Chapter 167: Building a Divine Statue

Moved as he was, he didn’t bother with any overly polite words of thanks.

After spending this time together, Lyle knew that compared to easy words of gratitude, Su You much preferred seeing their real efforts and hard work.

“I noticed you kept looking at that door just now. Is there something wrong with it?” With their relationship this close, Su You didn’t bother with beating around the bush anymore. If she had a question or needed something, she just said it directly. They basically answered whatever she asked and did whatever she needed.

Lyle composed himself before replying, “There’s not really a problem, but I just have this feeling that it’s dangerous.” He knew it sounded like pointless nonsense, but that was honestly how he felt.

He’d been chopping trees here a few days ago and hadn’t sensed any danger, but today, this pile of ruins gave him a strong sense of oppression, as if hundreds of eyes were watching him at every moment.

But every time he looked over, there was nothing there—almost as if it was all in his imagination.

…Actually, it wasn’t “almost as if”—it really was just his imagination, because there really was nothing there.

“…That’s about it. Ever since I got here, I keep feeling like something is watching me.” Even though Lyle tried to reassure himself that nothing was there, that inexplicable feeling still sent chills down his spine.

“I think I know what’s going on.” After hearing Lyle’s words, Su You had a pretty good guess.

“Remember when I sealed up that monster spawner? Tomorrow morning, the seal will be lifted.” She figured the spawner was about to be unsealed, and the monsters inside could sense the weakening seal, so they were gathering at the exit, waiting for the seal to disappear so they could burst out all at once.

“Is… that it?” With a reasonable explanation, Lyle felt relieved… but the thought of the spawner being unsealed tomorrow still gave him a headache.

“I’m here to set things up so we’ll be ready for those monsters tomorrow.” As she spoke, Su You pulled out a pile of materials. “You go ahead with your work, don’t mind me.”

With that, she picked up a shovel and started digging a pit with practiced ease.

Lyle had no idea what she was up to, but since Su You didn’t ask for help, he didn’t bother her. After watching for a bit, he picked up his axe and went back to chopping trees.

Time ticked by. When Lyle finally got tired and decided to take a break, he turned around—and was startled by what he saw: a massive pit had appeared right next to him.

That’s right, another one of those familiar pits.

Su You had lost count of how many pits she’d dug in the past ten days. If digging pits had a skill level, she figured she’d at least have “Intermediate Pit Digging” by now.

This pit was centered on the monster spawner, and it was even deeper than the previous ones—at least five or six meters down.

The bottom was filled with dense, sharp spike traps, and the pit was surrounded by a solid stone wall.

Pit? Check. Traps? Check. Defensive structures? Check. Su You climbed out using a ladder she’d built inside, then took the ladder away and started building towers and arrow turrets behind the wall.

Lyle: …So what was he even worried about just now?

Looking at the setup, Lyle didn’t know whether he should be worried about how long the skeletons would survive, or about how they were supposed to earn any contribution points—since neither of them would be able to get close enough to fight the monsters in melee.

The day before the dark creatures’ attack, Su You had opened up the territory contribution system. For now, there was only one way to earn contribution: participate in team activities and get points based on your actual performance.

For example, during the two previous dark creature attacks, killing monsters earned contribution, and dealing damage also counted (for NPCs with area attacks who couldn’t “last-hit”). Su You could see all the data, which made calculating contribution much easier.

Besides the dark creature attacks, this “monster spawner raid” would almost certainly grant contribution as well.

Su You hadn’t said what contribution could be used for yet, but Lyle knew that as the territory developed, contribution would only become more and more important. If he didn’t rack up some points now, he’d be left with nothing when he needed them later.

“That’s about it. But tomorrow, there’ll probably be at least ninety ghostly skeletons, and this pit isn’t big enough—it can only hold sixty or seventy at most.” Space was limited, so the pit could only be so big. The extra skeletons would spawn outside the traps.

Su You looked at Lyle, and he immediately understood: “Got it. Any skeletons that spawn outside the traps are up to me and Lake.”

