Chapter 14: [Basic Talents]

Logging into the game, Lin Mu reappeared at the location where he had previously logged off.

The current time in *Mythic Three Kingdoms* was the morning of January 5th, 180 AD.

Checking the population in the territory attributes, there were 323 people. The territory's refugees and displaced persons had refreshed again, increasing the population by another 160.

Lin Mu browsed through the newly appeared refugees and displaced persons to see if any high-aptitude citizens had appeared; as for the others, even if they were citizens with special talents, he believed Chang Yin would arrange them appropriately based on their specialties or talents.

Currently, Lin Mu wanted to focus on military affairs. He wanted to train soldiers; after all, five days had passed since the server opened, and he was still only Level 2 (0%), having only leveled up due to a system reward.

He believed other players' levels must have increased, though likely not by much; Lin Mu knew how difficult leveling was in *Mythic Three Kingdoms*.

There were many ways for players to level up: they could gain experience by hunting fierce beasts and monsters in the wild, training in the system's official government training grounds, or performing production tasks such as mining, logging, and quarrying. Managing the territory's internal affairs also provided experience. The methods were diverse, depending on personal preference.

Lin Mu was following the path of a General. Although there was no system selection, as long as one decided on their attribute increases, the system would lean in that direction.

Since his Martial Might was currently his highest attribute, he was by default a General; the system would only officially recognize it once he transitioned into a Junior General.

To transition into a Junior General, three conditions were required: reaching Level 10, learning at least one Junior Internal Skill, and possessing either a transition slot from a Junior Barracks or a [General Transition Order].

If a player reached Level 10 but lacked the latter two requirements, they could transition into a Tier 1 Soldier first, and then transition into a General once the conditions were met.

Reaching Level 10 in the early stages was relatively easy, but Junior Internal Skills and [General Transition Orders] were quite difficult to obtain.

These items were sold in the system government's trading market, but they were extremely expensive. A Junior Internal Skill cost 10 Gold Coins, which was 100,000 Copper Coins, while a [General Transition Order] was even more expensive at 30 Gold Coins. It was uncertain if any players currently had more than 1,000 Copper Coins in their pockets; to buy these, one had to save up slowly or hunt bosses in the wild for a chance at a drop.

Lin Mu didn't know the current exchange rate between Copper Coins and RMB on the BattleNet Black Market, but based on his experience, it should be around 13 RMB for 10 Copper Coins. However, there would certainly be speculators on the Black Market constantly refreshing the exchange rates, causing them to fluctuate. Ultimately, the rate usually hovered around 20 RMB for 10 Copper Coins because players were desperately short of Copper Coins in the early stages. Large corporations and conglomerates wanted to establish an advantage early on and would invest at any cost, making Copper Coins extremely valuable.

For ordinary players, exchanging Copper Coins for RMB was the most practical option in the early game.

The currency of the Han Dynasty did not drop from wild beasts in the wilderness, unlike in previous virtual games where monsters dropped currency.

The circulating currency was mostly held by native NPCs. This was one of the key factors limiting the growth of player strength.

No money for equipment and weapons, no money for recovery potions, no money for food... these were like swords hanging over the players' heads. Only by overcoming these obstacles could one develop faster.

The system was quite generous, gifting players 500 Copper Coins upon their initial arrival.

An average player consumed at least 5 units of food per day, which cost about 25 Copper Coins at market price. This meant that if they didn't make money within 20 days, they would essentially starve to death. Furthermore, upon arrival, players only had the novice set of coarse cloth clothes and shoes; if they wanted luxury gear, well, they had to pay for it! If you have no money, get lost!

Consequently, in the early stages, many players spent their Copper Coins on weapons and equipment, neglecting food, which led many to starve to death and become just another pile of white bones by the roadside.

Because they were gifted the Gathering skill by the system, players could hunt wild monsters and gather corpses to obtain 1 to 2 units of meat. They could then exchange this for money at the system government store or taverns run by other clans to buy some coarse grains.

