Return to Landon
Early the next morning, Green took a carriage back to Landon City.
After last night's battle, he left the ceramic factory and returned to the inn as if nothing had happened, first taking stock of his harvest from clearing the Tower of Yin Spirits dungeon. Aside from an enchanted pistol and a ghost eye, Green converted everything else into psychic energy within the graveyard, totaling 6,513 points of psychic energy. Thrilled, he immediately began spending.
Rubbing his palms together and preparing to go all out, Green first upgraded the crypt into a rotting crypt capable of producing hard-skinned ghoul and iron-skinned zombies. This required 2,000 points of psychic energy. With a mere thought of his mind, the stone building representing the crypt actually grew over a meter taller, with each of its four corners gaining a stone wind-lantern. Green ghost fires burned within them, occasionally drifting out to transform into human shapes before dissolving into nothingness a few seconds later.
Next, Green spent another 150 psychic energy points to upgrade all his existing ghouls and zombies into hard-skinned ghouls and iron-skinned zombies.
Following the upgrade, the combat power of an iron-skinned zombie reached 9.0, slightly inferior to the hard-skinned ghoul's 9.1, but they were also cheaper at 20 psychic energy points to recruit, making them quite a bargain.
Next, Green cast his gaze upon the abandoned tower that produced ghosts, only to discover with dismay that building the abandoned tower came with a prerequisite: he had to upgrade the town hall to Level 2 and build a defense fortress before he could construct the abandoned tower.
Seeing this, Green's face inevitably fell. Just moments ago, he had felt that farming over 5,000 psychic energy points was already pretty good, but the situation he now faced forced him to sigh at how fast money really vanished!
Upgrading the town hall cost 2,000 psychic energy, building the defense fortress cost 2,000 psychic energy, and coupled with the previous expenses of upgrading the rotting crypt, these three items alone totaled 6,000 psychic energy. Add in the cost of upgrading the ghouls and zombies, and in the blink of an eye, Green's harvest from clearing the dungeon was left with just over three hundred psychic energy. How could that possibly be enough to build the abandoned tower! This left Green deeply depressed, yet quite helpless, and he could only leave it for next time.
Fortunately, he possessed the ghost eye, which could convert ghosts. With tier three units, his demand for the abandoned tower was not particularly urgent. On the contrary, after upgrading the town hall and building the defense fortress, the feel of the entire graveyard had changed somewhat, resembling a nearly withered plant that, after being watered, recovered from a half-dead state into one bursting with vitality. Even the undead creatures within the graveyard were affected, each radiating strong momentum and boasting increased combat power.
Only then did Green realize the benefits of upgrading the town hall and constructing the defense fortress, especially the large clock atop the town hall, which had actually upgraded along with it!
One had to know that the Gelfis Meditation Method, Third Edition practiced by Green was no ordinary, superficial meditation method. The entire meditation method was divided into nine stages, and condensing a meditative object within the consciousness sea was merely the first step. Moreover, ordinary magic apprentices could only reach the first stage; only upon becoming a formal mage could one practice the second-stage meditation method.
By the second stage, the effects of the meditation method were even greater. Not only could one enhance mental power through visualizing the meditative object, but it could also grant magic bonuses during combat. Regardless of magic potency or casting speed, it could boost capability by up to 10% at maximum depending on the individual, with lesser amounts ranging from 3% to 7%. This was quite a considerable blessing; any random wand capable of achieving a similar effect could sell for tens of thousands of gold pounds, or hundreds of millions of RMB if placed on Earth. Thinking about it this way, consuming four thousand psychic energy in one go did not hurt his heart quite so much.
Furthermore, after constructing the defense fortress, the production rate of undead creatures in the graveyard doubled, allowing Green's troops to expand.
All along, the graveyard had been very stingy regarding the production rate of undead creatures. Time was calculated by the month, and apart from skeleton soldiers whose production came in double digits, all other unit types remained in the single digits. This made Green extremely cautious when utilizing undead creatures. It was also because of this that when he obtained the ghost eye, he regarded it as a priceless treasure—not for any other reason, but solely for ghost conversion. Armed with this ability, as long as there was a sufficient supply of souls, he could manufacture an unlimited number of ghost armies.
Of course, Green would not be crazy enough to kill people and seize souls for the sake of this ability. In truth, obtaining souls in this world was not difficult. Even though capitalism had begun and supernatural powers existed, ordinary people in this world remained ignorant, and particularly because medicine was suppressed by the church possessing supernatural powers, it progressed even slower than normal development. So-called hospitals resembled slaughterhouses more than anything, and treating illnesses essentially relied on diluted holy water and bloodletting therapy.
If he wanted souls, he simply needed to go to hospitals in sprawling metropolises like Faerun City or the royal capital where populations converged. Doing nothing at all except sitting down and waiting would allow him to quickly and risklessly acquire an unimaginably vast quantity of souls. In the case of Landon City, while the population was admittedly smaller, with a bit more patience it was not difficult to obtain the raw materials for converting ghosts, at least allowing Green to multiply his number of ghosts severalfold in the short term.
Thinking of this, a look of joy surfaced on Green's face. In a few more days, the graveyard would be able to produce a new wave of undead creatures, at which point the number of undead troops he recruited would inevitably exceed one hundred.
Green calculated silently: the skeleton soldiers alone numbered eighty-five, hard-skinned ghouls sixteen, iron-skinned zombies fifteen, and the ghost count remained to be determined.
Such a lineup was already quite luxurious for a necromancer apprentice, and what made Green look forward to even more was the large cannon ordered from Old One-Eye. That was the true major weapon of mass destruction. If it could combine with the skeleton soldiers to become cannon skeleton soldiers, that would be simply fantastic.
With this thought, even more anticipation welled up in Green's eyes...
Hours later, when Green returned to Landon City, it was already two o'clock in the afternoon, and the carriage stopped before the gates of Wilson Castle.
Vincent looked at Green stepping down from the carriage with an emotional expression, immediately stepped forward for an embrace, and murmured in a low voice, "My brother, I knew you wouldn't abandon the lineage!"
Green smiled and patted Vincent's back. He knew that this dungeon run had made many people harbor suspicions that he, like Doctor Wilkins, intended to flee in the face of danger. In fact, Vincent had harbored similar thoughts in his heart, but when Green spoke with him earlier, he never uttered a single word of it. Instead, with a grand wave of his hand, he gave Green three hundred gold coins.
Do not underestimate these three hundred gold pounds; this was virtually the vast majority of Vincent's private savings. Knowing in his heart that Green might leave and still being able to send the money out had already demonstrated his attitude, which had touched Green just a little bit.
Just moments ago, Vincent suddenly heard a servant report that Green's carriage had returned. This startled and delighted him, yet also darkened his expression, prompting him to hurry downstairs to the castle courtyard to meet Green.
After the embrace, Vincent wore a complex expression and patted Green's shoulder. "My brother, actually you shouldn't have come back!"
Green did not speak. He saw exhaustion and deeply hidden despair within Vincent's eyes, causing him to involuntarily furrow his brow. In less than two days, what on earth had happened to generate such a feeling of despair in Vincent?