Somewhere in the Verdant Vale,

"Go and quietly tell the boss," Alhid spoke, his voice deep and heavy, glancing in the distance he saw a bright light, seemingly a flare, going off.

"Yes, Sir!" He heard a stuttering confirmation from behind, from an underling.

"I'll be heading that way; remember the protocol."

The underling still had his small eyes wide in shock from the sudden illumination in the distance. He opened his mouth to reply, but Alhid was nowhere to be seen. He shook his head, slapped himself hard, and turned around and ran towards a spiral, rocky staircase.

'It'll be alright.' He knew who had already left, which calmed his nerves with assurance.

He ran, but carefully, so he didn't fall by slipping on the slippery rocks of the staircase.

He reached a long hallway, illuminated by torches that hung on each side of the wall.

Now he walked as quietly as he could, his face tense, and after some long breaths, he reached the end of the hallway.

His head bowed, and the muscles in his neck seemingly tensed. He was afraid to say what he was ordered to say, but he had to; he had to tell the individual inside this chamber about this particular news because if he didn't, there were certainly many things that could go wrong.

He stood there for a moment, gathering his thoughts and mustering courage, and began speaking, not daring to look at the door and keeping his voice loud and not too low, just at the appropriate level so that the individual could hear him.

"Leader, while we were enchanting the materials for tomorrow, there was a disturbance, and a flare was launched from the direction o-"

Ting!

A deep and silent metallic sound rang from inside the chamber, and the underling stopped speaking; his pupils shook, his bow deepened, and his legs began shaking furiously. In his worries about how to give the information, he forgot the 'protocol' and spoke.

'No, no, no, pleas-'

Thud!

His thoughts ended, and his body dropped to the ground. The long, looming door in front of which the underling stood and gave the information had a small gap in it, which was now closing in again as it had opened earlier.

---

"Chief here too!" I heard the tired, enthusiastic, pleasured voice.

My limbs tingled, and my lips twitched. "Coming!" I looked back and yelled.

The voice belonged to a barbarian; he was asking for another serving, and I was the stupid volunteer waiter who was giving them their bowl of meat-filled soup.

"Chief, here, take this." I looked in front of me. Alika was sitting on a stone, her legs folded. In between us were the three animals that were grilled and a pot filled with different ingredients for soup, all of which were from the bandits' hideout.

Alika stayed back; she was not in a condition to go on and fight.

I took the bowl from her; it felt hot as it was made of wood. That too, we took from the bandits' hideout.

"They are eating this freely after a long time, so let them be; they have already completed the job; we are just waiting for them to arrive back," Alika said.

I knew that too, and that's why I had volunteered to do a waiter's work and give them their meal as they sat and ate.

I nodded, turned around, and began walking.

In front of me was the area where we had cleared a space by felling towering trees, creating an approximate 10-by-10-metre area totalling 100 square metres. The moonlight bathed this area, providing enough illumination for us to work, but we didn't rely solely on it. We had placed torches and lanterns strategically, ensuring clear visibility in this open 100-square-metre space.

We went in the back direction of the hideout to the upstream that we raided first, and approximately 300 metres back to it was where I decided that it was a suitable location for the tribe's initial location and for further expansion too.

It was not a random place.

No.

To the right of this place was the Horizon Spine, and to the left of it were some big rocks that seemed to form a natural wall, making the area between where we were standing currently and the town hall vulnerable from only one side.

The region in between these solid natural defences where we were building our town hall was full of vegetation; we had already marked this place in the evening when I and Alcatraz had come for the exploration of the hideouts.

I had instructed Tharl and Alcatraz to go on a rampage on both of the other hideouts while taking four barbarians each. There were enough barbarians for both hideouts, and those who had gone were some of the strongest warriors left in the small group of 22 barbarians.

"Here." I reached the barbarian who had asked for another serving; he too, just like other barbarians, had a warrior-like build that, till now, I had understood was genetics for barbarians. He had different ceps bulging out in a proper proportion—not too much, but what suited an individual of 6'5 height with dark hair.

"Thank you, chief." Thanking me, he again sat on the wooden log that acted as his chair.

I nodded and turned towards the sound of hammering, stones and wood clashing, and mud being plastered.

