Chapter 158: Renowned I

Although the two of them split their enhanced and unenhanced gear between them, resulting in a drop in defense, they still each had over twenty points of defense. With that much defense, even an elite monster’s attack would only take off about twenty points of health, maybe even less.

Both of them had over two hundred HP each, which meant they could each take at least ten hits.

Even if they just stood there and let the elite monsters hit them ten times each, that would be more than enough time to kill the monsters twice over. Not to mention, they could dodge attacks… In short, compared to the batch of dark creatures from this morning, this group was laughably easy.

—

140! (Critical hit)

With a critical hit from Duoya, the elite monster slowly collapsed under her slightly stunned gaze. In the end, just like the other dark creatures, it turned into a disgusting puddle of black, sticky sludge, which was then consumed by flames, leaving nothing behind…

…

[System quest ‘Stop the Darkness’ completed. You may submit the quest at the bounty board.]

[Congratulations! Player A1-16 has led Sunset Territory to successfully repel an attack by dark creatures without any casualties. The story of Sunset Territory’s victory over the darkness will now spread in a small area. Territory Aura acquired: ‘Renowned I’.]

[In this dark creature attack event, A1-16’s performance has placed them on four leaderboards—]

[Dark Creature Attack Event – Time Ranking: 17]

[Dark Creature Attack Event – Kill Ranking: 8]

[Dark Creature Attack Event – Damage Taken Ranking: 1]

[Dark Creature Attack Event – Overall Ranking: 1]

…

[Except for the overall ranking, the following rewards apply to the other leaderboards: Top 100 – Wooden Chest; Top 50 – Bronze Chest; Top 30 – Iron Chest; Top 10 – Silver Chest; Top 3 – Gold Chest; 1st place can claim all chest rewards cumulatively.]

[Your efforts have successfully repelled the darkness. The distant shadows tremble and fear your unity and strength, and will not attack the territory again for a while… But darkness will never disappear. Dark creatures will always exist on the continent. They will not give up, but will bide their time, waiting for another chance to snuff out the flame…]

…

Looking at the flood of system messages, Su You felt her head buzzing, as if hundreds of flies were buzzing around her ears.

“Dolly, Yousen, you two help clean up the battlefield. Put everything into the chests.”

“Yue, just like this morning, go heal those two. If you’re low on mana, just do a basic treatment for now.”

“Everyone else, go get some rest.” Su You quickly assigned tasks to everyone, then turned to head for her lord’s manor—she needed a quiet place to process all this information.

But she’d barely taken two steps when she felt someone tugging at her clothes. She turned and saw it was Buguo.

What was she doing here?

Although almost everyone had stayed up tonight—including Wang Yi and Wang Er, who had only temporarily joined the territory to seek shelter and had each volunteered to man an arrow tower—Buguo was not among them.

She was just a teenager. Not only Su You, but everyone else felt she should rest. Defending the territory was a job for adults… More importantly, Buguo didn’t have any combat ability.

If she did have combat skills, Su You wouldn’t have minded letting her join the fight tonight, as long as she could keep her safe.

But clearly, Buguo didn’t see it that way. She tugged at Su You’s sleeve and said, “Is there anything I can help with? I’m really capable!”

Su You was taken aback, then reached out and patted her head. “You go get some rest and recharge. That’ll be a huge help to me.”

She wasn’t just brushing Buguo off—there was another reason. But Buguo didn’t pick up on it. She just thought Su You saw her as a child who couldn’t do anything, so she wasn’t being given any work.

“Lord, you shouldn’t look down on kids. Kids can do a lot too!” Buguo didn’t dodge Su You’s hand, but earnestly protested against ‘child discrimination’.

“What are you talking about? When did I ever look down on kids?” Su You was both amused and exasperated. If only everyone could see Buguo’s stats—her innate skill would make her the target of every major trading house.

Her skill level might not be high, but her talent was!

And she was still young!

Being young meant she was highly adaptable, with lots of room to grow. So being young wasn’t a bad thing—on the contrary, with such high talent, it was a huge advantage!

“What I mean is, get some rest. Starting tomorrow, the territory will be open to outsiders. Lots of people will be coming, including merchants and trade caravans… You get what I’m saying?” Even with skills, social abilities depend on how you use them in the moment.

If you don’t perform well, even a high-level trading skill might lose out to someone with a mid-level one.

Rather than having Buguo waste her energy on trivial tasks, it was better for her to rest up and help Su You make a big profit in a couple of days!

“Is that so?” Buguo wasn’t stupid. She just didn’t understand why Su You was arranging things this way, but now that Su You had explained, she quickly understood and obediently went back to her room to rest.

“Lord, make sure you call me when there’s a deal to be made! I’ll definitely help you fleece those people!” Buguo shouted to Su You before closing her door.

Su You: …Kid, you don’t have to be quite so blunt about it.

Watching Buguo close her door, Su You rubbed her temples and headed toward the lord’s manor.

…

…

“I’ll hold off on submitting the quest for now.” Back in the manor, Su You sat down and began sorting through all the information.

The first message was a prompt that the last system quest on the bounty board had been completed, but Su You wasn’t planning to submit it right away. Otherwise, she would have done it as soon as she got back.

Her reason for waiting was the same as before—she didn’t want too many quests to refresh at once.

Dealing with a monster cage and a forest ruin was already enough for her. There might still be issues at the creek, and with so much piling up, she needed to handle things one at a time.

Besides, once the territory opened up and the population started flowing in, she’d only get busier…

“One thing at a time…” Su You took a sip of water to clear her head, then continued reading.

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---