Chapter 3: Upgrade

  Having obtained Whirlwind Step, Xiao Yu couldn't wait to give it a try.

  He just thought for a moment in his mind, and immediately his body began to become illusory, as if it had turned into a transparent medium that could blend with the surrounding scenery.

  Although it's not completely stealthy, as long as you don't get close, it's almost impossible for people to find.

  "Awesome, haha, I can go peep now, so many beautiful sisters-in-law, how happy I'll be." Xiao Yu thought to herself about the happy life ahead.

  "It's a pity that the level 1 Gale Step stealth time is too short, only 1 minute, frustrating. However, the cooldown time is only 5 seconds, so it's not a big problem if used carefully. There's still one skill point left, should I upgrade Gale Step to level 2?"

  Xiao Yu thought about it, but in the end he gave up. After all, there were still many skills to learn later on, and for now, having only one level of Gale Step was enough. Having more attack skills would be more practical at that time.

  At this moment, a voice from the system sounded, interrupting Xiao Yu's daydream.

  "The barracks have been built, will you buy troops?"

  "The barracks are finally done, awesome! Haha, I'll buy a hundred Orc soldiers right away!" Xiao Yu Hao exclaimed with great excitement.

  "Sorry, your balance is insufficient." The system poured a basin of cold water on Xiao Yu's head.

  "Whoa, got too excited and forgot that this thing requires money." He immediately checked the system's funds display.

  Resource list: Food 100, Stone 0, Wood 0, Metal 0, Gold 1000.

  "Damn, they're all 0. Looks like we'll have to go harvest them ourselves. After all, this is reality, not a game." Xiao Yu immediately realized that he couldn't completely follow the in-game mindset to command this game.

  "1,000 gold coins can buy how many soldiers?" Xiao Yu asked first. Now, creating an army is the key, after all, a big battle is about to take place soon.

  "The price of 1 beast tribe soldier is 100 gold coins."

  "Unbelievable, it can't be this expensive, 100 gold coins for just one soldier." Xiao Yu was extremely depressed, if so, he could only produce 10 soldiers.

  "How can we get gold coins?" asked Xiao Yu. After all, this is not a game, there are no gold mines, how to get money is a big problem.

  "The currency of this world can all become capital."

  "However, it seems that they are indeed connected. In that case, it's also reasonable, after all, we have arrived in a real world. Uh... these stones, metals and whatnot, do we need to start mining them?" Xiao Yu asked again.

  "It can rely on hard work to excavate, or it can take over existing resources in reality and use them." The system replied.

  "It's all the same. Then don't these soldiers also need food?" Xiao Yu looked at the only 100 food, pondering how many days it would be enough for the soldiers to eat.

  "Yes, not only food is needed, but also beast tribe dens to provide a place to rest. If these resources are not provided for a long time, both laborers and soldiers will die from exhaustion." The system ruthlessly struck Xiao Yu.

  "Unbelievable, isn't it? So many restrictions." Xiao Yu had thought that the summoned soldiers were self-sustaining robots, but apparently they needed to be fed too.

  The key is that Xiao Yu seems to have no resources at all now. It's very difficult to develop like this, in the game, there are gold mines and whatnot, just dig them up directly, but here it's not possible.

  "I have to think of a way to get money, and then build an underground cave. The blacksmith's shop and other buildings can only be delayed for now." Xiao Yu sighed and thought about how to develop this beast tribe base. In the game, he was an elite, but in reality, he was a novice, and had to slowly explore and develop.

  After some thought, he found it very difficult. He had to build up his buildings and recruit troops for battle at the same time, and one month was too limited.

  "The issue of money, can go back to the city to see how much stock is left? As for materials, let these few hard workers start mining first. Building a beast tribe cave doesn't require many things, as long as there's money and wood, that's enough. The surrounding areas are all forests, so wood is not scarce. First produce some soldiers and then we'll see about combat strength." In the end, Xiao Yu decided thus.

  "Produce 10 Beastmen Infantry." Xiao Yu gave the order.

  All current actions should focus on making soldiers, without soldiers, there is no way to resist Karu's army.

  Upon receiving the order, the barracks immediately began producing beast tribe infantry. However, what made Xiao Yu depressed was that it took half an hour to produce one beast tribe infantryman, with a maximum of 48 produced in 24 hours.

  "It's fine anyway, can't afford to buy that much now." Xiao Yu thought to himself, ordering the laborers to cut wood, while he himself prepared to take the Sword Saint out for a stroll.

  Now that we have our first hero, of course, we must see what this hero is capable of.

  With Grom, Xiao Yu headed deep into the mountains, where there were monsters everywhere, just right for Sword Saint to practice his skills. Since they were game characters, they could naturally level up as well. So at first helping Sword Saint level up was a main task, only when their levels rose would Sword Saint's strength be revealed.

  After walking tens of miles into the mountains, Xiao Yu was already exhausted to the point where every step was a struggle. This body of his was truly too weak, and he couldn't even ride a horse in these mountains. He was really suffering.