There were only two of them, but they’d fought a dozen ghostly skeletons at once before. Besides, unlike Su You, they could level up, had combat skills, and could equip gear.

With all the training lately and the experience from yesterday’s battle, they felt much stronger than before.

“Safety first, though. Remember to get a full set of reinforced beast hide armor from Dolly before tomorrow.” Doya had had good luck yesterday and caught quite a few small animals. There wasn’t much meat, but plenty of hides. Plus, Su You had opened a bunch of chests and gotten a ton more, so Dolly was now busier than ever.

She had to hurry and turn all those hides into equipment—some for the territory’s own use, and the rest for sale.

Besides the beast hide armor, Yue would also be coming tomorrow.

On one hand, it meant someone could help with healing in case anything happened. On the other, it was a chance for him to gain some real combat experience with his water magic.

Meck had said that while Yue didn’t have much talent, he worked hard—so even if he couldn’t make up for his lack of talent, his progress wasn’t any slower than an average apprentice mage.

At the very least, casting a few water bolts shouldn’t be a problem.

Of course, there was another, less obvious reason: to give him a chance to earn some contribution points. Otherwise, who knew how long it would take him to save up enough to exchange for a magic rune book.

…

After that, Su You took a pickaxe and went with Lake to the chain of mines to dig up marble. Once she’d gathered enough to build the statue, she returned to the territory.

【Consume 1000 stone, 500 marble, and 1 Statue Remnant Soul (Doris) to construct the Statue of Doris, Goddess of Life?】"

"168. Trading District

[Currently constructing the Statue of Doris, Goddess of Life. Estimated completion time: 24 hours.]

The statue was placed by Su You behind the City Heart Fire, close to the center of the territory. Although it was still under construction, Su You had already planned out how to arrange the area around it.

First, she would build a ring-shaped pond around the statue. Later, she could buy some ornamental aquatic creatures (like koi) to keep in it, and then plant a circle of beautiful flowers and plants around the pond.

Of course, not every statue needed to be decorated this way—she was doing it simply because this was the Goddess of Life.

When it came to worshipping a statue, what mattered most was “consistent sincerity” and “matching attributes.”

The former meant coming to the statue every day to pray and receive a blessing aura. The longer one persisted in worship, the stronger the aura would become.

The latter, matching attributes, meant that the Goddess of Life valued life itself, so the surrounding decorations should naturally be related to life.

Raising other animals would be inappropriate and troublesome, but keeping a few small fish and planting some flowers was simple enough.

This arrangement was not only simple and attractive, but also matched the attributes of the Goddess of Life, which could enhance the effects of worship.

……

With the appearance of the statue, all the basic buildings in the territory were now complete.

There were places to eat, sleep, and live, a clinic, a quest hall, the statue, a well, a training ground…

Su You looked at the territory sketch she had drawn, marking all the buildings that had already been constructed, and began planning the layout of other buildings and areas in the remaining space.

She had only posted the regional bounty today, so the earliest anyone would arrive was tomorrow. That meant she still had time today to arrange and improve the territory’s construction progress.

As the territory sketch gradually took shape, a nearly perfect territory layout was born under her pen.

Su You put away her quill and walked to a spot she had deliberately left open at the back left of the territory. On her map, she had designated this area as the Trading District.

Anyone—whether a resident or outsider—could set up a stall in the Trading District, though a certain booth fee would be charged.

The Trading District was the best way to stimulate the territory’s economic cycle early on, especially when there were still few shops and goods.

At this stage, the territory didn’t have much to offer, but by allowing outsiders to set up stalls, as long as there were visitors with needs, there would be transactions. Whether or not the territory itself had goods didn’t matter; what mattered was that trade was happening.

Su You also planned to set up a stall tomorrow—but not personally. Buying and selling was naturally something she’d leave to Buguo.

She had already decided what to sell: besides some common trinkets, the more valuable items included enhanced beast-hide equipment, a green-quality beast core dropped by the long-tailed crocodile she’d killed earlier, a beginner’s sewing skill book found in a chest, a magic pattern book, a level-one spatial pouch, and the recipe for making a level-one spatial pouch.

