Chapter 240: Chapter 241: Frost Arrives, Sudden Longing (Extended Chapter)
After Lide set the tone, the construction of the plumbing entered the right path, especially with the contribution of the dwarves, he barely needed to worry about it.
Concentrating power makes big things happen, that’s the advantage of autocracy allowing Lide to have matters dealt with imdiately.
For a newly erging force, this was definitely key to takeoff.
However, drawbacks exist as well, if a decision-maker makes a mistake, it can easily lead to massive losses for the entire force.
But as far as Lide could see at the mont, the chances of that happening were quite slim.
The decisions he made were all based on strengthening Dawn City, cultivating farmlands, building the city, establishing the Dawn Mage Tower, creating breeding farms, launching sustainable developnt programs… and so on and so forth.
What sacrifices would be needed if this plan were to strengthen Dawn City? What could be gained from success, and what could be the consequences of failure?
Based on these judgnts and concluding that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, he would push forward without hesitation.
It also helped that Lide had a strong hand, which had enabled Dawn City to develop so rapidly over the past year.
October 10.
After more than half a month’s effort and harnessing the full strength of Dawn City, the epoch-making construction, plumbing was finally established in Dawn City.
It was undoubtedly an exciting day for all residents.
Running water, truly incredible.
The source of the running water ca from springs on the eastern and western mountains, where the Bloodline had built huge reservoirs halfway up the mountain, acting as water towers.
Stone pipes made of tal materials directly connected to the bottom of these reservoirs, with an outer diater two inches thick and a 1.5-inch water flow channel, were embedded in the rock walls, entering the ground from both reservoirs and then branching throughout Dawn City through the underground stone pipes.
The city was divided into several areas, each connected to a main water pipe, which then branched into subsidiary pipes and further to individual buildings, and then tal pipes directed water into households.
Each building could access two faucets, and even the newly constructed houses had direct in-house plumbing.
Each segnt of pipe in these areas had valves for control; closing these valves could shut off running water to an area.
Closing the main valve could shut off the city’s entire running water supply.
One could say it was all incredibly modern.
The construction of running water marked a new era for Dawn City, a significant stride forward in civilization.
The moral boost it provided for the city was unimaginable.
And as the initiator, Lide once again experienced a surge in popularity.
This alchemy creation, which in the eyes of the residents of Dawn City was even more impressive than a Divine Artifact, was simply beyond description.
Just by turning on a faucet, clean, clear spring water gushed out, and as long as it wasn’t turned off, the water would flow endlessly.
Even having witnessed the construction of the plumbing, the residents of Dawn City were still utterly amazed and awe-stricken.
Only the great Kachar City Lord could have crafted such a monuntal alchemy creation.
And during the construction of the plumbing, Kachar City Lord even involved a large number of elderly mages.
These mage apprentices were children of the residents; one could only imagine the imnse pride and honor felt by parents whose children had participated in this epic project personally overseen by Kachar City Lord.
Whether Bloodline, Mage Apprentices, or Dwarves, when the running water was established and water flowed continuously from the faucets,
All the praise ca in like a tide.
Especially for the dwarves, a race not yet fully integrated into Dawn City, their sense of belonging greatly strengthened during this period.
Wherever they went, the residents of Dawn City greeted and admired them warmly.
So parents even pointed out to their children, “See that? That’s the respected Dwarf who forged our Dawn City’s running water. You must grow up to be as capable as them.”
It was simply the most beautiful praise.
“When you grow up, you want to be like a Dwarf.”
Such words were irresistible to the Dwarves and instantly won them over.
During this period, these short-statured fellows walked everywhere with their heads held high and chests puffed out, filled with indescribable pride.
Even those Dwarves who still reminisced about the Barbarian Hamr Tribe found no more resistance to this city that treated them with such warmth and gratitude.
They found warmth and belonging here.
With this single endeavor, the Dwarves were beginning to integrate into Dawn City.
One could foresee that these master smiths, previously so fiercely brought in by Lide, would truly beco mbers of Dawn City.
