Chapter 350: Counting Resources, Receiving Villagers from Vine Village (6666)

"Lord, Lady, and brave warriors, welcome back!"

The other subjects followed suit.

"Welcome back, brave warriors!"

They shouted at the top of their lungs, each appearing extremely excited. Behind them, Assam, Andrew, and the others exchanged glances. This was their first time being welcomed so formally, and they felt a bit embarrassed.

Cao Xing smiled and nodded slightly.

"No need for such formalities; you've worked hard these past two days."

"Rabb has already told me that you have been working hard to build various facilities in the territory during this time. Everyone has put in a lot of effort."

Receiving recognition from their Lord, many of them even reddened in the eyes, with expressions of being moved appearing on their faces.

Without further ado, Cao Xing said directly:

"Now, report to me what has happened in the territory during the two days we were away."

Everyone nodded upon hearing this. Cao Yi, one of the subjects, was the first to report.

He stepped forward and said respectfully, "Respected Lord, during the days you were away, we focused all our efforts on building the city walls and constructing new Elemental Arrow Towers."

"As you can see, the entire perimeter wall has been completed."

"In addition, we built 32 intermediate Elemental Arrow Towers and 14 intermediate Frost Arrow Towers, and upgraded them all to intermediate level!"

Cao Xing nodded slightly.

The attack power of these intermediate Elemental Arrow Towers was not high, only around 500. Even when upgraded to advanced, they only had 2,000 attack power. However, their existence was very important. After all, once these arrow towers were built, they could automatically lock onto enemies and continuously fire. Plus, they didn't require consuming arrows or ammunition. As long as there were enough of them, even ants could kill an elephant!

This time, in Lake Doron City, Cao Xing suffered because of these arrow towers. The dense barrage of arrows fired at him directly disabled his Holy Shield skill. Moreover, under the massive volume of attacks, even with his terrifying recovery ability, he could barely hold on. Forced into a corner, Cao Xing had to fly lower, using the cover of buildings to dodge the attacks. It can be said that if those arrow towers hadn't been there, Cao Xing's risk would have been much lower. This thing might not be used often, but it couldn't be absent.

Therefore, Cao Xing asked, "Cao Yi, in total, how many arrow towers do we have in our territory now?"

Cao Yi pondered for a moment and then replied, "Reporting to the Lord, currently in the territory, there are 71 primary + intermediate Elemental Arrow Towers, 38 ice arrow towers, and 18 intermediate Frost Arrow Towers."

Hearing this number, Cao Xing did some mental calculations and nodded again. Nearly 130 arrow towers; that was quite formidable. If you added in the defensive plants like the War Ancient Tree and Vine Head Turret, it could be said that the defense was extremely tight!

"Very good. Recently, I acquired a blueprint for an advanced arrow tower."

"For the next few days, stop building new arrow towers. First, upgrade all those intermediate Elemental Arrow Towers to advanced."

Cao Yi listened and respectfully replied, "Understood, Lord."

After a pause, the elderly Cao Yi continued, "Besides that, there is one more thing I need to report to you."

"Speak."

"It's like this: yesterday afternoon, a group of villagers arrived at our territory. There were many of them, 237 in total."

"They said they were sent by Baron Fitz."

"I didn't know the background of these villagers, and since the Lord was not here, I didn't dare to make a rash decision."

"So, I temporarily settled them in the residential area on the outskirts of the territory, preparing to handle it after your return."

Hearing this, Cao Xing was also somewhat surprised. He did know about this group of villagers. Before this, he had discussed with Fitz Walker about having him send a batch of people over. He just hadn't expected the guy's efficiency to be so high.

Cao Xing nodded and said, "I understand. I will go and make contact with these villagers."

"Is there anything else to report?"

The subject Cao Yi shook his head, "Nothing else, respected Lord." After speaking, he respectfully stepped back.

Then it was Da Zhuang's turn. Since breaking through to Tier 2, this Arctic Person looked even stronger. With a loud voice, he excitedly reported, "Lord! These past few days, I have been leading those Goblins to mine with all our might!"

