Custer yawned.

He looked up at the dark forest in front of him, and the cool wind blew through the trees, bringing a rustling sound. It's a great day to fall asleep peacefully and have a good night's sleep. But now, he and his men are patrolling here with torches. If it were a normal one, then Custer would have complained a long time ago, but now, he just kept a calm face, revealing a hint of pride and excitement.

"Alright, everyone rest for a while, and then go back the way you came!"

Casting his gaze at the few lights sticking out of the plain outside the forest, Custer coughed loudly before giving the order.

After returning from the Zack family's domain, Custer regained his men, completely betraying the Bird family and joining Yuren's side. Of course, not everyone was convinced by his order, and the guards who followed Custer to the Zach family's territory at that time naturally knew Yuren's strength, and did not resist the judgment of their captain in the slightest - they did not want to die at the hands of a high-ranking swordsman. But the other members who stayed at the time and did not participate in the operation clearly did not think so, although many of them did not quite believe in this obviously unimaginable fact, but after the persuasion of those colleagues, they were also a little shaken. After all, these are companions who get along with themselves day and night, and they shouldn't deceive themselves.

In the end, the garrison sent by the Viscount of Juventus in order to disrupt the twilight forest became Yulen's personal soldiers. Faced with such an ending, Viscount Juventus could only accept it helplessly. But even so, the life of these garrison soldiers is not so good.

Although in order to reward them, Youlian gave a very generous remuneration to everyone who chose to stay, but the so-called people not only want to survive, but also to save face. Even if you have a coin with a nail bell in your hand, you can't say anything about being humiliated in your face. That's exactly where Custer and his party are now.

Although they did not encounter any cold reception and prejudice in the Twilight Forest, because the guards needed to patrol back and forth, they would sometimes appear on the periphery of the Twilight Forest to meet with the Bird family guards, and at this time, they were inevitably laughed at by each other, after all, the Custer family had served in the Bird family for a long time, and there were many enemies and friends, so they were always mocked. It's a bit funny to think that he, an experienced security captain, actually ran to a young hairy boy who didn't even have a formal title to go on an errand. Moreover, after all, the twilight forest is barren, and the prosperous places are no more bearable than those plains.

It has to be said that at the beginning, such remarks did irritate many soldiers in the garrison, although some people stood up to refute it, saying that the young lord was a high-ranking swordsman, and it was not a shame to work under him. But he will always be sarcastically ridiculed by his former colleagues. A high-level swordsman? If he is really a high-level swordsman, and he came to this twilight forest where birds don't to be some kind of lord, even if you want to make up a lie, you have to find a more suitable reason.

After coming and going, these soldiers were also a little depressed, although they knew that they were indeed telling the truth, but these people didn't believe it, and they couldn't do anything.

However, this situation changed after the Midsummer Festival ended.

Those former colleagues who had looked at them with arrogance and contempt now saw them with a hint of envy and hatred, and even some soldiers took advantage of their commander's inattention to run to the outpost of the twilight forest to ask about the lord. And at this moment, Custer and the others learned about Messiah and Semiya, and the martial arts on the square that day had already become the talk of everyone in the Bird family's territory, you know, they were two little girls who were only in their early tens, but they already had the strength of high-level swordsmen. Such power is enough to become a topic of conversation in the mouths of all. And at this moment, the entire Bird family knew from top to bottom that in their territory, on that twilight forest, there were three high-level swordsmen at this moment!

For the aristocracy, this naturally meant a lot of complicated things. But it was different for the lower-class soldiers, whose life was actually very simple, taking money to do things and serving the nobility. But soldiers are human beings, and naturally want to be able to fight under the hands of capable and powerful nobles, so that at least their chances of survival are much higher. And looking at the entire territory of the Bird family, who else can be stronger than a high-level swordsman?

What's more, how can a soldier say that he is also a warrior, since he is a warrior, he naturally yearns for those strong men who master the peak of martial arts, knights are too far away, and they can almost only be worshiped from a distance, but high-level swordsmen are different, although he will also be worshiped by warriors, but at the same time, he will also become the goal of warriors, after all, compared to the ethereal knight class, high-level swordsmen obviously have some kind of possible surname.

Because of this, the decision they made was stupid in the eyes of others. Now it has become a decisive, far-sighted and wise judgment. Not only were those junior soldiers a little shaken, but even two days ago, a senior cavalry captain who Custer knew came to him and asked him if the Twilight Forest still needed to recruit more manpower, and even promised before leaving that as long as he was there for a day, there would be no need to worry about the safety of the Twilight Forest.

