9: Chapter 9 Animal-Headed Attendant Monks: Major Unit Upgrade

Xu Qin read through the list one by one and couldn't wait to open the Crypt interface, intending to continue upgrading.

Beep.

Several notification messages popped up.

[Prerequisites for upgrading the Level 3 Crypt:]

[1. bone melting furnace has been built.]

[2. soul hall has been built.]

[3. bone vault has been built.]

[You can only upgrade after meeting the above conditions.]

"Can't I rush the level?"

Xu Qin shook his head with some regret.

He had originally wanted to push the Crypt to Level 3 or 4 in one go, see what other buildings with greater improvements would be unlocked, and prioritize building those.

But looking at it now, that idea wouldn't work.

However, on second thought, that was fine too.

The bone melting furnace was also very important.

With army-wide attribute enhancements, this technology-based building should naturally be built as early as possible.

The soul hall was also good; it automatically produced 30 Soul Energy per hour.

"Alright then, I'll just build both the furnace and the soul hall first."

Xu Qin opened his inventory and started counting materials.

bone melting furnace: Stone × 80, Iron Ore × 20, Soul Energy × 300.

soul hall: Wood × 50, Stone × 40, Soul Energy × 150.

bone vault: Bone × 30, Stone × 50, Wood × 20, Soul Energy × 100.

Adding the three buildings together, he needed 170 Stone.

He flipped to the Stone column.

Stone: 27.

He had just spent 100 on upgrading the Crypt.

Xu Qin's mouth twitched.

He had 23 Iron Ore, which was just enough.

Wood and Soul Energy were sufficient after the replenishment from the night hunt.

Only the Stone was short by nearly 150.

"This crappy desert is full of sand, yet stone has become a scarce resource."

Xu Qin opened the regional map.

The explored area covered about 600 meters around his territory.

Beyond that, it was all black fog.

He looked down at the few Skeleton Sand Rats crouching by his feet.

"Your mission," Xu Qin bent over and tapped the skull of one of them, "is to find me a stone vein."

The Skeleton Sand Rat tilted its head, and the purple flame flickered.

Xu Qin smiled and straightened up.

There was no rushing the stone issue; he would deal with it tomorrow.

But there was one more thing he could do tonight.

He came to the archway of the Level 2 Crypt.

After upgrading, the Acolyte capacity limit had increased to 5.

He only had 1 Acolyte right now.

As the only "peasant" unit of the Undead Race, the Acolyte was responsible for construction, upgrading, and healing.

It was truly difficult for one Acolyte to handle everything.

Xu Qin flipped through the remaining skeletons in his inventory.

Warthog skeletons × 6, Sand Lizard skeletons × 6, Sand Snake skeletons × 3, Skeleton Sand Rat skeletons × 12.

The summoning condition for an Acolyte was: consume 1 complete skeleton, 15 Soul Energy, and 2 animal hides.

Skeletons, souls, and hides were all sufficient.

But...

Xu Qin was in a bit of a dilemma.

"I don't have any humanoid skeletons on hand."

That's right, he only had beast skeletons.

Warthog, Sand Lizard, Sand Snake, Sand Rat.

Could he summon an Acolyte using these skeletons?

Xu Qin decided to try.

If it didn't work, he would just have to wait.

He took one Warthog skeleton, one Sand Lizard skeleton, and two Sand Snake skeletons from his inventory, along with the corresponding Soul Energy and animal hides, and threw them all into the Crypt corridor.

Dark purple light surged and swallowed them.

Thirty seconds later.

Footsteps came from the depths of the corridor.

He saw four Acolytes with different shapes walking out of the darkness one after another.

Xu Qin looked closely.

Pfft!

The first Acolyte was draped in an animal hide hood, and its body was a size bulkier than a normal Acolyte.

The head exposed under the hood was a Warthog skull, with tusks sticking out from both sides of the hood, looking both fierce and funny.

The second Acolyte was thin and long; under the hood was a flat Sand Lizard skull, with two hollow eye sockets protruding to the sides.

