《Everyone Has a Castle: I Choose Elves to be in My Army》 Chapter 1 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios ¡°Where¡­ is this?¡± Gale questioned. He only remembered that dazzling light had appeared in front of him, making him close his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, he had arrived in this unfamiliar place. This seemed to be a hall with a western medieval style. The environment was somewhat old and shabby. Gale was still in a good state of mind. After being at a loss for a few seconds, he prepared to take a look at the surroundings. Just where had he ended up? Suddenly, a cold voice sounded in his mind. [Welcome to Endless Land!] [Here, there are thousands of races, and it is full of dangers and challenges. At the same time, there are also opportunities and treasures!] [Everyone has a starter castle and a starter military barracks!] [Recruit troops, establish dynasties, open up the path toward tens of thousands of races contending for supremacy, and obtain opportunities and treasures!] [Eternal life is not an illusion!] ¡°The starter castle must be where I am now, right¡­?¡± Gale muttered to himself as he stared at the walls around him. The eternal life that the voice had mentioned was too unreal a concept. He didn¡¯t take it to heart. The sky seemed to be shrouded by dark clouds. It was dark and gloomy, giving off an oppressive atmosphere. The castle was surrounded by dense woods, and roars could be heard from time to time. A situation like this was more than enough to strike fear into one and make them terror-stricken. Gale, who had walked into the courtyard, did not panic, though. This was because he knew he was safe for now. The castle was currently being enveloped by a faintly-glowing light screen. A series of information flashed through Gale¡¯s mind. [Starting from now, the Castle Lord has a seven-day-long newbie protection period!] [The castle and the area within the castle are absolutely safe!] [At the end of the protection period, every Castle Lord will face their very first trial!] Although danger did not befall immediately, he had only seven days. Time was still rather tight. Gale walked in the courtyard. He wasn¡¯t taking a stroll, however; rather, he was looking for the so-called military barracks. During these seven days, the light screen above would be the one protecting him. However, seven days later, it would become the troops provided by the barracks. Soon, he stopped in his tracks. In front of him was a medium-sized pool. It was not known what kind of material the pool itself was made of. A golden glow hovered around the water in the pool. Across from Gale¡ªin other words, on the other side of the pool¡ªstood a sculpture. The sculpture looked very strange¡ªit was nothing but just a disk. Gale had thought that his barracks might house so-called angels or creatures like dragons, and so on. It was also possible that they were giants, dwarves, or other creatures like that. However, he never imagined that his barracks would look so strange. This piqued Gale¡¯s curiosity. ¡°What exactly is my barracks?¡± Gale went up to the disk-shaped barracks and stared intently at it. A virtual screen visible only to him surfaced before his eyes. [Special Military Barracks: Random Battle Unit Pool (Unique)] [Starter Level: Level 1] [Effect: Able to recruit any type of battle unit at will. Limited to one recruitment per day. Quantity, random. Growth stage, random.] [Upgrade Requirement(s): 100 Origin Edges, 2 Origin Crystals] ¡°It can actually recruit all kinds of battle units?!¡± Gale¡¯s eyes widened slightly after reading all the information. This was a big surprise for him! It had gone completely beyond his imagination! Here, he could recruit everything that he had previously thought of. In fact, he could even recruit battle units that were stronger! He had totally lucked out to actually be randomly assigned a military barracks with such a powerful function. Moreover, the brackets at the back had even indicated that it was unique. In other words, he was the only one who had received a military barracks with this ability. The others weren¡¯t so lucky. After he understood all this, one could say that it had given him enough confidence to survive after the end of the protection period. ¡°Furthermore, the battle unit quantity and growth stage are random. Doesn¡¯t this mean that if I¡¯m lucky, I may recruit a large army at one go or a God-grade battle unit?!¡± This wasn¡¯t just wishful thinking. Of course, the prerequisite was that he was lucky enough. ¡°Let¡¯s see what kind of battle units we can recruit first.¡± There were all kinds of battle units, and Gale was overwhelmed trying to look through them. Pegasus, Hulk, Goblin¡­ After nearly half a minute, his gaze stopped at a spot. At that spot was a beautiful and noble icon¡ªElves! However, what attracted Gail¡¯s attention was not what the icon looked like, but the categories it had. Light Elves, Dark Elves, Wind Elves, etc¡­ What Gale valued the most was the one right at the end¡ªthe Elven Empress! [Recruit now?] ¡°Recruit!¡± [Please select the battle unit!] ¡°Elven battle unit¡ªthe Elven Empress!¡± [You have selected to do a recruitment today!] Vast golden light shone from the calm, ripple-less pond surface, and several ripples went through the water. Gale couldn¡¯t help but block his eyes with his hand. Two seconds later, feeling the light fade, Gale lowered his hand. Immediately, a slim figure entered his vision. She was shorter than him by half a head, and was dressed in an exquisite green outfit. Her exposed skin was as though suet white jade. She had a head of beautiful blond hair, and pointed ears peeked out from in between her tresses. Despite her slightly child-like facial features, she had a noble air around her. ¡°Master.¡± The Elven Empress, who looked like a young girl, said as she smiled at Gale and bowed respectfully. Gale was not surprised. Recruited battle units¡¯ loyalty meters toward their recruiter always started out full at 100 points. ¡°Let¡¯s check out the Elven Empress¡¯ data profile!¡± Gail thought to himself. The virtual data profile appeared in his vision. [Elven Empress (Unnamed)] [Current Growth Stage: Infant] [Strength: Tier 4 (Kill enemies to obtain Energy for upgrading)] [Potential: God-grade possible at Perfect Form] [Loyalty: 100 (Absolute Loyalty)] [Note: Loyalty Meter has been locked. This type of battle unit¡¯s Loyalty Meter will never drop.] ¡°Infant, Adolescent, Adult, and Perfect Form¡ªthese are the four growth stages of a battle unit. The Elven Empress that I¡¯ve recruited is only at the first stage¡­ It¡¯s not too bad, though. She already has Tier 4 strength as an Infant.¡± The reason why Gale had chosen the Elves was because of the Elven Empress¡¯ potential. God-grade¡ªin other words, the level of the gods. She would come to possess God-grade strength as long as she could become an Adult¡ªthat is, the third growth stage. On top of that, her strength at Perfect Form was yet unknown. Gale had no reason not to choose the Elven Empress. In fact, he had even fantasized about recruiting a Perfect Form Elven Empress during the recruitment this time and rising straight to the peaks of success with a bang. Although it wasn¡¯t realized, a result like this was still pretty good. ¡°Speaking of which, I wonder what kind of battle unit others have obtained¡­¡± Gale smiled and looked at the [World Chat] column in his menu. Chapter 2 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios Although the Elven Empress he had recruited wasn¡¯t an Adult or Perfect Form like what he had hoped for, Gale was still fairly satisfied. After all, he was the only one who could recruit a battle unit like the Elven Empress that was not only already God Tier as an Adult, but was also a unique battle unit. A unique battle unit¡¯s Loyalty Meter was locked and would never drop! He didn¡¯t need to worry about battle units¡¯ Loyalty Meters dropping because of injuries, bad conditions, and other negative circumstances, ultimately leading to even backlash. At the same time, he could also recruit other kinds of powerful battle units. He wasn¡¯t limited to just one starter battle unit. One could say that his base points had already surpassed everyone else¡¯s because he had the Random Battle Unit Pool. Gale shifted his attention away from the Elven Empress and looked at the virtual menu in front of him. There were various function bars on the menu. Including [World Chat], [Trading Channel], [Personal Panel], [Friend], [Inventory], etc. ¡°Speaking of which, I wonder what kind of battle units other people have. Is there more information about this world¡­?¡± He wanted to quickly get an idea of how dangerous this world was, so that he could establish an action plan for the Elven Empress after she left the light screen. Gale opened [World Chat] first. The [World Chat] could be said to be very lively at the moment. Large amounts of chat messages flicked by at high speed. Everyone was only allowed to say one sentence a day in [World Chat]. The huge amount of chat messages were enough to show just how many people were gathered here. Among them, the one that caught people¡¯s eyes the most was located at the top: [World Announcement]! [World Announcement: Billions of people from Blue Star, welcome to the Endless Land where you become a Castle Lord and participate in the race for supremacy!] Gale glanced over the announcement and looked at the chat messages. [What exactly is happening? Somebody, please tell me!] [What¡¯s there to say? Didn¡¯t they already tell you everything when you became a Castle Lord and in the announcement?] [I¡¯ve become a Castle Lord? It seems that I can start my road to supremacy now!] [The one above used to suffer from grandiose delusions. Appraisal complete.] [¡­] Some people were sending useless messages. But soon, Gale found useful information. [There¡¯s only a seven-day protection period for newbies, and we¡¯ll have to face our first trial once it ends. Does anyone know what the trial is?] [The trial or whatever is not what we should be thinking about first. What we should be thinking about now is how we can improve our strength, right?] [Great! The starter battle unit I recruited is a Pegasus, a flying battle unit. Its Perfect Form can reach Tier 8.] [The one above is really showing off. My starter battle unit turned out to be crap like the Goblin. On top of that, its highest upper limit is only Tier 4!] [There¡¯s no hope for the one above. You can just wait for death. By the way, my starter battle unit is Mountain Rock Bear. Its Perfect Form can reach Tier 7!] ¡°The Goblin recruited by that Castle Lord has an upper limit of Tier 4 while my Elven Empress already has Tier 4 strength when she¡¯s just an Infant¡­ ¡°As expected, I was lucky.¡± Gale was glad that he wasn¡¯t like that castle lord whose starter battle unit was a Goblin. With a battle unit like that, the Castle Lord was doomed to mediocrity. In fact, who knew whether or not they could even survive in that mysterious trial seven days later? [Attention! Attention! Everyone, you must be careful of the monsters outside the castle!] [I agree! When I got my Tier 1 Flame Dog to go out and gather some wood, it had only gone a few meters outside of the protected castle area when it was attacked and killed by a Tier 1 monster in the forest!] [What the f*ck! My Wind Speed Wolf was torn apart by a Flaming Lion in one slash. My heart is bleeding!] [There¡¯s a colony of vampire bats lying dormant near my castle. Is there any kind soul who can help?] [No. Next!] [A giant crocodile in the lake near the castle has set its sights on me, and our eyes even met just now! I¡¯m scared, Mom!] [I¡¯m so f*cked! Aren¡¯t the monsters outside too strong? My Flame Gorilla can reach Tier 7 in its Perfect Form, you know! But he fled back covered in wounds only one minute after going out. Moreover, its Loyalty Meter is dropping madly¡­ Can I even continue to play this?!] [¡­] After reading for a while, Gale summed up a lot of the information. At the same time, he also became more vigilant of the deep, dark forest outside. From the conversations, one could see that the monsters in the wild were very powerful. In fact, they could crush some of the starter battle units even at the same tier. ¡°The world outside is very dangerous. I may be attacked any time. ¡°It¡¯s still unknown what the first trial is. I need to improve the castle¡¯s strength as soon as possible! ¡°Open the personal panel!¡± Gail said silently in his heart. [Personal Panel: Gale] [Race: Human] [Identity: Castle Lord] [Strength: Tier 0] [Castle Level: Elementary Castle] [Military Barracks: Random Battle Unit Pool (Unique)] [Recruited battle unit(s): Elven Empress (unique battle unit)] [Inventory: None] Gale wasn¡¯t surprised even after seeing his own panel. Based on how he felt about himself, he knew it was impossible that he would be of a high level. Even so, Tier 0 was still rather low, though. ¡°The Random Battle Unit Pool can be said to be very important in order to improve my strength. ¡°And to upgrade the Random Battle Unit Pool, I¡¯ll need Origin Edges and Origin Crystals. At the same time, if I don¡¯t eat, my condition will also worsen¡­ ¡°Origin Edges can be obtained by killing wild monsters, magic beasts, enemy battle units, etc. ¡°Origin Edges can be obtained by capturing enemy castles. ¡°There is a certain chance of obtaining Origin Crystals when you kill powerful monsters.¡± Enemy forces weren¡¯t involved yet. Thus, this method of obtaining Origin Edges wasn¡¯t part of Gale¡¯s considerations for the time being. After thinking about it for a while, he expelled a long breath. ¡°As expected, whether it¡¯s for the collection of materials, the demand for food, or the conditions for upgrading the military barracks, I need to leave the protection of the light screen and go outside. ¡°At present, I can only depend on my battle unit.¡± Leaving the protection of the light screen meant that he would be in a position where he might be attacked. At a strength level of Tier 0, Gale wasn¡¯t going to personally go out himself. Everyone was afraid of death, and he was no exception. ¡°You don¡¯t have a name yet?¡± Gale asked, looking at the Elven Empress, who looked like a young girl, in front of him. ¡°Yes, Master.¡± ¡°In that case, your name shall be Cicely.¡± ¡°Thank you, Master.¡± Cicely smiled with satisfaction and joy. Her full Loyalty Meter made Gale the only person reflected in the Elven Empress¡¯ eyes and heart. ¡°Now, go to the forest and destroy the enemy.¡± Chapter 3 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios ¡°I¡¯m too weak, so I can¡¯t go outside with you. I can only trouble you instead.¡± ¡°Master is Cicely¡¯s everything. It is Cicely¡¯s responsibility to clear all obstacles for the Master.¡± Cicely said respectfully. ¡°In that case, now, go to the forest and destroy the enemy.¡± Standing at the border of the light screen, Gale watched Cicely as she went out and toward the deep, dark forest. However, when Cicely was still a few meters away from the dense bushes, a few dark shadows suddenly sprang out of them and attacked her. There was no sign of panic on Cicely¡¯s delicate and beautiful face. She gradually started to glow with a pale green light. The dark shadows stopped in midair at the moment they were about to touch Cicely, unable to move. Due to the speed, all Gale could see was just a few blurry, dark shadows. Had he been the one under attack, he definitely wouldn¡¯t have been able to react, and would have been killed immediately. He wouldn¡¯t even be able to see his attackers¡¯ appearance. It was only at this point when Cicely froze them in place that he could finally see the attackers¡¯ appearance. They were three pythons with bodies several meters long and as thick as a person¡¯s fist. Their huge jaws with sharp fangs, which carried numbing toxins, were ajar. Gale silently breathed a sigh of relief. Cicely was his battle unit; he naturally didn¡¯t want Cicely to be harmed. It now appeared that those pythons posed no threat to Cicely. Someone in the World Chat had said that their battle unit was instantly killed by a Tier 1 python. However, Cicely had crushed these pythons with absolution instead. Gale sighed. As expected of a unique battle unit that could reach God-grade at the Adult stage. She really was extraordinary! Cicely stretched out her slender, white jade-like palm toward the pythons, and slowly closed her fingers. The pythons¡¯ bodies began to compress and twist, and they cried out shrilly. When Cicely closed her palms completely, all three pythons would be crushed into pulp. ¡°Wait a minute, Cicely.¡± Seeing this, Gail quickly shouted. ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Master?¡± Cicely paused, and her palm stopped moving. ¡°Their bodies may be useful to me. Try to keep them intact.¡± ¡°Okay, Master.¡± Cicely¡¯s palm changed to a knife-like stance, and she waved at the pythons. Several wind blades flashed past, cutting off the snakes¡¯ heads with ease like a knife cutting tofu. [You¡¯ve killed a Tier 1 python. Energy +9, Origin Edge +1] [You¡¯ve killed a Tier 1 python. Energy +9] [You¡¯ve killed a Tier 1 python. Energy +6] Three notification prompts sounded. At the same time, Gale could feel that three warm energy currents had emerged in his body, and were slowly strengthening him. By killing the pythons, Gale had gained a total of 24 Energy Points. At this point, Gale also understood something: Even if one didn¡¯t destroy ¡®enemies¡¯ such as wild monsters with their own hands, by having their own recruited battle units attack and kill them, they could also obtain corresponding returns to improve their levels and strength. Thinking about it again, this was normal. They were all ordinary people when they first came to this world. How could they possibly battle those powerful, brutal monsters? After becoming Castle Lords, the battle units that one recruited were akin to swords in their hands. ¡°There were three pythons, yet they only dropped one Origin Edge. There¡¯s still a long way to go from upgrading the Random Battle Unit Pool.¡± As Gale¡¯s mental wheels turned, pale green light glowed around Cicely, and she used elemental magic to make the three pythons¡¯ bodies float in the air and follow her back into the castle¡¯s light screen. ¡°Master, these are the results of this battle.¡± Cicely handed Gale the Origin Edge that the pythons had dropped, and placed the three carcasses beside her feet. ¡°Thanks for your hard work, Cicely.¡± Gale took the Origin Edge and observed it. It was a white crystal throughout, and the size of a thumb. He examined it for half a minute, but didn¡¯t make any discovery. He shifted his gaze to the python carcasses at his feet. A virtual screen popped up. [Monster carcass discovered. Do you want to collect it?] [Yes/No] ¡°This is so similar to loot drops in a game.¡± Gale made a dissing remark. Then, he chose ¡®Yes¡¯ without any hesitation. [Collection in progress] [Collection successful!] [You¡¯ve obtained 15 units of Edible Snake Meat!] [You¡¯ve obtained three Complete Snake Skins!] [You¡¯ve obtained three Slightly Poisonous Snake Fangs!] The series of voice prompts ended, and the python carcasses, which had taken up a sizable amount of space on the ground, disappeared into thin air. What replaced them were the collected Edible Snake Meat, Snake Skins, and Slightly Poisonous Snake Fangs that were piled together. Gale collected all the spoils. The food issue was temporarily solved. Since it was stated that it was Edible Snake Meat, there was no need to worry about it carrying toxins. As for the taste¡­ Survival was the top priority now. Improving quality of life would come after ensuring that he had the capital to survive. Besides, seeing how some people were complaining in [World Chat] that their recruited battle units had been suppressed or even killed by wild monsters. Gale was content enough to have Cicely, the mighty Elven Empress, and this large amount of snake meat. And so on¡­ ¡°Not everyone has the ability to kill wild monsters. In other words, there will be a lot of people who are troubled by food problems. In fact, they don¡¯t even have the ability to rely on their battle units to obtain food¡­ ¡°15 units of snake meat are enough for me to eat until the protection period is over. Moreover, this won¡¯t be the only time that Cicely¡¯s going out¡­ ¡°I might be able to sell these extra Edible Snake Meat.¡± Gale did not act immediately even after all these occurred to him. This was because people facing this situation definitely weren¡¯t a minority. It was likely a common phenomenon now. Thus, he didn¡¯t need to rush to sell them immediately. The most important thing was still the situation of the Elven Empress in front of him. Gale asked, ¡°Cicely, I also gained some Energy Points when you killed the three pythons. Did your strength improve?¡± ¡°Yes, it did, Master.¡± Cicely¡¯s petal-like lips parted slightly. ¡°I felt some energy entering my body when I killed those three pythons.¡± ¡°Does the energy help to raise your level?¡± Gale continued to ask. ¡°The energy is very little, and has little effect. It¡¯ll take a large number of such pythons for me to promote to a higher level.¡± In other words, the Energy Points provided by Tier 1 wild monsters were too little to support Cicely¡¯s promotion. Killing ¡®enemies¡¯ could speed up the improvement of a battle unit¡¯s strength and level. But there were also requirements when it came to the choice of ¡®enemy¡¯. After all, killing low-level monsters would also bring a low number of Energy Points. If one wanted to quickly increase their strength and level, hunting high-level monsters was the number one choice. ¡°Cicely, while it is important to improve your strength, you must also act according to your capabilities when you face the enemy.¡± Gale warned. Even if he wanted to hunt high-level monsters, he must have the strength to deal with them first. Reaching for something beyond one¡¯s grasp was a huge taboo, and Gale kept this firmly in mind. Chapter 4 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios ¡°You may continue hunting, but remember to retreat when you encounter monsters that you can¡¯t defeat to ensure your safety.¡± If the battle was not an assured victory, Gale did not want to put Cicely in danger. Cicely was his safeguard. At the same time, her loyalty was full and maintained forever. Her appearance was also very pleasing to the eye. Who didn¡¯t like such a battle unit? Moreover, other people couldn¡¯t even be envious because she was a unique battle unit. ¡°Yes, Master.¡± As if sensing Gale¡¯s concern, Cicely smiled warmly. Following which, she turned around and walked out of the light screen, her figure disappearing into the dense forest. ¡°There seems to be a huge number of monsters in the wild. The moment Cicely entered the area, energy points have started surging in.¡± Gale could not help but think as he felt the warmth in his body and the increase in his strength. The large number of monsters in the wild meant that it was supposed to be a test of the soldiers¡¯ strength. The weaker ones would be destroyed, and the Castle Lord would eventually lose all his battle units. Those who were stronger would gain a lot of benefits, and so would their Castle Lord. It could really be said that danger and opportunity coexisted together. [Killed a Tier 1 Gray Wolf, Energy +7, Origin Edge +1 [Killed a Tier 1 Earth Bear, Energy +8, Origin Edge +1] One after another, the streams of energy began to strengthen Gale¡¯s body. From time to time, there would be a notification that an Origin Edge had dropped. Everything was going smoothly. After killing a certain number of monsters in the wild, Cicely would then bring the corpses back to the castle. As Gale had previously instructed her to try her best to preserve her body, the corpses that she brought back were nearly intact. Not only did the number of Origin Edges in his hands increase, the number of spoils of war like wolf meat and bear meat also visibly increased. Gale, who had nothing to do, looked at the castle behind him, that was dilapidated yet uniquely his. [Elementary Castle (Unnamed)] [Normal Structures: Warehouse] [Military Structures: Random Battle Unit Pool (Unique)] [Promotion Requirement: 2,000 units of wood, 1,000 units of stone] [Next Tier: Intermediate Castle] [Current Faction: None] ¡°Current faction?¡± Looking at the last column, Gale raised his eyebrows. Could it be that there would be a possibility to establish some organization or to join some faction in the future? ¡°Forget it, I don¡¯t understand. Let¡¯s not bother about it for now.¡± Soon, Gale stopped paying attention to this point. With a thought, all the meat, animal skin, and other spoils of war that he had collected disappeared from his sight and were stored in the warehouse. This function was magical and convenient. Gale began to think about the rest of his status notifications. ¡°I haven¡¯t named my castle yet. What should I name it?¡± ¡°Since my initial Battle unit was an Elf, should I call it the Elf Castle?¡± ¡°The Military Building is acalled the Random Battle Unit Pool, so call it Random Castle?¡± ¡°It feels a little off¡­ how about Above Heaven Castle¡­ Emmm¡­¡± ¡°This is difficult!¡± The names of the castles that he had chosen did not suit his liking. Suddenly, a thought flashed through Gale¡¯s mind. ¡°The Random Battle Unit Pool of my castle can recruit any type of battle unit, and what I choose will definitely be the best type of battle units. My castle shall thus be called the Ten Thousand Deities Residence.¡± ¡°After all, there¡¯s no need to add ¡®castle¡¯ to the name of my castle.¡± Hence, Gale decided on the name of his castle. His current strength was not enough to leave the safety of the light screen. This remained so even after he had benefited from the killing of the monsters by Cicely by having an increase in his Energy Points. The current Gale would still be killed instantly by a Tier 1 python if he stepped out. He could thus only stay within the light screen. Without a choice, he returned to the castle to rest. After seating himself on the sofa and leaning against the backrest, Gale opened the [World Chat]. Within the chat, the liveliness had not decreased compared to the first time he opened it. The discussions still continued fervently. After scrolling through the chat for a while, Gale discovered that many castle lords were posting messages asking for food. ¡°It¡¯s just as I thought. Many people are facing food problems.¡± Gale nodded knowingly. He saw a lot of requests for purchase. In the end, this even formed a ¡®market price¡¯. ¡± Exchanging one Origin Edge for four units of food.¡± ¡°Exchanging ten units of wood for one unit of food.¡± ¡°Exchanging five units of stone for one unit of food.¡± Gale felt like laughing when he looked at these so-called ¡°market prices¡± that were recognized by the masses. He felt that the price set was too low. Food was extremely precious during this period of time, to the point that it could even be said to be priceless. For example, those who recruited Goblins, or those who recruited weak battle unit like the Militia, would be lucky if they managed to obtain materials around their castles without being attacked by wild monsters. Food would be an extravagant hope for such a Castle Lord. Also, the majority of battle units still needed to eat like humans. Without food, the battle units would also die. Although Gale had complained about the loot he got previously, he had to admit that this was reality, not a game. Billions of Castle Lords, plus those battle units, would result in a huge demand for food. Then, even if it was a painful price, many people would still pay for it. This was inevitable. Gale then opened the [Trading Channel] column. It was very cold and cheerless. No Castle Lord was willing to take out their food to trade. After all, wild monsters were already difficult to deal with, and killing them was even more difficult. If one was not careful, their battle units might not return. Towards the preciousness of food, everyone was well aware at this point. Only those who had eaten their fill would have the spare resources to trade. ¡°Let me see how much I have now.¡± Since Cicely started hunting, she had brought back a few corpses of wild monsters. After collecting them, he counted a total of 60 units of food. Including the 15 units given at the beginning, Gale now had 75 units of food. ¡°Cicely doesn¡¯t need to eat food, she only needs to absorb the energy of nature to replenish her consumption.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t finish all this food, and besides, there¡¯ll be more food units coming in when Cicely returns from her hunt¡­¡± Gale thought for a moment before releasing information regarding transactions in the [Trading Channel]. [Trading Announcement] [Exchanging one unit of food for one Origin Edge] [Exchanging one unit of food for 20 units of wood] [Exchanging one unit of food for 10 units of stone] [Food Quantity: 70 units] As soon as the transaction announcement was uploaded, the [World Chat] section exploded and started to flood with messages. Chapter 5 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios Gale had left five units of food for himself. It was definitely enough to sustain himself. Furthermore, since Cicely would bring back more corpses of the wild monsters, there would be no lack of food in the foreseeable future. Thus, he released 70 units of food for trading. The people who saw Gale¡¯s transaction announcement immediately went crazy. Countless Castle Lords were shocked by Gale¡¯s actions, since he had actually released so much food at once. After all, this was only the first day of their descent into the world. The strength of the Castle Lords was generally at level zero. To enemies such as the monsters outside the light curtain, they were basically serving themselves up on a silver platter if they dared step out. As for the Castle Lords¡¯ initial battle units, their numbers and strength were not enough to support them against wild monsters as well. Leaving the protective light screen and going out to collect wild fruits and other food could only be done when one was lucky. Those situations were also rare and few. The general situation was that the Castle Lords would use their battle units or join in themselves to gather wood, stones, and other materials near their castle. If they encountered wild monsters, they would immediately give up everything and escape back to the castle. Thus, food could be considered the most precious resource at the moment. A Castle Lord who could kill wild monsters and obtain their meat and food was definitely a top-notch existence. This Castle Lord must have obtained an extremely powerful initial battle unit. Such a person would naturally turn into an existence that everyone would look up to. In fact, the exact same process was taking place right now. There were countless people discussing Gale with envy on the forums. The world was just so unfair. All they got were some weak and useless battle units, but some people actually obtained such powerful initial battle units here, allowing them to pull far ahead. If they knew that Gale military building was a Random Battle Unit Pool that could allow him to recruit any type of battle unit, they would probably be so angry that they would vomit blood. Of course, Gale wasn¡¯t stupid enough to expose his advantage. Currently, in [World Chat], because of the transaction information posted by Gale, there was a huge uproar. Countless people were scolding Gale. The reason was naturally because Gale¡¯s trading prices were too steep. [This guy is simply a profiteer!] [That¡¯s right, the price of wood and stone has doubled according to the market price, and the price of Origin Edges has also increased by four times!] [Big Boss Gale, don¡¯t you feel guilty doing this?!] [That¡¯s right, can¡¯t you reduce the price? You¡¯re a big boss!] [Yeah, you¡¯re exploiting your compatriots!] [¡­] ¡°Hehe, I¡¯m the only one without morals. Don¡¯t think about tying me down.¡± Gale sneered in his heart. His strength belonged to himself, and it was because of his strength and ability that people recognized him as a big boss. Did he have to lower himself to sell food to the weak? Why should he serve and cater to them? Furthermore, they claimed that his prices were doubled and tripled based on the ¡®market price¡¯. Who set this so-called market price anyway? This belonged to him. He would decide how to deal with it and how to price it. It was not the place for those who thought they stood on the moral high ground to give pointers. Towards those comments that knew their limits and did not go overboard, Gale did not bother with them. However, some of the comments that were too malicious and repulsive were directly blacklisted by Gale. Food at this stage was already priceless. The food that Gale had just put up was the only one available in the [Trading Channel]. There were billions of Castle Lords. Even if you didn¡¯t buy it, there would still be people who would buy it, even if they felt like their heart was bleeding. And indeed, not out of Gale¡¯s expectations, the moment he switched from [World Chat] back to the [Trading Channel], he saw that the 70 units of food he had put up had all been bought. The current [Trading Channel] once again returned to the empty state before Gale arrived. A series of notifications rang in Gale¡¯s mind. [Losing one unit of food, receiving 10 units of stone] [Losing a unit of food, receiving 20 units of wood] These two types of news repeated themselves continuously. To Gale¡¯s disappointment, no Castle Lord used their Origin Edges to exchange for food. This was understandable. Origin Edges could be used to upgrade their own military buildings, and the only method to obtain them was to kill monsters in the wild. They were much more precious than wood and stones, which could be obtained through simple harvesting. ¡°70 units of food in exchange for 700 units of wood and 350 units of stone.¡± ¡°I should be able to upgrade the castle after a few more exchanges.¡± All the resources exchanged were automatically stored in the castle warehouse, and there was no need for Gale to manually sort them out. Right now, he was planning for the future. While one¡¯s military building was the most important, the castle itself was not to be ignored. It could be seen as the core foundation of the castle. On the other side, even while Gale was not paying attention, the shock he created did not go away. The discussions on the [World Chat] were still in full swing. [70 units! 70 units of food! It disappeared just like that?!] [Where¡¯s the food? Can someone tell me where the d*mned food is?!] [Where did it go? Of course it was bought by someone. Idiot.] [Who are those buyers, are they that desperate? Don¡¯t they know how to hold back a little?] [Leaving you with six pancakes [1. Slang used predominantly in Northern China, it is used to refer to something/someone as worthless], I was the one who bought the last unit of food. How is it? Are you envious? Oh, I forgot, a person can only speak once a day on the World Channel. You can¡¯t speak anymore today, hahaha¡­] [You are all hand speed monsters, right? I only hesitated for a moment, and in the blink of an eye, all the food was gone!] [That¡¯s right. Those who managed to get their hands on food are definitely those kind of hand speed freaks who have been single since their birth and can only use their hands!] [Seconding the poster above!] [Support my ass! Who asked you to think for so long? First come first serve, don¡¯t you understand? What were you guys expecting?] [Yeah, am I your father? Do I have to leave all the good things for you?] [I just want to ask if Big Boss Gale has any more food?] [Same question. I managed to collect some stones under great fear, and am hungry and tired now. I just want to eat my fill and have a good sleep.] [I want to eat food!] When the food on the [Trading Channel], the name of the item trader also appeared. All the Castle Lords who were paying attention to this naturally knew Gale¡¯s name now. As time passed, the tone they originally had towards Gale also changed. People were no longer denouncing his behavior as that of a profiteer, but instead asking if he had more food. Chapter 6 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios After dreaming about his future plans for the castle, Gale came back to his senses. He suddenly realized that he had received many friend request notifications. Towards all these requests, however, he rejected them without hesitation. Gale reopened the [World Chat] interface. He did not know that by placing his food up for trade, he had caused a commotion, and now the channel was filled with comments about him. Naturally, they were all chatting to find out more about him. [I want food, big boss please show up!] [I want it too. If there¡¯s any food on the shelves, I won¡¯t hesitate anymore. I¡¯ll beg Big Boss Gale to appear!] [I can¡¯t take it anymore. I¡¯m willing to exchange 25 units of wood for Gale¡¯s food!] [If the one above doesn¡¯t work, I¡¯ll use 30 units of wood!] [Wow, the price is even inflating?] However, Gale was not focusing on the conversations. He could feel that the energy in his body had increased again, and there was a notification of an Origin Edge being dropped as loot. He knew that Cicely should have gained a lot from this trip. In the [World Chat], Gale edited his announcement, before sending it out as a message instead. ¡°The next batch of food will be up for sale in two hours. The rates will remain the same.