Richard retracted his thoughts. He excitedly and unhesitatingly opened the [Trading Market].
He wanted to test the effects of this new function first.
The current price of each ordinary troop lair was lower than before. But he still maintained 400 units of resources.
Richard needed 100 ordinary-level, 1,000 rare-level, 10,000 glorious-level, and 100,000 crown-level to upgrade the troop lair from ordinary to elite. He needed one million to advance to radiant moon-level.
Each upgrade was ten times the number of the previous ones.
One million crystals x 400 was equivalent to 400 million units of ordinary resources.
Richard would need two million to upgrade the crown soldier to radiant moon-level according to the current price of one unit of rare resources exchanged for 200 units of ordinary resources.
Richard looked at the remaining 2.6 million rare resources on his attribute panel, and the corners of his mouth twitched.
So it was so lively that he could only nurture one radiant moon troop?
The higher the level, the more resources it would cost.
The number of radiant moon soldiers required to become transcendent would be even more astronomical–ten million ordinary troop lairs if it were an exaggeration to say that a crown would advance to radiant moon-level.
That was 20 million units of rare resources.
Richard’s eyelids twitched at the thought of this data.
All the rare resources he had earned had probably not even reached 20 million since he entered the “Shining Era.”
He must sell a few of his glorious treasures.
Richard took a few deep breaths to suppress the rise and fall of emotions in his heart.
“I’m still as poor as a dog with millions of resources in my hands… No one else has this feeling.”
Richard would start with the crown since he couldn’t ace radiant moon-level king of the imperial on a large scale.
He would need three days of cooldown before he could level up for the second time if he recruited them now.
He no longer hesitated at this point.
He opened the [Trading Market] and purchased troop lairs in large quantities.
He directly bought one million, according to the average of 400 units of resources, which was the price of two rare resources.
He quickly spent two million.
Six hundred thousand still remained in the attribute panel.
That must be quite a lot, but recruiting troops also required tons of resources, which could be insufficient.
Richard smiled bitterly.
The most arduous thing for the violent soldiers was not to expand the lairs from the looks of it but how to continue recruiting troops after one increased lairs.
Richard had never increased the number of troop lairs on a large scale because the resources needed to recruit high-level troop types were exaggerated.
The current income of Twilight City could not afford so many high-level troop lairs.
Richard wouldn’t have a thousand radiant moon-level even if one gave a hundred crowns. He couldn’t get the resources he needed to recruit.
“The greatest obstacle for Twilight City was poverty.”
Richard sighed.
The system would temporarily give storage space to the resources purchased from the [Trading Market], but one could not return them once one took them out.
Richard calmed down and looked at the Sleeping Pyramid that could recruit the King of the Imperial Troop lair.
A notification immediately appeared in the Black Gold System with a thought.
[Sleeping Pyramid]
[1. It can consume ten radiant moon-level troop lairs to advance to the next level.]
[2. You can choose the Sleeping Pyramid as the cultivation target and consume resources to cultivate a lair of the same type.]
[Note 1: The level of the troop lair nurtured will be one level lower than the selected target. One will need to upgrade twice to reach the same level.]
[Note 2: The training will depend on the level before the promotion when selecting a promoted soldier.]
Richard glanced at the attributes twice and moved his eyes sparingly.
Unfortunately, there were no loopholes.
One could only count the troops promoted according to the time before their promotion. Otherwise, they would not have to wait for such a long promotion cycle.
That didn’t cause conflict with Richard, although he felt sparingly regretful.
He immediately chose the second option.
[Target selected–the Sleeping Pyramid.]
[Detected one million remaining troop lairs. Do you want to cultivate all of them–Sleeping Pyramid?]
[Note: The nurturing process is irreversible.]
[Sleeping Pyramid]
[Level: Radiant Moon 3-stars Radiant Moon]
[Characteristic: Successfully nurtured, will obtain a Crown 3-stars troop lair.]
Richard did not hesitate and chose to nurture it.
A few seconds afterward.
All the lairs stored in the system space disappeared.
Then, a majestic energy surged out of the Sleeping Pyramid.
In an instant, the wind and clouds surged.
Endless yellow sand covered the surrounding space.
The yellow sand gradually settled down and condensed into pyramids one after another as the vast energy revolved.
The energy subsided when the sandstorm dissipated.
Richard saw thirteen pyramids that stood tall.
It was smaller than the Sleeping Pyramid of the radiant moon.
[The system has successfully built the Sleeping Pyramid.]
The Black Gold System’s notification rang, and Richard opened the attribute panel.
