Chapter 55: Spirit Crystal Servant (Please keep reading)

Day one, a few stragglers.

Day two, small groups.

Day three, crowds.

Day four, entire clans.

There was no helping it; the aroma of the Black Well Tribe's food was simply too enticing to resist.

Furthermore, the current leader was famously powerful and benevolent; if they arrived too late, there would be no place left for them.

Gavin, naturally, did not turn anyone away, incorporating as many as came.

Miners were handed off to Zack, warriors to Fang, and laborers to Gorse.

As for troublemakers, Gavin had yet to encounter many.

Those who came voluntarily to surrender were usually from the very bottom of the social ladder, whether they were kobolds or entire tribes.

Then there was Half-Ogre Hou, who possessed sufficient deterrent power; his massive club was in a constant state of hunger, practically begging for a troublemaker to practice on.

By the fifth day, it wasn't just kobolds; even some goblins were prowling around the outskirts, seemingly wanting to join but lacking the courage, as the relationship between the two races had always been poor.

Gavin had long since made arrangements for these goblins: the Spirit Crystal Mine was their best destination.

The leader of that goblin tribe was quite shrewd; from previous contacts, he had somewhat caught the scent of the situation. Even before it was time to pay tribute, he had prepared a sufficient amount of spirit crystals and proactively delivered them, even bringing a little extra to test the waters.

Gavin could see through his intentions at a glance.

If the food trade was successful, they would mine more in the future; if it was seized, they would only mine enough to barely meet the tribute. Goblins were not as hardworking as kobolds; they were notorious for being cunning and lazy, which was another reason Gavin chose kobolds over them.

To stimulate their productivity, Gavin offered the goblins a generous price: a full half-wagon of moldy grain. To prevent them from being robbed on the road, he kindly sent a half-ogre to escort them back to the spirit crystal mine.

The goblins wandering around the Black Well Tribe suddenly found a place to go, following that half-wagon of grain toward the spirit crystal mine. Gavin believed that the goblin leader would squeeze every bit of their potential out.

...

Without warning, Gavin snapped out of his trance.

Stretching his limbs, feeling that his body had rested sufficiently, he did not re-enter the trance and instead walked out of the tent.

The night was still deep.

The Black Well camp was quiet on the ground, with only the fires beneath ten hanging pots still burning fiercely, simmering the breakfast for the next morning.

Looking down from the hillside where Gavin stood, the outline of the Black Well camp was already beginning to take shape.

The development speed of the Black Well Tribe had far outpaced the excavation of the Black Well Mine; currently, at least half of the kobolds were sleeping outside the mine.

Although it was late spring, the temperature difference between day and night in the Rocklands was significant, and the night was still somewhat cold for ectothermic creatures like kobolds.

Therefore, Gavin had adopted the method of separating the hanging pots; ten pots meant ten sleeping circles, where the kobolds huddled shoulder to shoulder beside the fires.

Kobolds had long since adapted to crowded communal living, so this method caused them no great distress.

The ten hanging pots also functioned as ten small squads.

As the population grew, sharing from a single pot became impractical, making squad division inevitable.

This was a simple and crude military management model. Rather than developing into a large village or town, the Black Well camp was evolving into a large, integrated military-civilian camp.

In the Black Well Mine, the rhythmic clanging of excavation continued.

With enough people now, the Black Well Tribe implemented a two-shift system, mining day and night without pause.

For the kobolds, the process of mining was essentially the process of building their own nests; they required no prompting from Gavin, as their enthusiasm was extremely high.

The two-shift system wasn't decided by Gavin, but by Zack, who had been promoted to General Overseer of the Black Well Mine.

Before this, when the tribe's numbers were insufficient, they had implemented a fifteen-hour workday. Aside from eating and sleeping, they mined and excavated incessantly. Even slave owners weren't that brutal, yet all the kobolds considered it perfectly natural. Even Gavin, a textbook capitalist, had been momentarily stunned.

From the surroundings, the rhythmic barking of kobolds could be heard from time to time; those were the kobold soldiers led by Fang, patrolling the perimeter and exchanging information.

In this moment, a sense of pride welled up within him. This was the foundation he had built in less than a month.

With such a smooth start, the road ahead would be traveled even faster.

It seemed a bit early to begin training. Most of the day-shift kobolds had slept for less than five hours; if he started making noise, many would hear and join the training.

Since they worked so hard every day, he would let them sleep a little longer—after all, he was a kind-hearted man.

He needed to find something to occupy himself.

Gavin's gaze fell upon the spirit crystals in the small wooden box by his bedside. Since he finally had some time, he might as well create a Spirit Crystal Servant.

Gavin sat at the table, poured out the spirit crystals into a pile between his hands, closed his eyes, and calmed his mind. An invisible force began to gather within his soul—*Attunement to Spirit Crystals*.

Entering a state of concentration was as simple as drinking water for the current Gavin.

The spirit crystals between his hands began to slowly levitate, one by one.

As Gavin injected his mental power, the floating crystals emitted a faint glow and began to melt slowly, eventually turning into a transparent liquid that merged together.

The sphere of spirit crystal liquid grew larger and larger until it reached the size of an adult's fist, at which point no more crystals melted into it.

Step one: Spirit crystal dissolution complete.

Step two: Personality selection.

Artisan, Coward, Friendly, Hero, Liar, Meticulous, Dexterous, Observant, Calm, Resolute, Sage, Focused, Serene, and Empathetic.

As Gavin lingered on different personalities, the crystal sphere emitted different faint glows.

Spirit Crystal Servants were intelligent creations; once a personality was chosen, their primary character would lean heavily in that direction.

Negative personalities were generally not within Gavin's consideration, even if they provided useful attunement bonuses.

After all, a Spirit Crystal Servant would follow him for a lifetime; he didn't want a professional liar by his side, even if he could spot a lie at a glance.

Driven by the logic of "filling what is lacking," Gavin's gaze finally settled on the "Hero" personality.

In his past life, he had spent too much time living in the shadows and darkness, leading him to have a preference for personalities filled with sunlight.

Moreover, every time he thought of the word "hero," Gavin couldn't help but associate it with Zaranda and her indomitable, competitive spirit.

No, no, he absolutely could not keep thinking about that.

Once the personality was set, the next step would be shaping.

If the Spirit Crystal Servant's appearance was fixed to look like Zaranda, how would he ever face her in the future?

Gavin hurriedly diverted his thoughts to another more typical heroic image.

No, that's not right—not a historical hero.

If he had someone looking like a historical figure or a great leader following him around, it would make his skin crawl.

Anime? Anime was good. Character designs were somewhat abstract and personalities were focused, making them perfect for Spirit Crystal Servants.

Speaking of anime heroines, a name immediately jumped into Gavin's mind—Artoria Pendragon. Zhang You had been a huge fan of this character and had even collected her figures.

(End of Chapter)