And that too under the rule of the Vampires they had so despised.
After the completion of the plumbing, Lide noted a clear increase in followers on his platform, with a noticeable decrease in general believers and a rapid increase in devout and faithful followers.
Many followers of the Dawn Sect believed only a Divine being could create such a mythical alchemy creation.
Running water was a miracle bestowed by the Divine.
Naturally, Lide, as the god of Dawn, received increasingly fervent worship.
While the plumbing was being built, another vital project that Lide was closely overseeing also neared completion.
The cultivation of winter wheat.
The environnt in Glory differed sowhat from that of Earth; spring wheat was planted at the end of April and early May and harvested in September, while winter wheat was planted at the end of September and early October and harvested the following April.
Because this year they had planted the wheat in March, the harvest had already been completed by early August.
Winter wheat farming too had been well-prepared early under the guidance of the Agriculture Departnt this year, as the manure from the farms was spread into the fields during a two-month fallow period, and the various burnt grasslands replenished the land’s fertility greatly.
At the blacksmith shop, with the Bloodline, Mage Apprentices, Beastman laborers, and One-eyed Giants jointly constructing the water supply system, the farrs were also busy.
Above the Moonlight Plain, a large area that had been reclaid was already planted with wheat seedlings, and it was expected that by next spring, this place would once again harvest golden grains.
By then, Dawn City would truly have no worries about food and clothing.
The land grows crops, the crops feed humans, humans satisfy the Bloodline’s needs, and the Bloodline provides military protection for this land.
This ford a simple closed loop.
This was also the basis for a sustainable developnt strategy.
Of course, there were many influencing factors, but it couldn’t be denied that the general direction of this matter was so.
Lide had done so many things, and his original intention had always remained the sa, to develop the Bloodline and strengthen Dawn City.
Whether it was conquering the One-eyed Giants, developing the Crimson Mage Tower, combating the Dark Contract, advancing into Dwarf Valley, or rebuilding the Lion Tribe, his will had always remained the sa—farming.
Even though there were a few battles fought, fundantally it was to better develop Dawn City and not for the sake of war itself.
At this ti, the recently rebuilt Lion Tribe was also rapidly developing.
After making the decision to rebuild the Lion Tribe in Dwarf Valley, Dawn City had spared no effort in supporting it.
Dwarves were forging armor for it, the logistics departnt was preparing pots, pans, and other daily necessities, and the tailor shops were preparing thick cotton clothes for winter…
This was the advantage of having a big boss’s support; Craig, this lucky guy, didn’t need to worry about anything, just needed to focus on gathering his people.
Moreover, there was Stanley, a highly intelligent manager whom Lide greatly appreciated, presiding over the overall situation, now the Lion Tribe was developing unusually fast.
By the 10th, Lide had received a ssage from Stanley.
The current number of Beastn in Dwarf Valley had already exceeded 8,000.
8,000 Beastn, in comparison, Dawn City had captured just over 9,000 humans last winter.
The Lion Tribe was developing at an unimaginable rate, earning awed glances.
Due to the lack of food this year, those Beastn who had been barely able to survive the Frost Month in previous years by using their stockpiled supplies were having an especially difficult ti.
Indeed, many tribes had already exhausted their food reserves before even entering Frost Month and were starving.
This imnse crisis almost drove those smaller tribes to madness; they were willing to give up everything just to survive.
Against this backdrop, when a powerful tribe started spreading the word that it could accept ordinary Beastn and that it had enough food, warm clothing, and solid armor to offer.
It was almost predictable what would happen when Frost Month arrived, with few small Beastman tribes not being tempted by this.
Only those who did not wish to lose their tribal heritage remained unmoved, while those tribes that didn’t even have food for the next day ca flocking in.
The fervor of their response left Craig, a Werewolf Warrior who only knew of conquering through violence, dumbfounded.
He had never imagined that recruiting tribe mbers could be so simple — rely providing food and drink attracted a large crowd.
However, most of the Beastn who ca in this manner brought their families, with no shortage of children and elderly.
