Chapter 16: The Art of Balance

While waiting for the whetstone to be made, Su You took a short break and replenished her hunger bar.

Things were pretty much the same as before, but this time, no mysterious creature showed up to snatch her food. She had no idea if that creature had already left...

But that wasn’t really Su You’s concern. The fact that she’d been able to strike a deal with that creature was pure luck.

It just so happened that the creature passed by, cleared out the stone monsters, and the loot from those monsters attracted Su You. It just so happened that the creature liked—or needed—food. It just so happened that she took out some food, and it happened to be the kind it liked...

So many “coincidences” had come together to make yesterday’s events possible.

This was the kind of opportunity you couldn’t seek out, only stumble upon. To encounter it at her moment of greatest need—even if it was just a transaction—Su You was still deeply grateful.

Because, from a certain perspective, that trade hadn’t been fair at all.

...

A minute later, Su You was holding a reddish-brown “stone brick” about the size of an adult man’s palm.

The brick was hefty and felt heavy in her hand. Its surface looked smooth at first glance, but on closer inspection, it was actually quite rough—this was a whetstone made from sandstone.

[Whetstone]

Category: Tool

Quality: Common (White)

Durability: 5/5

Description: A whetstone can restore other tools to a sharp (i.e., fully durable) state. The higher the tool’s level and the better its materials, the harder it is to fully restore its sharpness.

...

The whetstone’s durability represented the number of uses—5/5 meant it could be used five times. After five uses, the whetstone would turn to powder and disappear.

Although the whetstone was a tool, it couldn’t be used to repair another whetstone’s durability. So, you couldn’t just have two whetstones and use them to repair each other in an infinite loop—no whetstone perpetual motion machine here.

With the whetstone in hand, Su You pulled out her nearly-broken stone axe from her backpack.

She gave it a quick grind on the whetstone. In just a few seconds, the whetstone’s durability dropped to 4/5, while the stone axe’s durability shot up from 1/100 to 100/100.

In the blink of an eye, a battered, almost unusable axe was instantly restored to brand new.

Of course, only stone tools could be repaired this efficiently.

If it were a higher-level tool, even using up an entire whetstone might only restore a dozen points—or even just a few points—of durability.

...

With her axe ready, Su You’s next job was simple: chop trees. Lots of trees.

A basic arrow tower required twenty pieces of wood, and building a town core fire needed sixty more. That was eighty pieces of wood in total...

After a whole morning of relentless effort—and wearing out a whetstone in the process—Su You finally managed to gather nearly a hundred pieces of wood.

Since her backpack didn’t have enough space, she crafted sixty of the logs into planks for the town core fire.

The remaining wood stayed in her backpack.

Arrow towers were large structures—like campfires, they had to be placed immediately after being built, unlike wooden fences, which could be stored. So Su You had to carry the wood with her and wait until she reached her destination to build.

“Finally done...” Su You slumped against a tree, exhausted, sipping her last cup of juice as she started organizing her backpack.

Backpack (10/10): String ×4, Roasted Berries ×8, Stone ×5, Wood ×20, Wood ×20, Planks ×5, Whetstone ×2, Stone Axe (5/100), Stone Pickaxe (3/100), Stone Knife (88/100)

Looking at her inventory, Su You seemed to think of something. She took out the stone knife, freeing up a slot, then put the two wooden cups into her backpack, and prepared to head back to her camp.

When she passed the spot where she’d “traded” with that mysterious creature yesterday, Su You paused—the place where she’d left seven portions of roasted berries and a cup of berry juice was now empty. Not a trace remained, not even the inedible wooden cup. Who knew what that creature had done with it?

Still, the missing cup didn’t affect Su You’s plans.

She took out the remaining eight roasted berries from her backpack and, just like yesterday, neatly arranged them under the tree.

Once she’d finished, Su You put the stone knife back in her backpack and left without a backward glance.

Yesterday’s trade was over, but to Su You, the value of seven portions of roasted berries simply couldn’t compare to those ten pieces of stone and one chunk of ore.

Red berry bushes were a common resource in the forest, as were leaves. In other words, roasted berries were basically worthless to Su You—like sand in the desert. They took a little time to gather, but they were everywhere.

But the stones the other party had traded her were like a rare “water source” in the desert—exactly what she needed, and the hardest thing for her to get.

Trading “sand” for “water” in the desert... Honestly, if she hadn’t run out of roasted berries yesterday, she wouldn’t have hesitated to offer not just seven, but seventeen, or even twenty-seven portions.

On the Sunset Continent, there was a special principle that veteran players called “the art of balance.”

No matter what you did, you had to maintain balance. Only by keeping things in balance could you survive more easily on the Sunset Continent...

As the saying went, “If you want to make it on the continent, you’d better join the Church of Balance first.”

As for what this art of balance had to do with her leaving roasted berries here... Su You couldn’t really explain it. But as a “devout” follower of balance, she just knew it was the right thing to do.

...

...

Even though she was now out of food, Su You didn’t bother gathering more red berries on her way back.

It wasn’t because her backpack was full—if space was really an issue, she could always take out a tool and carry it by hand, freeing up a slot. If she didn’t mind the hassle, she could even carry one tool in each hand, saving two slots.

The real reason she didn’t gather more berries was partly a matter of time, and partly because she didn’t need them as food for now.

Back at her camp, the first thing Su You did was use her remaining materials to light a campfire and start roasting meat.

The meat, of course, was from the rabbit she’d just butchered.

Compared to berries, meat restored much more hunger.

[Small Roasted Meat] (Consumes: Small Meat ×1, Leaves ×3)

Category: Food

Quality: Common (White)

Effect: Restores 40 hunger when eaten

Description: Just some average-tasting roast meat, but it fills you up much faster."

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your Chinese text:

---

**17. Grilled Meat**

The rabbit from earlier yielded four small pieces of meat in total, which means four servings of grilled meat can be made, restoring a total of 160 hunger points.

With these four servings, Su You had more than enough food for this afternoon’s battle against the Fire Demons.

After all, when fighting the Fire Demons in the afternoon, the main damage would come from the arrow towers. She was just a bystander, watching the show—at most, she’d chip in a little or finish off a monster or two. If her building placement was good enough, she might not even need to do that; she could just lie back and wait to collect the loot.

...

[Obtained: Small Grilled Meat ×4]

As the grilling timer finished, Su You put the grilled meat into her backpack and headed straight for the depths of the forest.

Although she didn’t know the exact location of the Fire Demons, Su You was familiar with their general spawn area.

Open spaces, sparse vegetation, dry soil, and only some low, yellowing shrubs nearby—these were all telltale signs of where Fire Demons appeared.

In other words, it was the presence of Fire Demons that caused these environmental features.

Aside from these, there was always a water source near a Fire Demon nest—whether a stream or a river, there would always be one.

...

After quite a bit of searching—from the forest’s edge to its inner boundary, and then deeper in—Su You spent over an hour before finally spotting, across a small stream, a figure that looked like a walking ball of fire.

These figures were distributed much like the Stone Monsters: scattered in small groups, with the occasional one wandering alone.

Behind them, Su You saw a huge cave. There was no need to think twice—this had to be the Fire Demons’ nest.

“One, two, three...” Su You counted the Fire Demons she could see with the naked eye. When she finished, there were thirteen in total.

The forest was vast, and there was more than one spawn point for Stone Monsters, so naturally there was more than one Fire Demon nest.

Typically, a nest would spawn around 15 to 25 Fire Demons. During the day, about half of them would roam outside, while the rest stayed in the nest to “guard the house.”

In the afternoon, the ones on guard would head out, while those who’d been outside in the morning would return to the nest—basically, they worked in shifts.

Since there were thirteen Fire Demons outside now, Su You could be fairly sure this was a fully spawned nest.

With a maximum of 25, that meant 13 outside and 12 inside the cave.

Having more Fire Demons wasn’t a bad thing for Su You. The more there were, the higher her chances of getting Flame Stones, and she wouldn’t need to keep switching spawn points.

...

After locating the Fire Demons, Su You used the cover of plants to quietly circle around the stream and approach the nest from the same side.

[Spend 10 Wood to build a Basic Arrow Tower?]

Seeing the phantom outline appear before her, Su You felt nothing but calm. She decisively chose “Yes” and placed it in a wide-open area.

[Building Basic Arrow Tower. Estimated time: 300 seconds.]

Building structures was different from crafting items: the former had its own construction timer, while the latter required the workbench to be free before crafting could continue.

So, after placing the first arrow tower, Su You immediately headed to a spot where trees were clustered together.

This was her chosen spot for the second arrow tower.

Anyone else present would have noticed that the two towers were in drastically different locations—one in a wide-open area with almost no cover, and the other squeezed into a gap between dense trees. Who knows how Su You even found a spot for a tower in such a cramped place.

Another difference: the second tower, built among the trees, was closer to the Fire Demon nest, while the first was positioned directly on the line connecting the second tower and the nest.

In other words, Arrow Tower 1, Arrow Tower 2, and the Fire Demon nest were almost perfectly aligned in a straight line.

There was another detail: the straight-line distance between the two towers was exactly the maximum attack range of a basic arrow tower.

With both towers built, Su You took out the fences she’d crafted earlier.

She placed two wooden fences around Arrow Tower 2, with a gate between them. At this point, all her preparations for killing the Fire Demons were complete.

Now, all she had to do was attract the Fire Demons’ attention and lure them over...

Before that, Su You did one more thing: she loaded all twenty-four of her stone arrows into Arrow Tower 1’s ammo slot.

As for why she didn’t equip Arrow Tower 2 with stone arrows—let’s just say Tower 2 was never meant for attacking.

Both towers were necessary for killing the Fire Demons, but only one would actually attack; the other had a special role.

...

To test whether this method for killing Fire Demons would work, or how effective it would be, Su You decided to lure just one or two over first.

With only one arrow tower attacking, if she drew too many Fire Demons at once, even with her preparations, the tower wouldn’t be able to handle them all, and she’d be in trouble.

Using the cover of nearby plants, Su You moved to a spot not far from the nest, but not too close either.

Here, she stopped—any closer and there’d be no cover at all. The lack of vegetation around the Fire Demon nest meant there were no tall plants to hide behind.

Originally, Su You planned to chop a tree with her axe to make some noise and attract the Fire Demons. When they came over, she’d hide, and when they found nothing, they’d return to where they came from.

Because the Fire Demons were scattered and moved at different speeds, repeating this process a few times would separate the ones grouped together.

At that point, luring a lone Fire Demon would be much easier.

But just as Su You took out her axe to put this plan into action, she noticed that two Fire Demons were already walking in her direction.

Su You didn’t know whether this was a coincidence or if something had happened at the nest to send them her way—but her instincts kicked in, and she quickly hid where the two Fire Demons couldn’t see her.

---"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**18. Trapped Like Fish in a Jar**

Through the gaps in the leaves, Su You could vaguely see that there was nothing behind the two fire demons—apparently, it was just these two, with no other companions following them.

Since such a good opportunity had presented itself, Su You had no intention of letting it slip by. In her eyes, these two fire demons were already her guinea pigs for testing out her trap setups.

After observing the path the fire demons were taking, Su You quietly moved ahead of them and pulled out her axe.

*Clang—*

With a sound that wasn’t particularly loud, but was very noticeable to the fire demons, both of them were immediately drawn to the noise. Instinctively, they looked in the direction the sound had come from—

Unfortunately for them, the plants blocked their view, so they saw nothing. Just as they were about to leave, another *clang* came from the same direction.

Whether it was out of curiosity or simply annoyance at the persistent noise, the two fire demons not only stopped in their tracks, but actually started to slowly move toward Su You’s position…

Just like that, the two hapless “lab rats” were lured by Su You into the attack range of Arrow Tower 2.

Although they were within Arrow Tower 2’s range, the tower wasn’t loaded with arrows, so the fire demons weren’t attacked.

Even so, under Su You’s deliberate guidance, they spotted Arrow Tower 2.

On the Sunset Continent, almost all monsters share a trait: they will actively attack any structure, regardless of what it is or where it’s located.

As soon as a building appears in their line of sight, their programming triggers an “attack” command, which takes top priority over everything else.

The only exceptions are monsters with higher AI (intelligence). While they also like to attack buildings, they know how to better achieve their goals, rather than just charging blindly without any strategy.

But since these fire demons are the monsters that drop the Heartfire Core materials, it’s only natural that they’re not too bright—otherwise, it would make the game way too hard.

…After all, if you can’t even kill a fire demon or establish your own territory, what’s the point of playing?

So, once the two fire demons spotted Arrow Tower 2, Su You didn’t need to do anything else—they just dumbly ambled toward the tower on their own.

They wanted to attack the tower, but its position was tricky: Arrow Tower 2 was hidden among the gaps between several large trees, so the fire demons had to struggle through the trees to get close. But just as they were about to attack, they found their way blocked by a fence.

Because of the fence, they couldn’t reach the tower, so the only thing they could do was attack the barrier in front of them.

They walked through the gate Su You had deliberately left open, and started furiously clawing at the wooden fence… Just as they were absorbed in attacking the fence, the gate behind them suddenly swung shut.

Their only way out was now closed—now the fire demons were truly trapped like fish in a jar.

Want to escape?

Impossible!

Unless they could destroy the fences!

The fire demons weren’t smart, but they understood their predicament. Their attacks grew even more frenzied. But just as they were attacking the fence, an arrow suddenly whistled through the air and struck one of the fire demons in the arm.

There was no way they’d let themselves be trapped without fighting back, and Su You wasn’t about to just sit by and let them break down her fence, either.

She’d held off before only because she didn’t want to scare them away.

Now that they were trapped, Su You had nothing left to worry about. She immediately activated Arrow Tower 1, letting it fire arrows to finish them off as quickly as possible.

The arrow towers had two attack modes: automatic and manual.

The advantage of automatic mode was that it freed up manpower, but its accuracy was mediocre—if the target moved too fast, it was easy to miss.

As for manual mode, there were actually two types: one was Su You herself, the player, directly controlling the tower.

As long as your skills were good enough, you could hit any monster, no matter how tough.

But Su You was only one person. Later on, once she established her own city, there would be thousands of monsters attacking at once. No matter how skilled she was, she couldn’t possibly control hundreds of arrow towers and turrets at the same time… But that was fine, because later she could recruit combat NPCs to operate the towers.

Everyone has their own specialty—if she could recruit NPCs with high archery skills, not only would accuracy be guaranteed, but top-tier NPCs could even boost the tower’s damage!

But that was all for the future. Right now, Su You didn’t even have her own territory, let alone the ability to recruit NPCs—she hadn’t even met any yet.

Although manual control was more accurate, thanks to Su You’s setup, the two fire demons were trapped in a tiny area just a few steps wide.

With such limited space, there was nowhere for them to dodge, so even without manual control, the arrow towers easily took care of them.

With a few agonized howls, the fire demons turned to ash and vanished. At the same time, a few items emitting a faint white glow appeared on the ground.

Su You opened the gate, picking up the loot while also retrieving the arrows she’d fired.

By her count, the tower had fired twelve arrows in total. Maybe she was just lucky, but she managed to recover all twelve arrows, with no losses.

Besides the arrows, Su You also picked up the drops from killing the fire demons.

【Obtained Copper Coins x5】

【Obtained Copper Coins x3】

【Obtained Charcoal x6】

…

Copper coins were the common currency of the continent, useful for many things: trading with merchants, buying and upgrading buildings, and so on.

Besides copper coins, there were also silver and gold coins: 10,000 copper = 100 silver = 1 gold.

As for the charcoal, it was just ordinary charcoal—nothing special, mainly used as fuel.

Other than being fuel, if she later got feathers, she could combine feathers, twigs, and charcoal to make quill pens.

Since she’d just built an arrow tower and used up a batch of wood and four ropes, Su You’s backpack still had plenty of space. She simply stowed the charcoal and coins away.

---"

"19. Fire Demon Leader

Once the copper coins entered her backpack, they turned into a string of numbers in the lower right corner—money could be stored in the backpack without taking up any space at all.

After collecting her loot and cleaning up the battlefield, Su You returned the arrows to Arrow Tower 1’s ammo slot and set off again to lure more Fire Demons.

……

……

“That’s the twelfth one…” She didn’t know how much time had passed, but Su You had already used the arrow tower to kill nearly every Fire Demon she could see.

The process wasn’t exactly easy, but it was at least free of any real danger.

Currently, she’d used up five of her twenty-four arrows, leaving her with nineteen.

In addition, the durability of the wooden fences and the gate had also dropped quite a bit. However, due to their placement, most of the damage they took was ineffective, so each of the three fences still had about a third of their durability left—enough to keep using them for now.

But the problem was, after killing twelve Fire Demons, she still hadn’t seen a single Flame Stone drop.

Logically, the initial drop rate for Flame Stones should be around 6%. However, if you keep killing Fire Demons for a while without getting a Flame Stone, the drop rate gradually increases until one finally drops, at which point it resets—similar to the sandstone mining mechanic from before.

“The drop rate for the tenth Fire Demon should be 23%. By the twelfth, it should be over 25%, right? With odds this high, and still nothing?” Su You couldn’t help but seriously doubt her own luck.

But since there had been plenty of players who’d killed a dozen or more Fire Demons without seeing a single Flame Stone, Su You was a bit frustrated but not overly upset.

She took a moment to adjust her mood, then began to consider her next move.

She’d previously counted thirteen Fire Demons in the area, but after searching all around—without entering the Fire Demon nest—she still couldn’t find the thirteenth one.

While monsters rarely wander off, it’s not impossible. Since she really couldn’t find that last Fire Demon, Su You decided to give up on it.

Now, she had two options: try to lure the Fire Demons out of the cave and kill them as before, or go find a new Fire Demon nest.

From a safety perspective, the second option was better. The cave was a confined space, and one wrong move could bring all the Fire Demons inside down on her.

But if she went looking for a new nest, she’d have to spend time searching, and if the new nest was far away, she’d need to gather resources and set up arrow towers all over again—not just a waste of resources, but more importantly, a waste of time.

Su You didn’t have that much time to spare.

If she tried to drag Fire Demons from far away back here to kill them, unexpected things could happen along the way, and the results might not be any better than her current situation.

……

After weighing all the factors, Su You ultimately decided to stick with the Fire Demons here and not look for a new nest.

But just as she was pondering how to lure the Fire Demons out of the cave, she suddenly heard a faint rustling sound nearby. Instinctively, she held her breath.

Any creature wandering near a Fire Demon nest—apart from Fire Demons themselves—was unlikely to be friendly. So Su You immediately hid herself and carefully tried to observe the source of the sound from a safe angle.

It wasn’t long before a creature stepped out from behind a cypress tree. It looked very similar to a Fire Demon, but it was larger and exuded a much more intimidating aura.

The moment she saw it, Su You’s pupils contracted. All her doubts about the lack of Flame Stone drops after killing twelve Fire Demons were instantly answered.

[Fire Demon Leader]

HP: 500/500

Attack: 5

Defense: 10

Description: The leader of the Fire Demons. When attacked, it will summon Fire Demons to protect itself.

The information Su You could see about the Fire Demon Leader wasn’t very detailed, but that didn’t matter—she already knew more than enough.

For example, when a Fire Demon Leader is present at a spawn point, the drop rate for Flame Stones from regular Fire Demons is reduced by two-thirds. In exchange (for balance), the Fire Demon Leader itself has a 100% chance to drop a Flame Stone.

The base drop rate for Flame Stones from Fire Demons was already low, and now it was slashed by two-thirds—basically making it almost impossible to get one.

It was clear the game wanted players to take on the Fire Demon Leader!

Come to think of it, maybe fate was at work here. The very first Flame Stone Su You ever got on her max-level account had also come from killing a Fire Demon Leader… Now, even with a different playstyle, she’d run into another one.

Seeing the Fire Demon Leader, Su You resisted the urge to curse and quietly took two steps back.

It wasn’t that she was impatient—anyone who understood the Fire Demon Leader’s spawn mechanics would feel just as frustrated.

In the early game, only three Fire Demon Leaders would spawn in the entire Sunset Continent forest. That meant only three Fire Demon nests would have a leader.

But in the forest, there were dozens—sometimes over a hundred—Fire Demon nests… The odds were so low, and yet she’d run into one, twice in a row. Who wouldn’t be annoyed?

And the Fire Demon Leader was no pushover. It was one of the toughest boss monsters to deal with in the early game.

Its attack stat looked low—even lower than a regular Fire Demon’s (which had 8 attack to its 5)—but that didn’t matter.

What mattered was: it could summon!

As the Fire Demon Leader, naturally it summoned Fire Demons.

With minions at its command, its low attack didn’t matter at all. Even if it had no attack, it would still be a threat.

According to the official lore, the Fire Demon Leader could summon an unlimited number of Fire Demons—given enough time, it could fill the entire Sunset Continent with them.

Of course, that was just the backstory. In-game, the Fire Demon Leader’s summoning skill had a limit: it could have up to ten Fire Demons summoned at once.

Even so, the Fire Demon Leader still ranked in the top ten of the “most annoying bosses” list.

Because the ten-minion limit didn’t mean it could only summon ten in total—it meant it could have ten on the field at the same time."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

20. Digging the Pit

As long as one of the ten summoned minions is killed, it can summon another, continuing until it reaches the limit of ten... In a way, this is a kind of ""infinite summoning.""

If you really had to fight the Fire Demon Lord, Su You wouldn’t be outnumbered anymore—it would just be a one-sided beatdown.

But that’s not all.

There’s another nasty thing about the Fire Demon Lord: the fire demons it summons don’t drop any loot when they die.

That’s right—no loot at all. Nothing.

Forget about Flame Stones, you won’t even get charcoal.

If you’re playing a character that can level up, killing the summoned fire demons doesn’t even give you experience.

Because summoned creatures aren’t considered independent monsters, they don’t drop loot or give experience. Only by killing the Fire Demon Lord itself can you get the final rewards.

…

40 hours, 36 minutes, and 16 seconds... That was the countdown when Su You discovered the Fire Demon Lord.

After confirming the time, Su You started preparing.

Preparing everything she needed to kill the Fire Demon Lord.

Although it seemed like there was still plenty of time, Su You didn’t want to drag things out. After all, her plans weren’t just about building a territory. She also needed to be ready for the dark creatures’ attack on the tenth day after establishing her territory.

Since building a territory three days from now was already a given, she wanted to do it as early as possible. That way, she could use the territory’s privileges to do even more.

All this talk about how hard it is to kill the Fire Demon Lord is true, but since such a creature exists—and it drops essential early-game items—there must be a way to defeat it.

The Fire Demon Lord has one fatal weakness: it’s afraid of water.

You can tell just from the name—after all, it’s a “fire” demon. Being weak to water is only natural.

And there’s always a water source near the Fire Demon’s lair. This ties back to the “balance” we mentioned before. Of course, this is just player speculation; the developers have never confirmed it, but that doesn’t stop people from guessing.

The hardest part about killing the Fire Demon Lord is dealing with the fire demons it summons. If you can handle those minions, the boss itself isn’t that hard.

Even if you don’t know about its water weakness, you could use arrow towers and take it down the same way you deal with the fire demons. It’s troublesome, but doable.

But since Su You knew its weakness, of course she’d take advantage of it.

While the Fire Demon Lord was still wandering aimlessly nearby, Su You hurried to use her materials to craft a fourth tool.

[Consume Wood*2, Stone*1 to craft Stone Shovel*1?]

[Crafting: Stone Shovel. Estimated time: 120 seconds.]

…

Although she’d planned to use that stone for building the Town Center fire, a string of unexpected events kept disrupting Su You’s plans.

…Worst case, she’d just go kill a few more stone monsters later. Either way, she absolutely had to make this shovel.

Because without it, with what she had on hand, there was no other way to kill the Fire Demon Lord.

While waiting for the shovel, Su You didn’t sit idle. She used her other tools to clear out the open space near the fire demon lair, making sure not a single weed or scrap of debris was left.

By the time she finished, the shovel was ready. Su You quickly grabbed it and tossed a few more pieces of wood into the workbench to start making fences.

With the shovel in hand, Su You immediately started digging—right in the clearing she’d just prepared.

But Su You wasn’t just digging a simple pit.

Most people start digging from the center and gradually expand outward, making the pit bigger and bigger.

But Su You was different. She started from the edge, digging a circle to mark out the rough area, then gradually worked her way toward the center.

The finished pit looked a bit like a set of concentric circles. The inner circle wasn’t dug out—it was left as solid ground, at the same height as the surrounding terrain. The outer ring, though, was a pit three meters deep.

While digging, Su You also left a path leading to the central “island.”

This path was for the Fire Demon Lord.

It took Su You more than two hours to prepare this special trap for killing the Fire Demon Lord.

Of course, this was only possible in a digital world, and Su You had deliberately cut corners by using fences to increase the margin for error. She didn’t bother optimizing the trap, otherwise, if she’d had to do it all by hand in real life, it would’ve taken her at least a day or two.

…

With the trap ready, all that was left was to lure the Fire Demon Lord over.

Although it was a boss, maybe because it was so overpowered, its AI had been “balanced” to a certain extent... To put it bluntly, it had a boss’s body but only a minion’s brain.

So it didn’t take Su You much effort to lure the Fire Demon Lord to her trap.

Of course, there were a few hiccups along the way.

For example, before luring the boss over, Su You couldn’t let it see her. If it spotted her, it would immediately enter combat mode and start summoning fire demons.

If it started summoning before she got it into the trap, Su You would have no way to deal with all those minions.

So she had to sneak and hide the whole way. Luckily, she’d practiced stealth skills in-game for better mobility; otherwise, in this barren area with not even a single leaf for cover, she’d have been spotted in no time.

Once she finally got the Fire Demon Lord onto the platform she’d prepared, Su You jumped into the pit, used her pickaxe as leverage, and quickly climbed out of the three-meter hole.

After all that digging, sneaking, and climbing, Su You’s stamina was nearly depleted, but she didn’t have time to rest yet. Before she could take a break, she had one last thing to do—use fences to block the Fire Demon Lord’s escape route.

Actually, as soon as Su You climbed out of the pit, the Fire Demon Lord noticed her.

As an aggressive monster, the moment it saw Su You, it entered combat mode, spread its arms, and began chanting to summon fire demons."

"21. Weakness

It was precisely because the Fire Demon Leader’s first reaction upon discovering Su You was to start summoning that Su You had enough time to climb out of the pit and then block its path with a fence.

By the time the Fire Demon Leader finished summoning the first Fire Demon Minion, Su You was already fully prepared.

As for that newly summoned Fire Demon Minion, somehow it ended up right at the bottom of the pit Su You had just dug.

The whole point of Su You setting up this trap was that the Fire Demon Leader was a monster focused on summoning, not attacking. So as long as she trapped it, it would just keep summoning.

And the monsters it summoned would usually appear near the Fire Demon Leader itself… So Su You had left a single spot at the very center just for the leader, with pits dug all around it. That way, whenever it summoned a minion, the new monster would spawn at the bottom of a pit. All Su You had to do now was wait.

Once the Fire Demon Leader summoned ten minions, it would have no more tricks up its sleeve.

At that point, all ten summoned Fire Demon Minions would be stuck in the pit, and all Su You had to do was deal with the Fire Demon Leader directly.

Once the Fire Demon Leader died, all the minions it had summoned would die automatically as well—she wouldn’t have to do anything else.

…

Although she was “waiting,” it wasn’t just idle waiting.

A three-meter-deep pit isn’t exactly deep, but not that shallow either. These Fire Demon Minions couldn’t climb out on their own, but if they were smart enough to stack up, like forming a human pyramid, they might still find a way out.

So, if possible, the pit should be at least five meters deep… If not deeper, then at least wide enough so the minions couldn’t cluster together.

Because of their AI, these Fire Demon Minions wouldn’t actively try to climb out. Only when they were forced together would they possibly start stacking up.

But if the pit was big enough, they’d just wander around separately and wouldn’t “accidentally” discover that they could escape by working together.

But whether it was digging deeper or wider, Su You obviously didn’t have the time or resources for that right now, so she could only block their escape by other means.

Thanks to the Fire Demon Leader’s tireless summoning, there were now six Fire Demon Minions in the pit. Since there was no extra space around the leader, the summoned minions could only be forced to spawn in the pit.

Su You glanced at the Fire Demon Leader, who was still busy summoning, and then turned her attention to the minions in the pit.

With only four or five minions, space was still manageable. But once there were more than five, things started getting crowded.

As they jostled for space, the “human pyramid” situation Su You had anticipated finally happened.

Two minions got pushed together. Maybe because one of them was being squeezed and couldn’t move, it let out an irritated roar. First, it tried shoving the other minion, but when that didn’t work, it started trying to push all the others down to make more room for itself.

In the process of shoving each other, one minion managed to climb up onto another’s head. With the two stacked, they were nearly four meters high—enough for the one on top to climb out of the three-meter pit.

But just as that minion thought it could finally “escape from hell” and started waving its arms in excitement, it found its way blocked by a wooden fence…

Su You calmly watched as the minion, frustrated by the fence blocking its escape, grew even more agitated, and then she placed a second fence.

She still had two fences left over from earlier preparations, and just to be safe, she’d brought all her wood with her… Enough to make over twenty fences—more than enough to circle the pit one and a half times. She was well prepared.

But to save materials, Su You only made five fences for now, plus the one left over from before (she’d used one to block the Fire Demon Leader’s retreat). Whenever she saw a minion about to climb out, she’d place a fence at the spot where it might escape.

Like this, by the time Su You was down to her last two fences, the Fire Demon Leader finally finished summoning.

During the summoning process, the leader was completely absorbed and had no idea what was happening outside. Now that it was done, it finally saw that both it and all its summoned minions were trapped.

Facing the Fire Demon Leader’s furious glare, Su You gave it a taunting smile, then placed her last two fences around the pit. At the same time, she destroyed the fence blocking the leader’s path.

With no minions left, even the wildest Fire Demon Leader was nothing to fear in Su You’s eyes.

Maybe it was because it realized it had been tricked, or maybe it was Su You’s provocation, but as soon as the fence disappeared, the Fire Demon Leader charged straight at her, clearly intending to deal with this troublesome human personally.

Although the Fire Demon Leader wasn’t particularly strong, Su You still couldn’t take it head-on, so as soon as it attacked, she turned and ran.

She ran straight toward the spot where she’d set up an arrow tower and successfully killed twelve Fire Demon Minions earlier.

…

Ten minutes later, Su You, panting heavily, looked at the Fire Demon Leader, which had gone berserk after being trapped again. She leaned against a tree to catch her breath, then took out the fences she’d made on the way and completely surrounded Arrow Tower 2, making sure the leader couldn’t break through and escape.

After quickly replenishing her hunger bar, which had dropped from all the running, Su You took a stone knife and another item out of her backpack, ready to act.

The other item was a few cups filled with water.

Su You took out the water she’d prepared earlier and splashed it at the Fire Demon Leader.

She’d collected this water from a nearby stream while digging the pit, and the cups were wooden ones she’d made herself.

To make sure she had enough water to trigger the Fire Demon Leader’s “Weakness” debuff, Su You had prepared three wooden cups—enough for three full splashes.

The moment the water from the cup hit it, the Fire Demon Leader let out a howl of pain. It looked to be in great agony, and its attacks against the wooden fence clearly slowed down and weakened."

"22. Flame Stone

At this moment, the Fire Demon Leader looked just like a fire that had been doused with water—on the verge of dying. If it weren’t for the fact that its HP still showed 500/500, you’d really think it was about to drop dead.

Before activating the arrow tower to launch a full assault, Su You first checked the Fire Demon Leader’s status. Once she confirmed it was in a weakened state, she turned on the arrow tower’s attack.

[Weakened Fire Demon Leader]: The Fire Demon Leader’s power comes from fire. Water weakens its strength, greatly reducing its defense and attack. However, after the weakened state ends, the Fire Demon Leader will become even stronger. (Duration: 180 seconds. Cooldown: 24 hours.)

With a full understanding of the Fire Demon Leader’s stats, Su You could translate this in more detail—

After being splashed with water, the Fire Demon Leader will only deal 1 point of damage to enemies and its defense drops to zero for three minutes. However, this state can only be triggered once every 24 hours.

Also, if the Fire Demon Leader isn’t killed within those three minutes, it will gain a buff that makes it even stronger.

Just how strong that buff is remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: if you can’t finish off the Fire Demon Leader within three minutes, your best bet is to run before the weakened state ends.

One more thing to note: the Fire Demon Leader can still summon minions while weakened. The summoning is slow, but it’s still possible.

And only the Fire Demon Leader is afraid of water—the regular Fire Demons aren’t. Water has no negative effect on them. That’s why Su You had to wait for the Fire Demon Leader to summon its minions first, then lure it here to finish it off.

As soon as she saw the Fire Demon Leader enter its weakened state, Su You immediately activated the arrow tower and joined in the attack herself with a stone knife.

Now that the Fire Demon Leader was weakened, its defense and dodge were both zero. That meant every arrow from the tower would hit and deal the full 15 points of damage.

There were 19 arrows in total, each dealing 15 damage, for a total of 285 points. But the Fire Demon Leader had 500 HP, so after all the arrows were used, it would still have 215 HP left.

Since she hadn’t prepared extra arrows and couldn’t retrieve the used ones until the boss was dead, Su You had no choice but to finish it off herself.

But the Fire Demon Leader was so weak now that it couldn’t dodge attacks from the arrow tower or Su You. And when it tried to attack her, it was so slow that she could easily dodge.

Even if she didn’t dodge, with its attack power reduced to just 1, even if it managed to scratch her, it would only deal 1 point of damage—and there was a good chance it wouldn’t hurt her at all.

In this state, the Fire Demon Leader was basically a punching bag—one that couldn’t fight back or even curse at her (not that Su You would understand it anyway).

-10

-15

-20 (Critical Hit)!

Seeing the critical hit, Su You paused for a moment, then continued attacking the Fire Demon Leader.

The stone knife dealt 10 damage per hit. Without any special equipment or buffs, a critical hit would double that to 20.

Critical hits partly depend on luck, but also on the gap between attack and defense—the bigger the gap, the higher the chance of a crit.

With the Fire Demon Leader’s defense at zero, it wasn’t surprising that Su You landed a critical hit after just two swings.

But even without crits, three minutes was more than enough for Su You to attack the Fire Demon Leader 22 times and drain its HP to zero. The critical hit was just icing on the cake.

...

In less than three minutes—actually, not even two—the Fire Demon Leader let out a final wail and collapsed, completely lifeless.

Maybe it was because lord players weren’t really cut out for combat, but even after beating up a punching bag (?), Su You still felt a bit exhausted.

Still, no matter how tired she was, the moment the Fire Demon Leader fell, Su You immediately opened the gate, used her stone knife to cut open its chest, and dug out a red stone about the size of her palm.

As she looked at the red stone in her hand, information about it appeared before her eyes.

[Flame Stone]

Category: Material

Quality: Green

Description: A material dropped by fire-type monsters. Can be used to craft items or build the City Core Fire... It’s said that the Flame Stone burns eternally, its flame never extinguished.

...

This red stone was the Flame Stone.

The reason the Fire Demon Leader always drops a Flame Stone is because its “heart” is a Flame Stone.

Regular Fire Demons are incomplete evolutions of fire-type monsters, so only a rare few, the so-called “chosen ones,” will drop a Flame Stone.

Unlike regular Fire Demons, whose bodies turn to smoke and vanish instantly upon death, the Fire Demon Leader’s corpse remains for a while.

This time is not just for players to collect the Flame Stone—it’s also a test of luck.

A test of luck...

Su You: Heh.

She tossed the Flame Stone into her backpack, then carefully examined the Fire Demon Leader’s corpse from top to bottom. For some reason, despite being a corpse, it didn’t look scary at all—probably because anything that needed to be censored had already been censored.

After looking it over for a while, Su You didn’t hesitate any longer and started searching the Fire Demon Leader’s body.

She had five minutes to search, but Su You only needed three to strip the Fire Demon Leader clean. In the end, she wasn’t sure if it was because there was nothing left to find, or if the system couldn’t stand the sight of a nearly “streaking” Fire Demon Leader polluting the land. Either way, not long after she stopped, the corpse disappeared.

The moment it vanished, Su You vaguely heard a familiar voice in her ear—

[Congratulations on successfully killing the Fire Demon Leader. After establishing your territory, please go to the quest hall to claim your first kill reward chest.]

Quest hall...

Reward chest...

Su You knew what the quest hall was, but... a reward chest?

What’s that?

At least, she’d never heard of getting a chest for killing a boss before.

Usually, when you kill a boss, aside from fixed drops like the Flame Stone, any other loot depends on what you collect from the body.

Any accessory, weapon, piece of equipment, or clothing on a boss could potentially be useful.

Whether it’s actually useful or not is pure luck.

Some people kill a boss and get a high-quality [Shining Gold Saber]. Others kill a boss and end up with a gray-quality [Chipped Kitchen Knife].

Yep, Su You was that “lucky” one who got the kitchen knife.

And it was a chipped kitchen knife at that—so bad that even the cooking NPCs would rather go on strike than use it."

"23. Skill Book

Because the Fire Demon Leader had died, the entire nest of fire demons started fighting amongst themselves for the chance to seize the throne. To avoid getting caught up in the chaos, Su You didn’t have time to check what kind of junk she’d actually looted from the Fire Demon Leader.

She stuffed whatever she could into her backpack, and for the things that wouldn’t fit, she wrapped them all up in the Fire Demon Leader’s cloak and carried them in her arms.

Once she’d gathered her spoils, Su You wasted no time and hurried straight back to her temporary base.

……

……

[Obtained: Common Cloak x1]

[Obtained: Copper Coins x89]

[Obtained: Ash x99]

[Obtained: Unknown Stone x1]

[Obtained: Charcoal x99]

……

By the time Su You reached her base, she was already sorting through her loot. But she quickly realized—there really wasn’t much worth calling loot.

Ash, some unknown stone, and a whole pile of charcoal…

Although Su You was honestly quite disgusted by all this (junk), she still organized it and placed it near her base.

After all, charcoal could be burned… Nearly a hundred pieces of charcoal would last her several days.

As for the ash, while it didn’t look useful, it could actually be used to enrich the soil—a handy thing for when she’d eventually build her territory and start farming.

Then there was the unknown stone…

Su You frowned, staring at the stone up and down for a long time. She even tried scraping the surface with a stone knife, hoping something might be hidden inside…

Unfortunately, after all that effort, she still couldn’t figure out any special use for the stone.

After fiddling with it for a while and getting nowhere, Su You gave up. She tossed the stone onto the cloak along with the rest of the useless junk, planning to bundle it all up and take it to her territory later.

As for the 89 copper coins, Su You just put them straight into her backpack—they didn’t take up any space anyway.

At this point, Su You had a total of 136 copper coins: 89 from killing the Fire Demon Leader, and 47 from killing regular fire demons.

The coins weren’t useful yet, but now that she had a Flame Stone and was about to establish her territory, they’d come in handy soon enough.

Aside from all this junk, Su You managed to dig out a few barely useful items from the pile.

Some gravel, some scraps of cloth, and… a book?

Huh?!

The moment she saw the book, Su You was a little surprised. Books that dropped on Sunset Continent were usually skill books.

Here, there’s no such thing as a bad skill book—just ones that aren’t suitable for you. Skill books come in many types: combat skills, life skills, aura skills, special skills, and so on.

As mentioned before, the Lord role doesn’t have any stats that boost combat, so she couldn’t learn combat skills.

Still, skill books are valuable. Even if she couldn’t use a combat skill book, once she had a way to trade, she could sell it for money, or give it to combat-related NPCs to strengthen them—which would, in turn, strengthen her own forces.

All in all, just getting this skill book made up for the rest of the loot being junk—Su You didn’t feel too put out.

At least it was better than a chipped kitchen knife.

After sorting and cleaning up the last of her things, Su You spotted six silver coins at the very bottom. Once she put those away, she’d finally finished organizing all the loot from the Fire Demon Leader.

With everything sorted, Su You finally picked up the book. She hesitated for a long moment, hand hovering over the cover, before she finally opened it.

And the moment she did, the previously blurry text on the pages gradually became clear…

[Advanced Cooking Skill Book]

Type: Skill Book

Quality: Purple

Description: Instantly raises your Cooking skill to Advanced level upon learning.

……

No matter what the skill itself was, Su You’s luck this time was honestly pretty good. Skill books rarely dropped, and this was even an advanced one—you could tell from the “purple” quality.

There are only four grades of skill books: Basic (Green), Intermediate (Blue), Advanced (Purple), and Master (Red).

Although skill books only come in four grades, life skills actually have six levels.

Of those six, only the first four can be achieved directly with skill books; the last two require you to keep crafting things to gain proficiency and slowly level up.

Take Cooking as an example. The levels are: Basic Cooking, Intermediate Cooking, Advanced Cooking, Master Cooking, Expert Cooking, and Supreme Cooking (God of Cooking).

And for any life skill, the last level always has a special title, like “God” or “Saint”—for example, Medicine Saint (Alchemist), Craft God (Artisan), Farming God (Farmer), and so on.

But still… While getting an advanced skill book was great, why did it have to be a cooking skill book?

It’s not that Su You looked down on cooking, but the skill really wasn’t very useful in the early game, since valuable cooked dishes required too many ingredients.

If it was just basic food, Su You could make it herself—like roasted berries, berry juice, or grilled meat. She could make those with or without a skill book; it didn’t make much difference.

Only later, when she’d set up farmland, started raising animals or growing crops, or could get better ingredients from hunting beasts, would the cooking skill become truly useful. Otherwise, in the early game, it was basically pointless.

Other life skills were different, though. Many of the materials needed to craft other items were basic ones—at least, ones she could gather now.

If she could choose, Su You would rather trade this advanced cooking skill book for an intermediate artisan skill book.

Artisan skills might not be the strongest, but they were the most useful early on.

A higher artisan level meant less material consumption when making tools, slower tool durability loss, and more durability restored when using a whetstone to repair high-level gear…

Looking at this advanced but unfortunately cooking-related skill book, Su You sighed, then put it away in her backpack.

It might not be very useful… but it was still an advanced skill book, and worth a lot. Worst case, she could sell it later and buy something else.

……

38 hours, 53 minutes, 10 seconds…

That was the countdown after Su You finished sorting all her loot. In other words, it was just after 5 p.m., and there were still almost two hours until nightfall."

"24. Building Card

Two hours...

Su You did the math and felt that should be enough time. So, dragging along her pile of supplies and the materials needed to build the Heartfire, she headed to the spot she’d already picked out—a patch of fertile soil near a water source, with dense berry bushes and fiber plants growing not far away.

Once she’d settled on the location, Su You didn’t hesitate. She took out the Lord’s Token from her backpack.

This was her first time seeing the item in person.

The token was palm-sized, engraved with the words “Lord’s Token,” and the back was etched with intricate patterns she couldn’t decipher. It felt oddly light in her hand, making her wonder if it was just a piece of foam.

With the token in hand, Su You found “Heartfire” in the construction menu.

Earlier, she’d used up a piece of stone to make a shovel for setting traps to kill the Fire Demon boss. Luckily, among the loot dropped by the boss, there were some stone fragments—just enough to synthesize a piece of stone for building the Heartfire.

A familiar phantom outline appeared before her. Su You carefully placed the Heartfire right in the center.

[Consume Plank x5, Stone x5, Flame Stone x1 to build Heartfire?]

...

[Constructing Heartfire. Estimated time: 10 seconds.]

Ten seconds later, as the flames ignited, the Lord’s Token in Su You’s other hand flickered, as if it might vanish at any moment.

[Heartfire detected nearby. Create territory?]

This wasn’t Su You’s first time establishing a territory, but for some reason, while the first time had filled her with nothing but excitement and joy, this second time, along with those same feelings, she also felt a hint of nervousness.

She took several deep breaths before finally selecting [Yes].

The moment she made her choice, the Heartfire suddenly erupted in a burst of fireworks-like flames. Su You wasn’t startled; instead, she found herself drawn closer to the Heartfire.

[Congratulations, A1-16, on successfully joining the Digital World. Territory established.]

[As thanks for your efforts in joining the Digital World, the Execution System will grant you a reward.]

Before Su You could fully process these messages, three familiar buildings appeared before her.

Each building was different, but they all seemed to be “printed” on card-like objects.

“So this is... the reward?”

Although Su You had only been in this Digital World for less than two days, she’d already noticed that, while the world’s template was Sunset Continent, a lot of things were actually different.

Most of these differences were in the game’s processes; the actual data and stats were exactly the same as before.

For example, where once you could create a territory with just a Heartfire, now you also needed a Lord’s Token... or the new feature where killing a boss lets you claim a reward at the quest hall—something she’d never heard of before.

These were all process changes, part of the game’s flow.

But things like monster attributes and weaknesses, or the materials needed for crafting buildings and items—those were all exactly as she remembered.

To Su You, it felt as if... Sunset Continent was indeed a game, but only just a game.

Now, this Digital World she was in was Sunset Continent 2.0—a modified “game” designed to help them integrate more easily.

Whatever the truth was, it wasn’t something Su You needed to worry about right now.

She glanced at the three building cards and the three-minute countdown timer above them, her mind racing as she considered which card to choose as her reward.

[Tavern Card]: Use to instantly build a Tavern within your territory for free (no materials required).

[Post Station Card]: Use to instantly build a Post Station within your territory for free (no materials required).

[Statue Card]: Use to instantly build a Statue within your territory for free (no materials required). (Note: Statue’s identity is random and cannot be chosen.)

After reading the descriptions, Su You understood.

If she was right, this was the Execution System’s way of helping Lord players.

All three buildings were extremely useful—there wasn’t a single useless option.

More importantly, these buildings all required materials that were hard to gather in the early game.

With these cards, she could get one building for free. If she chose wisely, it would not only speed up her territory’s development, but also provide extra security.

Each building had its own function: recruitment, trade, and blessings.

The Tavern allowed you to recruit NPCs. While you could still recruit NPCs without a Tavern, the difference was that Tavern-recruited NPCs always came with certain skills or special identities.

Without a Tavern, a Lord could only set up a bulletin board near the Heartfire after creating a territory. Once the board was up, wandering NPCs would start to appear nearby.

These wandering NPCs might choose to join your territory, but most of them were just ordinary people with no skills.

Unless Su You provided them with skill books, or had skilled NPCs to take them as apprentices, or triggered a rare event where an NPC learned skills on their own... otherwise, at best, they could only do basic labor like chopping wood, mining, farming, or gathering surface resources (twigs, leaves, etc).

The Post Station was for trade. Once a territory had a Post Station, merchants would occasionally visit to trade with the player.

There were many types of merchants—not just by what they sold (food, materials, equipment, etc.), but also by race.

Sunset Continent wasn’t just humans, monsters, and ordinary plants and animals. There were other races, like goblins, dwarves, elves, and more.

Merchants of different races sold different things.

