Chapter 91: Territory Management (2)

The outskirts of the Lotus Guild’s base.

Thanks to expanding the territory quite a bit in order to meet the promotion requirement of the base quickly, the outskirt land of the base generally looked empty.

However, on this wide land, a solitary facility, which was reminiscent of a zoo with the image of several monsters running around, was built.

That was exactly the ‘Monster Breeding Ground’ that Professor Lee Jinook had built.

It had only been a couple days since Professor Lee Jinook’s Monster Breeding Ground was built.

Even that was only possible because Ian had caught new monsters whenever he had time in between his quests and updated the guide’s information.

“Whew, it was difficult, but this is quite satisfying.”

While looking at the Monster Breeding Ground that had taken shape quite a bit, Lee Jinook wore a happy smile.

There were still a lot of empty spaces, but once he diligently captured monsters and started accepting customers, it would hopefully become filled with tons of monsters soon.

Jinook sat down on a wooden chair in the breeding ground’s office and wiped his sweat.

“Hmm, why isn’t this kid coming when I need to leave soon?”

He mumbled as if he was waiting for someone, and at that moment, the office’s door opened.

Creak-.

“Professor, I’ve brought what you asked for.”

And the person that opened the office door and entered was none other than Harin.

“Oh, great. Harin. Thank you.”

Harin beamed as she replied.

“It was nothing. It’s something I just make while raising my Cooking Proficiency, anyways. Jinsung said that the work you’re doing is also going to help the guild a lot.”

The thing that Harin handed to Jinook was a large lunch box.

And inside of it, there was a lot of food that the monsters would like.

Different from other users with the Chef class, Harin made a lot of food for monsters because of Jinsung’s influence.

Because of that, she had developed a special cooking skill that was related to that.

That’s why Harin’s cooking was a big help to the Monster Breeding Ground as well.

Lee Jinook, who had received Harin’s cooking and set it in the corner of the office, wore a pleased expression.

“It smells great. I can’t tell if this is something I should eat when I’m hungry, haha.”

At Jinook’s words, Harin laughed as she shook her head.

“You can’t, Professor. The food I brought this time was made with a lot of raw ingredients, so if you eat it, you’ll probably get sick.”

“Huhu, I was just saying.”

Jinook, who let out a hearty laugh for a moment, seemed to have remembered something, as he opened his mouth towards Harin again.

“Ah, right. Harin. I noticed that Jinsung returned to the base a while ago, did you know about that?”

At Jinook’s words, Harin’s large eyes rounded even more.

“What? Really?”

“That’s right. I saw him walk in with Yoohyun earlier, and that was probably about 15 minutes ago.”

At his words, Harin’s expression turned slightly prim.

“Without even contacting me!”

Harin wore a bashful expression towards Jinook and spoke.

“Professor, may I be excused?”

At her words, Jinook laughed as he nodded his head.

“Sure, go on your way.”

“Thank you!”

While watching Harin, who quickly opened the door and left, Jinook laughed.

“Huhu, it’s their prime time, I say, their prime time.”

* * *

Meanwhile, Ian, who had just arrived at the base, was preparing for the promotion of the base with Herz and Fiolan.

All the requirements necessary to promote were already met, they were just organizing their information thoroughly as their final step.

This was because they could make a mistake if they just blindly went into the base promotion and the internal affairs were a mess.

“So, Ian, what you’re saying is, why don’t we raise the ‘Human Resource Centre’ as our first internal building?”

At Herz’s words, Ian nodded his head.

“Yeah, that’s right. I’m planning on raising the Human Resource Centre first and then raising the Military Facility after that.”

“Wouldn’t that be too dangerous? Our protection period is almost over now, so wouldn’t it be better to properly raise the Domain’s Defensive Power first?”

The moment they promoted the base to a Domain, they would of course get to build their very first internal building without any cost, and be able to build it right away without any construction period.

There were a lot of different kinds of internal buildings, and for Herz, whose priority was on the base’s defense, was planning on building the Military Facility first, while Ian suggested to him that they built the Human Resource Centre first.

Of course, it was a decision that Ian had made after thoroughly investigating.

“No. Even if we were to build the Military Facility right now, the soldiers that we could train in a lv 1 Military Facility will only be around lv 30 at most. Even if we were to train several hundred lv 30 soldiers, they’ll all disappear from one hit by an AoE skill of a high-level Magician.”

