Chapter 561

【 ONLY KIDS LIMIT THEMSELVES TO ONE OPTION ON A MULTIPLE-CHOICE TEST 】

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Elven Forest, Dark Mountains.

In a basin not far from the teleportation array set up by players in the Dark Mountains, tents began springing up across the landscape, whilst banners bearing the emblem of a black dragon fluttered in the wind.

In the surrounding area, individuals with elongated ears and hair of various hues were actively engaged in construction efforts. Some transported stones, others removed weeds and underbrush, while a number of them employed earth-element magic to reshape the terrain.

These people were members of the Construction Division of Moe Moe Committee, one of the most well-known guilds in Elven Kingdom.

Following the site selections by several major guilds, Moe Moe Committee’s construction team arrived at this location, led by their Guildmaster, Little Salty Cat, and Vice Leader, HootyBird, to commence the construction of their mountain stronghold.

It was a daring move which left many scratching their heads.

Players from other guilds questioned why Moe Moe Committee had selected the rugged and desolate Dark Mountains as the site for their city, and even some members within the guild expressed their discontent.

They just couldn’t simply understand it…

Why would their Guildmaster, Salty Cat ignore the fertile and beautiful Elven Forest and instead chose the hostile Dark Mountains?

But Tyrant Cat, as she was affectionately called by some, had always been known for her boldness and sharp financial acumen. Though she was still underage, her past choices often turned out to be impressively ahead of their time.

So, while many players didn’t quite understand the reasoning behind her choice, they held their tongues for now.

Silence, in this case, spoke volumes and served as a sign of trust in their young leader.

And who could blame them? This was the same fifteen-year-old who’d cornered over seventy percent of the real estate market in Elven Kingdom.

While Heart of Nature had made considerable strides by establishing businesses throughout the human nations, they remained financially outpaced by Moe Moe Committee’s property development initiatives under her leadership.

As one of the four major guilds, Moe Moe also offered some of the most generous member benefits in the game, drawing envy from players across the server.

This naturally contributed to the guild’s unusually high level of cohesion.

The fact that a casual life-focused guild could go toe-to-toe with several all-rounder power guilds spoke volumes of Salty Cat’s strategic acumen, leadership capabilities, and keen understanding of the game’s economic systems.

Because of this, even if many Moe Moe members weren’t optimistic about the Dark Mountains, they were still willing to trust that their Guildmaster had deeper reasons for choosing such a location.

And to be fair, once they arrived, they realized that the site was far better than they’d expected.

Little Salty Cat had selected the most accessible of the three buildable locations in the Dark Mountains, which was the one closest to the Desert of Death.

The site sat in a basin, with the desert to the south and the fertile plains just beyond the eastern mountains. Technically speaking, it was still part of the Dark Mountains but this area was relatively rich in resources.

At the very least, it could sustain a self-sufficient city without heavily relying on imported supplies.

The only real downside was the lack of convenient transportation, something that could only be partially addressed with teleportation arrays.

While teleporting small quantities of supplies was fine, but bulk logistics?

Not a chance.

That meant they would have to slowly carve out a proper mountain road first as their initial agenda.

But just as everyone braced for what they thought would be a long and grueling road construction effort, their leader Little Salty Cat did something entirely unexpected… RÀΝꝊ𝖇ÈS̈

—she blew up a mountain.

With a thunderous explosion, a massive fireball shot into the sky, hurling rocks and dust in all directions. The shockwave rippled outward, stirring the very air with its force, before a towering mushroom cloud unfurled over the western edge of the basin.

The entire mountain range trembled slightly, the aftershocks of the blast echoing like distant thunder, rumbling on and on as though the land itself were groaning in protest.

And amidst the stunned gazes of every player present, a mountain easily eight or nine hundred meters tall, possibly even a full kilometer, was split clean in two.

Only rubble and a smoking scar of stone remained where the peak had once stood, the surrounding cliffs now jagged and raw.

The once-proud summit was gone—annihilated in the blink of an eye.

“What’s the point of building a road? That’ll be too troublesome. Let’s just blow a road straight through it,”

the culprit casually muttered after lowering her staff.

Of course, while she uttered these words in a cool and smug fashion, her outward appearance suggested otherwise. Pale-faced and clearly exhausted, she looked like someone who had just burned through every ounce of MP they had, barely managing to stay on her feet.

Nonetheless, the players who had witnessed the whole event stared at Salty Cat as if they had seen a ghost.

Holy crap!

That was a whole mountain blown up straight in the middle!

It looked to be hundreds, or perhaps even a thousand meters tall, and she had just split it in half with a single blast, just like that?

