Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch

Chapter 247: Enhancement Crystal

[Blood Moon in the sky, darkness descends]

As night fell, only a few hours remained until the end of the Soul Hunter event. At this moment, Drake sent a message to Alex.

"You mean you've arrived on the Mossvale Continent?" Alex pondered. She remembered Eldrin mentioning that the Mossvale Continent's dominant force was the Dragon Race. It was also one of the two continents where the Angels and the Holy Court had the weakest presence.

The dragon race was incredibly powerful, making it difficult for the angels to establish a foothold in their stronghold. It was said that the angels and dragons were constantly clashing on the Mossvale Continent, with the potential for a large-scale war at any moment.

Alex hadn't expected Drake to end up there. She hoped he could develop rapidly in that environment, at least without worrying about Raphaela's revenge—unless she had a death wish.

Drake's move to the Mossvale Continent was good news for Alex. It meant she could now expand her influence on the Mossvale Continent as well.

Developing on three continents simultaneously would significantly accelerate her power growth.

Who would have thought that a Lord with only Monarch level strength could span three continents?

A subsidiary palace floated into existence on the left side of the Undead City palace, completing its construction in an instant. The three palaces became four once again.

Initially, Alex hadn't wanted Drake to submit, but considering that without submission, he wouldn't benefit from the leaderboard rewards, it seemed too much of a loss. Moreover, Alex didn't want to expose Drake to others, so she had to accept his submission.

The sudden appearance of an additional subsidiary palace didn't go unnoticed by Xiao Mu and the others. They immediately guessed that it must be Drake's.

With only a few hours left until the event ended, they were finally free from being confined within the city and could start expanding outward.

As night deepened, everyone returned to their respective palaces, waiting for the leaderboard rewards to be distributed. With less than an hour left, no more Soul Hunters would appear.

Alex was pleased to find that during Drake's time as a lone wolf, he had killed a few Soul Hunters, earning 3 points. With his submission to Alex, those points naturally counted towards her total.

At this moment, she had pulled nearly ten points ahead of the Justice Alliance, securing first place in advance.

Ding!

A message popped up in the Alliance chat.

Satan: "I got 8 points. I'm sure I'm not the lowest."

Lilith: "I only got 6 points. Seems my luck wasn't great."

Satan: "Haha, I knew I wasn't the lowest!"

Satan: "Wait, a total of 27 points means Alex got 13 points?!"

Alex: "You guessed right."

Satan: "It was luck, pure luck!"

Lilith: "Considering she has the most subordinates, it's not surprising she got the most points."

In his castle, Satan was puzzled.

"More subordinates?"

He looked at Cain and Earl nearby, feeling that he and Alex were about the same.

"Could it be that women naturally have better luck?"

Cain and Earl were used to Satan's odd behavior. He always boasted while using the system functions to chat with others, but within a minute, he'd start acting crazy, his face turning incredulous.

And shouting: "Impossible, absolutely impossible."

Satan then noticed Cain, Earl, and the surrounding demons looking at him with strange expressions. He quickly regained control of his expressions, his face returning to its usual cold and calm demeanor.

Cain and Earl were no longer surprised by this.

Time: 23:59

[Dear Lords, the leaderboard will refresh in the final minute, and the top-ranked alliance will receive rewards based on points. Rewards will be distributed accordingly.]

[Now announcing the rankings:]

[First Place: [Light Alliance] Points: 27]

[Second Place: [Justice Alliance] Points: 18]

[Third Place: [Mythril Alliance] Points: 10]

...

[Congratulations, your alliance is ranked first. All members receive fixed experience and resource rewards, as well as a special item (random type).]

Alex felt her experience points surge to the brink of leveling up.

She then took out the special item, a diamond-shaped crystal emitting a rainbow glow, slightly larger than her palm.

[Item Name: Enhancement Crystal (Unbound)]

[Item Level: None]

[Item Feature: Enhances special buildings and items, improving quality without resource consumption. Cooldown: 24 hours. Enhancement level cannot exceed the current Lord level.]

"Well, this is quite special."

The description was straightforward. The feature was similar to the Enhancement Stone Alex had obtained before, but that was a one-time use item that consumed resources. This one was clearly much more powerful.

Alex held the Enhancement Crystal and infused it with mana to bind it. Most of the special buildings in Undead City were already at Monarch level, so she couldn't test it on them.

She took out a Return Stone from her space ring to test the enhancement.

The Enhancement Crystal glowed, enveloping the Return Stone. Moments later, the glow faded, and the crystal dimmed, with only a faint light at its base slowly spreading outward, indicating it was in cooldown.

Alex examined the Return Stone and found that mana consumption had decreased, and the teleportation array's range had expanded. Though she hadn't tested it personally, the system's analysis was reliable.

This confirmed the Enhancement Crystal's effectiveness. However, it was somewhat limited at the moment. Its true value would be realized when Alex reached King level.

