The Sentry Tower and Archer were both two-star troop types, and Mu Yuan had yet to evolve either of them at this star level.
When he gave it a brief try, the feedback he received was:
"Five units. The requirement is the same as when evolving Skeleton Soldiers and Great Slimes. In that case, the evolved troop type is very likely to be a one-star Rare Troop."
Mu Yuan was not very surprised.
After all, the advanced troop types of Sentry Towers and Archers were both one-star Rare Troops. Both were highly favored by lords everywhere and were extremely practical troop types.
He just did not know what skills the troop types he evolved personally would gain.
He would see when the time came.
"Tomorrow... I'll have enough Evolution Points before I go to sleep tomorrow. I'll know once I give it a try then."
"And with my current Evolution Point production, I can evolve several Rare Troops in a day. Before long, the era of a massive outbreak of Rare Troops will arrive."
The corners of his lips lifted, and he was in a pleasant mood.
Those Whale Players and Game Second Generations now possessed considerable strength. It was not impossible for them to conquer a Remnant Soul recruitment point, or to get lucky and obtain a Rare Remnant Soul from underdeveloped Rare Monsters.
But how could that compare with the joy of lying down while his Rare combat power kept shooting upward?
No, he was not completely lying down either. He still had to move his fingers and bestow Evolution Power upon the troop types.
That was very hard work.
Sure enough, everything he had today was thanks to his own efforts.
Evolution was a matter for tomorrow. No matter how expectant or impatient Mu Yuan was, he could not get a Blue-Green Modifier and change his Evolution Points to 999+. He had to wait patiently.
There was something even more important he needed to do.
Construction.
Ten Miracle Blueprints shrouded in faint white light and one radiating a faint green glow were laid out before him, hovering slightly.
Mu Yuan lightly tapped one of them.
"Prompt: Would you like to use the Miracle Blueprint—Arrow Tower?"
"Prompt: Since the current Heaven Chosen does not yet possess complete lord authority, Miracle Buildings cannot be constructed remotely. Construction speed will be relatively slow, damaged buildings cannot be repaired, and so on..."
"Prompt: Would you like to use it?"
After all, a new player was only a quasi-lord.
But as long as he could build the Miracle Building, these shortcomings were merely minor problems. For example, even if a Ranger Player obtained a Miracle Blueprint, they could not use it—they did not even possess a territory of their own.
As for Mu Yuan's territory...
It was the small stretch of land before him, which he could overlook from a god's-eye view.
The area around him was relatively open, and he could not find a particularly suitable place to build an Arrow Tower. But because his territory was small, no matter where he placed the Arrow Tower, the surrounding area would still be within its range.
"Then here."
Holding the Arrow Tower blueprint, Mu Yuan walked to a slightly elevated area where construction was shown to be possible.
He clicked it and began construction.
Just like in a real-time strategy game, an Arrow Tower outline appeared on the ground before him, formed from interwoven light and shadow.
"Prompt: Arrow Tower (Common) is under construction. Please invest materials in a timely manner."
--
"Arrow Tower"
"Required materials: Wood 0/100, Stone 0/100, Soul Sand 0/500g."
Mm, these construction materials also had to be delivered manually.
Who could blame him for being only an apprentice lord?
Fortunately, these materials were not difficult to find. He could simply chop some wood from the surrounding forest, and for stone, he could have Deathbone find a boulder and blast it apart, then have the Skeleton Soldiers carry the pieces back.
That was the power of Miracle Buildings. The materials only had to meet the requirements approximately; they completely disregarded science.
What they followed was the law of the Eternal World.
Materials + Blueprint == Building. That was the rule of Miracle Buildings.
The Soul Sand had already been invested. Deathbone had previously gathered quite a bit of wood, stone, and other materials, and after Dolei arrived in the territory, the amount of "scrap" piled up inside had visibly increased as well.
"Gurgle? Gurgle-gurgle!"
"Don't worry. Your treasures haven't disappeared; they've just changed into another form and continued accompanying you. Look, isn't this tower in front of us sparkling?"
The light and shadow of the Arrow Tower under construction flowed and shifted. From the bottom upward, it slowly changed from illusory to real, filling in bit by bit.