[Sleeping Pyramid]
[Level: Crown 3-stars]
[Recruitable Troops: King of the Imperial Troop (3-star crown)]
[Recruited: 10]
[Weekly Production: 10]
[Recruitment Requirements: 1,400 units of gemstones, 1400 units of sulfur]
[Description: You can recruit mummy soldiers with mighty battle power–King of the Imperial Troop. They are the kings of the mummy imperial troop with soul-strapping battle strength.]
“Thirteen Crown 3-stars troop lairs!”
Richard’s lips curled into a bright smile.
The difference from radiant moons was that the resources required for recruitment had dropped from 4,000 units of gemstones and sulfur to 1,400 units.
Wait, something was wrong.
Richard felt uneasy and calculated carefully.
There were 13 troop lairs, and each could recruit ten soldiers, which meant 130 soldiers. Each troop had 2,400 rare resources, which was 312,000.
Three hundred twelve thousand units were only one week’s production. Four weeks a month, that was 1,248,000 units.
Each radiant moon-level king of the imperial troop cost 8,000 rare resources and three lairs. They could produce 30 and 120 per week.
That was 960 million.
Twilight City had to spend 2,208,000 units of rare resources every month to maintain the king of the imperial troop.
Richard’s eyelids twitched after he calculated.
The monthly income of Twilight City was only around one million.
F*ck the husky.
“How am I going to make up for this million-dollar deficit?”
Moreover, this was not counting the data obtained from other troop types. Twilight City would have to spend more than three million units of rare resources monthly to recruit all the troop types.
This number dried Richard’s mouth.
The resource deficit had soared to two million.
As expected, a violent soldier was not something ordinary people could withstand.
“No, Twilight City has to make money. Profuse money! We need to expand Black Sorbet Ice Cream immediately!”
Richard gritted his teeth.
“Has Loreinna returned from the vampire castle? That castle must have hidden a lot of valuable treasures.”
“We need to speed up the production of magic music boxes in Fortress City! I need this fantasy version of the MP3 player to make money for Twilight City!”
“And the white-tailed cats. Where did the wine that these cats studied go? Why was there still no movement? We have to make them produce results at most half a month!”
“What about the weapons production in Bloodhoof City? Has it stagnated recently? The construction of the weapons factory had to be accelerated as well!”
Currently, the income of Twilight City wasn’t small, but it was still insufficient compared to the resources he needed.
The immense deficit of resources made Richard furious.
That would not stop him from making money! No matter what the reason was, even if the Crimson Moon rose at the entrance of Twilight City.
He unhesitatingly spent 312,000 rare resources to recruit the king mummies of King of the Imperial Troop Lair.
Some would say that the desert god led this troop.
The attributes of the crown-level king mummies were still domineering and fierce. It was one level stronger than the Crown 3-stars guardian mummies.
The only pity was that its mightiest explosive skill, Forbidden Sandstorm, had been reduced from 20 to 10 minutes.
But even so, the king of the imperial troop was definitely one of the strongest among the crown soldiers.
Richard looked at the five swords that hovered around him. He felt sparingly happier.
He unhesitatingly bestowed the trump card skill of the 130 king mummies of the King of the Imperial Troop Lair of Twilight City, the city of sand.
Then, he did not let them stay any longer. He waved his hand to the surrounding king mummy soldiers to bring them down to join the troop lair.
Richard looked helpless when the front yard was peaceful again.
He wanted to expose a wave of soldiers, but he did not expect only 13 teams of soldiers would drop after spending more than two million rare resources. It was really sparingly unreasonable.
“Each soldier needs 100,000 lairs which is 200,000 units of rare resources to upgrade glorious to crown-level.”
“The 20 scorpion warriors were still glorious-level lair. There were also three guardian mummies, ten sand condensation archers, ten wild sand mages, and twenty sandstorm controllers.”
“A total of 63.”
“The resources required to advance are… 10.6 million.”
Richard felt his scalp tingle.
He felt his poverty once again.
The development of Twilight City was already quite good. Every month, they would earn over a hundred rare resources. Among the players, they could look down on them.
However, compared to consumption, he still had no way to see it.
“I’m going to sell my kidneys if this continues…”
Richard suppressed the waves in his heart and ensued his to clarity. Then he quickly changed his mind.
He could not expand high-level troops in a short period. So he would start from the glorious level.
Glorious troops were much more inexpensive than crown troops.
He only needed 10,000 ordinary troops or four million units of ordinary-level resources. It would only be 20,000 units if converted to rare resources.
Richard was a little emotional at the thought. Millions of ordinary resources were an astronomical figure for him a few months ago.
