Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 342: The Cavalry Squad

Thomas woke the next morning looking no different from usual — just a little blank, perhaps even more vacant than Adai.

"How do you feel?" Li Wei asked. It was already obvious: his +6 Perception was completely useless on Thomas. No wonder the man could shrug off mental attacks.

"Not bad. I feel like I've found a shell for myself — a sense of safety I've never had before. Like being deep in the most sheltered mine shaft, with solid rock walls on every side and not even a breath of wind. Yes — very safe. The downside is that I've lost all feeling for the Butcher and Farmer Destiny Grids. I can't grind those anymore."

"The good news: my Stonemason Destiny Grid is now 65, my Miner Destiny Grid is 60. I have three new talents — immunity to mental attacks, immunity to illusion interference, and major reduction to poison damage. Going forward I'll need to eat some stone occasionally. Also, my baseline Defense is now 60. With the Stone Man talent activated, it reaches 80 — roughly equivalent to Level 4 Awakening. Heavy machine gun fire won't bother me. Armor-piercing tank rounds or Xuanxuan's warhammer might be a problem."

"In short — I'm roughly equivalent to a Level 4 Rock Giant. My weakness is movement speed. And now I can only think through problems using existing knowledge and established patterns. Give me something completely new and I'll be lost — I'll need your orders for that. Oh, and — could you ask Xuanxuan to find me a mine? I think I need to spend time in an iron or stone mine to keep developing."

Thomas spoke fluently enough. Communication wasn't a problem. Liang Yuzhi had said he'd lose intense emotions — not all emotion. That was something.

"Alright, no problem. Xuanxuan — what do you think?"

Li Wei looked at Zhao Xuanxuan. She looked less and less like a bald blacksmith these days and more like a battle-hardened general. She hadn't even taken off her armor for breakfast. Scar Glenn's royal heavy scale armor had been on her continuously. She walked sideways through doorways. But it was undeniably impressive — especially combined with the heavy Three-Star bucket helmet she'd forged for herself, and the horse armor she'd made for Liang Yuzhi's Three-Star Warhorse. Tiger-head great blade in hand, enchanted warhammer hanging from the saddle — even standing still, you could picture her charging through a battlefield, unstoppable.

"Riverside Fortress is a good location. But there won't be any ore deposits north of the river — it's flat all the way out. I actually think half of that land should be used for farming and the other half for horse pasture. Among the ten new horses, there's one uncastrated stallion and one mare — we can start a breeding program from there."

"For mining, I'd recommend the mountains near Base 349. There are already good stone and limestone deposits there. Drop Thomas at Base 349, have Nelson and Linus send a few supervisors and a squad of soldiers — that should be enough. Li Wei, I'm serious: south is the river, east is the main base, west is Riverside Fortress, north is the mountain range. The middle zone is safe. And with Adai and his flock running constant aerial surveillance, we'd know immediately if anything happened.""If you have no objections, I'll issue the orders when I get back."

Li Wei looked at Zhao Xuanxuan — composed, quietly authoritative. She had recovered her old gambler's confidence. A few months ago she wouldn't have dared raise this with him directly.

"Thomas — what do you think?"

"No problem. I trust Xuanxuan." Thomas nodded, docile as a child.

The world was full of surprises.

Li Wei looked at the two of them. Fine.

"It works. Do it your way, Xuanxuan. Also — when you head back, take four One-Star Warhorses with you. I'll have Adai escort you. Then talk it over with Benjamin, Santiago, and Grant — form a five-person cavalry squad with you included. Add one Enchanted Chariot for support and run patrols east occasionally."

"There's only one Chariot left, not two. And the enchanted steel at the main base is nearly depleted — the Magic Ore Vein output has almost stopped. Aunt Liang won't allow any more magical energy consumption. So yes, I've been thinking along those lines. I'll work out an effective combat doctrine with Benjamin and Santiago. And don't worry — I won't be reckless. Heavy cavalry will be our territory's most important core advantage going forward. I'll be careful."

She'd said it herself. What more could Li Wei add? He was stretched thin between two bases this far apart. Delegation wasn't optional.

And Zhao Xuanxuan was genuinely capable — arguably more so than Aunt Liang in this domain.

Zhao Xuanxuan departed with Thomas and four warhorses, escorted by Adai. Javier, Seth, Paul, and Jocelyn rode out to accompany them for a hundred kilometers — training as much as escort duty.

Yes — they needed training too. They needed to develop a combined arms doctrine with the infantry.