Beast meat was slightly more expensive than grains like rice and wheat.

Those with some ability would recruit friends to go out and level up, and they basically wouldn't starve.

However, because many landscapes in *Mythic Three Kingdoms* were very beautiful, many leisure-oriented players lingered too long and died of starvation in significant numbers. A player who died of starvation only lost one level; if they were Level 0, they remained Level 0.

The punishment for death in *Mythic Three Kingdoms* was very severe. Currently, since the Great Goddess [Nuwa] had not yet released an update, players only lost one level upon death. Once the update was released, death would result in a total reset of all progress; only then would players learn to cherish their lives.

Right now, white lights were constantly flashing in the temples of various commanderies and counties—the sign of players resurrecting after death.

Lin Mu quickly browsed through his territory's citizens and discovered one with relatively high aptitude.

Name: Zhang Xiaohu Aptitude: Tier 8 Loyalty: 80 Class: None Reputation: 0 Identity: Zhenlong Village Villager Merit: 0 Level: 0 (0%) Command: 5 | Martial Might: 9 | Intelligence: 6 | Politics: 7 Combat Power: 900 Leadership: 500 Divine Strategy: 600 Internal Affairs Efficiency: 7% Stamina: 100 Speed: 10 Defense: 1 Morale: 60 Talent: None Skill: None Specialty: None Equipment: Cloth clothes, cloth shoes, wooden stick Wealth: 14 Copper Coins

These were the normal character attributes; the attributes of Feng Zhong and Chang Yin were monstrous—comparing oneself to them was a recipe for misery.

Although he lacked talents, specialties, and skills, the effect brought by high-tier aptitude was massive.

Zhang Xiaohu was like a blank golden sheet of paper, waiting for Lin Mu to paint his future.

Zhang Xiaohu was a youth of about seventeen or eighteen. He had not yet reached twenty, meaning he had not undergone the capping ceremony. In the Han Dynasty, one could only undergo the ceremony at age twenty. However, it didn't matter; although seventeen or eighteen was a bit late to start martial arts, diligence could make up for lack of talent. With the training of himself and Feng Zhong, Xiaohu's future would be limitless, given his aptitude.

Lin Mu called Xiaohu over, preparing to go leveling together.

He remembered that the Junior Barracks he had assigned citizens to build yesterday should be usable today. The construction speed for basic buildings like Junior Barracks was relatively fast.

Lin Mu's Junior Barracks were complete and ready for training; both he and Zhang Xiaohu could use them.

He brought Xiaohu to the barracks.

The Junior Barracks were not large, capable of accommodating about 100 people for training. Currently, Lin Mu's territory had a small population, and he did not intend to convert all his citizens into soldiers. Since he had such a good starting point, he had strict requirements for future development. Lin Mu planned to build high-aptitude units, requiring at least Tier 6 aptitude or higher. If the territory's population grew, Tier 5 citizens could serve as city guards or patrols.

Main combat units would require Tier 6 or above; regardless, his territory could raise the aptitude of citizens by one tier.

Furthermore, Lin Mu had a rough idea of the spawn rates for different aptitude NPCs in *Mythic Three Kingdoms*.

He remembered that the probability of spawning someone Tier 8 or above was 0.01%, or one in ten thousand—extremely low. Lin Mu didn't actually agree with this probability, as many players had calculated it based on their own territories. Many players used low-level Village Building Orders, so their chances of spawning high-aptitude NPCs were certainly lower. Now that Lin Mu had a God-tier Village Building Order, the spawn rate for Tier 8+ NPCs must be higher than 0.01%, though he didn't know by how much. Just look—it was only the second day, and a Tier 7 Xiaohu had already appeared. A village established with a God-tier Village Building Order was truly formidable!

Additionally, the spawn rate for Tier 6 and Tier 7 NPCs was about 5%, while Tier 4 and Tier 5 were about 20%. The rest were Tier 2 to Tier 4, which made up the largest portion of the population on the land of Shenzhou.