Even the 500,000 units to upgrade the troop was arduous to achieve.
Millions of resources had unexpectedly become a small number in just a few months.
When did all of this start?
Richard stroked his chin. It was like Twilight City was on the road to prosperity following the opening of the new underworld map.
He took over the underground world, and the construction of Twilight City in various aspects reached a new stage. In addition, he had plundered a vast amount of resources from the outside world. The development speed of Twilight City soared with the addition of all aspects.
Richard shook his head and didn’t mind much about it. He looked at the remaining 300,000 units of rare resources. He felt that his hands were still tight.
He opened the [Trading Market] and started to search.
However, the brilliant troops were pitifully few. That enormously disappointed Richard.
That affected the desert faction and the others as well.
On the market were all trash troops. No one would want to sell highly-valuable treasures.
Richard didn’t stop his search. He continued to search for rare-level troops.
Richard would purchase them and could make them achieve glorious-level after another upgrade.
The Black Gold System was the paramount bug.
The players were different after half a year of development or more. The rare troops that were previously rare were not densely packed.
...
Richard couldn’t help but decide carefully.
It took more than an hour to select three troops as candidates.
These few troops had their strengths. Richard felt that each could be of great use when nurtured.
However, he was about to buy one of them.
Karu suddenly rushed into the room and panted heavily. He sounded extremely excited.
“Lord Richard, the void sandworm has just reported news from Her Excellency Loreinna.”
Richard’s eyes lit up when he saw the excitement on his face.
“What is it?”
Butler Karu laboriously panted as he spoke.
“Her Excellency Loreinna has successfully subdued the vampire castle… All vampires will submit.”
“In addition, she also obtained immense treasures and troop lairs.”
“Her Excellency Loreinna requests to return.”
“Loreinna had subdued all the vampires in the castle? And, she had obtained immense treasures and troop lairs we needed?”
“What a timely rain!”
Richard equally excitedly exclaimed!
He quickly brought Karu to the land of quicksand.
They saw a heart-wrenching scene when they arrived.
The void sandworms that stood like city walls crawled in the vast yellow sand on the side of the towering god’s ancient tree.
A sense of oppression filled their dark golden bodies.
These behemoths currently emitted endless void power.
They gathered power before him. They tore the void apart and opened a wide spatial rift.
Richard could see a magical charm-filled scene through the spatial passageway.
A medieval castle in a high mountain forest reflected in his eyes. It was majestic and ancient.
The densely-carved and mural-embossed city walls were exquisite. The same magnificence shone with the palace where the royal family lived.
Figures in tuxedos and noble dresses shrouded the city walls and fortifications before the castle. That was truly remarkable!
Each was polite, elegant, and calm, with a striking temperament.
They were innumerable at a glance.
These elegant nobles all stared at a lady that floated in the air before them with burning eyes.
Her long red robe made her bulging chest prominent. It was like mountains were about to explode.
She had long silver hair and cold silver eyes. She had a noble and elegant temperament. At the same time, she had the domineering aura of a queen.
She stood mid-air, and the entire world seemed to revolve around her.
This transcendent with supreme power held her chest and bowed to Richard most humbly under the watchful eyes of all the vampires behind him.
“Lord, I didn’t disappoint you. I have recruited all the vampires.”
“Please give the order.”
Thousands of pairs of eyes turned in Richard’s direction.
This scene could cause one’s mental pressure to increase exponentially.
Richard’s face was calm. He ignored the scrutinizing eyes.
He nodded slightly.
“No need to be so polite… You did well.”
“Come over and talk.”
Loreinna nodded and stood up when she heard this. Then, she calmly walked before the spatial gate and was about to expand.
Suddenly, an angry roar sounded from the castle.
“Damn vampire!!”
“You will never obtain that treasure!!”
“The Frostwolf’s territory is beyond the mountain range!!”
“The eldest daughter of the Ice Empire’s Grand Duke of Frostwolf, Miss Rebecca, is leading a troop towards this mountain range!”
“You can’t bear the consequences of angering the Frostwolf Clan!!”
Richard narrowed his eyes and turned to look at the castle.
He opened his mouth and asked and did not wait for Loreinna to pass through the spatial rift.
“Loreinna, the one who spoke… Who was it?”
Loreinna answered softly.
“I captured a subordinate of the Frostwof’s eldest daughter three days ago.”
“He said that the leader will come from Frostwolf Clan. It was an extremely force-riveting family in Ice Empire.”
“What’s interesting is that I learned about a treasure that can greatly improve the vampire tribe… I’ve been interrogating him for the past two days.”