Enter again.
This time, Ethan was more cautious.
He first stuck his head into the poison fog. If anything felt off, he could pull back immediately.
"This…"
What he saw before him was a dense expanse of towering trees. Each trunk had a diameter of at least ten to twenty meters, absurdly massive.
As for their height, Ethan could only see about a dozen meters up. Beyond that, everything was completely swallowed by the white mist.
And beneath the mist… he couldn't see a single branch extending out from those colossal trunks, which only made their scale feel even more exaggerated.
Around the trees lay piles of fallen leaves.
Ethan picked one up, it was nearly the size of a double blanket over two meters long.
"Ridiculous…"
[Giantwood Forest: A forest never touched by humans, preserving the most primitive mutated flora and fauna. Danger often comes from places that appear normal.]
Just as Ethan was about to step into this so-called Giantwood Forest to take a look, a barrage of exclamation marks suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[Danger Warning!]
[Spatial disorder detected. A spatial turbulence is about to occur in the Giantwood Forest. Please leave immediately!]
"Spatial turbulence? What kind of nonsense is that?"
However, in the brief moment Ethan hesitated, he saw a section in the middle of one of the giant trees suddenly vanish, as if sliced away. The massive trunk, the size of a building, collapsed with a thunderous crash.
And it wasn't just one tree.
In almost an instant, the entire Giantwood Forest looked like a painting slashed open in countless places by a blade.
Then, tree after tree, whether at the roots, the trunk, or any random point, would suddenly lose a section, before collapsing one after another.
Boom! Boom!
One of the giant trees happened to fall in Ethan's direction.
Watching that enormous shadow crash down, he instinctively stepped back, just in time to retreat out of the poison fog zone.
The next moment, the thunderous sounds of the trees collapsing abruptly disappeared.
It was as if… the Giantwood Forest had vanished right in front of him.
[Warning: Spatial turbulence in effect. Do not enter!]
[Warning: Spatial turbulence in effect. Do not enter!]
[Warning…]
"Alright, message received loud and clear."
Seeing how insistently the system was warning him, Ethan gave up on going back in.
Besides, he had already obtained the diamond treasure chest. There wasn't much point staying here any longer.
"Better head back first."
After a full day of running around, Ethan was feeling tired. He decided to return and get some rest.
He could also take the opportunity to ask Nostradamus what exactly this "spatial turbulence" was.
———
[Manor]
The moment Ethan returned to the manor, he heard the rapid clatter of hooves in the distance.
Clatter! Clatter! Clatter!
And it wasn't just one set of hooves.
It sounded like countless mounts were galloping wildly through the manor, which made Ethan frown.
'Could it be an army rampaging through my estate?'
"What's going on?"
"Did someone invade my manor?"
"But that doesn't seem likely…"
"After all, the Strangling Vines and Nostradamus aren't pushovers. Besides..."
Ethan glanced at the Strangling Vines planted around the manor. They were completely intact, showing no signs of damage. So it probably wasn't an invasion.
Then what—
"Lord!"
"Lord, you're back? Whoa!"
Just as Ethan was puzzling over it, Stone Six, Herb Three, and the others appeared before him, riding Tyrannosaur Dogs. They waved at him from afar.
Stone Six, leading the group, quickly pulled on the reins when he saw Ethan.
"Whoa!"
Despite their strange appearance, the Tyrannosaur Dogs were incredibly fast.
When Ethan first spotted Stone Six, they were still twenty to thirty meters away. But in the time it took Stone Six to shout "whoa" and pull the reins, the beast had already rushed up in front of him.
"We disturbed you, Lord. Our apologies!"
"Sorry, Lord! Under Senior Nostradamus's guidance, we managed to tame the Tyrannosaur Dogs, we just got a bit too excited."
"Please punish us, Lord!"
The residents all spoke up, admitting fault.
But instead of being angry, Ethan dismounted and patted Stone Six on the shoulder.
"You tamed the Tyrannosaur Dogs? Well done!"
"Ah?", Stone Six froze for a moment, then broke into a wide grin, "Thank you for your praise, Lord!"
[System Notification: Conditions for upgrading to Level 2 Lord have been met. Proceed with upgrade?]
"It's already met?"
Ethan was delighted and quickly opened the sub-menu for his lord progression tasks.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
[Conditions for upgrading to Level 2 Lord]
(1. Upgrade the thatched hut to a manor: Completed)
(2. Form a cavalry unit of ten: Completed)
(3. Equip the unit with uniform attire and insignia: Completed)
(4. Lead the residents in at least one battle: Completed)
(5. More than half of the residents reach 100% loyalty: Completed)
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
"So it really is done."
This upgrade came a bit out of nowhere.
Ethan couldn't help but feel that sometimes, no matter how hard you chase something, it won't come, but the moment you stop paying attention, it quietly completes itself.
'Strange, really.'
"I wonder what benefits I'll get from upgrading?"
[Upgrade!]
[Ethan: Level 1 Lord → Level 2 Lord]
[System Notification: Ethan has become the first in the region to upgrade to Level 2 Lord. A region-wide announcement will be made to encourage other lords to keep striving.]
[Level 2 Lord Authority: Unlock the opportunity to establish a town. The manor can now be upgraded into a town.]
[Level 2 Lord Authority: Population cap increased from 100 to 1000!]
[Level 2 Lord Authority: Troop upgrade system unlocked. Units can rapidly gain experience through daily production and combat. Once reaching certain thresholds, they can level up on their own.]
[Level 2 Lord Authority: Gain Lord Domain. Within this domain, you may move freely, even defying gravity to rise into midair. (Duration: 3 seconds)]
As the notifications appeared one after another, Ethan's eyes lit up.
He hadn't expected so many benefits from reaching Level 2 Lord. And it seemed that further upgrading the manor required the lord himself to meet certain qualifications first.
But what stood out most was the increase in population cap. Previously, he had never even gathered a full hundred residents, so he hadn't realized the cap was only 100.
Now… after upgrading to Level 2 Lord, his capacity had jumped to a full thousand.
But among all these perks, the one that satisfied Ethan the most was the second-to-last one, the troop upgrade system.
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