Chapter 359: Recruiting a Builder

The elemental aura here was far too familiar to it. Adding or removing a few buildings wouldn’t be enough to change the overall atmosphere of the place significantly, so it could still determine where it was.

However... had this place already been occupied?

"I see..." Joo Joowon fell into thought.

He didn’t believe that Earthfire had told him absolutely everything. It might still be holding something back.

Even so, the range it had described was already sufficient.

When Earthfire said it could cover an area, it meant that its flames could spread everywhere throughout that area. If the task only involved keeping watch over the city walls, then covering an entire mountain should be possible as well.

However, now that one problem had been solved, another still needed to be addressed urgently.

"Can you still keep your flames from setting trees on fire?" Joo Joowon asked again.

Earthfire was still very confused. In its current condition, communicating with Joo Joowon was actually quite difficult.

Every living creature possessed mental power, but using it was extremely difficult when seriously injured.

However, Joo Joowon hadn’t used his mental power even once since their conversation began. Under these circumstances, why could they communicate without any obstacles?

It clearly hadn’t been possible just a moment ago.

Joo Joowon had noticed that Earthfire looked as though it would run out of breath every time it tried to say something. Seeing this, he had added a translator to Earthfire. Otherwise, communicating with it through mental power was simply too much trouble. Speaking directly was much more efficient.

Since Joo Joowon hadn’t added a status panel for Earthfire yet, it still had no idea what had happened. It kept its doubts to itself and replied, "If we’re talking about the trees on this mountain, then I can still do it. But I can’t do the same with trees elsewhere."

Everything on the mountain was deeply connected to Earthfire, and the local environment had long since been forced to adapt to its presence.

After all, plants that could grow healthily in such a harsh environment had, to some extent, already developed resistance to fire. This was something plants growing elsewhere couldn’t compare with.

In particular, a black rainstorm had fallen on the mountain some time ago, affecting both Earthfire and the plants growing there.

Back then, Earthfire had still been one of the half rulers of this mountain. Taking advantage of the fact that the lightning struck tree was still asleep, it had simply redirected the danger elsewhere, leading all the rainwater toward that tree. What remained was the relatively safe essence left behind after Earthfire had burned away the harmful parts. It had used some of that essence on the plants throughout the mountain.

This wasn’t because Earthfire was particularly generous. It was purely because their elemental attributes were incompatible, meaning Earthfire couldn’t make use of the essence for the time being. On the other hand, it had also wanted to transform and strengthen the mountain’s plants so that they could better adapt to its presence.

One had to prepare for danger even in times of peace. Being able to reside only inside flames made Earthfire far too conspicuous. If it ever encountered an overwhelmingly powerful enemy that it couldn’t resist, it went without saying that hiding among plants and trees would make it much harder to detect than hiding inside a flame.

Unfortunately, before it could make any real progress with its research in this area, something had happened to it first.

Earthfire wondered how that strange creature that ignored everyone was doing now. Had it been subdued as well?

It tried its best to sense the creature’s presence, but it was simply too weak. The range it could sense was limited, so it had no choice but to give up.

Joo Joowon paid no attention to Earthfire’s little attempt to sense its surroundings. After receiving its answer, he felt reassured and immediately purchased the common-quality city wall blueprint, which cost nearly one gold coin.

[ Apocalypse Blueprint: City Wall (Common) @ ]

[ Description: A military blueprint for wooden city walls. Provides defensive and sentry functions, slightly increases territorial defense, and requires intelligent units to be stationed inside before it can be put into operation. ]

[ Required Materials: Basic Wood 0/?, Beginner Builder ]

The blueprint didn’t specify exactly how much wood was needed to build the city walls. In other words, as long as there were enough materials, Joo Joowon could build them as large as he wanted.

After putting away the blueprint, Joo Joowon opened the NPC recruitment interface loaded into the Lord Domain and entered all the necessary search conditions.

At the moment, he didn’t have any personnel with construction expertise under his command. His only option was to recruit an NPC temporarily, have them finish the construction, and then let them leave afterward.

Previously, Joo Joowon had only taken a general look at some of the skilled workers he had selected, without examining their details. Only now did he discover that the recruitment interface actually offered quite a detailed set of filtering options.

He could filter candidates by faction, level, age, gender, race, and various other aspects. Surprisingly, there was even an option to choose whether an NPC liked keeping things clean!

Joo Joowon thought about Seong Seungmin’s appearance for a moment, then tried setting the appearance filter to furry creatures. He didn’t have any other requirements. After all, once the search results came up, he would definitely sort them by price from lowest to highest. He couldn’t afford to be too picky anyway.

Since this was only a temporary hire, professional skills should naturally be the main consideration. Having any requirements regarding appearance already made him more demanding than necessary.

After applying the filters, Joo Joowon quickly found a suitable candidate.

[ NPC: Kang Taewoo ]

[ Race: Puppet ]

[ Faction: Verdant Covenant ]

[ Class: War Path ]

[ Profile: Possesses the beginner-level secondary professions of Builder, Blacksmith, and Lumberjack. Also knows how to cook meals over a fire. Its secondary profession as a chef is just short of reaching the beginner level, but it can occasionally prepare food that grants buffs. A versatile all-rounder. Only accepts occasional side jobs alongside its regular work. Permanent employment is negotiable. For short-term employment, simply place an order. Accepts daily payment (1 silver coin), weekly payment (5 silver coins), or monthly payment (20 silver coins). ]