That’s insanely overpowered!

Is she even human anymore?

Wait, scratch that—is she even a player anymore?

That level of destructive power was downright terrifying. Just how much MP had she pumped into that spell? How much raw damage did it contain?

Each Moe Moe members looked at their exhausted guildmaster with mixed feelings.

Although they knew their leader was an eccentric weirdo with a habit of lobbing magical nukes to solve her problems, no one had anticipated just how dramatically her power would scale after reaching level 50.

Sure, they’d seen high-ranking elite players during the Desert Campaign but not even a Gold-rank expert could blow up a mountain…

But Little Salty Cat was still technically stuck at the peak of Low Silver-rank.

If anything had changed about her, it was the glittering ensemble of six legendary-class items she now wore. Each one was gold-quality, perfectly tailored for someone at the lower silver-rank.

More impressively, they all enhanced her magic damage and mana output.

When combined, the stacking effects were nothing short of terrifying.

So is this what a true pay-to-win extreme build looks like?

Begrudging Respect.

Still, just as everyone was silently seething with envy, Little Salty Cat shook her head.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that. I just used a few leftover bombs from the Desert campaign. My own damage output isn’t actually that high and my spell only helped a little bit…”

Everyone: “…”

So that’s what happened.

We were this close to having a heart attack.

If she used magic bombs, then it all made sense.

In fact, many of them had crafted those kinds of “bombs” before and knew how powerful they were. Aside from the fact that using mana stones as a primary material was rather extravagant, their destructive power easily surpassed that of regular explosives from Earth.

Still, even knowing she used “magic bombs,” seeing the peak of that towering mountain reduced to a mere rubble left everyone in shock…

After the war, the guild didn’t have many of those bombs left.

And even with the bombs, Little Salty Cat’s own magic likely contributed at least 20–30% of the total destructive force, if not more.

Which was horrifying in its own right.

The more knowledgeable players were, the more disturbed they felt.

Especially the other silver-rank mage players.

When they thought about how their most powerful area spells could, at best, leave a crater a few dozen meters wide…

The corners of their mouths twitched.

Even if someone gave them these bombs, there was no way they could pull something like that off.

Such a huge gap…

The mage class really isn’t something free-to-play players could afford to play.

After blasting open an entire mountain, Little Salty Cat took a short rest before giving out another, slightly unusual order to everyone.

“All right, split off into teams and begin clearing out the rubble. Mage players, follow me. We’re going to keep clearing a path past this ridge, and then start blasting downward until we find a breakthrough point.”

Blasting downward?

Until a passage opens?

The mage players blinked in surprise.

A few sharp-minded players eventually caught on, thoughtful expressions appearing on their faces.

I see…so we’re going to forcefully dig a path down to the Underground region…?

“Guildmaster, are you planning to dig a passage to the Underground?” A player asked.

Little Salty Cat smiled and nodded.

“Of course. Why else do you think we came here?”

At that, many players’ eyes lit up.

It was true that the Dark Mountains were a barren region…

But if they could open a path to the Underground region, everything would change.

“…But isn’t it impossible to dig through to the Underground region from here? As far as I know, the Dark Mountains sit on thick layers of bedrock,” a player familiar with the terrain and geology of the region asked, shaking their head.

Although the Realm of Seigües boasted a vast and extensive hollowed Underground region, not every patch of land on the surface could be linked to it, as thick, unyielding layers of bedrock more often than not stood in the way.

Additionally, the thickness of these rocky layers may vary significantly, spanning from just a few kilometers to well over one hundred.

The Underground region was, in essence, nestled within these rocky layers, but access from the surface was hindered by the thickness of the uppermost bedrock. Only in certain areas where the layer was thin could passages be made.

Alas, the city-building location they picked was not among them.

In the rugged expanse of the Dark Mountains, three sites had been officially marked out as the most ideal spots to build a city.

The first was a lush, fertile basin nestled between the peaks.

To its east, near the border of the Fertile Plains, lay the second location.

And to the west was the third, set along the basin’s foothills.

Among the three, the third location was primed as the closest site to the Underground region.

Not only was it near the Underground, but it was also rumored to have an abundance of rich mineral resources.

Yet their leader, Little Salty Cat, ignored the other two had immediately chosen the first location.

This first site had no areas where the bedrock underneath was thin.

But upon hearing the player’s concern, Little Salty Cat simply smiled and said:

“Of course I know we can’t dig straight down and reach the underground region from here… but who says we have to do it at this site anyway?”

“Huh? What do you mean, Guildmaster?”