¡± He used his quota to post a message on the World Chat channel today to promote himself. [Gosh! I finally saw Big Boss Gale!] [Think fast, be the first to capture Gale!] [Front row, front row!] [Big Boss Gale, how many will there be this time?] [What¡¯s the use of asking? You might as well prepare the materials needed.] [I¡¯m very curious, what is Big Boss Gale¡¯s initial battle unit that can kill so many wild monsters?] [I¡¯m very curious too!] [+1, previously there was a Perfect Form Tier 7 Mountain Rock Bear battle unit. Such a powerful battle unit was attacked by a wild monster and lost a paw, almost being killed¡­] [Big Boss Gale¡¯s battle unit is definitely very strong. I guess that after reaching the Perfect Form, it might reach Tier 9!] [It¡¯s not impossible!] These people would never have thought that Gail¡¯s initial battle unit would actually be a unique unit ¡ª the Elven Empress. Just reaching maturity alone was enough for her to possess the strength of a God Tier. It was unknown what her Perfect Form would reach. [Boss Gale, food is so expensive. I only have three units of stones now, can it be cheaper¡­ I¡¯m just a cute little loli!] [Yeah, yeah, Big Brother Gale, I¡¯m also a sweet and delicious Lolita. Can you give me a discount?] [I¡¯m not a Lolita, but a youthful girl. If Gale can give me a discount, perhaps other stories can happen¡­] [A teenage girl? I¡¯m afraid you¡¯re actually Her Highness Qiao right¡­] (Note: Her Highness Qiao is a slang, originating from a China BJ who had a sweet and youthful voice but turned out to be an old woman) [I¡¯ve completed my appraisal. Those upstairs have junk bigger than mine.] [66666, sharp sword, sharp eyes!] [I¡¯m afraid that if Big Boss Gale goes to meet them, the next day, he will be singing Jay Chou¡¯s Chrysanthemum Terrace, hehe¡­] (Note: Chrysanthemums are slang for the an*s since the flower looks like it) [Oh man, oh man¡­] ¡°¡­¡± Gale involuntarily shuddered at the comments. What kind of chatty geniuses were they? Their minds were totally flying off the cliff. Moreover, the World Chat was fully virtualized, thus he really did not believe the words of those self-proclaimed lolitas. They should all be ugly catfishers¡­ ¡°Achoo!¡± In a certain underground area, a petite little Lolita was hard at work digging rocks with a shovel. There were a few Dwarf soldiers around her helping out with her work. Suddenly, she sneezed violently. The little loli¡¯s face was dirty, but one could vaguely see her exquisite and cute appearance. She was the first person to write the comment saying that she was a little loli. Clad in a dress that was full of dust and dirt, she stopped working momentarily to rub her nose. She lightly puffed up her cheeks and glared angrily at the ¡®imagination geniuses¡¯ in [World Chat]. ¡°These baddies actually said such bad things about me. How infuriating!¡± The little loli mistakenly believed that the culprits behind her sneezing were these people. ¡°I wonder if Gale will agree to my request. He did not accept my friend request either¡­.¡± What the little loli didn¡¯t know was that the person who caused her to sneeze was the ¡®Gale¡¯ she was talking about. At this moment, the perpetrator was relaxing in the castle. ¡°Master, these are the spoils of my hunt.¡± After returning to the castle, Cicely handed over the loot to Gale. ¡°It¡¯s been hard on you, Cicely. Rest here for a while,¡± Gale spoke as he put everything into the castle warehouse. ¡°I¡¯m not tired. It¡¯s my honor to serve my master. I never get tired of it.¡± Cicely shook her head. ¡°Even if your body isn¡¯t tired, your mind will also experience fatigue. Rest for a while before you resume.¡± Gale¡¯s tone became more forceful. ¡°All right, then.¡± Cicely finally nodded. Gale took the chance to observe Cicely more, before he asked, ¡°Cicelyecily, did you encounter any danger during the hunts?¡± ¡°No. Currently, I¡¯ve only encountered Tier 1 and 2 wild monsters.There was in fact only one Tier 2 monster, the rest are all Tier 1. They are of no threat to me at all.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°¡­¡± After chatting with Cicely for a while longer, she took the initiative to go hunting again. Gale did not stop her. Her loyalty meter was full, and it would not drop, thus he did not need to deliberately make a good impression on Cicely in order to increase her favorability. He was really just having a normal conversation to let Cicely relax. Labor and rest often went hand in hand. While Cicely was hunting wild monsters, she would also increase Gale¡¯s strength. Gail was very pleased with this. Cicely¡¯s work attitude was positive, and she was strong. She was simply his perfect support. Just like that, with Cicely¡¯s extremely high hunting efficiency, Gale obtained more and more energy points. After about an hour and a half, a dazzling golden light shone from Gale¡¯s body. Streams of warmth flowed through his body, enhancing his physique. This feeling was extremely comfortable. However, before he could enjoy it, the feeling and the golden light disappeared at the same time. It came and went quickly. ¡°I should have leveled up¡­¡± Gale slowly clenched his fists as he came to his senses. An abundance of energy filled his body, and his constitution felt several times stronger than before. He opened his personal interface and realized that his level had indeed increased from Lv 0 to Lv 1. The corners of his mouth curled up slightly, and his mood brightened. ¡°This way, I¡¯ve finally broken away from the ranks of the Lv 0. I could be considered as having some strength now.¡± Chapter 7 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios Gale lay on the worn sofa and closed his eyes, seriously sensing the energy that was circulating around in his body. After a long time, he opened his eyes and a golden light shot out from them. Gale clenched his fists. As long as he was willing, he could unleash at least twice the strength compared to his previous self! As his level increased, he also gained some ability to protect himself. At least, those Tier 1 monsters were no longer a threat to him. ¡°Perhaps, in the future, someone will really be able to achieve immortality.¡± The increase in his strength also made Gale full of hope for the future. Perhaps he would become the person who would step into the domain of eternal life. After adapting to his abilities, Gale went to the courtyard. At this moment, there were more than ten corpses neatly placed in the courtyard. These were all monsters that Cicely had hunted outside. They were all shifted from the warehouse to the courtyard according to his request. ¡°What a hardworking little fellow.¡± As his strength increased, all aspects of Gale¡¯s body improved. He could clearly see how she was hunting all kinds of monsters outside the forest. These monsters were generally between Tier 1 and 2, so they were naturally no match for Cicely. Retracting his gaze, Gale focused on the monsters¡¯ corpses instead. With a wave of his hand, he disintegrated these corpses. The result was obtaining 200 units of food, as well as some fur and materials. Among them, the most common were part of the monsters such as monster teeth. Gale didn¡¯t know what these materials were for. However, he still maintained the belief that he would not let anything go to waste and kept them all in the warehouse. After Cicely¡¯s efforts, he now had 10 Origin Edges as well. The upgrade of the military¡¯ building was now a tenth complete. Judging from the upgrade conditions, the difficulty of building more battle units was much higher than that of building his castle. It would take some time to gather the 100 Origin Edges needed. Only by killing monsters would one have a chance to obtain an Origin Edge, but even then it was not a guaranteed matter. As for upgrading his Elementary castle to an Intermediate castle, he only needed the common materials. ¡°Then let¡¯s upgrade the castle first.¡± Gale had already calculated that as long as he sold all the 200 units of food he had just obtained, he would have enough materials to upgrade the castle. In his heart, the castle was as important as his military building. There was no such thing as favoring one over the other. With a thought, Gale placed the 200 units of food on the [Trading Channel]. His rates were the same as before. If he continued to raise the price, he would definitely be labeled as a ¡®profiteer¡¯. The moment the food was placed on trade, many Castle Lord immediately fought over it. After all, the quantity was limited. If their speed was slightly slower, they might miss this opportunity. No matter how inflated the price was, they would still swallow all their grievances alone. The Castle Lord could still resist hunger, but the summoned battle units could not. Since their battle units could not kill monsters, they could only absorb a trace of energy through food. Otherwise, their Loyalty Meter would fall below 60 points. At that time, the soldiers might lose their rationality and treat their summoner Castle Lord as food to replenish their energy. They were not like Gale, who could summon battle units whose loyalty would never decrease no matter how difficult their lives would be. Moreover, given Cicely¡¯s strength, it was impossible for her to not be able to obtain any energy intake through hunting monsters. [What kind of monsters are these? Their hand speeds are all so fast?] [F*ck, did they turn on the autoclicker?] [I just clicked on it, but 200 units of food are already gone?!] [Wasn¡¯t it supposed to be two hours later? Why did it suddenly go on sale!] [I was in a daze for a while. When I came back to my senses, the food was gone!] [I¡¯m really hungry now. I really want to eat something hot!] [Actually, it¡¯s fine if I¡¯m hungry, but the battle unit I summoned is looking at me strangely. It seems to be treating me as food!] [My soldiers are in the same situation. I can only risk my life to find food!] [Aren¡¯t you curious about the type of soldiers that Big Boss Gale summoned? In less than a day, he obtained 200 units of food!] [I think he should have summoned something at least at the level of the Dragon Race. Only battle units at this level have such powerful strength!] [I remember now. Not long ago, someone summoned a dragon!] [I, who summoned a wild rabbit, am envious!] ¡°It would appear that I am not the only one with good luck.¡± Gale was still a little surprised. He hadn¡¯t expected anyone to summon a dragon as their first battle unit. However, he was merely surprised. So what if they were of the dragon race? His Cicely was a unique battle unit! Her combat ability was off the charts. In a real battle, the dragons would be no match for her. Cicely was the Elven Empress. With her noble bloodline, she could completely suppress the dragons. Gale opened the warehouse to check on his haul. After selling 200 units of food, he received 2,000 units of wood and 1,000 units of stone in return! In addition to the resources he had obtained the first time, it was enough to upgrade the castle! At this moment, a cold voice sounded in his mind. [The upgrade conditions for the castle have been met. Do you want to upgrade immediately?] ¡°Upgrade!¡± The moment he heard the voice, Gale replied without hesitation. The moment he answered, the entire castle emitted a dazzling white light. The blinding white light forced him to close his eyes. A minute passed. When he sensed that the light had disappeared, Gale opened his eyes. The entire appearance of the castle in front of him had changed. After the upgrade, the height and area of the castle had increased significantly. The originally dilapidated walls had been renewed. On the steps to the interior of the castle, the green moss carpeting the area disappeared. In its place was a clean stone staircase. ¡°Now it looks more presentable to live in.¡± Gale was very satisfied with this upgraded castle. Although the structure was still somewhat old, it was at least bearable to live in. Compared to an Elementary castle, the difference was like heaven and earth! Gale walked straight into the castle. The dust in the air had completely disappeared, and the old furniture had been updated as well. There was even a new fireplace added to allow one to keep themselves warm. At the same time, that ice-cold voice sounded again. [Congratulations, the castle has been upgraded to an Intermediate castle!] [Your sphere of influence has increased to 500 meters!] [The defense of the Castle Heart has been increased by three times!] [The influence of your castle in the Endless Land has increased greatly!] Chapter 8 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios ¡°No other rewards?¡± After a long time, Gale did not receive the reward he expected for upgrading his castle. He was 100% certain that he was the first Castle Lord to undergo the promotion. Based on his past gaming experience, every promotion should bring about a rich reward. ¡°I¡¯ve played so many games that I¡¯m becoming crazy.¡± Gale smiled and patted his head. To be honest, he was a little disappointed. With a thought, the virtual interface appeared in his vision. [Intermediate Castle (Ten Thousand Deities Residence)] [Normal Structures: Warehouse] [Military Structures: Random Battle Unit Pool (Unique)] [Promotion Requirement: 10,000 units of wood, 8,000 units of stone] [Next Tier: Advanced Castle] [Current Faction: None] ¡°My range of influence has expanded to 500 meters. The upgrade was not in vain.¡± Within Gale¡¯s territory, all the resources belonged to him. Without his permission, other Castle Lords could not intrude into his castle¡¯s sphere of influence. His battle units would automatically view them as intruders and attack! It could be considered a form of protection for the territory! ¡°What¡¯s the influence for?¡± Gale was puzzled. This was the first time he had heard this word since he arrived. As if sensing his confusion, a voice sounded in his mind. [Influence can be categorized as: Manifesting Strength, Initial Reputation, Renowned Near and Far, Distinguished Personage, World Famous, etc.] [Your current stage is: Manifesting Strength!] [With the increase in influence, the chances of attracting native organizations will also increase!] [If the influence of the castle reaches a certain level, there is a small chance that the native organizations will approach you to seek refuge!] [Of course, the native organizations might also choose to attack your castle!] As the voice explained, Gale gradually understood the role of influence. ¡°This is not good news.¡± He did not know the distribution of these organizations, let alone the exact strength of the natives. As for the native organizations coming to seek refuge, Gale felt that it was unlikely. At least not now. He had just reached the stage of Manifesting Strength, so it was impossible for any local organizations to believe in him and seek refuge. The news rang a warning bell once again for Gale. He had to make good use of these seven days of novice protection period to increase the overall strength of the castle. At the very least, he had to pass the first assessment safely. This is also a small goal for Gale at this stage. Cicely, who was still hunting monsters, stopped what she was doing and glanced in the direction of the castle, as if sensing Gale¡¯s change in mood. Then, her hands moved faster and faster, and the speed of her chanting gradually increased. Wind blades mercilessly reaped the monsters in front of her. In the eyes of others, monsters that were hard to defeat were just a pile of material. Every attack would take the lives of several monsters. Before long, many monster corpses were once again piled up in front of Gale. ¡°You should get some rest, Cicely.¡± This time, Cicely didn¡¯t refuse, even though she did not need to rest. The long period of killing still made her very tense and alert, taking a toll mentally. ¡°I¡¯ll do as you say.¡± Cicely bowed. Gale stared at the monster corpses on the ground, calling the system to break it down. Other than things like fur and materials, the rest of the food that was dissected was once again put on the [Trading Channel]. As soon as the food was put on the shelves, many Castle Lords once again rushed to buy it. However, these Castle Lords still used woods and stones as trading resources. Gale didn¡¯t even see anyone trading their Origin Edges. ¡°It seems like I¡¯ll have to wait a little longer to upgrade the military building.¡± Gale now had 20 Origin Edges on his hands. He was still 80 Origin Edges away from achieving the first step of promoting his military building. The other requirement was to obtain two Origin Crystals. Origin Crystals were even more precious than Origin Edges. They could only be dropped by hunting high-tier monsters. The other Castle Lords couldn¡¯t even take out an Origin Edge, let alone Origin Crystals. Gale¡¯s current development speed could be said to definitely be the fastest among the one billion Castle Lords. ¡°According to the current situation, we might be able to continue upgrading the castle tomorrow.¡± Gale glanced at the [Trading Channel]. Most of the food that had just been put on sale had already been purchased. Currently, there were already 3,500 units of wood and 7,000 units of stone in his warehouse. He was in no hurry, however. For the immediate period of time, except for a small number of Castle Lords who had summoned high-level battle units, who might be able to obtain food alone, the rest of the Castle Lords currently could only obtain food through trading. Therefore, Gail was not worried that the food he placed up would not be traded. ¡°Master, do we still need monster corpses?¡± Cicely came to Gale¡¯s side and spoke gently. Gale shook his head. He looked at the sky and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go tomorrow. It will be dark soon.¡± In this world full of crises, Gale had no idea what the night would bring. Even if Cicely was strong, Gail would not let her take the risk. Although dead battle units could be revived, other than needing to wait for their resurrection, there was a certain chance that their strength would decrease! This was another reason as to why Gale was so cautious. With nothing to do, Gale reopened the [World Chat]. The atmosphere inside was still lively. All sorts of information flooded his eyes. At this time, a message appeared in the center of this virtual interface. All the castle lords who were inside the [World Chat] received this message. The color of the font was blood red, looking especially horrifying. [Urgent reminder!!!] [The night is coming. The blood moon is rising into the sky. Evil spirits are everywhere. Evil energy is about to engulf the Endless Land!] [When the blood moon rises, the monsters¡¯ strength will increase by three times!] [Non-dark, devil and evil battle unit types will have varying levels of strength reduction!] [Note: If it¡¯s not urgent, don¡¯t seek death!] After everyone read this message, [World Chat] was akin to boiling water. All sorts of comments popped up. The Castle Lords who had been seriously developing their castle during the day could no longer sit still. They all expressed their opinions. [What¡¯s going on? Are they even trying to let us live?] [Luckily, my battle units are of the evil type!] [Who dares to go out in the middle of the night? If they go out, they will die in minutes!] [It has nothing to do with me. I just want to eat meat!] [Big Boss Gale, please be merciful and send some food!] [I agree with the comment above. I¡¯ve been starving for the whole day!] Even so, the direction of the conversation in the [World Chat] continued to lean towards Gale. Towards this, Gale had no idea. Of course, he was not interested either. Gale looked up at the moon hanging over the horizon. That¡¯s not right¡­ To be exact, it was a blood-red half-moon. What it emitted was not pure white moonlight, but a blood-red light. The roars of monsters came from the forest, as if celebrating the arrival of the Blood Moon. Chapter 9 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios The blood moon rose high into the sky, and the night became the time for the monsters to celebrate. If not for the seven-day beginner protection period, there would definitely be news of monsters attacking some castles tonight. ¡°It seems that when the novice protection period is over, these monsters will be our first assessment.¡± ¡°I doubt those Castle Lords who had summoned the weaker battle units will even survive the first night.¡± At the same time, Gale was very glad. Thankfully, he didn¡¯t ask her to continue hunting monsters, or Cicely would definitely be in danger. Gale returned to the castle. The light ray from the blood moon made him feel extremely uncomfortable. After returning to the castle, Gale had a simple dinner, before washing up and going to bed early. Cicely, on the other hand, did not need to rest, thus she acted as the guardian of the castle. ¡­ The next day. The blood moon hanging in the sky had disappeared, replaced once again by the blazing sun. The comforting sunlight shone on the ground once again. Gale had gotten up early, and under the preparations made by Cicely, he finished washing up. Cicely then brought him to the dining room of the castle. ¡°Did you make all these?¡± Gale pointed to the food on the wooden table. There was still some steam coming from the top of the food. Clearly, it had just been cooked. ¡°Yes, Master.¡± Her answer was short. Gale bit off a small piece of meat and chewed on it. He swallowed the food before speaking, ¡°It tastes good, but I don¡¯t need to make so much next time. It¡¯s a little wasteful.¡± The food on the wooden table was enough for three people to have their fill. While the other Castle Lords were still starving and even faced the risk of being eaten by the soldiers. They had no choice but to live their lives on the edge. In comparison, Gale¡¯s standard of living was definitely that of a landlord. This breakfast was something the other Castle Lords could not imagine. After breakfast, Gale had something very important to do today. That¡¯s right, to summon new battle units! Gale led Cicely to the barracks. As though sensing the impending arrival of a new companion, Cicely¡¯s face was filled with joy. At this moment, a prompt sounded. [Recruit now?] ¡°Begin recruitment!¡± [Please select the battle unit!] ¡°Dragon race¡ªGold Dragon!¡± [Selecting your recruitment choice!] The reason why Gale chose the dragon race was very simple. The combat power of the dragon race was extremely strong, and they even had the ability to transform. Who wouldn¡¯t want to have such a battle unit? Coupled with the fact that his military building was a special building, the dragons summoned were much stronger than those seen normally. Whether it was potential or strength, they would receive a huge increase. As the notification sounded¡­ The originally calm water surface produced ripples, the disturbance even greater than yesterday! With yesterday¡¯s experience, Gale covered his eyes and waited for the golden dragon to appear. A dazzling golden light shot out from the center of the pool. Roar! Hearing the roar of a dragon, Gale lowered his hands that were covering his eyes. A two-meter long golden dragon had appeared before him. Gale did not find this strange at all. He naturally would have summoned a Gold Dragon that had yet to reach maturity. Thus, he asked, ¡°Can you transform into a human form?¡± The Golden Dragon blinked its large eyes and nodded. A weak golden light completely covered the dragon¡¯s body. Five seconds passed, and the light shrunk before vanishing completely. What appeared in front of Gale was a girl wearing a pink costume with two small horns on her head. There was a faint blush on both sides of her cheeks. ¡°Ma-master,¡± the girl said respectfully. As it was her first time speaking in the human language, she was not very familiar with it. ¡°You¡¯re the Gold Dragon?¡± Gale examined the girl in front of him. He had always thought that the Gold Dragon species were all male and did not expect to see a female from that species. It had to be said that this military building was quite capable in the aesthetics department. ¡°Yes, Master.¡± The girl nodded. At this moment, Cicely walked to Gale and bowed. ¡°Master, shouldn¡¯t you give her a name?¡± Hearing her reminder, Gale nodded. It would be much more convenient for him to give orders in the future with a nice name. After pondering for a moment, he said to the girl, ¡°You¡¯ll be called Elena from now on.¡± Elena thanked him and smiled. Her dimples made her look like a small adorable girl. ¡°Check the Gold Dragon¡¯s information template!¡± Gale recited to himself. Not long after, the virtual interface appeared in front of him. [Gold Dragon (Elena)] [Current Growth Stage: Infant] [Strength: Tier 4 (Kill enemies to obtain Energy for upgrading)] [Potential: God Tier possible at Perfect Form] [Loyalty: 100 (Absolute Loyalty)] [Note: Loyalty Meter has been locked. This type of battle unit¡¯s Loyalty Meter will never drop.] ¡°The same panel attributes as Cicely.¡± Gale was overjoyed. This also meant that Elena had the same potential as Cicely. There might be some deviation, but it would be inconsequential. After all, Cicely was an elf, so her bloodline would naturally be more noble than other creatures. It was precisely because of the differences in bloodlines that all living beings had different potentials. Seemingly sensing the suppression of her bloodline, Elena raised her head slightly and looked at Cicely, who was standing in front of her. Elena¡¯s hands tightly gripped the hem of her clothes, appearing somewhat reserved. Gale took the opportunity to ask, ¡°Elena, what skills do you have?¡± Upon hearing the voice, Elena was stunned for a moment before she immediately replied, ¡°Master, I can use magic power to augment and boost other creatures. Of course, I also have powerful attacks.¡± Gale¡¯s eyes lit up when he heard that. He did not expect that Elena was actually a Gold Dragon that was versed in auxiliary methods. This was equivalent to Gale obtaining a Gold Dragon that could be used for attack and defense. Then, Elena began a series of demonstrations. She first summoned a tiny Five Elements Magic Circle that covered her wrist. Gale, who was closest to Elena, sensed a strange feeling. It was as though his body had become much lighter. Then, Elena demonstrated her attack method. This time, she used the Five Elements Magic Circle to summon a long sword that was burning with demonic flames. A red gem was embedded in the hilt of the sword. Swoosh! Elena waved her sword, and a half-meter-tall fiery red sword aura shot toward the protective shield not far away. Bang! The sword energy drew a long and narrow gully on the ground. There was still a trace of fire in the sword scar. However, the moment the Sword Aura touched the protective barrier, it disappeared. Since the newbie¡¯s protection period was not over yet, it would nullify all attacks. ¡°Not bad.¡± ¡°Cicely, today you¡¯ll take Elena to hunt monsters.¡± Following the command, there was no need to waste words. Cicely flew toward the forest with Elena. Gale watched the battle units leave and sighed to himself. ¡°This military building is quite skewed, specially arranging for me only female battle units.¡± It had to be said that this military building was quite capable in the aesthetics department. The battle units summoned were both good-looking. Cicely¡¯s appearance was more like an older sister, while Elena was more like a loli. Chapter 10 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios With some time to spare, Gale opened the [World Chat]. The scarlet words at the top had disappeared, replaced by another announcement. The general meaning was that the monsters¡¯ strength had returned to normal. Most importantly, the battle units were not suppressed by the Blood Moon. [Wu wu wu, I¡¯m so touched. I¡¯ve finally eaten a mouthful of hot food!] [After going hungry for a day, I¡¯m finally eating some delicious beef!] [As expected of our goddess, the food sold is indeed cheaper than Big Boss Gale¡¯s!] [Everyone, follow me in boycotting Gale¡¯s food!] [Agreed!} [Boycott profiteers, boycott Gale! Support Rowling, support our goddess!] More and more Castle Lords began to go against Gale. Upon seeing this, even a fool could tell what was going on. This was clearly the sound of someone fighting for a share of voice. It was this woman named Rowling! Gale ignored the remarks that denigrated him, neither did he find it necessary to take note. What he didn¡¯t expect was that there would be people selling food so quickly. It was much faster than he had expected. Originally, Gale planned to continue reaping the huge profits from selling food for a few days to upgrade the castle. Who would have thought that midway would appear a wild Rowling. She had messed up Gale¡¯s plan. He opened the [Trading Channel]. The number of goods sold had now increased. As more and more castle lords summoned their new battle units, they now had the capital to fight against the lower tiered monsters. Among them, there were two people who had the most stock. One belonged to Gale, the other to Rowling. This morning, Rowling, who was known as the ¡°Goddess¡±, uploaded 500 units of food. All of them were beef. Most importantly, the price she was selling was at half of Gale¡¯s! Just as [World Chat] said, this price, when compared to Gale, was practically like selling it out of goodwill. The prices of the other Castle Lords were much lower than Gale¡¯s. In a few seconds, the stocks of these people were all sold out! As for Gale¡¯s goods, only a few people continued to buy them. It was a tragic sight! ¡°I guess I can¡¯t be so careless anymore.¡± ¡°A billion Castle Lords, how could no one be able to develop themselves?¡± Gale admitted that at the beginning, he had been a little arrogant. However, after this incident, he swore to never make such a mistake again. Since the other party was selling it cheaper than him, it was naturally out of his control. Gale was mainly worried about the development of the castle. The materials he needed to upgrade the castle were all obtained through his sale of meat. As for the title of ¡®profiteer¡¯, it was nothing. When you have the strength, everyone will automatically abandon this memory. They would even smile at you. At that moment, Gale noticed that there was a flashing red dot on his [Friend] section and clicked on it. ¡°So many people?¡± Gale looked at the virtual panel in front of him. It was filled with people who wanted to add him as a friend. Among them, the person who had sent him a friend request was his ¡®competitor¡¯ Rowling! Gale rejected them all without thinking. He did not want to negotiate with others, especially during the early stages. Every Castle Lord had yet to develop, thus socializing now was a waste of time. Could it be that they added each other as friends to say goodnights every day? Gale was sure that besides Rowling, everyone else who added him as a friend was here to beg for food. ¡­ Time gradually passed. With the addition of Elena, the hunting speed of the monsters gradually increased. As Elena and Cicely started to develop a tacit understanding while working, the relationship between the two of them subtly changed. While Cicely focused on taking the initiative and attacking, Elena would cast Elemental Magic to support the former and increase her damage. These low tiered monsters were not their match at all. The monsters they were hunting now were all within the castle¡¯s territory. This was an order that Gale had given them. If they were to hunt monsters, it would naturally be from the inside out. As his sphere of influence continued to expand, the number of monsters Gale had to clear would increase. Moreover, the tier of monsters would gradually increase. In the courtyard. The number of monster corpses slowly piled up. After accumulating to a certain amount, Gale waved his hand and disintegrated them all! In less than half a day, the number of monsters they had killed was almost equal to yesterday¡¯s total amount. ¡°I guess it won¡¯t be long before I¡¯m free to move around the castle¡¯s sphere of influence.¡± Gale¡¯s current strength was only at Tier 1, and he could not go out to do any leisure strolling yet. Fortunately, there were two strong soldiers protecting him. As long as he cleared out the monsters in his territory, Gale could go out and take a look. He continued to do the work that he repeated every day. Disintegrating the corpses of monsters and putting food up to trade. As for the price¡­. It was the same price as yesterday. Since most people said that he was a ¡®profiteer¡¯, he would become one! Gale did not care what others thought of him. What mattered was getting the resources. Moreover, he was not worried about his trades not going through. Even though there was cheaper food, the quantity was very limited. Those who didn¡¯t manage to get it would eventually buy the one sold by Gale. After all, there were a billion Castle Lords in this world. Not everyone could be self-sustaining at this point. Some of the battle units summoned the next day by the Castle Lords were still very weak. As long as they got too hungry, they would grit their teeth and buy it no matter how expensive the food was. ¡°Looks like I¡¯m really like a profiteer¡­¡± Gale smiled wryly. Just as he had guessed, the 400 units of food he put on display were all sold out within seconds. Most of the buyers even scolded Gale. Since there were too many people, Gale did not intend to block them. Actually, this was actually quite good for him. You can scold me, but you still have to give me your money. This was called happiness amidst pain. With this thought, Gale opened [World Chat] again. [Attention! An unscrupulous merchant has appeared on the trading channel. Everyone, please pay attention. Lock down your resources and don¡¯t spend them rashly!] [Is the person above sick? I¡¯m so hungry that I¡¯ve lost weight. If I don¡¯t buy Big Boss Gale¡¯s, am I supposed to eat your battle units?] [Even if I starve to death, I won¡¯t buy Gale¡¯s food!] [I said the same thing yesterday, but so what? I still bought two units of food today. How fragrant!] [Above, I¡¯m the same as you. Although it¡¯s expensive, it¡¯s really delicious!] At the same time, on a vast grassland. A beautiful woman was sitting cross-legged on the grass. Beside her was a lion covered in golden fur. This woman was precisely Rowling! She stroked the lion¡¯s back affectionately. ¡°Gale, you actually dare reject my friend request?¡± Rowling stared blankly at the notification of her rejected friend request reflected on the virtual screen. Chapter 11 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios Rowling stared at the virtual panel in front of her, slightly stunned. She hadn¡¯t expected Gale to reject her friend request. Rowling was a goddess recognized by millions of people! Many people wanted to add her as a friend, but Gale rejected her directly! After a long time, Rowling said to herself, ¡°Someone as good as Gale must have had a lot of people adding him. He probably wrongly deleted my request.¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s it.¡± How would Gale feel if he knew what Rowling was thinking? As the saying goes, don¡¯t try to guess a woman¡¯s thoughts. Because you can never guess her mind. After ¡®figuring out¡¯ what had made her unhappy, Rowling opened the [Trading Channel]. Her gaze lingered on the merchandise Gale had put up. It was still the same expensive price. However, no matter how expensive it was, it was still sought after by many people. ¡°This person is good at everything, but he¡¯s a little greedy.