"In three days, we transported back seventeen carts of ore, and then worked overtime at the ore processing plant at night to sort all these ores out!"

"We mined a total of 52,312 iron ingots, 12,812 copper ingots, 18,647 coal, and over a thousand primary magic energy crystals."

"Plus some silver ore and gold ore that need smelting; the amount is currently unknown."

"And the stone blocks you ordered; we mined over 200,000!"

"Now, the resources in that mine have basically been mined out by us!"

"We need more and larger ore veins!"

The Goblins behind him also raised their hammers and shouted excitedly, "Larger ore veins! Larger ore veins!" "Mining! We want to mine!"

Listening to Da Zhuang's report, a smile appeared on the corner of Cao Xing's mouth. He had only given Da Zhuang 60 Goblins. He hadn't expected their efficiency to be so high that they actually emptied that mine. However, naturally generated resource points like this wouldn't regenerate after being mined out. So, in the near future, he would need to find new resource points for them to mine. Fortunately, Cao Xing knew where some rich resource points were hidden near the territory. Plus, tomorrow was the day for the system update, and new resource points should refresh near the territory. Thinking of this, he nodded and said, "I understand. I will figure out a way regarding the ore veins."

"Continue to finish mining the few small resource points around the territory today."

"If there are no more ore points, you can go cut down trees. Wood is also a very important resource for us."

Da Zhuang straightened his body and replied respectfully, "Understood! Lord!" The Goblins raised their hammers and chanted in unison, "Mining, mining! Mining, mining!"

After Da Zhuang finished his report, the Arctic Person Du An stepped forward. "Lord, good day." Compared to Da Zhuang, Du An appeared much more polite. Cao Xing knew this was an ambitious Arctic Person. This could be seen from his previous statement about wanting to change the life of the entire Arctic People race. Cao Xing had even heard that Du An had recently started learning to read. Cao Xing did not feel any resistance or sense of crisis regarding such an ambitious Arctic Person. Because ever since Cao Xing started letting him access this knowledge, Du An's loyalty had not decreased; on the contrary, it had risen to the level of fanaticism, which explained everything. After this Arctic Person accumulated for a while longer and possessed sufficiently powerful strength and a rich reserve of knowledge, perhaps he could truly change the fate of all Arctic People by his own power. Of course, this process would definitely be difficult, no less than the difficulty of the Goblins emerging from the underground and establishing a chamber of commerce. And by comparison, the situation of the Arctic People was actually even harder. After all, above these Arctic People were nobles, religion, and a feudal system that had lasted for tens of thousands of years. As mentioned before, those nobles would absolutely not allow cheap labor like the Arctic People to have a chance to turn things around. Once these Arctic People showed signs of such thoughts, they would inevitably be struck by the thunderous wrath of those nobles! Cao Xing couldn't help him much; all of this had to rely on himself and the efforts of all the Arctic People. Recovering from his thoughts, Cao Xing said, "Du An, go ahead."

The Arctic Person said in a calm tone, "According to your instructions, we have also been doing our best to build those important structures in the territory recently."

"Among them, the Alchemy Workshop has been successfully upgraded to advanced, and the Blacksmith Shop and Tailor Shop have both been upgraded to advanced."

"Besides that, the territory's Furnace has been upgraded to level 18. It is still some distance away from the level 21 you mentioned."

"And then there is your Lords Manor, which has successfully reached level 8."

Cao Xing nodded slightly. For him, the current progress of the Furnace and the Lords Manor was also very important. He had two orange blueprints that both had requirements for the levels of these two buildings. Building the [Large Space Teleportation Array] required the Furnace to be at level 21. And the other, [Statue of the God of Craftsmen], required the Lords Manor to be at level 10.

"I see. Continue your report."

Du An continued, "There is another problem: our territory's resources are no longer enough."

"These past few days, we have been building various arrow towers and upgrading city walls on a large scale, consuming a large amount of resources."

"We are mainly lacking iron, elemental crystals, and Mithril. These three materials are basically bottoming out."

