Stronghold Acquired

It was finally done.

Rhode let out a sigh of relief. His entire body felt limp, his legs struggling to support his weight. After all, the continuous summoning had consumed a massive amount of his soul power, leaving him feeling exceptionally exhausted. He leaned against the wall to rest for a moment before walking over to the sculpture that had crumbled into a pile of powder. He reached down and picked up the longsword lying on the ground. Then, Rhode cast his gaze into the powder, focusing on a crystal the size of a fist. It was an oval stone, shaped much like an egg. It looked dull and dim, indistinguishable from a common pebble on the side of the road at first glance. Yet, only Rhode knew that this inconspicuous stone was the root cause of the tragedy that had unfolded here.

This was a Soul-Binding Stone, a rare ore that grew in the depths of hell. It could absorb the souls of living beings and influence their thoughts, making it an essential tool for devils to deceive mortals and harvest their souls—a perfect item for home, travel, and murder. Under normal circumstances, such things were rarely seen on the surface. Even mages renowned for their erudition could seldom obtain samples; it was a rare, precious, and dangerous item.

For Rhode, however, this stone served another crucial purpose: imprisoning souls.

This was the primary reason why the Soul-Binding Stone would fetch an astronomical price in the later stages of the game. It allowed players to decide whether to imprison the soul of a defeated entity and convert it into its most primal state. To put it in simpler terms, it was a treasure capable of artificially creating a Soul Core.

Because the Soul-Binding Stone was even rarer than a Soul Core in the earlier eras, it hadn't caused much of a stir. It wasn't until the final expansion pack, after the Hell Invasion, that players truly began to encounter the Soul-Binding Stone. Soon after, the gem became a craze across the continent, becoming a must-have item for many mages and Summon Swordsman.

Thinking back, Deepstone City was indeed one of the first frontline bases occupied by the hellish demon legions during the Hell Invasion expansion. At the time, it hadn't seemed strange, but now, holding the Soul-Binding Stone in his hand, Rhode couldn't help but have a few more thoughts. Clearly, someone must have accidentally dug up this stone back then, which triggered the subsequent events. It seemed to be a subtle hint to players that the bottomless mine in Deepstone City was the very gateway to hell.

However, now was not the time to worry about such things. The Hell Invasion was caused by the damage to the Dragon Soul Power that covered the continent. Currently, the continent was still at peace, and the Dragon Soul Power showed no signs of trouble. Worrying about the Hell Invasion now was purely borrowing trouble. With that thought, Rhode stopped dwelling on it. He bent down, picked up the stone, placed it in his bag, and began searching for other loot.

The only pity was that Rhode's luck didn't seem particularly good; the short sword "Sigh of Sorrow," which Master Sairiel had carried, did not drop. That was a semi-legendary magical item—not only did it have high attack power, but it also carried poison and curse effects. For a swordsman or a thief, it was absolutely in the category of a minor artifact. It was a shame his luck wasn't that great. Rhode turned the entire pile of bones upside down, but aside from a shimmering magic necklace, there was nothing else.

Rhode didn't dwell on it, merely shrugging and sighing without taking it to heart. After all, his class was the Summon Swordsman, which relied heavily on luck; the randomness of looting corpses and opening equipment was much higher than other classes. Because of this, Rhode had long since grown indifferent to such random probabilities. In the game, he generally only focused on equipment that was guaranteed to drop from quest completions or bosses. As for those rare items that might or might not drop, it was best if they did—a pleasant surprise—but it didn't matter if they didn't. After all, the game had to go on, didn't it?

There was a saying on the forums that many people had run into the ground: "There are no useless spells, only useless mages." In Rhode's view, this applied to other classes as well. There was no useless equipment, only useless players. Ultimately, awareness determined skill. RMB players were just taking an express elevator to their goal, but in the end, they still had to learn how to walk on their own.

It was only then that Lize, who had been standing guard at the door, felt her body go limp and sank to the floor, leaning against the wall.

It wasn't her first time experiencing a fierce battle, but it was one that left a deep impression on the young girl, as this was the first time she had truly faced an enemy, launched an attack, and emerged victorious.

At the final moment, facing the onslaught of the sea of bones, Lize had almost completely erupted. She had replenished her shield energy almost non-stop, destroying the arms reaching out toward her one after another at the fastest speed possible. This was the first time the girl had engaged in such intense combat—though it looked more like an instinctive resistance under immense pressure. Even after the battle had completely ended, Lize was still unable to recover from that state of agitation. Even when she first stepped onto the battlefield as a member of a mercenary group, she hadn't been this nervous or excited.

The girl raised her hands and stared at her palms. Due to the excessive consumption caused by her tension, her hands had almost no strength left and even began to tremble unconsciously. Yet, beyond this deep sense of exhaustion, Lize also felt a trace of satisfaction.

She had succeeded.

A new day had arrived.

