touchnovel Chapter 52: Strength Enhancement
Chapter 52: Strength Enhancement
When Duolong returned with his caravan, it was just past noon. The supplies he had brought back from the Double-Headed Bone tribe filled five oxcarts and more than a dozen flatbed carts, carrying nearly 20,000 catties of grain and countless other miscellaneous materials.
As the laborers pushed the carts into the city wall, someone in the crowd gasped softly.
"So much food?"
"How long will it last for the entire territory?"
Tang En stood at the entrance of the granary, checking the bags of grain entering the warehouse one by one with the ledger in hand. His expression changed from shock to ecstasy.
A long line of people followed behind the cart.
The procession of human women and children stretched from the city gate to the distant horizon, roughly numbering nearly a thousand. Most of them were ragged and had blank expressions, but upon seeing the complete bluish-gray city wall before them, some in the procession let out very soft sobs.
They had been locked in goblin cages for so long that they had become accustomed to seeing only animal skin tents and piles of bones when they looked up. Suddenly seeing a real city, tears flowed down their faces before they even realized it.
Forty-six Green men followed the procession; they had been released from their cages and had been following the cart without making a sound.
Like Thun, they had gray-green skin, no fangs, and gentler features than goblins, standing in the no-man's-land between humans and goblins.
A Green woman holding a Green baby who was sucking his thumb stood at the back of the line. She looked up at the city wall, then down at the child in her arms, and then continued walking forward.
Doron walked up to Ron and reported the situation of the trip in a low voice.
After reporting the number of supplies and prisoners, he lowered the volume of the last thing he had to say to the lowest possible level.
"The steward instructed that if Thun refused to return, all the Grin people should be eliminated."
Now that Thun is back, he naturally doesn't need to be the black glove anymore.
Ron nodded slightly, his expression somewhat strange as he looked at the sudden influx of over a thousand people.
This development is happening too fast; given the size of the territory, it will soon be too small to live in.
Duolong saw Tu'en standing in the courtyard of the pit-dwelling, holding a wooden box, his shoulders just stopping trembling.
"What happened to that guy?"
Ron thought for a moment and said, "He must be some distant cousin."
Upon hearing this, Doron stared at Ron in shock.
"My lord, this joke is really not funny at all."
Ron didn't answer and left on his own. He had a heavy task today; with so many people entering the territory, he needed a lot of houses.
Nowadays, the most suitable type of housing is the pit house, which can accommodate a large population and can also be used to grow pit potatoes.
Ron can only build one pit tower a day now, but fortunately, each pit tower directly increases his magic power by 100 points.
Ron Ashwood
Class: Mid-stage Apprentice of Architect/Mage, Mid-stage Apprentice of Knight
Physical condition: 15
Power: 12
Spirit: 10
Mana: 785
Random attribute points: 12
152 formwork buildings completed
After the building template reaches 100, you will receive one random attribute point reward for every twenty buildings constructed.
Looking at the twelve random attribute points, Ron considered it for a moment and then added them all to his attributes.
Physical condition: 20
Power: 16
Spirit: 13
Mana: 785
Random attribute points: 0
152 formwork buildings completed
Looking at the attributes on the panel, Ron felt both helpless and frustrated.
After all, he was a dual practitioner of magic and martial arts, but what he wanted to increase the most was his mental strength, because the biggest difference between a building mage and a mage was their mental strength.
Many spells require reaching the upper limit of one's mental strength to be mastered.
For example, the Eagle Eye spell used by mages requires 20 mental energy, while Old Hall's mental energy only reached 16, and he was a formal architectural mage.
It's worth noting that many apprentice mage have a mental strength of 50, which shows the difference between the two.
"Sigh, I wonder how good it would be to leave the mage's meditation skill running in the background?"
Ron himself had tried to increase his mental strength by practicing the mage's meditation method, but as Old Hall said, the meditation speed was extremely slow, only a fraction of that of normal architectural meditation.
Even after more than ten days, one might not be able to increase their mental strength by even a little bit.
Ron tentatively asked, "System, can you refine this mage meditation technique to a point where I can practice it?"
"Yes, we can refine it into a mage meditation method exclusive to the host. However, due to the different profession, the meditation efficiency is only half that of an ordinary mage. It requires 10000 mana, and installment payments are supported."
Ron could roughly understand the first part, but the price later on was somewhat unacceptable.
With 10000 magic points, given the system's nature, installment payments cannot be repaid early; you can only grit your teeth and pay the interest.
Ron asked, "How many installments will the interest be paid in?"
"360 periods! Each period only costs 140 magic points, which is economical."
"Is each period one month?"
Ron was once again shocked by the system's greed.
With a principal of 10,000, the interest exceeds 40,000.
"Each period refers to one day!"
"grass!"
Ron couldn't take it anymore and cursed.
"You are so shameless."
"All products produced by the system have undergone detailed pricing calculations, and the host is not required to purchase them."
Ron took a deep breath. Luckily, he had over 700 magic points, otherwise he would have been really scared.
"You're ruthless; help me perfect my meditation method."
No matter what, he was going to give it a try.
"No problem, please wait a moment, host."
About ten minutes later, a completely new meditation method entered Ron's brain. In less than five minutes, he digested the method as if he had been practicing for more than ten years, and he mastered it with ease.
Compared to the initial difficulty and discomfort of cultivation, the exclusive meditation method is much easier, but the effects of meditation are really too slow.
"And that's it, you took 50,000 magic power from me."
Ron couldn't help but complain.
"Host, if you were a full-time mage, this meditation method could double your meditation speed. Now your meditation speed is comparable to that of a full-time mage who has just entered the sect."
This is an apprentice who is learning meditation for the first time.
The system really dared to use a comparison. Ron quickly gave up on his meditation. A week of meditation took more than five times longer than the architectural meditation method, which was not worthwhile. Moreover, a week of meditation only increased mental strength and magic power by 0.5.
"The effect is so bad? System, are you trying to scam me?!" Ron complained.
"Host, the mage meditation method you are practicing is already top-tier. Most ordinary meditation methods can only improve your mage ...
Ron felt the system was deceiving him, but he had no proof.
He stood up, returned to Pit 1, and looked at the crowd queuing to receive food.
"Forget it," Ron said in a low voice, "Let's just leave it running; it's better than nothing."
Old Hall walked over from the side: "Young Master, how should we settle the newcomer?"
"I just built a pit house. You can settle in it first. The rest will be temporarily housed in other people's homes. I will continue building pit houses in the next few days."
Old Hall nodded and whispered, "Young master, Novia from the De Gea territory has arrived. He came secretly and is in your room."