Lord: Starting from the Pit-Dwelling Courtyard

The system fell silent for a long time.

It took a full three minutes for the system to begin recovering.

"Yes, it can be a transfer payment. It requires 3000 magic points, and 2000 is the magic point depletion fee. It can be paid in installments, but interest will be charged at 20 magic points per day. It will take 90 days to pay."

Upon hearing this news, Ron stared in shock at the words on the system panel.

This system can't speak, it can only type. I originally thought it was an inanimate object, but now it looks like a system with independent intelligence. Most importantly, this system may also have Jewish ancestry.

This damned usury style is even worse than Sherlock Holmes'.

Ron had no choice but to bite the bullet and opt for installment payments.

[Payment complete. Since the host currently has no magic power, payment will be calculated starting tomorrow, and the optimization of the family-exclusive meditation method will begin.]

[The family-exclusive meditation method has been optimized and is now Ron's exclusive meditation method. The meditation effect is tripled. This exclusive meditation method is now introductory level, restoring five mana points per hour and increasing mana by five points every twenty-four hours of meditation.]

Ron's eyes lit up.

Five points every hour, that's...

[The system provides an auto-running meditation function, consuming 5 mana points per hour. Use now?]

Ron's smile froze. Consuming five points and recovering five points meant he had worked for nothing.

No, every 24 hours of meditation increases your maximum magic power by 5 points.

The real benefit of AFK training is the increase in cap, not the recovery of mana.

Ron was now certain that the system possessed independent consciousness, but was deliberately pretending to be an emotionless system.

This function is essentially an auto-play system, but it's a bit expensive, and mana recovery is practically nonexistent. The only advantage is that the cultivation speed will be very fast.

"You can leave your character running in the background to train before going to sleep at night!"

After all, most mages, aside from daily life, spell practice, and experiments, don't actually spend more than four hours a day meditating.

Ron went directly into the newly built adobe house to meditate and cultivate. With the help of the system, his meditation progressed unexpectedly smoothly. He closed his eyes, and more than an hour passed quickly.

My magic power is already at 7/22, and another thing is that it should regenerate naturally.

"It will take another three hours to restore the magic and build another mud house."

By the time the third adobe house was completed, it was already past 1 p.m., which was the hottest time of day. Even inside the adobe house, it was unbearably hot.

The Blackthorn Wasteland is not only barren, but also has a huge temperature difference between day and night, with daytime highs reaching forty degrees Celsius and nighttime lows dropping to just a few degrees.

The importance of the house is self-evident. If we delay any longer, someone will definitely get sick, and getting sick in a place like this will almost certainly mean death.

Thinking about this, Ron couldn't help but feel eager.

At this moment, Old Hall came over with a bag of water, his face grave.

"Young master, I have already dug five wells, but the water in them is undrinkable. Using purification magic would consume too much magic power."

Old Hall poured a cup of water from the water bag. The water was murky and had a strange smell; just smelling it made one feel nauseous, let alone drinking it.

After thinking for a moment, Ron asked the system in his mind.

"Could you test the water quality?"

Yes, a little magic.

"Okay! Test!"

The water quality report appeared before my eyes—pH value, turbidity, E. coli content, heavy metal ion concentration…

Ron didn't recognize most of the numbers, so he skipped to the last column.

Overall assessment: Equivalent to domestic sewage, not suitable for direct consumption. Recommendation: Filtration + boiling.

Upon seeing this, Ron immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Ron laughed and said, "I have a way. You prepare a batch of sand and charcoal for me, and Old Hall, you make a filter cloth with the smallest possible pore size using plant fibers."

In less than half an hour, Old Hall had everything ready.

Sand, charcoal, stone basin, and a piece of linen made of plant fibers with such fine pores that the gaps are almost invisible.

Ron touched the linen.

An architect can create anything as long as he has the raw materials and understands the principles; the potential of this profession is greater than he imagined.

Looking at what was in front of him, Old Hall could already guess what it was.

"Young Master, this is my limit."

Folding linen into several layers can filter out some of the dirt in the water, but the water is still undrinkable.

"That's great!"

Ron then had Old Hall make a stone basin that was half a meter deep, with an opening at the bottom.

