Galen happily left the castle with the engineering authorization given by Thoras, not forgetting to apply to Thoras for teleportation permission to the Tower of Thoradin before leaving.
As for the kingdom meeting or whatever, he had already obtained what he wanted, and there was no need to waste time attending such a meeting at this stage.
Thoras was still in his prime, and would be in power for at least twenty or thirty years. Galen was only twelve years old, so there was no need to show that he was very interested in politics and governing the country. Besides, the King of Stromgarde was never Galen's goal.
If he was going to be a king, he would be the Human King.
The road to becoming the Human King is long, so let's set a small goal first, to be the lord of a city of ten thousand people.
During the last video call with Danath, he had counted that the population of his base was 8,578, and the four town halls trained 96 farmers every day, and the six barracks also trained 96 soldiers every day.
Today is the eighth day, and the base population has reached more than 9,900, with more than 4,300 combat troops and more than 5,600 farmers.
The time to reach a population of 10,000 and upgrade the town hall is tonight!
A flash of white light flashed, and Galen and Gandalf teleported directly back to Minas Tirith.
Amor and the guards who stayed in Stromgarde were dumbfounded. The prince left them alone again.
Amor, the captain of the guard, was speechless. How many times has this happened? Ah? I was only a little late, and the person was gone. Just because you can teleport, huh? Don't I have any face?
Thoras and Amor both guessed that Galen and Gandalf had a secret, perhaps about their inheritance, and they also guessed that this secret might be in the depths of the Alterac Mountains.
Through the detection of the Royal Mage Advisor, there was no demonic aura on Gandalf. The detector borrowed from the Kirin Tor Council was said to be made by the previous Guardian himself, which was convincing.
Under the premise that there was no indication that Gandalf would be detrimental to Galen, out of respect for the high-level mage, they did not continue to investigate Gandalf. They were also happy to see Galen's strength increase.
Inside Minas Tirith, in the first district, in the central town hall, Galen was waiting for a new farmer to finish training.
Gandalf was meditating in the town hall on the right. Since the three town halls were built, the side hall of the town hall on the right had been transformed into a laboratory by Gandalf, specializing in magical experiments and alchemy.
At this moment, Galen had been patiently waiting for two hours.
A flash of light flashed, and a new farmer walked out of the core area next door.
"Greetings, Commander!"
Galen waved his hand: "Go, report to Captain Cliff."
The farmer received the order, saluted, and walked out of the town hall.
"Ding, the base population has reached 10,000 units, the town hall can be upgraded!"
Galen, who deliberately maintained his majesty in front of his subordinates, trembled slightly with the hand he had been waving normally after the Origin Heart's prompt flashed in his mind. He was too excited.
He immediately closed his eyes, connected to the Origin Heart, and selected the town hall where he was.
The panel, which could only select the two commands of training farmers and summoning militia, now had an upgrade command.
Upgrade to Main City:
Requirements:
3200 units of gold
2100 units of wood
Upgrade to Main City to unlock more buildings and units
It was not easy. After farming for almost three months, he was finally able to upgrade the town hall to a level 2 main city.
Upgrade!
He immediately issued the order. He had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
During this period, the crystal ball that Galen placed on the table had vibrated countless times. This was Danath trying to contact Galen.
Galen answered once and found that it was Amor asking Danath to contact him. After telling Amor that he was already in Minas Tirith and would go back early tomorrow morning, he hung up the video.
Galen really didn't have the mood to chat with Amor and Danath, except for waiting for the population to exceed 10,000 and upgrading the town hall.
At this moment, the upgrade command had been issued, and the town hall needed thirty-six hours to complete. Upgrading this kind of thing could not be accelerated. All that was left was to wait for the upgrade to complete.
Sitting in the seat, he inserted the mana gem into the recessed slot at the base of the crystal ball, and the crystal ball lit up.
"Danath, what's the matter?"
"Galen, after the banquet just ended, Uncle just informed me that the national treasury will deliver the first batch of project funds tomorrow morning."
Galen became energetic when it came to money.
"I know, I will go back to Stromgarde tomorrow morning."
"The teleportation spell is really convenient. I really don't understand why the kingdom doesn't build fixed teleportation gates to the border."
"Fixed teleportation gates are too expensive, Danath, and the kingdom doesn't have extra mages to maintain the stability of the teleportation gates. The cavalry regiment can reach the border in just one day and one night on the Royal Road. If it's really too late, you can build a legion-level temporary teleportation gate, which costs far less than a fixed teleportation gate."
