Chapter 18: Chapter 18

The Jackalans scattered in fright.

The bloody battle for ownership of the Oasis Lookout was declared over at the same time.

Kant emerged as the winner.

This baron, who had his title conferred in the Dukedom of Leo, was the lord of Nahrin Desert and owner of the fief at the Oasis Lookout.

Then again, titles and status only mattered back in the Dukedom of Leo.

The Jackalan Tribes, which had bred in the Nahrin Desert for many years, had no concept of that. They were completely oblivious to such things, which meant that none of them would acknowledge Kant’s status. In their eyes, Kant was little more than an invader.

That was a truth Kant did not deny.

That was the nature of a world in which might makes right continuously prevailed. More often than not, the one with the bigger stick could hoard everything.

Weaklings did not even deserve to live.

I am included.

Kant was indifferent to it all. These were the true values when the facade called “civilization” was stripped away.

It was a world in which people gobbled each other up and races constantly exterminated one another.

There was no such thing as mercy.

Kant making it all the way to the Nahrin Desert meant that he had to fight for ownership of the Nahrin Desert, as well as the water source of the Oasis Lookout, with those brutal and beastly Jackalans. It was all so that he could survive in the desert and develop his fief.

Furthermore, Kant was the winner of that battle.

The win meant he was the one.

Winning that battle was, in truth, more than just securing victory.

It was also a turning point.

This turning point signified that he was on his way to becoming powerful.

All 35 peasants were upgradable.

All 20 recruits were upgradable.

All 10 militias were upgradable.

The 65 units at Kant’s disposal were upgradable to become higher-level troop classes.

All of them would become infantry units capable of fighting in low-intensity battles.

While the number of troops at his disposal was lower due to the casualties suffered during the battle, the quality of his troops after the upgrade was an obvious increase. One could have said that the growth was exponential.

For instance, he had started his journey with 50 Swadian Peasants.

The remaining 35 peasants became upgradable after 15 died. They were now Swadian Recruits.

All 35 of them were stronger, wore leather armor, and held spears.

They were able to fight using hand axes and defend themselves using shields in melee battles, which were standard Kingdom of Swadia military equipment.

All of them had also received basic tactical training.

That is worth upgrading.

Kant nodded in silence.

He thoughtfully made his decision.

The Jackalans’ ambush that night had been a lesson he would never forget.

They were in the Nahrin Desert, so the threat of Jackalan Tribes lurked everywhere and at all times. The emergence of nearly 500 Jackalans that night alone enabled him to speculate that there were probably more Jackalan Tribes hiding out there somewhere.

The Dukedom of Leo had little knowledge about the Nahrin Desert.

The conquest 10 years ago was declared over when the fighting reached the Oasis Lookout.

As for the deeper reaches of the Nahrin Desert, which was located north of the Oasis Lookout, be it a Jackalan Tribe oasis or hidden water resource, nothing was really known. Anything regarding such things remained a mystery.

At present, these were the things Kant had to deal with, which meant that he needed to be prepared.

I need to level up, regardless if I like it or not.

It needs to be done for the future of the fief.

Only when Kant and Drondheim amassed enough power to defend themselves could the development of the Oasis Lookout be guaranteed. Otherwise, regardless of how painstakingly he worked to make the place prosper, it would eventually be like making a new fief for some greedy people out there to steal. That was a certain outcome if he lacked forces formidable enough to defend his creation.

It would be like handing his fief over to others on a silver platter.

As such, Kant thought his troops needed to be upgraded.

Even if the amount of Denars spent was hefty, he needed to get them upgraded so the development of the village remained unimpeded.

Upgrading 35 Swadian Peasants to Swadian Recruits required 350 Denars.

Upgrading 20 Swadian Recruits to Swadian Militias required 200 Denars.

As first-level troop classes, the individual cost for an upgrade was 10 Denars.

That’s 550 Denars.

Kant frowned thinking of the number.

However, he unflinchingly said, “Confirm upgrade.”

The numbers symbolizing the Denars he owned quickly dropped.

Out of the 1,000 Denars he had acquired from completing the main quest of building his village, 420 Denars remained after the numbers stopped dropping. Half of Kant’s savings had once again been spent.

Now then…

Kant’s frown slightly deepened.

The 10 Swadian Militias were also available for upgrade.

Upgrading each of them required 20 Denars each. There was an option of upgrading them to become a melee class in the form of Swadian Footmen or to become a ranged class in the form of Swadian Skirmishers.

Those two classes were the Kingdom of Swadia’s third-level troop classes.

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If they underwent another upgrade, they would reach the fourth level of troop classes. That was only a level below the fifth-level troop class, which was the top class of main forces on the battlefield.

However, Kant declined to upgrade the 10 Swadian Militias.

It was a decision he came to after thinking things through.

Although the 200 Denars required for upgrading all of them did not seem much, it would affect further development of the village.

Drondheim, at the moment, was in the early stages of development.

