"Give you enough meat and a month's time—could you train a hundred dock laborers to this level?"
Faced with Todd's question, Carter hesitated for a long time, not daring to give a definite answer.
He had trained temporarily recruited soldiers before, so he naturally understood how difficult this was.
But after a moment, Carter still stiffened his neck and said,
"So what? They're not invincible! Give me six or seven brothers—if I charge, I can smash this bunch of recruits!"
Todd couldn't be bothered to argue with him.
He clearly remembered that when Samwell had first recruited these men, Carter had shown nothing but contempt, claiming that with just sword and armor, he alone could scatter all one hundred of them.
Yet after only a single month, he now needed six or seven companions.
Todd couldn't even imagine how many regular soldiers Carter would need to command before he could confidently defeat this group.
To be honest, Todd really wanted to ask Samwell how he trained soldiers, but he worried that this might be an unspoken secret of House Tully. In the end, he could only observe quietly from the sidelines.
While secretly learning, Todd noticed something else as well.
Samwell's physical condition seemed to be improving at an astonishing speed.
When he first left Highgarden, Samwell had still been so fat that mounting a horse left him panting. But a month later, although he was still overweight, he was no longer as bloated as before.
At the beginning of the "military training," Samwell mostly gave commands, only occasionally joining in, and he would collapse after a short while. Now, however, he could actually persist through the entire training alongside the recruits.
It was nothing short of amazing.
This made Todd increasingly certain that Samwell's reputation as a useless wastrel was fake—and that the fat on his body had been deliberately accumulated. Now he was merely undergoing recovery training, which explained the rapid progress.
Thinking this, Todd's expression grew darker and darker.
The recruits' training didn't end until noon.
This was part of the "marching routine" Samwell had set from the very start: half a day of training in the morning, a two-hour rest after lunch, then a leisurely departure, followed by night training after another rest.
Because of this, even after a full month, they had traveled less than half the total distance.
Todd had suggested several times that they speed up the march, but Samwell rejected him every time.
That "cowardly" pioneer knight insisted that the recruits had to be trained into qualified fighters before entering the Crimson Mountains.
"I think he's just scared to move forward, so he's dragging things out!" Carter complained into Todd's ear again. "Once he runs out of money, he'll have a perfect excuse to abandon the whole operation. Hmph! Typical Tully cowardly trash!"
Todd said nothing.
Seeing this, Carter pressed on. "Master Todd, are you really just going to let this continue?"
Todd replied irritably, "What else do you want me to do? Put a sword to his neck and force him onward?"
Carter lowered his voice. "That's… not impossible."
Todd turned his head and narrowed his eyes at his attendant.
Carter coughed lightly and explained,
"I mean, you could scare that fat man a little. Make him obedient."
Todd withdrew his gaze, lowered his head, and fell silent.
He neither agreed with nor rejected the suggestion.
…
Plumes of cooking smoke rose from the camp, and with them spread the rich aroma of meat.
The recruits who had just finished training sat cross-legged on the ground. Though exhausted, their faces were filled with smiles.
As long as there was meat to eat, of course they were happy.
In fact, the experiences of the past few months felt a little unreal to them.
What they had thought would be an extremely harsh pioneering journey had instead become the happiest time of their lives.
Of course, the daily training was grueling, but they were dock laborers to begin with—they had long since grown used to hard work. What's more, they had meat to eat every day. No matter how hard it was, it was worth it.
They felt more and more that choosing to follow Master Caesar to develop new lands was the wisest decision they had ever made.
What they didn't know was that Master Caesar himself was a little worried right now.
Of course, Samwell wasn't worried about money. Although his development funds were indeed running low, he firmly believed that House Tyrell wouldn't just sit by and watch his efforts collapse without lifting a finger.
They had already dispatched a hundred elite soldiers—how could they begrudge a few golden dragons?
What truly worried Samwell was his attribute panel.
More than a month had passed, and his stats had changed significantly:
Samwell Caesar
Title: Pioneer Knight
Territory: None
Vassals: None
Strength: 1.22
Agility: 0.73
Spirit: 1.12
Both strength and agility had increased greatly—especially strength. With the help of golden-tail shrimp, its growth had been the fastest.
Of course, this had burned through a lot of money.
The reason he ran into financial trouble so quickly was only half because the recruits needed meat every day. The other half was because his own mouth never rested.
Not to mention golden-tail shrimp—whenever he found one, no matter how expensive it was, he bought it.
Moreover, every time they passed through a town, Sam would have Gavin search for all kinds of food, hoping to find something similar to golden-tail shrimp that could boost attributes.
Nothing came of it.
Along the way, Samwell tasted all manner of bizarre foods. Even snails, lizards, silkworm pupae, and other "dark dishes"—he suppressed his nausea and forced them down.
They had no effect at all.
Worse still, he discovered that after his strength exceeded 1.20, the effect of golden-tail shrimp had actually been halved!
Yes—he clearly remembered that after his strength reached 1.20, eating the first golden-tail shrimp caused no reaction whatsoever. Only after eating a second one did it rise to 1.21.
That extra 0.01 strength had been the result of three full days of grueling military training.
This change made Samwell deeply uncomfortable. It was easy to predict that as his strength continued to increase, the improvement gained from golden-tail shrimp would only continue to diminish.
As for agility, although he hadn't found any "cheat food," it was still rising fairly quickly.
This was likely due to its low starting point, making it easier to improve. There was also probably a side benefit from increased strength.
After all, by common sense, greater strength naturally led to higher speed.
Additionally, he had already lost a considerable amount of weight, so his movements were bound to become more fluid.
Still, as agility continued to rise, it would probably become just as difficult to improve as strength.
As for spirit, it hadn't changed at all for over a month.
However, Samwell wasn't in a hurry to raise his spirit attribute. After all, Daenerys's three dragons hadn't hatched yet, and the mysterious side of this world was still dormant. Even if he increased spirit now, it likely wouldn't have much effect.
At present, improving strength and agility was far more helpful to his combat power.
Thinking this, Samwell silently chanted, I am a ruthless eating machine, and numbly stuffed all kinds of strange foods Gavin had purchased into his mouth.
As the bizarre flavors surged and churned inside his mouth, Samwell's expression became more and more miserable.
But then, not long after—
His eyes suddenly lit up!
"Gavin!"
"Yes, Master?" Gavin replied.
"What's the name of this grass?" Samwell asked eagerly, holding up a silver-white weed.
Because he had just discovered that after eating it, his spirit attribute had actually increased by 0.01!
Although it wasn't strength or agility—the ones he most desired—Samwell would never let go of any food that could raise spirit.
"Master, this is called Ghost Grass."
...
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Here are a few fan-fic titles that I've recently uploaded on my Patreon:
"Game of Thrones: Dragon Prince"
"Game of Thrones: Political Life"
"Game of Thrones: Holy Flame"
"The Game of Thrones Upgrade System"
"Game of Thrones: Lannister Kingdom"
"Game of Thrones: Godzilla vs. Dragons"
"Game of Thrones: Ruler of the Deep Seas "
"Game of Thrones The Glory of a Knight"
"Game of Thrones: The Most Powerful Dragon Queen"
" Game of Thrones: From the Elden Lord to the Young Wolf"
"Game of Thrones: Rise of a Lord with the Army-Building System"
(End Chapter)