Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch

Isran didn't hesitate; he turned and ran, not even bothering with his own warriors. All he wanted now was to survive.

"Hey, where's that bravery gone? Don't run away!" Alex taunted.

Isran ran with all his might, but how could he possibly outrun Alex? With a blink, she teleported in front of him, her scythe ablaze with black flames, slashing towards him.

Isran reacted quickly, trying to block Alex's attack, but the bell on her scythe slowed him down just enough.

His chest armor was easily breached, a huge wound opening across his chest, blood spurting out nearly reaching Alex, who quickly used Frost Magic to block it.

Thud!

Alex kicked him away, and the ground ice surged, instantly encasing Isran in ice.

"Phew—"

Alex took a deep breath. The sight was a bit too bloody for her, making her slightly nauseous. Her previous kills had been more gentle, and mostly non-human, so she hadn't felt much of a burden. But this time, she had literally ripped open a living man's chest. For a moment, her enhanced vision even allowed her to see his internal organs clearly.

Feeling queasy, Alex quickly kicked him away and used magic to freeze him. Strictly speaking, this was her first kill in this world, and it was quite direct.

Calm down, there's no law in this world. It's an All-Races Battle Royale, a kill or be killed world. The weak have no place here.

Alex quickly adjusted her mindset and looked towards the other two Lords. Jareth had already lost the ability to resist and had returned to his normal human form, his limbs still dripping blood down the ice spikes.

Halvar, completely encased in ice, had passed out, and it was unclear whether he was in shock or dead.

Halvar was not the weakest of the four, but his sole mastery of water magic was his downfall against both Alex's fire and ice magic, which severely countered him.

Alex's eyes returned to normal, as using both the Eye of the Undead and the Eye of Magic simultaneously was too draining. She felt a bit tired.

Raising her arm towards the three, she clenched her fist.

In an instant, all three incapacitated Lords were killed by Alex.

After deactivating her Eye of the Magic, the environment slowly returned to normal. She dispelled the magic, and the frozen river fell to the ground, turning into puddles.

With the three Lords dead, the giant lizards and pythons scattered, showing their low loyalty to Halvar.

In contrast, the warriors and soldiers continued to fight the undead even after their Lords had died, with none fleeing. This showed that James and Isran's troops had a loyalty level above 80, willing to fight to the death with their Lords.

The undead reinforcements had arrived, and these troops stood no chance. Some undead began chasing the pythons and lizards; they couldn't let them escape, as they were all valuable experience points.

Meanwhile, in the Dark Forest, four distinct castles began to shake violently. The crystals at the top of the castles shattered, and the structures began to collapse.

Alex opened her system dashboard, and four notifications popped up.

[Congratulations on successfully killing the hostile Lord [Blessing of the Holy Light]!]

[Congratulations on successfully killing the hostile Lord [Will of the Sword]!]

...

[Resources are being tallied...]

[You have obtained a special structure blueprint: Energy Cannon]

[You have obtained 80% of the enemy Lords' Warehouse resources: 8k magic crystals, 200 Essence Shards, 10k food, 70k wood, 8k stone, 7k iron ingots, and various other materials]

[Note: After defeating other Lords, you obtain 80% of their Warehouse resources, and the drop rate for special buildings and other items within the castle is 35%. Resources used for upgrading the castle will not drop. This is your first time defeating other Lords, hence this declaration.]

So little resources from four Lords?

Combined, they weren't as wealthy as Alex alone, but obtaining a special building was quite a catch, especially something sounding as powerful as a cannon.

It wasn't that the four Lords had only one special building; it was that Alex's victory resulted in only one dropping.

If only the resources they used for upgrading their castles could drop, but the system didn't allow it, and even the Warehouse drop was only 80%.

The Essence Shards were few, clearly, they had used up their rewards from the beast tide.

However, the system was quite user-friendly, transferring the resources of the defeated Lords directly to Alex's Warehouse, saving her the trouble of locating their castles in the vast Dark Forest.

At the same time, Alex noticed one thing: in the Dark Forest, there was no shortage of wood. All Lords had it in abundance.

The four Lords were all Commanding level, ranging from levels 4 to 1. Alex used her Undead Summoning Magic, and her undead army gained four more Commanding level commanders.

Their troops also included four Commanding level troops, which Alex generously allowed to remain by their Lords' sides in undead form.

The combined troops of the four Lords totaled about five hundred, and aside from a few pythons and lizards that escaped early, nearly all were slain by the undead army's numerical superiority.