  "It's okay now, my body can also be gamified and slowly upgraded. This body is too trashy, even weaker than my previous one."

  Just as I was considering whether or not to take a rest, suddenly, a beast's roar echoed through the forest.

  Xiao Yu suddenly looked up in the direction of the sound, and saw a hundred meters away, a giant brown bear staring at this side with a fierce gaze.

  "It's time to test our skills." Xiao Yu said, but his heart was slightly trembling. After all, it was the first time he had seen such a massive beast, and it was an enhanced magical creature at that.

  If it weren't for Jian Sheng, this giant bear would have slapped Xiao Yu to death with just one slap.

  The giant bear looked clumsy, but it actually ran extremely fast. In the blink of an eye, the brown bear was already hitting Xiao Yu's front not far away.

  Grom didn't wait for Xiao Yu's summons, let out a loud roar, charged forward with his sword raised high and struck down at the brown bear.

  The ferocity of the beastmen, not fearing any wild beasts at all. They were born to be a fighting race, and the more brutal the battle, the more it could stir up the hot blood in their bodies.

  The brown bear was just a first-rate demon beast, not even in Grom's eyes. His sword quickly slashed out, and his exquisite swordsmanship was demonstrated at this moment. In the blink of an eye, several wounds were left on the brown bear's body, but the brown bear couldn't hurt Grom at all.

  Whoosh... whoosh... whoosh...

  Grom's sword continued to chop, and the brown bear's wounds grew more numerous, but unfortunately, the brown bear's greatest characteristic was its thick skin. Although it had been hit by a dozen swords, it remained stubbornly resilient.

  "If I had known earlier that the Sword Saint's learning of Invincible Slash would be enough, just one sword would have been able to heavily injure the Brown Bear." Xiao Yu felt that the Sword Saint's high damage skill was insufficient.

  "It doesn't matter, once I reach level 2, I can learn it." Xiao Yu looked forward to the Sword Saint's powerful Invincible Slash.

  After about a minute, with a loud wail, the brown bear finally fell to the ground, its entire body wrapped in blood, and only a few breaths were left.

  Although Grom was also hit by the brown bear twice, Grom's strong body withstood these two hits without any major problems.

  "With such ease in taking down a giant bear, I estimate that he can take on the combat power of four or five human soldiers." Xiao Yu measured Grom's combat power at this time.

  Such a giant bear would require at least four or five human warriors to take down. A first-class hero's combat power is still limited.

  "Killed giant bear, Sword Saint gained 50 experience points. You gained 5 experience points and 1 merit point." The system's voice came through.

  "50 experience points, not bad! I didn't do anything and I still got experience. It seems I can enjoy a portion of the heroes' experience extraction, haha, this is great! From now on, when they level up, I'll level up too. But what's that merit value thing?" Seeing that he had gained experience, Xiao Yu was extremely excited, but he didn't understand what the merit value was.

  "Merit points are the merits you gain as a commander, and only by having merit points can you upgrade your base, purchase other buildings, and later heroes," said the voice of the system.

  "Whoa, no way! Upgrading the base isn't just about spending money, huh? You also need merit points and military ranks?" Xiao Yu exclaimed in surprise.

  "Not bad, merit points are the standard for measuring a commander's level, and it is the direct data for promotion to military rank. Without merit points, the commander is not qualified to own a stronger base and soldiers." The system said coldly.

  "How many ranks are there in total here? What is my current rank?" Xiao Yu asked. He understood that he was a commander, leading this game base.

  "It is divided into Marshal, General, Lieutenant General, Major, Knight Captain, Knight Lieutenant, Knight Commander, Officer Commander, Sergeant Major, Sergeant, Corporal, and Private. (This military rank refers to World of Warcraft with some modifications, no need to go into details) Your current rank is Private."

  "Just a private, it seems to be the lowest rank, so how is this merit value calculated?" Xiao Yu was also very concerned about this.

  "The outcome of a battle commanded by the commander is calculated by the system." The system said.

  "It's like that." Xiao Yu thought to herself, guessing that in the future, if she wanted to obtain more buildings and more troop types, she would need this merit value and military rank.

  In this way, he will have to keep fighting in the future in order to accumulate.

  Understood the role of merit points, Xiao Yu took Sword Saint and continued to hunt for magical beasts. To upgrade from level 1 to level 2, Sword Saint only needed 500 experience points, killing one would give 50, and killing nine more brown bears like that would allow him to level up.

  Xiao Yu didn't dare to go too far into the mountains, because there were some large magical beasts that even Sword Saint couldn't handle at present. So he brought Sword Saint along the periphery, searching all the way until it was almost dark before finally killing nine first-tier magical beasts.

  There were two times when they suddenly encountered two first-class magic beasts. The Sword Saint killed them all, but also suffered some minor injuries. However, the Sword Saint's robust body and the beastman's strong will made him completely ignore these wounds.

  Finally killing the ninth-headed demon beast, a burst of golden light poured down, and the Sword Saint finally leveled up, reaching level 2.