Leo came back to his territory and waited in the recruitment center, counting his spoils while he waited for the notification he knew was coming. Leo didn't have to wait long as after about 5 minutes, he heard the system's familiar voice once more.
[Lord Lin Yue is the second lord in the world to officially establish a city! His name shall be recorded into the hall of fame and his territory, called 'Yang City', shall gain a permanent 9% refugee spawn rate buff]
Leo smiled as it seemed like Lin Yue had followed his advice and registered his new advisor as economic and registered his city. Then Leo got the notification he was expecting from the system.
[Lord Lin Yue is requesting an alliance with Lord Leo, does Lord Leo wish to accept?]
Leo proudly said,"Yes! I accept!"
[Lord Leo has accepted Lord Lin Yue's alliance. Lord Leo and Lord Lin Yue will no longer be able to attack each other but will be able to trade with each other, even if the two cannot connect with each other physically in the world]
Leo was surprised to see the trade feature as he was not expecting that, he just wanted to find someone who was lucky and relatively strong like himself. Leo had found that in his fellow Lord Lin Yue and had decided to form an alliance with him. Now that Leo knew that he could trade with Lin Yue in the future, it made him very happy, as both of them would get stronger together!
Right as Leo was about to go tell Sally the good news about a new trade partner, the system's dreaded voice sounded in his ear again.
[World Announcement: Lord Leo and Lord Lin Yue have officially allied! As the first Lords in the world to do this their names will be marked down in the hall of fame and their troops will gain a permanent 10% buff in strength when fighting on the same battlefield together]
Leo sighed in exasperation, knowing that this was going to kick up a shitstorm from everyone else that did not win the scroll. Many people now knew that Leo had allied with Lin Yue and many people would think that the only reason for the auction was for this very reason.
Leo got a message from Lin Yue in the alliance chat, so he checked it before going and attending to his duties.
[Lin Yue: Do not worry about the pressure Leo, these fish that swim around you trying to nibble at your clothes to gain a part of your greatness are simply jealous. Leo has already given everyone a fair chance with the auction, it is simply my own hard work and fortune that let me win. You shouldn't feel frustrated with the current situation, this is just the greediness of humans,]
Leo knew he was right and thanked him for his kind words before leaving the recruitment center, going to tell Sally the good news. Leo found her talking to some of the animal rearers about the animal farms they had set up next to the farming area.
Sally saw him walking over and said in a chirpy tone,"Hello, Lord Leo! How are you?"
Leo chuckled and said,"A lot better than earlier that's for sure! Guess what? I solved 3 separate issues all in an hour!"
Sally was a bit confused at this comment and asked,"Lord Leo, what do you mean?"
Leo then beamed the 'Lantern Sheep flock' in front of him and the animal rearers, with there being 20 sheep in total. He proudly stated,"The first issue, I found some of these Lantern Sheep for the animal rearers to manage!"
Sally clapped her hand together and excitedly said,"Oh that's perfect! Lantern Sheep are perfect for creating many things! We can make clothes, accessories and other wonderful things with these! Did you know that they are called that because when you mix certain herbs and alchemical potions with their wool it will glow with different colors like a lantern?"
Leo shook his head and chuckled, saying,"Of course not. However, that's not all." Leo then beamed the 'Moonlight Flower' that was sitting in a plant pot into his hands and continued,"I also got my hands on this very rare flower. I am unsure of its effect, however I do know that it is called the Moonlight Flower."
Sally's eyes widened upon viewing the flower, visibly shaking with excitement. She hurriedly explained,"Lord, this is more than I could ever ask for! Moonlight Flowers are known to give their users heightened speed and sight when the moon is in the night sky! It is said that even 1 petal from this flower can give you a 5% speed boost during the night! I will definitely have 1 of the farmers cultivate this flower starting tonight!"
Leo smiled gleefully, extremely happy seeing the excited face of Sally. He continued on, saying."The last bit of important news I have is that I managed to gain an ally with which we can trade with. Both of the things I have shown you as well as a few other things he has traded with for a scroll that I held but no longer needed."
Sally jumped up and squealed like a chipmunk, making Leo's face blush as her breasts bounced with her. She gave Leo a big thumbs up and said,"I support this alliance! I finally have someone to start trading with! My passion has been reignited once more!" She said this last part with a fire in her eyes, like she was determined to go to war by herself.
Leo nodded and said,"I just wanted to update you on these developments. I still have a couple more things to do before the evening hits."
With that Leo left her to go and find the carpenters to ask about the specialty building in his possession. Leo then had multiple notifications arrive in his mind.
