Rewards are the greatest treasure!

Leo, as tired as he was, wanted to open 2 Iron chests before he went to sleep. He greedily stared at his chests and smiled in delight. Leo opened them and heard the systems voice once more inside his head.

[Iron Chest opened - Gained 1 Orange grade recruitment center upgrade scroll]

[Iron Chest opened - Gained 2 Blue grade recruitment scrolls (Advisor)]

Leo was ecstatic at this development as he could now summon the Orange grade fatih worker he had gotten. Leo was worried it would take a while before he would be able to summon that unit, but now he just got the scroll to upgrade!

Leo knew that eventually he would need to start religious production in his territory as many workers and civilians in his old world loved to dedicate themselves to their faith. He also knew that with Faith and religion, culture also came with it. Leo knew that it wasn't a good idea to base his entire civilization around religion, learning from the mistakes of christianity, but it was a good spark for the culture of his people.

Leo decided to sleep and summon his new followers tomorrow. His head hit the bed, and even though it wasn't as comfortable as his old world, he quickly fell asleep.

When Leo woke up the next morning, he felt refreshed, like he had gone to a hot spring and sat in it for hours. He walked to the center of town where the tables were and sat next to Bu and Ash, who were furiously talking about something.

Leo sat down at the table and asked,"What's gotten you guys in such a bad state this morning?"

Bu replied first, saying,"Oh no, we were not arguing my lord. In fact, me and Sir Ash were having a very heated discussion on the viability of the things that you called 'bombs'."

Ash nodded his head and said,"I was telling Sir Bu what you told me and how you wiped out those ants yesterday. He agreed with me about the practicality of such a weapon and its effect on the battlefield."

Then Bu spoke up again, obviously a little excited,"Lord Leo, please tell us, how does such a mechanism work? Try as I might, I cannot figure out how a machine of war would even process such a useful ability into a usable weapon."

Leo shrugged his shoulders and nonchalantly said,"Well I can tell you what I know, however I wasn't that interested in weapons in my world. I only know the basic process and the concept behind it, but I don't know if that will help?"

Bu and Ash both furiously nodded their heads, wanting to know more. So Leo continued while the food was being passed out to everyone sitting at the tables, including himself. As he and the other ate their breakfast, he told them,"Mmm.. Basically, there was this substance back in my world, we called it gunpowder, and it was a mix of some ingredients, the only one I know of was called 'sulfur'. Anyways, people would put this gunpowder into the back of cannons, which were these long tubes in a cylinder-esc shape with a hole in the middle down to the base. They would attach a rope or easily lit fuse to the inside of the cannon that would head outside of the cannon for someone to light it."

Leo took a bite of his fried pork and moaned a little in delight. When he was done with his little foodgasm he continued,"In the earliest days, they would simply put an iron ball into the tube and then light the fuse. When the sparks from the fuse hit the gunpowder, it would cause the gunpowder to ignite, and since the energy from the ignition had nowhere to go but out the hole of the cannon, the Iron ball would be forced out of the cannon at high speeds."

Bu was staring at Leo as he explained the cannon concept with incredulity. He then suddenly stood up and leaned over to Leo, startling him a little, suddenly blurting out,"Lord! Please allow me to experiment with this concept! The Idea is so simple, I feel I could replicate it in only a few weeks!"

Leo smiled and responded with,"Finish your work during the day, and If you wish to spend your evenings working on and tinkering with the idea you may do so."

Leo saw Ash get more excited at the thought of having such a powerful weapon at his disposal, after he had seen the might of the water bomb personally, how could he not feel like this weapon was all powerful?

Bu quickly saluted with a delighted expression and said,"Thank you my lord!"

Leo waved him off with a smile on his face and turned to Sally, who was sitting next to Ash. "Sally, we cleared out the ants in that cave yesterday, and there were many crystals still unmined in the cave. Ash here tells me that it is a medium size mine that the ants simply had taken over, so now that we have control over it, does that mean I have completed one of your repeatable quests for mines?"

Sally stopped eating for a second and then turned and responded with a quick,"Yep!"

[Lord Leo has completed a repeatable quest and earned 1 stone chest!]

[Innate skill 'Midas Touch' activated]

[Lord Leo has completed a repeatable quest and earned 10 bronze chests!]

Leo smiled in delight at the thought of once again gaining more rewards, it was simply a god sent ability, and he would use it any chance he got.

Leo turned to Ash and said,"Ash, I need you to form teams and then scout the area outside of the territory. We need a lot of resources and we need them quickly. Specifically tell the men who are out today to look for livestock, medicinal herbs, abandoned caves or mines, and animals or creatures that can produce luxury goods such as silk, leather, or other resources."

Ash stopped eating and saluted while still sitting, saying,"It will be done my lord."

With that, everyone continued talking about mundane topics until the breakfast feast was over and everyone went to do their own jobs. Other than 1 stonemason and 1 miner who Leo pulled aside and asked to start construction on a well for clean drinking water. The two immediately agreed and went to work as a team, coordinating with Sally on where to build the well.

