Chapter 108
The giant Spider King, with its many pairs of compound eyes, was filled with confusion. It couldn't comprehend why Ye Bai, who appeared to it as a strangely shaped "little spider," had not attacked. What had this "little spider" done?
However, that confusion quickly turned to rage as a fireball flew toward it, eliciting a high-pitched, piercing scream from the Spider King.
A swarm of spiders outside the cave was summoned, but Ye Bai had created a collapse of four to five meters. Even when the spiders rushed in to rescue their king, they were unable to break through the rock barrier, their numbers piling up in the narrow passage.
After a typical standoff, the rest of the story unfolded simply.
In the days spent grinding the BOSS, Ye Bai had leveled up twice, reaching level 37. She planned to undergo her second class change after upgrading her territory. Holding her level was merely a personal habit, a precaution for unforeseen circumstances.
“Boom…”
The battered Spider King fell to the ground, and Ye Bai stepped forward to loot the corpse:
- Acquired 【Spider King’s Silk】 x1
- Acquired 【Rare Spider Silk】 x8
- Acquired 【High-Quality Spider Silk】 x20
- Acquired 【Gold】 x10
What a haul!
Ye Bai raised an eyebrow at her rewards. Although, like the Giant Bear King BOSS, it hadn’t dropped a skill book and only yielded three items, the materials were quite impressive. The first item, the Spider King’s Silk, was a legendary-grade artifact.
【Spider King’s Silk】
- Level: Legendary
- Type: Consumable
- Durability: 1000
- Effect - Heavenly Net: Upon release on a target, it causes a powerful binding effect, lasting until durability reaches zero.
- Release Distance: 10 meters
Items dropped by BOSSes are often very useful, and the Spider King’s Silk was no exception. The previous BOSS item, 【Furious Horn】, had already been used up in the underground city of the divine realm. Ye Bai anticipated the monster attacks she might face on the night of upgrading to a town-level territory, and she believed this item would prove invaluable.
The other two items, Rare Spider Silk and High-Quality Spider Silk, were materials of rare and uncommon grades, respectively. They could be processed into equipment or magical items, just like the Giant Bear Fur Ye Bai had obtained a few days earlier.
After the Spider King’s death, Ye Bai waited thirty seconds before exiting combat mode.
The spiders, having lost their target, returned to a neutral state, slowly dispersing and leaving the passage to return to their familiar territories.
Once the swarm had cleared, Ye Bai didn’t waste any more stamina digging through the rocks. Instead, she found a shadow through a crack in the stone and leaped over using her Shadow Step.
Having killed the Spider King and emerged unscathed from the spider nest, Ye Bai could consider herself the first to achieve this feat.
But she couldn’t help but wonder what the reaction would be if a player team, after much hardship, entered the nest only to find the BOSS gone before a new Spider King was born…
…
After wandering the wilderness beyond Bai Ye Village for seven days, Ye Bai had defeated three BOSSes and a six-player team. After "cleaning up" in a nearby NPC village, she had amassed a total of 30 gold, 42 silver, and 32 copper.
Noticing the time, Ye Bai began her journey back to Bai Ye Village, also expanding her exploration range around her territory.
Upon arriving, she found that only one day remained until the arrival of this month’s refugees.
During her absence, a merchant caravan had come through, purchasing a batch of high-quality night gear while selling a large quantity of supplies acquired by her territory. In total, Ye Bai had only spent 14 silver coins on this trade—she had reserved 1 gold coin with the merchant guild to cover any price differences.
After returning, Ye Bai didn’t rest. She reinforced the wooden fence around the antelope enclosure—on the night of the territory upgrade, this group, which had not been tamed by Bai Ye Village and remained in a "wild neutral" state, would once again go berserk and crash into the walls.
Next, after checking the warehouse, Ye Bai approached the Tree of Creation and used the long-unutilized 【Energy Blessing】 to transfer her stamina to the territory’s blacksmith, Wade.
