He woke up to another potent haul. He had used the auction function to sell the manual and had been pleased to earn eight bronze draws.

That was more than he had managed to earn the entire day before. As long as he continued this path his future was bright.

[34 LP (+18)]

He was a little surprised to see how many Lord Points he had earned. It took a bit of investigation to find out that Tier 1 citizens were worth five Lord Points. That was quite the difference compared to Tier 0 citizens.

Tier 2 and above citizens were worth even more.

He once again went to draw his recruits. But this time he was looking for a different demographic.

He wanted to begin building up some form of army. Even with the common Guards Mantra, they would have some measure of strength.

With the varied recruits available, few people fit the mould. Even fewer that had the potential to reach above Tier 0. While he wasn't sure how potential worked and how possible it would be for people to reach beyond it? For the moment he wanted to focus on people with true talents.

Fortunately, he did manage to pick up three young people with Tier 2 potential.

Without any talents, he assumed it would be far easier to mould them into Guards.

He could only assume it would be harder for someone with the talent of farming to switch to becoming a guard.

Two recruits did catch his eye. Both for different reasons.

[Trait: Eagle-Eyed,

Power: Tier 0 - 4 Star,

Potential; Tier 3 - 9 Star,

Talent: None]

[Trait: Disciplined,

Power: Tier 0 - 7 Star,

Potential: Tier 3 - 2 Star,

Talent: Martial Path]

Both having the potential of 3 stars was immediately interesting. But both of their traits were equally so. He hadn't seen either of them before. He hoped that it would lead to interesting things.

He let Leonard take the three with less talent to the barracks first to test them out. While Julius had a chat with the two young men.

The man with the eagle eye trait was slender and hawkish. His gaze seemed to bore into Julius. While the other towered over them both. The muscles on his body could even compete with Leonard's.

They both seemed respectful as they gave a greeting.

Julius turned to the eagle eye first. As the person with the highest potential in his domain. He was curious what kind of person he was.

"My name is Daniel, it's a pleasure to serve you, my lord. I believe I can be very useful."

He certainly wasn't lacking in confidence. Since he didn't seem to want to say anything else. Julius turned to the other man.

"Greetings my lord. My name is Aaron."

Neither of them seemed particularly talkative. But he didn't see that as an issue.

"Greetings to you both. I plan for both of you to become protectors of my land. I believe that should work for you both."

While Daniel didn't react much to his statement. Aaron's eyes seemed to light up.

"Yes, my lord. I have been training for this since a young age. Unfortunately, I was never able to afford a teacher since I was young."

Julius was a little taken aback by Aarons's forthrightness. As it was the most any of his recruits had talked about their past. But the man was tight-lipped about any other details.

With the assurance that both of them seemed at least content with the decision. They joined the others in learning from Leonard.

He had hoped that with their potential they might have come with some skills or knowledge. But both seemed to be blank canvases.

Leonard had seemed to take on a great energy as he began to teach them all in the barracks. Leading them through the basic breathing routine.

Julius hoped he wouldn't have to join them and would be able to gain a path to power of his own.

The farmers were hard at work building up the reserves of basic materials. He still had little idea about how to gain Mystic Stone and Mystic Wood. While they were made from basic materials, they had to be processed by certain buildings. Buildings that you didn't simply unlock from progressing the Lord's abode.

You needed special blueprints to build them. If he could scout one he would gain another huge source of income. It had been the biggest stumbling block for every lord thus far. There were countless building blueprints out in the world. Even the most basic would surely be valuable. Unfortunately, they hadn't appeared in draws.

It seemed that only defeating powerful creatures or unlocking treasure chests would reward them. Neither of which was something that he had managed to do thus far.

While he didn't have many plans to put himself in danger. It seemed that from this point on the help from the Lord's abode would become more passive.

With that done the Hunters changed focus to procuring more food for immediate use. Julius felt relaxed enough to return to his spoils.

Eight Bronze Draws held a lot of potential. While he didn't leave enough scouting for all eight. He did keep three scouting options in reserve. He was lucky to find decent recruits straight away.

He did plan on being a little more varied with his choices this time around. Of course, if he saw a manual of any kind. That would be the first thing he would choose. But he had been ignoring the weapons and tools in favour of the skills.

Now he would be able to see if it was the right choice.

His first draw seemed to be listening, as it only had two skills available. Rather than the three he had become more accustomed to seeing.

He ignored them in favour of scouting the most impressive-looking weapon.

[Elite Bloody Axe]

[Durability 40/40]

While it would be an impressive weapon. It would only be a Rare weapon that would rival the value of a skill. While any skill could nearly guarantee a bronze draw in return. The same was not true for a weapon with limited durability.

With no other weapons catching his eye. He tossed a rock he had fashioned into a makeshift coin to help him with decisions.

The rock dictated him to choose the second to last skill. Thus that was what he did. It seemed that the lack of quantity was made up by the quality.

[Elite Frenzied Roar]

His first elite skill. One that would earn him quite a bit. While it didn't seem suitable for any of his recruits. He was sure that it would be popular.

After putting it up for sale, he continued with his draws. Unfortunately, his scouting proved his thoughts correct. That there was no need to change his methods.