"If it weren't for Brother Da Zhuang and his team constantly mining these past few days, I'm afraid our construction work would have had to stop yesterday."

Cao Xing listened, and a look of contemplation appeared in his eyes again. He glanced at his territory's resources. [Wood] * 12633 [Stone] * 33582 [Iron] * 10752 [Refined Iron] * 337 [Copper] * 5322 [Mithril] * 215 [Eternal Gold Ingot] * 174 [Magic Pattern Stone] * 135 [dragon rock ore] * 4291 [Primary Elemental Crystal] * 6981 [Intermediate Elemental Crystal] * 184 [Advanced Elemental Crystal] * 38 [glacier shard] * 923123 … Just as Du An reported, the various resource reserves in the territory were not abundant. The scarcest was Mithril. There was no helping it; as he continued to develop, more and more places required the use of this high-level material. The same went for Eternal Gold Ingots and Magic Pattern Stones. Therefore, these three materials were the scarcest.

"However, this time when I went out, I made a huge profit in Lake Doron City. Whether it was Mithril or Eternal Gold Ingots, I obtained what could be called a massive amount."

"So it should be enough for the territory's consumption."

"Currently, the most lacking are iron and elemental crystals."

"This time I scavenged over a hundred thousand Refined Iron, but I didn't find any ordinary iron. However, there are many ways to obtain this material, so I'm not in a hurry."

"Among them, the hardest to get is the Advanced Elemental Crystal."

This material is not in the hands of the natives; it only drops when Survivors kill those monsters and powerful beings. Between the natives and the Survivor lords, there are two different development models. When they build those advanced arrow towers, they mostly need Mithril or other materials; they can be built even without elemental crystals. But by comparison, the materials consumed by natives to build arrow towers are more, and it takes longer. Overall, in terms of building various structures, the Survivor lords have the advantage.

Cao Xing pondered to himself, "It seems I still have to find a way to get these Advanced Elemental Crystals on the market."

"It just so happens that on the way this time, I killed a few Saber-toothed Tigers."

"The tiger meat from them can increase strength significantly and is deeply welcomed by those melee fighters; it should be able to exchange for quite a lot of resources."

"After the server merge this time, the market population will expand from 200,000 to nearly a million. With such a large population base, I shouldn't have to worry about not being able to collect enough resources."

Cao Xing nodded slightly and said, "I understand the matter of the territory's insufficient resources."

"Your task today is to continue upgrading the Furnace and the Lords Manor, and incidentally, repair the city walls."

"After I gather enough resources here, I will continue to build more arrow towers."

Du An wrote down Cao Xing's instructions one by one. After he finished speaking, the Arctic Person bowed slightly.

"We will do our best to complete the tasks. May the stars bless you, respected Lord."

The look in his eyes as he gazed at Cao Xing carried a fanatical expression. In his heart, he had already come to regard his Lord as his faith.

Cao Xing looked around and continued to ask, "So, is there anyone else who has something to report to me?"

Everyone exchanged glances.

The Centaur Kantor raised his hand and said, "Lord, I have something to report to you!"

"Kantor, speak."

"Lord, when we were patrolling near the territory yesterday, we passed by the nearby Tarus Woodland and discovered many Frost Goblins inside!"

"Just encountering a small squad, there were hundreds of goblins!"

"I estimate that inside the woodland, the number of Frost Goblins must have reached a terrifying figure."

"This should be a large Frost Goblin gathering place!"

Cao Xing frowned slightly and asked, "How is the strength of that group of goblins?"

Kandaer replied, "They are all Tier 2 to Tier 4 goblins, with a small number of Tier 5 goblins."

Cao Xing looked thoughtful.

Frost Goblins of this strength were not a cause for concern for his territory.

However, Tarus Woodland was only 15 kilometers away from his territory.

There were several villages nearby, including Hoge Village, with which he had a relatively good relationship, also in that vicinity.

And goblins are a licentious and cruel species.

This was also a significant safety hazard.

Therefore, Cao Xing said, "I understand. I will send people to investigate the situation in a while, and then see how to deal with this group of goblins."

