Chapter 419 202: Continuing Development 2

[Private Chat]

Don't Want to Get a Driver's License: Soaring Eagle, bro, can you take on the Dragon Lizard Lord right now?

Soaring Eagle: Shouldn't be a problem. What's up? Did that guy mess with you?

Don't Want to Get a Driver's License: He went after my ally, trying to plunder him.

Soaring Eagle: Do you know where the Dragon Lizard Lord is?

Don't Want to Get a Driver's License: No idea. My ally probably ran into one of his plundering squads.

Soaring Eagle: Mmm, that sounds like his style. If you find him, be sure to call me.

Don't Want to Get a Driver's License: Got it.

After closing the chat window, Li Ziyu sat in his chair, his eyes cold.

Things had been too quiet since the battle with the Cancerous Tumor Alliance Army. He'd been focused on researching technology and hadn't replenished his troops, which was dangerous. The Undead he currently had on hand would be almost useless against the Dragon Lizard Lord. After all, his opponent wasn't some pushover like the Cancerous Tumor Alliance Army; he was a genuine Transmigrator Lord, and there was no telling what tricks he had up his sleeve.

'Even if I can't beat him, I still have to find him. First, I need to figure out his location.'

'Relying on Zhang Peng alone isn't a sure bet. It's not that I think Zhang Peng would hide anything, but the information is bound to be delayed. The Dragon Lizard Lord doesn't stay in one place; he's constantly moving his fortress. Even if Zhang Peng manages to locate him, by the time we get there, he'll have already moved on to who-knows-where.'

This was precisely why Transmigrator Lords were so hard to target. If you couldn't win, you could always run.

'I have to think of another way...'

'That's right, the Skeleton Knights!'

'Those guys are Cavalry; they have mounts. If I have them search for the Dragon Lizard Lord, combined with Zhang Peng's intel, it should be much faster.'

With this in mind, Li Ziyu quickly opened the interface for the Beast Bone Tomb. He had built it a while ago specifically to provide mounts for his Skeleton Knights, but he had completely forgotten about it since its construction. Now, it was finally time to put it to use.

As he opened it, Li Ziyu's eyebrows shot up. The variety of mounts that could be created here was truly impressive.

The Soul Warhorse. This was the simplest and most quintessentially Undead-style mount, appearing as a Skeleton horse wreathed in blue flames.

[Soul Warhorse]

[Introduction: The most basic mount of the Undead Race, and also the one with the most potential for growth. A Soul Warhorse can grow alongside its master, eventually reaching its final form—the Nightmare. Its master, in turn, will earn the title of Death Knight!]

[Requirements: Beast Skeleton x5, Mount Heavy Armor x1 set, Soul Energy x1000]

Besides the basic Soul Warhorse, there were various other Undead mounts available—wolves, bears, giant lizards, mammoths, and more—but they all required unlocking. Unlocking them would evidently create new cavalry legions. However, Li Ziyu didn't need any of that at the moment. He just needed the simple Soul Warhorse to make his Skeleton Knights truly live up to their name.

What really caught his attention was that the Soul Warhorses and Skeleton Knights could actually evolve. Their final form was a Nightmare paired with a Death Knight, which was excellent.

'A Skeleton Knight requires 15,000 units of Soul Energy, and the Soul Warhorse needs another 1,000. That means summoning a single, complete Skeleton Knight costs 16,000 Soul Energy. As expected, the cost of Cavalry is terrifying at any stage of the game.'

Li Ziyu currently had 100 Skeleton Knights. After a moment of thought, he summoned 500 Soul Warhorses and increased his number of Skeleton Knights to 500 as well. The cost was considerable, but it was all worth it to find the Dragon Lizard Lord—that bastard who dared to cause him trouble!

After issuing the summoning command, Li Ziyu remembered another building he had constructed at the same time as the Beast Bone Tomb—the Tank Manufacturing Plant.

He slapped his forehead. 'I've been so focused on unlocking technology lately my head's spinning. I've built so many things but haven't actually looked into them. That's my bad. I hope the Tank Manufacturing Plant has a few surprises for me. To go up against the Dragon Lizard Lord, I'll need more powerful units.'

When he opened the Tank Factory, Li Ziyu's eyes went wide. Inside was a vast array of all kinds of chariots and tanks, adapted for various purposes. But without exception, they were all products of the Undead Race's Mechanical Technology!

He even saw cannons and vehicles that looked like armored cars and tanks inside. Unfortunately, he couldn't build any of them yet; they required more advanced Mechanical Technology to unlock. After clicking to view the requirements, Li Ziyu facepalmed. 'Damn, there are a ton!'

'All this amazing stuff is right here, but I can't build any of it! If I could just unlock tanks right now, what the hell would I have to fear from the Dragon Lizard Lord? No matter how strong you are, are you stronger than a tank? No matter how good you are at fighting, can you withstand a bombardment from its cannon?'

But alas, all he could do was look. He couldn't build a thing.

'Let's see what I *can* build first,' Li Ziyu thought as he began to filter through the list from the top, looking for options with slightly lower technology requirements.

With his current hodgepodge approach to unlocking technology—a little of this, a little of that—he couldn't manufacture any of the units in the Tank Manufacturing Plant. However, there were some overlapping technologies, so he could choose to research a few specific ones to unlock a couple of new unit types.

After searching for a long time, he managed to pick out only three. The first was the Long-armed Catapult, which had a huge swinging arm that could hurl special bombs. This unit required knowledge of mechanical structures, but its principles were simple, making it easy to research.

Another was the Skeleton Heavy Crossbow Cannon Chariot, which could fire Crossbow Arrows as thick as Long Spears. As a creation of the Undead, this chariot was considered an Undead unit and possessed its own consciousness. It didn't need a crew; it could load itself, and it even had the ability to move and advance alongside the main army.