Chapter 4: The World is Real!
Chapter 4: The World is Real!
The sky grew dim as Qin Muye returned to his territory with six sprites. He glanced at the fields outside the mage tower but quickly turned away. The fields had been built, but they needed seeds to grow anything. Without seeds, food wouldn't appear out of thin air.
Today's harvest was modest: 15 units of ore, 7 units of wood, and 21 units of food. The most exciting find was a single unit of gemstones.
It was a decent haul, considering the circumstances.
As for battling monsters? He hadn't engaged any.
He used a basic scouting spell to check the attributes of the wild monsters. Each one could easily overpower his sprites.
The weakest were the skeleton soldiers, with 2 attack and 1 defense. Even so, his sprites stood no chance. They had 0 attack power and couldn't break through any defense. He might have had a chance if he found a monster with 0 defense, but he hadn't come across any during his search.
More troubling was that the skeleton soldiers had three skills, as powerful as the sprites' own impressive abilities, all geared toward combat. This gave Qin Muye a headache.
From what he could see, the sprites were truly useless. Their only redeeming qualities were their intelligence and good luck.
He had considered arming them with rocks and sticks, but the inherent attribute differences were insurmountable. Their physical strength and endurance were too low. Sticks couldn't be too heavy, or the sprites would tire quickly. Even throwing rocks didn't do much damage and didn't travel far.
The wild monsters in this world weren't ordinary creatures; they were more like fantastical beings. For example, the wolf that almost killed him was the size of a calf.
Back in his territory, Qin Muye distributed the food to the sprites and told them to help themselves if they were hungry.
Each sprite needed about 3 units of bread per day, totaling 30 units for all of them. Water wasn't a concern.
Today, they hadn't eaten because they had been out with him, and they were famished. Fortunately, he had brought back 21 units of food, which would last them a couple more days. Otherwise, they would have run out of food by tomorrow.
He then checked on the sprite with only 1 health point left. It was lying on the floor of the first level of the mage tower, barely hanging on to life. Its health had not recovered, and it looked frail.
On the other hand, another sprite that had lost only 1 health point had fully recovered after eating white bread and drinking water.
At that moment, Qin Muye realized something.
Even though The Lord's Era defied some common sense, it couldn't change the reality of this world.
He sat on the broken third level of the mage tower, gazing at the moon. A thought flashed through his mind.
Qin Muye understood that he had been balanced, not just him, but the sprites as well.
The sprites' four skills, if given to a unit with powerful attributes, would be game-changing, especially for magic units.
The Garden Luck skill increased a hidden attribute called luck, which every unit needed.
Magical Constitution increased defense by 1 point, reducing damage for units with low health. Magical Wisdom provided mana, something unprecedented for a first-tier unit. He had never seen any wild monsters with a mana attribute.
Finally, Loyalty Taming prevented the sprite from falling and losing loyalty, an effect he had only seen in undead units like skeleton soldiers. This meant he had a unit that would fight fearlessly without needing to be bound.
This is precisely why they are balanced to have only 5 hit points and 0 attack and defense.
"No, that's not right. If it were just that, it wouldn't be balanced to this extent. So, there must be some potential in the goblin that I haven't uncovered yet."
How could a goblin be even weaker than a skeleton? If that were the case, what was the point of playing Lord Epoch? He might as well just give up.
"I shouldn't limit myself to the semi-data-driven world of Lord Epoch. While Lord Epoch gives all lords a fair chance, the world itself doesn't."
Each lord's starting location and surrounding resources differ, which shows that the world doesn't cater to them.
"Because this world is real."
Qin Muye grasped this insight. He realized he had been too naive, thinking the game was just a game and applying the strategies from Heroes of Might and Magic from his past life.
He decisively took out the skill book titled Basic Magic.
"I hope my guess is right. If it is, then my talent might be the foundation of my rise."
Flipping through the book, the semi-data-driven world of Lord Epoch had translated the original hieroglyphs into a language he could understand.
Basic Elemental Meditation Technique
Seeing these seven words on the cover, Qin Muye felt a surge of energy and whispered, "I was right. The world is the world, and the game is the game."
Since the conventional path in Lord Epoch was not available to him, he wouldn't blame himself for taking a more unconventional route. As long as he could survive, he didn't care how he became stronger.
Using the moonlight as his source of illumination, Qin Muye immersed himself in reading the Basic Elemental Meditation Technique.
This was a meditation technique for mages, a method to absorb the elements wandering in the world and convert them into magic power. This was likely one of the ways mages in this world became stronger.
As the night grew deeper, Qin Muye closed the not-so-thick book.
He had learned it.
"Abilities and talents shouldn't be judged by their additional attributes and effects, but by their names. Now, I finally understand the strength of the goblin and myself."
Without the lord talent of learning ability, he wouldn't have been able to memorize this book in such a short time, let alone master it. This learning ability had enhanced his learning capacity by at least five to ten times, making it a powerful and comprehensive skill.
Thinking about the goblin's four skills, the effects and attributes were truly terrifying, especially the Tame Loyalty ability. This wasn't just about maintaining high morale; it also ensured the goblin's loyalty to him.
"If morale drops, does that mean the unit might rebel?"
The thought made Qin Muye's hair stand on end. It was a devastating flaw. If a lord mistreated their units, they could die at the hands of their own troops without this ability.
"I wonder if anyone else has discovered an alternative way to play Lord Epoch."
"Never mind them. I need to focus on gathering magic power and becoming a mage first."
At this moment, he couldn't afford to worry about others. He needed to take care of himself first.
(End of Chapter)
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