When the sun rose again, the bright sunlight pierced through the dilapidated old house, spilling inside. This house, which had originally felt gloomy and dark, had completely lost the evil and terror it possessed just a day ago. Even the overgrown garden outside lacked the sinister feeling of the night, revealing instead a few glimmers of life.

Although both were extremely exhausted, Rhode still mustered his spirits and told Lize to return to the Mercenary Association to rest and handle the paperwork regarding the mercenary group's stronghold. Lize didn't think twice about Rhode's order and promptly left to carry it out.

Only after Lize had left did Rhode let out a sigh of relief. He leaned against the wall and opened the Mercenary Group Construction System.

Upon confirming that Rhode had effectively become the master of this place, the Mercenary Group Construction System finally revealed the full layout of the old house. Excluding the basement, the old house had three floors. The entire building was shaped like an inverted "T," with the main building housing the hall, guest rooms, study, and bedrooms, while the rear annex contained the servants' quarters.

Rhode certainly didn't intend to stick to such a design standard. After all, he was currently building a mercenary group, not a noble's estate. Not to mention, most mercenaries were from the lower classes and more or less harbored some resentment toward the wealthy. If he built the mercenary group to be as luxurious as a noble's residence, it would definitely create a sense of alienation, which was very unfavorable for development. Therefore, Rhode naturally had his own construction plan.

But before that, Rhode still needed to test how much of a gap there was between the Mercenary Group Construction System in reality and the one in the game.

After the turmoil of last night, the damage rate of the stronghold was as high as 35%. Most of the 3D model floating before Rhode's eyes appeared in a rather ominous yellow, and some of the collapsed floors even showed a critical red status. Therefore, the top priority was to completely repair the place.

Rhode quickly selected the "Repair" option, and a system prompt immediately popped up.

[Do you wish to repair the stronghold?]

Yes.

[A full repair of the stronghold requires 15,000 gold coins. Do you wish to proceed?]

Seeing this, Rhode frowned and then chose "No" without hesitation. Soon, another system prompt popped up.

[Please select the repair type—Repair Building, Repair Furniture, Full Repair.]

Repair Building.

[Repairing the building requires 500 gold coins. Do you wish to continue?]

Continue.

As Rhode's thoughts flickered, the system prompt floating before him immediately vanished.

A golden light flashed from Rhode's palm, then rapidly expanded, turning into a grid that covered the floor, walls, and ceiling. Subsequently, everything changed.

The dilapidated, damaged walls were repaired in an instant. The long-rotted furniture vanished under the sweep of the light grid. Soon, in the blink of an eye, the hall, which had been piled with junk and trash, was completely renewed. The holes in the floor were gone, replaced by large, smooth stone slabs. The decorations and furniture that had been scattered around were gone, leaving only the shields and swords on the walls, which now looked brand new.

The moth-eaten, hole-ridden dark red curtains and carpets were nowhere to be found. Sunlight streamed through the brand-new glass windows into the room, bringing with it a hint of warm spring air.

In less than five minutes, the once-ruined old house had completely transformed. Not a single crack could be seen on the solid walls, and the weeds and gravel that had tried to crawl out from the gaps in the floor were gone. The wooden staircase, which had been so rotten in the previous battle that it would have collapsed under a single step, had been changed into a stone staircase that spiraled up against the wall, spreading out like wings on both sides. Looking around, the entire stronghold had completely lost its previous air of decay and ruin, replaced by a sense of majesty and strength.

On the wall directly in front of the hall, a pitch-black flag hung down, featuring a cross-shaped star emblem in the center. This was the current flag of the mercenary group.

Starlight.

Very good!

Rhode nodded with satisfaction. It seemed that at least this system functioned here just as it did in the game, which was enough for him—though the only regret was that the cost was indeed quite high. Just repairing the entire building had caused his once-sturdy wallet to show signs of shrinking.

However, Rhode didn't care about the money. After figuring out the functions and rules of the construction system, he quickly activated it again to build the hall, study, and bedrooms. Although he could only build level-one rooms because the mercenary group was too small, 700 to 800 gold coins still slipped through his fingers like flowing water. By the time Rhode had finished setting everything up, only 370 of his original 2,500 gold coins remained.

As the saying goes, money flows like water, and it was true.

However, looking at the information for the newly renovated stronghold, Rhode was already very satisfied.

Name: Starlight Scale: Small Leader: Rhode Alante Members: 1 Stronghold: 1 (Medium)

Level: 1

Reputation: Obscure

Facilities: Hall (lv: 1, increases mood by 5%), Study (lv: 1, allows investigation of certain member information), Bedroom (lv: 1, increases stamina recovery by 5%).

Done.

After reviewing all the information, Rhode let out a long sigh. He closed his eyes and sat on the wooden chair beside him. His right index finger tapped lightly against the armrest, and it was only after several minutes had passed that he opened his eyes, his expression turning firm and resolute.

From this moment on, things had finally moved onto the track that Rhode had hoped for.