Meanwhile, in the Hundred Flowers Garden territory—a system notification suddenly rang in Briar Rose's ears.
"Lord [Evernight] has accepted your friend request."
Hearing this, Briar Rose sprang up from her chair, startling the female Lords around her.
Everyone turned toward her in shock.
"Sis, what's going on?"
"Did something happen?"
A bright smile tugged at the corners of Briar Rose's lips.
"Our plan succeeded."
The women exchanged looks, quickly realizing what had happened.
"It must be Evernight!"
"Hah! Sis's charm is unstoppable—Evernight is going down!"
"Step one complete. Next step…"
Their chattering grew louder.
Briar Rose rolled her eyes and snapped,
"Enough. Zip it."
Only then did the girls hush up.
Briar Rose opened the chat window and messaged Lin Chen directly.
"Greetings, Lord Evernight. I'm Briar Rose. I have some of the materials you need. If you're still interested, I'd be happy to sell them to you."
The reply came quickly:
"Yes. However much you have, I'll take it all—and I'm continuously buying."
Indeed, regarding these rare materials—Lin Chen wouldn't stop acquiring them until he had fully upgraded the Human Totem.
So yes, he wanted as many as possible.
Seeing this message, Briar Rose's heart leapt with joy.
Perfect. Lin Chen still needed those materials—which meant she still had bargaining power.
Time to make her move...
"Lord Evernight, since you're so straightforward, I'll speak frankly too.
I've got a stable supply of these materials.
I can trade them to you—but I hope you'll exchange them for troops or high-tier equipment."
Darkmoon Forest, Divine Domain Territory
Lin Chen read the message and sighed.
He knew it wouldn't be that simple.
From the very start, she'd been aiming for his troops.
A hidden agenda—no doubt about it.
So... should Lin Chen agree to this deal?
Let's weigh the situation:
Lin Chen hadn't formed an alliance yet.
He was solo—many tasks were impossible alone.
Briar Rose, on the other hand, was someone with real power—both in-game and possibly outside it.
She commanded a decent following.
Getting her hands on most things wasn't hard.
Except, of course, for troops and high-tier gear—which had low drop rates and were hard to obtain without overwhelming strength.
Only Lin Chen could farm those in bulk.
Now Briar Rose wanted to exchange her rare materials for his troops.
And Lin Chen had two pressing needs:
He needed rare materials for construction.
He needed troops to sell for Summer Coins and fund recharge.
Both were essential.
After weighing the pros and cons, Lin Chen exhaled and decided to accept the deal.
The logic was simple:
collecting rare materials on his own was too slow.
Instead of waiting forever, better to diversify and form a temporary alliance.
However—
To avoid letting Briar Rose snowball too fast, Lin Chen decided to control the trade volume.
She could buy some troops, but not all.
The rest would be sold for Summer Coins.
That way, even if she did get stronger, she wouldn't pose a threat to Lin Chen's dominance.
Back in the Hundred Flowers Garden territory—
Briar Rose watched the screen, her heart starting to sink as Lin Chen remained silent.
"Did I miscalculate…?"
She was just about to message again when Lin Chen finally replied:
"Deal. But let me make this clear—all our transactions must remain confidential.
No one else can know. Understand?"
Briar Rose's eyes lit up with delight.
"Understood! Absolutely!"
Lin Chen's request for secrecy made perfect sense.
If word got out, every Lord would start offering rare materials in exchange for troops.
And that would ruin his ability to sell troops for Summer Coins.
He'd be undercutting himself.
So yes, trading with Briar Rose was fine.
Trading with everyone else? Absolutely not.
And Briar Rose was smart—she wouldn't blow such a golden opportunity.
Thus, the agreement was sealed.
Briar Rose's plan succeeded—she'd finally established a direct line to Lin Chen.
Lin Chen, on the other hand, now had access to her rare materials—which meant the Human Totem was nearly ready for construction.
As for the transaction and exchange rate, they simply left it to the game's market system.
Briar Rose had hoped to trade for a tier-4 troop or even higher—but her materials weren't enough.
In the end, with 500,000 units of rare materials—50,000 units each of 10 different types—she was only able to buy one tier-3 troop from Lin Chen.
Holding the troop in her hands, Briar Rose felt like she'd discovered a whole new world.
"Starting tomorrow, mobilize everyone.
Keep hunting for these materials—the more, the better."
The women around her looked confused.
"Sis, aren't we keeping some of the materials ourselves?"
"Yeah, what if we need them later?"
Briar Rose shook her head, eyes gleaming.
"Not for now.
I want to gear all of you up first—then we'll become the most advanced faction in Era of Lords."
She was ecstatic.
Lin Chen had promised that anyone who could supply enough materials
could trade for high-tier gear and troops.
This was her second channel for acquiring elite resources—aside from direct Summer Coin purchases.
And Briar Rose firmly believed:
As long as she played it right, she'd be able to milk Lin Chen's value for all it's worth.
This was the beginning of her takeoff.
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