He required huge sums of Denars to construct other buildings, for instance, houses, which were available for construction but had not been built. There were also city walls, mills, watchtowers, and wells. All of these structures were basic facilities the village desperately needed.

The only building the village currently had was the council hall.

Although the other building, the Desert Bandit Lair, was right next to the council, it was a building for recruiting Desert Bandits. It was independent of the series of Kingdom of Swadia buildings.

He needed to hurry up with the construction of the village.

As for the Jackalans, all the infantry units I have at the moment will do.

Kant’s expression remained calm.

He had 35 Swadian Recruits and 30 Swadian Militias at his disposal, which was a force of 65 units. They could easily guard the Oasis Lookout. Even if they met with the same amount of Jackalans again, Kant’s victory was guaranteed.

Unlike the peasants, those were tried and true infantry units.

Although they were still low-level troop classes, the standard Swadian armament they were equipped with meant that the primitive Jackalans, who lacked even metal weapons, stood no chance against them.

Furthermore, the Swadian Militias were already equipped with ranged weaponry.

They had received hunting crossbows.

They were the lowest level and least powerful crossbows provided by the system.

Crossbows were usually used by hunters in the mountains as a tool for hunting. Their performance on the battlefield, which allowed for shooting enemies from afar, was an added feature.

Regardless of how unimpressive the crossbow was, it was still a crossbow.

A crossbow capable of hunting animals could kill enemies all the same.

Furthermore, they were only needed to deal with the Jackalans, which lacked armor and only had their physical fortitude to rely on.

The 30 Swadian Militias could easily serve as crossbowmen. After all, they had decently performed when fighting up close and personal.

With 35 Swadian Recruits working in tandem with them, they would perform well against the Jackalans.

That’s how it is for now.

Kant confirmed his choices. The dialog box on his retina gradually disappeared.

The soldiers, who he saw outside the window, were still cleaning up the battlefield. The fight had spanned the entire oasis and sand beyond. All of them were instantly wrapped in data streams. They appeared in the world two seconds later with apparent changes.

All of them looked more physically fit.

Their equipment had been swapped out.

The greatest change occurred to the Swadian Militias. Hunting crossbows were seen hanging underneath the kite shields on their backs.

There were also quivers strapped to their sides, which neatly held 20 bolts each.

They were done getting their upgrades.

A cold wind blew, kicking up loose sand.

Before they realized it, a line of white light appeared on the eastern horizon of the Nahrin Desert.

Dawn was approaching.

Kant, who was lying on his bed, did not feel like sleeping.

The threat of the Jackalans was over for the time being. The troop classes gained after the upgrade solved the lack of adequate defense forces problem.

However, that meant that it was time to focus on developing his village.

Another dialog box appeared on his retina. It was a list of buildings available for construction in Drondheim.

[Construction List:]

[House, City Wall, Mill, Watchtower, Well]

The introduction and images suggested that these buildings were not all that different from those in the game.

Kant took a good look.

[House: Civilian building of stone and wooden materials. It increases population and attracts an influx of citizens when the population in the village is low. Requires 100 Denars and seven days for construction.]

[Mill: Agricultural building that could be powered either by wind or water. It is capable of crushing wheat and other crops for producing flour. Requires 200 Denars and 14 days for construction.]

[City Wall: Military building consisting only of rocks piled to a height of 1.6 feet surrounding the village. It is mainly used for preventing livestock from escaping into the wild instead of being used for defense against enemy attacks. Requires 100 Denars and seven days for construction.]

[Watchtower: Military building of stone and wooden materials. Personnel could be assigned within to spot movements as early as possible to keep the village safe. Requires 100 Denars and seven days for construction.]

[Well: Civilian building constructed by digging into the ground. Underground water sources are required or wells dug will not produce water. Requires 100 Denars and seven days for construction.]

These were the five buildings currently available to Kant for construction.

However, he slightly frowned.

It seems like some buildings would be useless.

Kant scanned the dialog box and felt somewhat exasperated after reading the introductions.

Drondheim was located in the Nahrin Desert. There were at least two out of five buildings that served no use to the village in its present state.

Wells. No need for that given that the oasis has a water source.

Kant frowned as he continued selecting. No wheat fields, so no need for mills.

However, his frown became even more intense as he continued to read the dialog box. I have no need for houses since I’ll be getting them from quest rewards anyway. A city wall is also useless. It wouldn’t be tall enough to defend against Jackalan attacks anyway.

His expression grew tenser as he thought.

Kant frowned and thought, It seems like the watchtower is the only one of any use.

The capability to detect anything going on around earlier was important. Therefore, giving the village an early warning system made the watchtower the only building out of the five that fit his current situation best.

The threat of the Jackalans attacking at some unknown time was always present.

With the watchtower in place, he gained the ability to detect such threats early and, therefore, enabled everyone in the file to prepare and strike much sooner. It would assist them in gaining a quicker victory in the event of an attack.