one per person. The left and right sides were for the two teams. Yu Jiang’s Team had one less person, so one tail room was empty.
“Respected guests, I will take you to the restaurant shortly.” The young and beautiful maid smiled.
Perhaps due to the architectural style and the atmosphere in the manor, such a pretty face felt terrifying, just like the butler earlier.
In instances, only NPCs or monsters appear. Yu Jiang hadn’t seen any living natives yet.
“Do we have to change into that clothing?” Yu Jiang voiced everyone’s question.
The maid and butler brought clothing choices for them, suitable for the banquet but not for road survivors.
These flashy things—wearing them would make movement inflexible. Women’s long skirts could still have pants underneath, but men’s suits might rip the pants if fighting broke out.
“Yes, the manor greatly respects dining and banquet etiquette. What you’re wearing…” The maid’s smile carried a bit of disdain.
“Got it.” Yu Jiang nodded.
She didn’t know what else to do. Along the way here, she had been memorizing the route, only to realize upon arrival that she couldn’t remember it. The outside was a maze-like garden.
This place likely required following a specific route or method, like circling around some stone sculpture three times left and three times right, to get out.
Without entering the manor banquet, they couldn’t get clues.
The maid and butler said they would wait for them ahead and walked away first, like task-issuing bots.
Number 6 player: “6, the instance elite monster is looking down on us.”
“Is it really a monster? It looks like a living person. There were shadows on the ground earlier.” Number 7 player said hesitantly.
“Physical entity monster, I suppose.” Number 5 followed up. “Or some kind of monster that can disguise as a human. This instance has a lot of nonsense. Let’s change clothes as they said first and check out the restaurant.”
Yu Jiang’s side also returned to their respective rooms.
The room was in a medieval style, with some modern touches: shower head, faucet, toilet.
Most importantly, many things in this room could be recycled. There was no rule against damaging instance facilities.
From the moment Yu Jiang entered the room, her lips hadn’t stopped curving up. This quilt looked good, the desk lamp next to it was decent, and there was a solid wood table.
Good wood might not be collected by regular players since they can’t use it, but players with RVs need it for decoration, and it’s quite valuable!
Besides scavengers, only carpenters can dismantle furniture to recover wood.
Yu Jiang resisted the urge to swing a hammer. Demolishing the place right away—what if the manor BOSS doesn’t let her off?
Demolish when preparing to run tomorrow! Dismantle the bed too.
For today, just take some inconspicuous small items: the exquisite trinket box, toiletries from the bathroom, towel, bathrobe.
Coming to the manor was definitely right. It looked wealthy and could increase her wealth value quite a bit.
Yu Jiang looked at the clothes brought by the maid. There were a few to choose from, all looks over substance. Finally, she picked a smoky purple imperial formal gown.
The fabric was relatively light and comfortable. She wore work pants and sports camisole directly underneath. The manor also required a matching set for proper attire.
Clothing was fine, but shoes were the big issue. Yu Jiang looked at the chunky-heeled small leather shoes in the room and pulled out her beige elderly shoes from her grid, the single-shoe style.
These shoes had a buff: +5 running and walking speed when worn, and they saved stamina.
She had acquired them from the trading platform this morning for 3 advanced healing potions.
Yu Jiang directly removed the bow lace decoration from another piece of clothing and fixed it to the elderly shoes with thread.
Done.
Now she could run fast.
After changing clothes, everyone transformed from doomsday refugees into presentable people, though not quite used to it.
Pure Love Cockroach Spicy Spicy was forced to change out of her wandering artist battle attire, looking hesitant and itchy all over.
Lightning Mage King was similar. Men’s clothes were more troublesome. To keep the shirt neat without wrinkles, they had to tie a strap around the legs to secure it—extremely restrictive for them.
“Bro, aren’t you uncomfortable?” Lightning Mage King looked at the upright Shi Xu. His outfit could really blend into the manor, even more refined than the butler they’d just seen.
“What else can we do?” Shi Xu calmly replied. “We can only endure it.”
As he spoke, he noticed Yu Jiang’s shoes and paused slightly. “That’s equipment with attributes?”
“Yeah!” Yu Jiang nodded proudly.
“You’re really a genius.” He sincerely complimented.
This type of elderly shoes, though with attributes, offered no protection on the road, exposing half the foot which looked unsafe. So it was listed on the trading platform with no buyers.
Unexpectedly, she bought it, and it really came in handy.
The BOSS later: Excuse me? What about my home?
