Chapter 12: A 4-Star Unit: Undead Dark Knights!

Back inside the territory—

John stood in front of the wooden house and casually scrolled through the chat panel a few times before closing it.

Praise.

Jealousy.

Recruitment offers.

Insults.

None of it mattered.

But the World-First announcement had confirmed one thing beyond any doubt.

Among more than a hundred million novice Lords...

with 10,000× Acceleration and Undead Sovereign, John had already established an overwhelming lead.

There wasn’t even anyone close.

As he thought about it, another window suddenly appeared in front of him.

[System Notice: You have received a Friend Request.]

[Applicant: Upper City–Sequence 13–3321]

[ID: Dragon Knight]

[Message: We are members of the Judgment Alliance. We’d like to discuss a possible partnership. Interested?]

[Accept?]

[Accepting will unlock Private Chat and Friend Trading.]

Judgment Alliance...

So they had finally crossed paths again.

John certainly wouldn’t mind beginning the repayment of his old debts with this new generation of recruits.

Without another thought, he ignored the request.

His attention returned to the glowing golden rewards floating before him.

Right now, the most important thing was turning every resource in his possession into actual combat power.

John reached out and opened the first reward.

[Item: 4-Star Unit Altar Stone ×1]

[4-Star Unit Training License: Dark Knight ×1]

Without hesitation, John selected an empty area inside the territory and opened the construction interface.

[Construct 4-Star Unit Building: Dark Knight Camp?]

[Required Materials:]

[Wood ×900]

[Stone ×1,200]

[Iron Ore ×1,000]

[4-Star Unit Altar Stone ×1]

[4-Star Unit Training License: Dark Knight ×1]

"Construct."

John issued the command.

The resource totals in the warehouse dropped instantly.

The next second—

10,000× Acceleration activated.

[Notice: Construction complete.]

[Construction Time: 0.5 seconds!]

[Hidden Class detected: Undead Sovereign.]

[Class Authority activating forced conversion...]

Golden stone blocks and totem pillars descended from the void.

The instant they touched the ground, black-red death energy coiled around them.

The knight hall that had originally radiated sacred golden light rapidly began to change.

Massive gray beast bones erupted from the earth.

They locked together and intertwined, forming an enormous bone stable more than ten meters high.

At the center of the structure stood a black statue of a headless knight.

Beneath him was a warhorse whose eyes burned with ghostly white flames.

[Building Conversion Complete!]

[Unit Altar: Undead Dark Knight]

[Tier: 4-Star]

[Level: Lv.1 — Upgradeable]

[Recruitment Cost: 50 Gold per unit]

[Recruitment Time: 5 hours per unit]

[Upgrade Requirements: 1,000 Wood, 1,000 Stone, 500 Iron Ore]

[Upgrade Effect: Reduces recruitment time by 10% per level.]

[Maximum Level: Lv.10]

John looked over the recruitment information.

Without hesitation, he tapped the altar, spent fifty Gold, and recruited one.

The earth churned.

The gates of the bone stable burst open.

Heavy hoofbeats thundered across the territory.

From the darkness emerged an undead warhorse covered from head to hoof in heavy black-iron barding.

A faint ring of gray death frost spread beneath every step of its hooves.

The knight mounted on its back stood more than two meters tall.

He was completely encased in heavy plate armor.

Resting across his right arm was a spiral armor-piercing lance more than four meters long.

His left hand carried a heavy cavalry kite shield.

And at his waist hung a broad-bladed cavalry sword.

John opened the Dark Knight’s status panel.

[Unit: Undead Dark Knight]

[Tier: 4-Star]

[Level: Lv.1]

[HP: 800]

[Attack: 500]

[Defense: 100]

[Trait: Undead Body — Immune to mind-affecting magic, feels no pain, and never tires.]

[Skill: Trampling Charge — Lv.1]

[While charging, Movement Speed increases by 100%. Enemies struck by the charge take Impact Damage equal to 150% of Attack and are knocked back.]

