Zong Shen thought things over and, before he knew it, had returned to the area outside the courtyard.
He reached out and patted the Old Travel Horse's enormous head.
Its smooth coat felt wonderful to the touch.
"Clever old fellow."
The Old Travel Horse snorted and turned its head slightly, fixing Zong Shen with one big eye.
In its gaze, Zong Shen saw friendliness, intelligence, and a sense of harmony.
They said an old horse knew the way home, and that was absolutely true.
In Zong Shen's eyes, this Old Travel Horse seemed much smarter and more sincere than the three foolish Farmers.
Zong Shen dismounted and tied the Travel Horse by the courtyard gate, letting it graze on its own.
Luna and the others had not returned yet.
The construction progress of the [Level 1 Thatched Hut] among the three buildings was already more than halfway complete.
With enough resources and people on hand, it would not take long to get it built.
Tomorrow's goal would still be to focus on gathering resources. Zong Shen planned to divide the Farmers into groups.
Each group would be responsible for gathering different resources to improve efficiency.
As the gathering parties grew and their range expanded,
either Colby or Luna would have to stay behind to protect the Farmers and help transport resources.
The trees and resources around here were far too spread out.
If he could find a forest or a mine,
Zong Shen could build a [Tier 1 Lumber Mill] or a [Level 1 Mine] right beside it. Then, after the Farmers finished gathering, they could put the wood and ore straight inside, where they would be processed into various resources.
There would be no need to haul everything back to the courtyard, which would save a great deal of time.
Zong Shen plopped down on the Territory Storage Box. He had already started to think of it as his lordly throne.
"Next, I'll put on my new gear. Also, I leveled up twice after taking out those Marauders earlier, so I should spend my skill and attribute points too."
Zong Shen muttered to himself.
Then he opened the [Personal] function.
And began allocating his points.
After leveling up twice, he had 2 distributable attribute points, 2 distributable skill points, and 10 distributable Weapon Proficiency points.
The Fine Grade [Emerald Legguards] he had obtained earlier required 8 Agility to equip, and Zong Shen was still one point short.
So he promptly put 1 point into Agility.
He hesitated over whether to put the remaining point into Strength or Intelligence.
Strength increased his personal power.
Intelligence increased his team's power.
The four main attributes also determined the upper limit of his skill levels.
A passive skill's level could not exceed one-third of its corresponding main attribute.
Zong Shen had only 7 Intelligence, so all his Intelligence-based skills could only be raised to Level 2.
Unless he could train an Intelligence-focused Hero to handle overall expeditions and internal affairs.
Charisma was important too, since it determined his Command limit.
That really left Zong Shen in a dilemma.
Strength and Agility favored the individual.
Intelligence and Charisma favored the team.
Just as Zong Shen was struggling to decide,
the golden Strategy Guide appeared again.
(No need to agonize over it. In the early stages, development should take priority, so Intelligence and Charisma are recommended. To reiterate, don't worry about your early attribute points. Once you have a Hero capable of standing on their own, you can allocate points however you like. Also, Lords can improve themselves through study or changing classes.)
After reading this advice, Zong Shen finally knew what to do.
He put the remaining attribute point into Intelligence, which also gave him another distributable skill point.
He now had 3 distributable skill points.
Zong Shen had originally wanted to put them into Engineering, but that skill had already reached its limit.
So he put 1 point each into [First Aid], [Item Management], and [Pathfinding].
His next goal was to raise his Intelligence to 9 as soon as possible, which would raise the maximum level of his passive skills to Level 3.
He didn't regret choosing the Strength-focused path at the start.
After changing into his new gear, his combat ability was still impressive.
If he had chosen a starting build focused on Intelligence and Charisma, he might not even have been able to kill that underage Grassland Wolf.
With a wolf blocking his home, he would never have been able to explore as freely as he could now.
Next, he put all his Weapon Proficiency points into One-handed Weapon.
After allocating his points, Zong Shen put on the [Emerald Legguards], and his attributes improved once again.
He opened [Lord Profile].
Zong Shen's attributes immediately appeared.
[Name: Zong Shen] [Age: 21] [Race: Earth/Human] [Level: LV3] [Experience: 55/455] [Health: 182] [Commanded Population: 14/39] [Strength: 12] [Agility: 8] [Intelligence: 8] [Charisma: 9] [Remaining Distributable Attribute Points: 0] [Remaining Distributable Weapon Proficiency: 0] [Detailed Attributes: (Click to Expand)] [Weapon Proficiency: (Click to Expand)]
He opened the detailed attributes.
[Lord: Zong Shen] [Equipment: [Disheveled Leather Tunic] [Emerald Legguards] [Tattered Leather Boots] [Sharp Germanic Sword] [Hunting Crossbow] [Bent Crossbow Bolt] [Dented Simple Kite Shield]] [Head Armor: 0] [Upper Body Armor: 13] [Leg Armor: 37] [Magic Resistance: 13] [Skills: None] [Territory Level: 1]
Zong Shen waved his hand and dismissed the system text in front of him.
He was quite satisfied with his current attributes.
In terms of pure slashing power, he was comparable to a Wolf Cavalryman.
He simply didn't have as many skills as Colby and Luna.
"Not bad."
"At least I can protect myself now."
Zong Shen stretched.
He was very satisfied with his current attributes.
After all, today was only his first day here.
The future was full of hope!
Ollie!
Zong Shen clenched his fists and gave himself a pep talk.
It was now five in the afternoon.
The sun was setting. Its light had begun to lose its dazzling brilliance and grow softer.
Luna finally returned to the territory with eight Farmers.
Colby still hadn't come back.
It seemed they were running a little later than agreed.
However, Zong Shen hadn't seen any system notification saying that Colby had died in battle, so there shouldn't be anything seriously wrong.
He got up to greet Luna.
"Luna, thanks for all your hard work."
Then he turned to the eight Farmers.
"You're in luck. There isn't much work for you today."
"Now, go outside the courtyard. There are two [Level 1 Thatched Huts] waiting to be built, as well as six Iron Axes and six iron pickaxes."
"The territory is badly in need of wood right now. Gather as much as you can."
"You can rest once it gets dark."
These Farmers had been held captive by Marauders for several days, and their physical condition was poor.
But Zong Shen was no philanthropist. The population had to put in work to be useful.
Every bit of progress meant a little more security!
His words prompted some complaints from the Farmers, but their Loyalty did not decrease.
They followed his instructions obediently. Led by San Pang, they collected their tools outside the courtyard and then went off to gather resources.
Before you continue