Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch

Chapter 279: Skeleton enhancement magic circle

[Night retreats, dawn arrives.]

In the continent of Mossvale, within the dragon city, Drake rose early. Today was the day he would summon troops again, and he was excited to add another Rock Dragon to his forces. In this brutal world where only the strong survive, constant empowerment was the only way to secure a semblance of safety.

However, just as Drake completed the summoning of the Rock Dragon, he was shocked to discover that the aura emanating from two of his city's auxiliary barracks—the Azure Cloud Giant Eagles and the Medusa race—was of Monarch level.

Drake was familiar with the rules of the Auxiliary Barracks; previously, the barracks automatically summoned Commanding level troops each day. However, now the barracks automatically summoned Monarch level troops.

"Alex has reached King level already!" Drake was astounded by Alex's rapid development.

Currently, he was only at level 3 Monarch level, a standard that most top Lords strived to achieve. Yet, Alex had surged ahead, ascending to King level and becoming a unique force.

Drake couldn't fathom the consequences of being an enemy to such a Lord.

"Mossvale continent, dragons, come forth!" His eyes glowed with a golden light. He didn't aspire to surpass Alex, but since he had submitted to her, he refused to become a burden.

Moreover, Alex had helped him upgrade his city and barracks, and even the daily summoning of two Monarch level troops from the Auxiliary Barracks greatly boosted his strength.

Drake's bloodline was of the pure Rock Dragon lineage, with a potential to reach Sovereign level. Thus, he was confident in his heritage.

A stream of earthy yellow light shot into the sky as Drake, accompanied by his Rock Dragon, flew towards the vast forest outside the city to continue his development journey.

...

In the Undead City, Alex had just finished summoning her troops. The other three, still groggy, were quietly having breakfast in the dining hall.

Alex sat on the steps outside the palace, watching yesterday's undead army orderly enter the Blackwater Altar for enhancement.

Today, however, Alex chose not to enhance the Blackwater Altar but instead strengthened the Magic Stone Pillar, a crucial defensive asset.

Although she couldn't change the gargoyle's limit of King level, this enhancement allowed the four gargoyles on the pillar to gain experience more rapidly. Moreover, with the enhancement from the Bone Throne, they could reach near-Emperor level combat prowess.

For Alex, this was more than sufficient; she wouldn't be defenseless against a high-level King level enemy. The typical upper limit for undead didn't guarantee a breakthrough to peak levels. Take the death conqueror, for instance; reaching Monarch level was challenging enough, let alone peaking at level 9 Monarch.

The race kings also had a divine limit, with only a chance of ascension. Whether they could become gods depended on fate and opportunity. So, the gargoyles on the Magic Stone Pillar reaching level 9 King level was a significant enhancement.

"Why aren't there other special undead structures?" Alex wondered.

As her power grew, the system seemed less inclined to provide special structure blueprints.

"Wait, this is part of black alchemy magic, right?"

Alex was proficient in high-level alchemy magic. Realizing she could now construct special buildings on her own, whether the system provided blueprints became irrelevant.

Alex quickly recalled the information about undead in alchemy magic. With an overwhelming undead army, summoning more lower undead seemed pointless.

Now that the Death Spirit had reached King level, it could handle all the heavy lifting alone. Along with the seven race kings, the lich, and the necromancer, rapidly bolstering forces was easy even without other standard undead. If these lower-level undead couldn't reach their potential, they would be meaningless.

In the presence of absolute power, weaker undead wouldn't even qualify as cannon fodder.

Alex found what she was looking for. "Sweet, there really is one!"

Alex jumped down from the rooftop, landing steadily on the ground, then instantly disappeared, reappearing where the alchemy warlocks were studying in the eastern part of the city. "Come with me, everyone. I'm setting up a magic circle in Undead City."

Alex led hundreds of alchemy warlocks to the city center's square, where a black skull statue stood, signifying the city's undead nature. She raised her right hand, and an Essence Shard appeared in her palm. She then taught the warlocks how to set up the magic circle using the shards.

An hour later, hundreds of Essence Shards had been meticulously engraved. Alex floated in the air, slowly rising as the surrounding Essence Shards also levitated. With a sweep of her hand, the shards shot out in all directions, embedding evenly into the ground, covering the entire city except for the central palace.

A massive dark green magic circle emerged from the ground beneath Alex's feet, spreading rapidly. The surrounding warlocks chanted spells, infusing their alchemy magic to assist their queen.

Soon, the entire city was covered by the magic circle, with the empowered Essence Shards cleverly positioned at the nodes of the circle, quickly resonating together.

Half an hour later, Alex gently landed, having spent nearly five hundred Mana Points to complete the magic circle, while the warlocks' magical energy was also depleted.

"Finally done, though it sure burned through my Mana Points," Alex exhaled.

The city-wide magic circle, similar in function to the Magic Stone Pillar, was essentially a replica Alex had created. However, it targeted the skeleton race.

The skeletons in the city would disintegrate into piles of bones, entering a dormant state while gaining experience—though their limit was only Commanding level, the sheer number of over 100K Skeleton Soldiers was formidable.

As for the energy source, Alex chose not to connect to the city crystal but used Essence Shards as containers, relying on the internal magic circle's elemental transformation for power. This allowed the skeletons to continuously gain experience, albeit less than what the Magic Stone Pillar provided, but Alex was satisfied.

With hundreds of thousands of skeleton soldiers in the city, space was a significant issue. Once transformed into bone piles, this problem was eliminated.