19: Chapter 19 The Undead Expedition Without End

Xu Qin dismounted from the pig and walked quickly toward the Crypt...

"Uh, it should be called a Graveyard now."

But what met his eyes made his eyes light up.

The original semi-collapsed stone Crypt had transformed into a plaza of black stone pillars, the pillars carved with glowing runes.

In the center of the plaza stood a black obelisk, and at its top, a slowly rotating ball of purple soul energy hovered.

The entire structure extended at least three levels underground.

And the sand within the territory was slowly turning a dark grey.

Xu Qin looked down at his panel.

[Level 3 Graveyard Effects:]

[1. Territory range expanded to a radius of 100 meters.]

[2. Undead conversion efficiency increased by 40% (cumulative).]

[3. Acolyte quantity limit increased to 15.]

[4. New function unlocked: Environmental Transformation (passive)]

[Environmental Transformation: The Level 3 Graveyard will automatically transform the terrain within the territory into "Wasteland." Under Wasteland terrain, damaged Undead units will slowly heal automatically (recovering 1% HP per minute). At the same time, living races within the Wasteland terrain will have their morale automatically reduced by one level.]

Xu Qin gasped after reading it.

Automatic healing.

Automatic healing within the territory!

Although it was only 1% per minute, he had a lot of troops.

Before, when they were injured, they had to line up and wait for the Acolytes to heal them; now, they could recover slowly just by standing in the territory.

What was even more ruthless was the second half of the sentence.

Living races in the Wasteland terrain automatically have their morale reduced by one level.

In other words, if anyone came to attack his territory...

Their morale would drop as soon as they entered.

Low morale meant a 10% to 30% reduction in attack and defense.

"Awesome."

Xu Qin continued reading.

[5. New buildings unlocked:]

[Dark Altar (Hero Building): Sacrifice qualified Undead units to promote them to "Undead Hero." Undead Heroes possess independent skill trees, can wear equipment, and have combat power far exceeding normal units. Each promotion requires a large amount of soul energy and special materials.]

[Construction materials: Stone × 500, Iron Ore × 200, Magic Crystal Fragments × 30, Soul Energy × 3000]

[bone workshop (Ordnance Building): Use bones and iron ore as raw materials to manufacture exclusive Undead war machines. Currently manufacturable: Bone Catapult (long-range siege weapon), Bone Transport Cart (resource transport, increases marching efficiency).]

[Construction materials: Stone × 400, Iron Ore × 150, Wood × 300, Bones × 500, Soul Energy × 2000]

[Cursed Temple (Conversion Building): Convert Acolytes into "Undead Lich." Undead Lich are magic-type combat units, possessing long-range magic attack capabilities and area-of-effect control skills. After conversion, the Acolyte count decreases by 1, but the Undead Lich does not occupy the Acolyte limit.]

[Construction materials: Magic Crystal Fragments × 20, Soul Energy × 2500, Bones × 300, Stone × 300]

Xu Qin was trembling all over after reading the descriptions of the three new buildings.

"Holy crap."

"Isn't this just a Hero Altar?!"

Dark Altar, to train Undead Heroes.

bone workshop, to build siege machines.

Cursed Temple, to turn healers into mages.

The three buildings corresponded to heroes, machines, and magic-types respectively.

In Xu Qin's mind, the BGM from "Heroes of Might and Magic" played automatically.

"Good, good, good!"

He suppressed his excitement and clicked on the upgrade requirements for a Level 4 Graveyard.

[Level 4 Graveyard upgrade prerequisites:]

[1. soul hall ≥ Level 2 ✓]

[2. bone melting furnace ≥ Level 2 ✓]

[3. bone vault ≥ Level 2 ✓]

[4. Dark Altar already built]

[5. bone workshop already built]

[6. Cursed Temple already built]

"As expected."

All six major buildings had to meet the standards to upgrade to a Level 4 Graveyard.

Xu Qin clicked on the Acolyte summoning interface.

Current Acolytes: 5 / 15.

The limit was now 15.

He took ten skeletons and the corresponding materials from his inventory.

One minute later, ten new Acolytes walked out of the Graveyard.

They had all kinds of animal heads.

Minotaur heads, jackal heads, scorpion heads...

Xu Qin opened his inventory and glanced at his resources.

[Current resources (including all gains from this trip):]

[Wood: 4850]

[Stone: 4320]

[Iron Ore: 680]

[Magic Crystal Fragments: 95]

[Bones: 3200]

[Soul Energy: 28500 / 50000 (after bone vault Level 2 expansion)]

[Meat: 9600]

[Animal Hide/Thick Hide: 3800]

[Minotaur skeleton: 990 (pending conversion)]

[Sand Jackal skeleton: 1248 (pending conversion)]

[Undead Minotaur Chieftain skeleton: 36 (pending conversion)]

[Sand Jackal Leader skeleton: 18 (pending conversion)]

[Other miscellaneous materials]

Xu Qin looked at this string of numbers.