For example, goblin merchants mostly sold weapons and equipment, and if you built up enough favor with them, you might even be able to buy some rather dangerous items.

Elven merchants loved plants, so most of what they sold were various plants they’d grown themselves."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

25. Wooden Crate

If your favorability with the elves gets high enough, there’s a tiny, tiny chance they’ll offer to sell you a plant called the “Flower of Rebirth.”

As its name suggests, the Flower of Rebirth is one of the very few revival items available on the Sunset Continent.

It’s incredibly powerful, but the price is equally staggering. Back then, Su You practically had to empty out half her entire storage just to trade for a single, rather plain-looking flower from the elves—and that was after a discount.

Still, considering what it does, Su You thought it was worth it.

Because on the Sunset Continent, once you die, the system forcibly deletes your file. There’s no chance to start over—unless you have a revival item.

If your save file is gone, what’s the point of all that stuff in your storage anyway?

…But I digress.

The last building is the Statue. Its function is that every morning at eight o’clock, you can go to the statue and receive a blessing (an aura).

Different statues grant different blessings, and the longer you worship a particular statue, the stronger and longer-lasting the blessings become.

That’s why it’s considered a helpful building…

When facing the tenth day’s attack from the dark creatures, if Su You chooses the Tavern card, she can recruit NPCs to help fight them.

If she chooses the Post Station, she can trade goods to quickly gather useful materials, craft more items, and strengthen herself.

If she chooses the Statue, that’s also a great option, since the statue’s blessings (auras) are generally very helpful—and they’re group buffs.

In other words, not only does Su You benefit from the aura, but any NPCs who’ve joined her territory do as well.

With these buffs, as long as she plans around the specific effects, the territory’s development speed will definitely get a huge boost.

…

…

Three different buildings, three different development paths—but no matter which one you pick, they’re all excellent choices. At this point, Su You was genuinely torn, because she thought all three were great.

If she could, she’d take all three cards… but obviously, that wasn’t possible.

When the countdown reached the final ten seconds, Su You finally chose the “Tavern Card.”

It wasn’t because the Tavern Card was better than the other two. Objectively, all three cards were equally good—down to the decimal point. She picked the Tavern Card simply because it relied less on luck.

The merchants at the Post Station appear at random times, and what kind of merchant shows up and what they sell is also random.

The statue’s identity is random, and so are its blessings.

By comparison, while the NPCs you recruit at the tavern are random too, at least they all come with skills.

[Confirm selection: “Tavern Building Card”?]

Su You quickly hit [Yes], afraid that if she waited even a few more seconds, the reward would expire if she hadn’t confirmed her choice.

[You have obtained Tavern Building Card x1]

As the notification for the new item sounded, a gray-brown building card appeared in Su You’s hand, with a little “Open for Business” sign hanging at the door.

[Tavern Building Card]

Category: Special

Quality: Blue

Description: Use to instantly build a tavern within your territory (no construction time required). (Note: The Tavern Building Card does not come with staff; you must recruit them yourself.)

…

Although the tavern is a place to recruit special NPCs, it can also function like a regular tavern, selling alcohol, food, and other goods.

But to actually run the tavern, she’d need an NPC who knows how to manage it, as well as goods to sell.

Right now, Su You obviously had neither, so she put that idea aside for now.

After receiving the Tavern Building Card, Su You didn’t place the tavern immediately, since the description said it would be built instantly, with no construction time.

If it did require construction time, she would have placed it right away, because normally it takes two hours to build a tavern… Oh, wait, actually it’s five hours.

The two-hour build time was only when Su You had a high-level craftsman NPC (who could reduce construction time) and the relevant construction aura. Right now, she had neither, so it would take even longer.

Looking at the mess of items scattered everywhere, the first thing Su You needed to do was tidy up.

Previously, she didn’t have a territory, so she just piled things up wherever. But now that she had a territory—a “home”—there was no way she could keep doing that.

With such a detailed game system, of course there had to be a building called a “Warehouse” for storing materials.

But Su You couldn’t build a warehouse yet, because she didn’t have enough materials.

[Level 1 Warehouse] (Cost: Plank x10, Stone Brick x5)

Description: Used for storing items. Can slow food spoilage to some extent. Level 1 warehouse has 100 slots. For non-tool/special items, stack limit is increased to 100. (Can be upgraded with materials to increase storage space.)

Planks weren’t an issue—she already had those from building the Heartfire. The real bottleneck for the warehouse was stone bricks.

3 Pebbles = 1 Stone, 4 Stone = 1 Stone Brick. So 12 Pebbles = 1 Stone Brick, and 5 Stone Bricks means 60 Pebbles.

It was almost nightfall, and all the stone she had in her backpack had been used to build the Heartfire. She didn’t even have a single pebble left, let alone stone or bricks.

But that was okay, because a warehouse wasn’t the only way to store things. There was something else she could use in the early game, when stone was scarce, to get by until she could build a warehouse.

[Wooden Crate] (Cost: Wood Block x3)

Description: Used for storing items. Has 20 slots. Stack limit is the same as the player’s backpack.

Compared to the warehouse, the wooden crate only needed three wood blocks—that’s just nine pieces of wood, which was a breeze for Su You, who had an axe and was in the forest.

Although Su You had chopped a lot of wood earlier, she’d used up a batch making an arrow tower, and then used even more for wooden fences to deal with the fire demon boss. She even made a shovel… After all that, she only had five pieces of wood left.

Thinking of this, Su You picked up her axe and started chopping trees… and didn’t stop until there were only ten minutes left before nightfall.

Although she no longer had the Lord’s Token, so she couldn’t check the countdown on it to keep track of time, she still had her two auras, so she could at least manage her time well enough for now."

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**26. Basic Workbench**

After chopping trees for so long—and wearing out her second whetstone in the process—Su You finally gathered enough wood.

The reason she cut down so many trees at once wasn’t just to collect materials for storage boxes; she needed wood for other things as well.

【Consume 105 wood to craft 35 wooden blocks?】

【Crafting: Wooden Blocks. Estimated time: 60 seconds】

【Remaining: Wooden Blocks x34. Estimated time: 34 minutes】

……

Since most of the upcoming buildings would require higher-tier materials, Su You processed all the wood she’d gathered into Tier 2 materials, leaving herself with very little raw wood.

Three minutes later, Su You took out three wooden blocks, opened the construction menu, and built her first storage box near the settlement’s central fire.

Storage boxes didn’t require many materials, but their drawbacks were obvious.

For example: small capacity, low stacking limits, can’t be upgraded, can’t be recycled…

The first few issues were manageable, but the last one—“can’t be recycled”—meant that if she dismantled the box with a hammer later, she wouldn’t get any materials back.

Other buildings, when dismantled with a hammer, would return some materials… which was why Su You hadn’t bothered making storage boxes at her previous temporary camp.

It wasn’t just that she didn’t have enough stuff to need a storage box; it was also because that camp was only temporary, and she’d have to move sooner or later.

Once she left, she couldn’t take the box with her or recycle it, so building one there would have been a waste of resources.

But it was different now that she had her own territory. She’d be living here for the rest of her life (probably?), so as long as there was enough space, the storage boxes could stay put forever.

Once the first box was built, Su You began organizing her belongings.

Although everything she owned could fit into a single box, she planned to make two, to keep things sorted.

One box would hold commonly used basic materials, food, and tools she didn’t need right now—like wood, stone, fiber (cord), ore, red berries, stone shovels, and so on.

The other box would be for fuel and miscellaneous items she didn’t have a use for yet, such as broken bark, snapped branches, unidentified rocks, charcoal, ashes, etc.

While waiting for the materials for the second box to finish, Su You grabbed her stone knife and gathered about three stacks of berries from a nearby bush.

Before establishing her territory, Su You would have only collected one stack—partly to avoid waste, and partly because she didn’t have enough space to store more food.

Food was different from other items: it had to be kept in her backpack, or there was a high chance that wild animals would steal it while she was away.

Other materials, though inedible and useless to animals, could still occasionally be stolen. That’s why Su You always carried even the items she didn’t immediately need.

She’d rather sacrifice a backpack slot than risk having to re-gather materials because they were stolen. That would be much more troublesome than just having one less slot.

But now, with her own territory and enough storage space, she didn’t have to worry about food being stolen—just whether she could eat it all before it spoiled.

Storage boxes could keep items safe from theft, but they didn’t extend food’s shelf life. So after roasting, the berries would still only last three days.

Only after building a warehouse and storing the roasted berries inside would their shelf life increase to five days.

Five days still wasn’t long, but it was better than nothing.

Su You wasn’t worried about not finishing three stacks of berries in time; she was actually more concerned about not having enough.

Now that she had her own territory, she wouldn’t be the only one needing to eat in the future.

……

After collecting three stacks of berries and tossing them into the central fire to roast, Su You checked on her portable workbench, which had finished making some wooden blocks.

【Consume 3 wooden blocks to build a storage box?】

【Building: Storage Box. Estimated time: 120 seconds】

……

【Consume 2 wooden blocks to build a Basic Workbench?】

【Building: Basic Workbench. Estimated time: 10 seconds】

……

With more types of materials and more things to craft, a single portable workbench was no longer enough.

Whenever she started making something, everything else had to wait until it was done, which was a huge waste of time. So Su You decisively used two wooden blocks to build a second workbench.

Workbenches are a special type of building that can be recycled, but their recycling works a bit differently from other buildings. For most buildings, recycling means smashing them with a hammer and getting back some of the original materials—this is called “material recycling.”

But with workbenches, using a hammer gives you two options: “material recycling” or “full recycling.”

Full recycling means you retrieve the entire workbench intact, so you can just place it down again later without needing to rebuild it.

Generally, all crafting workbenches have this full recycling feature—provided you have a hammer.

Su You didn’t have a hammer yet, since it required stone to craft, but she didn’t need to dismantle or recycle anything at the moment, so she wasn’t in a rush to make one.

Ten seconds passed quickly. As soon as the new Basic Workbench was finished, Su You put it straight to work.

【Use 8 wooden blocks to craft 2 wooden planks?】

【Crafting: Wooden Planks. Estimated time: 60 seconds】

【Remaining: Wooden Plank x1. Estimated time: 60 seconds】

……

“Two boxes used up six wooden blocks, the workbench took two, and the bulletin board needs two planks—that’s eight wooden blocks…” In other words, after all that tree-chopping, she’d only managed to make thirty-five wooden blocks, and now she was already down to just nineteen.

Su You sighed. Even though she’d managed to establish her territory in just three days—or really, two—there was still so much left to do.

For example, she was making these two wooden planks to build a structure called a bulletin board.

As mentioned before, the bulletin board would allow wandering NPCs to spawn near her territory…"

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**27. The Bounty Board**

With NPCs, you have labor, but to actually *use* that labor, you also need the right tools and building resources.

For example, you have to build “residences” before you can take in these wandering NPCs.

NPCs can eat poorly, dress poorly, and even live poorly... but they must have somewhere to live.

If you don’t even have a place for them to stay, then even if a wandering NPC wants to join your territory, they won’t be able to for certain reasons.

Don’t ask why—the answer is game restrictions. It’s to prevent players from endlessly grinding NPC favorability to hoard a massive number of NPCs.

Never mind whether the game server could even handle so much data if you took in that many NPCs at once—judging by the bizarre things some players do, the first thing to break would probably be this continent itself.

Ever heard of the “Fourth Calamity”?

Although this digitized world is different from the original game in many ways, Su You doesn’t think this restriction will be lifted.

And to build a residence, you need ten planks—that’s a whopping 120 pieces of wood.

Su You suddenly felt her hands shaking just thinking about chopping all that wood...

While lord players *can* gather resources, their efficiency is actually nerfed compared to other roles. And it’s a pretty significant nerf.

That’s because the “proper” way to play is to recruit NPCs—let NPCs chop wood, mine, gather food, and so on...

So, after Su You chops just a couple of trees, her stamina plummets, or after a few more, she’s exhausted... It’s really not her fault; it’s just that this character’s abilities have been deliberately weakened.

She was about to build a bulletin board, which meant that by tomorrow morning at the latest, the first batch of wandering NPCs would spawn.

To ensure a steady development pace (and prevent luck from ruining the game experience), the first batch of NPCs is guaranteed to appear within 12 hours of building the bulletin board. How many NPCs show up, and what their circumstances are, is random.

But right now, Su You can’t build a residence—not even by tomorrow morning—because night is about to fall... Oh, wait, it’s already night.

Maybe it was because building and crafting took so much time, but Su You hadn’t even noticed the hours slipping by. Thanks to the Heartfire in the town center, she hadn’t even realized it had gotten dark.

Su You looked up at the sky, then took the two finished planks out of the workbench.

【Consume 2 planks to build a bulletin board?】

【Building: Bulletin Board. Estimated time: 5 minutes】

...

【Obtained: Roasted Berries x2】

Munching on the sweet and sour roasted berries to restore her hunger meter, Su You browsed through the building list.

Although she couldn’t take in wandering NPCs by building residences just yet, she did have another way to put those NPCs to use.

It just required a little payment, that’s all.

After finishing her two servings of roasted berries, Su You drank a cup of water—the water she’d collected from a nearby stream while gathering berries.

That’s why you always want to set up your territory near a water source. This way, she didn’t have to waste hunger points making berry juice just to stay hydrated.

Not only is it convenient for daily drinking, but it’ll make irrigating farmland much easier later on.

That said, while it’s great to have your *territory* near water, it’s not ideal for a temporary campsite.

That’s because places near water tend to be damp, with moist soil and lower nighttime temperatures. Resting in such an environment carries a high risk of picking up debuffs.

And you can’t just drink the water straight, either—it has to be boiled first, or you risk diarrhea or infection.

But with houses in the territory, and no one sleeping on the ground, there’s no need to worry about dampness or cold.

And thanks to the Heartfire—or more accurately, the Firestone—preparing hot water is no problem at all, since the Heartfire burns 24/7 and doesn’t waste fuel or kindling.

The Heartfire can theoretically burn forever; after all, it’s not just an ordinary flame—it symbolizes the life of the territory itself.

With the Firestone, just a bit of fuel keeps the Heartfire burning for ages.

...

“Finally found it.” Su You’s eyes lit up as she opened the building’s info panel.

Once she confirmed that, despite the name change, this was indeed the old quest board, Su You started synthesizing the materials to craft it.

When the materials were ready, she placed the building next to the bulletin board.

【Consume 2 planks to build a Bounty Board?】

【Building: Bounty Board. Estimated time: 5 minutes】

**Bounty Board (Quest Board):** A place to post and accept bounty quests; can be merged with the Quest Hall. (Note: When the territory reaches “Intermediate Camp” level, system quests will unlock and refresh. Only the lord can accept system quests, and rewards are provided by the system. Player-posted bounty quests can be accepted by any NPC, and rewards are provided by the player.)

System quests?

What’s that supposed to mean?!

Su You had already found it odd that the quest board had been renamed, but after reading the note, she was even more puzzled.

Before, the quest board only had one function: posting and accepting quests.

The lord would post quests for wandering NPCs or residents to take, and could use this to gather resources. But since they’re quests, there had to be rewards—so it was basically paying for resources.

Later in the game, as the territory developed, it wasn’t just the player who could post quests—any resident could, as long as they could afford the reward.

But now, there were also system quests...

And only the player could accept them...

Su You was very confused, but since the materials and the functions she needed hadn’t changed, she went ahead and built the quest board—well, the Bounty Board, now.

It also took five minutes to build, but driven by curiosity, those five minutes felt especially long to Su You.

With nothing else to do, Su You took out the Tavern Card and wandered around her territory, measuring distances and making gestures.

She was measuring space.

The reason she didn’t place the tavern right away was because of spacing.

In the game, you’d at least have grid lines or auto-alignment to help with building placement, but here, there was nothing like that.

She’d noticed this problem as soon as she placed her first campfire."

"28. Recruitment

But this was just a minor issue. Su You wasn’t a perfectionist—she simply liked to place the right buildings in the right spots, making it easier for her future planning.

Since there was no grid map or similar tool to help, Su You could only arrange things by referencing the positions of other buildings.

Those two wooden crates served as reference points, and so did the newly built bulletin board.

As a building for recruiting NPCs, Su You planned to place the tavern as close to the city gate as possible. That way, whenever she recruited an NPC, she could see them walking in from outside the city as soon as she stepped out of the tavern, instead of having to make a big detour to the gate to greet them.

The same logic applied to the bulletin board.

The bulletin board wasn’t just for refreshing wandering NPCs—it also served to notify NPCs of messages.

There was no communication equipment in this world, no such thing as cell phones or computers. So, if a lord player wanted to convey instructions or information, the bulletin board was the way to do it.

Any NPC who had joined the territory would check the bulletin board at least once a day, no matter the time.

To make sure that even non-resident NPCs could see the latest information about the territory as soon as they entered, pretty much every player built their first bulletin board near the city gate—Su You was no exception.

Once she’d picked the spot, the building card in Su You’s hand shimmered and slowly disappeared. At the same moment, a building suddenly sprang up right in front of her.

Su You: …

Honestly, while she wasn’t startled, she did think this way of appearing was a bit perfunctory—and kind of cheap.

Come on, at least give me some special effects!

Just because it’s free, does it have to be this plain?

Still, complaints aside, Su You didn’t really care much about special effects. What she cared about most right now was what kind of NPCs she’d be able to recruit.

Even though it was already nighttime, she could still see the recruitable NPCs. It’s just that once she confirmed which NPC to recruit, that NPC would only arrive the next morning.

Pushing open the tavern door, Su You found that this so-called tavern was basically just an empty, unfinished room.

Aside from a bar-like counter and a round stool, there was nothing else—not even a window.

Su You: … Figures. You get what you pay for.

She wasn’t sure if all building cards were this bare-bones, but if she’d built the place herself with materials, at the very least there would be a basic set of furniture.

“Oh well… As long as I can recruit, that’s enough…” The tavern was crude, but Su You didn’t plan to actually run it for now. She just needed it for its special NPC recruitment function. As long as it worked, who cared about the decor?

She groped her way to the bar counter—yes, the tavern didn’t even have any lighting.

She could only make out the interior thanks to the firelight from the city core shining through the open door.

But in a way, the lack of furniture was a blessing—at least with nothing in the way, she wouldn’t bump into anything in the dark.

Su You comforted herself with this thought, conveniently forgetting that a tavern was supposed to have a few lanterns inside.

[Tavern] (Level 1)

Unlocked functions:

1. Special NPC Recruitment (Refresh countdown: ???)

2. Tavern Operations (Missing relevant NPCs)

When using the tavern for recruitment early on, there were two things to keep in mind: the number of recruits, and the refresh countdown.

A level 1 tavern could refresh up to three NPCs at a time, but you could only recruit one per refresh. The refresh countdown wasn’t shown (NPCs would refresh randomly every three to five days).

There was another common misconception: many people thought that as long as you selected an NPC to recruit, they’d automatically join your territory—but that wasn’t the case.

Recruiting through the tavern only gave you a chance to interact with the NPC. Whether or not they stayed depended entirely on your own abilities.

Whether it was economic strength, combat prowess, or communication skills—as long as you could persuade the NPC to stay, they’d temporarily work for you.

Su You took a deep breath and opened the special NPC recruitment interface.

[Dolin]

Gender: Male

Age: Teen

Loyalty: 70

Affection: 20

Talents: Carpentry (85), Masonry (60)

Skills: Novice Carpenter

Traits: Conscientious (increases success rate when crafting advanced items), Arrogant (slower skill proficiency gain)

Profile: [Dolin is a highly talented carpenter. Even at a young age, he has already reached the standard of a novice master carpenter. Because of this, he’s been praised by many since childhood, which has made him a bit arrogant.

Dolin’s grandfather was an outstanding master carpenter, and he taught Dolin his skills. Dolin deeply loves and respects his grandfather, and has always remembered his teachings—

‘My dear child, remember this: always be careful and diligent, especially when it comes to things you love. Don’t let a moment’s carelessness lead to irreparable regret.’]

[Domi]

Gender: Female

Age: Teen

Loyalty: 60

Affection: 10

Talents: Cooking (78), Sewing (65)

Skills: Novice Sewing

Traits: Inspired (increases chance of innovation), Reclusive (slower and less likely to socialize)

Profile: [Domi was adopted by the village seamstress. No one knows who her parents are or where they went.

The old seamstress treated her well and was willing to teach her sewing, but because she had no parents, the village children would bully her when the seamstress wasn’t around. This made Domi withdrawn and unwilling to interact with strangers.

A lonely childhood without playmates led Domi to spend her time alone in her room, practicing her sewing skills.

Though the old seamstress worried about her, she knew Domi couldn’t easily fit in with the other children. So she didn’t force her, but instead devoted herself to teaching Domi sewing, hoping to make her her successor.]

[Doya]

Gender: Female

Age: Young Adult

Loyalty: 70

Affection: 20

Talents: Archery (88), Combat (70)

Skills: Novice Archery (bottleneck), Novice Combat

Traits: Brave (increased fear resistance), Agile (increased proficiency with agility-based weapons), Shadow (has difficulty acting normally in certain environments)

Profile: [Doya is the child of a village hunter. Since she was little, she followed her father into the forest or deep mountains to hunt…"

"29. Traits

Although her mother opposed them taking risks, Doya still insisted on learning hunting skills alongside her father.

Under her father’s guidance, Doya became an excellent hunter at a young age. She possessed agility and combat prowess far beyond her peers—abilities honed through years of battling wild beasts.

On the day Doya came of age, her father went deep into the mountains alone to hunt, intending to bring back a coming-of-age gift for her. Unfortunately, he encountered a rampaging pack of beasts and was killed by wolves.

In the end, Doya still received her coming-of-age gift—a snow-white baby ermine, delivered by villagers who had found her father’s body.

……

……

That’s right, it’s exactly the same as I remember…

Su You read over the information on these three NPCs again and again, finally coming to this conclusion.

Since it’s just like before, Su You naturally decided to analyze and choose the first special NPC to recruit using the same approach as last time.

……

Although these three NPCs have similar names, they actually have independent backgrounds and no relation to each other. As for why their names are so alike, players used to have all sorts of theories.

Su You didn’t care much about names, but she vaguely thought of a possibility… Maybe the developers were just too lazy to come up with different names.

It sounds a bit ridiculous, but it’s not impossible.

Now, it seems this data-driven world is also “too lazy to name things,” which is why you end up with Dolin, Domi, and Doya—names that sound like they could be siblings.

Putting aside the naming issue, let’s analyze the information at hand, starting with age.

Here, age isn’t given as a number, but as categories: child, youth, and later on, middle-aged and elderly.

Different ages affect the NPCs’ daily behavior. For example, younger NPCs are more likely to be impulsive and inexperienced, unable to handle problems on their own. Middle-aged and elderly NPCs don’t have these issues.

However, older NPCs have physical limitations due to age—they tire more easily and are more susceptible to negative conditions in special circumstances.

Teenagers and young adults don’t have these problems. They’re strong, energetic, and full of vitality in everything they do.

Of course, all of this is just a generalization about age differences.

Whether it’s Sunset Continent or this data-driven world, there’s a lot of freedom, and anything can happen.

Next is loyalty.

If talent is the stat that determines how useful an NPC is, then loyalty is the stat that determines whether you can use them at all.

No matter how amazing an NPC is, no matter how multi-talented, if they aren’t loyal enough to the player, you absolutely can’t keep them around.

Keeping them would be a hidden danger.

And because they’re so capable, they’re an even greater threat.

Normally, the lowest loyalty for NPCs on the recruitment list is 60. Sixty is the passing line—if they reach this number, it means the NPC will listen to Su You’s commands, as long as her orders are reasonable.

Loyalty isn’t fixed; it can go up or down. Favorability works the same way.

Loyalty and favorability may look similar, but they’re actually quite different.

Here’s an easy-to-understand example:

Suppose you want an NPC to chop wood and gather lumber. The way you phrase your request depends on the situation.

For an NPC with high loyalty but low favorability:

Player: “We need a batch of lumber to build up the territory. With this wood, our settlement will be much improved. I believe you’re a capable person who can contribute to our cause.”

For an NPC with low loyalty but high favorability:

Player: “Hey friend, I need some wood for a project, but I’m really busy right now and can’t get away. Could you help me gather some? You will? Thank you so much!”

Loyalty refers to devotion to the territory as a whole.

Favorability refers to how much the NPC likes the player personally.

In fact, favorability isn’t just about liking—it’s also a kind of personal “loyalty” to the player.

It might seem complicated, but as long as the NPC isn’t particularly odd, and as long as the player is a normal person, both stats aren’t hard to raise. So it’s not a huge issue.

Next is talent.

Talent is just what it sounds like—the higher the talent stat, the less time the NPC needs to learn related skills, the faster their proficiency grows, and the greater their capacity for innovation. So, the higher the talent stat, the better.

Normally, talent is determined at birth and can’t be improved later.

On the NPC info screen, only talents above 50 are displayed. If it’s below 50, that’s considered average, and the NPC will never advance beyond intermediate in that skill, so there’s no need to show it.

Corresponding to talent are skills.

All three NPCs have two trainable talents. Of the skills they currently possess, only Doya has two skills, and one of them is at a bottleneck—if you invest resources in her, she can quickly break through and become a combat-type NPC with intermediate archery.

NPCs can’t see these stats, so they don’t know what their talents are and can’t learn skills based on them.

For example, Domi’s highest talent is cooking, but she only has a beginner-level sewing skill.

Su You recruits special NPCs for their skills, so the mismatch between Domi’s talent and skill is enough for Su You to rule her out.

She doesn’t have a chef on hand to teach Domi cooking, so Su You needs NPCs whose skills match their talents.

What’s more, Domi has the [Reclusive] trait…

Traits can be understood as an NPC’s personality characteristics, usually shaped by their experiences.

For example, Dolin is highly talented as a carpenter, so he’s praised by others, which has made him arrogant and given him a tendency to become a “wasted prodigy.”

Domi and Doya: one was bullied as a child and dislikes interacting with strangers, so she’s “reclusive”; the other suffered trauma from her father’s death, resulting in certain “shadows”…

All of these are closely tied to their stories.

Traits can be good or bad, but they generally come in three colors. Most NPCs have one red negative trait and one green positive trait, or just a blue neutral trait.

Diligence, inspiration, courage, agility—these are all positive traits, as you can see from the descriptions.

As for neutral traits…"

"30. Strange Setup

Let’s take a blue trait called “Gluttony” as an example. Literally, it means this NPC eats a lot.

Logically, eating more means consuming more food, which should be considered a negative trait.

But “Gluttony” has another effect: when this NPC is full, all their stats can temporarily surge to 200% of their original values.

Food is one of the least valuable resources in the late game. If you can trade food for combat power, who wouldn’t want to? That’s why “Gluttony” is classified as a blue trait.

Traits can be good or bad, but even among those, there are degrees—some are just mildly good or bad, while others are exceptionally good or bad... It’s like how both 59 and 0 are failing grades, while 60 and 100 are both passing.

Of course, all these definitions are made by players during gameplay and aren’t set by the game itself.

For example, Domi’s “Reclusive” trait is an exceptionally bad red trait.

Traits affect socialization speed. Both loyalty and favorability are tied to social interactions, so Domi’s starting loyalty and favorability are lower than the other two NPCs—this is all because of “Reclusive.”

Not only are the initial values lower, but when you try to increase Domi’s loyalty or favorability later, the gains are also smaller than with other NPCs. For example, if you give their favorite item, others might gain ten favor points, but Domi might only gain five, or even less.

This is the second reason why Su You didn’t choose Domi.

If it were just low starting stats, she could accept it. But if the growth rate is also slow, Su You can’t accept that.

Because these two stats are very important—not just as loyalty and favorability, but also as a measure of how much the NPC trusts their territory and its ruler.

If loyalty is too low, the NPC might rebel. If favorability is too low, the NPC may have their own hidden agendas and won’t be completely loyal.

“...Honestly, there’s not much of a choice here anyway.” The main issue is that the gap between these three NPCs is just too big.

One is arrogant, one is reclusive—both have negative traits rated below twenty points.

But Doya is different. She has two positive traits, two skills, high talent stats, and her only negative trait only triggers in specific circumstances.

If Su You guessed right, that specific circumstance refers to “wolf packs.”

After all, Doya’s trauma comes from her father’s death, which was related to wolves... Some might think that just witnessing her father’s death shouldn’t leave such a shadow, and maybe it’s more about hatred than trauma.

But the thing is, in Doya’s eyes, her father wasn’t just a parent—he was also a powerful hunter and an all-capable mentor.

If even someone as strong as him couldn’t escape the wolves, wouldn’t that leave a psychological scar?

What’s more, he died because he was trying to bring Doya a gift, which makes the blow even worse for her.

So, there’s definitely hatred, but also trauma... After all, trauma isn’t only caused by fear.

But anyway, as long as there are no wolves around, Doya is basically a perfect NPC with no negative traits.

A negative trait that only triggers under certain conditions is much better than the other two, whose negative traits are always present.

Coincidentally, Su You was just worrying about how to deal with the shadow creatures on the tenth day. If she could successfully recruit Doya and equip her with suitable weapons and gear...

[Confirm recruitment of Doya?]

[Kind reminder: You can only recruit one NPC this time. Once confirmed, all other NPC recruitment info will be cleared from the panel. The NPC you choose will arrive at your territory within one day.]

“Yes.” As Su You made her choice, Doya’s information was enlarged and locked on the panel, while the other two NPCs’ info was wiped.

In addition, Su You noticed a new line of text after Doya’s name.

[This NPC is on their way to your territory. Estimated arrival time: ???]

Right now, the tavern is at a low level, so you can’t see any timing info—neither when new NPCs will refresh nor when they’ll arrive. Once you upgrade, these times will be displayed.

Not only that, upgrading the tavern will also shorten the refresh and arrival times for NPCs.

Now, all that’s left is a long wait.

Even though there’s no residential house or “Lord’s Mansion” for the player to live in, thanks to the tavern, Su You doesn’t have to rough it outdoors.

No matter how basic, the tavern is at least a roof over her head.

Su You wasn’t picky. She left the tavern door half open, dragged the only chair to the entrance, and sat down, leaning against the wall and basking in the firelight from the territory’s heart flame. She closed her eyes to rest.

...

...

“Is anyone there?” A faint voice sounded—it seemed to belong to a young woman.

Not only that, but from her tone, you could tell she wasn’t in great shape. Her voice was weak and feeble, as if she might pass out at any moment.

“...Is there really no one here?” The newcomer sounded doubtful, because she’d clearly seen the territory’s heart flame not far away...

A heart flame means there’s a territory nearby, and if there’s a territory, there should be people, right?

But she really didn’t hear anyone respond... Was her voice too soft?

Thinking this, the girl took a deep breath and forced herself to take a few more steps toward the heart flame.

She hadn’t eaten or rested properly for days, so she was in terrible shape. Even just a few steps felt like a lifetime, draining all her energy.

Once she stepped out from the cover of the trees, she saw what had been hidden from view—a very simple, small camp surrounded by a wooden fence, with just two signboards at the entrance (a notice board and a bounty board).

Because it was only a wooden fence and not a tall wall, she could clearly see everything inside.

There was the burning heart flame, two wooden crates, and a tavern.

The girl: ...What kind of weird setup is this?

Although she wasn’t a player but an NPC, NPCs also know about territories. Some especially talented management-type NPCs can even help players run and develop their territories.

This girl didn’t have that talent, but her past experience told her that building a tavern first was definitely not normal.

Who builds a tavern before even putting up a place to live?"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

31. Dolly

Actually, it was perfectly normal for her to have these doubts—after all, NPCs had no idea that things like building cards even existed.

If it weren’t for the building card, Su You’s first building really would have been a residential house. After all, labor was the most important thing, and she didn’t have the materials to build a tavern anyway.

Although the woman found the setup of this territory quite strange when she saw it, her own condition was so poor and she was so desperate for help that she couldn’t afford to dwell on these oddities.

Dragging her exhausted body, she walked toward the camp.

“Hello, is anyone there?” She stopped in front of the fence gate.

She could have just pushed the gate open and walked in, but she was a stranger, after all, and this was someone else’s territory—it wouldn’t be appropriate.

She was here to ask for help, not to cause trouble.

But she waited a long time and no one came. Exhaustion and hunger began to overwhelm her, and she was clearly at her limit.

…In fact, she’d already reached her limit. The only reason she’d made it this far was because she’d seen the Heartfire in the center of the territory.

Her current state was like someone lost in the desert for days suddenly spotting an oasis. She’d forced herself to keep going, only to discover that the oasis was just a mirage…

Just as she was hesitating about whether or not to push open the gate, she seemed to hear footsteps behind her…

Was that… her imagination?

…Why behind her?

That was the last thought she had before she completely lost consciousness.

……

Switching to Su You’s perspective.

The woman had been calling out but got no response—not because Su You was deliberately ignoring her, but because Su You wasn’t even in the territory and couldn’t possibly hear her.

That morning, before five o’clock, Su You had already woken up.

After waking, she headed out for two main reasons: to check the traps she’d set earlier, and to visit the sandstone resource point to dig up more sandstone for making whetstones.

She still had one whetstone left, but considering she’d worn out one in just over an hour yesterday, she knew this one wouldn’t last long either.

Now that she had a territory, Su You had a huge demand for basic materials—not only was she short on labor, but she also lacked tools.

Most NPCs didn’t bring their own tools. If she wanted them to work, she’d have to provide tools herself—otherwise, it would be like trying to cook without rice.

Su You knew there was a good chance an NPC would show up that morning, but since NPCs only appeared during the day, she’d gone out early to make the most of her morning without missing the NPC’s arrival.

But… it seemed she was still a little late?

Seeing a slender figure standing at the gate, Su You guessed who it was. But before she could say anything, the woman swayed like a falling autumn leaf and collapsed to the ground.

Su You: ?!

Startled, Su You rushed over, dropped what she was carrying, and helped the woman up.

As she did so, she quickly checked the woman’s information.

【Dolly】

Gender: Female

Age: Young adult

Loyalty: Unknown

Favorability: Unknown

Talent: Unknown

Skills: Unknown

Traits: Unknown

Description: This woman has not eaten or rested for a long time, and her nerves have been under constant stress. She is extremely weak and needs rest and food.

Su You didn’t have time to look at anything else. She skimmed the last part, and after understanding the woman’s condition, immediately took out a cup of water from her backpack—hot water she’d already boiled and could be drunk directly.

As for the roasted berries, given the woman’s unconscious state, Su You figured there was no way she could feed her those.

Even giving her water, the woman only managed to swallow some of it, the rest dribbling out—but at least she got a little down.

After giving her water, Su You glanced at the ground to make sure nothing she’d dropped would run away, then helped Dolly into the territory and settled her next to the Heartfire, letting her rest against a chest.

Once that was done, Su You returned to the gate to pick up what she’d dropped.

She’d dropped three rabbits—still alive.

These rabbits weren’t from her traps; the traps weren’t that effective. When she’d checked them, there wasn’t even a tuft of fur left—clearly, the animals had escaped.

But that was expected, given the poor quality of the traps. If she wanted to hunt in the future, she’d need to make better ones or have a combat-capable NPC do the hunting…

Still, even though the traps hadn’t caught anything, Su You had stumbled across a rabbit warren on her way back.

Because she’d gone out early, the rabbits were still resting, so she managed to catch all three.

To keep them from escaping, she’d quickly gathered some fiber scraps and twisted them into a cord to tie the rabbits up.

Glancing at the still-unconscious Dolly, Su You took out her stone knife and got ready to process the rabbits.

Thinking back, Su You had been a bit puzzled when she saw Dolly faint. She’d actually thought the NPC was Doya—the special NPC with combat skills.

But if it was Doya, why would she faint?

After all, Doya wasn’t some frail girl—she had combat ability, and it was more than enough to handle the beasts outside the forest.

Plus, having hunted with her father since childhood, she should have been used to the wild and wouldn’t be in such a sorry state.

It wasn’t until Su You checked the NPC’s information that she realized this wasn’t Doya, but Dolly—a wandering NPC.

She couldn’t see information about wandering NPCs unless they actively wanted to join her territory, at which point she’d receive a join request.

Only in the request interface could Su You see their information.

It made sense—the recruitment interface was for players to choose from, so it showed all the details, just like a job application.

But wandering NPCs, being new arrivals, wouldn’t reveal anything until they wanted to join. Only then would their information be displayed, allowing players to decide whether or not to accept them.

……

……

【Obtained: Animal Hide x2】"

"32. Tool Bag

[Obtained Damaged Animal Hide x1]

[Obtained Rabbit Fur x14]

[Obtained Small Piece of Meat x12]

After spending some time processing the three rabbits, Su You ended up with two complete hides and one damaged hide.

She looked regretfully at the damaged hide and let out a sigh.

She had originally hoped that with three rabbits, she’d get three hides—just enough to craft a tool bag for carrying her tools, while the hide she’d collected earlier could be used to make a simple pair of hide shoes.

Although she did have shoes now, they were just the most basic straw sandals. Straw sandals didn’t provide any bonuses; at best, they just kept her feet from getting pricked while walking.

Hide shoes, on the other hand, were one of the better pairs of shoes you could craft early on.

They could increase walking and running speed, and also reduce stamina consumption while moving—making them perfect transitional gear for early-game exploration.

But since she’d failed, Su You could only use the two complete hides, along with the one she already had, to make a tool bag.

Compared to stamina consumption, the most important thing right now was backpack space.

Stone knife, axe, pickaxe, shovel… and even whetstones (stack limit: 5).

Once these five items were stored in the tool bag, half of Su You’s backpack space would instantly be freed up.

With that in mind, Su You took out some twine from her portable workbench—also something she’d collected along the way.

When she’d spotted the rabbits, she’d already thought she might be able to craft a tool bag today, so she’d gathered some extra fiber scraps just in case.

With the twine, she now had all the materials she needed for the tool bag.

[Consume Animal Hide x3, Twine x5 to craft Tool Bag?]

[Crafting: Tool Bag. Estimated time: 120 seconds.]

…

[Obtained Tool Bag x1]

[Tool Bag]

Category: Special

Quality: Green

Description: Tool bag. When equipped, allows you to store one of each type of tool (up to five whetstones) without taking up backpack space. Only one tool bag can be equipped at a time.

As soon as the tool bag was finished, Su You equipped it right away.

The tool bag slots appeared just below her backpack—a long row of silhouetted icons, each representing a different tool.

Su You took out her pickaxe and placed it in the tool bag. The pickaxe automatically matched to one of the silhouettes, which then lit up and moved to the front of the row.

A black silhouette meant that slot was empty, while a lit icon meant a tool of that type had been placed there.

As for the order, that was a special feature of the tool bag: to help players quickly find the tool they needed, after equipping the tool bag, players could customize the order of their tools.

By default, lit icons came first, silhouettes after; the most frequently used tools were at the front, and the least used at the back.

Besides that, the tool bag had another handy feature: it could “auto-repair” tool durability.

Of course, the prerequisite for auto-repair was having at least one whetstone in the tool bag.

With a whetstone, you just had to put the tool you wanted to repair into the tool bag, and then you could use the whetstone directly.

All in all, these were just minor features—the tool bag’s main function was still to store tools and save space.

Su You put all her remaining tools into the tool bag, instantly freeing up half her backpack space.

After all that work, Su You was starting to feel hungry.

She glanced at Dory, who was still unconscious, thought for a moment, then took her stone knife to gather some berries nearby, and brought out the rabbit meat she’d gotten earlier.

[Use Small Piece of Meat x1, Berries x2, Leaves x3 to cook Berry Roast?]

[Cooking: Berry Roast. Estimated time: 120 seconds.]

…

The campfire was blazing as the berry roast cooked, while Su You leisurely ate a serving of roasted berries herself.

By the time she finished her roasted berries, the meat was already giving off a rich, mouthwatering aroma.

Roast meat was already delicious, but this time, with the addition of berries, the flavor was even more tempting. The red berries added a tangy note, making the scent even more irresistible.

Even someone who wasn’t hungry would find their mouth watering at that smell.

Let alone Dory, who hadn’t eaten in ages.

Maybe the aroma was just too enticing, because Dory, who had been fast asleep, was suddenly woken up by hunger.

When she woke, she was completely confused.

Dory: …Who am I? Where am I?

“You’re finally awake. Have some water first—the roast will be ready soon.” Before Dory could figure out what was going on, a gentle female voice sounded beside her.

At the same time, a hand reached over, holding a wooden cup filled with steaming hot water.

Dory instinctively wanted to refuse, but when she realized her throat was so dry she couldn’t even speak, she hesitated, then shyly accepted the water Su You offered.

The water was hot, but not scalding—just right to drink, and enough to clear her hunger- and exhaustion-fogged mind.

After finishing the cup, Dory gradually remembered what had happened.

Her name was Dory. She was a member of a merchant caravan, but while passing through the forest, the caravan had accidentally wandered into a beast’s territory and was attacked. In the chaos, she’d gotten separated from the others.

She’d been too scared to rest, afraid that if she fell asleep, she’d wake up surrounded by beasts.

She was also too scared to eat anything from the forest, since she’d once seen someone nearly die from eating a wild fruit.

Luckily, the caravan’s doctor had managed to give that person an antidote in time, saving their life.

But now Dory was alone, with no antidote and no knowledge of which plants were safe—so of course she hadn’t dared eat anything in the forest… which was why she’d ended up so exhausted and hungry.

If she remembered right, just before she lost consciousness, she’d seen the campfire in the distance and headed toward it, hoping for help.

She’d called out for a long time with no answer, and just as she was about to pass out, she vaguely heard hurried footsteps behind her…

As Dory slowly came to her senses, Su You brought over the freshly made berry roast."

"33. Staying the Night

“Remember anything?” Su You handed the grilled meat to Dolly. “If not, it’s fine. Eat something first.”

Looking at the delicate-featured woman before her, Dolly felt a strange sense of goodwill rise in her heart.

“Um… thank you. I’ll pay you.” Although Dolly still wasn’t sure who this woman was, the fact that she’d been able to bring Dolly here and was now roasting meat over the territory’s heart-fire gave Dolly some vague guesses.

But no matter who the woman was, it didn’t change the fact that she’d saved her.

Dolly had intended to take out some money to thank Su You for rescuing her and providing her with food and drink, but before she could do anything, Su You shoved the grilled meat into her hands, not giving her a chance to react.

“Eat first. We can talk about everything else later.” With that, Su You stood up, as if she was about to leave. “There’s a new guest. I’ll be gone for a bit—take your time and rest.”

At first, when Dolly saw Su You leave, she thought maybe the woman was embarrassed to accept her money. But after hearing the second half of her sentence, Dolly paused, then instinctively glanced toward the entrance of the territory.

If she wasn’t mistaken… there really was someone standing over there.

Since Su You genuinely had something to attend to, Dolly didn’t want to disturb her and could only thank her again to show her gratitude.

Su You actually didn’t care whether Dolly paid or not. After all, she was only doing this to build goodwill.

Wandering NPCs rarely had skills, because most of them didn’t have any backstory—no story, no past; their existence was simply to exist.

But Dolly was different.

Although Su You couldn’t see any other information about her, she could tell from Dolly’s clothing that she probably wasn’t an ordinary wandering NPC. Su You guessed she was someone with a backstory—in other words, an NPC with talents or skills.

But even if she was wrong and Dolly didn’t have any skills, Su You wouldn’t consider the grilled meat wasted. She needed people, and goodwill still needed to be built.

…

When Su You reached the gate, she saw a handsome, short-haired woman dressed in practical leather armor.

Not only that, but Su You could see what looked like a bow and arrows slung across her back…

Huh?

An NPC who comes with their own weapon?!

“Hello, are you the manager of this territory?” Duoya looked Su You up and down. Perhaps because they were both women and seemed about the same age, her previously cold demeanor softened a little.

Hearing this, Su You, who had only been guessing at her identity, now felt sure.

Because only tavern-recruited NPCs would know directly that she was the territory’s manager. In other words, this dashing, charismatic woman was Duoya.

If it weren’t for the fact that her current appearance was quite different from how she’d looked on the recruitment panel, Su You might have recognized her identity just from the bow on her back.

“That’s right, I’m the manager of this territory.”

“Su You. That’s my name.” As she spoke, Su You opened the gate.

Duoya didn’t enter right away. She stood at the entrance, surveying the territory… Though it was rather shabby, she didn’t show any sign of disdain.

Faced with Duoya’s appraising gaze, Su You remained calm, not at all embarrassed by her “poverty.”

Every territory starts from nothing, after all—there’s nothing to be ashamed of.

“Duoya.” After taking in her surroundings, Duoya looked at Su You and introduced herself, then stated her request.

“Lord Su, I’d like to stay here and rest for a day. If you’re willing, I can offer something in return as payment for lodging.”

As mentioned before, recruiting an NPC doesn’t mean they’ll automatically join you. The tavern recruitment only gives the player a chance to interact with the NPC. Whether the NPC actually joins depends on the player’s own abilities.

After all, the player doesn’t pay any price for recruitment. It’s impossible to get a powerful NPC for free.

Duoya’s request to stay the night was actually a “chance” set by the system—a chance for Su You to make her stay.

During this day, Su You could try to persuade Duoya to stay, whether through words or other means.

If, by the end of the day, Su You couldn’t make Duoya feel “I want to stay” or “I need to stay,” then she would leave the next day, and Su You’s recruitment attempt would be considered a failure.

As an “old city lord” who had recruited countless NPCs, Su You understood this well, so Duoya’s request didn’t surprise her.

“No problem, as long as Miss Duoya doesn’t mind how simple things are here.” Su You smiled, then led Duoya to the heart-fire.

When Su You returned with the short-haired woman, Dolly—who had finished her meal and was feeling full—immediately stood up.

“And this is…?” Duoya glanced at Dolly, a hint of curiosity in her eyes, but it quickly faded when she noticed the traces of hardship on Dolly.

Those marks were all too familiar to someone like Duoya, who’d spent years dealing with wild beasts.

Guessing what Dolly might have been through, Duoya’s mood soured a little. She also noticed that Dolly seemed to want to say something to the territory’s lord, so she gave them space, moving to the other side of the heart-fire and staring into the flames.

Dolly watched her leave but said nothing. At this moment, her attention was entirely on Su You.

“Thank you for saving me. I’m sorry I forgot to introduce myself earlier. My name is Dolly, and I’m a repairer with a merchant caravan. My companions and I ran into wild beasts in the forest… If it weren’t for you, I might have starved to death out there.”

Although Dolly was an NPC, in this digital world, NPCs were almost indistinguishable from real people—their behavior and AI were nearly identical to humans.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, even after such a disaster and being rescued, Dolly shouldn’t have revealed all her information so readily.

No matter the situation, no matter who the other person is, it’s always a mistake to reveal everything about yourself to a stranger."