There weren’t many items, and aside from the spatial pouch and its recipe, nothing particularly rare or precious. But it was enough to showcase the territory’s strength.

The territory’s publicity was still very limited, so anyone who came probably wouldn’t be anyone important. Even if Su You put out good items, they wouldn’t be able to afford them.

Besides, for a small territory, displaying rare treasures without enough strength to back them up wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Su You searched through the building list and found an icon labeled “Trading District.”

[Would you like to designate the location of the Trading District?]

[Note: At the current territory level, only one Trading District is allowed. Its size is unlimited, but it cannot be canceled at will. Please choose carefully.]

Su You selected [Yes], and a marker tool appeared in her hand, similar to a piece of chalk.

Using the marker, she roughly outlined the area for the Trading District, then opened the building list again.

[Confirm this area as the Trading District?]

With this prompt, a flag appeared in Su You’s hand.

The flag was dark blue, with no pattern, just the simple words “Trading District” written on it.

As long as the flag was placed near the designated area, the Trading District would be officially established.

“I’ll put it… here.” Su You looked around, found a spot suitable as an entrance, and placed the flag representing the Trading District at the entrance.

[Trading District established. This area cannot be built upon, destroyed, or relocated… When anyone in the territory has trading needs, they will automatically come here to trade.]

The Trading District wasn’t a building, just an area, so Su You didn’t need to use any materials to construct it. Aside from the flag, the designated area was empty, looking just like any other open space.

Su You planned to make some tables for displaying goods and benches for stall owners to rest. For the early stage, these two things would be enough.

After a trip to the workshop, Su You set up some rectangular tables and brought out a pile of benches. Just then, Buguo happened to pass by.

“I’ll help you. Where should I put this?” Buguo hesitated for a moment, then trotted over to Su You and picked up a bench.

Because of malnutrition, Buguo looked small and thin; the long bench was almost half her size.

Su You felt a bit helpless. She wanted to refuse, but seeing how determined Buguo was, she didn’t insist on taking the bench back. Instead, she pointed to a spot.

“Just put it over there.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Buguo ran over with the bench.

Watching Buguo’s small figure, Su You felt a pang of guilt, as if she were exploiting child labor…

“All right, all right, that’s enough. By the way, this place is the Trading District. Tomorrow, I’ll need your help to run a stall here.” To keep Buguo from helping further, Su You quickly changed the subject.

Once Buguo was distracted by this, Su You continued, “I’ll give you the goods tonight, along with their prices. Same as last time—you can set the prices as you see fit, and you’ll get a share of any extra profit.”

“Okay.” Buguo nodded without hesitation. Though she only said one word, she was actually looking forward to it… She hoped tomorrow would come quickly.

After being used to a rough, wandering life, suddenly living in comfort—eating and dressing well every day—felt strange to Buguo.

Her eagerness to help was, in a way, a sign of insecurity. She was afraid that if she was useless, she would be abandoned."

"169. Practice

Su You could see this as well. So after assigning Bu Guo her tasks for the next day, she had her help watch over the workbenches synthesizing materials. Whenever a workbench stopped running, Bu Guo would add more materials.

It was an extremely boring and time-consuming job, but it suited Bu Guo perfectly—and she didn’t mind it at all.

“Can I use all the materials in those boxes?”

“Yes, you can use them all. If you run out of wood, add more wood. Same with stone and fiber.”

With Bu Guo successfully sent off, Su You arranged the remaining stools one by one… The trading area was now set up.

After that, Su You first checked her backpack, then went to the warehouse and took out beast tendons, string, refined magic ore, and all the wood she’d previously chopped for making bows and arrows.

Besides those, she also had the wutong wood in her backpack.

Carrying all these materials, Su You headed straight for the workshop. What she was about to do was obvious—she was going to use the wutong wood and black-striped tiger tendons to make a bow.

The wutong wood was too high-grade for the workbench to process, so she’d have to wait for an NPC with intermediate or advanced carpentry skills to give the wood to, or make it herself.

