Lonely Mountain Dwarves

Lonely Mountain Dwarves

The stats of a Level 1 Frenzied Giant Bear really weren't much to look at.

After Big Bear became his pet, William spent the next three days waiting for the other cubs to wake up before taking them in as pets as well. Especially with his bizarre Handsome talent, the cubs' affection for him rose incredibly quickly.

As for the game Gods, there were generally three types of affection.

The first was faction affection, calculated in tens of thousands.

The second was friendship affection, calculated in thousands. This included NPCs.

The third was pet affection, calculated in hundreds.

Pet affection had to reach 300 points before a pet truly became incapable of betrayal!

Of course, nothing was absolute. If players abused their pets all day, their affection would plummet. Maxing out affection didn't mean they could do whatever they pleased or commit any deranged, filthy acts against their pets.

The three adorable cubs grew quickly. In just a few days, they could follow William around town like little lapdogs and roll all over the ground.

Their companionship over the past few days made the three cubs' affection soar once again.

William had deep experience with raising pet affection. In his previous life, countless players had forcibly captured adult pets, and raising their affection was absolute torture. Only afterward did players gradually realize that juvenile pets didn't require nearly as much money, resources, or effort...

Because juvenile pets had low intelligence. Playing with them was enough...

But if it was an adult pet...

For example.

If it was a nearly mature High-Level Monster, gaining its affection practically meant piling up money to buy it!

Players had to satisfy all its needs—food, even mates for breeding...

There was no helping it.

If you wanted a pet to work for you, you had to raise it properly first.

He vaguely remembered that in his previous life, there had been an innocent, adorable girl who had stumbled into incredible luck and gained the favor of a Dragon Beast—a super monster with Dragon bloodline.

However.

Because the girl failed to meet the monster's many needs, it simply flapped its wings and flew away.

That was why the real big shots who could afford to keep pets were practically all reduced to bankruptcy...

The most crucial point was this.

The pets in Gods were not the same as pets in other games.

In other games, pets could be revived after death, but their stats were low. For example, if you captured an originally powerful, overpowered monster and made it a pet, its stats would inevitably be weakened. Its level might even reset to zero, forcing you to train it all over again. While it might still escape from its owner, the chances were nearly zero.

But in Gods, whatever level a pet was when you captured it, it remained that level, and its stats were still just as absurdly powerful!

But once it died, it was truly dead...

In other words.

Pets in Gods could completely serve as a player's second companion!

In his previous life, who knew how many players had endlessly cursed on the forums after their pets died...

But if a player caught a heaven-defying pet, one person could basically take on a hundred-man group alone. This was also one reason players with high-level pets became highly sought-after by guilds.

"Very good, very nice. A High-Level Monster of the same level could fight hundreds of players alone even in the middle stages of the game. As long as my pets don't fall behind in level, players will be like leeks in the future. One Giant Bear Roar will sweep away a whole crowd!" William finally let out a sigh of relief after escaping the three clingy cubs.

He walked through town alone, looking at the bored townspeople chatting idly outside their doors and playing cards. He couldn't help but feel how formidable Border Town truly was!

These past two days, he had appeared to be walking the bears, but he had also thoroughly inspected the town.

You never knew until you looked.

And once he looked, he was shocked.

A town with only three thousand people.

Had at least two thousand professionals...

There were only six or seven hundred ordinary civilians honestly farming to support themselves.

"No wonder Mother gave me a full five hundred Elven Warriors as guards. If I'd brought fewer guards, wouldn't these musclebound brutes have stripped me down to nothing?" William walked to the cliff's edge and watched the waterfall crash down, spraying mist into the air.

Then, following the river below with his gaze all the way to the Northern Plains and beyond, toward places like the Steel Duchy that he couldn't see with the naked eye, he murmured, "Although there are still some powerful figures within the town, I can't recruit them right now. The best approach is to show my strength and let them see that I'm an outstanding lord, one capable of developing and strengthening this town.

"I must even let them see that I have enormous potential for growth. Only then can I truly approach them—and perhaps even make them approach me on their own!"

"Then tomorrow, I'll continue deeper into Blackleaf Forest. The Orcs probably only attacked because of the mineral vein or because they thought I was easy to bully. It likely has nothing at all to do with the Dragon at East Sea Snow Mountain.

"After all, the Dragonkind of this world are terminally lazy. Other than being willing to move around and cause trouble everywhere during mating season, they're either sleeping or on their way to take a nap.

"But without civilians, the town still can't develop!" William suddenly felt a headache coming on.

The development of a town absolutely could not do without manpower.

Perhaps Orcs could be used for mining.

But what about expanding the town?

Building defensive fortifications?

Or forging equipment and so on?

Could he rely on Orc prisoners for that too?

That was absolutely impossible!

"Should I buy slaves?" William frowned slightly. At least for now, he didn't think that was a good idea. Not to mention that the town lacked both gold and food, and after buying slaves, he wouldn't even have a place to house them.

Even if he truly bought them, he could only do so through the Steel Duchy and the Blackrock Duchy. Yet those two duchies were eyeing him greedily and had long harbored designs on taking over Border Town. There was a strong possibility they would sell him plenty of spies.

After all, there was also a great chance that those two duchies had been behind his predecessor's assassination.

Even if they hadn't done it.

Those two duchies would never sit by and watch him develop and strengthen Border Town. They would definitely cause him trouble.

Although Border Town was located extremely well.

It had an eighty-meter-high cliff serving as a natural barrier, but if a duchy went all out, the current Border Town would find it difficult to use that barrier for defense.

"Then I can only keep a low profile!" William sighed. Just as he was worrying over how to develop the town.

Unexpected news arrived!

"The Orcs and Dwarves are fighting?" William was a little stunned. He had never imagined that Dwarves were hidden near the town!

"That's right. About thirty miles from where we're mining the Iron Ore Vein, there are actually some Dwarves. I heard they're Dwarves from the Lonely Mountain branch. Those Orcs must have gathered their forces to attack the Dwarves, only for us to deal with them instead..." Lotner shrugged, making it clear that he too was curious why the Dwarf Race was here.

"Dwarves from Lonely Mountain?"

Lotner nodded. "Probably. Ever since the king of the Lonely Mountain Dwarves passed away a thousand years ago, the massive Dwarf Empire split into seven great kingdoms. But quite a few Dwarves still chose to remain independent and entered remote mountains or forests. I heard that one branch of the Lonely Mountain Dwarves has always been hidden in Blackleaf Forest. It might be them."

"Then we really should make contact. If we can help, we should help our good neighbors!" William said with a grin.

Then both spoke at the same time. "After all, Elves and Dwarves are eternal good partners!"

As soon as the words fell.

Lotner met his gaze, and the two of them gave the same sly chuckle again. The meaning behind those smiles was exceedingly complicated...

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