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**34. The Repairer**

It was hard to tell whether Dolly was just a little scatterbrained by nature, or if her goodwill toward Su You had skyrocketed after being saved by her, but at this point, Dolly had already told Su You everything about herself.

From her identity, to her experiences, to what she’d gone through afterward… and even her current thoughts.

“If I’m not mistaken, you must be the lord of this place, right?” Dolly asked. Su You nodded, not bothering to hide it.

After all, there was nothing to conceal—she was the only person in the entire territory, and she clearly had the authority to use the land. If she wasn’t the lord, who else could be?

Seeing Su You nod, Dolly’s smile grew wider, but soon her expression shifted to one of nervousness and apprehension.

“Miss Lord, I’ve lost contact with the caravan, and it’s obvious I can’t survive in this forest on my own. So I’d like to join your territory… Of course! I know this is a sudden request, but if you’ll let me stay, I’m willing to do anything you ask, as long as it’s within my ability…”

“You’re a repairer?” Su You interrupted, then took a damaged piece of animal hide from a wooden box nearby. “Can you fix this? If you can, I’ll let you stay.”

Repairers, also known as restorers, had a primary ability: repairing and restoring.

Anything described as “damaged,” “worn,” “rough,” or “broken”—whether it was an item, a tool, or even weapons and equipment—they could fix, as long as they had enough materials.

In truth, the moment Su You heard Dolly say she was a repairer, she’d already made up her mind to keep her. After all, the repair skill was both powerful and rare.

The reason she handed over the damaged hide was partly to make herself feel better—Su You could tell that Dolly’s words were sincere, with no false pretense.

Dolly clearly cared a lot about being saved, so Su You decided to let her repair the hide as a way of “repaying” her for the rescue.

Of course, there was another reason: to verify Dolly’s identity.

Though Dolly seemed genuine, Su You couldn’t be sure she wasn’t mistaken, so having her repair the hide was a way to confirm if she really was a repairer, and truly the caravan’s repairer.

To be a repairer for a caravan, your skill level couldn’t be low, so for her, fixing a hide should be an easy task.

And as it turned out, Su You’s judgment was spot on. Dolly was clearly delighted when she heard Su You’s request.

She took the damaged hide from Su You, carefully examining and feeling it all over before looking up to ask, “Do you have any thread? Or fiber scraps would work too.”

Su You handed her some string she’d previously used to tie up rabbits.

“Is this enough? If not, there are fiber plants over there—I can go gather more.”

Dolly looked at the three pieces of string, measured them against the hide, and then gave a precise answer.

“I’ll need about one more piece of string, or twelve strands of fiber scrap.” One piece of string required ten strands of fiber scrap to make, but if you only had fiber scraps, you’d need a bit more…

Even so, Su You chose to gather twelve strands of fiber scrap for her—after all, string had to be crafted, but fiber scraps were ready to use.

“This might take a little while, please wait,” Dolly said, then laid the hide flat on her lap, holding the string in one hand and pressing down on the hide with the other.

Su You had worked with repairers before—very skilled ones, in fact—so she was familiar with how they restored things, and didn’t pay much attention.

After all, the Sunset Continent wasn’t a “scientific” world. There were dark creatures, dwarves, elves, and even mages and healers in the human lands—this was a continent full of diversity.

Repairers were people born with the gift of restoration, able to channel repair energy.

Their method wasn’t like the old days—no “sewing up torn clothes with a needle and thread.” Instead, they fused materials into the damaged item using their own energy.

The first time you saw it, it was pretty novel, but after a while, it lost its charm.

Still, just because Su You wasn’t interested didn’t mean others weren’t.

As Su You was about to try making another batch of berry-roasted meat to see if she could win over Duoya, she noticed that Duoya—who had been sitting silently on the other side of the central fire, withdrawn as usual—had lifted her head and was staring intently at Dolly’s hands.

Su You was puzzled, until she noticed something beside Duoya.

She suddenly realized how she might be able to get Duoya to stay…

…

…

“All done! How’s this?” Dolly looked at the now perfectly restored hide, a happy smile appearing on her face as she handed it to Su You, waiting nervously for her response.

[Animal Hide · Restored]

Category: Material

Quality: Common

Description: An ordinary animal hide, obtainable through hunting, used for crafting equipment or items.

…

“Thank you, you did great.” Any item that’s been repaired gets the “Restored” tag, but it’s just a marker—it doesn’t affect its use at all.

This restored hide could even be stacked with hides that were never damaged in the first place, and once stacked, the “Restored” tag would disappear.

Hearing Su You’s praise, Dolly let out a sigh of relief.

She still remembered what Su You had said earlier—if she could repair the hide, she’d be allowed to stay.

Honestly, fixing the hide was a piece of cake for her, so once Su You stated her condition, Dolly’s nerves had already eased.

“Do you just want to stay, or do you want to join the territory?” Su You put away the hide and looked at Dolly, confirming her intentions.

Dolly was stunned for a moment, then, after a few seconds of silence, gave her answer: “Sorry, I might not have made myself clear earlier—I want to join the territory.”

“I hope the lord will let me join. I’ll do my best to help build up the territory and make it bigger and stronger.”

Su You narrowed her eyes, sensing something in Dolly’s words.

The reason she’d asked was because Dolly had previously said she wanted to “stay,” not “join the territory.”"

"35. The Broken Bow

There’s still a big difference between the two.

One is just temporarily staying here, like Doya. Dory’s stay might last a bit longer, but she’ll leave eventually.

But joining the territory is a different matter.

Once an NPC joins a territory, they won’t leave unless the territory is destroyed or for some special reason.

Dory’s attitude just now was a bit ambiguous. Su You wasn’t sure if she was doing it on purpose, if she hadn’t realized it herself, or if she was just wavering in her decision...

If Su You guessed right, everything Dory said about her experiences was true, but she was definitely hiding something.

And what she was hiding probably had to do with why she was willing to join the territory.

Otherwise, her choice should have been to stay for a while, find a chance to contact her original caravan, and then return to them. If she chose to join the territory, that basically meant she was giving up on going back...

“Dory, welcome to the territory.” No matter what Dory was hiding, it was her own private business. As long as it wouldn’t affect her or the territory, Su You didn’t want to pry.

If their relationship improved in the future, Dory would naturally open up if she wanted to. Asking now would only lower her favorability. If Dory decided not to join because of this, Su You would lose out.

After all, Dory was a repairer—and not a low-level one.

[A wanderer has applied to join your territory. Please check and process the application promptly.]

Su You ignored the system prompt and looked at Dory, continuing, “As you can see, the territory has only just been established. There’s nothing here yet, so you might have to put up with some hardship these next few days.”

Dory shook her head. She didn’t feel put out at all. After what happened, she was just grateful to have a safe place to stay.

She was very thankful to Su You.

“It’s fine. Every territory starts from nothing. Since I’ve joined, I’m willing to watch this place grow and develop...”

Dory spoke sincerely, which made Su You like her even more.

“Go get some rest. Didn’t you say you haven’t slept for days?” Su You pointed toward the tavern, signaling for her to go rest inside.

Dory knew her own condition, so she didn’t try to tough it out. After telling Su You, “If you need help with anything, just let me know,” she headed for the tavern.

But she had barely taken two steps when someone called her name from behind. It wasn’t Su You’s voice.

Dory stopped and turned to look at Doya.

“Is there something you need?” She didn’t know this short-haired woman, and it seemed the lord didn’t know her either—Dory could sense the distance between them.

If she guessed right, this woman was probably like herself: just passing through and planning to rest here for a while.

The difference was, Dory had now decided to stay and join the territory. As for the other woman’s plans, she didn’t know.

“You’re a repairer. Can you fix anything?” Doya’s tone wasn’t very friendly—rather cold, actually—but she didn’t mean it that way.

She realized it too, and quickly adjusted her manner. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on your conversation... I have something that needs repairing. If you can fix it, you can name your price.”

Dory looked at Doya, then at Su You.

“Can I see what it is first?” Judging by how serious Doya looked, Dory didn’t know what the item was, but she could tell it meant a lot to this woman.

Hearing this, Doya took off what she’d been carrying on her back.

From the front, Dory and Su You had only seen a bow slung over Doya’s shoulder. But when she took it off, they realized she’d been carrying two bows all along.

One was intact, but the other was broken in two, only the handle remaining—no bowstring, nothing else.

Looking at the broken handle, Dory already had her answer—she knew she couldn’t fix it.

She didn’t even recognize the material the handle was made from.

If she didn’t know the material, how could she repair it?

As a repairer, the first thing they learn is to identify materials. Dory had aced her materials class, so if she didn’t recognize this, it meant it wasn’t in any of her textbooks.

If it wasn’t even in the textbooks, there were only two possibilities: either it was a brand-new material that had only appeared in recent years, so she’d never learned about it; or it was extremely rare and precious, and thus not recorded.

Either way, it wasn’t something she could get her hands on, so she couldn’t fix it.

And even if she had the material, she didn’t have the skill.

The higher the grade of the material, the more energy it took to work with. With something not even in the books, Dory doubted even her teacher could repair it.

Forcing a repair would only harm herself and destroy the item.

As Dory was searching for a tactful way to decline, Doya had already read the answer in her expression.

“Sorry to bother you. Go get some rest.” Doya carefully put the broken bow away, her face showing no disappointment.

She’d seen and heard this answer many times before.

Dory opened her mouth, but didn’t know what to say, so she just went to the tavern to rest.

After Dory left, only Su You and Doya remained.

Based on Doya’s actions and what she knew of her story, Su You could guess the story behind the bow.

It was probably the bow Doya’s father had used when he was alive. As for how it got broken, it likely had something to do with the wolves.

“Lord Su, is there something you want to say to me?” Doya had noticed Su You watching her openly for a while.

She didn’t know what Su You was thinking, but that didn’t stop her from asking directly—after all, that’s what mouths are for.

Su You said, “I know what material that bow is made from.”

At her words, Doya’s expression changed."

"36. Dragonbone Pattern

This was, up until now, the only time Duoya had shown any real emotional fluctuation.

In fact, before Su You chose Duoya as her candidate, she had already guessed that Duoya would be a difficult NPC to recruit. After all, the more powerful an NPC was, the higher their demands for the territory would be.

If Su You had chosen Duolin or Duomi instead, her chances of successfully recruiting them would have been much higher, since those two weren’t particularly strong NPCs, and they were both quite young.

Youngsters, inexperienced in the ways of the world, are much easier to persuade (or fool).

But she still chose Duoya, because every NPC has their own preferences and needs—and what Duoya wanted was this bow.

That was also why Su You had felt confident she could get Duoya to join her territory.

Because she had seen the half-exposed broken bow, recognized the material it was made from, and guessed who its owner was.

“You really know what this material is?” Duoya seemed a little agitated, staring straight at Su You, trying to read any sign of guilt or uncertainty from her face.

But she saw nothing.

“That’s right. Not only do I know what this broken bow is made of, I also know how to obtain the material.” Though, in truth, she only knew the method—she’d never actually acquired it herself.

This material was no ordinary thing. Even back when she had a max-level account, she’d never managed to get her hands on it, let alone now.

As for Duoya in front of her… it was even less likely she could get it.

“What do you want? As long as it’s something I have, I’m willing to trade it for this information.” Duoya did have some doubts about whether Su You was lying, but she couldn’t think of any reason for Su You to deceive her—after all, there was nothing for her to gain.

So she was willing to believe Su You, though her trust was tinged with a sense of “trying anything in desperation.”

Less than a year after her father left, her mother passed away in grief, and even the young sable her father had given her… Now, all she had left was this bow.

As long as she could repair it, she was willing to pay any price.

At this moment, Su You didn’t know about Duoya’s mother or the young sable, since those were part of the “supplementary story”… Su You only knew that such stories existed, not what they contained.

A supplementary story meant the system would automatically fill in a reasonable backstory, giving these NPCs a reason to be here.

Otherwise, if Duoya’s father had left but her mother was still around, there’s no way she would have abandoned her mother just to wander the world in search of a way to repair a bow.

No matter what, an object can’t compare to a living person—Duoya wasn’t an irrational person.

But now, she was all alone, and the only thing worth remembering was this bow. That’s why she could travel mountains and rivers, all across the land, just to repair it… In this way, the story made much more sense.

Some people, after learning about the concept of supplementary stories, might wonder, “If you don’t choose Duoya, wouldn’t she at least get to live with her mother?” It’s as if the player’s choice is the butterfly’s wing that erases Duoya’s mother from existence.

But that’s not actually the case.

If Su You hadn’t chosen Duoya, then Duoya simply wouldn’t exist in this world at all.

…

Back to the present—Su You actually didn’t mind telling Duoya about the material and where it came from. But her ultimate goal was to gain favor, to get Duoya to stay.

But from the look of things, Duoya’s idea was to learn the source of the material, then try to get it herself and repair the bow.

That was exactly what Su You didn’t want to see.

“I can tell you about the material for free, but then what? What are you planning to do?” Su You didn’t wait for Duoya to answer before continuing, “I don’t know what this bow means to you, but I can tell you clearly—even if you know what the material is, you won’t be able to get it.”

Duoya: “…”

Duoya didn’t know Su You wanted her to stay, so she was confused as to why Su You was saying all this.

After all, there was no real connection between them—they were just strangers. Whether or not she could get the material, what did it have to do with Su You?

No matter how clever Duoya was, she was no match for Su You—after all, Su You had cleared the game before and was well-versed in the art of talking to NPCs.

So, just as Duoya was about to say, “This doesn’t really have much to do with you, Lord Su,” Su You spoke up again.

“Let me tell you about the material first… It’s called ‘Dragonbone Pattern.’ But it’s not the bone of a dragon, nor is it the bone of any other creature. It’s actually a type of tree that grows in a dragon’s lair, nurtured and irrigated with dragon blood.”

If nothing else, just from the name alone, you could tell this material was extraordinary.

And after hearing the details, it was even clearer how rare and precious it was… In fact, “rare and precious” didn’t even begin to describe the scarcity of Dragonbone Pattern.

No wonder Su You had never managed to get it before—dragons were not easy to deal with, and if they were willing to irrigate something with their own blood, it meant the Dragonbone Pattern was valuable to dragons themselves… Which made it even less likely they’d ever trade it away.

Maybe it was because what Su You said was so shocking, but Duoya’s eyes flickered with suspicion and confusion.

She didn’t really trust Su You’s words, even though she couldn’t see any reason for Su You to lie.

“Lord Su, this is my father’s bow. He was just an ordinary hunter—how could he possibly have a bow made from something as rare as Dragonbone Pattern?”

It wasn’t that Duoya was belittling her father, but she simply couldn’t believe that someone powerful enough to possess Dragonbone Pattern would die to a pack of wolves.

In other words, if this really was a Dragonbone Pattern bow, then how could it fail against wolves?

Duoya wanted to believe it was made from Dragonbone Pattern, but only if her father hadn’t died.

To Duoya, what Su You said was completely contradictory, though Su You herself “didn’t know” where the contradiction lay.

But in reality, Su You did know Duoya’s story, knew who the bow’s owner was, and knew that an ordinary hunter couldn’t possibly have a bow made from Dragonbone Pattern…

But so what?

Whether an ordinary NPC could have a Dragonbone Pattern bow wasn’t Su You’s concern. All she needed to do was prove what she said was true… in other words, to prove that this was Dragonbone Pattern."

"37. Short-handed

“I don’t know much about your father’s situation, but to prove I’m telling the truth, you can soak it in the water for a bit.” Su You pointed to the nearby creek and continued, “Dragonbone is nurtured with dragon’s blood. Years of soaking infuse it with dragon’s blood, and when dragon’s blood meets water, it causes certain reactions…”

What kind of reaction exactly, Su You didn’t say.

If Duoya was willing to believe her, she’d try it herself and find out. If she didn’t believe her, then saying more would be pointless.

For a while after that, Duoya didn’t do anything, and Su You simply acted as if she wasn’t there.

Once she finished what she needed to do, Su You picked up her axe and went back to chopping wood.

Originally, this job should have been left to the new NPCs, but of the two who’d arrived, one wasn’t ready to join yet, and the other was in poor condition… No matter how short-handed Su You was, she couldn’t send someone in that bad a state to do heavy labor like chopping wood.

So, in the end, she had to do it herself.

The “Territory Join Request” notification had been flashing since earlier, but Su You still hadn’t opened it.

Because there was no point.

Without a residential house, she could only see who had applied to join the territory, but there was no button to approve their application.

Rather than waste time looking at that, she might as well chop a few more trees and hurry up with building houses.

A residential house required ten planks to build, but its interior was quite spacious. Most importantly, each house had two single beds.

In other words, one ordinary house could accommodate two NPCs, increasing the territory’s population capacity by two.

[Obtained Wood x2]

[Obtained Wood x3]

…

When she finished chopping the nearby trees, Su You moved to another spot to keep working.

The animal hide that Dory had repaired earlier was now a pair of shoes on Su You’s feet. Although chopping wood didn’t require much walking, the hide shoes were more comfortable than straw sandals, so even standing and chopping, she could feel her feet were more relaxed.

Whether it was just her imagination or not, as long as it was more comfortable, it was a good thing.

She kept using the same axe over and over, not really paying attention to the time. Eventually, when a full-durability whetstone was used up, Su You saw Duoya walking toward her.

Su You put down her axe and looked at her, then her gaze shifted to the broken bow in Duoya’s hands—

[Activated · Broken Dragonbone Bow · Part 1]

Actually, Su You had checked this broken bow earlier, but at the time, its name was [Broken Dragon?? Bow · Part 1].

Even though only half the name was displayed, Su You didn’t rely on the name to identify the material—she recognized dragonbone on sight. So even with an incomplete name, the character “dragon” was enough to confirm her guess.

Maybe because it had now been activated, she could see the full name clearly, with an “Activated” prefix in front.

Su You knew what “activation” meant. Some special materials needed to be activated in certain ways, or they wouldn’t display their true properties.

In an unactivated state, even equipment made from the best materials would be no different from ordinary gear.

Activated equipment could also be sealed again in certain ways… While she was thinking about this, Duoya had already walked up to her.

“I tried it. I believe you, but I don’t know why you’re doing this.” Duoya wasn’t one for beating around the bush, as her previous way of speaking had already shown.

She hadn’t believed Su You at first, but maybe because Su You seemed so genuine—and also, she couldn’t find any reason why Su You would lie to her.

So she took the broken bow to the creek.

The result was obvious: she saw with her own eyes as the bow in her hands changed from ordinary black ebony, its dark sheen fading, the whole thing turning a fiery red.

Not only that, the smooth surface she’d carefully maintained now showed scale-like patterns.

If she hadn’t seen it herself, Duoya would never have believed it.

Combining this with what Su You had said, Duoya suspected the patterns were dragon scales… The very fact she was thinking this way meant she had started to trust Su You, using the information Su You provided as a basis for her own deductions.

So she came over—partly to apologize for her earlier attitude, and partly because she wanted to know why.

Why did Su You tell her about the material for free, yet act like she didn’t want her to go on an adventure?

“Since you now believe it’s dragonbone, you should also know there’s no way you could get this material yourself… right?” Su You happened to be a bit tired, so she put away her axe, gathered up the wood on the ground, and talked to her.

“My goal is simple… You can see for yourself, this is a brand new territory, and I’m the lord here. At the start, every territory lacks everything—especially people.” Not only did Duoya dislike beating around the bush, Su You didn’t like it either.

If revealing her intentions too soon would make Duoya leave, or make everything she said after less believable…

If Duoya knew from the start that Su You wanted her to join, she’d definitely think Su You was exaggerating about the bow’s material just to make her give up.

In that case, Duoya wouldn’t have done the experiment.

But if Su You used the dragonbone information to earn her trust, then she could propose a deal.

That’s right—a deal.

“You’re an excellent archer, and the territory needs combat power in its early days. Here’s my offer: I can help you gather dragonbone material, and I can also help you find someone to repair your bow.”

“Of course, I have to be clear—it’ll take some time. It’s not something I can do in ten days or half a month.”

Maybe because Su You had earned a lot of goodwill by telling her about the material, Duoya didn’t yet have a clear answer about whether she’d stay, but she didn’t doubt Su You’s honesty.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Go ahead.” Su You had said all she needed to say, and didn’t try to persuade her further. Duoya was clearly not someone who could be easily talked into something.

If she wanted to stay, she would. If not, she wouldn’t."

"38. Wild Boar

“Oh, by the way, there’s some roast meat by the fire in the center of the settlement. If you need it, help yourself.” Su You wasn’t particularly picky about food—as long as it wasn’t some truly inedible abomination, and as long as it filled her up, she’d eat pretty much anything.

As for this berry-glazed roast, she didn’t plan to eat it herself. She intended to use it to build goodwill, or as a trade item.

Maybe because she already knew Su You’s goal was to keep her around, Duoya didn’t read too much into Su You’s gestures of goodwill, but she wasn’t about to accept them easily either.

After all, Su You had already done her a favor by letting her stay for a day. Regardless of whether Su You had other motives, that didn’t change the fact that she’d helped her.

But just as Duoya was about to refuse, she heard Su You speak again: “If you don’t want to owe me a favor, could you help me catch some small animals? I only need the hides. I can cook the meat for you for free—so even if you decide to leave tomorrow to look for materials, you’ll have something to eat on the road.”

Duoya: “……”

Duoya: “…Alright. Thank you.”

Duoya’s initial refusal was simply because she didn’t want to owe anyone, but since Su You put it that way, she had no reason to refuse anymore—especially since she really was a bit hungry.

She’d originally planned to go hunting in the forest after talking with Su You, or at least look for something to eat… Thinking of this, Duoya subconsciously touched the bow and arrows on her back, then walked over to the fire in the center of the settlement and took the berry-glazed roast.

Besides the roast, she also spotted a cup of water by the fire.

She hesitated for a moment, then sat down and slowly filled her stomach with water and roast meat.

After finishing, she took the empty wooden cup to the stream to rinse it, then put it back in its original place.

After that, she slung her bow and arrows over her shoulder and headed into the forest.

Watching Duoya’s figure gradually disappear among the trees, Su You, now rested, picked up her axe and went back to chopping wood.

……

……

By noon, Su You let out a breath, packed up the third batch of wood she’d chopped, and headed back to her territory.

Although there were trees everywhere nearby, for various reasons, Su You wanted to preserve the ones closest to her territory, so she’d gone a bit farther out to chop.

But this was a forest, after all—no matter how far she went, she was still surrounded by trees.

It took Su You three minutes to return. But before she even stepped into her territory, the scene inside made her freeze in shock.

Her previously empty territory was now covered with animal carcasses, big and small. Besides the rabbits she’d caught before, there were several roe deer, a fire-feathered chicken, a deer…

And even a wild boar!

Su You: “???”

Staring at the wild boar, Su You’s eyes filled with astonishment.

Anyone who knew about wild boars knew how formidable they were… and in the game, their combat power was nothing to scoff at either.

Frankly, Su You couldn’t even imagine how Duoya had managed to kill a wild boar.

When Duoya saw Su You return, she paused in her work of processing the animals. She seemed about to say something, but when she noticed Su You’s gaze fixed on the wild boar, she frowned slightly.

“Lord Su, you don’t know where this wild boar came from either?” The amount of information in Duoya’s question was enough to throw Su You’s thoughts into confusion for a moment.

What did she mean by “you don’t know where the wild boar came from either”…? Didn’t Duoya kill it?

Su You realized she might have misunderstood something.

She sat down beside Duoya and shook her head slightly. “No idea. I was out chopping wood all morning.”

Thinking about it, she felt a bit lucky she’d been out.

If that wild boar had been alive, Su You definitely wouldn’t have been able to handle it. It was even more troublesome than the Fire Demon Lord.

Duoya had already guessed the answer when she saw Su You’s shocked expression, but hearing Su You confirm it, her frown deepened.

“If it wasn’t us, then could it be…” Duoya glanced at the tightly shut tavern door, but left her sentence unfinished.

There were only three people here. If it wasn’t Su You or herself, the only other possibility was Dolly… but Duoya didn’t think Dolly had the strength to kill a wild boar.

So… was there a fourth possibility?

“I suspect there’s something…” Again, she trailed off, looking at the rabbit she’d already skinned and suddenly standing up.

“Consider these the payment for letting me stay tonight.” As she spoke, Duoya placed several processed animals, large and small, in front of Su You.

“I’m going to check the area.” What she’d left unsaid was that she suspected there was a large creature nearby, and that the wild boar had probably been killed by this mysterious animal.

As for why the wild boar’s corpse had ended up here, that was anyone’s guess.

If there really was a large creature, it would have left obvious traces, so Duoya needed to investigate.

Whether for her own safety or for other reasons, she had to figure out what was going on.

But just as she was about to leave, Su You stopped her.

“No matter what kind of creature it is, the territory itself is absolutely safe.” But if she left, there was no telling what might happen.

Every territory, once established, had a three-day protection period. During this time, the territory was invincible—not even a wild boar, or even a dragon, could harm it in any way.

But only Su You knew about this; Duoya obviously had no idea such a “protection period” existed.

“Does Lord Su know what’s going on?” Duoya’s gaze changed as Su You blocked her path.

She looked Su You up and down again, but aside from the fact that Su You’s shoes had changed from straw sandals to fur boots, she was the same as before.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I do know the territory is absolutely safe.” Su You’s expression didn’t waver under Duoya’s scrutiny.

Whether Duoya believed her or not, she didn’t try to leave again.

She glanced at the wild boar and asked, “What do you plan to do with it, Lord Su?”

Seeing that Duoya wasn’t planning to leave anymore, Su You sat down and started sorting through the animal drops—storing what needed to be stored, preparing what needed to be cooked, and setting aside Duoya’s share.

But after hearing Duoya’s question, she realized she should probably deal with the wild boar first, so she walked over and began examining it from top to bottom."

"39. Building a Residential House

“Throw it… hmm? What’s this…?”

After confirming that the wild boar was dead, Su You was planning to ask Duoya to help her toss the boar outside. After all, it was another creature’s trophy, and it wasn’t appropriate to leave it here—nor would it be right for her to just claim it for herself.

But as she was inspecting the wild boar, Su You discovered something pressed underneath its body.

She dragged the boar a few steps to the side, revealing the object in full—a rather worn-looking wooden cup.

Duoya noticed Su You’s actions and glanced over as well, so she also saw the wooden cup lying on the ground.

“Did it steal this?” That was the only explanation Duoya could think of.

Otherwise, she couldn’t understand why a wild boar—or any clearly non-human creature—would have a wooden cup, something only humans would make.

Besides, Duoya had just used a wooden cup Su You made to drink water, so she immediately recognized that although this cup was a bit old and dirty, it was almost identical to the one she’d used earlier.

Su You stared at the cup for a few seconds, then seemed to realize something.

“It’s fine… Let’s just keep the wild boar. Could you help me process it? As payment, you can take some of the meat for yourself, and I can help you prepare it later.” Su You had other things to do and didn’t have time to deal with such a large boar, nor did she really know how to process it.

Duoya, on the other hand, had followed her hunter father for over a decade and was used to this sort of thing. She was definitely more skilled and faster at it than Su You.

From Su You’s reaction, Duoya sensed she might know something, but she didn’t ask further. She simply walked over to the boar.

“I can help you butcher it, but I won’t take any meat. I’ve got plenty of my own, and I can’t carry too much anyway.” Duoya didn’t refuse; after all, she was free at the moment. “Do you have a knife? My hunting knife isn’t in great shape.”

When Su You heard she had a hunting knife, she put away the stone knife she’d taken out and instead pulled a whetstone from her backpack.

“I only have a stone knife, but here’s a whetstone. No need to return it—you can keep it.”

Duoya didn’t stand on ceremony. She took the whetstone, pulled out her hunting knife, and started sharpening it.

Once her knife was sharp (full durability), Duoya tucked the whetstone away for herself.

With a sharp knife, butchering the wild boar was a breeze for Duoya. Su You watched for a moment, then turned away to get on with her own tasks.

She’d spent the whole morning chopping wood. Although she’d taken plenty of breaks, she’d finally gathered enough materials to build a residential house.

She took out all the processed wood blocks from both her basic and portable workbenches and further refined them into planks.

Once both workbenches were busy, Su You began sorting through the things Duoya had brought back.

[Obtained Small Meat x20]

[Obtained Small Meat x10]

[Obtained Large Meat x5]

…

Looking at the piles of meat on the ground, Su You paused for a moment, then quickly stored them in a chest to prevent them from spoiling faster by being left out.

Besides the meat, there were plenty of other animal drops.

[Obtained Rabbit Fur x20]

[Obtained Chicken Feather x10]

[Obtained Deer Antler x2]

[Obtained Deer Blood x5]

[Obtained Animal Hide x12]

Of all these materials, the most valuable were undoubtedly the two deer antlers.

After all, they were top-tier healing items!

Unfortunately, Su You didn’t have any good supplementary materials to pair with the antlers. Processing such rare materials without proper ingredients would be a waste.

She decided to store the antlers for now and planned to search the forest for suitable herbs later that afternoon.

Besides that, the deer blood was also a great ingredient. Not only did it restore a lot of hunger, but it also provided a strength-boosting buff.

But no matter how good these materials were, they were useless for now. Su You didn’t have the right supplementary ingredients for cooking or alchemy, nor did she have the necessary tools.

For example, she needed an alchemy furnace for potion-making, or a cooking pot for boiling deer blood… The antlers were fine, since they didn’t spoil here and could be kept indefinitely.

But deer blood was different—it would go bad in about five days.

As she sorted through everything, Su You pondered how to deal with it all. By the time she finished, the wood blocks she’d put in the workbenches had all been processed into planks.

She dusted off her hands and carried the planks over to the side of the tavern.

[Consume Plank x10 to build a Residential House?]

Su You lined up the residential house with the tavern and confirmed the build.

[Building Residential House. Estimated time: 120 minutes.]

Two hours—this was the longest any building or crafting had taken Su You so far.

But really, it wasn’t much. After all, the residential house was just a basic structure. Later on, even the simplest buildings would take three to five hours, some over ten, and a few special buildings could take several days.

Maybe it was the noise from starting construction, but just a few minutes later, the tavern door opened from inside.

“Miss Lord, I feel great right now. Is there anything you need me to do?” Dolly came over to Su You, looking serious.

Su You thought for a moment, then handed her the stone knife.

“We just got a batch of animal hides. I want to make some clothes, but I’ll need some thread. Could you help me gather some fibers?”

“No problem.” Dolly nodded and prepared to head off with the stone knife to the spot where Su You had previously collected fiber scraps.

But she’d barely taken two steps before Su You called her back.

“Oh, by the way, I’ve gathered all the materials for the residential house, so you’ll be able to move in today.” Su You pointed to the house, then continued, “You just woke up, so go eat something first. You can collect fibers later… By the way, do you know how to cook?”

Since Dolly hadn’t joined the territory yet, and the house wasn’t finished, Su You couldn’t see her info in the “Join Territory” menu, so she could only ask directly.

At the mention of cooking, Dolly looked a bit embarrassed and shook her head.

“Sorry, I can’t cook…” That was putting it mildly—she’d managed to burn meat to charcoal more than once, as unbelievable as it sounded.

Whenever she touched ingredients, none of them ended up edible."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

40. Boar Tusks

Even though she put her heart into cooking every time, the results were always less than satisfactory...

So, to avoid wasting food, cooking duties within the caravan were completely taken away from her.

Seeing Dolly’s odd expression, Su You realized that when she said she “couldn’t” cook, it probably wasn’t as simple as just not knowing how.

“It’s fine. From now on, I’ll just prepare the food and leave it by the central fire. You can help yourself whenever you need it... Boiling water shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

Su You could handle the cooking—after all, for her, cooking was just a matter of tossing ingredients onto the right workbench.

But water was another story. The daily consumption was quite high, especially with more people around.

Most importantly, water needed cups as containers, and Su You didn’t have time to make too many cups for now... at least not yet.

“No problem!” Dolly nodded quickly.

Boiling water was about as simple as it got—it didn’t even really count as cooking.

She might have the impressive ability to turn meat into charcoal, but no matter how talented she was, there was no way she could burn water into a cinder.

Su You nodded and motioned for her to go about her business. Dolly went to fetch the roast meat Su You had just prepared, and after eating, she grabbed a stone knife and headed out to collect fiber.

“The boar’s been dealt with.” As soon as Dolly left, Doya walked over.

“Thanks.” Su You looked at the pile of loot on the ground, ready to start sorting. Halfway through, she suddenly spotted something.

[Boar Tusk]

Category: Material

Quality: Blue

Attributes: Sharp (25%), Durable (50%)

Description: Sharp and sturdy boar tusks, can be used as material for crafting equipment and items. Crafted products have a chance to gain Sharp and Durable attributes.

Sharp: Increases attack power of the finished product.

Durable: Increases defense and durability of the finished product.

...

Su You’s eyes lit up. As she sorted the remaining materials into the storage box, her gaze swept over the items, searching for a second boar tusk.

“Just as I thought, there are two.” Boar tusks usually come in pairs—if you find one, there’s almost always a second.

Of course, there’s a small chance otherwise—maybe the boar only had one tusk, or perhaps the other was damaged during collection, like that tattered animal hide Su You found earlier.

But given how tough boar tusks are, the second scenario is pretty unlikely.

With these boar tusks, Su You could craft a beast tooth dagger with attack power and efficiency on par with iron tools.

But making a beast tooth dagger wasn’t easy. To craft it, she’d need an intermediate workbench, which required quite a lot of stone... about sixty pieces of rubble.

The intermediate workbench needed [Plank x5, Stone Brick x5], and each stone brick = 4 stone = 12 rubble.

According to Su You’s plan, she’d head out tomorrow to look for a stone quarry.

The local quarry was just that—a quarry. It was mostly stone, with only a slim chance of finding ore or ore scraps.

Although ore was rare, the quarry was relatively safe.

At least, safer than a mine.

Still, to be on the safe side, Su You needed to use the animal hides to craft herself a set of gear. That way, her defense would be higher, and she wouldn’t lose too much health if she got attacked by something she couldn’t dodge.

Besides that, she also needed a map.

A map would show everywhere she’d been, and display her current location.

Since her activity range was still pretty small, she could get familiar with the area just by walking around a few times, even without a map.

But if she was going to look for a quarry, that was a whole different distance.

Su You wasn’t bad with directions, but just in case, a map was still necessary.

The materials for a map were simple: [Paper x5, Charcoal x5].

Paper was made from bark—2 bark = 1 paper, so 10 bark = 5 paper. She’d already collected bark when chopping trees that morning.

As for charcoal, that was even easier—she still had over ninety pieces left from the ninety-nine dropped by the Fire Demon leader.

So besides the map and gear, Su You also needed a signpost to mark locations on the map, and some food...

...

As she finished sorting the boar loot, Su You had already mapped out her plans for tomorrow and what she needed to prepare today.

Dolly was still out gathering fiber, while Doya, with nothing else to do, had taken out the broken bow and a clean cloth and was now cleaning the bow.

After sorting the boar drops, Su You started turning all the meat into jerky or roast.

Small Jerky (uses: Small Meat x1): Hunger +20, keeps for three months.

Large Jerky (uses: Large Meat x1): Hunger +50, keeps for three months.

Berry Roast (uses: Small Meat x1, Berries x2, Leaves x3): Hunger +50, keeps for five days.

Deluxe Roast (uses: Large Meat x1, Berries x3, Leaves x5): Hunger +100, keeps for five days.

These four recipes were the most common, practical, and easiest to gather ingredients for in the early stages. Su You divided everything up accordingly, and set up a separate campfire for cooking.

With two cooking workbenches, food production efficiency shot up.

While waiting for the food to cook, Su You opened the territory information panel... Come to think of it, it had been almost a day since she established her territory, and she hadn’t even checked her territory info yet.

[Unnamed Territory]

Lord: Su You

Territory Level: Small Camp (Can be upgraded to Intermediate Camp when population reaches 5 and Prosperity reaches 20)

Territory Prosperity: 1 (A value representing the prosperity of the territory, mainly affected by population, resident status, building level and quantity, etc.)

Territory Reputation: 0 (Represents the territory’s fame on the continent; the higher the reputation, the more people will be drawn to it)

Territory Population: 1/1 (Current population/maximum capacity; capacity can be increased by building more housing)

Territory Aura: Initial Protection

Territory Events:

I: [A dark force seems to be quietly approaching...]

II: [Some wanderers are searching for a suitable place to settle...]

...

The territory info panel was large and detailed, but basically the same as before. Even if there were differences, they were for features not yet unlocked."

"41. Fate Events

Since this section was still locked, Su You couldn’t see it, so she didn’t plan to explore it in advance.

This information panel, from top to bottom, starts with the name... After creating her territory earlier, Su You had gotten distracted by the building cards and completely forgot about this.

But it didn’t really matter—naming the territory wasn’t that important. Whether you had a name or not was up to personal preference.

Su You herself didn’t care much about territory names, so she simply reused the name from her previous territory—Sunset.

That’s right, her previous territory was also called Sunset Territory.

There wasn’t any special reason for the name; she was just too lazy to come up with something new, so she used the name of the Sunset Continent and changed her territory’s name to Sunset as well.

[Confirm changing territory name to ‘Sunset Territory’?]

[Kind Reminder: The territory name can only be changed once. Please choose carefully.]

After checking that the name was correct, Su You confirmed the change.

[Territory name has been changed. Relevant information has been updated.]

Just like when she upgraded her backpack, the backpack interface closed during the upgrade. After changing the territory name, the territory interface also closed.

When Su You opened it again, the panel now displayed [Sunset Territory].

As for the other information, aside from the territory reputation increasing from ‘0’ to ‘1’, nothing else had changed.

“You actually get a bit of reputation just for changing the name?” Su You hadn’t noticed this before, because she never realized you could name your territory. By the time she discovered the renaming feature, her territory had already been upgraded to a ‘Large Village’.

At that point, her territory reputation was already in the hundreds, so such a minor change was impossible to notice unless she was specifically looking for it.

Next was the territory level.

There are six levels of territory: Camp, Village, Town, Township, City, and Capital.

Each level is divided into several stages. For example, Camp is split into Small Camp, Medium Camp, and Large Camp. Once you reach Large Camp, you can upgrade to Village, and so on.

Her previous main account had successfully upgraded the territory all the way to ‘Capital’.

She’d even heard rumors that there was a level above Capital, but she never saw the seventh level before the game company shut down.

Su You didn’t know if this data-driven world had designed that final level... but that was something to worry about later, not now.

Aside from these, the other information on this interface was also quite important.

For example, Territory Prosperity and Territory Reputation—one is a key value for upgrading the territory, the other represents the territory’s fame on the continent and affects the quality of NPCs.

The higher your reputation, the more powerful NPCs will be attracted to your territory on their own, without needing to be recruited...

Territory population is self-explanatory—right now, it’s just Su You herself.

Then there’s the Territory Aura and Territory Events. The former displays the ‘Initial Protection’ aura Su You mentioned earlier, which lasts for three days. During these three days, the territory is invincible.

Finally, there are Territory Events, also called ‘Fate Events’. These refresh from time to time to inform the player about possible upcoming events.

For example, the first one:

I: [A dark force seems to be quietly approaching...]—this refers to the dark creatures’ attack on day ten.

The second one:

II: [Some wanderers are searching for a place to settle down...]—this is a random event that appears after building the bulletin board. When this event is present, it means wandering NPCs will soon arrive at the territory.

The ‘Wanderers’ event appears randomly and lasts for an uncertain amount of time. Once all the NPCs triggered by this event have arrived (regardless of whether they join), the event disappears.

After it disappears, it will reappear again after a while.

Seeing that Event II hadn’t disappeared yet, Su You knew that at least one more NPC would arrive today or tomorrow... This was just based on experience—there was no fixed pattern.

...

After checking the territory information, Su You opened the building list. She casually flipped through it, marked a few buildings, and began preparing materials for one of them.

The three buildings she needed most right now were: Basic Farmland, Quest Hall, and Warehouse.

[Basic Farmland]

Cost: Wooden Fence*10, Fence Gate*2, Ash*20

Required Tool: Shovel

Construction Time: 120 minutes

Building Condition: Must be built on loose soil

Description: A plot of land for growing plants. Due to limited conditions, only low-level crops can be planted.

[Quest Hall]

Cost: Wooden Plank*10, Marble Brick*5, Stone Brick*5

Required Tool: None

Construction Time: 300 minutes

Building Condition: Must first build a Bounty Board

Description: A place to accept or post quests. After merging with the Bounty Board, you can activate Regional Bounties (meaning all factions within a certain range can see your posted bounties—the higher your reputation, the wider the range and the higher the response rate).

...

These two buildings are essential in the early stages because they are key to a territory’s development and prosperity.

Take farmland, for example.

Farmland is one of the few buildings that can continuously generate prosperity.

Other buildings increase prosperity by a fixed amount when constructed, but farmland’s prosperity is calculated based on its output.

In other words, as long as you can keep planting and harvesting, prosperity will steadily rise with each harvest.

Although the increase isn’t huge, it’s the most stable way to boost prosperity.

If you want to increase prosperity through buildings and population, it takes a lot of materials and time, since no building is free.

Gathering materials takes time, and construction takes time. Compared to that, farmland is much more stable and effortless.

After all, once you’ve planted your crops, you don’t need to do much—just water and weed occasionally... That’s much easier than collecting building materials.

Then there’s the Quest Hall. Its main function isn’t to accept or post quests, but to enable Regional Bounties.

If you only need the first two functions, the Bounty Board is enough—you don’t need to spend extra materials to build a Quest Hall.

Regional Bounties basically mean you can use the Quest Hall as a kind of ‘networked’ platform."

"42. New Labor

When Su You posted a bounty, it wasn’t just visible to people in her own territory—anyone from other territories or factions could see it too, as long as they had a Construction Task Hall. In the absence of a post station, the Task Hall served as a sort of substitute. The downside, however, was that with low reputation early on, even if you posted a bounty, no one would see it.

Or, even if someone did see it, your reputation was so low that people wouldn’t trust you. They’d worry that they wouldn’t get what was promised, so they wouldn’t bother coming.

Still, despite its flaws, the Task Hall was a necessary building. After all, Su You remembered she still had an unclaimed reward waiting for her there.

As for the third building, the warehouse, there was no need to explain. With Duoya’s latest haul of game and the sudden appearance of wild boars, the space in Su You’s two wooden crates was almost gone. Building a warehouse had become a necessity.

Although Su You didn’t have enough materials to build the Task Hall or warehouse just yet, she had no problem setting up a few fields.

According to her plan, she intended to build four fields for now. All four would be located a short distance from the territory’s entrance, near a small stream, making watering much more convenient.

Building four fields would use up 40 wooden fences, 8 fence gates, and 80 units of ash. Aside from the ash, all the other materials needed to be crafted. Fortunately, Su You had enough raw materials, so all she needed to do was make another basic workbench to split up the workload and speed up efficiency.

Fields were considered semi-manual construction, so while the materials were being prepared, Su You grabbed a shovel and headed to the designated area to start turning the soil.

She had to dig up the entire area from end to end, as only then would it meet the standards for building farmland.

She thought it would take her the whole afternoon, but to her surprise, the labor force she’d been hoping for arrived much sooner than expected.

……

……

“Hello, the two of us are forest explorers. We ran into some trouble during our expedition… We were hoping we could stay here for a while. Here’s our lodging fee.” The disheveled young man pulled a coin pouch from his belongings and handed it to Su You.

She glanced inside—fifteen copper coins in total.

“We’ve lost most of our possessions. This is all we have left… If needed, we’re willing to work in exchange for a place to stay,” the other young man explained a bit awkwardly.

They knew what they were offering was far too little, but it was all they had. If they weren’t truly desperate, they wouldn’t have come to this.

Their biggest worry was that Su You would turn them away. After all, as forest explorers, they knew better than anyone how dangerous the forest could be at night.

Fortunately, Su You’s attitude wasn’t as harsh as they’d feared—there was room for negotiation.

“You can see for yourselves, conditions here are limited. If you want to stay, I can only guarantee your safety.” In other words, they could stay, but they’d have to figure out their own food and lodging.

Her answer was already better than the two had expected.

Out here in the wilderness, just having a place to rest was already a blessing. They weren’t expecting good food or comfortable beds… They just wanted to survive, not live in luxury.

So, as if afraid Su You would change her mind, both nodded eagerly.

“Thank you, thank you… You must be the lord here, right? If there’s anything you need help with, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

Su You could tell from their behavior that they weren’t faking it, and she was fairly satisfied, though she didn’t show it.

“I’ll take your money. You can stay here for two days. After that, it’s ten copper coins per day.” At these words, the two men’s faces showed obvious distress.

They’d already said this was all they had. If she wanted more money, they really didn’t have any.

But Su You’s next words put them at ease.

After noting their expressions, Su You pointed to the bounty board and added, “I know you don’t have any money right now, but as long as you’re willing to work, you can earn money by completing tasks.”

At a rate of ten copper coins per person per day, the two of them would need twenty copper coins a day—forty for two days. The fifteen coins they’d given wouldn’t even cover a single day.

Still, whether it was to build goodwill or to avoid pushing them too hard, Su You gave them two days’ grace.

After all, she didn’t just want them to stay temporarily—she hoped they’d join the territory for good.

She could afford to be a little lenient, but only a little. She couldn’t support two people for free, so payment was still required. If they didn’t have money, labor would do. They’d already said they were willing to work.

Two days should be enough for them to earn their keep, as long as they weren’t lazy.

And these two days weren’t just for them to earn money—they were also Su You’s chance to observe them.

She didn’t know them well yet and couldn’t decide whether to keep them on. Plus, the territory’s population cap was limited, so she could wait until after two days to make a decision.

“As for food, if you really can’t find any, you can buy it from me.”

With the wild boar and the pile of game Duoya had brought in, plus the fields Su You was preparing, the territory had plenty of food—certainly enough for two more people.

“Thank you, thank you, my lord… Oh, right, we forgot to introduce ourselves. I’m Lyle, and this is my brother Lake. If there’s nothing else, we’ll go take a look around.”

Su You nodded slightly to show she understood. Before the brothers reached the bounty board, she posted several tasks:

[Build Farmland]

Posted by: Lord

Task: Use a shovel to turn the soil within the designated area (0/4)

Reward: 10 copper coins

[Collect Stones] (Repeatable)

Posted by: Lord

Task: Submit stones (0/1)

Reward: 1 copper coin

[Collect Branches] (Repeatable)

Posted by: Lord

Task: Submit branches (0/20)

Reward: 1 copper coin"

"43. Nature’s Gift

[Collect Wood] (Repeatable)

Posted by: Lord

Quest Objective: Submit wood (0/5)

Quest Reward: Copper Coin x1

……

Aside from the very first quest, which can only be accepted once, all the other quests are repeatable. As long as you have the required items, you can keep turning them in.

Unless Su You manually withdraws a quest, or the rewards she’s stored for it on the bounty board run out, the quest will disappear automatically.