"Understood, Lord!" The Centaur Kandaer also bowed respectfully and withdrew.

Cao Xing looked around, and seeing that no one else was prepared to report, he continued to order:

"Alright, those who went out with me last night, you can go back and rest now."

"The rest of you, start working according to what I just instructed."

"We obey your will, benevolent and great Lord!"

The entire territory, with several hundred people in total, dispersed in a swarm.

Soon, only Cao Xing and four women remained here.

They were Liu Muxue, Sarah, Elisa, and Tong Chuchu.

Cao Xing asked in confusion, "Didn't I tell you all to go rest? Why are you standing here?"

Beside him, Liu Muxue said softly, "Cao Xing, won't you rest for a bit?"

She knew that for the past few days, Cao Xing had been in a constant state of traveling and fighting.

In the past three days, his total rest time had not exceeded 1 hour.

Elisa and Tong Chuchu also said with concern, "Yes, yes, Lord, you should go rest for a while too."

Although Sarah didn't speak, her affectionate gaze said it all.

Facing their concern, a faint smile appeared on the corner of Cao Xing's mouth.

Although there were many subordinates in his territory with full loyalty, the hearts of women were still much more delicate in this regard.

Renis was more focused on archery, wanting to help Cao Xing with her own strength.

He shook his head and said, "It's fine. I'm at least a Tier 5 mage now; not sleeping for a few days won't affect me."

"I'll rest after I handle the matters at hand."

Next, there were quite a few things he needed to do.

Whether it was receiving that batch of refugees, digesting the gains from this outing, or finding new resource points, all were important matters at the moment.

Hearing this, the four women looked at each other.

"Lord, is there anything we can help with?"

"Yes, yes! We also want to share the burden for the Lord!"

Cao Xing smiled, just about to say there was nothing needed.

At this moment, he seemed to have thought of something.

"By the way, Muxue, the batch of food we obtained earlier needs to be stored in the basement first."

"You and Sarah go now, ask Du An for a few people, and transfer this food to the basement, and have them stack it properly."

"If there isn't enough space, have them build a few more basements."

This time, the amount of food they harvested was terrifying!

A full nine hundred thousand kilograms.

Currently, there were only three medium-sized basements in the territory, so this space was definitely not enough.

More underground space was needed.

Liu Muxue nodded like a chick pecking at rice upon hearing this.

She was also happy to be able to help Cao Xing.

Then, she took Sarah and quickly headed to the basement.

Elisa and Tong Chuchu were still standing in place, seemingly waiting for the Lord's next instruction.

Cao Xing smiled, "You two come with me."

"We are going to see that batch of newcomers. In a while, you two will lead these newcomers to familiarize themselves with the territory's environment."

"No problem, Lord!"

The two young girls immediately followed obediently behind Cao Xing.

Soon, the group of three arrived at the third ring area of the territory.

Compared to the past two days, nearly twenty high-level shelters had been built here.

It had almost filled the gaps in the land.

Moreover, each [Advanced Shelter] occupied nearly 180 square meters, divided into upper, middle, and lower levels.

If they squeezed in, living with thirty or forty people wouldn't be a problem.

These 20 shelters alone could accommodate several hundred people.

But according to what Cao Yi said, he had allocated fifteen rooms for these 237 refugees, so the living space was quite sufficient.

Soon, Cao Xing saw a group of figures gathered in an open space next to the residential area.

Grapevine Village was originally a small village located in the southwest of the Gale Snowfield, near Flowing Water Town.

The entire village had over sixty households, and the villagers all made a living by planting a type of winter grape.

The agricultural area outside the village was covered with stretches of greenhouses.

What was planted inside were all lush grapevines.

This type of winter grape had a slow growth cycle and took half a year to grow once.

Every year in February and August, it was the harvest season for Grapevine Village.

On harvest days, under the grape trellises, bunches of purple and green grapes hung heavy on the branches, sparkling like gemstones.

The grapes produced by Grapevine Village were of high quality and were very popular with local wine merchants.

The people in the village would use these winter grapes to brew delicious wine and hold lively grape festivals.

