I was startled. That so-called high priest could communicate with the gods and, in essence, access the game data. If he knew that the massacre by the Divine Mage was caused by my random speech, wouldn't I be doomed?
Fortunately, it seemed that the priest didn't mention me.
The mayor said, "Now that the king has issued a warrant for this player, anyone who sees the Divine Mage of Fantasy and kills him will be punished without mercy. Anyone who kills him will receive 1000 points of merit, 300,000 experience points, a piece of treasure, 1,000 gold coins, and the warrant is valid for 10 times. All teleportation arrays have been prohibited from teleporting this player. The king has also issued an order that any village that allows the Divine Mage of Fantasy to replenish medicine will be severely punished. Considering that the combat strength of most villages is not high now, the king has allocated 100 gold coins to each village for strengthening military construction. Your village's treasury should have received it. Go back and make good use of this money."
I nodded, but still worriedly said, "However, I only have a 40-level village guard there. The strength is too weak. Could you send me a few more soldiers? Of course, the salary will be paid by me."
The mayor smiled and said, "If it were in other villages, I could send soldiers. However, your village is already your autonomous territory. It cannot be included in the national military establishment. My village guard will be taken back next month. In fact, since you became the first player with a territory on the server, the 'Recruitment' system has been automatically opened. You can issue recruitment instructions to any NPC."
I looked at the mayor in surprise: "Can you recruit NPCs?"
The mayor smiled and said, "Yes, of course. The NPCs on the street are mostly for their daily lives. If you want a warrior, you have to go to the underground 'talent market' to look for them."
I couldn't help shouting out: "Talent market??"
Damn, there's even such a thing in the game! That's the place I frequented the most when I graduated!
After finding out the location of the underground black market, I had no more time to chat with the mayor. I hurriedly said goodbye and ran out of the mayor's mansion.
But suddenly, I realized that I only had 3 gold coins. What kind of talent could I hire? I decided to go back to the village to get the money.
At this time, Tiger King and others also sent messages congratulating me on obtaining the territory and saying that they would come to meet me in the Lost Village later.
I passed by the Mercenary Guild. Now that my level is 30, I can join. Pay 1 gold coin to obtain G-level mercenary status.
I also went to check the mercenary tasks. The top-ranked mercenary task now is to capture the Divine Mage of Fantasy: any mercenary can accept it. Besides the king's rewards, those who complete it can gain 10,000 points of mercenary reputation. If I can complete it, I can directly advance to D-level.
There are very few tasks that G-level mercenaries can accept. They are mostly things like delivering messages, catching rats, and moving stones. Each only has a few reputation points and a few hundred copper coins. At least 100 of them are needed to upgrade. Now I have no time for it.
Without money, I don't need to wander anymore. I'll take the teleportation array to return to the Lost Village.
Tiger King, White Feather, Honey, the lookout specialist, Chico, the village manager, Abao Abai, Aishui, all are waiting for me in front of the teleportation array.
These guys are scattering petals and leaves from somewhere they found all over me, creating a joyful scene. I was also deeply moved in my heart. This is not the kind of pleasure I could experience alone in the game when I was a beginner. Having friends is great!
Fortunately, it's night now and no other players saw it. I told everyone not to make a fuss.
What I need to do first is to confer an official position. After becoming the lord, I can have some subordinates. The village manager will be restored to his position as the village chief. Chico will be my clerk and will be in charge of the lookout and serve as the special priest, able to preside over the village's Light Temple. Tiger King, White Feather, Honey, Abao will be titled "Military Officers".
It's not that I don't want to confer higher positions on them. It's just that their contribution to my territory is still negligible.
The other players in the village were the same. Previously, their contributions to the village were not taken into account. From now on, those who make contributions to my territory will be reported by the system after calculation. They will be promoted only when they meet certain standards. Of course, even if their achievements reach the standard, as long as I am not in a good mood, I can still refuse to promote them. Hehe.
The Tiger King and his team all received a job badge. Although the added abilities were not many, it was a symbol of their status. It was easier to pick up girls when they had this badge.
Thinking of girls, I quickly sent a message to Senorita. But it was night now, and she wasn't online. My heart fluttered, and I suppressed my heartbeat again. I entered "Zhao Xue'er" in the message recipient field.
The system message: "This player is not in the current city area. It is impossible to search. To contact this player, please use a more advanced communication console."
Oh, there are millions of cities. How could she be so lucky to be with me? I have no choice but to talk about it later.
Thinking about it, if I really sent a successful message to her, what should I tell her? Tell her that I'm the vegetative person? She will surely report to the hospital immediately, and then that hospital will study me as a monster? I really don't trust this hospital. I'd rather believe in this game world. Oh, I really can't make up my mind.
The guys were excitedly discussing how to develop our small group in the future. They were even more excited than me.
Speaking of it, since the Lost Village hasn't been developed for a long time, its resources are relatively abundant. However, with more and more players, it is still difficult to manage. Therefore, I definitely disagree with the Tiger King's suggestion of promoting the Lost Village to the outside forums.