Even though Su You wasn’t standing by the bounty board, she still received notifications when the brothers Lyle and Lake accepted quests.

[Notification: Wanderer Lyle has accepted the quest ‘Build Farmland’.]

[Notification: Wanderer Lake has accepted the quest ‘Collect Wood’.]

[Please place the corresponding tools in the linked storage building and wait for the quest taker to pick them up.]

Since the two wooden chests she had weren’t enough, Su You used some wood to craft another one, placing it next to the bounty board. Inside, she put not only the tools needed for the quests, but also the quest rewards.

Within the territory, NPCs can only use buildings if Su You grants them permission—whether it’s using the hearth to cook, opening the fence gate, entering the tavern, or opening a chest.

So she didn’t have to worry about anyone stealing or causing trouble.

Plus, this third chest was now linked to the bounty board, so the tools and rewards inside would automatically unlock for whoever accepted or completed the quest.

On top of that, when NPCs finished collecting resources and turned them in, the system would automatically store their submissions in this chest, greatly reducing Su You’s workload.

……

Lyle, who had accepted the farmland-building quest, was now heading to the spot where Su You had previously been turning the soil, shovel in hand, ready to take over. Maybe because he was an adventurer, he worked quickly and efficiently—what took Su You ten minutes, he could finish in about half the time.

Lake, after accepting the wood-collecting quest and picking up an axe, chatted briefly with Lyle before leaving the territory with the tool.

But perhaps out of concern for wild beasts, he didn’t go too far. Even though Su You couldn’t see him, she could still hear the sound of his axe striking trees.

To prevent the axe from breaking and disappearing due to durability loss while the NPCs used it, Su You had also stocked the chest with plenty of whetstones.

With these, whenever a tool’s durability dropped to its last point, it would automatically consume a whetstone from the chest to repair itself.

With everything prepared and the two working diligently, Su You suddenly found herself with much less to do.

With no more physical labor required, Lord Su glanced at the growing pile of fiber scraps in the chest, momentarily surprised, then took them all out.

First, she crafted some rope, then combined it with animal hides to make leather jackets and pants.

While she was working, Dolly returned with another batch of fiber scraps.

“All right, this is enough fiber. You can take a break now.” Now that Dolly was back, Su You handed over the rope-making and leatherworking tasks to her, while she herself picked up a stone knife and started making wooden cups.

She made seven in a row, and with the three she’d made earlier, she now had ten and stopped.

“I’m heading out for a bit. Keep an eye on them for me, will you?” By “them,” Su You naturally meant Lyle and Lake.

Although she didn’t fully trust Dolly either, since she hadn’t officially joined the territory, Su You still trusted her more than the two brothers.

Hearing this, Dolly looked a little worried and seemed like she wanted to say something, but in the end, she just nodded.

“Okay, my lord. Be careful.”

“Oh, and take these.” Su You handed Dolly the wooden cups she’d just made. “Boil some water and keep it ready. Don’t drink unboiled water—it’s not safe.”

“I’ll get right on it.” Dolly nodded and took the cups to the stream.

Watching her fetch water, Su You took out a pile of roasted berries she’d prepared earlier from the chest, along with several large portions of berry-roasted meat.

If Doya were here, she’d notice that the amount of meat Su You was taking was nearly two-thirds of what that wild boar had yielded.

It was only because this was a digital world and Su You had an inventory system that she could carry a hundred or two hundred pounds of meat by herself. Otherwise, it would have been impossible.

Even if she could carry it, it wouldn’t be safe.

But with an inventory, she didn’t have to worry.

Su You packed all the food into her bag, grabbed her pickaxe and stone knife, and left the base.

……

……

“Looks like this is the ‘crime scene’ where the wild boar died.” Su You once again arrived at the stone monster spawn point.

In just half a day, the place had become a mess. The surrounding trees bore clear marks of a wild animal crashing through, and there were even bloodstains at the spot where she’d previously mined sandstone.

Based on her earlier suspicions, the wooden cup was the one she’d filled with berry juice and left for the mysterious creature that traded food for stones with her. Ruling out a series of highly unlikely coincidences, Su You had every reason to believe this was the same cup.

If that was the case, then the wild boar was probably killed by that mysterious creature too.

It killed the boar and delivered it to her territory... She wasn’t sure if it was just passing by by chance, or if it had been secretly following her, spying on her and discovering the location of her territory in the process.

Either way, when it came to “gifts from nature,” Su You always made a point to reciprocate—which was why she’d brought so much food here.

Never mind giving away two-thirds of the meat—even if she gave it all, she wouldn’t be at a loss, since it was a windfall anyway. Besides, the most valuable part of the boar was actually its tusks.

Not to mention, such a large wild boar had also provided Su You with a good amount of leather.

Since she didn’t know where the mysterious creature lived, Su You came to this old spot. Now that she’d found traces of the boar’s death here, she had every reason to believe this was a place the creature frequented.

So, Su You took out all the roasted meat and berries she’d brought and laid them out at the usual spot."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

44. Is There a Mine?

After finishing everything, Su You didn’t leave right away. Instead, she took out her stone knife and started gathering plants nearby to prepare for planting.

Having just farmland wasn’t enough to grow anything—she still needed seeds, and those had to be collected as well.

In the Sunset Continent, seeds are obtained by processing a whole plant or its fruit.

For example, with fiber plants, Su You had to dig up an entire fiber plant, roots and all, from the soil. Then she could throw it onto the workbench and process it into [Fiber Plant Seeds].

Or take red berries, which grow on bushes. Since it’s impossible to dig up an entire berry bush and toss it onto the workbench, the way to get seeds for these is by processing the fruit itself—in other words, processing the red berries.

Besides fiber plants, Su You also planned to collect other plants to make into seeds for planting, like cotton plants, red grass… or even some special plants.

Cotton didn’t need much explanation—it was a familiar and common plant in the forest. Su You hadn’t collected it before just because processing it was a bit of a hassle.

She needed cotton for daily necessities, whether for clothes, bedding, or other things.

Red grass, on the other hand, was a common medicinal herb in the forest.

Boiling red grass with water would yield a bottle of the most basic ‘Low-Grade Healing Potion,’ which restored 10 HP.

Although the amount healed was small, the potion was easy to make and the ingredients were easy to find, making it a popular item for people to stockpile early on.

Since the fiber and berry bushes near her territory were close together, if Su You dug up the fiber plants there for seeds, it would be like robbing Peter to pay Paul. So she didn’t plan to gather plants from right around her territory for planting.

Coincidentally, she needed to go out to deliver some meat, so she could collect seeds along the way… and maybe even unlock part of the map.

That’s right—Su You had already made a map, and at this moment she was wandering around the stone monster spawn point with it in hand.

As she walked, if she spotted red grass or any other valuable plant, she’d stop to collect it. Once she was done, she’d pull out her map and continue exploring.

The map only recorded the path she took while carrying it, so areas she’d visited before remained shrouded in darkness until she went there again with the map to unlock those locations.

She didn’t know how much time had passed, but by the time her backpack was stuffed with all sorts of miscellaneous plants, she was down to her last marker.

Marker: When carrying the map, place it on the ground to leave a mark on the map. You can also name it.

If it were just Su You alone, she wouldn’t need markers—after so much gameplay, she had developed her own way of memorizing the terrain.

But maps and markers were special, shareable items. That meant once she finished mapping and marking the area, any maps she made from then on would be complete and marked.

This way, she could give the map to other NPCs, so they wouldn’t get lost, and she herself could venture further from her territory to gather resources.

Without a map, she’d have to personally lead them to their destinations… which would be a huge hassle, especially if any of them had a terrible sense of direction.

…

Because she was gathering resources while exploring, Su You’s efficiency wasn’t great. From bright sunshine to dusk, she’d only managed to unlock an area about the size of a fingernail on the map.

Normally, she would have headed back by now. But as she unlocked the last area, she noticed something familiar about the terrain and environment…

“Sloping hills, broadleaf trees… Is there a mine nearby?!” Su You had only planned to scout out the map—if she found a stone quarry, great; if not, no big deal. She had all of tomorrow to keep exploring.

But she hadn’t expected that, while she didn’t find a stone quarry as she’d hoped, she did stumble upon an area that was almost guaranteed—a 99% chance—to spawn a mine.

Sloping hills were a type of terrain that looked flat, but the whole surface was actually slanted, indicating nearby mountains. Just having sloping hills wasn’t anything special—mountains weren’t exactly rare.

But if you also spotted broadleaf trees near sloping hills, that was a different story.

Broadleaf trees almost always spawned near ore resource points. You could say that while not every ore resource point had broadleaf trees, every broadleaf tree meant there was an ore resource point nearby.

There were generally three types of ore resource points.

The first was a quarry, where ore was exposed on the surface and could be dug up directly. These were easy to mine, but rarely had high-grade ores.

The second was a mine, where ore was buried inside a mountain. These had common ores and some rarer ones, with moderate mining difficulty.

The third was an underground vein—just as the name suggested, the ore was deep underground, with unknown depth. These were extremely hard to mine, but had a much higher chance of yielding high-grade ores.

The classic combination of sloping hills plus broadleaf trees almost always pointed to the second type—a mine: mountains and ores together. What else could it be?

Of course, there was a tiny chance it was just an ordinary rocky mountain with an underground ore vein. Honestly, if that were the case, it would be worse than nothing.

That’s because resource points in a given area are limited. If one spawns here, the chance of another spawning nearby is very low, or it might only appear far away.

And mining an underground vein beneath a rocky mountain was a real pain—you’d have to dig through an entire mountain just to reach it. No need to say how much work that would be.

Su You figured she probably wouldn’t be unlucky enough to run into such a rare scenario, and she certainly hoped she wouldn’t.

Having discovered an ore resource point, Su You’s plan to head straight home vanished—she wanted to check it out.

As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she was already heading toward the spot where, based on her experience, the mine should be.

She’d already calculated the time—she had at most twenty minutes to search for this ‘mine.’ Whether she found it or not, she’d have to head back to her territory immediately after that.

To avoid any unexpected delays, Su You even set aside ten minutes as a buffer. Otherwise, she’d actually have a full half hour to search for the mine.

---"

"45. Ghostly Skeletons

Twenty minutes passed quickly, and half the time was already gone, but Su You had already found what she was looking for.

Fortunately, the unlikely event she feared didn’t happen—just as she’d guessed, this was indeed a mine, not a mineral vein hidden beneath a mountain of stone.

However, there was also some bad news: near the mine, Su You spotted many monsters guarding it.

[Ghostly Skeleton]

HP: 100/100

Attack: 20

Defense: 10

Description: An undead monster whose body appears to be a transparent spirit, but is actually made of bones.

...

Just as the description said, the Ghostly Skeletons looked like transparent ghosts at first glance, but if you looked closely, you’d realize that beneath that “transparency” was actually a body made of bones.

Because these Ghostly Skeletons were naturally hard to spot due to their transparency—and with the sky darkening and little light around—if Su You didn’t look carefully, she wouldn’t see their bodies at all. All she could make out were their eerie, green-flamed eyes and their ghostly white skulls.

Since their bodies were nearly invisible, Su You’s perspective at this moment was especially terrifying—wherever she looked, she saw nothing but countless floating skulls suspended in midair...

Faced with this sudden shift from a survival/base-building/sandbox game to a horror/weird/combat game, even though Su You wasn’t afraid of these things and had gotten used to such sights before, she couldn’t help but get goosebumps when those skulls turned to look in her direction.

She glanced at the time, then took the last marker out of her backpack and placed it in a discreet spot nearby, so the monsters wouldn’t find it.

Although destroying the marker wouldn’t affect the map’s record, it would let the monsters know that an “outsider” had been here, making them more alert and potentially disrupting Su You’s future plans.

But she couldn’t just skip placing the marker, either.

Even though Su You had found the mine in just ten minutes, the whole area was full of broadleaf trees, with nothing distinctive to use as a landmark. Combined with the time of day and poor lighting, her visibility was limited, so it was best to leave a marker.

After hiding the last marker, Su You crouched low to make herself less noticeable, then quickly slipped away.

Although there were quite a few monsters near the mine, luckily, there weren’t any in the surrounding areas. At least, Su You didn’t run into any trouble on her way back and returned to her territory without incident.

On her way back, Su You even stopped by the stone monster’s place to check on the meat and berries she’d left behind. Everything was still there, untouched and unmoved.

She figured maybe the stone monster hadn’t come back yet, or perhaps it just wasn’t planning to show up today... Either way, after confirming the food was fine, Su You headed home.

...

...

As soon as she returned to her territory, Su You received a flurry of system notifications.

[Lyle has submitted the completed quest “Build Farmland.” Reward has been automatically distributed.]

[Lake has submitted the completed quest “Collect Wood.” Total completions: 5. Reward has been automatically distributed.]

[Lyle has submitted the completed quest “Collect Branches.” Total completions: 2. Reward has been automatically distributed.]

[Lake has submitted the completed quest “Collect Stones.” Total completions: 1. Reward has been automatically distributed.]

[Lyle has submitted the completed quest...]

[Lake has submitted the completed quest...]

...

There were so many notifications that Su You only skimmed a few before temporarily muting the rest.

In short, the soil for the farmland had been fully tilled and was ready for her to build on. In addition, the two brothers had collected 150 units of wood, 120 branches, and 4 stones for her.

In exchange, Su You paid out 10 copper coins (for building farmland) + 30 (collecting wood) + 6 (collecting branches) + 4 (collecting stones), for a total of 50 copper coins.

Originally, Su You had 136 copper coins and 6 silver coins, plus the 15 copper coins the brothers had given her later, making 151 copper coins in total.

She had placed those 151 copper coins and 1 silver coin in the wooden chest. At their current spending rate, this money would last several more days—assuming no new wanderers arrived.

However...

Su You checked the territory info panel and found that only the dark creature invasion event was left, meaning no new wanderers would be arriving anytime soon.

“Miss Lord!” Seeing Su You return, Dolly looked happy, though there was a hint of hesitation on her face.

She glanced at the two brothers resting by the central fire, then hurried over to Su You.

From her expression, Su You could tell she wanted to talk privately, so she stopped walking.

“Did those two do something?” Since Dolly wanted to avoid Lake and Lyle, Su You had every reason to suspect this was about them.

Dolly shook her head, then nodded slightly. “They didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just that not long ago, the two of them came to me with money, wanting to buy food.”

Previously, Su You had told them that if they couldn’t find food, they could buy it from her. But since Su You was out and Doya was nowhere to be found, after working for ages and getting hungry, the brothers turned to Dolly for help.

They brought the fruits of their labor, hoping to buy food from Dolly, since they could tell she had some authority in the territory.

But since Su You had “forgotten” to tell Dolly about this before leaving, Dolly didn’t know if she should give them food.

If she did... it didn’t seem right, since she hadn’t forgotten she herself was just “sheltering under someone else’s roof.” She wasn’t the owner here and didn’t have the right to distribute supplies.

She’d overheard the brothers’ earlier conversation with Su You: ten copper coins a night for lodging, food charged separately... By comparison, all Dolly had done was help repair a fur coat, and she got free room and board—a total windfall.

So Dolly didn’t dare make the decision on her own, and refused the brothers’ request the first time.

But later, when the brothers produced copper coins and explained that Su You had said they could buy food..."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

46. Test

Seeing how pitiful the two of them looked, Dolly’s heart softened a little. So after hesitating for a while, she took all their copper coins and gave each of them enough food to fill their stomachs.

“I know I shouldn’t have done this without your permission, but… anyway, I’m really sorry.” Having said this much, Dolly’s intentions were clear—she was here to explain what happened and apologize for her actions.

Although she didn’t think Su You would kick her out over this—things hadn’t reached that point, after all—she was still worried that Su You might develop a bad impression of her because of it.

It might sound a bit like “the bystander sees things more clearly,” but if you looked at things from a third-person perspective, you’d notice that the roles between Su You and Dolly—or rather, between the player and the NPC—had somehow reversed.

Normally, it should be Su You trying to gain favor with the NPCs, but now it was Dolly who was worried about “losing favor” with Su You.

But perhaps because Su You was directly involved, she didn’t notice anything strange—after all, this was her intention from the start.

She’d deliberately told the two brothers they could buy food, and had also “forgotten” to mention to Dolly that they were allowed to buy food.

So when Su You went out that afternoon, it was partly to explore, but also to give this little “test” enough room to play out.

She was very satisfied with the results. Dolly did give them food, but she also took their money, and she didn’t just hand over the food immediately—she waited until the brothers explained that Su You had told them they could buy food.

As for why Dolly didn’t suspect they were lying… well, since she’d overheard the conversation about the lodging fee, how could she not have heard Su You’s other instructions?

To put it simply, she had heard, but since it wasn’t part of the tasks Su You had assigned her, she still couldn’t act on it.

Aside from that, Su You was also pleased with how the two brothers behaved. The reason was obvious: even when Dolly refused them, they didn’t resort to violence, but instead patiently explained things to her…

Of course, since she didn’t know the brothers’ tempers, Su You had made other preparations in case they tried to use force after being refused by Dolly… but since nothing happened, there was no need to mention it for now.

“It’s alright, this wasn’t your fault—it was mine. I forgot to tell you about it, so don’t worry.” Su You couldn’t exactly say it was all a test, but she wasn’t going to dodge her “responsibility” either.

“In the future, if they need food, just sell it to them at this price… Water doesn’t need to be paid for, but they’ll have to boil it themselves after drinking.” Su You had granted open access to the central fire for cooking—anyone could cook there.

But after cooking, people could only take away what they’d made themselves; they didn’t have permission to take food cooked by others.

“Alright.” Dolly clearly hadn’t realized this was a test, so when she saw Su You wasn’t blaming her, she let out a sigh of relief.

After finishing this conversation, Su You and Dolly went over to the central fire.

Actually, while they’d been talking, Lyle and Lake had been watching them the whole time. They hadn’t tried to eavesdrop, though—they just sat quietly by the fire, not moving an inch.

The first thing Su You did after walking over was to explain that she’d forgotten to tell Dolly about the food-buying arrangement.

To show her apology, she gave each of the brothers a free serving of roasted meat with berries, and also returned the extra money they’d paid for food earlier.

When returning the money, Su You had Dolly explain the prices of the food to them, making it clear that these would be the prices from now on.

According to Su You’s pricing, a day’s lodging plus three meals would cost around 20 to 30 copper coins, depending on how much a person ate and how much work they did that day.

The more work, the more energy spent, and naturally, the more food needed.

After hearing Su You’s explanation and receiving two free servings of roasted meat, the brothers’ lingering unhappiness faded away.

“It’s alright, Lord Su. We’re already grateful that you’re willing to take us in and give us work. As for the roast meat…” Honestly, everyone likes free stuff, but they weren’t sure if Su You was truly offering it out of goodwill.

If she really meant it, that was fine, but if she was just doing it out of politeness, then they’d rather not accept it.

After all, for them, being able to stay here peacefully was the most important thing. It wasn’t worth risking future trouble over a piece of roast meat.

Su You seemed to understand what they were thinking, so she said, “This kind of thing won’t happen again. Please accept the roast meat—it really was my oversight.”

Seeing that Su You was sincere, Lyle’s tension eased, and his tone became less nervous and cautious.

“In that case, we won’t stand on ceremony.” With that, Lyle dug in, and Lake, seeing this, also let his guard down and started eating heartily.

While the brothers ate, Su You and Dolly also got some food and chatted as they ate.

“Where’s Doya? She hasn’t come back all afternoon?” Earlier, because of the wild boar incident, Su You hadn’t let Doya go out, but later Doya had left the territory anyway… Since Su You guessed that the creature who killed the boar was an “old acquaintance,” she hadn’t stopped her.

But Doya had been gone the whole afternoon.

She’d left before Su You went out, and now Su You was back, but Doya still hadn’t returned.

It would be dark in ten minutes, and even if Su You wanted to go look for her, she couldn’t—she wasn’t about to risk herself for an NPC, especially one who hadn’t shown any intention of joining the territory so far.

Hearing Su You’s question, Dolly took a small sip of water and replied, “Actually, she did come back once, but she left again soon after.”

Dolly hadn’t noticed exactly when Doya returned—she’d just happened to catch a glimpse of her leaving again. In other words, she hadn’t seen Doya come back, only her leaving for the second time.

“It’s almost dark… I wonder if she’ll make it back in time…” As she said this, perhaps thinking of something, Dolly suddenly lost her appetite.

The two brothers sitting nearby were a little curious about what Su You and Dolly were talking about, but since they weren’t that familiar with each other yet, they didn’t ask.

---"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of the provided Chinese text:

---

47. Take Care of It

When Su You heard that Duoya had come back once, she paused in the middle of eating. Then she quickly finished the last bit of food, opened the wooden box, and began checking the supplies.

…Don’t get the wrong idea—she wasn’t worried that Duoya had stolen anything. Su You didn’t think she was that kind of person, and besides, Duoya didn’t have the authority to access the supplies. Su You just wanted to see if Duoya’s share of the supplies was still there.

Duoya was allowed to take her portion of food. If it was all gone, Su You could only feel regret—because that would most likely mean Duoya had changed her mind and left the territory early.

But if the supplies were still there, maybe Duoya had run into trouble and been delayed, or perhaps she was on her way back right now.

However, based on what Su You saw as she checked, she couldn’t figure out what had happened.

Because half of Duoya’s share of food was gone! But only half…

Ruling out the possibility that Doli had taken it, there were two options: either Duoya thought half the food was enough and left with it, or…

As Su You frowned in thought, she suddenly heard Doli gasp beside her.

“What happened?! Are you okay?” Before she’d even finished speaking, Doli jumped up, knocking over her cup and nearly tripping in her haste.

Su You steadied her and instinctively looked in the direction Doli was staring—

There stood Duoya, her hair a mess, a dried wound slashing across her once-smooth face. Her exposed skin was covered in cuts and bruises, red marks everywhere—she looked like she’d just crawled out of a pool of blood.

She was so badly injured that she could barely walk, swaying with every step. In fact, she looked even worse than Doli had before… No, this was much worse!

No wonder Doli was so shocked. Even Su You couldn’t help but flinch at the sight of Duoya’s injuries.

“Take her to a room—I’ll bring medicine over in a minute.” Su You was suddenly grateful she hadn’t turned all the red grass she’d collected that afternoon into seeds, but had kept some whole. Otherwise, with Duoya this badly hurt and no medicine, things would be much harder.

Doli didn’t even have time to respond. Once she regained her balance, she rushed to Duoya’s side.

Before she could say anything, she felt a small, furry bundle pressed into her hands. At the same time, Duoya’s weak voice sounded in her ear—

“Take care of it…” As she spoke, Duoya swayed, but managed to steady herself.

How could she still be thinking of taking care of something else at a time like this?!

Doli was frantic.

She’d meant to support Duoya, but now her hands were full with this unknown little creature. She couldn’t just drop it, since Duoya had asked her to take care of “it.”

Fortunately, Laike and Lyle saw what was happening and came over to help. Otherwise, Duoya would have collapsed right there.

“Need a hand?” Lyle knew it was a redundant question—obviously, they needed help—but Doli didn’t have time to care.

“Thank you—please help me get her into that house over there…” Doli said, leading the way.

Behind her, Lyle and Laike started off just supporting Duoya, but when they realized she couldn’t walk at all, one of them simply picked her up and carried her inside.

That way, they moved faster and avoided causing further injury.

They had just gotten Duoya into the room when Su You arrived with the healing potion.

“What’s this…” Su You’s attention was on Duoya at first, but as Doli approached, she noticed the trembling red-and-white furball in Doli’s arms—shaking, perhaps from fear.

“I don’t know what it is—Duoya gave it to me and told me to take care of it, and then…” Realizing now wasn’t the time to talk about this, Doli quickly changed the subject: “Is that healing potion? Do you want to treat her yourself, or should I help?”

Su You glanced at the little creature in Doli’s arms, then told her to go outside and look after it.

As for Lyle and Laike, after bringing Duoya in, they quietly left.

Looking at Duoya, unconscious on the bed, Su You first gave her some healing potion, then began to check her condition.

【Duoya】

Gender: Female

Age: Young Adult

…(other info omitted)

HP: 35/200 (Recovering)

Status: Blood loss, Fracture, Mild infection, Weak, Seriously injured

Blood loss: Loses a certain amount of HP over time; can be stopped by bandaging.

Fracture: The affected area loses mobility; can be stabilized with bandaging.

Mild infection: If the wound isn’t treated in time, it will worsen to a moderate infection. The more severe the infection, the higher the chance of aftereffects even after healing. Prolonged untreated infection increases the risk of death.

Weak: All abilities reduced, slower recovery.

Seriously injured: Severely wounded; will disappear after other conditions are resolved. While active, normal movement is impossible.

…

Looking at the long list of negative conditions, Su You was startled, even though she’d mentally prepared herself.

Luckily, she’d dealt with similar situations before, so while she wasn’t exactly skilled, at least she didn’t panic or freeze.

Thanks to the healing potion, Duoya’s HP had recovered to 35 points. Since the potion only restored 10 HP, that meant Duoya had only 25 HP left before.

25 HP wasn’t immediately fatal, but since she was still bleeding, she’d keep losing HP over time. If it kept up, she could die at any moment.

But after drinking the healing potion, even though the bleeding hadn’t stopped, the potion’s continuous healing effect could offset some of the HP loss. In a way, it was buying her time.

First stabilize her, then treat the other injuries—that was the right way to handle someone seriously hurt.

Besides the healing potion, Su You had brought cloth, branches, string, deer antler, berry juice, and clothes made from animal hide.

The cloth, made from string, was for bandaging wounds and stopping the bleeding.

The branches and string were for splinting the fracture, to prevent further injury and allow the bone to start healing."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your provided Chinese text:

---

48. White Ermine

Deer antler and berry juice go without saying—one is for treatment, the other for replenishing thirst and hunger.

Although berry juice isn’t cost-effective when there’s a water source, given Duoya’s current state, there’s no way she could eat roasted meat. So, she could only rely on berry juice to restore both her hunger and hydration.

Once all the wounds were tended to and she’d been fed everything she needed, Su You changed her into a set of clean clothes.

As mentioned before, when there aren’t suitable materials available, it’s better to consume precious medicinal items like deer antler directly rather than process them. So, this time, Su You did just that.

Just like with red grass, she boiled the deer antler into a liquid and fed it to her.

With the help of the deer antler, Duoya’s health shot up into the triple digits, and several of her negative status effects also entered an “accelerated recovery” state.

Although her health, which had been fluctuating up and down, didn’t keep rising after taking the deer antler, at least it stabilized at a relatively normal level.

In this situation, while she wouldn’t recover immediately, someone who would have needed to lie in bed for ten days, half a month, or even longer, could now recover in just a few days.

After finishing all this, Su You left some food in the room and then stepped outside.

……

After leaving the room, Su You saw the other three gathered together, and at some point, a wooden basin had appeared in front of them.

As Su You approached, she saw the three of them bathing the little creature that had been covered in blood.

Once the iron-smelling, bloody stains were washed away, the little thing returned to its original snowy white appearance. But since its fur was still damp and clinging to its body, it looked especially small and helpless, a wet little bundle.

“Miss Lord, is Duoya alright?” Apparently hearing footsteps, Dolly turned around just in time to see Su You walking toward them.

Seeing Su You, Dolly immediately forgot what she’d been doing and asked about Duoya’s condition.

Su You glanced at the still-shivering wet bundle, sat down beside Dolly, and, while wrapping the little creature in animal hide from a wooden box, replied, “The bleeding’s stopped, and I’ve done some basic treatment. She should be fine now, just needs some time to recover.”

Though she wasn’t a professional doctor, Su You could see the NPCs’ status panels… so after seeing Duoya enter a recovery state, she knew things would be alright.

In the end, it was Duoya who saved herself. If she hadn’t killed that deer and obtained the deer antler, Su You really wouldn’t have known how to save her. Duoya had so many negative status effects, and with limited resources, Su You was truly at a loss.

But there are no “ifs” in this world.

The three of them clearly didn’t doubt Su You’s words—maybe due to some setting, they simply assumed Su You had the ability to know how Duoya was doing.

Hearing that Duoya was out of danger, Dolly visibly relaxed, unclenching her tightly held hands.

“I wonder what she went through…” Dolly’s eyes dimmed as she spoke, but the gloom quickly faded. “But as long as she’s okay.”

Su You nodded without saying anything, focusing on the little creature in her hands.

Once wrapped in animal hide, the little thing stopped trembling… She’d thought it was scared, but now it seemed it had just been cold.

The temperature had dropped at night, and after its bath, it was soaking wet. A gust of wind had left it shivering.

But now, wrapped in hide and with Su You purposely placing it near the central fire, it quickly regained its energy.

“Is this… a white ermine?” Lake frowned, sounding a bit uncertain.

Because it had been covered in blood before, they couldn’t tell what it was. Even during the bath, its fur was all matted, so it was hard to identify. Only now, with its fur half-dry, could they barely make out its species.

“It should be a white ermine, but aren’t they supposed to live deep in the forest?” Lyle stared at it for a while, then confirmed its identity while raising a new question.

But the answer came quickly.

“Yeah, white ermines are only found deep in the forest… So she must have gone there, which is why she ended up like this.” Lake pursed his lips, not quite understanding why someone would do that.

But after all, it was someone else’s business. He might not understand, but he had no right to judge, so after saying that, he fell silent.

He wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand—Dolly didn’t either. She admitted the white ermine was cute and she liked it, but it wasn’t worth risking her life for… at least, Dolly herself would never do such a thing.

Of the four present, the only one who could understand why Duoya did it was Su You.

But even Su You’s reasoning wasn’t the real truth, due to missing information.

She knew Duoya’s father had given her a white ermine as a coming-of-age gift, so Su You naturally assumed this was that gift.

If that were the case, she could understand why Duoya would risk venturing deep into the forest—her ermine must have run off, and she went after it.

But that wasn’t the truth.

That coming-of-age gift was already gone; this white ermine was just a stranger that Duoya had saved out of compassion.

……

Because of this episode with Duoya, everyone’s mood was a bit subdued.

Although they weren’t close enough to be deeply concerned about a stranger, they also didn’t harbor any ill will that would make them wish harm on her. So seeing someone so badly hurt naturally made them uncomfortable.

By the central fire, the four of them sat in a circle, silently warming themselves. Unlike the others, Su You was only pretending to be silent.

On the surface, she looked lost in thought, but in reality, she was browsing Dolly’s information.

Now that the residential house was built, Su You had already approved Dolly’s application to join the territory, so she could finally see Dolly’s full information and backstory."

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

49. Showy but Useless

[Dolly]

Gender: Female

Age: Young adult

Loyalty: 70

Affection: 85

Talents: Repair (85), Sewing (70)

Skills: Novice Repairer (Bottleneck)

Traits: Timid (has a chance to become unable to act when facing fierce enemies), Sensitive (very attuned to others’ emotions, to the point it affects her own actions), Meticulous (increases the chance of successful repairs)

Introduction: [Dolly’s parents were merchants on the continent. They fell in love at first sight, and Dolly was born soon after. From a young age, she traveled all over the continent with her parents.

One day, a terrible accident occurred. To protect Dolly and her mother, Dolly’s father lost an arm. Witnessing this with her own eyes left Dolly deeply afraid of monsters.

To prevent such a tragedy from happening again, Dolly’s parents gave up their lives as wandering merchants and joined a fixed caravan.

As Dolly grew up, her talent for repairing things was discovered. Under the careful guidance of an old repair master, she became an outstanding repairer—her talent and meticulous nature making her especially skilled.

Influenced by her parents, Dolly also joined the caravan when she came of age. However, her parents disapproved. Even after reluctantly agreeing, they never allowed her to travel with other caravans alone.

That is, until one day, Dolly secretly joined another caravan without telling her parents...]

...

Su You frowned slightly as she read the half-finished backstory.

As mentioned before, an NPC’s traits are usually closely tied to their story. But in Dolly’s case, Su You could only see the origins of her “Timid” and “Meticulous” traits.

As for “Sensitive,” Su You strongly suspected it was the result of something that happened in the latter half of Dolly’s story.

Normally, unless something truly significant happens to an NPC, it’s not easy for them to develop new traits later on. Otherwise, players would have long since found ways to farm traits through various means.

...So, what exactly happened after Dolly defied her parents and joined a caravan on her own, that caused her to develop the “Sensitive” trait?

There were so many possibilities that Su You couldn’t figure it out right away. At most, she could guess it had something to do with Dolly’s parents... Otherwise, given Dolly’s personality, she wouldn’t have stayed here. She’d most likely just rest up and then find a way to go home.

But up to now, Dolly hadn’t shown any desire to return home. She was even considering joining the territory...

Since this trait was a blue (rare) trait, Su You didn’t dwell on it for long after realizing she couldn’t figure it out.

All she needed to know was that she now had a highly talented repairer who also had a high affection for her.

...

While Su You was checking the information, the white ermine in her hands started to struggle—perhaps because it was uncomfortable in this position, or maybe it was getting too warm from the city’s central fire. Either way, it was trying to wriggle free from her grasp.

But Su You’s attention was elsewhere, so she didn’t notice its struggles.

Dolly, however, saw the little creature squirming. After a moment’s hesitation, she spoke up.

“Miss Lord, would you like me to take care of the ermine for you?”

Su You closed the information panel and snapped back to reality, immediately noticing the restless little ermine twisting in her hands.

“Sure, you can take care of it. If it’s hungry, feel free to feed it something.” Since this was Doya’s treasured pet, Su You was willing to spare some food for it.

Given Doya’s serious injuries, she would have to stay in the territory for a few more days... As inappropriate as it might sound, Doya’s injury did give Su You more reason to keep her here.

Dolly nodded and gently took the ermine from Su You’s hands.

After handing over the ermine, Su You also gave Dolly the piece of animal hide. Then, glancing at the brothers Lyle and Lake, she asked, “Do either of you know how to fight?”

The brothers hadn’t expected Su You to speak to them, let alone ask such a question. After a brief moment of surprise, the older brother, Lyle, answered.

“I can fight in close combat. As for Lake... forget it. He only knows some flashy moves—couldn’t even catch a chicken.”

Lake glared at his brother, instinctively retorting, “That’s not true! Last time we sparred, you didn’t even beat me!”

Lyle: “...” If you’d just kept quiet, no one would think you were mute!

Lyle was left speechless and a little desperate by Lake’s outburst. If he could, he’d probably want to smack his brother unconscious right now.

Normally, their bickering was harmless, but since Lord Su had asked about fighting, it clearly meant she was considering having them take part in combat—which was dangerous. Naturally, Lyle didn’t want Lake to be exposed to that risk.

Claiming that neither of them could fight would have been too suspicious, so he told the truth about himself but downplayed Lake’s abilities, saying he only knew some showy moves.

But apparently, Lake didn’t catch the subtext in Su You’s question, so... Lyle glanced at the woman before him, who showed no emotional reaction to his lie, and couldn’t think of a way to cover it up.

Since Lyle had answered so seriously, Su You hadn’t suspected he was lying.

Still, no matter how good his composure was, having such a “pig teammate” meant Su You quickly realized Lyle was lying, and could even guess why from his expression.

Su You was a bit surprised by Lyle’s lie, but didn’t think much of it.

After all, anyone with a bit of sense would be cautious when asked such a question, so Lyle’s response was understandable.

“I won’t force you to do anything. If you’re unwilling, you can refuse. You can still pay to stay in the territory... But maybe you should hear me out before deciding.” Su You’s question, of course, was because of the mine she’d discovered earlier today.

To Su You, that mine was basically a gold mountain. With such a treasure before her, there was no way she wouldn’t want to dig it up.

But wanting to mine it and actually having the strength to do so were two different things.

After all, ghost skeletons were much tougher than fire demons. With 10 defense, they’d only take 5 damage from a basic arrow tower, and with 100 HP, that meant 20 arrows per skeleton... Su You simply didn’t have enough arrows to spare.

---"

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**50. Apprentice Seamstress**

In other words, using arrow towers for defense isn’t an effective way to kill these monsters—it can at best assist in taking them down. The proper method should be to bring combat personnel along, or to build stronger offensive structures.

But clearly, Su You didn’t have access to any more powerful attack buildings, so she could only look for alternative solutions.

Su You spoke with genuine sincerity, and besides, the two brothers weren’t the type to be ungrateful… Even though they had paid for their room and board here, that didn’t mean they could simply ignore the help Su You had given them.

“Please, Lord Su, go ahead. I hope you don’t mind what just happened. I didn’t mean to hide anything—it’s just that Lake is a bit naïve, so I tend to instinctively protect him.” By “this kind of choice,” he naturally meant his habit of shielding Lake.

After saying this, Lyle let out a barely audible sigh.

With things laid out so clearly, even though Lake was a bit simple-minded, he wasn’t completely clueless. He more or less understood why Lyle had acted that way just now.

And because he understood, when Lyle called him a “naïve kid,” he didn’t protest, but chose to stay silent.

“I should have explained myself better,” Su You said after a pause, then got straight to the point: “This afternoon, I discovered a mine, but there are a lot of monsters there.”

With that simple sentence, she made it clear why she needed their help and what she wanted them to do.

Why?

Naturally, for the ore.

What needed to be done?

She needed their help to clear out the monsters.

The two brothers were adventurers who had traveled far and wide, passing through many territories. They knew just how crucial ore was for the early development of a territory—it was an essential resource for progress!

“There are ghostly skeletons over there. They’re not especially strong, but not weak either. I need your help. If you’re willing to assist, you can stay in the territory as long as you like in the future.” Ore was extremely valuable, and with enough of it, supporting two more people wouldn’t be a problem at all.

Besides, “supporting” them really just meant letting them live here rent-free. At most, she’d have to build another house.

As for food and clothing, that wasn’t included—they’d still need to work for those. So, no matter how you looked at it, Su You wouldn’t be losing out.

“Ghostly skeletons? I think I’ve heard of those…” The greatest advantage of adventurers was their broad experience. They might not be experts in any one thing, but they knew a little about everything.

It was good that they were familiar with these monsters—it saved Su You the trouble of explaining.

“Yes, ghostly skeletons,” Su You nodded, then continued, “You can think it over and discuss it before making a decision.”

Of course, Su You hoped they would help, but if both refused, there was nothing she could do—she couldn’t force them.

If that happened, she’d have to find another way to deal with the ghostly skeletons head-on.

In other words, she’d need to look for another breakthrough… It was just that she’d discovered the mine so late today that she hadn’t had time to explore further. Otherwise, she might have more options now.

“Please let us think it over. Tomorrow…” Lyle started to say they’d give her an answer tomorrow, but paused and changed his mind. “No, we’ll let you know before we rest tonight.”

Facing these monsters would require a lot of preparation, and whether or not they joined in would affect those preparations. Plus, Su You planned to act in the morning, so waiting until tomorrow for an answer would be too late.

“Alright.” With that, Su You gave them space to discuss.

Nearby, Dolly had been listening to their conversation, wanting to speak up but not finding the right moment. When she saw Su You approach, she quickly offered her help.

“Miss Lord, I’m not much good in a fight, but if you need, I can make some things for you.”

Although she was a repairer, repairing and crafting were closely related—in fact, the principles were very similar, and even some of the books used in training overlapped.

A skilled repairer might not be highly proficient at crafting, but they’d at least know the basics—and even those basics would be far beyond what an ordinary person could do.

In the past, Dolly would never have revealed her abilities so openly, but now that she’d joined the territory, even if her loyalty wasn’t especially high, she had a great deal of affection for Su You. So, hearing that Su You was going on an adventure, she offered her help without hesitation.

“Crafting? What can you make?” Su You had noticed Dolly’s talent for sewing, but since she didn’t have the sewing skill listed, Su You had assumed she’d never learned it. But now, it seemed that wasn’t the case.

“I know some basic sewing. I’m not quite at the beginner level, but I can make some simple equipment.” The information panel only displayed skills at beginner level and above, but below that was an unofficial tier used by players for distinction: “apprentice.”

Above apprentice was beginner.

So, Dolly was probably at the “apprentice seamstress” stage—maybe even at the threshold of advancing.

Dolly, unaware of how much she’d revealed, continued after explaining her skills: “When I brought them food earlier, I noticed there were quite a few threads and animal hides in the chest. I could use those materials to reinforce your hide armor… That should help you withstand more damage.”

NPCs weren’t like players—they couldn’t see the stats, so they described changes in plain language.

For example, when Dolly said “reinforce,” she meant increasing the hide armor’s durability, making it less likely to be damaged.

As for “withstand more damage,” that was even easier to understand—she could use those materials to strengthen the hide armor and increase its defense.

“Alright, if you’re confident you can do it, I’ll leave all those materials to you.”

Su You was already prepared to act alone tomorrow, so since she couldn’t improve her combat power, the best she could do was boost her defense.

After all, offense and defense—you had to choose one. Even if Su You didn’t have a choice, she couldn’t just do nothing.

---"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**51. A Feather Duster**

“Don’t worry, my lady. You can leave this to me.” Dory took the animal skin coat Su You had just changed out of, then rummaged through the wooden chest for the materials she needed.

“Oh, I’ll need a wooden needle too…” Since she was going to sew, she’d obviously need needle and thread.

Here, “thread” could be replaced with string, and the needle was made of wood.

Hearing this, Su You immediately picked up a branch and a stone knife. With the right tools and materials, she quickly whittled out a sharp wooden needle, just like sharpening a pencil—shua shua shua, and it was done.

With the wooden needle in hand, Dory began her work.

Before she started, she placed the white ermine in a wooden basin lined with animal hide, gently telling it to behave, not to run around, and not to disturb anyone.

Of course, the ermine had no idea what she was saying. It just tilted its head in confusion and let out a soft questioning sound.

“Liko?”

Just as the ermine couldn’t understand her, Dory couldn’t understand it either. So she simply patted its little head and turned her attention back to her work.

Su You watched their interaction, then her gaze fell on the wooden basin under the ermine. She’d been wondering about that basin for a while—she was sure she hadn’t made it herself.

Perhaps sensing Su You’s gaze, the ermine thought she was about to steal its “nest.” It immediately stretched out its short front paws, protectively hugging the basin.

Not only that, it bared its teeth at Su You and made a faint noise… Whether it was trying to threaten or provoke her, who could say.

“Grrr!”

Su You: “……”

Normally, Su You couldn’t be bothered to argue with this little creature.

But right now, she was quite free and had plenty of time to mess with it—a little thing that ate her food and lived under her roof, yet dared to bare its teeth at her…

Expressionless, Su You picked up the ermine from the basin and began kneading it like dough.

After being washed and dried, the ermine’s fur was incredibly soft and smooth, like the finest silk. And with the warmth of the ermine itself, it felt even better than real silk.

The thoroughly tormented ermine knew it was powerless to save itself, so it could only look at Dory with tearful eyes—hoping for rescue. But it had miscalculated; Dory had no intention of helping.

In fact, Dory had already heard the commotion when the ermine bared its teeth, but she knew Su You wouldn’t actually hurt it. So she ignored the ermine’s pleading look and kept working.

Cute as it was, if the ermine wanted to stay here, it had to understand a crucial fact—who the real master was.

To be so rude and even act so cocky toward the master… Dory felt that Su You’s decision not to toss it outside to cool off its hot head was the last bit of kindness she had left.

In Dory’s eyes, no matter how cute the ermine was, it was still just a pet. A pet could never compare to Su You.

By now, the ermine, dizzy and limp from Su You’s rough handling, had completely given up struggling.

Not only had it stopped struggling, it had even given up on seeking help. The two other humans were too far away to notice, and the one nearby clearly wasn’t going to help…

Just as the ermine thought its “ermine life” was over, it suddenly felt its body, which had been dangling in the air, settle onto something solid.

Feigning death, the ermine’s eyelids fluttered, and it couldn’t help but peek open a slit… only to see it had been put back in its wooden basin.

“You’re quite the little actor,” Su You remarked, amused by the ermine’s sneaky peeking.

The ermine didn’t understand her words, but it recognized her voice. Hearing her so close, it shuddered all over, instinctively squeezed its eyes shut, and its fur puffed out so much it looked just like a perfect white feather duster.

Having had her fun, Su You glanced at the “feather duster” and decided not to torment it any further. She’d rested enough and had other things to do.

Because the brothers had collected some stone fragments today, Su You was now preparing to use them to make a second pickaxe.

When it was just her, one set of tools was enough. But now, with more people, there simply weren’t enough tools to go around.

For example, after Lake took on the task of collecting wood that afternoon, Su You was left without an axe.

It was the same when she sent Dory to gather fibers earlier—the stone knife was in use.

So, Su You used the four stone fragments, along with some she’d gathered while exploring, to make a pickaxe and a stone knife.

She didn’t make another axe because only one person needed to chop wood at a time, so one axe was enough.

As for the pickaxe, now that they’d discovered a mine, Su You definitely needed one herself. Plus, she planned to post a “collect sandstone” task tomorrow.

Only with enough sandstone could these tools be kept in circulation.

The same went for the stone knife—Su You set one aside for Dory, so she could gather fibers and other plants near the territory.

Fiber was a basic material, and the demand for it would only grow, so it needed to be stockpiled.

Once the pickaxe and stone knife were made, Su You put one of the stone knives in the wooden chest and let Dory know. Dory nodded and went back to work.

As for the pickaxe, Su You placed it in the wooden chest linked to the bounty board.

[New tool detected. Would you like to set a deposit?]

The deposit, as the name suggested, was to prevent people from taking a task and running off with the tool, or collecting materials but not turning in the task—basically, to stop people from using the tools for free.

Since Lyle and Lake had given Su You their last few copper coins before, they’d had no money, so she hadn’t set a deposit at first—otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to take on any tasks.

But now things were different. They had money, so Su You added the deposit requirement.

She set the deposit amount herself, based on the amount or rarity of materials used in the tool.

For axes and shovels, which used only one piece of stone, the deposit was ten copper coins. For pickaxes, which used two pieces of stone, the deposit was twenty copper coins."

"52. Wooden Spear

After setting up the data, Su You casually posted a new quest related to sandstone.

[Collect Sandstone] (Repeatable)

Issuer: Lord

Quest Objective: Submit Sandstone (0/3)

Quest Reward: Copper Coin *1

Quest Tool: Stone Pickaxe (Requires a 20 copper coin deposit to borrow; deposit will be returned when the tool is returned)

……

Once the new quest was published, Su You turned around and saw Lyle standing right behind her.

This ghost-like behavior made Su You’s eyelid twitch involuntarily.

Lyle seemed to realize he’d startled her, so he quickly apologized and explained why he’d come over.

“We just discussed it, and both of us are willing to help Lord Su deal with the ghost skeletons. We’ll follow your arrangements, but we reserve the right to refuse any unreasonable orders.” Lyle was mainly worried that Su You would treat them as cannon fodder.

