Chapter 2159: Alterrans in the Desert

A/N: Thank you everyone for your continuous support! HUGSSSS! You keep me going for sure huhu. I’m sorry I couldn’t reply to the comments/reviews lately, but I’ll get to it when I get my bearings. Love you~

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While the couple was taking new pets and friends home, other Alterrans were making a name elsewhere.

For example, in Metteo Town.

Nowadays, people talk about the new group of people coming in but only to pass through, staying long-term in the infamous Undead Zone!

Weren’t they afraid of getting sick!?

Some local bullies even tried to throw things and physically kick them out, though to no avail.

It got to the point that some people tried to get them locked out of the territory. However, the system would never block anyone who paid the fees until they broke the rules or were blacklisted. This was a long-known rule because the system prioritized survival.

They would’ve made an oath, but it was a bit risky. If they said they did not have illnesses, that wasn’t necessarily true, right? They were humans after all. What if they did fall ill when in the Undead territory due to overwork? In that case, they couldn’t make a decent oath without risking it.

They could try, but it wouldn’t be worth it.

They simply proved it by getting local doctors to check on them in front of the public.

Fortunately, this was only a problem with Metteo Town. Dune Town naturally was friendly the whole time, and it gained more and more advantage as time went on.

Dune Town and Metteo Town basically became the Alterran stopovers and entry points in this region, becoming its center of activity as well. Dune Town now had a Mercenary Hall as well after it upgraded to level 2 thanks to Alterra.

Metteo, which hadn’t been exactly the most cooperative, was unaware of the business that flew away.

Dune Town at some point became a fixed path, with Metteo only becoming the secondary or alternative, so the former’s development naturally followed. Alterrans were rich and had good resources, which heightened the cooperative Dune Town even more.

They also helped the town obtain more of the latest seeds that would grow well there for sustainability. This was also an administrative investment for the sake of the Alterrans visiting there. Only if Dune Town was rich and comfortable would their citizens be, as well.

In exchange—except for the tributes and shares directly to Alterra—all Alterran businesses, caravans, and individuals should be given some preferential treatment, the minimum of which was providing discounts.

And there were indeed a lot. Although the environment was uncomfortable, the Alterrans were quite comfortable in every other aspect.

That said, they still set up a small base in Metteo Town because it was nearer the Undead zone—nearly a day of travel saved—and there might be preferable missions there.

The group leveling up in the Undead area had now partially settled down in the region. They leased one of the villas long-term, but they paid for it using Alterran goods so they didn’t need to spend too much gold.

When they saw the box of ’rare’ spices and sauces, the Lord happily granted them a few months of lease, and he also often sent representatives to make connections with them.

The Lord of Metteo, Pallo, was still the one Althea and Garan had dealt with before. Like with Althea and Garan before, he did try to take advantage.

However, this group was more than 20 people per batch and they started to carry the official Alterran emblem after they were blocked so many times due to alleged illnesses. This meant official business and aggression to this group was officially aggression to the territory, so he did not dare try to take advantage.

By this time, Alterran products had already spread in the market of both territories, so they naturally had to be wary of the territory of origin.

Lord Pallo did wonder what was so attractive about the Undead, but the visitors just told people from his side that they were trying to level up and the level of the undead was perfect for them.

Looking at their levels through the panels, it was consistent, so he did not think too much.

For the weeks after they arrived, the group had indeed leveled up, and no one thought they had other goals. To be fair, for now, they were really instructed to focus on their own strengths and to harvest what needed to be harvested.

Ryan watched as his wife swiped undead after undead with a passion. For now, she was focused on growing stronger.

Too focused.

"HYA!" the woman yelled, lifting herself up with her spear, entering the midst of the undead mob.

Immediately, she swept away the surroundings with her spear combined with her element, wind, imbalancing them with the force emanating from her. Taking advantage of the imbalance, she finally took them down accurately and ruthlessly.

When it got dangerous, she would lift herself up on a rock and stab down from the safety of being at a height. She positioned herself well. She was passionate, but she wasn’t stupid.

She would push herself until she could barely stand, which was why Ryan had to be close by.

At the same time, Ryan had long learned that reprimanding her about safety and rashness tended to be counterproductive with her. In the end, he could only be supportive.

Hopefully, she could get out of the mire of regret on her own.

"You’ve worked hard," Ryan said with a sigh, wiping the sweat on her face. Gwen nodded, eyes blazing with determination.

"This way, I won’t lose again."

...

The twins, Luke and Leo, were also in the area now. They had grown significantly during this period. Further, as one of the first residents of Alterra (and therefore having good amounts of contribution points), they managed to stockpile a lot of consumables, allowing them to be a bit more wanton when they were attacking.

After all, if one did not have enough consumables, they would always move conservatively, missing out on many growth opportunities.

Each rotating batch stayed there for many days at a time, though some teams were there long-term. Each person in this mission gained a huge amount of experience—both the numerical and the practical.

Granted, killing the same monsters could get boring, but it was why they challenged themselves by taking on more than one at a time after a while. It was definitely a challenge, but they were prepared for whatever radiation poisoning they could experience.

They also rotated in teams, with one team focused on mining the desert ore while the other fought. They would send some ores to Alterra periodically whenever a new team of ’grinders’ would come so some people could go back with the goods.

And everyone’s spaces were completely full each time.

...

The Alterrans were not the only ones busy during this period.

The nascent Metteo rebel team, led by Erol, was now settled in Dune Town, about a day or so of travel away from his hometown.

They were lent a villa as well, and by now there were hundreds of refugees from Metteo’s side arriving. They were the ones who had been hunted down, were escaping, or simply could not take the oppression anymore. The others were sent post and consolidated.

While the Alterrans did what they went there to do, they would also integrate in the town bit by bit. There were no outright relationships between the two groups, and it was kept that way.

It was already well-known by this time that there were residents of a town going around the region, so plenty of times the Alterrans heading in either town served as messengers since the Post Office could not be used without risk. Of course, it was not for free, and the favor was paid for.

Erol and his group, over the past months, continued to contact their people and, group by group, they arrived at Dune Town.

Dune Town was not at a loss for this. It wasn’t like they were sponsoring them. The rebels paid for everything at market price. Hence, rather than a bad thing, the entry of new people—with decent level and money—had injected more money into the territory instead.

They were also willing to pay much more for the Alterran goods being sold in shops. Unlike Dune Town people, who had been enjoying the goods for a while and many had even secured channels for them, the Metteo residents were still in the novel honeymoon phase with Alterran goods.

By this time, there were three major ’grocery stores’ focusing on selling Alterran goods in Dune. One was held by the territory and the Lord, and the prices there were auction-style because there really couldn’t be so much stock. They were simply too far away from Alterra!

Hence, even a single bottle of soy sauce was auctioned off!

So these ’new blood’ buying goods was a good thing.

As expected of Alterra. As long as they were present in some way or form, wealth would follow!