Duke's requirements for the design of his new home were not actually very complicated. It just had to be rather more compact and exquisite than most commoners' houses.
Four floors in total.
One basement level, divided into light and dark sections. The aboveground basement was for storing odds and ends, while the hidden basement would be accessed through a concealed door and used for matters requiring privacy.
The first aboveground floor would contain the living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and storage room.
The second aboveground floor would contain bedrooms, a workshop, a study, a bathroom, and a breeding room. The breeding room was prepared for Little Dou. It faced south and received plenty of sunlight, allowing him to grow flowers and grass, as well as raise fish.
The third aboveground floor would be nothing more than a small attic, so he could stand high and see far.
After he added more money, the construction crew quickly got to work, digging the foundation into the small mound while transporting a huge pile of building materials, including bundles upon bundles of rebar.
Duke required all the outer walls to be bound with thick rebar, and the basement's outer walls were no exception.
Even the doors and windows had to be fitted with rebar guardrails.
After all, this place was still wasteland. There wasn't a single house for hundreds of meters around. If he didn't build his new home sturdily, he wouldn't feel safe.
If a Spirit Beast happened to wander over and smash through the doors or windows, it would be a serious problem.
Of course.
Duke dared to live here because he had something to rely on. The One-Ring Desert Eagle was his greatest trump card. Whether it was a 1-Ring Spirit Beast or a 1-Ring Great Knight, he could riddle it with bullets.
"By the way, outside the wall, at the foot of the mound, help me build a row of bungalows too. Divide it into ten rooms. The most ordinary kind will do."
"No problem, Boss Little Duke. Just pay a little extra." The construction crew leader agreed readily.
"I'll definitely pay extra. Also, build a public toilet behind the bungalows."
"Leave it to us."
After everything was settled, Duke often came over during the day to supervise the work, then busied himself with his own affairs at the rented house in the evening.
Although he no longer had Little Sam's Card Shop, he still often took a carriage to Chen Jiao City.
He wasn't buying things for other people. He was going to the Scrap Card Station to hunt for cards himself.
Before the farm got up and running, he planned to make money by refurbishing scrap cards. The Pioneer War had brought a flood of people into Snakehead Town, and all of them were potential customers.
"I don't repair cards. I only sell refurbished cards."
The profit from repairing cards couldn't hold a candle to even a fraction of the profit from refurbished cards.
Duke hadn't found a suitable channel yet, but it wasn't difficult. Once Third Vertical Street was built, he could rent a small storefront and hire a clerk. He might not even need to rent one—he could cooperate with card-repair and card-selling shops and consign his goods through them.
This time, while hunting for cards, he also went to a spirit-metal shop and spent a total of five gold dragons buying a pile of different kinds of spirit metal.
Xiao Yi had already completed the research and development of the Desert Eagle 1.1 Muzzle Compensator version.
Upon returning to Snakehead Town, he went straight to the rented house.
After spending three days, he refined all the spirit metal.
Within his spirit sea, the position of the muzzle suppressor in the One-Ring spell structure of the Desert Eagle had been redrawn, and the gun body had undergone some minute adjustments as well. When the last bit of spirit metal became a mote of light and merged into this entirely new improved structure, the Desert Eagle's radiance trembled, silently cheering and leaping for joy.
"It worked!"
With a flicker of Duke's thoughts, a silver-gray Desert Eagle pistol appeared in his hand, a long suppressor extending from its muzzle.
The suppressor had originally been a smooth, round tube in black and gray, but although its color had not changed, its structure had undergone a complex transformation.
It was no longer a single, rounded tube. Instead, it was a tube covered in densely packed hollow patterns.
He slipped silently out of the house, then vaulted onto the roof in one leap. Standing atop the roof in the darkness, Duke held the Desert Eagle 1.1 and quietly aimed at the Bright Lamp atop Snakehead Tower in the distance.
Pfft!
He pulled the trigger, but the Bright Lamp did not change.
Duke said nothing and continued firing in rapid succession. After each shot, he adjusted the angle of his sights. When he had emptied three magazines, he paused for breath, replaced the fourth magazine, and aimed at the Bright Lamp once more. Then he circulated his battle aura to keep his hand steady and gently pulled the trigger.
Pfft!
The gunshot was still barely audible. The improved compensator had not weakened the suppressor's original function.
Just as Duke thought the shot had missed and prepared to fire again, the Bright Lamp atop Snakehead Tower in the distance suddenly flickered, then went out completely.
"Huh?"
"Did I hit it?"
If it hadn't been hit, the Bright Lamp would have remained lit all night.
However, since the shot hadn't blown the Bright Lamp apart, the bullet had probably only grazed it and smashed it with the force of the impact.
Duke put away the Desert Eagle and returned satisfied.
The house he rented was roughly eight hundred meters from Snakehead Tower in a straight line. In other words, after the compensator had been improved, the Desert Eagle's range had increased dramatically.
"It's just not easy to aim. I fired nearly forty rounds and only barely managed to graze it once."
"I still need to have Xiao Yi keep improving it. Hopefully, it can take a head clean off in one shot from a kilometer away!" Duke was preparing to turn the Desert Eagle into a sniper rifle.
But in theory, it was possible.
After all, this wasn't a pistol. It was an arcane artifact shaped like a Desert Eagle, and its possibilities were infinite.
He closed his eyes and looked inward at his spirit sea, speaking with Xiao Yi: "For the next phase of the Desert Eagle's development, change the direction to... adding a scope. As an additional effect, try to improve its range."
"Understood, Master. I have added a new process for you."
Immediately afterward, a new process appeared on the process screen: "Process Two: Desert Eagle 1.2 Scope Version. Research consumes 55% power. Current research progress: 0.0%. Time budget not yet determined."
He activated the process.
Duke raised his eyebrows. "First a suppressor, then a compensator, and next a scope. What other pistol attachments can be added afterward?"
The One-Ring Desert Eagle was an arcane artifact, but the basic structure of its spell model was a pistol. Therefore, its improvements could only be made on that foundation.
Trying to create something from nothing and improve it would be far too difficult.
So, using the attachments that pistols already possessed as blueprints, combining them with Duke's understanding from before he crossed over, and then having Xiao Yi research and improve them made things much simpler.
"Hmm, it should still be possible to improve the magazine, tactical light, and tri-edged bayonet?" He had seen those attachments when he played with guns at the Falcon Club.
"Besides, the ammunition can probably be improved too, and the room for improvement is enormous. Hollow-point rounds, buckshot, incendiary rounds, flash-bang rounds, smoke rounds, flashbang rounds... I'll have Xiao Yi try them all later."
Suddenly,
another flash of inspiration struck him. "The Desert Eagle is only a pistol. What if I improve it according to the designs of rifles and submachine guns, or even in the direction of something like a rocket launcher? Would that work?"
But he quickly rejected the idea himself. "Forget it. I shouldn't keep limiting the Desert Eagle to a hot weapon. It's an arcane artifact! It's only being improved according to pistol attachments because Xiao Yi's abilities are insufficient for now... Once Xiao Yi and I have both grown, perhaps the Desert Eagle itself will be obsolete."
By then, with a powerful superbrain like Xiao Yi, Duke could forge new arcane artifacts—2-Ring, 3-Ring, or even 9-Ring ones.
"But that's still a long way off. I've only cultivated to the Three-star Spiritual Apprentice level... I should go to bed early."
Before you continue