They had encountered and fought ghost skeletons before, so they knew these monsters weren’t particularly difficult to handle. As long as Su You didn’t recklessly send them to their deaths, they were willing to help.

Rather than just helping, this was also a chance for them to stay.

After barely escaping a near-wipeout with their previous adventurer team, the two brothers no longer wanted to continue the dangerous life of adventurers.

Adventuring was exciting, but also extremely risky, with the constant threat of death.

Now, all they wanted was to join a territory and live a stable life… and just as this thought took root, they arrived at Sunset Territory.

Though this was a brand new territory—so poor that calling it “poor” was an understatement—they didn’t mind. In fact, they were glad to have arrived at a newly established place.

Every territory holds limitless potential. Watching a territory grow from nothing is not just an opportunity, but a rare stroke of luck.

Everyone dreams of becoming a “founding hero,” and they were no exception.

So unless Lord Su made some utterly unreasonable decision they couldn’t accept, they would choose to stay.

And so far, Lyle had a good impression of Lord Su.

Tomorrow’s actions and their outcome would not only determine whether they could successfully join the territory, but also serve as a key observation for whether this place was worth joining.

“Alright. Any arrangements I make tomorrow, I’ll discuss with you both in advance.”

With that, both sides quickly reached an agreement to act together the next day.

“I need to know your real situation, otherwise I can’t make proper arrangements.” In fact, even if Su You hadn’t asked, Lyle was prepared to explain.

“We both specialize in close combat. Lake prefers fighting bare-handed, while I like weapons such as short daggers… though it seems there aren’t any here. But if there’s a spear, that works too.” Lyle first explained their combat styles, then highlighted their capabilities by mentioning their past achievements.

After hearing their exploits, Su You didn’t suspect Lyle of exaggerating, but she did feel something was a bit off.

She didn’t doubt him because Lyle was smart—he knew that boasting in front of her wouldn’t make her think they were stronger, it would only lead to her making poor decisions tomorrow, which would end up hurting them.

So it was unlikely he’d exaggerate just to brag. On the contrary, he’d probably downplay things to leave himself some leeway.

Even so, the brothers’ achievements were impressive.

After all, these two had cleared out wolf dens and captured tigers and leopards!

While these feats were accomplished as part of their former adventurer team, and others contributed as well, if they didn’t have real ability, they wouldn’t have survived until now.

“Alright, I get the gist.” Su You suppressed her lingering doubts and continued, “Tomorrow, I’ll try to avoid combat as much as possible. After all, our main goal is to open up a safe route to the mine…”

“But sometimes, fighting is unavoidable. So get some rest tonight—not just to kill ghost skeletons, but to keep yourselves alive.”

……

To prepare for tomorrow’s battle, Lyle and Lake went to the tavern to rest. Meanwhile, after Dolly finished making a set of reinforced beast hide armor, Su You asked if she could make anything else.

After hearing Su You’s request, Dolly rummaged through the wooden chest and then gave her answer.

“…This one shouldn’t be a problem. There are enough materials, but that’s all—we don’t have enough for more.” Making armor already consumed a lot of hide, and Su You wanted a double-reinforced version, which took twice as many materials or more.

With limited supplies, Dolly could only make one of the two items Su You requested.

“Let’s go with this one, since we’ll need it tomorrow. Sorry to trouble you tonight.”

“It’s fine, it’s my job. Otherwise, I’d feel bad eating and drinking here for free, wouldn’t I?” Dolly didn’t mind having to “work overtime.” Back in the merchant caravan, they often took turns on night watch anyway.

She joked, then measured out the materials and gave a time estimate.

“I’ll definitely have it finished tonight.” The item wasn’t hard to make, and as long as nothing went wrong, she’d finish it before her usual bedtime.

With Dolly’s assurance, Su You could focus on making Lyle’s weapon.

Since Lyle had mentioned he was good with short daggers, but could also use a spear, Su You decided to make a wooden spear.

It had been a long time since she’d worked with such low-level weapons, so Su You checked the workbench recipe list and found the materials and stats for the wooden spear.

[Wooden Spear] (Consumes: Wood *5, Rope *2)

Category: Weapon

Quality: Common (White)

Attributes: Attack Range (1.5), Attack Power (15), Block (5%), Armor Penetration (1%), Bleed (5%), Critical Hit (1%)

Description: A simple and easy-to-use wooden spear. It has a longer attack range than ordinary weapons, a slightly higher chance to block, and a certain chance to inflict bleeding on the enemy. Although the wooden spear has well-rounded stats, it requires significant strength to wield. Not recommended for those who don’t meet the strength requirement."

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of the provided Chinese text:

---

53. Harmony

The pros and cons of the wooden spear have already been clearly explained in the introduction. Among melee weapons of the same tier, the spear is arguably the most powerful, precisely because it’s so well-rounded.

It has attributes that other melee weapons lack.

And for the attributes that other melee weapons do have, the spear not only matches them, but often surpasses them in value.

However, its drawback is just as obvious: it requires a lot of strength from the user… which is actually apparent from the materials used to make it.

After all, it’s a weapon made from five pieces of wood. For an average person, just picking it up and walking a few steps would already be impressive, let alone wielding it in combat.

If you’re not strong enough, you might end up falling flat on your butt while swinging the spear. Embarrassment is one thing, but risking your life is no laughing matter.

But since Lyle said he could handle it, Su You naturally chose to trust him. After all, he wouldn’t joke around with his own life.

Once the wooden spear was finished, Su You first went to check on Duoya in the residential house. After confirming that her injuries had fully stabilized, she began preparing another item she’d need for tomorrow—a healing potion.

[Basic Healing Potion] (Consumes: Red Herb*1, Water*1, Container*1)

Category: Medicine

Quality: White

Effect: Restores 10 HP upon use and grants the “Healing” status.

Description: A basic healing potion brewed by mixing red herb with water, offering a certain degree of healing.

[Healing]: Continuously restores a small amount of HP.

Red herbs come in bundles of 20. Su You took five to make red herb seeds, and used the remaining fifteen to craft basic healing potions.

Speaking of seeds, Su You glanced at the progress of the four farm plots.

[Farm Plot 1]

Status: Under Construction

Time Remaining: 09:15

[Farm Plot 2]

Status: Under Construction

Time Remaining: 09:18

[Farm Plot 3]

Status: Under Construction

Time Remaining: 09:23

[Farm Plot 4]

Status: Under Construction

Time Remaining: 09:29

…

Since all four plots were started around the same time, the remaining times are pretty close.

She’d rushed back before dark, and since building a farm plot takes two hours, they should be ready around 9 PM.

Now there were less than ten minutes left until the farm plots would be done—in other words, it was just under ten minutes to 9 PM.

For some night owls, 9 PM is just the start of the party.

Su You wasn’t exactly a night owl, but she wasn’t an early sleeper either. Especially in this data-driven world, as long as you sleep enough, you won’t get any negative status effects. So Su You waited the ten minutes, and once the farm plots were finished, she grabbed the pile of seeds and the shovel she’d prepared earlier and got ready to start planting.

Farming in this digitalized world wasn’t particularly complicated. All you had to do was turn the soil, dig a hole, plant the seed, and water it. Once that’s done, the seeds would enter the “growing” state.

Of course, this only applies to lower-level seeds.

Later on, if you want to plant rare medicinal herbs or top-tier crops, the requirements become much stricter—but that’s a concern for another time.

Since the soil had already been tilled when the farm plots were built, Su You didn’t need to spend time tilling again. She just had to dig holes, plant seeds, and water them.

Each farm plot is divided into four smaller sections, meaning each planting session uses four packs of seeds.

It’s possible to plant four different crops in one plot, but if you plant the same crop in all four sections, the plot gains a special aura called “Harmony.”

[Harmony I]: All plants in this plot get along very well. Growth speed +8%, yield +5%.

Actually, you don’t have to plant only the same crop to trigger “Harmony.” If you plant compatible crops with “mutual growth” traits together, you can also trigger Harmony—and possibly even higher-level versions of it.

Even just the first level of Harmony gives an 8% boost to growth speed and a 5% increase in yield. Imagine how powerful the bonuses would be at higher levels!

But right now, Su You didn’t have enough different types of seeds to trigger a higher-level Harmony, so she had to settle for the basic version.

Given the situation, Su You planted red-berry bushes in both Farm Plot 1 and 2, red herb in Plot 3, and cotton in Plot 4.

This way, across the four plots, she had food, medicinal herbs, and basic crafting materials all covered—a very well-rounded setup.

Although she didn’t need to till the soil, digging holes, planting seeds, and watering wasn’t exactly easy work. Su You was busy for quite a while—so long that by the time Dolly finished making the items Su You needed, she still hadn’t watered Plots 3 and 4.

After Dolly finished crafting, she brought the items over to Su You, took the watering can, and volunteered to finish the remaining watering.

Su You, meanwhile, returned to the central fire to check out what Dolly had made, as well as the two pieces of equipment she’d previously upgraded.

[Enhanced Leather Tunic]

Category: Equipment

Quality: Green

Durability: 130/130

Attributes: Defense (8+5), Resistance (1%+0.5%)

Description: An enhanced leather tunic made from animal hide. Thanks to expert tailoring, its durability, defense, and resistance have all been improved.

[Enhanced Leather Pants]

Category: Equipment

Quality: Green

Durability: 130/130

Attributes: Defense (5+2), Resistance (1%+0.2%), Special Resistance (1.3%)

Description: Enhanced leather pants made from animal hide. After careful modification, both defense and resistance are improved, and they now also offer resistance to special attacks.

[Leather Gauntlets]

Category: Equipment

Quality: Green

Attributes: Attack (15), Defense (5), Resistance (5%), Stun (1%~5%)

Description: Leather gauntlets made from animal hide. Not only do they effectively protect and cushion the hands, boosting the wearer’s hand-to-hand combat ability, but they also have a small chance (which increases with attack strength) to stun enemies. The duration of the stun depends on the strength of the attack and the enemy’s own abilities.

…

After looking over the details of these three pieces of equipment, Su You was a bit surprised.

But it wasn’t the enhanced leather gear that surprised her—after all, with all the materials used, these attributes were to be expected. Otherwise, it would have been a waste of enough resources to make a whole second set of leather gear.

What really surprised her was the leather gauntlets."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**54. Extraordinary Performance**

The first two attributes are both perfectly normal—not only are they common on gauntlets, but even their values are quite standard. However, this third attribute is a bit problematic.

On equipment, the most frequently seen—or rather, almost guaranteed—attributes are: Attack, Defense, and Resistance.

These three are the most basic attributes, and it’s normal for them to appear on any piece of equipment—including, but not limited to, defensive gear. For example, even a beast hide tunic might come with an Attack attribute.

Although no one would actually use a beast hide tunic to attack, as long as someone does, that Attack attribute will still take effect.

All other attributes apart from these three are considered additional attributes.

But even among additional attributes, there are different tiers. The most common and ordinary ones are things like: Bleed, Armor Break, and Critical Hit.

A bit rarer are attributes like Speed (affecting the wearer), Slow (affecting the enemy), Rend (reduces healing received), and Lethal Strike (attacks a specific weak point, and if successful, has a chance to reduce the enemy’s stats—these stats can include, but are not limited to, Attack, Defense, Speed, etc.).

Even rarer still are attributes like Bind, Stun, and Confusion.

The difference between these attributes lies in how they work.

The most common ones speed up the rate at which you damage the enemy through various special effects. The next tier are those that can have some impact on the enemy. The rarest are those that can completely affect the enemy’s actions.

This might sound a bit complicated, but all you really need to know is: “Stun is an extremely rare additional attribute.”

And yet, against all odds, Su You—no, actually, Dolly—managed to get it.

Although having a single Stun attribute won’t have a huge impact on tomorrow’s actions (since the chance of it triggering is so low), the fact that the first member of the territory is so lucky is still something to be happy about.

After all, it’s better than being like her…

Forget it, let’s not talk about that…

…

Su You put the gauntlets, the beast hide gear, and the wooden spear she’d made earlier into her backpack. Meanwhile, Dolly had finished watering the plants.

“Miss Lord, I’ve finished watering,” Dolly said as she walked over. On her way, she happened to see Su You inspecting the gauntlets she’d made, which made her a bit nervous.

Hearing her voice, Su You looked up and saw Dolly’s anxious expression. She smiled gently at her and began to praise Dolly’s craftsmanship.

“You did a great job. These gauntlets aren’t just well-made; the details are perfect too.” Su You couldn’t talk to these NPCs about attributes, but that didn’t stop her from complimenting Dolly.

Dolly’s eyes lit up at Su You’s words. Carrying her watering tools, she walked over and responded modestly.

“As long as you’re satisfied, Miss Lord. I was worried that since I hadn’t made something like this in a while, my skills might have gotten rusty…” Luckily, her skills hadn’t declined—in fact, she’d even outdone herself a little.

“There’s nothing else for you to do right now. Go get some rest.” Su You pointed toward the residential house, and at the same time, handed over the white ermine, which had dozed off, to Dolly.

The little ermine, who’d finally managed to fall asleep after being startled, was instantly wide awake thanks to Su You.

The moment it woke up, it saw Su You. But this time, it had learned its lesson—even though being woken up made it furious, it could only shrink timidly into Dolly’s arms, not daring to make a sound.

Its pitiful look went unnoticed by the two. Dolly hesitated a bit when she heard Su You tell her to rest in the house.

She knew there was only one house, and inside were just two beds—one already taken by Doya. If she took the other, where would Su You sleep?

Just as she was about to refuse and suggest that Su You rest inside while she kept watch outside, Su You’s next words made it impossible for her to say no.

“I still have things to prepare tonight, so I don’t have time to rest or look after anyone. Since you’ll be sharing a room with Doya, I’ll need you to keep an eye on her. If her condition gets worse, come tell me.”

Dolly didn’t know what else Su You needed to prepare, but the reasoning was solid—she couldn’t refuse.

“Alright, I’ll take care of her… Should I bring the little ermine in too?” Dolly glanced at the fluffy bundle playing dead in her arms and couldn’t resist giving its head a little rub.

White Ermine: …Are you kidding me? Will this ever end?!

The ermine dared not protest. Faced with Dolly’s teasing, it kept up its act and didn’t make a sound.

“If you don’t mind, you can bring it in… By the way, who made this basin?” Su You pointed at the wooden basin the ermine had used.

Dolly thought for a moment, then pointed toward the tavern. “It was that taller young man. I think he has some tools with him.”

Taller… that must be Lyle.

Su You acknowledged this, and after telling Dolly the names of the two people, she urged her to get some rest, saying there would be more tasks for her tomorrow.

Dolly didn’t refuse. She hugged the ermine and headed to the residential house. Once she was gone, Su You returned to sit by the central fire.

She took out the healing potion she’d brewed and packed it, along with some food, into her backpack.

After double-checking that she had everything she needed, Su You resumed building up the territory.

【Consume 10 planks to build a residential house?】

…

【Consume 1 wood to build a wooden fence?】

…

【Consume 2 wood to build a wooden wall?】

…

【Consume 1 wood to build a wooden gate?】

…

…

She didn’t know how long she’d been working, but by the time she’d almost used up all the wood, she’d not only built another residential house, but also used fences and walls to enclose all the previously exposed parts of the territory.

With the fences in place, the boundaries and layout of the territory were now clear and orderly.

After finishing everything, Su You glanced at the territory’s info panel and saw that the prosperity value had risen from ‘1’ to ‘7’.

Opening the detailed info, she could see the specific reasons for the increase in prosperity—

【Residential house completed. Territory prosperity +1】"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**55. Strong Willpower**

【Farmland 1 construction completed. Territory Prosperity +0.5】

【Farmland 2 construction completed. Territory Prosperity +0.5】

……

【Basic defensive structures completed. Territory Prosperity +3】

……

Aside from the buildings, Su You also deliberately scrolled to the very top to check the first piece of prosperity-related information, confirming the source of that earlier bit of prosperity—

【Successfully named the territory. Territory Prosperity +1】

Looks like her guess was right: changing the territory’s name does indeed grant a point of prosperity. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing—especially since prosperity is hard to come by in the early stages, so every bit counts.

Currently, the territory’s prosperity has reached 7 points, while upgrading requires 20 points.

Besides these 20 prosperity points, the territory’s population also needs to reach 5 people to upgrade… Including Su You herself, there are exactly five people in the territory right now.

However, only Dolly has officially joined the territory so far, so on the population line, Su You currently sees: “Territory Population: 2/3.”

Increasing the population shouldn’t be difficult. If nothing unexpected happens, the brothers Lake and Lyle will probably choose to stay. If they do, then only one more person will be needed… Su You hopes that person will be Doya.

The more she gets to know Doya, the more she realizes Doya’s potential is limitless.

To be able to make it back to the territory despite such severe injuries is something most people simply couldn’t do.

As long as Doya is willing to stay, Su You is absolutely confident she can train her into an excellent archer.

But all of this will have to wait until Doya wakes up. She’s still lying there now, so there’s no point in overthinking it.

……

After the basic defensive structures were finished, Su You’s tasks for the night were finally complete.

She leaned against a wooden crate, the flames of the Heart of the City burning nearby. Even though she wasn’t indoors, she felt incredibly warm and comfortable.

The Heart of the City’s fire was warm without being scorching—much more pleasant than a regular campfire.

And so, Su You spent her third night in the digitized world.

……

……

【Residential House 2 construction completed.】

When Su You woke up, she received the notification that Residential House 2 was finished. She glanced at the newly built house, then opened the territory info panel for a look—

“Territory Prosperity: 8.4”

Huh?

Su You stared blankly at the inexplicable extra 0.4.

Normally, finishing a residential house should only add one point of prosperity. In other words, since it was 7 yesterday, it should be 8 today… Not wanting to waste time guessing, Su You simply opened the detailed prosperity info to check the reason.

【Farmland 1 crops are growing well and successfully triggered Harmony I. Territory Prosperity +0.1】

……

Similar messages appeared four times in total. Aside from the farmland number, the rest of the text was identical.

So, each plot of farmland that triggers “Harmony I” grants 0.1 prosperity, and with four plots, that’s exactly 0.4.

Although the decimal looks a bit odd, any increase in prosperity is a good thing.

She didn’t remember “Harmony” ever increasing prosperity before… This must be a new change in the digitized world.

To Su You, this change seemed like it was encouraging them to develop their territory—as if the world itself wanted them to thrive here.

She still had no idea how this digitized world came to be, or why it existed, but she quietly made a mental note of this…

After figuring out the prosperity issue, Su You went to check on the crops in the farmland.

【Farmland 1】

Status: Harmony I

Plot 1: Red Berry Bush (Healthy, Growing)

Plot 2: Red Berry Bush (Lack of water, Growth halted)

Plot 3: Red Berry Bush (Healthy, Growing)

Plot 4: Red Berry Bush (Weeds present, Growth speed reduced)

……

There were four farmlands in total, and each one had one or two plots with various issues—some lacked water, some had weeds, some had pests, and some weren’t getting enough sunlight.

The sunlight problem would resolve itself once the sun came up, but the other issues would need to be dealt with manually.

Since this was her first time planting, Su You hadn’t unlocked the plant encyclopedia yet, so she couldn’t see the growth countdown for these plants. But if she remembered correctly, red berry bushes took 72 hours to mature into shrubs, and 48 hours to bear their first fruit.

Of course, that’s without any growth acceleration.

With “Harmony I” in effect, they should mature into shrubs in just under 67 hours, but fruiting isn’t considered part of the growth phase, so it won’t be accelerated.

As for the other two plants Su You had planted—red grass and cotton—their maturation times were 168 hours (seven days) and 120 hours (five days), respectively.

After understanding the situation, Su You prepared to address each issue accordingly.

But just then, Dolly woke up. She came out of the residential house, saw what Su You was doing, and hurried over to stop her, insisting on handling all the farm work herself.

“Didn’t we agree that I’d take care of things here? My lady, you should focus on your own tasks—I’ll look after the farmland… Oh, and I think I just saw Doya wake up. You can go check on her.”

Seeing this, Su You didn’t insist. She briefly explained the farmland’s situation and how to deal with it, then headed to Residential House 1 to check on Doya.

……

【Doya】

HP: 124/200

Status: Fracture (Recovering), Severe Injury (Recovering)

The previous bleeding and infection were gone; only the fracture and severe injury remained, both of which would take the longest to heal.

Su You had come because Dolly said Doya was awake, but it looked like she was still sleeping… It was odd—she’d recovered this much, so why hadn’t she woken up yet?

But just as Su You was about to leave, Doya’s voice suddenly sounded behind her.

“Lord Su, thank you for saving me this time…” Though she was recovering well, Doya was still weak—if you didn’t listen carefully, you’d barely hear her.

Su You glanced back at her and said, “To be precise, you saved yourself.”

Whether it was the deer antler she got from the deer she killed, or her own strong willpower that kept her going until she made it back here—both were thanks to Doya herself."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

56. Released

Duoya didn’t say anything, nor did she get up from the bed, because she knew she wasn’t in good shape.

After Su You finished speaking, the two of them fell silent. Seeing this, Su You decided not to stay any longer—not only would it be a waste of time, but it might also disturb Duoya’s rest and recovery.

“Get some good rest. If you need anything, you can ask Doli for help.” As she finished, Su You seemed to remember something and added, “Oh, right, this is the white ermine you brought back. I’ll just leave it here.”

Su You was worried that Duoya might get out of bed for the ermine and worsen her injuries, so she specifically picked up the white ermine from the other bed, showed it to her, and then put it back.

The reason she didn’t leave it right next to Duoya was mainly because she was afraid the ermine would get restless, run and jump around, and end up hurting Duoya.

The white ermine, being picked up and put down for no apparent reason, looked utterly resigned to its fate. But it was clearly used to being handled this way, so even though Su You’s grip was uncomfortable, it didn’t make a sound.

It might not know that Su You was the master here, but it certainly understood that she was not someone it could afford to mess with.

When Duoya saw the ermine, she was momentarily stunned, and what she said next caught Su You off guard as well.

“If Lord Su finds it troublesome to keep, then just let it go.”

Let it go?

Wasn’t this her ermine?

Su You felt like something was off, but seeing how exhausted Duoya looked—and since she was about to head out herself—she didn’t have time to clarify.

Before leaving the room, Su You took the ermine with her. She had kept it because she thought it belonged to Duoya, but since that wasn’t the case, she figured she’d do as Duoya said and set it free.

It wasn’t like she couldn’t afford to feed the little thing, but Su You always felt that keeping such a pet was just a hassle.

But the usually docile ermine seemed to sense something. As Su You carried it toward the edge of the territory…

“Ch-ch-ch!!!”

The previously quiet ermine suddenly started struggling desperately, letting out pitiful cries.

Su You frowned, now even more convinced she should get rid of it.

Something that was nothing but cute, served no other purpose, and was this noisy—Su You definitely wasn’t going to keep a second one.

Just as it hadn’t been able to resist Su You’s rough handling before, the ermine couldn’t resist her intention to “let it go” now.

She set it down on the ground. Although its feet finally touched solid earth, its heart felt emptier than ever.

The ermine looked up at the human who had abandoned it here and was now walking away without a backward glance. It wanted to follow, but knowing it would just be left behind again, it ultimately stayed where it was.

……

……

“This is a wooden spear. Try it out and see if it works for you.” Su You handed the wooden spear to Lyle, and while he was testing it, she took out the gauntlets Doli had made earlier and gave them to Lake.

Lake looked at the gauntlets in surprise.

“For me?” he asked, pointing at himself in disbelief.

Su You raised an eyebrow and tossed the gauntlets into his arms. “Who else? You think I’d use them?”

With her small frame, if she tried to punch a ghost skeleton, she’d probably just tickle it—or break her own hand.

Lake couldn’t see the equipment’s stats, but he had a good eye and could tell at a glance that the gauntlets were quality gear.

He put them on and gave a few test swings, his eyes shining with delight.

Not only were the gauntlets well-made, but most importantly, they fit his hands perfectly!

A weapon’s power is useless if it doesn’t suit you. To find one that’s both powerful and a perfect fit—that’s true luck!

“Don’t worry, Lord Su! With these gauntlets, I can take down two—no, three ghost skeletons at once!”

Lyle, who had just finished testing the wooden spear and was about to speak to Su You, gripped the spear tighter when he heard this, struggling to suppress the urge to smack his brother.

Idiot…

Lyle knew Lord Su probably wouldn’t take Lake’s words seriously, but that didn’t stop him from cursing his foolish brother in his heart.

It’s bad enough that he’s dumb, but what’s worse is that he can’t keep his mouth shut—he always spills everything in just a few sentences.

“How’s the spear?” Su You asked, seeing that Lyle was silent after trying it out and thinking there might be a problem.

If there’s an issue, it’s best to fix it now. Once they’re out, having to run back and forth for equipment would just be a waste of time.

There’s a joke among players: “The first thing you do when you go out is go back home.” But it’s best if that doesn’t happen too often.

“It’s good, just not as sharp as I’d like, but it’ll do,” Lyle replied seriously.

It wasn’t as sharp as a metal weapon, but since it was made of wood, that was to be expected. For a wooden weapon, it was already quite good.

As long as it’s usable, that’s enough.

Su You nodded, then took out the prepared leather armor from her backpack.

She actually had a full set of leather armor and an extra leather tunic. The full set had been reinforced by Doli, while the single tunic was pieced together from leftover materials.

Because of limited materials, the single tunic was of average quality, but it was still better than nothing.

“There’s not much, just these. You two can divide them as you see fit.” Originally, Su You had planned to keep the leather tunic for herself, thinking she’d be acting alone.

But now that she had muscle, it made sense to equip them—after all, the better protected they were, the more likely she’d achieve her goals.

Of course, Su You wasn’t going to go completely unprepared herself—she still had a trump card for self-defense.

She only had one of these, and it was reserved for herself. But if possible, Su You hoped she’d never have to use it.

……

After some “friendly” negotiation between the brothers, Lyle ended up with the reinforced leather tunic (8+5), giving him a defense of 13, while Lake got the regular leather tunic (8) and the reinforced leather pants (5+2), for a total defense of 15.

Lake’s gauntlets also had 5 defense, but weapon defense is calculated differently from armor defense—so you can’t just add them together. So, Lake’s real effective defense was 15, not 20.

---"

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

57. Dye

Based on the Ghost Skeleton’s attack power of 20, with their new equipment, each attack would only deal 7 damage to Lyle and 5 to Lake.

And thanks to the gauntlets, in some situations, Lake would actually take even less than 5 damage… While it was impossible to block all damage, this was still a huge improvement compared to being unarmored.

With this layer of defense and now armed with weapons, the two could finally show off their skills to the fullest.

…

Once everything was ready, Su You led Lyle and Lake along the previous route to the vicinity of the mine.

Since they arrived early, the ghost skeletons all seemed to be resting, so at first glance, they didn’t see anything at all.

Lyle’s adventurer instincts made him frown slightly, as if he wanted to say something. But when he saw Su You’s calm expression, he swallowed his words.

“Lord Su, there aren’t any monsters here right now, are you planning to…” Lake’s sentence was cut short as Lyle quickly covered his mouth.

Muffled, Lake made a confused “mmmph” sound, only settling down when Lyle whispered in his ear to be quiet.

Seeing this, Su You signaled for them to relax a bit. “No need to be so tense. We’re not in the ghost skeletons’ territory yet. But once we cross over, we’ll need to be careful.”

Although it looked like nothing was there, that was because ghost skeletons had a special body type that allowed them to be “semi-invisible” in the absence of light.

And even though it was already sunrise, the sun still needed time to fully rise. Plus, this was a forest, and the tall trees blocked a lot of light, making it even harder to see anything.

After hearing Su You’s explanation, Lyle let go of Lake’s mouth. Finally freed, Lake took a deep breath. Even though he’d just heard this area was safe, he decided to play it “quiet” for now.

Otherwise, he couldn’t shake the feeling that, before any monster got him, Lyle would “kill” him first.

“We can’t see them.” Or rather, it was extremely hard to see them, which amounted to the same thing. Not being able to see the enemy would make fighting them much more difficult, since they could easily end up surrounded by ghost skeletons without even realizing it.

Su You had considered this problem, but she also had a solution. She pulled a wooden basin out of her backpack—the very same one Lyle had made for the white ermine’s bath.

Only this time, instead of the ermine, the basin was filled with a mysterious purple liquid.

“Is that… Purpleheart Flower dye?” If it was just the color, Lyle might not have recognized it. But Purpleheart Flowers gave off a unique scent—not unpleasant, but unforgettable once you’d smelled it.

So, by the smell, he identified the purple stuff in the basin.

“That’s right, it’s dye made from Purpleheart Flowers.” Su You confirmed his guess, then explained her plan.

Ghost skeletons weren’t actually that strong. As Lake had said, he could take on three by himself, and that wasn’t an exaggeration.

The real challenge with ghost skeletons was their special bodies.

Because they were hard to see, it was difficult to dodge their attacks or land hits on them—especially in poor lighting or if the light was too bright.

In dim light, you couldn’t see their transparent bodies. In overly bright light, you still couldn’t see them clearly—think of glass, but not quite the same.

Ideally, you’d be able to spot the glint of light reflecting off them, which would let you pinpoint their location.

But that was a tall order, and not something they could control. So Su You came up with another method.

“When you’re fighting, you can splash dye around the area.” Since it was plant-based dye—just plants and water—there was no risk of polluting the environment.

And if you managed to splash it onto a ghost skeleton, the dye would stick to it, making it “visible.”

Lake still didn’t quite understand why Su You had suddenly pulled out a basin of dye, or why she wanted them to splash it around… but that didn’t matter, as long as Lyle understood.

“Got it. We’ll talk it over.” While this method would make the ghost skeletons visible, it also had a drawback: it could provoke a whole bunch of them at once.

After all, if you’re splashing stuff on them and staining them, of course they’d chase you for miles.

Their main goal was to clear a path to the mine, which meant taking out any ghost skeletons blocking the way. The dye was just a tool to make that easier.

If they attracted too many at once and weren’t prepared to deal with them, it would backfire.

While the two discussed their strategy, Su You pulled out a map and surveyed the surroundings. By the time they finished, she’d already found a suitable route.

“We’re ready, Lord Su. Where should we start?” Ignoring the trees, the area was actually quite spacious. Clearing out every ghost skeleton near the mine was impossible.

But if they just needed to open up a path, that was manageable for the two of them.

“If you’re ready, let’s go. We’ll take this route.” Su You pointed to a more distant direction, where the trees were sparse and the ground was mostly free of weeds and underbrush.

With fewer obstacles, it would be harder for them to hide—but that cut both ways. The ghost skeletons would have nowhere to hide either.

And with less in the way, it would be easier for them to attack and defend—especially for Lyle, whose weapon was a spear. In cramped quarters, he wouldn’t be able to use it properly.

“Also, I’ll build a row of wooden fences here. You’ll both have permission to open the gates.” The fences were made from the last of the wood in Su You’s territory.

Both men had no objections to Su You’s plan. Since Lake’s weapon was a pair of gauntlets, he took the basin of dye from Su You.

The two of them led the way, while Su You stayed behind the safety of the fence, watching them advance. As a non-combatant, she knew better than to join the fray herself."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

58. All Data Has Been Cleared

Otherwise, if she accidentally ran into a ghost skeleton, just one hit from it would take away 20 HP—one fifth of Su You’s health bar gone in an instant. A few more hits and it wouldn’t just be her health bar that was gone—she’d be gone too.

So she had to wait until these two finished clearing out all the ghost skeletons nearby before going over herself...

Fighting while holding a wooden basin was a bit tricky, but it was clear the two brothers had worked out a strategy that, while not perfect, suited them very well.

Lake splashed dye in every corner of the area. Su You had prepared plenty of this dye—enough to turn the whole place into a sea of purple.

While Lake was splashing dye, Lyle was in charge of fending off the ghost skeletons that went berserk after being hit by the dye. Once Lake finished his task, he immediately rushed back to support Lyle.

Since they had aggroed quite a few ghost skeletons at once, neither of them intended to fight to the bitter end. Every move they made prioritized defense.

Once the two regrouped, they retreated behind the wooden fence Su You had set up.

With their teamwork and the barrier provided by the fence, they managed to defeat all the ghost skeletons that had been relentlessly chasing them. Now the ground was littered with loot dropped by the slain skeletons.

Su You counted the number of ghost skeletons they had taken down—fifteen in total.

With these fifteen gone, while she couldn’t guarantee that every ghost skeleton on this path had been cleared, there couldn’t be many left.

...

With the ghost skeletons dealt with, Su You quickly gathered all the loot from the ground, then went over to check on the two of them.

Although she couldn’t see their detailed stats, she could still see their health bars.

[Lyle]

HP: 195/230

[Lake]

HP: 205/260

...

Although Lake’s current HP was 10 points higher than Lyle’s, because his maximum HP was higher, he’d actually taken more damage.

After all, a spear has some reach, so it’s not strictly melee, and the chance of taking hits is lower.

Lake, on the other hand, fought with his fists—true hand-to-hand combat.

After checking on them, Su You handed over the healing potions she’d prepared the day before.

She hadn’t given them the potions in advance because, unlike her, NPCs didn’t have backpacks to carry things. If they carried them on their person, they might accidentally drop them during battle... So Su You kept them herself and only handed them over after the fight.

“Thank you,” Lyle and Lake said, taking the potions and downing them without hesitation. It wasn’t that they were careless—they recognized what the potions were, so they felt safe drinking them. Otherwise, Lake might have drunk it anyway, but Lyle would definitely have hesitated.

Fifteen red herbs meant fifteen basic healing potions in total. For now, Su You gave each of them three.

It wasn’t enough to fully restore them, but you could only drink three of the same potion in a short period anyway. After three, you’d get a debuff called [Potion Resistance].

[Potion Resistance]: Due to consuming too many (three) of the same potion in a short time, any further use of the same potion within the duration will have its effect reduced by 80%.

A basic healing potion restores 10 HP, so with an 80% reduction, it would only restore 2 HP.

Red herbs and water weren’t valuable, but there was no need to waste them.

Plus, the more you drank, the longer the resistance lasted—the duration increased exponentially. So, all in all, it wasn’t worth it.

The base duration of Potion Resistance depended on the potion’s grade—the stronger the potion, the longer the resistance. For basic healing potions, it lasted just ten minutes.

Ten minutes wasn’t ten hours—they could afford to wait.

“I just checked—the ghost skeletons over there should all be cleared out,” Lyle said, drinking his third potion and sharing his observations.

Su You nodded slightly and collected their empty wooden cups.

“You two should—”

[Time in the Datafied World has ended. The system is processing data...]

[Data processing complete. A total of 415,264,151 stray data entries have been generated. All data has been cleared.]

Su You had been about to suggest they rest for a bit, then the three of them could check the path ahead together. If all the ghost skeletons really were gone, they could keep moving forward and see if the road led straight to the mine... But the sudden appearance of these two system messages cut her off mid-sentence—and interrupted her train of thought.

Looking at that string of numbers, Su You couldn’t help but feel a chill run down her spine.

She’d already guessed this would happen, but she hadn’t expected the system to so “kindly” notify them.

If the stray data was really what she thought it was, did that mean these 415 million pieces of stray data... were actually 415 million lives?

As much as Su You didn’t want to admit it, deep down she knew this was the truth.

She opened her personal info panel, and sure enough, the two auras she’d had were both gone. That meant it was now 8 a.m. on the third day...

It wasn’t just her world being settled—everyone else’s was too...

“Lord Su... Lord Su?!” Lake called out, worried something had happened when Su You suddenly fell silent mid-sentence.

Su You snapped out of her shock at the system message and finished what she’d been saying.

After hearing her out, the brothers sat down to rest and had no objections. Still, Lake seemed a bit concerned about Su You’s earlier reaction.

Su You noticed his concern and casually made up an excuse to brush it off.

After all, she couldn’t exactly tell them... What, that this was just a datafied world, and they weren’t real people, just strings of data serving “real humans”?

Fortunately, Lake didn’t press the issue. In fact, after hearing her excuse, he responded earnestly.

“Don’t worry, Lord Su. Since we said we’d help, even if there are more ghost skeletons by the mine, we’ll take care of them for you. You can absolutely trust the word of us brothers!”

Su You just smiled and said nothing."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

59. As Weak as a Kitten

Lyle, standing to the side, had long since stopped caring about Lake’s habit of blurting things out—or perhaps, he just didn’t want to care anymore.

Still, Lake wasn’t wrong. Since the two of them had agreed to this task, there was no way they’d bail halfway and desert—unless there really was some kind of monster near the mine that was completely beyond their ability to handle.

But, taking advantage of the moment, Lyle decided to talk to Su You about something concerning the two brothers… namely, that both of them wanted to join the territory.

Su You hadn’t expected Lyle to bring this up at a time like this, and she was briefly taken aback when she heard it. But she quickly gave her answer.

“You’ve seen the current state of the territory for yourselves. I don’t think there’s much more I need to explain. If you want to join, you’re more than welcome.” Su You had already guessed that the brothers would want to join, but she hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.

Still, that was fine. Sooner or later, it made no real difference.

Of course, joining the territory didn’t mean they’d get food and lodging for free. Anything that should be paid for would still require payment.

After all, they weren’t working for Su You for nothing—she paid them for all their labor, so it wouldn’t make sense for her to pay them and then also provide free room and board.

The same went for Dolly.

Right now, the territory was still small, with many things incomplete and no formal rules or systems in place. But eventually, basic currency circulation and market transactions would have to be established.

“That goes without saying. We just want to join the territory, not freeload off you for the rest of our lives.”

With that, both sides quickly came to an agreement, and Su You immediately received two notifications about new applicants to the territory.

[Wanderer ‘Lyle’ has applied to join Sunset Territory. Approve?]

[Wanderer ‘Lake’ has applied to join Sunset Territory. Approve?]

[Current territory population: 2/5]

The original population cap was three, but since Residential House 2 had been completed, the cap had increased to five. Once Su You approved the brothers’ applications, the population would become ‘4/5’.

Looking back, it was lucky she’d finished building the second house last night—otherwise, only one of them would have been able to join right now.

Thinking this, Su You approved both applications and opened their profiles for a quick look.

[Lyle]

Gender: Male

Age: Young Adult

Loyalty: 75

Affection: 70

Talents: Melee (75), Carpentry (70)

Skills: Basic Melee

Traits: Keen (possesses above-average observational skills)

Description: An outstanding forest adventurer. After an incident with his former adventuring party, he began to think, “Maybe living as an ordinary person isn’t so bad.” After discussing it with Lake, the two of them left the party.

[Lake]

Gender: Male

Age: Young Adult

Loyalty: 78

Affection: 75

Talents: Melee (85)

Skills: Basic Melee (bottleneck)

Traits: Strong (possesses above-average strength), Careless (prone to irrational actions due to personality)

Description: An outstanding forest adventurer. After an incident with his former adventuring party, he left the party together with Lyle.

…

Unlike the lengthy backstories Su You had seen for other characters, Lyle and Lake’s descriptions were extremely brief—just a single sentence. This surprised Su You a little, since she’d thought they might be special NPCs like Dolly and Doya.

But her surprise only lasted a moment. After all, she’d already seen so many changes and surprises that one more didn’t really matter.

An NPC’s story usually just explains the source of their skills and traits, and sometimes offers clues for recruiting them.

The first two pieces of information were optional—she didn’t really need to know why someone had a certain skill or personality trait.

The only real use for these stories was to help with recruitment. Later on, after building a special structure, she’d be able to view all of an NPC’s information even before they joined the territory.

But Su You didn’t have that building yet, and the brothers had already joined, so it didn’t matter now.

…

After Lyle and Lake joined the territory, Su You opened and closed every information panel she could access—hoping she might find some clue about the nature of this data-driven world.

Ultimately, it was those four hundred million-plus lines of deleted “floating data” that had left her so shaken.

Even though she hadn’t known any of those people, Su You’s mood was still affected.

She wasn’t really expecting to find anything; she just wanted something to do to take her mind off things.

Unsurprisingly, she didn’t find anything special in those information panels.

“Lord Su, we’ve both rested up,” Lyle said.

Hearing this, Su You nodded, closed all the panels, and stood up.

“Alright, let’s go.”

On the way to the mine, Lyle and Lake walked ahead and behind, flanking Su You like bodyguards.

Even though they’d already checked for ghost skeletons, there was no guarantee they hadn’t missed something—after all, ghost skeletons were tricky and not easy to spot.

And even if they really had wiped them all out, there was always the chance that a few more had wandered over while they were resting. It wasn’t impossible.

Fortunately, their luck held, and neither of the two bad scenarios occurred. The three of them reached their destination without incident.

When they finally stopped at the foot of the mine, none of them could quite believe how smoothly everything had gone.

Su You walked around the mine, surveying the area, then turned to the brothers. “Could I trouble you two to scout the area? If you run into ghost skeletons or other monsters, don’t rush to fight—just focus on reconnaissance.”

Lake didn’t hesitate and nodded right away, but Lyle seemed a bit reluctant, not moving immediately.

“Lord Su, are you sure it’s safe for you to stay here alone…?” It wasn’t that Lyle looked down on Su You—it was just that she really didn’t look like someone who could fight.

And, in fact, that was true. Su You wasn’t a combatant—at least for now, she really was as weak as a kitten."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

60. The Mine Cave

But it’s fine if she can’t fight—as long as she can run, that’s good enough!

“No worries, you two just be careful. Don’t worry about me.” If Su You didn’t have confidence, she would never put herself in danger. Since she dared to let the two of them go scout around, she was absolutely sure she could get away safely.

Seeing this, Lyle didn’t insist anymore. After confirming the area was safe, he and Lake split up, heading off in opposite directions.

To prevent Lake from messing things up, Lyle even pulled him aside before leaving to give him a few extra reminders.

Once the two of them were gone, Su You decisively pulled a pickaxe out of her backpack… Just kidding—even if this wasn’t a mine but just a rocky mountain, she would still start digging right away!

She was short on more than just ore—she needed stone too!

And she needed it badly!

Since there were no more ghostly skeletons nearby, she could dig in peace without worrying about being disturbed.

After about ten minutes of digging, Su You hadn’t collected much stone yet, but suddenly saw Lake running over from the left, looking excited.

“Lord Su! Guess what I found?” He looked like he was dying to tell her, but when he got in front of her, he decided to keep her in suspense.

Su You paused her digging, thought about the situation and Lake’s expression, and made a guess.

“You found a mine cave?” After all, this was a mining mountain—what else could make someone so happy around here?

At least, Su You personally thought it must be a mine cave.

Because if there was a mine cave, she wouldn’t have to rack her brains figuring out how to mine the ore inside the mountain—they could just dig straight in along the tunnel.

Plus, caves had another advantage: being “indoors,” they were less likely to be discovered and disturbed by other creatures.

Lake: “…”

Su You hadn’t been entirely sure, but seeing Lake’s dumbfounded look, she knew she’d guessed right.

A mine cave… that really was fantastic news.

She just wondered what kind of mine it was.

Curious, Su You simply asked Lake directly.

Lake was too excited to wonder how Lord Su had guessed. Hearing her question, he instinctively described everything he’d seen.

“I’m not really sure what kind of ore it is, because the cave is really deep, and there’s no ore on the surface. It’s too dark inside, and I was worried there might be monsters or something unsafe, so I came back first…” At this point, Lake looked a little embarrassed.

He’d just found a mine cave and rushed back, hoping to surprise Lord Su, but she’d guessed the “surprise” right away!

And when she asked what kind of mine it was, he couldn’t even answer…

“Should I go back and check again? It’s not that far.” Lake was a man of action—he’d barely finished speaking before his feet were already moving.

Su You quickly stopped him. “No need, you did the right thing. Safety is the most important thing.”

The chance of monsters spawning inside a mine cave wasn’t high, but it wasn’t impossible either. Better safe than sorry.

“No rush. When Lyle gets back, you two can check it out together.” As for her, she wasn’t going.

If there were monsters, she wouldn’t be much help; if there weren’t, there was no point in her going either. At this stage, she wasn’t planning to mine ore anyway—she didn’t have the right workbench to smelt it, so mining now would just be a waste of energy. She might as well stay here and keep digging for stone.

“Alright, I’ll do as you say, Lord.” Lake was impulsive, but his biggest trait was obedience—especially to people he trusted and who were more capable than him.

His trust in Su You went without saying. With a favorability of 75, he’d basically accept any reasonable request from her unconditionally. Even if it was unreasonable, as long as Su You could convince him, he might still agree.

Not to mention, Su You was the lord of his territory… NPCs were even more likely to accept orders from their lord.

“By the way, Lyle isn’t back yet?” Speaking of Lyle, Lake realized it was still just the two of them here. It seemed Lyle hadn’t returned.

Su You shook her head slightly. “Let’s wait a bit longer. If he’s still not back, you can go check on him.”

This mountain was huge. If Lake hadn’t happened to find the mine cave, it would definitely take more than ten minutes to scout one side, so it was normal that Lyle wasn’t back yet.

“Alright… Lord, how about I do the digging?” Watching Su You struggle with the mining, Lake couldn’t stand it.

He felt awkward just standing around while Su You did all the work, so he offered to help and let her rest for a bit.

But to his surprise, instead of handing him her pickaxe, Su You pulled another one out of her backpack—players taking things out of their inventory seemed like items appearing out of thin air to NPCs, but they didn’t find it strange. For them, it was just a reasonable system setting, nothing to question.

Back to the point, Su You had brought two pickaxes this time, including the one from the reward box tied to the quest board. After all, the two main workers were here, and no one else was taking the sandstone mining quest, so leaving the pickaxe there would be a waste.

Lake took the pickaxe naturally and started digging stone, imitating Su You.

[Obtained: Stone Fragments x6]

[Obtained: Stone x2]

[Obtained: Stone Fragments x4]

…

Looking at all the stone she was collecting, Su You felt a sense of satisfaction… Mainly because she’d been so desperately short on stone before. Suddenly getting so much made her feel like she’d struck it rich overnight.

After digging for a while, Su You saw her stamina had dropped to forty, so she decisively stopped, took a break, and picked up the stones on the ground.

“You should take a break too.”

Hearing this, Lake shook his head, saying he still had plenty of strength and could keep digging, but Su You insisted he rest.

“Aren’t you going to check out the mine cave later? There might be monsters there, so don’t waste your energy digging stone now.”"

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**61. Finishing the Job Matters Most**

After hearing Su You’s words, Lake thought she had a point. He hesitated for a moment, then put down his pickaxe as well.

Su You finished picking up the items that had dropped on the ground, then took out a serving of grilled meat from her backpack and handed it to him. Even though it hadn’t been long since breakfast, all the fighting and mining had made their hunger levels drop pretty quickly.

Anyway, Su You had brought plenty of food—just the grilled berry meat alone, she’d packed ten servings, enough for the three of them to eat from morning till night.

While Lake ate, Su You also took out a portion for herself.

