Procurement

Li Wei was extremely curious about this future King of Men.

If he could meet him in advance, that would be nice.

But if he went to Rivendell, he probably would not be able to return for quite some time. He could not summon an Iron Golem right now, so the castle would be completely defenseless while he was gone.

After thinking it over, Li Wei decided to return to Bree first, acquire the things he needed, and make sure his Territory was secure before anything else.

He left a sign at the castle entrance carved with the words "Temporarily Away." After packing several stacks of food and fully preparing his equipment and tools, Li Wei set out onto the main road and headed west.

Compared to the journey here, the return trip was much easier. First, he had already traveled this road once and was familiar with it. Second, he had plenty of food.

There was also a third reason: Li Wei now had a world map, allowing him to check his location at any time and estimate how long it would take to reach his destination.

Other than the dull boredom of traveling, he encountered no further obstacles. Li Wei arrived smoothly at Bree's gates and underwent inspection by the guards.

Yet this time, the guards' attitude surprised Li Wei.

At the gate, a guard opened the little wooden window and glanced at Li Wei. Without asking a single question, he immediately opened the gate and gestured for him to enter.

He even greeted him, "Welcome, friend. How have the roads been lately?"

Li Wei paused before answering, "Not bad. The journey went quite smoothly. I didn't encounter any obstacles on the way."

"That's good."

The guard nodded and went back to his seat.

As Li Wei walked down the road, deep in thought, he suddenly opened the faction interface and checked Bree.

[Bree] Regional Reputation: 34 (Friendly)

Source: Killed bandits, annihilated an Orc squad.

So that was it. Although the reputation module had unlocked rather late, the things he had done before had not been forgotten.

Once reputation reached 10, the faction's attitude became friendly.

To unlock higher-tier achievements, he would need more reputation. Li Wei gave it a brief look. The next stage required—100 points.

Without dwelling on it, Li Wei turned his attention to the main purpose of his trip to Bree.

Shopping—buying supplies he could not obtain himself.

Such as seeds for crops like pumpkins, potatoes, and carrots.

And Li Wei also wanted to buy a horse for transportation.

People were ultimately not as fast as horses.

In terms of endurance, Li Wei was certainly better than a horse. After all, he did not even need to stop to eat—his fuel consumption was half a stack of jerky per hundred kilometers. But running everywhere himself was not sustainable. He was sick of running.

With his objectives decided, Li Wei first went to the Prancing Pony Inn to rent a room. He then found the proprietor directly and asked if he could help procure two good horses.

Perhaps because of his reputation, or perhaps because Li Wei was once again spending generously, the proprietor immediately agreed to Li Wei's request and promised to bring Bree's two finest horses as quickly as possible.

That was what he said, but Li Wei had no idea how short this so-called shortest possible time would be. He could only wait.

After securing his room and having a hearty meal at the inn, Li Wei immediately went out to ask around about where he could buy vegetables. With the friendly reputation bonus, the process went smoothly. He only casually asked a couple of questions, and passing townsfolk told him all about the markets and vegetable vendors throughout Bree, from east to west.

Following the directions of those helpful townsfolk, Li Wei quickly found a farm.

"Welcome, sir. What can I get for you?"

The farmer greeted him warmly.

Li Wei immediately stated his needs. Fortunately, this place had all the crops he wanted.

Pumpkins, potatoes, carrots, wheat...

"Huh, this is..."

Li Wei walked over to a basket and picked up what was inside.

"Corn!"

Crafting Unlocked: Corn Seeds

"I'll take a sack of this too!"

Li Wei bought it on the spot.

"Certainly, sir! Bree's hardest-working hands are at your service!"

Then he spotted scallions, ginger, and garlic beside it, still carrying traces of soil.

"I'll take these too!"

"Certainly, sir!"

After one round of transactions, Li Wei had spent every silver coin on him, including the blackened silver coins looted from the Orc squad.

The attentive farmer was beaming. This had truly been a great deal. This gentleman simply did not treat money as money—he did not even haggle. Whenever he fancied a crop, he would wave his hand and buy a huge batch wholesale.

"Please come again next time~"

There probably won't be a next time.

Li Wei replied in his heart.

I'll show you what MC farming speed looks like soon enough. Wheat that ripens in a few days—ever seen that before?

Leaving the farm, Li Wei looked at the several sacks of crops in his inventory and felt thoroughly satisfied.

The only pity was that they did not seem to grow watermelons here. Thinking about it, he really had not seen any.

With the crop collection complete, he only needed to wait for the innkeeper to bring the promised horses before he could go home.

Crop seeds could be handled through the Crafting Table. Once crafted, the crops could be directly turned into seeds with MC properties.

But Li Wei had never tried breeding animals. In the wilderness around Roadside Fortress, he could only occasionally find a few Wild Bulls, and he could not even lead them back. Their greatest use was simply being chopped up for meat.

By buying two horses this time, Li Wei intended to take them back and see if he could breed horses with MC characteristics.

But before that, breeding MC horses required gold.

At the very least, he needed two Golden Carrots.

However, gold ore was extremely difficult to find. Li Wei had dug through the veins near Roadside Fortress for over a month without seeing even a trace of it.

He had no choice but to find somewhere to trade for some.

The first place Li Wei thought of was the blacksmith's shop. Following the location he remembered, he returned to a familiar spot.

"What can I do for you, custome... Hm?"

"Oh—it's you. Hello there. What do you need?"

The blacksmith greeted him, clearly recognizing Li Wei.

"I'm honored you still remember me."

"Of course I remember, sir. I heard that an adventurer passing through Bree not only dealt with a group of road-blocking bandits alone, but also killed a whole bunch of Orcs and Wargs."

As he spoke, the blacksmith set down his work, quietly leaned closer to Li Wei, and asked mysteriously, "They say you can use magic. Is that true?"

Seeing the topic veering hundreds of miles off course, Li Wei quickly stopped him.

"Hold on, blacksmith brother. Let's not talk about that for now. I came to buy some materials from you. I wonder if you have them."

Seeing that he was talking business, the blacksmith put away his gossiping thoughts and asked, "What do you need? Just say the word. Times are different now. What you've done has proven you're no villain. If it's you now, buying weapons wouldn't be impossible."

Li Wei shook his head. "No, I wanted to ask whether you have any gold here. I'd like to buy some..."

The blacksmith immediately tilted his head back in tactical disbelief.

"I'm a blacksmith, not a goldsmith, sir."

All right, it looked like that was not going to work.

Just as Li Wei sighed and prepared to leave.

From a familiar place, in a familiar position, came a familiar voice.

A person suddenly popped up from behind the fence beside them and said, "Hey, esteemed adventurer, I just heard what you wanted to buy!"

"Get lost! You stinking Scrap Merchant, stay away from my shop!" the blacksmith cursed on the spot, showing no courtesy whatsoever.

What a familiar scene. Had he seen this somewhere before...?

Li Wei turned his head and, sure enough, saw a thoroughly smug face.

Scrap Merchant William.