¡± At this moment, Rowling treated Gale as a man who only knew how to make quick money. The food she sold was half the price of Gale¡¯s, which was considered generous. Selling the foods didn¡¯t matter to Rowling at all, because she didn¡¯t care about her returns. What she wanted was to spread her reputation throughout the circle of Castle Lords and let more of them know about her. This way, in the future when the Castle Lords began to compete for hegemony, she could use the foundation that she had established now to rope in some powerful allies and form an alliance with them! Sometimes, strength was important, but a good team was also worth having. This would be a sustained investment. Rowling believed that she would definitely receive a generous reward in the future. That was what she had intended to do. After all, Gale¡¯s strength had spread throughout the circle. As the first group of Castle Lord who hunted monsters, the commotion caused was definitely not as simple as it seemed. According to her understanding, there were already people secretly trying to rope Gale in. However, based on the current situation, those people probably didn¡¯t succeed either. ¡°Looks like I can only talk to him when we meet in the future.¡± Rowling was interested in befriending Gale. Unlike the other castle lords, she wanted to befriend Gale so they could look out for each other in the future if either of them met with difficulties. She firmly believed that the soldiers Gale summoned were definitely top-notch. It might even surpass her Golden Lion! This was also the main reason Rowling wanted to rope Gale in. Strength was everything! At this moment, a deafening roar was heard. Rowling was forced out of her thoughts by the sound. ¡°Tier 5 monster ¡ª Barbaric Bull!¡± She quickly recognized the owner of the voice. It was obviously not the first time she had heard this voice. Rowling did not show the slightest hint of fear. Instead, she felt a little impatient. ¡°I can¡¯t defeat that Tier 5 Barbaric Bull for now. I¡¯ll wait a few more days.¡± ¡°I might even be able to obtain Origin Crystals after killing him.¡± Origin Crystals could only be dropped by Tier 5 monsters or higher. Like the Origin Edges, there was a chance that they would drop, but it was not a hundred percent. If one was unlucky, they might not even be able to get an Origin Crystal loot even after killing 10 Tier 5 monsters. The probability of an Origin Crystal dropping was even lower than an Origin Edge. The higher the difficulty, the more precious the Origin Crystal became. Origin Crystals were mainly used to upgrade the military buildings. ¡°Come back.¡± Rowling used her mind to recall all her Golden Lions. The highest level of her battle units was only at Tier 3. If she encountered that bull, she could only stand and wait for death. Sometimes, even the slightest bit of strength could result in death, let alone when the difference between every level was like an insurmountable ravine. ¡­ At the same time, Gale was lying leisurely on the rocking chair and eating the fruits off the plate that was prepared for him. At the moment, there was probably no one could be as carefree as him. Suddenly, Gale felt his nose itch. Achoo! Gale rubbed his itching nose. This was already his sixth sneeze in a few days. Needless to say, it was definitely done by those people who had called him a ¡®profiteer¡¯. Gale squirmed slightly and changed his position. His life was very comfortable. Of course, he did not just immerse himself in it. With less than six days left, the end of the protection period loomed closer. He had to make the best use of this opportunity to enjoy himself. Once the seven-day protection period was up, he might not be able to live such a leisurely life in the future. Even if he had the intention to hunt monsters with the soldiers, his own strength would not allow it! Gale¡¯s current strength was only at Tier 1. With such strength, he could only be cannon fodder. He might as well rest in the castle. Right now, he was more like a doll placed in a showcase room. Only when there were corpses did he then come up to disintegrate them. It was quite nice to lie here when there was nothing to do. Of course, he would sometimes check the information shown in [World Chat] to understand more about the Endless Land. Gale spent nearly half a day understanding the basic information of the Endless Land. Endless Land. A piece of vast territory. There were countless monsters and magical beasts here, all of which posed a great threat to the Castle Lords. Due to the existence of the seven-day protection period, no one had seen the true brutal side of monsters. As for the billion Castle Lords, they had all been teleported into this territory. However, there were also native factions in the Endless Territories, including many small countries and some large empires. Fortunately, these castle lords seemed to have been teleported to a place far away from these factions, so they wouldn¡¯t die at the beginning. However¡­. Gale was certain that it was only a matter of time before he encountered these native Empires. Once you reach a certain stage, you will definitely attract some people¡¯s attention. At the same time, he was observing the Castle Lords who often spoke. Most of the battle units summoned by the Castle Lords were intermediate battle units, with few summoning advanced tier battle units. As for the pinnacle battle units, there were even fewer. Even if someone did, they would have kept it a secret. ¡°Based on my current development, as long as nothing goes wrong, I will definitely be able to pass this test.¡± ¡°I need to get some more materials, I¡¯m almost able to upgrade the castle again today.¡± Gale took inventory of the materials he currently had. 6,500 units of wood, 2,500 units of stone. The speed at which he collected resources was very fast, he was already a huge step ahead of others. Naturally, the source of these resources was obtained through the joint efforts of Elena and Cicely. Apart from transporting the corpses back, they spent the rest of their time hunting monsters in the forest. At that moment, the howl of a wolf was heard. Gale stood on the observation tower of the castle. He could clearly see a few white lights emitting from the forest from time to time, mixed with some flames. ¡°Have they encountered danger?¡± Chapter 12 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios Gale stood on the observation platform and looked at what was happening in the forest. Within the forest. Elena and Cicely were leaning against each other with their backs to each other. More than ten muscular grizzlies surrounded them. The grizzly bears¡¯ eyes were blood red as it glared at the battle units in front of it. However, the expressions of both Elena and Cicely were as calm as water. The highest grade of these grizzly bears was only Tier 2. One move was enough to deal with these small fries. ¡°Do you want to do it or let me do it?¡± Cicely asked Elena. Elena immediately replied, ¡°Sister Cicely, you should do it. I¡¯ll support you by the side.¡± Upon hearing that, Cicely nodded and no longer spoke. Her eyes narrowed as she suddenly sped toward the nearest grizzly bear. The grizzly bear was stunned by the sudden attack and stood rooted to the ground. By the time it reacted, it was already a cold corpse. Bright red blood splattered on the ground, and the smell of blood stimulated the remaining grizzly bears. Their auras became increasingly violent. Roar! At this moment, a grizzly bear howled at the two of them. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, this is my master¡¯s territory. You should be the ones leaving instead.¡± ¡°Of course. It¡¯s too late for you to leave now.¡± Cicely remained emotionless. She was at Tier 4 and had a higher level of intelligence, so she naturally understood what the bear was trying to say. The grizzly bear¡¯s thought process was rather slow, and it didn¡¯t react even after a long time. However, Cicely¡¯s attack had already arrived. A wind blade directly pierced through the bear¡¯s head. One attack, one kill! And this was under the circumstances where she had restrained her strength. Gale had specifically instructed them not to destroy the corpses of these monsters unless their lives were in danger. Otherwise, with Cicely¡¯s current strength, she could completely disintegrate the black bear with one strike! This was also the most terrifying aspect of a unique battle unit! When the black bears saw that two of their companions had died, they looked at each other and swarmed forward! These soldiers who invaded their territory must be destroyed! Bears had a strong sense of territorial protection. Those who wandered in their territory and were not of the same race would immediately be regarded as enemies and annihilated. This was to protect the sanctity of their territory. Cicely did not waste any more words. She flapped the golden wings on her back and began to harvest the lives on the battlefield. Some grizzly bears didn¡¯t even have time to scream before they died. In an instant, there was only one bear left. There were a few wounds on its back and blood was still gushing out. The grizzly bear backed away as it watched Cicely approach him. In its eyes, Cicely was now no different from a demon. Roar! Just as she was about to kill the grizzly bear, an even louder howl was heard. Upon hearing the voice, Cicely looked over. It was a monster that was two meters tall! To be precise, this monster was the Grizzly Bears¡¯ Leader The mark on its forehead was enough to explain everything. Gale, who was standing on the observation post, looked down at everything from afar. ¡°A Tier 5 monster. I wonder if she can defeat it.¡± A Tier 5 monster would have the chance to produce Origin Crystals. However, Cicely and Elena were both Tier 4 battle units, causing Gale to hesitate. By the time he was ready to recall them, it was already too late. Cicely saw the Grizzly Bear Leader, but she showed no fear at all and killed its people first. Then, she turned to look directly at the leader. The leader was infuriated by the fact that Cicely dared to kill its people right under its nose. Bang! It slammed its palms hard against the ground, kicking up dust. As the dust settled, a one-meter long wind blade flew towards Cicely. It was so fast that Gale, who was watching from afar, felt nervous. Seeing the incoming attack, Cicely did not panic. With a thought, a pair of exquisite wings appeared. She flapped her wings and directly dodged the wind blade. The wind blade did not stop, slashing towards the tree behind both of them. In the face of the wind blades, these trees were like plastic. The moment they came into contact with the wind blades, they were sliced in half and crashed on the ground. Dust blanketed the entire area. The Grizzly Bear Leader refused to believe it. It released two more wind blades and attacked from both sides! But Cicely managed to dodge all of them perfectly. Seeing this, the leader of the grizzly bears decided to retreat and slowly backed off. However, how could Cicely let it go? She pinched the air with her hands, and an invisible restraint trapped the leader of the grizzly bears, making it unable to move at all. The leader of the grizzly bears started roaring uneasily. It had never seen anything like this before. ¡°Invading my master¡¯s castle is a death sentence!¡± Cicely floated in the air. There was no pity in her eyes, only killing intent towards the enemy before her! She stretched out her hands and drew a circle in the air. In an instant, a silver spear appeared. Seeing this, Elena released the elemental magic circle from her hand, which shot directly to Cicely, who was in midair, to increase her combat power. Next, she resumed her dragon form and charged at the Grizzly Bear. Even if Cicely and Elena were both at Tier 4¡­. However, the bloodline they possessed was indeed much more noble than the living beings here. Coupled with the support of Elena¡¯s elemental magic formation, even if they were to face a Tier 5 creature, they would not be afraid at all! This was also the reason why Cicely was able to beat the Grizzly Bear Leader from the very beginning. Apart from their own high battle strength, the rest of their gap in strength was bridged by Elena¡¯s support. ¡°On the orders of my Lord, kill all enemies that come!¡± As soon as she finished speaking, the spear in her hand turned into a ray of white light and shot towards the leader who lay prostrated on the ground. Its heavy body was like a piece of wood as the spear pierced through it. The leader of the grizzly bears had an unwilling look in his eyes as he fell to the ground. The moment the grizzly bear leader reached its end, a beam of light shot out from within Cicely¡¯s body. She had successfully entered Tier 5! Gale, who was standing on the spectator stand, also had a breakthrough in his strength. The current him had reached Tier 2! Just as he was confused, a notification sounded in his head. [Killing Tier Five Monster Grizzly Bear, +60 Energy, +2 Origin Edges, +1 Origin Crystal] ¡°Origin Crystal!¡± Gale¡¯s breathing quickened. Origin Crystals were a necessary item to upgrade the military buildings. They were several times more valuable than Origin Edges! ¡°Looks like it¡¯s not far from the day I upgrade my battle unit building.¡± Gale instantly felt that the future was promising. At the same time, Elena and Cicely returned to the castle with the spoils of the day. ¡°You¡¯ve been promoted?¡± Gale asked Cicely. Hearing this, Cicely replied, ¡°Yes, Master.¡± After getting an answer, Gale asked Elena, ¡°What about you? Do you feel like you¡¯re about to be promoted?¡± ¡°Master, I¡¯m close to reaching Tier 5 too.¡± Elena bowed. Chapter 13 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios After understanding the complete situation, Gale deconstructed the spoils into food. The harvest this time was quite good, close to 300 units of food! Gale did not hesitate at all when it came to the food. He immediately placed it on the [Trading Channel]. There were almost a hundred units of food piled up in the warehouse that were also put up for sale. ¡°The meat of a Tier 5 monster is really delicious.¡± Gale closed his eyes as he seriously savored the feel of the food. He could feel that eating the meat of high-levelled monsters was beneficial to his physical strength! It took nearly two hours to finish selling all the meat. ¡°It seems that for this second day, there are many Castle Lords that summoned powerful battle units.¡± Gale lay on the rocking chair and began to figure out the current situation of the various Castle Lords. The truth was no different from what he had imagined. For the battle units summoned on the second day, even if they could not hunt monsters, they could still search for wild fruits near the forest to fill their stomachs. And there were some of the Castle Lords who had summoned powerful battle units with the ability to hunt Tier 1 monsters. Therefore, they began to sell excess food in the [Trading Channel] to obtain resources. The price was naturally much cheaper than Gale¡¯s. This also made more and more people know about the existence of Gale as a profiteer. Gale however didn¡¯t pay much attention to that. Others may need a good reputation, but not himself. The trait of having unique battle units had given Gale the capital to survive in this world. Gain the support of other Castle Lords? Sorry, he never had to. When you¡¯re powerful, the whole world will naturally be your friend. If you are weak, the entire world will be your enemy. At the same time. The Tier 5 bear meat that Gale put on sale shocked the entire world. At this moment, in the [World Chat], there was a crazy discussion. [Isn¡¯t this too strong? It¡¯s only the second day!] [Although Gale is a profiteer, there is no doubt that he¡¯s really strong!] [This is the meat of a Tier 5 monster, which means that Gale¡¯s battle units are at least at Tier 5!] [It¡¯s just that the price is too expensive. One unit actually costs three Origin Edges!] [Damn, as expected of a profiteer, but I really want to eat it!] [Who doesn¡¯t want to eat such food? It can increase the energy of the consumer!] The direction of their conversation began to change, and they returned to the topic of Gale being a ¡®profiteer¡¯. The main reason was because the price he sold it for was too high. One had to know that many castle lords did not have the ability to hunt monsters, let alone obtain Origin Edges. According to the current market price, three units of food could be exchanged for one Origin Edge currently. Sometimes, this price might not even be enough. However, Gale directly reversed the order. It could be said that only the ¡°rich¡± could afford to eat such food! It was a sky-high price! Gale directly placed 10 units of Tier 5 grizzly bear meat on sale this time. If converted to Origin Edges, he would obtain 30 just from this! The Origin Edges were also dropped based on chance, not a guaranteed matter. Thus, if one was unlucky, they would need to hunt nearly 100 monsters to gather 30 Origin Edges! However¡­. Gale was not worried that his commodity would fail to be sold off. Everyone knew the value of Tier 5 meat. Furthermore, the quantity was limited. Everyone knew what would happen if things were rare or limited. With a billion Castle Lords, he didn¡¯t believe that there wouldn¡¯t be a fool who would buy it. The people in [World Chat] were still fervently discussing this topic. [I feel that the Tier 5 bear meat alone is worthy of this price, just from its effects!] [Black Loach Castle will exchange for a unit of Tier 5 Bear Meat. Congratulations to Big Boss Gale for killing a Tier 5 monster. You are one step closer to the peak of the Endless Land!] [The Elven Village will also exchange for a unit of Tier 5 meat. I hope Big Boss Gale agrees to the friend request!] [The Golden Nation wishes to buy a unit of Tier 5 bear meat. Hope to cooperate more with Big Boss Gale!] [Black Dragon Capital¡­.] [F*ck, a big shot has appeared!] [Damn, the name of the Black Dragon Capital is so domineering. It seems like it¡¯s a big shot who summoned a Black Dragon!] [Look, there¡¯s the Golden Nation, Goddess Rowling¡¯s castle!] [So many big shots are speaking!] [As expected of the big shots. 10 units of Tier 5 bear meat were emptied in less than a minute!] [I¡¯ve decided. I¡¯m now Big Boss Gale¡¯s little fan!] [Above, I¡¯m the same. I¡¯ve converted from a hater to a fan now!] Many ¡®big shots¡¯ who usually kept a low profile came out to congratulate Gale on hunting a Tier 5 monster. However, amongst them, very few people were sincere. Some of them used this trade to increase the reputation of their castle! After all, taking out three Origin Edges in exchange for a unit of food was enough to prove that their castle was extraordinary. It was akin to promoting their own castle. They might have earned it, but Gale would never play a game where he would be on the losing end. In this exchange, he obtained thirty Origin Edges. It saved him the time to hunt many monsters. In addition to the Origin Edges he had previously obtained, Gale now had 65! He just needed to gather another 35 Origin Edges and one more Origin Crystal. Then Gale could upgrade the military building. He was observing everything that was discussed in [World Chat]. These castles that had stepped out into the limelight might become his enemies in the future. A castle that could obtain large numbers of Origin Edges in a short period of time would at least have some high-level battle units. It was even possible that they had summoned a battle unit from the pinnacle races! [I feel that Big Boss Gale has definitely obtained many good things this time!] [Definitely, that¡¯s a Tier 5 monster!] [There should be Origin Crystals, perhaps even rare things such as blueprints!] [As expected of Big Boss, when can I become someone like Big Boss Gale!] [Above, wake up, stop daydreaming!] [Is Big Boss Gale here? Can you let us know what you got from killing a Tier 5 monster?] [Agreed with the above!] [Boss Gale, please satisfy our curiosity!] More and more people started calling Gale¡¯s name. Towards such people, there was no doubt about Gale¡¯s actions. They were all blacklisted. There were always some retards who wanted him to reveal his trump cards. Honestly, anyone with a brain would not ask such a question. After closing the [World Chat], Gale began to count all the resources he had obtained in the past two days. In total, he obtained nearly 10,000 units of wood and 7,000 units of stone. It was almost time to upgrade the castle again. ¡°If everything goes well, I can upgrade the military as well in the next two days.¡± The castle and the military building was the capital for Gale to survive in this world. Naturally, he had to dedicate the majority of his resources to these two things. ¡°I might even be able to upgrade to an Advanced castle today.¡± Gale lay in the rocking chair, murmuring to himself. Chapter 14 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios Rowling, who was known as the ¡®Goddess¡¯, was leading the troops she had summoned to hunt the cows on the grassland. This was her god-given advantage. The cows here were practically harmless, and their reactions were very slow. The amount of food they produced when deconstructed was even more than the average low tiered monster! Furthermore, the battle units she summoned were the kings of the plains, lions! Their movements were extremely agile, more than enough to kill these wild cows. ¡°The castle has been promoted to the Intermediate stage.¡± Rowling looked at the new castle in front of her as a heavenly, sweet smile spread across her face. Today, she upgraded her castle. Through the food sold, not only did she gain a good reputation, she also obtained a lot of resources! At this rate, it would only be a matter of time before she could upgrade again to an Advanced castle. At first, Rowling felt that her speed of progression was not slow. She had probably already surpassed many Castle Lords. It was not impossible for her to dominate the Endless Lands in the future. However, she now felt how childish her previous thoughts were. The Tier 5 monster meat that Gale had sold had completely crushed her pride. Rowling¡¯s battle units were of the pinnacle tier! Furthermore, she had summoned six of them! However, because of the starting tier of her battle units, she could not even approach that Tier 5 monster on the prairie, let alone kill it. However, under similar circumstances, Gale actually managed to kill a Tier 5 grizzly bear! One had to know that a grizzly bear was much fiercer than a bull in the grassland. Not only were the bears bigger in size, their reaction speed was fast and attack power was many times higher than that of a wild bull. ¡°Looks like your battle units are much stronger than I thought.¡± Rowling was now certain that Gale had definitely summoned pinnacle battle units as well! The strength of his castle had definitely exceeded her expectations. However, if Rowling were to find out that Gale¡¯s battle units were not pinnacle units, and were instead unique battle units¡­.. It was unknown how she would feel. Of course, she naturally would not think of this possibility. After all, in the Endless Land, having pinnacle battle units were already very rare! Only those who were favored by the heavens would be able to obtain soldiers that surpassed the pinnacle! Furthermore, that was only a legend, no one had seen it with their eyes before. ¡°No matter how he managed to hunt down this Tier 5 monsters, Gale is still worth befriending.¡± After thinking about it, Rowling sent Gale another friend request. A talent like him would definitely attract the attention of many Castle Lords. Rowling had to strike first! After a long time, Rowling saw that Gale still had not agreed to her friend request. Unwilling to give up, she sent over another request once more. ¡°It¡¯s going to be dark soon. Let¡¯s return to the castle first.¡± Rowling looked at the sky. With the current strength of her battle units, they could not wander at night. The attributes of her battle units at night would be many times weaker than that in the day. Without much hesitation, Rowling brought her troops back to her castle, Golden Nation. Night fell. The blood moon once again replaced the sun. A blood-red radiance sprinkled across the vast and endless land. Nighttime was when the monsters moved frequently. Their strength had increased to a certain extent. More and more monsters could be heard roaring from outside the castle. Night had officially fallen! Gale too called back his battle units. He did not become arrogant because of the increase in their strength. Gale was a rational person, he prioritized developing himself step by step. In such a world, it was very difficult for those Castle Lords, who became arrogant after obtaining powerful strength, to gain a foothold. Moreover, Gale did not think that with his current strength, he could hunt monsters without any scruples in the dark. As night fell. The announcement appeared in the [World Chat] again. The content of the notice was the same as last night¡¯s. It was to tell the castle lords not to go out at night in case their battle units sacrificed themselves. With the announcement, no sane Castle Lord would go out to hunt monsters at night. It was difficult to hunt monsters in the day, but monsters at night were even more terrifying! However¡­. There was an additional message on the [World Chat] today. [Warning: Five days until the end of the protection period!] [Five days later, you will face the first assessment¡ªBeast Tide!] [Successfully resisting the attack of the beast tide will give handsome rewards!] [Whoever performs the best in the beast tide will receive a unique reward!] [Similarly, a large number of people will be eliminated from the beast tide. Elimination represents death!] [Looking forward to your performance!] The [World Chat] at night was more heated than during the day. Especially after seeing this announcement, it was as if there was an uproar as all kinds of information flooded the screen. Even if one could only send one message a day, there was still a lot of information! [F*ck, this ¡®activity¡¯ is quite risky!] [It seems to be mandatory participation. One billion Castle Lords are participating!] [This Unique Reward is enough for us to take action!] [Comrades, our chance to change fate has arrived!] [Person above, do you think this is a movie? Are you a king seeking to regain your throne?] [No matter what, we have to take a gamble! Whether it¡¯s for the rewards or not, we have to at least survive the beast tide!] [That¡¯s right, we must survive!] [Based on my current situation, I feel like I¡¯m going to die. I¡¯ve gotten useless battle units for two consecutive days. Besides eating, they are only eating. They are even more relaxed than me. I didn¡¯t expect that in this world, I still have to feed my own family!] [Mine is the same. The battle units I summoned were dwarfs. They are scared to death when they see a lamb, let alone hunting monsters!] [What is this Unique Reward?] [I don¡¯t know, but this is something that other Castle Lords can¡¯t obtain. It will definitely be good!] [I just thought about it. The big shots who have the ability to compete for this Unique Reward are probably the big shots who bought the Tier 5 bear meat today!] [I feel that Big Boss Gale is stronger. Right now, only he has the ability to kill a Tier 5 bear!] [I don¡¯t think so. The other big shots might have killed a Tier 5 monster, but they didn¡¯t sell it!] [The battle units of these big shots are definitely top-notch!] [Tsk, so what if it¡¯s a top-notch army? This is a beast tide, what¡¯s important is not the strength of the army, but the tactics!] [Let¡¯s work hard together. Maybe we can succeed?] [Right, let¡¯s work hard together!] ¡°Unique reward?¡± Gale¡¯s breathing quickened. He knew better than anyone what the word unique meant. ¡°Only the person who performs the best will receive the Unique Reward.¡± Gale took a deep breath and suppressed his excitement. There was no one who didn¡¯t want the Unique reward. He was the same. According to Gale¡¯s hypothesis, he had the highest chance of getting the reward. His battle units were unique and surpassed any Castle Lord. However, he did not become arrogant. Before the beast tide arrived, nothing was certain. ¡°I have to give it my all!¡± Chapter 15 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios ¡°Looks like I have to speed up the castle¡¯s development.¡± Gale looked at the virtual panel in front of him and had this thought. There were a billion people participating in this beast tide assessment! The rewards for the assessment were very generous, especially the unique reward. No one could resist such temptation. Of course, death was unavoidable. After the beast tide assessment ended, there would definitely be a large number of Castle Lords who would withdraw from the competition stage forever! Death and opportunity coexisted. Even if he did not receive the Unique Reward, just surviving should be enough to brighten the situation of a Castle Lord. That was because, as long as one performed in the beast tide assessment, they would be rewarded! After closing the [World Chat], Gale began to count all the resources he had obtained in the past two days. Gale came into the courtyard. With a wave of his hand, the pile of monster corpses on the ground was instantly deconstructed. He obtained another 100 units of food. As for the food, Gale once again put it on the trading channel. Ever since he started eating the Tier 5 bear meat, his taste buds had become picky. Eating these low-level meat was like chewing wax. Unless he was really hungry, Gale would not eat the meat of low levelled monsters often. The sales of Gale¡¯s products were very slow now. The reason was naturally because the price he was selling was still high, and it wasn¡¯t something an ordinary person could afford. However, there were still many ¡®spendthrifts¡¯ that came to purchase it. After all, there were only a few people selling food. For example, the ¡®cheap¡¯ food that Rowling put up for sale was immediately snatched up. Those who didn¡¯t manage to get any food could only buy Gale¡¯s ¡®gold¡¯ food with tears in their eyes. Thus, Gale¡¯s reputation as a ¡®profiteer¡¯ had completely spread. More and more people are becoming familiar with his style. Of course, it also attracted a large number of loyal ¡®fans¡¯ for him. ¡°It¡¯s a pity that such high profits won¡¯t last long.¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid the profits from the food are going to drop.¡± According to Gale¡¯s own conjecture. When the third day arrived, another batch of Castle Lords would definitely summon soldiers with the ability to hunt monsters. At that time, the difficulty of obtaining food would decrease. No one would be willing to buy food at such a high price any longer. As more and more Castle Lords began to hunt monsters, the number of people selling food would naturally increase. This way, the price of food would definitely be suppressed. After all, every owner of the castle who sold food wanted people to buy his food to obtain resources. Although their profits would become lower, the number of people buying would increase. Quantity over quality, this was the path of selling food in the future. Luckily, Gale had already reaped the best profits from his sale of food. Even if it was over, he would not suffer any losses. Gale¡¯s current resources were enough to upgrade his castle to an Advanced castle. He believed that with such a speed of leveling up, he would definitely be the first among the one billion Lords! After all, he was the only one who dared to sell food like this. The price of food sold by others was only half of his. Sometimes, it was even lower. At the same time, a notification sounded. [The upgrade conditions for the castle have been met. Do you want to upgrade immediately?] ¡°Upgrade!¡± Gale had been looking forward to this moment for a long time. As soon as he finished speaking, the entire castle was enveloped by light. The appearance of the castle changed again. Five minutes later. A grand castle that was thirty meters tall stood before Gale. The structure of the castle became bigger once again! At this moment, the notification sounded again. [Congratulations, the castle has been upgraded to an Advanced castle!] [Your sphere of influence has increased to 2,000 meters!] [The defense of the Castle Heart has been increased by three times!] [The influence of your castle in the Endless Land has greatly increased!] [Remark: In the forest, there are already organizations that have noticed the existence of your castle!] Gale looked at the majestic castle before him. It would be a lie to say that he did not feel emotional. It was his first time seeing such a majestic structure. Furthermore, it was his own residence. With the upgrade of the castle, other than the upgrade of the buildings, the sphere of influence and the Castle Heart had also been upgraded. The Castle Heart was the thing that looked like a tombstone in the center of his sphere of influence. The Castle Heart had been upgraded once again, and it could be said to be difficult to destroy. However, Gale didn¡¯t think that this thing could really ignore the monsters¡¯ attack. It would at most delay the time needed for the monsters to completely destroy it. If the monsters managed to break into the castle, it would only be a matter of time before they destroyed the Castle Heart. As long as the Castle Heart was destroyed, it meant that this castle had lost the qualifications to contend in the Endless Land. ¡°The organizations in the forest?¡± Gale looked towards the direction of the forest. At the same time, he saw countless pairs of red eyes. Looking away, Gale felt a vague headache coming on. This was not good news. They were still new to the game, so the monsters in the forest were not a threat to the castle. But what about when their beginner¡¯s period was over? Those that noticed Gale¡¯s castle would definitely swarm over. Especially this organization. He did not have much time left, only five days! In the Endless Land, what they should be scared of were not the monsters, but the natives who were originally living here. These organizations posed a greater threat to the Castle Lord than monsters. After all, these organizations usually occupied a large area in the Endless Land. If one wanted to truly occupy the Endless Land, then conflicts between both parties were unavoidable. Similarly¡­. These organizations will also pay attention to you. Unfortunately, Gale¡¯s performance had already been noticed by a certain organization. If not for the existence of the beginner protection period¡­ Perhaps this organization would have had long since come to attack the castle. Gale instantly felt the terrifying grip of time on himself. All he could do now was work hard to develop the castle. This was the only way to resist the impending crisis when the protection period was over. Be it the beast tide or the native organizations, the basis to stand tall amidst this would be the strength of the Castle Lord. Anything else would be just empty words. As though sensing the change in Gale¡¯s mood, both of his battle units knelt on one knee. They turned to Gale and said, ¡°I¡¯m willing to become a sharp sword in Master¡¯s hands and cut down all enemies!¡± Gale stared at the blood moon hanging in the sky. Perhaps it was because his strength had reached Tier 2. This time, he did not feel any discomfort. ¡°I must get this Unique Reward!¡± Gale stood on the observation deck, staring into the red eyes in the dark. If he wanted to dominate the Endless Lands, he had to obtain this Unique reward. Furthermore, he had to be extremely confident that he could obtain it. Chapter 16 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios After a long time. It wasn¡¯t until sleepiness washed over him that Gale returned to the house to sleep. Soon after, he fell asleep. In his dreams¡­ Gale rode on a dragon and traversed above the nine heavens. Everywhere they passed, people would kneel and worship them. Under the support of the many soldiers and citizens surrounding him, he stepped onto the peak of the Endless Land! He became the sole ruler of this Endless Land! Ruling over its hundreds of millions of denizens! Life and death could be decided with a single thought of his! However, the moment he stepped onto the peak, a sudden change occurred. A demonic creature appeared in the originally clear sky! The body of the demonic creature was so huge that one could not see where its head was! With a raise of its hand, it absorbed all the battle units into its body! No one could resist the powerful suction force and could only be reduced to lambs waiting to be slaughtered! Finally, the demon turned its gaze to Gale. It waved its bloody hand, gripping Gale tightly within. Just as it was about to swallow him¡­. He woke up. ¡°I¡¯m glad it was just a dream.