The two other uses of scouts were wasted on uncommon items. With that failure buoying him on, he continued his draws.

He was tempted to begin using the draws to pick up some Mystic materials. But it seemed like quite a waste to be using it for that at this point. He hoped to earn big a few times in a row to be able to afford the upgrade to a Manor.

It took him seven draws to find another manual. He wasn't sure how much luck had to do with it, as it never seemed too uniform of what he could earn. It did seem some luck was on his side as he found another Elite Manual.

[Elite Wilted Blossom Arts]

[A manual of the healing path. Pinnacle users can prolong the life of themselves and others.]

[3/3]

It was the first time he had seen a manual of a healing path. He had seen a few people with a talent for the healing path. But most had been quite weak. With the protection period still in play, he didn't see much need to choose them.

But this manual opened up an opportunity. One he wasn't sure if he should turn down. Even with only three uses, he knew it would be valuable.

While the description was vague, anyone who saw it would be more than interested. He wasn't sure if prolonging life was only related to healing. Or if it affected someone's lifespan. It was the first time he was truly tempted to keep something valuable.

He first went to check on how the auction for the elite skill he had managed to draw. While the others had sold quite quickly earning him more Bronze draws. The auction for the Elite skill was quite a bit more tense than he had expected. It had already reached 3 Bronze Draws. He hadn't thought it would be worth nearly half of the elite manual.

He would have to rethink the value of certain items in the future. It seemed that items that were useful immediately were far more valuable. After all an elite skill would still be valuable for a Tier 3 powerhouse.

Any Lord that had such a citizen would have more than enough funds to afford to pay a high premium for the items.

He was more than happy with the rewards from the morning. He decided to keep the manual for the moment. See if he could find people with a talent for the healing path over the next few days. He didn't think the value of the manual would change that much.

He wouldn't be able to afford to use any of the benefits from ascending to a Lord's Manor. As such there was little point in doing so in the short term.

For now, he turned his focus to building the things he had unlocked with the townhouse.

He didn't think the market would be all that helpful for him at the moment. With far less than a hundred people in his village. He didn't think there would be too much commerce.

The same would be true of a town hall. It helped with organising the town and would be useful in the future.

For now, the only one that might be useful is the library. It allowed the citizens to write books about their knowledge. With it, others would be able to learn the Guard's Mantra with greater ease.

He hoped that he would also be able to find some hidden gems in the meantime. The population was going to be a problem for quite some time. So any benefit he could find he would have to take control of.

Thanks to the amount of draws he now had, getting the iron needed for the building wasn't an issue. It would take a little longer for the farmers to gather all the required materials. As such he decided to wait for a little while to build anything.

With nothing else to do, he could only head to the barracks to see how Leonard was teaching the recruits.

He still seemed full of energy, but the same could not be said of the recruits.

Aaron was the only one who seemed to be keeping the same pace as Leonard. The others were looking quite worse for wear.

They had managed to pick up some spear-looking branches. And were practising some basic movements. Some to far greater success than others. It seemed the difference between people with talent and those without talent in the martial path was stark.

But he did feel a lot more comfortable with Leonard and Aaron around. Both of them seemed more than formidable enough to deal with anything in their peaceful forest. Once he found a proper skill for Daniel, then he would feel very good about his recruits.

It would take a bit of time for the others to be up to par. But he hoped they would be a little more useful by the end of the protection period.

That was approaching with every passing day. He was beginning to feel a little apprehensive about it. That was the main reason he wanted to keep the healing manual.

While he could only assume some of the titled lords were lying. There were far too many claiming great strength for him to believe them all to be liars.

In front of them, his little force wouldn't even be able to last a second. Not to mention that even the least populous lord had close to ten times his population. It seemed that for the others the tavern was a magical building that increased citizens by a huge amount.

For him, it wasn't anywhere near as useful. The same could be said for many of the starter buildings.

If it weren't for his talent, he wouldn't know what kind of position he would be in.

With it, he had great hope for the future.

He had settled into a rhythm far quicker than he had expected. But he knew that would all change when the protection period ended. Any force of Tier 1s would be enough to rout him completely.

He hoped that one day the small force training in front of him would turn into a great army.

Leaving them to their training, he returned to look at how the others were doing.

The hunters were successful in getting enough food for everyone once again. But that would begin to be a bigger and bigger issue in the future. While the farms would help, they simply took too long to mature. He would have to balance the growth of his people.

While he could afford to pay the constantly reducing price of food. He wanted his land to be self-sufficient.

The auction for the skill was still going strong when he returned. It had reached up to six bronze draws. Far more than he had been expecting.

He saw no reason to end the auction early and settled into the routine of colourless draws.

With those draws meaning far less to him now, he had no problems with choosing more standard-looking weapons and armour.

If he could outfit his troops in entirely uncommon items, then their strength would rise quite a bit.

He wouldn't have the most powerful army. But they would be well equipped.

The evening was drawing to a close when there was a frantic knock on his door.

Opening the door, he was met with a frantic Hunter David, covered in blood.

Fortunately, it didn't seem to be his own.

"My lord, I have some grave news. We aren't alone in the forest."