However, this problem didn't trouble Levi for long.
Under the bartender's watchful gaze, he steeled himself and clumsily mounted the horse. From the corner of his eye, he could see the bartender wanting to reach out and help several times.
However, the moment he successfully mounted, Levi immediately felt a familiar sensation.
This feeling was similar to cooking.
When he wanted to move, the horse beneath him seemed to understand his intentions perfectly. With just a thought from Levi, it would immediately respond accordingly.
It was the system... the system was assisting his operation!
He could feel that this assistance process could still be interrupted at any time. If he wanted to rely on his own real skills to control the horse, that was also possible, but he certainly wouldn't do that now.
With the system's assistance, Levi immediately gained confidence.
Early the next morning, he rode one horse while leading another, went to the farmer's house to collect the two chickens, put them in cages, and set off.
This return journey took no less time than the trip there.
Although horses ran faster than Levi, they still needed rest and had to be fed fodder.
When he saw Roadside Fort, he breathed a sigh of relief.
There were no signs that the gate had been disturbed... it seemed this period had been relatively peaceful.
After temporarily settling the two horses and two chickens, Levi returned to the castle and organized his supplies.
First was smelting.
He threw all the gold items he'd bought from William into the blast furnace. His luck was pretty good... he ultimately obtained four gold ingots and one gold nugget.
He immediately crafted two golden carrots.
Levi ran to the horses and placed a golden carrot near one horse's mouth.
The horse found this golden carrot somewhat novel but didn't bite immediately. Instead, it sniffed first, and after determining it seemed to be just a carrot with a slightly different color, it bit down and began munching.
Before long, several red hearts appeared above its head.
He wasted no time and immediately pulled out the second golden carrot to feed the other horse.
The two horses unconsciously moved closer together.
Shortly after:
[Achievement Unlocked: "Where Do I Come From?"]
Description: Successfully breed a pair of animals.
Looking again, a somewhat dazed-looking foal had squeezed between the two adult horses.
One of the adult horses seemed startled by the suddenly appearing foal, widening its eyes and backing up several steps.
However, Levi was overjoyed.
Pretty good luck.
This foal had a speed of 11 points, inheriting the genes of the fastest horse.
Its health was 26 points.
While the two adult horses curiously examined their child that had appeared out of nowhere, he pulled out the two chickens and fed them wheat seeds.
Before long, a chick with intelligent-looking eyes was born.
Looking at those intelligent eyes, Levi couldn't help but sigh.
These silly children all look the same.
At this moment, with a foal in his left hand and a chick in his right, he felt the future was bright.
He couldn't be bothered with rest that day and directly grabbed his pickaxe and cobblestone to begin dismantling and rebuilding the walls.
In just one day, he expanded the territory area by more than double.
He also created new agricultural and livestock planning areas, plus a separate horse field and stables.
At this point, Roadside Fort's territory area was actually quite large... roughly several tens of thousands of square meters. Anyone who saw it would think this must be some great lord's estate.
During the expansion, Levi didn't forget to continue breeding animals. Once the number of bred animals reached two, he no longer needed the original two horses and two chickens.
After thinking about it, he simply fenced off a separate area to raise them, keeping them separate from the later-bred animals.
After completing all this, Levi continued planning the agricultural area.
Pumpkins, wheat, potatoes, carrots, corn, onions, ginger, garlic...
Another day passed, and looking at the neatly divided areas before him, he felt satisfied.
The crop seeds were growing vigorously. Although the pasture seemed somewhat spacious now, it would eventually be filled as breeding continued. As for horses, he had only bred two so far and didn't have enough gold, so he had to put that on hold temporarily. But at least he had horses to use now... horses that didn't need rest and could run continuously, with a fuel consumption of three grass stalks per hundred kilometers, and even those three stalks were just symbolic nibbles.
Overall, Roadside Fort's development was thriving.
That night, the pumpkin vines that had been accelerated with bone meal grew their first square pumpkin.
Levi placed it on iron blocks and summoned the territory's first iron golem.
Clang!
The iron blocks and pumpkin fused together the moment they touched, transforming into a long-armed iron giant over three meters tall, covered in moss and vines.
Unlike the blocks in the game, this iron golem was also more realistic in style, looking somewhat rounder, though its dull expression remained unchanged.
As soon as it was summoned, the iron golem began wandering around the territory, patrolling.
The iron golem's enemy detection method was simple.
Hostile? Attack. Not hostile? Don't attack.
A day later, there were twenty iron golems in the castle.
With so many iron golems standing guard, squads of under a hundred could be easily dealt with. Even if several hundred orcs came, it wouldn't be impossible to fight.
The territory's security now had initial protection.
Another week passed like this.
The crops in the territory had already been harvested once. Looking at the several stacks of vegetables stored in the warehouse, Levi felt genuine harvest joy.
That evening, he pulled some green onions and made a dish of stir-fried beef with scallions.
So delicious.
This life was truly fit for the gods.
On this day, Levi went out mining as usual and suddenly saw three wild cattle drinking water by the lake.
So he immediately changed course and quietly approached the lakeside. This time he didn't draw his sword to attack but spent great effort to corral one, then knocked it unconscious and invited it back to the castle.
[21/30]
You could say wild cattle were different... even their health was so thick.
The next day, he continued lurking by the lake and finally waited for another wild cattle.
Same procedure... knock out, drag back.
Thus, the two wild cattle had companions in the pasture, Levi gained unlimited milk, and he bred two young wild cattle with wheat, ensuring future meat supplies.
This wave could be called a win-win... Levi won twice.
After the wild cattle, he discovered wild boars appearing.
So it was the same operation again.
Lurk, slowly approach, corral, knock out, drag back.
After settling the wild boars, Levi took time to make a simple egg collection device.
It was basically just placing some hoppers under the chicken coop, connected to chests below.
This way, he wouldn't have to collect eggs himself in the future.
For half a month since returning from Bree, his days had been quite fulfilling. He wasn't idle for a moment... either mining or tending to the crops and animals in his territory.
Thus, even though he used iron every day, his inventory increased rather than decreased.
And the iron ore vein showed no signs of being exhausted... the iron ore content seemed quite abundant.
Seeing everything orderly and developing smoothly, with quite abundant supplies, after another two days, Levi prepared to head east.
Early in the morning, he put a saddle on the faster of his two horses, equipped it with iron horse armor, and was preparing to depart.
But unexpectedly, a guest arrived.
Faradon.
"Hello there!"
Fully equipped Levi began greeting from far away. "How have you been lately?"
"Well enough."
Faradon glanced around Roadside Fort with surprise. "I feel this place has become quite different... it seems much larger, and..."
He looked toward the farms and pastures within the walls and said, "I remember when I came last time, these weren't here..."
"Oh, I planted those a few days ago."
A few days ago?
That corn looked like it had been growing for two months!
Never mind... when dealing with this guy, you couldn't apply common sense.
This Ranger had gradually learned to get used to Levi. Looking at the neatly dressed Levi leading a horse that seemed not very intelligent, he asked, "It looks like I came at a bad time... are you going out?"
"Yes, I plan to visit Rivendell."
"Rivendell..." Faradon glanced at him.
"I know that place. There's a small path across the wilderness that leads there. I hope you won't get lost."
The experienced Ranger mentioned the shortcut to Rivendell.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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