“What I mean is, we can take a more indirect route instead!”

As soon as she finished speaking, Salty Cat let out a whistle.

In response, a crypt spider emerged from the ground and scuttled over to her. She then tossed a chunk of magic ore to the creature and began explaining to the others:

“Actually, even before the Desert Campaign started, I was already considering building a city here in the Dark Mountains.”

“You see, the Elven Forest is way too far from the Desert of Death. So by relying on just a single teleportation array to reach it isn’t nearly enough and we need a permanent forward base in this location.”

“Not only that, but the Dark Mountains, being the southern gateway of the Elven Forest, hold tremendous strategic value.”

“So…even from back then, I already began asking Spider Queen Rose who’s quite familiar with this area to help scout the surrounding terrain.”

“In fact, this particular location was already on my radar of possible sites to build a base.”

“So yes, although this part of the Dark Mountains is relatively fertile, the bedrock beneath it remains extremely thick, thus making direct tunnel into the Underground region quite impossible.”

“…However, Rose told me a little secret.”

“Apparently, she lived in this region years ago and had already dug tunnels through the bedrock. In fact, one of the three possible city-building sites was once her residence before she relocated to Rivendell.”

“Right here beneath our current location, lies a tunnel she had once painstakingly dug.”

“This means we do not need to excavate all the way down to the Underground and we only need to open a path to one of Rose’s previously established tunnels.”

“Once we locate that tunnel, we can use it to reach the third city-building site approximately ten kilometers from here and that’s where we will establish a passage to the underground region.”

“In other words, we’ll link this first construction site I chose directly to the nearby third site that was once unavailable.”

Each player listening had their eyes light up.

Wait…that’s possible?

This could actually work!

The terrain of the Dark Mountains was rugged, but if there were indeed spider-dug tunnels beneath it, then the journey could indeed become far more manageable.

Connecting the first site to the third could bring them great wealth, since they now have access to two potential city sites instead of one!

The basin they had chosen to build their city had higher ambient mana levels compared to most areas in the Dark Mountains, thereby supporting abundant plant life. While the first site was largely self-sustaining, its primary drawback was its limited accessibility.

But if they could somehow link it to the third site via an underground passage, then they’d have direct access to the underground region!

And if they could establish a proper route to the underground region then it would open up far more possibilities and opportunities!

They could even traverse the underground and return to Rivendell without a hitch!

Of course, they would still mostly need to use teleportation arrays.

But a permanent, obstacle-free route would be a massive boon for merchant caravans. Over time, it would have a profound impact on their upcoming city’s economy.

Not to mention… the third site could also become their primary mining site!

And since they were close to the Desert of Death anyway, if they could start mining operation, labor wouldn’t be hard to find.

Orcs!

There were still plenty of them around in the Desert even after they surrendered.

Considering all these things…now building a city here at the first site didn’t seem that bad at all.

Now, it had some real potential!

Each Moe Moe member listening was now wide-eyed, their minds full of fresh new ideas and growing excited.

Little Salty Cat continued:

“What’s more, even though this site is separated from the second one by several mountain ridges, I have already shown that I can demolish a mountain using magic bombs. I can repeat this method as many times as needed until we establish a clear route to the second site eventually.”

“The second site is situated less than five kilometers in a straight line from the Fertile Plains. Although a road must be constructed, only a single, direct route will be necessary.”

“Once we connect the southern edge of the Dark Mountains to the Fertile Plains, it will provide us with an unobstructed path to the Kingdom of Aries.”

Little Salty Cat then deliberately paused, allowing the others to fully absorb what she had just said.

“My fellow Guildmates, just imagine it…” she continued, eyes sparkling with mirth. “What kind of future awaits us if we build our city here?”

A bright grin spread across her face, dimples deepening as her voice rang with excitement.

“…We’re talking riches beyond belief!”

“A location that connects to the underground region, to the Kingdom of Aries, to the Desert of Death in the south, and to the Elven Forest via teleportation…”

“With all that combined, tell me my dear fellow friends—how could this site not become a prime commercial hub?”

Little Salty Cat let out a mischievous chuckle, her eyes glinting with pride, as though she had just pulled off the greatest heist in gaming history.

“So now you see why I picked this site?” she asked. “Only kids limit themselves to one option on a multiple-choice test. While the other guilds settled for only one city site, we ‘Moe Moe Committee’ went ahead and took three for ourselves!”

She stretched out her arms wide, as if embracing the future already within reach.

“My glorious friends! Let’s build a beautiful and prosperous mountaintop city together and show the others what ambition truly looks like!”

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