Volume One, Chapter Ten: The Talent of Five Stars
“Fei Shang, I’m leaving these soldiers to you. After we finish eating, take them southward along the direction we scouted yesterday and continue exploring.”
With that, Lin Xuan left without looking back.
Since the soldiers had already been trained, it was time for him to upgrade the Village Chief’s Hall.
Lin Xuan wasn’t sure how fast he was progressing compared to other lords in their district. He had initially thought he would be the first to construct a blacksmith’s workshop.
After all, the blueprint for the blacksmith’s workshop wasn’t like those for the refugee camp or the basic barracks, which were provided at the start through the virtual panel.
This meant that the blacksmith’s blueprint wasn’t something everyone could get!
Moreover, due to the restrictions on blacksmithing and equipment forging blueprints, the blacksmith’s workshop wasn’t currently as valuable as the refugee camp or the basic barracks.
Yet, despite this, someone had already built one.
It proved that there were always cunning players who preferred to quietly amass wealth!
Lin Xuan found it hard to believe that the person who had beaten him to building the blacksmith’s workshop hadn’t first constructed the refugee camp and barracks, given they had the materials.
So, if that individual had enough resources to build all three—refugee camp, barracks, and blacksmith’s workshop—then upgrading the Village Chief’s Hall to level one should be easy for them.
The answer was obvious.
That was why Lin Xuan felt the pressure of time. Who knew how many cunning players were lurking in their district?
...
More than ten minutes later, in front of the newly refurbished Village Chief’s Hall:
[Congratulations! The Village Chief’s Hall has been upgraded. Your territory has been upgraded to a level one village. The territory’s range has expanded fivefold, the village population limit has increased to 500, and new residences for villagers will be distributed soon.]
[Detected that you have upgraded the Village Chief’s Hall to level one. The Lord’s attribute panel is now unlocked, and the generals’ (including strategists’) attribute panel has been updated.]
[Congratulations! Your attribute panel has been unlocked. Please open it promptly to select your profession.]
[Notice: New residences for villagers have been issued. Please check.]
[Notice: The generals’ (including strategists’) attribute panel has been updated. General skills and cultivation methods are now available. Please review them.]
As the system alerts chimed one after another, Lin Xuan stood stunned in front of the Village Chief’s Hall for a long moment before snapping back to reality.
“Well, I didn’t expect upgrading the Village Chief’s Hall to level one would unlock so many new features!”
He was both surprised and delighted. Surprised because he hadn’t heard of any rewards for the top ten, and he wasn’t sure if it was because he lagged behind others or if the first ten lords who upgraded their halls to level one simply received no rewards.
Delighted because his attribute panel was finally open!
[Before activating your attribute panel, please select your profession.]
---
[General or Strategist.]
Lin Xuan opened his attribute panel, and the first thing he saw were these two options.
[General]
After some thought, Lin Xuan chose the General profession.
In this world full of unknowns and dangers, he believed that as long as he was strong, he would fear nothing.
As soon as Lin Xuan made his choice, a warm current suddenly surged through his body, coursing wildly within him. He then felt his cells tearing apart and being reborn.
His blood boiled! He saw veins bulging on his arms, followed by an unprecedented sense of power flooding his entire being!
As the warmth gradually faded, Lin Xuan sensed his strength stabilizing at a certain level.
After an unknown amount of time, Lin Xuan slowly opened his eyes. At the same moment, a new virtual panel appeared before him.
[Lord]: Lin Xuan
[Potential]: Pending draw
[Profession]: General
[Strength]: 50 (initial attribute, uniform)
[Leadership]: 50 (initial attribute, uniform)
[Politics]: 50 (initial attribute, uniform)
[Combat Power]: 50 (no bonuses yet)
[Talent]: Luck
[Cultivation Method]: None
[Weapon]: None
[Mount]: None
“Fifty points in strength… is this my current power?” Lin Xuan clenched his fists, feeling the unprecedented strength coursing through his body.
But then he couldn’t help but marvel:
“If fifty points in strength are already this powerful, I can only imagine how terrifying Fei Shang’s ninety points must be!”
Lost in thought for a moment, Lin Xuan’s gaze settled on the “Potential” section of the attribute panel.
[Potential]: Pending draw
Seeing these three words, a smile involuntarily lifted the corner of Lin Xuan’s mouth.
---
Is it all down to luck? Then that’s an advantage for me.
With that in mind, Lin Xuan clicked on the potential section.
The moment his hand touched the words “Pending draw,” a dazzling multicolored light burst forth before his eyes.
[Congratulations! You have drawn a five-star potential (the highest lord potential, equivalent to five-star generals and strategists). During the upcoming novice trials, you will gain five distributable attribute points each month.]
[Note: Once a certain attribute reaches the potential cap, no further points can be allocated to it.]
Lin Xuan should have been overjoyed to have drawn the highest five-star potential among lords, but the message that followed dampened his excitement.
“Novice trials… Looks like they really don’t want us to have it easy!”
Lin Xuan frowned.
At the same time, he became even more convinced of his earlier suspicion: that mysterious presence was deliberately limiting the number of lords.
“Whether or not I pass the trials doesn’t really matter. What I wonder is how long this trial will last… Since it’s a novice trial, does that mean the novice period ends once the trials are over?”
While pondering this, Lin Xuan headed toward the blacksmith’s workshop.
He saw Huang Sheng had already summoned Wang Yan.
Approaching the blacksmith Wang Yan, Lin Xuan asked, “Blacksmith Wang, do you have confidence in forging the equipment on this blueprint?”
“Reporting to the Village Chief, I am only one step away from breaking through to Master Blacksmith. Naturally, forging this common-grade equipment is no problem!”
Master Blacksmith?
Hearing Wang Yan’s answer, Lin Xuan was momentarily stunned.
Regaining his composure, Lin Xuan looked at Wang Yan and asked, “What do you mean by Master Blacksmith?”
“Reporting to the Village Chief, Master Blacksmith is one of the three major ranks in our profession. Our profession has three ranks: Blacksmith, Master Blacksmith, and Artifact Refining Grandmaster.”
“These three ranks correspond to common-grade, spirit-grade, and legendary-grade equipment respectively…”
After listening to Wang Yan’s explanation, Lin Xuan asked again, “So, you mean only Blacksmiths can forge common-grade equipment, only Master Blacksmiths can forge spirit-grade equipment, and those legendary artifacts can only be forged by Artifact Refining Grandmasters?”
“Exactly!”