"Why are you so adamant about working? Do you not trust your own people?" Mira asked while Carlos used the Wooden Hoe to stand.
His burned face was slowly recovering, but every movement still pulled at the new skin forming across his arms and chest.
"I trust you all fully. But I want the work to be done soon. And with this hoe, I will be able t walk, Mira. Don’t tell Rowan," Carlos whispered with a small smile, hoping the Farmer was too busy saving the wheat to hear him.
"I heard that," Rowan answered from the field without looking back, making the smile disappear from Carlos’s burned face immediately but he chuckled soon.
Carlos took one painful step and then forced himself to take another, even when his fractured leg threatened to fold beneath him.
Kaia moved beside him and offered her shoulder before speaking. "Tell us what needs to be done, and we will handle it."
Carlos looked across the territory and felt his mood worsen with every broken wall, burning plant and damaged building he noticed.
"The fires first, then the Spring," Carlos ordered. "Save every crop Rowan says can survive and move the dead hounds away from the kitchen."
He pointed the hoe toward the remaining wall sections. "I also want one defensive line standing before the next daily reset."
Everyone moved right away, but Carlos stayed among them instead of returning to the Lord’s hut like Mira clearly wanted.
Brann carried broken wall sections despite his injuries while Kaia divided the guards between repairs, patrol and watching the silent portal.
Mira prepared recovery meals before clearing debris, while Blue moved water and One pushed burned pieces of wood away from the fields.
Rowan directed everything near the crops, shouting whenever someone stepped too close to wheat that still had a chance of surviving.
Whenever Carlos’s leg failed, he leaned on the hoe until the pain became bearable and found another task he could complete.
Whenever Mira ordered him to sit down, Carlos moved somewhere else before she could leave her work and physically stop him.
’They almost died because the territory developed too fast,’ Carlos thought. ’I am not going to lie down while they repair it.’
No one rested for long after seeing their Lord drag his broken leg through the same ruins they were trying to clear.
[Territory-wide Favorability increased]
[Resident Loyalty increased]
[Troop Loyalty increased]
Several hours passed before the final fire disappeared and the smell of burned wheat stopped growing stronger with every breath.
They temporarily sealed the Mana Spring with ordinary stone, supported the surviving wheat with thin wood and rebuilt one defensive wall.
Carlos stared at everything they had saved, then at the empty place where the northern tower had stood before the Warden attacked.
"It is not enough," he muttered, tightening both hands around the Wooden Hoe until his damaged fingers began hurting again.
Other Lords had time to recover between challenges, but Carlos had apparently thrown away that privilege when he accepted Hellbound.
His development strengthened the raids, Hellbound strengthened every conquest, and killing the Warden had alerted whatever originally sealed it.
’So developing makes the raids worse, and slowing down leaves me too weak to survive them,’ Carlos thought with growing frustration.
Every answer brought him back to the same problem, and Carlos hated that the solution was exactly what everyone warned him against.
’I need to become stronger faster,’ he decided. ’Not tomorrow or after another harvest. I need it by the minute.’
Carlos finally sat beside the repaired field when the daily reset approached, mostly because his injured leg refused to continue cooperating.
Mira placed a warm bowl in his hands and stood over him. "Now you rest, or I will make you regret standing again."
Carlos looked at everyone still working around him, took one mouthful to stop Mira from complaining and opened the waiting reward panel.
[Level 3 Hell rewards ready]
[Reverse Conquest rewards ready]
[Territory compensation ready]
[Additional reward granted for defeating a sealed commander]
One item pulsed behind the final notification, and six closed eyes appeared across its surface before Carlos quickly moved away from it.
"Absolutely not," Carlos muttered. "Anything with six eyes can wait until I know whether opening it will attack my territory again."
He opened the normal rewards first, expecting the forced Hell difficulty to pay for every injury and piece of land it had damaged.
--
[Conquest Level 3 Hell Rewards]
[Copper Coins x1,500]
[Wood x400]
[Stone x350]
[Iron Ore x100]
[Processed Leather x50]
[Mana Crystal x10]
[Slime Core x50]
[Medium Recovery Potion x10]
[Troop Recovery Potion x10]
[Territory Experience x250]
--
Carlos read the list once, reached the Mana Crystals and immediately went back to make sure he had not imagined the number.
"Ten Mana Crystals?" he said loudly enough for Mira to look over his shoulder. "I planned to sell half my territory for five."
He had needed five Crystals to activate the Territory Barrier Core, and obtaining even that amount had seemed almost impossible before.
The reward did not feel free because it had cost him a tower, burning fields, an Epic potion and nineteen remaining health.
Carlos looked at the ten Crystals again and grinned despite everything. "Fine. I earned every single one of you."
He opened the Reverse Conquest section next, already expecting something unreasonable after the system called his victory an impossible condition.
--
[Reverse Conquest Rewards]
[Reverse Gate Core x1]
[Warden Chain x4]
[Hellfire Heart Fragment x6]
[Gate Anchor x2]
[Rare Equipment Upgrade Stone x3]
[High-grade Recovery Potion x3]
[Territory Experience x300]
--
Carlos stared at the four Warden Chains before remembering how one chain had dragged Brann and himself through the Reverse Conquest portal.
"Those things almost killed us, and now the system thinks I want four of them," Carlos complained before reading the remaining rewards.
His attention stopped on the High-grade Recovery Potions, each worth more than what most Lords had earned from their entire first raid.
"Finally," Carlos said, summoning one immediately. "I was starting to think the system wanted me to keep the broken leg."
He drank the golden liquid before Mira could take the bottle, and powerful energy spread through every injured part of his body.
Then his fractured leg moved on its own, and Carlos felt every broken bone shift beneath the skin at once.
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