Chapter 74 Protect A City With Walls

"...like you, I also have things that I don't really want to talk about yet."

"Aw, I guess so, I can't really talk," Chloe replied.

She looked up at me.

"But, William, if I decided to tell you about my past, I want you to tell me yours as well."

"I suppose... if we ever get to that point."

The crisp sounds of the fire continued to flaccidly emanate through the small hut. It was a somewhat irritating, yet calming sound, an awkward incongruity. But nevertheless, it was a noise that would be filling the background for at least a few more weeks, maybe even months.

The wall was still not yet complete. I had done less than half of the border; my Builder Minions were working hard to construct the blueprints. Most of my other Minions were either training or learning—I needed to make the most of my time, even if I couldn't send them out on expeditions.

A few minutes later, I decided to take another trip to the outside to place some more [basic stone walls]. The crisp, bitter wind pressed itself against my bare skin once again. I made my way over to the end of where I finished placing my last few walls and began connecting more to them.

I managed to finish the second edge before making my way back into the hut.

"William."

"Yeah?"

"I feel useless here, do you have anything for me to do?" she asked.

"I don't really know... I doubt that you'd be able to use your system until we find some way to be able to sustainably stand outside."

"You're placing walls right?"

"Yeah."

"Give me half, I'll help you."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, now pass them over."

I gave her some of the walls from my inventory.

"Let's go."

As I was still warming up my body, she seemed to be pretty motivated.

"I guess."

The two of us made our way outside and I pointed in the direction of the end of the walls I had placed.

"Um, you can go from that end and I'll go from the other end."

"Alright."

She made her way over to the other edge as the two of us began finishing up the wall that I began building. The outside was still as cold as ever, my entire body was beginning to cool down as heat was starting to get sucked out of my body.

I placed walls for around a minute, I managed to get around 40 metres done this time, a bit more than last time. However, as I turned around, I noticed that Chloe had finished her entire edge. She looked over at me before finishing my edge as well.

"...hehe, it certainly is cold out here..." the air coming out of her mouth floated into the sky.

"Yeah... also you managed to do quite a lot."

"Of course I did, I think you forget that I'm stronger than you."

"Ah, I'm not so sure about that."

"Wanna arm wrestle?"

"Can we go back inside first? I'm about to pass out."

"...haa, it seems that you're not that strong."

"Come on, let's just go back inside."

"Alright~"

The two of us escaped back into the haven of our small yet cosy hut.

We took a seat as the fire slowly warmed us back up.

I decided to take a moment to think about the situation as I watched the fire dance in the firepit.

In the beginning, I was just planning on trying to find a way to survive Killer Winter. However, from the looks of it, this was a perfect opportunity to start advancing. Whilst others were probably struggling, I had my Minions who were basically invulnerable to the cold, which meant it was much easier for me to progress.

I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do, but once my Builder Minions finish the wall, I'll likely take a lot fewer casualties during the night. This will allow me to slowly build up the strength of my army again. With an expanded army, I needed to find a way to maximise my efficiency in order to make use of the advantage I seem to have over other people.

Even someone like Callum, who had a system which appeared to be able to generate balls of light, there was pretty little they could do in terms of rapid progression. Most offensive systems would be basically useless during Killer Winter. I doubt that there was really that much human-to-human fighting at the moment.

I also haven't seen any system which has the resource gathering capacity that I have. My system is extremely advantageous during this season and I needed to make the most of it. The main issue was that the forest was much more dangerous than usual, as a result, I'd probably need to have lots of combat Minions escorting my resource-collecting Minions.

The day slowly came to a close as I waited inside the hut.

I had a peek outside and saw that the walls were basically finished being built. The entire settlement was now completely surrounded by a metre-tall stone wall with a small entrance on one of the edges. This should make it significantly easier to defend the settlement during the night.

I was approached by my Minion Manager.

[I've got the end-of-day report]

-

<End of Day Report>

Total resources gathered:

- [x3294] wheat

Other:

N/A

~

My Minions managed to gather more wheat than yesterday, I guess my efficiency increased day by day. At this rate, I'd be pretty self-sufficient during Killer Winter. I crafted all of the wheat into Minions, today making 32 Scout Minions, which I put into the Combat Division.

I decided to have a look at some of my Minions which had finished training.

-

<Advanced System Controls>

~

[Resource Division] (121 Minions)

- 3x Woodcutter Minion

- 11x Miner Minion

- 30x Scout Minion (Farming)

- 27x Scout Minion (Mining)

- 30x Scout Minion (Woodcutting)

- 6x Scout Minion (Hunting)

- 1x Scout Minion (Farming)

- 13x Scout Minion (Resource Gathering)

~

[Combat Division] (114 Minions)

- 1x Advanced Warrior Minion

- 1x Warrior Minion

- 20x Scout Minions (Swordplay)

- 22x Scout Minions (Archery)

- 8x Scout Minions (Magic)

- 30x Scout Minion (Combat)

- 32x Scout Minions

~

[Utility Division] (26 Minions)

- 13x Builder Minion

- 10x Scout Minion (Utility)

- 2x Basic Scout Minion

- 1x Minion Manager

!

~

It seemed my magic Scout Minions had finished training, I wonder what was in the next stage...