3 The First Special Hero

"Ding! You have expended a golden recruitment order and received the loyalty of a Royal Commander, Hua Mulan."

"Ding! Level-S achievement of the achievement system——'The Four Great Heroines' has been unlocked. Collect the Four Great Heroines: Hua Mulan, Fan Lihua, Liang Hongyu, and Mu Guiying, to receive extraordinary rewards."

"Ding! As the Xia Village is now guarded by a Royal Commander, public security has increased up to 80 points, and popular sentiment has increased up to 75 points."

"Ding! The military score,of the Xia Village has increased to 520 points."

...

A series of notification ringtones sounded from the system. All of it only happened because Chu Tian had utilized a golden recruitment order.

"A Royal Commander!"

Chu Tian was astonished.

The golden recruitment order would most probably summon random heroes. The chances of running into Special Heroes were as low as a blind cat running into a dead mouse.

Ordinary Heroes could be categorized into bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and diamond levels. The corresponding upper limits of their individual attributes were 0-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, and 80-89 points respectively.

Apart from these five levels, Special Heroes had three additional levels, namely Royal, Imperial, and Saint. The corresponding upper limits of these individual attributes were 90-95, 96-99, and 100 points.

In other words, the recruited Hua Mulan possessed strength with an upper limit between 90-95.

[Name]: Hua Mulan

[Talent]: Royal Level (Special Hero)

[Status]: 30 [Experience]: 0/10000

[Official Position]: None

[Role]: One of the Four Great Heroines

[Loyalty]: 85

[Status]: Healthy

[Command]: 70 (Upper limit: 87)

[Strength]: 81 (Upper limit: 95)

[Intellect]: 73 (Upper limit: 90)

[Politics]: 27 (Upper limit: 45)

[Charisma]: 95

[Equipment]: Han-Style Ring-Hilted Knife (silver-level weapon, attack power +3, has low chances of inflicting bleeding), Fine Leather Armor (silver-level armor, defense power +3)

[Phase]: 100 (Aloof)

[Characteristic 1]: Heroine (Level-S characteristic: attack power of own army +25%, declining speed of morale -50%, declining speed of friendly forces' morale -25%)

[Characteristic 2]: Guardian of the Great Wall (Level-S Characteristic: defense power of own army +25%, defense power of friendly forces +10%. Special Remarks: Derived from the Conquest of Rouran by the Northern Wei, defense of homeland and country. Not from Arena of Valor.)

[Special Arms]: Capable of recruiting Iron Hawk Reconnoiters (Grade 6 knights, with an upper limit of 10,000. Skills: special reconnaissance, high-grade riding and archery, high-grade speed-riding.)

Chu Tian's eyes went wide as he read the panel of attributes of the Royal Commander, Hua Mulan.

The disparity between Royal Commanders and Bronze Commanders could be distinguished just by looking at the data. It was the difference between clouds and dirt.

At Level 30, Hua Mulan had a strength of 81, which could increase up to 95 in the future. A strength of 95 would be the peak of Royal Commanders, which was close to imperial commanders.

A commander with a Han knife dangling from her waist appeared in front of Chu Tian, valiant and heroic in bearing. "Commander Hua Mulan here, greeting my master."

"No need for courtesy."

Chu Tian couldn't ask for more after receiving a royal commander. After all, the golden recruitment order had very slim chances of recruiting Special Heroes.

Hua Mulan's characteristics could secure both defense and attack for the army she led. In the meantime, with her commander's halo, she could provide reinforcement to friendly forces. The halo of friendly forces was usually a masterstroke. It could be used for both attack and assistance.

It was just that she had a high phase, and she seemed rather cold and aloof.

Besides, the panel did not really introduce the functions of the value of favor in detail.

The special arms of Hua Mulan were Grade 6 Iron Hawk Reconnoiters. However, recruiting Iron Hawk Reconnoiters would require the construction of Grade 6 knight camps.

Grade 6 knight camps… Currently, the Xia Village didn't even have a Grade 1 knight camp.

Chu Tian could only take things slowly.

The upper limit of the levels of heroes in Feudal Lords Online was level 100, thus Hua Mulan still had massive growth potential.

However, as long as she did not provoke any large-scale enemies in the early stage with a strength value of 81, she could almost march with pride.

