Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch

Chapter 286: Fuse same race's tears

After handling matters on this end, Alex returned to Undead City, feeling elated upon learning the location of Stone Pillar Mountain.

Raphaela was ranked eighth. As long as her ranking didn't rise, Alex could roughly gauge her strength based on the top few ranks.

Regarding the speed of upgrading the city, Alex considered herself quite fast. Normally, reaching a max-level city would require a Lord to have King-level power. Therefore, Alex wasn't worried about Raphaela's city reaching max level anytime soon.

As for informing her two allies, Alex deemed it unnecessary. She could handle this herself, and neither Lilith nor Satan were mages. They'd likely expose their identities the moment they entered the Southridge Republic.

Even as an honorary Magus, it wouldn't make sense for Alex to appear in a human city with fallen angels and demons in tow.

"Big Shot, did you catch Nori?"

Seeing Alex return, Sophie immediately approached and asked. As for the siblings, they had no idea who Nori was.

"No, I let the lich release him. He has some ties with the mage association. I'll check it out myself another day."

After all, he's just a level 1 Monarch. He can't stir up much trouble. If he had any real backing, he would've already led mages to attack Grimstone instead of investigating.

"I could tell right away he's a half-breed between a dwarf and a human. I've seen many dwarves, and his features are quite different. Plus, he's taller than the average dwarf."

Hearing that Nori had ties with humans, Sophie became even more convinced of her theory. She knew a lot about dwarves. Even dwarf women looked similar to men, with beards and rough features. Without close observation, it was hard to tell dwarf men and women apart. But Nori had no beard, which was very unusual.

"That makes sense. It's quite possible."

Sophie's words made Alex think it was indeed possible. Maybe Nori's mother was a human mage.

"Big Shot, I even asked Durin about this. Other dwarves know Nori is a dwarf, but Durin has no memory of ever seeing Nori's mother. There's definitely something fishy here."

"Seems like our guess is pretty close to the truth."

Alex didn't pay much attention to it. If Nori was indeed born of a human, it would be even more taboo, especially if his mother was a human mage. Alex was sure the other party wouldn't dare admit to any relationship with Nori.

"Ah, so this Nori is just a half-dwarf?"

Listening to their conversation, Xiao Hui couldn't help but chime in.

"Yeah, that sounds about right. But at least they're both human, so the offspring wouldn't be some creature that everyone would reject."

Sophie nodded, and Alex remembered something Lilith had told her. Elves and humans often intermarried because many human men were fond of female elves...

"It depends on the genes. Look at goblins; they rely on females of other races to reproduce. But their genes are special, so their offspring always look like goblins."

Xiao Mu gave an example that made the three of them feel quite disgusted.

"Alright, let's drop this topic. By the way, I forgot to enhance the buildings today."

With that, Alex left the palace and took out an enhancement crystal.

"Should I enhance the Blackwater Altar first or the Specter Chandelier?"

Enhancing the Specter Chandelier to a King-level building might strengthen its concealment effect, making it undetectable even to King-level beings. But there was no guarantee of this effect.

After some thought, Alex decided to enhance the Blackwater Altar first. The city's location was already exposed, so enhancing the Specter Chandelier wouldn't be very useful. A better approach would be to find a suitable place to relocate the castle.

Once she ensured her city's absolute safety, she would head to Stone Pillar Mountain to attack Raphaela's city.

After enhancing the Blackwater Altar, several new abilities were added. First, the range of increasing troop loyalty expanded to all cities under her command. Second, the enhancement level was raised to King level.

Previously, it could only enhance troops below King level, granting them special abilities. Now, it could also enhance directly summoned King-level undead, addressing a previous shortcoming. Of course, some undead that couldn't be enhanced, like Death Spirits, were still unaffected.

The Blackwater Altar was more like an auxiliary building for enhancing low-level undead. While it had some effect on high-level undead, it was mostly useful in the early stages.

Next, Alex assigned tasks to everyone.

The current goals were twofold: relocate the undead city to a new location and eliminate Raphaela. The long-term goal was to establish an undead empire and become the strongest.

The small races near the Orc Empire couldn't be touched for now. The four King-level templar knights were still a strong deterrent. They had to be cautious and let the orcs explore the outskirts first.

As for the dwarf kingdom, it was relatively safer. They could first eliminate the surrounding small races to upgrade the Kingdom's Tear.

Alex dispatched Crane and John for this task. With the Death Spirit Clone and a group of Monarch Undead assisting, there was no need to worry.

The next target was the Savage Plains north of Twinface Mountain. There were many beast races there, which Alex couldn't ignore.

These Monarch races no longer posed any threat to Alex. She needed to focus on empires established by King-level beings to speed up the Kingdom's Tear upgrade.

Alex had already met the three basic conditions and could establish the Undead Kingdom at any time. As for the Undead Empire, it depended on whether the Kingdom's Tear upgrade progressed faster or Alex's own level-up speed.

