Proceed with Caution

The High Mountain Keep lord was determined to capture the Ogre Shaman.

Richard had noticed the disdain in Nehru's voice every time he described the Ogre Shaman, yet Nehru would still mention how easy it was for ogres to become shamans and how powerful their magic was. It always sounded a bit sour.

In this world, there is no love or hatred without reason. The more contradictory an attitude, the more it reveals. In Richard's opinion, ogres most likely possessed unique talent in magic.

Given their pitifully limited learning ability, the very fact that ogres could grasp magic through acquired learning was an excellent testament to their innate talent.

In their natural state, their chaotic minds restricted the full potential of their spells.

But was low intelligence a problem for Richard? Not at all!

With the system in place, as long as an Ogre Shaman was recruited as a hero unit, allocating all attribute points to intelligence upon each level-up would surely make it easy to cultivate a mind comparable to an average person.

Richard didn't know how powerful they could become, but they would definitely be much stronger than Nehru.

Actually, the Kobold Shaman's strength was by no means weak. If it were human, earning a guild title as a low-level mage would be no problem.

Given the scarcity and high demand for spellcasters, a penniless frontier lord who couldn't even afford 500 gold coins would wake up laughing from a dream if they managed to recruit a magic apprentice.

If the Kobold Shaman hadn't been so chatty, sparking Richard's idea of cultivating ogres and making him pickier, he wouldn't have treated a shaman capable of using two types of magic so roughly.

The depressed Kobold Shaman would probably never know that its unfortunate fate was entirely self-inflicted.

Nehru's final order was to cast a spell once a day in front of the ogres.

Richard believed that all intelligent beings must have curiosity about the unknown. Since ogres possessed potential, this curiosity might become the trigger for their awakening.

Nehru obediently carried out the High Mountain Keep lord's orders, but it turned out that Richard's idea was only half right.

Most intelligent beings were indeed fascinated by it, such as the residents of High Mountain Keep. This era sorely lacked entertainment, so every evening at the time of spellcasting, at least half of High Mountain Keep's population would noisily flock to watch the magic show, which was especially popular with women and children.

However, the ogres were a staunch minority. They showed absolutely no interest in Nehru's magic, preferring to dedicate their limited lives to the endless pursuit of gluttony. There wasn't a single sign of awakening, leaving the livestock manager sighing all day long.

This result left the lord both amused and exasperated.

High Mountain Keep didn't keep idlers, and with the recent construction boom, these simpletons were simply sent to the construction site as laborers.

There was originally a wooden blockhouse made of logs on the hill, but such a structure was not very suitable for a wilderness frontier territory.

Its shape was too towering, making it difficult to conceal. It consumed too many building materials, unable to meet the growing population. Furthermore, the wooden walls had tiny gaps, making it difficult to withstand the harsh blizzards of the wilderness in winter.

The original pioneers who built it were clearly too concerned with appearances, which is why they chose this attractive but highly impractical form.

Now that Richard could take over this treasure, it indicated that he had swallowed the bitter fruit of failure, and perhaps that was the reason.

Frontier expansion in knightly novels might be a magnificent heroic epic, but in reality, it was nothing more than a tenacious, grubby struggle where only the survivors prevailed.

Richard had long planned to renovate, but he had only just found the time and leisure to do so.

His plan was to dismantle the wooden building and use the salvaged timber to construct semi-underground earth shelters. This type of building had been thoroughly tested in the Great Northwest and was perfectly suited for the wilderness from a practical perspective. Its only drawback was its rustic appearance.

Now everyone had moved out temporarily into tents, and the slaves were slowly dismantling the wooden building.

Though ogres weren't very intelligent, they were strong enough, making them suitable for this kind of unskilled heavy labor. They snapped off logs one by one, like breaking sugarcane.

Occasionally, when they made a mistake, the supervising warriors would whip them mercilessly. Ogres possessed profound empathy for each other; when one was beaten, the others would cry out in unison, so the entire hill was often enveloped by a mournful, drawn-out wail.

To escape the noise, Richard took Hert and Gunther to the riverside to slack off.

A few days prior, he had found time to make a deck of cards from mulberry paper. After teaching Gunther and Hert how to play, the two visibly became more and more addicted, wanting to play a few rounds whenever they had free time.

It was impossible for men to play cards without a stake, and since they were all penniless, they gambled with the hair on their heads.

The two novices were at the peak of their addiction, and they played honestly, not knowing how to cheat. They were clearly on the verge of going bald from losing to a certain old fox.

"My lord!" Nehru shouted as he ran from the hill with his short legs. "The ogres have awakened! The ogres have awakened!"

"No more playing, no more playing. Get to the point, what's going on?" Richard smiled slyly like a cormorant, casually tossing his terrible hand into the deck.

Gunther, who had thought he was about to win, saw his joyful smile freeze on his face.

"My lord, two ogres were beaten by the supervisor with a whip while dismantling the building, and as a result, they suddenly awakened their Shamanic power," Nehru said, panting.

"Were there any casualties among the supervisors? What kind of magic did they awaken? Can you tell me all at once!" Richard hadn't expected such a windfall, a double surprise.

This proved that the lord's idea was correct, and the lord's leadership was brilliant—the ogres' talent was even stronger than imagined.

Next, as long as they leveled up, High Mountain Keep would gain two legitimate spellcasters!

"The supervisors were not injured. They awakened earth and air magic respectively," Nehru suddenly became somewhat hesitant.

"Earth Collapse and Wind Blade? That's not bad," Hert carefully tidied the cards and put them back into the iron box.

"Actually, fire magic is the best; in terms of battlefield lethality, it's much stronger than other types," Richard looked around at his subordinates, spread his hands with a smile. "But things can't always be perfect. Earth and air magic are also good; we should be content."

"My lord..."

"Hmm?"

Nehru scratched the back of his head and said cautiously, "They awakened Stone Skin and Obscuring Mist."

"What?" Richard vigorously dug at his ears.

"Stone Skin and Obscuring Mist..."

Richard, the lord of High Mountain Keep, son of a marquis, owner of the system, and a transmigrator who had lived two lives, swore to the heavens that at that moment, he almost blacked out from anger.

Stone Skin increased defense and reduced pain, while Obscuring Mist twisted light through the atmosphere, making one nearly invisible—these two clearly looked like "beaten-up" spells, forced out by ogres who were pushed to their breaking point.