[Lord Leo has completed 2 repeatable quests and earned 2 stone chests]
[Innate skill Midas Touch activated]
[Lord Leo has completed 2 repeatable quests and earned 2 Iron chests]
Leo beamed a wide grin, afterall, who could be mad at free rewards! Leo walked over to one of the Blue grade carpenters he had summoned this morning.
The carpenter noticed Leo closing in on him, and said,"My lord!"
Leo replied while taking out the specialty building blueprint he won from the auction and asked the carpenter,"Please analyze these blueprints and tell me what they are for. I just got them from a trade deal and I can't make heads or tails of it."
The carpenter responded,"Certainly my lord!" and took the blueprints from Leo's hand. Leo waited patiently while the carpenter looked over the blueprints, staring out at the still developing city. Leo stared out at the workers, all doing their jobs, all contributing the betterment of Fallen Star City. Leo took in the view, as it was truly like a fantasy picture. Leo could not have imagined what this world would hold for him when he was first summoned and despite the challenges that were put in his way, at this moment, Leo was internally at peace.
The carpenter suddenly said to Leo who was staring out at the territory,"My lord, I think I have figured it out."
Leo turned back to the carpenter with a fresh mindset and asked,"Ok, so what is it?"
The carpenter replied,"I believe it to be an alchemy workshop my lord. Some of the designs of the building as well as specific structure placement leads me to believe that this is the workshop of a high level alchemist."
Leo was really surprised at this and quickly thanked the carpenter before taking the scroll and almost running back to the recruitment center. Leo had a hunch that this specialty building and the specialty unit were related, and if so, that meant that Leo could get an alchemist for his newly growing city! Leo knew little about the sciences of early alchemists, but he did know that they were basically people who made potions and tried different experiments to raise the strengths of his people and soldiers.
Leo quickly threw the specialty scroll into the cubby hole of the recruitment center and waited in excitement as the metal ring materialized the person in front of Leo, Leo noticed as the man materialized that he was a rather short person, with graying hair and an asian style face and complexion. If this man was summoned in the Chinese area of the world, Lin Yue would most likely refer to him as a 'Graying Master'.
The alchemist walked down from the summoning platform and Leo ignored the system's voice in his head, tired of hearing it so many times today. Leo asked the new alchemist,"What is your name old sir?"
The alchemist looked a little miffed at this and said,"Hey, I still got young bones! Don't you go writing off this father of yours as old just yet young one!"
Leo was a little surprised as this old man acted very differently from all his other followers so far. He seemed really arrogant in comparison, like he was a god and the mortals were just lucky to breathe the same air as him.
Leo took a deep breath, slightly annoyed at his attitude and said,"I apologize, can I get your name?"
The alchemist huffed a little and said,"Xia, my Lord"
Leo could see that Xia was going to be a little difficult to get along with, but Leo decided that he really didn't care if the alchemist was troubling socially. All that mattered to Leo was that Xia did his work and helped the territory progress into a better future.
Leo said,"I have a special alchemist building blueprint that I will build for you when one of the major projects in my territory is completed. It should only take a few days, until then what do you wish to do?"
The alchemist looked like he was slightly thrown a curveball from Leo's statement and said,"Well.. I would like to go and meet the weaponsmiths as we will be working closely in the future to develop weapons for the Lord's soldiers."
Leo nodded and said,"That's perfect, Sir Bu is one of my top weaponsmiths, and he is currently working on a side project after hours if you are interested in that sort of thing."
Xia looked like wanted to ask a question but for some reason wouldn't and so Leo asked him with a concerned tone,"What? What is it? Your face spells like you've seen your mother naked or something."
Xia quickly asked, now that he had the lord's permission,"Lord Leo, how do you have a building that is suited to me? An alchemist's laboratory is an extremely dangerous place unless it is set up very specifically!"
Leo chuckled and brought out the blueprint designs that he had gotten from the auction and the one he had the Blue grade carpenter look over. Leo handed the blueprints to the alchemist as he said,"I don't know if you can read this blueprint as even my carpenters didn't know for sure all of the intricacies of this design and their exact purpose."
Xia took the blueprints from Leo and after a second of viewing the blueprints, his face went white like ash, and a dreadful expression washed over his face. Xia expressed in disbelief,"This.. how… how is it possible..?"
Leo noticed the immediate change in his tone and expression and asked worriedly," Xia! What's wrong?!"
Xia now looked at Leo like he was some sort of monster and exasperatedly said,"My lord, these… These blueprints depict an alchemist's shop, and a high grade one at that. But this one, this is my alchemist shop! I personally designed this shop over 300 cycles ago!"