Without the system's experience rewards, leveling up would only get slower as the level increased.

Soon, the four race kings and the siblings headed directly to the undead fortress at Twinface Mountain and began their conquest of the Savage Plains.

Alex controlled the overall situation from Undead City, while Sophie went to Grimstone to oversee the dwarves' next actions. Everything was falling into place.

Meanwhile, on the Mossvale continent, Drake, along with the Rock Dragon and a group of Monarch levels summoned from the Auxiliary Barrack, successfully conquered a race.

This was a small sub-dragon species in the primeval forest, about the size of an adult human, feeding on the carrion of other herbivorous sub-dragons.

Their strength was naturally weak, with the highest being only level 6 Monarch. But they lived in groups, and Drake found their lair and wiped them out.

It's worth mentioning that Drake's Rock Dragon was a purebred dragon, which had absolute dominance over these sub-dragons with diluted bloodlines. This was the main reason he could easily conquer them.

These creatures were called [Flame Dragon Lizards], bipedal with clawed forelimbs, resembling featherless chickens. As the name suggests, they could breathe fire and were known for their speed. However, they couldn't fly due to the lack of wings.

"How many types of dragon lizards are there?"

Drake stood before the slain Flame Dragon Lizard leader, holding a race's Tear. This wasn't the first race he had conquered here.

He had previously conquered two other races: Frost Dragon Lizards and Thunder Dragon Lizards. They were similar in size and appearance to the Flame Dragon Lizards but could breathe frost and lightning, respectively.

Logically, these three creatures should belong to the same race. But when Drake conquered them, each rewarded him with a race's Tear.

This puzzled Drake, so he temporarily stored these race's Tears in the Warehouse. He initially thought two races were a coincidence, but encountering a third one today was unexpected.

These lizards had very weak dragon bloodlines. Drake didn't even understand why they were called sub-dragons.

As for why he conquered them, it was because they were weak and close to Dragon City. Drake didn't even bother to disassemble the corpses, instead feeding them directly to the Rock Dragons. These sub-dragons with a trace of dragon blood were the best food for them.

Whoosh—

A gust of wind blew, scattering leaves and dust as a Rock Dragon retracted its wings and landed.

"Master, another type of dragon lizard has been found to the south."

The Rock Dragon spoke to Drake.

"Lead the way!"

Drake leaped onto the Rock Dragon's back, and five Rock Dragons and six Monarch levels flew south. The dragons weaved through the massive trees, then soared above the forest.

Drake used magic to clear the leaves blocking his view. Instantly, a blinding light shone through, and the surroundings became clear. The dragons flew out of the primeval forest formed by giant ancient trees, soaring in the sky.

The forest stretched endlessly in all directions, with no end in sight. Drake didn't dare to imagine how vast this primeval forest was.

The forest wasn't suitable for the large dragons to fly in, but flying above the forest helped conceal their presence.

After flying south for twenty minutes, the dragons dove into the forest. On the ground, the Rock Dragon Lizards were gnawing on a large carcass.

When they heard the commotion and looked up, it was too late.

Boom!

The massive bodies of the Rock Dragons landed, surrounding the Rock Dragon Lizards. The lizards sensed danger but were paralyzed by the Rock Dragons' Dragon's Presence, unable to move.

The leader roared, awakening the surrounding lizards, which trembled as they attacked the dragons.

A yellow mist spewed out, their ability to petrify creatures, essential for hunting and defense. However, their survival skill had no effect on the Rock Dragons. A Rock Dragon opened its jaws and instantly devoured a Rock Dragon Lizard, scaring the others into fleeing.

Roar!

A breath of dragon's earth-yellow flame engulfed them, turning them into statues. Drake kicked the lizard leader, shattering it. With the system's prompt, he successfully conquered this race.

"Rock Dragon Lizards..."

What a strange race. Four types of lizards, each rewarding a race's Tear and an Auxiliary Barrack, all with special rewards.

Because of Drake's dragon bloodline, some races with dragon bloodline offered special rewards that could be exchanged for Dragon Quintessence in the system. This was something Drake discovered after conquering the first sub-dragon race here, realizing he had a 'talent.'

Compared to the rewards of skills or items, Dragon Quintessence was clearly more important.

Depending on the bloodline's dilution, the size of the Quintessence varied, but without exception, the Quintessence not only enhanced his bloodline power but also provided experience points.

Drake casually retrieved the race's Tear and planned to return with his troops. Although this place was full of opportunities, it was also very dangerous, so he had to be cautious. Without stabilizing the city's surroundings, he wouldn't venture deeper.

But just as Drake obtained the Rock Dragon Lizard's reward, the system displayed a prompt he had never seen before.

[Detected four types of the same race's Tear. Fuse them?]

[Note: Auxiliary Barrack will also fuse, granting additional rewards.]

Drake hesitated for just a split second before choosing to fuse, not for the additional rewards, but out of curiosity to see what would happen after the fusion.