Spirit Game

Druger, Hana, and Lyncon appeared, smiling and crying with relief at their safe return.

That day, they celebrated their victory and mourned their fallen comrades, especially feeling the loss of Chin. Druger proposed building a graveyard beneath the village to bury their dead close to home.

Rain had left the rebuilding of their village in Druger\'s capable hands while he attended to other matters. That night, he stayed with his people, noting that the destruction of the village had been cleaned up and buildings were starting to take shape. He also noticed that his territory had expanded significantly.

"Since you have defeated the Hobgoblin King, my lord, you can now expand further north if you so wish," Druger said.

"We\'re both lords, Druger. No need to address me as such," Rain replied.

Druger shook his head vehemently. "No, my lord. You have defeated a king and claimed his lands. You\'re no longer just an ordinary lord. Your status is far greater than mine. In fact, I\'m thinking of making the Port Town part of your lordship."

Rain was surprised. "Huh? What are you talking about, Druger? You just fought a battle because you didn\'t want anyone taking your land."

"Hear me out, my lord," Druger insisted. "The Port Town is only free because of you. It will be under your name and territory, but you can still assign me as the mayor of the town. After all, you can\'t lord over multiple territories at the same time. You need to designate leaders to govern over them."

"You do have a point," Rain mused. In the future, he would keep expanding his lands and couldn\'t possibly be in the same place at the same time, so he had to instill some leaders to govern in his name.

"There\'s also the problem of your troops and population. With limited troops and population, you can automatically send the excess troops and citizens to the Port Town so they can still be accommodated."

"Ah, that . . ." Rain had indeed raised that issue before with Druger.

With 1000 Ebizo soldiers that Lord Izumi had lent, he wasn\'t worried because they weren\'t part of his troops and they would return to Lord Izumi\'s side once their mission was over.

But when the Hobgoblins, and those 1000+ Hobgoblin soldiers left in King Kraggul\'s army came, he didn\'t know what would happen to them if he [Dismissed] them since he could only take in 100 troops and 1000 villagers at the moment.

So merging the Port Town into his territory would greatly help him.

[NOTE: Troop count does not add as Villager count and vice versa.]

"And also, the Port Town doesn\'t have any means to defend itself. With it under you, its citizens would feel much safer. There\'s also your problem with income, right? With tax money from trade, I think that would temporarily solve that problem."

"I do see your point, though tax money alone wouldn\'t cut it. The Port Town would struggle if it\'s our only means of income . . . However, I agree to the merging, so I will leave it to you to formalize everything."

Druger beamed. "Leave it to me, my lord!"

[Make The Barren Wasteland Port Town part of your territory?]

[YES. Pay 100L Soul Elixirs]

[NO]

Whoa . . . it\'s so expensive, Rain thought. Maybe because the Port Town was already developed and bringing in money?

No wonder they said that claiming another\'s territory was so costly. Now he understood why no one wanted to take over his land.

Good thing he had racked up a whole lot of Soul Elixirs and EP from winning a large-scale war.

In fact, the first time he had laid eyes on the numbers, Rain almost passed out. It took him days to finally believe that the numbers were real.

Rain pressed [YES].

[CONGRATULATIONS! The Barren Wasteland Port Town is now part of your territory!]

[LEVEL UP!]

[1000 Villagers upgraded to 5,000!]

[100 troops upgraded to 1,000!]

|| Rain Weathers ||

Title: Novice Lord

Territory: Silverstone Oasis

Territory Level: 2

Villagers: 2 472 / 5 000

Soldiers: 1000/1000

Extraction: 0/20

Soul Elixirs: 910 L 30 mL

Evolution Points: 1,160,000 EXP Discover stories at mvl

|| E N D ||

[There are still over 200+ Hobgoblin soldiers left. Dismiss them and turn them into ordinary citizens?]

This notification kept popping up on his screen since the Hobgoblins had laid down their weapons and sworn allegiance to him. Thankfully, he hadn\'t pressed [YES].

He recalled that before he took control of the port town, almost all of them would have been dismissed and likely turned into ordinary citizens performing mundane tasks or worse, they would have been turned into homeless or something.

But now, there were still over 200+ Hobgoblins remaining.

[Do you want to claim Grimfang?]

The notification popped up after Rain thought about the Hobgoblin territory.

[YES. Pay 500L Soul Elixirs]

[NO]

So expensive . . . Rain regretted blowing up the Hobgoblin King\'s underground lair. He could have let the Hobgoblins still live there.

"What have I done . . . ?" In his defense, he never thought he could claim such vast territory like Grimfang.

No matter. He would think about rebuilding it once he was done here.

Rain pressed [YES], and instantly, his territory level surged. The capacities of his troops and villagers expanded dramatically, infusing the land with newfound strength and potential.

|| Rain Weathers ||

Title: Novice Lord

Territory: Silverstone Oasis

Territory Level: 5

Soldiers: 1214/5000

Villagers: 2 472 / 10 000

Extraction: 0/50

Soul Elixirs: 410 L 30 mL

Evolution Points: 1 160 000 EXP

|| E N D ||

"I noticed that the walls have grown thicker and higher," Rain said after checking his stats.

"Ever since the Hobgoblins appeared, they\'ve been helping us rebuild the town, making the construction faster. They\'re handy in pushing boulders and turning them into blocks.

"And with you entrusting me with the funds and materials in your inventory, I took up the mantle to buy materials in the mainland to speed up the construction. Also, I want to equip the new town with defense machinery if that\'s alright with you?"

Rain was grateful. "I\'ll leave it in your hands. I should be thanking you for taking on this task. I\'m very clueless about all of this. I\'m so glad that you\'re around." Building and managing were not his strengths, so he was immensely grateful for the guidance and expertise of Druger and Lyncon.