For this reason, Craig had specifically consulted Lide on whether to accept these Beastn who lacked substantial combat ability.
After so contemplation, Lide nodded.
As a human soul and a Vampire Bloodline, he was not concerned about the life or death of the Beastn nor had any ti to manage these trivial matters.
But he wanted to establish a new city in Dwarf Valley, a city completely administered by Beastn that couldn’t possibly consist only of strong warriors,
Won, children, and even experienced elderly Beastn could all play a role.
Talented young Beastn could be sent to Dawn City to train as powerful warriors,
Won could give birth to new Beastn and also relieve the pressure on the warriors,
Those who lived to old age had their value and could certainly be useful.
All he needed to provide were so basic resources, which presented no problem for soone as wealthy as he.
So currently, there were 8,000 Beastn living in Dwarf Valley, among them around 2,000 young Beastman warriors ranging from level 4 to 8, and over 5,000 level 3 to 5 Beastman warriors were assigned to mine at the Secret Silver Vein.
The remaining less than a thousand were the old, the weak, the sick, and the injured, who were responsible for logistics within the valley and building residences.
For now, the reconstruction of the Lion Tribe was considered normal, even smooth to a degree that surprised Lide.
However, what kept him constantly vigilant was that the real Lion Tribe seed to have disappeared without a trace after their last defeat, making no movents at all.
Not to ntion a counterattack on Dwarf Valley, they hadn’t even sent people out to make contact or negotiate despite Craig’s announcents about rebuilding Dwarf Valley.
Lide had once instructed Craig to pay special attention to them, but the Lion Tribe, residing in a defensible and hard-to-attack region, proved difficult to investigate, and with the opponent being extrely vigilant, it was impossible to gather any useful information, leaving no choice but to give up.
This abnormality made Lide particularly cautious.
Under normal circumstances, with his tribesn defeated and their only king captured, you would expect them to send troops to rescue him, or at the very least to send soone to gather information, or negotiate.
But it was as if they had simply vanished, which was highly abnormal.
If they did nothing, he was happy to be undisturbed, quietly allowing Dwarf Valley to accumulate strength.
No matter what sches you had, getting stronger was the way to deal with everything.
However, the only thing that currently upset Lide in Dwarf Valley was that the mining speed of the Secret Silver Vein was far beyond his expectation.
Even with a master like Valen leading the Dwarf Group to join, there wasn’t much improvent.
The Secret Silver Ore mined each day could only produce about 2 pounds of mithril.
This was a huge gap from the target Lide had in mind.
The quality of mithril was very high; a piece the size of a fist weighed about 5 pounds.
This ant thousands of Beastn mining furiously needed two days to produce a fist-sized piece of mithril.
However, after understanding the details, he had no choice but to reluctantly accept this reality.
Mithril was considered a national strategic resource because a rich Secret Silver Vein could cause two nations to go to war over it.
Apart from its incredibly formidable attributes, its extre scarcity was also a direct cause.
For a normal Secret Silver Vein, producing one pound of mithril from one hundred tons of ore was already considered good.
In Dwarf Valley, the vein yielded 2 pounds of mithril from 50 tons of ore, which was incredibly rich.
According to Valen’s estimation, the content of mithril in this vein may reach tens of thousands of pounds.
This would be sufficient to forge thousands of pieces of Extraordinary Equipnt.
However, the difficulty of mining was proportional to the vein’s value; the ore of mithril was extrely solid and buried deep underground, requiring pure manpower to forcibly excavate.
The thousands of Beastn could only mine a little over 50 tons a day, and being able to slt 2 pounds was already considered productive.
Lide was quite helpless about this and could only ask Craig to quickly rebuild the Lion Tribe and organize more Beastn to mine the ore.
Patter patter~
On the third floor of the City Hall, Lide, having finished his work, was ditating to improve his Magic when a sound of flapping bat wings interrupted his study.
Since returning from Dwarf Valley, he had once again picked up his magic research which had been delayed by various ssy issues.