Before they’d even finished their grilled meat, the two of them heard some commotion from the right side of the mine.

Su You paused mid-bite, and Lake reacted quickly too, scarfing down the rest of his food in a couple of bites. He grabbed his gloves, which he’d just taken off, and strode toward the source of the noise.

“Wait, take these.” Su You took a few basic healing potions from her backpack and handed them to Lake.

…

“Lyle? Is that you?!” Lake called out tentatively. As soon as he caught a whiff of blood, his expression changed.

He couldn’t worry about anything else now—he ran straight toward the vague shadow up ahead.

When he got there, he saw Lyle lying on the ground as if completely paralyzed. Not only that, but he was covered in blood from head to toe—he looked exactly like Doya had the night before.

If it weren’t for the rise and fall of his chest proving he was still alive, Lake really didn’t know what he might have done in that moment.

Even though he knew Lyle was alive, Lake rushed to his side, wanting to help him up. But before he could touch him, Lyle—who’d had his eyes closed—suddenly opened them.

When he saw it was Lake, the sharp look in his eyes softened, and he let out a sigh of relief.

Realizing Lake wanted to help him back, Lyle took a few deep breaths and managed to say, haltingly, “I’m fine… Don’t… It’s not… dead yet… Go…”

Lake had originally intended to help Lyle back, but after hearing those words, he had to set that idea aside.

Though Lyle’s words were broken and quiet, somehow, perhaps out of instinct or understanding, Lake got the message.

He first helped Lyle drink one of the basic healing potions Su You had given him, then cautiously headed in the direction Lyle indicated.

If he guessed right, Lyle had been fighting some kind of creature—beast or monster—and both sides had ended up badly hurt.

Lyle wasn’t lying here because his injuries were that serious; in fact, he didn’t have many wounds at all. Most of the blood on him probably belonged to the creature he’d fought, not to him.

He was down mostly from exhaustion.

And the creature Lyle had fought was likely in the same state. That’s why Lyle wanted Lake to take this chance to finish it off—strike while the iron’s hot, as the saying goes. Finishing the job was crucial.

If they waited for the creature to recover, things could get ugly.

Lake made his way through the overgrown weeds, pushing aside the leaves in front of him. What came into view was a black-striped tiger, over three feet long.

Lake was startled when he saw the tiger—not because he was afraid, but because he hadn’t expected Lyle to have just been fighting a tiger!

Since when was his brother this tough?

Was he possessed by Wu Song or something?!

…Wait, who’s Wu Song again? Never mind, that’s not important.

The tiger was in even worse shape than Lyle—its body was riddled with bloody holes. Lake even noticed a few unfamiliar wounds, but he didn’t have time to examine them closely.

Apparently hearing Lake approach, the black-striped tiger, which had been lying half-dead on the ground, suddenly opened its eyes—just like Lyle had earlier.

But unlike Lyle, the tiger’s gaze was filled with nothing but ferocity.

Not that it mattered how fierce it tried to look—it couldn’t move at all now. It was basically a paper tiger, ready to fall apart at a touch.

Lake didn’t give it any time to react or recover. He put on his gloves, strode forward, and delivered a powerful punch.

Worried that one punch wouldn’t be enough, Lake put all his strength into several more blows, until his hands went numb from the force. Only then did he stop.

If Su You had been there, she would have seen that the tiger’s health bar had dropped to zero—it was well and truly dead.

But even without her, Lake could tell the tiger was as dead as could be.

After making sure he’d finished the job and there was no chance of the tiger “coming back to life,” Lake hurried back to Lyle’s side.

“Where’s the Lord?” By now, Lyle had either rested enough or the healing potion had kicked in. He couldn’t do any heavy lifting, but he could walk on his own.

He slowly got up from the ground, planning to check how Lake had handled the tiger, and just happened to see Lake returning. So he asked about Su You.

“The Lord is still over there—she’s fine. That potion you just drank was from her… When I was scouting on the left, I found a mine…” Lake briefly explained his side of things, then started asking Lyle what had happened.

“How’d you run into a black-striped tiger? And how did you beat it up so badly? I’ve never seen you this tough before—have you been going easy on me all this time?”

Lyle: “…You really think too highly of me.”

Faced with Lake’s barrage of questions, Lyle didn’t even know where to start. Things were complicated… In any case, there was no way he could have fought a tiger to a standstill—especially a black-striped tiger, known for its ferocity.

The fact that he’d managed to escape, and even kill the tiger, was nothing short of a miracle.

“Let’s talk about it when we get back—no need to worry the Lord.”

Lake was still curious about what had happened, but he knew they couldn’t afford to linger.

It wasn’t just because Su You might worry—more importantly, in a forest, the strong smell of blood would definitely attract other creatures if they didn’t leave soon.

---"

"62. Mutual Destruction

But… were they really just going to leave like this?

“What about the tiger? Are we just going to leave it there? We killed it, after all. Who knows how many valuable things there are on a tiger from head to tail…” Even a wild boar could yield a pair of tusks, let alone a tiger.

Tiger skin could be used to make gear, and tiger meat, tiger blood, tiger claws, even the internal organs—all of these were excellent ingredients or medicinal materials.

Right now, the lingering presence of the tiger was still keeping other creatures away, but as soon as they left, it wouldn’t be long before something discovered the dead black-striped tiger and picked it clean.

Just thinking about it made their hearts ache.

“You think I don’t want to bring it back? You saw it yourself—it’s at least five hundred jin (250 kg) at the very least. Are you going to carry it by yourself?” If both of them were in good shape, they might just barely manage to carry a five-hundred-jin carcass.

But in their current state, Lyle was basically a “cripple”—he couldn’t lift a hand or shoulder a load. Although Lake still had some strength left, there was no way he could drag a five-hundred-jin tiger by himself.

“But…” Lake wanted to say something, but Lyle cut him off after just one word.

“Did you forget the Lord is still here? She’ll definitely have a way to bring it back.” They didn’t know about the backpack, or how Su You could make things appear and disappear, but that didn’t mean they weren’t aware she had some kind of ability.

They couldn’t carry a five-hundred-jin tiger, but if it was broken down—skin, meat, and so on—Su You’s backpack could definitely hold it.

Even if it couldn’t, Su You could always take other things out of her backpack for them to carry, freeing up space just for the tiger.

“Let’s go back and find the Lord, then.” So Lake helped Lyle back to where Su You was digging up stones.

Su You was startled to see them both covered in blood again. She looked at them, silently asking what on earth had happened.

Originally, Lyle was going to explain, but Lake was worried he’d tire himself out, so he explained everything that had just happened instead.

After hearing the whole story, Su You was left with the same question Lake had had earlier—

“You and the black-striped tiger ended up in a mutual destruction?” Su You knew just how tough the black-striped tiger was. She’d once been blocked by one while gathering something, and had to return to the territory to bring five combat-skilled people with her to take it down.

Five people!

And one of them even had an intermediate-level skill!

Even then, when they fought the black-striped tiger, it almost managed to escape.

Her goal back then hadn’t actually been the tiger, so it wouldn’t have mattered if it got away, but after putting in so much effort, it would’ve felt like a waste to let it go. So Su You led her team to chase it down and finish it off.

If it took five people to barely handle a black-striped tiger, how could a single person possibly kill one?

Lake had said the tiger wasn’t dead yet, but from what he described, it sounded like the tiger was completely powerless to resist—basically as good as dead.

Faced with Su You’s question, Lyle explained helplessly, “It wasn’t me. How could I possibly do that? When I found it, it was already badly injured… It’s my own greed, really. Otherwise, I never would’ve gotten mixed up with it.”

Lyle wasn’t reckless, but when he saw the black-striped tiger, it really did look like it was on its last legs, and its wounds proved it wasn’t faking.

Having a black-striped tiger just lying there in front of him was like finding money on the road.

Lyle was tempted.

He wanted to kill the tiger himself.

But reason told him he should go back and tell Su You and Lake first, then decide what to do… But he worried that if he left, the tiger might run away.

So he decided to stay and keep watch, hoping that if the tiger didn’t leave, or if Su You and Lake noticed he’d been gone too long, they’d come looking for him…

It was a good plan, but the tiger was on high alert and never let its guard down. Since it wasn’t resting, Lyle didn’t dare leave either.

In the end, a small wild animal suddenly crashed into Lyle, alerting the tiger to his presence.

The little creature was small and fast, so the tiger ignored it—but Lyle wasn’t so lucky.

“Luckily, the tiger was already badly hurt, so I just barely managed to fight it for a bit…” But only just. Even a dying camel is bigger than a horse, and this was a tiger.

He used up all his strength to bring the tiger to the brink of death, but ended up completely exhausted and unable to move himself… After that, Su You and Lake heard the commotion and came over, and the rest was history.

“I see.” That made a lot more sense.

Otherwise, if an NPC with only basic melee skills could take down a tiger bare-handed… this digital world would be way too scary.

“My Lord, the black-striped tiger is dead, but the two of us can’t bring it back. What do you think…”

Lake’s words seemed to remind Su You of something. She nodded to show she understood, took out some grilled meat with berries for Lyle, then said to Lake, “Take me to see it.”

Lake nodded quickly and was about to lead the way when he glanced at Lyle.

“What about Lyle…”

Su You checked Lyle’s health: “130/230”.

He’d lost nearly a hundred points from his original 225 HP, and that was just from fighting a badly injured tiger. It was easy to imagine what would happen if he’d run into a healthy one.

But there was no “if.”

If the tiger had been healthy, Lyle never would have been able to stake it out for so long.

His health wasn’t high, but not low either. He could stay here or go back to rest.

“It’s up to you. If you’re tired, rest for a bit and then head back to the territory. If you feel okay, rest here, and after we come back, you and Lake can go check out the mine.”

Given the two options, Lyle didn’t hesitate at all and chose the second one.

So now, Lyle stayed here to rest, while Lake led Su You to where the black-striped tiger had died.

…

[Black-Striped Tiger] (Deceased)

HP: 0/1000

Attack: 50

Defense: 20

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of the provided Chinese text:

---

**63. Arrow Wound**

A thousand HP! Fifty attack! Even twenty defense!

Su You had already vaguely guessed something in her heart, but now she wasn’t so sure anymore. If it really was Duoya...

According to Su You’s reasoning, the Black-striped Tiger couldn’t have injured itself so badly, right?

So there were two likely scenarios: one, it fought with other wild beasts, lost, and escaped here.

The other possibility involved Duoya.

Although she hadn’t had time to ask Duoya what exactly happened yesterday, it was obvious that Duoya must have fought with some creature—and that creature was the Black-striped Tiger...

But after seeing the Black-striped Tiger’s stats, Su You wasn’t so sure anymore.

Did Duoya really have the ability to seriously injure a Black-striped Tiger all by herself?

Su You wasn’t certain, but she couldn’t rule it out either. After all, when she’d led people to hunt Black-striped Tigers before, all five of them were melee fighters.

But Duoya was different—she was a ranged archer.

Ranged attacks always offered endless tactical possibilities.

As long as your skills were good enough, you could use the terrain and other factors to “kite” your enemy. So, it wasn’t impossible.

“Lord, come take a look. I noticed before that this Black-striped Tiger has some other wounds... but they don’t really look like they were made by a beast or monster.” Once again by the tiger’s corpse, Laike finally had enough time to carefully examine the odd wounds he’d noticed earlier.

Hearing this, Su You squatted down beside the Black-striped Tiger to check out the strange wound Laike mentioned.

First, it was a round wound. Second, it wasn’t very large, but it was extremely deep.

Because some time had already passed, the blood had clotted over the wound, and Su You couldn’t see much else. But she was almost certain—it was an arrow wound.

Since it was an arrow wound, it was obvious who had caused it.

“Did you discover something, Lord?” Laike noticed Su You seemed to know something and couldn’t help but ask curiously.

“Looks like an arrow wound, but I’m not entirely sure,” Su You replied. Since Laike didn’t know Duoya, he couldn’t connect Duoya’s battered state last night with the Black-striped Tiger. He just looked a little puzzled when Su You mentioned an arrow wound.

He wasn’t just wondering how she could tell it was an arrow wound—after all, many weapons could cause a similar injury—but also why there would be an “arrow” here, or any wound caused by a human weapon.

Could there be other people nearby?

Or was there an incredibly skilled archer around, one who could even take on a Black-striped Tiger alone?

Su You didn’t care what Laike was thinking. She’d already taken out a stone knife and started butchering the Black-striped Tiger.

Because the tiger was so large, after confirming with Laike that he knew how to process the corpse and getting his affirmative answer, Su You immediately made another stone knife. After all, she wasn’t short on stones anymore—no need to scrimp and save over a single rock.

With two stone knives and two people working, it only took a few minutes for the five-hundred-jin Black-striped Tiger to be reduced to a big pile of loot on the ground.

And here, “a big pile” isn’t just a figure of speech—it was literally a huge pile.

**[Obtained: Premium Meat x50]**

**[Obtained: Damaged Tiger Pelt x1]**

**[Obtained: Tiger Claw x3]**

**[Obtained: Beast Tendon x10]**

...

Just the meat alone, Su You picked up nearly three stacks (20 per stack), and it was all “premium meat.”

On the Sunset Continent, most meat isn’t named after the creature it comes from. The usual types are “small chunk,” “large chunk,” “quality meat,” “premium meat,” and so on.

Tigers, for example, definitely drop premium meat. By level, that wild boar from before should have at least dropped quality meat, but maybe because it had been left too long and not harvested in time, the quality had “dropped” to regular meat (large chunk).

Of course, a few rare meats do have specific names—like dragon meat.

But that’s something everyone knows is beyond rare. “Once in a lifetime” doesn’t even begin to describe it—it’s more like “never in a lifetime.”

This time, Su You had really hit the jackpot, but these spoils weren’t actually hers. After all, the tiger was killed by Laier and Duoya, and had little to do with her.

If there was any connection, it was that Laier had used equipment provided by Su You to fight the Black-striped Tiger... which was fair enough, but Su You wasn’t about to use that as a reason to claim the loot.

After all, the equipment was something she was supposed to provide anyway, and since they’d already accomplished their goal, the equipment and the loot basically balanced out.

Because the Black-striped Tiger dropped so much stuff—just the meat took up three inventory slots, plus other items, filling up most of her backpack—Su You had to take out her second pickaxe and a bottle of unknown liquid to make room.

“Let’s go.” Seeing that nothing was left behind, Su You and Laike returned to where they’d started.

...

Seeing Su You and Laike return, Laier immediately stood up and asked, “How did it go?”

“We brought everything back. When we get home, we’ll roast tiger meat... I’ve never eaten tiger before!” Just thinking about how strong that Black-striped Tiger was, Laike was sure the meat would be delicious.

Honestly, Laike’s excitement was pretty normal—who wouldn’t want to try tiger meat if they got the chance?

But when Laier heard this, he frowned slightly.

“Don’t talk nonsense. Listen to the Lord’s arrangements.” Even though he’d brought the tiger to the brink of death and Laike had finished it off, Laier never considered the loot to be his alone.

He knew that even if he did, Lord Su probably wouldn’t mind... At least, from what he’d seen of her so far, she didn’t seem like the type to just seize all the loot for herself.

But he wasn’t going to keep it all, either.

He planned to contribute it to the territory—in other words, let Su You handle it.

Su You seemed to understand what he meant, so she said, “You do deserve a share of the loot from this Black-striped Tiger—I won’t keep it all for myself. But there’s something I need to explain to you first.”

Hearing this, Laier’s expression changed.

(End of Chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

64. I’m the One Who’s Hurt

He thought Su You had misunderstood him, but before he could open his mouth to explain, Su You’s next words caught him off guard.

“Do you two remember the person who came back seriously injured yesterday?” Su You suddenly brought up Duoya, which neither of the other two had expected.

After all, they had no idea what Duoya had to do with any of this.

At that moment, Lake seemed to realize he’d just said something he shouldn’t have… He wanted to explain, but just like Lyle, he could only hold his tongue and let Su You finish.

“She’s Duoya. And she’s an archer.”

An archer?

Lyle still didn’t understand why Su You was suddenly introducing the woman from yesterday, but Lake, who had gone with Su You to dismantle the Black-striped Tiger, for once reacted quickly.

He remembered the strange round wound he’d seen on the tiger, and also recalled Su You’s earlier assessment of the injury.

“No wonder you said it was an arrow wound…” Connecting the dots with Duoya’s miserable state yesterday, Lake suddenly understood. “So Duoya was trying to take on the Black-striped Tiger alone yesterday?! And the reason the tiger was so badly injured was because of her!”

Su You: “……” The process isn’t quite right, but the conclusion is.

Who in their right mind would try to solo a tiger for no reason?

But it was true that Duoya was the one who seriously injured the Black-striped Tiger. That much was correct.

“I see… She probably attacked the tiger to save that white ermine. That would also explain why the ermine was covered in blood.”

If she’d run into the ermine before the fight, no one would bring such a troublesome creature into battle—especially against something as dangerous as a Black-striped Tiger. And the ermine wouldn’t have been covered in blood.

If she’d found the ermine after the fight, that didn’t make sense either. She was so badly hurt, there’s no way she’d notice an ermine.

Since neither of those explanations worked, this was the only possibility.

At this point, Lyle seemed to understand what Su You was getting at. He thought for a moment, then said, “When I get back, I’ll discuss with Miss Duoya how to divide things up.”

A discussion was definitely needed. Although Duoya had crippled the Black-striped Tiger, if it weren’t for him, they wouldn’t have been able to claim it either. So splitting it between the two of them was the fairest solution.

As for why he didn’t suspect Su You of lying… there was simply no need.

If Su You were lying, it would only be to claim the spoils of the Black-striped Tiger. But yesterday, after bringing Duoya into the residence, Lyle had asked Dolly who she was.

Dolly said her name was Duoya, and also mentioned that Duoya wasn’t from the territory—just a temporary guest, like them.

Since Duoya wasn’t a resident, even if Su You said she killed the tiger, she wouldn’t get any of the loot.

After all, outsiders didn’t need to contribute to the territory the way they did.

“As long as you two work it out.” Seeing that he understood, Su You didn’t say anything more.

Because of the Black-striped Tiger, Su You’s plans had been thrown off a bit. All the tiger’s loot was in her backpack, so she couldn’t put any stones in it for now.

“I need to go back and drop some things off. Are you two coming with me, or staying here?” If they went back, they could rest for a bit. After all, today’s goal—opening a path to the mine—was already accomplished. If they needed to dig for stones, they could always come back in the afternoon.

“You two go ahead, I’ll check out the mine.” Lake didn’t want to go back; he was still thinking about that mine.

Originally, the plan was for him and Lyle to explore the mine together after Lyle returned. But since Lyle wasn’t in any shape for action, he’d just go alone.

“The mine?” Lyle finally remembered what Lake had said earlier about discovering a mine.

There could be dangers inside, so Lyle instinctively wanted to stop him.

But before he could say anything, Su You spoke up first.

“There’s no rush to explore the mine. You both should rest first and go together later. If you really don’t want to go back, then help dig some stones. Once you’re done, you can collect a reward from the bounty board.” As she spoke, Su You handed over a pickaxe and a few whetstones.

Lyle didn’t want Lake—who wasn’t exactly the sharpest—going off on his own, so he quickly chimed in to support Su You.

“The territory is still in its early stages. We don’t need ore just yet. Instead of going to the mine, why not dig more stones and help the lord gather materials for the basic buildings?” Lyle’s tone was calm and matter-of-fact, as if he wasn’t trying to subtly change Lake’s mind at all.

Lake didn’t insist on exploring the mine; he just didn’t want to go back so soon. Staying in the territory was boring, after all.

He might not be an adventurer anymore, but he still craved a bit of excitement… otherwise, he wouldn’t have become an adventurer in the first place.

“All right, I’ll stay and dig stones.” Lake nodded, taking the items from Su You.

Seeing that he really was going to stay, Su You left him not only the pickaxe and whetstones, but also some food and healing potions.

With everything settled and explained, Su You and Lyle headed back to the territory.

……

……

As soon as they returned, Su You saw that Duoya—who should have been in bed—was already up, sitting by the campfire with Dolly. It wasn’t clear what they were talking about or doing.

Hearing the gate open, the two by the fire turned to look.

Dolly was startled again at the sight of Lyle, covered in blood. She immediately rushed to Su You’s side, looking her up and down anxiously as she asked, “Miss Lord, are you hurt? What on earth happened?”

Su You shook her head to indicate she was fine, while Lyle could only tug at the corner of his mouth in exasperation.

Lyle: …Seriously, isn’t it obvious I’m the one who’s hurt here?

But grumbling aside, Lyle didn’t expect her to care about him anyway—they weren’t that close. If Dolly really did fuss over him, he’d probably feel awkward.

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your provided text:

---

65. Skeleton Horse

Just after Su You and Dolly reassured everyone that they were fine, Dolly turned to look at him as well.

“Do you need me to prepare anything for you? Like hot water, or something else?” In the past, Dolly might not have been so enthusiastic, but she’d noticed that Lyle had joined the territory… Don’t ask how she knew, she just did.

Since he was now part of the territory, that made them family—so showing some concern was only natural.

Lyle was a little taken aback by the attention. He was about to refuse, but Su You answered for him.

“Prepare some hot water so he can wash up. As for clothes…” Su You glanced at Dolly as she spoke.

Dolly immediately responded, “While you were out, I gathered some fiber scraps. It’s not a lot, but it should be enough to make a simple set of clothes.”

10 fiber scraps = 1 thread

5 threads = 1 cloth piece

5 cloth pieces = 1 linen fabric

Three pieces of linen fabric can make a linen shirt, and two pieces can make a pair of linen pants.

This was exactly why Su You had always asked Dolly to collect fiber—because a single piece of linen fabric required a full 250 fiber scraps, and a full set of linen clothes took five pieces, which meant a whopping 1,250 fiber scraps.

Although, considering that one fiber plant could yield a dozen or so scraps, collecting 1,200-plus scraps only meant gathering a little over a hundred fiber plants. Not difficult, but definitely time-consuming.

“Alright, I’ll make a set of clothes in a bit.” The reason Su You had looked at Dolly was to check on their fiber supplies. As long as they had the materials, there was nothing she couldn’t make.

Since making clothes would take some time, Lyle just did a quick wash with water for now, then went to find Doya to discuss how to divide up the spoils from the Black-striped Tiger.

While they discussed, Su You didn’t interrupt.

After preparing the hot water, Dolly grabbed her stone knife and went back out to collect more fiber. Su You, meanwhile, looked at the warehouse, which was packed with fiber, sorted it all out, and began the tedious process of crafting materials.

First, she spun all the fiber into thread, then wove the threads into cloth pieces, then into linen fabric, and finally made the clothes.

With all the workbenches running at full speed, the process took nearly half an hour. When she was done, Su You handed the clothes to Lyle and pointed to Residential House 2.

“You two will live there from now on.”

Lyle nodded, went to House 2 to change, and when he came out, he saw Su You getting ready to chop wood with an axe.

Since he was feeling much better, he wanted to help. Just then, Doya also approached Su You, as if she had something to say.

“Since Miss Doya needs to talk to you, let me handle the woodcutting,” Lyle offered.

Su You glanced at Lyle’s current status. Seeing that his previous “limb weakness” had disappeared and his “severe fatigue” had improved to “mild fatigue,” she handed him the axe.

Then Su You followed Doya to the side, curious about what she wanted to say.

“I’m not one to beat around the bush, so I’ll just ask directly. I just want to confirm one thing: can you really help me find the materials to repair that bow?” In fact, Doya had woken up last night and spent almost the whole night thinking. In the end, she felt her resolve waver.

She realized Su You had convinced her. She wanted to stay.

But staying didn’t mean giving up on finding materials to repair her bow. She simply knew that, on her own, she had no chance of getting those materials from the dragons… She couldn’t even defeat an ordinary Black-striped Tiger.

A regular Black-striped Tiger… Compared to the dragons, it was just a common beast.

Given that, she might as well put her hopes in Su You.

Even if Su You’s chances of finding Dragonbone were only 0.001%, it was still better than her own, which were 0%.

It was like trying to cure a dead horse—one that was already rotted to the bone—by treating it as if it might still live… Who knows, maybe it could be revived as a “skeleton horse”?

Su You didn’t know about all these complicated thoughts running through Doya’s mind, but she understood her meaning.

“I can tell you seriously: yes, I can.” Su You wasn’t joking. The territory didn’t even need to be fully leveled up—there would be a chance to contact the dragons before that.

Last time, Su You had already established friendly relations with another race, and in order to accept their invitation and deepen their relationship, she gave up the chance to contact the dragons, which led to losing all contact with them.

As long as she made a different choice this time and seized the opportunity to meet the dragons, there was a good chance she could trade for Dragonbone.

And that was just one possible method.

If that failed, she could always pay a hefty price to hire a certain “black market dealer” to acquire Dragonbone.

Granted, the “hefty price” here would be even higher than one might expect… but that wasn’t an issue.

As long as she could keep Doya, Su You was willing to pay the price—because she saw limitless potential in her.

“Alright, I trust you, Lord Su. I’m willing to join the territory.”

【Wanderer “Doya” requests to join Sunset Territory. Accept?】

Was there even a question?

Su You immediately accepted Doya’s application.

As she made her choice, Doya seemed to sense something. She suddenly looked up at the sky—

With no plants blocking the view, the sky was a clear blue, like a vast sea of clouds, but it seemed she wasn’t really looking at the clouds, or even the sky.

…

After Doya joined the territory, Su You was able to see Doya’s supplementary story, and also noticed some unusual things.

But before looking into those, she wanted to check the supplementary story.

Through it, Su You learned about Doya’s mother’s passing, and what had really happened to her white ermine.

The white ermine from last night wasn’t Doya’s—her own had gone “missing” some time ago.

Not long ago, she’d wandered into a dangerous place, like a maze she couldn’t escape no matter what she tried.

Just when Doya thought she’d be trapped there forever, her white ermine appeared and led her out.

(End of chapter)"

"66. Small Wooden Cart

But as luck would have it, Doya had barely left that place when she ran into a ferocious beast.

Fortunately, the beast didn’t notice her. Unfortunately, it was blocking the only way out.

By all rights, Doya—already in poor shape after being trapped for several days—shouldn’t have had any chance of escaping the beast. But at that moment, the white ermine darted out alone, drawing the beast away...

And that’s where the story ends...

Wait, no!

It actually doesn’t end there.

Looking at the last part of the story, Su You couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing.

Given Doya’s personality, she had risked her life to save a strange white ermine, nearly dying in the process. Would she really just abandon her own ermine after it lured the beast away, escaping on her own without a second thought?

If she really did run away, then the story would indeed end here. But if she instead chased after the beast, hoping to rescue her own ermine, then things were definitely not that simple.

Something else must have happened between Doya, the beast, and the ermine.

If this was just Su You’s speculation based on Doya’s NPC settings, then what she discovered next could be considered definitive proof of her theory.

In the section listing talents, Su You found something that hadn’t appeared on the tavern’s recruitment panel before.

[Doya]

Talents: Archery (88), Combat (70), Divine Archer (Not Activated)

...

Just as Su You was pondering what this “Divine Archer” talent could be, Doya suddenly patted her on the shoulder.

“Lord Su, what were you just thinking about?”

Snapping out of her thoughts at Doya’s question, Su You shook her head slightly and replied offhandedly, “Oh, nothing. I just remembered there’s someone else... That’s Lake. The one you were talking to earlier was Lyle. Lake is over at the mine digging up stones. I need to go over and bring them back now.”

“Then please go ahead, I won’t keep you.” Doya paused, as if recalling something, and added, “Oh, right—about that black-striped tiger, I’ve already discussed it with him. We’ve both decided to contribute the spoils to the territory.”

Lyle did this because he wanted the territory to develop quickly, and also hoped to become something like a “founding hero.”

As for Doya, her reason was much simpler—she wanted the Dragonbone.

Su You glanced at her, but didn’t refuse their “contribution.”

After that, Doya returned to Residence 1 to rest... Although she seemed able to move around normally now, that was only because her fracture was in her hand. Her legs were fine, but her hand would still need some time to heal.

...

...

Afterward, just as she’d told Doya, Su You really did head out to the mine. But before leaving, she stopped by Crate 3 and took out all the wood Lyle had chopped.

Flipping through the recipe list, Su You grabbed some wood and started crafting.

[Consume Wood*8 to craft Wooden Wheel*4?]

[Crafting Wooden Wheels. Estimated time: 30 seconds.]

[3 Wooden Wheels remaining. Estimated time: 90 seconds.]

...

Once the four wooden wheels were finished, Su You took out some more wood and, together with the wheels, put them all on the workbench.

[Consume Wooden Wheel*4 and Wood*10 to craft Small Wooden Cart*1?]

[Crafting Small Wooden Cart. Estimated time: 300 seconds.]

Five minutes passed quickly, and Su You obtained a small wooden cart with ten inventory slots.

[Small Wooden Cart] (Upgradeable)

Category: Tool

Quality: Common

Durability: 100/100

Description: A small wooden cart with average capacity, containing ten inventory slots. Stack limits are the same as the backpack. No restrictions on who can use it.

Although this small wooden cart wasn’t as convenient as Su You’s personal backpack, the backpack was unique to her, and she couldn’t always be the one hauling materials back and forth. So the wooden cart became the best option.

Especially since it could be upgraded: the small cart had ten slots, the medium cart had twenty, the large cart had fifty... and there was even a deluxe cart with a full hundred slots, plus increased stacking limits.

However, because the higher-level carts required too many materials—including some rare ones—the cost-effectiveness was very low. Besides, under normal circumstances, there was rarely a need to transport as much as two level-one warehouses’ worth of supplies. So, most people would only upgrade the cart to the large version at most.

...

With the cart finished, Su You took it and headed to the mine.

The journey was uneventful. When she reached the area with the ghostly skeletons, Su You pushed the cart forward while using the wooden fences she’d just crafted to fence off a safe path.

Fencing as she went, she eventually reached the spot for digging stones. But Lake was nowhere to be seen—only piles of broken stones and a pickaxe with almost no durability left.

Su You: ?

She frowned slightly, a sense of foreboding rising in her heart.

She left the cart where it was and searched the area. Not finding any obvious bloodstains or signs of struggle, her anxiety eased a little.

Still, Lake’s disappearance left her worried.

After waiting for about five minutes without seeing Lake return, Su You circled toward the left side of the mine. Logically, she should have gone back to fetch Lyle and searched together, since she herself had little combat ability.

But the mine wasn’t close to the territory—a round trip would take over an hour. With no idea what had happened, she couldn’t be sure that time was the only thing at risk...

...

On the way to the mine cave, Su You looked tense.

She reasoned that since there were no signs of struggle or blood, and since NPCs—unlike stone monsters—would leave traces if killed, Lake had probably left of his own accord.

If that was the case, there were only two places he could have gone: back to the territory, or into the mine cave.

There were several routes back to the territory, but only the one they’d cleared that morning was safe. Su You had just come from that path and hadn’t seen Lake, so the only possibility left was that he’d gone into the mine cave.

And, most likely, something had prompted him to go there.

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

67. Did He Hit His Head?

The reason Su You attributed it to external factors was because, based on her understanding of Lake, while his thought process was a bit slow and he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed… as she’d mentioned before, his greatest strength compensated for these flaws—he was obedient.

Su You had just checked the number of stones on the ground; there was no way someone could have dug up that much in just a short while.

In other words, Lake must have left not long before Su You arrived, which made her even more convinced that something else had caused him to leave.

As she pondered this, Su You arrived at the mine entrance Lake had mentioned.

The mine wasn’t very big—only wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Because of its small size, no light reached inside, and Su You’s field of vision was extremely limited.

Just as she was about to gather some materials for a light source, she vaguely heard a shout from inside the cave—a classic expletive:

“Damn it!”

Su You paused, hesitated for a moment, then decided to head straight into the mine.

That energetic shout reassured her that Lake probably wasn’t in any real danger—he’d just run into some minor trouble.

“Lake?” Su You called out tentatively, and quickly got a response.

“My lord! I’m here!” Lake sounded happy to hear her, but as soon as he remembered his current predicament, he started to panic. He quickly shouted, “Wait—be careful, don’t come in yet! There’s a pit in here, don’t fall in!”

So it was a pit… No wonder the voice sounded like it was coming from below.

With no light source, Su You didn’t dare move forward after hearing Lake’s warning. If she fell in too, that would be a real mess.

Left with no choice, Su You decided to check on his situation first.

“Are you hurt? Do you know how deep the pit is?”

“I’m fine, it’s not that deep. I’m not hurt.”

Good, at least he wasn’t injured.

“Wait there for a bit. It’s too dark for me to move around. I’ll go get something.” Su You had plenty of wood on her; she could make a wooden ladder, and then Lake could climb out.

But without a light source, she couldn’t build anything—she couldn’t see where to place things.

So she decided to go back to where she’d been mining, grab a stone, and make a campfire. Lighting equipment like campfires could be built even in the dark.

“All right, be careful, my lord.” As soon as he finished speaking, Lake heard her footsteps fading away.

The tension from accidentally falling in vanished the moment he heard Su You’s voice.

He breathed a sigh of relief and reached out to push himself up—only to grab a handful of something furry.

“…Huh, I forgot you were here, little guy.” Lake muttered as he picked up the creature and cradled it in his arms.

“Chirp!” The little thing squirmed, but if it couldn’t escape from Su You, it certainly wasn’t getting away from Lake.

That’s right—the furry creature was the white ermine Su You had “forcibly released” earlier.

For some reason, it had shown up here again… In fact, Lake had chased it all the way to the mine, which was how he’d ended up falling into the pit.

Thinking about how he’d fallen in because of this little guy, Lake felt a bit annoyed.

He ruffled its head and muttered, “What are you running out here for? Isn’t it nice enough in the territory with food and shelter?”

White Ermine: Huh? What are you talking about?

“The forest is dangerous. If you get caught by a tiger or something, there won’t be another person as awesome as my lord to save you.”

Whether it understood or not, the ermine stopped struggling.

Lake had no idea that Su You had forced the ermine to leave, nor that it had been following them since morning. As far as he knew, the ermine had just snuck out on its own.

In reality, the ermine wanted to go back, but the territory’s owner wouldn’t allow it.

…

While the man and ermine were “bonding,” Su You returned with the materials she’d gathered.

She set up a campfire and lit it. By its light, she could see the pit’s location and the inside of the mine.

She looked down and could vaguely make out a figure below.

“My lord?”

Su You couldn’t see clearly, but with the light beside her, Lake could see her just fine.

He waved, “I’m here.”

“Step aside, I’m going to lower a ladder.” Su You opened her construction panel as she spoke.

Lake immediately took two steps back, making room for the ladder.

[Consume 9 wood to build a wooden ladder?]

Wooden ladders were a special kind of structure—the amount of wood required depended on the height needed.

Once Su You chose the placement, the system would automatically set a height range, which she could adjust as needed.

For this pit, it only took nine pieces of wood to reach from the mine floor to the bottom. If she remembered correctly, each meter of ladder used two pieces of wood, and anything less than half a meter was rounded up. So, nine pieces meant the pit was about 4 to 4.5 meters deep.

That wasn’t very deep, but it was lucky that Lake was tough—otherwise, a normal person would be hurting for a while.

“All set, come on up.” Su You had planned to ask what happened after he climbed out, but as Lake started up the ladder, he seemed to run into some trouble, muttering to himself the whole way.

“Hey, don’t move!”

“I’m climbing the ladder here—stop squirming! If I fall, you won’t be happy either!”

“Ugh… stop crawling around, that tickles…”

Su You: “?”

She’d been sure Lake was fine, but now she wasn’t so sure.

Did he really not hit his head when he fell?

Why was he suddenly talking to himself?

Since the ermine was hidden in Lake’s clothes, Su You couldn’t see it, and just thought Lake was acting weird.

(End of Chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

68. The Interconnected Mine Caves

It wasn’t until Lake climbed up from below that Su You finally noticed the little creature hidden in his arms.

Perhaps it was because it recognized Su You; the white ermine that had just been lively and almost made Lake fall off the ladder was now as motionless as a perfect specimen, playing dead with a skill that had clearly improved since before.

“Hey, you were just causing trouble for me, almost made me fall, and now you know to play dead?” Lake took the ermine out of his arms, his face showing a bit of helplessness.

“Where did you find it?” Su You hadn’t cared much about the white ermine at first—after all, she was the one who had let it out herself.

But now that she’d run into it here, she decided to ask, suspecting that Lake might have come here because of the ermine.

As it turned out, her guess was right.

When Lake explained that he’d seen the ermine running out and thought it had escaped from the territory, so he’d chased after it to bring it back, Su You raised her eyebrows.

“It didn’t escape. I let it out.”

“Huh?” Lake, still stuck in the mindset of “this ermine just doesn’t know how to enjoy a good life,” was stunned.

Su You looked at the ermine. When it heard her words, it turned to her with teary eyes, looking so pitiful that Su You almost seemed like a heartless scoundrel who’d broken its heart.

“Squeak...”

Unfortunately, Su You was unmoved. When the ermine saw she wasn’t softening, it suddenly broke free from Lake’s arms and leaped to the edge of the pit.

Maybe it jumped a bit too hard, because it nearly lost its footing and almost fell back into the hole.

Luckily, it didn’t fall this time. Last time, it had Lake to break its fall, but if such a small creature suddenly dropped down, who knew what might happen?

“Ch-ch-ch!” Once it steadied itself at the edge, the ermine began waving its paws excitedly at the two of them, hopping up and down and chattering in words they couldn’t understand.

Su You frowned. She had a feeling the ermine was trying to tell her something... Suddenly, her gaze shifted to the walls of the mine cave.

She saw that the inner walls of this so-called “mine cave” were covered in nothing but stone—there wasn’t the slightest trace of ore.

Lake, curious about what Su You was looking at, glanced around as well.

“There doesn’t seem to be any ore here?” As soon as he said it, Lake felt like he’d just stated the obvious.

But that wasn’t the point. The real question was—why would a mine cave have no ore at all?

Could it just be a stone cave?

Impossible!

Knowing this was a mine, if there was a naturally formed cave, it had to be a mine cave, not just a cave full of plain stone.

“Squeak!” Seeing that neither Su You nor Lake was paying attention to it, the ermine grew anxious.

It squeaked again, and when it saw both of them look its way, it darted down the wooden ladder Su You had set up and slipped back into the pit.

“Hey!” Lake was startled and hurried over to the edge, peering down to check on the ermine. When he saw it standing safely at the bottom, he finally relaxed.

Before he could say anything, he saw Su You, who had been standing behind him, walk over and follow the ermine down the ladder.

“My Lord!” Lake was truly bewildered now. He had no idea what was going on... It was one thing for the ermine to go down, but why was the lord going too?

Was there some kind of treasure down there?

...And Lake was right! There really was something down there!

Su You knew that a cave in a mine should be a mine cave, so when she saw that the walls of this surface-level cave had no visible traces of ore, she began to suspect... suspect that this might be an interconnected mine cave.

An interconnected mine cave, as the name suggests, is formed by at least two connected caverns. The outermost layer has little or no exposed ore, while the real ore is hidden in the inner cave.

Given the current situation, this pit was likely a passage connecting two mine caves!

...

Watching Su You go down, Lake wasn’t sure if he should stay above in case something happened, or follow her down...

Just as he was about to go down, he heard Su You’s voice from below—

“Lake, bring a burning stick and hold it at the entrance to light things up.” Su You still had materials for a campfire, but the space below was just too cramped.

With the ladder in place and her standing there, there was no room for a fire, so she had to rely on this more troublesome method for lighting.

“Okay!” Lake turned, grabbed a burning stick, and returned to the entrance.

To shine the light further down, he even stretched his arm down as far as he could.

“That’s good, just like that.” With enough light, Su You could finally see what was at the bottom of the pit.

Without light, all she could see was stone walls, as if it were just an ordinary pit—nothing special.

But now, with the light, she could clearly see that one of the stone walls had a color and pattern completely different from the others.

Su You picked up the pickaxe Lake had left behind and tapped on that wall... The sound was crisp and resonant.

After confirming the spot, Su You raised the pickaxe and started digging at that wall.

Above, Lake couldn’t see what was happening below since he was holding the burning stick, but when he heard the familiar sound, he knew what Su You was doing.

In less than three minutes, the fire burned out.

Just as Lake was about to ask if she needed more light, he heard the sound of rocks collapsing from below.

“So it really is an interconnected mine cave...” Su You looked at the “hidden world” behind the stone wall, muttering to herself as her gaze fell on the ermine, who had been staring at her with eager eyes ever since she’d come down.

Lake’s voice drifted down from above. Su You pulled her gaze away from the ermine and called up, “You can head back now. And when you go, remember to take the stones you dug out with you...”

(End of chapter)"

"69. A Good Meal

“There’s a wooden cart over there—you can load the stones onto it.”

When Su You told him to head back, Lake was naturally uneasy. He had no idea what was happening below; all he knew was that when he returned with another torch, he found the bottom of the pit completely empty—not a soul in sight.

Lake: …!?!

Fortunately, Su You responded to his calls, letting him know she was safe.

“This is a series of connected mines. I’m in another tunnel, and it’s safe here.” Su You paused, then continued, “I’ll head back after I finish checking things out here. Once you’ve taken the stones back, if you have time, chop some wood. I’ll need a lot of lumber and stone this afternoon for building.”

“And pass a message to Dolly for me—ask her to gather more red berries. We’ll have a good meal tonight.”

Not only had they opened up a new path to the mine today, but they’d also caught a black-striped tiger… and now, they’d even discovered a network of connected tunnels!

With one piece of good news after another, tonight definitely called for a celebratory meal.

After relaying all these instructions, Lake was still reluctant to leave, but he chose to follow orders.

“All right then…” Lake said helplessly. “I’ll head back now. Please be careful, my lord.”

Once Lake left, Su You prepared to explore the second tunnel. But before going in, she crouched down and reached her hand out to the white ermine.

“Come up.” Maybe it really understood her, because the ermine didn’t hesitate at all—it scampered up her arm and perched on her shoulder.

Its tiny, nervous paws clung to her clothes, while its long tail draped across the back of her neck.

With the ermine in place, Su You steadied herself against the cave wall and slowly moved forward. As she went, she kept her construction interface open, always on the lookout for a spot to place a campfire.

She didn’t know how long she’d been inching along before she finally found a clearing big enough for a campfire. The moment the fire was lit, it felt like her entire world brightened.

Now, Su You could finally see where she was—a vast, open cavern, completely different from the cramped tunnel above.

Even better, she could see traces of various ores in the rock walls. Just at a glance, she spotted three types: coal, copper, and something called “Refined Magic Ore.”

Coal and copper were self-explanatory—the former was fuel, and with coal, Su You could finally craft basic portable lighting.

As for copper, its main use was to make tools and equipment of the corresponding tier. Besides that, copper could be used to mint copper coins—currency in this world could actually be crafted.

Not just copper—silver and gold ore could also be made into silver and gold coins.

But usually, people didn’t do this. Ores were a limited resource—once mined, they were gone, and they were consumed in huge quantities.

Once a trading post was built, currency could be obtained infinitely through trade.

Ores could also be traded for, but merchants rarely had much in stock. The main source was still to find and mine them yourself.

As for Refined Magic Ore, even though it was an ore, it couldn’t be used to craft anything directly. Instead, it was an enhancement material—people liked to call it “enchantment material.”

Its main use was to add it during crafting, which would increase the chances of getting better attributes or higher quality on the finished item.

It sounded impressive, but early on, it wasn’t very useful, since you needed the right crafting skills.

Without the proper skills, Refined Magic Ore was useless—Su You didn’t even have any NPCs who could craft things yet.

Still, as long as there was copper, this mine was decent quality… What Su You feared most was ending up with a silver or gold mine.

Although silver and gold were more valuable than copper in every way, mining silver required a copper pickaxe, and mining gold required a silver pickaxe…

Luckily, that wasn’t the case here—whether that was good or bad luck, she wasn’t sure.

“Did you know there was a mine here?” Instead of immediately digging, Su You turned to look at the little creature on her shoulder after spotting the copper.

In response, she got an innocent look.

‘Chirp?’ What are you talking about?

Su You: “…” She almost forgot—they didn’t speak the same language.

Since they couldn’t communicate, Su You let the matter drop… though in her heart, she already had her answer.

After all, Lake had been led here by the ermine, and she’d only started investigating the surface tunnel after noticing the ermine’s odd behavior—only then did she discover the interconnected mines…

Since they couldn’t chat, Su You stopped trying and picked up her pickaxe, ready to dig up some coal and copper to bring back.

…

While Su You was mining, the white ermine hopped down from her shoulder. It sat obediently by the campfire, watching her dig for a while, then twitched its nose…

Even though Su You was focused on mining, she kept an eye on the ermine out of the corner of her eye. At first, seeing it quietly by the fire, she didn’t think much of it. But just a few minutes later, when she glanced over again, the ermine had vanished.

Noticing this, Su You paused for a moment, but didn’t stop mining to look for it. She chose to keep working.

[Obtained Coal x6]

[Obtained Copper Ore Fragments x48]

[Obtained Copper Ore x5]

[Obtained Copper Ore x8]

…

Copper ore fragments were similar to the sandstone shards she’d found before—both had their own drop rates when mining. The difference was, sandstone shards were useless, but copper ore fragments could be refined in a furnace to extract copper, though at a lower yield.

Normally, one copper ore smelted in a furnace would yield one copper ingot, but it would take 10–20 copper ore fragments to smelt a single ingot.

The efficiency depended on the furnace’s level—the lower the level, the less efficient the filtering, and the more fragments it took. Higher-level furnaces were more efficient and used fewer fragments.

Given her current setup, these 48 copper ore fragments were worth less than two and a half copper ingots—but every little bit helped.

(End of chapter)"

"70. Wealth and Disaster

Of course, the most important thing was that Su You had enough backpack space to carry all this copper slag!

Ores usually stacked in groups of twenty, while copper slag stacked in fifties, so after all that digging, Su You had only used up three backpack slots.

After a while, Su You figured she had enough copper and decided to take a break, leave the mine, and head back to her territory.

Before leaving, Su You glanced around, looking for the white ermine. As her gaze swept across the cave, she finally spotted a snow-white ermine… or rather, its butt, sticking out from a small corner.

Su You: ???

She paused for a moment, then walked over to see what kind of trouble the ermine was getting itself into this time.

“Eek?!”

As soon as she approached, the white ermine seemed to hear her footsteps and started struggling frantically.

It was only when she saw it struggling that Su You realized the ermine must be stuck.

There seemed to be a small hole here. The ermine had squeezed its front half inside, but perhaps because it was too chubby, its back half was stuck at the entrance.

Su You reached out, grabbed the other half of the ermine, gave a gentle tug, and pulled it out of the hole.

Ding—

Just as the ermine was pulled free, Su You saw something arc through the air in a perfect parabola, landing on the ground with a crisp sound.