Dolei stared wide-eyed at the Arrow Tower before it, its light and shadow flowing. After turning the matter around in its limited brain capacity, it realized... that did seem to be the case.
It gurgled and hopped away again.
"Arrow Tower: 1.2% constructed. Construction ongoing..."
Mu Yuan instructed Deathbone to lead a group of Skeleton Soldiers, along with the Transportation Captain Dolei, outside the territory to gather various kinds of wood and stone.
He himself arranged the Sentry Tower, warehouse, civilian residence, and other buildings one by one.
The materials required by all three were merely wood, stone, and Soul Sand. Even though the civilian residence contained quite a few items after construction, it did not matter. The Miracle Blueprint would fill in the remaining materials.
"Of these buildings, the Arrow Tower has the highest construction cost, though it isn't that expensive... Well, of course, that's because I just received the Association's welfare subsidy."
"But the Mage Tower I'm going to build next..."
"Mage Tower (Rare)"
"Description: A defensive building that can engage enemies on its own without requiring troops to be stationed inside. It can fire Spell Missiles with an automatic tracking effect. At the same time, the Mage Tower possesses basic research functions and can manufacture a small number of items. The latter function requires a practitioner with professional expertise in spellcraft to be stationed inside before it can be used."
"Required materials: Wood 0/500; Stone 0/500; Iron 0/200; Soul Crystals 0/5; Black Iron Stone 0/100; Elemental Orb 0/1."
Mu Yuan: "..."
The construction cost was ridiculously high!
He tried putting in the ruins of the Ruined Tower from before. It did fill some of the gaps, but only a little.
"Let's set aside the basic materials like wood for now. I'm still short 4.5 Soul Crystal Coins, 60 units of Black Iron Stone, and the most expensive Elemental Orb."
Mu Yuan had never even heard of Black Iron Stone or Elemental Orbs, but that did not matter. His authority on the Tai Xuan Forum had already been raised, allowing him to look up a great deal of higher-level information.
After a rapid round of searching, he soon got his answer.
Black Iron Stone was a Common Grade item, usually used as construction material and equipment material. It was commonly produced in wilderness ore veins.
An Elemental Orb was a Rare Grade material. It could also be used as an accessory to increase the wearer's spell power. This treasure could be obtained by conquering powerful Monster Camps, purifying Filth Roots, killing powerful monsters, exploring treasure lands rich in elemental energy, and through other channels.
But there was only a chance of obtaining one.
If Mu Yuan relied solely on hunting monsters and exploring by himself, this precious Mage Tower blueprint might remain in the warehouse gathering dust for a very long time.
Fortunately, he had a huge trading platform behind him.
A treasure that could not be bought with Soul Sand? He could simply exchange Contribution Points for it. He still had a full three thousand Contribution Points.
Great Lord Mu was not short of money. In no time at all, he bought all the materials.
Mu Yuan entered the Tai Xuan Covenant platform and looked around.
Three thousand Contribution Points were indeed worth quite a lot.
One hundred Contribution Points could be exchanged for one Soul Crystal Coin.
An ordinary white-grade Miracle Blueprint was worth only two or three hundred points.
Some relatively cheap Rare Troop Type Remnant Souls could be bought for less than two hundred Contribution Points.
Of course, even if these new players could buy Rare Grade items, they could not send them to their own territories through the medium. Only Rare Grade items extracted from their own territories could be sent back.
Precisely because of these restrictions, Civilian Players had at least a sliver of a chance to compete with the various Whale Players and second-generation elites. The rules of the Eternal World deserved a thumbs-up for that.
Uh, wait.
Just after Mu Yuan opened the product page for the Elemental Orb, his expression suddenly froze.
If he remembered correctly, the Elemental Orb seemed to be... perhaps... more or less... a Rare Grade item!
He could afford it, that was true, but he could not send it into the Eternal World.
The Whale Player is me?
"It looks like I'll have to hunt and search for the Elemental Orb myself."
As he thought, Mu Yuan spread out the rough map he had drawn himself and pondered where he was most likely to find someone destined to possess an orb.
Before you continue