Chapter 53: Using the Units I Sold to Fight Me? Augustus’s Six-Star Trump Card!

At last, Raine Augustus spoke.

"So, what information have we confirmed so far?"

A player below hurriedly stood up and reported with his head lowered.

"My Lord, everything has been confirmed. Tyrant single-handedly wiped out the entire Third Division. Every Lord Altar was destroyed. All sixteen lords were killed. Not a single one survived."

"We estimate that all the resources accumulated by the Third Division have now fallen into Tyrant’s hands."

"Furthermore..."

The player swallowed nervously.

"We’ve confirmed that Tyrant has acquired dragon-type units. The dragons under his command are at least five-star units. The good news is that there aren’t many of them. Based on our estimates, their numbers are limited to a few hundred at most."

Raine Augustus nodded, his expression revealing nothing.

"How many resources can we mobilize right now?"

"My Lord."

Another player responsible for financial management immediately answered.

"We have approximately three million units of each basic resource. We also have 135 four-star Unit Altar Stones, ten five-star ones, and one six-star stone."

"Good."

Raine Augustus rose to his feet.

"When the four-star unit auction goes live today, bid 1.5 million basic resources. Secure it for me."

"I want us to focus all our efforts on training units over the next two days."

His gaze swept across the entire hall.

"Notify all sixty-six lords under our headquarters. None of them are allowed to act independently over the next few days. Everyone is to focus on training units."

"Two days from now—"

Raine Augustus turned his gaze toward the sky outside the window, his eyes growing cold.

"You will march with me."

"Yes, sir!"

Every player in the hall rose to their feet in unison.

...

Meanwhile, John and his party had arrived at the entrance to the class advancement trial dungeon.

[ Ding! ]

[System Notification: All your auctioned items have been sold!]

[Obtained: Iron Ore × 1,500,000, Wood × 1,500,000, Stone × 1,500,000, Gold Coins × 1,500,000.]

John paused.

"Oh? They sold that quickly?"

"1.5 million, huh."

He opened the auction records.

There was only one name in the buyer column.

Judgment Alliance · Raine Augustus.

John looked at the ID and let out a cold laugh.

He wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

After all, Augustus was widely regarded as the strongest young talent of his generation. He possessed an SSS-rank talent and was the heir apparent to the Judgment Alliance.

With someone like him making a move, which of the other major financial groups would willingly make an enemy of him over a relatively low-tier training license?

But it didn’t matter.

With this transaction, John had more or less figured out the Judgment Alliance’s current resource ceiling.

He was certain that, at this very moment, those people were discussing how to get their revenge.

But they would never have imagined that the four-star Unit Training License had been sold by John himself.

If he was the one who had sold it, why would he be afraid of fighting the units trained with it?

John chuckled softly and closed the notification window.

He raised his head and looked at the place where they were standing.

They were at the edge of a vast basin.

A solitary archway stood near its perimeter.

However, this wasn’t a passage created by the War Compass. Instead, it was a massive mirror of light, three stories tall, standing upright on the ground.

Its surface rippled gently like water.

This was the entrance to his class advancement trial.

John walked up to the mirror and reached out.

Ripples spread across its surface.

[Area Notification: Lord "Tyrant" has come into contact with a special relic space!]

[Notification: You have discovered an unknown hidden dungeon, "Ruins of Myriad Spells (Class Advancement Exclusive)"!]

[Dungeon Requirements: Solo Lord (May bring affiliated troops and heroes)]

[Difficulty Selection: Normal / Hard / Nightmare / Hell]

[Notification: Different difficulty levels offer different rewards. First-clear rewards are granted only upon completing the dungeon on Hell difficulty for the first time. Clearing other difficulties will not activate the first-clear reward.]

Just like his previous class advancement dungeon, only Hell difficulty offered the first-clear reward.

"Hell."

Without hesitation, John selected the highest difficulty.

The mirror began to tremble violently.

John stepped through it.

Ophelia and Raistlin followed close behind.

...

At the Judgment Alliance headquarters.

Raine Augustus held the newly acquired four-star Unit Training License and Unit Altar Stone in his hands.

He closed his eyes and activated his talent.

[ Ding! ]

[ Talent activated! ]

[ Four-Star Fire Elemental Sprite successfully upgraded! ]

[ Congratulations! You have obtained: Six-Star Fire Elementalist! ]

Flames surged three feet into the air from the surface of the license.

Without even blinking, Raine Augustus swept his hand forward and placed the transformed license inside his territory to construct the altar.

Rumble!

[Unit Altar: Fire Elementalist]

[Rank: Six-Star (Mid-Tier)]

[Level: Lv. 1 (Upgradeable)]

[Recruitment Cost: 150 Gold Coins per Unit]

[Recruitment Time: 24 Hours per Unit]

[Upgrade Requirements: Wood × 10,000, Stone × 10,000, Iron Ore × 5,000. Each upgrade reduces recruitment time by 10%. Maximum Level: 10.]

Raine Augustus spoke calmly.

"Begin training."

[Would you like to use a Training Acceleration Card to complete recruitment immediately?]

"Use it."

Whoosh!

The flames at the center of the altar suddenly surged two meters into the air.

A humanoid figure emerged from the blazing inferno.

It had neither facial features nor skin. Its entire body was composed of living flames in a humanoid shape.

[Unit: Fire Elementalist]

[Rank: Six-Star (Mid-Tier)]

[Level: Lv. 1]

[Health: 1,200]

[Attack: 800]

[Defense: 200]

[Skill 1: Fireball (Lv. 1 · Active): Launches a blazing fireball that deals damage equal to 150% of Attack. Upon hitting a target, it applies one Burn mark, stacking up to a maximum of 10 marks. Cooldown: 15 seconds.]

[Skill 2: Pyroblast (Lv. 1 · Active): Detonates all Burn marks on the target. Each mark deals additional explosive damage equal to 50% of Attack. Cooldown: 25 seconds.]

[Skill 3: Firestorm (Lv. 1 · Active): Unleashes a sweeping storm of flames that deals damage equal to 200% of Attack and knocks enemies back. Cooldown: 60 seconds.]

[Description: A six-star, mid-tier elemental mage condensed from pure fire. Flowing magma covers its body. It has no fixed form and possesses no facial features.]

After examining the status panel, Raine Augustus nodded with satisfaction.

The resources had been well spent.

Once the Burn marks had stacked to the maximum, a single Pyroblast would detonate them all.

Just imagining the damage was enough to make anyone’s teeth ache.

What was more, fire-type units were particularly effective at sieges.

Wherever they went, they could burn buildings, food supplies, Wood, and other resources to ashes.

They could simply surround an enemy castle, assign one Fire Elementalist to each position, and unleash a barrage of fireballs.

Whether it was a castle or anything else, everything would be burned to the ground.

"With this unit type..."

Raine Augustus turned around to face the players behind him, his voice brimming with barely restrained confidence.

"Conquering this entire novice continent will be a piece of cake."

As for that so-called Tyrant, he would be even easier to deal with. He was nothing more than a nouveau riche who had gotten lucky.

Augustus didn’t say those words aloud.

But in his heart, he was convinced that against the overwhelming strength of the Judgment Alliance, Tyrant stood no chance whatsoever.