¡± Gale sat up and breathed greedily. The ¡®dramatic¡¯ scene in his mind was like a dog skin plaster that could not be removed. (Note: Dog skin plaster refers to a sort of herbal ointment or paste that is applied onto the skin to create a plaster. It¡¯s extremely sticky and difficult to remove once applied) His expression became one of utter defeat. Everything that happened in the dream was very real! The moment he was grabbed by the demon, Gale literally felt the air around him freeze, unable to breathe! After a while¡­ Gale finally broke away from the scene in his dream. He was drenched in sweat. Just like a young man who had just been saved from drowning. Gale furrowed his brows heavily. He did not understand why he would suddenly have such a dream. Could it be a prophecy about the future? Gale shook his head and dismissed the thought. He would just treat this as a dream for now. However, this sort of realistic dream had also awoken in him a desire to improve his strength as fast as possible! Gale lay on the bed and stared at the blood moon through the window, unable to fall asleep for a long time. The night passed uneventfully. The sun rose. Gale did not manage to rest last night, as he kept recalling the scenes in his dream. This was a warning for him as well. He desperately wanted to increase his strength at the moment. Luckily, with the improvements he had in his strength, he did not feel tired even after staying awake for almost the entire night. As Gale walked out of the castle, Elena and Cicely were already waiting in the courtyard. ¡°Master.¡± They bowed to Gale who was walking towards them. Gale nodded in acknowledgment. He walked over to the military building. The first thing to do in the early morning was of course to summon more battle units! This was also an important part of every day! However¡­. Today was different from usual. Gale was prepared to try something exciting. He would not specify which race he wished to draw. Everything would be random! He might be able to draw a strong battle unit, or he might draw a weak battle unit. However, no matter how weak the soldiers were, they would be a unique unit! They all had unlimited potential! With this thought in mind, the military building began their selection. After a long time, the clear pond turned pitch-black. Even the pond water transformed into boiling blood! There was a sinister smell everywhere. At this moment, a blood-red light shot out from the ¡®blood pool¡¯. Gale covered his eyes, unable to look at the light. By the time he lowered his hand, the blood-red light had already disappeared. In front of him was a creature with a pair of dark red horns. Behind it was a pair of dark black wings, allowing it to float in front of Gale. ¡°Demon?¡± Gale stared at the creature in front of himr, stunned. This was almost exactly the same as the demons he saw on television back in his world! However, the evil aura emitted by the creature in front of him was even stronger, as if it had just crawled out from hell. Gale willed it and opened the information panel of the creature before him. [Abyssal Demon (Unnamed)] [Current Growth Stage: Infant] [Strength: Tier 5 (Killing the enemy to obtain Energy for upgrading)] [Potential: God Tier possible at Perfect Form] [Loyalty: 100 (Absolute Loyalty)] [Note: Loyalty Meter has been locked. This type of battle unit¡¯s Loyalty Meter will never drop.] ¡°Tier 5!¡± Gale shouted in his heart the moment he saw the virtual panel. Unexpectedly, a random summon resulted in a Tier 5 demon appearing! It had to be known that the combat power of demons was not inferior to the creatures of other supreme races at all! Moreover, it was a Tier 5 demon battle unit with a unique attribute! Light and evil were supposed to balance each other. Therefore, there was no difference in their abilities! After regaining his senses, Gale looked at the ¡®Demon¡¯ battle unit in front of him. For some reason, he felt like he had seen her somewhere before. ¡°You¡¯ll be called Novia from now on.¡± He had gotten used to naming new battle units. ¡°Novia greets the master.¡± Novia¡¯s body changed as she spoke. The dark wings gradually disappeared, and replacing its form was a girl with small dark-red horns. Even the evil aura around her disappeared. Novia wore a small black and red dress. Without the telltale horns on her head, people would mistake her for their neighbor¡¯s kids if they saw her in the streets! Perhaps because of her own species, the demon quickly became familiar with the other two battle units. They looked like old friends that hadn¡¯t seen each other in years. ¡°Today, all of you will strive to kill another Tier 5 monster!¡± Gale briefly explained the day¡¯s task that he had for them. His goal today was very simple. It was to upgrade the military building to Level 2. With Cicely having reached Tier 5, as well as the addition of Novia, they would not need to fear any Tier 5 monster! They could now let loose, and if they found any, kill! Soon, Elena would also step into the ranks of Tier 5s. The future was promising! ¡°Novia belongs to the demon family and will not be affected by the Blood Moon. The castle¡¯s strength has been greatly improved!¡± Gale murmured as he watched the three battle units leave. The soldiers were engrossed in their work while Gale enjoyed the delicious food of the day. As usual, they were still prepared by Cicely. He had to admit that Cicely¡¯s cooking was getting better and better. ¡°Tier 5 bear meat is indeed good stuff.¡± After eating the whole piece of meat, Gail felt the energy in his body rise. Although there was no specific notification, he could still feel it. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that he was afraid of getting sick of eating bear meat, Gail would have eaten all the bear meat on the first day! Not long after the battle units left, notifications started ringing in Gale¡¯s mind. Their hunting speed was much faster than yesterday¡¯s. The reasoning behind was simple. Firstly, Now that Novia had joined the team, the team¡¯s overall strength had increased, and the hunting speed of the monsters had naturally increased. Secondly, Naturally, it was because the sphere of influence of the castle had increased, so more monsters appeared. Gale could allow his battle units hunt monsters outside the sphere of influence, but he did not do so. While more resources could be obtained, the probability of encountering a crisis would also increase. Besides, the monsters in the sphere of influence were enough to kill for a while. There was no need for his units to go out and take risks. Chapter 17 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios While the battle units went out to work, Gale also began his own ¡®work¡¯. But compared to the battle units, his job was much easier! It was simply to keep a lookout at the [World Chat] and [Trade Channel]. Gale also wanted to go out and hunt monsters, but his strength did not allow him to do so. With his current strength at Tier 2, even if he went out, he would only serve as ¡®eye power¡¯ and would not be of any help. Of course, his current ¡®job¡¯ was also very important. He could learn about the changes that had taken place in the other Castle Lords. The advantage of doing this was that he could constantly change his plans to develop the castle. Adapting on the fly was a good quality he possessed. Gale opened the [Trading Channel]. Just as he had guessed, there were more goods on sale today than yesterday. This also meant that on the third day, most of the Castle Lords had already summoned powerful battle units that were able to hunt monsters for food. Comparing this to the first day of arriving at the Endless Land¡­ All the Castle Lords, except Gail, faced the problem of a lack of food. Now, the problem of food was almost solved. What was now missing now, was wood and stone. With sufficient food, all the Castle Lords now wanted to obtain resources to upgrade their castle. After all, the castle was one¡¯s residence, and it was a boost to their overall strength. According to Gale¡¯s guess¡­ He was probably the only one who had upgraded the castle to the Advanced level at the moment. There would be a fraction of people that possessed an Intermediate castle, but this number would not be too many either. After all, Gale had monopolized the ¡®honeymoon period¡¯ to sell food for a high price. The amount of resources that he had obtained was definitely massive. The price of food was dropping constantly, naturally, it could not be compared to the first day. However¡­. The gap between the levels of the castle would be easily caught up. Gale also noticed Goddess Rowling, who had revealed her sharpness. She was the first person to put food on sale after Gale, and at a very low price. This was enough to show that Rowling¡¯s soldiers were very strong, and the source of the food was very stable. Otherwise, very few people would sell food at such a low price. This was especially so when one suffered from a lack of food. If nothing went wrong, there would be a group of castle lords tomorrow that would upgrade the castle to the Intermediate or even Advanced level. However, Gale now faced a huge problem. The castle did not reach the end point when it was upgraded to the Advanced level. The next stage was to upgrade to a Town! He looked at the resources needed to level up and almost fainted. Upgrading to a town required 100,000 units of wood, 50,000 units of stone, and 10,000 units of pure iron! Based on the current development of the Castle Lord, it was impossible for him to bear such a huge amount of resources! Even a ¡®nouveau riche¡¯ like Gale was shocked by so many resources. On the other hand¡­. The more resources one needed, the more it meant that it was more likely that no one would be able to accomplish this goal for some time. This was an opportunity for Gale to distance himself from the other castle lords. As long as he could upgrade the castle to a town, he would be one big step ahead of others! It was just that this massive amount of resources gave him a headache. ¡­ Time flew by quickly. Gale began to count the total number of monsters the battle units had hunted today. Among them, there was one Tier 5 monster, and it had even dropped an Origin Crystal as loot! There were close to 200 monsters from Tier 1 to 4! Most importantly, after a day of hunting, Elena had also reached Tier 5! The Elven Empress and the Abyssal Demon also had a faint feeling that they were about to break through. It would probably not be long. The overall strength of the castle would experience yet another increase. The best part was that tt had only been three days so far. Gale already had three Tier 5 battle units under him in just this short of a duration. If this matter were to spread, Gale would definitely become the topic of discussion for everyone. By then, the whole world would want to befriend this ¡®talent¡¯ Gale. Facing so many monster corpses, Gale simply waved his hand and deconstructed all of them. This time, he had gained a lot! There were 2,500 units of food and countless materials. Fortunately, there was no space restriction in the warehouse. Otherwise, Gale really wouldn¡¯t know where to place so many things. As for those deconstructed meat, Gale placed them on the [Trading Channel]. He lowered the price this time, or else he might face the problem of his goods not being able to be sold. However, it was still more expensivecompared to the other Castle Lords. He had no choice. If he didn¡¯t take the chance to profit, he would be letting himself down. Moreover, while the number of Castle Lords who could obtain food had increased, there was still a limit to how much food could be obtained and sold. Thus, although Gale¡¯s current price was expensive, it was only by a little. There were still many people who were willing to buy it. [Trading Announcement] [Exchanging three units of food for one Origin Edge] [Exchanging one unit of food for 20 units of wood] [Exchanging one unit of food for five units of stone] [Exchanging one unit of food for three units of pure iron] [Food quantity: 2,500 units] The moment the transaction information was uploaded, the [World Chat] section exploded. [Oh my god! So much food!] [2,500 units of food, did he wipe out all the surrounding monsters?] [Big Boss Gale is really powerful!] [I can¡¯t believe it. How powerful is he to be able to kill so many monsters!] [I thought that killing five monsters in a day was already very impressive. I didn¡¯t expect Big Boss Gale to be even more awesome!] [Above, how dare you compare yourself to Gale?] [Black Loach Castle: Big Boss Gale, how about we add each other as friends?] [Elven Village: Oh my God, Big Boss Gale, I¡¯ve officially become your fan!] [Black Dragon Capital: Brother, let¡¯s add each other as friends. Maybe we can work together in the future!] This was only the third day. The Castle Lords who had obtained pinnacle battle units were already considered strong if they could obtain more than 1,000 units of food in a day. However, Gale directly took out 2,500 units of food. It was absolutely shocking! This deserved their worship! Some people now regarded Gale as their god. Only a ¡®god¡¯ could do such a thing! At the same time, some people in the dark began to reassess Gale¡¯s strength. At this moment, those attentive Castle Lords started to ask questions. [I want to ask, what is this pure iron?] [Only wood and stones are needed to upgrade a castle to the Advanced level. Has Gale¡¯s castle reached the advanced level?] [Scary thinking!] [No way? My castle is only at the beginner level, and Big Boss Gale is already at the advanced level?] [This is too shocking. He¡¯s one full layer of heaven ahead of us!] [Is this what it means to be the big boss?] [Ahem, didn¡¯t you notice something more important?] [Eh, Big Boss Gale¡¯s prices seems to be much lower now!] As soon as these words were spoken, it instantly caused a huge wave of discussion. Chapter 18 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios [D*mn, I took a good look. Big boss Gale lowered the price by half!] [Although it¡¯s still a little expensive, we can afford it!] [I¡¯m done. Gale finally decided not to be a ¡®profiteer¡¯!] [This is the happiest thing that happened to me today!] [Above, I feel the same!] [I¡¯m going out to look for something to eat. Is there a team that can support me?] Gale looked at the information flowing on the virtual interface and smiled bitterly. He also wanted to keep up with his image as a ¡®profiteer¡¯. However, the current market did not allow him to do such a thing. If the price of food was too high, he would definitely face a problem of stagnant goods. Gale didn¡¯t want to see his food not be able to sell out. No matter how low the price was, it was still a considerable amount of resources for him! Of course, if Gale had any rare or special food to sell, his price would be as expensive as his previous sales. After all, what is rare is precious. He had to earn what he could earn. Ordinary food would earn him some small resources, and Gale did not expect to earn as fast as those oil owners in his previous world. At the same time. On a vast grassland. Several lions covered in golden fur continuously hunted the nearby wild cows. Rowling looked at the virtual panel that appeared in front of her, but she could not feel happy. [Advanced Castle (Golden Nation)] [Normal Structures: Warehouse] [Military Building: Golden Lion Homeland] [Castle Upgrade Conditions:100,000 units of wood, 50,000 units of stone, 10,000 units of pure iron] [Next Level: Elementary Town] [Current Faction: None] However, she could not bring herself to be happy. Rowling already knew that Gale was willing to exchange for pure iron, so it was natural because he needed the items needed to upgrade the castle to the next stage. She had originally thought that the speed at which she leveled up the castle would be the fastest. Although the food she sold was very cheap, there were a lot of them and she had accumulated a considerable amount of resources. This also allowed her to successfully upgrade the castle to the Advanced so quickly. ¡°Indeed, Gale is still a little faster than me.¡± Rowling estimated that Gale had managed to upgrade his castle yesterday. This also meant that Gale¡¯s development was faster than her by a day. This difference was not too great. So long as she worked harder, she could surpass him anytime. However, what made her feel helpless was not the speed of the castle¡¯s upgrade. It was the amount of food Gale put on sale. 2,500 units of food! She saw it the moment the merchandise was put on display. Because of this, Rowling specially looked at it several times. In the end, she had no choice but to accept this fact. Rowling was extremely unwilling. Her overall strength could be said to be extremely powerful. She had a total of nine battle units. Due to the different characteristics of each Castle Lord¡¯s military buildings, the ones she summoned were all Golden Lions, just different tiers. She possessed three Tier 3 and six Tier 2 lions at the moment. Such strength could be said to be an existence that stood out amongst the many castle lords. However, even with such powerful strength. There were only close to a hundred monsters she managed to hunt today! This was a little less than half of what Gale could hunt. (Author did not mention but I would think that 1 monster carcass = 10 food units) This made Rowling realize a very cruel reality. Gale¡¯s castle was far more powerful than her Golden Nation. The sad thing was, she¡¯d always thought Gale was as strong as she was. ¡°What kind of battle units do you have?¡± Rowling was becoming more and more curious about Gale. There was no way about it, this was the mentality of women. They always had a desire to win over the strong. The stronger you were, the more she would be interested in you. Shortly after, Rowling opened up her [Friend] list. Unfortunately, there was no response from her friend request to Gale. There were quite a number of Castle Lords who had applied to add her as a friend, and there were also a few castles that had developed quite well. However, she did not care about these Castle Lords at all. She only cared about Gale. ¡°No matter how strong you are, I will surpass you and rule over the Endless Land! Rowling solemnly swore. ¡­ ¡°Achoo!¡± Gale rubbed his itching nose. ¡°I sold it for such a cheap price, yet there are still people scolding me?¡± Gale immediately blamed his sneeze on the Castle Lords who had called him a ¡®profiteer¡¯ and immediately blacklisted them! This could not be blamed on him, as the current price could indeed be considered ¡®cheap¡¯. A pity that Gale¡¯s image of being a profiteer was already imprinted in the hearts of some people. This was human nature. As long as the price was still higher than the market price, it would continue to coerce you to lower the price. It was a typical behavior. For these people, Gale directly blacklisted them. He then opened the [Trading Channel]. The food on sale was still being bought, although the price was still higher than the market price. There were still castle lords purchasing them one after another. Gale was certain that if he continued to sell it at the same high price, the results would definitely be different. He would not be able to sell anything. Right now, he was the one leading the entire world in sales volume for food! The second place was naturally the Goddess Rowling. Gale had a bad reputation, but many people knew him as a result. Especially since he always put in a huge volume of food stocks in one go, it attracted the attention of a large group of Castle Lords. Therefore, he already had many die-hard fans. It was also because of this that the speed of food sales became much faster. ¡°It seems that in less than an hour, all the food will be gone.¡± Gale mused as he listened to the prompt in his head. In exchange for food, they used wood and stones. He did not even see the shadow of pure iron, much less regarding Origin Edges. Even after hunting more than two hundred monsters. Gale had only obtained sixty Origin Edges. In addition to the Origin Edges he had obtained previously, he now had 125. However, the requirement to upgrade his military building was only 100 Origin Edges and two Origin Crystals! These two requirements had been completed by his battle units today! Gale quickly came to the soldier building. The moment he got close to the building, a notification sounded. [The upgrade conditions have been met. Do you want to upgrade immediately?] ¡°Upgrade!¡± Gale instructed without hesitation. He had been waiting for this moment for three days! He could finally upgrade his military building! As soon as he finished speaking, a golden light enveloped the entire military building. The moment the golden light shone, Gale shielded his eyes with a practiced move. The golden light was too dazzling and he could not look straight at it! After about a minute. Gale lowered his hands and stared at the military building in front of him. In an instant, the virtual interface appeared in front of him. [¡®Special¡¯ Military Barracks: Random Battle Unit Pool (Unique)] [Junior Grade: Level 2] [Effect: Able to recruit any type of battle unit at will. Limited to one recruitment per day. Quantity: Random. Tier: Random.] [Upgrade Requirement: 500 Origin Edges, 5 Origin Crystals] [Note: Level 2 unit building has the ability to increase the number of units summoned!] There were almost no functional changes in the upgraded building. However, the original pool had expanded by several meters. The features of a level two building also increased the chance of triggering the random number of summoned units. Gale was extremely appreciative of this point. Chapter 19 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios This upgrade increased the probability of summoning a random quantity. In other words¡­ In the future, there would be a high chance of being able to summon more of the same battle unit! Gale felt that he might be able to summon a small team soon! ¡°Just as I thought, the higher the grade, the greater the benefits.¡± Gale murmured as he looked at the military building before him. He was right to choose to upgrade the building. By doing so, whether it was the benefits or the strength of the other castle lords, there would be a certain gap between him and them. At the moment, that small gap did not seem obvious. As time passed, this tiny gap would crack like a cliff, making it impossible to cross. One could only watch! However, leading ahead of a billion Castle Lords was just the beginning. If one wanted to rule over the Endless Lands, the most troublesome ones would be the local organizations. Only by eliminating all these threats could he truly be able to assume power! Gale¡¯s goal was still quite far away. If he wanted to do it, he had to do it to the best of his ability. This was something he had always kept in mind. ¡°Tomorrow, the number of my battle units should hit four.¡± ¡°If I¡¯m lucky, there¡¯ll be more than four.¡± Because he already performed a summoning earlier in the day, the cooldown for his military building had not been reset. Therefore, the summoning of new battle units could only be done tomorrow. Night fell. The blood moon appeared, illuminating the entire Endless Lands. Gale¡¯s battle units also rushed back. On the way back, they conveniently killed more than a dozen Tier 3 monsters. Following the expansion of the castle¡¯s sphere of influence, the level of monsters had also increased. Naturally, the resources and energy obtained would be much more than that of a Tier 1 monster. The higher the level of the monster, the higher the chance of an Origin Edge dropping as well. Back in the castle, the Abyssal Demon Novia requested for Gale to allow her to guard the courtyard. Gale was puzzled by this, but he also expressed his understanding. Blood Moon was good for a demon-type creature like Novia. On the contrary, the other two soldiers did not like Blood Moon. Instead, they felt constrained. However, this sense of restraint did not exist during the day. Gale deconstructed the monster¡¯s corpses that his battle units had obtained in the day. The obtained food was once again placed on [World Channel]. There were still a lot of resources to be gathered before the castle could be upgraded to an Elementary town. The other materials that were decomposed from the monster¡¯s corpse were all placed in the warehouse. While he did not know the usage of these materials at the moment, his intuition told him that these things would come into play in the future. In any case, there was an almost limitless space in the warehouse. There was no harm in leaving it there to collect dust. What if he could really use it in the future? Just as Gale was sorting out the resources, Cicely flapped her wings and flew over. ¡°Master, when we were hunting in the castle¡¯s territory today, we discovered something different from the past.¡± Hearing this, Gale closed the virtual interface and nodded for her to continue. After receiving the order, Cicely continued to complain. ¡°When we realized something was wrong, we immediately followed.¡± ¡°This was a group of creatures wearing tattered armor and holding spears. We can confirm that they are not monsters.¡± ¡°They have their own consciousness and intelligence, and the lowest strength in their group were all Tier 3s, the highest being Tier 5.¡± ¡°There were not many of them, only about 40 people. When they saw the three of us, they moved far away from the castle.¡± ¡°He must have been intimidated by our strength.¡± Cicely told the story seriously. After hearing that, Gale frowned slightly and started to pace around. ¡°Could it be a local organization?¡± ¡°Could it be that they¡¯re no longer unable to restrain themselves?¡± Gale murmured to himself. If it was really those local organizations, they were definitely plotting against the castle. Otherwise, they would not have run away in a panic after being discovered by Cicely and the others. No matter how one looked at it, this was extremely strange. It looked like a typical scheme had been discovered. With this in mind, Gale snapped out of his daze and immediately ordered Cicely, who was waiting for instructions. ¡°Tonight, everyone must be on high alert of the happenings in the castle¡¯s sphere of influence.¡± ¡°Kill anyone who is found to be engaging in any suspicious activity!¡± ¡°Thank you for your hard work tonight.¡± As soon as he spoke, Cicely hurriedly bowed and said, ¡°It¡¯s our honor to serve you, my Lord.¡± With that, she retreated. Since they were enemies on the surface, Gale would naturally not spare them. According to Cicely¡¯s report, this army of 40 people at most had warriors at Tier 5 and could not pose much of a threat. However, since they dared to cause trouble in the castle¡¯s territory, Gale would naturally not let them have their way. It could coincidentally help to supply his battle units with some energy. Since the walking energy bundles had delivered themselves, it would be a waste not to take them. In the middle of the night. After receiving Gale¡¯s order, Cicely and the others searched within the castle¡¯s sphere of influence without missing a single corner. Gale did not sleep. He stood on the observation platform at the top of the castle and looked around. The blood-red light shone on his body. A gentle breeze blew past, ruffling his long hair. Tonight was destined to be another sleepless night. Fortunately, he had the support of the energy in his body. Otherwise, a normal person would not be able to endure such long hours. After a while¡­ Gale¡¯s eyelids began to fight, and sleepiness overwhelmed him. Under the intense search of the soldiers, they did not find the so-called invading organization as well. While waiting, he checked the [Trading Channel]. 2,500 units of food had been sold. In this transaction, he obtained a total of 18,000 units of wood and 3,500 units of stone. As for the Origin Edges and pure iron, he did not get a single trade. Although it was expected, Gale still felt disappointed. However, he soon brightened up when he realized what this meant. This so-called pure iron should be referring to having the Castle Lords search for mines or ores. Resources that were related to metals would not be so easy to obtain. The amount of time or power consumed would be more than the amount of wood and stone. Even Gale himself had not found a way to obtain pure iron. Not to mention the Castle Lords who had been developing slower than him. As for Origin Edges, that went without saying. It was even more precious than pure iron. Unless they were about to starve to death, no one would take it out to exchange for food. The problem of the shortage of food had been resolved over time. Now, every Castle Lord was slowly shifting their goals towards upgrading. Unless one of them could upgrade their castles to the Advanced level, otherwise it would be difficult for him to be able to find a source for pure iron in this short period of time. ¡°It seems that the difficulty of upgrading the castle to a town is not just some small problem that will be settled quickly.¡± At that moment, Gale seemed to think of something. With a command, he opened up his [Friend] list. Chapter 20 Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios After the ¡®meat storm¡¯ that Gale released during the day. The number of his friend requests had surpassed 50 million! This was a terrifying sum! If you looked at the total number of a billion Castle Lords in this world, 50 million meant that 5% of the total population wished to befriend Gale. However, there would definitely be more of them in the dark that would have heard of Gale¡¯s name. These people might choose to take Gale as a potential enemy to be eliminated. Or perhaps they might be plotting something against him. This time, Gale was not in a hurry to reject their requests. He had more important things to do. Gale was prepared to screen out those who had pure iron resources among these friend requests. Luckily, the [Friend] list had a search function which came in handy now. Gale searched for the keywords regarding iron: pure iron, sale of iron. Among them, the number of requests that mentioned iron numbered over three million. However, most of them were here to ask what kind of resource pure iron was, while some were here to beg for that resource. Without exception, all of them were blacklisted! Next, he started searching for the second keyword. This left only about a million of the requests. Among them, those who were pretending to come over for food and drinks were also directly blacklisted. After some serious screening, Gale found a potential candidate. This person¡¯s name was Natalie! Her note was: Big Boss Gale, I have a large amount of pure iron here. I hope to exchange for a large amount of food with you. Quickly agree! Gale felt that this person was more reliable than the previous ones. At least, there wasn¡¯t any nonsense on the note. So he agreed to Natalie¡¯s friend request. This was also the first person on his friend list! After adding her as a friend, Gale immediately sent a message. ¡°How much pure iron do you have over there? How did you obtain it?¡± After sending this message, he closed the virtual panel. In this world, very few people would choose to stay up so late at night. After doing all this, Gale stood on the observation platform and observed. After confirming that there was nothing abnormal, he went into the room to sleep. His daily routine still needed to be maintained. Under the protection of his three battle units, Gale gradually fell asleep. He slept all the way till dawn this time. Although he had slept, Gale was not in good spirits. He had only slept for four hours in the past two days. If not for the spiritual energy in his body, he would have died. ¡°I¡¯ll have a good sleep after I¡¯m done with all this.¡± Gale yawned as he came to the side of the troop building. After a night, the military building¡¯s summon had been reset. He could summon the new battle units today! ¡°I hope I can summon an increased quantity of battle units!¡± This time, Gale decided to focus on summoning the Angel race. If the Abyssal Demon represented darkness, then the Angels would represent light! The races of these two creatures were polarized on the two extremes. If he had both of them, it might produce unexpected effects. Either way, the summoned battle units would have a good impression of each other from the start. There was no need for them to fall out because of different races. However, just as Gale was about to perform the summon¡­ The protective circle around the castle rippled as it was being attacked by external forces! Hearing the sound, Gale glanced coldly at the enemies who were attacking the protective circle. All kinds of attacks landed on the protective circle, creating undulations. However, no matter how fierce the attack was, apart from rippling the protective cover, nothing else changed. This was the strength of a beginner¡¯s protection! Invincible! ¡°Kill them all.¡± Gale stopped his summoning and ordered. Upon receiving the order, the Abyssal Demon Novia, who had long been unable to restrain herself, rushed out with a red halberd. She loved darkness, and she loved killing! The three battle units were deployed! Novia was the first to reach the invaders. She pointed her halberd downwards. A red laser beam shot downwards following her gesture. Immediately, a blood-red mark appeared around the ¡®invaders¡¯ who were attacked. This was a unique marking method of Novia. Its effect was very simple as well. It was used to mark the enemy and prevent them from escaping! The ¡®intruders¡¯ had not yet realized the danger. Based on the intruders¡¯ looks, habits, and weapons¡­ They were probably the ones that Cicely had explained to Gale yesterday. It was just that¡­. Instead of the 40 people, there were 100 of them! They continued to brandish the weapons in their hands, hoping to destroy the faint yellow protective circle. This was when Novia took action. After marking all her enemies, she waved her halberd enthusiastically. A dark red ray of light appeared in the air. It was in the shape of a crescent moon and it slashed towards the intruders below. Instantly, blood and flesh flew everywhere. Yesterday, there were indeed only about 40 people. However, as soon as they saw Novia and the other soldiers, they immediately returned to the base to get more reinforcements. After a night of hard work, they managed to gather around 100 people. Who would have thought that the castle they had invaded would have such powerful combat strength! In just a short while, more than half of their clansmen had died. When the intruders saw this, they immediately put down their weapons and began to flee. If they did not escape now, then when? They understood the situation clearly. This was a one-sided battle. Staying here was equivalent to waiting for death! However, how could Novia and the others let them leave? All these ¡®intruders¡¯ had been marked by Novia. So long as they were in a certain range, it was useless even if they hid in a hole! ¡°Invading my master¡¯s territory, I sentence everyone to death!¡± A voice that sounded as if it came from the deepest depths of hell sounded from Novia¡¯s mouth. A crack appeared on her forehead as she finished her announcement. Not long after, a blood-red Demon Eye appeared! The moment the Demon Eye appeared, the surrounding air became scorching hot. The flowers and plants began to wither, and from time to time, the sounds of malicious spirits could be heard. ¡°What ability is this?¡± Gale, who was standing on the spectator stand, was seeing the Abyssal Demon Novia use such an ability for the first time. Fortunately, they were his battle units. If they were his opponents, they would totally steamroll him. Following which, the Demon Eye suddenly emitted a powerful suction force. However, what Novia absorbed was not the corpses, but their souls! No matter what kind of living being it was, as long as they lost their soul, they would only be left with an empty husk, no different from death. ¡°Gather, souls, and shape my might!¡± Accompanied by a resounding sound, all the fleeing ¡®intruders¡¯ stopped in their tracks! Chapter 21 The intruders who had been fleeing in all directions¡­ All of them stopped running simultaneously. Their eyes turned dull as they stood rooted to the ground. ¡°I sentence you!