Based on the NPC forces of the final years of the Eastern Han, a strength value of 81 was only a second-class commander. Besides, once Hua Mulan got an upgrade and her strength value grew up to 95, she would be among the top commanders… 

No matter what, the safety of Xia Village had been guaranteed. Hua Mulan's joining raised the military score of Xia Village from 74 all the way to 520.

The Xia Village had a Royal Commander, a Bronze Commander, and 53 local soldiers now.

Chu Tian took Hua Mulan to an open area in the Xia Village and convened the 53 local soldiers of the Xia Village. In fact, the so-called local soldiers were just the young, strong farmers of the Xia Village who had no injuries and disabilities.

The 53 local soldiers stood in the open area, with sickles, pickaxes, or butcher's knives in their hands. They…did not seem to have much combat power. Only the Bronze Hero, Zhao Qi, had a long iron spear.

In the world of Feudal Lords, the lord could see the holistic details of an army.

This group of local soldiers could be called an army grudgingly. Hence, they had their own details.

[Arm]: Local soldiers of the Xia Village

[Grade]: Grade 1 Infantry

[Number]: 53

[Average Rank]: Level 10 (new recruits)

[Basic Attack Power]: 5 [Basic Defense Power]: 5 [Basic Speed]: 5

[Morale]: 60/100 (When circumstances during the battle are unfavorable, morale will decrease, along with the combat power of the troop. By then, chaos can happen easily.)

[Skills]: None

[Characteristics]: Whoever wins the people's hearts, wins the country. (Level-E characteristic. The higher the popular sentiment, the stronger the combat power.)

In a nutshell, the combat power of local soldiers was merely 5.

Although the characteristic of the Xia Village's local soldiers, 'whoever wins the people's hearts, wins the country' seemed overbearing, it was only a Level-E characteristic which was rather useless.

This troop had no commander at the moment. A commander could provide reinforcement to the troop with their own characteristics.

Chu Tian could appoint Hua Mulan or Zhao Qi as the commander of the local soldiers of Xia Village.

Hua Mulan's current command was 70, which would enable her to lead a troop of 5000 soldiers. Zhao Qi's command was 20, which meant he could lead a troop of 200.

Once the upper limit of the commander was exceeded, the extra soldiers would be unable to benefit from the reinforcement by the commander's attributes. It could even lower the combat power of the troop.

Chu Tian first appointed Zhao Qi as the commander and activated Zhao Qi's Level-E characteristic [Commander of local soldiers·Small]. The attributes of the local soldiers of Xia Village became [Attack Power]: 5+1 [Defense Power]: 5+1 [Speed]: 5+1.

Next, Chu Tian replaced the commander with Hua Mulan and activated Hua Mulan's Level-S characteristic [Heroine] and [Guardian of the Great Wall]. The attributes of the local soldiers of Xia Village became [Attack Power]: 5+1.25 [Defense Power]: 5+1.25 [Speed]: 5+0 [Special Effects]: declining speed of morale -50%.

Chu Tian did some simple comparison. Hua Mulan's characteristic provided reinforcement in percentage, whereas Zhao Qi's characteristic provided reinforcement in fixed points. The two of them showed not much difference in terms of reinforcing the local soldiers.

All in all, the higher the grade of the soldiers, the greater the benefit to percentage reinforcement. As a Grade 1 arm, a +1 in fixed attack power was equivalent to an enhancement of 20% for local soldiers! 

However, Hua Mulan had a special effect. She could decrease the speed of decline of the troop's morale. In a certain sense, it could be a masterstroke if properly utilized.

"Now isn't a busy season for farming. Villagers who are skilled in swimming can go fishing, and villagers with hunting bows can go with me on a hunt. As for the remaining villagers, you should safeguard the village with Zhao Qi."

Chu Tian decided to go gather some experience by using hunting as a pretext. Although individual attributes weren't the most important aspect as far as Feudal Lords players were concerned, enhancing one's attributes was a good thing after all.

Command affected the number of troops. Strength could be used to kill enemies or for self-defense. Intellect influenced formations and the proficiency of military advisors, while politics influenced various reinforcements of the territory.

With Hua Mulan and a dozen of hunters by his side, he shouldn't worry about getting killed by some stray monsters during the hunt, should he?