Adventurer ×! Lord √!

Thinking of this, Ye Wei'an suddenly began to contemplate his future.

When he first arrived in this world, identified his status, and acquired the system, his thoughts were simple: rely on the abilities of the game system to become a powerful adventurer.

After all, that was exactly what the system was designed for.

Grinding monsters to level up, enhancing his abilities, accumulating wealth and prestige, and eventually becoming a legendary powerhouse—perhaps even embarking on the path to godhood was not entirely impossible.

But the appearance of the [Mini-map] and the [Companion System] revealed another path with even greater potential: the path of a lord.

What the [Mini-map] provided was far more than just the sense of direction or combat warnings needed by an adventurer.

In essence, it was a strategic-level "omnipresent perspective."

This was an ability any lord would dream of possessing.

The details of the surrounding terrain, the distribution of resources, potential sources of danger, or anomalous activities could all be intuitively displayed on the map.

Even better, just like in the game, both he and his companions could reveal the map.

For instance, right now, he could not only see the situation around his camp but also the map surrounding his distant main forces.

This meant that as a lord, he could stay in his castle every day; as long as he dispatched patrols everywhere, any anomaly or hostile activity within his territory would have nowhere to hide, allowing him to mobilize manpower and extinguish threats in a timely manner.

At the same time, whether it was troop deployment, logistics, trade, or civil construction, his efficiency would far exceed that of his rivals.

And those markers representing resources, ruins, or special locations would allow him to seize every advantage when developing territory, prospecting for minerals, or planning towns.

Being merely an adventurer could never tap into the full potential of the [Mini-map].

Only by becoming the lord of a land could he unleash its maximum value.

The same held true for the [Companion System].

Using the [Companion System] to train a few teammates just like in a game would be a massive waste of its potential.

How many people could an adventurer party manage, anyway?

The truly efficient way to use the [Companion System] was to build a state.

Because the [Companion System] solved the most core problem for a leader—the "people" problem.

It could not only be used to cultivate core military strength but also to intuitively identify the specialties of various talents, allowing him to place the right people in the right positions when building administrative, military, and economic systems, thereby greatly enhancing his ruling efficiency.

And the loyalty warning function it provided was something no traditional political maneuvering could ever hope to match.

In short, if he only became an adventurer, he could certainly rely on the system to level up all the way and reach the pinnacle without any surprises.

But by becoming a lord, he could gain so much more.

A powerful territory and the resources, intelligence, and manpower a kingdom could provide were far superior to those of an independent adventurer.

He could dispatch armies to complete tasks he had no time for, while he sat back and reaped the experience.

He could concentrate the power of an entire nation to deal with threats that would be difficult for an individual to shake.

He could even obtain opportunities and knowledge inaccessible to adventurers through the exchanges and games between powers.

The path of a lord was perhaps a road that would allow him to go faster, more steadily, and further than a mere adventurer.

Of course, the premise for all of the above was that he could actually become a lord.

His cheap father, Harandir Xiaxing, was nothing more than a low-ranking baron, and he was merely a bastard son of that baron.

With such a background, if he were in the Middle Ages of Blue Star, he would basically have no chance of becoming a lord in this lifetime.

Fortunately, this was Faerûn, in Cormyr, the legendary Purple Dragon Kingdom.

As one of the few powerful human nations on the continent of Faerûn, Cormyr possessed a vast territory.

Located in the center of the continent, it stretched from the Thunder Peaks and the Marsh of Chelimber in the east to the Dragonmere in the south, while its northwest was embraced by the natural barrier of the Storm Horns. These natural defenses allowed the kingdom to effectively resist foreign incursions with relatively low defense costs.

The kingdom enjoyed a mild and humid climate, covered in dense, lush forests, which was why the "Purple Dragon Kingdom" was often called the "Forest Kingdom." Such an environment nurtured vast areas of fertile farmland, laying a solid agricultural foundation. The Dragonmere provided a shipping route to the Sea of Fallen Stars, enabling the kingdom to engage in prosperous trade with most of the interior of Faerûn.

Blessed with such a land, the ambitions of the Cormyrian royal family did not stop there, as they continuously sought to expand their territory.

For example, the kingdom had long claimed sovereignty over the entire Stonelands, the Goblin Marches, and the Hullack Forest, intending to push its borders west to the Sunset Mountains and north to Anauroch.