“That’s true, but…”

Ian’s words continued.

“To pick out soldiers from the Military Facility with enough fighting power that would be useful enough, we need to raise the level of the facility to at least lv 3, and in order to reach lv 3, we need a martial arts instructor that’s over lv 100 anyways.”

Fiolan, who was just listening from the front without a word, opened her mouth.

“So, Ian, you’re saying that we should first raise the Human Resource Centre and nurture an NPC that would become the martial arts instructor first, and then quickly raise the Military Facility?”

Ian nodded his head.

“That’s right. And we can continuously train people in the Human Resource Centre that will be needed in other internal affairs aside from just the martial arts instructor. If we were to work hard to raise the Military Facility in preparation for the end of our protection period, our guild resources will also run out if we don’t have any of the other internal facilities properly going.”

“But our production buildings will still run even if we don’t appoint a NPC in-charge.”

“However, I heard that there’s a huge difference in effectiveness if you put an NPC with good stats in charge. It seemed like there was almost 2-3 times the difference.”

“Re, really?”

Ian’s information was much more detailed than what Herz was expecting.

‘No, I wasn’t able to find information like this no matter how much I searched the community, so where exactly did he find this much?’

Fiolan asked Ian again.

“So are we just defending with our guild members?”

Ian shook his head.

“No, that’s not it. We need to build a defense tower, and extend our rampart. The NPCs that are appointed to the Human Resource Centre will also be of help for our defenses to an extent.”

“Will that be enough?”

“And there’s something else that I’ve thought of.”

At Ian’s words that there was still more that he had planned out, Herz and Fiolan turned their full attention back to his mouth.

And Ian turned his gaze towards Herz.

“From what I’ve researched, if you build a Class Guild, there’s quite a bit of useful fighting power that you can gain from there.”

“What? Class Guild? You can build those on our base?”

If a Class Guild was to form, NPCs of that class whom are related to the guild would automatically come along with it.

And amongst them, the NPC that would be formed as the person in charge of the whole Class Guild was a lv 120 NPC.

On top of that, if a Class Guild existed, it was also possible to train the troops of the related class in the Military Facility, and there was a higher chance for a person talented in the relevant class to appear in the Human Resource Centre.

The Class Guild was a building that was helpful in many ways.

However, these Class Guilds couldn’t just be built on any base.

“Yeah, we can build it. I meet the construction requirements.”

“Requirements? What are the requirements?”

Ian, who brought up the idea, slowly opened his mouth.

“Firstly, you need to be over lv 100 of the relevant class. And your Fame has to be over 800 thousand, and lastly, if a user with a title that’s higher than Baronet is the Lord, you can construct the Class Guild of that Class on the base.”

Fiolan and Herz, who had heard Ian’s words from start to finish, were dumbfounded.

It was fascinating how he had also found out about these requirements, but there was another reason why they were so surprised.

“Ian, you’re telling us you meet all those requirements?”

“Ian, you’re over lv 100? No, your level could be considered, but 800 thousand Fame?”

At the two people’s strong reaction, Ian calmly nodded his head as he responded.

“Yes, I’m lv 103 right now, and my Fame, let’s see here, it’s currently at 890 thousand.”

“…”

At Ian’s words, the two people wore a dumbfounded expression.

After a moment of silence passed, Herz opened his mouth first.

“Yo, have you been playing a different game from us until now?”

“Ian, you haven’t used some kind of cheat, right? Or a bug…”

“No way.”

The two people’s strong reactions were obvious.

First of all, to be lv 103 already was appalling enough, but to have 890 thousand Fame, it was close to a fraud for them.

As Kroban, who had worked so hard questing to try and gather Fame was barely at 430 thousand Fame, while Ian, whom they thought had only continuously leveled, had double Kroban’s Fame…

Meanwhile, Ian, who had noted the content they had discussed, opened his mouth again without being fazed by their reactions.

“Then, shall we start the Domain promotion now? We can proceed like this, right?”

Herz still wore a bitter expression, but he nodded his head readily.

It was a little different from the plan he originally had, but it seemed like Ian was more informed than him, and he was also putting down a plan that was reasonable enough, so there was no reason for him to object.

