“According to Revnor’s observations over the past few days, the number of gnolls within the entire Transia territory has decreased to one-fifth or even less of its original population.
This number has reached the safety threshold. They are unlikely to regroup in a short time, and winter is not the mating season for gnolls, so there’s no need to worry about their numbers increasing dramatically before the Black Disaster breaks out.
Therefore, I believe this gnoll hunting operation can be declared over.”
In the shed already set up by the Adventurer’s Guild, Murphy said to Guildmaster Natalie:
“But this is just the beginning. I think we should conduct a similar expulsion every year from now on. I believe it’s more appropriate to leave this task to your Adventurer’s Guild, don’t you think?”
“I have no problem with that,” Natalie nodded and said:
“Based on our past experience, it’s difficult to completely eradicate gnolls in an area. These barbarians have an incredibly strong adaptability to the environment. This annual population control strategy is quite a good method. It can train troops and maintain a certain level of combat readiness.
But I guess you didn’t come to see me under this scorching sun just to talk about this, did you?
To be honest, Lord, I’m a bit busy here. Lady Miriam has asked us to set up a special institution to manage the ‘Warrior’s Guild’.
I’m discussing it with old Eugene, thinking of asking him to come out of retirement, but that guy is completely focused on building the cathedral and doesn’t want to bother with this, which is giving me a headache.Most of the Witch Hunters have been trained as demon-hunting warriors since childhood. They’re fine with hunting, but managing? Tsk, I can’t even imagine how badly they would mess things up.”
“Isn’t that simple?” Murphy, who had wrapped himself up like a mummy due to walking in the sunlight, pulled out a chair and sat in front of Guildmaster Natalie. He spread his hands and said:
“The only thing hindering you from building the grand Avalon Cathedral now is funding. You’ve certainly made a profit from your unscrupulous sale of bead plugins, but that money is definitely not enough to build the cathedral.
Just tell old Eugene that the Warrior’s Guild he manages will have to pay a monthly tax to the administrative office.
I can have Miriam allocate a portion of it for Avalon Church to manage. The more prosperous the warriors’ guild becomes, the more tax and management fees you’ll receive each month.
I believe Master Eugene, who is devoted to rebuilding the church, won’t refuse.
Of course, you’re right, I didn’t just come to discuss these matters with you. There’s a very important issue I need to discuss with you!”
Murphy paused, then said to Natalie:
“Regarding the reward items for my warriors’ activity settlement, according to the rules I set earlier, you need to issue at least 300 hunter’s keys this time, to be precise, 327. This means you need to prepare 327 uniquely designed hunting chests and the reward items to be placed in them.
Don’t worry about the extra rewards for the top 10, Tris and I have already prepared those.
But you guys don’t seem to have made any moves yet. There are only 4 hours left until the settlement time. Shouldn’t you get moving quickly? Are you waiting for my warriors to riot because they can’t get their rewards before you realize the seriousness of the problem?”
“How dare you slander my integrity like this!” Natalie was immediately displeased.
As the current leader of the former White Oak Battalion, she certainly couldn’t be careless in matters concerning the reputation of Witch Hunters. She pointed to a large wooden warehouse outside the shed where she was and said:
“I’ve already collected equipment, weapons, and consumables with Avalon Church style according to your requirements. They’re just waiting to be distributed when they come.”
“So you’re planning to complete this reward so ordinarily? Seems like you’ve forgotten everything I’ve reminded you about, right?” Murphy was even more dissatisfied.
He tapped the table and said:
“Sense of ceremony!
How many times do I have to explain the word ‘sense of ceremony’ to you managers before you understand? This isn’t as simple as serving food in a cafeteria, giving one to each person who comes!
You must make my warriors feel that you respect their dedication and provide them with enough fun. Why did I ask you to prepare chests and keys?
Isn’t it to add a bit of luck factor when they receive their rewards to make them happy?
Natalie, you don’t understand the primitive urge for ‘gambling’ that exists in all living minds. It seems you’ve been a good child since you were young and haven’t been exposed to this aspect.
But you still have some time now, go quickly and prepare the chests and keys!
I want you to place the rewards you’ve prepared in those 327 chests in a completely random manner, then shuffle them completely, and then give the corresponding keys to my warriors.
