Development

"May I ask who you are?" Li Wei asked.

"Just a Ranger."

A Ranger?

A figure slowly emerged from the darkness. Li Wei could hear the voice, but not a single footstep.

If he had not shown himself, Li Wei feared he would never have noticed someone lurking nearby.

Suppressing the urge to take out a torch, Li Wei examined him carefully in the moonlight. The newcomer was tall, wore a cloak, had a dagger at his waist, and carried a plain wooden bow on his back.

His face was buried in shadow beneath his hood, impossible to make out in the slightest.

"Thank you."

Though he could have dealt with those Orcs himself, the man had come to help out of goodwill. Li Wei should not reject such kindness.

As the Ranger retrieved his arrows and searched the Orcs he had killed, he said, "No need to thank me. Those Orcs were my hunting targets to begin with. I'd been following them for a long time. You helped me as well."

After saying that, he looked Li Wei over again. "But if you ask me, it's best not to make light in such a high place at night."

Li Wei awkwardly rubbed his hands together.

"You're a Dúnedain?" he asked, changing the subject.

The Ranger gave Li Wei a somewhat surprised look.

"Yes."

In the span of a few sentences, the corpse with an arrow stuck in its head had been thoroughly searched. The Orcs Li Wei had killed, however, had not been touched.

"I heard that some Rangers secretly guard this wilderness. So it was true."

"People really say that?" The Ranger chuckled. "That's quite rare."

These northern descendants who wandered the wilderness were elusive and mysterious, always regarded with suspicion. Many people often lumped them together with hooligans and bandits.

"You've killed those things in the barrows?"

The Ranger suddenly looked up. In the darkness, a pair of keen gray eyes stared straight at Li Wei.

"I have. May I ask how you could tell?" Li Wei asked curiously.

"Instinct. For a while, I dealt with those things quite often."

All right, magical instinct.

Li Wei reluctantly accepted that explanation.

After thinking for a moment, he suddenly took out the Barrow-blade dropped by the Barrow-wight and tossed it to the Ranger.

The Ranger caught it and examined it closely for several seconds, looking quite surprised.

"Looks like you recognize this kind of sword?"

The Ranger nodded. "Very well. This was a weapon we used long ago. Its forging method has been lost, but this one might still be usable after some repairs."

"Then it's yours."

"Oh? You really want to give it to me? You should know that this sword is quite old. It counts as an antique, and someone who knows its worth would pay a very good price for it."

"Is that so? I think it's better to give it to someone who needs it than sell it to someone who wants it. Besides, it means a lot to you, doesn't it?"

"Then I thank you sincerely."

The Ranger nodded heavily and did not refuse again. He merely rummaged through his pockets, found a coin, and handed it to Li Wei.

"Take this as a token. If there is ever anything you need me to do, wait for me at the Forgotten Inn. That is my regular stop. I will definitely appear there within half a month at most."

Li Wei nodded and put away the coin.

"My name is Li Wei. And you are?"

"Falrodan."

The Ranger left behind a name, and the two parted ways.

The Ranger vanished into the darkness.

Li Wei gazed out over the wilderness and suddenly had some ideas.

This place seemed rather nice too.

One day half a month later, Li Wei crawled out from the interconnected tunnels underground with a delighted expression. His backpack held some Raw Iron Ore, as well as more than a dozen stacks of Rough Stone that his fortress could no longer contain.

Hard work paid off.

After half a month of exploration and deep excavation, Li Wei had finally discovered an Iron Vein deep underground. Though he did not yet know how large it was, it would definitely be enough to mine for quite some time.

And there was more than just iron. While digging tunnels in every direction, he occasionally unearthed scattered deposits of other minerals, such as copper, sulfur, Saltpeter, and the like.

Li Wei did not recognize any of those things at all, but whenever he mined them and they fell into his backpack, the system thoughtfully labeled them with item IDs.

And once he had sulfur, Saltpeter, and charcoal in his backpack at the same time, the Synthesis Table suddenly unlocked a recipe.

Gunpowder.

And—TNT!

From then on, Li Wei paid special attention to gathering those materials whenever he dug.

And after confirming that the area was relatively rich in minerals, Li Wei finally made up his mind.

This was the place!

The location for his first base.

Li Wei opened the map and marked a point on it.

