Chapter 15: My Master Architect

I'm off to quarry and log again - the village is in short supply and needs more materials to build new houses. Luckily, among the players who had just joined the village were a woodcutter and a stonemason, both of whom had reached Intermediate 3. I immediately asked them to start working, and I was responsible for acquiring the wood and stone materials. Equipped with these two experts, I didn't have to collect the materials myself anymore and could focus on building my house.

It was at this time that my career as a village chief also reached its peak, as I had contributed enough!

The system prompted me: due to your great contribution to the Lost Village that no one can match, the King has decided to reward you with the territory belonging to the Lost Village, do you agree?

I had been looking forward to this moment for a long time, so I trembled and pressed "yes". Then, the system prompted: the king's letter of appointment will arrive in three days, during this period, you must pay off all the village's debts ...

I fainted on the spot, oh my god, 70 gold coins, three days ...

For the rest of the day, I could only mechanically build houses and helplessly increase the house rent to 100 copper coins per day and the selling price to 100 silver coins, but the money was only enough to pay for the materials for the woodcutters and stonemasons.

Happily, the properties of the houses I'm building are now significantly better thanks to the inspiration of observing the old architect at work. By the time I built the tenth dwelling of the day, Architecture had risen to Intermediate First Class.

The old architect had also finished all his work and came to bid me farewell. When he saw how dedicated I was to building the dwellings, admiration shone in his eyes and he stroked his beard and nodded his head. I had just stopped working when I saw that look of praise and encouragement on his face, so of course I couldn't let the opportunity pass. I flattered him greatly for a few moments and then made a request to become a master. The old architect was in a happy mood and gave me the "Magic Building Construction Methods", which was a high-level secret method that was not available on the market, and also an excellent thing that could not be obtained in the construction profession quests, so it really made me contented. In addition, the old man also taught me "Bonding", "Polishing" and "Surveying".

When I looked into the old man's eyes, I felt a familiar emotion, this warm and kind gaze reminded me of my own grandfather. I looked at my master's name: "Magic Architect", no, with his intelligence, he should be a very high level NPC, how could he not have a name?

I tentatively asked, "Master, why don't you have a name?" The old man looked at me with a smile, "Is a name important? Actually, I don't remember my name either, just call me 'Master', I like to hear it."

I touched my head in embarrassment, "Isn't it inappropriate to call Master like this? However, Master, you know that I am very good at learning, right? I'll probably worship many more masters in the future, and by then I'll be unable to tell what to call them."

Master pretended to be very angry, blew his beard and glared a bit, and then told me, "Then I am your 'Master Shi'!"

I smiled and said, "As long as no other masters are around, I'll still call you old master. Master ah, can you give your disciple some meeting gifts, such as reducing the amount I owe you ..."

Master interrupted me on the spot: "You still say, worship gift you haven't given it, forget it, don't bother with you. Give you a set of architect's tools, lest you ruin my reputation with those broken tools."

Master Shi threw me a pack of "Architect's Advanced Tools", and then flew away on the teleportation array, his speed leaving all the young people present dumbfounded.

Now it's time to take a look at the village's attributes: Lost Village, Population 25, Force 171 (Shield 100, Magic Pillar 40), Culture 56 (Temple of Light 50), Magic 242, Economy 18, Public Security 55, Production 39, Environment 47. The village's overall strength ranking of 9772541 has risen by more than six hundred thousand places!

The village's finances are currently in deficit, and if we can pay off our bills, this ranking will be greatly improved. Moreover, our village's "hardware" conditions are incomparable to other villages! I don't believe there are many other villages on the continent that have such a variety of magical buildings at the same time.

The miner NPC from Sunset City also came and bought one of my rooms to set up a store. In addition to purchasing ores, he also goes into the mountains to mine. His store was the first store in our village, and the purpose of the store was to allow trading via vending machines even when the owner was away.

As trading between players and with vendors went up, the village's economic index continued to rise, and production and population increased from time to time. However, some people are sharing a house, so there are still enough houses in the village at the moment, and with two empty rooms left, it's time for me to take a break.

At that time, the village guards sent by the city lord also arrived. Since the village had become my autonomous territory, I could decide whether to appoint him or not. Looking at the attributes of this NPC village guard: a level 40 warrior, equipped with an iron-grade set. He's not a match for high ranked players. It seems that I need to increase my manpower in the future. Luckily, there are currently no players coming to intentionally cause trouble, so I can handle it for the time being.

