Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch

Having familiarized herself with her surroundings, Alex tossed the map aside, ready to hit the sack for a good nap.

In life, the most important things are eating, sleeping, and leveling up.

Scratch that, eating can be crossed off; Alex can do without food.

Inside the castle of [QuartzStriker], Sophie had just woken up to see the Lords in the World Chat heatedly discussing something, leaving her puzzled.

Driven by curiosity, Sophie paused the World Chat and started scrolling up through the messages, one by one. All the messages were about a Big Shot who had listed over two thousand pieces of equipment at the trading post.

Sophie hurriedly opened the trading post to check, and indeed, it was true!

Sophie's dwarf troops were capable of crafting equipment themselves, so she wasn't concerned about the gear. What intrigued her was which Lord was so formidable, and whether she had a chance to get acquainted with them.

Sophie clicked on the trade information.

"Hamburger!"

"It's him!"

Sophie's mouth gaped wide enough to fit a long eggplant, her face a picture of disbelief.

That was Commanding level gear! Could he really have taken down a Commanding level so quickly? That seemed a bit exaggerated.

If Sophie had been considering an alliance with Alex before, this confirmed her decision.

Sophie had initially hoped that Alex's ability to procure so much food was just due to his troops' special skills, but as Alex traded over a thousand portions of elite food, she realized this Lord was no ordinary player. And now, with Alex directly trading over two thousand pieces of equipment, including several Commanding level items, Sophie was convinced of the strength of Alex's troops.

[Hamburger] was definitely a powerful Lord!

Sophie immediately opened her dashboard and sent a message to [Hamburger].

Just as Alex lay down to sleep, a system notification popped up. She reached out from under the covers, opened the dashboard, and it was a message from [QuartzStriker]. She had thought it was just another system alert.

"Wonder what he wants this early in the morning."

[QuartzStriker]: "Respected Lord, in order to establish a long-term trade and cooperation, fostering friendship and relations between us, could we possibly form an alliance?"

"An alliance?"

Alex looked at [QuartzStriker]'s message, not replying immediately but instead glanced at the [Alliance] option next to the chat.

She clicked on [Alliance], briefly reviewed what it entailed, and understood what this feature meant.

In simple terms, it meant that both parties' trades would be guaranteed by the system, preventing scams where one might run off with the other's resources after receiving them.

After forming an alliance, it would also eliminate any hostile relations between the two Lords, allowing them to jointly face other enemies. A maximum of five Lords could form an alliance.

The limit was probably set to prevent too powerful alliances; otherwise, billions of Lords from Earth could just band together.

Ultimately, it still boiled down to the individual strength of each Lord; the alliance seemed more like a lifeline for the weaker ones.

However, for Alex, an alliance was beneficial. She was counting on [QuartzStriker] to help process her 4500 tons of iron ore, and with an alliance, she wouldn't have to worry about him pocketing it.

[Hamburger]: "Only stable friendships can promote long-term development and cooperation, I agree to the alliance."

[QuartzStriker]: "Great, thank you, love you!"

Sophie hadn't expected Alex to agree so readily, her prepared arguments unused.

[QuartzStriker requests an alliance with you!]

"Agree."

Alex directly chose to agree, looking at [QuartzStriker]'s message, a bit speechless at the overly familiar tone. Who says 'love you' like that, really?

Alex quickly replied.

[Hamburger]: "Hold up, I'm not gay."

[QuartzStriker]: "Respected Lord, I am a woman."

[Hamburger]: "Are you Yuri?"

[QuartzStriker]: "No."

Wait, Sophie suddenly realized, her brain kicking into gear.

"[Hamburger], you're actually a woman!"

While Sophie was surprised that Alex was a woman, she felt somewhat relieved that Alex wasn't a handsome guy, which at least lessened her own psychological burden.

Relationships between women can be complicated...

If Alex had been a man, Sophie could have flirted or acted cute, at worst paying a small price, since men are creatures that think with their cock.

But Alex is a woman, so this method won't work.

...

Lying in bed, Alex suddenly remembered something, got out of bed, and went to the Warehouse.

She had forgotten to check the iron ore.

Alex picked up a piece of iron ore and compared it with iron ingots. If she remembered correctly, based on knowledge from her previous life, the refining ratio of iron ore was about 1.5 to 2.5:1.

Given the system's nature, it was likely close to reality.

That meant 1.5 to 2.5 pounds of iron ore could be refined into 1 pound of iron, and the iron ore in Alex's hand was exactly double the weight of the iron ingots. Based on the fixed ratio in the continent of Eldoria, she guessed that one piece of iron ore should be able to refine into one iron ingot.

"That means the 4500 tons of iron ore in the Warehouse equals 2200 tons of iron ingots."

Alex felt relieved and went back to her bedroom to sleep, feeling that by the time she woke up, the equipment would probably have been traded.

[Hamburger]: "What's the refining ratio for iron ore?"

Alex still unsure, asked Sophie.

[QuartzStriker]: "One to one, what's up?"

Sophie's response took Alex by surprise; she hadn't expected that ore refining in this world would be different from Earth, achieving a 1:1 ratio with no loss at all.

[Hamburger]: "I have 4500 tons of iron ore here, can you process it for me? Name your price."

Sophie was sitting at the dining table drinking water when she heard this, and she almost spit out her drink.

The reason Sophie's daily production of iron ingots was low was due to the difficulty of mining; she obtained too little iron ore each day. Otherwise, her furnace would be refining non-stop, reaching a production of three thousand.

Big Shot indeed, managing to secure so much iron ore was impressive.

Sophie now understood why Alex had agreed to the alliance so decisively; she had been waiting for her.

Sophie realized her only role was to act as labor to help the Big Shot process the iron ore...

When Sophie realized her role was limited to this, she naturally didn't dare to make excessive demands on Alex.

[QuartzStriker]: "It's no big deal, let's skip the payment. If possible, just give me some food; my troops eat a lot, and we go through food quickly."

Alex thought about it; her current stock of food was indeed not very useful, and food had severely depreciated in value, now trading at ten pieces of wood or five stones per unit.

To maintain her Big Shot status, Alex sent over 4500 tons of iron ore and 1000 units of food.

[QuartzStriker]: "Thank you for your generosity and trust!"

Alex didn't bother with Sophie anymore, lying back down and closing her eyes.

"Alright, time to sleep!"