New Equipment

The straight-line distance from Rivendell to Li Wei's castle was roughly fifty leagues, around 240 kilometers.

With Li Wei traveling at full speed day and night without rest, crossing that distance did not actually take long. He set out from Rivendell in the morning and reached the vicinity of the castle before nightfall the next day.

Theoretically, if no other interference was taken into account and he traveled in a straight line, Li Wei could have made it home within a single day.

However, on the one hand, the route he took was not straight and involved plenty of detours. On the other, there were always obstacles of various sizes along the way—trees, rocks blocking the path, uneven ground, and the occasional scattered Orc that popped up.

All of that added to Li Wei's journey.

"If only I had a max-speed horse."

Li Wei could not help thinking.

In Minecraft, a horse's maximum speed was 20 m/s.

If he could ride a max-speed horse, let alone reach Rivendell within a day, he could ride there in the morning for a meal and ride back in the afternoon.

The horse he was riding now was still a little too slow.

But there was no rush. He would get a max-speed horse sooner or later. Even without using speed potions to temporarily boost their speed, two horses still had a chance of producing a faster foal.

As long as he selectively bred them generation after generation, a good horse would eventually appear.

Clop, clop.

The hoofbeats gradually slowed as Li Wei stopped at the city gate. Before even entering, he sensed that something was off.

"What's that smell?"

It was a little fishy, with a hint of rot.

Wait, why was the little iron gate beside the city gate open?

What was that—an Orc?

Li Wei's heart sank. He immediately dismounted, strode over to the iron gate, kicked aside an Orc corpse, and went in.

Hiss—

Seeing the corpses scattered everywhere, Li Wei immediately understood what had happened and headed straight for the pasture to inspect it.

Fortunately, there had been no losses.

"You really don't value your lives, do you?"

After a rough count, there were more than two hundred corpses piled on the ground inside the city walls, counting both Orcs and Wargs. For a moment, Li Wei could barely find anywhere to step.

It was not just the ground. Several bodies were even hanging from the tops of the Watchtowers on the city walls, clearly hurled up there by the Iron Golems.

Now he knew where that reputation had come from.

"What kind of grudge is this? You chased me all the way home just to fight?"

Li Wei opened the reputation interface and took a look.

Misty Mountains Orc Reputation: -344 (Mortal Enemies)

Well, the grudge really was not small.

Clang.

Several Iron Golems dragged their cracked bodies past him.

It seemed his side had not emerged completely unscathed either.

Li Wei picked up several Iron Ingots from the ground, along with a small red flower. Shaking his head, he planted it in the grass beside the city gate.

No matter how strong Iron Golems were, they still had health bars.

Twenty Iron Golems facing a hundred cavalrymen, and achieving this casualty ratio, was already terrifying.

If every one of those Orcs had been a fearless warrior, with proper formations and tactical command, they might really have been able to contend with the Iron Golems.

But clearly, these Orcs lacked that caliber. Li Wei could already imagine it: the moment a group of Iron Golems charged in, the Orc formation had collapsed.

His territory always needed tending.

After spending some time breaking down all the Warg corpses into bones for fertilizer, carrying the Orc corpses out for a mass cremation, and vigorously washing the ground several times with buckets of water, Li Wei finally removed all the bloodstains and foul odors.

Once that was done, Li Wei first went to check on the native animals that lacked Minecraft traits, especially the two horses.

"Not bad."

Li Wei patted a horse's head.

The two horses were still healthy. Li Wei had left enough hay and water before departing, so they had not gone hungry during this time.

After simply cleaning up the inside of the city walls and taking out some iron to repair the damaged Iron Golems, Li Wei looked over his territory.

It suddenly felt a little too small.

All the space cleared during the previous expansion had been turned into farms and pastures.

Now, he could not even find a place to plan an industrial zone.

"I still need to keep expanding."

No sooner said than done.

Li Wei immediately stored the items from his backpack in the warehouse, then took out a large pile of building materials. He tore down and rebuilt the city walls, continuously extending them outward.

The expansion work lasted for over a week. This project was quite substantial—Li Wei directly doubled the length of the city walls and raised them several more meters.

He expanded the territory several times over, creating a vast stretch of open land.

This nearly exhausted Li Wei's cobblestone reserves from the past two months. The warehouse chests that had once been packed full were emptied outright, and even that was not enough. As a result, the later sections of the city wall had to be made thinner for the time being. He would have to gather more stone to make up for it the next time he went mining.

Honestly, at this point, the area was far too large for a private territory. It would be enough to build a city.

The city walls, over twenty meters tall and thick, stretched hundreds of meters to either side. This was no longer something an ordinary hundred-man squad would dare set its sights on.

They would probably be intimidated the moment they saw the scale of it.

By now, nearly half of the relatively flat land on this small plain had been enclosed by the city walls. The remaining level ground could likely support one more major expansion.

If he expanded any further, Li Wei would have to manually reshape the surrounding terrain.

"Phew—"

After expanding the territory, Li Wei immediately marked out a new area to serve as a future industrial zone.

Furnaces, Anti-Smelters, Alloy Furnaces, anvils, Crafting Tables...

It was called an industrial zone, but there were not many things he could actually place there at present, making it look very empty.

What was it missing?

Li Wei felt that it needed a large smeltery built from seared bricks.

Although the newly unlocked alloy casting mod felt novel to Li Wei, it also left him a little regretful. After all, when it came to the best smelting mods, Tinkers' Construct definitely ranked among them.

Perhaps he had yet to meet some requirement.

Without dwelling on it, Li Wei wasted no time. He tossed iron and coal into the Alloy Furnace, and particles of experience drifted from his body into the furnace.

Before long, pieces of Elven Steel emerged from the furnace.

From now on, Li Wei could also craft elven equipment.

He immediately crafted a full set of Elven Steel armor. After putting it on, he found that its armor rating was a full bar higher than the Iron Armor Set.

Unfortunately, it was still quite a ways behind diamond armor.

Still, it was not bad. The materials were only iron and coal, incredibly cheap, so he could not ask for more.

Its design differed from the standard military armor worn by the elves, with its distinctly elven style. This set was roughly similar in cut to the Iron Armor Set, though closer inspection revealed slight differences in the details. Its color was also subtly different, a silvery gray.

There was no need to craft weapons; none of them could compare to the +9 attack sword in his hand. Tools, however, could be upgraded. Tools made from Elven Steel had slightly higher durability than iron tools and were also just a little faster at mining.

If only I could enchant them.

Li Wei had thought this more than once.

But the materials for an Enchanting Table had always been a major problem.

Thinking it over carefully, Li Wei realized that he needed far too many things: diamonds, obsidian, Blaze Rods, Brewing Stands...

The Brewing Stand in particular. At least the materials for an Enchanting Table truly existed, so he could get them eventually. But that Blaze Rod needed for the Brewing Stand? Li Wei genuinely had no idea where to find one.

Unless this world could connect to the Nether.

But would something like connecting to another dimension really be allowed?

Li Wei pondered this quietly. If he got the chance, he had to give it a try.

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