On the spacious desk, everything had been cleared to one side.
Lyra spread out a large map, revealing the entirety of Toji Hisami’s territory. In the northeast direction a new boundary had been carefully drawn.
"Our sentinels discovered it during patrol," she said. "I personally investigated and confirmed a group of underground lizardmen. Their exact numbers are still unknown."
She pointed at the marked area on the map.
Toji Hisami rested his chin on his hand and searched his memory for information on the underground lizardmen.
After the Great Cataclysm, during humanity’s struggle to recover, people had faced not only natural disasters but also constant pressure from fierce non-human races. The underground lizardmen were one of those opponents, a branch of the underground races. As their name suggested, the entire species lived beneath the surface. Lizardmen were among their most common subspecies. A typical group numbered between two and five hundred individuals.
He estimated that the group appearing near his territory should not exceed three hundred. After all, this was still an early-stage trial and would not be designed to be excessively difficult.
A well-trained human soldier could easily handle three ordinary lizardmen. Apart from a few higher-level individuals, most of them were relatively weak and easy to deal with.
"Do you have any plans?" he asked, looking at Lyra.
As the appointed military commander of the territory, she held full authority to train and command the army. He also wanted to see how capable an S-level soul truly was in this regard. It would be a waste to use her merely as a bodyguard.
"The territory currently has five cavalry, twenty infantry, and ten archers," Lyra replied in a clear, structured manner. "All of them possess the corresponding professional skills, and their combat power is respectable when formed into teams. I will establish a defensive line in the northern part of the territory and personally lead a reconnaissance team to gather more detailed information."
Toji Hisami thought for a moment and approved of the arrangement. Then he added:
"After the magic-brick refining factory is completed, I will use the first batch of finished products to construct the territory walls. At that time, you should first show weakness and deliberately lure out the lizardmen’s main force, enticing them to attack us. We will defend behind the walls, eliminate the majority of their strength, and only then explore their underground territory."
He picked up a pen and made a clear mark on the map.
Lyra’s eyes lit up. She picked up the magic stone that Kael had left on the table earlier and carefully sensed its properties. This kind of magic-infused brick possessed both solid physical characteristics and a certain degree of magic resistance. Although it was not as hard as granite, it was far more durable than ordinary fired bricks.
There were not many natural stone mines in the territory, so this material was currently the most suitable for large-scale construction.
She understood that Toji Hisami was concerned about the risks of rashly invading the lizardmen’s underground domain. Drawing their main force out into the open and fighting on prepared ground would significantly increase the chances of success.
"Do the troops in the territory have the confidence to hold the line?" he asked.
"Don’t worry. There will be no problem."
Lyra answered with firm confidence.
In truth, she believed that during the early stages of the trial, the soldiers under Toji Hisami were already among the strongest of all candidates.
While others in Level 3 territories were still struggling to master basic professional skills, the soldiers here were growing at a rapid pace. Some of the cavalrymen had even mastered multiple skills after their class change, "Endurance Enhancement," "Physical Strengthening," and "Knight Charge." The first two had been gained through daily training; the third had been learned from the textbook inside the cavalry camp.
With Toji Hisami’s talent, the rate of progress of every individual was simply unimaginable to ordinary people. Compared with the constantly busy laborers, the soldiers almost felt restless from having too much free time and spent their days training with intense focus.
Sometimes even Lyra herself felt that ordinary drills were no longer challenging enough and could barely wait to go to war against the lizardmen.
Toji Hisami smiled and waved his hand, dismissing her so she could begin gathering intelligence. With her individual attributes, these lizardmen would not be able to stop her for even a moment.
The office of the Lord’s Hall returned to quiet.
He took out a small booklet from under the desk, the intelligence report Max had given him earlier. It recorded who had purchased information about him.
’Victor, Zhao Kai, Elara, Boris.’
Max had kindly included brief introductions for each of the four. Three of them were people he had already encountered inside the Hall of Knowledge; the remaining one was an old rival from the academy.
A faint smile appeared on Toji Hisami’s face.
He had not expected to attract this much attention already. Under the entries for Victor and Zhao Kai, Max had clearly marked "hostility." Under Elara and Boris the notes indicated "goodwill." Max was quite cautious in his assessments.
"Victor and Zhao Kai both have powerful families behind them. They will definitely try to expand their influence in the early stages."
He tapped the desktop with his finger, thinking about the coming first assessment.
In the end he decided to ignore them for the time being and focus entirely on raising the territory to Level 5 before the first assessment began. Once the territory reached Level 5, all functions would be fully opened and many things would change. His own knowledge system would also experience a small breakthrough around that time.
As for now...
From the moment he entered the assessment, Toji Hisami was still only Level 1.
