Catlin looked at Ardent's face, her brows furrowing, "Ardent, what will you be planning?" she asked.
Ardent wondered if he should tell her or not, before deciding there are no reason to not do so.
"I wonder of ways to build my own kingdom in this region." Catlin looked at Ardent before smiling a bit.
"You're joking,... right?" she asked hesitantly, seeing how Ardent's face stuck in a serious expression.
"No, I'm not." his quick reply shocked Catlin to the core, the blonde did not know how to reply to that.
"Wait, are you telling me, you want to build your own kingdom?" her voice almost reached the hysterical level, but she believed she allowed to it, with her fiance suddenly planning to build his own kingdom.
"Yes. I remember how helpless I feel, and want to not feel that way. But, with how weak the village is, the only way to protect ourselves is to become strong enough to endure whatever the world will throw at us.
And the best way to do so is to build a powerful force, in this case a kingdom."
Catlin wanted to refute her fiance, but she could not find any fault in such thinking. Now she thought deeply about it, the reason someone from Cruom City send in the bandits was because Slurom Village is weak and an easy target.
If Slurom Village was larger or have stronger force, no one would dare to assault the village. Or so it should be.
"You want to do this to protect the village. Isn't it kind of... too much to protect a small village like our own?" she asked.
Ardent could agree with her point. To build a kingdom to protect a single village is excessive. However, he had counter-arguments.
"Yes, but it is the best way to protect the village. Of course, the village is just one of the many places that will be protected under the banner of the new kingdom I plan to build." he explained.
"Besides, this will ensure the other cities will not try and conquer the village and do the same thing as the person from Cruom City does." Ardent continued.
Catlin could not refute his words. If other cities learned of the dungeon and decided that Slurom Village is a necessary collateral damage, they could not do anything about it.
She sighed, "Building a kingdom seems like a good way to stop the village from being attacked by anyone," Catlin agreed with some reluctant, "But how are you planning on building a kingdom of your own?"
Frankly speaking, Ardent did not have a concrete plan. Building a kingdom of his own is the same as building a new nation from its foundation, except he will begin a royal line, with Catlin as his queen. Hopefully she will not refuse.
Still, he need to deal with everything needed in building a country. From building an administrative hierarchy, to picking the right person for the right job, and later on, building a diplomatic relationship with other nations in the area.
Overall, hardship was all he could see in the future should he continue his current path. Which he will. He did not plan on having the villagers suffering if he could help it, even if he need to build a nation from the scratch.
'At least, I don't need to worry about talents.' his ability, Eye For Talent allow him to see the talents of different people and what they will be good or excellent at.
However, it does pose a problem as aside from Catlin, Frank, Curt, and Celine, who all possess high talent in different discipline, the rest of the villagers either have mediocre or low talents.
'Frank will be a General or something similar in the future, Curt will be a good doctor, with focus on herbal remedies, and Celine, she will be an excellent merchant, one that will be absolutely relevant in the future.
That still leave a lot of vacancies.' Ardent can pick those with mediocre talents, but in the future, he will want to pick those with high talents on the most important pose.
'Well, the recruitment pool will be expended in the future if I conquer all the cities in the region.' Ardent decided to target the cities. After all, conquering them give him not only a more vast recruitment pools for talented individuals, but also territories controlled by the cities themselves.
In the region of the Slurom Village, there are 8 Main City as he decided to refer them as. Those 8 combined territories are double the size of Luxembourg, which he was sure where they are now, but was not totally sure. He did not spend his last day in his previous world looking at map of Europe.
'Still, occupying that amount of territory would be a good start.' he was certain most kingdoms, nobledom and whatever sovereignty in Europe during his world Medieval Age is smaller, so it is a good start as any. Then again, any start is a good start.
'But, to subdue the Main City, I need to be a lot stronger than them.' it is a perquisites. If he did not have sufficient strength to subdue them, he could kiss the plan of building a kingdom bye-bye.
'Those Main Cities will have several, probably four to eight 4th Circle Mage. As for 5th Circle Mage, even some vassal nations of those powerful empire and nations did not have one, so I should not be too worried about such powerhouse.'
However, 4th Circle Mages could still threaten him or worse, threaten his loved one. Not to mention, despite the number of attributes he has, he did not think he can handle three of them at once, or the more experienced 4th Circle Mages.
'The only way so I can be absolutely victorious is that I need to be a 5th Circle Mage.' It's the best way, as not only he will become stronger than any Mages in the region, but his power would be enough to threaten the Main Cities.