Lord: Starting from the Pit-Dwelling Courtyard

Chapter 16: The Solar Kiln

The kiln body of the Sun Kiln was completed long ago, with thick rammed earth kiln walls, a double-layered kiln chamber, and an arc-shaped reflector panel pieced together on the four sides facing the sun.

Ron used magic to dry the dozens of brick blanks, stacked them into the second kiln chamber, and then pulled back the obstruction on the reflector.

Under the sunlight, the temperature inside the earthen kiln begins to rise. The thick kiln walls can retain heat, but they also make it take longer for the kiln to heat up.

[New building formwork completed, solar kiln.]

[Building model 10 is complete; one random attribute point is awarded as a reward.]

The system's sudden notification startled Ron for a moment, then filled him with elation.

However, he didn't rush to add the attribute points. He hadn't fully grasped the specific effects of each attribute—Constitution, Strength, and Spirit—yet he would try them out before his meditation that evening.

At the same time, he thought that if he could be rewarded with one attribute point for every ten building models he built, then he would be incredibly powerful.

He handed over the task of guarding the solar kiln to Old Hall and returned to the pit courtyard. His magic was depleted and he needed to meditate to recover.

When he came out of the cave again, it was already evening.

It was just dinnertime, and Mrs. Moriel was serving dinner with her entourage.

Dinner was very simple. Those who did physical labor were given two large pieces of black bread and a spoonful of meat broth, while those who did not do physical labor were given only one piece of black bread.

These black breads are all made into a ball, each weighing about half a pound.

When Old Hall saw Ron come out, he immediately brought a meal into the cave. He placed the wooden bowl on the stone table and casually put the only piece of meat in the bowl into Ron's bowl.

Ron didn't say anything; he put the meat back in his pocket.

"You eat, there's some in my bowl!"

Seeing Ron's determined gaze, Old Hall made no further moves.

Ron's dinner was also black bread, except that his black bread didn't have sawdust added, and there were a few pieces of meat in the broth.

If this is how a lord lives, imagine what it's like for his subjects.

"Young Master, your dinner!" Old Hall put down his dinner and began to report on the day's work.

"Young Master, we have successfully cultivated one hundred acres of farmland, completed planting, and completely solved the housing problem. What should we do next?"

Ron crumpled up the dark bread and threw it into the soup. The bread tasted a bit sour, and even after being in this world for so long, he still couldn't get used to it.

Unfortunately, food was scarce in the territory, and the biggest advantage of black bread, besides being able to be filled with all sorts of random things, was its long shelf life.

"Continue to cultivate farmland, at least 500 mu, to ensure the minimum food needs of the territory. Construction of houses should not be stopped either, and every household in the territory should have a mud-brick house."

Ron took a sip of his soup. "How much farmland is in the city?"

"Ten acres!" Old Hall said without hesitation.

These ten acres of farmland are high-yield magical farmland. In addition to using magic fertilizer made from goblin corpses, Old Hall also needs to inject magic power into them from time to time.

Without Old Hall's long-term care, the high-yield farmland only doubled the yield, but did not allow the crops to mature quickly.

Old Hall explained, "This is already the limit. After all, the total area of ​​the city is only 93 acres. Any more might affect the construction of other areas."

"You've worked hard, go eat first!"

"Yes, young master!"

This is a daily routine, and it also allows Ron to quickly understand the development of the territory.

In the evening, before the night had completely fallen, he went to the open space inside the stockade wall and decided to build the adobe wall in this area as soon as possible, so that its defensive capabilities would be better than the wooden stockade wall.

After deducting the 20 magic points paid to the system in installments, Ron can only build two sections of the wall, expanding the adobe wall to 120 meters.

The next morning, Ron first used meditation to fully restore the magic power he had used up the day before, and then continued to build the adobe walls.

After his magic power increased to 50, he successfully built five sections of adobe city wall in one go, and only 30 meters of the eastern wall remained to be completed.

In fact, he also planned to hand over the templates for the adobe city wall directly to Old Hall, but the result was not as good as expected.

