Pioneer Lord: I Have Conquering System

After they finished eating, the Barbarians weren’t particular about their arrangements. In twos and threes, they simply leaned against the walls of the wooden house and closed their eyes to rest.

Back in the tribe, they were used to sleeping in the open while hunting—the sky their blanket and the ground their bed. A patch of grass was all they needed to get some sleep.

For the Barbarians, having a place that sheltered them from the wind tonight was already a fine resting spot.

Zat, leaning against the wall, had no idea how long he’d been asleep before a slight tremor startled him awake. He rubbed his head, round as a watermelon, and looked around the wooden building in confusion.

"Boss, why’s the building shakin’? It ain’t gonna collapse, is it?"

"It won’t. One look and you can tell this building is solid, built under the guidance of a master architect."

As a former civil engineer who’d worked like a dog, Levi could tell with a single glance that this wooden building was designed by a master. From the structural planning to the use of space, it was flawless. It certainly wasn’t going to collapse just because a few Barbarians were leaning on it.

Levi was incredibly energetic; going days and nights without sleep was nothing to him. At this moment, he was on the stone path by the door, enthusiastically playing a game with wooden tiles with a group of snotty-nosed Feder children.

This was a game popular among the common folk of Debei. A palm-sized wooden tile, carved with various Little Demon designs, was placed on the ground five paces away. Then, players would throw stones at it. Each person had five stones, and whoever knocked it down the most times won the tile.

"Damn it, you guys actually beat me! I’m going all in!"

Levi, a master of getting something for nothing, had already won seven or eight tiles before he intentionally lost three rounds in a row. Now, he was betting his last five tiles on this final game.

As we all know, going all in is a form of Wisdom.

The three snot-nosed Feder children, however, had clearly yet to grasp the treachery of the human heart.

Their confidence soaring after three consecutive wins, they started to see this "big brother" as just a scrub who was bad but loved to play. One after another, they also pushed all of their own wooden tiles into the pot.

For the deciding round, the rules naturally changed. Levi placed the wooden tile twenty paces away. Whoever knocked it down would win all four piles of tiles.

The outcome was, of course, a foregone conclusion. With the Lord’s accuracy, he wouldn’t miss even if the tile were fifty paces away.

Everything leading up to this had just been a show, directed and starring a certain someone.

For the first time, the three little kids who lost all their tiles to the Lord understood that one can never truly know another’s heart.

Often, it’s the ones who look the most trustworthy who are the most devastating when they decide to pull a fast one.

Levi returned the wooden tiles to the three Feder children, who were on the verge of tears. He patted their heads and warned them that a victory that seems within reach might just be a deeper trap.

"High Cliff Castle, assemble! Let’s see which Jackal Wolf has caught a scent and come sniffing around today." Levi dusted off his hands and led the way toward the city wall.

Halfway there, he happened to run into Baisitina. Seeing her rubbing the dark circles under her eyes, he knew the Clan Leader had also been on edge all night, startled awake by the slightest sound.

A deep, powerful horn blast echoed from a nearby watchtower.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" a Warrior on watch shouted himself hoarse.

Although the sun had not yet risen, the sky was already growing light.

By the standards of his previous life, he reckoned it was about six or seven in the morning.

The slumbering camp roused itself in an instant. A flurry of chaotic footsteps filled the air as Feder Warriors, in twos and threes, assembled from the camp and made for the wall.

They slept in their Leather Armor, weapons under their pillows, ready to spring into battle at a moment’s notice.

When he reached the top of the wall, Levi found that kid Mier holding a cylindrical object to his eye. "What’s that you’ve got there?"

"Brother-in-law, you’re here."

Mier beamed, proudly explaining the item in his hand, "This is something I invented! It can make things hundreds of paces away look as big as a Giant Stone. I named it—the Magnifying Glass."

The Lord, who had already learned to automatically ignore the title, sized up the absurdly burly Mier with a complicated expression. He looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end, just said, "Let me have a look."

Just as Mier was about to explain to Levi how to use it, he was surprised to find that his brother-in-law seemed even more familiar with it than he was. He couldn’t help but scratch the back of his head.

’It really is a telescope.’

Looking at the magnified view through the monocular telescope, Levi felt a mix of complicated emotions.

’So this is what Baisitina meant when she said he liked to fiddle with strange little gadgets?’

’In a world without radar or any other kind of detector, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this thing a game-changer for the Feder on the battlefield.’

’That this kid managed to invent it all by himself... he’s practically a genius.’

To be honest, Levi had never thought of making such a thing himself, mainly because his own eyesight was so exceptional. He never expected to encounter one here today.

Although it was just a prototype for now, without any function to adjust the magnification, it was still an incredible achievement.

"This is great."

Mier was overjoyed at the praise. In the past, whenever he tinkered with his inventions, his Uncle Mengde and even his sister would accuse him of squandering his Talent on pointless things. This was the first time he’d ever been praised for it.

"Who is it this time?" Levi asked, peering through the telescope at a force approaching the camp from a distance.

"The Evil Fang Tribe."

Baisitina’s expression was grave.

"They don’t look any stronger than the Dala Tribe from last night," the Lord remarked, not understanding why Baisitina was so concerned.

They were another group of Northern Barbarians with curly brown hair. Unlike the Dala Tribe, however, they wore no feather decorations on their heads, only necklaces made from various kinds of strung-together teeth.

Their tanned skin was covered in unknown patterns drawn with white pigment.

Compared to the Dala Tribe, they looked far more primitive. Every one of them was bare-chested, clad in an animal-skin skirt and straw sandals. Not one of them had a decent suit of Leather Armor.

Their weapons were mostly Long Spears and Bone Knives. There were about three hundred of them, which, for Wilderness Tribes, probably meant they had dragged out ninety percent of their able-bodied men.

This gave the Lord, who had just fought a group wearing Leather Armor and wielding iron weapons, a surreal feeling, as if he had suddenly gone from a civilized society to a primitive tribe.

He couldn’t help but look down on them.

Four hundred Dara Warriors, who were considered well-equipped in the Wilderness, had been repelled by the Warriors of High Cliff Castle just last night—to say nothing of this group of Little Karami.

"Their Shaman knows Witchcraft!" Baisitina said, as if she could sense Levi’s disdain.

"What?!"

Levi’s voice jumped an octave, his face a mask of astonishment as he couldn’t help but ask again, just to be sure.

"I’ve only heard it from the elders. Um... one of the Feder Remnants’ elders married into the Evil Fang Tribe."