Since improving the Small Fireball, it seed like his previously beloved magic had been forgotten by him.
But he had no choice; Dawn City, Crimson Mage Tower, Dark Contract, now with the Crimson Moon, Dwarf Valley.
His forces were too extensive, forcing him to allocate most of his energy to handling these matters.
No one could casually beco an influential leader; Dawn City’s progress from 200 Bloodline mbers to its current state was inseparable from his continuous steering.
Although it seed like he was not entrenched daily in handling minor affairs at the City Hall, the issues he had to pay attention to were not insignificant.
That’s why he hadn’t been able to confine himself for ten days or half a month to intensely study magic like before.
However, after being stimulated by Kapu in Dwarf Valley, he planned to once again enhance his control over magic.
So whenever he was free during this period, he would start his research and improve the next magic.
Suddenly, his focus on improving the Big Fireball Skill was unpleasantly interrupted by a small bat.
As a Second Circle Magic, the Big Fireball Skill had 200 magic nodes, and the difficulty of improvent was over a dozen tis that of the Small Fireball, which had 50 nodes; these past few days, even the most basic function of the magic nodes hadn’t been clarified, which was quite frustrating.
He stretched out his hand, and a grey bat flew in from the half-open window, circled a few tis in mid-air, then obediently landed in his palm.
He opened the secret ssage in its abdon, his expression turned slightly more solemn.
Monts later, Lide raised his eyebrows, flipped the secret ssage, and stuffed it into his desk.
“Beastn have invaded again; as expected, they invaded the borders prematurely last year, why would they be absent this year???
If they do not secure enough food before the Frost Month, this winter will be tough.”
Lide pondered deeply.
The Beastn’s invasion of Dawn City and how to handle it had already been prepared in the City Hall; Harrison even prepared a strategy for their non-invasion.
That wasn’t his concern; what worried him were the movents of the Beastn, whether due to a lack of food or for other reasons.
For centuries, the Beastn had not changed until he, or rather the players, entered Glory and they began to evolve.
He couldn’t convince himself that there was no connection.
But now, he didn’t have a relevant source of information; even Craig, a 16th Level Werewolf, couldn’t reach the inner information from the Beastman Capital in the barren wasteland.
However, fortunately, this affair only had advantages and no disadvantages for Dawn City.
Without the Beastman invasion, expanding the population of Dawn City would present a huge risk.
Humans’ ability to dominate the main stream in the main plane of Glory, becoming the sovereign amidst countless powerful races, was not simple.
Unless absolutely necessary, Lide did not want to directly encounter a human army.
This showed the benefit of constructing a lair hidden deep in the mountains, undiscoverable by anyone.
Even if the outside world went to chaos, he would still be able to develop peacefully, even having the leisure to repair the plumbing.
This advantageous geographical feature was enough to make most powers envious.
Lide shook his head to regain focus, his eyes gradually brightening up.
“Better late than never; this Frost Month, Dawn City is going to make a big move.”
Unlike last year’s hasty decision, back then he had just arrived in Glory and even held a degree of caution towards the Bloodline,
with only 200 Bloodline mbers at his disposal and the highest combatant being him, a 10th Level Blood Clan Ancestor, and zero reserves in the warehouse.
Everything was incredibly difficult.
He first bought Golden Wheat Comrce, then acquired grain from Alex Chamber of Comrce before transporting supplies from Green City to Dawn City, and subsequently, he sent out most of the Bloodline to plunder the population.
Truly starting from humble beginnings.
Today, a year later.
Dawn City boasted several top combat forces, even possessing legendary creatures like Bone Dragons.
Over three hundred Bloodline mbers, more than a thousand Magic Language Bats, a human army of 600, about a dozen One-eyed Giants, and tens of thousands of residents loyal to Dawn City.
Supplies, the granary stored enough food for a hundred thousand people for a year, Dwarfs were forging armor for them, and the breeding farms produced at monthly that all residents could enjoy.
Compared to Dawn City a year ago, its strength had increased by tens of tis.
A real city had been built under his hands.
