Having interacted with Xu Feng a few times already, Jessica seemed to have a clear understanding of his personality by now.
He was the type to always seek something beneficial in return. There was never an action that he did without any planning.
What made it more depressing was that he held the lifeline of Star Falls City.
The Arcane Vine was like a gold mine, but due to special circumstances, access to it was restricted by Xu Feng.
Whenever Jessica sent someone from the Adventure Association to assist with the mining, they would always attempt to find a loophole, only to end up fruitless.
And after further research and consultants' investigation, they concluded that the Arcane Vine operated on a different law. Only those who were authorized by the Arcane Vine itself could grant entry.
With that being said, it meant that Xu Feng's position and significance were even greater than the City Magistrate.
The only thankful thing was that Xu Feng didn't seem to have any intention of extorting the city, but rather charged the bare minimum to ensure the city's population would rise. In response to that gesture, Xu Feng was also granted an exemption on taxes for operating his businesses as opposed to others.
Generally, player-owned buildings must pay a monthly rent even if they were the landowner.
However, exceptions such as Xu Feng's case could nullify the rent due to his outstanding contributions to the city. Of course, to achieve that kind of contribution wasn't something any regular player could do.
"Alright, you've been silent enough." Jessica rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, and demanded a response. "What other things do you want to gain from our Adventure Association?"
To be fair, Jessica was borderline on the verge of blacklisting Xu Feng if he dared to raise prices or extort by using the excuse of the monster waves.
After all, that kind of action would be no different than daylight robbery.
Who would be happy about being robbed in such a manner?
"You can relax, Jessica." Xu Feng chuckled and realized she had certainly mistaken his intention.
"I have no intention of raising the prices of the Arcane Vine mining. Your Adventure Association provides manpower and I just grant them entry. Our profits are split 50-50, very fair." He reminded Jessica, informing her that he was satisfied with this transaction.
Instantly, Jessica breathed out a sigh of relief. If Xu Feng really wanted to sabotage them now, then they would be really helpless to defend against it.
"Not only am I not raising the price, but I'm also here to give you a big business deal." Xu Feng continued and retrieved the Town Certificate.
As the Town Certificate made its appearance, Jessica's eyes widened in shock.
She hurriedly used her identification skills to verify and confirm that the Town Certificate was authentic and not forgery.
Such an item must be thoroughly verified. Even if the person was of noble status or contributed greatly, to commit forgery was equivalent to treason.
A few minutes later, Jessica's expression underwent many changes before staring at Xu Feng with a disbelieving expression.
"I've known you have grown stronger since the last time we met, but I didn't expect you to be able to get your hand on a Town Certificate. These are so valuable that they shouldn't even be capable of being obtained from your current level." She commented, finding this achievement to be quite unbelievable.
"It's just a matter of skill." Xu Feng shrugged. Most probably tried to brush it off as "luck", but Xu Feng wasn't shameless enough to do so.
Luck might have been involved in the process, but at the end of the day, it was his own effort that got him to this part.
Those who continuously claimed it was merely luck were just disgusting bastards who used luck as a gloating term.
"Sigh, by protocols, you are hereby allowed to choose a place to construct your town. However, keep in mind that the cost would be astronomically high, especially with the current situation." Jessica warned, her statement laced with a poisonous meaning.
Without a doubt, she planned on charging Xu Feng an extremely high price to cover the cost of manpower that would be required to confront the crisis.
Meanwhile, Xu Feng smirked in response, almost as if he had anticipated Jessica's action.
"A regular town construction fee usually circulates around 15-20 thousand gold coins. But that's dependent on three factors: location, difficulty, and risk." Xu Feng flashed three fingers and said.
"If the location was a neutral map, then the difficulty of the terrain would be calculated. Furthermore, if the risk factor was high, it meant that only high-level craftsman people could be hired to do the job." He continued.
Nodding in agreement, Jessica acknowledged that these were indeed the three main factors when calculating the fee. The most important factor was actually the risk. They couldn't afford to send below-average people to complete the job after all.
Seeing that there was no objection to his explanation, Xu Feng pressed on.
"The town I wished to be constructed in is called Twilight Glades." He calmly said.
"Twilight Glades?" Alarmed, Jessica nearly stood up in exasperation. "That Neutral Map is indeed rich in resources but the terrain is really dangerous. You, who isn't even level 35, wanted to construct a town in that map where the minimum requirement is 35?"
Knowing well that it was impossible to persuade him otherwise, Jessica quickly went into business mode and began calculating all the costs.
It didn't even take her a full minute before she coolly responded, "The total cost would come to 56,000 gold coins. No discounts are given."
'What the hell?' Xu Feng inwardly exclaimed.
56,000 gold coins weren't a small sum. In fact, it was actually extremely expensive— to the point that even Xu Feng nearly choked on his own saliva.
At most, he estimated the overall fee to be around 30-35 thousand gold coins, or possibly in the early 40s thousand.
However, the reality was a complete surprise.