Then look at the village finances, village guards 1 silver coins daily salary, village management 2 silver coins. What surprises me is that the village debt is only 63 gold coins.

It turns out that more than a hundred people visited the Lost Village today, and more than half of them were from Sunset City or even villages further away. For every person that comes over from Sunset City, we can charge 70 silver coins, and for 50 people that's 3.5 gold coins, so the income from the teleportation array alone is more than 6 gold coins.

After selling so many houses, and selling the trash leather clothes, weapons, and wooden items I crafted to the vendors, I had 3 gold coins from my personal possessions. But even if I do the most lucrative mining job, 10 silver coins an hour, that's only 7 gold coins for three days, still not even close, it's really sad. Master, you are also too black, only one day's work, all the materials are provided by me, but actually want to charge me 80 gold coins (the village treasury originally still has 10 gold coins).

Everyone in the village seems to be happy except me. The woodcutter "Blackie" who helped me cut down a tree called "Sulphur Wood", and his woodcutting skill was upgraded to advanced; the stonemason who quarried for me found an ancient trilobite fossil, and his quarrying skill was also upgraded to advanced, and he also gained 100 reputation; and their group of people, in order to make a living, even mined a superb basalt iron, which was a very good material. They dug up a superb iron, and their mining technique was also promoted to advanced; a few players who went out to practice leveling, encountered the Lyon BOSS that I dreamed of finding, and exploded silver weapons; Bao, Abbey, Alan, and the old village chief, all became the object of the new players, and it seems that everyone is an expert at making friendships with NPCs, and the copper coins and silver coins are all stuffed in their hands, as well as all kinds of small gifts for their goodwill. Like I never knew that Po loved wine so much, and the old village chief actually likes glass marbles ...

Everyone went to get rich, I was bored to make cheap furniture for the new players, these can not be missing, the most important furniture is the bed. I make beds with the best attributes that can revive a person from the most fatigued state in half an hour. There was a woodworker among the new players, and although he had an intermediate second class level and a complete set of various method books, he didn't make anything better than me because he didn't have the Atlas Book of Living Goods.

In the process of making furniture, I also followed the method of construction and tried to give an aura to my work. It seemed that all the truths in the world were connected, and the level of my work had indeed risen a notch, and my experience, which had been growing slowly, had also risen considerably.

At the same time that I had upgraded my carpentry to intermediate first class, my old friend Leon finally arrived. Friends who have shared life and death are especially excited to meet each other, and we told each other about our respective experiences in the past few days.

Leon was doing well, he had risen to level 37 after transferring to a new job, and he had also fought a demonic beast boss and obtained a gold helmet. Still, he was envious when he heard about my experience. I didn't tell Leon about the 70 gold coins I had to pay back in three days, if I had let him know, he would have sold the gold weapon to help me get the money together.

Leon also brought two juniors with him, Jimmy had already switched and was now level 35. Another teenager, level 34 chivalry, named "Tom", chivalry profession strength and physique is slightly inferior to the warrior, but agility is higher, and has a "hidden weapon" such as long-distance skills. The two little brothers by the influence of Leon's big brother, now also quite a manly style, chatting with them is particularly pleasant.

Leon was always thinking about the horse riding skill I mentioned. Although they couldn't rely on their mounts to boost their attack power and blood quantity like knights due to their profession restrictions, having a mount to get to the leveling spot faster was very useful.

So, leaving behind the troubles in the village, I took the gifts that I had prepared for the herders long ago and went on the road with them. In order to save time on the road, I made a simple carriage according to the Complete Tool Atlas. Four horses pulled it, the speed is not bad, but my craft is not good, I forgot to add shock absorbers, so that the three people once the car will be wowed vomit a ground ...

The herdsmen, whom I hadn't seen for a long time, were very enthusiastic about me, and of course, they didn't forget to welcome a few new guests. The group gathered around the bonfire and ate a big meal, and then I took out the gifts I brought: five iron-grade bows and two iron knives, as well as medicines refined by a pharmacist player in the village. The herdsmen happily threw me into the air, almost making me fall apart.

Still, in the midst of the revelry, I felt a hint of something strange. The Patriarch seemed to have something on his mind. After the welcome program was over, I asked the patriarch about it.

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