Before Su You could see what it was, the ermine darted over, picked it up, and scampered back toward her, tail wagging.

When it reached her, it eagerly placed the object in Su You’s hand.

“Eek!”

“What’s this…” The color looked familiar to Su You, and she thought she recognized it, but wasn’t sure.

“Eek eek eek!!!” After dropping the item in Su You’s hand, the ermine ran back to the spot where it had gotten stuck and began frantically scratching at the stone wall.

Having seen something similar before, Su You had a hunch. She took out her pickaxe and tapped on the wall.

Unlike the last time, when the sound was long and clear, this time it was dull and muffled, not at all like a hollow stone wall.

Su You didn’t give up. She methodically tapped her pickaxe along the entire stone wall, and finally, at a spot slightly below the right side, she noticed something unusual.

The sound here wasn’t crisp, but not completely dull either. It was odd, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

She ran her hand over the stone, noticing the texture was different from the surrounding rocks. Su You decided to check the information on this section of the wall.

[Marble]

Category: Material

Quality: White

Description: A type of material used in construction. Requires a copper pickaxe to mine.

…

The rest of the wall was ordinary stone, but this spot was marble, which could only be mined with a copper pickaxe. Anyone could tell there was something special about this place.

But knowing was one thing—there was nothing Su You could do about it right now, since she only had a stone pickaxe.

Still, compared to whatever might be hidden behind the marble wall, Su You was more interested in the little white ermine tugging at her pant leg.

She bent down and picked it up, and at the same time tried to check its information…

This ermine kept finding things—clearly, it wasn’t an ordinary animal. In Sunset Continent, almost everything could be inspected by players, but the rarer or more special something was, the less information would be revealed.

Su You had assumed it was just a normal ermine, so she hadn’t bothered checking before—after all, inspecting uncollected resources or living creatures consumed energy.

Here, “energy” meant hunger and stamina.

That was why Su You didn’t inspect everything she saw—her stamina and hunger bars couldn’t handle it.

But now that the ermine had shown its unusual abilities, Su You didn’t mind spending a bit of stamina and hunger.

[??·White Ermine]

Level: 3 (5/300)

Potential: 90

Skills: Basic Tracking, Treasure Seeking (locked), ?? (locked)

Description: An ermine that looks ordinary but isn’t. Likes berries and meat, not picky, will eat almost anything, but its absolute favorite is the phoenix fruit. Feeding it phoenix fruit will significantly boost its stats.

…

After reading this, Su You’s expression grew complicated.

She never expected this ermine to have such high potential, multiple skills, and even a prefix.

Potential, as the name suggests, refers to how powerful and effective a creature’s skills can be—the higher the potential, the stronger the skills and their effects.

Prefixes don’t just appear on creatures like this ermine; any item, tool, or equipment can have a prefix.

If a tool or item has a prefix, it means it has some special property.

For example, a [Durable·Stone Axe] will last longer than a regular stone axe because of the “Durable” prefix.

When a creature has a prefix, it usually means it has legendary bloodline.

Maybe because this ermine was still low-level and weak, its prefix was sealed, so Su You couldn’t see the details.

But judging from the two visible skills, Su You suspected its ancestor might have been a treasure-hunting beast. In other words, its prefix was probably “Treasure-Seeking,” making it a [Treasure-Seeking·White Ermine].

That would explain why it was so good at finding connected mines, and even a second inner mine.

Even though its treasure-seeking skill wasn’t unlocked yet, with its inherited bloodline, simply finding ores in a mine was no challenge at all.

So now the question was: knowing this was a treasure-hunting beast, should Su You let it go?

“…” Su You glanced at the ermine clinging to her and couldn’t help but frown slightly.

Anyone else would have accepted it without hesitation—after all, with a treasure-hunting beast and proper training, who wouldn’t be able to find mountains of gold and silver in the future?

But things weren’t that simple.

Because everything in this world is balanced.

A treasure-hunting beast may bring endless wealth, but it also brings disaster.

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of the provided Chinese text:

---

**71. Copper Tools**

Since the white ermine possesses a treasure-seeking bloodline and can even activate prefixes, this proves that its bloodline purity is quite high. Such bloodlines are attractive to all living creatures.

If it were a fierce beast, this bloodline would grant it even greater combat power, allowing it to dominate in battle and easily kill any creatures coveting its bloodline.

But the white ermine is clearly not a combat beast.

Without fighting ability, there are only two possible outcomes for it—

One: it gets eaten by an enemy attracted by its bloodline, who then absorbs its bloodline for themselves.

Two: it’s clever and resourceful enough to protect itself without brute force... But let’s be honest, without Sun Wukong’s protection, what are the chances that Tang Sanzang would have made it safely to the West?

To other wild beasts, the white ermine is basically no different from Tang Sanzang’s flesh—this is why Su You called it a disaster.

Thinking about it, this also explains why the white ermine was caught by the Black-striped Tiger, and why the tiger fought so hard—getting seriously injured—before finally letting the ermine go. Maybe the tiger was drawn by the ermine’s bloodline in the first place.

If she really chooses to raise the white ermine, things like this will definitely keep happening. She’ll have to take responsibility for her choice—she’ll have to become the Sun Wukong who protects “Tang Sanzang.”

But at least Sun Wukong had the power to protect him. What ability does she have right now?

...

While Su You was pondering the issue of the white ermine, the little creature had been watching her the whole time.

Perhaps it sensed that Su You was deciding whether to keep it or not, so the ermine was extremely nervous—so much so that its fur stood on end, even more than before.

Cautiously, it wrapped its four paws around Su You’s hand and nuzzled her palm in a fawning manner.

The soft, fluffy touch made Su You look down at the little creature in her grasp.

“Behave yourself from now on. Don’t run around for no reason. If you get caught by a beast or a monster, I won’t come to save you.” With that, Su You casually placed the white ermine on her shoulder and left the mine.

Although the ermine didn’t understand what Su You just said, it at least knew that this human wasn’t going to drive it away.

...

...

The first thing Su You did after returning to her territory was to use the stone materials Laike had brought back to build a furnace for smelting ore.

With a furnace, she could make copper tools to improve work efficiency.

She first put the copper ore she’d previously mined into the furnace and smelted it into usable copper ingots.

Back in the chain of mines, Su You had dug up a total of fifteen pieces of copper ore, which yielded fifteen copper ingots after smelting.

As for the copper slag, Su You didn’t plan to use it for now, so she just stored it in a chest.

With these fifteen copper ingots, Su You planned to make two copper axes (cost: 2 wood, 1 copper ingot each) and two copper pickaxes (cost: 3 wood, 2 copper ingots each).

**[Copper Axe]**

Category: Tool

Quality: Green

Attack: +2 (Attack Damage: 10)

Durability: 150/150

Description: An axe made from copper ingots, with higher tree-chopping efficiency and much greater durability than a stone axe.

**[Copper Pickaxe]**

Category: Tool

Quality: Green

Attack: +2 (Attack Damage: 10)

Durability: 150/150

Description: A pickaxe made from copper ingots, with higher mining efficiency than a stone pickaxe, able to mine more types of ore, and much greater durability.

After making these four tools, Su You’s fifteen copper ingots were quickly reduced to nine.

But she wasn’t done yet.

She went back to the furnace, put in some string, coal, and a few copper ingots.

**[Do you want to use String*2, Coal*1, Copper Ingot*2 to craft a Portable Copper Lantern?]**

**[Crafting: Portable Copper Lantern. Estimated time: 300 seconds]**

**[Portable Copper Lantern]**

Category: Tool

Quality: Green

Durability (Burn Value): 100/100

Description: A basic portable light source, mainly fueled by coal. Burn value can be replenished by adding coal: 1 coal = 50 burn value. The lantern’s brightness can be adjusted. At minimum consumption, a full burn value lasts about 100 minutes; at maximum, about 50 minutes.

Su You picked up the lantern, inspected it, and nodded in satisfaction before squatting down by the furnace to prepare her next item.

After making the lantern, she was left with only seven copper ingots. She put three more in to make a copper pot.

**[Do you want to use Copper Ingot*3 to craft a Copper Pot?]**

**[Crafting: Copper Pot. Estimated time: 300 seconds]**

Because she didn’t have a pot before, Su You couldn’t cook many foods, even though those recipes offered the best value.

Take, for example, the “Meat Soup” she’d likely be eating most often in the future:

**Meat Soup** (requires: Small Meat*2, Water, and a ‘Pot’): Hunger +80, quenches thirst, keeps for two days.

If she roasted the small meat, each piece would only restore 30 hunger, but turning it into soup restores a whopping 80—almost as much as three pieces of small meat!

Not only that, another recipe called “Berry Meat Soup” is also highly efficient:

**Berry Meat Soup** (requires: Small Meat*2, Berries*2, Water, and a ‘Pot’): Hunger +120, quenches thirst, keeps for two days.

Just by adding two berries, the hunger restored jumps by 40 points.

For reference, the most efficient early-game food—roasted berries—only increases a single berry’s hunger value to 10, while in berry meat soup, each berry is worth 20 hunger!

Looking at these numbers, it’s clear how cost-effective these recipes are.

As for Su You’s hunger cap being only 100—how could she eat something that restores 120 hunger? Well, there are four people in the territory, and one pot of soup isn’t enough for everyone anyway. She’d need at least four pots, so there’s no need to worry about that.

Although these recipes call for small pieces of meat, there’s actually no difference between small and large meat. Large meat can be used in these recipes too, and with fewer ingredients.

By weight, the ratio of small to large meat is 2:1, meaning one large piece equals two small pieces. So, to make meat soup, there are two possible recipes:

One is [Small Meat*2, Water], the other is [Large Meat*1, Water].

(End of Chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**72. Building the Post Station**

The same logic applies to berry meat soup.

As for premium meat and gourmet meat, their quantities are the same as regular large cuts of meat. However, when used in cooking, the difference is that the resulting dishes taste better, restore more hunger, and have a small chance of granting a beneficial aura.

Thinking about all these cooking recipes suddenly reminded Su You that she still had a copy of [Advanced Cooking Skill Book] stashed away in her chest.

Since she didn’t have any cooking talent herself (physically incapable), and she certainly wasn’t going to become the territory’s chef in the future, she’d just left the skill book untouched… She’d almost forgotten it existed.

Although there were now four people in the territory, none of them had any cooking-related talents. Even though cooking skills weren’t particularly useful at the moment, Su You didn’t want to waste the skill book… After all, it was an advanced one.

Giving it to a random NPC with no talent would be a waste; she might as well sell it for some money.

So after thinking it over, Su You decided to keep the skill book for now. When the tavern refreshes in a couple of days, she’d see if she could recruit an NPC with some cooking talent. That way, someone else could handle the cooking, and she wouldn’t have to do it every time.

...

Once everything that needed to be crafted was done, Su You rummaged through the chest next to the bounty board.

Besides the tools she’d put in there, there was also the wood that Lake had collected while she was out with the wooden cart. Su You counted and found nearly two hundred pieces of wood.

“My lord?”

Just then, as Su You was counting the wood, Lyle returned with another batch he’d just chopped.

He was pushing a wooden cart—something Su You had given him permission to craft at the workbench before she left the territory.

Before they had the cart, Lake and Lyle had to carry everything by hand, which was obviously inefficient. Now, with the cart, their efficiency had increased several times over.

Looking at the cart, Su You asked, “About how much wood is here?”

Lake thought for a moment and then gave her a number.

“Around seventy pieces… If that’s not enough, my lord, I can go chop more right now.”

Seventy pieces, plus the nearly one hundred ninety in the chest… That was plenty.

Su You shook her head and told him to take a break.

Having someone keep working after collecting over two hundred pieces of wood would be too much, even if materials were scarce—Su You wasn’t that heartless.

“Chopping trees is important, but you should rest first. Otherwise, your efficiency drops and it’s counterproductive.” NPCs’ chopping speed also depends on their stamina, so Su You preferred efficient, well-paced work over long hours at low efficiency.

“I’ve put the newly made copper tools in here. Use these from now on—stone tools are retired for now.”

“Understood.”

“Go ahead and turn in your quest. I’ll be able to build two more structures soon.”

Lake nodded and submitted all the wood from the cart, earning 14 copper coins. With what he’d saved up before, he now had 82 copper coins.

After he finished, Su You took all the wood out of the chest and went to the workbench to start crafting materials.

While Su You was crafting, everyone had lunch together. After lunch, they all went back to their respective tasks.

Duoya was still resting due to her hand injury. After lunch, Dory followed Su You’s instructions and continued gathering fiber. Lake, after a short break, returned to the mines to dig for stone. Lyle, upon learning the territory was short on wood, grabbed a copper axe and went back out to chop trees nearby.

As for Su You herself, seeing that the territory was running low on whetstones and with no one else available, she planned to go out and dig up some whetstone and sandstone once the materials were ready and the buildings were placed.

Su You brought the materials to the appropriate workbenches and began synthesizing.

The most troublesome thing about Sunset Continent was this: gathering resources wasn’t hard—just chop and dig. Synthesizing resources wasn’t hard either—just toss them on the workbench. But it all took a lot of time.

Synthesizing a single material might only take a minute or two, but when you have a lot, it adds up to ten or twenty minutes. And because you need to synthesize so many times, it effectively increases the workload.

Plus, because of the material tier system… Tier 2 materials must be synthesized from Tier 1, and Tier 3 from Tier 2. You can’t just use a bunch of Tier 1 materials to make Tier 3 directly, which makes the process even more tedious.

Fortunately, the workbenches in Sunset Continent can be placed and used simultaneously. Otherwise, just synthesizing materials would keep Su You busy for ages.

Originally, Su You only had three basic workbenches, plus a portable one, for a total of four. But now that things were getting busy, she made two more and set them up.

Now, next to the territory’s heartfire, there was a whole row of busy workbenches—a pretty impressive sight.

If she had more people, Su You would definitely assign someone just to watch over the workbenches…

She didn’t know how long she waited, but at last, Su You got the materials she needed.

【Obtained Planks x10】

【Obtained Stone Bricks x10】

With the materials in hand, Su You pulled up the building she wanted to construct and began adjusting its placement.

She walked over to the spot opposite the tavern—this was a central axis formed by the heartfire and the gate, a spot symmetrical to the tavern.

After careful measurement and adjustment, Su You placed the building.

【Consume Planks x10, Stone Bricks x10 to build Post Station?】

【Constructing: Post Station. Estimated time: 600 minutes】

With the tavern and the post station, the left and right sides of the territory now had landmark buildings.

With these landmarks, Su You no longer had to worry about misaligned construction.

She then took out another set of materials, ready to build the warehouse she’d been wanting.

【Consume Planks x10, Stone Bricks x5 to build Level 1 Warehouse?】

【Constructing: Level 1 Warehouse. Estimated time: 120 minutes】

Just these two buildings used up a full 240 pieces of wood and 60 pieces of stone. The 260 pieces of wood she’d just collected were instantly reduced to a tenth of that.

Good thing Lake and Lyle were so efficient at gathering materials, and that Su You had Dory stop collecting fiber and switch to chopping wood. Otherwise, she really wouldn’t have been able to get both buildings done today.

(End of Chapter)"

"73. Organizing the Warehouse

After finishing a round of construction, Su You grabbed her copper pickaxe and headed to the sandstone resource point...

...

...

By evening, Su You had already mentioned that they’d be having something nice for dinner and had even sent Dolly out to collect berries. So, she came back from the stone monsters a bit earlier than usual, ready to start prepping dinner as soon as she returned to the territory.

There was no other choice—Dolly was a well-known kitchen disaster. As for the other three, maybe Duoya could cook, but with her injured hand, even a five-star chef would be out of commission.

As for Lake and Lyle, neither of them had any cooking talent. Of course, not having talent doesn’t mean you can’t cook at all, but to avoid wasting ingredients, Su You decided to handle it herself.

She’d promised a good meal, but with limited ingredients, the best she could manage was something like berry meat stew or grilled meat.

Even though the variety of ingredients was limited—just meat and berries—the quality of the ingredients made up for it.

With blue-quality premium meat, even if you accidentally overcook it, the flavor is still top-notch.

Su You picked out some of the meat she’d collected earlier and made it all into grilled meat, skewers, jerky, and similar items to extend their shelf life.

As for the premium meat dropped by the black-striped tiger, Su You set some aside for the berry meat stew, but didn’t turn the rest into jerky like the other meats, even though it would last longer that way.

Jerky keeps for a long time, but the downside is that it’s not very cost-effective, and no matter how good the ingredients are, turning them into jerky won’t give any extra attributes. So making jerky out of premium meat would just be a waste.

“Lord, is there anything I can help with?” Lyle, who had just finished chopping wood and was heading back to rest, saw Su You busy by the hearth and offered to help.

Su You glanced at him, handed him a wooden spoon, and motioned for him to keep an eye on the heat.

“This is stew. It’ll be ready in about half an hour. Remember to stir it every few minutes so it doesn’t burn on the bottom.” With a recipe, Su You could have just used the workbench to make food automatically, but food made at the workbench doesn’t get any bonus attributes.

Otherwise, if workbench-made food had extra attributes, there’d be no point in NPCs having cooking skills—Su You could just build dozens or hundreds of workbenches and do it all herself.

“Alright.” Lyle took Su You’s place and kept an eye on the stew.

Even though it was just a simple meat stew, the addition of sweet and tart berries gave the copper pot a delicious aroma—a mix of meaty richness and fruity tang—that made everyone’s mouth water.

Even though Lyle wasn’t all that hungry, he couldn’t help but swallow as the smell teased his senses.

With someone watching the pot, Su You had some free time and started moving everything from the wooden crates into the warehouse.

There were still thirty minutes until dinner—plenty of time for Su You to get the warehouse fully organized before the stew was done.

While sorting the warehouse, Su You glanced at the workbench, grabbed some wooden planks, and built a third residential house next to the post station.

Residential House 1 was for Dolly and Duoya, Residential House 2 for Lyle and Lake, so naturally, Residential House 3 would be for Su You herself.

Technically, as the city (territory) lord, Su You had a special building called the “City Lord’s Mansion” she could live in, but due to lack of materials, she couldn’t build it yet, so she’d have to make do with a regular house for now.

Once House 3 was built, Su You got to work organizing the warehouse.

...

The bulk of the inventory was basic resources, which took up the most space. So, all the wood, stone, fiber, and other basic materials that had been stored in the wooden crates were moved into the warehouse.

Besides the basic resources, Su You also moved all the food into the warehouse, since it had a function to slow down spoilage.

While moving supplies, Su You took the opportunity to take stock of what the territory currently had.

First, the commonly used basic materials: Branches x58, Bark x74, Charcoal x74, Ash x19, Wood x124, Wood Blocks x14, Pebbles x26, Stone x8, Fiber Scraps x957, Twine x4, Sandstone x98.

Then, the food: Small Grilled Meat x3, Berry Grilled Meat x15, Small Jerky x8, Large Jerky x20, Large Cuts of Meat x13, Premium Meat x47.

Looking at all this, Su You was grateful that the warehouse had a stacking limit of 100, so items that would have taken up over thirty slots only used a bit more than twenty.

Even so, the once-empty warehouse was now more than half full.

With supplies on hand, the foundation for survival was set. Seeing the well-stocked warehouse finally gave Su You a sense of security.

Of course, this wasn’t all the territory’s resources—there were still other items, like wild boar tusks, deer antlers, animal hides, sinew, copper ingots, and so on, that weren’t stored in the warehouse.

The reason was simple: since there weren’t many of these items, keeping them in the wooden crates was enough. There was no need to waste a warehouse slot (with its 100-stack limit) on them.

With the warehouse now holding all the bulk materials, Su You reorganized the two wooden crates by the hearth.

One would hold tools, the other miscellaneous materials.

Now that they had plenty of stone—and even copper ingots—Su You was able to replenish all the tools they’d been missing.

Currently, the territory’s tools were roughly as follows:

Stone Axe x1, Stone Pickaxe x2, Stone Shovel x1, Stone Hammer x1, Stone Knife x2, Stone Hoe x2, Portable Copper Lantern x1, Copper Axe x2, Copper Pickaxe x2, Whetstone x12.

Except for special items like whetstones, all other tools couldn’t be stacked, so it was necessary to have a separate crate just for tools.

However, the tools in this crate were mostly old or rarely used ones.

The copper axes and copper pickaxes, for example, were kept in the crate bound to the bounty board (Crate 3).

Speaking of the bounty board, now that they’d discovered a mine and had a basic resource cycle going in the territory, the tasks on the board had also changed.

[Take Care of the Fields]

Posted by: Lord

Objective: Tend the fields (0/4)

Reward: 5 copper coins

Required Tools: None

[Collect Wood] (Repeatable)

Posted by: Lord

Objective: Submit wood (0/10)

Reward: 1 copper coin

Required Tools: Copper Axe (To borrow this tool, pay a 2-copper usage fee and a 30-copper deposit; deposit will be refunded when the tool is returned.)

(End of Chapter)"

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

74. Little White?

[Collect Stone] (Repeatable)

Posted by: Lord

Quest Objective: Submit stone (0/10)

Quest Reward: 1 copper coin

Quest Tool: Copper Pickaxe (Usage fee: 3 copper coins, Deposit: 60 copper coins)

[Collect Sandstone] (Repeatable)

Posted by: Lord

Quest Objective: Submit sandstone (0/6)

Quest Reward: 1 copper coin

Quest Tool: Copper Pickaxe (Usage fee: 3 copper coins, Deposit: 60 copper coins)

[Collect Fiber] (Repeatable)

Posted by: Lord

Quest Objective: Submit fiber scraps (0/150)

Quest Reward: 1 copper coin

Quest Tool: Stone Knife (Usage fee: 1 copper coin, Deposit: 10 copper coins)

...

Besides these, there were also quests specially prepared for Duoya, like ""Collect Meat"" and ""Collect Animal Hides,"" but since Duoya hadn’t recovered yet, those could be set aside for now.

Looking at all this, it became clear that the territory actually had a big problem: there was no ""income.""

All these quests were collection tasks that Su You paid for out of her own pocket. With no source of income, the little money she had wouldn’t last more than a few days.

Su You already had a solution in mind, and that was ""trade."" That’s why she was so eager to get the courier station built.

Although the merchants at the courier station were random and might not have what she needed, that didn’t matter—trade always goes both ways.

It wasn’t just about buying from them; as long as she had something the merchants wanted, she could also make money by selling to them.

Of course, this wasn’t a stable source of income.

After all, merchants didn’t come every day. A territory’s stable development shouldn’t rely on external trade, but rather on internal circulation. So merchant trade was just a way to relieve some pressure; the real solution to economic problems still depended on developing the territory itself.

...

...

In the evening, Su You looked at the blooming sunset flowers, then asked Lake to bring out the berry and meat stew and set it on the table inside the tavern—the table was something Su You had just found time to make at the workbench.

Besides the table, Su You had also made some chairs.

On the table, aside from the stew, there were a few other simple dishes. It wasn’t much, but for everyone present, it was enough.

As they ate and drank, the initial silence gradually faded. Someone started a conversation—no one could remember who—and soon everyone was chatting naturally.

Lake was a talker, and Dory played along. With those two lightening the mood, they listened to Lake recount thrilling adventures he’d had with Lyle in their old adventuring days, and to Dory sharing funny stories she’d seen or heard while traveling with merchant caravans. All in all, it made for a very lively and enjoyable dinner.

Even Duoya, who was usually quiet and reserved, was drawn in by the atmosphere and occasionally joined the conversation. Most of the time, though, she was looking after the white ermine sprawled across her lap, slowly chewing on jerky.

...

After dinner, aside from the injured Duoya and Su You—who was ""not allowed"" to help—the other three began clearing the table.

Su You sat and rested, watching them tidy up, when suddenly she heard a question from beside her.

""Lord, have you given it a name yet?"" Duoya reached out with her uninjured hand and scratched the white ermine under its chin.

Su You paused, then shook her head slightly. ""If you like, you can name it.""

Knowing herself, if she had to name the ermine, she’d probably just give it some meaningless, half-hearted name...

Like... Little White?

But honestly, she didn’t even want to give it a perfunctory name. It felt both pointless and, in a way, too meaningful.

Duoya didn’t know what Su You was thinking, but she didn’t rush to name the ermine just because Su You said so.

After all, Duoya had once had a white ermine of her own. Even though it was gone, she couldn’t just ""find a replacement"" because of that.

To humans, a name might not seem like much, but for them, it’s something that stays with them for life.

""Since you haven’t decided yet, let’s just leave its name blank for now.""

Su You made a noncommittal sound in response, then stood up and walked over to the recruitment point inside the tavern.

Opening the recruitment interface, she saw that the information about Duoya had disappeared. The whole panel now just showed a countdown with ""???"".

Su You closed the recruitment screen and switched to the territory information panel.

[Sunset Territory]

Lord: Su You

Territory Level: Small Camp (Upgrade to Medium Camp at 5 population and 20 Prosperity)

Territory Prosperity: 12.9

Territory Reputation: 1

Territory Population: 5/5

Territory Aura: Initial Protection

Territory Events:

I: [A dark force seems to be quietly approaching...]

Seeing that prosperity had increased again, Su You skillfully opened the detailed information panel to check the situation.

[Level 1 Warehouse completed, Territory Prosperity +1]

[Territory population reached five, Territory Prosperity +3]

[First time using high-grade ingredients to cook for all territory residents, Territory Prosperity +0.5]

...

Su You could understand the first two, but as for the third... well, it was just another thing she hadn’t encountered before.

She was getting used to it, though. After confirming the current prosperity value, she started thinking about how to quickly raise it to 20 and upgrade the small camp to a medium one.

There were two buildings under construction: [Residential House 3] and [Courier Station]. Once Residential House 3 was finished, it would provide 1 point of prosperity. As for the courier station... if nothing had changed, it should provide 3 points.

In addition, the first time she hosted a merchant, that would also grant prosperity. She couldn’t remember exactly how much, but it shouldn’t be more than 3 points.

After these two buildings were done, the territory’s prosperity would only reach 16.9, still 3.1 short of the upgrade requirement.

But then again, by all rights, the tavern should also provide 3 prosperity points after completion, just like the courier station. So why hadn’t it?

Su You didn’t quite understand.

Was it because buildings constructed with building cards didn’t grant prosperity?

That didn’t seem reasonable...

After all, prosperity reflected the territory’s overall development. Even if the tavern was built with a card, it was still a tavern, still a building. Its essence hadn’t changed.

""Miss Lord, we’ve finished tidying up. What should we do with the tables and chairs... should we just leave them in the tavern?""

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your provided Chinese text:

---

**75. Territory Events II & III**

This line was spoken by Dolly.

She had just finished cleaning up the leftovers with Lyle, and now, looking at the tables and chairs, she wasn’t quite sure what to do with them, so she thought she’d come out and ask.

Upon hearing Dolly’s question, Su You was about to reply, but then something suddenly occurred to her, and her expression shifted slightly.

“Just leave them there—it’s a hassle to move them anyway… Sorry, I have something to take care of. I need to head to the tavern for a bit.” As Su You spoke, she started walking toward the tavern.

Dolly wanted to say something else, but seeing Su You’s hurried demeanor, she swallowed her words… After all, it wasn’t anything urgent. She could always bring it up again when the young lady lord had some free time.

Meanwhile, Su You arrived at the tavern, which was empty at this hour.

To confirm her suspicion, Su You opened the tavern’s individual information panel.

Actually, Su You had already checked the tavern’s info before, but she hadn’t expected anything to change, so she’d only glanced at it. Seeing it matched her memory, she hadn’t bothered to look at the other pages.

But in fact, there was another page after the tavern’s main info that Su You had overlooked.

**[Tavern – Interior Furnishings]**

Already placed: Long bar counter x1, round stool x1

Not yet placed: Round stool x4, small square table x2, regular wooden chair x4, double window x2

…

After reading this page, Su You had six comments she wanted to make—

Su You: …

No wonder… So there were still things that hadn’t been set out…

Come to think of it, it was Dolly’s earlier question that gave her the hint, reminding Su You that these buildings also had a “storage” function—though here, the storage could only hold furniture bound to the building.

Bound furniture refers to the exclusive furniture that comes with these buildings. Such furniture can only be placed inside their designated building; if you take it out of the building’s area, it will instantly “disappear” and be automatically stored back in the building’s storage.

Su You rarely used this feature before, since buildings constructed with materials would automatically place their furniture, so it was normal for her not to remember.

Standing there for a few seconds, Su You took a deep breath and then placed all the unplaced items.

As soon as the last piece of furniture was set, she received a notification:

**[Basic furniture placement complete. Once you assign a manager and stock goods appropriate for this building, the tavern can begin normal operations.]**

Su You glanced at the notification, not paying it much mind.

The first thing she did when the notification appeared was open the territory panel.

**Territory Prosperity: 15.9**

**[Tavern construction complete. Territory Prosperity +3]**

…

Good.

Su You was left speechless and a little exasperated at her own oversight.

Now that the territory prosperity had reached 15.9, once the post station was finished tomorrow, it would rise to 19.9… That number left Su You even more speechless.

But getting that last 0.1 prosperity would be easy—she could just build something random.

However, Su You didn’t want to build things at random, since that would waste both materials and territory space.

Her next building goal was the Quest Hall, which required [Planks x10, Stone Bricks x5, Marble Bricks x5].

She had the first two, and as for marble bricks, like stone bricks, they’re synthesized from lower-tier materials—“3 marble = 1 marble brick.”

Conveniently, Su You now had the copper pickaxe needed to mine marble, and she’d already found a marble deposit. Tomorrow, she could go mine marble there, and also check what resources might be in the second inner chamber of the chain cave.

…

Another day passed.

On the fourth night in the game, Su You finally managed to rest on an indoor bed.

Meanwhile, in the territory, as the countdown for a certain building ticked to zero, not only did it reveal its completed form, but it also triggered a brand new territory event.

**II: [Thanks to the post station, merchants and caravans from across the continent will begin visiting the territory. Be sure to prepare enough money or goods to gain greater leverage in trade negotiations.]**

**III: [Thanks to the post station, travelers will also start visiting the territory…]**

When Su You woke up, she immediately noticed the new Territory Event II. She stared at the message for a few seconds, then closed the panel and got up to eat something to restore her hunger.

With no more countdowns to track, Su You had lost her sense of precise time.

The only thing that could still reliably indicate the time was the sunset flower, but its effect was limited—it could only calibrate sunrise and sunset.

As soon as Su You stepped outside, she saw Lake sitting by the central fire, waving at her.

“Good morning, my lord.”

“Morning.” Su You paused and greeted him back.

“Do you have any plans for today, my lord?” Although yesterday’s berry-meat stew didn’t have any special attributes, perhaps because it simply tasted so good, Lake had eaten and slept well, and was now full of energy.

“You can take any of the tasks posted on the bounty board,” Su You said, pointing to it. “Starting today, the tavern will be open. If you need food, you can buy it there from now on.”

Lake had no objections. They’d agreed from the start that only housing would be free—not everything in the territory.

In fact, Lake had heard that in other territories, wanderers had to pay to join.

Not only that, but houses in the territory also cost money.

But their lord had waived the joining fee, and even provided free housing.

In other words, this residential house #2 would be home for the two brothers from now on.

Of course, calling it “free” wasn’t entirely accurate, since they had contributed their labor… For example, though they helped defeat the ghost skeletons, all the loot from those skeletons went to Su You.

And then there was the half black-striped tiger.

It was “half” because the other half belonged to Doya—Lake and Doya had agreed to split it fifty-fifty.

Even though Doya had contributed more, without Lake, she wouldn’t have gotten anything at all.

So a fifty-fifty split was fair.

Neither Doya nor Lake were the type to haggle over every little thing, so it only took a few words to divide up the black-striped tiger’s loot.

(End of Chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**76. Great Wealth**

Not only had all the wealth been distributed, but even the final choices everyone made were the same—they all chose to contribute to the territory.

Last night, Su You had already taken some food from the warehouse and put it up for sale in the tavern. While it’s not entirely accurate to say that you can’t sell things without NPCs, it’s pretty close.

After all, without NPCs, there’s no one to collect money, restock goods, or serve customers. Everything relies on the customers to help themselves, and payment is entirely on the honor system.

But since there are so few people right now, and Su You didn’t think any of them would just “steal” food without paying, she simply opened up access to the tavern.

As for pricing, since all the food available was just ordinary fare with nothing special, Su You set the prices based on how much hunger each item restored.

1 copper coin = 20 hunger points. Even with nonstop labor all day, at most you’d spend just over twenty copper coins to be full.

Since this is a basic necessity, Su You didn’t set the price too high. After all, if people can’t even afford to eat, it would obviously lower the residents’ goodwill toward the territory—that is, their loyalty.

As for their income, that’s harder to say, since everyone works at a different pace. But as long as they aren’t slacking off, they can earn at least two or three days’ worth of food money in a single day—maybe even more.

Speaking of money, it’s worth mentioning how much Su You has on hand right now.

Originally, she had 6 silver coins and 136 copper coins. Converting that for convenience, that’s 736 copper coins.

Previously, when Lyle and his brother killed the ghostly skeletons, Su You picked up some coins from the loot—fifteen ghostly skeletons in total, dropping 53 copper coins. Adding that to her previous amount, she had 789 copper coins.

But after these past two days of expenses, those 700-plus copper coins had dwindled to just over 400. At this rate, in less than two days, Su You wouldn’t have enough money to post tasks on the bounty board anymore…

But it’s fine, because Su You actually has a huge fortune in reserve.

And the source of this wealth is the Black-striped Tiger.

Aside from a pile of meat and materials, the Black-striped Tiger also dropped 12 copper coins, 16 silver coins, and… 1 gold coin.

Doya and Lyle contributed the tiger’s loot, which naturally included this windfall.

At a 100:1 exchange rate, sixteen silver coins equal 1,600 copper coins—not to mention the gold coin!

That’s a whole 10,000 copper coins!

In short, this sum greatly eased Su You’s financial troubles, allowing her to establish a currency cycle in the territory ahead of schedule.

…

After chatting with Lake, Su You gave Dory a couple of instructions, then set off toward the chain mines as she’d planned yesterday.

Before leaving, she was pestered by a certain white ermine. But before it could pester her for long, under Su You’s cold stare, the ermine blinked pitifully, then turned around and sat with its back to her.

The little gesture made it look as if it had suffered some great injustice—and the one who’d wronged it was Su You.

Seeing this, Su You almost laughed in exasperation.

Was she unwilling to bring the ermine along?

Absolutely!

But why?

She was going out to explore and take care of important business, not to play tourist or pretend at house. Why would she bring a pet along?

Especially a pet that could attract all sorts of random creatures at any moment… Wouldn’t that just be asking for trouble?

Fortunately, although the ermine was a bit clingy, it knew when to back off and didn’t throw a tantrum. Otherwise, Su You would have to seriously consider whether to keep it around.

Unaware that it had almost been abandoned again, the ermine watched Su You’s departing figure, waving its tail a bit forlornly. In its eyes, besides grievance, there was a hint of other emotions… but those were feelings Su You was destined never to see.

…

…

Returning to the chain mines, Su You made her way to the marble deposit and took out the copper pickaxe she’d prepared in advance.

With the sound of clanging metal, a good amount of marble dropped to the ground. As usual, Su You didn’t pick up the resources as she mined; instead, she waited until she was done, then gathered everything at once.

Otherwise, bending down over and over to pick things up would be exhausting.

She didn’t know how long she’d been at it, but by the time her full-durability copper pickaxe was worn down to half, she finally saw a small gap in the area she’d been digging.

“…This opening is pretty small,” Su You thought. Yesterday, she’d tried to estimate the hollow area behind the marble wall by tapping and listening for echoes. She found that although the whole wall was marble, the hollow part was only behind the lower half.

Knowing this, she could have started digging directly into the hollow section, but she didn’t. She wanted to confirm the maximum size of the opening, so she extended her digging a bit beyond her original plan before breaking through.

The result made her frown—it really was tiny, like a ventilation duct, just big enough for a person to crawl through, with no room to turn around.

In other words, once you go in, you have to crawl all the way to the end—there’s basically no way to back out.

Su You stared at the opening for a while, but in the end, she decided not to crawl through to see what was on the other side.

Not only did she not go in, she even dug up two more pieces of regular stone and blocked the opening.

With that done, Su You started collecting the marble on the ground.

Given the current building materials, Su You remembered that many structures required marble—like the blacksmith, carpenter, food shop, weapon shop, armor shop… basically, all the shops needed marble.

Even the lord’s manor required marble, though it used marble slabs (3 marble bricks = 1 marble slab) instead of bricks.

In short, Su You needed a lot of marble.

But there was no way she could gather so much on her own, so she only collected enough for the quest hall construction, then went back to mining copper ore.

Copper ore could be used to make all kinds of tools, as well as weapons and armor. Su You hadn’t forgotten that in about five days, she’d have to lead the territory’s residents in defending against an attack from dark creatures.

(End of chapter)"

"77. Tusk Dagger

[Obtained Copper Ore x4]

[Obtained Copper Ore Residue x8]

...

As Su You mined more and more ore, the durability of her copper pickaxe dropped to its last point.

She took out a whetstone and used it on the copper pickaxe. Normally, a single use of the whetstone would fully restore the durability of a stone tool, but when repairing the copper tool, it took two uses—and even then, the durability wasn’t fully restored.

If repairing a stone tool gives +100 durability, then repairing a copper pickaxe only gives +70 per use. Even after two repairs, that’s just +140 durability, while the copper pickaxe’s max durability is 150.

After repairing her pickaxe, Su You didn’t continue mining. Instead, she gathered all her loot and left the mine, heading back to her territory.

The first thing she did upon returning was to take out the marble she’d collected and start making marble bricks. The quest hall required five marble bricks, and since it took three pieces of marble to make one brick, the seventeen pieces she’d gathered were just enough.

[Use Marble x15 to craft Marble Brick x5?]

[Crafting: Marble Bricks. Estimated time: 120 seconds.]

[Remaining: Marble Brick x4. Estimated time: 8 minutes.]

...

While waiting for the marble bricks to finish, Su You rummaged through a wooden box and found the wild boar tusks she’d collected earlier.

She planned to use these tusks to craft two daggers.

Although wild boar tusks could be used to make other things besides daggers, the other items either required materials Su You didn’t have, or the crafting process would damage the tusks, wasting their value.

But with tusk daggers, there was no such waste—she just needed to polish the tusks a bit and they’d serve as sharp blades.

Making tusk daggers required two workstations: a furnace and an intermediate workbench.

Su You already had a furnace, so she put in two of the last four copper ingots she had left from yesterday.

[Consume Copper Ingot x2 to craft Copper Dagger Blades?]

[Crafting Copper Dagger Blades. Estimated time: 300 seconds.]

With the dagger blades done, it was time for the edges.

The crafting process for tusk daggers was to first forge the metal dagger blades in the furnace, then place the tusks on a workbench of the appropriate level to process them into tusk edges, and finally combine the blades and tusk edges on the workbench.

Wild boar tusks were of relatively high quality, so a basic workbench wasn’t enough—Su You had to upgrade it to an intermediate workbench to process the tusks.

Upgrading a basic workbench to intermediate required [Plank x5, Stone Brick x5, Copper Ingot x2]... It might seem simple, but later on, the amount of materials needed for crafting increases dramatically, and one workbench just isn’t enough.

And that’s just the materials for upgrading a single workbench.

But for now, Su You didn’t need that many, so upgrading just one would do.

Conveniently, after making the dagger blades, she had exactly two copper ingots left.

Even if she didn’t, it wouldn’t matter—she’d just mined about ten more copper ores. If she ran out, she could always smelt more.

[Consume Plank x5, Stone Brick x5, Copper Ingot x2 to upgrade Basic Workbench to Intermediate Workbench?]

[Please cancel any tasks and remove all items from the workbench before upgrading. All commands and items on the workbench will be cleared during the upgrade, and the workbench will be unusable during the process.]

Su You had already chosen an unused workbench to upgrade, so she didn’t even bother reading the prompt and just hit “Upgrade.”

[Workbench upgrading. Estimated time: 10 minutes.]

“Milord, what are you making?” Laike asked, pushing a wooden cart loaded with rocks. When he saw the two wild boar tusks in Su You’s hands, his eyes lit up with excitement and a hint of awe.

Before Su You could answer, he parked the cart by the bounty board and hurried over to her, curiously eyeing what she held.

“Are those... boar tusks?” Laike wasn’t sure at first, but when Su You nodded, he instinctively glanced in a certain direction, then turned back, looking at her with admiration. “Did Miss Duoya kill that one too?”

If it had been before, even if Su You told him the boar was killed by Duoya, he’d have been skeptical. But after the black-striped tiger incident, Laike now automatically associated anything impressive with Duoya.

Unfortunately, he was wrong—this boar had nothing to do with Duoya.

Su You didn’t mention the mysterious creature, just said it wasn’t Duoya who killed the boar. Laike didn’t press further.

He didn’t seem disappointed by her answer. Maybe, to him, it didn’t matter who killed the boar—he still thought Duoya was amazing.

After all, anyone who could seriously injure a lively tiger with just a bow and a few arrows was obviously formidable.

As they spoke, the dagger blades finished in the furnace. When Su You took them out, Laike’s eyes lit up again.

He saw the dagger blades and the boar tusks. With his adventurer’s experience—well, actually, anyone could guess what she was making—Laike was no exception.

“Milord, are you making tusk daggers?” Laike realized he was asking the obvious.

Luckily, Su You didn’t mind and simply confirmed it.

“In a few days, some merchants or caravans should pass through. A tusk dagger should fetch a good price,” Su You said casually, but it caught Laike’s attention.

He immediately reached for his pocket and pulled out a coin pouch.

“How much do you want for it, milord? Name your price—I’ll buy it! After all, it’s better to keep the profit in the family!” Of course, Laike wasn’t buying the dagger for himself—he didn’t use such weapons.

As Lyle had said before, Laike preferred using his fists. The gauntlets Su You gave him after the last quest were now his prized possession.

The one who really needed a dagger was Lyle.

In a straight-up fight, Lyle couldn’t beat Laike—Laike was naturally strong, and his fists were his weapons. With a weapon against someone unarmed, it was only natural for Lyle to lose.

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your provided Chinese text:

---

**78. Blue Powder**

But if Lyle were to use a dagger, the situation would be completely reversed. After all, he had specifically trained in dagger combat and knew exactly how to maximize the weapon’s damage through angles, speed, and force.

Lake actually used to have a very good dagger—one far superior to this tusk dagger. But during a previous adventure, Lyle accidentally lost it in an extremely dangerous place while saving him.

Since it was such a perilous location, there was no way they’d risk their lives just to retrieve a single item.

So ever since then, Lyle hasn’t had a weapon that really suited him. He’s just been making do with whatever is available... In fact, the best weapon he’s used recently was probably the wooden spear Su You casually crafted for him out of wood.

“I’ve always wanted to get him a dagger, but Lyle keeps saying none of them are suitable... I think this one’s pretty good. Lord, would you be willing to name your price?”

Unexpectedly hearing yet another story, Su You glanced at Lake, who was looking at her with eager, nervous eyes, and she smiled and nodded.

“Sure, I wasn’t planning to sell both of them anyway.”

“Huh?” Lake was momentarily stunned, as if he hadn’t quite processed what she meant.

Su You shook the two tusks at him. “I’m planning to make two tusk daggers, but I’ll only sell one to the merchant.”

In other words, she had already decided to keep one dagger. As for who it would ultimately belong to, that was a matter for later.

In fact, Su You didn’t mind giving the dagger to Lyle for free—she’d even intended to do so from the start.

After all, equipping them would only strengthen the territory’s fighting power, and with the loyalty these two brothers had shown, there was little risk of them running off.

Not to mention, the territory still owed them for the Black-striped Tiger...

Even though they contributed unconditionally, as the lord and representative of the territory, she felt she should do something to make them feel their efforts were worthwhile.

It wasn’t just Lyle who would get a tusk dagger—Su You had also started preparing to find materials to make a bow for Doya.

Her previous bow had been completely broken during the fight against the Black-striped Tiger. To carry the white ermine, Doya had discarded the damaged bow, and now even its “remains” were lost somewhere in the forest.

That bow, unlike the Dragonbone Bow, didn’t have any special significance; it was just something Doya had casually bought from a weapons shop in her old village. So its loss didn’t really matter.

However, her father’s bow—before leaving the territory to rescue the white ermine, she’d buried it somewhere nearby...

Actually, when Su You first heard Doya mention this, she suspected Doya had already been thinking of staying. The Black-striped Tiger incident was just the final push.

...

In any case, when Lake heard that Su You had already intended to give the dagger to Lyle, he was clearly overjoyed.

Although he didn’t show it outwardly, Su You could see on Lake’s information panel that both his loyalty and affection values had shot up.

【Lake】

Loyalty: 89

Affection: 85

...

Su You knew exactly what those double-eighty stats meant.

While she had indeed hoped to boost both Lyle’s strength and their loyalty and affection, she hadn’t expected it to go so smoothly.

Since the numbers had risen so quickly, Su You decided not to dwell on whether to sell or gift the dagger—she just made her choice.

She placed the prepared wild boar tusks into the now-upgraded intermediate workbench. Then, as the tusk blade and dagger hilt fused together, she added some blue powder into the furnace.

This blue powder was actually the third type of ore she’d discovered in the chain mines earlier—Refined Magic Ore.

【Refined Magic Ore】

Category: Material

Quality: Blue

Description: Refined Magic Ore appears as a blue powder. When added during item crafting, it has a small chance to improve the item’s quality, and also increases the probability of special attributes appearing. Only copper or higher-tier pickaxes can mine Refined Magic Ore.

As the description indicated, unlike copper ore, Refined Magic Ore didn’t drop as a whole chunk, nor was it a standalone mineral like coal—it came as a blue powder.

This powder didn’t need further processing and could be directly added during crafting at the workbench, giving a small chance to improve quality or add special attributes.

Before returning, Su You had already planned to make the tusk daggers, so she’d specifically mined some Refined Magic Ore.

Although a copper pickaxe could mine Refined Magic Ore, since the pickaxe was only green quality and the ore was blue quality, the efficiency was greatly reduced.

It took Su You as much time as it would to mine seven or eight pieces of copper ore just to get three portions of Refined Magic Ore—two for the tusk daggers, and one for the bow she hadn’t yet gathered all the materials for.

While Su You was crafting the tusk daggers, Lake stayed nearby, watching the whole time. So he naturally saw her add the Refined Magic Ore to the workbench.

He didn’t know what the blue powder was, but that didn’t stop him from guessing that the tusk dagger would be an amazing weapon.

After the first dagger was finished, Lake was itching to take a look, but Su You casually put it away in her backpack.

Lake opened his mouth, about to say something, but when he saw Su You preparing another set of materials, he wisely kept quiet.