¡± Novia spoke again. A haughty and arrogant aura burst forth from her body. The Demon Eye extracted the souls of the intruders and absorbed them all. The process lasted for a few seconds. Novia¡¯s face turned pale, and the Demon Eye between her eyebrows closed automatically. She could not sustain such a killer move for long at her current level. In the end, there were nearly 10 of them who had broken free from their restraints. Their souls returned to their bodies as they continued to flee. However, the Elven Empress Cicely and the Gold Dragon Elena had been waiting on the sidelines for a long time. Seeing that their companion had not harmed her foundations, they began to pursue the remaining intruders. For those intruders, they only cared about escaping right now and had no ability to resist. They were like lambs waiting to be slaughtered, directly killed by the two of them. It took less than two minutes to finish off everyone. Only the corpses of the entire clan remained as evidence of the fight. This was naturally Gale¡¯s order. The three battle units finally returned to the castle to report. Gale gazed at the pale face of Novia before solemnly saying, ¡°If you don¡¯t encounter any life-threatening danger next time, don¡¯t use this move.¡± Looking at her, Gale knew that without sufficient strength, forcefully opening the Demon Eye might lead to irreversible consequences. He did not want anything to happen to his battle units. Moreover since they were such powerful battle units. Without waiting for Novia to answer, Gale continued to ask, ¡°If you reach the complete form, how powerful is the Demon Eye?¡± Upon hearing this, Novia pondered for a moment before replying, ¡°My Lord, if I reach the complete form, I¡¯ll be able to devour all the souls in the world and suppress them forever!¡± There was a hint of disdain in her words towards the world. Gale understood that this was not empty talk. It seemed that his battle units were all very powerful. Be it the Elven Empress or the Gold Dragon, their individual combat abilities were very good. One should not judge at how the Gold Dragon only knew how to assist right now, she also had offensive means and was not weaker than the other two battle units. ¡°Take her down to rest.¡± Gale instructed. After they left, Gale prepared to begin summoning today¡¯s battle units. His attention had been completely focused on the battle earlier, so he naturally did not have the mood to perform his summon. [Recruit now?] ¡°Recruit!¡± [Please select the battle unit!] ¡°Angel ¡ª Angel of Sacred Light!¡± [Selecting your recruitment choice!] As the notification sounded, light appeared. The summoning process this time was different from usual! This time, there was no dazzling light. Instead, two balls of light of different colors appeared before Gail. One black and one white. ¡°Two of them!¡± Gale¡¯s breathing quickened. Unexpectedly, not long after he upgraded the building, he randomly summoned an additional unit! When the light faded, two new soldiers with flowing wings floated in front of him. Gale focused on them, making the virtual interface pop up. [Angel of Sacred Light (Unnamed)] [Current Growth Stage: Infant] [Strength: Tier 5 (Killing the enemy to obtain Energy for upgrading)] [Potential: God Tier possible at Perfect Form] [Loyalty: 100 (Absolute Loyalty)] [Note: Loyalty Meter has been locked. This type of battle unit¡¯s Loyalty Meter will never drop.] [Note: Fighting alongside the Angel of Darkness will increase its power by 10%] ¡­ [Angel of Darkness (Unnamed)] [Current Growth Stage: Infant] [Strength: Tier 5 (Killing the enemy to obtain Energy for upgrading)] [Potential: God Tier possible at Perfect Form] [Loyalty: 100 (Absolute Loyalty)] [Note: Loyalty Meter has been locked. This type of battle unit¡¯s Loyalty Meter will never drop.] [Note: Fighting alongside the Angel of Sacred Light will increase its power by 10%] Two different types of angels! It was simply a buy one get one free! One Yin and one Yang. Looking at the overall appearance, other than the difference in color, the rest of their appearances were simply carved from the same mold! Most importantly, the strength of these two battle units were at Tier 5! The appearance of the two angels made Gale more confident about the beast tide assessment in a few days. With such strength, why would he be afraid of not being able to obtain the Unique Reward? This was obviously impossible. ¡°Surprisingly, I¡¯ve summoned two males this time.¡± Gale mused to himself. At the same time, he started to think about the names of these two battle units. This was now akin to his personal hobby. After all, in the future, they would be good comrades who could fight alongside each other. Having a good name was also a form of respect for them! ¡°Since they¡¯re twins, the names given must naturally match.¡± After a long time, Gale finally spoke, ¡°You¡¯ll be called Jack from now on. You¡¯ll be called Jerry.¡± (Note: The first syllable of their names in Chinese are based on the same word.) The two angels who received their names revealed a delighted expression and bowed together. ¡°Thank you, my Lord, for bestowing a name!¡± They were indeed twins. Even their expressions and actions were exactly the same. The addition of two more units added a cheerful atmosphere to the castle. Gale then brought the two angels to interact and blend with the rest of his units. Due to the existence of the summoning pool, the two of them quickly became familiar with the other battle unit. There was no estrangement between them. They were like friends who had not seen each other for many years. When he was done, Gale began to deconstruct the corpses. According to the notifications he received, the intruders that attacked the castle were called Goblins. It belonged to a type of living being within the Endless Land that possessed its own consciousness. Because they weren¡¯t monsters, Gale could not get food from their deconstruction. However, he obtained a large number of worn-out armor and weapons. Moreover, Gale also obtained a magic staff as loot! This was a weapon used by the Tier 5 goblin in that tribe! If that was all, it would naturally not attract Gale¡¯s attention. Most importantly, there was an Origin Crystal embedded at the end of the staff! Gale took into account the value of the crystal. A staff embedded with an Origin Crystal was definitely incredibly valuable! The next time he prepared to upgrade his military building, he would be able to use this Origin Crystal. Save time and effort! Another piece of good news was that after the battle just now, Novia managed to break through to Tier 6. The strength of the other two of his earlier units only needed to hunt some monsters to step into the next tier as well. If Gale were to count in the twin angels he had just summoned, then¡­. Currently, Gale had five powerful battle units under him! All of their strengths were at least Tier 5! Such strength was enough to put some distance between him and the other Castle Lords. But Gale didn¡¯t think that this strength was enough. Since he wanted to fight for supremacy in the Endless Land, he naturally had to reach a high position that others could not admire. Only then could he then contend for hegemony! Chapter 22 ¡°There should be a Goblin tribe near the castle.¡± Gale¡¯s intuition had always been accurate. After pondering for a moment, Gale set down the order. ¡°While hunting monsters, investigate the whereabouts of the Goblins.¡± ¡°If you can find the Goblin Tribe, kill them in one fell swoop!¡± ¡°If the other party is powerful, remember their exact location first. We¡¯ll sweep them later!¡± Gale would not let these foreign organizations invade the castle just like that. The goblins¡¯ individual strength might be weak, but there were many of them. If there were a large group of Goblins, Gale believed that no Castle Lord would be able to compete with them at the moment. But he was different. Gale had five different types of battle units. One Tier 6, four Tier 5! Upon receiving the order, the five battle units chorused in unison, ¡°Yes, Master!¡± With that said, they formed a team and went to hunt the monsters. After that, Gale¡¯s work for the day was done. Therefore, he decided to go back and catch up on some sleep. Gale lay on the bed and opened his [Friend] list. He saw Natalie¡¯s reply. ¡°Big Boss Gale, the battle units I summoned are dwarves.¡± Just as Gale was about to reply, the other party sent another message. ¡°The dwarves¡¯ skills are mining, smelting, and forging equipment.¡± ¡°In addition, my castle is located underground.¡± ¡°There are stone mines and iron ores around the castle!¡± ¡°I did some calculations. If all the iron ores I collected were refined into pure iron, there would be more than 300 units!¡± ¡°If I¡¯m lucky, I can get close to 400 units!¡± Gale read the message and immediately replied, ¡°Name a price.¡± He was ready to be slaughtered. It couldn¡¯t be helped. After all, the other party had the limited resources in their hands. Natalie replied very quickly as well. There were only a few seconds between her reply and her reply, she was likely very anxious. ¡°Big Boss Gale, I want to use four units of pure iron to exchange for a unit of your food.¡± Gale was stunned when he saw the message. It was not because the bid was too high, but because it was too low! One must know that the food he sold was labeled as three units of pure iron for one unit of food. Even with such a price, no one bothered to trade away iron. But now, the other party offered a price even higher than his original in the [Trading Channel]. Natalie seemed to sense Gale¡¯s surprise and sent another message. ¡°Big Boss Gale, I know what you¡¯re suspecting.¡± ¡°But you don¡¯t have to worry. I¡¯m only doing this so that I can have a long term partnership with you.¡± ¡°If my asking price is too high, I will definitely miss another potential collaboration.¡± Natalie was right about this factor. If she asked for too much, Gale would also not agree. It had to be said that the other party was very flexible. Not only did she not covet the benefits in front of herself, but instead was already planning far ahead. Simply put, Natalie was treating this as an investment. It was also because she valued Gale¡¯s strength. With a successful first cooperation, it would be easier to proceed with a second. At the current rate of Gale¡¯s development, his strength would definitely advance by leaps and bounds! At that time, it would definitely be impossible to use pure iron to form a collaboration with him. ¡°We can work together, but you have to tell me, how are you able to smelt the iron ore?¡± Gale inquired. Not long after, Natalie replied, ¡°Speaking of this, I was very lucky. The dwarves I summoned killed a vampire while mining and it dropped a blueprint for building a furnace. As long as there¡¯s enough fuel, no matter how much iron ore there is, it can be refined into pure iron.¡± Vampire? The name definitely had something to do with monsters. This made Gale feel a little depressed. In these two days, he had hunted at least five to six hundred monsters. Putting aside blueprints, he had not even seen any other special items. Gale was prepared to fork out some time to find the so-called vampires. Let¡¯s see if I can get a special item. At the same time. In the depths of a certain mine. There was a huge furnace that was 40 meters tall. The interior of the furnace was burning with raging flames. At the entrance of the furnace, there were more than ten dwarves dressed in the same style, constantly adding iron ores inside. Behind them was a little girl in a pink dress. The heat emitted by the furnace was too high, turning the girl¡¯s face red. The girl happily said, ¡°Everyone, work hard! I¡¯ve just made a big business deal!¡± This girl was precisely Natalie who was chatting with Gale. At this moment, she was extremely excited. Gale was the most powerful of the billion Castle Lords! Natalie felt that working with Gale was the best decision she had ever made! ¡°Yes, my master!¡± A dozen or so dwarves answered in unison. As soon as they finished speaking. All the dwarves around the area who were digging, started waving their pickaxes faster and faster. More and more minerals were thrown into the furnace. Meanwhile, Natalie was directing everything. She treasured this opportunity to cooperate very much. Only with greater efficiency could she be worthy of working with Gale. ¡­ The matter of pure iron is finally resolved. ¡°Now it¡¯s time to deal with these weapons and equipment.¡± Gale opened the warehouse. Within it were stacked many worn-out weapons and armor inside. At this moment, these equipment were useless to him. He might as well sell them to get some resources that he could use. Besides, these worn-out pieces of equipment failed to impress Gale. His battle units did not need weapons to increase their combat power either. With their own strength, they could defeat most enemies easily. However, the other Castle Lords would definitely need such things. His mind spun for a bit as he came out with a plan. Gale then put all these items on the [Trading Channel] [Selling weapons and armor cheaply!] [These equipment come from the native organizations of the Endless Land. They are very affordable!] [Required resources for exchange: Wood, stone, pure iron] [Time of sale: Three hours!] [Click here for detailed information on the equipment!] He chose an auction style to sell off these equipment. Of course it had to be an auction. Only the highest bidder wins! That was the only way Gale could get a lot of resources. This would also help speed up the castle¡¯s development. As soon as the equipment was placed, the [World Chat] exploded. This was all within Gale¡¯s expectations. Although these equipment were of low levels and were very worn out, there was a good number of them! In total, there were more than a hundred pieces of equipment of various types! If these pieces of equipment were put together, they could fully armed about 70 to 80 people. This was what many Castle Lords needed. In [World Chat], all kinds of messages started flashing rapidly. They were all discussing Gale¡¯s equipment. [There are so many weapons, and they are all from Goblins!] [This is too scary. Did he destroy the entire Goblin Tribe?] [As expected of the number one person in the Endless Land!] [I encountered a few Goblins holding Spiked Maces. If it wasn¡¯t for the protection period, my battle units would have died!] [Big Boss Gale is getting stronger!] [Boss, please accept my knee!] Of course. If there were voices of worship, there would inevitably be voices of opposition. Many people started discussing the issues with the equipment. Chapter 23 [I think that the number of equipment is enough to increase the strength of the battle units, but the equipment grade is too low!] [The commenter above is right. The grades of the equipment are very low and is very old!] [These equipment will probably break after a few uses. It¡¯s not worth it to auction them off!] [Is Big Boss Gale going to be a ¡®profiteer¡¯ again?] [I don¡¯t want such equipment even if you give it to me!] [If the quality of the equipment was better, it would still be worth buying. What a pity!] [With this equipment, it¡¯s fine if we encounter monsters that move alone. But if we encounter a large number of monsters, we definitely won¡¯t be able to last one round!] As soon as these slanderous remarks appeared, a large group of messages from the Castle Lords who supported Gale appeared below. [I think you guys are just jealous!] [That¡¯s right, one look and you can tell they are just a bunch of trash that only knows how to be jealous!] [Tsk, hiding behind the screen and slandering the reputation of the big boss. People like you won¡¯t survive the beast tide!] [These equipment is enough to greatly increase the strength of our battle units. It can help increase our survival rate in the beast tide assessment!] [That¡¯s right, the weapons inside are all what newbies like us need!] [That Spiked Mace looks good to me. I can add some weapons to my troops!] In an instant, messages started to appear in the [World Chat], attacking the Castle Lords who slandered Gale. At this point, no one dared to ruin Gale¡¯s reputation. Even if they did, they would not dare to show their faces at this moment. It had to be said that Gale still had some influence. Amidst this huge wave of discussion¡­ In the [Trading Channel], the equipment that Gale put up was being auctioned off by other Castle Lords. As the auction progressed, the price was continuously hiked up. Almost every few seconds, a new price would appear. Among them, there were those Castle Lords who slandered Gale. While their mouths spewed foul words, their bodies were still pretty honest. After all, the grade of these equipment was indeed very low, but the quantity was overwhelming! As long as they could increase their chances of survival, so what if they spent some resources? Those who could persist until now were not stupid people. The current situation was quickly analyzed by them. Let¡¯s leave out the problem with resources, the first thing was to survive the beast tide assessment. Otherwise, everything would be empty talk. While the auction was being held¡­ On a certain mountain peak. A rough-looking man stood there with his hands behind his back. Behind the man were actually eight black dragons hunting monsters! He looked at the virtual interface in front of him. The virtual interface was currently displaying the auction held by Gale. After a long time, the man said, ¡°Gale, you are qualified to be my opponent.¡± With that said, he revealed a confident smile. Then, he turned around and looked at the black dragon battle units that he summoned. Towards his units, he was very satisfied. Although these black dragons were still in their infant form, once they matured, they could reach Tier 9! It was infinitely close to the so-called God Tier! If there were no accidents along the way, these black dragons would definitely be a force that could look down on all. This was also the fundamental reason for the man¡¯s confidence. ¡°So what if you can defeat the Goblin Tribe?¡± ¡°Give me some time, and I¡¯ll definitely surpass you!¡± ¡°At that time, I will stand at the peak of this Endless Land and enjoy everything in the world!¡± ¡°Gale, you are destined to be my stepping stone!¡± The man spoke casually. It was as if he was talking about an ordinary matter. Apart from this man, the other hidden Castle Lords were all focused on the auction. The reason was simple. Because the person holding the auction was Gale! Moreover, Gale was the first Lord of the Castle to sell equipment, and it was even through an auction! On a boundless grassland. Rowling sat on the back of a golden lion, gazing out over the plains. As usual, she led a group of lions to hunt these wild cows on the vast grassland. As time passed, the golden lion¡¯s strength also became greater. At first, these cows could form a group to resist. Now, no matter how they resisted, they could only end up as food! Rowling jumped off the lion¡¯s back and stared at the two Tier 5 bulls in the distance as she muttered, ¡°Tomorrow, I will dig out the Origin Crystals in your body.¡± ¡°Gale, I will surpass you sooner or later!¡± She had already gathered a hundred Origin Edges and only needed two more Origin Crystals to upgrade her military building. At the same time, Rowling was a little annoyed. She could no longer remember how many times Gale had rejected her friend request. Rowling would never allow her pride to be trampled on like this. It was very simple to do this, and that was to surpass Gale! In her opinion, as long as she upgraded her military building, it would definitely be on par with if she did not surpass Gale! After all, both of them could summon pinnacle battle units. Their development speed would not be too different! The other Castle Lords who had pinnacle attribute soldiers were also full of confidence. They all had the same goal. That was to surpass Gale! These Castle Lords also placed Gale into the same category as them. They were all people who had battle units with pinnacle attributes. Towards all these matters, Gale had no idea. Of course, he was not interested in these things. They were merely clowns. After selling the equipment at the auction, Gale collapsed on the bed and fell into a deep sleep. His sleep was especially comforting. It was only in the afternoon that he managed to escape from the clutches of his bed. After waking up, he leisurely had a delicious lunch. These were specially prepared by the battle units. Currently, Gale was probably the only one who had such a carefree life. He had not experienced what it was like to be hungry since the first day. There was too much meat to eat, to the point that he could not finish them all. After getting sick of eating meat, the soldiers would go to the forest to collect fresh wild fruits and honey. He did not need to worry about his own food. If nothing went wrong, this standard of living would continue. Of course, if everything went smoothly, it would not be a problem to improve his living conditions more. According to the current development of the castle, this was only a matter of time. After eating and drinking to his heart¡¯s content, Gale opened [Trading Channel]. He had already packed all the items on sale. Earlier, Gale had set the deadline for the auction as three hours. The moment this duration ended, the auction had automatically closed. The highest bidder would immediately get the equipment! This time, the resources obtained from the auction could be said to be extremely abundant! It was a little higher than what Gale had expected. 7,830 units of wood, 4,200 units of stone, and 120 units of pure iron. ¡°It seems that there are other Castle Lords who have obtained pure iron.¡± Gale was still a little surprised over this. It seemed that those Castle Lords who had pure iron would not easily spit it out unless there were benefits that satisfied them. Chapter 24 In this auction, there were three Castle Lords who won the equipment. The moment these three Castle Lords obtained the equipment, it immediately increased the combat ability of their troops. Furthermore, they could already put this equipment to use into hunting monsters. The result was obvious! The number and speed of the monsters being hunted down were much faster than before. At this point, Gale gained yet another wave of fame and popularity. Now, the topic of discussion for the Castle Lords was not entirely about Goddess Rowling. Sometimes, it was more about Gale. Towards this, Gale did not pay much attention. Popularity was not that important to him. He also did not want to have too much interaction with the other Castle Lords. It was good enough for him to develop alone. Of course, this did not include those who had the resources he wanted. If the other party was sincere in cooperating, Gale would still consider it. The final choice was still in Gale¡¯s hands. He liked to take the initiative. ¡°Four days had passed in the blink of an eye.¡± Today was the fourth day since Gale arrived at the Endless Land. In another three days, the protection period would end, and the beast tide would attack! It was rather rushed. Most of the Castle Lords were on the verge of collapse. Only Gale could be so carefree. He lay on the soft sofa and ate the fresh fruits that his battle units had prepared for him. When he dipped it in honey, the taste was simply amazing! After nearly a day¡­ The originally empty courtyard was now filled with nearly 300 monster corpses. There was still some time before night arrived, thus the soldiers were still hunting monsters. Today, the number of monsters hunted would increase again! With the addition of the twin angels, the hunting speed of the monsters would naturally become much faster. There was another piece of news that made Gale happy. Soon, the Gold Dragon Elena and the Elven Empress Cicely would advance to Tier 6 as well. At that time, the castle¡¯s battle prowess would be greatly enhanced! Gale watched as the battle units entered the forest once again before beginning his daily ¡®work¡¯. That was to deconstruct the corpses of these monsters. Fortunately, he did not have to do the job of dissecting the monster corpses himself. Otherwise, with so many corpses, how many years would it take to dissect all of them?! [Large number of corpses detected. Do you want to deconstruct them?] ¡°Break them down!¡± At Gale¡¯s command, the pile of monster corpses in front of him instantly disappeared. They were replaced by piles of meat. Gale threw all the fur, claws, teeth, and other materials into the warehouse. As for the meat, Gale was prepared to give it to his ¡®partner¡¯ in exchange for pure iron. After all, pure iron was the material he lacked the most at the moment. Gale opened his [Friend] list. Every day when he opened this interface, he could see millions of people who had sent over their friend requests to him. Sometimes, it would even exceed a hundred million! 99.9% of them were here to ask Gale to be their sugar daddy. Only a small portion of them were the Castle Lords who had top-notch soldiers. They were all thinking of working with Gale in some way. However, they were destined to be disappointed. Gale did not care what sort of battle units they had. It didn¡¯t matter to him. Therefore, he rejected all the friend requests. It wasn¡¯t that Gale did not want to agree. He was waiting. He was waiting for the best. Gale believed that after this beast tide, a large number of Castle Lords would definitely be eliminated. At that time, those who stayed behind were mostly capable. It wouldn¡¯t be as messy as it was now. Currently Gale only had one friend in his friend list. That was his partner, Natalie. The moment he clicked on Natalie¡¯s profile picture, he noticed that she had sent several messages. Gale could clearly feel the overflowing excitement from the interface. [Big Boss Gale, you¡¯re finally online!] [I¡¯ve been waiting for a long time!] [I¡¯m admiring you more and more. I don¡¯t even know what the Goblins look like, yet you killed all of them!] [Why haven¡¯t you replied!] [Alright, I¡¯m telling you great news this time!] [Today, my battle units killed a Cave Spider and obtained another blueprint!] [You must be envious of my luck too, hehe!] [Furthermore, this blueprint is regarding equipment forging. I have already created it!] [I can refine all kinds of equipment for Big Boss Gale in the future!] Looking at the message from Natalie, Gale was a little stunned. So far, he had killed at least a thousand monsters. He didn¡¯t even see the shadow of a blueprint. And Natalie had obtained two blueprints in a short period of time! Furthermore, they were even two interconnected blueprints! If she used pure iron to forge equipment, it would definitely be a huge profit! At the thought of this, Gale could not help but sigh. ¡°Natalie, you are really a European Royalty!¡± (Note: This term ¡®European Royalty¡¯ is slang that started because there was a popular game in China where the most overpowered character was a Westerner. Hence it¡¯s used to describe a person who ¡®has it all¡¯, or is simply op in a certain aspect) He thought that he was already very lucky to have gotten the ability to select his own battle units. He never thought that there would be someone more fortunate than him. When Gale came back to his senses, he sent a message over. [I was busy just now. Do you need related blueprints to forge equipment?] At the same time, in the depths of a certain mine. A girl whose face was covered in mud jumped in excitement when she saw her ¡®idol¡¯ reply. ¡°Look, my idol sent me a message!¡± The dwarves, who were working around, could only smile back. They were already used to this scene. Ever since their master had reached an agreement with that ¡®big shot¡¯, she had become extremely nervous. All she did was stare at the virtual interface, not doing any work at all. Natalie calmed herself down and sent a few more messages. [I just tested it. There¡¯s no need to make blueprints!] [So long as you use the materials on the monsters or other materials that can be used to forge equipment, you can create it!] [Oh, that¡¯s right, for equipment embedded with Origin Crystals, they require blueprints!] Equipment embedded with Origin Crystals? Gale thought of something, taking out the staff. An Origin Crystal was embedded into the end of the staff. That was probably what Natalie was talking about. Also, the materials she mentioned¡­ Gale happened to have them in spades. They were the materials that had been separated from the monster corpses. The entire warehouse was filled with such items. [I have the materials you mentioned. How do we cooperate?] Gale replied. The moment Natalie saw the message, she immediately replied, [Big Boss Gale, you don¡¯t need to work together. I can help you forge it for free!] Gale was stunned when he saw the message. After pondering for a moment. He typed a reply: [I don¡¯t need any equipment to increase the strength of the soldiers. You can forge some ordinary equipment and sell it on the trading channel in exchange for resources to upgrade your castle and buildings.] [I¡¯ll pay for the materials. You¡¯ll be in charge of the forging.] [I¡¯ll take 60% of the price sold, you take 40%.] [What do you think?] Gale was not a greedy person. He and Natalie were just partners, so he naturally had to draw a clear line between their benefits. Chapter 25 Even after a few minutes, Natalie did not reply. Gale was not surprised by this. The other party had tools that could be smelted into pure iron, and now she had tools that could forge equipment. Natalie could make a huge profit herself. Moreover, the profits would be very high and would last for a long time. At least before any other blacksmith shops appeared, she would be able to monopolize the market. It would be natural if she would not cooperate with him. After all, Gale was only responsible for providing the common monster materials. Gale was about to send over another message when Natalie replied. [Sorry, Gale, I didn¡¯t reply to your message in time.] [We¡¯ll do as you say regarding the cooperation!] [We were attacked by a few zombies just now, it was not easy to kill these zombies.] [Unfortunately, no blueprints dropped this time.] Natalie didn¡¯t consider the thoughts Gale had in mind. After all, she was just a twelve-year-old girl. She was not an old antique who had been in the business field for decades, so why would she think so much about benefits and losses? For her, she only wanted to gain a sense of security by working with Gale. As for long-term cooperation, Natalie had never considered it. She just needed a sense of security in this early stage. In this world, Gale¡¯s power made her feel like she, a lone ship, had met a harbor. It was also because she wanted to work with Gale that she started to let the soldiers work through day and night. Sometimes, she even joined the mining team. Now, this dream was completely exposed. Gale, who was standing in front of the virtual panel, smiled bitterly at the message from Natalie. He realized that the other party did not consider so much, and were merely more concerned with killing the invading monsters. After a short pause, Gale replied, [Happy collaboration then. How much pure iron have you refined so far?] [Including this batch that¡¯s about to be done, there are already 800 units!] Natalie replied instantly. Now she was back to her status quo. Whenever Gale sent a message, she would reply almost instantly. ¡°That much?¡± Gale was surprised. From the looks of it, Natalie¡¯s soldiers were very efficient. In less than a day, they had actually refined 800 units of pure iron. This was enough to show that Natalie¡¯s location had a huge amount of iron ore. [That¡¯s right. I can summon nine dwarves every day. There are different professions among them. With more people, the efficiency will naturally increase.] Natalie also attached a selfie. The pictures showed the dwarves, who were working hard, and Natalie herself. Her face was covered in mud and even her clothes were stained. However, she was indeed a pretty child. ¡°Nine¡­¡± Gale took in a deep breath. The military buildings of all the Castle Lords had a common characteristic. The stronger the battle units were, the fewer they could summon every day. Those who had pinnacle battle units could summon no more than four in a day. This remained so until they upgraded the military building. Gale was different. The number he could summon every day was completely random. It all depended on luck. Perhaps, if he was lucky, he could summon an extremely powerful army one day. At the same time, Gale could roughly estimate the overall strength of Natalie¡¯s Castle. If it was nine a day, it would be 36 units in four days. Although there were many of them, their combat abilities were definitely very weak. If Gale was willing, he could send any of his battle units to kill them all. But Gale would naturally not do that. He was not someone who would snatch resources wantonly. [Well, I¡¯ll put food up on the trading channel and designate you as the recipient, so we¡¯ll go by the ratio we agreed on.] [Also, I¡¯ll pack up the materials needed to forge equipment for you.] [You can put the forged equipment into the trading channel and sell it.] [After selling it, just transfer 60% to me.] [Happy cooperation.] Gale wrote out a few messages and sent it across. Natalie replied, [I know, Big Boss Gale!] After closing the [Friends] list, Gale opened the [Trading Channel]. He immediately uploaded all the materials and food that he had agreed on, and appointed Natalie as the trader. He was not worried that these materials would be scammed from him. Gale could roughly tell from their conversation before that Natalie was not trying to hide anything. Therefore, this would not happen. 15 minutes passed, and a message was sent over. Gale clicked on it and found out it was from Natalie. [Big Boss Gale, can you chat with me when you¡¯re free? We don¡¯t have to chat for too long each time, just for a short while. Is that okay?] From her words, Gale felt a hint of fear, even begging. Gale inadvertently glanced back at the picture the little girl had just sent. He estimated that Natalie was probably only 12 or 13 years old. She was so young, yet involved in this dispute of territory building. Even Gale was starting to feel sorry for her. After a while, he replied, [Sure, I¡¯ll chat with you when I¡¯m free.] In the depths of the mine. Natalie froze when she read the message. Warm tears fell and then turned into happiness. No one knew how a little girl like her managed to survive. Natalie was probably the only one who knew how difficult it was. ¡°I have to speed up my development. I can¡¯t drag Gale down.¡± Natalie secretly made up her mind. She had to make herself strong enough, otherwise, she wouldn¡¯t be worthy of working with Gale. Perhaps it was also because she lived in such an environment at such a young age that Natalie had such thoughts. ¡­ After thinking for a long time, Gale still sent a message over. [I hope that we will be able to meet up in person in the future.] This was also the first time he felt a little pity for another Castle Lord. Gale believed that anyone with a little kindness would feel the same way. Who could have imagined that a little girl would be able to survive? Of course, Natalie would still have to survive the upcoming beast tide. Only after passing the beast tide would they have the chance to meet in the future. Gale would not be able to help her in this regard. After sending his message, Gale closed the interface. He planned to chat with this little girl when he was more free in the future. At that moment, the Elven Empress Cicely flapped her wings and flew up to Gale. ¡°What is it?¡± Gale asked. He sensed that there was something wrong with Cicely¡¯s emotions, even feeling a hint of a murderous intent. ¡°Master, we¡¯ve discovered the Goblin Tribe!¡± She replied calmly. ¡°And we have already determined the exact location. As long as you give the order, we can attack it!¡± Cicely had long since blacklisted this organization that invaded the castle and violated Gale¡¯s authority. Now that she had found their traces, she naturally couldn¡¯t hide the killing intent in her heart. Chapter 26 ¡°Go and gather all of the others.¡± Gale addressed the Elven Empress. After bowing, Cicely flapped her wings and flew out. Not long after¡­ All the battle units were gathered in the main hall. The Elven Empress Cicely, the Gold Dragon Elina, the Angel of Sacred Light Jack, the Angel of Darkness Jerry and the Abyssal Demon Novia. At this moment, these five stood orderly in front of Gale. Gale could clearly feel the murderous intent within each battle unit. Needless to say, it was definitely not directed at him. It was directed towards the Goblin tribe. The other battle units might not have evolved further yet, so they did not change much. However, for Novia, after she had been promoted to Tier 6, her body was suffused with an evil and demonic aura. As her level increased, her ability to control the Demon Eye also became stronger. Furthermore, the duration of each usage would increase. ¡°How far is the Goblin tribe from us?