My heart would pound audibly every time I looked at what we had built in just two and a half hours. A small chuckle was escaping my lips occasionally after seeing how close I was to obtaining the cheat. My system.

---

For the twelve of us who were left—no, only eleven—that hag was just standing behind me while her eyes were—oh, duck those eyes.

First, I had commanded two barbarians to take all the subdued bandits, tie them down, and lock them up.

Then I had advanced to those barbarians who had collected the materials beforehand in the evening while me and Alcatraz were exploring the hideouts, and the only thing left for them to collect were the long wood logs.

For that, we came here to our current location in the direction upstream and behind the hideout at a distance of 300 metres and cleared the area of any trees in a 100-square-metre area.

Ding!

I nodded my head as I heard the notification chime in my head for the completion of the first objective.

"Good, good, what a wonderful place! Oh, it's dark too; ahh, I wish Khatun was here; he would have been dearly proud of-" I ignored the old hag's rambling, which had increased since we came here.

With the resources we had gathered, we could construct a 4-by-4-metre town hall in this chosen area.

I had reached a certain position in the cleared space and had addressed the barbarians that were present there, which were only seven, excluding me and the old hag. They all stood in front of me, and Alika was among them. They all had small axes, which were the size of an adult's arm; this was the most common weapon that barbarians were adapted to.

They all had an energetic appearance, seemingly unfazed, knowing how the previous blunder was swiftly taken care of by Alcatraz and Tharl as they led their team of barbarians.

"I select this location."

Ding!

Now that I had chosen the location, it was time for the construction to begin.

One crucial aspect of building construction was understanding the terrain and geography of the area. It appeared that the system allocated the collection of resources and materials in accordance with this landscape.

First, I outlined the blueprint on the ground, sketching it with a stick. Then, I directed them to excavate the loose soil and replace it with large stones, ensuring a sturdy foundation.

As I marked out the blueprint on the ground, a notification chimed in my mind. It was related to the objective of the Special Upgrade Mission, so I proceeded with my instructions.

Next, it was time for the skeleton structure for the town hall's building. I instructed them to embed 4-metre-long wooden logs at a distance of 4 metres from each other. These logs were thick enough that an adult couldn't encircle them with their arms. Then arrange four of these logs at equal intervals, forming a square.

And between these four-metre gaps, I instructed them to insert additional wooden logs as pillars, creating 2-metre gaps between each pillar. These eight pillars formed the outline of the square structure.

To reinforce the structure of the town hall and provide support, they placed four more wooden logs horizontally on top of these pillars as columns.

Now it was time to construct the ceiling, and we had eight large wooden logs left to use. I thought of a pattern that would allow us to cover the ceiling properly and ordered them to design a tic-tac-toe pattern for the ceiling and use the remaining logs as additional pillars.

With the skeleton structure in place, it was time to begin filling the gaps using small and medium-sized wooden logs, stones, and mud.

While they were completing the job, it was taking a toll on their bodies, and that was when Alika came to me and addressed the situation for them. I hadn't neglected the problem, but with how fast and easily they were working, it didn't seem they were tired at all. Knowing that they were tired and hungry, she volunteered to do the cooking and I to be a waiter.

---

I stood in a corner after giving everyone their meal. This was in line with how Skylar Reigns acted; he was brave and kind as he had always been, but as he began his rule and the kingdoms attacked them, it made him even more humble towards his people, willing to go through hell if required.

If I had counted time right in my mind, then it was about to cross the three-hour mark after we had begun the construction and Alcatraz and Tharl had gone to raid.

I opened my system interface. A flood of notifications rushed onto the screen.

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

'Only the third and sixth objectives are left.' The third objective was the completion of the construction of the town hall, which seemed would be complete in a few minutes, and for the sixth objective, I determined that the presence of all the barbarians was required as the sixth objective was to celebrate the creation of the town hall.

"It's about time they returned."

I then looked at the other notifications that were seemingly more lucrative than the ones I had seen until now.

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

Duck!

My lips twitched vigorously, forming an awkward smirk and a fool's smile.

The more rewards, the better. I loved it when things were easy.

One should always strive for an extremely easy life. Why make it hard when you could simply live it in easy mode?