The villagers were warm and hospitable, and their lives were as mellow and sweet as wine.

However, about ten years ago, Grapevine Village was partitioned into the territory of Baron Augustus.

In other words, the entire village, including those villagers, became the Baron's property.

The Baron set a rule for them that Grapevine Village had to hand over a fixed tax every year.

According to the rules, the entire village had about 60-plus households.

They needed to grow over 90,000 kilograms of winter grapes to hand over every year; this was a fixed quota.

Regardless of how much or how little you grew, you had to hand over 90,000 kilograms.

As for the problems and difficulties you encountered in the middle, those nobles would not consider them.

If there was extra, it could be consumed within the village or sold to local wineries for village expenses.

But if they grew less, the whole village had to raise funds to fill the gap.

If a village did not pay enough of its quota in the first year, not only would it be punished by the Baron, but it would also have to make up the shortfall the following year.

If they failed to pay enough for three consecutive years, the village would be considered by the Baron to have no value in existing.

The villagers of the entire village would be distributed to other villages or sold directly.

And the families originally formed inside, as well as various interpersonal relationships, would be directly torn apart.

For the commoners of this world, living in such a cold hell was already an extremely difficult thing.

The bonds between family and friends had almost become one of the few reasons that supported them to survive.

If they had to be separated from their families, it was harder than killing them.

However, the Baron's order was absolute, and no one could defy it.

Even if he ordered the entire village to be razed to the ground and all the commoners executed, they could not have half a word of complaint.

This was a feudal system that had lasted for tens of thousands of years and had long been deeply rooted in the hearts of everyone in this world.

Therefore, for the past ten years, the entire Grapevine Village had been working hard to plant grapes, striving to meet the Baron's required quota.

However, under the extremely harsh weather of this world, ordinary plants simply could not survive.

Let alone grapes, which are crops that need to absorb sunlight.

In the previous few years, there was relatively little severe weather.

With everyone in the village going all out, the annual output of Grapevine Village was barely 100,000 kilograms.

At the end of the year, there would be about 10,000 kilograms left, which they would sell to local wine merchants in exchange for some meager income, and life was barely manageable.

However, good times did not last long.

In recent years, the severe weather in the Gale Snowfield had become increasingly frequent.

Blizzards, cold and silent winds, cold fog disasters, etc…

Every natural disaster would not only endanger the lives of these commoners but also affect the growth of these crops in the greenhouses.

That year, they only handed over 80,000 kilograms of grapes, and the remaining 20,000 kilograms were made up by the whole village taking out all their savings.

This could be said to have emptied their savings of many years at once.

They had hoped that the second year would be slightly better.

As a result, the weather was even worse.

For the whole year, they barely harvested 60,000 kilograms of grapes.

For three consecutive years, they had not reached the quota required by the Baron.

Therefore, Grapevine Village was directly disbanded on the spot.

Baron Augustus originally wanted to randomly distribute them to work in some mining areas.

As a result, because he lost a bet with another baron, he simply sold these commoners to fill the gambling debt.

Then, their entire village was sold to Arkady Walker.

That is, the father of Fitz Walker, the previous baron.

As a result, just after taking over near his territory, the old baron fell seriously ill.

It wasn't until after he died that Fitz Walker remembered this batch of villagers.

As the village chief of Grapevine Village, Zelko was already over fifty years old this year.

In this world, the lifespan of commoners was generally around fifty or sixty years old.

So Zelko was now considered an elderly person.

This old village chief stooped, looked around, and looked at the group of simple-faced villagers beside him, sighing.

"Sigh… I don't know what the temper of this new lord is like…"

"I hope he can treat us a little kindly."

A woman wearing a cotton hat and a fair complexion beside him said, "Village Chief, this territory is much larger than we imagined. This lord must be a very capable person, right?"

The old village chief shook his head, "I'm not sure. We haven't seen this lord's appearance yet, and we don't understand his character…"

"However, I heard that this lord is returning today."

"All of you, be sharp and don't offend him, you know?"

"Otherwise, our days ahead will be hard…"

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