Global Lord: Start with Divine Favor

With Lin Rui's permission, these dozen or so Explorers immediately led squads of soldiers into the camp and began training.

As a reward, Golden Pansy Town received more than a company of soldiers!

Before upgrading to a town, Lin Rui never dared to imagine that the territory could pull out nearly five companies of Tier Three Elite-level soldiers in a day.

The difference in strength between towns and villages is indeed of a different magnitude.

This makes Lin Rui a bit eager to upgrade the town into a large town, or even a city level.

Sending the soldiers into the barracks, the crowd dispersed, and Lin Rui noticed a familiar Explorer, Sunx Chen.

This young man had once fallen for Audrey at first sight, but after his territory was slaughtered by a pack of four-armed bulls, he was so shattered that he handed over his Territorial Essence to Lin Rui and joined the Golden Pansy Domain.

Now he is considered a citizen of Golden Pansy Town, prompting Lin Rui to ask curiously, "Sunx Chen, what are you doing here?"

Sunx Chen immediately replied respectfully, "My Lord, I... I also want to switch the soldiers' professions."

Lin Rui asked in surprise, "Don't you have no territory anymore? Where did the soldiers come from?"

Sunx Chen scratched his head: "I cleared a Barbarian Warband, and in their camp, found a human male tied up like a dumpling. I saved him, and he became my follower. Through this method, I gathered three followers."

Lin Rui understood; there are now civilian powers within the territory.

Perhaps not too long from now, this Sunx Chen could establish a warband or form a caravan.

"Then why don't you go in?"

Sunx Chen cautiously looked at Lin Rui and chose his words carefully: "They still haven't acquired territory identity."

Lin Rui raised an eyebrow—so Sunx Chen intentionally didn't let these three followers join the territory.

Sunx Chen quickly explained: "My Lord, as you know, the territory situation was quite single-minded before. If they joined the territory, I might not be able to command them anymore."

Lin Rui thought quickly and understood Sunx Chen's predicament, which truly was a problem.

If in the village phase, Sunx Chen's followers joined the territory and switched professions to Black Banner Guards,

Would these three Black Banner Guard soldiers listen to Lin Rui's command or Sunx Chen's?

Then Lin Rui patted him on the shoulder and smiled: "Feel free to let them join the territory. Now the territory is an imperial town, private ownership is open, and your followers are your property. As long as there's no wartime control, your troops only obey your command."

[Human Empire Civilization: A civilization without people is meaningless. The diverse humanity builds a vast empire together. You cannot control everyone's thoughts, but you can observe countless different civilizational consciousnesses. Territory opens private ownership; citizens will have their wealth and start paying taxes to the Lord. The territory can independently develop buildings, with production efficiency +100%.]

This is the civilization direction chosen when the territory was upgraded to a town.

This means the citizens within the territory are no longer directly Lin Rui's property, so other citizens can open workshops and hire workers.

Not all positions need Lin Rui's appointment anymore, thus efficiency has increased by 100%.

Of course, as Lord, the control abilities are still very strong.

For example, under wartime control, regardless of whose soldiers they are, they will all be requisitioned and temporarily incorporated into the army to resist foreign enemies.

Thinking of this, Lin Rui discovered another benefit of private ownership.

It might be worthwhile to try building several powerful barracks within the territory, allowing qualified citizens to change their professions at their own expense.

By then, the barracks don't even have to be called barracks; they can be referred to as job transfer halls, attracting Explorers to join the territory.

It's just that the blueprints for barracks that can train soldiers directly into elite-level are not easy to collect.

Ordinary barracks can only upgrade the soldier's rank; improving talent is extremely difficult.

Lin Rui decided to discuss this with Lusen Chamber of Commerce's director, Lu Weite.

It was just about noon, so Lin Rui guessed he should be dining at the tavern and went there directly.

Sure enough, when Lin Rui walked in, he saw this somewhat timid but very shrewd merchant sitting in the most conspicuous spot.