Then you can observe their reactions from the side.
I believe with your wisdom you can understand why I want you to do this. There are three and a half hours left, is it difficult to make 327 chests with Avalon Church style?”
“That’s simple, but I still think you’re making things unnecessarily complicated,” the gray-haired witch hunter complained.
She took out a handful of oak seeds from her spirit bag, mumbled a few prayers and threw them on the ground. Under the catalysis of natural spirit energy, these seeds took root and grew rapidly, intertwining with vines and branches. In just a dozen seconds, a “chest” made of interlaced vines and wood formed in front of Murphy.
“Is this okay?” asked Natalie, who was “forced to work”.
But Murphy frowned at the overly crude chest in front of him. He shook his head and said:
“No, it’s too ordinary, completely lacking the luxury and allure that a ‘treasure chest’ should have. Do more detailed processing, and put the nature holy symbol of Avalon God on it too.”
“My god’s holy symbol is not for you to use for such things! It’s almost like blasphemy,” Natalie complained.
But under the ghostly gaze coming from the center of Murphy’s face-wrapped cloth, she had no choice but to comply with the lord’s complicated requirements. She continued to manipulate the vines and trees using natural spirit energy. After three “post-modifications”, Murphy finally nodded with satisfaction.
What appeared before his eyes was a cubic wooden box.
The entirely emerald green chest had flowers blooming on it, the whole chest was bound by five vines from below, and on top of the chest was the unique holy symbol of Avalon God, giving it an overall sense of nature holiness.
Only in its center was a classic keyhole preserved, requiring a special wooden key of corresponding shape to be inserted to remove the vines and open the chest.
Murphy took the key handed by Natalie, inserted it into the keyhole and turned. He watched as the vines in front of him loosened like living creatures and retracted into the chest body, then as Murphy opened the empty chest.
The entire chest body quickly “withered”, and after a few seconds, it turned back into the oak seeds from before.
He knew this thing belonged to the unique “spell-casting material” of Avalon Church, and only natural believers like them could play such “seed magic” so creatively.
“That’s it! Great chest design, you can actually create more gorgeous or holier chests based on this idea,” Murphy reminded:
“After all, as the president of the Adventurer’s Guild, you won’t be short of this kind of quest-giving and chest-distributing workflow in your future career. Since tasks of different difficulties should receive different rewards, the chests that carry the reward items should also have different specifications.
Now let’s talk about how to put the reward items into these chests.
Tell me your thoughts first.”
Natalie indeed hadn’t expected that giving out a reward would have so many requirements. Faced with Murphy’s inquiry, she hesitated for a moment before saying:
“My idea is definitely to distribute evenly. Even if it’s completely random placement, we should try to ensure that the value of items in each chest is similar.
Maybe this will make your warriors happy?”
“Well, the overall idea isn’t wrong, just a bit too mediocre, without much surprise. This way, it loses the essence of a blind box,” Murphy leaned back in his chair, tapping the table, and said to a helpless Natalie:
“I’ll guide you this time, but next time you’ll have to host this kind of activity yourself.
Listen to me. Put equipment, weapons, or consumables of similar value into 70% of the chests. These are given out as ‘guaranteed’ rewards.
Then choose 20% out of the remaining 30%, reduce the value of rewards in them, controlling it at about half the average value. This is used to provide topics for my warriors to complain about ‘bad luck’ and have fun.
Just like how rude mercenaries in taverns always like to mock those unfortunate ones.
My warriors are also living beings, they have the same malicious pleasure. As reward givers, we should provide them with this kind of joy.”
“Hmm, that makes sense,” Natalie nodded, taking out her notebook and jotting something down, then asked:
“What about the last 10%?
If we’re providing mockery about the unlucky ones, then correspondingly there must be praise and envy for good luck, so I guess high-value items should be placed in the last 10% of chests?”
“Exactly! That’s the idea,” Murphy snapped his fingers and said:
“It can be excellent, fine weapons, or powerful skill manuals, or highly valuable consumables, or even manufacturing blueprints passed down within your ranks.
But if I were you, I would choose to put quest triggers in the least number of chests, such as information about the legendary 150 replica sacred blades.
A super large quest chain system, enough for you to use as the highest-level reward for Avalon Church’s warriors.
