LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 76: Sophie's Submission
Alex opened the dashboard to check her current stats.
[Lord: Alex]
[Strength: lv3 Commanding level (personal and troops can increase by killing enemies)]
[Territory Level: lv1 town]
[Troops: undead race]
[Equipment: Grim Reaper's Scythe]
[Health Points: 300]
[Mana Points: 150]
[Strength: 77]
[Stamina: 72]
[Agility: 76]
After tonight's beast tide, Alex had indeed leveled up twice!
Although her current attributes are strong among ordinary Commanding levels, they still fall short compared to some of the more powerful Commanding levels. She's about upper-middle tier.
However, while her attributes aren't outstanding, her equipment provides significant bonuses!
This beast tide was both an opportunity and a disaster. For some weaker Lords, it could have been catastrophic, but for top-tier Lords, it was a feast.
With Alex's current strength, plus her numerous undead army, she was nearly invincible. However, her castle is surrounded by forbidden areas, and there are many stronger beings above the Commanding level, so she still needs to keep a low profile and not get too arrogant.
...
Alex stood on the wall; feeling somewhat puzzled at that moment. Wasn't there supposed to be a reward after the beast tide ends?
It's already 2 AM, why hasn't there been a notification of the end?
Alex opened the system leaderboard to check, and there were only twenty-one hours left on the leaderboard timer. She guessed that the rewards might be announced after the leaderboard countdown ends.
While checking the leaderboard, Alex noticed that many Lords who were previously shown as online had turned gray. They had permanently gone offline, completely dead.
In this beast tide, the top-tier Lords hardly had any offline, but from the second tier down to the fifth, the number of grayed-out Lords increased significantly.
Alex didn't need to think about it; these were the Lords who had died, and the number was much more staggering than she had anticipated, with a death rate close to seventy percent in the fifth tier. Looking around, more than half of the Lord names were gray.
In contrast, there were virtually no gray names among the T0-T1 tier Lords.
Lords in the World Chat also started to become active, celebrating the joy of surviving the beast tide.
[Chatgpt-9]: "Hahaha, I actually survived!"
[BlackTiger]: "Who would have thought, I actually made it!"
[Biglemon]: "Although my troops all died, at least I survived. But now I'm the only one left in my castle..."
[Rex]: "Tremble, everyone, from now on you are all my enemies. I'm starting an All-Races Battle Royale, hahaha..."
[BigEarBull]: "Is the guy upstairs stupid? Got shocked?"
Alex glanced at the World Chat, ignoring these Lords spamming crazily, and prepared to go back to sleep. The corpses outside could be slowly summoned by the necromancers; after all, their stamina is infinite, and they never tire.
On her way back to the castle, Alex encountered a Destroyer and inquired about the origins of these creatures. As for the Ghouls, she decided not to bother since they couldn't speak and wouldn't be able to provide any information.
Through some communication and understanding, Alex roughly figured out that both the Destroyers and Ghouls came from the Dark Forest. This forest was teeming with various wild animals and beasts, as well as some high-level intelligent races that had fled from other continents to seek refuge in the Dark Forest.
The depths of the Dark Forest were very mysterious, and even the Destroyers didn't know what lay at the deepest part; they only dared to linger on the outskirts.
According to the Destroyers, Alex guessed that there must be an extraordinary powerhouse in the deepest part of the forest, and the danger level was very high, which is why it was called a forbidden area by weaker creatures.
So far, the Destroyers hadn't encountered any undead other than Ghouls, so Alex's idea of recruiting other undead creatures through diplomatic means fell through.
The beast tide was over, and a new journey began, leading to the brutal All-Races Battle Royale.
To enhance her strength, Alex felt it was time to explore the Frostwind Snowy Mountain and the Dark Forest.
She could send aerial forces to the snowy mountain, as its rugged terrain was unsuitable for ground undead forces.
The ground undead forces would head to the outskirts of the Dark Forest to deal with lower-level Commanding creatures.
Alex reorganized her undead forces, sending the air force to the snowy mountain and the ground forces to the forest, leaving some to do the heavy lifting, assisting the necromancers in summoning undead and transporting bodies.
Of course, the logging and stone mining couldn't stop; Alex still needed a lot of resources to upgrade her castle.
Adhering to the principle of not wasting, Alex ordered the Destroyers and Ghouls to return to their old haunts to start moving.
This wild undead force from the Dark Forest, numbering over two hundred, including Commanding level leaders, couldn't possibly have nothing; they must have some assets.
After arranging everything, Alex went to her bedroom, took off her clothes, including her panties.
The clothes she took off were thrown directly into the wardrobe; the next time she wore them, they would be as good as new.
Alex walked naked to the kitchen and gulped down several sips of water, alleviating her thirst somewhat.
As she was about to return to her bedroom, she received a system notification.
[QuartzStriker]: "Big Shot, I don't want to struggle anymore, I want to submit to you!"
[Hamburger]: "What?"
...
Sophie's beast tide had ended, with over twenty dwarves dead and several severely injured, currently being cared for by other dwarves.
But the dwarves had also gained a lot, with several reaching lv9 and one breaking through to the Commanding level. If not for this Commanding level dwarf turning the tide, Sophie felt her castle might have been breached by the frenzied beasts.
Sophie felt sad; she realized her strength was too weak.
At the same time, she felt this world was too cruel. Why had she been so unlucky to be transported to this world to participate in some damn All-Races Battle Royale?
Sophie had no ambitions for domination, nor did she have the strength; her survival was a big problem.
