Chapter 2
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The night brought no new answers.

Both Farmer's couldn't give an accurate insight on where they might be.

With nothing else to do, he got both of the Farmer's to begin work once again. The one good thing was that the recruitment orders had been renewed.

He had a small hope in his heart that it would be the same people as yesterday. With that, his ability would become more useful. Unfortunately, that would not be the case as a whole litany of new people appeared before him. Along with a familiar amount of scouting opportunities.

While he knew he shouldn't be too judgemental, he knew what kind of people he needed. Unfortunately, he was unable to replicate the success of yesterday. So one seven-star and one six-star appeared from the edge of the clearing. Neither of them had great potential or any traits.

[Trait: None,

Power: Tier 0 - 6 Star,

Potential: Tier 1 - 2 Star,

Talent: Hunting]

The only reason he had summoned the 6-star man was because of his talent for hunting. With that Julius hoped they would be able to both find out more about the local area, but also not have to pay for food.

The market for food had only grown in the time since he had brought the boar meat.

They still had some meat left over, so they might have been able to make it through the day.

Hunter David was a little displeased with the quality of the spear. Fortunately, he did seem confident in exploring the surrounding forests.

"I have a feel for the land you see. I can tell the difference between a dangerous forest and a safe one."

Julius waited for him to continue, but the Hunter seemed to settle into a silence.

"What do you think about this forest?"

Julius lost the battle in the end. Succumbing to his curiosity.

"The wind feels safe around here, I doubt we will have too many issues."

With those sage words, Hunter David ventured into the forest. Julius had told him the limits of the current lands and where to stay to be protected. He could only hope that would be enough.

The other farmer had joined Jack and Ben in felling the nearby trees. That was one thing they wouldn't have to worry about. They had plenty of lumber for the foreseeable future.

While wood didn't have too much value, he was sure there were lords out there who required it.

He tried his best trading, but there wasn't much he could do other than buy a little more food.

He decided to spend most of his morning helping out the other farmers. His current fitness left a lot to be desired.

The lords spoke of meditation techniques and treasures that increased your strength. The strongest claimed they had already reached the third Tier.

The farmers knew little else other than basic breathing exercises. They did help with the work. But did nothing to increase his strength in the short term.

After an hour of work, in which they managed to fall five more trees. Hunter David returned, looking a little worse for wear.

He didn't seem to be bleeding but looked more than a little unhappy.

"We aren't in any danger. But we are stuck in quite a large forest. I climbed the tallest tree I could find, but couldn't see anything but trees in any direction."

That was about what Julius had been expecting. With no one talking in either the local or kingdom forum, he imagined that they were in some far corner of the world. Away from civilization. That could be a good or bad thing depending on how to look at it.

"I did manage to find a small deposit of stone on the outskirts of the domain. There were no tracks of anything more powerful than a Tier 0 beast."

The two pieces of good news more than made up for the disappointment of being far away from anyone else.

Without any threat nearby, it would be far easier to grow in peace. Especially with a few people already putting up recruitment orders for sale.

While they were far too expensive for the moment, he doubted that would be true for too long. While for others they would be useless, he had already found a few people with Tier 3 potential.

Getting as many recruitment orders as possible would always be a viable strategy. For now, he had to make do with the group he had recruited thus far. Hunter David feeling a little more confident went off to catch some food.

Feeling tired from the work, Julius decided once again to check the forum.

He would wait until the next day to begin mining out the stone. For now, he had the Farmer's working on building a path towards the area. He wanted to make the process as seamless as possible.

The forum had the usual activity. The usual suspects were making the most noise. Either arguing or boasting with one another.

Julius had managed to learn a little more about the talents. While there were no silver talent titled lords as of yet. There were gold talents. After that seemed to be diamond talents. Then Epic talents. Then finally Legendary talents. The majority of the titled lords that were speaking seemed to have Epic talents. While some were willing to send in proof of their talent. Learning the computer had a screenshot function was interesting. Most didn't. So they could only take their words about their prowess.

Without anyone in the local forums to talk to, the Forums quickly grew old.

The market did finally have something interesting other than the food of different beasts and even some monsters.

It was another place for the titled lords to show off. One even sold the meat of a Tier 4 beast, for items in return that Julius couldn't even recognize.

He now had more than enough wood to buy food for weeks. With no way to build any storage areas for the moment, he had no choice but to use the excess wood.

A level 2 hovel could build stockpiles of both wood and stone. But for the moment he was limited to two hundred of both.

With the wood filling up quickly, he was left with nothing to do but try and get some good deals.

The scrolling did bring some benefits as he was able to pick up some interesting items.

While normal recruitment orders were going for a premium. They weren't the only such items available. Several lottery items seemed to work similarly. They were equally consumable.

Treasure draws were a similar item that could be bought in the Lord's store.

That was an option that would only appear once the Lord had upgraded to a townhouse. Treasure Draw tickets could also be sold in the trading hall.

While buying even the basic white treasure draw cost him a hundred wood. The chance of being able to use his scouting ability proved too tempting.