John let out a long breath after reading the numbers.

"Definitely the right choice."

A 4-Star unit had a base Attack of five hundred.

Even at Level 1, a single well-placed lance strike could potentially one-shot a monster around the 3-Star tier.

But more importantly—

his Undead Spearmen and Undead Sentinels, powerful as they were, were still infantry.

And the wasteland was enormous.

Relying entirely on foot soldiers for exploration meant their advance speed would fall sharply as the scouting radius continued to expand.

Worse, if they encountered highly mobile monster packs or forces that specialized in hit-and-run tactics, infantry could easily be kited around.

The arrival of heavy cavalry solved both problems.

Speed.

And long-range strike capability.

John glanced at his total assets in the upper-right corner.

After receiving the World-First reward from the siege and adding the Gold earned from clearing monster settlements earlier...

his total Gold had reached:

22,450.

"Keep some in reserve."

"Convert the rest into troops."

John’s fingers moved rapidly across the interface.

Recruitment quantity:

149.

The Gold counter immediately dropped by 7,450.

Remaining Gold:

14,950.

RUMBLE...

The entire western side of the settlement began to shake.

From the gates of the bone stable, rows of black-armored heavy cavalry emerged in perfect formation.

John withdrew his gaze in satisfaction.

Then he opened the second reward from the World-First Clear.

Three golden parchment scrolls floated above his palm.

Complex patterns were engraved across their surfaces.

[Item: Hero Recruitment Scroll ×3]

[Quality: Special]

[Effect: Upon use, establishes contact with the Hall of Heroic Spirits and randomly summons one Hero to your territory.]

Heroes were fundamentally different from mass-produced units.

Under the rules of Godfall Continent, ordinary units existed primarily to carry out a Lord’s tactical commands.

Heroes, on the other hand, possessed independent intelligence.

Some could even command troops on the Lord’s behalf.

Hero ranks were divided into:

B-Rank.

A-Rank.

S-Rank.

SS-Rank.

SSS-Rank.

In his previous life, John had once seen an incomplete inscription carved into a stone tablet inside an ancient ruin.

According to the inscription...

above SSS-Rank existed something even greater.

God-Tier Heroes.

Of course, that had nothing to do with the John of his previous life.

Until the day he died, he had never even heard of one of the super Alliances successfully obtaining a God-Tier Hero.

And yet even the weakest B-Rank Hero, once properly developed, could easily fight a hundred low-Star units of the same level.

Summoning Heroes required Hero Recruitment Scrolls.

Under normal circumstances, using one would summon a Hero at random.

The higher the rank, the lower the probability.

But John knew another way to use these scrolls.

A method that didn’t rely on gambling with the odds...

and offered far greater value than simply activating them directly.

So for now, he had no intention of using them.

John placed all three scrolls inside his Lord Inventory.

Then his gaze shifted toward the final World-First reward.

It was a scroll wrapped from end to end in arcs of purple lightning.

A golden thunder rune was sealed across its surface.

[Item: S-Rank Spell Scroll — Wrath of Heaven]

[Effect: Tear the scroll to designate any area within a five-kilometer radius. A indiscriminate divine lightning strike will descend upon the selected area, dealing 10,000 True Damage to all hostile targets within its range!]

John stared at the description.

His breathing quickened for a moment.

Ten thousand True Damage.

Anything hostile within five kilometers would be wiped off the map.

During the current novice period...

this thing was practically a cheat item.

If another monster siege appeared later, the scroll could serve as a trump card capable of instantly clearing the battlefield.

Hell—

if John announced in World Chat that he was selling it right now, someone would probably be willing to pay a million Gold.

But John had no intention of selling it.

He had a better plan.

The corner of his mouth curled upward slightly.

Then he placed the Wrath of Heaven scroll into the safest slot at the bottom of his inventory.