This kind of transformation naturally greatly satisfied the vanity of Custer and the others, and because of this, they are also working very hard at the moment, you must know that in the Bird family, they are just a part of the garrison, but in the Twilight Forest, they are the only garrison that can maintain law and order, and because of this, Custer and his subordinates know very well that if they can behave well in front of the lord, then their future will be bright.

"Alright, rest and get ready to continue patrolling!"

Custer tapped his shield and was the first to stand up, he had already thought that in a few days he would take his mother and child to live in. Although the Twilight Forest is not as prosperous as outside, the quiet and serene atmosphere here is very suitable for people to live in. It's safer than the big cities full of drunks, hooligans, and thieves, and in fact, it's a thankful thing for the guards like Custer not to have to deal with those goddamn bastards.

Just as Custer and his men were about to start patrolling again, the ground suddenly began to tremble slightly.

What happened?

Custer frowned and raised his hand to signal his men to stop, and at that moment, the tremor of the earth grew stronger.

Earthquake?

"Captain!"

While Custer was pondering, a guard soldier suddenly shouted, and by the light of the fire, Custer also saw that the earth, not far in front of him, suddenly began to sink downward.

"Stand back!!Stand back now!"

Although he didn't know what was happening, Custer quickly gave the order, and he led his soldiers back a few meters, observing the ground from afar.

But the current situation was somewhat unexpected to Custer, who had thought that the depression was a crack in the earth caused by the earthquake, but now, although the ground was still shaking, the ravine did not continue to tear after expanding to a width of three or four meters, but continued to stretch out in both directions in some invisible track.

The ravine stretched so fast that it disappeared into the dark depths of the forest in the blink of an eye, and the soldiers were dumbfounded by this unexpected sight, completely unaware of what was happening in front of them. But that's just the beginning.

As the ravine extended, so did the surrounding trees, which rustled and their thick branches and trunks began to twist, stretch, rotate, and become more luxuriant under the influence of some unknown force. Even the shrubs and grass on the ground slowly spread outward - and at this moment, the ground, which had been trembling slightly, finally returned to calm.

Then the soldiers heard the cool, silver-bell-like sound of water, the sound of a stream.

What's going on?

They looked at each other, then hesitated to walk forward, and then, when they saw the scenery in front of them, everyone couldn't help but hold their breath.

Not far from them, the solid ground was gone, replaced by a stream with clear spring water, and where they had been on the road, there was now a low, fine bridge made of cobblestones, streams, meadows, blending with the trees, as if they had existed here for hundreds of years, and if a stranger had come, he would not have imagined that such a stream would have appeared here just a few minutes ago.

"Captain, this is ..............."

All this in front of him was incomprehensible to everyone, Custer swallowed his saliva and turned his head to look into the distance, surrounded by mountains and forests, leaving only a silhouette of the black castle, guessing that this sudden change must be inseparable from the lord. But this is only speculation after all, as a security captain, he naturally knows his duties and what he should do at the moment.

"Go back and report to your lord immediately. ”

Glancing at the stream in front of him again, Custer quickly gave the order.

Charlotte held out her hand.

Verdant trees and shrubs swayed in front of her hand, politely but firmly keeping the maiden out, forming an unknowable distribution that transformed into a natural barrier against intruders who tried to offend.

"It's a natural barrier, my lord. ”

Charlotte turned back in surprise and reported to Yuren.

"It's a secret method that only elves do, and they use it to keep out trespassers who try to enter the forest without permission - Holy Grace is above, and I never thought that the Source Transfer Device could do that. ”

Early the next morning after receiving Custer's report, Yuren arrived at the scene with his men, and as things stand, it was clear that they were getting what they wanted.

The Natural Barrier is a secret technique of the elves, which they use to move the location of trees in the forest, creating strange labyrinths on the perimeter that make it impassable to ordinary people. If someone trespasses, there's a good chance they'll end up walking out of the forest instead of into the depths after all the effort they've expended. Even if someone were lucky enough to get in, they would be confronted with trees and plants that seemed to grow naturally and were chaotic, but which in fact could keep those in their way out. The elves are peaceful and don't like bloodshed, so being able to invite each other out without blood has become their only option. Of course, this secret art is not available to everyone, and in fact, it is almost impossible for any race other than elves to master this secret art. I would never have imagined that this kind of secret technique would be stored in a source transformation device.

