Hm?
Had this guy not actually attacked his giant wolves? Or was it a chance encounter, just an accidental skirmish?
Just as Han Huohuo was puzzling over it, a private chat lit up. The name's note read: Lord of Blood Wolf Stronghold, Zhu Yiming.
Han Huohuo hurried to accept Zhu Yiming's call.
"Big bro, those giant mechanical wolves are your troops? Impressive. We were hunting and ran into a fight by accident — only noticed they were your units after the system warning. A misunderstanding, an absolute misunderstanding. I've already pulled my troops away."
Han Huohuo half believed it, unsure whether the guy was telling the truth.
"If it's just a misunderstanding, then it's fine. I'm mining over there and casually posted a few giant mechanical wolves to guard. They won't attack other Lords unprovoked."
"Ha, it was my archer's fault — he hit your mechanical wolf by accident and triggered the fight. Glad we've cleared it up. My apologies!"
"It's nothing!"
The two of them chatted idly about the black stone mine for a bit. The guy was a little curious why Han Huohuo took an interest in such a useless mineral, and Han Huohuo brushed it off with a vague laugh.
Zhu Yiming left the channel.
Han Huohuo still didn't dare let his guard down. He observed for a while longer, confirmed the disengagement was real and the other side's troops had withdrawn far off, and only then relaxed.
Luckily the black stone mine was no rare deposit, nor a resource other Lords needed, so they had no interest in seizing it at all. Had it been a gold mine or a gem mine, fighting would have broken out long ago.
Han Huohuo didn't want trouble now.
His one focus was developing quietly.
Nearby he'd already spotted two rare mines — an Abyss Crystal Mine and a Radiance Gem Mine, both within ten kilometers — but he hadn't gone to mine them.
These special deposits, being so valuable, were fought over with unusual ferocity.
Han Huohuo didn't need them yet.
He didn't want to clash with anyone.
The surroundings were too complex, the strongholds too many; being overly combative made it easy for someone to find a weakness to exploit.
He had only one life — no need to take risks.
But if anyone provoked him, Han Huohuo absolutely wouldn't mind wiping out another bandit chief!
Ding!
【Congratulations, Lord. Your personal level has risen to Level 3. You are the first Lord to advance to Level 3. Broadcast this worldwide?】
"Decline!"
Without even realizing it, he'd leveled up again.
A Lord leveled up fairly easily in the early game; the later it got, the more experience required. Gathering, fighting, or building up the domain — all of it added to a Lord's experience.
【Ding. Luck activated. You gained a new skill on leveling up. Please choose one of the following: Basic Vitality or Basic Attack.】
【Basic Vitality】: increases the Lord's Endurance by 10%, minimum one point.
【Basic Attack】: increases the Lord's Strength by 10%, minimum one point.
By Han Huohuo's nature, he'd surely have wanted Basic Vitality — this kind of percentage-scaling skill grew ever stronger in the late game.
But he hesitated. His attributes could be added to his army, and once the army grew large, every single point of an attribute was crucial.
In the early game his mainstay was definitely the Floaters, and for ranged units like those, the attack attribute was absolutely more important than life.
So Han Huohuo chose: "Basic Attack."
He reasoned that the Basic Vitality skill would come around again eventually; it wasn't the most important skill right now.
He opened the Lord interface and glanced at his stats again.
【Lord】: Han Huohuo
【Level】: 3
【Attributes】: Strength 5, Defense 3, Endurance 1 (2), Intelligence 2.
【Exclusive Skill】: Mechanical Mastery
【General Skills】: Basic Leadership, Basic Attack.
The numbers in parentheses were the attributes added by equipment.
A Lord could choose a skill every five levels, but when his Luck was high, an extra skill choice occasionally appeared — normally an extremely small chance.
It was also that Han Huohuo had stepped in good luck today, gaining an extra skill choice.
Han Huohuo beamed. He hurried to take the horseshoe hanging at his neck and gave it a kiss. This treasure was awesome! Luck really was a fine thing.
【Congratulations, Lord, you are the first to advance to Level 3. Reward: one treasure chest. Please accept it, Lord.】
He opened the chest, and inside was another treasure.
【Ring of Vigor】: Lord Endurance +2
Huh?
Another Endurance ring — but it looked different from the Ring of Life?
The two rings differed in style, and their surface patterns were completely different, yet these two Endurance rings had identical attributes.