However, the spawn rate for Tier 1 NPCs was quite low, around 5%. If a Tier 1 appeared, they were basically the elderly, weak, or disabled, and utterly useless...

Looking at the aptitude of the NPCs that had refreshed in his territory over the past two days, Lin Mu noticed there were basically no Tier 1 or Tier 2 NPCs; they were all Tier 3 or above. Most were Tier 4 and Tier 5. There were no Tier 6s, but a Tier 7 had appeared in Xiaohu. Thanks to the bonus from the territory's God-tier attributes, Xiaohu had become Tier 8 aptitude—a very aggressive increase.

Pushing open the barracks doors, the interior was empty. In the center of the camp were various wooden posts used by soldiers to train their skills and specialties; they had very high durability and were tough enough to withstand hacking...

Name: Junior Camphor Wood Training Post Tier: Common Trait: Territory Building Item Attributes: Durability +1000; if not in use, durability restores automatically. Description: Training posts provided with the Junior Barracks. They provide no bonus to training speed, but they are already quite excellent; cherish them well.

Aside from the Junior Camphor Wood Training Posts filling the center of the courtyard, there was no other equipment. It was very primitive. Lin Mu thought of the military training grounds from his previous life; the difference was indeed vast...

It was fine; the beginning is always the hardest, and there were only two of them anyway.

Lin Mu led Xiaohu into the camp. The system provided some wooden weapons like spears and swords; they were poor for hunting beasts, but they were good enough for training.

"Xiaohu, what weapon do you want to use?" Lin Mu asked the somewhat restrained and shy youth beside him.

"Ah, Lord, I... I... I like using blades!" Zhang Xiaohu answered nervously.

"Haha, Xiaohu, don't be nervous. I'm not going to eat you. What are you afraid of?"

Lin Mu greatly appreciated this newcomer. Although his personality was currently a bit shy, he would surely change after rigorous and tough military training. Lin Mu felt as if he were looking at his former self.

"Since you like blades, then choose [Basic Blade Technique] as your primary specialty and [Basic Archery] as your auxiliary specialty!" Lin Mu decided for Xiaohu.

In *Mythic Three Kingdoms*, there were many specialties. Regarding generals, there were Blade, Spear, Sword, and many others... different weapons had different specialties. The higher the tier of the specialty, the higher the combat power it could exert. Based on the proficiency of each specialty, the levels progressed from low to high: [Basic] (Junior), [Intermediate], [Advanced], [Expert], [Master], [Grandmaster], and [God-tier]. Each stage provided different attribute increases, and different specialties had different effect bonuses. Lin Mu did not know the specific data for all specialties, only most of the commonly used ones.

Furthermore, the tiers of specialties were categorized from high to low as: [Heavenly], [Earthly], [Mystic], [Yellow], [Advanced], [Intermediate], and [Junior].

The tier of a specialty determined its potential, while the level represented the degree of mastery and proficiency.

With Xiaohu's specialties chosen, Lin Mu made his own choice. In his past life, he had used the spear as his primary weapon, so he decided to use the spear now, with the bow as his secondary weapon. Thus, Lin Mu's primary specialties would be [Basic Spear Technique] and [Basic Archery].

Lin Mu had not been reborn for long; it had only been a few days since the massive, tragic war involving the conquest of Yinglong. His strength had changed drastically in a short time, and he was still somewhat unaccustomed to it. He was not yet a perfected master; facing such sudden changes required time to adapt!

To the right of the barracks was a room that served as the storage point for weapons and equipment. There should currently be some training weapons inside: wooden spears, wooden bows, wooden blades, wooden swords, and various others. These were all for training; they provided no combat power in actual battle and dealt very little damage to enemies, so they were not considered viable weapons for combat.

Lin Mu and Xiaohu took up wooden spears and blades and began training against the posts. This was Lin Mu's first training session since his rebirth!