Chapter 54: Return and the Camp (3)

Seeing someone willing to listen to her, the talkative girl became even more energetic and explained to the young and handsome guest before her, “It’s because the orcs have invaded again. I heard several tribes are involved this time. Although there are fortresses guarding the border, some small groups of orcs still manage to sneak through the unguarded mountainous areas to raid the kingdom’s lands. I heard orcs are extremely cruel—not only do they look terrifying, but they also eat people, especially children. Those refugees are from the villages in the border mountains. Since the hunters there have no lord to protect them, they can only flee their villages and wait for the great marquis to defeat the orcs before returning.”
Donald frowned after hearing this. It seemed the news of the great victory hadn’t reached here yet; otherwise, these people would have gone home long ago.
He then asked, “So, how are these refugees being taken care of for now?”
The girl replied with sympathy, “What else can they do? In previous years, the town would provide some relief, and the marquis’s estate would arrange food and shelter for them. But this year, there are so many orcs that almost everyone in the border areas has fled back to the marquis’s lands. Zijin City can’t accommodate so many refugees for now, so those who arrived later are staying outside the town, waiting for further arrangements!”
After hearing this, Donald didn’t comment but started eating. Once the host began eating, Clinton and the others followed suit.
Seeing that there was nothing more to talk about and that the other guests still needed service, the girl servant reluctantly left.
“Uther, take a look at the refugees outside. Are there any worth recruiting to strengthen the manor’s combat strength?”
During the meal, Donald quietly spoke with his loyal subordinate. Although Uther had just arrived in this world, the Book of Truth had granted him some memories and knowledge, along with extraordinary wisdom. He could be considered Donald’s most important right-hand man at the moment.
“Master, although those refugees haven’t received systematic training, their physical condition and mental state are far better than those of ordinary civilians. If we recruit them, we can select dozens of suitable candidates!”
Uther was created with a hero’s template, making his strength and judgment far surpass those of ordinary professionals. His top priority was always to protect his master’s safety, so he would constantly observe his surroundings subtly. Though he hadn’t observed carefully, a quick glance from a distance was enough for him to understand the situation of those refugees and confirm that there were no immediate threats.

So when Donald asked at that moment, he was able to answer quickly. Donald nodded after hearing Uther’s analysis, finding it roughly consistent with what he knew. They then ate in silence. The young female server kept glancing at Donald while working, until the handsome young guest finished eating and left for his room under the guidance of other servants, at which point she sighed in disappointment. Since the hotel rooms were crowded, Donald and his group only had two rooms in a corner to choose from. He picked the one that seemed quieter, leaving the other for Clinton and the others to rest in. After all, it was just a temporary stay to rest and recover from mental fatigue, so there was no need to be too fussy. Upon entering the room, Donald didn’t rush to rest but began checking out what he had gained from this trip. First were hundreds of orc weapons. Although they were all crudely made metal weapons, some even just wooden sticks stuffed with iron nails, the northwestern wasteland had poor soil but abundant metal deposits, so materials were plentiful. It was just that the orcs’ smelting skills were low, preventing them from forging high-quality weapons. “Hmm! These metals are quite excellent. If impurities are removed, even ordinary human blacksmiths can craft fine swords and blades.” “But for me, there’s no need for such trouble. When I need these metal materials, I can instantly purify them using the Book of Truth to create truly superior weapons.” Besides these metal materials, which were worth at least a hundred gold sols in total, the greatest gain was the soul power harvested this time. Donald sat on the bed in the room, holding a crystal ball, watching the blackairflow flowing inside like mist, and he couldn’t help but grin widely. After drawing it from the Book of Truth, he had accumulated over ten thousand units of soul power. Aside from a few human souls, the rest came from orcs. Yet even these few human souls, less than thirty in number, had soul power of equal quality to that of absorbing the soul fragments of two hundred orcs. The amount of soul power wasn’t directly related to an individual’s strength but was greatly influenced by their intelligence and the strength of their will. For example, a merchant skilled in calculations would have more soul power than a farmer who works in the fields all day, and a scholar with formal education would be stronger than a merchant. Professionals in various fields generally had more soul power than ordinary people without combat skills. For instance, a black iron swordsman, through rigorous physical training, had a stronger will than ordinary people, allowing his soul to advance.

As specialized spiritual cultivators, spellcasters have already begun to delve into the soul realm, making their soul strength far greater than that of ordinary swordsmen, knights, and other professions. Although many orcs were killed on the battlefield, only slightly over ten thousand units of soul power were collected, as a large portion of the orcs’ soul energy was lost after death, with some even heading to the location of the Beast God totem. The Soul Sphere captured precisely those fragments of soul energy. The soul power required to summon an ordinary humanoid intelligent being is not much, whereas a perfect soul for summoning a hero unit is dozens of times greater. The soul power he had was just enough to summon the perfect souls of two heroes, with another thousand or so units remaining. With a plan in mind, Donald decided not to use this remaining soul power for now, as he hadn’t yet decided what to summon. He would wait until he returned to his manor and officially received his fiefdom before summoning based on actual needs. Returning to the topic from earlier in the inn’s lobby, due to the orc attacks, the people living in the villages along the border were forced to leave their homes and flee to the interior of the marquisate. Although the northwest region of the kingdom was sparsely populated, accommodating tens of thousands of people was still a challenge. Due to the unexpected large number of people this year, preparations were insufficient, leaving thousands more border residents without proper shelter and becoming displaced refugees. Seeing this situation, Donald came up with an idea. Compared to the North Counties, the people in the Northwest Province were more fierce and physically stronger, thanks to frequent orc invasions and the intentional cultivation by the Ansel family. The entire Northwest Province was territory of the Ansel family, who deliberately fostered a sense of warrior greatness and trained soldiers through warfare. Over centuries, even originally timid commoners had grown into strong individuals. It was said that most of the swordsmen in the Holy Sword Legion were recruited from this region of the northwest. Having gained something from this war against the orcs, Donald realized even more how precious soul power was—such an opportunity would likely not arise again. Moreover, he couldn’t rely solely on permanently summoning creatures. Once he acquired a fiefdom and expanded his operations, he would need to train people to handle tasks. And it was more appropriate to use summoned creatures who would never betray him for key positions.

Under normal circumstances, not many of these border residents would want to leave their homeland. Now that such an opportunity exists, he might be able to select a few promising individuals to form his own family faction. Once these people grow up, they will be vassals rather than servants, their status only slightly lower than that of knights and gentry. With the honor and status of serving their master, they will be different from ordinary commoners—even wealthy merchants will have to greet them. Therefore, in this situation, most commoners will not refuse, let alone these temporarily homeless refugees.