Chapter 20: Attributes Increased Again [Seeking Recommendations and Collections]

Zong Shen thought to himself, and before he knew it, he had returned to the outside of the small courtyard.

He reached out and patted the large head of the old travel horse.

The smooth fur felt very good to the touch.

"Smart old fellow."

The old travel horse snorted and turned its head slightly, staring at Zong Shen with one large eye.

From this gaze, Zong Shen saw emotions of friendliness, intelligence, and harmony.

They say an old horse knows the way; this was not a falsehood at all.

In Zong Shen's view, this old travel horse seemed much smarter and more sincere than the three foolish farmers.

Zong Shen dismounted, tethered the travel horse at the courtyard entrance, and let it graze on the grass.

At this time, Luna and the others had not yet returned.

Among the three buildings, the construction progress of the [Level 1 Thatch Hut] was already more than halfway complete.

If resources and population were sufficient, it could be preliminarily constructed very quickly.

Tomorrow's goal would still focus on resource collection. Zong Shen planned to divide the farmers into groups.

Each group would be responsible for different resources to increase efficiency.

As the gathering teams increased and the collection range expanded, either Colby or Luna would have to stay behind to protect the gathering farmers and assist in transporting resources.

The trees and resources here were too scattered.

If he could find a forest or a mine, Zong Shen could build a [Tier 1 Logging Camp] or a [Level 1 Mine] directly next to it. That way, once the farmers finished gathering, they could put the wood and ore directly into the facility to be converted into various resources.

This would save a massive amount of efficiency by eliminating the need to carry everything back to the small courtyard.

Zong Shen plopped down on the territory storage chest; he had already come to regard this spot as his lordly throne.

"Next, I'll put on the new equipment. Also, after killing those bandits just now, I leveled up twice. I need to allocate some skill and attribute points," Zong Shen muttered to himself.

He immediately opened the [Personal] function and began allocating points.

After leveling up twice, he had 2 attribute points, 2 skill points, and 10 weapon proficiency points available for distribution.

The fine-grade equipment Zong Shen had previously obtained, the [Emerald Leggings], required 8 Agility to equip, and he was currently just short of that.

Therefore, he decisively put 1 point into Agility.

He hesitated between Strength and Intelligence for the remaining point.

Strength increased his personal combat power, while Intelligence increased his team's strength.

Furthermore, the four main attributes determined the upper limit of skill levels.

The level of a passive skill could not exceed one-third of the corresponding main attribute.

Zong Shen's Intelligence was currently only 7, meaning all Intelligence-type skills could only be raised to Level 2.

Unless he could cultivate an Intelligence-type hero to handle overall expeditions and internal affairs.

Charisma was also important, as it determined his command limit.

This truly left Zong Shen feeling conflicted.

Strength and Agility leaned toward the individual.

Intelligence and Charisma leaned toward the team.

Just as Zong Shen was hesitating, the golden strategy guide appeared once again.

(No need to struggle. In the early stages, development should be the priority. It is recommended to allocate points into Intelligence and Charisma. To emphasize once more, do not worry about early-game point allocation; once you possess a hero capable of standing on their own, you can allocate points according to your preference. Additionally, a Lord can strengthen themselves through learning or changing professions.)

Looking at this guide, Zong Shen finally had a clear idea.

He put the other attribute point into Intelligence, which increased his available skill points by one more.

He now had 3 available skill points.

Zong Shen originally wanted to put them into Engineering, but Engineering had already reached its limit.

Thus, he distributed the 3 skill points into [Healing], [Item Management], and [Guide], respectively.

His next goal was to reach 9 Intelligence as quickly as possible, which would allow the cap for his passive skills to increase to Level 3.

He did not regret choosing a Strength-based build at the start.

Now that he had changed his gear, his combat power was also quite considerable.

If he had chosen an Intelligence/Charisma build at the start, he might not even be able to kill that juvenile steppe wolf now.

Being besieged at home by wolves would have made it impossible to explore as freely as he was doing now.

Next, he put all his weapon proficiency points into One-Handed Weapons.

After finishing the allocation, Zong Shen equipped the [Emerald Leggings], and his attributes rose once again.

Opening the [Lord Profile], Zong Shen's attributes refreshed instantly.

[Name: Zong Shen] [Age: 21] [Race: Earth/Human] [Level: LV3] [Experience: 55/455] [HP: 182] [Command Limit: 14/39] [Strength: 12] [Agility: 8] [Intelligence: 8] [Charisma: 9] [Remaining Attribute Points: 0] [Remaining Weapon Proficiency Points: 0] [Detailed Attributes: (Click to expand)] [Weapon Proficiency: (Click to expand)]

He expanded the detailed attributes directly.

[Lord: Zong Shen] [Equipment: [Shabby Leather Short-Sleeve Shirt], [Emerald Leggings], [Tattered Leather Boots], [Sharp Germanic Sword], [Hunting Crossbow], [Curved Crossbow Bolts], [Dented Simple Kite Shield]] [Slashing Damage: 29 × (1.12 + 0.32 + 0.099) (Strength + Strike + Weapon Proficiency) = 44.63] [Piercing Damage: 33 × (1.12 + 0.32 + 0.057) = 49.4] [Head Armor: 0] [Torso Armor: 13] [Leg Armor: 37] [Magic Resistance: 13] [Skills: None] [Territory Level: 1]

Zong Shen waved his hand to dismiss the system subtitles in front of him.

He was very satisfied with his current attributes.

In terms of pure slashing attack capability, he was comparable to a wolf cavalryman.

It was just that he did not have as many diverse skills as Colby and Luna.

"Not bad." "At least I have the power to protect myself."

Zong Shen stretched. He was very satisfied with his current stats.

After all, today was only the first day of landing.

The future was full of hope! Let's go!

Zong Shen clenched his fists, giving himself a mental pep talk.

It was now five in the afternoon.

The sun was setting behind the mountains, and the sunlight was no longer dazzling, becoming soft and gentle.

Luna finally returned to the territory with eight farmers.

Colby had not yet returned.

He seemed to be a bit later than the agreed time.

However, Zong Shen did not see any system notifications regarding Colby's death, so nothing should be seriously wrong.

He stood up to greet Luna.

"Luna, thank you for your hard work."

Then, he spoke to the eight farmers.

"You are lucky; there isn't much work for you to do today." "Now, go outside the courtyard. There are two [Level 1 Thatch Huts] waiting for you to build. Additionally, there are six iron axes and six iron pickaxes." "The territory is currently very short on wood, so collect as much wood as possible." "You can rest once it gets dark."

These farmers had been held captive by bandits for several days, and their physical condition was poor.

But Zong Shen was no philanthropist; the utility of population had to be realized through labor.

Every bit of progress made provided an extra layer of security!

His words caused some slight grumbling among the farmers, but it did not decrease their loyalty.

They obediently followed his instructions. Led by the farmer San Pang, they went outside the courtyard to collect their tools and then set off to gather resources.