¡± Gale turned to Cicely. After a day of familiarizing themselves with each other, a commander was elected from within the team. Gale even gave them a name: Nightmare Team. Once the nightmare appears, blood will definitely be shed! ¡°Master, the Goblin Tribe is less than 3,000 meters away from the castle!¡± Cicely bowed and said respectfully. ¡°Three kilometers?¡± Gale mused deeply. This distance was similar to what he had calculated previously. The Goblin Tribe was a native force, and they were able to reach his castle in a short period of time. This meant that they were stationed not far away. If they were too far away, they would not be able to detect Gale¡¯s castle, let alone form a team to invade it. This would explain everything. Gale continued to ask, ¡°How strong are they?¡± Know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated. He knew this reasoning very well. ¡°Master, the Goblin Tribe isn¡¯t very large,¡± replied Cicely. ¡°According to our estimates, there are about 500 or so people.¡± ¡°Among them, there are close to 200 Goblin warriors. The strongest is at Tier 5.¡± ¡°There are three Goblin mages, and they are all at Tier 5 as well.¡± At this point, she changed the topic. Cicely suddenly knelt on one knee and lowered her head as she said, ¡°Master, with our strength, we can flatten the Goblin Tribe!¡± The other four soldiers chimed in. Seeing this, Gale immediately ordered, ¡°Then let¡¯s attack the Goblin Tribe together!¡± ¡°Be careful, they might have other methods.¡± Just as the soldiers were about to leave, Gale called them back. He continued, ¡°You don¡¯t have to bring the Goblin corpses back. They¡¯re worthless.¡± With that, Gale watched the soldiers leave the castle. Then, he lay down on the soft sofa and started to relax again. Gale also wanted to help, but he was not strong enough! It would be useless even if he went. He might as well wait in the castle for good news. The strength of the Nightmare Team could be said to be terrifying, so there was no need to worry. Particularly the Demon Eye used by the Abyssal Demon Novia. The group injury effect was definitely enough. Hence, it was better for Gale to be the mastermind pulling the strings behind. At least he didn¡¯t have to go out there fighting and killing. With his strength, he would definitely be killed instantly. ¡­ Three kilometers away from the castle. The Nightmare Team was flying in one direction. This was the direction of the Goblin Tribe. Such a remote location was too far away from the castle. However, the Nightmare Team did not need to worry about that. There was still some time before nightfall, and that terrifying blood moon had yet to appear. As long as night didn¡¯t come, the Nightmare Squad could freely move through the forest. ¡°Stop.¡± Cicely whispered. After receiving the order, the other soldiers hovered in the air. When they cast their gazes ahead¡­ They could see the Goblin tribe at a distance below them. The Goblin tribe resembled the ancient tribesman on Earth. The dilapidated thatched hut and the furnace made of stone made everything look ancient. Surrounding the Goblin Tribe was also a ¡°sturdy¡± wall. There was a sentry post at the four corners of the wall. At every outpost was a Goblin soldier who was constantly observing the surroundings. The Goblins did not expect that while this could inform them of dangers on the land, they still would not be protected from any aerial attacks. ¡°Kill! Leave no one alive!¡± With a command from Cicely, the entire team set off! The Goblins looked up when they heard a sound. The final scene they would see would be the last scene they would see in their lives. Without any sound, the patrolling Goblins on the outpost were all killed. The Twin Angels worked together to kill the fleeing Goblins. There was no need to show mercy to these native forces who had once organized an invasion of the master¡¯s castle. If you are weak, you should be beaten. If you mess with the wrong person, you should be beaten up. Therefore, without sufficient strength, it was better to keep a low profile! Otherwise, your tribe will be gone one day! The killing continued. The Goblins had no choice but to use all their strength to escape. However, no matter how hard they tried, they were unable to escape from their fate of dying. Novia floated in the air and marked each Goblin. No matter how far they fled, as long as the mark did not disappear, the Nightmare Team would be able to seek them out. This was the most terrifying aspect of the Nightmare Team! Even if you ran to the ends of the earth, none of the people the Nightmare Team wanted to kill would remain alive. After some time. The Goblins were mostly slaughtered. Now, there were only the three Tier 5 Goblins left. Two of the Goblin mages wanted to escape but were killed by the combined attack of the twin angels. They had no chance to resist. The last Goblin mage had a spindly body like dried branches, its bony hands tightly gripping onto a staff. It did this as though it could give it some confidence. Perhaps it did not expect that a wrong decision would ruin the entire tribe. ¡°All of you who kill the innocent will definitely be judged by the Gods of the Endless Land!¡± The elderly Goblin Mage said as he moved his dry lips. With that said, he waved the wand in his hand and condensed a large fireball, which he threw at the twin angels in the sky. Even from afar, they could feel a wave of heat rushing towards them. However, facing this, the twin angels directly smashed the fireball to bits. Such an attack would not cause any harm to them. ¡°Stubborn fellow, wait for the judgment of our Lord!¡± The twin angels shouted together. Then, a longsword that was accompanied by holy light cut through the sky and slashed straight at the last Tier 5 Goblin! At this point, the Goblin Tribe was declared extinct! Chapter 27 On the observation post. The light that enveloped Gale slowly disappeared. ¡°I¡¯ve finally been promoted again.¡± Gale clenched his fists and seriously felt the power flowing in his body. This battle allowed him to successfully advance to Tier 4! His personal strength had once again increased substantially. Other than that, there was more good news. Apart from the twin angels, the Elven Empress Cicely and the Gold Dragon Elena had both reached Tier 6. Including the Abyssal Demon Novia, Gale now had three Tier 6 troops under him! This was a powerful force! Soon, the twin angels would also enter the sixth rank. Gale was full of confidence in his first assessment. ¡°The harvest this time is quite bountiful.¡± Gale began to do his job, which was to count the gains this time. He had obtained a large number of Origin Edges. There were also three magic staffs, each with an Origin Crystal embedded at the end. In addition to the magic staff he had obtained earlier, Gale now had four Origin Crystals. As long as he managed to gather another Origin Crystal, he would be able to upgrade his military building once again! Such a rapid promotion speed was definitely incomparable to other Castle Lords. After all, Gale had never heard of any Castle Lords who had the ability to fight against the native organizations yet. At this moment, a notification sounded. [Your soldiers discovered the Goblin Tribe¡¯s Heart!] [Do you want to destroy it?] ¡°There are still options?¡± Gale asked. At this moment, the notification sounded again. [After it is destroyed, the local organization will be officially destroyed, and you will receive additional benefits such as Origin Edges!] [The higher the level of the Tribe Heart, the higher the rewards!] [If you refuse to destroy it, you will not gain anything!] ¡°Destroy it then.¡± After understanding everything, Gale chose to destroy it. It was such a simple multiple choice question. Anyone with a brain would know how to choose. The battle units who were waiting at the Goblin Tribe received the order. They immediately approached and destroyed something that looked like a stone tablet. The moment the stone stele shattered, the destiny of the earth was lost! All the buildings in the Goblin tribe collapsed on the spot. The whole area had turned into ruins! At this point, the Goblin Tribe could be declared extinct! This was the first native organization that Gale had annihilated. As the castle continued to develop, there would definitely be more in the future. Unless one was extremely powerful, it was unavoidable for people to come seeking conflict with you! [Your soldiers have destroyed the Goblin Tribe¡¯s heart. Reward: 50 Origin Edges!] [You destroyed the Goblin Tribe. The influence of your Castle has increased greatly!] [Note: The influence of the castle is growing. Many native organizations in the Endless Land have noticed the existence of the castle!] Gale automatically ignored the last sentence. Since he was already in the spotlight, there was no point in saying anything more. Fortunately, there were still three days of the beginner protection period left. At least for the next three days, he did not need to worry about any foreign organizations attempting to invade his castle. During the beginner¡¯s protection period, the castle was invincible. After some time. Gale stood in the courtyard and counted the supplies the battle units had brought back from the Goblin tribe. Weapons and equipment: 390 pieces. Magic Staffs: Three. Origin Edges: 190. Food: 720 units. Pure Iron: 200 units. These resources were looted by his battle units in the Goblin Tribe¡¯s warehouse. Once again, Gale used them all to pad his warehouse. All the food, as usual, was placed on the [Trading Channel]. With this, his collaboration with Natalie was completed. 200 units of food were exchanged for 800 units of pure iron. All the food from the monster corpses that they had hunted today were also placed on trade. In total, the resources he got in exchange were: 20,000 units of wood, 3600 units of stone. Gale made a rough calculation. Before long, he would be able to upgrade the Advanced castle to a town! ¡°The speed of selling food has increased.¡± The moment Gale put the food on the shelves, it was all sold out within five minutes. This made him feel like he had gone back in time to when he first arrived here. Perhaps, it had something to do with his current popularity! The sale of food was still a viable business for him. This was because not all castle lords had the ability to obtain food. There were always some people who could only resort to buying food because of various reasons. As a necessary resource for survival, there was definitely no lack of buyers. Although the profits had been reduced, it was still a stable business. Furthermore, this could allow him to continue to export his goods! Gale settled the excess food. Now it was time to sell the weapons and equipment. As usual, he chose to sell these equipment through an auction. Only then would Gale¡¯s profits be maximized. Once the equipment was released, it attracted the admiration of a large group of Castle Lords. [There are so many pieces of equipment! Did Goblin destroy the Goblins¡¯ residence?] [I think it¡¯s possible. Otherwise, how could there be so many resources!] [I¡¯m envious, nearly 400 pieces of equipment!] [Although Gale is a profiteer, there is no doubt that he¡¯s really strong!] [Now I want to see who dares to spread rumors about Big Boss Gale. Be careful, Big Boss Gale might lead his troops to destroy your castle!] [I¡¯m willing to call him the number one person in the Endless Land!] [I¡¯m suddenly curious about Gale¡¯s battle units!] [Looks like the Unique Reward for this Beast Tide will definitely belong to Gale!] [Above, I think so too!] Right now, most of the Castle Lords could already hunt low-level monsters. However, Gale had actually hunted down an entire Goblin tribe! Such an incident was enough for people to remember. Most importantly, it was only the fourth day! No Castle Lord could be as capable as Gale at this point! The number one person in the Endless Land! Gale truly deserved this title! Because of the [World Chat], the hype of the auction was very high. [There are only five sets this time. If I talk any more, it will be gone!] [Above, I bet your castle doesn¡¯t have any resources. I¡¯ll snatch it first!] [Fortunately, I stopped my urge to upgrade the castle in time. Time to rob all of you!] [I have to say, you¡¯re a real dog. I just took my resources to upgrade the castle yesterday. I¡¯m so poor now!] [The upgrading of the castle can be postponed. It is not very useful for people like us. We need to increase the strength of our battle units first!] [Yes, increase the strength of the battle units, kill more monsters, and obtain more resources!] [Brothers, leave me a set!] Many of the Castle Lords wanted to bid for the equipment that Gale had put up. Unfortunately, the number this time was limited. Gale set up only five sets. Among the one billion Castle Lords, the probability of obtaining these resources was very low! This was the time to compete on luck. Most importantly, it was a competition of who was wealthier! If one did not have enough resources, it would be no different from playing the lottery. The chances of winning were not high. It could even be said that it was nil. Chapter 28 The hype for the auction continued. The price offered for the items just kept rising. Those Castle Lords who had prepared sufficient resources raised the prices crazily. There was no choice. There were only five portions available, if they missed the chance this time, it was unknown when there would be another sale like this. These equipment might not be useful to Gale, but to these Castle Lords who had yet to develop fully, they were definitely treasures! Although the equipment grades were low, there were many of them, enough for them to equip their soldiers. As the strength of the soldiers increased, the number of monsters they hunted would also increase. Every Castle Lord who participated in the auction could clearly distinguish the pros and cons of getting equipment. Even those who were secretly targeting Gale also participated in this auction. According to the current situation, they could not surpass Gale, but with the equipment, it was not impossible to surpass the other Castle Lords in the world. If defeating Gale was their ultimate goal, then the remaining Castle Lords were a stepping stone. Only by defeating the mini boss could they then aim to defeat the final boss! At this moment, there were many complaints in [World Chat]. [F*ck, I only have beast type battle units. I can¡¯t use this equipment!] [This is too difficult. These equipment can only be used for humanoid soldiers!] [Sigh, the resources that I have prepared for so long are actually useless now!] [It¡¯s a pity that no one knows how to forge equipment!] [If there is such a user, they will definitely sell their wares at a high price. After all, this is a big deal!] [The design of this military building is unfair!] [Above, have you gone crazy from hunger? This isn¡¯t a game. Why would it be fair?] [If the creators of this world wanted to be fair, these things wouldn¡¯t exist!] Although the Castle Lords who summoned beast-type battle units could participate in the auction, the equipment obtained from the auction could not be equipped on their battle units. Therefore, those who summoned beast-type battle units could only watch helplessly as others took away the equipment. If these Castle Lords wanted to equip their troops. The only way was to find someone that was able to craft exclusive equipment. ¡°I smell the fragrance of potential resources.¡± Gale had been paying attention to the [World Chat] so far. He had kept track of everything that happened inside. If the Castle Lords wanted to order forged equipment, Gale had a suitable candidate. That was Natalie who was working with him! ¡­ ¡°I¡¯ve finally killed these two darned beasts.¡± Rowling touched the blood on her face. Under her feet lay the two Tier 5 Barbaric Bulls. Today, Rowling¡¯s luck was extremely good. The two Tier 5 bulls had brought her two Origin Crystals! In other words, she could upgrade her military building! ¡°Soon, I will surpass you!¡± Rowling regained her usual confidence. It could even be said that it was arrogance. In her mind, Gale was at most as strong as her. Surpassing Gale was only a matter of time. How would Gale feel if she knew what Rowling was thinking at that moment? ¡­ Gale, who had smelled the business opportunity, immediately launched a series of plans with Natalie. There were less than three days until the first assessment. Gale immediately asked Natalie to start forging a large amount of equipment and weapons in the remaining time. Furthermore, be it for humanoid or beast battle units, she had to create both. The first test also meant that death had arrived. At that time, once equipment that could increase the strength of one¡¯s battle units appeared, it would definitely cause a scramble! The profits generated would be very considerable! At that time, no matter how expensive the equipment was, a large number of Castle Lords would be willing to buy it. After all, if they were eliminated in the first assessment, it would be useless no matter how many resources they had left. They might as well buy some equipment and weapons that could increase their strength to increase their chances of surviving the Beast Tide. Gale was still the ¡®profiteer¡¯ that the Castle Lords were familiar with. Hearing this, Natalie immediately agreed to Gale¡¯s suggestion. She would do whatever Gale said. This was one of the main reasons why Gale was also willing to work with Natalie. Not long after, Natalie sent a message over. [Big Boss Gale, the materials you gave me last time can create about 2,000 low grade equipment!] Seeing the message, Gale immediately replied, [There are still three days left. I will continue to hunt more monsters. There is no need to worry about materials. The more you forge, the better!] He thought for a while and wrote another message. [Oh right, remember to prepare some equipment for your soldiers. They must pass this assessment as well.] Gale¡¯s pitying heart was at work again. It couldn¡¯t be helped. After all, the other party was just a little kid! Furthermore, he was her business partner. Logically speaking, he should at least give her a reminder. As for the final outcome, they could only follow the will of heaven. [Thank you, Boss Gale!] This was the first time Natalie had felt the warmth of humans since coming to this world. At the same time, she was glad that she could work with Gale. Natalie would make good use of this opportunity! ¡°I¡¯ll give the next blueprint I get to Gale!¡± Natalie secretly made up her mind. This was the mindset of a little girl. If it were anyone else, they would definitely not share the blueprint with anyone else. After all, this was a treasure that could increase the strength of their castle. How could they give it to someone for free? If Gale knew what Natalie was thinking, he would definitely be moved to tears. Natalie could easily obtain valuable blueprints by randomly killing monsters. However, for Gale himself, he had already killed thousands of monsters, but he did not see the shadow of any blueprint. Natalie was the true European Royalty, not him! [Big Boss Gale, can you chat with me now?] Gale was just about to close his [Friend] list, when he received a message from Natalie. [Sure, I¡¯m free now.] Since it was something he had promised, he naturally would not renege on his promise. Coincidentally, Gale truly had nothing to do now. Relying on chatting to pass time was not a bad choice. Time flew by quickly. Night fell. The blood-red moon hung once more on the horizon. As the protection period for the beginners drew to an end, under the illumination of the Blood Moon, more and more monsters started to approach the vicinity of the castle and wander around. These monsters were all killed by the Nightmare Team. Even with the support of the Blood Moon, they were still a group of low-levelled monsters. They did not pose much of a threat. Moreover, the Abyssal Demon belonged to the Demon Clan! Novia¡¯s strength would naturally also be greatly improved at night. Eliminating these monsters would only take an instant for her. It was precisely because the Abyssal Demon had such an ability that she had obtained a new position: The Night Watcher! Of course, if there were too many monsters roaming around, Gale would not let them go out to hunt. The risk was too great. Although battle units could be revived, it still required time. Time was the most precious thing in the Endless Land right now. Hence, Gale would at most let them kill the monsters that were wandering around the castle¡¯s immediate territory. Chapter 29 Within the castle. Gale had just ended his conversation with Natalie. During the conversation, Gale got to learn more about Natalie. This little girl could say anything and everything to Gale. If he hadn¡¯t stopped her in time, they might have chatted for an entire day and night. ¡°What a tenacious little fellow.¡± Gale murmured. For a little girl to be able to persist until now, her mentality was not bad. She was not afraid of the unfamiliar environment. Instead, she adapted to it quickly. Gale lay on the mattress, ready for bed. Just as he was about to fall asleep, a loud noise came from outside the castle. This sound forcefully pulled him out of his sleepy state. Gale got dressed and ran out barefoot, not even bothering to put on his slippers. When he arrived outside the castle¡­ He saw, outside the weak yellow light shield, that there was a gigantic monster! To be precise, it was a dragon! Its whole body was glowing red, as if it had crawled out of magma. It attacked the protective circle again and again, but in the end, it only caused a ripple and did not have much effect. ¡°An adult dragon!¡± Gale stared at the red dragon in the sky. If not for the protection circle, this dragon alone was enough to destroy the entire castle! At this moment, his battle units were still in their growth phases. If he was to face this red dragon now, he would definitely lose! Maybe even die! At this moment, all the battle units that were guarding the Castle gathered when they heard the sound. They all stared at the red dragon in the sky. The Gold Dragon Elena revealed its dragon form, before flying directly to the sky, standing in line with the red dragon. The two seemed to be having a conversation. Before long, the red dragon took one last look at the castle, flapped its wings, and left. Elena transformed back into her human form and landed in front of Gale. She spoke out, ¡°Master, this dragon was attracted by the castle.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve just communicated with it. I¡¯m afraid it will attempt to invade the castle again in the future!¡± Hearing this, Gale frowned. This was not good news. Once the three days were up, if this guy made a comeback, it would definitely be a big problem! As if sensing Gale¡¯s emotions, Elena continued, ¡°Master, you don¡¯t have to worry. As long as I reach Tier 9, it won¡¯t be my match. If I reach God Tier, I can kill it with only a thought!¡± The other battle units also spoke out similar words, as though to reassure Gale.. The battle units that Gale summoned were all beyond the pinnacle of battle units! Their growth potential could allow them to step into the fabled God Tier! As for whether they could advance to God Tier in such a short period of time, Gale did not dare to have any extravagant hopes. He could only hope that the battle units could advance to Tier 9 within this limited time. Only then would he have the ability to fight against that dragon! If all the soldiers advanced to Tier 9 together, killing this giant dragon was just a matter of time. With this thought, Gale¡¯s mood slowly brightened. He was no longer as worried as before. At least he saw some hope. After arranging things for those who were in charge of guarding the Castle, Gale returned to his room to rest. Before resting, he checked the content in the [World Chat]. Although it was in the middle of the night, the frequency of people posting was still very high. The daily restrictions could not extinguish the fiery hearts of these Castle Lords. At night, the topic would become related to monsters. The general meaning was, do not leave the castle at night, or you will die a terrible death. While such advice was given out¡­. In the end, there were still many fearless Castle Lords who continued to hunt monsters in the dark. The result was obvious. Some of them had battle units that died and some got their battle units injured. In fact, some Castle Lords almost lost their lives. Among them, there were many ¡®big shots¡¯ who had pinnacle battle units. In order to surpass Gale, they had also tried to kill monsters under the cover of the night to close the gap between themselves and Gale. However, they had overlooked a problem. At night, the monsters were three times more terrifying than during the day! Sometimes even more! Not to mention that their battle units had yet to fully mature. Going out to hunt monsters at night was equivalent to attempting suicide. In the end, they did not get much resources, but even had their battle units sacrifice themselves. In this regard, Gale¡¯s actions were the most rational. Once it was night time, he would shut himself in and not step out at all. This was the safest way. There was no need to worry about the castle¡¯s strength being damaged. Of course, this approach was only limited to the protection period. Once the protection period was over, not to mention the beast tide, the monsters at night would naturally come looking for them. At that time, the casualties would be unimaginable! The only way to solve this problem was to increase the strength of the castle! Only with sufficient strength could one deal with all unknown dangers. ¡­ Time passed quickly. When Gale opened his eyes, it was already dawn. The scorching sun hung high in the sky. Despite the noisy forest at night, it would turn completely quiet during the day. The monsters that surrounded the protective circle last night had all dispersed and returned to the forest. They continued to hide and wait for the next night to arrive. Of course, there were also many iron-headed monsters that remained not far away from the castle area. These monsters were the primary targets that the Nightmare Team hunted every day. Gale sat on the mattress as he browsed through the [Trading Channel]. All the goods on sale yesterday were sold. It brought him a large amount of resources. The auction gave him a total of 28,000 units of wood, 12,000 units of stone, and 500 units of pure iron. From his sale of food: 4,000 units of wood, 1,800 units of stone. In comparison, the profits brought by the auction were naturally more impressive. Food prices were now set at a standard market price. Unless it was a Castle Lord like Gale, who was extremely popular, they could only sell food at the standard market price. Otherwise, they would face the problem of not being able to sell off their food. Sometimes, fame was a very important thing. There were still Castle Lords willing to buy Gale¡¯s high-priced food, and a great deal of it was due to his fame. They wished to get into his good books. ¡°Based on the current situation, I¡¯m already considered a first generation wealthy man.¡± Gale looked at the total amount of resources in the warehouse and praised himself. He was indeed the richest person among all the Castle Lords. He was also the person whose strength developed the fastest. No one would refute this point. Some Castle Lords had yet to even upgrade their castles to the highest level, not to mention promoting to a town. At this moment, Gale was way ahead of all the Castle Lords! Of course, this was not enough. Gale¡¯s goal was still very far away. He wanted to leave all the Castle Lords behind! To the point that no one could ever catch up to. Only by doing so would he have the ability to dominate the Endless Lands. After thinking for a while, Gale got out of bed. After a simple wash, he ate the delicious breakfast prepared for him by his battle units. Chapter 30 After breakfast, Gale strolled to the courtyard. A new day would naturally begin by summoning new battle units. His five current battle units stood orderly in a line beside him for the summoning. This was also what Gale had requested. This would help the new battle units integrate into the family better. Just as he stepped into the courtyard, Gale sensed an energy fluctuation. After scanning the room, his gaze fell on the Elven Empress Cicely. Gale asked, ¡°Have you been promoted?¡± ¡°Yes, Master.¡± Cicely replied respectfully. Gale was a little surprised to hear this. Cicely¡¯s strength had just reached Tier 6 not too long ago. In just one night, her strength had shockingly reached Tier 7! Even Gale was a little shocked by the speed of her advancement. However, he soon felt as though a burden was being lifted off his shoulders. ¡°As expected of soldiers with God Tier potential!¡± Gale was definitely the happiest whenever a battle unit was promoted.. At this rate, he wouldn¡¯t have to worry too much about the dragon that appeared last night! At the same time, Gale was also curious about the method Cicely used to increase her strength. However, he did not ask. There was no need for that. His battle units would not betray him. As long as this would allow him to increase his castle combat, it was a good thing. After a moment of joy, Gale moved to the military building. He was ready to summon the new battle units today. The eyes of the five battle units also focused over. They were also looking forward to the arrival of their new companion. This was also the most magical aspect of the military building. No matter what type of soldiers they belonged to, there would not be discrimination! [Recruit now?] The moment Gale arrived in front of the unit building, a notification sounded. He was not in a hurry to choose. Instead, he asked, ¡°What if I choose not to summon?¡± The military building would always ask to recruit, which meant that it was an option. Gale was sure there was something fishy going on. If he had to summon a new battle unit everyday, the system would just need to force him to summon the moment he approached the building. Not long after, the notification sounded again. [If you choose not to recruit, there will be no new battle units spawned for a period in the future!] [Of course, the recruitment energy will accumulate until there is enough energy to recruit a battle unit with Perfect Form!] Perfect Form! That was a God Tier battle unit for him! Although Gale knew that there was something fishy going on, he couldn¡¯t help but be shocked at the revelation. He did not expect that the military building actually had such a function! With this thought, Gale continued, ¡°How long will it take to recruit a Perfect Form battle unit?¡± [Current Military Barracks Building: Level 2] [Recruiting Angel Species: 5 months, number of wings will be randomized!] [Recruiting Demon Species: 5 months!] [Recruiting Dragon Race: 1 year!] ¡­ Gale felt a headache coming on the moment he heard the response. To be honest, to produce a Perfect Form battle unit, this time was not considered too long. But for the current Gale, this time could make or break him. His castle was still developing. Waiting five months for a unit was totally not worth it! Not to mention anything else, even the castle¡¯s combat power would be greatly reduced during this time. At least, at the moment, Gale would not want to wait that long. He would wait until the castle developed and survived a series of crises before making such a choice. Currently, Gale could not afford to waste too much time. There were an increasing number of organizations that had noticed his castle, giving him an added sense of urgency. ¡°I can only make plans after the castle has completely stabilized in this area.¡± At this moment, an idea surfaced in his mind. ¡°It would work if I could get two military buildings.¡± The thought had barely surfaced when Gale shoved it down. Even with his current level of development, he had not even managed to discover how to obtain a second military building. Therefore, he could only fantasize about this scenario. Even if he could obtain two, it would definitely be related to using blueprints. Unfortunately, Gale had not even seen what a blueprint looked like. He could only shake off this thought. At the thought of blueprints, he again began to envy Natalie. How could she be so lucky! Just by killing a few monsters, she actually obtained two blueprints! Such luck could only be found in fairy tales. Retracting his thoughts, Gale chose the option to recruit soldiers. [Please select the battle unit!] After pondering for a moment, Gale answered, ¡°Demon Race ¡ª Night Demon!¡± The castle¡¯s ability to fight at night needed to be improved. Otherwise, once the protection period was over, those monsters that often surrounded the castle would definitely become hidden tumors. This was also the reason why Gale chose the demon battle unit. [Selecting your recruitment choice!] As the notification sounded¡­ This time, a black hole surrounded by a demonic aura appeared in the middle of the pool. Not long after, an arm stretched out from the black hole. On the arm were all kinds of symbols drawn. ¡°Greetings, Master.¡± The Night Demon knelt on one knee and said respectfully. ¡°Get up. These four behind you are¡­?¡± Gale pointed at the four adult-sized guys behind Night Demon in confusion. Upon hearing Gale¡¯s question, Night Demon immediately replied, ¡°Master, these are my guards, and they all will also obey your orders.¡± Hearing this, Gale approached to take a look. Just as Night Demon had said, the four demon creatures lowered their heads the moment they saw him. Not bad! Buy one get four free! With that, the castle¡¯s nighttime combat power had grown tremendously. Gale casually opened the virtual interface about Night Demon. [Night Demon (Unnamed)] [Current Stage: Adolescent] [Strength: Tier 6 (Kill enemies to obtain Energy for upgrading)] [Potential: God Tier possible at Perfect Form] [Loyalty: 100 (Absolute Loyalty)] [Note: Loyalty Meter has been locked. This type of battle unit¡¯s Loyalty Meter will never drop.] Looking at the virtual panel in front of him, Gale was slightly stunned. It came out directly as a Tier 6! His future was promising! He then opened the virtual panel of the four guards. As long as it was a battle unit who obeyed his orders, Gale could check it no matter how it appeared. [Night Demon Guard] [Current Growth Stage: Infant] [Strength: Tier 3 (Kill enemies to obtain Energy for upgrading)] [Potential: Demigod Tier at Perfect Form] [Loyalty: 100 (Absolute Loyalty)] [Note: Loyalty Meter has been locked. This type of battle unit¡¯s Loyalty Meter will never drop.] ¡°Their current strength is a bit low, but their potential isn¡¯t bad. They are all worth nurturing!¡± Gale thought to himself. Then, he turned his head and said to the Night Demon, ¡°You¡¯ll be called Mark from now on.¡± ¡°Thank you for giving me a name, Master.¡± The Night Demon Mark knelt on one knee and bowed. As for the Night Demon Guards, Gale did not give them names. It was mainly because there were too many of them, so it was difficult to name them. This was something to be considered in the future. At this point, the overall combat power of the castle was greatly improved again! This big family had once again welcomed five new members! Chapter 31 After Gale¡¯s introduction, the Night Demon and its guards officially joined the Nightmare Team. Perhaps due to the similarity of their own species, Night Demon (Mark) and Abyssal Demon (Novia) quickly became familiar. Next, Gale issued the mission for the day. Just like the previous few days, they were to hunt monsters. Gale needed a large amount of monster materials to ensure that he could create more low-level equipment. The more low-level equipment there were, the more they would earn. Before the battle units left, Gale said, ¡°While you are hunting monsters today, remember to pay attention to whether there are any local organizations around. If there are, try to find out the enemy¡¯s strength.