Clearly, she chose the latter.

In fact, her previous gaming experience gave her a huge “cheat” in this data-driven world—she knew all the recipes and crafting methods for every item in the game “Sunset Continent.”

Unlike the recipe manuals Duoli had discovered, Su You didn’t just know the crafting steps—she could actually make these things herself, with both theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience.

After all, her old account had five maxed-out life skills; she’d crafted more items than she could count.

Back then, not to mention making a bow with wutong wood and black-striped tiger tendon—even using dragonbone and dragon tendon was no problem.

But things were different now. She had no skill levels at all—her account was a “blank slate.” Without any system assistance, she could only rely on her memory to slowly regain the feel for crafting.

That’s why she brought so many materials—she needed to practice.

First, Su You used string and ordinary wood to make a bunch of bows and arrows. Once she felt she’d gotten her touch back, she switched to the special bow wood and string… then swapped the string for beast tendon.

She didn’t have much beast tendon left. After giving one bow to Yun Li and another to Duoya, she only had eight tendons left from the original ten.

With each attempt, the number dwindled—from eight to seven… then six…

Who knows how much time passed before Su You finally managed to handcraft a perfect black-striped tiger tendon bow.

But that wasn’t enough. She needed to get even more skilled—after all, she only had one piece of wutong wood, and only one shot at this.

She still had five beast tendons left, so she could practice four more times—she needed to save one for the wutong wood bow.

…

After two more practice runs, it was nearly dusk. Su You’s stamina was running low, and her character was now moderately fatigued.

She didn’t keep practicing—after all, fatigue from overwork would affect the crafting process and results.

It was already dusk. She stepped outside for some fresh air. Watching the busy figures in the fields, she remembered the skill book in her backpack.

She walked over and saw crops everywhere.

Yousen greeted her. “My lord, are you here to check on the crops?”

He then shared some good news—corn, wheat, and rice had all ripened.

To be precise, the corn had actually ripened last night, but it was too late then, and there were other things going on, so Yousen hadn’t had a chance to mention it.

The crops had matured so quickly thanks to the growth fertilizer. The basic fertilizer reduced growth time by 10% per use, up to five times—a full 50% reduction.

But while the fertilizer was effective, it was used up quickly… And with this good news came a reminder that they were almost out.

Each field had four plots, each needing five packs of fertilizer—twenty packs per field. The ninety packs Su You had made earlier weren’t nearly enough.

So Yousen had to prioritize crops with longer growth cycles to maximize returns.

“You’ve done a great job.” Sure enough, having a professional made all the difference.

He managed ten fields all by himself, not only without help, but keeping them all in perfect order.

The harvest was a huge help… While having enough food was good, tomorrow was a special day—there was a good chance many people would visit the territory.

It wouldn’t do to serve only meat and berries, so the wheat and rice harvests would greatly enrich the menu, letting Meike put his skills to use.

As for the fertilizer shortage…

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll have plenty by tomorrow,” Su You said confidently.

After all, tomorrow the monster cage would be unlocked. With ninety ghostly skeletons, there’d be no shortage of bones for making fertilizer.

“Oh, here, take this and learn it.” Su You took out the intermediate planting skill book and handed it to Yousen, whose eyes filled with surprise and delight.

“My lord, is it really okay to just give this to me…?” Yousen knew Yue, since after joining the territory, Yue had moved into House 5 to live with him. So he was aware of how hard Yue had worked to earn contribution points for the magic inscription book.

But he himself hadn’t made any contributions, yet was being given an intermediate planting skill book for free… Was that really okay?

Of course, Yousen definitely wanted the skill book—who wouldn’t want to improve themselves, especially so easily?

“I know what you’re thinking, but this isn’t a free gift. From today on, I need you to start researching improved seeds. Once you succeed, the contribution you earn will pay for this skill book.”

Yue becoming a mage actually didn’t benefit the territory much—his talent was too low, and he was just an ordinary NPC with no special traits."

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