Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch

Chapter 281: Undead Quintessence

[Blood Moon in the sky, darkness descends.]

"Where did those two go?" Alex suddenly appeared beside Sophie.

"They took the Death Spirit to wipe out the Minotaur camp," Sophie explained, recounting the intelligence from the Savage Plains. Alex was unconcerned; without the backing of the Beastman Empire, the Minotaur camp was a minor issue.

For forces below King level, Alex didn't need to intervene personally; the Death Spirit alone could handle it. However, Alex couldn't rely solely on the Death Spirit.

Due to its unique nature, its level could always match Alex's without needing to worry about experience points. If the Death Spirit was used for everything, then Alex's other undead wouldn't have the chance to level up.

Thus, the Death Spirit served as a safety net, while the bulk of the experience needed to be allocated to other undead.

"Let's not worry about them for now; let's go eat," Alex suggested, turning towards the palace to instruct the dark elves to prepare dinner.

Throughout dinner, Alex pondered how to strengthen her undead during non-combat times. Clearly, it was a challenging problem, not solvable in the short term. She finally understood why so many researchers were bald.

"Ah, this is so frustrating, it's giving me a headache!" Alex decided to stop thinking about it. Starting with the bone dragon might have been a mistake; she should proceed step by step, starting with simpler tasks.

She stripped off her clothes, dove into bed, pulled the covers over her head, and went to sleep.

[Night retreats, dawn arrives!]

Time: 06:00 AM

Upon waking, Alex's first sight was a system notification.

[Congratulations on successfully conquering the Minotaur tribe, you've obtained an Auxiliary Barrack and a Race's Tear.]

Alex glanced at the time in the bottom right corner; the message had come at 1:30 AM. By now, the siblings had already returned to the undead city.

Alex, wearing shorts and a long coat over her slippers, descended the stairs. The Race's Tear was absorbed, increasing slightly.

[Kingdom's Tear current upgrade Progress: 27/100]

As for the Auxiliary Barrack, after some thought, Alex decided to build it in Drake's dragon city.

A Monarch level Minotaur daily would be a significant aid to Drake. Dragons, though powerful, grew too slowly and could hinder Drake's development pace.

After summoning the troops, Alex resumed her research. Now that the development of the Undead City was on track, she could continue her studies while enjoying an experience boost. Her principle was simple: avoid direct involvement unless absolutely necessary, though she would intervene when needed.

By midday, the siblings had just woken up. Learning that Alex hadn't built the Minotaur Auxiliary Barrack in Gemini City, Xiao Hui showed no displeasure; in fact, she wasn't fond of Minotaurs. As for Minotaur captives, there seemed to be none...

All the Minotaurs had already been summoned by the Death Spirit and brought back as undead.

In the afternoon, the six race kings had nearly cleared the remnants of the Orc Empire. The resources from Bloodrock City and surrounding camps had been brought back. Bloodrock City was burned to ashes by the undead, and the camps were destroyed.

The surviving orcs were escorted north towards Gemini City by the undead. The triumphant race kings were now directing undead through the Portal of Transit to transport resources to the Undead City.

Although the orc camps resources were meager, those from Bloodrock City were substantial.

Meanwhile, the dwarf kingdom had restored order within a few days, and resources from some remote cities were also being transported to the Undead City. The dwarves' labor productivity had significantly increased, boosting resource output by dozens of times.

If asked what the most common building in the dwarf cities was now, it would undoubtedly be the Furnace.

Even without relying on plunder from wars, Alex could sustain the Undead City's consumption through production alone, though plundering was undoubtedly faster.

With resources from both dwarves and orcs arriving almost simultaneously at the Undead City, Alex temporarily set aside her research to deal with these materials.

After collecting the resources with a single click and reviewing the system's tally, Alex estimated she might be able to upgrade the city to its maximum level.

"Looks like I can max out the city now?" Alex clicked to upgrade the city, and indeed, as the city reached level 8, just one level shy of level 9, the resource growth remained steady without the last level spiking in consumption.