Han Huohuo didn't understand it either — why two rings of completely different appearance had the same attribute.
Slipping it on, Han Huohuo's Endurance now reached 5 points. He finally wouldn't be killed in one easy blow.
Han Huohuo felt himself grow much sturdier.
His tiger frame shook!
In high spirits, he wandered the camp whistling, like a street loafer.
Without realizing it, he reached the edge of the camp, where a faint stench suddenly drifted over. Han Huohuo covered his nose, very put off.
No helping it — the stronghold had more people now, but no toilet. Everyone was considerate enough and went out to the little woods beyond the stronghold to relieve themselves.
But when the mountain wind blew, the stench at the camp's edge was still quite strong.
There were only seven people now. If there were dozens later, wouldn't the stronghold reek to high heaven?
No good — however tight resources were, a toilet had to be built first!
He didn't know who to find, so he went straight to the workshop and found the craftsman Liu Long to ask about the toilet.
"Chief, you want to build a toilet?"
"That's right. Got any ideas?"
"Chief, a toilet's easy to build, but if you want one without any smell, that's not so easy — you'd need at least a septic tank, right?"
"Cut the chatter — just tell me, can you build it?"
Liu Long hesitated.
"I won't hide it from you, Chief — I can't build it alone. I'd need Zhang Xiao'an working with me, and you'd have to give him the order. I can't direct him."
"Zhang Xiao'an?"
Only then did Han Huohuo recall that Zhang Xiao'an was an architect; this really was a better job for him.
He hurried to call Zhang Xiao'an over too.
The three of them discussed in the workshop for a good while how to build the toilet.
A toilet wasn't on the system's build list, but that didn't mean it couldn't be built — it needed an architect to design it himself, plus the cooperation of many other professions.
And what an architect designed couldn't exceed the limits of the era.
You couldn't very well build a space station in the Ancient Era!
Luckily a toilet was the simplest of buildings; even in the Ancient Era it could be built all the same.
Han Huohuo was widely traveled and well-informed, and offered plenty of ideas. The three of them weighed the feasibility back and forth, and finally settled on a model. He also allocated three mechanical workers to Zhang Xiao'an.
The septic tank and the toilet's surface structure were all handled by Zhang Xiao'an leading the workers.
They also designed a semi-automatic flushing system: a large wooden barrel on top to store water, plus piping — all produced and installed by Liu Long.
Craftsman and architect working together, plus mechanical workers laboring without fear of filth or hardship.
After half a day's work, the toilet was finally built.
Though it was only a squat toilet, it was already an era-defining structure, and the quality of life had visibly improved.
We're all civilized people — we must be civilized bandits. Killing's no more than a nod to the ground, but when you swing the butcher's blade, you must do it with elegance. You can't have the place reeking to high heaven!
Then he gave Liu Long another task: to make some vehicles.
He casually sketched a few rough diagrams of wooden oxen and gliding horses and had Liu Long study them slowly — the convoy needed building too.
Han Huohuo's philosophy was: if he could avoid working, he absolutely wouldn't. Coming out of the workshop, he began bouncing all over the camp, and wherever something displeased him, he'd hurry over and start gesturing and bossing about.
Everyone seethed in silence but didn't dare speak.
Who told him to be the boss!
With the toilet fixed, Han Huohuo got into the swing of it and started directing the workers again, digging a drainage channel so that wastewater and rainwater could flow out of the stronghold together along the ditch.
This drainage channel was simple, because the stronghold sat right on the peak. He just had to dig the ditch to the mountain's edge; the summit had a slope, so the sewage naturally flowed out.
The only pity now was the lack of a stone crusher. With one, Han Huohuo would even have wanted to lay crushed stone throughout the camp.
It was a sandy-earth floor now, which didn't pool water much, so it was passable enough.
The mechanical workers came and went around Han Huohuo, giving off a rumble.
Steam-age machines appearing in an Ancient-Era stronghold were quite a strange sight.
It had a bit of a time-crossing feel.
These mechanical workers piled a great deal of stone and wood out in the open in the camp, but since it was machine work, they stacked it very neatly, pleasing enough to the eye.
TL Notes:
TL Note: Wooden oxen and gliding horses — legendary man-powered transport carts attributed to the strategist Zhuge Liang in the Three Kingdoms era; here, just Han's shorthand for "haulage carts."