¡± Since he was noticed by more natives, Gale did not intend to continue hiding. He was prepared to take the initiative to attack! If they wanted to dominate the Endless Lands, they had to attack these native factions. Hunting monsters was only for food and materials. These were used to develop the castle. In the end, everything would boil down to their fight with the locals. This was the most unstable factor in the Endless Land. Furthermore, there were generous rewards for destroying the Tribe Heart. This motivated Gale a lot. Just like the heart of the Goblin village that was destroyed yesterday, the number of Origin Edges obtained could only be obtained by killing close to 100 low-level monsters! From this point of view, if one wanted to obtain a large number of Origin Crystals and Origin Edges, they would need to attack the local factions. ¡°Yes, Master.¡± The battle units responded in unison. As soon as they finished speaking, every battle unit used their own abilities and floated in the air, heading towards those places with monsters. ¡°Even if the Nightmare Team encounters any powerful enemies, they can definitely sweep through them.¡± ¡°As long as it¡¯s not a Tier 9 monster, they can deal with most problems.¡± Gale did a calculation regarding the overall strength of his soldiers. This was not empty talk. Sometimes, the quantity of battle units was really important as well. Especially when there was not much difference in levels, even if there was one more battle unit of similar level, it could turn the tide. However, this situation was only limited to those before Tier 9. Once a living being reached Tier 9, it was equivalent to coming into contact with the power of a god. Their strength was naturally different from before. Silence returned to the castle after the battle units left, leaving behind Gale alone. Usually, at this time, Gale would be surfing through the [World Chat] for news. It couldn¡¯t be helped. His work was so boring and simple. Gale didn¡¯t need to hunt monsters himself to increase his strength. The monsters hunted by his battle units would always provide some energy to Gale. Moreover, even if Gale wanted to follow, his battle units would not agree. He opened his [Friend] list, dropping Natalie a message to ask about the progress and situation of the equipment forging. At first, the direction of the conversation was alright. However, in less than five minutes¡­ The direction of the conversation began to change from ¡®work¡¯ to ¡®idle chatter¡¯. Natalie was like a chatterbox, sending messages one after another. Most of them were complaining about the monsters not dropping blueprints. At this, Gale finally found a sense of fairness. If Natalie got the blueprint for every monster she killed¡­ then Gale would need to start wondering if Natalie was the relative of the Goddess of Luck. They chatted for a while longer before Gale ended the conversation. He moved on to opening the [World Chat] channel. Inside, regardless of the occasion, there was always a lively conversation. This was also an important way for Gale to understand the development of the other Castle Lords. Also, he could understand the distribution of the Endless Land in this channel. After nearly an entire morning, he caught a few keywords. [Barren Desert], [Life Burial Swamp], [Solgera Grassland], [Home of the Spirits], [Holy Land of the Dragon Race, [Snow Kingdom]¡­. The most eye-catching thing was that someone mentioned a [Forest of Death]. It was the area Gale was currently in. In other words, there should be many Castle Lords in this region. Maybe, there were even some that were not far off from Gale. Towards them, Gale was not worried at all. With his current strength, the other Castle Lords would only be sending themselves to their deaths if they tried to attack him. There was no need to fear them. He was confident just because he had strength! Of course, no Castle Lord would choose to go to war during the protection period as well. After all, the castle was invincible during the protection period. No matter what sort of power one possessed, one would not be able to break through it. While trying to understand the situation, Gale edited a message and sent it out. [Two days later, pure handmade equipment and weapons will be sold on the trading channel. The quality is guaranteed and the quantity is limited. First come first serve!] Since he was preparing to do business, he naturally had to do some warmups. As expected, once these words were spoken, it caused a huge discussion. [Big Boss Gale is here with a lot of equipment!] [He is indeed the number one person in the Endless Land. He is one galaxy ahead of us!] [I bet that Gale is the first person to have the craftsmanship to forge equipment!] [Big Boss Gale, what do you need to forge equipment?] [Above, are you crazy from hunger? Even if you ask now, Big Boss Gale won¡¯t be able to answer you!] [According to my guess, you need something similar to a blueprint. I think you will need a Blacksmith Shop to forge stuff!] [What is this blueprint? How do you obtain the blueprint? How do you use it after obtaining it? Tell me!] [Don¡¯t ask, the answer will be ¡®I don¡¯t know¡¯!] [I don¡¯t even know what the blueprint looks like!] More and more Castle Lords joined in the discussion. Among them, there were many who displayed envy and jealousy. The low levelled monsters most only dropped food. Even their Origin Edges were pitifully few. Not to mention equipment, which was almost impossible to obtain. Unless you were possessed by the Goddess of Luck, it was impossible to obtain equipment by hunting low-level monsters. Looking at the rapidly flowing information, Gale smiled bitterly. Indeed, Natalie was blessed by the Goddess of Luck. [In two days, Big Boss Gale¡¯s self-made equipment will appear!] [Let¡¯s not talk about it anymore. I have already started preparing the resources for the transaction. This time, I will definitely get some equipment!] [Hehe, I don¡¯t have much, just a lot of resources!] [Upstairs, stop bragging!] [If this batch of equipment is released, it will definitely cause a large number of Castle Lords to fight for it!] [Are you talking nonsense? Of course everyone will fight for it! Equipment is the fastest way to increase the strength of soldiers. Maybe they can even pass the beast tide assessment. If they perform well, it¡¯s not impossible to get some small rewards!] [I wonder how many pieces of equipment will be released this time?] [If Big Boss Gale created it himself, the quantity shouldn¡¯t be too little!] [I hope so!] Indeed, if there was too little equipment, it would not be enough to satisfy each Castle Lord¡¯s needs. Gale was helpless about this too. There were only two days left. Even if Natalie worked day and night, she would only be able to forge slightly more than 4,000 pieces of equipment. There was no way they could satisfy all the Castle Lords present. Chapter 32 To be honest, Gale also wanted to make more low-level equipment to put on sale. This was a profitable business, and the resources obtained would be high. Unfortunately, time was too short. They only had two days of time to prepare. In such a short period of time, it was already not bad to be able to forge 4,000 low-level equipment. It was enough for Gale to earn a big wave of resources. He might be able to use this transaction to obtain a huge amount of resources. This would allow him to increase the level of the castle and the military buildings. At that point, Gale would pull far apart from the other castle lords in terms of development. Of course, he would only know the outcome two days later. Based on the current situation, most of the Castle Lords had already prepared a large amount of resources for the equipment sale in two days. The effect of Gale doing a warm up announcement was not bad. At least, it kept these people in suspense. Most importantly, the number of equipment was limited. This statement was enough to attract the attention of the other castle lords. One had to know that there were only two days left before the protection period would end. Following that was the first assessment ¡ª Beast Tide! The assessment this time was for all the castle lords. No matter where you were, you would be attacked by a huge wave of monsters. If you survive this beast tide, and have a good performance, you would naturally obtain rich rewards. The better one performed was, the greater the rewards one would receive. Gale¡¯s target was that Unique reward that only the number one person in the Endless Land could obtain! Unique rewards specifically referred to items that other Castle Lords could not obtain. The battle units summoned by Gale were the same. Similarly, the ultimate goal of the castle lords who had pinnacle battle units was that Unique Reward. As long as they obtained this Unique Reward, they believed that it would definitely let them surpass Gale! And the prerequisite for all of this was naturally to survive the beast tide. ¡°It¡¯s almost here.¡± Gale looked out the window and murmured. Compared to the nervousness of the other Castle Lords, Gale seemed especially relaxed. He was not worried about this beast tide. This was especially so since Gale had 10 powerful battle units under him. It was enough to face what would happen in two days. ¡­ Time flew by quickly. In the blink of an eye, the afternoon arrived. The corpses of monsters were still piled up in the courtyard. This was the most repetitive job Gale had done today. Deconstructing corpses and selling food. Gale handed over all the monster materials to Natalie for her equipment forging. The more equipment he could prepare, the more profit he would earn in two days. ¡°Today¡¯s hunting speed is much faster than usual.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a chance of getting over 300 monsters.¡± With the addition of Night Demon and the others, the Nightmare Team had expanded once more. The speed at which they hunted monsters naturally increased. That was what Gale wanted to see. The more monsters they killed, the more materials they would obtain. As long as there were enough materials, the number of equipment forged would also increase. Still, Gale still felt a little sad. Today, he had hunted nearly 300 monsters. However, he still did not obtain any blueprints. Luckily as a consolation, he had obtained many Origin Edges this time, a total of 84! With the total amount in the warehouse, Gale currently had 346 Origin Edges. It was not far away from the next upgrade of the military barracks. If he was lucky, within the next two days, he could already promote his barracks once again. By then, the probability of summoning a large number of battle units each time would increase again. He might even awaken some new functions. ¡°I hope I can keep developing at this rate.¡± Gale¡¯s castle was developing very quickly and steadily at the moment. He did not hope to surpass expectations, but to only be stable and constant. As long as he could continue to develop steadily, Gale was sure that no castle lord could surpass him. After Gale had finished his matters, it was almost night time. The outline of the blood moon appeared again. The monsters hiding in the forest during the day sensed the appearance of the Blood Moon and started to go berserk. The monsters outside the castle gathered again and wandered around. From time to time, they would make sounds that sounded like having fish bones stuck in one¡¯s mouth. They behaved like a malicious ghost that wanted his life. Fortunately, the protection period was still there. These monsters were not much of a threat at the moment. Gale recalled the Nightmare Team. After a day of hunting, the four Night Demon guards had advanced to Tier 4! The other battle units were however still lacking some energy to advance. Among them, Night Demon (Mark), who had just joined the Nightmare Team, performed the best. He had hunted nearly 100 monsters! It couldn¡¯t be helped. Demons loved killing. Simply speaking, demons were born to kill. Even though the Nightmare Team was extremely strong right now¡­ Gale did not think about letting them hunt monsters at night. The reasoning behind it was simple. Firstly, the number of monsters that appeared at night was several times more than during the day, and their strength would also increase greatly. Secondly, at night, apart from the demon and devil battle units, the strength of the other races would be reduced. Third, the adult dragon roaming around. Soon after, Gale came to the Elven Empress Cicely. Cicely was the captain of the Nightmare Team and the first Perfect Form battle unit that Gale had summoned, hence his trust in her. ¡°Did you find anything today?¡± Gale enquired. Every night, Gale would ask for a report regarding what they experienced while hunting. He would pay special attention to the information regarding the local organizations. Upon hearing that, she shook her head and said respectfully, ¡°Master, when we were hunting the monsters today, we didn¡¯t discover any information about the native forces.¡± ¡°However, when we were hunting monsters, we found a team of dragons.¡± ¡°There are a lot of them, nearly 90 of them.¡± ¡°The strongest among them has already reached Tier 8.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure that dragon will advance to Tier 9 soon!¡± ¡°There are also close to 10 of them who are at the mini boss standard.¡± ¡°Because we didn¡¯t have your orders, we didn¡¯t attack this team, and they didn¡¯t notice us.¡± Gale nodded in approval when he heard this. It was good to be careful. Especially when it was nearing night. A Tier 8 dragon was not invincible to the current Nightmare Team! ¡°I hope it doesn¡¯t disappoint me.¡± Gale looked toward the forest. With nearly 90 monsters, and even dozens of high levelled monsters within it, he could possible get more Origin Crystals if his luck was good. Gale still lacked an Origin Crystal at the moment. As long as he could get this last one, he would not be far from upgrading his military building. As for the native organizations that were hiding in the dark¡­ Gale had finally settled his worries about them. What would come would come. What he needed to do was to take precautions. As long as these native forces dared to come, Gale would make sure they would never return! Chapter 33 After getting a view of the big picture, Gale prepared to go to bed. Tonight, his [Friend] list was unusually quiet. For the first time tonight, Natalie did not look for Galel to chat. Gale did not find this strange at all. There were less than two days left, so this little girl must be busy with equipment forging. Where would she be able to find the time to chat with him? At the end of the day, the two of them were just partners and could barely be considered friends. This could also be considered as the first friend Gale made after coming to the Endless Land. Overall, it was not bad. ¡°I hope we can keep working together.¡± Gale lay in bed, staring through the window at the bloody moon on the horizon. If Natalie was eliminated in the beast tide, their cooperation would be canceled. Thus, Gale sincerely hoped that this little girl could safely survive this beast tide. Soon after, Gale fell asleep. ¡­ Day and night alternated. The sky turned bright. A new day had arrived! Gale got up very early today. Even before the sun had fully risen, he was already eating breakfast. Today was the sixth day since the one billion Castle Lords had arrived at the Endless Land. Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, there was only one day left until the beginner¡¯s protection period ended. Once the protective period was over, the first difficulty the Castle Lords would face was not a beast tide, but rather the monsters that would wandered around the castle every day. In fact, some of the weaker Castle Lords might not even last until the start of the beast tide. Without a doubt, all the Castle Lords began to raise the strength of their castles. No one was willing to be eliminated. Elimination meant death. Everyone was afraid of death. This was the same for Gale. ¡­ The sky brightened. The Nightmare Team began to move. According to Gale¡¯s orders, they would proceed to clean up those dragon monsters today. There were nearly 90 Dragon Tribe members. Killing all of them could provide Gale with a large amount of resources. While his battle units went out to hunting for monsters, Gale sat on the sofa and opened the [Trading Channel]. All the food that was put on sale yesterday evening was sold out. Nearly 5,000 units of food were sold. In terms of quantity, this was a lot of food, but compared to the grand scale of a billion Castle Lords, this was merely a drop in the bucket. This amount of food was not enough to satisfy the needs of so many people. Fortunately, Gale was hailed as the number one person in the Endless Land. His reputation naturally far surpassed that of the other Castle Lords, and allowed his food to be sold off faster than others. So far, Gale¡¯s food sales were still steadily at the top based on quantity sold. Most importantly, Gale¡¯s pricing was always slightly higher than market prices. Only Gale dared to sell food like this. If it were any other Castle Lord who dared to do this, the only result would only be a lack of business. Next, Gale went through the resources obtained from selling food. 28,000 units of wood, 7,500 units of stone, and 200 units of pure iron. The resources in his warehouse, together with these, had a total of 95,000 units of wood, 29,000 units of stone and 1,800 units of pure iron. Up till now, the number of Castle Lords who traded food for pure iron was so low that it was pitiful. In other words, other than Natalie, no other Castle Lord had the means to obtain a steady flow of pure iron. This was neither good nor bad news for Gale. If there were more Castle Lords with pure iron, then Gale would also obtain more pure iron. However, if the pure iron resource overflowed, it would become worthless! At that point, the prices would definitely plummet. It was not just pure iron that was affected. It could also affect the price of forged equipment. ¡°Looks like I¡¯m not too far away from promotion.¡± Soon, he would be able to upgrade his Castle to an Elementary Town. This would be a huge improvement. Retracting his thoughts, Gale went to the courtyard. He prepared to summon the new battle units today. Because he sent the other battle units out early today, there was only himself doing the recruitment this time. [Recruit now?] ¡°Recruit!¡± [Please select the battle unit!] ¡°Elf battle unit ¡ª Elven Empress!¡± [Selecting your recruitment choice!] A short time later, a new unit appeared in front of Gale. This time, he chose to recruit another Elven Empress. The reason was very simple. The Elven Empress¡¯ combat ability was very strong. This was especially so when it came to group attacks. In addition, she also possessed powerful commanding abilities. Logically speaking, Gale would prioritize this type of battle unit. Besides, his army structure was special. It would not limit the number of summons of the same type. Because of this, Gale could build an army whose members were all individually strong in the future. Just think about it, in the future, there would be hundreds of Elven Empresses going out together. What kind of scene would that be!? The new Elven Empress looked different from Cicely. In terms of height, Cicely was the taller one.. Luckily, Gale could identify them through their hair color as well. ¡°You will be called Miya from now on.¡± In the end, he still could not escape this special hobby. It couldn¡¯t be helped, he had to give some sort of identification to make his life easier as well. After all, there would be more battle units of the same type in the future. It would be easier to distinguish if they had a name. ¡°Miya thanks you for the name, Master.¡± Miya said respectfully. Then, Gale opened the virtual interface to view her stats. [Elven Empress (Miya)] [Current Stage: Adolescent Stage] [Strength: Tier 5 (Kill enemies to obtain Energy for upgrading)] [Potential: God Tier possible at Perfect Form] [Loyalty: 100 (Absolute Loyalty)] [Note: Loyalty Meter has been locked. This type of battle unit¡¯s Loyalty Meter will never drop.] The information was the same as his first Elven Empress. The only difference was that Miya immediately started off in the adolescent stage. However, she was not at Perfect Form. Otherwise, her strength would directly reach God Tier! However, Gale would not ask for so much. The probability of summoning a Perfect Form battle unit was too small. Unless there was a day when the heavens suddenly favored him, such a thing would almost never happen. ¡°Go look for and join the Nightmare Team.¡± Gale spoke to Miya. With the addition of new members, the pace of their battles and hunts would definitely be much faster. Now, time was of the essence. ¡°Yes, Master.¡± As fellow battle units, Miya could sense where her companions were. This saved a lot of time. After watching Miya leave, Gale opened his [Friend] list. On the virtual interface, only a single name was there. That was his partner Natalie. However, there were still many Castle Lords who wanted to add Gale as a friend every day. There were tens of millions of them, close to a hundred million. Towards those requests, Gale rejected them all. It was useless for him to have so many friends, let alone a group of weaklings who wanted to earn a living. Just then, Natalie sent a message. Out of curiosity, Gale clicked on it. All of a sudden, his original good mood turned sour. Chapter 34 [Big Boss Gale, are you awake?] [Let me tell you a piece of good news. Today, my battle units stepped on a small monster and killed it. It dropped a blueprint!] [This blueprint is for building fences. It can be used to increase the defense of the castle!] [So I¡¯ve decided to give this blueprint to Big Boss Gale!] [Are you happy?] Happy? Gale was feeling very depressed right now. He was even more certain of his guess now. Natalie was definitely related to Lady Luck. This was already the third blueprint she had gotten! Furthermore, the method of obtaining it was very easy. Gale shed tears of envy. He was known as the number one expert in the Endless Land, with thousands of slain monsters under his name! For someone who had not even been here for a week, this was a terrifying number. But up till now, he had yet to see any blueprints. He didn¡¯t even know what a blueprint looked like. ¡°The heavens are unfair!¡± Gale shouted helplessly in his heart. After sorting out his emotions, he replied, [I don¡¯t need the fence blueprint. You can use it to build a wooden fence and then strengthen the defense of your castle. It can increase the chances of surviving the beast tide.] Gale did not need a blueprint for defense. The castle¡¯s current strength was enough to face everything that the beast tide assessment could throw at him. His greatest danger was not the beast tide, but rather the adult dragon. The fence blueprints could not protect him against flying creatures. On the contrary, Natalie needed this blueprint more. The battle units she summoned could be said to have no combat power. With this blueprint, it could increase the chances of herself surviving the beast tide. Natalie replied quickly, [Alright then, I will try my best to loot more blueprints!] Seeing this message, Gale¡¯s expression turned extremely ugly. Was this the effect of being blessed by the Goddess of Luck? Perhaps! In order to prevent his heart from being hurt again, Gale quickly changed the topic. [How much pure iron do you have now?] If they discussed too much on the blueprint, Gale was sure that his weak heart might just collapse. [There should be close to 5,000 units of pure iron tomorrow.] Seeing the message, Galeil once again recognized the function of the furnace. Without a furnace, the Castle Lords could hardly get pure iron. If they tried to make it themselves, not only would the process be complicated, the speed would also be very slow. Sometimes, they would only manage to produce pig iron and not pure iron. Based on the current situation, Gale¡¯s hopes on getting enough iron to promote his castle completely relied on what Natalie produced. The other Castle Lords did not have such toys, only wood and stones as resources. At this moment, a notification sounded. [Killed a Tier 3 horned dragon, +20 Energy Points] [Killed a Tier 3 horned dragon, +20 Energy Points] [Killed a Tier 5 horned dragon, +60 Energy Points, +1 Origin Edge] ¡°It seems the team has already begun their attack.¡± Gale¡¯s eyes lit up. He lay on the sofa and listened to the notifications from time to time. As though he was listening to the music from heaven, Gale¡¯s mood rapidly improved. He hoped that something good would drop during this operation. He would not ask for blueprints, but at least he could get some Origin Crystals. Gale had four Origin Crystals in his possession. As long as he had one more, he would have met one of the requirements to upgrade his military building once again.. He wasn¡¯t worried that the Nightmare Team¡¯s operation would fail. So what if it was that horned dragon whose strength was close to Tier 9? The battle units that Gale summoned were all beyond the pinnacle of battle units! Their bloodline was even purer than the horned dragon. It had a natural suppressive effect on the monsters outside. It was only a matter of time before they crushed these dragon creatures. ¡°Don¡¯t disappoint me.¡± Gale looked through the window at the distant forest. Flashes of light could be seen from time to time, accompanied by the roars of horned dragons. That direction was the battlefield between the Nightmare Team and the horned dragons! ¡­ Within the forest. The members of the Nightmare Team began to display their abilities. Among them, Night Demon Mark attacked in the most bloody way. Beside him, were already nearly 10 horned dragon corpses. These were all freshly slaughtered. The blood that had yet to coagulate was enough to explain everything. ¡°Are you ready to accept death?¡± Mark looked at the retreating horned dragons and asked contemptuously. As if sensing something, eight of the horned dragons immediately turned away and fled without care for their surroundings. Those thick trees around them were knocked down by the horned dragons. Trees fell to the ground one after another, kicking up a cloud of dust and dirt. Mark looked at the fleeing horned dragon and smirked coldly. He did not move at all. After a moment. Those horned dragons that had just escaped were already reduced to cooling corpses. The perpetrators were none other than the Night Demon Guard! This was the power and advantage of the Night Demon. He could use his will to control the guards he had brought with him. This was mainly used to hunt down fleeing enemies. Moreover, those he directly controlled could utilize 90% of his strength. Of course, this move could only last for three minutes. When he was done with clearing up the dragons, Mark stood in the air and looked in another direction. He could feel powerful energy fluctuations coming from that direction. That was the battlefield against the Tier 8 horned dragon. The horned dragons below Tier 5 had already been dealt with by Mark. Now, he was going to a more exciting battlefield. ¡­ Other than Night Demon Mark, the other battle units were all dealing with the Tier 8 horned dragon in front of them. This was also the most powerful member of the Dragon Tribe group. The horned dragon was almost ten meters long, its body wrapped in brown scales. With a flick of its tail, the Tier 8 horned dragon reduced a huge rock immediately into dust. From this, it could be seen just how strong this horned dragon was! Moreover, it could still persevere under the siege of so many battle units! If it could reach Tier 9, the threat was probably no less than that adult dragon that visited him the last time! The Elven Empress Cicely deployed her tactics again. All sorts of attacks landed on the horned dragon based off her commands. Although the horned dragon was huge, it was extremely agile, akin to a loach in water. It could dodge all the moves and even counterattack! If it were any other battle unit, they would have long died in the mouth of the horned dragon. However, following the arrival of Mark, the Nightmare Team was finally fully assembled! With Mark¡¯s addition, the situation instantly became clear. The horned dragon was now reduced to a target that could only be beaten. No matter how it dodged, attacks would eventually land on it. Even though the horned dragon¡¯s attack was powerful, it was still blocked. Suddenly, Novia found an opportunity. She instantly activated her Demon Eyes. As her level increased, the effect of the Demon Eye became more pronounced. Now, it was not as simple as just extracting souls. It could also condense an attack that could penetrate the soul! Novia floated in the air, as a red laser beam shot out abruptly from the third eye on her forehead. It directly pierced through the Tier 8 horned dragon¡¯s body! Chapter 35 This laser beam penetrated the horned dragon¡¯s body. Blood flowed on the ground, and the scent of blood quickly spread. Roar! The horned dragon roared in pain. It was a Tier 8 creature, when had it last experienced such pain! The horned dragon¡¯s body began to tremble violently. Although this attack was not fatal, it posed an enormous threat to one¡¯s soul. It could feel that its soul was constantly being burned. This pain was far greater than the pain from the wounds on its fleshly body. It could still recover from physical injuries. However, if its soul was damaged, there would be almost no chance of recovery. The laser beam finally dissipated. And the horned dragon staggered to its feet. It knew that it would likely die here today. However, even if it had to die, it would make the enemy pay the price! Although the idea was there¡­ Gale¡¯s battle units would not give the horned dragon any chance to resist. The Gold Dragon Elena reverted to her dragon body. The golden scales emitted a holy aura under the sunlight. Roar! A resounding voice came from the Gold Dragon¡¯s mouth. A five-meter long sword was formed by the Golden Dragon alongside the roar, and hovered above the horned dragon. As the Gold Dragon waved its front claws, the sword vibrated slightly before plunging straight down. Rip! This gigantic sword pierced through the body of the horned dragon and pinned it to the ground. No matter how hard the horned dragon struggled, it was unable to escape from the giant sword. Under the double damage to body and soul, the horned dragon quickly lost the right to struggle. It could only fall to the ground weakly. Even its roars seemed weak and powerless now. However, as long as the target was not dead, the battle units would not stop attacking. The smell of blood continued to stimulate the Night Demon Mark. His eyes turned red. And he kept muttering words that were hard to understand. Furthermore, the speed of chanting became faster and faster. At this moment, tiny blood threads were being extracted from the horned dragon¡¯s body. Mark saw this and flew directly above the horned dragon. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the blood vessels lingering on his fingertips. He loved the smell of blood. Absorbing the blood of high levelled creatures would be of great help to his own tier. The horned dragon¡¯s body began to tremble anew as its blood was extracted. The scales slid off its body. Even the horn on its head had fallen off. Before long, it lost the support given by its blood, crumbling into a clump of dirt, blending into the vast lands. From the earth you are born, and to the earth you shall return. The Tier 8 horned dragon had fallen! ¡°It died just like that?¡± Mark muttered. The battle units around him were not surprised when they saw this. They already got used to it. Every battle unit had a way to increase their strength. Among them, Night Demon Mark¡¯s was the most violent and bloody. This was something that everyone was familiar with. ¡­ Inside the castle. A blinding light enveloped Gale. Soon, the light dissipated. Gale¡¯s strength increased again! Crossing Tier 4 to reach Tier 5! Not bad! Gale was in a great mood. Tier 5 strength, in the Endless Land, was already considered reasonable. At least, he had already entered the ranks of the strong. From now on, Gale was no longer the Castle Lord who had no ability to protect himself! As his tier increased, a notification sounded. [Killed Tier 8 Horned Dragon, +200 Energy, +10 Origin Edges +1 Origin Crystal, +1 Blueprint] It was information about the horned dragon. ¡°Such a generous reward!¡± Gale¡¯s breathing quickened. This time, the benefits of killing a Tier 8 horned dragon were too great. Not only did he gain a lot of energy points, but even Origin Edges and Crystals which he needed to upgrade his barracks. What excited Gale the most was the blueprint that he dreamed of getting! Finally, it was completely realized today! Although he didn¡¯t know what kind of blueprint it was, for an item to be a blueprint, its quality would not be too shabby. ¡°Finally!¡± Gale was very overjoyed at this moment. He managed to promote to Tier 5, get enough resources, and even a blueprint this time! This blueprint was too difficult to come by. This was something he obtained only after killing a Tier 8 monster. Gale was not as lucky as Natalie. ¡°Nightmare Team, mission completed!