System: Congratulations! You have completed the Ice Dragon's Crusade Quest. Rewarding a Lord's Token, one level, Starmoon Kingdom Reputation + 300, and 10000 Guild Popularity.
System: Congratulations! You have become the first Lord in God's Domain. Rewarding Lord's Popularity + 100.
System: Congratulations! Lord's Popularity has reached 100 points. Automatically promoted to a 1-star Lord.
…
After the system notification repeated three times, Shifeng reached Level 102. However, the system notification stunned Shifeng.
"I'm the first to become a Lord, and my Popularity reaches 1-star immediately?" Shifeng stared at the system notification in disbelief.
To players at this stage of the game, the term 'Lord' was already foreign to them, not to mention the Lord's Popularity. To the various major powers that were madly grinding for Guild Popularity, 100 points of Popularity was nothing at all. After all, if a Guild wished to promote itself, which Guild didn't have tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Popularity?
However, a Lord's Popularity was different. While a Guild's Popularity was targeted at a group of players, a Lord's Popularity was targeted at individual players.
Meanwhile, in God's Domain, it wasn't easy for Lords to recruit NPCs and form their own Knight Divisions. After all, recruiting NPCs was no different from searching for Personal Guards. A Knight Division had 5,000 slots, and it was easy to imagine how difficult it would be for a single player to gather 5,000 powerful Knights.
The only way to do so was to increase a Lord's Popularity.
The higher a Lord's Popularity was in God's Domain, the easier it would be to recruit NPCs. Only, increasing a Lord's Popularity was extremely difficult. It wasn't as simple as completing a few quests. Only special quests rewarded a Lord's Popularity, and even if players completed these quests, they'd only receive a few points of Popularity.
It would take a lot of time and effort to raise a Lord's Popularity to 100 points.
Every 100 points of Popularity was a turning point. Once a Lord's Popularity reached 100 points, they'd become a 1-star Lord. At that point, players wouldn't have to travel to the various NPC cities to find NPCs. They could simply recruit NPCs from the Adventurer's Association.
The NPCs they recruited might be of varying quality, but there were plenty of NPCs with decent Growth Potential. If they were lucky, they might even recruit Secret-Silver Guards.
Of course, the standard of the recruited knights would also increase according to the Lord's popularity.
Originally, Shifeng was still thinking about how to raise his Lord's Popularity to 100 points. Otherwise, he would be exhausted to death just by recruiting new members. It would take him at least a few months to do so. Now, however, he could save a lot of time.
"Deacon Lorraine, I would like to recruit members of the knights from the association," the Shifeng said to the beautiful elven deacon while holding the Lord's Token.
"Alright, but according to the area, the fee will be different. Normally, a town will cost 10 gold coins a week, a city will cost 100 gold coins a week, a royal city will cost 300 gold coins a week, and an imperial capital will cost 1000 gold coins a week. May I know which towns you want to enlist?" Lorraine explained.
"It sure isn't cheap," Shifeng muttered to himself. "No wonder the Adventurer's Association is known as the fourth most profitable organization in God's Domain."
In the past, second- and third-rate Guilds had no luck with the Lords. The various superpowers and powerful first-rate Guilds had monopolized the Lords.
Now that he had become a Lord, he had never thought that he would have to spend so much just to recruit a team of Knights.
Recruitment was a matter of luck. Even if the Adventurer's Association issued a recruitment notice, NPCs wouldn't necessarily show up. Hence, it would take a lot of time to recruit 5,000 high-potential Knights from dozens of cities.
Normally, enlistment in several hundred cities would only be effective. Enlisting 100 or so cities would cost 10,000 to 20,000 Gold per week. Even a first-rate Guild would have to pay 10,000 to 20,000 Gold per week. Even a first-rate Guild would have to pay 10,000 to 20,000 Gold per week. If the Adventurer's Association hastened its enlistment to four or five kingdoms, it would cost a first-rate Guild a fortune.
"Let's enlist in these cities, then."
After giving the matter some thought, Shifeng quickly selected the most prosperous cities in the various kingdoms and empires, including the kingdoms' capitals and imperial capitals. He had chosen over 400 cities in total, and he had spent 44500 Gold per enlistment. Even a first-rate Guild would suffer a major loss. After all, the various large Guilds' experts were frantically trying to reach Level 100, and their Guilds had expended a lot of resources. They didn't have much money on hand at all.
Only Ling Yi had an easier time. She had several Guild Towns and Candlelight frantically earning money for Ling Yi. The Guild's income was no less than that of ordinary superpowers.
However, Ling Yi still had to support the Guild's main headquarters and the Heaven's Rumble Training Center.
It seems I'll have to think of a way to increase the Guild's income. Otherwise, with our current income, we won't be able to support a 5,000-man Knight Division. After paying the required Coins, Shifeng began to make plans.
While a 5,000-man Knight Division was impressive, it was also very expensive. Unlike NPC soldiers, which could be recruited directly from Guild Towns and Cities, Guild Towns and Cities only had to pay a small fee.
A Knight Division was a Lord's personal combat force. Unlike NPC soldiers, which belonged to kingdoms and empires, players had to pay for their own Knight Divisions. Hence, raising a Knight Division was extremely expensive. Moreover, depending on the Knight Division's Potential, the price would vary.
Even if they were only Tier 2 Bronze ranked Knights, they would still need 50 Gold Coins per week for their training and wages. If they could hire 5,000 Tier 2 Knights per week, that would be 250,000 Gold Coins. Moreover, this did not include the cost of weapons and equipment …
Thinking about this, Shifeng couldn't help but admire the first-rate Guilds that had owned their own territories in the past.
After receiving the Lord's Token, Shifeng immediately left the Adventurer's Association and made his way to Candlelight to begin the construction of the Crimson Dragon Flying Ship.
After reaching Level 100, the air would become the foundation of a Guild's development. Whoever had air supremacy would be the boss. After Level 100, the map environments and distances would become far too large. The gap between those who had the ability to move and those who didn't would only grow.
Large powers had more members, resources, and experts. They had a much easier time obtaining Flying Mounts than ordinary powers, which was why the gap between ordinary powers and superpowers only grew larger as the game progressed.
Flying Mounts were something that could only be obtained through luck. Even with Shi Feng's abundant EXP, the number of Flying Mounts he could obtain was very limited. He might be able to rely on his experience to gain an advantage over the various superpowers during the early stages of the game, but the various superpowers occupied too many territories and had far too many experts. It was only a matter of time before the various superpowers caught up to him in terms of Flying Mounts.
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