After a few days of interaction, Sophie found Alex to be quite nice, and since she was also a girl, Sophie made a bold decision.
She would submit to Alex!
...
[QuartzStriker]: "My dwarf troops are really weak in combat, summoning twenty a day, only one hundred and forty in seven days. If not for the dwarves who joined me, I might be dead by now.
After the beast tide, I truly realized how cruel this world is. Relying on dwarves alone, I can't survive. You are a powerful Lord without this worry, but I can't, I'm afraid of dying.
The dwarves are also very kind to me; apart from being a bit short, they are almost no different from normal humans. They talk to me, feel pain, and die. These days, I've treated them as humans because I gave them food, and they would even risk their lives to kill the invading beasts, even if they were severely injured and couldn't get up. But seeing me still alive, they still smile.
I don't want them to die, nor do I want to die. I want to submit to you and become your territory. This is a well-considered decision, and I hope you will consider it."
Damn, Alex wasn't paying attention, and Sophie directly sent such a long text. Alex skimmed through it.
Wait, submit to me?! Are you serious?
Alex had never seen anyone voluntarily submit before.
Submission is entirely one-sided. If you encounter some bad Lords, there's absolutely no bottom line.
Not only would they drain Sophie of all her value, but they might even sell her as a sex slave to other Lords.
So, unless driven to desperation, who would willingly hand over their life to someone else?
Alex guessed that Sophie must be feeling desperate right now. For her, it's because she's afraid of dying that she's gambling on submitting to Alex.
If Alex were a bad person, it would just be a different way to die, and Sophie's situation wouldn't change at all. But at least it would be more dignified than being bitten to death by beasts. If she's lucky and Alex is a good person, then her chances of surviving on Eldoria would greatly increase.
Sophie knew that her role was very important to Alex now.
If she waited until later to submit, her usefulness might be negligible, and why would Alex accept her, a useless waste?
So, after careful consideration, Sophie decided to submit to Alex.
[Hamburger]: "This is no joke, are you sure you've thought it through?"
Sophie's role was still very important to Alex at the moment, and since she chose to submit voluntarily, Alex had no reason to refuse.
Seeing Alex's reply, Sophie knew the other party would definitely agree, and her nervous mood eased a lot.
[QuartzStriker]: "I've thought it through, either way, I'm dead. Following you is my only way out!"
[Hamburger]: "Okay."
Alex just replied with an okay, giving Sophie a glimpse of hope.
Sophie quickly clicked on the [Submit] feature above her friend's list.
[You have joined an Alliance, you cannot initiate [Submission] to other Lords!]
Seeing this message, Sophie thought about it and decided to talk to Alex before dissolving the Alliance.
[QuartzStriker]: "Big Shot, I need to dissolve the Alliance first before I can initiate Submission. I'll dissolve the Alliance first."
[Hamburger]: "Okay."
Alex replied to Sophie, seeing from her words that a Lord who submits cannot be part of an Alliance.
A submitting Lord has lost sovereignty and thus also loses the power to form alliances with other Lords. Conversely, those in an Alliance can at least be sure that their teammates are not another Lord's territory.
But there's no limit to the number of territories; an Alliance of up to five Lords can have countless territories.
[Your ally [QuartzStriker] has dissolved the Alliance with you. Since there is only one Lord left in the Alliance, the Alliance is automatically dissolved.]
Dissolving the Alliance didn't involve reclaiming anything; the two hadn't borrowed anything from each other, it was just a very ordinary transaction between Lords.
[Lord [QuartzStriker] has initiated Submission to you!]
Alex clicked agree, and both started writing their names on it.
The contract was successfully generated, and Alex's system territory dashboard also added a new Lord.
[Territory Lord: Sophie]
[Strength: lv8 Standard]
[Territory Level: lv9 initial castle]
[Barracks Level: lv3 dwarf crystal]
[Special Buildings: Furnace, Blacksmith Shop]
[Troops: dwarf (artisan, warrior)]
[Equipment: none]
...
[Hamburger]: "Alright, it's late, rest now."
Sophie replied to Alex, noticing a new belonging feature on her system dashboard.
Sophie opened it and saw some basic information about Alex.
[Belonging Lord: Alex]
[Strength: lv3 Commanding level]
[Territory Level: lv1 town]
[Barracks Level: lv9 undead crystal]
[Number of Special Buildings: 7]
[Troops: undead race (unique troops)]
[Number of Equipments: 1]
Sophie had always been curious about Alex's troops, wanting to know what kind of troops made Alex so strong.
As for Alex's lv3 Commanding level strength and the upgrade to town information, Sophie wasn't too surprised.
Alex is a Big Shot; if she wasn't stronger than Sophie, could she be called a Big Shot?
"Undead?"
Sophie's first thought was of a bunch of slow-moving, clumsy skeletons that couldn't hit anyone and would fall apart if hit.
Could these skeletons be that strong?
"Unique means only Alex can summon undead?"
Wait, the system said undead, not skeletons. Sophie suddenly realized, could Alex be able to summon the entire Undead Race?
This would explain why Alex was so strong.
Actually, Sophie's understanding of undead was too one-sided. Even if Alex relied solely on skeletons and their variants, she could still comfortably sit in the first tier. But if she could control the entire undead race, she would undoubtedly become an even stronger presence!
Alex sent a message to Sophie and then ignored it.
She lay down on the bed, ready to sleep. Ah, there's no helping it, sleeping naked had become a habit.
That's it for today.