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The atmosphere instantly turned strange.

Bladeborne glanced left and right.

Then, realizing that neither side was someone he wanted to mess with, he decided to keep his mouth shut and lowered his head.

John looked up.

Ophelia was stubbornly staring at Sylvie, as though she would refuse to sit down and eat unless the other woman moved first.

Sylvie, meanwhile, pretended not to notice. She reached over and placed another meat bun on John’s plate, the ends of her burgundy hair curling upward with smug delight.

John took a bite and chose not to comment.

There was no winning if he took either side. Better to stay out of it.

After waiting another two seconds and realizing John still wasn’t going to intervene, Ophelia finally relented. She snorted coldly, turned around, and sat down beside Bladeborne.

Bladeborne had been cutting into a lamb chop when he suddenly felt a chill beside him. Catching a glimpse of those dark golden slit pupils from the corner of his eye, his hand trembled so violently that his knife and fork nearly fell into his plate.

Ophelia ignored him completely. With an expressionless face, she picked up an entire roasted leg and took a huge bite.

Sylvie, on the other hand, looked as though she’d finally won a battle. Her eyes curved into crescents as she naturally picked up the spoon John had been using, scooped up some hearty soup, and blew on it until it cooled before bringing it to his lips.

”My lord, have some soup. Slowly, please. It’s a little hot.”

John opened his mouth and drank from the spoon in her hand.

The corners of Sylvie’s mouth involuntarily curled upward.

The entire meal left the two relatively normal men, Raistlin and Bladeborne, utterly speechless.

On the left sat a Primordial Ancient Dragon devouring a roasted leg so enthusiastically that bone fragments were flying everywhere.

In front of them, the newly arrived young lady was naturally feeding John one mouthful after another, addressing him as ”My Lord” each time, while the man sitting at the head of the table accepted it all as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

John wiped his mouth. In a good mood, he patted Sylvie’s hand.

”I’m full. You eat, too.”

Sylvie obediently agreed and finally picked up her own little bowl, sipping from it slowly.

John raised his head and looked around at everyone present.

”Go ahead and keep eating. First, let me explain what we’re doing today.”

He tapped the air with his finger, and a holographic tactical map appeared before them.

The outline of the castle floated in the center, with a list of required advancement materials arranged beside it.

”Our castle is still missing three materials before we can advance to the next tier.”

He pointed to the first slot.

[Spatial Stone]

”Does anyone know where we can find this material?”

Raistlin, who had still been eating, paused. He put down his bowl and looked up at John.

”My lord, I do. You can find it in a spatial rift.”

He summoned his staff, then swept it across the tactical map. A red marker immediately appeared to the northwest.

”Roughly 700 kilometers northwest of our territory, there’s a spatial rift containing Spatial Stones. I’ve collected some from there before.”

”However, the guardian inside the rift can be rather troublesome. We’ll need to handle it carefully.”

Given his expertise in spatial magic, it was hardly surprising that he knew about such a place.

”Good.”

John marked the location, then pointed to the second material.

[Heart of Thorns]

Before John could even ask, Ophelia, apparently eager to demonstrate her own usefulness, jumped in ahead of everyone else.

”If I remember correctly, it’s also to the northwest, somewhere in the Blackthorn Wasteland, roughly 1,000 kilometers from here.”

”There’s an ancient Thorn Mother Tree there that has developed its own consciousness. I passed by several centuries ago, when it had only just hatched. By now... it should have formed its Heart of Thorns.”

Having finished speaking, she shot a particularly smug glance toward Sylvie.

Sylvie acted as though she hadn’t seen it and ignored her completely.

Several centuries ago.

That was certainly a rather unusual time frame.

Still, it also proved that these two knew about quite a few valuable places.

After all, one of them belonged to a race that loved collecting precious treasures.

John felt as though he’d finally figured out how to make the most of his heroes’ knowledge. He considered it another useful lead, then moved his finger to the third item.

[Fountain of Life]

There was no need to ask anyone about this one. John simply said, ”Sylvie already located the Fountain of Life yesterday.”

Hearing this, Sylvie glanced up almost imperceptibly, returning Ophelia’s earlier look.

”Therefore, we’ll split into two teams today.”

”I’ll take Ophelia, Raistlin, and part of the Dragon Knight force to the Blackthorn Wasteland to obtain the Heart of Thorns. On our way back, we’ll clear out the spatial rift as well.”

”Bladeborne.”

John paid no attention to the little exchange and turned toward him.

”You’ll take Sylvie southwest and secure the Fountain of Life.”

Bladeborne had no objections. He nodded.

”Understood.”

John opened the legion interface again, thought for a moment, and decided to train another batch of troops.

”Sylvie, take these troops with you. While you’re on the way, clear out any Resource Plots you come across. Replicate the high-quality ones and bring them back. The Fountain of Life itself counts as one of your targets.”

As he spoke, he issued the recruitment order.

”Recruit 500.”

[Recruiting Dark Knights. Quantity: 500.]

[Gold coins deducted: 25,000.]

[10,000× Acceleration in effect...]

With a thunderous boom, another 500 Dark Knights appeared on the open ground outside the castle.

”Take these troops with you.”

John said.

Sylvie’s eyes lit up, and she nodded firmly.

”Leave it to us!”

Once everything had been arranged, John stood up and walked to the entrance, looking outside.

The land surrounding the territory was wide open, and the morning mist had yet to disperse.

He remained silent for two seconds, feeling that something was still missing.

”...Let’s recruit another batch.”

”Recruit 5,000 Undead Spearmen.”

[Gold coins deducted: 5,000.]

[10,000× Acceleration in effect.]

BOOM!

Across the hills outside the castle, countless ghostly blue flames suddenly illuminated the landscape like a rising tide.

Five thousand Undead Spearmen assembled in layer upon layer, circle after circle, forming an encircling perimeter around the territory.

”Dragon Knights, keep watch over the surroundings from the air.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a spatial rift opened. Fifty Dragon Knights emerged and immediately took to the skies, maintaining a vigilant watch.

Troops now guarded both the skies and the ground.

With everything finally arranged, John felt completely at ease. He clapped his hands.

”Good. Until we upgrade the city walls, you can serve as our defensive perimeter.”

The castle gates opened.

The two teams split into separate groups. One headed southwest, while the other traveled northwest. Before long, both had disappeared into the distance.

...

Meanwhile, in a territory that was still smoldering, six young lords crouched behind a charred stone wall.

Their IDs were Swifthoof Kalen, Hooded Rigg, Gumlin, Toma the Gray Falcon, Nick Shadowthorn, and Wulf Ironfang.

The six were laughing and joking as they divided up their spoils.

Behind them stood more than a thousand troops.

Swifthoof Kalen crouched on the ground, holding a bag of gold coins and grinning from ear to ear.

Following him was a Centaur Raider unit, a humanoid creature with four hooves, carrying an exceptionally long iron spear.

”Gentlemen, how many territories have we hit today?”

”Ten!”

Hooded Rigg grinned. Several black, fist-sized venomous sand spiders crawled around his feet.

”We’ve collected nearly 50,000 basic resources already!”

”Fifty thousand, huh?”

Gumlin stroked his chin thoughtfully.

”The alliance will definitely think more highly of us after this. Surely they’ll give us even more resource support next time!”

The six men were in high spirits.

Every one of them had awakened a talent of at least C-rank, even the weakest among them.

In previous generations, a C-rank talent was considered an exceptionally rare find, the sort of talent one might discover only after searching far and wide.

That was precisely why the Judgment Alliance had noticed them, recruited them, and brought them into its ranks as a subordinate strike team.