Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch

At 3 AM, as Alex and Sophie, among others, drifted into sleep, all the Lords who survived the beast tide began to trend towards one thing: forming Alliances!

Nearly all the surviving Lords had barely withstood the beast tide, much like Sophie, and had come to a clear realization about their own strength—they were too weak!

So, other than increasing their own strength, was there another way to become stronger?

Yes, forming Alliances.

Alliances became the go-to choice for all weaker Lords. Although an Alliance could only have up to five members, the resource sharing and mutual support among them could greatly enhance the Lords' sense of security.

From the moment the first Lord suggested this idea in the World Chat, it completely ignited the enthusiasm of all Lords.

The World Chat was abuzz with one topic: finding teammates to form Alliances! They even increased the conditions for joining and the penalties for leaving an Alliance to prevent members from leaving casually.

Of course, these restrictions were part of a contract agreed upon by all members of the Alliance, enforced by the system, making it impossible not to comply.

At the Lava Volcano, Cain was still tallying his spoils from the beast tide. Due to his castle's location at the volcano, most of the beasts that attacked his castle were native fire-element creatures from the volcano itself.

Of the four thousand beasts that participated in the attack, more than half were from the volcano, and their strength was at level 5 or above. Based on the drop rate of Essence Shards from level 5 and above beasts, the bodies of over two thousand level 5 beasts could drop around a thousand Essence Shards.

A thousand Essence Shards could allow Cain to summon a thousand flame spirits, multiplying his strength many times over. Even the usually expressionless Cain showed a rare smile.

Since Cain's troops consisted only of flame spirits, after several upgrades to his Barracks, not only did the daily summoning quantity of flame spirits increase, but their base level did as well.

Cain placed all the Essence Shards into a magma pool inside his castle, a special building similar to Alex's Blackwater AltarFeature.

This building could transform Essence Shards into flame spirits and was connected to the Barracks crystal, meaning that as the Barracks increased the base level of summoning flame spirits, the level of flame spirits Cain summoned himself would also increase.

This indeed could bring a significant boost to Cain's strength.

As for the biggest threat on the volcano, the lava dragon, it had mysteriously awakened from its slumber a few days ago, roared, and then flew away from the volcano. It had not returned since.

Watching the continuously emerging flame spirits, Cain's confidence soared.

Just as Cain was about to go to sleep, the system suddenly popped up a message. Somewhat puzzled, Cain opened it—it was a friend request.

"[Ice Queen]?"

Cain didn't understand why this person was adding him as a friend. He accepted the friend request, thinking this person might need something from him or something else.

[Flame Spirit]: "What's up?"

[Ice Queen]: "Hello Big Shot, are you interested in joining an Alliance? We already have four Lords in our Alliance, all from the second tier, and we're looking for a top-tier Lord from the first tier to join us. Are you interested?"

Being in the top thousand, Cain was skeptical about being specifically chosen.

[Flame Spirit]: "Why me?"

Seeing Cain's curiosity, the Ice Queen sensed a glimmer of hope and decided to reveal more details.

[Ice Queen]: "Big Shot, to be honest, among all the Lords in the first tier, only your troops seem to be elemental beings."

[Flame Spirit]: "Because of the name of my castle?"

[Ice Queen]: "Not to hide anything from you, all three of my current allies and I command troops of elemental beings."

Cain was genuinely intrigued by how these four Lords, all summoning elemental beings, had managed to come together.

The Ice Queen and her allies were confident in their first-tier strength, but unfortunately, the leaderboard only had a thousand spots. They believed it was just bad luck that pushed them into the second tier.

Even if not, they were among the top combatants in the second tier.

[Ice Queen]: "Big Shot, I believe you've made a preliminary judgment about our strength. If you're willing to join, we'd be honored to have you as our Leader."

The Ice Queen was very sincere, and she was confident that Cain's troops were elemental beings. Based on the strength of troops that summon elemental beings, they should be at least in the second tier, if not the first.

Out of ten thousand in the second tier, the Ice Queen had reviewed them all and even conversed with a few suspicious Lords. None fit the criteria, so they must be in the first tier, and the only one who fit the name criteria there was Cain.

After some thought, Cain realized the Ice Queen was right. Indeed, if they were all elemental beings, it would be greatly beneficial for him.

The features of an Alliance surely weren't limited to what was currently shown; there must be more functions that hadn't been displayed yet. That meant only one thing: their current castle levels were too low to unlock the corresponding features.

[Flame Spirit]: "I agree, an Alliance would indeed be very helpful under the current circumstances."

[Ice Queen]: "Praise the Elemental Gods, this is truly our honor."

Following that, the Ice Queen added Cain to the Alliance, and Cain's World Chat channel now included an option for Alliance chat.

[Ice Queen]: "@All members, Big Shot has arrived. Let's all introduce ourselves to [Flame Spirit] and get familiar with each other's troops."

To Cain's surprise, aside from the Ice Queen, the other three members were also awake.

[Earth Lord]: "Hello Big Shot, my troops are earth monsters, and my castle is located within a human empire in the Barren Plains of Eldoria continent."

[Vine Fairy]: "Sir, my troops are tree spirits, and my castle is in a forest on the Bodel continent. I'm so envious that you all are in the same place."

[Wind Fury]: "My troops are wind spirits, and my castle is in the Wolf Valley of Eldoria continent."

[Ice Queen]: "I summon snow maidens, probably the only high-intelligence beings among us. My castle is in the Frostwind Snowy Mountain of Eldoria continent."

As everyone introduced themselves, Cain got a better understanding of their troops, and their names indeed sounded like elemental beings.

[Flame Spirit]: "Just as the Ice Queen guessed, my troops are flame spirits, and my castle is in the Lava Volcano of Eldoria continent."

[Vine Fairy]: "Wow, one of you is in the snowy mountain and the other in a volcano, how romantic."

[Ice Queen]: "It's been a bit unsafe here recently. There are always vampires and gargoyles appearing on the snowy mountain, fighting on sight. If it weren't for my snow maidens being immortal and able to hide in the ice and snow, they would have been killed countless times by now."

[Flame Spirit]: "How come there are vampires and gargoyles on the snowy mountain? Those are two Lords' troops, what's their strength?"

[Ice Queen]: "Both the vampires and the gargoyles are about as strong as me."