My territory is filled with block creations.

Chapter 16 Stud!

"Hmm..." Thorne looked at Alex with a conflicted expression. Of course, it was possible not to pay, since it was well known that the lower-level members of the Mechanical Church were poor. However, how could he politely bring it up without hurting Alex's self-esteem?

However, it was clear that Alex didn't have much composure. Seeing Thorne's seemingly calm but actually blank gaze, she sighed helplessly.

"Wait, wait!" Alex said reluctantly as she walked towards the distance. She first patted all her pockets and took out two silver coins. Then she took off her boots and took out six silver coins from under her insoles.

Finally, with his back to everyone, he carefully removed his leather gloves and poured out two gold coins.

Adding Thorne's 12 silver coins, there are a total of two gold coins and twenty silver coins. According to the kingdom's gold-silver-copper centi-base exchange rate, one hundred copper coins equal one silver coin, and one hundred silver coins equal one gold coin.

Thorne clicked his tongue in amazement. Alex had just casually waved her hand and her fortune was twenty times his own!

Considering that Alex is a low-ranking nun in the Mechanicus, and looks to be only in her early twenties, yet she managed to save up two gold coins... she's quite the hoarder! She's something else!

For a moment, Thorne looked at Alex with the gaze one would give a strong person, and the latter subconsciously felt a little guilty when she saw that look. Then she touched the eight gold coins left in her glove. This should... not be noticeable, right?

Fortunately, Thorne quickly withdrew his strange gaze, which relieved Alex.

Then, just as she was about to continue munching on the unleavened flatbread in her hand, she heard Thorne shove a clatter of gold and silver coins into a small bag and then hand it directly to Lester and Doug.

"I'll write you a list later, and you can just buy things according to that list."

After Thorne finished speaking, before Lester and Doug could say anything, Alex, who was standing not far away, instinctively widened her eyes.

No? You did it that way, Lord?! I know you alchemists don't treat money like money, but isn't this a bit too hasty?

What's the difference between this and borrowing some start-up capital from all your relatives and friends, only to go straight to the gambling table and gamble it all away? At least... at least you'd keep a single coin!

That's outrageous! This all-in betting strategy—you can forget about me paying again!

The brooding and timid Alex seemed to have already seen her two gold coins and eight silver coins gone forever.

After all, handing over such a huge sum of money directly to two villagers you've known for less than two days—what other outcome could there be? They'd definitely abscond with the money!

Should I bring up this shitty question now? Is that a bad idea? I'll say it later when no one's around.

And so, Alex watched helplessly as the small purse containing nearly a fifth of her wealth appeared before Lester and Doug, and neither of them reacted much better.

Or rather, there was absolutely no reaction. Neither Lester nor Doug could move their eyes. They just stared blankly at the small bag in Thorne's hand, as if their souls had been stolen by it.

Not only the two of them, but the eleven villagers sitting around had never seen so much money in their lives, just floating around in front of them.

What's even more unbelievable than the money is what Thorne just said.

That sounds like... the money is to be given to Lester and Lai, no, to Lester and Doug? To these lowly peasants who toil in the fields?

But why? Are they worthy of being entrusted with all this?

Even in the eyes of Lester and Doug, the two people involved, they didn't deserve all of this. When they eagerly signed up, they never expected Thorne to be so generous as to give them two gold coins, such a huge sum of money. At first, they thought it was just a few silver coins to buy some livestock, iron ingots, seasonings, and the like.

But the situation took a sudden turn for the worse. Who would have thought that Lady Alex was so rich? Two gold coins fell out as soon as she took off her gloves? Moreover, the lord didn't have any other plans. She simply took whatever she could get and handed over all the gold and silver coins in a bag.

It's like your boss gives you twenty dollars to go downstairs and buy a cup of milk tea, and suddenly it turns into selling the company for two million dollars and handing it all over to you, asking you to go abroad and smuggle a batch of weapons back. You could say that the two of them were stunned by the sudden increase in scale.

Even when Thorne handed them the money bag, they still had the same thought, but because of their subconscious bewilderment and an inexplicable sense of fear, they decided to keep quiet for the time being.

He planned to wait until no one was around before privately approaching Thorne to try and get rid of this hot potato and heavy task.

This opportunity was not easy to find. After the villagers, who had not eaten a proper meal for many days, swallowed all the dough they had kneaded that day into the furnace and devoured it, the whole village was revitalized once again, and the people were divided into four groups.

One group picked up hoes and seeds from the previous wheat harvest, crossed the bridge, and began planting the second batch of wheat.

Another group enthusiastically picked up the boxes Thorne had prepared in advance and began building the city walls.

Thanks to the perfect and seamless placement mechanism between the blocks, the city wall already possessed a restrained beauty that seemed to have been meticulously calculated and constructed, even when only the foundation was laid.

The sharp-edged blocks are stacked on top of each other, and the solemn and orderly base of the city wall is beginning to take shape, gradually extending upwards.

Alex then turned off the power to the grinding wheel and put the brushing machine back on track.

After doing all that, she still randomly recruited men, found a villager to watch the wire brushing machine, and then took a piece of charcoal and a wooden board to draw the blueprints for the second generation of waterwheel power.

This time she had planned it out. The second generation of waterwheel power not only had to be large, but also powerful, and had enough power redundancy. This was because the second generation of waterwheel power not only had to maintain the operation of the millstone, but also maintain the output of the brushing machine, the operation of the future rope braiding machine, and the power of the winches of the east and west gates of the city wall.

Not only that, but who knows what other strange machines Thorne might create in the future, which would also require power.

The last group consisted of Thorne, Lester, and Doug, who arrived at the temporary Dew Valley Square that had been set up earlier.

He told the two of them to stand there and not move while he went to the worktable to make them some nice things.

Just as the two of them exchanged a glance, pondering whether now was a good opportunity to tell Thorne that they were not up to the task, Thorne returned carrying a perfectly square and exquisitely crafted training dummy on each shoulder.

He placed the training dummy on the edge of the stone platform, and then made two new sets of equipment on the worktable: two stone swords and two stone axes.

He handed it to Lester and Doug, then pulled out an identical sword and axe set from who-knows-where and pointed it at the training dummy not far away.

"Since you've decided to accept this arduous task, I certainly can't just let you go out on a whim. What if you encounter danger? So I'm going to teach you some sword and axe fighting techniques here, so that at least you'll have some ability to protect yourself after leaving home."