Clearly, this was a chosen seat, just waiting for Lin Rui.

Seeing Lin Rui push the door open, he eagerly called out: "Mr. Lin Rui, I've ordered the tavern's most sumptuous meal, inviting you to try it together."

Lin Rui sat beside him, smiling: "Not going to lie, I'm really dirt poor, wondering how to deal with lunch."

Lu Weite laughed heartily: "Mr. Lin Rui, you must be joking. The resources in your hands, even a casual display, are treasures that astound ordinary people."

"Like these Life Fruits, the first time I knew that in your territory you just have to pay, I actually bought over a hundred of them at once, spending over ten thousand Realm Coins in your territory."

Lin Rui laughed: "Then you really got a good deal. This is a benefit I provide to citizens through this tavern—each meal has a limit of a hundred Life Fruits. They were all purchased by you. That's even better than the discounts we agreed upon."

Lu Weite laughed again happily, then picked up a money box from the seat beside him and pushed it in front of Lin Rui.

"Mr. Lin Rui, our agreed transaction can finally begin."

Lin Rui opened the money box, and inside was a dazzling light, filled with no less than fifteen thousand Spirit Crystal Coins and five hundred [Silver Light Shield] Runes neatly stacked.

"Mr. Lin Rui, the Life Ancient Tree in your territory had another three cycles of harvest, and the civil servant sold us a total of a hundred and fifty thousand Life Fruits. According to the deal, we should pay fifteen thousand Spirit Crystal Coins and four hundred ninety-eight runes. But such good events deserve neatness, so our chamber added two extra runes, making it a round number."

"Thank your chamber for the kindness." Lin Rui smiled. Generous chambers are always likely to earn goodwill.

With these five hundred runes, Lin Rui could finally pull out the elite army of Armor Radiance.

The Golden Pansy Domain's army might not be top-tier strong yet, but it's definitely affluent, with outfits fully Krypton Gold, embedded with runes everywhere.

[Fine Rune: Silver Light Shield: Can be embedded in equipment to provide Basic Silver Shield attributes—Physical Defense +20, Spiritual Resistance +20, Fixed Damage Reduction of 50 points.]

An elite soldier equipped with a full set of runes, the bonuses just from the equipment alone would reach 200 points of Physical Defense, 200 points of Spiritual Defense, and 500 points of Fixed Damage Reduction.

Lin Rui immediately took out ten runes and instructed the tavern's waitstaff to give them to Lord Lei, thanking her for her efforts today.

With the 500-point Fixed Damage Reduction effect, Lord Lei's blasting strikes will have most of their retaliatory damage mitigated!

Because the opponents' retaliatory damage isn't a single whole, but is accumulated from the damage rebounded individually by each soldier.

If 100 soldiers each rebounded 600 points of damage, without Fixed Damage Reduction, Lord Lei would suffer 60,000 points of damage.

But with 500 points of Fixed Damage Reduction, she'd only suffer 10,000 points. After defensive cuts, the damage she suffers might only be a negligible portion.

At least it won't make her spit blood directly, nearly getting wrecked.

A Krypton Gold Mage, clad in high-level divine gear, is indeed more powerful than an impoverished mage!

But shortly after the runes were sent out, a sonic boom surged fiercely above the tavern.

"I really want to get rid of you, you rotten man!"

Next moment, a fiery figure burst in with anger.

With her chest heaving intensely, the buttons on her chest popped open, revealing a large expanse of fullness and splendor beneath her mage robe.

Without waiting for Lin Rui to inquire, Lord Lei angrily spoke.

"Isn't this torture?! You rich bastards, do you understand the pain of the poor?"

"Such precious runes, my mouth almost drools just looking at them, yet I can only look, not use them. Do you know what kind of painful ordeal that is?"

Lin Rui helplessly raised his head and asked her: "Why can't you use them?"