"Okay, okay, stop showing off your magic knowledge. You are considered to be both a mage and a warrior now. Congratulations, Mage Galen."
As the closest peer to Galen, he had long known that Galen could summon water elementals and release blizzards.
"I still believe in the way of the warrior, Danath. The mage is not my path."
The corners of Danath's mouth twitched slightly. Damn it, he was accidentally shown a Versailles by Galen.
"Danath, if there is a profession in the world that can fight, can resist, and has strong recovery ability, would you be willing to learn it?"
Galen's expression looked like a salesman.
"Is there such a good thing? Galen, stop bragging!"
Having been tricked by Galen too many times, Danath was no longer the noob he used to be.
"Really, I'm not lying to you."
"What profession?"
"I can't tell you now. It's not the time yet. When the time comes, I will be the first to tell you."
Although he looked dubious, Danath still said, "It's a deal."
After hanging up the video and eating dinner hastily, Galen went straight to sleep.
The next morning, Galen returned to Stromgarde when Thoras was having breakfast, because if he didn't go early, today's meeting would start.
Galen had already decided not to attend the meeting, so he came to receive the initial project funds, and was ready to leave Stromgarde again.
It was said to be 100,000 gold coins, but it was not all gold coins. It could only be said that it was the value of 100,000 in funds.
Galen looked at the dozens of boxes of various sizes in front of him, and was a little tangled. He didn't know if the base would accept silver coins and copper coins. It should accept them, right? Ordinary ores can be converted into gold according to energy, and silver coins and copper coins are also made of ore.
Galen sighed, and also understood that this was the summer tax revenue that had just been handed over to the national treasury, so it was impossible for it to be all gold coins.
The main currency circulating among human civilians is copper coins, and merchants mostly use silver coins and a small amount of gold coins to settle payments.
Only nobles would retain a large amount of gold coins, such as Earl Dabyre and Viscount Carson. When they said 100,000 gold coins, it really meant 100,000 gold coins, instead of a mixed currency of gold, silver, and copper like the tax revenue in front of him.
It's better than nothing, Galen comforted himself, and tried to see if silver coins and copper coins could be recharged first. If not, he would think of other ways.
Taking out two spirit-patterned cloth bags, Galen collected dozens of boxes of money, and then returned to his courtyard.
At the same time, he asked Amor to send a signal soldier to notify Omar, Varrokal, and Fadir to return to Stromgarde as soon as possible to meet.
Galen felt that the remaining dozens of hours passed particularly slowly.
Finally, on the morning of the third day, in a flash of white light, the town hall located in the middle of the first district of Minas Tirith changed.
Early in the morning, Galen, far away in Stromgarde, was awakened by a series of prompts in his mind.
"Ding, congratulations to the host, the level 2 main city upgrade is complete."
"Ding, congratulations to the host, unlocking the Arcane Sanctum, Workshop, Gryphon Aviary and other buildings."
"Ding, congratulations to the host, unlocking the Path of Kings."
Along with the prompts, a force acted on Galen, increasing his strength from the initial stage of the seventh rank to the peak of the seventh rank, only a step away from breaking through.
Path of Kings: You can possess the power bonus of one-thousandth of your subjects.
Ten thousand people brought Galen nearly one rank of improvement.
Why should I work so hard to train? Just explode the population, and with the power of millions of people, I can become a god in minutes.
Relying on the passive ability of the Path of Kings, Galen was able to confidently tell Danath that the path of a mage was not his path.
What I walk is not the path of personal bravery, the sword of the common man.
Enduring the bursts of numbness brought about by this force, Galen connected to the Origin Heart, watching the upgraded main city while thinking wildly.
Compared to the two town halls beside it, the main city has increased in height a lot, from the original one-story building to two stories. The second floor has an open-air balcony above the gate, much like a two-story villa. On the right side of the main city, there is also a warning clock tower, standing to the left and right of the original clock tower.
Such a small villa must be worth tens of thousands of gold in Stromgarde.
The numbness in his body finally dissipated, and Galen got up and left the room, stretching his muscles and bones in the yard. The span of this strength improvement was not very large, and Galen quickly adapted to the power of the peak of the seventh rank.
After instructing the guards at the door to prepare breakfast, Galen sat on the stone bench in the yard, closed his eyes, connected to the Origin Heart, and prepared to carefully observe the changes in the base after upgrading to the main city.
First entering the interface of the main city, he saw a grayed-out upgrade command. Looking at the introduction, upgrading to a level 3 castle requires 100,000 people to unlock.
The barracks added a technology to enhance the combat power of riflemen, the Long Barreled Rifle, which greatly increased the attack range of the riflemen.