At first he had deliberately held back because he was waiting for Max’s arrival in order to exchange for the chance to enter the Hall of Knowledge. After returning from the Hall, he had continued suppressing his level so he could initially digest the vast knowledge he had obtained.
Only now, after gaining a preliminary understanding of all nine fields, did he decide it was time to begin upgrading.
He opened his personal panel.
A storage bar at the bottom was completely full of accumulated experience energy.
Lords were also a profession, but compared with ordinary professions they possessed one additional source of experience, territory construction. The higher the territory level, the more experience was gained every day.
Toji Hisami directly digested the stored experience. A brilliant halo suddenly appeared beneath his feet as pure energy poured into his body.
[Experience digested. Level +1 → LV2]
[Experience digested. Level +1 → LV3]
...
[Insufficient experience. Required for next level: 125/2500. Current level: LV8]
After rising all the way to Level 8 in one go, he gained 80 free attribute points. At the same time, each of the nine fields of knowledge he had mastered also granted him 80 attribute points.
In addition, he received 8 skill points.
He opened the skill list. The nine knowledge systems he controlled had formed nine distinct skill trees containing dozens of skills.
Anyone else seeing so many options would probably have been overwhelmed with happiness and unable to decide.
Toji Hisami, however, already had a clear plan in mind, without much hesitation he converted all the skill points at once.
--
Origin Studies: Origin Core LV5, Allows the soul to establish a connection with the origin of the world, increasing the power of other skills by 10 %.
Magic: Magic Energy Sense LV1, The foundation of all magic. A new Magic attribute column has been added.
Evolution: Evolutionary Lineage LV1, Mastery of one’s own evolutionary path, all attributes +10 %.
Governance: Command and Control LV1, Improves the action efficiency of the territory or subordinates by 10 %.
After the skill conversion was completed, he opened the panel again and focused the majority of his free attribute points on Physique and Soul.
--
[Toji Hisami, Trainee Lord, LV8]
[Attributes]
Life: 500 (50)
Physique: 220 (22)
Attack: 10 (1)
Defense: 8 (1)
Soul: 290 (29)
Magic: 10 (1)
[Special Attributes]
Energy: 40 (every 100 points of Physique convert into 10 Energy; every 100 points of Soul convert into 10 Energy)
Command: 129 (every 100 points of Soul convert into 10 Command)
--
Compared with Lyra’s individual attributes, his own numbers were still modest. But Lyra was an S-class heroic spirit, a special existence that had no market price, while he was still only a trainee lord.
Life and Physique ensured his basic survival. The special attributes influenced by Soul would become increasingly important as his level rose and future development progressed. After all, special attributes would continue to grow as the knowledge he mastered increased.
An Energy value of 40 was equivalent to being able to work without sleep for four full days without feeling tired. Command determined the upper limit of territory population as well as the degree of control over high-level heroic spirits or high-level professionals.
Lyra was a special heroic soul and therefore not affected by the Command requirement. Under normal circumstances, controlling an S-class heroic spirit would require at least a thousand points of Command.
If the Command value was insufficient, the heroic spirit’s autonomy would increase. A good-tempered spirit might not mind, but a bad-tempered one could simply abandon the lord and leave.
Toji Hisami clenched his fists and felt the surge of power flowing through his body.
"This is what power feels like."
The skills he had chosen were carefully targeted to prepare for the coming tests. As for other skills, he only needed to rely on Heaven Rewards Diligence to learn and activate them independently without any additional consumption.
That was the most terrifying aspect of his talent.
As long as he continued to invest effort in learning and giving, he would receive continuous rewards. Given enough time, he could snowball and grow endlessly stronger, and this growth applied simultaneously to both himself and the territory.
This was the true reason he possessed the confidence to compete against the other geniuses in the Lord’s Trial.
"It’s a pity... it would be even better if I could just lie down and still work hard," he joked to himself, then immediately threw the nonsensical idea out of his mind and returned to the planning and design of the territory.
Because of his upgrade, the overall efficiency of the territory improved significantly.
Under Kael’s leadership the magic-brick refinery was quickly completed and put into production. Toji Hisami assigned him a team of ten skilled workers. Operating in three shifts day and night, batches of magic bricks of different specifications began appearing continuously throughout the territory.
The Population Management Hall was also constantly recruiting. Before the territory could form a self-sustaining population cycle, this hall remained the main source of new residents. Toji Hisami deliberately chose pure newcomers with no prior skills. With Heaven Rewards Diligence in effect, they would learn the corresponding work skills after just one day of labor.
The entire territory continued to improve at an incredible speed.
When Lyra finally returned from her reconnaissance, a three-meter-high city wall had already been erected three miles away from the lizardmen’s territory. The wall extended continuously, encompassing almost half of the domain.
An excited smile appeared on Lyra’s face.
Great, let the battle begin!