He really wanted the tusk dagger—or more accurately, he really wanted to help Lyle get it—but he wouldn’t interfere with Su You’s work.

Partly because he wasn’t the type to do that, and partly because he trusted the lord’s promise.

Since the lord had already said she’d give one to Lyle, she would. There was no reason for her to lie—otherwise, when he’d just offered to buy it, she could have just gone along with it...

Even though he’d promised not to interfere, Lake didn’t leave. He went back to submit the last bit of stone from the cart for the mission, then continued to wait by Su You’s side.

Then he saw Su You take the second dagger hilt from the furnace, retrieve the second tusk blade from the intermediate workbench, and assemble the two parts.

Just as before, when assembling, Su You also added some Refined Magic Ore to the workbench.

(End of chapter)"

"**79. Rewards from the Territory**

Just as the second Fang Dagger was about to be finished, Dory and Lyle happened to return together from outside the territory.

One of them was carrying a wooden basket filled to the brim with fibrous scraps, while the other was pushing a small wooden cart loaded with wood.

Both of them saw Su You by the workbench—and also saw Lake, who was staring longingly at Su You... or rather, at the workbench beside her.

Lyle instinctively frowned. He didn’t even bother to turn in his quest before heading straight over to Su You and Lake.

Just as Lyle was about to ask his big, somewhat clueless companion if he’d gotten himself into trouble again, a brand-new dagger appeared in front of him.

“Try it,” Su You said, tossing the Fang Dagger directly to Lyle. He hadn’t quite processed what was happening, but his reflexes kicked in and he caught the dagger.

He didn’t know exactly what was going on, but that didn’t stop him from noticing that this was a dagger of exceptional quality.

He spun the dagger skillfully in his hand, his satisfaction plain to see.

Because he was so pleased, when Su You asked how it felt and whether it suited him, his affirmative answer was almost instantaneous.

From the feel, to the weight, to the size, the curve of the blade, and the shape of the edge—there wasn’t a single thing Lyle was dissatisfied with.

If he didn’t know for a fact that Su You had never asked for his preferences, Lyle would have suspected this dagger was custom-made just for him.

“This dagger is great, it’s perfect for...” Lyle started to say something, but swallowed his words at the last moment and changed his phrasing: “It’s perfect for combat.”

Su You didn’t care what he’d originally wanted to say; she only cared whether the dagger was useful for Lyle.

“As long as you think it suits you,” Su You said, starting to tidy up the leftover materials.

...That’s it?

No follow-up questions or comments?

She was just giving him this dagger, just like that?

Her casual attitude, as if she were giving away a common weed or a wildflower from the roadside instead of a high-quality dagger, left Lyle at a bit of a loss.

...Even though he’d guessed Su You might be giving him the dagger, now that it was actually happening, Lyle found himself unsure how to react.

He couldn’t quite understand why Su You would suddenly give him a dagger.

Lyle tightened his grip, feeling how perfectly the Fang Dagger fit his hand... A weapon this handy and well-made was truly rare.

A weapon that fits is far rarer than a powerful one; after all, the latter can be crafted from countless rare materials, but the former is something you can only hope to come across.

“May I ask, my lord, what material is this dagger made from? I can feel a strange sort of...” Lyle paused, searching for the right words.

After a moment, he continued, “I feel a kind of indescribable... connection with it.”

“That’s the effect of refined magic ore. You could think of it as a kind of magic,” Su You explained. She wasn’t sure if Lyle knew what refined magic ore was, but that was about all she could say.

Anything else was either inconvenient to say to an NPC, or they wouldn’t understand it even if she did.

Lake didn’t know what refined magic ore was, but hearing the name and Su You’s explanation, he seemed to guess something and didn’t ask further.

“Thank you, my lord. So, about the price of this dagger...?”

“There is no price, because this is a reward from the territory to a resident who has contributed to it,” Su You refused his attempt to pay. If they were to actually discuss the price, this Fang Dagger was worth far more than Lyle could afford right now.

Even though the blade was made of simple copper, thanks to a stroke of luck, the refined magic ore Su You had added earlier gave the dagger a very special attribute.

Not only did this make the dagger much more effective, it also multiplied its value several times over.

“...” Su You’s answer was just what Lyle expected.

Since she’d said so, Lyle didn’t insist on paying. After thanking Su You, he dragged Lake away with him.

As he left, Su You could clearly see the loyalty and favorability values on Lyle’s info panel shoot up.

【Lyle】

Loyalty: 85

Favorability: 80

Though not as high as Lake’s, both values had reached the “double 80” standard.

...

After Lake and Lyle left, only Su You and Dory remained.

Dory had watched the whole dagger-gifting process in silence. When Lyle received the dagger, her eyes were filled with obvious envy.

But it was only envy—there were no other negative emotions.

And she wasn’t envious because Lyle got a handy weapon—she wasn’t a fighter, after all. Even if she got the dagger, it would be like using a legendary sword to chop vegetables—a total waste.

What she truly envied was that Lyle had received a gift from the lord on behalf of the territory.

Su You naturally noticed Dory’s feelings, but she didn’t say anything, acting as if she hadn’t seen a thing.

“Dory, I need your help with something,” Su You said as she opened Dory’s info panel.

Seeing the stats—an 81 and a 90—Su You felt a flicker of emotion, but quickly returned to her usual calm.

Throughout, her face showed no obvious emotion—at least, Dory didn’t notice anything.

“Yes, my lady?” Dory replied, looking quite happy to be asked for help. She didn’t hesitate, smiling as she answered.

“I need some tough, flexible wood to make something. If you see any such trees while gathering fiber in the forest, note their location and let me know.” The “something” here, of course, referred to the bow Su You planned to make for Doya.

Su You had already checked the nearby trees herself, but hadn’t found anything suitable.

To avoid wasting other materials, she decided to keep looking.

“Alright, no problem.” Dory nodded, then asked, “I remember willow, purple cedar, and walnut are all pretty tough and flexible... Is that what you’re looking for, my lady?”

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**80. Resonance**

“Yes.” The three types Dory mentioned were indeed all good materials for making bows, but in reality, there were more options than just those.

Su You thought for a moment, then added, “There’s also red maple, cloud oak, sugar cane wood… You don’t need to go out of your way to look for them. Just keep an eye out when you’re gathering supplies in the forest.”

Although Dory didn’t recognize some of the woods Su You listed, it didn’t matter. There were plenty of suitable types, and it wouldn’t hurt if she didn’t know a few of them.

Dory earnestly memorized everything Su You said.

“Alright, then leave it to me, my lady. You can rest assured.” With that, Dory picked up her stone knife and got ready to head out.

Seeing that Dory was about to leave again right after just returning, all because of a single request, Su You couldn’t help but frown, a strange feeling welling up inside her.

Dory’s sincerity was genuine—her behavior and even the stats on her information panel proved that. But Su You still felt that Dory’s affection for her was growing a bit… too quickly.

So quickly, in fact, that it was almost uncanny.

They’d only known each other for three days, and her affection was already at ninety-two… If the affection cap wasn’t one hundred, and if it didn’t get harder to increase as it got higher, Su You would have suspected that Dory’s affection might have broken two hundred before the merchant even arrived.

Sure, they were NPCs, members of her territory, and there were some built-in bonuses to their affection for the lord. But even so, this was a bit much.

Feeling something was off, Su You subconsciously called out to Dory as she was about to leave.

“Is there something else you need, my lady?” Dory immediately stopped and turned back, looking at Su You with a serious expression, waiting for her to speak.

After a few seconds of thought, Su You shook her head slightly and decided not to ask directly.

“It’s nothing. I just saw that you just got back, so you can rest for a bit. There’s no need to head out again right now.” Su You made up a casual excuse to gloss over the matter.

Dory didn’t suspect anything, simply thinking Su You was concerned about her.

She replied that she wasn’t tired and wanted to gather a bit more fiber before resting, telling Su You not to worry.

Seeing this, Su You didn’t try to persuade her further. After Dory left, Su You stood there for a few seconds, then took out another fang dagger from her backpack.

---

**[Sharp Fang Dagger]**

Category: Weapon

Quality: Blue

Attributes: Attack (40), Armor Penetration (6%), Bleed (6%), Critical (2.5%)

Durability: 100/100

Description: A high-quality, sharp fang dagger. The blade is made from copper ore, with a razor-sharp beast fang as the edge. Infused with refined magic ore during crafting, the blade is even sharper, with higher attack and improved attributes overall.

---

This dagger with the “Sharp” prefix was the first one Su You ever made. Despite its excellent stats, she hadn’t given it to Lyle, choosing another one instead.

It wasn’t that she was reluctant to part with it; she simply felt the other dagger was a better fit for Lyle.

Speaking of the second dagger, Su You’s luck had been truly good that day—both daggers ended up with prefixes thanks to the magic ore, though it might also have been due to the high quality of the boar tusks.

What really showed Su You’s luck was the specific prefixes she got.

Weapon prefixes come in many forms, some good, some bad, but both she rolled today were excellent.

The first dagger’s prefix was “Sharp.” The second dagger—the one Su You felt suited Lyle even more—had the prefix “Resonance.”

---

**[Resonance Fang Dagger]**

(Resonance: With this prefix, the weapon transforms to best suit its wielder.)

Category: Weapon

Quality: Blue

Attributes: Attack (30), Armor Penetration (5%), Bleed (5%), Critical (2%)

Durability: 100/100

Description: A high-quality fang dagger. The blade is made from copper ore, with a sharp beast fang as the edge. For some special reason, it is suitable for anyone.

---

Weapons are meant for combat, and the “Sharp” prefix greatly boosts fighting power, making it a universally useful choice for any weapon.

If you only look at the stats, the second dagger is clearly inferior to the first. But thanks to the “Resonance” prefix, in certain situations, the second dagger could actually be better.

Those situations depend on the user’s proficiency with that weapon.

If someone isn’t skilled with daggers, Su You would give them the “Sharp” dagger. Since they lack technique, their combat power depends on the weapon’s quality—the better the dagger, the stronger they are; with a worse dagger, their damage drops.

But Lyle was different. He was an expert with daggers.

For someone like that—someone who has mastered a weapon—choosing a weapon that “fits” is always more important than just raw quality.

If someone can’t use a bow, even if you handed them the Elven King’s Bow, it might be less useful than a stick that feels right in their hands. That’s why Su You gave Lyle the dagger with the “Resonance” prefix.

---

With the Resonance dagger given away, Su You kept the remaining dagger for herself, planning to sell it to the merchant when they arrived.

After all, a weapon with a prefix would fetch a good price. If the merchant happened to need a weapon, not only could she get a good deal, but she could also boost their favorability.

With the dagger situation settled, Su You took out the marble bricks she’d already crafted, ready to start building the quest hall.

---

**[Consume 10 Planks, 5 Marble Bricks, and 5 Stone Bricks to build the Quest Hall?]**

**[Building Quest Hall. Estimated time: 600 minutes.]**

---

That’s 600 minutes—ten hours. Since there was no in-game clock, Su You wasn’t sure exactly when it would be finished, but it would definitely be done before she went to bed tonight.

Once the quest hall was finished, Su You could not only upgrade her territory, but also finally check out a certain reward she’d almost forgotten about—the reward chest she got for defeating the Fire Demon Leader.

Besides those two things, Su You could also look into the new bounty board missions.

She wondered what kind of missions would be on the bounty board… If they were just ordinary tasks, that would be fine. Based on her understanding of the game, standard missions shouldn’t pose much of a challenge.

(End of chapter)"

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

81. Wind Millet Grass

Even though many things had changed, the vast majority of the mechanics were still exactly as she remembered.

What she worried about most was the possibility of time-limited quests—especially the kind that forced you to accept them, and punished you if you failed to complete them. It was just like that very first “Establish your territory within three days” quest.

But there was no point in worrying about these things. If the system really did assign mandatory timed quests, she’d just have to do them—she couldn’t just refuse to level up her territory for the rest of her life because of it.

...

For the next half-day, everyone in the territory was busy with their own tasks, and Su You was no exception. Her top priority right now was to finish exploring this forest as quickly as possible.

“One map per person, one area per day”—this was the most accurate description of every player’s early-game experience.

After gathering enough resources to survive, the next step was to explore the entire area they lived in as quickly as possible.

This wasn’t just to get a sense of the surroundings, find out where resource points were, or learn the lay of the land for easier resource gathering later on.

Most importantly, they needed to use the information from their exploration to predict which red disaster season would follow the mild season, and prepare in advance.

Usually, the length of each season was variable, but the initial mild season at the start of the game was an exception.

The opening mild season always lasted thirty days—mainly to give everyone a stable start and prevent them from dying off too early.

And after the initial mild season, the next season would always be the red “disaster season.”

On the Sunset Continent, there were three main types of seasons.

The first was the blue “stable season.” Like an NPC’s neutral trait, the blue stable season was neither good nor bad—or rather, it had both good and bad aspects.

For example, the mild season was a stable season: nothing particularly good or bad happened, just peace and quiet. Another stable season, the “rainy season,” was both good and bad.

As the name suggests, the rainy season was marked by lots of rain.

The “good” part was that the rain helped all kinds of resources grow and cycle faster. The “bad” part was that frequent rain could make life much more difficult.

The second type of season was the green “benevolent season.”

The most common benevolent season was the harvest season, but there were also the prosperous season and the inspiration season, among others.

The harvest season, like the rainy season, sped up the growth and renewal of all kinds of resources—animals, plants, and natural resources. But it was considered benevolent because it didn’t come with constant rain.

The prosperous season, also known as “trade season,” was marked by a surge in trading activity—merchants and all kinds of transactions became more frequent and smoother, and the goods available were more plentiful.

With more goods on the market, prices generally dropped a bit, making trade season the perfect time to clear out merchants’ inventories.

The inspiration season, also called “learning season,” was when everyone’s efficiency at any learning-related activity noticeably increased.

...

The last type of season was the red disaster season.

Common disaster seasons included “destruction season,” “storm season,” and “drought season.” The names pretty much explained themselves—no need to elaborate.

Exploring the map in advance couldn’t prevent disaster seasons, but it did let Su You figure out which disaster season would follow the mild season.

To explore, Su You took out her newly made “regional map.”

A regional map was centered on the spot where it was made, covering a certain area—not the whole forest or continent.

And to predict the disaster season, she only needed to explore an area of about that size. Exploring more than that was pointless—it would take too much time, and she’d be better off just gathering resources to tough out the disaster season.

Before setting out, Su You divided the regional map into nine sections. This made the map look a bit like an uneven tic-tac-toe grid—her preferred way of exploring.

You didn’t have to explore every inch of the map. Experienced “veteran players” could get a pretty good sense of the situation and resources just by seeing part of the terrain and where it was located on the map.

Su You was no exception.

On this nine-grid map, Sunset Territory was in the very center. The mine was in the upper right, and the fire demon and stone monster were to the left and right of the territory, respectively.

Su You marked these on the map with charcoal. The map now looked roughly like this:

[Unknown 1] [Unknown 2] [Mine]

[Fire Demon] [Territory] [Stone Monster]

[Unknown 3] [Unknown 4] [Unknown 5]

Aside from those four areas, there were still five sections Su You hadn’t explored yet. Her goal today was to check out [Unknown 1] and [Unknown 2].

With her objective set, Su You put the map away, grabbed some food, tools, basic materials, and a certain lifesaving item, and set out.

...

...

“Why isn’t the Lord back yet...?” Dory sounded a bit worried as she looked at the darkening sky.

Next to her, Doya looked calm on the surface, but there was a hint of emotion in her eyes.

“Don’t worry, the Lord has an agility potion—she’ll be fine.” Doya’s tone was unusually gentle, as if trying to reassure Dory.

But even with those words, Dory couldn’t help but worry as long as Su You hadn’t returned.

Still, part of her attention was now caught by the mention of that potion.

“Doya, what was that potion you mentioned just now?”

“An agility potion, made from wind millet grass. It’s a potion that increases your movement speed after drinking it.” As she spoke, Doya couldn’t help but recall the earlier scene.

There wasn’t much to the memory—she’d just happened to see Su You holding a bottle of potion and asked about it offhand. It really was just a casual question, but Su You had told her what it was anyway.

Wind millet grass wasn’t exactly rare, but it mostly grew deep in the forest, so it was quite lucky that Su You had found four plants near the forest’s edge.

Since she didn’t have a potion workbench yet, Su You had made the potion by hand.

(End of chapter)"

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

82. Long-tailed Crocodile

Since everything was made by hand, there was always a chance of failure.

Su You kept one stalk of wind millet grass as seed material, and used the remaining three to try making agility potions... The result was clear: she only succeeded once, and failed twice.

The stalk she kept has now been turned into a seed and stored in a wooden box.

The reason she didn’t plant it right away was because wind millet grass needs to be grown on intermediate farmland, but all four plots in the territory were still basic farmland, which isn’t suitable for wind millet grass.

“Is this agility potion really that amazing?” Dory asked. Although she’d traveled to many places with the caravan, there was no one in their group who specialized in potions (ordinary doctors didn’t necessarily know potions, since potions were a branch of magic). To avoid being cheated, their caravan never traded in potions, so Dory never had the chance to learn about them.

Faced with Dory’s question, Doya felt a bit helpless—she didn’t know much about potions either. Everything she knew was what Su You had told her. Just as she was about to say something, she saw a look of happiness suddenly appear on Su You’s face.

Doya seemed to guess why. She turned her head and, sure enough, saw Su You walking in from outside the territory.

“What are you talking about?” Su You came over and sat down beside them, then started taking out the “spoils” from her map exploration, one by one, from her backpack.

Seeing all the items scattered about, Dory instinctively reached out to help organize them, while Doya quietly watched from the side.

“We weren’t talking about anything special. It’s just that you hadn’t come back for so long, we were getting worried,” Dory said as she helped sort the items.

With her help, Su You quickly sorted everything into the appropriate wooden boxes and storerooms.

Su You hadn’t brought back much this time—after all, her main goal was to explore the map. Gathering too many resources would have wasted time on the road... Even so, she didn’t spend much time collecting, but still only made it back at sunset, just as the evening flowers were blooming.

“Sorry to make you worry,” Su You smiled, then began telling them about her discoveries that day—well, to be precise, she was mainly talking to Doya.

She took out the map and pointed to a spot on it.

“I could have come back earlier, but I found a group of aquatic beasts here.” Aquatic beasts, as the name suggests, are creatures that live in water, like fish, shrimp, and crabs.

But this was Sunset Continent, not her old world, and since Su You was bringing it up, it meant the aquatic beasts she saw were definitely more than just ordinary fish and shrimp.

“I was going to bring back some aquatic beasts to improve everyone’s meals, but then I saw a long-tailed crocodile.” The long-tailed crocodile was essentially a crocodile, named for its extremely long tail.

When Su You mentioned the long-tailed crocodile, Doya blinked, then seemed to understand.

The long-tailed crocodile’s main attack was to whip its tail like a giant whip. In this case, if you wanted to kill one and your strength was about the same, it was much easier to do so from a distance than up close.

And right now, she was the only ranged fighter in the territory.

“My hand will need about two more days to fully recover. When it’s ready, I’ll go deal with that long-tailed crocodile.” Doya didn’t even ask why Su You wanted her to do it—she didn’t care. She just needed to do as Su You said.

As for her hand... In the real world, a bone fracture would take months to heal, let alone being able to draw a bow. Without enough strength, some people couldn’t even pull the string.

Not to mention, she’d be using her hand for strenuous tasks as soon as it healed. If her bone didn’t break again, that would be a miracle.

But this wasn’t reality. Doya’s recovery depended on the “fracture debuff” she had.

As long as the debuff disappeared and she didn’t get any new ones, she’d be fully healed—no aftereffects, no need for further rest.

At first, the fracture debuff was supposed to last about ten days, but after drinking deer antler juice, her recovery sped up and three days were shaved off.

Plus, she’d been eating and drinking well these past few days, so the countdown kept shrinking... Just as Doya said, she figured she’d be fine in two more days.

“Just focus on recovering. There’s no rush to deal with the long-tailed crocodile... If I remember right, you don’t have a weapon now, do you?”

“Mm.” Doya nodded slightly, not seeming to care. This also showed that her previous bow wasn’t anything special—she didn’t mind losing it.

“I’m gathering materials now. I’ll use the beast tendons from the black-striped tiger to make you a new bow.”

The black-striped tiger’s drops were valuable, and the beast tendons were no exception. Though they were only green quality—not as good as the wild boar tusks—if she used green-quality wood for the bow as well, there was a chance of making a blue-quality weapon.

Hearing them talk about weapons, Dory seemed to realize something... Thinking about the materials needed for a bow, she finally understood why Su You had asked her to help find tough, flexible wood.

Noticing Dory’s gaze, Su You looked at her. “I don’t know much about repairers, but I’ve heard that skilled repairers always like to have a pair of gloves?”

Dory froze for a moment, not sure why the conversation had suddenly shifted to her.

But once she realized, she nodded immediately. “Yes, because the power of repair is usually focused at the fingertips. Our hands are very important to us.” That’s why they needed gloves for protection.

A repairer’s gloves weren’t ordinary—they were custom-made by mages.

These gloves not only protected the hands, but if made from good enough materials, could even increase the chance of successfully repairing high-level items... Su You had learned this from a repairer she’d known before.

It might seem a bit pampered, but with great skill, a repairer could fix anything—so a little pampering was understandable.

“As it happens, I actually know how to make these gloves...”

---"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

83. You Can Do That?

Although she knew how to make it, just like with the bow and arrow, she was missing the materials.

Dolly understood what Su You meant.

She wanted to make herself a pair of gloves, but for now, she didn’t have enough materials. Still, that didn’t matter—just the fact that Su You was willing to help her make gloves already made Dolly very happy.

“There’s no need to trouble yourself, my lady. With my current skills, a restorer’s gloves wouldn’t make much difference anyway.” Dolly clearly wasn’t the type to refuse to admit her own shortcomings. On the contrary, she had a clear understanding of her abilities and was willing to say so.

For her right now, gloves weren’t the most important thing. What mattered most was improving her own skills. From Su You’s perspective, that meant helping Dolly level up her restoration skill.

“I’ll prepare a box later, and put some items that need repairing inside, along with materials for repairs. You can arrange your own time to work on them.”

Skill leveling was related to proficiency, and proficiency increased with use.

The more you used a skill, and the better the results, the faster your proficiency grew. Once it maxed out, you’d hit a bottleneck. After that, an NPC’s proficiency would stop increasing until, during some use of the skill, they’d have a sudden insight and break through to the next skill level.

Of course, if there was no progress for a long time, as the lord, Su You could also help them break through by consuming certain resources at a specific building.

The process was different, but the result was the same. There was no such thing as an “inferior breakthrough” if you used outside help instead of your own abilities.

Right now, Dolly was stuck at the bottleneck for a beginner restorer. Fixing things wouldn’t increase her proficiency anymore, but each repair attempt was still a chance for her to level up.

“Alright.” Dolly didn’t know exactly what Su You meant by “things that need repairing,” but she was eager to level up, so she didn’t really care what she was fixing.

As long as she could level up, it didn’t matter what she was restoring.

After that, Su You didn’t leave. She chose to stay by the city’s heartfire, surrounded by a pile of workbenches, and started processing materials.

Other than the portable workbench Su You didn’t plan to use, there were five workbenches in total: two for synthesizing wood, two for fiber, and one for stone.

The stone workbench was intermediate level; the other four were basic.

Upgrading a workbench not only unlocked more recipes, but also reduced crafting time.

For example, originally it took one minute (sixty seconds) to combine crushed stone into stone blocks, but now it only took fifty-four seconds—a 10% reduction.

Of course, not everything got a 10% time reduction—only recipes that were originally available at the basic workbench got this bonus.

By the same logic, new recipes unlocked at the intermediate workbench would only get a time reduction at the advanced workbench, and above that, there was even a top-tier workbench.

Once the workbenches were set up, Su You took out a stone knife and a pile of materials, and started crafting by hand.

While she worked, Dolly and Doya watched from the side.

Dolly was curious about what she was making, while Doya was puzzled—why did their young lord seem to know and be able to do everything?

Sure, there were geniuses in the world who were knowledgeable and skilled at everything, but someone this young… that was unheard of.

Still, Doya wasn’t foolish enough to ask directly. Anyway, having a capable lord was much better than having an incompetent one.

So, one person worked while two watched, and before long, a huge pile of “junk” had accumulated at Su You’s feet.

And it really was junk.

In that pile, you could even spot some familiar items, like “crude wooden needles” and “broken traps”...

There were also plenty of “newcomers,” like “irregular wooden knives,” “scratched arrows,” “broken wooden fences,” “chipped wooden cups,” and so on...

In short: when it came to making junk, Su You was an expert (not really).

She already had bad luck, and on top of that, she was deliberately not being careful, which resulted in this mountain of trash.

“These should all be repairable for you, right?” To avoid making things too high-level for Dolly to fix, and to make sure she had enough materials, Su You had only made low-level trinkets.

Not only could a beginner restorer at the bottleneck fix these, even a novice apprentice could manage—though it might take more effort.

Dolly stared, dumbfounded, at the pile. For once, she didn’t answer Su You right away, but just gawked for several seconds before responding.

“I can… it’s just… a lot…” A lot was an understatement!

Just the stack of chipped wooden cups was taller than she was—at least a dozen of them.

And those “crude wooden needles” were even more ridiculous. They were the easiest to make, just like sharpening pencils—shave, shave, done. They used the least materials, so Su You had made a whole “bundle”—so many that you couldn’t hold them all in two hands.

The sharper ends weren’t very sharp, but with that many all together, they still looked kind of creepy.

“It’s fine, just take your time. They’re only here to help you level up. If you finish leveling and there’s still some left, just throw the rest away.” As she spoke, Su You calmly took the last intact wooden cup she’d just made and deliberately chipped it.

In an instant, a perfectly usable wooden cup became another “chipped wooden cup.”

Dolly, watching all this: ...You can do that?

Doya, who hadn’t planned to pay attention but was forced to by Su You’s bizarre actions: I don’t really know how restorers work, but… isn’t this basically exploiting a bug?

Whether it was a bug or not, Su You had already tossed all the junk into the newly built wooden box. Besides the trash, she’d also put in some wood, string, and other materials.

Because there were so many types of junk, each one needed its own slot, so the fifteen-slot box filled up quickly.

(End of Chapter)"

"**84. Reward Service**

Logically speaking, if constant repairs alone could lead to breakthroughs, then Su You would only need to make one type of junk item, with no need to create so many different things. But reality wasn’t so simple.

If a repairer spends too long fixing the same kind of item, or if the item’s level is much lower than their own, their skill proficiency might not even increase—let alone level up.

That’s why Su You made so many different types of items: to avoid this problem.

After Su You finished crafting all these things, the familiar system notification sounded, and a semi-transparent window appeared before her.

After reading the contents of the window, Su You massaged her hands, which were a bit sore from making so much junk. She greeted Dory and Doya, saying she was a little tired, and then returned to her room.

All the way back, Su You pretended not to see the window floating in front of her. Only after she was back in her room did she recall the system prompt and then read the window’s contents again.

**System Notification—**

[Congratulations! Sunset Territory has met the requirements for upgrading to an Intermediate Camp. The system has automatically upgraded your territory, and the corresponding rewards have been placed in the quest hall’s treasure chest.]

**Window Text—**

[As the human with the highest potential value among all territory lords, A1-16, the Execution System is authorized to provide you with a one-time reward service within certain limits. The service may include, but is not limited to, requesting items, asking questions, or solving problems.]

Just reading this, Su You knew how important her choice was this time. That’s why she wanted to return to her room and carefully consider what “reward” she truly needed.

First, some unrealistic requests were obviously out of the question—like asking the system to conjure up a whole city for her, or to give her tens of millions or even billions of gold coins.

After all, it clearly stated that the Execution System could only provide a service “within certain limits.”

The same went for asking questions. Su You had a lot she wanted to ask, but after thinking it over, she felt those questions either couldn’t be asked, or even if she did, the system definitely wouldn’t answer.

For example: What exactly are you? Why are you doing this?

Questions like that would either be ignored or answered with word games to brush her off.

Since there was no time limit, Su You pondered for a long time—so long that she even heard doors closing in the neighboring rooms. The sound was close, so it was probably the Lyle brothers returning to their rooms.

Jolted out of her thoughts by the noise, Su You let out a breath, drank a glass of water to calm herself, and then tentatively asked:

“For this reward service, how will I know if my request is within the allowed limits? Or, if I accidentally make a request that exceeds those limits, will I lose this reward opportunity altogether, or will I get another chance to choose?” After saying this, she quickly added, “If answering this question counts as using up the service, then don’t answer.”

[…]

Although Su You didn’t get any response after saying this, she could vaguely sense a strange emotion from the system.

It seemed a bit speechless, as if it thought Su You was being overly cautious… But Su You didn’t feel she was being too careful at all.

If it was just about not exceeding the limits, Su You could easily do that—like asking for a few branches or something. That would definitely be within the system’s power.

But there was no point in that. Branches were everywhere in the forest, and this reward was a rare opportunity. If she wasted it, she’d rather not have it at all.

But if she asked for something a bit more substantial, her worry was just as she’d asked: what if she went too far and lost the chance altogether?

Such a vague reward, with no further explanation, didn’t feel like a reward to Su You—it felt more like a trap.

Just as Su You was considering whether to give up entirely, a new line of text appeared in the previously unchanged dialogue box—

[Note: You have five chances to make a request. If a request exceeds the allowed limits, one chance will be deducted automatically. After five failed attempts, the reward will be canceled. If your request is within the allowed limits, it will be granted immediately.]

Why didn’t they just say so earlier!

Five chances were still a bit few, but much better than losing the reward after a single failed attempt…

Su You didn’t know if this message had been left out by mistake, or if the system had simply never considered the issue until she brought it up and then added it on the fly… Whatever, it didn’t matter. What mattered was deciding what to ask for.

Since she had five tries, Su You decided to start with the highest-value requests and work her way down—at the very least, she’d use up three attempts.

Before making her request, Su You decided that what she needed was an “item.”

She carefully reviewed all the information panels she could access, then compiled a list of items she needed but couldn’t currently obtain.

After much deliberation, Su You finally made her first request—

“I want a beacon.” The beacon was a material used to build a structure called a “Signal Tower.”

The Signal Tower could increase the probability and quality of all actions related to attracting NPCs—such as speeding up the arrival of merchants and travelers, increasing their numbers, and improving the quality of NPCs available for recruitment at the tavern…

In Sunset Continent, the most important resource for a lord was NPCs. Any kind of NPC was valuable—even the most rebellious ones could be put to use by Su You.

It’s no exaggeration to say that with a beacon, the territory’s development speed could easily triple.

But obviously, Su You knew this, and so did the system. As expected, her request was rejected.

[This request exceeds the allowed limits. Request denied. Remaining attempts: 4.]

Since she’d expected this, Su You wasn’t too disappointed. After all, the beacon wasn’t that rare—at least, it was much easier to get than Dragonbone.

Normally, beacons could be obtained by trading with a certain short-statured race.

This race was extremely greedy; as long as you had money, even if Su You beat them up and then paid for the beacon, they’d still do business. They’d never give up a deal for the sake of “dignity”… unless you didn’t pay enough.

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---

**85. Severe Fatigue**

Normally, trading with this race is the only way to obtain a beacon.

Players can’t craft beacons—not because they lack materials, but because there’s no recipe for it. Beacons are a “special technology” item exclusive to this race.

After her first request was rejected, Su You crossed out an item on her paper with a charcoal pencil.

She calculated the value, then made a second request.

...

【This request exceeds your authority and has been rejected. Remaining attempts: 1. This is your final chance—if rejected again, the reward service will be canceled.】

After being rejected for the fourth time, Su You had more or less figured out the limits of this execution system.

This time, the system hesitated for a long while before rejecting her, which made Su You suspect that her fourth request was right on the edge of what was allowed—barely acceptable, but just a little over the line.

Without much hesitation, she stated exactly what she needed.

“I want a magic rune book, a building card, and a recruitment card.” On her fourth try, Su You had asked for three building cards, one recruitment card, and a magic rune book. The result was a rejection, but she could tell it was close to being accepted.

Since this was her last chance, Su You didn’t dare push it. She reduced the building cards to just one and kept the rest unchanged.

There’s not much to say about building cards—they’re similar to the previous tavern cards, except these are given out randomly. The system wouldn’t let her pick, but it did guarantee she wouldn’t get duplicates of buildings she already owned.

The recruitment card allows her to immediately refresh the tavern’s recruitment options, adding two more NPCs to choose from and increasing the number of recruits by one.

Currently, her tavern only lets her pick one out of three NPCs per refresh. With the recruitment card, she’d get a one-time chance to pick two out of five, which is really helpful in the early stages when manpower is scarce.

The magic rune book lets her change an ordinary NPC’s class to mage. Even if the person has no magical talent, after the change, they become an apprentice mage. Their combat power isn’t great, but they can be trained over time.

The magic rune book is a class-change item—it can be crafted or traded for. It’s not extremely valuable, but it’s hard to get in the early game.

Su You wanted the rune book to prepare for the upcoming attack by dark creatures. She planned to use the recruitment card to find a promising candidate to become a mage, increasing her territory’s chances of withstanding the assault.

After all, dark creatures aren’t ordinary enemies. Having just Duoya the archer and Laikelaier, two regular combat NPCs, wouldn’t be enough.

Su You thought the system might hesitate again before giving her the items, but to her surprise, almost as soon as she finished speaking, the system responded.

【The rewards have been placed in the treasure chest in the quest hall. Please collect them.】

Although it was the same familiar, cold mechanical voice, to Su You it sounded almost like the system was fleeing in a panic.

Su You: Huh? What’s it so afraid of? I just asked a couple more questions, that’s all.

Su You: This execution system really can’t handle pressure.

Good thing the system couldn’t hear her thoughts, or it would definitely want to curse her out.

You call pestering me with endless questions “just asking a couple more things”?

The system realized it couldn’t show any leniency to humans. Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile—give them a little sunshine and they’ll bloom all over the place!

Ever since Su You found out she could ask other questions and get answers, she’d been constantly testing the boundaries.

As annoying as it was, the system couldn’t do anything about it for the sake of fairness, since everything Su You did was right on the edge of breaking the rules—but never actually crossed the line...

Although she hadn’t crossed the line, the system itself almost...

No!

It hadn’t said anything!

The execution system comforted itself with this thought, then grumbled as it moved on to the next place.

Next “lucky winner”: Did this system eat gunpowder or something? I just asked how to claim my reward, why is it so grumpy?

...

...

Su You had no idea what the system was grumbling about, nor that it was taking out its frustration on others. All she knew was that after finishing her conversation and collecting her rewards, a sudden, inexplicable wave of exhaustion washed over her.

She’d wanted to check out the rewards from the Fire Demon Leader and her territory upgrade, but the fatigue forced her to lie down and rest.

Before resting, she glanced at her status panel. When she saw a new notification, she instinctively rolled her eyes and flopped onto the bed.

【Severe Fatigue】: In this state, you cannot perform any actions. Stamina and hunger decrease rapidly. Resting will recover fatigue, and stamina/hunger loss will return to normal speed.

...

...

“What are you two doing here?” After waking up, Dolly opened her door and saw the two brothers standing outside the far-right residential house, looking confused.

In order, the buildings on this row were the tavern, then Residential Houses 1, 2, and 3. The spot where the brothers were standing was Su You’s room.

“We wanted to ask the Lord something, but it seems she hasn’t gotten up yet?” Because of the difference between men and women—and because they felt awkward about knocking—they’d searched the whole territory for Su You, and when they couldn’t find her, they could only wait outside her door.

That’s why Dolly saw them standing outside Residential House 3 as soon as she stepped out.

“Is it urgent?” Dolly didn’t really want to disturb Su You’s rest, but seeing the brothers squatting helplessly outside the door, she hesitated, then took the initiative to ask.

“It’s not exactly urgent. It’s just that yesterday, while gathering resources, we found something strange. We thought we should let the Lord know.”

The brothers, Lyle and Laikelai, were mainly responsible for collecting stone (including sandstone) and wood. At first, Lyle cut down trees near the territory, but after they’d cleared most of them, yesterday afternoon he and Laikelai went to the mine—one to chop wood, the other to dig stone—so they could look out for each other.

It was during this trip that they noticed an increase in ghostly skeletons nearby. Although the skeletons didn’t seem to be approaching, the brothers decided to investigate the area just in case.

(End of chapter)"

"86. Monster Spawner

In the end, what they discovered was that, near the spot where they had killed the Black-Striped Tiger, something resembling a stone gate had appeared.

This stone gate was very tall, and had no fancy decorations. If there was anything noteworthy about it, it was that the gate looked ancient—at the very least, it was certainly older than the combined ages of the two of them.

The stone gate was covered in moss, a testament to the passage of time, and bore many mysterious marks whose origins were impossible to determine.

As Lyle put it, if he had to pick a suitable place for this stone gate, he would say it belonged in the ruins of some ancient, long-forgotten site.

...

After hearing Lyle’s description, Dolly was clearly a bit dazed. With her limited experience, she couldn’t fully grasp what these things meant, but she could tell from Lyle’s account that the stone gate must have some special significance.

After all, it had appeared out of nowhere—and it had only been less than two days since they killed the Black-Striped Tiger.

For such a stone gate to appear in just two days, it was certainly not something ordinary power could accomplish. It likely involved some kind of unspeakable, extraordinary force.

“In that case, how about I knock on her door and ask?” Dolly wasn’t just offering to help them—she was also a bit worried herself. She was concerned about why Su You still hadn’t gotten up so late today, and whether something might have happened.

Even though she knew nothing bad could really happen within the territory, the sunset flowers had already bloomed and closed again. Compared to Su You’s usual routine—getting up before the flowers even opened—today was truly, exceptionally late.

“Sorry to trouble you,” Lyle nodded to Dolly, then pulled Lake away from the doorway to give her space.

Dolly knocked on the door as usual. After a short while, she heard some movement inside. Before she could say anything, the door opened.

Su You stood there, looking exhausted and confused, her fatigue obvious despite the hint of puzzlement in her eyes.

Even after a night’s rest, for certain special reasons, the “Severe Fatigue” debuff on her had only downgraded to “Moderate Fatigue.” That was why Su You had slept in so late.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to get up—she simply couldn’t. She’d slept like the dead, and if Dolly hadn’t knocked, Su You might have slept straight through to the evening.

“What’s up?” Su You couldn’t help but yawn, instinctively leaning against the wall, her eyes a bit unfocused.

As she asked Dolly what was going on, she grumbled inwardly about how stingy the system was—just a few questions, and it slapped her with a debuff.

Dolly was startled to see her so worn out. Lyle and Lake were also puzzled, unable to understand what could have happened to leave her in this state.

But the debuff wasn’t life-threatening. At most, it just meant she’d need to rest a bit more, which would have some impact on her plans—but not much, since she’d already intended to stay in the territory today.

“Milady... I’m not here for myself, it’s them who wanted to see you. By the way, are you... alright?” Dolly first explained why she’d knocked, then expressed her concern for Su You’s health.

Su You shook her head slightly, took a cup of water from her bag to wake herself up, then said, “I’m fine, just stayed up too late last night. If there’s something to discuss, let’s talk inside. You guys go wait for me in the hall.”

She pointed toward the quest hall.

The brothers nodded and headed straight for the quest hall.

They were actually quite interested in the building, which had just been completed the night before. But since they’d come back late yesterday and were tired from gathering resources, they’d gone straight home to rest and hadn’t had time to check it out.

“Then I won’t bother you, Milady. Please take care and get some rest.” Seeing that Su You was alright, Dolly breathed a sigh of relief and went off to start her repair work for the day.

Su You quickly tidied herself up, checked the territory’s status, grabbed a bite to eat, and then headed to the quest hall as well.

...

...

“So, what you’re saying is, that gate appeared out of nowhere, looks ancient, and when you get close to it, there’s some kind of strange resistance?” Su You summarized Lyle’s findings, already forming a suspicion in her mind.

And after Lake’s next comment, her guess was all but confirmed.

“We actually noticed something else... though we’re not sure if it’s related to the stone gate.”

“Go on.”

“Yesterday afternoon, when we went over there, we found a lot more ghostly skeletons near the mine. There weren’t that many before. We’re not sure if they were hiding and just showed up now, or if it’s something else...”

By “something else,” Lake was clearly referring to the stone gate, though he wasn’t certain, so he didn’t say it outright—just reported what he’d seen.

A sudden surge in ghostly skeletons...

A knowing look flashed in Su You’s eyes.

Lyle caught the change and asked directly, “Milady, do you know something?”

Su You nodded. “If I’m not mistaken, this is probably a spawn... a spawning point for ghostly skeletons.” She’d almost said “monster spawner,” but that was a player term, not something she could use with NPCs.

Simply put, this stone gate would continuously spawn ghostly skeletons, much like the previous Fire Demon boss. The difference was that monsters from a spawner dropped loot and had no upper limit on their numbers. Unless the spawner was destroyed, it would keep producing ghostly skeletons.

But destroying a spawner wasn’t easy. She’d have to enter the spawner, defeat the boss inside, and then destroy the spawner’s core to put an end to it.

Of course, she wouldn’t have to go in alone. After all, a lord player couldn’t possibly clear out an entire spawner by themselves—she could bring her territory members along.

The inside of a spawner was much like a “dungeon” in an online game: you fought your way through, beat the boss, and cleared it for rewards. But if you failed... well, there was no need to elaborate—those who knew, knew.

In short, at this stage, the appearance of a spawner was not good news, because Su You simply didn’t have the strength to clear this “dungeon” yet.

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of the provided Chinese text:

---

**87. The Damaged Fire Demon Armor**

There was more bad news: the location of this monster spawner was also a problem. It was situated right next to the mine—a resource point she absolutely could not afford to give up.

After Su You finished explaining the function of the monster spawner, the two brothers instinctively frowned.

Although they hadn’t seen the spawner summon ghostly skeletons with their own eyes, their deep trust and loyalty to their lord made them believe her without question.

Since they’d chosen to trust her, they naturally understood just how big a threat this spawner posed.

“My lord, how do you plan to deal with this stone gate?” Lyle asked. Su You looked a little helpless.

What could she do?

It had only been a few days since the start!

First a monster spawner, then an imminent attack from dark creatures—was she supposed to catch a break at all?!

If the brothers hadn’t discovered the spawner yesterday afternoon, Su You would have suspected that the petty system was deliberately making things difficult for her.

“For now, just leave it be, and wait—” Halfway through her sentence, Su You seemed to recall something. Actually, keeping or destroying the spawner weren’t her only options.

After thinking it over, she changed her mind. “I’ll see if I can come up with a solution today. If not, I’ll go over there tomorrow and set up some defenses, fence off the area, and keep those ghostly skeletons from wandering over to the mining site.”

“For today, just stay away from that area.” Although the spawner had a long refresh time, it was still a hidden danger. For safety’s sake, it was best not to get close for now.

She planned to spend today doing some construction around the territory, using the resources she’d gathered over the past couple of days to spruce things up. Otherwise, if a merchant or traveler arrived and saw how shabby the place looked, it would make a terrible first impression—never mind whether it would lower their favorability.

After all, anyone who could make it as a merchant was a shrewd old fox, used to sizing people up at a glance.

Besides, she wasn’t in great shape right now and not fit to go out. If she ran into any monsters, she wouldn’t be able to get away, even with an agility potion.

There were still plenty of stones in the warehouse. As long as she didn’t build anything unnecessary, it should be enough for now.

When Su You suggested they stay away from the spawner, Lake and Lyle exchanged a glance. Then Lake spoke up: “Take your time, my lord. The two of us will go check things out over there again today.”

Lyle added, “We’ll be careful. Sooner or later, we’ll have to take a look anyway. If we go now, there’ll be fewer monsters and it’ll be easier to move around.”

Hearing this, Su You didn’t object.

After all, the spawner had only been active for less than a day—it couldn’t have spawned more than ten monsters at most.

The two brothers had already taken down more than a dozen ghostly skeletons before; a few more wouldn’t make a difference. Plus, Lyle now had a weapon that suited him, so his combat power had only increased.

“All right, just be careful,” Su You said. She knew that if she gave a strict order, they would obey and stay away, but there was no need for that. They were skilled and brave, and with Lyle there, nothing should go wrong.

But if only Lake had wanted to go, she definitely wouldn’t have agreed.

“We’ll be off, then,” the brothers said as they left the quest hall.

Su You watched them go, then couldn’t help but yawn. She rubbed her eyes and glanced around at the layout of the quest hall—

The hall was arranged a bit like the lobby of a large hotel. On the right was a reception desk, and behind it stood a huge cabinet.

The reception desk could be staffed with NPCs, who would handle the affairs of the quest hall—taking Su You’s orders, relaying them to other NPCs, or issuing quests on behalf of others, and so on.

The cabinet behind the desk was for storing quest scrolls and other documents. Only Su You and NPCs she authorized could access it.

On the left wall was a huge board—the quest board.

It was divided into three sections, each for a different type of quest: lord (territory) quests, solo quests, and team quests.

Of these, solo and team quests could be freely posted or accepted by NPCs. The difference was that anyone could take solo quests, but team quests required joining an adventurer team.

Adventurer teams were a bit like guilds or factions in online games.

Once the territory developed, more and more NPCs would join. Combat NPCs could form adventurer teams, and visiting or well-known teams could also take quests here… but none of that was relevant yet.

Aside from that, the quest hall had two rows of simple wooden benches—the kind you used to see in parks. That was about it.

…

After looking over the quest hall, Su You walked toward the tall cabinet behind the reception desk. She’d spotted three treasure chests of different sizes, names, and appearances sitting on top.

Their names were: [Fire Demon Leader’s Chest], [Territory Upgrade Chest], and [Special Reward Chest].

They seemed to be arranged in the order she’d received them, from left to right, so Su You decided to open them in that order.

First was the [Fire Demon Leader’s Chest]. It was red, matching the fire demon leader’s appearance, and made of a copper-like material. The chest was plain, with no fancy patterns.

She stared at it for three seconds, then opened it.

[Received Gold Coin x1]

[Received Damaged Fire Demon Armor x1]

[Received Fire Demon Leggings x1]

Su You: ?

Su You: That’s it?

Su You: And one of them is broken?!

They say you can’t be disappointed if you don’t have expectations, and Su You hadn’t expected much from the chest. But after all that ceremony, to only get three items—and one of them “damaged”—was a bit much.

How was she supposed to stay calm about this?

Taking a deep breath, Su You hesitated between opening the next chest or checking the stats of the two pieces of equipment. She chose the latter—she wanted to see what these items could do.

[Damaged Fire Demon Armor]

Type: Equipment

Quality: Gray

Durability: 1/100 (Unusable)

Stats: Defense (20-19), Resistance (0.01%), Fire Resistance (0.05%)