These soldiers and warriors strangely left no bodies upon death, vanishing completely, so they couldn't be summoned as undead.

Alex tallied up; only two hundred bodies could be summoned. She didn't bother summoning them one by one and used her left eye to summon them all at once.

Halvar's staff was an amplifying weapon, not very useful. Alex had destroyed James's spellbook, Jareth had no weapon, and only Isran's long sword was a decent weapon.

Alex stored all the obtained magic crystals and equipment in her ring, then rode Ice Cream back to her castle.

The undead dispersed, some upgrading and others gathering resources.

Back at the castle, Alex put all the miscellaneous items, including some equipment, up for sale at the trading post.

Now, standard equipment and animal hides were considered miscellaneous and not very valuable.

The only valuable items were the two Commanding level pieces of equipment and a full Commanding level suit.

The two pieces of equipment belonged to the two Lords, and the suit was from James's deceased Commanding level soldier.

After dealing with the miscellaneous items, Alex turned her attention to the special structure blueprint she had acquired.

[special structure blueprint: Energy Cannon]

[Building level: Commanding level]

[Feature: Commanding level offensive turret.]

[Description: Connected to the castle crystal, the damage caused is related to the level of the castle crystal, and the attack range always matches the Territory Area of the castle.]

[Construction materials: 10k wood, 10k stone, 2k magic crystals, 36 Essence Shards, 1k iron ingots.]

"This is quite impressive, an attack with no blind spots within the territory."

Alex was surprised; she hadn't expected the four Lords to have such a valuable item.

The defense towers on Alex's wall had a limited attack range, only activating when enemies approached the wall, which is why she had built a circle of twenty towers around the wall.

Traditional defense towers seemed rather low-tech. The only advantage was their quantity.

But this turret was better, offering full-map coverage.

"Build it!"

Alex wasn't short on resources, especially now that she had acquired some iron ingots, making construction a breeze.

In the center of her castle, between the Blackwater Altar and the castle gate, a white turret appeared. It had strange patterns that flickered with light, and a huge cannon extended upwards, aiming at the sky.

The turret's internal energy unit was connected to the castle crystal, just like the defense towers.

It looked a bit like a mortar, Alex thought, though she couldn't underestimate the power of a Commanding level weapon.

After defeating the four hostile lords, Alex had gained some iron ingots. She no longer needed to wait for Sophie to produce them and could even provide some to Sophie.

Alex immediately sent a message to Sophie.

[Hamburger]: "How many more iron ingots do you need to upgrade your castle to a town?"

[QuartzStriker]: "I'm short 3k."

Once Sophie replied, Alex immediately sent her 3k iron ingots.

[Hamburger]: "Upgrade to town, then build a Portal of Transit."

[QuartzStriker]: "Thank you so much!"

Sophie was surprised at how quickly Alex had obtained the iron ingots.

She immediately accessed her system dashboard and chose to upgrade her castle to a town.

Sophie's castle, nestled among mountain peaks, began to emit a white glow, becoming even more majestic.

The dwarves were drawn by the activity at the castle, stopping to watch.

The system also cleared a large area outside the castle, where Sophie's Blacksmith Shop and Furnace were repositioned within the town's territory.

The uneven rocks within the town's territory were disassembled by the system into stone materials, forcibly leveled.

Sophie hadn't even had time to look over her castle when she received a system notification, unlocking the exclusive building, Portal of Transit.

"Portal of Transit, building materials: 10K wood, 5K stone, 1K magic crystals."

This wasn't expensive for Sophie, as she usually stockpiled some wood, and she had more than enough of the other resources.

As Sophie clicked to build the Portal of Transit, a structure appeared in front of her castle within the town's territory.

Sophie had always been curious why Alex was so insistent on her building a Portal of Transit.

Curious, she walked into the grand hall of the Portal of Transit and instantly understood.

"A teleportation portal!"

Sophie read the system's description. As a Lord under Submission, she couldn't have allies, so she could only teleport to other Lords who were also under Submission to Alex or to Alex's castle.

Next to the portal, she could choose the destination castle, with only two options: [King Kong] and Alex. But [King Kong]'s option was grayed out, indicating her castle hadn't reached town level yet.

"Should I go now?"

Sophie was excited, not just about seeing Alex but about seeing another human. She had been isolated in this place for nine days and had never left.

It felt like being quarantined at home with the flu, which was really hard to bear.

Sophie firmed up her resolve and stepped through the portal.