With everything taken care of Leo went to the recruitment center and walked up to its entrance. He pulled the upgrade scroll out of his inventory and ripped it into 2 pieces, signaling the upgrade of the recruitment center.

Leo watched as the center became more fabulous in appearance, gaining some marble columns, and glass panes that now dotted the sides of the recruitment center. Leo slowly walked into the center and his breath was momentarily taken away. In the recruitment center that used to look like all sandstone, was now bits of white and black marble making up some of the walls and floor. When Leo looked up, he saw not the boring sandstone ceiling he was used to but a mural of what he could only describe as heaven. The recruitment center had truly been upgraded into something grand and magnificent.

Refocusing on what he came here to do, Leo beamed out the 10 bronze chests, and opened them one by one. As he opened them and heard the system's voice call out in his head with every opening his smile grew bigger and bigger, like a gambling addict who strikes it big multiple times in a row.

[Bronze Chest opened - Gained 5 Blue grade recruitment scrolls (Production)]

[Bronze Chest opened - Gained 20 units of Blue grade water crystals]

[Bronze Chest opened - Gained 1000 units of stone, 1000 units of wood]

[Bronze Chest opened - Gained 1 Blue grade crop (Quality 5 - Sugarcane]

[Bronze Chest opened - Gained 3 Blue grade Blueprints (Boots of Asire)]

[Bronze Chest opened - Gained 10 Blue grade recruitment scrolls (Production)]

[Bronze Chest opened - Gained 5 Blue grade recruitment scrolls (Faith)]

[Bronze Chest opened - Gained 5 Blue grade recruitment scrolls (Cultural)]

[Bronze Chest opened - Gained 1 Blue grade Blueprint (Housing)]

[Bronze Chest opened - Gained 10 units of Blue grade fire crystals]

Leo was so happy he could scream, he had gained so much from this round of rewards! To top it all off, if Ash and company returned today with any of the things he requested, he would be even richer!

Leo calmed himself and decided that he would go all in for this batch of summoning, pulling up the market to see that prices had dropped only a little since he last checked it. Once again he went through with a budget of 500 stone and 500 wood, shopping to his heart's delight. When he was done he now had 14 wood chests to open, so he greedily opened them just like the bronze chests!

[Innate skill 'Midas Touch' activated]

[Wood Chest opened - Gained 10 Green grade recruitment scrolls (Military)]

[Wood Chest opened - Gained 20 units of Green grade poison crystals]

[Wood Chest opened - Gained 10 Green grade recruitment scrolls (Faith)]

[Wood Chest opened - Gained 1000 units of stone]

[Wood Chest opened - Gained 1 Green grade crop (Quality 4 - Carrot)]

[Wood Chest opened - Gained 10 Green grade recruitment scrolls (Production)]

[Wood Chest opened - Gained 10 Green grade recruitment scrolls (Production)]

[Wood Chest opened - Gained 30 units of Green grade earth crystals]

[Wood Chest opened - Gained 10 Green grade recruitment scrolls (Military)]

[Wood Chest opened - Gained 1 Green grade recruitment scroll (Advisor)]

[Wood Chest opened - Gained 10 Green grade recruitment scrolls (Military)]

[Wood Chest opened - Gained 5 Green grade Blueprints (Mad Deer Gauntlets)]

[Wood Chest opened - Gained 1 Green grade crop (Quality 3 - Rice)]

[Wood Chest opened - Gained 500 units of stone, 300 units of wood]

After Leo counted up all that he had spent and earned in his time buying chests, he almost burst out laughing. Leo realized that even though he had spent 1000 units of resources, he had gained more stone than he spent and almost made back the wood too! Leo couldn't help but want to laugh at this ridiculous situation.

Another thing that lined up perfectly for Leo was the fact that one third of his army died yesterday in the raid on the ant colony, leaving only 18 soldiers left to defend and scout the territory. Now with the additional 30 military troops summoning scrolls, Leo could bolster Ash's army squad once again.

Leo also noticed that he just happened to get poison elemental crystals too, which would further hone his affinity for it, making him much stronger in the long run. Soon, when Leo starts coming into contact with stronger enemies, especially the so-called TITANICS that system mentioned on his first day, he would need to be powerful to the max.

Leo was a little bummed that he hadn't gotten any Blue grade military recruitment scrolls, but figured this might be for the best. Ash had told him early on that he worked the best with units that were his own strength or lower. If Leo did summon some people that were Blue grade and Ash couldn't properly contain or control them, then it would just lead to a chaotic military high command.

Leo then walked over the new and improved summoning circle and gave a greedy grin as he prepared to summon his new people. He was going to summon the Blue grade advisors first, then his Orange grade faith worker, and then finally all the other units. Leo took a deep breath and beamed his 2 Blue grade advisor scrolls into his hand.

Leo walked up to the cubby hole, which now looked more like a regal one, with the marble upgrade, and slipped both in at the same time. Leo held his breath as his future advisors slowly came to materialize in front of him while the metal ring floating in the air shone a bright blue.