Adventurers ×! Lord √!

Thinking about this, Ye Wei'an suddenly began to contemplate his future.

When he first arrived in this world, understood his identity, and obtained the system, his idea was simple: to become a powerful adventurer by using the game system's abilities.

After all, that's what the system is designed for.

By defeating monsters and leveling up, improving abilities, accumulating wealth and prestige, it is not impossible to eventually become a legendary powerhouse, or even embark on the path to godhood.

However, the appearance of the minimap and the companion system showed him another, more promising path—the path to becoming a lord.

The minimap provides much more than just a sense of direction or combat alerts for adventurers.

It is essentially a strategic-level "omniscient perspective".

This is a capability that any lord would dream of.

The surrounding terrain details, resource distribution, potential hazards or unusual activities can all be visually presented on the map.

What's even better is that, just like in the game, both he and his companions can access the map.

For example, right now, he can see not only the situation around the camp, but also the map around the main force in the distance.

This also means that, as a lord, he could stay in the castle every day. As long as he sent out patrols everywhere, any abnormal or hostile activities in the territory would have nowhere to hide. He could mobilize manpower in time to quell the threat.

At the same time, its efficiency will far surpass that of its opponents in troop deployment, transportation, trade, and people's livelihood construction.

Those markers representing resources, relics, or special locations can give him an advantage when developing territory, exploring for minerals, and planning towns.

Simply being an adventurer will prevent you from fully exploring the potential of the minimap.

Only by becoming the lord of a land can its greatest value be realized.

The same applies to the Companion System.

Simply using the [Companion System] to train a few teammates, like in a game, would be a huge waste of the [Companion System].

How many people does an adventurer's party manage?

The truly efficient way to use it is to create separate states through the [Companion System].

Because the [Peer System] solves the most fundamental problem for leaders – the problem of "people".

It can not only be used to cultivate core military forces, but also to intuitively identify the strengths of various talents. This allows him to place the right people in the right positions when building administrative, military and economic systems, greatly improving the efficiency of governance.

Its loyalty alert function is something that no traditional power tactics can match.

In short, if he were simply an adventurer, he could indeed level up all the way through the system and reach the pinnacle without any surprises.

But as a lord, he will gain much more.

A powerful territory or kingdom can provide far more resources, information, and manpower than an independent adventurer.

He can send troops to complete tasks that he has no time to attend to, and then enjoy the experience himself.

He can concentrate the nation's resources to deal with powerful threats that are difficult for any individual to overcome;

He can even gain access to opportunities and knowledge that adventurers rarely have access to through exchanges and power struggles between factions.

The path to becoming a lord might be a path that allows him to go faster, more steadily, and further than a mere adventurer.

Of course, all of this is predicated on the premise that he can become a lord.

His adoptive father, Harandil Shassing, was merely a baron of the lowest rank, and he was just a baron's illegitimate son.

If someone with such a background were to live in the Middle Ages on Earth, they would basically never be able to become a lord.

Fortunately, this is Cormier in Faerûn, the legendary kingdom of the Purple Dragon.

As one of the most powerful human nations on the continent of Faerûn, Cormir's territory is quite vast.

Located in the center of the continent, it stretches from Thunder Peak and Guangze in the east to Dragon Lake in the south, and is surrounded by the natural barrier of the Stormhorn Mountains in the northwest. These natural defenses allow the kingdom to effectively resist foreign invasions at a relatively low cost.

The kingdom enjoys a humid and mild climate, and is covered with dense, lush forests, hence the name "Forest Kingdom." This environment has fostered vast tracts of fertile farmland, laying a solid foundation for agriculture. Furthermore, Dragon Lake provides a sea route to the Fallen Star Sea, enabling the kingdom to engage in prosperous trade with most of the Faerûn interior.

Despite possessing such a blessed land, the Cormier royal family's ambitions did not stop, and they continued to seek territorial expansion.

For example, the kingdom has long claimed sovereignty over the entire Rocky Lands, Goblin Wasteland, and Thun Plains, intending to push its borders westward to the Sunset Mountains and northward to the Sword Desert.

