Chapter 394: Benefits of Building City Walls

Another possibility was that the elite monsters had secretly joined forces because they did not want to become the Red Mist Boss's lackeys, so they had united to launch an attack against it.

However, whether it was the first or the second possibility, both would require some time to develop before a conflict could erupt.

Joo Joowon had genuinely not expected that the moment he left, something would happen to the other side almost immediately.

Could it be that Byeol had done something else that he had failed to understand?

Joo Joowon could not help looking at Byeol, who was sleeping soundly on a pillow. Even such a huge commotion had not woken him up, which showed just how exhausted Byeol really was. Therefore, Joo Joowon did not want to wake him up and question him right now. He could only make wild guesses on his own.

After sensing the Star Fiend energy flowing back from the nature reserve, Joo Joowon was certain that this was not an accident that had occurred somewhere else inside the reserve. It was indeed something related to him.

Unfortunately, his current level was still too low. He had no way of knowing exactly what had caused each portion of the returning Star Fiend energy.

However, it did not really matter.

The Red Mist Boss was powerful. Even if it had encountered some unexpected incident tonight, it probably would not die anytime soon. There was no need for him to recklessly go over there and investigate. He should simply focus on cultivating properly first.

Joo Joowon shared some of the Star Fiend energy that had returned to him with Byeol, then began cultivating in earnest.

Astral Diviner could not gradually accumulate strength through ordinary means. They could only advance by repeatedly unleashing the special characteristics of their Natal Fate Stars. Since changing his class, Joo Joowon had never restricted the misfortune spread outward by his Fate Stars. It was not because he was unafraid of bringing bad luck to those around him, but because he was certain that they would not suffer any truly terrible misfortune.

Anyone who had become a Transcendent at the very beginning of the apocalypse was bound to have a fairly good fate, even if they did not possess an exceptionally noble destiny. At the very least, they were not ordinary members of the vast crowd of common people. This gave them a foundation for resisting misfortune.

Furthermore, they were all currently staying inside his territory, where it was difficult for anything to happen to them personally. If something truly did go wrong, the misfortune would fall upon the territory as a whole instead. Naturally, Joo Joowon had nothing to fear.

Thinking of this, Joo Joowon suddenly paused.

Temporarily recruited NPCs would not suffer too much misfortune as long as they obediently stayed inside the territory, even if their fates were relatively weak. However, Kang Taewoo had gone outside tonight. Could the commotion outside have something to do with him?

Thinking about this, Joo Joowon could not help shaking his head. It probably was not the case. Life-class professions were well known for having low combat power, and even if Kang Taewoo was a Transcendent who had taken the combat path, that would not change this fact.

NPCs did not have the matching mechanism that players received when changing classes. Their class detection mechanism was not very sophisticated. Most of the time, they simply became whatever class their available class-change item allowed them to become. As a result, it was easy for them to end up with a profession that was extremely incompatible with their own abilities.

In such cases, they would not be able to go very far along their professional paths, which meant their futures were practically ruined from the start.

Under these circumstances, they could either pay an enormous price to change to another profession within the same path that suited them better, or simply give up their primary profession and focus on developing a secondary one instead.

In Joo Joowon's opinion, Kang Taewoo might very well be in this situation.

To put it simply, if they could develop well in their primary professions, few Transcendents would willingly choose to become life-class professionals. In an environment that was far from safe, the difference in status between the two was enormous.

Therefore, Joo Joowon had probably been overthinking things.

The recruitment price for a combat-oriented NPC could not possibly be this cheap, either.

Early the next morning, after using up all the Star Fiend energy that had flowed back to him, Joo Joowon prepared to go out and chop trees.

Although the threat posed by the Red Mist Boss had not been directly eliminated, it remained a considerable danger to him at present.

However, as long as more time passed, the situation would gradually become more favorable for him. Because of this, he no longer felt as tense as before.

The only thing that worried him was that Byeol seemed to have fallen into a state of semi-hibernation because of what had happened.

If not for the fact that Joo Joowon could feel that Byeol's body temperature had not changed at all when he touched him, he would genuinely have been worried that something was wrong.

If Byeol ended up getting hurt because of this incident, Joo Joowon would rather none of it had ever happened.

Suppressing the worry in his heart, he could only avoid dwelling on the worst possibilities and focus on developing his territory as much as possible.

His most urgent task at the moment was to build the city walls.

Joo Joowon was certain that once the walls were completed, his territory would inevitably enter a period of rapid development.

However, this rapid development would not primarily benefit him. Instead, it would benefit Dal and Gaemi.

The experience points collected by the territory core each day could be freely distributed by the Lord among the residents of the territory. As long as the area enclosed by the city walls was large enough, the territory could steadily obtain several hundred experience points every day.