Without hesitation, Alex clicked to upgrade again, bringing the city to its maximum level.

The entire Undead City began to expand; the walls grew taller and turned obsidian-like. The previously empty spaces were now covered with black stone surfaces.

The palace area also expanded, with the black energy flowing through the walls becoming more solid, intertwining and covering the entire palace. Alex even felt that the blue flames burning in the skull's eye sockets atop the black palace seemed more vigorous.

"The area has expanded by about a quarter; this is the final scale of the Undead City," Alex observed from the air, overlooking the entire city.

The exposed soil inside the city had turned into neat stone pavements. Although spacious, it at least looked decent now, unlike the previous impression of building a villa in a junkyard.

[Congratulations, Lord, on successfully upgrading the city to max level!]

[You can now carry the city crystal and relocate the city at any time without wasting any resources, with a cooldown of seven days.]

[From now on, your city crystal will no longer be linked to your life, but destruction of the city crystal will still have unknown effects on you.]

A sudden system message made Alex think it was a reward notification, but it was actually informing her that even if the Undead City was destroyed, it wouldn't affect her life anymore.

"That's... sort of good news, right?" At least now she wouldn't be threatened by her city's location being exposed or destroyed.

"But what's with this 'unknown'? There better not be any catch," Alex mused. She guessed that the city crystal might be crucial later on, so unless absolutely necessary, it shouldn't be abandoned.

Now that she could relocate the city at will, even if the Holy Court discovered the location of the undead city, Alex could easily move it, though she would need to scout a new location in advance.

Overall, the two new features added to the max-level city made Alex much more flexible, no longer bound to her city and its original location.

[City Name: Undead City]

[City Level: lv.9 (Max)]

[Health Points: 3000k]

[City Territory: 30 square miles]

[Buildings: Blackwater Altar, Bone Throne, Specter Chandelier, Magic Stone Pillar, defense tower, wall, Energy Cannon, Crystal Shield, Portal of Transit, undead fortress.]

[Barracks: undead crystal, hobgoblin Auxiliary Barrack]

[Upgrade Conditions: Non-upgradable]

"Indeed, it's maxed out, showing it can't be upgraded anymore. I wonder if there will be changes after establishing the Undead Empire," Alex pondered, looking at the system dashboard.

It seemed that not only the cities she subjugated but even her own city had reached their limits.

The display of special buildings had eliminated those related to living conditions, showing only the barracks built within the Undead City.

Now that the city was maxed out, the demand for resources was not as high, allowing her to focus on upgrading other cities.

"I wonder when the Undead Barracks will reach max level," Alex mused, looking at the Essence Shards and magic crystals in the castle, mostly seized from the Orc Empire. These resources were not highly demanded for city construction but were plentiful for stockpiling.

Alex chose to continue upgrading the barracks, but with her continuous upgrades, only four levels were achieved before the warehouse still had plenty left, and the barracks displayed a non-upgradable status.

"The barracks are maxed out too?" Alex was surprised, followed by a system prompt.

[Congratulations, Lord, on successfully upgrading the undead crystal to max level!]

[Special reward received: Undead Quintessence.]

[The summoning method of the undead crystal has changed; it will now automatically summon thirty undead of any race each time, still able to randomly summon a race King (existing race kings will not be summoned), and it will not affect the summoning of special units.]

The last system message provided Alex with a significant amount of information, giving her an epiphany. Recently, her attempts to summon troops had involved squeezing her chest, but it seemed not to bring her any luck.

"So, it's not that my luck has worsened or that I can't summon a race King; it's that their race Kings are still alive!" Alex became more convinced of her idea.

Information from the Destroyer, Ghoul, and Eldrin had already informed her that the original undead Empire had nearly been wiped out, but some races had escaped the purge and hidden away.

Now, it seemed not just the undead races had escaped the purge, but their race Kings had fled.

A race King could endlessly summon their troops; a fleeing race King meant the race itself had escaped.

Alex thought about her own situation—if one day the Undead City lost her, the seven race kings would likely each go their own way.

As for those undead without a king to command them, they would naturally be annihilated.