I have to go and do some quarrying and logging again - the houses are no longer selling well, and we need materials to build new ones. Fortunately, among the new players who have joined the village, there is already a woodcutter and a stone mason, both of whom have reached the intermediate level three. I should hurry and hire them to start work. The wood and stone materials will be purchased by me. With these two experts, I don't have to collect the materials myself. I should hurry up and build the houses. Whew, it's tiring, but I'm still very happy inside.
Just then, my village chief also reached the end. Because: My - my - offerings - are - enough -!
The system prompts me: Due to your significant contribution to the Lost Village, no one can match it. The King has decided to bestow the territory belonging to the Lost Village upon you. Do you agree?
I've been looking forward to this moment for a long time. I trembled and pressed "Agree". Then, the system prompts: The King's appointment letter will arrive in three days. During this period, you must pay off all the debts of the village...
I fainted on the spot. Oh my god, 70 gold coins, three days...
The following time, I could only mechanically build the houses and helplessly raised the rent to 100 copper coins per day, and sold the houses for 100 silver coins. But it was only enough to pay the material money for the two brothers, the woodcutter and the stone mason.
Fortunately, due to the inspiration gained from observing the work of the old architect, the houses I'm building now have significantly better attributes. When I completed the tenth residential building, the architecture skill had already reached the intermediate level one.
The old architect finished all the work and said goodbye to me. Seeing me so devotedly building the houses, his eyes shone and he nodded. I stopped working and saw his praising and encouraging expression. Of course, I couldn't miss this opportunity. I greatly flattered him and proposed to be his apprentice. The old architect was in a good mood and gave me "The Magic Building Construction Method", which was a rare and advanced secret technique not available on the market and an extremely precious item for the building profession. I was satisfied. The old man also taught me "Bonding Technique", "Polishing Technique" and "Surveying Technique".
Looking into his eyes, I found a familiar emotion. This warm and kind gaze reminded me of my grandfather. I looked at the master's name: "Magic Architect". No, with his intelligence, he should be a very advanced NPC. How could he not have a name?
I tentatively asked: "Master, why don't you have a name?" The old man smiled at me and said: "Is a name important? Actually, I don't remember my own name either. Just call me 'Master', I like to hear it."
I sheepishly touched my head: "This way of calling is not bad either. But Master, you know that I am very eager to learn. Maybe I will have many more masters to follow in the future. Then I won't be able to tell them apart."
The master pretended to be very angry, puffing out his cheeks and glaring, and then told me: "Then I will be your 'Stone Master'!"
I smiled and said: "As long as there are no other masters, I will still call you Teacher Father. Master, do you think you can give the apprentice a greeting gift? Maybe reduce what you owe me..."
The master interrupted me on the spot: "You still haven't given me the拜师 gift yet. Forget it, I won't hold it against you. Here is a set of architect tools for you. To avoid damaging my reputation, don't use those broken tools."
He threw me a bag of "Advanced Architect Tools", and the Stone Master flew to the teleportation array and disappeared. His speed made all the young people present drop their jaws.
Now let's take a look at the attributes of the village: The Lost Village, population 25, military strength 171 (shield 100, magic pillar 40), culture 56 (temple of light 50), magic 242, economy 18, security 55, production 39, environment 47. The village's comprehensive strength ranking is 9772541, which has risen by over 600,000 places!
The village's finances are currently in deficit. If the accounts are settled, this ranking will increase even more. Moreover, our village's "hardware" conditions are incomparable to those of other villages! On this continent, I don't believe there are many villages that can have so many kinds of magical buildings at the same time.
The master who runs "For Living" and the NPC miner in the Sunset City also came. He bought a room from me to open a shop. Besides buying minerals, he also went into the mountains to mine on his own. He is the first shop owner in our village. The function of the shop is that when the owner is not there, transactions can still be made through the vending machine.
As the volume of transactions between players and with vendors increases, the economic index of the village is still rising. Both production and population have increased slightly from time to time. However, some people are sharing a single house, so the houses in the village are still sufficient, with two extra rooms. I should take a break now.
At this time, the village guards sent by the lord of the city also arrived. Since the village has become my autonomous territory, I can decide whether to use him or not. Looking at the attributes of this NPC village guard: a 40-level warrior, equipped with an iron-level suit. If he is up against a player with a high ranking, he is not an opponent. It seems that I still need to increase the number of staff. Fortunately, the current players who stay and visit haven't deliberately caused trouble. They can handle it for now.
