Under the witness of their employer, the couple took care of ten undead within half an hour, and it was only because they had to go around the area and hunt for them. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Not only that, since there was an excess number of kills, they also hunted outside the farm area. After an hour of hunting, they got another 10.

"...."

"Let’s go to my shop, and I’ll give you your rewards," he said. "And...like I said before, this is continuous. You can keep exchanging the cores with me."

He uttered this and then buried a few cores underneath the clusters. Althea observed the act as well as the behavior of the plants.

It was really unusual and a bit counterintuitive. After all, the cores were a bit radioactive, so she never associated them with plants at all.

However, when she saw the behavior of the wood elements around each cluster and then how they behaved when the undead cores were inserted, she got a bit enlightened.

It was not that the radioactive energy itself nourished the plants. It was more like the sudden invasion of foreign energy encouraged the plant to grow faster as a response.

She wondered if she could use it in her farms as well, though it probably wouldn’t be so straightforward. Not all plants had the same makeup.

Her preliminary analysis was that it worked for the cacti precisely because they grew in such a harsh environment. There must also be some connection with the fact that both the plant and the undead thrived in the desert.

Anyway, the trio went back to the territory, and the couple got paid. Althea decided to exchange one reward for powder and the other reward for tea.

They said their goodbyes, heading out to explore the town for more information about the wall, which was limited. Metteo was already relatively near the Wall, if one looked at the grand scheme of things, so they hoped that there could be more data about the Wall to dig out here.

"I know an information broker," he said. "He gathers all sorts of intelligence. I can recommend you to him."

What they knew about the item was that it was definitely somewhere deep in a western mountain range surrounded by desert. There were records of it in Holt, back when they—along with dozens of other towns and cities—had dealt with the massive pandemic of the undead back then.

Destroying the undead and their cores spread poison that could kill the land and make the fighters sick, so to minimize the damage, they had to isolate them elsewhere.

Through hundreds of years, the walls created had also succumbed to nature. The Wall was ultimately a manual construction, after all, and the desert and its sandstorms were never kind.

Allegedly, the scouts found an area that seemed to attract the undead and lured them there. The theory was that the cause of this attraction was the Elyssian Stone, which they had been looking for.

What the couple hoped to find out from Josef’s cousin was the exact location, or at least the area where the Wall was, before heading there.

Unlike in lusher areas, it could be seen how less dense the territories in this region were. Back home, it would take less than a day to encounter a village. Here, one might walk for several days and not find a single settlement.

They weren’t suicidal, and since this was the only level 2 town in the region (without a higher level territory), this was already the best place to get the information about the Wall.

"The broker’s name is Eloi. As long as the price is right, he’d tell you what he could tell," he said. "Don’t worry; he won’t take advantage of you. If the information he gives is useless, you don’t have to pay him."

Josef himself guided them to the area, located around the town’s western sector. The business location was not as prime as his igneus shop.

They entered the roads made of flagstones. Like most thoroughfares, the roads of Metteo were shared by pedestrians and cars. It could fit two beast carts plus pedestrians on two sides simultaneously, though probably not comfortably.

The pedestrians, for one, were used to plastering themselves against the walls in order to avoid getting hit by the beasts.

The beast car drivers were very arrogant, assuming that everyone should make way. Even if they decided to swerve a little to the side where pedestrians were, squishing them, no one would speak up.

Those inside the carriages were likely people of power, so no one would speak out about this.

As for the aesthetics of the town, it reminded them a lot of the smaller towns in the ancient Byzantine empire.

The system buildings, it seemed, could also vary per area. She doubted the defense capabilities were different.

However, overall, it was still much better than Acero Town and most villages.

Although it was filthy compared to Alterra and the associated territories, there was still a certain standard that towns take on.

Towns were much bigger, and the population was as well, so they would be constrained to do better in terms of hygiene and order. Further, there were also plenty of weak people to hire for cheap, so it was still much better than villages.

Interestingly, on the way there, they passed through a market. Seeing their interest, Josef took them for a break, treating them with a few snacks.

Ignoring the imperfections, there were new scents, new sights, new food, and that alone made the trip worth it. She also bought everything unfamiliar to her in the market. She was stingy, but she really didn’t lack money.

She was literally passively earning silver from taxes as she walked along the street.

There were a lot of exotic materials that reached Alterra thanks to the trade routes, but there were also plenty that missed their chances. It was likely because the items themselves didn’t seem unusual, or they looked like something more common, so the merchants never bothered with them.

This was precisely why Althea wanted to travel. One still had to trust their own eyes.