Chapter 159
The moment you step into the firelight, the warmth washes over you, dispelling the chill of the rain-soaked body.
"Whoosh—"
The Fried Chicken flapped its wings and landed steadily on an open space in the inner city.
Shen Xing took out the wheelchair and slowly slid off its back. "You've worked hard, go and rest."
"Ee-ri~"
The Hippogryph nodded, shook its wet wings, and strode off to a corner of its territory.
It is worth mentioning that Shen Xing built a residence at the foot of the city wall.
The furniture inside was removed, the front door was enlarged, and it was transformed into a little haven for Fried Chicken.
It also loves that place, and except when it goes out to fight, it spends the rest of its time curled up in its little den and sleeping soundly.
Next, Shen Xing first walked around the territory and found that everything was the same as before he left.
Leina was practicing her sword in the open space, while a squad of skeletons patrolled the second ring of the city wall.
"Now, let's take a good look at the spoils of war."
Shen Xing opened the backpack interface, his heart filled with excitement once again.
After all, he got so many good things this time.
Any one of these items could drive some novice lords, or even Transcendent lords, mad!
Let's count them one by one.
After a moment's hesitation, he decided to check the leaderboard rewards first.
Chapter 122: Inventorying the Loot, a Generous Fortune!
Shen Xing opened his hands, and a white stone and a black stone appeared in his palms.
The white stone on the left emits a hazy glow and has a star pattern on it.
The stone on the right looks ordinary, covered by a layer of black outer skin. Only by peeling off this outer skin can we know what is inside.
These are the [Troop Nest Enhancement Stone] and the [Golden Gem of Choice].
These two items need no further introduction.
The former is a great item that can upgrade a nest by one star, up to a maximum of Elite Three Stars.
The latter, as its name suggests, allows you to choose three gold gems of any attribute to embed in the nest, increasing the combat power of your troops.
"In that case, let's use the [Nest Enhancement Stone] to upgrade the Orc, Dretch, and Skeleton Archer nests."
After all, these three are our main force units, so investing resources in them will definitely not be a loss.
With that in mind, Shen Xing pushed his wheelchair to the side of the building and made the upgrades.
[Use 'Enhancement Stone' to upgrade the Orc Nest to Elite ★★?]
[Use 'Enhancement Stone' to upgrade the Lesser Demon Lair to Elite ★★?]
[Use 'Enhancement Stone' to upgrade the Skeleton Archer Den to Elite ★?]
Click OK, and the three gems in your inventory will disappear.
The lava pools and burial grounds on the outskirts of the territory, along with the Orc Barracks in the center, were once again enveloped in a white halo and began to automatically upgrade.
As for the other three golden gems, Shen Xing is not in a hurry for now.
After all, these Elite lairs only have one gem slot, while the orc lairs already have a [Strength Gem] socketed in them, and the Lesser Demon Lair have a [Flame Gem] socketed in them.
The other Werewolf Den and Skeleton Archer Den are still at the Common level.
"Speaking of which, I also have a golden [Dark Gem] in my backpack, making a total of four golden gems that I can socket."
After consuming all the enhancement stones, Shen Xing opened his right hand, and a flash of light appeared.
A soul, about the size of a fist and radiating a dazzling light, floated in the palm of my hand.
It was the Leader Rank Soul that the system rewarded.
I glanced at the attributes.
[Brilliant Leader Rank Soul]
[Type: Advanced Item]
[Effect: Can promote a ★★★ Boss One Star to Leader Rank creature, or increase the star rating of Leader Rank creature.]
The probabilities are: 40% (Boss One Star → Boss ★), 35% (Boss ★ → Boss ★★), 30% (Boss ★★ → Boss ★★★)
"Sure enough, the higher the level, the lower the success rate."
"The chance of Boss One Star advancing to the Boss is only 40%, which is incredibly difficult."
"But... what does this have to do with my 100% successful [Life-Sacrifice Evolution]?"
Shen Xing even considered selling the soul to buy resources.
After all, for him, advancing to the Leader Rank is just a matter of waiting a day.
For other players, however, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Even at a huge cost, they are willing to gamble on that less than 40% chance.
"As expected, the [Life-Sacrifice Evolution] talent becomes increasingly important and incredibly powerful as you progress."
"I could easily sell all the precious souls I've obtained and exchange them for other resources that are more important to me, such as Soul Stone, enhancement stones, recruitment scrolls, and so on."
"Then, utilize these resources to enhance troop combat capabilities and acquire more powerful souls."
"Then they'll be sold to acquire more resources, creating a virtuous cycle."
Shen Xing decided to go to the Player Association tomorrow or the day after to see if he could find any good items.
"Very good, let's move on to the next item."
He collected the soul and then took out a gleaming gold coin.
"Bite!"
When a gold coin is tossed into the air, it makes a crisp, hollow sound.
Shen Xing caught it and then glanced at its attributes.
[Kingdom Gold Coin]
[Item Type: Coins]
[Item Description: An ancient gold coin used Land of Mist, usable in any kingdom. One gold coin = 1000 silver coins.]
(Note: "Oh! The smell of money is intoxicating!")
"Oh? A universal currency, and with such a high exchange rate."
"The system rewarded me with 50 gold coins this time, which is equivalent to 50,000 silver coins, isn't that?"
Shen Xing exclaimed, "Wow!"
Keep in mind that previously, a golden Legion treasure only cost 30,000 silver coins in the wandering merchant's shop.
In other words, he could use those fifty gold coins to buy a decent golden treasure.
"It's alright. Let's see if we can run into other wandering merchants later, then we can go on a shopping spree."
He put the gold coins into his backpack.
That concludes our review of the rewards for the top spot on the leaderboard.
Only one item remained, the most precious treasure— the Proof of Hero.
He opened his right hand, revealing a palm-sized, rather antique-looking seal.
As seen in previous forum posts, the main function of this seal is to upgrade units into hero units.
Moreover, because it's a system reward, there's no chance of failure; it's 100% guaranteed to succeed.
"But... who should I give this [Proof of Hero] to?"
Previously, Shen Xing had planned to advance Hellscream to the Hero rank.
But with the rise of Xiao Hei and Black Arrow, he began to waver.
After all, all three are very powerful and have unlimited potential, making it quite difficult to choose.
"Sigh... having too many potential talents in the territory is a problem."
Lord Shen said this.
After a moment's thought, he made up his mind and put the Proof of Hero back into his backpack.
"Alright, let's check the loot from defeating that demon."
Shen Xing became excited again.
In a sense, the loot from defeating that demon was even better than the reward given to the top-ranked player on the leaderboard.
Among them are even two orange -Epic Rank items!
I took a deep breath and began to examine each item one by one.
"Whoosh..."
A flash of eerie green light appeared, and a stone the size of a head materialized.
The surface of the stone is pitted and uneven, looking like a meteorite from space, burning with green flames.
Three stars are imprinted on the surface of the meteorite.
It's the Elite Three Stars unit's lair: Infernal!
"Infernal... According to the hellish creature guide on the forum, it seems to be a very strong unit."
Let's find a place to put it.
Shen Xing pushed his wheelchair to the western part of the outer city and found an open space.
As he clicked "OK," the stone in his hand automatically levitated and then floated into the air.
Then, it disappeared.
Shen Xing waited for a few seconds, but there was no response.
He stared blankly at the fog-shrouded sky. "Huh? Where's my huge troop nest?"
Before he could react, a faint green light appeared from the mist.
Immediately afterwards, a meteorite burning with green flames and over a meter tall broke through the fog and hurtled toward his location at high speed.
"!!!"