Looking at the village finances, the village guards earn 1 silver coin per day, and the village managers earn 2 silver coins. However, to my surprise, the village's debt is only 63 gold coins.
It turned out that a total of over a hundred people visited the Lost Village today. Since more than half of the people came from the Sunset City or even farther villages, for each person who comes to Sunset City, we can collect 70 silver coins, and 50 people have 3 and a half gold coins. So the income from the teleportation array alone is over 6 gold coins.
After selling so many houses and selling my homemade junk leather clothes, weapons, and wooden items to the vendors, my personal property also has 3 gold coins. But even doing the most profitable mining work, earning 10 silver coins per hour, only 7 gold coins in 3 days, is still far from enough. What a headache! Master, you are too stingy! You only worked for one day, and all the materials were provided by me, but you still charged me 80 gold coins (the village finances originally had 10 gold coins).
It seems that except for me, the village is full of happy people. The woodcutter "Black Son" cut down a "BOSS" - sulfur wood in a tree, raising his logging skill to the advanced level; The stonemason "Hate Without Ring" found an ancient trilobite fossil, raising his quarrying skill to the advanced level, and also increasing his reputation by 100 points; For living, they also found two rare iridescent iron ores, raising their mining skill to the advanced level; The several players who went to level up encountered the legendary tiger boss I had always wanted to find, and they got silver artifacts; Abao, Abe, Aishui, villager A, and the old village head, all became the objects of the new players' flattery. It seems that everyone is an expert at forming relationships with NPCs. Copper and silver coins are all stuffed into their hands, and there are all kinds of small gifts that suit their tastes. For example, I never knew that Abao loves wine, and the old village head actually likes glass marbles...
Everyone has become rich. Boredly, I was making cheap furniture for the new players. These are indispensable. The most important part of the furniture is the bed. The best attribute bed I made can restore people from the most exhausted state in half an hour. Among the new players, there was also a stonemason, but although he had the level of intermediate second grade and all the method books were complete, because he didn't have the "Comprehensive Guide to Daily Items", the things he made were not as good as mine.
During the process of making furniture, I also followed the method of architecture and tried to give the works vitality. It seems that the principles in the world are all interconnected. My work's level has indeed increased by a lot, and the experience that was growing slowly has also greatly improved.
While upgrading the stonemason to intermediate first grade, my old friend the bloodthirsty tiger boss finally arrived. Friends who have shared life and death are especially excited to meet each other, and they tell each other their experiences in the past few days.
The Tiger King was doing quite well. After changing his profession, he not only reached level 37 but also defeated an evil beast boss and obtained a golden helmet. However, when he heard about my experience, he was extremely envious. I didn't tell the Tiger King that I had to repay 70 gold coins within three days. If I had told him, given his personality, he would have sold his golden helmet to help me raise the money.
The Tiger King also brought along two subordinates, specifically to keep watch that he had changed his profession and was now level 35. The other young man was a 34-level warrior named "Honey". The warrior profession's strength and constitution were slightly inferior to that of a warrior, but his agility was higher, and he had a "missile" remote skill. The two subordinates were influenced by the Tiger King's bold elder brother, and now they both had a manly demeanor, making the chat with them very pleasant.
The Tiger King kept thinking about what I said about horsemanship. Although due to the profession restrictions, they couldn't ride horses to increase attack power and health like knights, having a horse could help them reach the level-up location more quickly, which was very useful.
So, I put aside the troubles in the village and took the gifts I had prepared for the herdsmen with me, and set off together with them. To save time on the road, I made a simple carriage according to the "Tool Compendium Complete" guide. Four horses pulled it, and the speed was okay, but my craftsmanship was not good. I forgot to add shock-absorbing devices, and as a result, the three big men immediately started vomiting all over the ground...
It's been a long time since we last met. The herdsmen were extra friendly to me, and of course, they didn't forget to welcome the new guests. Everyone sat down around the campfire and had a big meal. Then I took out the gifts I brought: five iron-level bows and two iron swords, as well as the medicine prepared by a player pharmacist in the village. Everyone happily threw me up in the air, almost causing me to collapse.
But in the midst of the revelry, with my intuition, I still sensed something unusual. The chief seemed to have some worries. So, after the welcoming ceremony ended, I asked the chief.