Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch

Chapter 197: This fortress isn't a building; it's an undead

As the teleportation gate activated, the five gates within the fortress began emitting black mist, and Alex's figure appeared before the siblings.

Alex started examining the fortress. Setting aside other features, the space was vast and spacious, capable of accommodating 30K small-sized undead without any issues.

With her highest level of access, Alex could gather more information than the siblings. She first went to the turrets to inspect the undead cannons.

These cannons were integrated with the turrets, immovable, and could only fire from the fixed battlements, though their angles could be adjusted.

"Strange, how do they fire without ammunition?" Alex wondered aloud. "Don't tell me I have to make the ammo myself. If that's the case, these cannons are useless."

Wait, Alex noticed a hole at the back of the cannon. Could it be that undead were supposed to crawl inside and be used as ammunition? That seemed absurd.

Each turret had six undead cannons, which Alex temporarily called scatter cannons. In contrast, the opposite turret had only one massive cannon, several times larger than any cannon Alex had seen before.

This time, there was no hole at the back but rather at the top. If it were to load Skeleton Soldiers, it could fit at least ten at a time. Alex dubbed it the big cannon.

The scatter cannons and big cannons were alternately arranged, meaning three turrets had scatter cannons and three had big cannons.

From a functional perspective, Alex found the undead fortress quite impressive.

She planned to notify the 20K undead army at Grimstone to station here, avoiding scaring the dwarf civilians outside Grimstone.

"Miss Alex, what powers this fortress? I remember most facilities use Essence Shards for energy, but I can't find any here," Xiao Hui asked, puzzled by the undead Essence Shard at the tower's peak.

Her question reminded Alex that there should be a place to insert the Essence Shards.

"Miss Alex, there's another room near the teleportation gate!" Xiao Hui shouted, pointing out the sixth wall, which wasn't a teleportation array.

Alex jumped down from the wall and walked over to investigate.

The siblings watched as Alex entered. They had tried to enter before but were denied access due to insufficient permissions.

Alex expected to find a place for Essence Shards but found the room empty, save for a floating blue flame.

"Soul Fire? How is this possible?!" Alex exclaimed.

She discovered she could access the system dashboard here, but it only had one feature.

Alex quickly left the room, looking shocked. The siblings were confused, not understanding what she had seen.

"I understand why it doesn't need Essence Shards for energy. It's because it has a soul!" Alex explained. "This undead fortress isn't a building; it's an undead!"

"What? This huge thing is an undead?" Xiao Hui's mouth dropped open in disbelief.

Alex had seen its mana value, a whopping thousand points. Even with the shield constantly active, its Mana Points regenerated faster than they were consumed. So the shield could stay up indefinitely unless under heavy attack or shattered by a powerful blow.

"If it's an undead, it makes sense. All its energy comes from its own Mana Points, so it doesn't need external sources," Alex continued.

The system dashboard feature she saw was the ability to self-destruct the fortress, transforming it into an undead. Such a massive fortress being an undead was unimaginable.

Self-destructing the undead fortress to transform it into an undead was a last-resort measure, as it would waste a significant amount of resources. Alex hoped never to use this ability unless absolutely necessary.

Now, Alex was more convinced that this was a unique feature for her. Other structures might have similar teleportation abilities, but nothing quite like this.

"By the way, you two should try passing through the teleportation gate," Alex suggested, concerned that the gate might be exclusive to undead. As the Undead Queen, she had no issues, but it would be problematic if Xiao Mu and Xiao Hui couldn't pass.

"Alright, I'll give it a try," Xiao Mu volunteered, walking towards the gate and passing through without hesitation.

It seemed to work, possibly because they were Alex's subjects or because the undead fortress, having a soul, could determine who could pass.

"Let's head back," Alex said, and Xiao Hui followed her through the gate.

Their vision spun, and they found themselves in the main fortress of Undead City. The teleportation experience was far superior to the Portal of Transit.

It was getting late, and the three decided to call it a night.

Back at the palace, Alex gave her orders.

"Tell Arthas to summon as many skeleton archers as possible with all the liches," Alex instructed.

"Yes, Master," a dark elf replied.

The skeleton archers would be stationed at the undead fortress, providing long-range attacks from the walls. This was currently the most efficient ranged unit Alex could mass-produce.

Alex had seen liches summon a batch of skeleton archers before and realized their necessity now. She planned to learn more about the liches' Skeleton Magic to see what other undead variants they could create.

After a bath, Alex slipped into bed, enjoying the improved facilities of the palace, including hot water for bathing.

[Night retreats, dawn arrives.]

The next morning, Alex received more good news: John had advanced to Monarch level. Arthas and Crane had also reached level 7 Commanding level, indicating they would soon advance to Monarch level as well.

Including the newly advanced Azure and John, Alex now had twenty Monarch level undead.

From the information obtained from Muckmire, the hobgoblin king wasn't at King level, so Alex had no concerns. A force of twenty Monarch level undead was more than enough to annihilate the hobgoblin kingdom.

With nothing pressing to do, Alex joined the siblings for breakfast.

"Miss Alex, after we conquer the hobgoblin kingdom, we should be able to advance to Monarch level, right?" Xiao Hui asked, already looking forward to her advancement.

"It shouldn't be a problem. Once the fortress Essence Shard refreshes at dusk, we'll launch the attack on the hobgoblin kingdom. By the way, any movements from their side?" Alex inquired, having left the monitoring of the hobgoblin kingdom to the siblings.

"No movements. It's been eerily quiet, as if the old city has nothing to do with them," Xiao Mu replied, finding the hobgoblins' behavior cowardly. Either that, or they were hiding something under the shield.

Despite the heavy losses and the fall of their royal city, the hobgoblins had shown no reaction.

In reality, the hobgoblin king had been terrified since learning about the snowy mountain incident, losing sleep every night, fearing retribution.

With the Monarch levels of the three races dead and only the hobgoblin Monarch level surviving, the snowy mountain incident remained a mystery. The hobgoblin king couldn't provide an explanation, adding to the tension.

The complex power dynamics of the Eldoria continent left the weak hobgoblins in a precarious position. If they were on the Arsen continent, they might have thrived, but their weakness prevented them from relocating.

The nearest power was the mage association's branch, and the hobgoblin king worried daily about the human mages causing trouble.

Living under the barrier, the hobgoblin kingdom was timid and cautious. However, the mage association had no interest in them, only wanting to investigate the snowy mountain incident. They knew the hobgoblin kingdom lacked the strength and courage for such actions.

The hobgoblins' relocation of their royal city only increased the mages' suspicion, as humans were known for their cunning and distrust.

At dusk, the main fortress refreshed another fortress Essence Shard. Alex, standing in the black mist, held the hexagonal shard and charged it with resources.

"Finally, we can start the operation," Alex said, leaving the main fortress. She planned to place the fortress Essence Shard directly under the hobgoblin kingdom's barrier, allowing the undead to confront the hobgoblins head-on and test the fortress's offensive capabilities.

As Alex exited the main fortress, she checked the system dashboard for the time, and a sudden message popped up.

[Your lv1 Monarch level necromancer has been killed by an enemy angel!]

What the hell???

Her Monarch level troop had been killed, and by an angel, no less?