19. Siblings in The Storm

Life settled back into a peaceful, somewhat boring routine for the next two weeks. The skull-marked stick remained stubbornly where it was, but eventually, I stopped obsessively staring at it every few hours.

More and more animals moved in. Rabbits bred rapidly, birds nested in greater numbers across my turrets and windowsills. The raccoons were happy again, now that there was no goblins disturbing their precious sleep.

And soon, I got an achievement for it!

[Ding!]

[You now have more than 100 animals living within your territory!]

[Achievement Unlocked: Wildlife Haven!]

[+20 Points!]

Reincarnated as a Castle – Day 75

[Points Remaining: 169]

With the improved passive point generation, my balance was slowly rising again. Ten Points a day made a huge difference compared to the lonely single digit I used to scrape by with.

Thus, the next big question was: should I wait to upgrade my Castle Core to the next level right away, or should I upgrade other shops first?

This time, upgrading the Castle Core to Level 3 would cost me a steep 1,000 Points.

But the reward? 100 Points a day!

Not bad at all!

Without any citizens yet, it didn’t seem like the Item or Furniture Shops would be of much immediate use. What good was a comfortable bed if no one slept in it? A sharp sword if no one swung it?

So in the end, I decided to wait and aim for the next Core upgrade. It was clearly the most efficient path to long-term power.

Meanwhile, with the Points I currently had, I decided to prepare ahead for when I finally got my first citizen. Sure, the goblin situation still felt pretty hopeless right now. They continued to avoid my castle like the plague. But what if one random day I suddenly had an actual human visiting me? Or another fantasy race with better intelligence and potential?

Thus, the reasonable thing to do was to pre-buy some good equipment. Mainly things with useful skills and stats that I deemed might come in handy later.

With only the free daily refreshes available, I managed to scrape together a decent starter kit. I rolled two axe with the [Lumberjack Lv 1] skill, a knife with [Butchering Lv 1], and a few other practical weapons and tools that could prove valuable.

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That aside, I then shifted my focus to another small project.

I tried to figure out a way to grow fruit naturally.

But so far? No luck.

The apples I bought from the shop didn’t have viable seeds. The animals ate them whole, leaving nothing behind but cores that vanished when they rotted. My working hypothesis was… the System wanted a complete monopoly on apples. After all, if I could grow my own fruit, why would I ever buy from the shop again, right?

(Haha, yeah. Not surprised…)

It seemed the only way plants could truly grow was if birds or rabbits carried seeds in from outside my territory. That actually sounded plausible, and I believed it would happen eventually.

But right now, that was completely out of my control.

If only I had at least one citizen!

It would be so much better!

******

But then, on Day 82, everything changed.

I thought my fate with the goblins was sealed. That they would avoid me forever, and I would forever regret my earlier mistake.

But that evening, it was as if the gods of Azef decided to give me one last chance.

It was another stormy night.

Just like before, the sky roared in fury. Thunder split the heavens with crack after crack, each booming explosion rattling my walls. Rain hammered down in relentless, heavy sheets, and violent winds screamed through the ancient forest like enraged spirits tearing at the land.