It was fortunate that his hopes were proven correct as another screen appeared in front of him. This one with only fifty options. Unfortunately, he had run out of scouting chances. But even seeing what treasure he would be drawing was a large boon. Most were little more than wood or stone. But a few options looked good.

Not having the ability to leave the screen without choosing one, he decided on a dangerous-looking sword.

After selecting his choice, he rushed to the Lord's Chest where the blade would appear.

He picked up the blade with some reverence. His first true item.

[Elite Bloody Blade,

Durability 200/200]

An Elite blade was certainly unexpected. As for even the titled lords, it would be a good item. With most Lords only being able to craft Common's or Uncommon's. An Elite would be a peak item for most of his fellow lords.

He was left with quite the decision.

Selling the Blade would get him more than enough materials to level up to a third or even fourth-level hovel. Or he could sell the item and begin picking up more treasure draws.

Heading to the forum, it didn't take long for him to list the item for ten colourless treasure draws.

It only took a few moments for the blade to be sold. Julius couldn't believe his luck. He only needed to use two of the draws to earn the stone he needed to upgrade.

With eight draws left, he upgraded his hovel to Lv 2.

There was no immediate change to the area. That wouldn't come until they levelled up to a townhouse. But he could begin building some other basic buildings.

Fortunately, stockpiles were cheap, so he made one for both stone and wood. Only having to use one more colourless draw to gain the materials.

Thus his gambling began.

He doubted he would be able to find another Elite blade. But he was still hopeful going into the first draw.

Another fifty options appeared before him. Most of which were once again some basic materials.

Without the need for more stone, he could once again look at the other items. None of them had the same appeal as the first blade, but there was a bow that seemed promising.

He went through the next few similarly. Letting the items pile up. But it was on the fourth draw that something interesting appeared.

A scroll.

The other lords had claimed that you could learn skills from scrolls. So the appearance of one immediately drew his attention.

He went through the final few paying less attention. Once again picking the most interesting-looking weapons.

With all seven remaining drawn, he moved to the Lord's Chest once again. This time the storage was nearly full. The ten slots were almost all filled. But his eyes were immediately drawn to the scroll.

While he doubted that the quality would be too high, any skill was sure to be valuable.

[Uncommon Blazing Fist]

[Cloak Your Fist in Fire mana and deliver a devastating punch]

There wasn't much to the skill, but it seemed that it could be a powerful offensive weapon. The only issue was that he had no idea about what mana would be best for him.

A Lord could use any skill, but each lord did have proficiencies. Lord Archmage had spoken at length about magic and its uses. He had claimed that it was a public service. Without an elemental stone, there was no way to know which element suited you.

What he did know was that the skill would be worth far more than the Elite blade had been. With nothing else to do, his urge to gamble further only grew stronger. He had been unable to replicate his success with the item. But he now had several uncommon items to his name.

With no great threat looming in the distance, he once again sold the skill. This time around he managed to earn thirty colourless draws. The equivalent of three thousand wood.

He was still far from earning a Bronze draw, but for now, he was more than happy with his earnings.

His fervent gambling was broken by the return of Hunter David. This time he did manage to return with food.

Without the need for extra food, he could begin to focus his resources on reaching Level 3. He would be able to begin an actual farm at that point. Make use of the talented farmers in his land.

"You've got a good forest around you milord. Looks like it hasn't been disturbed by anything in decades."

"No sign of any Monsters?"

"No Sir, not a hint of anything that could harm us. I'll begin straying a little further once I have another Hunter to back me up."

Well, that left little doubt about who Julius would have to scout come the next day.

He had planned to pick up another hunter soon, but that made it a priority.

The Farmer's had come closer to the stone deposit. By the end of the day, there should be a small path to the area. With the pickaxes, they could begin stockpiling stone as well.

With his current gambling success. Julius wasn't sure how much he would rely on anything else. But he was sure that he would need a decent foundation for the future.

The Tier 0 Hare wasn't quite as tasty as the Boar had been the day before. But it was more than enough to feed them for the evening.

It made him look forward to being able to build a tavern. That would be the first building that had a true kitchen. That was until his townhouse was built. Which he was sure he would be able to reach by the end of the next day.

Hunter David was more than pleased with his new bow. The spear had already reached critical durability. Common items weren't built to last. That was more than clear.

After crafting a few more items, Julius returned to his hovel. After all, he had quite a few more draws to go through.

With the stockpiles built, he had no worries about the storage of the resources. So he could continue his draws with glee.

If there was nothing that stood out too much, he would simply pick up the largest stockpile of stone.

Even with the extra cost of upgrading to Lv 3, he managed to do so before the end of the day.

With that goal he reached, he marked out an area of the clearing and began building a few small farms. One for each of the farmers to oversee. The evening came once again. But this time he was far happier heading to bed.

While he hadn't been as lucky with the most recent crop of draws. He sold the excess items to keep a basic supply of draws. He doubted that he would use up any of his scouting chances on it anytime soon. But it was the best source of income he would have for the foreseeable future.

With plans of falling asleep in a townhouse the next day, he fell into a quiet sleep.

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