Meanwhile, at Ornus Village.

A female player, stood in the side, wearing a white full-plate armor that symbolized her 3rd-tier class, Paladin.

Her armor was also installed on her long tail, using a special design that utilized several joints, making it able to move fluently without any obstruction. This tail can also act as a secondary weapon, and can be controlled with a simple thought command.

A horn-shaped full plate helm of the same motif as the armor, hides everything on her head except for her face. Everyone that saw her tail should have understood that inside the horn part in the helm, there are real horns that symbolized her Draconid race.

Astrid, a Draconid pioneer player, as well as one of the Genesis Guild's Seven Stars.

Currently, she was monitoring people who she escorted from the valley. Just a few minutes ago, Emilia called her and entrusted them to her. They were people who jumped on Rena-cchi's Corridor Gate and got stuck in the valley, surrounded by high-leveled monster field area.

"Thank you very much, Miss Paladin."

"Yeah, you saved us. I don't know what to do if you did not come to help."

"You're welcome. As a fellow Kingdom citizen, we should be getting along. It was merely a chance that I passed by."

Astrid exchanged pleasantries with a smile.

As Emilia predicted, most of the Players have returned by themselves using various methods, either by using Return Crystal, Town Scroll, or Return Base skill. Those who did so already gone and safely arrived at their destination.

However, there were still a few people left.

• Those who did not bring any teleportation items.
  These people are either guildless, or joined a guild that doesn't have a Guild Base. Natives who inherently cannot join the Player guild also belongs to this group.
     
• Those who have, but chose NOT to use any teleportation items.
  These people were merchants, either Players or Natives, who took their carts and horses with them. They hesitated to use the item because if they did, it would mean giving up their wagon along with its contents. That would be a disastrous loss.
     
• And lastly, those who stayed behind just for fun.
  They are Players who have no problem with the current situation and are in no rush to return.
     

Astrid did not care about the last group that much. But the merchants and Natives were very useful to develop the village.

♦♦♦

 

Astrid accidentally became the village chief in Ornus Village.

Shortly after the completion of a chain quest, she obtained the right to manage its land as the quest reward. Although it was just a village and only consisted of a few acres, but it was still a manageable territory.

- There is no reason to not develop it.

Besides her identity as the Genesis Guild's Seven Stars, Astrid also has another important identity. She was Leon's cousin, as well one of the three founders who formed the Genesis Guild, along with Leon and Grim.

In addition of that, she was also a shareholder who owns 30% share of the guild!

The dilapidated village originally serve just as a keeper of the Mausoleum. There are not many resident left except the sick and elderly, and its numbers was less than 200. With its bad geographical location, it would be hard to expect any people who want to migrate here. Not to mention the barren soil that makes it hard to grow crops.

But, with the support of the guild, Astrid solved these problems one by one.

To fix the population problem, she asked Grim to procure some Native slaves "two-legged sheep" from the City of Trade, Nerkia City. They were consisted of mixed race, which mostly Beastkins, and a few of Humans, and Elves. Their totals reached about 500 people.

They were just weak “two-legged sheep” who did not have high combat power. Therefore, they are bought cheaply.

As the village chief, Astrid gave a series of policy and included them as a residents. It was unknown the reason why they were become "two-legged sheep", but Astrid did not really care about that.

- They were just used to increase the headcount number.

And then, there were also the Natives she escorted. Considering the long distance journey to the Capital City, they would definitely stay in this village for a while. Perhaps some of them would become permanent residents of this village.

♦♦♦

 

Astrid entered the village and observed the life of the village.

Besides a few rammed earth houses that the original resident have, there were several tent houses. Those tents were built in emergency for 500 "two-legged sheep" who had just become residents.

She had only intended to use those tents as a temporary houses and had already prepared major constructions for another time. 

'To upgrade this village to a town, the population number had to reach 2000 people... Still a long way to go.'

The moment Ornus Village upgraded and became Ornus Town, Astrid can start building a Teleportation Gate.

Then, every time someone activated it, a huge profit of  1.000.000 flows to the town fund. With her position of the Town Lord, Astrid has the right to utilize that fund.

As for who that someone would be, that would definitely be the Players!

'But firstly, I need to build a few of apartment houses. This kind of building can be occupied by a lot of people and can save a lot of lands. With this, I can build many real estates and sell them high!'

The Valley of Death is a good hunting area.

A few of undead monsters roaming around, such as Zombie, Skeleton, and other kinds with level range of Lv80 to Lv90. It was a hunting area that can be used by Players to do stable levelings until they reach lv99.