Specifically: four cavalry paired with one Enchanted Chariot and one electric bus, the bus fitted with a ballista and capable of carrying two squads of twenty soldiers, with tower shields and twenty siege crossbows on board. Cavalry and infantry together — strike and withdraw when outnumbered, steamroll when not.

Effective in positional defense. Effective in mobile operations.

Daily patrols within a hundred-kilometer radius of Riverside Fortress, hunting mutant creatures, with a dozen small crow Hunting Pets providing aerial coverage — enough to keep the fortress secure.

Two additional squads would handle the fortress garrison and daily training.

One squad was drawn from Freemen — solid and reliable.

The other was composed of newly naturalized academy mercenaries — the motivated ones. Li Wei's way of rewarding them for committing.

Before citizenship, a Lord who gave nothing was just a Lord. After citizenship, if he couldn't make them feel at home, what was the point of naturalizing them?

Beyond the four squads, the other Freemen, naturalized civilians, and this month's new academy mercenaries would all have roles: fishing, foraging, farming, logistics, childcare, transport. The priority project was rebuilding an underground base in an abandoned small town fifty kilometers east of Riverside Fortress.

The purpose of that base was to relocate the small nuclear power plant currently beneath Riverside Fortress. In November, when the Radiation Storm hit, Li Wei would be constructing the Magic Ore Vein at Riverside Fortress — and the two would conflict. The relocation was necessary.

The nuclear plant was still vital: charging the Enchanted Chariots and electric buses, running the cold storage, and more.

But there was no other choice. Something had to give.

With everything arranged, Li Wei had nothing left to worry about. He put his full attention into farming. He personally managed four hundred mu of farmland. The remaining hundred mu was left open for anyone with a Farmer Card to come grind Destiny Grid points when they had time.

Time passed. Over forty days went by.

April was nearly over. May — the best month of the year — was almost here.

Pale morning light. The setting sun blazing orange. Green hills in every direction. The river flowing without a sound.

In the distance, Javier, Seth, Paul, and Jocelyn were running their daily drills — two-on-two knight combat. Mounted fighting and ground fighting were entirely different disciplines. Learning to control a warhorse, to ride it, to synchronize with it, to become one with it — that was one thing. Then using weapons effectively on top of that was another thing entirely.

For over forty days, those four had trained like this. It helped that the so-called retired cart horses were genuine One-Star Warhorses — anything less couldn't have withstood that training intensity.

Even so, they'd eventually had to ask Liang Yuzhi to upgrade all the One-Star Warhorses to Two-Star just to handle the escalating drills.

Javier and Seth had developed a working doctrine: four light cavalry, one Enchanted Chariot, one electric bus. Morning patrol within a hundred-kilometer radius. Afternoon rest and training.

Over the past month, they'd accumulated dozens of mutant creature kills. A solid record.

Though compared to the main base, it was modest.

Zhao Xuanxuan was simply devastating.

She wore her enchanted heavy scale armor, put Three-Star blank horse armor on her warhorse, carried the tiger-head great blade, and hung the Four-Star enchanted warhammer from her saddle. Every day she led Benjamin, Santiago, Grant, and Xavier on patrols one to two hundred kilometers east of the territory.

Three squads of infantry followed in an Enchanted Chariot and two electric trucks as support. A force unto itself.

In the past twenty-plus days, Zhao Xuanxuan's group had engaged in over ten small-scale skirmishes with the Frost Duke's Ability Users.

The enemy called themselves wilderness mercenaries, hunting Li Wei's head. They were strong. Zhao Xuanxuan's group was stronger — especially Zhao Xuanxuan herself, armored and mounted, cutting through everything in her path.

When the reports reached Li Wei, he was stunned for a long moment.

Hard to believe, but true: Zhao Xuanxuan, Benjamin, Santiago, Grant, Xavier, and three squads had achieved their best result yet — a complete wipe of a twelve-person squad of Level 4 Ability Users. Unfortunately, no Universal Gold Cards dropped.

Li Wei couldn't go himself. The five hundred mu of farmland at Riverside Fortress was his lifeline right now. He wasn't leaving under any circumstances.

Not just for grinding the Farmer Destiny Grid — but to ensure this harvest came in.

With grain in hand, there was no need to panic.

Back at the main base, construction was in full swing.

The Northern Fortress had completed its main structure and cleared two hundred mu of farmland nearby.

The Two-Star Temple was nearing completion.

The three-story residential buildings that had started construction at the same time were essentially finished — after curing and airing out, they'd be ready for occupancy in two months.

Everything was moving steadily forward.