Special Outdoor Structure: Star Axis, Reinforcements Arrive!

Now this was interesting!

There was even an unexpected gain. Rod had thought the system only had one Necropolis City, and that he would never be able to obtain anything else in the future. Apparently, that was not the case!

If he only had one city and could not enjoy the other benefits of the world of Heroes of Might and Magic III, things would indeed be difficult. After all, every time a Mage Guild rose by one level,

the number of high-level spells one could learn decreased by one. At level five, one could only learn one spell; at level four, two spells; at level three, three spells; and at level two, four spells.

If he ended up learning garbage spells, they would be completely useless!

This random outdoor resource was truly excellent. If it only gave lumber, gold, or other rare resources, it would not be worth much. But if it could randomly yield outdoor structures, then he would strike it rich.

After all, everything had a chance of appearing, didn't it?

There were quite a few dungeon bosses in Azeroth. These guys should all count as hero-level units, and Rod could absolutely deal with those dungeon bosses in the future!

Without any further nonsense, Rod directly chose to use his first draw opportunity.

Random map reward initiated. A Star Axis has appeared outside your city. Each hero may visit it once to gain one point of Power!

This was a pretty good reward! Power was a very important attribute for heroes. It could increase the might of spells, and Rod now had two points of Power! (Power could actually be translated as Magic Power, but as an old Heroes of Might and Magic III player, I still preferred Power.)

If it rose to three points, the power of Magic Arrow would increase to 40, and casting other spells would also be enhanced.

More importantly, every hero could visit this special structure once in the future.

Without any hesitation, Rod first clicked on the map and personally visited the Star Axis, gaining one point of Power.

Afterward, he had Skeletor enter the hero town, then leave the city to visit the Star Axis, gaining one point of Power as well.

The gains from this battle were far from limited to that. First, Skeletor had leveled up. He gained one free attribute point, but Rod was in no hurry to assign it and decided to save it for now.

As for his own attribute point, he unhesitatingly put it into Knowledge. Mana was king right now. Rod's mana had risen from 40 to 50.

In addition, Skeletor gained a skill upgrade opportunity: upgrade Basic Necromancy to Intermediate Necromancy, or upgrade his innate Basic Anti-Magic to Intermediate Anti-Magic.

No other new skill branches appeared. After thinking for a moment, Rod decided to upgrade Necromancy!

For a Necropolis hero, Necromancy was everything. Take this battle, for instance: both Rod's and Skeletor's Necromancy had actually activated at the same time.

They had raised over 200 skeleton soldiers in one go. Added to the more than 300 skeleton soldiers they had left, their numbers had surged past 500!

As for Rod, he could upgrade Basic Necromancy to Intermediate Necromancy, or learn Basic Ballistics!

Without any hesitation, Rod chose to upgrade Necromancy. Damn it! My skill tree can't go crooked!

Ballistics was completely useless in this world. Who the hell wanted to operate a catapult during a siege battle?

So Necromancy was the safer choice. Later on, he still had Earth Magic and Eagle Eye to rely on. Hopefully, his next skills would be better—one of the four schools of magic, or god-tier skills like Power or Wisdom.

After clearing up the spoils, Rod put away his skeleton troops and returned to Hearthglen.

Arthas's army arrived at Hearthglen at almost the same time as Rod—or rather, Arthas's army had returned slightly earlier than Rod.

"Lord Rod, you're finally back! I just heard that you fought that lich!

What happened? Which of you won?" The moment Arthas saw Rod, he rushed over and asked anxiously.

When he learned that Rod had gone alone to duel the lich on the other side, Arthas had been extremely worried. He had even planned to lead his troops out to search for him, only to see Rod return completely unharmed.

"Hahaha! No need to worry, Your Highness. The fact that I came back alive proves that lich failed. The Holy Light protected me, and in the end, I won through the power of the Holy Light," Rod said.

"May the Holy Light bless us! It's good that you're unharmed, Lord Rod. This time, we dealt the undead a devastating blow." Arthas nodded.

During last night's battle against the undead horde, Rod had not used any Holy Light spells. He had probably been saving them to catch the lich off guard.

That raven could never have imagined that, besides possessing exceptional magic, my teacher also wielded the power of the Holy Light. Dealing with undead creatures was as easy as turning his hand.

"I believe there should not be any more fierce battles today, at least. I'll guard this place.

Your Highness Arthas, go get some rest. You haven't slept for an entire day and night," Rod said.

"That's right, Your Highness Prince Arthas. You wiped out the undead infection force outside, while Lord Rod slew the lich here.

The undead army must have suffered a devastating blow. You truly should rest now, so you will have the strength to deal with any unexpected situations ahead," Lieutenant Falric added.

At that, Arthas nodded to the two of them. To be honest, he had only been holding on through sheer willpower, and his body was already exhausted beyond measure.

After making further arrangements for Hearthglen's defenses, Arthas returned to the room prepared for him to rest.

That night, only a few scattered undead units launched attacks. The local garrison easily defeated them, and hardly any undead came during the latter half of the night.

Everyone finally got some rest. At dawn on the third day, another terrifying undead legion arrived to attack the city.

The fully rested Rod and Arthas immediately joined the battle. This time, Rod did not use Magic Arrow. Instead, he continuously cast Flash of Light, striking down high-level undead units.

The undead offensive that day was exceptionally fierce. Arthas, Rod, and the defenders could barely hold on through the entire day by force of will alone.

Finally, at dusk, the sound of thunderous hoofbeats rang out beyond Hearthglen. The Knights of the Silver Hand had arrived.

They had defended for thirty minutes in the game, but in reality, Rod and Arthas had resisted the undead army here for a full three days.

"Charge! Knights of the Silver Hand, destroy these evil undead!" At the forefront was a tall man in golden armor, wielding a warhammer.

The newcomer was none other than Uther the Lightbringer. Beside Uther, many paladins charged into battle as well, striking at the undead.

"The Holy Light protects us!"

"Purge these evil undead!"

The Knights of the Silver Hand's arrival completely turned the tide of battle. The undead began to collapse.