And this year, he would make this city even more prosperous and stronger.
This Frost Month would be the climax of massive developnt for Dawn City.
After confirming the news of the Beastman invasion, Lide called for Harrison.
“Clan Leader,” Harrison entered the office sowhat excitedly, “You must have received the news of the Beastman invasion of the human borders, right?”
Lide smiled faintly.
“Yes, we can start the population plundering plan now, the borders are very dangerous, our Bloodline still lacks the ability to confront the Beastman head-on, what we want is just the population.
If we encounter a battle, we should avoid it if possible, don’t resist at all costs.”
After the Beastman invade the borders, that land would beco the world of the Beastman, with hundreds of thousands or even millions of Beastman, ten tis the Bloodline wouldn’t exhaust them.
“As you wish, we have already sent out scouting personnel, we expect to officially dispatch the army in three days…”
Lide nodded, “Plundering the population is the most important affair for Dawn City, without exception.
Right now, aside from necessary production and construction, all work focus must shift to population plundering.
Logistics supplies will be coordinated by the City Hall during this period and you will handle this personally.
Also, how are the logistics in Dwarf Valley?”
“The supplies in Dwarf Valley have all been transported there three days ago.
We have shipped enough food for ten thousand people for half a year, enough for them to get through this cold winter.”
Lide pondered slightly and then shook his head.
“No, not enough, Frost Month is not only a good opportunity for our developnt but also for the Lion Tribe to grow.
Dispatch another equal portion of food there, and at the sa ti, instruct Stanley and Craig; I need them to gather a large number of Beastman during Frost Month, they must form an army of at least 5000 strong combat fighters.
These 5000 must be level 5 and above Interdiate Warriors.”
Lide spoke confidently, without room for doubt.
“Although it’s peaceful now, after Frost Month, Dwarf Valley will inevitably face greater crises, only strength can counter all this.
Our current supplies are enough to establish a huge army.
Moreover, after next spring, our wheat will once again fill the granaries, nothing will pose a problem.”
Since Lide had decided to build a city of Beastman in Dwarf Valley, he would never waver.
This city would be a nail that Dawn City drives deep into the barren wastelands, there would be a force absolutely belonging to Dawn City.
It was also his contingency plan, not to ntion the Secret Silver Vein that must be protected, even if there were no Secret Silver Vein, Lide would definitely reach out to the barren plains if given the chance.
The geographical location of Dawn City made it impossible to interact with the outside, though safe, it also impacted its stance and scope to so extent.
The powers he laid out would beco the magic claws of Dawn City, spreading the strength of Dawn City outward.
In the future, anyone wanting to deal with Dawn City would be handled by these sharp blades.
Lide then discussed further details regarding population plundering with Harrison, after all, this was the most important affair for Dawn City and needed to be arranged as well as possible.
After finishing these chores, Lide let out a sigh of relief.
He never liked handling governnt affairs. If it weren’t absolutely necessary, he would rather stay in and study magic than handle these tedious matters.
“If that little girl Nicole is fine, then have her co to the City Hall. The Dawn Sect is stable as a mountain now, nothing can go wrong.
Additionally, you could also train a think tank to find the smartest people to assist you, as the strength of one person is ultimately limited.”
“Yes, Clan Leader.” Harrison nodded respectfully.
“Go on, get those arrangents in order, and by the way, call Betty and Grote over, I need to return to Green City. Once we start plundering the population, there won’t be ti to go back,” Lide stretched lazily.
The player had been here for over three months now, he wondered if they had stirred up any issues in Green City during this ti.
Also, how was the production at the Magic Factory doing, and how had the branch project for Golden Wheat Comrce progressed?
Was his cheap ntor drunk every day while setting up magic arrays for him?
And his little maid, that girl who was utterly devoted to him, he wondered if she had encountered any trouble.
And little Yisha, the girl with the Golden Bloodline, he wondered if she had learned a lot of magic from Spark, the Great Mage.
At this mont, he grew a bit nostalgic for that Mage Tower that belonged entirely to him.
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