This place was roughly located between Windcloud Peak and Ogre Forest, some distance from the main road. There were woods, a lake for water, and a fairly broad stretch of flat land nearby.

If Orcs, Wargs, and similar creatures did not often appear in this area, it truly would have counted as a livable place.

But Li Wei was not afraid of them.

A month later, a fortress of stone and wood had risen from the flat ground out of thin air. Around it stood walls seven or eight meters high, enclosing a large plot of land.

An apparently endless water source flowed from within the castle, nourishing a large wheat field that had suddenly appeared. Within days, it had grown golden.

From afar, it was rather beautiful, though it seemed quiet, as if no one lived there.

Yet the smoke that occasionally rose from within the walls told the eyes hidden in the dark that someone truly did live there.

That day, Li Wei carried his pickaxe and returned home as usual with a backpack full of ore and Cobblestone. When he reached the entrance, he suddenly felt wary. Looking up, he saw someone sitting on the wall and watching him. He had no idea how the man had climbed up there.

A Ranger?

He looked somewhat familiar.

"Falrodan?" Li Wei asked.

The Ranger on the wall waved a hand in acknowledgment.

Seeing Li Wei return, he stopped sitting around. In just a few steps, he used the wall for leverage and jumped down from above, leaving Li Wei clicking his tongue in amazement. That agility was truly first-rate.

"How did you find this place?"

"I heard about it from my companions. There was supposedly a wizard with strange powers who had built a fortress here out of thin air and planted crops that grew incredibly fast. Once they described his appearance, I knew it was you."

"Besides, your place is far too conspicuous. Smoke rises every day. It would be hard not to notice."

This time, Falrodan did not hide his face. Under the sunlight, Li Wei could see that this tall Dúnedain had black hair, gray eyes, and a fairly handsome face.

Though he looked only thirty or forty, he might actually have been over a hundred years old.

"That's true enough." Li Wei did not deny it. He had never intended to hide anything.

Let the Orcs come if they wanted. This great MC Player was no pushover. So what if an army came knocking? Did they think his dig-three, place-one trick was just for show?

"Would you like to come in and sit for a while? I only recently finished decorating the kitchen. Why not try my cooking?"

Falrodan shook his head. "No. Time is urgent. I came to tell you that a troop of Orc cavalry has set its sights on this place. There are dozens of Warg riders alone. Including the other grunts, that troop likely has more than a hundred men."

Li Wei sucked in a breath.

A troop of over a hundred Orcs, including dozens of Warg riders.

His shabby little castle might really struggle to hold them off. Wargs had terrifying jumping ability. They could leap several meters high at a time and easily get onto roofs.

If all they could do was jump high, that would be one thing. The key was that they were also good climbers. They could scale trees over ten meters tall with ease.

His seven- or eight-meter walls...

Considering how smooth the Cobblestone was, with nowhere to gain leverage, they probably could not climb them... right?

"They will still need some time to get here. You can still leave now," Falrodan advised.

"No, I'm not leaving. I just built this base. Why should I put up with that?"

If any random troop could drive him away, would that not mean he was working for the Orcs?

At worst, he would wear them down.

Seeing Li Wei's resolute attitude, Falrodan knew he could not persuade him. He looked over the castle and said, "If you won't leave, it will be difficult for this place to stop that Orc troop. As far as I know, their leader is an unusually tall Orc with tremendous strength."

Falrodan glanced at the gate made from wooden fencing in front of the castle.

Could that really be called a city gate?

"With a gate like this, I'm afraid you'll have a hard time stopping him."

"It's fine. I have a way."

Li Wei did not seem concerned at all.

After looking Li Wei up and down, then glancing at the castle that seemed to have been built overnight, Falrodan became thoughtful.

"All right. I believe you have some magical solution."

"But are you sure you do not need to make more preparations? When I discovered that troop, they were already heading this way. Unless something unexpected happens, they will arrive tonight."

"What? Tonight!?"

That soon?

Li Wei's heart immediately leaped into his throat.

Though he claimed not to be afraid, he was ultimately still a newcomer who had never faced any great storms. The largest scene he had ever witnessed was being robbed by eight bandits, and even that could only be considered a dispute at the village entrance.

Now he had suddenly been told that he would face a small battle tonight. To be honest, Li Wei was sweating buckets.