It took Old Hall about 200 magic points to build a 20-meter section of adobe wall, 20 times that of Ron; and it took him eight hours, sixteen times that of Ron.

Ron didn't understand why, and in the end, he gave up on having Old Hall help build the adobe walls, and instead let him take charge of other construction in the territory.

That afternoon, Ron was finishing the last section of the adobe wall on the east side when Mad ran back from the north.

Mad ran very fast, and his leather armor wasn't properly fastened. Fanta had just given it to him at noon, and he cherished it so much that he didn't even want to take it off when he slept. But now it was hanging crookedly on his body, clearly because he had put it on in a hurry.

"My lord!"

Ron clapped his hands: "Speak."

"There are traces of goblins to the north. Not the old ones from last time, but new ones. The footprints are fresh, left this morning. I followed the footprints for a while and found that they went east. I hadn't been to that hilly area to the east when I scouted it before, but the footprints are converging in that direction, and there are quite a few of them."

Ron stood up.

Goblin.

They have remained silent since the last probing attack.

Now they've appeared again, not to attack, but just passing by.

They went east, to the hills to the east.

"Where did they come from?"

"North-southwest, not due north."

That's not Haaland's direction.

It's not De Gea's direction either.

It's another direction.

"Keep watching," Ron said. "Don't get close, just keep an eye on things from a distance. If you spot any goblin nests, come back and report immediately."

Mad nodded, preparing to leave.

"Wait a minute," Ron called after him. "Take two militiamen with you. Take turns when one of you can't keep watch. Bring enough dry rations and water for three days."

Mad paused for a moment, then nodded, and turned to run away with a more steady pace than before.

Ron stood on the stockade wall, looking north.

At the edge of the wasteland, the outline of the gray-black mountains was slightly distorted by the heat wave.

Northwest.

Not in the direction of Haaland, but a herd of bison migrated from that direction, the knife marks still visible on their horns.

Now goblins are also appearing from a similar direction.

What's that over there?

"Could there be another territory to be explored in that direction? The goblins have found this place rather difficult to conquer, and are preparing to start with that territory."

Ron muttered to himself.

Old Hall had obviously received the news and was rushing towards Ron. When he saw the east city wall, which had been completely built, he couldn't help but marvel at his young master's efficiency.

As expected of the Ashwood family, they build everything quickly, no matter what it is.

Old Hall hurriedly asked, "Young Master, have you heard news of goblins?"

Ron voiced his thoughts: "Well, but heading west, I suspect there are new frontiers in that area."

Old Hall turned and ran towards the pit courtyard. He had registered when he came and recorded most of the information, which he could now take out.

Soon, he returned with a roll of parchment and unrolled it.

"Young Master, in the new era of the continent, 0478, which is this year, the kingdom sent a total of 36 pioneering lords. We are among the last batch. The earliest batch arrived at the beginning of the year. They are roughly distributed in these areas. In our region, there is indeed a territory, and this territory arrived only a month earlier than us."

Ron looked at the area that Old Hall was pointing to. It was about fifty or sixty miles away from the territory, but it was located in a mountain valley, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack. It was a good place.

Old Hall seemed to see through Ron's thoughts and added, "It's a good place that's easy to defend and difficult to attack, but without proper supplies, it can also become a death trap."

"I've already sent Mad to track down the goblins, and news will come back soon." After saying that, Ron carefully examined the map in front of him. The map was very detailed and expanded outwards from the territory.

It must have been drawn by old Hall himself.

Ron exclaimed, "What an exquisite map!"

Old Hall nodded matter-of-factly, "Of course, drawing is a required skill for a qualified architectural mage."

Upon hearing this, Ron's face turned a little green. In his world, he mainly used computers to draw, and he had long forgotten how to draw by hand.

"Old Hall, circle the location of this new territory on the map."

"Young Master intends to..."

"If it's still alive," Ron said, "the goblins can't bite us, so they turn to bite it instead, and it won't last long."

He paused.

"If it can't hold on, its things will be ours."