Chapter 449: Dark Knight

Translator: alyschu

I brought a bunch of fierce and vicious-looking Skeletal Spearmen out of the gate. We looked like a group of mountain bandits who had been starving for half a year, and this time, we were going to rob a big spender!

Goblins wearing iron helmets appeared outside the forest, and they rushed toward us with rust-spotted knives in hand the moment they saw us. I couldn’t help but chuckle coldly at that sight. Could trash like this really be described as “a wave of powerful enemies”?

However, my opinion soon changed, because I noticed a golden-colored goblin who was larger than the rest of its brethren mixed in among the rest. It was actually a boss!

Nice! The system had actually spawned a boss in this wave of enemies! Good, the boss a territory spawned should drop more than just resources, right?

......

I analyzed the charging goblins. The normal goblins were Level 125 elites. They usually wouldn’t pose any threat to me whatsoever, and the only issue was that there were quite a lot of them. The golden goblin was a Level 130 Purple Gold Rank Boss, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for me to fight it one on one. The only problem was that there were too many monsters, so I wouldn’t be able to have full control over their aggro, which would likely result in my twenty precious Skeletal Spearmen all getting destroyed in this battle.

When I thought of that, I immediately turned around and gave an order to Dark Knight Udal and the twenty Skeletal Spearmen. “All of you wait here! Don’t move unless I tell you to!”

“Yes, my lord!”

I left behind my band of underlings and entered the fray. I locked onto the golden goblin from a long distance away, using Thunderous Charge as soon as I got into range!

Whoosh!

I charged right into the horde of goblins and instantly used War Crush!

A bunch of damage numbers flew into the air. Even though the golden goblin was bigger than the rest of his brethren, he only reached up to my chest. He lunged at me, brandishing his golden knife!

2984!

The damage wasn’t too bad! My Regeneration of the Undead and my 14% life steal would keep me at full health if it was only going to deal me this much damage!

My sword flashed in the air as I used Ice Ray + Desperate Gambit, causing damage numbers to pop up in the air!

5436!

+761!

6493!

+909!

......

Having 14% life steal really was incredible, it was as if I was carrying a tiny priest around in my pocket! In fact, my ability to recover HP extended far beyond that thanks to the Heaven-stealing Sword. It had a splash damage effect, and my life steal would also apply to the splash damage I dealt. As a result, I could maintain my HP at over 90% in spite of the golden goblin’s relentless assault!

The Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf prowled at my side, its sharp claws tearing at the golden goblin’s chest. Even though it was Purple Gold Rank boss, the difference in levels did not affect me too much. I could even fight Level 145 Spirit Rank bosses, so this Level 130 Purple Gold Rank boss didn’t really amount to much.

After about ten minutes, the golden goblin finally let out a miserable wail as it fell to the ground with a plop! All of the goblins around it died as well and a lot of resources began dropping to the ground with a popping sound. From a glance, there seemed to be tens of thousands of resource units lying on the ground. Whatever they were, I definitely made it big this time!

Furthermore, the golden goblin even dropped two chests. One was a golden chest and the other was a silver chest, and they didn’t reveal anything about the contents that lay within.

I went to open the silver chest and the moment I lifted its lid, I heard a “ding” sound!

System Notice: Congratulations, you have obtained a card “Zombie x50”!

......

I whistled. Zombies? This was a Rank 2 troop in the Undead Castle!

I crowed with laughter as I used the card. Immediately, bumps began emerging in the ground before fifty zombie troops began crawling up from under them.

Zombie: Attack★★, Defense ★★, Transport Capacity: 200.

This card was like a squall of rain pouring down on a parched land. The sea of loot around the golden goblin was simply too far from the city and my twenty Skeletal Spearmen would take forever to transport all of these resources back there. But now that I suddenly gained another fifty Zombies, I didn’t need to worry about that any longer. Fifty Zombies alone could transport ten thousand resources back to the city, so we’d be done in a few trips!

“Be still, my beating heart,” I muttered as I tried my best to remain calm and composed. The gold chest was still untouched. I walked over and lifted its lid...

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, you have obtained a card “Dark Knight x40”!

......

My body froze, weapons slipping from my numb hands. I actually got my hands on Rank 6 troops, Dark Knights!

Dark Knight: Attack ★★★★★★, Defense ★★★★★★, Transport Capacity 600.

Without even mentioning that incredible Attack and Defense, just their transport capacity alone was ridiculous! Now that I had these Dark Knights, I’d be able to move all of these resources back in just two trips!

My heart soared with joy as I glanced at my map again. It was too bad that the system would only spawn a single wave of mobs if it spawned a boss. The rest of the monsters in the area were simply too weak for me to bother with.

But I was already more than satisfied with my haul today! These fifty Zombies and forty Death Knights had made my week!

The Dark Knights spent two trips transporting all the resources back to the city. We now had enough resources to upgrade the city, so I pressed the “Upgrade” button in the city management interface.

Upgrade Rank 1 Undead Castle to Rank 2 Undead Castle.

Resources Required: 10000 Gold, 10000 Wood, 10000 Stone, 10000 Crystal.

......

Mn, you really couldn’t do much with a Rank 1 territory, but now that I had upgraded it to Rank 2, I could build a teleportation formation as well. And for a territory, there was nothing more important than a teleportation formation!

Upgrading the castle would take an hour. Instead of just sitting around waiting, I ordered Udal to attack the harmless monsters around the city with his small army of undead. Meanwhile, I took the forty Dark Knights with me and we went to hunt some big game! This was probably the fastest way for us to gather resources.

I also felt that the name “Undead Castle” was too ugly-sounding, so I gave the territory a new name, Dark Moon City!

As long as everyone worked together, the name “Dark Moon City” would soon resound across the entire China server. We might even grow so famous that this name alone would strike fear into the hearts of the neighboring countries as well!