With the development of her territory, Ye Bai had established a blacksmith shop and a tailor shop, dedicated to producing the daily tools and ordinary clothing needed by the villagers.
More importantly, the buildings housing the professionals responsible for producing equipment were designated as restricted areas, preventing outsiders from entering.
At this moment, in the blacksmith shop area of Bai Ye Village, where no one else was allowed, the roof’s chimney began to emit thick smoke under Ye Bai’s Energy Blessing. The crisp sounds of hammering echoed, and after a while, a finely crafted weapon was produced and transported to the adjacent warehouse.
Meanwhile, the ordinary blacksmith shop was also following the lord’s orders, producing hunting traps.
On the second game day, at ten in the morning, Ye Bai finally received the long-awaited system notification—
【98 refugees wish to join your territory. Do you agree?】
【Yes】
Without taking the time to examine how many special talents were among the refugees, Ye Bai walked over to the Tree of Creation and touched its trunk.
The requirement for upgrading to level 4 was to reach a population of 180. With the previous 120, the territory now had 218 inhabitants, fully meeting the requirement.
As for the other two conditions: "Having 6 professionals working in production buildings" and "Having 50 basic military units," those had also been satisfied during this time.
The advanced engineer, Carly; master tailor, Dilina; herbalist, Lucy; tailor, Calvin; blacksmith, Wade; and Sean, who had become a hunter while Ye Bai was out a few days ago, made up exactly six professionals.
When Ye Bai had just returned from the divine realm, she had reassigned 30 villagers to the barracks. Fifteen game days later, most had successfully changed classes, and the number of military units in the territory had reached 53.
Reaching a level 4 territory was not something that should have been achievable in the second month of development. However, with Ye Bai’s strategic foresight and the successful completion of her personal quest, which allowed her to retain Dilina, she barely met the upgrade conditions.
【Level 4 territory upgrade conditions met. Bai Ye Village will be renamed Bai Ye Town. Do you wish to upgrade?】
【Yes】
As a burst of light flashed, this time, the commotion from the Tree of Creation was noticeably more intense than during the previous three upgrades. The branches grew at a visible speed, and the ground beneath Ye Bai trembled slightly as the roots of the Tree of Creation rapidly expanded into the soil.
A familiar fragrance began to waft through the air, refreshing and uplifting.
“From now on, the territory is under martial law.”
With that command, Ye Bai’s personal guards, who were not far behind her, immediately blew their whistles, notifying the entire territory.
The day before, Ye Bai had already prepared the soldiers in the barracks for battle. With their wages and equipment satisfied, the soldiers’ loyalty was even higher than that of ordinary villagers, averaging over 90. They had long been on standby for their lord’s orders.
Meanwhile, the ordinary villagers, who were quite experienced with territory upgrades, upon hearing the announcement, needed no further instruction. Each began to pack up their tools. Aside from the farmers seizing the opportunity to harvest the ripened crops in the fields, the other villagers left their workstations to return home.
Players who had been wandering around Bai Ye Village, gathering information or looking for quests, were caught off guard by the sudden change and were promptly driven away by the lord’s guards.
When the lord was near the Tree of Creation, it was impossible for players to hide in the village.
Players, not wanting their hard-earned goodwill to turn negative or to face the guards’ pursuit, had no choice but to leave, lingering just outside the territory’s one-kilometer radius.
By nightfall, Bai Ye Village had been cleared of players, and the gates were tightly shut.
Only Ye Bai, along with ten personal guards and 53 soldiers who had changed classes, remained in the territory, standing ready for battle.
The driven-away players quickly realized they had encountered the territory upgrade of Bai Ye Village. No one was foolish enough to leave; instead, they found suitable spots in the wilderness, preparing to livestream and document this major news, hoping to analyze how Bai Ye Village had achieved its terrifying score of over 10,000 in territory ratings.
“Rustle, rustle…”
Before long, sounds began to emerge from the distance.
The first to arrive were the familiar wild wolves and wild boars, ordinary creatures.
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