¡± The information about killing the horned dragon kept ringing in Gale¡¯s mind. Once the eighth rank horned dragon died, the dragon tribe that was nearby would no longer pose a threat to the Nightmare Squad! In this battle, Nightmare Squad perfectly triumphed over the horned dragons. Gale stared in the direction of the forest. The fight with the monsters continued, but at this point, it was just a one-sided slaughter. The scales of victory had already tilted towards his side. At the same time, Gale was very curious. What kind of blueprint would he get this time? It would be a lie to say that he did not feel emotional. This was the first blueprint Gale obtained! Of course, all of this could only wait until the Nightmare Team brought back the blueprint before they knew what it was for. ¡­ Within the forest. The Nightmare Team was still hunting the last few surviving horned dragons. Their mission this time was to completely exterminate the horned dragons. Against these potential threats, the Nightmare Team would not show mercy. As for the remaining horned dragons, the highest ranked one was only Tier 5. In the face of the Nightmare Team, they had no way of resisting at all. It wouldn¡¯t be an exaggeration to say that it was a one-sided crushing. Time flew by quickly. Wherever the Nightmare Team passed, horned dragons would fall. In the end, all the horned dragons were killed. All the battle units had been promoted a tier higher! The strongest member of the Nightmare Team was now at Tier 8! That¡¯s right, the Elven Empress Cicely had reached Tier 8. The four Night Demon guards had even been promoted twice through this hunt! This was a huge increase in strength. If nothing went wrong, the battle unit who had just advanced to the Tier 7 might even have a chance to break through the shackles to Tier 8 today. After all, there were too many horned dragons. While the energy needed for each promotion was tremendous, there was still some time before night fell. If one was able to kill a large number of monsters during this period of time, they would definitely be able to promote once more! The Nightmare Team began to clean up the spoils of the day. The corpses of the horned dragons scattered throughout the forest were piled up together. Those monsters that were initially attracted over by the smell of blood immediately turned tail and fled after sensing the powerful energy fluctuations in the area. Even the low levelled monsters had some intelligence. A team that could wipe out the entire horned dragon tribe was not something they could provoke. Naturally, the Nightmare Team could also sense these fleeing monsters. However, they did not choose to pursue them. The reason was simple. The Nightmare team was cleaning up the spoils of war and bringing them to Gale, thus they had no time to deal with the monsters. Meanwhile, Gale remained standing on the observation deck, looking out to the forest. He could feel that the battle units had gotten an all round upgrade in their strength this time. This gave Gale more confidence to obtain the Unique Reward! Tier 8 battle unit! Gale believed that other than him, there was no other Castle Lord that had a battle unit at that tier. Chapter 36 An hour later. The Nightmare Team transported the spoils of war and the horned dragon¡¯s corpse into the courtyard. The process of going back and forth took the longest. There was no other choice, since even the Nightmare Team could only use their own abilities to transport resources. There was no magical equipment here that could cross or fold space to shorten distances. Gale came into the courtyard. At this moment, the Nightmare Team had already left to hunt more monsters. According to the procedures, Gale deconstructed all these horned dragons into food. 90 horned dragons were transformed into nearly 2,000 units of food. Among them, there was one Tier 5 monster, and it had even produced an Origin Crystal as loot! Ordinary food took up the most amount, totaling 1,500 units. The Tier 5 horned dragon produced a total of 380 units of premium food. As for the Tier 8 horned dragon, it produced a total of 50 units of food. That was because horned dragons were much larger than common monsters, hence the amount of food they produced was larger as well. More food would be obtained through deconstructing them. After getting the food units, Gale further separated them by quality. He then placed the food on the [Trading Channel]. This time, Gale would sell the ordinary food at market price. The Tier 5 food was set at five times the market price. As for the Tier 8 food, it was set at 20 times higher than the market price. Of course, Gale kept ten units of the Tier 8 horned dragon meat for himself. After all, the energy inside the meat of these high-level creatures was immense. They could be used to supplement energy for Gale himself. Once the goods were placed on sale, the [World Chat] exploded as usual. Whether it was because of the quantity of food or the level of the food, every Castle Lord present started to discuss fervently. The most popular topic was naturally the meat of the Tier 8 horned dragon. Those Castle Lords who had pinnacle battle units already had the ability now to hunt Tier 5 monsters. It was precisely because of this that Tier 5 food appeared occasionally in the [Trading Channel]. Thus, everyone had already gotten used to seeing Tier 5 meat. However, Gale was holding the meat of a Tier 8 horned dragon! At this moment, no one could kill a Tier 8 creature. This was natural, since Tier 8 creatures were about to leave the ranks of being natural creatures and transcend into a higher life form! In the eyes of many Castle Lords, such an extraordinary creature was impossible to kill. But Gale basically pulled off the impossible. [How strong is Gale¡¯s battle unit!] [To be able to kill a Tier 8 monster, the lowest it has to be is another Tier 8!] [F*ck, Tier 8 battle unit. As expected of the number one person in the Endless Land!] [I just hunted a Tier 4 Monster today. I originally thought I was not far from Big Boss Gale, but I didn¡¯t expect the gap to be so huge. I even feel like crying now!] [My friend has a pinnacle battle unit as well, but he has to run away when encountering Tier 7 monsters, let alone Tier 8!] [Damn it, according to what you said, the aptitude of Gale¡¯s battle unit is probably beyond pinnacle?] [Above, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s possible. There¡¯s no such creature!] [I¡¯m a little curious now. Big Boss Gale killed this Tier 8 horned dragon, so he must have obtained many good things!] [I¡¯m curious too. Big Boss Gale must have destroyed a team of horned dragons. Otherwise, it¡¯s impossible for a single Tier 8 horned dragon to break down into so much food!] [Tsk, tsk, tsk. Big Boss Gale is too heaven defying!] [Alright, the Unique Reward has been pre-ordered by Gale!] [Another day of envy!] The [World Chat] was buzzing with excitement. Even the Castle Lords, who usually lurked and did not speak in the chat surfaced at this moment. It couldn¡¯t be helped. Gale had thoroughly stirred the mud this time. There was also a group of Castle Lords who began to discuss the resources Gale had obtained. Just as everyone was chatting enthusiastically, those red-eyed monsters appeared again. [Tsk, he must have used some underhanded means!] [I agree with the comment above. That¡¯s a Tier 8 horned dragon! Gale must have used some kind of trap!] [I think the horned dragon was injured. Gale only took advantage of the situation!] [Makes sense. After all, creatures of different races will easily start fighting over territory!] As soon as these slandering remarks about Gale appeared, they were drowned out by a lot of information. Everyone was attacking these red-eyed monsters crazily. These discussions did not cause any waves. [It¡¯s you red-eyed monsters again. When the protection period is up, I will immediately lead my troops to beat you up!] [They just can¡¯t bear to see others doing well. So what if he used a trap? Can you?] [These people have probably never faced a high-level monster before!] As for how Gale killed the horned dragon, the Castle Lords did not care at all. As long as the final outcome was victory, that was enough. After all, Gale was the first Lord of the castle to kill a Tier 8 creature. With this, Gale was enough to make the other Castle Lords worship and envy him. ¡­ Once the horned dragon meat that Gale put up was on sale, there was a rush to buy it. It happened almost instantly. All of the horned dragon meat, regardless of its tier, had been sold out! It was like throwing a piece of delicious meat into a group of starving people. In [World Chat], more and more Castle Lords began to ¡®attack¡¯ these people who were trying to buy the horned dragon meat. [Are you guys crazed from hunger? I just opened the trading channel and the goods are gone!] [I was stunned for a few seconds, and by the time I came back to my senses, I didn¡¯t even see any flesh. What a bunch of animals!] [Even the meat of a Tier 8 horned dragon that is twenty times the market price has been sold out!] [Damn, the Castle Lords have become richer!] [It¡¯s normal. That¡¯s tier 8 food. It can provide a large amount of energy for oneself. Who wouldn¡¯t like it?] [This is dragon meat. No normal person has eaten dragon meat before. There will definitely be a scramble for it!] [I¡¯m willing to pay 25 times the market price for a Tier 8 dragon meat!] [Aove, wake up. No one will sell it to you even if you offer 30 times the price!] The price of horned dragon meat also rose to a certain level. At this time, the price of the tier 8 horned dragon meat had already been raised to thirty times the market price. However, no Castle Lord chose to sell it. It was very simple. The energy contained in such high-grade food was very large. The Castle Lord could absorb the energy contained within by eating it, or to develop their battle units by giving the meat to them as a reward. Who would sell such a treasure just for some resources? Besides, those who had the resources to buy the meat of a tier 8 horned dragon were all ¡®rich people¡¯. They had a lot of resources in their hands. Although it was expensive, it was worth it! The most important thing was to improve one¡¯s own strength. Besides, this was dragon meat. Food that the Castle Lords had never eaten in their lives. At the same time, on a mountain peak. A handsome young man was looking at the black dragons hunting in the distance. Those were his battle units. If he were to kill one, he might be able to sell it for a price that was at least 100x higher than the market price! Chapter 37 The youth sat cross-legged on the ground. There was a hint of a blaze in his eyes as he looked at the black dragons hunting nearby. He licked his dry lips that were about to peel off. If he killed one of his battle units, he would be able to obtain a lot of resources. After all, his Black Dragon troops had all had pure bloodlines! What was a pure bloodline? It was basically pure dragon blood that was not diluted by blood from any other races. The young man was extremely lacking in resources. Whether it was upgrading the castle or upgrading the military buildings, he faced a shortage due to the lack of monsters to hunt in his area. In addition, he also needed to increase the strength of his battle units, thus he soon faced this resource problem. Those black dragons stopped hunting monsters and twisted their bodies as they looked at the youth not far away. Their eyes were filled with greed and wariness. It was as if they had sensed the young man¡¯s thoughts, Seeing this, the young man quickly retracted his gaze. A smile reappeared on his face. What gave him a headache was¡­ The rapid decrease in the number of monsters caused the castle to face the crisis of a lack of food. Due to the lack of food, he was unable to obtain the resources to upgrade the buildings. It was a vicious cycle. As the strength of his battle units increased, the requirement for their appetite was also very huge. Without food, the loyalty of his battle units began to drop rapidly. The young Black Dragon battle units only had a Loyalty Meter of 72 points at the moment. This was a very dangerous number. If the meter fell below 60 points¡­ There was a high chance that the battle units would betray him! Or even kill the young man! ¡°I¡¯ll overtake you, Gale.¡± The young man said confidently. However, he had to find a way to increase the loyalty of his battle unit. Otherwise, he might be attacked by his own battle units at any time. In contrast, Gale had no need to worry about that. His battle units¡¯ loyalty had been locked at full value from the very beginning. Loyalty would never decrease, let alone betray him. This uniqueness also created an invisible advantage for Gale, as he did not need to search for ways to increase the loyalty of his troops. He could completely focus on the development of the castle and the upgrade of the military buildings. This was something other Castle Lords did not have. ¡­ On a boundless grassland. A beautiful, tall and fair lady was leading a group of golden lions as they hunted a wolf pack. The upgrade of the military building also gave the battle units a huge upgrade. Rowling stopped hunting the herd of cows and focused on the more threatening wolves. The wolves had high battle strength and some intelligence. Their tiers would also be much higher than the cows. It was suitable to be the Golden Lion Kings¡¯ opponents. At this rate, she was confident that she could surpass Gale. Just as Rowling was lost in her thoughts. The appearance of the Tier 8 horned dragon meat trampled on her pride again. ¡°Gale, just how strong are your battle units?¡± Rowling stared at the horizon and murmured. She was in despair. It was true that Gale had slaughtered the entire Goblin tribe. However, this only meant that his battle units were extraordinary. In Rowling¡¯s eyes, Gale¡¯s strength should only be about the same as hers. As long as she was given enough time, she would definitely be able to surpass him. And now? Gale could actually kill a Tier 8 horned dragon! This forced Rowling to reverse her estimate of Gale¡¯s strength. For the battle units to actually be able to kill a Tier 8 creature, how strong did they have to be! Just a couple of days ago, Rowling had totally been crushed by a Tier 5 creature. However, today, her golden lions could easily hunt down Tier 5 grassland wolves. It was enough to show that the battle units had improved rapidly in the past few days! As her battle units improved, Rowling¡¯s confidence grew. It could be said that she had reached a totally new peak. If not for the appearance of the Tier 8 horned dragon meat, she would have thought that it was only a matter of time before she surpassed Gale. As of right now, facing a Tier 6 creature, Rowling practically had no way of resisting. Let alone creatures close to Tier 9. And yet, the horned dragon that was defeated was a Tier 8 spirit beast that possessed a dragon bloodline! ¡°It seems that you are indeed much stronger than me.¡± ¡°But I won¡¯t give up so easily!¡± ¡°The novice period has not passed yet. Moreover, there is still a beast tide. Everything is unknown!¡± ¡°I still have hope of surpassing you!¡± Rowling took a few deep breaths and quickly adjusted herself. She had battle units with pinnacle aptitudes. This would be the capital to overtake him at the bend. The beast tide was also an opportunity that Rowling had to grasp. Gale¡¯s power made her feel aware of her own weaknesses. However, whoever¡¯s points were the highest during the Beast Tide Assessment would obtain the Unique Reward. As long as she obtained the Unique Reward, surpassing Gale would become exceptionally easy. She cleared her mind and broke into a relaxed smile. Under the light of the sun, one could vaguely see Rowling¡¯s heart that was glowing again. At the same time. The information about Gale putting up the Tier 8 dragon meat, shook the hearts of many Castle Lords. Among them were the Castle Lords who had pinnacle aptitude battle units. Gale¡¯s strength made them feel suffocated. However, this feeling was very short-lived. Almost instantly, these castle lords who had their own pinnacle battle units readjusted their mentalities and began a new round of preparations. Perhaps this was why they had been chosen by the pinnacle aptitude battle units. Only with a strong mentality could one survive in the Endless Land. In the Ten Thousand Deities Residence¡­ Gale lay on the sofa, leisurely snacking on some delicious wild fruits. He never cared about the opinions of others. If he cared too much about it, it might backfire and cause him to be more troubled. Gale would not do such a thankless task. So what if the other Castle Lords set him as their target? In order to surpass him, one had to have sufficient capital. So far, Gale hadn¡¯t found that kind of powerful Castle Lord that could threaten him. It was also possible that they were hiding in the dark and had yet to surface. What should come will come. Gale firmly believed that with the power to look down on everything, all crises would automatically be resolved. If not, then you are not strong enough! ¡°After tomorrow, the beast tide will come.¡± Gale murmured. A few days ago, he was indeed worried about the beast tide. However, the Nightmare Team¡¯s strength had improved by leaps and bounds, allowing him to be sure that they would safely survive the beast tide. If Gale knew that Rowling, who was hailed as a ¡®goddess¡¯ by the Lord of the Castle, was going to fight for that Unique Reward as well, it would be unknown how he would feel. Gale had decided to obtain that Unique Reward this time, and furthermore in a crushing manner. Since he had chosen to fight for hegemony over the Endless Lands, he would have to bring out a strength that would leave one in despair. This was the only way to qualify for whatever was next to come. And this beast tide would eliminate a batch of ¡®inferior¡¯ castle lords. At that time, those who survived would be those with certain survival skills. The situation in the Endless Land would change accordingly. Chapter 38 This time, he exterminated the horned dragon group. Gale obtained a blueprint, an Origin Crystal, and 44 Origin Edges in total. Among which, he was very happy to obtain the blueprints. Next would be the Origin Crystal. Including the four Origin Crystals he had obtained earlier, Gale had five Origin Crystals on hand. It had already met one of the requirements for his barracks to be upgraded to the next stage. What he lacked now was no longer Origin Crystals, but Origin Edges. As long as he obtained close to 120 more Origin Edges, Gale could upgrade the military building. ¡°The Nightmare Team is still hunting monsters, so there¡¯s still a possibility of being able to promote my military building today.¡± Gale¡¯s mind was still filled with the notifications of monsters being killed. By tomorrow at the latest, he would be able to upgrade the military building. This would be a huge improvement for the entire castle, since it would increases the random probability of drawing more than one unit each time. The previous upgrade had allowed Gale to obtain the powerful twin angels Angel of Darkness and Angel of Sacred Light. (Author is probably talking about the upgrade which allows the barracks to spawn more than 1 unit each time, since his original lv 1 barracks only restricted him to summon 1 unique unit each time.) Gale was looking forward to the promotion. He did not know what kind of changes to the battle units this improvement would bring him. For a random battle unit building like his¡­. Anything was possible. In fact, if he was lucky, he could even summon a God Tier army in one go! If so, Gale¡¯s goal would no longer be to develop his castle, but to immediately bring out his troops to rampage in the Endless Lands. However, it seemed like this scene could only stay in his dreams for the time being. ¡°We¡¯ll find out tomorrow.¡± After collecting his thoughts, Gale stored the Origin Edges and Origin Crystals into the storehouse. This extermination of the horned dragon group brought more than just these benefits. Deconstructing the carcasses of the horned dragon brought Gale a lot of valuable materials. Dragon claws, dragon skin, dragon fangs, dragon bones¡­ These were all loot produced from the horned dragon. For creatures such as the Dragon Race¡­ The materials must be expensive. Without exception, all the obtained materials were thrown to Natalie, who was forging equipment. These materials could only show their value in equipment. Natalie could use these materials to create stronger and higher grade equipment. Equipment made from such materials would immediately cause an uproar when placed on sale. Gale could even imagine what would happen the day the equipment went up for sale. The more he sold, the more he would earn. This was a transaction that would not incur any losses. When the Beast Tide arrived, equipment would be what most Castle Lords lacked. Anyone who wanted to stay alive would think of methods and ways to get hold of the equipment sold. This was just like the food shortage period. Now, Natalie was the only one who had mastered the method of forging equipment and weapons. Furthermore, Gale was already working with her. In other words¡­ Such a big piece of cake was basically only shared amongst the two of them. And Gale was even taking the majority share. It was enough to earn him a huge amount of resources. It had to be said that Gale was quite sensitive to business opportunities. These earned resources would become the castle¡¯s foundation. The stored resources were not only used to upgrade the castle, and also reserved for emergencies. Once the protection period was over, anything could happen. The native factions would gradually surface, revealing their hidden fangs. Thus, Gale had to be ready for anything. If one was only slightly stronger than the native forces, it would be a protracted battle. At that point, resources will become very important. After Gale had unpacked and arranged everything. He took out the last item he had obtained from the horned dragons. The moment the blueprint appeared. The notification sounded. [An unknown blueprint discovered. Do you want to appraise it?] ¡°Identify!¡± Gale was still a little apprehensive. When identifying blueprints, the result would depend completely on his own luck. Gale roughly understood the nature of blueprints from [World Chat]. Blueprints could be divided into: construction blueprints, equipment blueprints and special blueprints. Currently, only these three categories were known. As for the rest, Gale would slowly explore if there were more possibilities in the future. Not only were there different types of blueprints, but there were also different levels. Level: Low, Intermediate, High. Just like the blueprints, these were the only known ones. Was there anything higher? There was no way to know. From this, Gale also knew the blueprints Natalie had obtained. All three were classified under the construction blueprints category. As time for the appraisal passed, Gale¡¯s mood for more anxious. This was the first blueprint he had obtained. He did not know what kind nor what level it was. Everything was unknown. ¡°The blueprint comes from a Tier 8 horned dragon. It shouldn¡¯t be too low.¡± Gale consoled himself. At this moment, an azure blue light shot out from the blueprint. This was a skill that every Castle Lord had: Identify. The brief moment seemed to take forever. The only sounds were Gale¡¯s heavy breathing. As the light vanished¡­. The blueprint changed. Gale focused on it, making the virtual interface pop up. A virtual panel appeared in front of him. [Advanced Construction Blueprint ¡ª Shrine of Sacred Light] [Effect 1: Increase the Castle residents¡¯ loyalty to the Castle Lord] [Effect 2: Increase the attack and defense of the castle battle units by 10%] [Effect 3: Increase the rate at which the Castle Lord gathers Faith Energy] [Construction requirements: 30,000 units of wood, 10,000 units of stone, 5,000 units of pure iron] ¡°Advanced construction blueprint!¡± Gale shouted in excitement. Today was definitely his lucky day. His first blueprint was actually a high-level blueprint. Most importantly, this construction that the blueprint described had three functions! Gale began to examine them one by one. The first effect was automatically ignored by him. This effect was definitely a treasure to the other castle lords, but for Gale that had a locked Loyalty meter, it was rubbish. The second effect was to increase the attack and defense of his battle units. It could greatly increase the combat ability of his units! ¡°Good effect.¡± Gale wished he could create the Shrine of Sacred Light immediately. With this thing, facing a beast tide or whatever would be fine as long as they had numbers! ¡°As for the third effect¡­..¡± Gale wasn¡¯t sure what the third effect was for. Since it had appeared above, he would definitely find out in the future. What would come would come. Gale was in no hurry. Perhaps it had something to do with the fight for supremacy in the Endless Lands. However, Gale soon became depressed again. If he were to build the Shrine of Sacred Light, his plan to upgrade the Advanced castle to an Elementary town would be stalled for a while. The reason was simple. Gale did not have enough resources at the moment, thus he could only choose one of the two buildings. ¡°Forget it, let¡¯s talk about it tomorrow.¡± Gale shook his head and temporarily put away the blueprint. Tomorrow was the date for the equipment sales. By then, if the materials exchanged were enough, he could upgrade and build at the same time. If the resources gained were not enough, he would then consider. Anyway, the blueprint was right here, and it could not run away. Chapter 39 After pondering for a moment, Gale opened his [Friend] list. After confirming the general situation with Natalie, he opened the [World Chat] and posted an announcement. [Tomorrow at around 8 pm, there will be a sale for a large amount of equipment and weapons! At the same time, the high grade equipment made from the Tier 8 Horned Dragon material will be sold. The quantity is limited, you snooze, you lose!] [Resources that can be exchanged for equipment: Only pure iron!] Nowadays, what Gale lacked most were pure iron resources. He could use this transaction to obtain a large amount of pure iron. Without a doubt, the moment the message was sent out, it immediately caused a commotion. There were many castle lords watching Gale¡¯s movements. Of course, at the current point in time, not many Castle Lords had equipment. Not even low grade equipment! The reason was simple. The common low-levelled monsters would not drop equipment. If they wanted to obtain equipment, they could only kill monsters of higher tiers. This was also the predicament that most Castle Lords had to face. Whether they could win or not was a question. However, this time, Gale wanted to auction an equipment made from the materials of a Tier 8 horned dragon! Anyone with a brain could tell its value! Not to mention, it was likely to be a high grade equipment. Low grade equipment vs high grade equipment¡­. There was only a one word difference, but the disparity between the two was huge. If low grade equipment was what the Castle Lords needed¡­. Then high grade equipment was something that they all dreamed of! If one could get their hands on such a ¡®treasure¡¯, they would definitely have to bleed for it! It had to be said that Gale¡¯s preemptive warm-up had made most of the Castle Lords¡¯ clench their hearts tightly. [Wuhu, I must get high grade equipment!] [I¡¯m so envious. I don¡¯t even have low grade equipment now, but Big Boss Gale is starting to forge high grade equipment!] [Low grade equipment is a newbie weapon, high grade equipment is a godly weapon!] [I¡¯m sure that whoever has this high grade equipment can definitely survive this beast tide!] [Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s strange? Big Boss Gale can even auction high grade equipment. Does he have better equipment?] [It¡¯s scary to think about it. Big Boss Gale and us are no longer on the same level!] [This is a little scary guys!] [Big Boss Gale, please accept my knees!] Actually, Gale did not have any equipment on hand. However, the Tier 8 horned dragon was huge, thus the materials that were obtained from its body were more than usual. These materials could create more than one set of high grade equipment. According to his own calculations¡­ He would keep one set for himself, one set for Natalie, and the rest would naturally be auctioned for resources. While Gale was considering his next steps, the [World Chat] was burning up with discussions. Many people raised their doubts. [Since the number is limited, wouldn¡¯t it be a waste to use it to equip battle units?] [I think so too. I have many battle units but I can only buy one. What if the battle units start fighting for it?] [Above, just give me the equipment. I¡¯ll wear it for you!] [I wonder how many pieces of equipment will be released this time?] [The numbers can¡¯t be more than what you can count with one hand. Tier 8 materials are too rare!] Many castle lords realized this problem. The rarity of a Tier 8 horned dragon material was something anyone with a brain could think of. These limited materials could not create hundreds of sets of equipment. It was even more impossible to equip all the battle units of a Castle Lord with said equipment. If Gale was lucky, he would be able to create 10 sets. Most importantly, Gale did not intend to sell bundled sets. Instead, he was preparing to break down a set of equipment and sell it according to its parts! Only then would the benefits be maximized! In other words, only the Castle Lords who were possessed by the Goddess of Luck and had a lot of resources, could gather a set of equipment. At this moment, some clear-headed Castle Lords stepped forward to refute. [Do you have brains? Such expensive equipment, it should only be worn by ourselves!] [The commenter above is right. Once the novice period is over and the Beast Tide arrives, the safety of the Castle Lord is the most important!] [It doesn¡¯t matter if the battle units die. If you are alive, you will be able to summon the battle units again and return to the power struggle seat!] [I¡¯m really worried about your intelligence. If it¡¯s really like what you said, wouldn¡¯t those Castle Lords who have a large number of soldiers die of overwork trying to equip their soldiers?] [Y¡¯all can continue bullsh*tting here, I¡¯ve already organized a mining team to excavate pure iron!] [I¡¯m in tears here. I don¡¯t even know what pure iron looks like!] [Me too!] [I don¡¯t know why Big Boss Gale wants pure iron. Can¡¯t the other resources work?] [Above, are you new? An advanced castle needs a lot of pure iron to be upgraded to an elementary town!] [I envy our Big Boss everyday. My castle has just reached the intermediate level and is still a distance away from the advanced level!] [Big Boss Gale is indeed the best in the Endless Land!] [Off to get more pure iron!] Gale¡¯s words directly raised the price of pure iron. This was good news for him. If most of the castle lords had pure iron in their hands, the auction price would definitely be quite low. But if pure iron was in the hands of a few castle lords, the result would be the opposite. It did not mean that the greater the number of pure iron available, the greater the competition. Sometimes, gathering everything into the hands of some people could push the competition to the maximum. This was also the smartest part of Gale¡¯s plan. He could acutely sense the changes within the market. Right now, he could even change the current business situation with just one sentence. ¡°It seems that more and more people are starting to pay attention to pure iron resources.¡± Gale looked at the virtual interface in front of him and smiled. The Castle Lords who had pinnacle battle units were currently buying pure iron. The price also changed from three units of pure iron for one unit of food, to the current ratio of 1:1. There were even extreme cases where one unit of pure iron was exchanged for two units of food instead. Those who could do such a crazy thing were mostly castle lords who had pinnacle battle units. While their battle units under them were powerful, their own strength was extremely weak. In that case, this high grade equipment would suit the tastes of such Castle Lords. Furthermore, with the beast tide looming in the horizon, all the Castle Lords wanted to live on. So what if they had powerful battle units? If they could not survive the beast tide, no matter how many battle units they had, they would eventually turn into nothingness. The battle units themselves might be able to resist the ferocious beast tide, but the same could not be said for the Lord. Even Gale who had reached Tier 5 did not dare to be careless. This was why he had left a set of Advanced equipment for himself. ¡°The auction tomorrow night will definitely be very lively.¡± Gale watched as more and more castle lords started to buy pure iron in the [Trading Channel]. It was as if he could see the surge of pure iron waving at him. Chapter 40 Time passed quickly. By the time Gale snapped out of his reverie, it was almost night. Through the window, he could see the sun that was about to descend into darkness. Presumably, the blood moon was about to appear. As time passed¡­ The Nightmare Team that was out hunting monsters returned to the castle. Perhaps it was due to the lack of time, but the Nightmare Squad had hunted less than 300 monsters today. This was very different from what Gale had expected. Furthermore, the Origin Edges he obtained today were also lower than expected. ¡°Looks like the military building won¡¯t be upgraded until tomorrow.¡± After a day of hunting, Gale had obtained 58 Origin Edges. He was still short of 52 edges to meet the upgrade requirements. Gale¡¯s thoughts raced. ¡°If the Nightmare Team is allowed to continue hunting monsters under the cover of night, then there is a chance that I can upgrade my military building today.¡± ¡°However, at night, the monsters¡¯ strength will increase by at least three times.¡± In the end, Gale decided not to take the risk. After all, there would be more monsters at night as well, which included those higher levelled monsters as well. If they were careless, the Nightmare Team might even die. With the beast tide coming, Gale decided to give up on this idea for the time being. At the very least, he would only consider hunting monsters at night after he had a Tier 9 battle unit under him. If they were to go out now, it was likely that they might get injured or even killed. ¡°I¡¯ll upgrade the military buildings tomorrow then.¡± Gale murmured. If everything went according to plan, he would be able to gather the necessary Origin Edges needed to upgrade his military buildings tomorrow. Anyway, this one night was not a big deal. After all, safety was the most important. If his battle units died in an accident¡­. Although they could be revived, it would take some time. At this point before the beast tide, it was not worth the risk. Next, Gale continued with his usual tasks. He piled up the monster corpses and deconstructed them into food. Then, it was placed on the [Trading Channel] according to the type of food. The deconstructed materials were naturally given to Natalie, who was in the midst of forging equipment. It was still the same saying. If he could create more equipment, Gale would be able to earn more resources. The more they progressed, the more useful resources would become. At that time, those Castle Lords with abundant resources would definitely be in high demand. When he was done, Gale began to check the amount of resources he obtained from the sale of dragon meat. In less than a day, the horned dragon meat on his shelves was sold out. This also made Gale a fortune. He obtained a total of 23,000 units of wood and 11,000 units of stone. ¡°Including the amount stored in the warehouse, I now have nearly 120,000 units of wood!¡± Gale was also shocked by this number. At this point, the amount of wood needed to upgrade the castle was more than sufficient. The amount of stone he had was still a little off. However, it should reach the required amount soon. Gale had just put up nearly 4,000 units of food once more, enough to gather the stones needed for the castle¡¯s upgrade. At the same time. One of the Night Demon guards had been appointed by Gale as the surveyor vanguard. Its main responsibility was to search the hidden local organizations around the castle. Because of its race, the Blood Moon could not affect it negatively. The Night Demon Guard had wandered around this area for nearly two days but did not find any traces of native organizations. However, just as he was about to give up, a few of the short gnomes that looked like mice appeared in the Night Demon Guard¡¯s vision. The Gnomes weaved through the bushes continuously. Seeing this, the Night Demon Guard flapped its wings and followed. He hid well and did not attract the attention of the Gnomes. ¡°Quickly tell this news to our lord!¡± ¡°Despicable humans, how dare they kill our people!¡± A Gnome at the front let out a sharp sound. Soon, the Gnomes entered a tree hole. The Night Demon Guard stood at the top of the tree. After confirming that there was no one around, he jumped straight to the ground. He carefully examined the tree hole, but the inside was completely dark, nothing could be seen. The Night Demon Guard did not intend to take the risk. After making a mark, he prepared to go back and report to Gale. This was also what Gale had taught him. Right now, the safety of the battle units was paramount. Gale would not allow any member of the Nightmare Squad to be harmed. Just as the Night Demon Guard was about to leave¡­ Several cold arrows were nailed to the tree trunk without any warning. The Night Demon Guard looked over and saw a team of more than 10 people. These people were more like warriors. These people held stone swords in their hands and carried a large bow on their backs. ¡°This must be a rare monster. I¡¯ll definitely sell it for a good price if I capture it!¡± As soon as he finished speaking, more than ten warriors surrounded the Night Demon guard. Among them, the strongest was at Tier 5, and the weakest was at Tier 3. The Night Demon Guard¡¯s strength was at Tier 5, hence it showed no fear towards them. The Night Demon Guard¡¯s eyes turned from azure blue to blood red at this moment. A black cross gradually appeared in its eyes. At the same time, a demonic red flame appeared in his palm. ¡°Those who attack the Nightmare Team, die!¡± The Night Demon Guard bared its sharp fangs and charged forward with flames. Bang! The attack landed on the two warriors at the front. No matter how these warriors resisted, the flames would not be extinguished. They only burned even more fiercely! In an instant, six warriors had died! Amongst them was the Tier 5 warrior. The Night Demon Guard looked at the retreating warriors but did not choose to let them go. It was like an asura. Every attack represented the death of a life. Not far away. In an extremely lush bush, an ugly person was lying within it. He witnessed everything in front of him as his face contorted. Those were his battle units! Even that Tier 5 warrior was actually not this monster¡¯s match! ¡°Nightmare Team?¡± The young man muttered as he packed his things, preparing to run. He didn¡¯t even want to give them the order to escape. Now, there was no time to care. If he didn¡¯t run, he might be sent to meet Jesus. The Night Demon guards had already killed all the warriors at this point, but he left one alive on purpose. The reason for that was because he had noticed that someone had been observing everything that was happening. ¡°Let your loyal servant bring me to you.¡± The Night Demon Guard looked at the fleeing warrior. As long as he followed this warrior, he would definitely be able to find the person who was spying on them. The young man ran towards his castle with all his might. Finally, he returned to his castle. The young man saw the familiar pale yellow halo and knew that he was safe. So what if the monster outside was powerful? During the protection period, he was invincible! However, he did not know that danger had just arrived!