However, these regions have long been undeveloped or even out of control. The Thun Plain even experienced a devastating rebellion a century ago and remains outside the kingdom's effective rule to this day.

For this reason, the Cormier royal family has always encouraged "expansion"—if a nobleman is willing to establish settlements in these border areas, as long as they can gain a foothold, the royal family is happy to grant them corresponding titles and ruling rights based on the size of the territory they expand.

Ye Wei'an's status as a descendant of nobility qualified him to participate in this pioneering endeavor.

The only problem is that it is too costly to establish territory in such a place from scratch.

Let's take a look at what kind of pioneering lands the Cormier royal family can provide:

The rocky area is a rugged desert.

The northern part of the Rocky Lands is desolate and barren, unsuitable for growing crops; the south is riddled with dangerous tar pits, wild magic zones, and dead magic zones. The entire Rocky Lands is an extremely harsh environment, where only the most powerful and ferocious monsters can survive.

The Goblin Wasteland isn't much better.

It was a desolate wasteland, filled with cliffs, swamps, rocky hills, and thorny bushes. It was home to a multitude of humanoid monsters—goblins, orcs, kobolds, gnolls, ogres, and all their hybrids—making it difficult for ordinary people to establish themselves here.

The Thun Plain, on the other hand, has abundant water resources and lush vegetation.

The Kotun River floods year-round, turning large swamps into dangerous swamps. After the collapse of the bandit kingdom a hundred years ago, this land became a den of bandits and barbaric tribes. And deep in those swamps, legend has it that multi-headed lizards and even black dragons dwell.

In short, none of them were easy to deal with.

That's understandable. If these places were easy to develop, why would the royal family leave them to others?

To establish settlements in these areas, in addition to a sufficiently strong armed force, a large amount of gold lion coins is also needed as start-up capital.

Ye Wei'an wasn't too worried about the former.

With his system in hand, he was confident that he could build a team capable of meeting any challenge.

As for the latter... if this mission to Firefall Town is successful, then the first pot of gold from expanding the territory will naturally come to us.

Having figured out the path ahead, Ye Wei'an finally relaxed and fell into a deep sleep.

His first night after his time travel passed peacefully.

-----------------

The next morning, Ye Wei'an was awakened by the girl's exclamation beside him.

He groggily opened his eyes and saw that Ellen had already sat up, looking down at her hands with a look of surprise on her face.

Seeing that he was awake, the girl immediately turned around and said urgently in a low voice, "Young Master! Young Master! I...I feel like something's wrong!"

"What's wrong?" Ye Wei'an sat up and rubbed his temples.

"It's just... I feel so much lighter, and I seem to have more strength too. I almost tore the blanket just now..." Ellen spread her hands helplessly, then clenched her fist.

Her petite body seemed to contain some kind of restless energy.

"And I can see things more clearly now, and I can hear more sounds... I can even hear Renn sharpening his knife outside... Harold seems to be complaining that the morning dew has wet his tobacco... What, what's going on?"

Seeing her look so shocked and frightened, as if she had contracted some strange disease, Ye Wei'an was no longer sleepy, and a mischievous thought popped into his head.

He deliberately dragged out his words, his gaze sweeping over Eileen's still-untied collar, and said lazily, "Oh? Maybe this is... the result of 'last night'?"

"Last night...like that?" Ellen was taken aback at first, and the memories of last night in the wooden tub and on the carpet instantly flashed through her mind, making her so ashamed that she wanted to bury herself in the ground.

Her cheeks flushed instantly, and even her delicate earlobes turned an alluring pink.

"Huh? It... it can be like this? This... this change... it's actually..."

"What else?"

Ye Wei'an spoke nonsense with a straight face, "According to some unorthodox magical theory, this is called 'life energy reciprocation.' Especially for spellcasters like me with high charisma, in an intimate state, the energy of the magic network will flow through the other person's body like a flood irrigating farmland, following the resonance of their souls. You were lucky enough to encounter a mage like me who has mastered 'life energy reciprocation,' so isn't it normal for your physical condition to improve afterward?"

Eileen listened, stunned.

Such a fabricated theory would not be believed even by the lowest-ranking magic apprentice, yet she actually believed it.