Resources?

Not a problem at all.

The prerequisite for Level 3 was a Level 3 Crypt.

Now the Graveyard was already Level 3.

Xu Qin looked at the bone melting furnace again.

He clicked on the furnace upgrade requirements.

[bone melting furnace Level 3 upgrade requirements: Stone × 600, Iron Ore × 200, Magic Crystal Fragments × 25, Soul Energy × 2000]

[Upgrade time: 2 hours]

"Then, build three new ones, upgrade three old ones, and the remaining nine will go heal the wounded."

"Upgrade!"

[bone melting furnace upgrading... Estimated completion time: 2 hours]

"Dark Altar, build."

"bone workshop, build."

"Cursed Temple, build."

[Consumed: Stone × 1200, Iron Ore × 350, Magic Crystal Fragments × 50, Wood × 300, Bones × 800, Soul Energy × 7500]

[Dark Altar under construction... Estimated completion time: 2 hours]

[bone workshop under construction... Estimated completion time: 1.5 hours]

[Cursed Temple under construction... Estimated completion time: 1.5 hours]

The Acolytes dispersed upon receiving orders.

Now the entire territory was filled with the purple light of Acolytes channeling energy, visibly growing stronger.

Xu Qin took a deep breath.

Two hours.

It would take two hours for all buildings to be completed.

He glanced at the countdown for the Novice Protection Shield.

39:47:22.

Still a day and a half left.

"Two hours..."

Xu Qin rubbed his sore eyes.

Honestly, he was exhausted.

It had been 33 hours since he transmigrated, and he had only slept for one hour.

But...

He looked at the two thousand plus skeletons pending conversion in his inventory.

He looked at the black fog further away on the map that hadn't been explored yet.

And the "12 / 1000" upgrade progress on his talent panel.

"Can't stop."

Xu Qin pinched his thigh hard.

Hiss...

It hurt!

But his mind was a bit clearer.

Xu Qin threw all the skeletons pending conversion into the Graveyard in batches.

Purple light surged.

Batch after batch of Undead walked out.

Among them.

The newly emerged Undead Minotaur were sturdy, with thick bone armor, and the stone hammers in their hands had turned into bone warhammers.

[Undead Minotaur · Tier 1]

[Attack: 25 (+ 5) (Physical - Heavy Strike)]

[Defense: 13 (+ 4)]

[HP: 80 (+ 15) / 80]

[Loyalty: 100 / 100 (Eternally Loyal)]

[Morale: None]

[Traits:]

[Tough Physique: When HP is below 30%, defense doubles.]

[Bone Hammer Shock: After a heavy strike hits, there is a 30% chance to stun the target for 1 second.]

[Undead Minotaur Chieftain · Tier 1]

[Attack: 30 (+ 5) (Physical - Heavy Strike)]

[Defense: 18 (+ 4)]

[HP: 120 (+ 15) / 120]

[Loyalty: 100 / 100 (Eternally Loyal)]

[Morale: None]

[Traits:]

[Tough Physique: When HP is below 40%, defense doubles.]

[Undead Battle Cry: Emits a battle cry, increasing the defense of all surrounding friendly Undead units by +4 for 10 seconds. Cooldown 15 seconds. Simultaneously applies the "Fear" effect to enemy living units, reducing their defense by 10% for 5 seconds.]

[Bone Hammer Shock: After a heavy strike hits, there is a 40% chance to stun the target for 1.5 seconds.]

Xu Qin looked at the Undead Minotaur Chieftain's attributes and gave a thumbs up with satisfaction.

Very good!

A proper meat shield, he had one!

Let the Minotaur coordinate with the Undead Sand Jackal; one to tank, one to deal burst damage.

After conversion was complete, Xu Qin opened the total organization panel.

[Total Military Force: 2847]

Xu Qin looked at this number and scratched his head.

"Still not enough, not enough."

He took a piece of meat from his inventory and chewed while looking at this great army.

"Still not enough for a dragon to blow away in one breath."

Swallowing the meat and grabbing his war spear, Xu Qin mounted the pig again.

"The buildings will take another two hours to finish."

"These two hours cannot be wasted."

"Idle Acolytes, follow me."

"Heal the wounded while marching."

He raised his war spear, pointing diagonally at the sky.

"All troops, move out!"

"In two hours, I want to see the Level 4 Graveyard upgrade button light up!"

Boom, boom, boom!

The Undead Army marched in unison, all setting off at once.

Nine Acolytes scattered in the formation, casting Bone Healing on the damaged Undead units while walking.