According to the results of the investigation so far, the stream almost extends the outer area of the twilight forest, enveloping it entirely, forming this natural barrier. Those who try to go deep into the forest will be able to return in vain. In fact, even if someone forcibly enters it by force, their whereabouts will immediately reach Yuren's ears, so even if someone can break in safely, their purpose of hiding their whereabouts will be completely unsuccessful.

"What an amazing device. ”

Seeing everything in front of him with his own eyes, even Ofaril could not hide his surprise.

"Holy grace, I've seen the Fountain Transformer, but I never thought it would be able to do such a thing. ”

"You can't do it with a normal source device, Miss O'Farel. ”

Charlotte was once an alchemist, and soon regained her composure.

"I don't know where this thing came from, but I'm sure it's not your average fountain device. ”

"I think so too. ”

You Lian nodded, he didn't care about technology, but that didn't mean he was an idiot in this regard, as the saying goes, he had never eaten pork and seen a pig run, although Yu Lian had never had his own source device, but he had also seen a lot of similar things, as for what kind of surname those things had, he still knew very well.

In fact, last night he also learned some data about the source from the artificial elves, this time the source brought back by Yuren is medium-scale, and it will cast about 10,000 manas a day, but since the twilight forest is not the center of the source in the first place, the source must consume 3,000 mana every day to change the surrounding environment, and its consumption will not decrease until it is completely transformed into the source land. Yuren also learned from the artificial elves that for the Source Device, creating ordinary buildings will only consume a part of Mana, but if you need to create an existence with a certain mysterious power like the Natural Barrier, you still need to spend a certain amount of Mana to support it. Like the current River of Meditation - ever since it was created, the Ring of Morbius had to consume 100 manas every month to support its continued existence.

But before that, Yulian had already given the artificial elf another job - to materialize the geyss in the castle.

You know, these spirits are all elites of the chaotic era, they are not only strong, but they are also quite trusted by Yulian, and their loyalty is understandable. Although the expansion and prosperity of the territory will naturally attract more people, it is not so easy to find powerful and loyal subordinates, and since there are them in front of you, it is a big waste not to use them.

However, although the number of geists is not much, but because they are generally strong, they want to materialize, and the energy they consume is not a few, and every time they restore a geist entity, they also need at least two or three thousand or so Mana, the only fortunate thing is that these geists were born in the chaotic era, and most of them are familiar with some spells and meditation, so as long as they are materialized by the device, these geists can absorb the power of Manna that originally existed in the twilight forest through meditation to maintain their existence, and they don't need to consume the power of the source。

Because of this, Yuren and the artificial elves agreed that every day at twelve o'clock at midnight, the Source Device would consume a portion of Mana to materialize a geist. In this way, after three months, basically all the spirits should be able to have a body, and in this way, it will be much easier for themselves. Of course, considering the upcoming battle, he put those geists who were obviously stronger in combat power in the front, and those who were relatively weak in combat power were put in the back.

And judging from the current situation, this source conversion device does have the conditions to allow itself to build a territory.

Now that the barrier has been completed, the next step for Yuren is the next step in the plan - tidying up the town.

"Ofariel, how are our material reserves at the moment?"

Hearing Yuren ask, Ofariel pondered for a moment, and then she quickly replied.

"We have a lot of wood, but in the case of stone, we don't have enough manpower, so only a small part remains. ”

It's no wonder, after all, wood is relatively easy to collect, but quarrying is different, it's a dangerous job, usually only done by slaves, and civilians are rarely involved unless they are cornered - it is better to mine, if you can dig some gems or something, you may be able to get rich overnight.

Generally, the quarries in big cities are controlled by big businessmen, and most of their workers come from slaves who trade and trade, and the twilight forest is a place where there are few people and poor land, and there is no big chamber of commerce to hit the idea here, you know, although there must be no shortage of stones here in the twilight forest, but it takes a lot of manpower and financial resources to mine the stone quarry in this kind of place, and no one will be idle to put money into it, plus the stone is different from the ore, the price is relatively low, and it is not so easy to get back to the capital.

"Then only to buy. ”

Hearing Ofariel's answer, Yulian frowned, the artificial spirit said very clearly, although the power of Manna can also create stones, but it also consumes a lot of energy, and in this regard, if you can have ready-made materials, then the energy consumed will be reduced a lot, and because of this, he hopes to be able to use these Manna in the most efficient way while saving as much as possible.

And now, after seeing the power of the Möbius Ring with his own eyes, Yuren can finally put his mind at ease and use the device completely.

"Miss O'Fariel, I think we need to plan for the next development of the territory. ”

Thinking of this, You Lian raised his head and looked at the girl standing beside him, revealing a hint of a smile.

(To be continued)