Of course, there is also the Blacksmith Shop, with four more technologies that can strengthen the attack and defense of the physical units. After all four technologies are fully researched, the base soldiers under his command will have two attack and two defense, and their combat power will skyrocket by a factor of two.
It's a pity that the knight, the king of land warfare among the human units, needs to upgrade to a level 3 castle before he can be trained. Otherwise, a wave of knights rushing over would be devastating.
The Lumber Mill also added two new researchable technologies, namely Advanced Logging Technology, which can allow farmers to carry more wood, increasing it by ten units. There is also Advanced Stonemasonry Technology, which increases the armor strength of buildings.
The most important thing is the Altar of Kings. In addition to unlocking the Power of Kings, you can also summon a second hero.
After giving the Altar of Kings the command to summon a new hero paladin, he started researching all four technologies except for the Blacksmith Shop.
Galen plans to recharge a portion of the project funds on hand before researching the Blacksmith Shop's technology after returning to Minas Tirith.
In fact, there is also a technology in the main city that could be researched in the town hall era.
Research Backpack: Equip specific human units with a two-cubic-meter backpack, allowing them to carry items.
Equipping soldiers with a two-slot bag eliminates the need to worry about transportation issues, but Galen previously felt it was useless and forgot about it. This time, with money, he might as well research it.
This level 2 main city upgrade is an opportunity for his strength to transform. As long as he is given a little more time, the strength of the Scarlet Flame Legion will have a qualitative leap.
After waiting a week in Stromgarde, Omar and his three teams finally finished recruiting and came to Stromgarde to meet, allowing the new recruits to pay homage to their commander, Prince Galen.
Outside Stromgarde, on the east side of the Path of Valor, by the city-protecting lake, the Scarlet Flame Legion's temporary camp was filled with jubilation.
After a long absence, Fadil stepped forward and gave Varrokal, who had just arrived, a bear hug, and then patted the armor on his chest.
"Karl, you look radiant, haha. Are these the new cavalry you recruited? The momentum is good!"
"You're not bad either, Fadil. When you led the team into the camp just now, I thought it was Omar's team."
"You flatter me. When recruiting in the Dabyre family's fief, it was only because our Dabyrie family treats the people kindly, plus His Highness the Prince's previous battle merits, that the soldiers are willing to join our Scarlet Flame Legion."
"Everyone in Stromgarde knows the Dabyrie family's kindness! How about it, did you recruit any high-level professionals?"
"There are some, not many, only seventeen. They are all adventurers who have just entered the seventh rank and want to change careers, establish achievements, and become noble lords."
"Isn't this the normal state of affairs? Aren't we the same? We just want to be bigger noble lords."
Fadil thought for a while and showed a look of agreement: "You hit the nail on the head, Karl. Omar still said you don't like reading, but I think you are secretly reading, just waiting to surprise us. Are all one thousand of your men cavalry?"
"Hehe, thanks to Fral, when passing by the horse farm near the Newarth Farm, the young master of the Newarth family learned that we were His Highness the Prince's army and directly sold me five hundred warhorses at a low price!"
"I will convey your thanks to Fral, hahaha, one thousand cavalry is much stronger than our two legs. Karl, if I need support in the future, you must do your best."
"No problem!" Varrokal agreed, patting his chest loudly. "Have you seen Omar?"
"Yes, he arrived early and is in the easternmost area. He built this camp."
"Let's go, I'll go find him and show off!"
In the center of the camp, Galen sat at the head, listening to Omar and the other two reporting the composition of their thousand-man teams.
Omar is the oldest and most stable of the three. He positioned his thousand-man team as an assault team. Most of the team are heavily armored infantry, with only a small number of troll hunters serving as ranged firepower.
Fortunately, Galen still had a batch of base infantry who had been upgraded to two attack and two defense, leaving behind a batch of armor and weapons with one attack and one defense, otherwise the equipment of Omar's team alone would be a large expense.
Varrokal went on the road of cavalry and never returned. Six hundred heavy cavalry in the thousand-man team were used to impact the enemy's team, and four hundred were reserved as light cavalry and scouts, and were also equipped with javelins for ranged attacks.
Fadil's thousand-man team, he and Fral and Kimir each command a three-hundred-man squad. The troop combination is relatively comprehensive, consisting of warriors, troll hunters, and several accompanying priests.
The army of the Human Kingdom is a traditional warrior-mage-priest trinity army combination. Stromgarde lacks mages, so it has to use troll hunters instead of mages as ranged firepower.