Chapter 87: The Damaged Fire Demon Armor

There was more bad news: the location of this monster spawner was also a problem. It was situated right next to the mine—a resource point she absolutely could not afford to give up.

After Su You finished explaining the function of the monster spawner, the two brothers instinctively frowned.

Although they hadn’t seen the spawner summon ghostly skeletons with their own eyes, their deep trust and loyalty to their lord made them believe her without question.

Since they’d chosen to trust her, they naturally understood just how big a threat this spawner posed.

“My lord, how do you plan to deal with this stone gate?” Lyle asked. Su You looked a little helpless.

What could she do?

It had only been a few days since the start!

First a monster spawner, then an imminent attack from dark creatures—was she supposed to catch a break at all?!

If the brothers hadn’t discovered the spawner yesterday afternoon, Su You would have suspected that the petty system was deliberately making things difficult for her.

“For now, just leave it be, and wait—” Halfway through her sentence, Su You seemed to recall something. Actually, keeping or destroying the spawner weren’t her only options.

After thinking it over, she changed her mind. “I’ll see if I can come up with a solution today. If not, I’ll go over there tomorrow and set up some defenses, fence off the area, and keep those ghostly skeletons from wandering over to the mining site.”

“For today, just stay away from that area.” Although the spawner had a long refresh time, it was still a hidden danger. For safety’s sake, it was best not to get close for now.

She planned to spend today doing some construction around the territory, using the resources she’d gathered over the past couple of days to spruce things up. Otherwise, if a merchant or traveler arrived and saw how shabby the place looked, it would make a terrible first impression—never mind whether it would lower their favorability.

After all, anyone who could make it as a merchant was a shrewd old fox, used to sizing people up at a glance.

Besides, she wasn’t in great shape right now and not fit to go out. If she ran into any monsters, she wouldn’t be able to get away, even with an agility potion.

There were still plenty of stones in the warehouse. As long as she didn’t build anything unnecessary, it should be enough for now.

When Su You suggested they stay away from the spawner, Lake and Lyle exchanged a glance. Then Lake spoke up: “Take your time, my lord. The two of us will go check things out over there again today.”

Lyle added, “We’ll be careful. Sooner or later, we’ll have to take a look anyway. If we go now, there’ll be fewer monsters and it’ll be easier to move around.”

Hearing this, Su You didn’t object.

After all, the spawner had only been active for less than a day—it couldn’t have spawned more than ten monsters at most.

The two brothers had already taken down more than a dozen ghostly skeletons before; a few more wouldn’t make a difference. Plus, Lyle now had a weapon that suited him, so his combat power had only increased.

“All right, just be careful,” Su You said. She knew that if she gave a strict order, they would obey and stay away, but there was no need for that. They were skilled and brave, and with Lyle there, nothing should go wrong.

But if only Lake had wanted to go, she definitely wouldn’t have agreed.

“We’ll be off, then,” the brothers said as they left the quest hall.

Su You watched them go, then couldn’t help but yawn. She rubbed her eyes and glanced around at the layout of the quest hall—

The hall was arranged a bit like the lobby of a large hotel. On the right was a reception desk, and behind it stood a huge cabinet.

The reception desk could be staffed with NPCs, who would handle the affairs of the quest hall—taking Su You’s orders, relaying them to other NPCs, or issuing quests on behalf of others, and so on.

The cabinet behind the desk was for storing quest scrolls and other documents. Only Su You and NPCs she authorized could access it.

On the left wall was a huge board—the quest board.

It was divided into three sections, each for a different type of quest: lord (territory) quests, solo quests, and team quests.

Of these, solo and team quests could be freely posted or accepted by NPCs. The difference was that anyone could take solo quests, but team quests required joining an adventurer team.

Adventurer teams were a bit like guilds or factions in online games.

Once the territory developed, more and more NPCs would join. Combat NPCs could form adventurer teams, and visiting or well-known teams could also take quests here… but none of that was relevant yet.

Aside from that, the quest hall had two rows of simple wooden benches—the kind you used to see in parks. That was about it.

…

After looking over the quest hall, Su You walked toward the tall cabinet behind the reception desk. She’d spotted three treasure chests of different sizes, names, and appearances sitting on top.

Their names were: [Fire Demon Leader’s Chest], [Territory Upgrade Chest], and [Special Reward Chest].

They seemed to be arranged in the order she’d received them, from left to right, so Su You decided to open them in that order.

First was the [Fire Demon Leader’s Chest]. It was red, matching the fire demon leader’s appearance, and made of a copper-like material. The chest was plain, with no fancy patterns.

She stared at it for three seconds, then opened it.

[Received Gold Coin x1]

[Received Damaged Fire Demon Armor x1]

[Received Fire Demon Leggings x1]

Su You: ?

Su You: That’s it?

Su You: And one of them is broken?!

They say you can’t be disappointed if you don’t have expectations, and Su You hadn’t expected much from the chest. But after all that ceremony, to only get three items—and one of them “damaged”—was a bit much.

How was she supposed to stay calm about this?

Taking a deep breath, Su You hesitated between opening the next chest or checking the stats of the two pieces of equipment. She chose the latter—she wanted to see what these items could do.

[Damaged Fire Demon Armor]

Type: Equipment

Quality: Gray

Durability: 1/100 (Unusable)

Stats: Defense (20-19), Resistance (0.01%), Fire Resistance (0.05%)

Description: A piece of damaged Fire Demon Armor. Cannot be used unless repaired. Wearing it is actually worse than patching together some rags into a burlap shirt—at least the burlap covers you. This doesn’t even do that.

(End of chapter)"

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