And I remembered those unfriendly messages I received. I wonder if there will really be someone who is jealous and causes trouble. So I also oppose promoting the Lost Village everywhere as the only player territory at present.
Regarding my low profile, the Tiger King quickly understood. In the past, he was a strong player in the game, so he always promoted himself loudly, attracting a large number of players to his side, and then establishing a gang. But now, the few of us in "Infinite World" are really nothing. We really can't use that method anymore.
Now everyone needs to speed up their level advancement, while making friends with some trustworthy and reliable people to become partners. As for me, I need to seize the time to enhance the combat ability of the village, mainly by building more magic pillars and hiring more advanced village guards.
The Tiger King and his team continued to discuss the future development of our small group, while I went to the herders.
After more than a day without seeing them, the herders sold over 200 horses and gave all the gold coins to me.
I felt very sorry in my heart. Using the horses raised by the herders to exchange for the construction funds for my own territory was indeed very selfish. But when the territory develops well and the money increases, I can compensate them. Even, it would be fine to build a separate village for the herders.
Adding the over 100 gold coins from the village's fiscal revenue and the 100 gold coins from the king's subsidy, I now have 470 gold coins.
I sent a message to Master Shi, asking him to come to the Lost Village. Master Shi replied that he was working on a big project in a certain town and would arrive in two days.
Chico went offline to rest again. But according to the Tiger King, after training him for several hours, he has already risen from level 0 to level 13. Someone who trains is really fast. Thinking of my hard days in the past, hehe, I won't say any more.
With the money, I originally wanted to go to Sunset City to buy magic crystal stones, but I still thought it was more cost-effective to go to the Blue Demon Cave to pick them up. So, the five of us packed up and decided to go to Blue Jade Mountain.
If going to Blue Jade Mountain by horse, it would take more than three hours without fighting monsters. The Tiger King thought it was better to take the teleportation array to the Jade Mining Village first, which is half the distance to Blue Jade Mountain.
The Jade Mining Village is the territory of the Fire Spirit King. I have always been reluctant to cause trouble, so when I opened the teleportation array, I preferred to go to the Barking Village around the corner. But I can't be afraid forever.
We stepped into the teleportation array and arrived at the village of Chaiyu. The village at night was particularly quiet, with only two couples outside watching the moon. We didn't linger there for long and immediately left the village to go out.
The young eagle of Baiyu's still hadn't hatched, so I gave him my horse and asked the herdsman to teach him how to ride. His intelligence was truly remarkable; after only a short period of learning, he was already riding steadier than the guy who didn't have any athletic ability and was just out for a walk.
Basking in the cool night breeze and under the starry sky, everyone felt refreshed and comfortable. They took deep breaths of the air and chatted all the way. In less than two hours, we reached the Blue Jade Mountain.
The cave was originally very secluded. If it weren't for the fact that the Tiger King knew the exact coordinates, we really wouldn't have been able to find it. Moreover, there are not many resources on the Blue Jade Mountain, so the players of Chaiyu Village rarely come here.
However, when we entered the cave, we found that the number of vampire bats wasn't very large. It seemed that someone was constantly cleaning them.
Now, with our combat power, the 28-level bats pose no threat anymore. However, I noticed that my spells had little effect on these bats. Especially fireballs and lightning, they were clearly less effective than physical attacks. This wasn't the case when we came last time.
I exchanged a glance with the Tiger King. I knew he and I had the same thoughts. Fire Spirit King is good at fire and electricity. Could it be that he has been killing monsters here for a long time, forcing the bats to evolve into creatures with high resistance to fire and electricity? If so, the magic crystals in this cave might have been emptied by him long ago.
As we approached the entrance of the second floor, we heard shouts from inside. It seemed that the feared event had occurred. There were already people inside.
We quietly approached the second floor, hiding in the corner. We saw seven or eight people surrounding the Blue Demon.
Fire Spirit King, Moonfall God, and Unyielding Sword were all there. But now they had changed their outfits. Fire Spirit King even had a platinum-level ring in his hand. It seemed that he had reached level 40.
Originally, warriors didn't progress much slower than mages in level-up, but the Tiger King accompanied me for two tasks and wasted a lot of time, and he also died once. So he had just reached level 37. However, if Fire Spirit King really spent a long time killing such low-level monsters like the bats here, he wouldn't have advanced so quickly.
Beside Fire Spirit King, besides the Moonfall God, there were two priests. But their levels weren't very high. Their healing effect was not as good as that of the ones who were just out for a walk.
Besides Unyielding Sword, there was also a knight and a magic warrior fighting against the Blue Demon.
The knight was riding a black horse, and he was also wearing a full black armor. Whenever the Blue Demon dodged around them and charged towards Fire Spirit King and his companions, it was always this knight on the flying horse who stopped it. In terms of speed, it was actually the black horse that had the advantage. It seemed that it was already in its mature stage.
The magic warrior's attack was not as good as the knight, his health and defense were not as good as the warrior, and his agility was not as good as the rogue. But his mental strength and MP growth were high. Some people thought that they belonged to junk professions, but this magic warrior right in front of us proved that any profession has its advantages, especially after getting good skills.