First, large stones were filled in, then small stones, then gravel, then crushed charcoal fragments, then fine sand, and finally gravel again. On top of that, five layers of folded burlap were placed.

"Young master, can this purify the water?"

Old Hall had guessed the general effect, but he wasn't sure yet.

Ron immediately poured water into the filter. The water slowly seeped into the filter, and soon water droplets started to come out from the bottom opening. The process wasn't fast, but the effect was obvious.

Ron shook his head after reading it. "Old Hall, make two more according to this standard."

When Old Hall saw the first drop of water, he was amazed; the water had become incredibly clear.

However, since the young master said so, Old Hall naturally did as he was told. Soon, the three filters were stacked together, and the water that dripped out was very clear and had no strange smell.

Old Hall poured himself a cup of water, but Ron stopped him just as he was about to drink it.

"This water isn't safe to drink yet; it needs to be disinfected!"

"Disinfect?" Old Hall asked, his face full of doubt.

"It's just boiling!" Ron explained.

"That would waste too much firewood."

Old Hall immediately rejected the idea. This was a wasteland, especially their location, where there were almost no trees for dozens of miles around, only shrubs and thorns. These things were not even enough to make building materials, let alone firewood.

Ron had already considered this problem and immediately took out the solar cooker he had just drawn.

"The Blackthorn Wasteland may not have much else, but the sun is big enough. This is the solar furnace I conceived. It uses the sun's rays to generate high temperatures, which can boil water and also be used for cooking."

Upon hearing that cooking could be done using the sun, Old Hall was amazed and quickly built a solar cooker with a reflective layer made of silver-plated glass.

Before the sun went down, Old Hall immediately began experimenting with the solar furnace, and he cleverly put on a pair of sunglasses.

Before long, Old Hall boiled a pot of water and jogged over to Ron.

"Young Master, it's done!"

Ron slowly opened his eyes, emerging from his meditative state, and took the water that Old Hall handed him.

Ron drank it all in one gulp and immediately felt refreshed. This tasted much better than the water stored in his water bag.

Ron glanced at the sun and said, "Before the sun sets, boil some more water and send it to Fanta and the others."

Fanta led the remaining twenty assassins, the strongest armed force in the territory. In addition to patrolling, they also had to monitor the work of criminals and the petty actions of vagrants, so they were extremely busy.

The territory has limited water reserves, and water use has been regulated for the past few days. Now that the water supply is plentiful, it will naturally be prioritized for supplying the loyal retainers.

When Old Hall sent his men to deliver boiled water to the construction site of the wooden fortress, Fanta was standing shirtless in front of a newly driven wooden stake, carrying timber with two criminals.

Fanta paused for a moment when she saw the water bladder.

"Where did it come from?"

"It was prepared by the young master, it's clean, and it's drinkable."

Fanta unscrewed the cork and took a sip, then squinted and took another sip.

The surrounding criminals watched Fanta gulp down water and unconsciously began to swallow.

"Tell the young master!" Fanta said, tossing the water pouch to the other guards nearby, "The wooden wall will be up in three days."

Inside the adobe house, seeing that he had regained about twenty points of magic power, Ron went to build a new adobe house.

Old Hall stared at the filter in the room and the solar furnace on the floor for a long time.

Old Hall made a quick decision: "Have Fanda personally bring two people back to guard this room. The contents of this place must not be leaked."

Ron may not yet realize the importance of these things, but old Hall has already noticed that this may become the key to the rise of the territory.

At the same time, in the northern part of Blackthorn Wasteland, more than 30 kilometers away from Ashwood Territory, in Harland Territory.

Grayson knelt on one knee in a stone hall, reporting on everything he had seen that day.

"A mud-brick house, built in less than a day."

The man sitting in the high-backed chair didn't speak; his hand slowly traced the engravings on the armrest.

"Architectural mages," he finally spoke, his voice soft. "Truly worthy of the Ashwood architectural family; even in this state of decline, they still have architectural mages!"

Silence fell over the hall.

"Four months," Harland said. "Grayson, are you sure he can live for four months?"

Grayson recalled the young man with his hands in his pockets, smiling as he said, "What if I don't pay?"

"I'm not sure."

Haaland's fingers stopped.

"Then go and keep an eye on things, you don't need to bring too many people."