However, these areas were actually in a long-term state of being undeveloped or even out of control; the Hullack Forest had even seen a brutal rebellion a century ago and remained outside the effective rule of the kingdom to this day.

Precisely because of this, the Cormyrian royal family had always encouraged "pioneering"—if any noble was willing to go to these border regions to establish settlements, as long as they could gain a foothold, the royal family was more than happy to grant them corresponding titles and ruling rights based on the size of the territory they opened up.

And Ye Wei'an's status as a descendant of a noble was just enough to qualify him to participate in such pioneering actions.

The only problem was that the cost of building a territory from scratch in such places was simply too high.

Just look at what kind of pioneering lands the Cormyrian royal family had to offer:

The Stonelands were nothing but a rugged wasteland.

The northern part of the Stonelands was desolate and barren, unable to grow crops; the south was filled with dangerous tar pits, wild magic zones, and dead magic zones. The environment of the entire Stonelands was extremely harsh, and only the toughest and most ferocious monsters could survive there.

The Goblin Marches were no better.

It was a desolate wasteland filled with cliffs, swamps, rocky hills, and thorny thickets. This was the home of numerous humanoid monsters—goblins, orcs, kobolds, gnolls, ogres, and hybrids of all the above—making it very difficult for ordinary people to gain a foothold there.

The Hullack Forest did have abundant water sources and lush vegetation.

However, the Tun River flooded year-round, turning large swaths of land into dangerous swamps. After the collapse of the bandit kingdom a century ago, this land had become a nest for various bandits and wild tribes, and in the depths of those swamps, it was rumored that hydras and even black dragons lurked.

In short, none of these places were easy to deal with.

This was hardly surprising; if these territories were simple to develop, why would the royal family have left them for others?

To pioneer these lands and establish a settlement, one needed not only a sufficiently powerful armed force but also a massive amount of Gold Lion coins as startup capital.

As for the former, Ye Wei'an was not overly concerned.

Possessing the system, he was confident in his ability to assemble a team capable of meeting the challenge.

As for the latter... if the current mission to Firefall Town proved successful, the first pot of gold for his territory development would naturally be delivered to his doorstep.

Having clarified the path ahead, Ye Wei'an finally relaxed his mind and drifted into a deep sleep.

The first night after his transmigration passed peacefully just like that.

The next morning, Ye Wei'an was awakened by the startled cry of the girl beside him.

He opened his eyes groggily to see Ailian already sitting up, staring down at her own hands with a face full of astonishment.

Seeing him wake, the girl immediately turned toward him, lowering her voice as she said urgently, "Young Master! Young Master! I... I think something is wrong with me!"

"What is it?" Ye Wei'an sat up and rubbed his temples.

"It's just... I feel so much lighter, and my strength seems to have increased as well. I almost tore the blanket just now..." Ailian spread her hands helplessly, then clenched them into fists.

Her petite frame seemed to harbor some kind of restless energy.

"And I can see things much more clearly, and I can hear so many more sounds... I can even hear Renn sharpening his blade outside... and Harold seems to be complaining about the morning dew dampening his tobacco... What, what is happening?"

Watching her look of shock and fear, as if she had contracted some strange illness, Ye Wei'an felt his sleepiness vanish, and a mischievous impulse bubbled up.

He deliberately drew out his tone, his gaze sweeping over Ailian's still-disheveled collar, and said lazily, "Oh? Could this be the result of... 'that' from last night?"

"'That'... from last night?" Ailian was stunned at first, her mind instantly flooded with memories of the wooden tub and the carpet—those things that made her want to bury herself in the ground from shame.

Her cheeks flushed a brilliant red, and even her delicate earlobes were stained a tempting shade of pink.

"Ah? It, it can do that? This, this kind of change... is actually..."

"What else could it be?"

Ye Wei'an spouted nonsense with a straight face, "According to a certain obscure magical theory, this is known as 'Life Energy Reciprocal Nourishment.' Especially for a spellcaster like me with high Charisma stats, during intimate states, the energy of the Weave flows through the resonance of our souls, irrigating the other person's body like a flood over farmland. You're lucky you encountered a mage like me who has mastered 'Life Energy Reciprocal Nourishment'; isn't it normal for your physical constitution to improve afterward?"

Ailian listened, completely bewildered.

Even the most bottom-tier magic apprentice wouldn't believe such a fabricated theory, yet she actually bought it.