Most of Alex's special buildings were capped at Monarch level and couldn't be upgraded further.

But with the Enhancement Crystal, those special buildings and other items wouldn't become obsolete when Alex reached King level.

"Tomorrow, give this enhanced Return Stone to the alchemy warlocks for further research and improvement."

Alex placed the Return Stone on the table and stored the Enhancement Crystal in the warehouse. It wasn't something to carry around, as losing it would be a significant loss.

...

[Night retreats, dawn arrives.]

Alex leveled up, feeling a surge of comfort and power throughout her body.

As expected, Sophie had jumped from lv7 Commanding to Monarch level, making Alex realize that the experience rewards for alliance members were the same as hers.

The only difference was that those who chose submission might not receive the special item reward.

Alex had only leveled up once, reaching lv7 Monarch, but her experience points were more than halfway to lv8.

Xiao Mu and Xiao Hui had also each leveled up, and based on Alex's experience, they would soon reach lv4.

For Alex and her allies, the leaderboard rewards were a significant boost. Other than the Light Alliance, no other Lords received any rewards.

"Oh, and there's Drake."

Alex checked Drake's information.

[Territory Lord: Drake]

[Strength: lv3 Monarch]

[Territory Level: lv9 Town]

[Barracks Level: lv15 Rock Dragon Crystal]

[Troops: Rock Dragon]

Alex was surprised that Drake had reached lv3. She remembered when she first met him in Grimstone; he was weaker than Xiao Mu. But he had caught up quickly.

It made sense, though. Drake was a top-tier Lord, and his strength wasn't low. Conquering two races had brought him to lv2, and the system rewards had pushed him to lv3.

Not bad. Now all of Alex's subordinates had reached Monarch level.

Alex gathered everyone together.

"The event is over. Remember the plans we discussed. After breakfast, get moving."

After breakfast, Sophie left the palace and headed to her town.

Sophie had already appointed new managers in her town to oversee resource extraction and equipment forging, freeing her to focus on her own strength.

Though she hadn't been back for days, the dwarves hadn't stopped working. She checked the resource extraction progress and consumption, then called the town manager to reorganize and plan new tasks.

After handling town affairs, Sophie used the undead fortress to travel to Grimstone, where the Death Spirit transported her to the front lines.

This was another powerful support ability of the Death Spirit. Its clones were interconnected, allowing Alex's orders to be quickly relayed, whether on the battlefield or elsewhere.

This eliminated information delays, enabling Alex to receive real-time updates from all battlefields and respond accordingly.

Meanwhile, in Undead City.

"Miss Alex, are we heading north?" Xiao Hui asked, approaching Alex.

"No, not yet. We're still gathering intelligence there. The undead have found a few races, but they're too weak and far from Undead City.

We should head to the Dark Forest. There's a race near the southern depths that we need to conquer."

Alex felt this was a pleasant surprise. She thought the Dark Forest's outskirts had been fully explored by the undead, but there was still a hidden race.

And it wasn't just a race; it was a kingdom. Alex could almost see the Kingdom's Tear beckoning her.

"Let me change my clothes first!"

Xiao Hui didn't want to dirty her new clothes and ran back to the palace to change into yesterday's dirty ones.

Women's intuition was spot on. This target location was indeed related to "dirty."

As Undead City's area expanded, it encroached on the Dark Forest, yet the forest showed no reaction. This indicated that the mysterious race within the Dark Forest was at least friendly towards Alex.

Thus, Alex became bolder. With countless undead and the Life Link, she had no reason to fear death.

With accurate intelligence and no danger, there was no reason to worry.

"Miss Alex, I'm ready!"

Xiao Hui quickly returned, having changed her clothes.

"Alright, let's go."

Alex smiled and led the siblings out of the palace, where forty undead awaited, led by a shadowy figure—the Death Spirit.

All of them were Monarch level.

This wasn't a mission for the undead army. With these undead and Alex, they could quickly amass more troops if needed.

"Wow, this lineup is amazing!" Xiao Hui exclaimed, surprised by the number of Monarch levels. It seemed they were ready to dismantle the enemy kingdom.

"Leader, how strong is the enemy?" Xiao Mu asked, seeing the formidable lineup. Alex pressed her finger to her chin, thinking.

"Hmm, probably similar to the hobgoblin kingdom?"

???

Xiao Mu was puzzled. Was such a large force necessary for an enemy like the hobgoblin kingdom?

"Wow, Miss Alex, do you have a deep grudge against them or something? Are we going to dig up their ancestors' graves?" Xiao Hui asked, confused.

"No, it's just that their lair is hard to find."

"Huh?"

Xiao Hui silently mourned for the race for two and a half seconds.

Alex led the forty undead south of the city.

Of course, they flew. Walking was too slow, and flying was easy for Monarch levels.