Chapter 18

The residents were taken aback when Ji Chen arrived with a stunning girl who had fins on her ears.

They couldn’t believe that a living person had suddenly appeared on this isolated and uninhabited island.

When they found out that Alice was a Siren and a hero, their surprise grew even more.

They had all heard of the sea demon with an enchanting singing voice that resided in the ocean. These demons resembled humans and were incredibly beautiful. They were notorious for using their songs to lure ships to their demise, causing them to crash into rocks and sink.

And that kind of sea demon was called Siren.

His Lordship was actually able to subdue a legendary Siren?

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The people held even more reverence and respect for Ji Chen after he had brought Alice back.

Despite being shocked by Alice’s appearance and abilities, they acknowledged that it was a testament to the Feudal Lord’s power to be able to subdue her.

Now, the people were constantly praising him and attributing all good things to him.

If the food was delicious, it was His Lordship’s credit; if the journey to work was smooth, it was also His Lordship’s credit.

They had become flatterers who praised him endlessly.

This was brought by their lord! Praise the lord!

When someone found a Kels silver coin on the beach.

It must be the lord protecting us! Praise the lord!

This was just one of many instances of such praise.

Unknowingly, the popularity of the territory had increased to 70 points, resulting in an additional 20% increase in labor efficiency. The residents’ efficiency and enthusiasm for work had become remarkable.

Ji Chen handed over the baskets of fish he caught to his subjects to deal with. Then, he immediately ordered the tailor to sew a set of women’s clothing for Alice.

Once Alice’s tail had transformed into legs, she had a pair of bare feet that resembled smooth jade.

She didn’t wear any shoes, and although the tight-fitting, thick membrane covering her body acted as a cover, it still looked a bit peculiar on land, almost like high-end sexy clothing.

Therefore, it was more appropriate for her to wear human clothing.

After helping Alice get accustomed to walking on her legs, Ji Chen opened up the military talent tree.

A new interface for the hero’s talent tree appeared.

He clicked on it and saw Alice’s talent tree.

[Siren: Alice (Hero)]

[Unlock node A-1: Song of Temptation (Blue skill → Purple skill)] [Consumes 3200 units of wood, 3200 units of clay, and 800 units of Mithril.]

[Unlock node B-1: Song of War (blue skill → purple skill) Consumes 3200 units of fiber, 3200 units of clay, and 800 units of Mithril.]

[Unlock Point C-1: Ocean Aristocrat (Green Skill → Blue Skill)] [Requires 1600 units of crude iron, and 400 units of Mithril.]

[Unlock node D-1: Siren’s Body (new green skill)] [Requires 800 units of thick iron]

[Unlock node E-1: Siren bloodline (Military characteristic weakened/enhanced)] [Requires 1600 units of crystals, 1600 units of Mithril]

“After unlocking nodes, A-1, B-1, C-1, C-2, D-1, and E-1, you can advance to a Purple Rare Hero.”

When he saw the number of resources required to unlock the node, the corners of his mouth twitched crazily.

Even unlocking a green skill required 800 units of crude iron, not to mention other resources that could easily reach thousands of units and required rare Mithril resources.

This confirmed his suspicion that heroes were indeed expensive to maintain.

Now, he only had one word to describe himself.

Poor!

However, the information on the bottom of the column made him nod in understanding.

It was revealed that the next tier after blue excellent was the purple rare tier, and Alice’s potential, the red legacy tier, was evidently higher than the purple rare tier.

As Alice was added to the military talent tree, Ji Chen’s mind began to race.

If the tier of a hero could be increased, could the military talent tree increase the upper limit of a hero’s potential when it reached its maximum potential?

The idea made him feel excited. The military talent tree was truly a cheat!

“My Lord, did you think of something happy?”

When he came back to his senses, he found Alice staggering to the front.

She tilted her head cutely, her eyes filled with curiosity.

Ji Chen supported her with one hand and stroked her silver hair with a chuckle.

Looking at Alice’s sapphire-like eyes, he suddenly wondered why it wasn’t red.

This thought only flashed across his mind.

“It’s fine. You stay in the territory first. I’m going out for a while. ”

As he spoke, he shouted for Wilus to send two female subjects to help Alice get used to walking on her feet.

Ji Chen led the Murlocs out of the territory and headed towards the raw iron mine resource point.

After a journey of over ten minutes, he reached the mine entrance and heard a tinkling sound emanating from inside.

Accompanied by the shouts and singing of the cave miners.

“Hey! If we don’t work hard today, we’ll eat lizards tomorrow!”

“Yo hey! If we work harder today, we’ll eat sea fish tomorrow!”

“Who gave us food?”

“The great lord!”

“Who protects us?”

“The glorious lord!”

“For the lord! We must work harder in mining!”

“Yo hey yo yo!”

As he heard the mournful sounds emanating from within, Ji Chen’s expression soured.

What the hell was this song?

He shook his head and decided not to interrupt them.

Although they had used brute force to make the cave miners submit, it seemed their loyalty was still intact.

“I’ll toss in a few extra pieces of meat for tonight’s meal,” he thought to himself before heading to the clay mine.

There, he found four more cave miners and several residents busy excavating clay.

However, the small clay mines, with only 42 positions, were not as productive as the 14 mini crude iron mines which were all full.

Only half of the positions were occupied by 21 workers, resulting in a production capacity of only half.

The remaining residents were either engaged in tool and clothing making, house building, or fishing boat construction.

They simply couldn’t spare any manpower.

Wilus had already done his best in deploying the workforce, but as the saying goes, a clever housewife can’t cook a meal without rice.

No matter how much manpower they allocated, they couldn’t solve the current issue of extreme labor shortage.

This was the biggest flaw that the territory had exposed.

Ji Chen felt a headache coming on as well, but there was nothing he could do.

His territory was on an island, surrounded by a vast ocean.

For example, Other players usually increase their population by absorbing refugees or hiring residents from nearby settlements.

However, such methods were not viable on this island.

Ji Chen could only focus on improving his troops’ strength, exploring the wilderness, and developing the shipbuilding industry to build a ship capable of crossing the ocean.

He understood that progress would be slow, but he still held on to the hope that one day, another ship full of people would land on this island.

He finished patrolling the three resource points and led the Murlocs to patrol the territory.

They chased away wild beasts and eliminated wild monsters nearby as they patrolled.

Unknowingly, they left the vicinity of the territory and ventured deep into the forest, eventually arriving near the gray stone forest.

It was one of the three places he had seen before, approximately three to four kilometers away from the territory.

Ji Chen pushed aside the dense vegetation and looked outside.

A dozen meters tall, irregular gray stone pillars stood in the vast shallow water.

Small trees and weeds grew out of the cracks in the stone pillars, and moss and vines clung to them.

In the center of this shallow stone forest was a beach in the middle of the lake. On the beach stood a strange stone building.

Ji Chen’s eyes widened with surprise as he stared at the building for a moment.

He realized that it was a neutral recruitment camp, as mentioned in the game information.

These camps randomly appeared in the wilderness and couldn’t be moved, but they offered powerful soldiers to players who defeated the guardian soldiers and occupied them.

He had never expected to find one in this location!

As the camera turned slightly, he noticed a box glimmering with starlight in front of a rock in the middle of the lake.

Another treasure chest?

Good things do come in pairs!

Ji Chen made up his mind to claim both rewards, but first he needed to deal with the guardian soldiers lounging around the lake.