‘I’m a little worried since we aren’t raising the Military Facility as our first internal building, but I think we can trust Ian when he’s researched this thoroughly…’

Herz pulled out the base’s emblem from his inventory and lifted it up.

And he invoked the starting words.

“Base promotion!”

As he did so, a system message popped up in front of Herz.

• All requirements for base promotion have been met.

• The ‘Lotus’ Guild’s base will be promoted from ‘Village’ rank to ‘Domain’ rank.

• Will you promote?

“We will promote.”

• Base promotions will proceed.

This time a system message popped up for all the guild members.

• The ‘Lotus’ Guild’s base has successfully been promoted to ‘Domain’ rank.

Along with that message, the space that they stood on began to transform quickly.

The base guild building that was built with logs completely disappeared, and a new stone building was starting to be built.

The three people watched, gawking at it.

“Wow, this is truly a great view.”

At Fiolan’s words, Ian also nodded his head in agreement.

“No kidding. Seriously, how are they able to materialize something like this?”

Another system message popped up for Herz, who was surprised.

• User Ian, the Guild’s only user with the ‘Baron’ rank will inherit the Lord position. Will you allow the inheritance? (As there is only one user with an aristocrat title, the guild’s promotion will be cancelled if rejected.)

Herz obviously nodded his head.

“I will allow the inheritance.”

As he did so, a light that gushed out of the guild’s seal was absorbed into Ian’s body.

And before they realized, a magnificent manor began to show its splendor in the spot where the log house stood.

A system message popped up in front of Ian, who was watching the new transformation of the base.

• You have become the Lord of the Lotus Domain. The foundational set-up will now begin.

It was a slightly sudden message, but Ian wasn’t caught off guard.

“Shall we start then?”

Ian, who had collected all the information beforehand, continued the internal affairs of the Domain fluidly.

“Okay, this can go like this, and the tax rate can be maintained at the lowest level for now…”

Of course, each and every set value was just as he had discussed with Herz and Fiolan already.

• All of the Lotus Domain’s foundational set-up has been completed.

• The Domain’s internal affairs will begin.

As the foundational set-up was completed, an Internal Building Construction tab appeared.

And Ian constructed the Human Resource Centre without hesitation.

• A ‘Human Resource Centre’ will be built on the Domain’s West B-124 site.

• Once a day, 20 new talented individuals will appear in the ‘Human Resource Centre’, and they can be appointed by spending the Domain’s resources with the authority of the ‘Lord’ and ‘Sub-Lord’. (Every 24 hours, the list of talented individuals will be renewed.)

• To construct more, new internal buildings, you can open the internal tab whenever and construct them.

He wanted to build more buildings, but as they lacked resources, Ian moved onto the next step immediately.

• You have entered the Specialty Facility Construction tab. Which building would you like to build?

For specialty facilities as well, no resources or time was consumed for the first construction.

Ian immediately selected the Summoner Guild building.

• A ‘Summoner Guild’ building will be built on the Domain’s East A-89 site.

• From now on, you can class-change to the ‘Summoner’ class in the Lotus Domain.

• From now on, NPCs with the ‘Summoner’ class will appear in the Human Resource Centre.

• From now on, the soldiers of the Military Facility’s ‘Summoning’ branch can be trained in the Military Facility.

• The class stats of all the Lotus Guild’s Summoners will increase by 5%.

There were a lot of other unimportant internal affair systems that popped up, but as most of them were parts that couldn’t be touched, it was just a situation where he checked and passed through it, so all internal affairs were completed within less than 5 minutes.

A bit of time was consumed for the resource distribution required for the growth of the Domain part, but as Ian also researched that part beforehand, that was completed easily as well.

Herz and Fiolan, who were watching what Ian was doing next to him, were astonished.

“Herz, did Ian always have this kind of side to him?”

“May, Maybe? I don’t really know either…”

As the two were people that had just watched Ian raise his level like a crippled, their surprise was increased.

“This should be good enough…”

Ian, who had finished the general set-up of the Domain for now, wore a satisfied expression and turned his attention towards Herz and Fiolan.

Ian spoke to Herz with a voice that was as excited as possible.

“Shall we go in to spectate the manor?”

“Su, Sure?”

However, just then, Ian and Herz heard a familiar voice.

“Jinsung, you should have come to see me first when you arrived!”

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