Chapter 206: Chapter 206: Gathering Again, You Can Ask Me to Try
"Mr. Pierce, you got here so fast. Are you done exchanging your points already?"
Zachary Pierce smiled warmly. "I exchanged some, but I thought I should come check on you first before deciding what to do with the rest."
"You guys must really need that 500,000-point guild territory voucher. You should have just gotten it."
At that moment, Faye Yardley finally understood why Logan Langdon, who clearly had a million points, wasn’t willing to exchange them for the National Server Merge Card first. An item like that, which was purely for bragging rights, was naturally less valuable than something that could actually strengthen him and his group.
’Only someone like me, who has plenty of points and no pressing needs, would do something like that.’
Zachary Pierce just smiled. Faye Yardley couldn’t resist giving his shoulder a playful punch. "What are you laughing at? You can see for yourself, I’m not short on anything. In this whole survival-at-sea game, I doubt many people are living better than I am."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don’t you go thanking me again. You can’t speak for all Veridians, and besides, Mr. Pierce, you’re your own person first."
"You’re right, I can’t speak for others. I just wanted to thank you for myself."
Faye Yardley sighed. "Are we friends or what? If you’re going to keep talking like that, you can just go home. And give me back an Invitation Card while you’re at it."
Ethan Yardley walked over. "Zachary, let’s go. There’s something I need to discuss with you about the guild. Faye, go ahead and entertain your other friends."
"Okay."
She walked toward the pavilion where pretty much everyone was gathered. Seeing her approach, they all started to greet her.
Faye Yardley waved her hand. "Everyone, sit, sit. Just eat, drink, and have a little fun before heading to bed."
Leo Sloan cupped his hands respectfully. "Yardley, if I were to thank you right now, it would seem too formal and distant. But if I don’t say thank you, I can’t express how grateful I truly feel."
"Hey, hey, you know that, so don’t say it. Just eat something." Faye Yardley felt like she was developing an allergy to the words "thank you."
"Alright, I won’t. Yardley, this little garden you’ve made for yourself is really nice. I bet it looks even better in the daylight."
Wade Warren nodded in agreement from the side, while Bonnie Callahan opened her mouth as if to ask something, then hesitated, feeling it wasn’t the right time with so many people around.
Eleanor Jonas picked up a slice of watermelon. "Yardley’s as generous as ever. All the fruit you can eat... I haven’t had coffee in ages, and now I’m even enjoying a latte."
"If you wanted to, Miss Jonas, you could be eating and drinking like this every day. You’re just too much of a stickler for the rules."
"I can’t just help myself to things that don’t belong to me. What kind of person would that make me?" Eleanor Jonas added, "However, if Yardley were to offer it to me herself, I’d gladly accept."
Faye Yardley let out a laugh. "So that’s what you were waiting for! Alright, fine. When you all head back, I’ll make sure each of you takes a big watermelon. Miss Bonnie, what’s really on your mind? You’ve seemed on edge this whole time. Just spit it out. We’re all friends here."
Bonnie Callahan said, "Um, it’s about that hair flower... It didn’t cause any trouble for you, did it? I’ve been so worried. I was just so busy today that I didn’t even have a moment to think."
Faye Yardley’s eyes widened in understanding. She took out the peony hair flower, which had turned translucent. "Look, this is what it looks like now. The exorcism was a success. It’s just a pretty hair accessory now, with no other functions. Here, Miss Bonnie, take a closer look."
She pressed the hair accessory into Bonnie Callahan’s hand. Once she was sure Bonnie had received a system notification and was convinced, Faye smiled. "What do you think? Even though it’s lost its other colors, it’s still beautiful. It would look great on you, Miss Bonnie."
"No, no, no, it’s yours now."
As she spoke, Bonnie Callahan tossed it back to Faye Yardley like a hot potato.
Eleanor Jonas, curious, took it from Faye Yardley’s hand. "It really is beautiful. Was it special in some way before?"
Bonnie Callahan didn’t hide anything and explained the whole story.
"So, are you feeling any other discomfort now?"
Bonnie Callahan shook her head. "No."
Faye Yardley, however, beckoned to Willow Yardley. "Willow, give Miss Bonnie a scan of her physical data. See if there are any lingering issues."
The others watched with a mix of nervousness and curiosity. Willow Yardley simply fixed her gaze on Bonnie Callahan for a moment, and then, after a short while, confirmed that everything was normal.
Eleanor Jonas turned to Faye Yardley. "So, you can perform exorcisms, Yardley?"
Faye Yardley wanted to say it wasn’t her but Blackwood. ’But that would open a whole other can of worms,’ she thought. So she just replied, "I have my ways, but they aren’t exactly foolproof."
"Well, if we run into anything like that in the future, we’ll have to ask you to take a look, Yardley. Anything involving Demons has been bad news since the beginning of time." Eleanor Jonas’s tone was grave as she said this.
Faye Yardley didn’t refuse. ’It’ll all depend on Blackwood’s mood when the time comes,’ she thought. ’If it’s something he has a taste for, he’ll eat it. But what if he tries it and decides he doesn’t like it anymore?’
"The same goes for all of you. If you find anything that seems like a Demon’s temptation or something similar, you can bring it to me to check out first."
"Okay, will do."
Everyone readily agreed. After all, nobody wanted to get tangled up with a Demon.
Bonnie Callahan had nearly died from just a brief contact with it. Who could guarantee they’d be luckier or stronger than her?
Despite how pitiful she seemed now, she clearly had some good fortune on her side; otherwise, she would never have escaped unscathed.
The one-hour invitation time passed quickly. It was really just a simple get-together, a chance for them to see what a max-level raft looked like. Faye Yardley considered it her way of motivating them.
Before leaving, Caleb Colby and Finn Ford made a point to ask Faye Yardley if she had any plans to run Dungeon 3 again. If she did, they insisted she give them a heads-up.
"Of course. When I run Dungeon 3, I’ll definitely call you guys. We’re a team, after all."
"Alright then, Yardley, we’ll head back. See you next time."
"Don’t forget your watermelon. See you next time."
She watched them leave one by one until only her brother remained. After all, his invitation was for two hours.
Over at the pavilion, Willow Yardley had already cleared the table, cleaned up, and set it anew. Faye Yardley had even brewed some special tea with golden petals.
"Bro, what’s the deal with the guild territory? Can you park your rafts nearby? Or is there a Teleportation Array to get there?"
Taking a calm sip of his tea, Ethan Yardley smiled. "I was starting to think you weren’t interested. Don’t rush me, let me think about how to explain it accurately."
"We can teleport to the territory from my raft, so our rafts will remain in this sea. We can’t just leave because we have a guild territory. As for the territory itself, we don’t even know what island it’s on. We were just given a hundred-acre plot of empty land to develop as we see fit. The entire perimeter is shrouded in a thick fog. We can’t get out, and I assume no one else can get in."
Faye Yardley "oh"-ed. "A hundred-acre plot of empty land? Is it just completely bare?"
"Not exactly. There’s grassland and some small hills. But to live there permanently, we need something... some kind of energy rod, or something like that. Here, I’ll show you what it looks like. I don’t have any leads on it myself. Without it, you can only stay inside for three days at most before you have to leave and wait a while to go back in."
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