The straight-line distance from Rivendell to Levi's castle was roughly 50 leagues, approximately 240 kilometers.
Under his relentless day-and-night travel at full speed, crossing this distance actually didn't take long. Departing from Rivendell in the morning, he arrived near the castle before dark on the second day.
Actually, in theory, if other interferences weren't calculated and he traveled in a pure straight line, Levi could reach home within a day.
However, on one hand, the path he took wasn't a straight line... he made quite a few detours. On the other hand, there were always various obstacles along the way: trees, blocking stones, potholes, and the occasional scattered orcs that popped up.
All these added to his journey time.
"If only I could have a max-speed horse," Levi couldn't help thinking.
In Minecraft, a horse's maximum speed was 20m/s.
If he could ride a max-speed horse, forget reaching Rivendell in a day... he could run to Rivendell for lunch in the morning and run back in the afternoon.
The horse he was currently riding was ultimately still a bit slow.
But there was no rush. A max-speed horse would come eventually. Even without using speed potions to temporarily increase speed, two horses had a chance of producing a faster foal.
As long as he selectively bred generation after generation, good horses would eventually appear.
Clip-clop, clip-clop.
The hoofbeats gradually quieted as Levi stopped at the castle gate. Before even entering, he sensed something was wrong.
"What's that smell?"
A bit fishy and somewhat putrid.
Wait, why was the small iron gate beside the castle entrance open?
What is that... an orc?
His heart sank. He immediately dismounted, quickly walked to the iron gate, kicked aside an orc corpse, and entered.
Hiss...
Seeing the corpses covering the ground, Levi immediately understood what had happened and rushed to check the pasture first.
Fortunately, there were no losses.
"You really didn't value your lives, did you?"
A rough count revealed over two hundred corpses... orcs and wargs combined... piled on the ground within the walls. For a moment, he barely had anywhere to step.
Not just on the ground... several were hanging from the tops of the wall watchtowers, clearly flung up there by iron golems.
Now he knew where the reputation had come from.
"What kind of grudge was this? You even chased me to my home to fight?"
Levi opened his reputation interface for a look.
[Misty Mountains Orc Reputation: -344 (Mortal Enemy)]
Well, the grudge really wasn't small.
Clang.
Several iron golems dragged their crack-covered bodies past.
It seemed his side hadn't escaped losses either.
He picked up several iron ingots from the ground, along with a small red flower. Shaking his head, he planted it in the grass by the castle gate.
No matter how strong iron golems were, they still had health bars.
Twenty iron golems facing a hundred cavalry... this casualty ratio was actually quite terrifying.
If these orcs had all been fearless warriors with proper formations and tactical command, they might actually have been able to clash with the iron golems.
However, obviously these orcs lacked such qualities. Levi could imagine that once a group of iron golems charged over, the orc formation would have collapsed.
His territory always needed maintenance.
Spending some time, he decomposed all the warg corpses into bones for fertilizer, moved all the orc corpses outside for mass cremation, and used water buckets to thoroughly wash the ground several times before removing all the blood and odor.
After completing these tasks, Levi first went to check on those non-Minecraft native animals, especially the two horses.
"Not bad."
He patted the horse's head.
The two horses were still healthy. Before leaving, he had left sufficient fodder and water, so they hadn't gone hungry during this time.
After briefly cleaning up inside the walls and using some iron to repair the damaged iron golems, Levi looked at his territory.
It felt somewhat small.
The space cleared from previous expansions had all been built into farms and pastures.
Now, wanting to find a place for an industrial area, there was nowhere to plan.
"Still need to continue expanding."
No sooner said than done.
He immediately moved items from his backpack into storage, pulled out a large pile of building materials, and began dismantling and rebuilding the walls, continuously extending outward.
The expansion work lasted over a week. This project was quite large... he directly extended the wall length by double and raised it several meters higher.
This directly multiplied the territory area several times, creating a large open space.
This operation also consumed almost all of his cobblestone reserves accumulated over the past two months. The previously full storage chests were completely emptied, and even that wasn't enough, forcing the rear walls to temporarily reduce thickness until he could dig some stone while mining later.
Honestly, at this point, as a private territory, this area was really quite large... large enough to build a city.
Walls over twenty meters high and thick, extending hundreds of meters left and right... this was no longer something ordinary hundred-man squads would dare to consider.
They'd probably be intimidated just seeing this scale.
At this moment, nearly half of the relatively flat land on this small plain was encompassed within the walls. The remaining flatland could probably support one more large-scale expansion.
Any further expansion would require him to manually modify the surrounding terrain.
"Phew..."
After completing the territory expansion, Levi immediately designated a new area for future industrial use.
Furnaces, blast furnaces, alloy furnaces, anvils, crafting tables...
Called an industrial area, but actually there weren't many things to place currently, making it seem very spacious.
What was missing?
He felt it lacked a large furnace built with charred bricks.
Although the newly unlocked alloy forging mod made him feel novel, it also made him feel slightly regretful. After all, when talking about the best smelting mods, Tinkers' Construct definitely ranked high.
Perhaps some condition hadn't been met yet.
Not dwelling on it further, without wasting time, Levi put iron and coal into the alloy furnace. Experience points floated from his body into the furnace.
Before long, blocks of elven steel emerged.
From now on, he could also craft elven equipment.
He immediately crafted a set of elven steel armor. After putting it on, he discovered the armor value exceeded iron armor by a full point.
Unfortunately, there was still quite a gap from diamond armor.
But it wasn't bad either. After all, the raw materials were only iron and coal... very cheap. He couldn't ask for more.
In terms of style, unlike the military-standard armor with distinctive elven characteristics that the elves wore, this armor's design was similar to iron armor. Looking closely, you could see some differences in details, and the color was also slightly different... silver-gray.
No need to craft weapons... none would compare to the +9 attack precious sword in his hand. However, tools could be updated. Tools made from elven steel had slightly higher durability than iron tools and were a tiny bit faster at digging.
If only he could enchant them.
This wasn't the first time Levi had thought this.
But the materials for an enchanting table remained a major problem.
Thinking carefully, he realized he needed far too many things: diamonds, obsidian, blaze rods, brewing stands...
Especially brewing stands... at least the materials for enchanting tables actually existed and could eventually be obtained. But for brewing stands, that blaze rod... Levi truly didn't know where to get it.
Unless this world could connect to the Nether.
But would connecting to another dimension really be allowed?
He thought secretly... he definitely had to try if he got the chance.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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