This ratio is adjustable.
You can do as you please according to your mood, but you must make my warriors feel that kind of fun on the luck level and that their efforts are worthwhile.
This is the most basic requirement.
You need to understand, Natalie, that apart from a sense of achievement and returns, fun is also a very important part of supporting their campaigns in Transia.
When they lose this kind of exploration fun, that’s when we need to be prepared to say goodbye to them.
I need you to take this matter seriously, because the Adventurer’s Guild will be dealing with my warriors in the long term. I don’t even need you to take on more responsibilities, I just need you to cultivate them into excellent adventurers, that’s all.
Can you do that?”
“It’s too difficult, sounds very stressful and with great responsibility,” the gray-haired witch hunter rubbed her scarred cheek. She sighed and said:
“This is not the same as the life I imagined for rebuilding Avalon Church and the White Oak Battalion, but if you confirm this is effective, then I’ll do it.
However, regarding the clues to the sacred blades you mentioned, I do have them here, but are you sure your warriors are ready? Those clues are all in the heartland of the Goldflower Kingdom.”
“They may not be ready now, but that doesn’t matter. You need to give them something to look forward to, a goal,” Murphy shrugged and said:
“Do we really care about the goal of retrieving the sacred blades? No, no, no, you need to change your perspective. The efforts they make to retrieve the sacred blades, the time they consume, and the energy they put into this process, these are the things that are truly valuable to us.
What if all 150 replica sacred blades are retrieved? So what?
That only means Avalon Church has 150 more high-level fighters, but every experience my warriors have in retrieving the sacred blades is an enlightening legend about Avalon God and His saints.
That means you will have 150 true stories that can be told to the believers. You don’t even need to add more details about the greatness of the deity to them.
You just need to tell them verbatim. Can you imagine how much impact so many stories will have on the believers across the continent?
Natalie, your father hoped you could become a leader rather than a warrior, and I’m glad to see you’re working hard to learn how to be a good leader.
But you still have a warrior’s realism and don’t understand how to analyze problems at a deeper level.”
Murphy shook his head and said to a shamefaced Natalie:
“You possess a treasure that other religious figures would consider incredibly rich, and you need to make good use of it. The pursuit of sacred blades can be listed as a ‘main quest’ for the Adventurer’s Guild and Avalon Church. You may not understand now, but that’s okay, you’ll soon understand what I mean.
Now prepare two chests for me!
I want to put my rewards in them as the lord, to create a big surprise and a topic of discussion for my warriors tonight that will never fade.”
Natalie, not understanding, shaped two identical chests with oak seeds, then watched as Murphy took out a holy oak war hammer and a holy oak shield from his spirit bag.
These two items had very strong religious connotations, covered with divine precepts hand-drawn by saints, and their Quality was excellent, reaching the level of Masterwork – Commander, basically touching the boundary of “divine weapons and equipment”.
But Natalie recognized this set of weapons.
This was the weapon her father used when fighting in the Blood Vulture Halls, unexpectedly now in Murphy’s possession.
“Before completely making them the two best rewards in all of tonight’s hunting chests, I need to ask your opinion,” Murphy looked at Natalie and said:
“These are your father’s weapons. If you want to take them back, I’ll give them to you.”
“No need,” Natalie opened the chests herself, watching Murphy place the one-handed hammer and shield into them respectively, then close the chests. She said in a low voice:
“Those are ‘Undefeated’ and ‘Unbreakable’, protective items my mother personally made for my father over two years on Glamo Island when she became a saint. They were his most cherished possessions.
But they also carry my father’s feelings for the old church. Since Avalon Church has been reborn in Transia after trials and tribulations, perhaps they should also be sent by fate into the hands of the next owner.
May my god bless them.
However, Murphy, why are you putting them in separate chests? They are clearly a pair of weapons, only able to exert their strongest power when held by the same nature walker.”
Faced with this question, the vampire lord shrugged and said:
“Of course I could put them together to reward that extremely lucky person, but I don’t want to do that! Letting them be drawn by two people means double the fun. This obviously better meets the need for maximizing benefits, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what methods the owners of these two items will use to complete each other’s set.
Don’t you think this will definitely be very interesting?”
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