Players who aimed to reach tier-3 classes would definitely love this place, and with their level, certainly they would not short of gold coins.

'When there is a lot of people, I can raise the tax to 20% and reap a lot of benefit!'

The reason why a Lord position is so desirable, obviously due to how profitable it is. The Lord can build facilities in their domain and receives payment from the one who used it. They can also extort tax to their citizen, as well as the Merchants who doing business in their domain.

The prospect of this occupation was limitless, and the profit generated from it would be extremely huge!

Of course, this profit had to be shared to Genesis Guild, but Astrid did not mind that much. Anyways, the cake is too big for her to eat and had to be shared. After the big cake is sliced, by percentage of share, she had the right to receive 30% of the cake.

And if this slice of cake is converted to real money, her profit would've still reach billions of ¥!

"But, that is for future event. Right now, maintaining the balance is more important..."

Astrid closed her eyes, contemplating the current situation.

 

Just blindly increasing the village population is not a good move.

Her people clearly need something to eat to meet their living needs. However, the land in Ornus Village is barren and cannot be used as agricultural land. The death mist rising from the valley, had made the land infertile.

Or at least that was what the old village chief had told her.

Until now, the villagers find their own food from fishing in the river that flows near the village. It would be fine before when the population were low, but now there are 700 mouths that need to eat, food has become a problem. For the time being, Astrid transported food from Brynhildr Fort to deal with the food problem.

This used to be a fine play... Until the spiders outbreak a few days ago.

To maintain its large troops, Genesis Guild also requires a lot of food. However, due to the spiders, nobody doing material collection, such as meats, fruits, or herbs. Many crops were damaged and failed to be harvested. The food that can be transported from the Fort was greatly reduced.

And this is where the role of Merchants is needed.

By trading food with them, the short term solution of food problem has been dealt.

As for the long term solution, Leon himself is a Templar of the Church of Light. With his position, he can borrow their Priests to sprinkle Holy Water every day into the soil of Ornus Village. 

And then, she released regular mission to guild members who have the Druid class and Farmer subclass. For time to time, they were given the mission to cultivate the land that has been partially purified. With their effort, the land of Ornus Village would soon be fertile.

By that time, the food problem would be nothing!

"Thankfully, these Merchants came just in time. This is like sending charcoal in the snow!"

Astrid was very thankful to Emilia who send these people to her territory.

It was the fact that Emilia and her party contributed to the development of the village. Perhaps it might not be intentional that Rena-cchi chose to explore the Mausoleum, opened the Corridor Gate, and caused this whole incident. But Emilia easily adjusted and make use of it to the fullest.

With that thinking, Astrid let out a smile.

"I should give Emilia and her party Contribution Point. Let's see..."

With a swipe of hand, Astrid opened the Guild Menu and clicked a few times.

She transferred 1.000.000 GCP to Emilia, since she was the one who directly contributed by sending the crowd to her territory.

"Emilia seems talented in management. I heard she is still in High School. Maybe, I should recruit her to work in our Tenkawa Group. She can start as an intern while attending her school..."

This kind of talent deserves to be groomed. The sooner the better.

"Hmm, I should have a talk with her later about this."

Astrid nodded in satisfaction.

Done with Emilia's share, Astrid's gaze shifted to each of the names of Emilia's party members. They also contributed indirectly by causing this whole incident.

Then, 1.000.000 GCP each to Rena-cchi, KA✰ZU, and lastly, Hecate.

But then, she frowned.

"Hmm, this is not right. I should give more to our mascot... As a lucky charm!"

She sent Hecate another 500.000 GCP.

There was a weird myth in the guild that if you manage to pat Hecate's head, a good thing will happen. Astrid is not a person who believes in superstition. But, when looking at Hecate's loveliness, she thought that perhaps this myth holds some truth... Probably?

Since Hecate was not nearby and can't be patted, then just send her some coins.

This is like paying a homage and donating money to a shrine. Hoping to invite good luck and avoid misfortune!

Recently, there were so much bad things happened, as if the luck seems not on their side. The whole guild got slaughtered by Black Phantom, sudden spiders outbreak, trade line got cut-off... If there was any method that could be used to reverse this bad luck, Astrid wouldn't mind trying them one by one, even if they were just superstition. 

"This should do it... Oh, it's already this late. I should take a break."

Feeling satisfied, Astrid closed the window.

She then pressed the log out button and prepared to call a food delivery for lunch.