Vampire Princess Guide in Progress - Volume 1 Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Twilight Post Station and the Merchant Caravan

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It had been five days since the third floor was abnormally sealed off.

During these five days, all players trapped in the current map had been unable to establish any contact with players from the first and second floors. The World Channel messages had stopped five days ago, with communication only possible through the current map’s channel.

Players in the plains and forests of the lower floors had no idea what was happening on the third floor.

And if they wanted to truly investigate, they would have to wait until the third floor was completely conquered, or until all the pioneer players were collectively wiped out. In any case, the second scenario was unacceptable to everyone.

Fortunately, so far, aside from the occasional encounters with red-name players, all players on the third floor remained united with a common purpose.

With the help of the three major guilds — 【Iris Knights】, 【Sacred Realm Expedition Corps】, and 【Freedom Wings Alliance】 — by the fifth day, more than 700 players had successfully reached the main city. It was still unclear if there were any survivors left in the snow plains, or if the remaining hundred or so players had already perished, but the guilds were still dispatching personnel to search and rescue.

The map channel frequently received distress signals from trapped players. For a price of 5,000 Star Coins, a group of players would travel to the coordinates where someone was stranded, and some rescuers even refused to charge any fee after completing the rescue.

The Ice Plains Wolf Leader, the Snow Bear Leader, and even the leader of the Mountain Yeti Tribe had recently been successfully defeated by the Iris Knights.

Even though elite monsters would respawn, players now firmly controlled the information about their respawn locations.

Basically, before an elite monster could respawn, different teams would already be camped near the respawn point. These monsters, which initially would have caused a small squad to become trapped in a dangerous battle upon encounter, had now truly been reduced to “farming targets.”

Regarding the distribution of spoils, two player squads would typically decide ownership through rock-paper-scissors.

Every day, many players could be seen setting out in groups from the snowy peaks of Ice Snow City at sunrise, heading toward ruins dungeons scattered across the snow plains, and returning safely to the main city before sunset with rich spoils, chatting and laughing happily.

Everything seemed to be going very smoothly. The exploration rate of the Winter Snow Plains map was gradually increasing, and the danger level was steadily decreasing.

However, the most critical issue still remained unsolved.

— That was the unknown completion condition for clearing the floor.

“Eh? The price of berry pies has increased so much today?”

Tilia, standing in front of the shop as usual, looked at the price sign at the entrance with surprise and asked the young woman who made the berry pies.

The girl wearing a strawberry-patterned apron showed an embarrassed expression. She unconsciously placed both hands in front of her body and explained in a low voice to her regular customer: “I’m really sorry, Miss Tilia… The recent food crisis in the city has also affected our shop.”

“The raw materials for making berry pies have become much more expensive, which has significantly increased our costs. When I calculated the selling price to make a slim profit after deducting costs, I also thought that probably no one would buy anymore… But there are still customers like you who really enjoy them, Miss Tilia, so I tried to continue making them… I’m truly sorry, I know this price is a bit too expensive!”

The girl in the apron bowed apologetically to Tilia.

Ah, so it was because of increased costs?

Indeed, the price was now eight times higher than when she first bought it. She had wondered if the shop owner might be taking advantage of regular customers, but since the girl in front of her had explained the reason so sincerely, she couldn’t blame her.

“I was just curious so I asked. Of course I’m still willing to buy it. Hmm… a food crisis, is it.”

“Ah… beautiful Miss Tilia, I really don’t know how to thank you enough. I’ll go select the largest one for you.” The girl in the apron, hearing that Tilia wasn’t criticizing but expressing understanding, was immediately moved to the point of tears.

She seemed to be a young woman with delicate sensibilities.

After buying the berry pie as usual.

Tilia strolled through the town streets, her mind still pondering the term “food crisis” she had just heard. Along the way, she also overheard some merchants selling bread and fruit in the city discussing this matter.

From their conversations, she picked up the place name “Twilight Post Station.”

Twilight Post Station, Tilia had some impression of it.

On the official game website, there seemed to be a simple description of it. It was a map area on the sixth floor. Although named a post station, it wasn’t just a small waypoint, but a prosperous commercial city of merchants.

The reason it was called Twilight Post Station was because of its unique day and night phenomenon, the entire 24 hours of each day were in a perpetual twilight state.

Every day, numerous merchant caravans and travelers would come and go through Twilight Post Station. The entire city-state had sixteen gates, symbolizing its accessible transportation and flourishing trade activities. During the extreme winter period each year, when hunting and crop harvests provided significantly less food, Ice Snow City basically relied on food supplies purchased from Twilight Post Station.

And the cause of the food crisis was, naturally, that this year’s supply caravan had not yet returned.

“Because the roads have been abnormally sealed off, and the original residents of the town can no longer freely travel…”

Tilia pondered, if thinking from a game perspective, perhaps the Star Lord didn’t want players to be able to permanently survive in the main city area. The longer the floor’s conquest was delayed, the more serious the resource crisis in the safe zone would become, forcing players to find a solution quickly.

But if considering it from the perspective of another world, then they were truly facing a winter food shortage crisis.

It was about this time.

With a ding, a small bell with a red exclamation mark appeared next to all third-floor players’ mailboxes, shaking. Tilia checked it as well. The last time this notification appeared was for the celebration event after a successful BOSS conquest.

✨「Winter Resource Battle」Event (Limited Time)✨

Event Period: Starting now, until the completion of the third floor

Recommended Participation Level: Lv.15 and above

“Eh, what’s this? A new event?” Other players on the street also started checking it out.

Tilia briefly scanned the content. It looked like a new event, specifically limited to the third floor. The participation methods included 【Snow Wild Vegetable Digging】, 【Timber Logging Collection】, 【Animal Hunting】, 【Snow Bear Territory Elimination】, 【Resident Commission Completion】, and more than ten other types.

As for the rewards…

When Tilia opened the rewards page, a shimmering Winter Event Shop filled with sparkling light points immediately popped up. Next to the shop was a cute loli mascot character illustration, similar to online game event pages, offering players a heart shape with both hands.

Looking carefully, isn’t this Ruby!?

Would Ruby know that she was being used as a mascot illustration, displayed in the players’ event shop…

This event finally had the feel of a proper online game event. The upper right corner displayed an activity points bar called 【Ice Snow Reputation】, where players could exchange accumulated points for rewards at the event shop.

Participating in the previously mentioned activities would yield varying amounts of points.

Now Tilia’s upper right corner displayed a box with 【Ice Snow Reputation: 0】, and below it were the grand prizes requiring several thousand points.

For equipment, there were “Blue Equipment Blueprint (3,000 points)” and “Green Equipment Blueprint (100 points).”

Mounts included “Snow Terrain Horse (2,500 points),” “Land-Running Bird (2,000 points),” and “Very Fast Running Pig (1,000 points).”

There were also other rewards such as “Ice Snow City Style Outfit (2,000 points),” “Skill Book (500 points),” “Intermediate Healing Potion (50 points),” and “Berry Pie (10 points).”

They’ve even added mount rewards? That would make movement in the snow much more convenient.

The rewards seemed quite generous, and it also helped address the resource shortage in the main city by having players collect resources, buying more time for floor conquest. She wondered if Cross would want to participate…

If she wasn’t mistaken, that person had just fully recovered yesterday and had enthusiastically gone to fight monsters near the main city today.

Although Tilia had warned her, “If you get yourself seriously injured again, I won’t take care of you,” she still ran off with a confident attitude to explore with that group of new friends from the Silly Group Friends Guild.

Tilia brought up her friends list.

After clicking on Cross to send her a private message, she returned to her small house.