The third and fourth ones were both Sand Snake heads.

Long, narrow skulls poked out from the hoods, with two rows of fine teeth exposed in their mouths.

The four Acolytes stood in a row in front of Xu Qin.

Pig head, lizard head, snake head, snake head.

Xu Qin couldn't hold it in and laughed out loud.

"Good fellow, my logistics department has truly blossomed! Fine! As long as they can be summoned, it's good."

He circled around the four new Acolytes.

The function panel showed that their skills were exactly the same as the original Acolyte.

Undead Construction, Skeleton Resurrection, Bone Healing.

It was just that their appearance was a billion times more unique.

Xu Qin glanced at the remaining Skeleton Sand Rat skeletons in his inventory.

"Should I try throwing a Skeleton Sand Rat in next time?"

He imagined a palm-sized mouse-headed Acolyte wearing a floor-length animal hide robe, with purple flames burning in two green-bean-sized eye sockets...

He had to admit, he was looking forward to it.

He would save them for now and wait until the Crypt was upgraded to Level 3.

"Alright, you four, numbered two to five," Xu Qin patted the pig-headed Acolyte's shoulder, "Start working tomorrow and build the furnace for me."

The five Acolytes bowed their heads in unison.

Number one was humanoid, number two was pig-headed, number three was lizard-headed, and numbers four and five were snake-headed.

Xu Qin's logistics dream team was officially established.

Having settled the Acolyte matter, Xu Qin's attention turned to the last highlight of the night.

Unit Promotion.

He clicked on the function list of the Level 2 Crypt and found the option marked in gold.

[Unit Promotion]

Description: Consumes a large amount of resources to improve the base tier of all Undead Race units under your command.

After promotion, the base attributes of the units will be comprehensively improved, and their appearance will change.

Consumption: Meat × 200, Bone × 50, Soul Energy × 400.

Xu Qin finished reading the consumption list.

He opened his inventory.

He had nearly 400 units of meat.

Bone... he could just throw them all in.

Soul Energy, after being replenished by the night hunt, was now just over 1,000.

More than enough.

"Promote!"

Xu Qin clicked confirm.

[Consumed: Meat × 200, Bone × 50, Soul Energy × 400]

[Unit Promotion in progress...]

Deep in the Crypt, a blood-red light suddenly flared up.

The light gushed out from the entrance of the corridor, turning into ripples that spread in all directions.

The ripples swept across the body of every Undead Race unit.

Xu Qin saw that fine red patterns began to appear on the surface of the bones of the nearest Skeleton Warthog.

The patterns spread along the bone joints, seeping into the depths of every bone.

It wasn't just the Skeleton Warthog.

In the distance, the spine of the Skeleton Sand Lizard was lengthening, and its tail was becoming thicker and sturdier.

On the skull of the Skeleton Sand Snake, two horn-like protrusions appeared.

And the biggest change...

Xu Qin turned his head to look at the five veteran Skeleton Soldiers.

Their bones were changing from grayish-yellow to milky white.

The pitted corrosion marks on the surface were filled with red patterns, becoming smooth and dense.

The rusty blade in their hands was being wrapped in a layer of bone material.

The blade widened, the edge became sharper, and it finally took the shape of a white bone saber.

Thirty seconds later, the red light dissipated.

Ding!

[Unit Promotion complete!]

[All Undead Race units tier increased: +1]

Xu Qin walked up to the five Skeleton Soldiers.

At this moment, they were standing straight.

There was no longer that crooked, rickety look of being ready to fall apart at any moment.

Xu Qin reached out and patted the shoulder blade of the number one Skeleton Soldier.

Thud.

It was rock hard, just like patting a stone.

"Good, good, good." Xu Qin said "good" three times, "This is worthy of the name Undead."

He kicked the shinbone of number one again.

It didn't budge.

"So it wasn't that you were weak," Xu Qin retracted his foot and nodded with satisfaction, "It was malnutrition."

He couldn't wait to open the unit panel and check the attributes after the promotion one by one.