After checking the Star-Slaying Sword's current attributes, Zhao Fu was surprised. The Reinforcement Stone had raised each of its three original attributes by two points, added ice damage, and even restored the equipment to its original grade.
The Reinforcement Stone worked very well, but there weren't many of them. Zhao Fu then thought of Soldier Soul, which could also strengthen equipment. He wondered how effective it was, and the thought made him itch to try it.
But then he remembered that General's Artifact required a hundred Soldier Souls to fuse. Zhao Fu had to abandon the idea of using them. If one Soldier Soul had the same effect as one Reinforcement Stone, then how terrifying would the power of a General's Artifact fused from a hundred of them be? Zhao Fu looked forward even more to the day it was complete.
Li Wen was currently leading the other soldiers through the passage to explore. They had already collected 47 Soldier Souls, so the day they could make the General's Artifact wasn't far off.
Zhao Fu handed the reinforced Star-Slaying Sword to Bai Qi. Bai Qi took it, noticing how much it had changed, and was delighted when he checked its attributes.
Zhao Fu also had his men process the various materials from the Ice Cold Tiger. After all, they could be used to make silver-grade equipment. As for its meat, Zhao Fu glanced at the sky. The sun was directly overhead, and it was nearly noon.
They rested where they were and prepared lunch. The enormous Ice Cold Tiger was cut into pieces and roasted. Zhao Fu tried some of the meat. It was delicious and chewy, and he received a prompt that his ice resistance had increased by 1%.
He hadn't expected the tiger meat to be such a good thing. Unfortunately, even though an Ice Cold Tiger was huge, it could feed only a little over a hundred people at most, and many people didn't get any.
Afterward, they continued exploring. Little Gray had eaten a few pieces of Ice Cold Tiger meat and was especially energetic, sniffing out scents up ahead. Little Black, who ate grass, hadn't gotten any tiger meat and had been a little unhappy at first. But Zhao Fu had comforted him with a Small Spirit Pill, so he was in a good mood now, following behind Little Gray with a light step.
"Woof, woof..."
Little Gray caught a scent and barked at Zhao Fu a few times, then led him running until they reached a Gnome village.
It was only a basic village, with around three hundred Gnomes. It had two types of troops: Goblin Crossbowmen and Gnome Warriors, who carried scimitars. The Gnome Warriors were weak fighters, not even as strong as Goblin Warriors.
Faced with these three hundred Gnomes, Zhao Fu didn't bother with any schemes. His side had 1,400 troops and could easily overwhelm them. He surrounded the village completely, then sent his own Gnomes to persuade them to surrender.
To Zhao Fu's surprise, despite being faced with so many soldiers, the Gnomes refused to surrender and wanted to fight to the death. Zhao Fu wasn't in a hurry. His main goal was to seize population, so he first ordered his men to cut down trees and quickly build a simple fence around the village. He was going to trap them like dumplings.
Seeing Zhao Fu's group build a fence outside the village, the Gnomes understood his intentions and grew flustered. They seemed to argue among themselves, breaking into a dispute.
Watching what was happening in the village, Zhao Fu realized that the Gnomes had split into two factions. One was the rational faction, which wanted to surrender. They knew the village couldn't defeat him, and they could see that some of his soldiers were Gnomes too. It was clear they wouldn't be killed after surrendering, so surrender was the sensible choice.
The other faction stubbornly resisted, believing they shouldn't surrender to him and should live or die alongside their village.
At that moment, Zhao Fu gave another order, telling the Archers to raise their Fire Arrows. Just as they were about to fire, the Gnomes' dispute reached a breaking point. They realized that if they didn't make their position clear, they could all be burned alive.
A large group of Gnomes came out of the village and knelt down, showing that they were willing to surrender.
Zhao Fu nodded to show he accepted. Then he turned his gaze toward the village, where more than fifty Gnomes still refused to surrender. He changed his mind and ordered his men not to shoot at the houses, but to aim at the Gnomes who still refused.
Of course, Zhao Fu wasn't going to kill them all. He just wanted to warn them that he really wouldn't show mercy. He didn't believe these Gnomes were truly unafraid of death and willing to stand by their village to the end.
"Fire!"
At his command, arrows flew through the air. The Gnomes fought back desperately, shooting bolt after bolt, but Zhao Fu's Shield Bearers blocked them all. His side's arrows, meanwhile, carried tremendous force and pierced more than a dozen Gnomes.
Seeing the Gnomes who had been talking moments ago shot dead, the remaining ones felt death closing in and were overcome with fear. Just as Zhao Fu was about to order the Archers to fire a second volley, the Gnomes still inside the village ran out in terror, weeping and kneeling to surrender.
Zhao Fu accepted them all. He had now taken in 301 Gnomes. He then went to the Gnome Barracks and briefly inspected the Gnome Warrior Class Transfer Stele.
[Gnome Warrior]: F-grade unit. Description: Warriors among the Gnomes. Unit effect: Class Transfer grants the skill [Scimitar Mastery].
It was a mediocre unit. Zhao Fu glanced at it and lost interest. He went to the village hall. This Gnome village was of ordinary quality. He chose to occupy it and then migrate its people, gaining 50 War Merits and 169 experience.
After taking in this Gnome village, Zhao Fu had planned to bring them back to Great Qin Village and settle them there. But unexpectedly, he came across an ordinary Bandit Village.
There were around four hundred bandits in the village. While the bandit leader was out hunting, Zhao Fu seized the village. When the leader received the prompt that his village was under attack, he hurried back, only to be intercepted and killed by Zhao Fu's men, who had already laid an ambush.
Zhao Fu took in 340 bandits this time and immediately enlisted 300 of them as soldiers. This was something worth paying attention to. Zhao Fu had read a post about it.
Didn't Bandit Villages almost always spawn male residents, most of whom had decent combat ability, unlike ordinary villages, which spawned men, women, young, and old alike?
Some people had tried to farm large numbers of soldiers this way. They captured two Bandit Villages but didn't convert them into ordinary villages, instead letting them keep spawning bandits. But they hadn't realized that once the bandits made up half of their own forces, they would rebel outright.
Although ordinary villages spawned people of all ages and both sexes, those residents would be absolutely loyal to you. As long as you didn't oppress them or leave them without a means to live, they would remain loyal.
Bandits were different. They were evil by nature. If you didn't keep them under strict control and raise their collective loyalty to at least 60, they might betray you. It was especially dangerous when you had fewer troops than they did.
Final paragraph omitted as watermark-only?