......

Pop!

After I killed a Level 135 shadow-rank Greedy Wolf which was carrying resources on top of its back, it suddenly dropped a gray-colored satchel. I curiously picked it up and inspected it.

Resource Bag: A bag that contains 2000 of each resource.

What a find!

I smiled as I took the resource bag.

Alright, we could afford to upgrade the various barracks like this. The first thing we needed to do was to upgrade the Nest of Graves to Rank 2! Once we did that, it would start producing Rank 2 units too! This was important because we would rely on the Nest of Graves as Dark Moon City’s main source of troop production!

A ringing sound rang out in the air not too long after. Dark Moon City had finished upgrading to Rank 2, and when I opened the interface for the Nest of Graves, I could see the details of troops ranked from 1 to 6.

Rank 1: Skeletal Spearman

Skills:

Withered Bones: Reduces all damage taken by 20%.

Net of Bone Spears: Slows down all enemies in a ten-yard radius around caster.

Rank 2: Zombie

Skills:

Body of Death: Reduces all damage taken by 30%.

Hatred of the Living: Increases all damage against living targets by 10%.

Rank 3: Specter

Skills:

Hellish Wail: Cures all surrounding allied units

Incorporeal: Can phase through and ignore physical obstacles

Rank 4: Skeleton Mage

Skills:

Embrace of Darkness: Magic Attack +20%

Essence Steal: Absorbs enemy target’s HP

Rank 5: Vampire

Skills:

Vampire’s Embrace: Converts 40% of the damage dealt into health

Vampire’s Grasp: Attack +50%

Rank 6: Dark Knight

Skills:

Halo of Corruption: Raises attack speed and movement speed by 20%

Dark Crusade: Attack +70%

......

Let’s confirm our goals first. We need to be the first guild to raise their city to Rank 6, so we could produce Dark Knights. The Attack and Defense of these troops were incredibly strong, and they also had fast movement speed and good carrying capacity. They were no doubt one of the best early-game units. In fact, these units would still be useful even in the mid-stage territory wars. They had a 6-star Attack scaling and their levels would rise together with the players. In fact, they should even have some use in the late stages of this game!

......

Beep!

He Yi sent me a message: “Lu Chen, how’s the territory construction coming along? Also how’s it feel not having to come to work today?”

I turned on my communicator and laughed. I replied: “Not having to go to work will always feel good! The territory construction is going swimmingly, I’ve already upgraded it to Rank 2!”

“Oh? That was fast!” He Yi replied with a soft laugh. “I just received some news. Candlelight Shadow captured a barbarian city and he only just managed to construct a barracks a few minutes ago. I didn’t think that you’d be able to gather enough resources to raise our city to Rank 2 already. How impressive!”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Actually, it was very simple. The system had given me twenty Skeletal Spearmen, and I could only rely on their transportation capacity to move resources back and forth. If not, I really wouldn’t know how I’d be able to move 40000 resource units back to the city to upgrade it.

No one would come and attack a territory in the early stages of the game, so these troops were used mainly for transport and not battle. This was also the reason I loved these Dark Knights so much.

I felt joy surge through my heart as they galloped by me. Ah, they were simply too adorable.

“Oh that’s right. Did you find out which guild conquered Vanished God City’s first territory?”

He Yi giggled. “Vanished God City is more interesting than our city. The war over their first piece of territory lasted until seven in the evening. In the end, it was won by a guild called Blazing Hot Lips. I also heard that it’s a human city.”

“Oh? Blazing Hot Lips, Blazing Hot Lips...” I murmured as my eyebrows knit together. “That name sounds so familiar. Is it that strong party we met in Who Will Rise’s preliminaries? The one led by a mage called Stranger of Three Lifetimes?”

“Yeah, that’s right! It’s them. They’re said to be ranked third among the Vanished God City’s ten great guilds. They bided their time and reserved most of their strength before finally attacking the territory at around two in the afternoon. They took the city with that strategic move!”

“Hehe, they don’t sound like simple folk...”

“Yeah, the Vanished God City is a mysterious place!”

......

I closed my chat window, ending my chat with He Yi. It looked like the territory wars of the three main cities in the China server had come to an end. The guilds who had come out on top in the end were Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Candle Dragon, and Blazing Hot Lips.

The battle in Sky City had been the most exciting. Warsky Alliance had held the city for nearly five hours until Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Snowy Cathaya finally ripped it from their cold, dead hands. This was something that couldn’t and wouldn’t happen in any of the other two cities.

Forget it. It was time for me to gather resources like my life depended on it!

Killing these resource mobs not only dropped resources, but it also gave me decent EXP as well. I could gather resources and grind levels at the same time, killing two birds with one stone! In any case, I had to get the city to Rank 3 as soon as possible and build the Blood Pond Cemetery, so we could start producing Specters!

......

As I led my troop of Dark Knights out of the city gates for the n-th time, I observed that the Rank 2 city had changed in appearance. The wooden fence had become a wall of gnarled and sharp thorns, increasing its defensive properties. The durability and toughness of several buildings had also risen by quite a bit. One could well imagine what a Rank 10 city would look like! It would be an impregnable bastion!

It was as this exact moment that a ringing sound started to reverberate in the skies above Sky City.

Ding~!

System Announcement: Player “Gui Guzi (Sky City)” has successfully defeated the Purple Gold Rank Boss, Flame-sucking Beast, and reached Level 111. They have also met the criteria to become a Famous General and have become the eleventh Famous General of China! They have gained Luck +1, Tactics +1, and an exclusive Famous General Skill, “Knight God”!

Knight God: Increases Attack and Defense of all mounted players in the party by 50%. Skill effect depends on the player’s Tactics stat.