As the two of them walked around the town, peasants who saw them would greet him politely.
As for what exactly they thought about William, no one knew.
Gods was a game.
However, the great part of this game's mainframe was that every NPC was unique. They all had code for individual thought. Everyone had their own life and even had their own ideals and families.
That was why it shouldn't be assumed that William would be able to enjoy his position as the Lord after he inherited it, nor that everyone would be mindless and be extremely loyal to him.
After all, they were all intelligent in their own ways and were all not easy to deal with.
Even the children of normal NPC families would start fighting over food and toys.
At the start of the game, many players still remained within the dukedoms and as the heirs fought for the dukeship, they might unleash a main mission.
He still remembered that one of the main missions in Legendary Continent version 1.0 was about the fight between the Iron Dukedom and Black Lava Dukedom. The reason for the fight was because the duke of the Black Lava Dukedom had died and the heirs were fighting for the dukeship, which led to the Iron Dukedom's invasion of the palace. This escalated into a war that eventually lasted for a year.
Too many things were caught in between and if they weren't careful, it was easy for the players to give their lives.
However, players could revive, so they were never scared! There were many ways to do things, and dying was just one of them! That was why many players chose this way. It was a normal thing for players to give their lives rashly!
Since it was a game, there was definitely a need to kill monsters. However, the monsters usually gave ingredients. There was never a tiger boss who dropped equipment or armor.
After players killed beasts and monsters, they could only obtain their teeth, fleece, organs and other pieces. From those, they could choose to sell the ingredients and make their equipment.
When the game was still in beta, there weren't a lot of players. During the first version, there were only a few hundred thousand players in China and the game threw all of them within the territories of the Iron Dukedom and Black Lava Dukedom without any reason.
Several players were even thrown into the Border Town beside the two nations.
However, the first version was only a year-long, though this was the game time, in the real world, it was only three months.
The William from the previous life seemed to have detected the war between the two nations and wanted to benefit something out of it. However, it was obvious that it wasn't that easy from how he had been suppressed and attacked by all sorts of power from the Iron Dukedom within six months and ended up with his head being hung by the waterfall…
In his previous life, some of the players who passed by would even admire this 'Lord's' brave skull from afar.
Even if he had many pure-blooded Elven guards with Advanced bloodlines, and had a demon-hunting ranger with an Epic bloodline like Lautner, he still wasn't their opponent.
"That's why tall buildings and extensive grain accumulation makes a slow and weak King!" William Blackleaf sighed as he glanced at the "magnificent"—in truth, crooked and damaged houses—within his territory.
"What did you say?" Lautner scratched his ear as if he couldn't hear William properly.
"Nothing. How much grain and gold do we have left?" The corners of William's lips tugged as he started to change the topic.
"We still have about thirty thousand kilograms of grain left, amongst which, we have the most rice and malt. We have quite a bit of salted meat as well, probably a good twelve thousand kilograms. As for the vault… Do we even have a vault?" As Lautner said this, he started to go into a roundabout.
William Blackleaf was extremely shocked. "This is a small town at least! There isn't a vault at all?"
Lautner nodded awkwardly. "Indeed, we don't have one, because the town's income hasn't been very high. When your father was still in power, there was still an iron mine for our people to mine.
"However, now that iron mine has been mined out and we still aren't able to find other income sources. We've been relying on the small amounts of meat the hunters hand over as dues, as well as the taxes the humans give from their farm work. It's good enough that the town's finances aren't in the red!"
The corners of William's lips twitched. He really wanted to ask if they had tried searching for other income sources before.
He could vaguely remember that the reason the Iron Dukedom and Black Lava Dukedom attacked the Border Town was not only because they wanted to eradicate them, but more because there were a lot of rare raw resources found in the Blackleaf Forest south of the town!
That also meant that in the woods to the south of the Border Town, there was a giant mine!
One of the most important resources was the mythril ore found early on!
He even thought that it was probably the ultimate reason that resulted in the total eradication of Border Town.
"Let's not waste time thinking about that. Uncle Lautner, do you have time? How about we go hunting in the mountains and relax." William knew the position of one of the mines. It wasn't too far away, but he couldn't say it directly either. He decided to use hunting as an excuse to draw Lautner there.
As for the mythril ore, it was still not the time…
It had to be emphasized.
Ever since he had the attributes panel and could see others' loyalty level to him, he didn't need to worry about his choice of miners anymore.
"That's good. Seeing that you've been in bed for so many days, it's time you go train yourself. Go back and prepare your equipment, including your bow and arrow. It's best if you wear the inner armor your Mother left for you, in case of any accidents." Lautner didn't think too much about it. After all, the old William loved hunting, especially prey that was nothing out of the ordinary…
"Hm, that's a good idea. There are a million ways to die, so staying safe is the most important." William returned to his treehouse and rummaged through his wardrobe. Finally, he found his equipment in a box.
There was a White-quality sword.
And a bow that was also White-quality.
The attributes of the equipment were really bad, and using them was equivalent to not using them. Besides, since William had yet to change his occupation, he couldn't use anything too good either.
However, that inner armor was great.
William couldn't help but admire it.
It was a soft inner armor made of mythril. The patterns resembling the World Tree covered it, as the silver sparkled slightly with a golden hue. Without looking at its attributes, William already knew that this was a treasure.
Love's Blessing.
Quality: Epic
Position Level: None
Type: A defense equipment that can grow.
Composition: Mythril, a leaf from the World Tree, golden dust and many more.
Maker: Alice Blackleaf
Health: +300
Stamina: +100
Power: +6
Physical Strength: +10
Agility: +8
Intelligence: +5
Durability: 450/450
Weigh: 0.3kg
Defense: Within the areas protected by the inner armor, damage dealt by attacks will be 100 points lower. It cannot cause any harm to the inner armor or user. If used for too long, effective damage would accumulate and durability will be reduced.
Elemental Protection: Any elemental attacks can be reduced by 10%
Love's Blessing (passive): Once the user's Health Points are less than 10%, the user will receive Love's Blessing and immediately regain 50% of their Health Points. Cool downtime is three hours.
Requirement: William Blackleaf
Requirement: Strength 20 points
Growth requirements: Put a kilogram of mythril into the inner armor and it will be absorbed, allowing automatic advancement.
Introduction: This is an inner armor made by a mother for her son personally. Not only does this include a mother's love, it even has the pleasant blessings of a mother. Cherish the inner armor, my son!
William Blackleaf sat on the floor in a daze, his hands holding onto the inner armor tightly. Suddenly, he didn't really know what to do.
It was then that he realized.
He realized how much his mother in this world cared for him.
As for William who had died in battle, he was sure that he brought it upon himself. If not, even if the sky had fallen, this mother named Alice Blackleaf, would definitely come and save him.
A mother's love is great. If I have the chance… William shook his head. He was still too weak now, so he couldn't count his chickens before they hatched. Lasting until the end was what truly mattered.