Chapter 3: One Unit Every 0.36 Seconds! Five Hundred Undead Right from the Start!

John raised his right hand and swiped through the air.

A translucent regional map unfolded before him.

Looking at the location code flickering in the upper-right corner, John slowly exhaled.

Exactly the same as in his previous life.

Although this was technically a Novice Map, it was no different from the other real regions that made up the main world of Godfall Continent.

The opportunities hidden within it were real as well.

"In my last life, I explored less than five percent of this place before the novice period ended."

John narrowed his eyes.

"This time, I’m taking everything I can."

He dismissed the map and quickly walked over to the blue-gray stone altar.

At the center of the altar was a circular recess surrounded by intricate runes.

John opened his starter inventory.

Inside floated a crystal radiating a soft white glow.

A Lord Core.

It was essentially part of every novice Lord’s starter package.

All he had to do was place it into the altar to activate it.

Click.

A crisp mechanical sound rang out as the crystal locked into place.

BOOM!

A brilliant pillar of white light erupted from the altar and shot straight into the sky.

The beam then spread outward in midair, forming an enormous translucent dome that rapidly expanded in every direction.

With a deep rumble, the barrier swept outward until it covered the entire hilltop and all open ground within a five-kilometer radius.

"Territory successfully established."

"Lord Core activated."

"Starting Territory Level: Level 1 Village."

"Novice Protection Period activated."

"Time Remaining: 71:59:59."

"During the protection period, wild monsters and hostile Lords are unable to pass through the defensive barrier and enter your territory."

"Congratulations, Lord."

"Your Novice Starter Pack has been delivered to your inventory."

John opened his inventory.

Two items were sitting inside.

The first was a small golden pouch labeled:

[Basic Resource Pack ×500]

The second was a faintly glowing miniature stone chest.

John tapped the chest.

"You have opened a 1-Star Unit Altar Chest."

"Congratulations!"

"You have obtained:

[1-Star Spearman Unit Altar Blueprint]"

"Would you like to construct it within your territory immediately?"

"Yes."

John answered without hesitation.

The ground to the left of the central altar began to churn.

A blue-gray stone platform, roughly three meters across, slowly rose from the earth.

At its center was a rotating white magic formation.

Standing at the edge of the platform was a tall stone statue of a spearman.

John walked over and opened its status panel.

[Unit Altar: Spearman]

[Tier: 1-Star]

[Level: Lv.1 — Upgradeable]

[Recruitment Cost: 1 Gold Coin per unit]

[Recruitment Time: 1 hour per unit]

[Upgrade Requirements: 100 Wood, 100 Stone, 50 Iron Ore]

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

[Maximum Level: Lv.10]

John glanced over the upgrade requirements and shook his head.

Even if an ordinary Unit Altar was upgraded all the way to Level 10, it would only reduce the recruitment time from one hour to a little over thirty minutes.

It wouldn’t change the unit’s Star tier.

Nor would it increase its base combat strength.

For other Lords, upgrading an altar was absolutely worthwhile.

Anything that shortened recruitment time was valuable.

But for John?

It would be a complete waste of resources.

"First things first."

John raised his right hand.

"Let’s turn this thing undead before I start recruiting."

A mass of gray-black mist gathered in his palm.

It was one of the passive abilities granted by Undead Sovereign.

John pressed his hand against the stone spearman statue.

"Undead Conversion."

Gray-black death energy instantly spread through the carved grooves of the statue.

Within moments, it swallowed the entire stone altar.

The white magic formation beneath it was corrupted by the death energy, gradually transforming into an eerie green.

The leather armor carved onto the spearman statue decayed and reshaped itself into heavy armor.

Its eye sockets sank inward.

Deep within them, faint blue flames began to flicker.

The flowers and wheat motifs carved across the stone platform peeled away as well.

In their place appeared rows of interlocking bone patterns.

"Conversion successful."

"1-Star Spearman Unit Altar has been converted into:

1-Star Undead Spearman Unit Altar."

"Recruitable units have automatically been converted into undead-type units."

John withdrew his hand in satisfaction.

Then his gaze shifted toward the five hundred Basic Resource Packs inside his inventory.

If an ordinary Lord started with five hundred units of basic resources, they would almost certainly divide them among the five basic resource types.

John didn’t have to worry about that.

"Convert all of them into Gold Coins."

With a thought, the golden pouches inside his inventory dissolved into specks of light.

The Gold counter in the upper-right corner jumped instantly—

from 0

to 500.

"Recruit Undead Spearmen."

"Quantity: 500."

"500 Gold Coins deducted."

"10,000× Acceleration activated."

"Recruitment time per unit reduced from 3,600 seconds to 0.36 seconds."

BOOM!

A burst of cold green light erupted from the center of the magic formation.

The runes across its surface began spinning at an unbelievable speed.

A deep tearing sound filled the air as the surrounding air itself seemed to distort.

Three units per second.

The light at the center of the formation barely had time to fade before the next figure emerged.

One after another, armored spearmen strode out of the glowing mist.

Their armor resembled the standardized equipment of medieval infantry.

Clank. Clank. Clank.

The first row of ten soldiers stepped out of the formation.

Without a single word, they shifted two steps to the left in perfect unison and took position on the open hilltop.

Then came the second row.

The third.

The fourth.

More and more followed.

Three minutes later—

the once-empty hilltop was packed with troops.

Five hundred Undead Spearmen stood in perfect formation.

They had no flesh.

No skin.

No faces.

Beneath each helmet, only two eerie blue flames burned where their eyes should have been.

John stepped forward and opened the information panel of the soldier standing at the front.

[Unit: Undead Spearman]

[Tier: 1-Star]

[Level: Lv.1 — 0/100 EXP]

[HP: 50]

[Attack: 10]

[Defense: 2]

[Skill: Piercing Thrust — Lv.1]

[Condenses death energy into the spear before delivering a full-force thrust, dealing damage equal to 120% of Attack to enemies directly ahead and ignoring 10% of the target’s armor.]

[Cooldown: 20 seconds]

Judging from the base stats alone, they were nothing special.

Just ordinary 1-Star units.

But John had five hundred of them.

Five hundred.

Just as he was about to issue his next command—

BOOM!

A deafening sound erupted from the sky.

The gray heavens suddenly split open.

A blood-red curtain of light stretched across the entire sky, and enormous crimson letters rolled through the air before the eyes of every Lord.

"GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT!"

"Congratulations."

"All Novice Lords have successfully completed spatial deployment."

"Global Chat has been unlocked."

"The Marketplace is now open."

"The Novice Trial Period has officially begun."

"Additional special rule adjustments are now being applied..."

The crimson text in the sky suddenly grew larger.

"NOTICE!"

"The 133rd Grand Selection has been designated as a vanguard trial for the upcoming Convergence of Worlds."

"The following rules have been amended."

"The Novice Trial Period will last for:

30 days."

"The Novice Protection Period will last for:

3 days."

"During this period, monsters and other players will be unable to invade your territory."

"At the end of the Trial Period, all territories will receive a final ranking."

"The Lord ranked No. 1 will receive an additional reward:

Divine-Tier Chest ×1."

"Only Lords ranked within the top 10% of this war zone will be granted permanent residency in Godfall Continent and promoted to official Lords."

"The territories of the remaining 90% will be completely erased."

"Their Godfall Marks will be revoked."

"And all failed candidates..."

"will be permanently eliminated!"